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As UN Rights Expert Decries Sri Lankan Camps, OCHA
Funds Them, Of Recruitment and Targeting
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
March 16 -- The UN's expert on the
human rights of internally displaced people Walter Kalin on Friday said
of the
camps the Sri Lankan government is setting up just outside its conflict
zone
with the Tamil Tigers that "while security
screenings may be
conducted upon arrival, they should be concluded promptly and
individuals
retained only in accord with judicial process and on the basis of
individualized suspicion."
Three days
later, the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes confirmed that while the
UN is and
will be funding these camps, those interred are not even allowed to
receive
visits from their families and friends. When Inner City Press cited the
UN's
expert on IDP's statement about the camps, Holmes said that once the
"registration process" is completed and "temporary IDs" are
issued, if there is still no freedom of movement, "serious questions
will
arrive on the point you're raising." Video here,
from Minute 37:15.
So what did
the UN's Walter Kalin mean by "promptly" concluding security
screenings? If one is detained while a government undertakes
registration and
issuance of ID cards, is it still a security screening?
In a March
14 press conference, Sri Lanka's Human
Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe
bragged that the $155 million the UN is raising for Sri Lanka has
already been
programmed. Inner City Press on March 16 asked Holmes if this money
will go for
the detention camps that the UN's own Walter Kalin has criticized. Yes,
Holmes
said, some of those project assist those in the camps. So is the UN's
Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, far from providing
guidance about
compliance with principles, actually funding
violations of international humanitarian law?
UN expert Kalin in Sri Lanka -with Human Rights Minister, camps not
shown
Holmes and
OCHA were seen by some as likewise failing to
provide guidance Monday with
respect to Darfur, click here for that story. In a move reminiscent
of Sudan,
the UN in Colombo has been threatened with targeted protests if any
move is made
to bring war crimes indictments of the Sri Lankan government. Perhaps
in a
desire to placate that government, the UN on Monday loudly decried what
it
called the forcible recruitment of one of its national staff members by
the
Tamil Tigers.
While
forcible recruitment is certainly to be condemned, later on Monday when
asked
for a total count of abducted UN staff worldwide, the UN replied with
the
number eight: three in Niger, Robert Fowler and his colleagues; the UNHCR worker
in Pakistan, and four workers in Somalia, who have since been
released. So
according to the UN, these forcible recruitments do not constitute
abduction.
Note:
even
supporters of the Sudanese government, it should be noted, do not
target for
harassment journalists asking questions about Sudan at, for example,
the United
Nations. This tactic seems limited to
supporters of the Sri Lankan government....
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.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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