On
Way to
Auschwitz, Ban
Omits Sri
Lanka From
Rwanda,
Srebrenica
& Cambodia
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 17 --
Today in
Vilnius Ban
Ki-moon spoke
about
genocide and
crimes against
humanity, but
did not
mention the
40,000
civilians
killed in 2009
in Sri Lanka,
where he also
did not
comment
on crackdowns
during the
just-concluded
Commonwealth
Heads of
Government
Meeting.
Four
times last
week, Inner
City Press asked Ban's
spokespeople
for any
comment as
media was
blocked from
traveling to
the North
(where Ban
did go, as a
form of
victory tour,
in May
2009), and
families of
the
disappeared
banned from
traveling
south to
Colombo.
No comment (video here). At
last his
spokespeople
said to ask
another UN
official, Navi
Pillay
(Inner City
Press did; see
below, and
this longer
form analysis,
at Beacon
Reader.)
Then
on Sunday
in Lithuania,
Ban Ki-moon's
prepared
speech said
this:
Tomorrow,
November
18, I will
visit the
concentration
camp at
Auschwitz-Birkenau
to pay tribute
to the victims
-- above all
the
Jews of many
nations, but
also the Roma,
homosexuals,
dissidents,
the
disabled and
mentally ill
-- anyone the
Nazis deemed
inferior
according to
their
appalling
racial
theories.
In
recent
years, I have
stood with the
widows of
Srebrenica,
paid my
respects at
the mass
graves in
Kigali and
visited the
genocide
memorial in
Phnom Penh.
I
believe it is
absolutely
essential to
see the
concentration
camps, to
stand with
survivors, and
to proclaim
our commitment
to remembrance
of the past
and prevention
for the
future.
So
why not
mention Sri
Lanka? Not
only given the
timely issues
raised
during the
CHOGM, but Ban's own
belated
announcement
this month
of a
"Rights
Up Front" Plan?
Inner City
Press first
published
the plan
(and
then was told
that it "might
or might not
exist");
now it has yet
to be made a
formal, public
UN document,
and Ban did
not mention it
what he said
in Vilnius.
The
Office of the
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Navi
Pillay, after
Inner City
Press asked,
sent this
back, through
spokesperson
Rupert
Colville:
"We're
not
commenting on
CHOGM per se,
but it is good
to see that
human
rights have
been an
extremely
prominent
issue during
the build-up.
The High
Commissioner
raised a wide
range of
issues herself
at the
end of her
visit to Sri
Lanka on 31
August, and
also in her
update to
the Human
Rights Council
on 25
September. As
for reported
incidents
in the past
few days, we
constantly
keep an eye on
the situation
facing human
rights
defenders and
journalists in
Sri Lanka, and
will
continue to do
so. The High
Commissioner
is also
acutely aware
of the
difficulties
facing the
families of
the
disappeared,
and indeed met
with many of
them during
her visit."
So
what will
happen
on this before
and in March?
Watch this
site.
, 
