UN falters over Sri Lanka journalist's disappearance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 February 2011, 04:50 GMT]
Adding further fuel to the accusation that the United Nations under the current leadership has failed to take effective action on Sri Lanka's war, the UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said Tuesday that UN's New York offices did not receiv a petition on disappeared journalist Prageeth Eknelygoda, thereby contradicting UN's Colombo office which said two weeks earlier that Colombo UN Resident Coordinator Neil Buhne received the petition from the journalist's wife and that the petition is being forwarded to Secretary General's office, the Innter City Press reported in its website.

"The UN of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is accused of not doing enough for press freedom, by the Committee to Protect Journalists and others. On February 15, CPJ's Bob Dietz told the Press that the UN has done “nothing” on the case of Lanka e-News journalist Prageeth Eknelygoda, whose wife has petitioned for Ban's involvement through the UN in Sri Lanka," ICP said in the report.

Human Rights Watch harshly criticized U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s "quiet diplomacy" approach to human rights issues in its annual report released on the 24th January 2011. Officials of the human rights monitoring group say the U.N. leader should not necessarily be elected to a second term later this year.

The Human Rights Watch report says Mr. Ban has been "notably reluctant" to pressure major human rights abusers in public. It says the secretary-general has sometimes gone "out of his way to portray oppressive governments in a positive way," and placed "undue faith" in his ability to use private persuasion in dealing with the leaders of Sudan, Burma and Sri Lanka.

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External Links:

SE:		Human Rights Watch slams UN chief Ban Ki-moon's 'quiet diplomacy'
BBC:		UN defends Ban Ki-moon against rights 'cowardice' claim
ICP:		UN Again Denies Getting Petition on Disappeared Journalist in Sri Lanka
HRW:		World Report: Governments Soft-Talking Abusers
FP:		Ban's 'quiet diplomacy' a 'facade of action'