Late visit by Ban Ki Moon fails…

After dragging his feet on a visit to Sri Lanka at the peak of the conflict to try and save civilians lives, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon finally visited Sri Lanka after the conflict came to a brutal end with the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians.

According to media reports, Ban told reporters on his flight from Frankfurt to Sri Lanka: "This is going to be a defining trip, a very crucial trip for the future of Sri Lanka and peace and stability in the region."

However, Ban who was seeking full access to the internally displaced persons, languishing in the camps returned without knowing when Sri Lanka would allow UN and other relief agencies full access to all camps.

Ban who was who was in Sri Lanka on Saturday, May 23 was taken on a guided tour of Menik Farm, the most presentable of Sri Lanka’s squalid and dangerous internment camps for Tamils civilians, and a helicopter tour of the no fire zone where tens of thousands civilians were killed and wounded due to Sri Lankan army shelling and bombing.

While visiting the largest internment camp in Vavuniyaa, Manik Farm, on Saturday for three hours, Ban stressed the need for freedom of movement and immediate resettlement of the more than 300,000 Tamils held in camps.

The IDPs told Ban Ki Moon that they would want the U.N. to take full responsibility for the welfare of the refugees, sources accompanying Moon on his visit said.

"The UN has failed in several measures in preventing egregious human rights violations by Sri Lanka against unarmed civilian Tamils during the last several months, and this is the last opportunity to take bold action to repair the damage to UN's reputation. UN should shed its rhetoric on sovereignty and assume full responsibility for the Tamil people," an aid worker told a reporter after Moon's visit.

Reporters who accompanied the Secretary General unexpectedly received some space to talk to the refugees without any attending Government officials, sources said.

The IDPs complained to the reporters that Sri Lanka military, during its harsh filtering process, has separated many children from the parents.

They also complained that a selected set of refugee personalities coached by the Sri Lanka military was routinely selected to engage with the visitors to the camp, pointing to a former Voice of Tigers employee, and said they were happy to have had the opportunity to talk to the reporters this time.

During his visit to Manik Farm, Ban went to a small field hospital, where he saw severely emaciated elderly people attached to saline drips and children with shrapnel wounds.

But UN officials told Reuters the most severely injured Tamils – amputees, victims of mine explosions or heavy artillery blasts – were at other hospitals Ban’s delegation was not shown.

Ban Ki-moom was accompanied by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordination John Holmes, Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar, UNDP Resident Coordinator Neil Buhne, UNICEF country representative Philippe Duamelle and UNHRC Country Director Amin Awad.

Mixed Message

Ban made contradictory comments in the presence and then in absence of Sri Lankan officials, demonstrating he continuing policy of pleasing Sri Lanka.

Speaking to reporters in the presence of Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, Ban said: "As I was flying over the war zone, I thought the fighting must have been very severe and inhumane for the people trapped," said Ban, who called the destruction "very sobering, very sad, very moving."

Ban was asked if he saw evidence of “massive bombing” during the flight over the former battle zone referring to accusations of Sri Lanka firing shells at civilians. Ban avoided answering the question by saying “the fighting must have been severe.”

Commenting about the humanitarian conditions prevailing in the camp, Ban praised the Sri Lankan government for the help it was providing the Tamil civilians, while saying it lacked capacity – a subtle way of saying more can be done.

However, when speaking to CNN later Ban said, referring to the IDP camp he visited: "I have travelled around the world and visited similar places, but this is by far the most appalling scenes I have seen,"