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As
Sri Lanka Cracked Down on
Press, UN Said Nothing, Now Congratulates Itself
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, May 1, updated --
While the plights in Sri Lanka of civilians and non-governmental
organization seeking to serve them were confined Thursday night to a
informal
closed door meeting in the UN basement, Friday the lack of free press
access in
the country was a matter of heated debate in the river-view Delegates'
Dining
Room. UNESCO, which has otherwise said little about Sri Lanka's
crackdown on
the press, gave an award to slain newspaper editor Lasantha
Wickrematunge. From his
widow came a blistering critique of
Mahinda Rajapaksa's barring of
reporters from Northern Sri Lanka, and the killing of 16 media
professionals
since November 2005.
Surreally, two UN officials then praised themselves
for the UN's offer
of training to journalists in such countries as Iraq. Staffan de
Mistura, the
UN's envoy in Baghdad, condemned the reporter who threw his shoes at
George W.
Bush. Inner City Press asked him and his follow UN panelist Frank La
Rue,
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression to explain what
UN
Country Teams are supposed to be doing, given Sri Lanka Resident
Coordinator
Neil Buhne's silence while staff were arrested and detained,
journalists barred
and killed.
Moderator
Barbara Crossette, formerly of the New
York Times and now a
consultant to UNA-USA, said, "let's make the questions go beyond Sri
Lanka" into "what the UN does proactively." Mr.
de Mistura said, "without going into
Sri Lanka in particular," that the UN in Iraq had "complicity"
with the local media in a "campaign of constructive embarrassment" in
furtherance of fast elections. This of source was a foreign policy goal
of the
United States, in a way that criticism of Sri Lanka's crackdown on the
press
and UN staff does not appear to be.
Frank
La Rue, despite being the UN system's expert
on press freedom,
said "I'm not going to comment on what County Offices have not done,
I'm
not involved in that work." Who is, then?
UN's Ban and de Mistura, forceful talk on Sri
Lanka not shown
Inner City Press, after asking its questions, had
urged that time be
made for a response from the Sri Lankan government's representative at
the
event, First Secretary Muditha Halliyadde. Mrs. Halliyadde has been
present at
each press
stakeout in the basement, as her Ambassador Palihakkara has spoken.
Friday she joked with Inner City Press, your writing is good if one
sided, you
make us work until two or three in the morning. Her response, however,
was no
laughing matter.
Mrs.
Halliyadde said that no one is being detained
in the IDP camps,
it's just that they can't return were terrorists are. But the conflict
zone is
now less than ten square kilometers. She said that press has access to
the
conflict zone, and cited a broadcast by Al Jazeera. Inner City Press
saw that report,
in which Al Jazeera English correspondent David Chater was given access
by the
Sri Lankan Navy to cruise along the shore of the conflict zone.
Seemingly in
exchange for the access, the interviews he conducted said very little
about the
government's shelling or detention practices.
Mrs.
Halliyadde said that "Ambassador Nambiar and
Sir John
Holmes" have visited Sri Lanka and everything is essentially going
well.
Mr. La Rue countered that he had been barred from the country. But why
hadn't
he said this before?
The
event ended with another question being directed
to the
representative of Sri Lanka, but the UNESCO moderator essentially
ignoring it.
The World Press Freedom Day event was over, the baby frisse salad,
Moroccan chicken with tomato confit
and cheese cake with apricot puree had been eaten, and the UN went on
to
congratulate itself further. Write nicely about me, Mrs. Halliyadde
asked. About
her, perhaps. But detentions and shelling by the government, and
silence by the
UN, is hard to praise. Watch this site.
On March 18,
Inner City
Press on Wednesday asked Nicholas Burnett, Assistant Director-General
for
Education at UNESCO, why his agency, while condemn crackdowns on the
press in
the Philippines and elsewhere has said nothing about the newspaper
editors
locked up during the current conflict, and journalists previously
killed. Mr.
Burnett said, I can get you an answer. Video here,
from Minute 18:36. Three hours later his
spokesperson asked
Inner City Press to email the questions, which was done:
As I asked at the briefing
earlier today, what has UNESCO had to say about the recent imprisonment
of two
journalists in Sri Lanka, on which RSF is requesting
UN action
This is a specific request, also, for comment
on 1)
the killing of a
journalist described at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30312
and 2) on
the comments which the Sri
Lankan President’s brother, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa made
about
Vithyatharan in an interview
for ... Australia's Special Broadcasting Service
(SBS). “He is involved in the recent air attack
and I
am telling you if you try to give cover-up for that person you have
blood in
your hands,” Rajapaksa said. “And if someone says he is arrested
because he is
in media, that person also has blood on his hands.”
Forty two days later, UNESCO has not answered the
questions.
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
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