UN's Terror Victims Lack Afghans, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and China, UNICEF Defends Links
By Matthew Russell Lee 
September 8, 2008
The Inner City Press 
Original source: http://www.innercitypress.com/un4terrorism090808.html
UNITED NATIONS, September 8 -- On the eve of the UN's victims of terrorism symposium, organizing Assistant Secretary General Robert Orr was besieged by press questions about how the victims had been chosen, why no victims from Somalia, Afghanistan or Pakistan -- or Sri Lanka for that matter -- would be attending, and a right of veto the UN had apparently given to governments over victims from their country. 
   On Somalia, which Inner City Press asked about, Orr said the UN had tried, but there is a lack of civil society organizations to provide contacts with victims. While he claimed that the geographic spread tracked the incidence of terrorism, only one of 18 victims comes from Asia. This despite continuing attacks in Sri Lanka, where suicide bombing is said to have been invented.  While all four of the symposium's funders, and four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, are represented by victims, there is no victim from China, despite the characterization of Xingjian insurgents as terrorists, and deadly attacks during the Olympic Games this summer.
   More troubling, Orr said that the government of each victim was consulted. Inner City Press asked what this meant in, for example, Colombia, from which Ingrid Betancourt is coming. Would victims of the pro-government paramilitaries not be invited? Orr did not dispute that governments were given veto rights. Rather, he bragged that no country exercised its veto right. But that's based on the proposals that the UN made.
  Also at the cusp of the UN and terrorism, Inner City Press received the following response from UNICEF spokesman Chris de Bono
Am consulting on your other questions and will respond if/when I have anything to offer. 
On the partnership with the International Islamic Relief Organization Saudi Arabia I can say: 
UNICEF would not enter into an agreement with a terrorist entity. The International Islamic Relief Organization Saudi Arabia (IIROSA) -- the entity with which UNICEF has partnered -- is not listed on the United Nations Security Council’s consolidated list.  Two other entities – the IIRO Philippines and the IIRO Indonesia -- are listed and UNICEF has not and would not enter into any partnership with either of these entities. 
The IIROSA is a non-Governmental-Organization accredited to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a member of the Muslim World League, and is a member of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), a prominent and highly respected non-governmental entity that serves as a coordination mechanism for civil society organizations.  The organization is also affiliated with the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. It has worked with many other UN agencies and international Non-Governmental-Organizations.   
  We'll see.