Jan Egeland: R2P failed against ‘horror’ in Sri Lanka

by admin
Jul 7, 2009

Former UN head of Humanitarian affairs Jan Egeland has accused the UN and the international community of letting the Sri Lankan state get away with denying the Tamils protection and access to humanitarian relief.

 

"Sri Lanka is the latest example of the world community letting a government get away with denying access, to witnesses, humanitarian relief, protection of civilians," Egeland said on Tuesday June 23.

Egeland further said that the Responsibility to Protest, enacted by the UN in 2005, was "not upheld in Sri Lanka, the heads of state have failed."

 

Predicting that conflict will brew as injustice against the Tamils are continuing, Egeland added, that he was not saying this as a UN official, that he is now with the Norwegian Institute on International Affairs.

Egeland who was in New York for a UN Colloquium on Conflict Related Sexual Violence in Peace Negotiations, told the media that we can "safely assume... horrors" in the treatment of "women in Sri Lanka, Tamils," due to the continuing denial of access not only to humanitarian review but also "witnesses."

 

Egeland’s comments were in contradiction to current UN humanitarian coordinator John Holmes, who has commended the Sri Lankan government for how they are running the UN-funded camps where they have detained 300,000 Tamil civilians.

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