On
Sri
Lanka, Holmes
Opposed Citing
War Crimes,
UNredacted by
ICP
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 14 --
It is becoming
more clear why
the UN blacked
out portions
of its report
on its actions
and inaction
in Sri Lanka,
and then took
the report
off-line once
asked about
the
redactions, by
Inner City
Press.
Also becoming
clear: former
UN Under
Secretary
General for
Humanitarian
Affairs John
Holmes
vehement
denial of the
report.
Inner
City Press has
re-posted
the report
as it appeared
with
redactions,
and is going
behind the
redactions. A
significant
deletion
occurs on
Page 68 in
Paragraph 84.
The material
the UN blacked
out, but is
now
being
"liberated" by
Inner City
Press, appears
in brackets,
followed by an
explanation.
"USG-Humanitarian
Affairs,
who responded
on 13 March
stating: "....
we have
ourselves
avoided being
too specific
about the
casualty
figures
because of the
difficulty of
being able to
defend them
with
confidence in
the absence of
reliable,
verifiable
information …
The
civilian
casualties
have certainly
been, and
continue to
be, heavy,
but the
detailed
figures are
still hard to
be sure about
[…
(ii) The
references to
possible war
crimes will be
controversial
…
I am not sure
going into
this dimension
is helpful, as
opposed to
more indirect
references to
the need for
accountability,
in this
conflict as
elsewhere.”
]
So
the UN's top
humanitarian
official was
against
referring to
war
crimes, after
having buried
a report of
over 2000
civilian
deaths. Holmes
also
tried to
censor Press
coverage
of his
on the record
comments
during Ban's
May 2009
"victory
tour" of Sri
Lanka, click
here for that.
More occurred
later in
connection
with a film
screening
in the UN's
Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium, fallout
written up by
the SLC, here.
There is more.
Watch this
site.
, 
