HRC n Humanitarian Engagement with Non-State Armed Groups

July 2011, 20:55

From: Sandy Vadi <sandyvadi@gmail.com>

Date: Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 2:52 PM

Subject: UNICEF: Humanitarian and post-crisis policy

To: pmccormick@unicef.org

Cc: Cstern@unicefusa.org, mmercado@unicef.org, kschoop@unicefusa.org, secretary@unicef.ca, hfrankoul@unicef.org, ngls@un.org, tokyo@unicef.org, ngocommittee@unicef.org

July 12, 2011

Mr. Anthony Lake, Executive Director, UNICEF

via: Mr. Patrick McCormick, UNICEF New York

CC:

Ms. Caryl M. Stern, President & CEO, UNICEF

Ms. Marixie Mercado, UNICEF Spokeswoman, Geneva,

Mr. David Morley, UNICEF Canada

Ms. Hiba Frankoul, International and Corporate Alliance Officer

Dear Executive Director of UNICEF,

I am appalled to read in the Sri Lankan Official Defence portal about the recent UNICEF report on ‘overview of ongoing government efforts to trace and reunify children in Northern Sri Lanka’ in which the report seems to have rendered an unsolicited help to the Sri Lankan administration in reinforcing its purported policy of  ‘Zero Civilian Casualties’. In the news item referenced below, UNICEF was quoted for a proof that the 40,000 civilian deaths during the blacked-out war, is an exaggerated lie.

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20110711_03

According to the Sri Lankan government’s statistics and the evidence submitted by Rev. Joseph Rayappa – Bishop of Mannar, about 146,000 people are still unaccounted for in the Tamil regions, since the war ended. The Sri Lankan government has neither cared to provide a count on the dead, widows, orphans and maimed in the last phase of conflict after the ICRC was kicked out from the zone. As you may be aware, for the last two years, the government is only keen on militarising and colonising the Tamil regions for a theme of ‘there are no minorities in the country’

Dear Sir,

The unimaginable tragedy of this magnitude in a tiny country like Sri Lanka and the  concerted efforts by the Sri Lankan government to hide the evidences and the truth to the world, are very close to the hearts of Tamil community and to any vulnerable minority population in a similar situation. With this in mind, I humbly urge the esteemed leadership of the UNICEF to categorically clarify the original intent of the report and counter the effects of misinterpretations perpetrated by the Sri Lankan rogue administration.

Many thanks,

Mrs. Sandy Vadi

Women for Justice and Peace

Toronto, Canada

PS:

While I appreciate the efforts of UNICEF in advocating to put an end to the conscription of child soldiers, I urge the UNICEF to include the school student who have joined Libyan rebellion