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On Sri Lanka, UN Notes
Starvation, Believes No Heavy Artillery in Use, Defers to Council's
Silence
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, March 5 -- Even
on a day when the UN belatedly notes the starvation of Tamils trapped
in the
conflict zone in Sri Lanka, it undercut this report Thursday by
declaring the expulsion
of NGOs from Darfur "the important issue of the day." At the UN's
noon briefing in New York, Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson shifted directly
from a
read-out of press releases, including the statement on Sri Lanka, to a
Q&A
on Darfur, without taking questions on what she had read. Later on
Thursday,
Inner City Press asked the UN's Radhika Coomaraswamy if she thinks the
UN is
doing enough about Sri Lanka, and how to allocate blame for the deaths
there,
including of children and by starvation. Video here,
from Minute 24:06.
Ms. Coomaraswamy said that the UN's focus is
humanitarian, on the
"ways and means of evacuation." She recited that the government of
Sri Lanka has made a commitment not to use long range artillery, while
noting
that there are reports the continued use. For example, in Maaththa'lan on March 3. Still she called it a step forward,
and said it was up to the Security Council to consider the "larger
political issues" such as "whether to call for a ceasefire."
UN's Coomaraswamy, has Sri Lankan Army
stopped heavy artillery?
Ban has called, twice now, for a suspension of
fighting. The Security
Council held a single briefing -- explicitly on humanitarian and not
political
issues -- and now Sri Lanka is not on the Council's agenda for the
month of
March.
While the UN raises its voice, correctly, about the
expulsion of NGOs
from Darfur, it is more muted about the Northern Sri Lanka conflict
zone where
there are no international NGOs or journalists allowed at all.
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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