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UN
Slow
to Answer on
Sri Lanka
Harassment
Until Briefing
with Censors
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 5 --
When Navi
Pillay wrapped
up her visit
to Sri Lanka,
she spoke of
"the
harassment and
intimidation
of a number of
human rights
defenders, at
least two
priests,
journalists,
and many
ordinary
citizens...
people in
villages and
settlements in
the Mullaitivu
area were
visited by
police or
military
officers [and
were]
subsequently
questioned."
The
next work day
at the UN was
September 3,
and Inner City
Press wanted
to ask the UN
about this.
But the day's
noon briefing
was canceled
so that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon could
hold a press
encounter with
only two
pre-selected
questions.
Upon
hearing of the
cancellation,
Inner City
Press
by email asked
Ban's two top
spokespeople:
is
UN
country team
aware of, and
what is UN
doing about,
report of Sri
Lanka
government
harassment of
those who met
or tried to
meet with UN
High
Commissioner
Pillay,
inclulding but
not limited to
Veerasan
Yogeswaran,
who runs the
Centre for
Promotion and
Protection of
Human Rights,
said five or
six
plainclothes
policemen
visited him at
midnight and
before dawn at
his home in
Trincomalee,
just hours
after the
meeting with
Pillay.
Unlike
other
questions, for
24 hours the
UN did not
answer. So at
the September
4 noon
briefing, and
on behalf of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
Inner City
Press asked
both why the
noon briefing
had been
canceled, and
about Sri
Lanka. Video
here and
embedded
below.
Ban's
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
said, as if a
tautology is
an
explanation,
that when Ban
has a press
encounter, the
noon briefing
gets canceled.
Even if Ban
takes only two
questions?
Again, why?
On
Pillay's
statement and
the
harassment,
Haq made a
generic
comment about
it, using
Pillay's full
first name and
say "we may
have" more in
the future.
Sure hope so.
At the
same noon
briefing,
another
journalist,
accredited
with a
Pacifica radio
station and a
member of the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
asked about
depleted
uranium and
about the
story by the
former AP
string based
on interviews,
that the
chemical
weapons in
Ghouta came
through Saudi
sources.
Before
Haq could
answer,
another
journalist in
the front row
who often
speaks for the
UN
Correspondents
Association
tried to cut
the question
off. She was
(and is) at
the left hand
of UNCA's 2013
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS. FUNCA
says this is
not how it is
supposed to
work,
establishment
scribes
silencing or
purporting to
answer the
questions of
others. Video
here at
Minute 2:39.
Worse,
as soon as the
briefing was
over this UNCA
spokesperson
immediately
went to UN
spokesperson
Haq demanding
to know, "Who
does she work
for?" @FUNCA_info
will have more
on this.
As
regards Sri
Lanka, when
Inner City
Press covered
Ban's May 2009
trip to the
island
(which turned
into a
"victory tour"
of the North),
and published
a quote
from the chief
of the UN
Office for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs John
Holmes from a
clearly on the
record session,
Holmes
response was
to say "I will
never talk to
you again" and
for his staff
to file a
complaint with
UN media
accreditation
trying to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN.
This
complaining to
UN Media
Accreditation
was used in
2012 by the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
after Inner
City Press
reported on
the background
to UNCA's
screening, in
the UN, of the
Rajapaksa
government's
film denying
war crimes. (Click
here for an
outside report
on that.)
UNCA
Executive
Committee
members from Voice of
America,
Reuters and
AFP among
others
participated
in the
campaign; as since
shown, Reuters
UN bureau
chief Louis
Charbonneau
handed the
chief of UN
Media
Accreditation
Stephane
Dujarric an anti-Press
internal UNCA
document,
three
minutes after
promising not
to do so.
Story
here, audio here,
document
here.
Nothing has
been done to
address this.
Rather,
after
Inner City
Press quit
UNCA and
co-founded the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
the UN Department
of Public
Information's
response has
been to again
threaten to
suspend or
withdraw
Inner City
Press'
accreditation,
this time for
merely hanging
a FUNCA sign
on the door of
its shared
office,
while UNCA
has five signs
and
continues
functioning as
the UN's
Cowardice
Association,
putting other
journalists at
risk.
When
Pillay's
office was
contacted
about this,
their response
was simply to
note that
accreditation
was extended
(albeit with
inappropriate
finger-waggling
about, among
other things,
how to cover
Ban and his UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous.)
So does the UN
take these
things
seriously? Not
on this
evidence.
Pillay
is to report
to the Human
Rights Council
in late
September.
Also, as first
reported by
Inner City
Press, Ban is
to have
something to
say about the
Sri Lanka (UN)
lessons learnt
report that is
finished but
is so far
being
withheld.
Watch this
site.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
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