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[size=5]It was a snowy Wednesday evening when the UN held a screening and panel discussion entitled "The Holocaust by Bullets: Uncovering the Reality of Genocide." [/size][/size]

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[size=5]The event was sponsored by the French Mission to the UN; the short but moving films were on Holocaust killings of Jews in Ukraine and of Roma.[/size][/size]

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[size=5]After the first film, UN official Gillian Kitley told the snow-limited audience that the UN's now combined Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect advises Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of development in which mass killing may become possible.[/size][/size]

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[size=5]Inner City Press asked Ms. Kitley, what happened with Sri Lanka in 2008 and 2009, when the UN pulled its workers out of northern Sri Lanka, then concealed and denied casualty figures -- Inner City Press got and published a leaked OCHA count of over 2000 civilians killed in a short period -- and then didn't even call for a ceasefire.[/size][/size]

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[size=5]Ms. Kitley replied that there is a now a detailed study of the UN's actions and inaction in Sri Lanka during that period, and that she is curious to see it. But what about the public, to try to ensure that the UN does a better job in future cases?[/size][/size]

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[size=5]Inner City Press asked Ms. Kitley to have her Office and Adama Dieng, the Under Secretary General for Genocide Prevention (USG for R2P Ed Luck appears to have rather quietly left for an academic job in San Diego) inquire andurge Ban Ki-moon to make the so-called Petrie report on the UN in Sri Lanka public.[/size][/size]

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[size=5]Ms. Kitley did not answer the plea, and the event moved on.[/size][/size][size=1]

[size=5] Alongside the Holocaust, Rwanda in 1994 was repeatedly mentioned (though France's role in supporting the genocidal government, including in the Security Council where currentUN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous was then France's Deputy Permanant Representative) -- and Syria was mentioned, by Ms. Kitley.[/size][/size]

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[size=5]Earlier on Wednesday Inner City Press was told by a Sri Lankan diplomat that its close coverage, for example of its recent Universal Periodic Review (#UPRLKA) is not fair, in that it took the richer UK 30 years to deal with its "Irish troubles." We report this in fairness; duly noted. But it is also worth comparing responses to events in Syria and Sri Lanka. We'll have more on this.[/size][/size]

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http://www.innercitypress.com/unr2p1sripetrie110712.html[/size]

[size=6]As US Trashes "Evil 8" on Human Rights, Nothing on Sri Lanka, Bahrain, S. Sudan[/size]

[size=5]It was US election day when the US Mission to the UN got its chance to speechify on human rights in the General Assembly's Third Committee. Its turn came right after Venezuela, which raised the specter of "killer drones."[/size]

[size=1][size=5]The US, which is running for a second term on the UN Human Rights Council, did not address the drone critique in its speech, a hard copy of which it did not, unlike Australia, pass out to the audience including Inner City Press. Rather, it chose eight countries to criticize, and one to mostly praise: Myanmar, or as the US said it, Burma.[/size][/size]

[size=1][size=5]The Evil Eight in the US speech - our term, not the US speaker's -- were in order Syria, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Belarus, Eritrea, Cuba, China. Not mentioned, among others, were US ally Bahrain, which recently prohibited even peaceful demonstrations, and Sri Lanka, which after what the UN said were 40,000 civilians killings in 2009, has not punished anyone.[/size][/size]

[size=1][size=5]In Geneva, the US spoke about Sri Lanka. But in its New York speech, not at all. Likewise, while earlier on Tuesday the US criticized South Sudan for throwing out the UN's human rights officials, this was not mentioned in its Third Committee speech.[/size][/size]

[size=1][size=5]Of course there are priorities. Perhaps these "minor" issues -- Sri Lanka with its 40,000 dead, Bahrain, even South Sudan -- are mentioned in the longer, written version of the speech. [/size][/size]

[size=1][size=5]But some hope that the alongside the railing against countries over which it has little "soft power," the US applies some human right standards to its friends, at least behind the scenes.[/size][/size]

http://www.innercitypress.com/ushr1evileight110612.html

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http://earlywarning.wordpress.com/tag/sri-lanka/[/size][size=3]

[size=5]scroll down to the bottom:[/size]

[size=6]Sri Lanka: Early Warning of War Crimes?[/size]

[size=5]Posted on July 31, 2009 by Patrick Meier | 1 Comment[/size]

[size=5]Speaking to Le Monde journalist Philippe Bolopion on condition of anonymity, a UN official stated the following:[/size]

[size=5]“On savait qu’on se préparait à un carnage. On a tiré la sonnette d’alarme pendant des mois, mais ils n’ont jamais frappé en public sur le gouvernement. Tout le monde a peur que son agence soit jetée dehors.”[/size]

[size=5]“We knew carnage was brewing. We rang the alarm bells for some months but no one ever took the Sri Lankan government to task publicly. Everyone is scared of having their agency removed from the country.”[/size]

[size=5]Bolopion, Le Monde’s special correspondent in Colombo also obtained evidence of text messages (SMS) sent by local UN and NGO staff from the scene of the war crime.[/size]

[size=5]March 9: “Please, ask the Sri Lankan army to stop.”[/size]

[size=5]March 14: “Where is the no-fire zone”?[/size]

[size=5]And as the LTTE starts recruiting by force:[/size]

[size=5]March 12: “Both sides are torturing us.”[/size]

[size=5]March 12: “We’re dying! Two shells landed 10m away.”[/size]

[size=5]March 19: “Youths are being taken to fight, very sad. How is the international community reacting?”[/size]

[size=5]March 21: “Hundreds of people trying to escape were stopped by local dictators. They were beaten with sticks, without distinction by age or gender. I hear they crying very loudly.”[/size]

[size=5]March 21: “Why is the international community staying silent?”[/size]

[size=5] [/size][size=5]So much for the responsibility to protect [/size][/size]