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At UN, of Liberian Rapes and Sri Lankan
Child Soldiers, OCHA Says a Better Story Must Be Told
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
April 14 -- "I
cannot honestly argue that rape is a threat to the security of the
country," the UN's envoy to Liberia Ellen Margrethe Loj told the Press
on
Monday. She had spoken to the Security Council about the rape of girls
as young
as three years old. Video here,
from Minute 56:50.
But
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's 21-page written report to the Council
on the UN
Mission in Liberia mentions rape in only two places, neither with much
focus.
Inner
City Press had asked Ban's Deputy Spokesperson about a
critique of Ban's
and the UN's lack of action on the issue in the Democratic Republic of
the
Congo; the spokesperson had answered by referring to Ban's report
on the DRC, which
like the one on Liberia hardly focuses on the issue. Video here,
from Minute 15:32. Beyond mentioning it,
what is the UN doing, in
places where it has tens of thousands of peacekeeping troops?
UNMIL and Ogi: another torch, another time
In
a place where the UN has very little presence, Sri Lanka, the UN
Security
Council has yet to refer documented recruiters of child soldiers to the
International Criminal Court. But one of the main culprits, Colonel
Karuna of a
breakaway LTTE faction, is in custody in Britain, being investigated
not only
for the passport infraction he was arrested on, but also for war
crimes. Monday
at the UN, Inner City Press ask if the Watchlist on Children and Armed
Conflict
organization is in favor of referral of recruiters to the ICC. The
answer
appears to be yes, video here
from Minute 24:02.
Human rights lawyer Bhavani Fonseka pointed
out that while Sri Lanka has not signed on to the Rome Treaty and
joined the
International Criminal Court, there are other options available. The
Security
Council, or at least its working group on children and armed conflict,
is being
asked to visit Sri Lanka, or at least those portions of the country
they'd be
given access to. Last time he was there, UN humanitarian coordinator
John
Holmes was called a terrorist by a member of parliament, for calling
the
country dangerous.
Also
on Monday, back from a trip to the Gulf, Holmes told the Press that the
UN has
"image issues in the Middle East." While in the region, he was
questioned about the "cost of bureaucracy" at the UN. Holmes stress
that these doubts, or myths as he called them, were not expressed by
"official interlocutors," but rather by others he met "on the
margins." Inner City Press asked for his response to quotes by the UK's
John Webster, that the UN must make a better case for multilateralism,
and by
Holmes' own colleague Robert Smith, that the Central Emergency Relief
Fund
should double in size to $1 billion. Holmes shook his head, saying that
a
doubling in size is not needed at this point, though it might be in the
future,
if what he called the "food price crisis" grows worse. Video here,
from Minute 25:32.
After
the briefing, Inner City Press asked Holmes if Haiti, for example, has
yet
applied to the CERF. Not yet, he answered. He stressed the relatively
small
size of the CERF compared to Haiti's needs. But if not the UN, who?
Returning
full circle, if the UN will not even try to stop mass rape in the
countries
where it has tens of thousands of peacekeepers, what will it do?
* * *
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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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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