’What happened was predictable’

12 August 2011
In his recently published book ‘The Cage’ former United Nations spokesman Gordon Weiss is critical of the UN and points to evidence of the government of Sri Lanka committing war crimes.
Could you give a brief account of what happened with the UN in the last phase of the war?

As the last phase of the war gathered pace, and as air attacks began on the nominal capital of the Tamil Tigers (Kilinochchi) in 2008, the government warned the UN that it should pull its staff out of the north. There were government air strikes and those came dangerously close to UN positions in Kilinochchi. Our staff were spending time hiding in bomb shelters. They were unable to effectively carry out their duties, which were largely to distribute humanitarian aid. So the UN complied with the government request and pulled out. From that point onwards there was effectively no international independent presence inside the northern region, except for the International Red Cross. They have a history of not talking about the things that they see when they’re working behind the lines. But the UN was certainly no longer there and no longer capable of making judgements on what was going on. Thereafter it had to rely on the government, and the government alone for access to Tamil areas to deliver humanitarian aid. Whether the UN ought to have stayed, despite the attacks is a moot point and something that an accountability investigation needs to answer rather than me. Full Story>>