By Jamila Najmuddin | Daily Mirror .............................................................................................................................................................................................
The UN office in Colombo has been temporarily closed and the UN staff has been advised to work from home tomorrow as a result of the tense situation which developed outside the UN office today, UN sources told Daily Mirror online.
UN sources said that instructions to work from home was issued to the UN staff today after the group of protestors led by Minister Wimal Weerawansa who gathered outside the UN office laid siege to the building and prevented the UN staff from leaving the premises.
However there was no indication for how long the UN staff would stay away from their office although it is expected that a decision would be taken following a review of the latest developments.
A United Nations (U.N.) staff member leaves the U.N. headquarters with police protection after they attempted to remove protesters blocking the office in Colombo July 6, 2010 | Reuters ...................................................................................................................................................
Meanwhile when contacted, officials at the UN Headquarters in New York said that New York was closely monitoring the situation in Colombo and would take the matter up with the Sri Lankan government.
“We are fully aware of what is happening in Colombo and are closely monitoring the situation. We will raise the matter with the necessary people,” the official said refusing to comment further.
Meanwhile UN Associate spokesman Farhan Haq, speaking to reporters in New York a short while ago said that the UN had registered its strong objections with the Sri Lankan government over the protest organised by Minister Wimal Weerawansa outside the UN office which prevented UN staff from entering and leaving the premises.
He also said that the UN Resident Coordinator in Colombo Neil Buhne had met Prime Minister D.M Jayaratna yesterday and obtained an assurence over the security of the UN staff in Colombo as a result of the threat made by Weerawansa last week urging the public to lay siege to the UN office.
BBC News .............................................................................................................................................................................................
There have been chaotic scenes outside the UN's Sri Lanka offices, where protesters are demanding the UN end investigations into alleged war crimes.
Most UN staff managed to leave after police tried to break the blockade in Colombo, before being ordered to leave themselves by the government.
Several senior staff, however, remain inside and the protests, led by a government minister are continuing.
Sri Lanka says an inquiry is not needed and denies troops committed war crimes.
The government has refused to grant visas to the UN advisory panel's three members, saying the investigation violates its sovereignty.
Speaking from New York, a UN spokesman told the BBC the organisation was doing all it could to ensure the safety of its Colombo staff.
There have been consistent allegations that both the army - and Tamil Tigers rebels who troops routed last year - committed crimes at the end of the war.
About 7,000 civilians died in the last five months of the war, according to the UN.
It says the panel, announced last month, will report back within four months and will advise on how to deal with alleged perpetrators of abuses.
'Irresponsible actions'
Hundreds of flag-waving protesters, led by Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa, descended on the UN offices on Tuesday. They burned an effigy of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon outside the buildings, the BBC's Charles Haviland reported from the scene.
They also threatened to go on hunger strike to press their demands.
Police arrived in the afternoon and there were clashes with protesters when they attempted to break the siege. Police managed to escort several vehicles of UN staff out of the compound.
An angry Mr Weerawansa then called up the president's brother, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, and put him on the speaker phone, our correspondent reports.
Mr Rajapaksa ordered the police to leave and soon hundreds of policemen obeyed. Scores of protesters still remain outside the UN office, our correspondent says.
The UN called the protest "worrying" and said it would be reminding the Sri Lankan government of assurances it had given to try to protect UN staff.
"As far as we know none of them have been harmed in today's events," spokesman Farhan Haq told BBC Sinhala.
"We'll try to make sure that they have the protection that they need. It does seem that there have been some irresponsible actions on the ground."
He said there were no plans to disband the advisory panel.
The protesters, many of them Buddhist monks, say their action will continue until the UN disbands the panel.
Mr Weerawansa told the BBC that "patriotic Sri Lankans" did not support the panel.
"We are requesting Mr Ban Ki-moon to withdraw his three-member panel.
"Until he withdraws it, we will stage continuous demonstrations and this hunger strike in front of the UN office in Colombo.
Mr Weerawansa called on Sri Lankans around the world to stage strikes in front of UN offices in their countries.
EU move
Meanwhile, the detained ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka, who led the security forces in fighting the Tamil Tigers, has said he is not afraid to face the UN panel.
"As the then army commander I can candidly say the war was waged in line with international covenants and conventions. I fully support the military in this case," Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror newspaper quoted him as saying.
There has been much international concern over the conduct of both sides in the latter stages of the war, which ended in May 2009.
Sri Lanka says it will hold its own internal inquiry, but the exact terms of reference are not clear.
International human rights groups are sceptical about the ability of the government to investigate claims impartially. They are demanding an independent investigation.
On Monday, the European Union announced it was withdrawing Sri Lanka's preferential trade access to EU markets after it failed to improve its human rights record.
By Bharatha Mallawaarachi | Associated Press .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Hundreds of protesters, led by a government minister, laid siege to the U.N. compound in Colombo on Tuesday, refusing to let workers out in an effort to force the world body to cancel its investigation of alleged abuses committed during Sri Lanka's civil war.
Police tried to break up the protest in the evening and escorted some of the trapped workers out of the compound, but quickly pulled back after Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa — who led the protest — ordered them to stop, leaving some U.N. staff trapped inside.
Later, four Westerners left the building after the country's foreign secretary, who was apparently negotiating with the protesters, entered and left himself. Protesters said they were the last of the staff who had been stuck inside, but neither Foreign Secretary Romesh Jayasinghe's office nor local police would confirm that. Calls to the local U.N. representative went unanswered.
Former Minister of Cultural Affairs Piyasiri Wijenayake is carried away after he was injured after police tried to forcibly remove protesters blocking the United Nations (U.N.) headquarters in Colombo, July 6, 2010 | Reuters ...................................................................................................................................................
Wasantha Bandara, one of the protesters who accompanied Jayasinghe into the U.N. building, said the protests would continue to sit outside the building but added that their intention was not to hold the staff hostage.
Between 125 and 200 people were trapped in the compound when the protesters first descended on the building, according to a U.N. official inside the building who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Earlier the protesters had burned effigies of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to protest a panel he established to examine whether government forces committed atrocities against minority Tamils when the country's quarter-century civil war drew to a close last year.
The government opposes the panel and has already said it will not issue visas to its members, led by former Indonesian Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman.
Human rights groups have accused the troops and Tamil rebels of deliberately targeting civilians and killing thousands of innocent people in the final months of the war.
The accusations have infuriated top government officials and sparked earlier violent protests outside the Red Cross compound and the British High Commission in Colombo.
As police looked on Tuesday, Weerawansa and a group of ultranationalist Buddhist monks led men waving national flags on a march to the U.N. office. The protesters initially tried to break into the compound, which sits inside a high security zone protected by checkpoints and soldiers, but failed to breach the high walls.
Instead, they held a sit-in, blocking both exists, spray-painting the security camera at the gate — in an apparent bid not to be identified — and preventing employees working inside from leaving.
Weerawansa demanded the world body disband the three-member investigative team appointed last month.
"Our armed forces have beaten terrorism in an exemplary manner. We will not allow our soldiers and political leaders to be taken before an international war tribunal," Weerawansa said. "We ask Ban Ki-moon to withdraw this panel if he wants to get the workers and those inside the building out."
Weerawansa said the panel could lead to unfair prosecution of soldiers and political leaders who helped defeat the Tamil rebels after a long and bloody civil war.
Government troops crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels last year, ending their 25-year campaign for an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils. According to the U.N., more than 7,000 civilians were killed in the last five months of the fighting alone.
Sri Lanka has faced growing international criticism of its wartime conduct. Rights groups have said they have photographic and video evidence of abuses and have called for war crimes investigations.
Sri Lanka has denied targeting civilians and has appointed its own reconciliation commission, but that body is not expected to look into the war crimes allegations.
By Bharatha Mallawaarachi | Associated Press .............................................................................................................................................................................................
Police have broken up a blockade of the U.N. office in Sri Lanka's capital and are escorting employees out hours after they were trapped.
Hundreds of protesters, led by the country's housing minister and Buddhist monks, laid siege to the building Tuesday demanding end to U.N. investigations into alleged abuses committed during the country's civil war.
Police have forcibly evicted the protesters, dismantled a stage that blocked one gate and escorted the staff vehicles off of the premises.
By Matthew Russell Lee | Inner City Press .............................................................................................................................................................................................
The UN's compound in Colombo has been surrounded, UN staff held hostage by a crowd led by Sri Lankan government minister Wimal Weerawansa. "We warn the U.N. to withdraw the (investigating) panel if they want to get the employees out," Weerawansa told the protesters.
The siege came six days after Weerawansa urged crowds to take UN staff hostage. Inner City Press on June 30 and July 2 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq for Ban's response.
On June 30, Haq said Weerawansa's threat may have been misquoted, and was in any event merely “individual.”
Inner City Press asked a very senior UN official about the threat and was told it was a “Gandhian” threat.
On July 2, when Inner City Press asked why the UN would minimize a government minister's threat against UN staff as “individual,” Haq claimed that an apology might be forthcoming from the government and told Inner City Press, "I will let you know if something like that comes through."
On July 3, Weerawansa made clear he was not misquoted, and the threat was not individual. Inner City Press published stories on July 3, 4 and 5. Ban Ki-moon, in Jamaica, said nothing. Haq and his Office sent nothing.
On July 6, UN staff were taken hostage, and the Sri Lankan government did nothing to stop it.
It is called a government endorsed and protected action against UN staff.
While Weerawansa and some Sinhalese activists are calling on Ban to be “impeached” for his belated and begrudging naming of a panel to advise him on Sri Lankan war crimes, others including UN staff and supporters point to other reasons: the inexplicable delay, and this failure to perform the most basic part of the UN S-G job, to protect or at least speak up for UN staff in the field.
By Joseph Thavaraja | Asian Tribune .............................................................................................................................................................................................
The United Nations compound in Colombo is blockaded at this moment. The supporters of a powerful Sri Lanka government Minister have surrounded and blockaded the UN Compound in Colombo.
Govt. Minister Wimal Weerawansa, leader of the National Freedom Front is leading this campaign protesting the June 22 appointment of an expert panel by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to advise him on human rights violations in the final stage of the island’s civil war.
The protesters have also threatened a fast unto death blockading the compound until the UN assures them withdrawal of its expert panel on HR violations.
The entry and exit points of the Compound is blocked and no UN are able to enter of leave the premises while a reinforcement of Police personnel is on its way, according to eyewitnesses.
Sri Lanka parliament Monday (05) voted to extend the State of Emergency with a majority of 100 votes.
Of the 225-member parliament 132 members voted for the bill while 32 voted against it. The opposition parties UNP, TNA, and DNA voted against the bill.
The State of Emergency can be extended only for a month. The parliament is required to vote every month to extend it.
AUnited Nations report has paved the way for the Government to take a stronger stance against asylum seekers.
The report, from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, describes "greatly improved" security in Sri Lanka, and says it should not be presumed that Tamils need asylum.
It says some women and children, as well as people with links to the Tamil Tigers, still face the risk of persecution even though the situation in the country has improved.
The Federal Cabinet met late yesterday to consider a decision on whether to lift Australia's three-month freeze on processing Sri Lankan asylum seekers.
It is understood a decision was deferred because Cabinet had not had access to the UN's report.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called a press conference for 10:30am AEST, when she is expected to talk about the Government's new border protection policy.
Sustainable Population Minister Tony Burke says the Government will not be turning boats back.
"It's not necessarily realistic to say they're going to be towing boats back to Indonesia. [It's] not going to happen," he told ABC TV's Q&A program.
Move to the right
Greens leader Bob Brown has attacked Ms Gillard for failing to show leadership and "moving to the right" on the issue.
Senator Brown told The 7.30 Report that Prime Minister Julia Gillard has shown a lack of leadership over the asylum seeker debate.
"It corroborates that warning given by her predecessor, Mr Rudd, about how he was not going to be pushed to the right on this issue," he said.
"There is a move to the right in the Labor party and it's very frightening, very worrying indeed."
He says both the major parties are trading in xenophobia to win votes at the election.
"When you hear the Prime Minister of the nation saying that she's not going to support political correctness, that's a direct put down to people who do believe in humanity, in decency and in legality, in treating the people who fear persecution and come to our shores as asylum seekers," he said.
"Four per cent of the migrants to this nation in the last six months came in boats, 96 per cent didn't.
"But we're not hearing a debate about them, nor about the 50,000 overstayers on visas who came by plane and who are illegal in this country."
New policy
The Coalition will today release an updated version of its immigration and border protection policy which it says will improve the assessment process for deciding who should be granted refugee status.
The policies will include measures to toughen the processing rules for asylum seekers who have deliberately destroyed their identity documents.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the policies are designed to give Australians greater confidence that only genuine refugees are allowed to stay.
"Where people are known to have ... thrown away their documentation prior to being assessed .. then we won't be giving them a green light," he said.
"What we will be doing is making them come back and provide even greater reasons as to why their case should be accepted."
Mr Morrison says the Coalition will also ensure the final decision on whether a visa is granted does not rest with assessors on Christmas Island.
He says the Immigration Minister should have the final say.
By C. Bryson Hull | Reuters .............................................................................................................................................................................................
The European Union on Monday confirmed Sri Lanka would lose access its preferential trade access next month after the Indian Ocean island nation refused to make written pledges to improve its human rights record.
From Aug. 15, Sri Lanka will be temporarily suspended from the Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP Plus) trade scheme, which the government estimates is worth about 100 million euro ($125 million) annually to the country's exporters.
"We very much regret the choice of Sri Lanka not to take up an offer made in good faith," EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.
"We will, however, keep the door open for Sri Lanka to return to talks."
The European Union, Sri Lanka's largest trading partner, in February decided to revoke the trade concession but gave Sri Lanka until July 1 to discuss steps it would take. That later became a July 1 deadline to pledge to make changes the EU sought.
Sri Lanka refused to bend to the demands, saying they were a violation of its sovereignty and part of a Western campaign to punish it after it defeated the Tamil Tiger separatists in May 2009, ending a three-decade civil war.
The EU denies political motivations.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government says the Western push for accountability is fuelled by Tamil Tiger supporters in the diaspora and is hypocritical, given Sri Lanka was fighting a group on U.S. and EU terrorism lists.
He has said the West cannot point an accusing finger over civilian deaths or human rights, given the thousands of civilians killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and indefinite detentions of terrorism suspects.
During the decades of war, Sri Lanka had a history of rights violations by both the government and the Tamil Tigers, and accusations that thousands of civilians were killed in the final stages of the war increased pressure on the government.
Sri Lanka denies causing mass civilian casualties.
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