UN defends; PM slams Holmes

By Tharangani Perera

The UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Colombo yesterday rejected Government accusations against its head, Sir John Holmes, and declared he had made no frivolous charges.“There is no factual evidence to prove his (Mr. Holmes) statement to be incorrect,” OCHA’s Colombo chief Valentin Gatzinski told The Sunday Times. In an interview with Reuters news agency Sir Holmes, UN’s aid chief, declared that Sri Lanka was among the most dangerous places on earth for humanitarian workers.

Wickremanayake	Holmes

His remarks provoked Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake to make a scathing personal attack on Sir Holmes at a public meeting in Horana yesterday.

He said a “fellow called Holmes had made a statement exhibiting his uncivilized conduct. At a news conference in the evening he speaks a different thing. He goes out thereafter, meets a different group and says the opposite. This is nothing but showing that he is uncivilized. He is calling to disarm the Karuna faction. Why devil (Aiy Yako), can’t you see Prabhakaran (the LTTE leader). Why is this double standard. If it is terrorism, it is terrorism. If it is weapons, it is weapons.” Mr. Wickremanayake asked what Sir Holmes’ standards were to determine the differences.

He was speaking at the tenth anniversary of the Samurdhi Association of the Horana Urban Council. The Government was angered that Sir Holmes had granted the interview to Reuters even before he addressed a joint news conference with Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. It came at the end of a four-day official visit during which Sir Holmes had a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, flew to Jaffna and Batticaloa for meetings with military officials and human rights groups.

Angered by the Reuters move, Minister Samarasinghe had a meeting with UN Resident Representative Neil Buhne and Humanitarian Co-ordinator Valentine Gatzinski. He is learnt to have expressed Government’s concern. Mr Samarasinghe had said if Sir Holmes wanted to say anything, he could have done so at the news conference. This would have given him the opportunity of responding to such statements.

Following this meeting, the OCHA headquarters in New York issued a statement setting out details of Sir Holmes’ meeting with President Rajapaksa. However, the Government’s unhappiness over Sir Holmes led to Premier Wickremanayake making a statement in Parliament on Friday.