|
Sri
Lanka Damage Satellite Photos
Withheld by UNITAR, IOM Staff Detained
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 29
-- A UN agency produced satellite
photographs of
damage to the conflict zone in Sri Lanka, but unlike in the Gaza
conflict did
not release them to the public. The UN Institute for Training and
Research has
a program known as UNOSAT which produced the attached April 19
photographic
report on "Satellite Detected Damages and IDP Shelter Movement in CSZ,
Mulattivu District, Sri Lanka." Unlike UNITAR's January 10, 2009 report
on
Gaza, however, the Sri Lanka report was not released by the UN, but
rather was
leaked. Click here for
a copy.
Inner City Press asked UNITAR director Carlos Lopez
on April 29 to
explain why his agency did not release the Sri Lanka photos. Mr. Lopez
launched
into an overview of UNOSAT, and then argued that the Gaza photos were
produced
for a donors' group, and hence were released. But for whom where the
Sri Lanka
satellite photos produced, and why weren't they released?
Lopes
went on to say that once the Sri Lanka
photos were leaked, the agency responded by putting them briefly
online. But
why weren't the photos released in the first place? As with UN OCHA's
casualty
counts, why were they withheld and so had to be leaked? We aim to have
more on
this.
At the same event with Mr. Lopez, the International
Organization on
Migration's director William Lacy Swing spoke about involving diasporas
in
post-conflict peace building. Inner City Press asked him how this
process works
in Sri Lanka, and to confirm or deny that there are IOM staff detained
in
government IDP camps. Swing said he wasn't sure, he thought there might
have
been one or two staff members "briefly" detained.
UN's Ban and Swing in previous DRC
assignment, staff detained in Sri Lanka not shown
One
of Swing's colleagues seated in the
audience stated that there are IOM staff members in detention, and
clarified
that they are still in detention. Why didn't IOM say anything? Perhaps
more
tellingly, why didn't IOM's director even know he had staff members
still
detained by a government? Swing noted that he has been on the job only
six
months -- before that, he was the UN's envoy in the Democratic Republic
of the
Congo -- but since these detentions took place this year, one would
expect him
to have been told about them, and to speak publicly about them. Video here.
Footnote: Inner City
Press also
asked Swing about the IOM passing out pamphlets in the Czech Republic
of the
government's offer of one-way tickets to repatriate immigrants and even
refugees. Swing said IOM is not involved in forced or even
"stimulated" repatriations. But if the payment of money to leave and
promise to not come back is not "stimulated," what is it? Spain and
Japan, among others, run similar programs.
Footnote:
We continue to wait for the
UK's formal answer to the first of the two
questions which Inner
City
Press asked the UK Mission to
the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK
believe that international law and the
rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the
now-acknowledged
detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported
this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the
British
Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would
continue to
consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the
accuracy
of that, and of this
and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that
an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin?
What did
the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As
of
this press time two weeks later, the formal answer has been
referral to Minister
Miliband's April 12
statement, and this.
On April 21, Inner City Press put the question to U.S. Ambassador Susan
Rice, whose spokesman the following day cleared this response:
"UN personnel should have freedom of movement and be treated with
respect." But they are still detained as of this writing. As more
answers arrive or are released we will report them on this site.
Click here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
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
UN
Office: S-453A, UN, NY 10017
USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
Reporter's
mobile (and
weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com -
|
