Horrors on women in Sri Lanka's internment camps - Egeland

[TamilNet, Thursday, 25 June 2009, 10:59 GMT]

Jan Egeland, the former UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tuesday told the press that "Sri Lanka is one of the latest examples of the World community letting a government get away with denying access for the international community of witnesses, of humanitarian relief and protection for civilians," adding that world governments failed what they swore in 2005 of the "responsibility to protect," and that "for Tamil women" there were a "number of horrors." Egeland's comment contrasts with the stand of his successor John Holmes who earlier commended the Sri Lanka's treatment of the 300,000 civilians currently being held in internment camps in Vavuniyaa.

UN video: Egeland on Sri Lanka

In preparation for the September 2005 United Nations Summit of world leaders, Kofi Annan presented a report, "In Larger Freedom," which urged the Heads of State and Government to ”embrace the 'responsibility to protect' as a basis for collective action against genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.“ This was later formulated as the "R2P doctrine" of the UN.

Ex-UN HR Co-ordinator

"What happened to the Tamil women in Sri Lanka? We don't even know. Because there was no access. What we can safely assume is that there were a number of horrors," Egeland said.

"I can also safely assume that new conflicts will brew because injustice still prevails," Egeland added.

Last week Inner City Press asked for the UN's and Holmes' response to the Sri Lanka government barring even UN workers from bringing cameras into the internment camps. "There was no response, nor to the disbanding of the investigation into killings such as that of 17 Action Contre la Faim aid workers near Kilinochchi," Inner City Press reported.