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IMF
Loan to Sri Lanka Should Not Serve "Quasi
Military" Purpose, UN Official Says
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
March 27 -- A day after the Sri
Lankan government's as well as the Tamil Tigers' killing of civilians
was criticized
in a session of the Security Council, the purpose of its $1.9
billion loan
request to the UN-affiliated International Monetary Fund was questioned
at the
UN.
Two weeks
ago in Washington, Inner City Press asked IMF spokesman David
Hawley to describe any safeguards that the loan proceeds wouldn't
be used in
connection with the government's military actions in north Sri Lanka or
its
detention camps for internally displaced people. Mr.
Hawley said that negotiations were
continuing.
Since
then, the IMF has received extensive written opposition to the loan
request as
made, most of it quoting the Sri Lankan Central Bank's statement that
the aim
of the IMF loan is to "continue with the resettlement, rehabilitation
and
reconstruction work in the Northern Province, and the continued rapid
development of the Eastern Province," which it deems key "not
only to uplift the living standards of the people in the areas affected
by the
decades long conflict, but also to successfully implement the
government's
efforts to bring a sustainable solution to the conflict."
UN's Jomo Kwame Sundaram, use
of Sri Lanka's IMF loan not shown
On March
27, Inner City Press asked the UN's Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Assistant
Secretary-General
on Economic Development at the Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, about
Sri Lanka's application for an emergency loan from the IMF and the
resulting
controversy. He replied that IMF loans generally shouldn't be used for
"military or quasi-military purposes." It seems clear that the
government's
"resettlement" camps serve a quasi military purpose. What then will
happen on the loan request? Watch this site.
Footnotes: Inner
City Press asked asked Jomo K.S.,
in the run-up to the G20 meeting in London, for his views on the
different
proposals of the Stiglitz Panel on which he serves and of Ban Ki-moon,
whom as
an ASG he also serves. His answer was a model of diplomacy, that the
reason Ban
would not repeat his $1 trillion call while at Wednesday's stakeout
interview
with Gordon Brown was that Ban was being "a gracious host."
Some
opine that it's Gordon Brown that wants to be seen as saving the world.
At
Friday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson if it
is true
that the World Bank's Bob Zoellick, who for more than a month has been
promoting his own proposal that 0.7% of rich countries' stimulus
packages be
devoted to poor countries, called Ban to ask him to not come out with
the
trillion-dollar request. Ban's spokesperson said they had spoken, and
that she
would try to get a read-out. For now, an Inner City Press debate on
these topic
will appear over the weekend here.
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
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
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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