Holmes' statements come under fire
The UN Under Secretary General John Holmes' comments to Reuter News
on the Sri Lanka's situation have raised a number of concerns, hence the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs has extended its displeasure over the
Holmes' statements as he failed to make such comments to the President
or other officials during his meeting with them.
Sir John Holmes, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator and
Under Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs, told Reuters Thursday
(9), that "there is a concern about the safety of humanitarian workers
themselves and the record here is one of the worst in the world."
The FM in a press release stated:
* During his four-day visit at the invitation of the Government of
Sri Lanka, Sir Holmes held meetings with President Mahinda Rajapaksa,
Minister of Foreign Affairs Rohitha Bogollagama, Human Rights and
Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Secretaries of
the Ministries of Defence as well as of Foreign Affairs, in addition to
meetings with a large number of officials involved with security, public
administration and humanitarian affairs in Colombo, Jaffna, Batticaloa
and Vakarai.
* At none of these meetings did either the Under Secretary General or
any member of his delegation even marginally venture to suggest the
preposterous statement he is now purported to have made to the Reuters
Correspondent in an exclusive interview.
* In fact, as quoted in the press release issued by the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs following over two hours of separate meetings Sir Holmes
had initially with Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona and subsequently
with the Foreign Minister, Foreign Secretary and senior officials on
August 6, it was stated: "in his (Sir Holmes') discussions at the
Foreign Ministry Sir Holmes drew attention to concerns as regards the
security and safety of humanitarian aid workers", but acknowledged that
"the situation which had gone through a bad period was getting better".
It is noteworthy that this statement was made in the presence of Neil
Buhne, UN Resident Representative/ Humanitarian Coordinator in Sri
Lanka, Valentine Gatzinski Head/UNOCHA in Sri Lanka and accompanying
staff from the UN office in New York.
* Up to now (five days later) there has been no contradiction by the
UN side, to the fact that Sir Holmes did in fact made reference that the
situation in Sri Lanka was "getting better".
* If indeed the Holmes comment purported to have been made to Reuters
is accurate, then Sir Holmes has not only been disingenuous, but also
fallen short in being forthright with his host interlocutors in
communicating the view of the world body, if that was in fact the
official view of the UN. To sneak in this comment during a private
meeting with a foreign correspondent of a news agency, suggests a motive
that is objectively improper.
* Further, short before his departure from Sri Lanka on August 9, Sir
Holmes addressed a press conference where several questions were raised
by local and other foreign media on the very issue of the security and
safety of humanitarian aid workers in Sri Lanka. It is noted that Sir
Holmes chose to make no mention of the views purported to have been made
by him to the Reuters correspondent on Wednesday, August 8, to the rest
of the media less than 24 hours later.
* It would also appear ironic that Reuters chose not to make any
reference in the report in question of August 9, or in their other
reports relating to the Holmes visit, to comments made by Holmes
communicated in the Foreign Ministry press release that the situation
"was getting better", despite it being available to Reuters on August 6,
itself (two full days before their exclusive interview with Sir Holmes)
and was also to receive wide publicity in the media. Also significantly
the Reuters correspondent chose not to draw the attention of Sir Holmes
during the exclusive interview on Wednesday, to the obvious
contradiction between that Sir Holmes had told the Foreign Ministry on
Monday and what he was telling Reuters.
This is indeed poor journalism by an agent of an agency which prides
itself to be objective and keen get to the truth. The sequence of events
suggest that rather trying to be objective, in this instance the Reuters
correspondent appears to have been more intent on seeking to find a peg
to sensationalise his report, in fact going to the extent of
collaborating with the interviewee to publish it only after he had left
the country, thus denying any opportunity for others in the media (who
were not singled out to be given exclusive interviews) or for that
matter in government, to seek to clarify Sir Holmes' purported
allegation.
* The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also notes with concern a comment
attributed to unnamed "aid agencies" in the Reuters report of August 9,
to the affect that, "34 humanitarian staff have been killed in Sri Lanka
since January 2006, including 17 local staff of Action Contre La Faim
shot dead in the restive northeast a year ago in a massacre Nordic truce
monitors blamed on Security Forces".
The government of Sri Lanka is fully conscious of the dastardly
killing of the 17 ACF aid workers and is continuing to do all within its
means to speedily identify and bring the perpetrators of this crime to
justice. Up to this point there is nothing to establish security forces
complicity in this killing and the nordic truce monitors have not blamed
the Security Force.
As the Reuter's correspondent well knows, rather it is a disgruntled
and discredited former head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM)
who has made such an allegation, which has been disowned by the SLMM
itself. Attempts by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and
sections of the NGO and media for several months to seek to implicate
the security forces in this crime using arguments relating to ballistic
evidence mis-using a report by Australian Forensic expert Dr. Malcolm
Dodd, has also fallen flat on its face last week, following the
unqualified withdrawal of the original statement by Dr. Dodd, which gave
rise to the original speculation.
Further, as to the figure the Reuters report quotes of "34
humanitarian staff" who have been "Killed in Sri Lanka since January
2006", taking into account the killings of the 17 ACF workers and of the
two Red Cross workers, which adds up to 19, it is intriguing how the
figure of 34 was arrived at.
Given that the UN office in Colombo appears to have made a practice
of hiding from their own headquarters in New York, the Sri Lanka
government, the media (including Reuters) and the public those UN
related officials abducted and held by the LTTE, one wonders whether the
remaining 15 are possibly such killings of UN workers by the LTTE, which
the UN wishes not to talk about. In fact, at the meeting Sir Holmes had
with the Foreign Minister, when the Government side expressed concern
that the UN had not reported two known cases of UN aid workers held by
the LTTE, for the first time it transpired that the real figure was not
two but four. In that instance Sir Holmes made it a point to note that
the UN headquarters in New York had been equally agitated about the
non-reporting by the UN office in Colombo of the atrocities committed to
UN staff in Sri Lanka by the LTTE. In such context, it is unprofessional
of the Reuters to introduce an arbitrary figure based on unnamed
sources, without explaining how it adds up, also to mischievously imply
government complicity in the killing/alleged killings, on the strength
of a sole reference to a discredited SLMM official.
* Overall, it must be noted that the Holmes' visit was meticulously
organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in consultation with the
office of the UN Under Secretary General with a view to developing a
constructive and effective relationship between the UN and Sri Lanka.
Sir Holmes indiscreet and irresponsible comment has made it more
difficult to achieve this objective.
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