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On Sri Lanka, UN's Ban Drops Call
for Suspension of Fighting, Vague on Aerial Bombing
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, April 3 -- Weeks
after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for a suspension of
fighting in
Sri Lanka, his Office's follow-up statement on April 3 omitted the
request.
Rather, apparently implementing the UN's new strategy of putting more
pressure
on the Tamil Tiger rebels than the government, Ban's Associate
Spokesman Farhan
Haq read out a statement that the Tamil Tigers are violating
international
humanitarian law, while the government is merely "reminded of its
obligations."
Inner City Press asked, what happened to the call
for a suspension of
fighting? Video here,
from Minute 15:45. Mr. Haq pointed to the statement he had just read
out, which did not
refer to a suspension of cessation of fighting, much less to a
ceasefire. When
Inner City Press first asked Ban about the killing in Sri Lanka, Ban
said he
could not call for a ceasefire because Sri Lanka was not on the
Security
Council's agenda.
After then-President of the Council Yukio Takasu
told Inner City Press
that Ban's statement is not what the UN Charter says, Ban called for a
suspension of fighting. But Sri
Lanka's president has said he will not give in
to international pressure and that the fighting will continue. Inner
City Press
asked for a reply from Ban, but none was given. Then on April 3
there issued a prepared
statement omitting any call for a suspension of fighting.
Ban Ki-moon in car on phone, call for
suspension of fighting not shown
Ironically, Haq then read out a statement by the
UN's Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs which described "aerial bombing of
the No-Fire Zone" in northern Sri Lanka. Particularly given the reports
that the Tamil Tigers' rag-tag air force has been destroyed, to say
"aerial bombing" is to say "Sri Lankan government," but to
omit saying those words. Why? To jibe with Ban's new strategy of
accusing the
Tigers of law-breaking and merely reminding the government of
obligations?
A senior UN official has told Inner City Press that
this is the UN's
strategy, since the government of Sri Lanka has so openly ignored Ban's
calls:
to pressure instead the Tamil Tigers and their supporters overseas,
threatening
prosecutions, and to "lay off" the government. Given
the number of deaths that have been caused by shelling and aerial
bombing by
the government, to "lay off" is to be complicit.
Click here
for a new YouTube 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
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Other,
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