In Sri Lanka, UN Staff Languish in Jail, Abused, While UN Stays Silent
By Matthew Russell Lee 
May 22, 2009
The Inner City Press 
Original Source: http://www.innercitypress.com/untrip1may3srilanka052209.html
FRANKFURT, May 22 – The UN's silence about the Sri Lankan government's abuse of UN staff continues still, even as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon prepares for a whirlwind visit to the country. Last month Inner City Press in reporting on the UN's silence about its staff being interred in camps mentioned an even worse case, of a UNHCR protection officer whose mother inadvertently rented a room in Vavuniya to an alleged LTTE supporter.
The mother was jailed, as was her entirely uninvolved UN staffer son. The mother died in jail and the son remains imprisoned.
Inner City Press has asked UNHCR's country representative Amin Awar to comment on the case, on what UNHCR has done. There has been no response.
   The staffer's name is Mr. Ragushankar Kulathaivelu. He and his mother were arrested on October 5, 2008. From where he worked for UNHCR, in Mannar, he was visiting his mother in Vavuniya, when the authorities came to arrest his mother for renting a room to an alleged LTTE supporter, who had identified himself as a student.
   The mother died in December, in jail. Ragushankar Kulathaivelu nevertheless remains in prison in Anuradhapura. Reportedly, even after the wipe out of the conflict zone, conditions for such prisoners have grown worse, with verbal and other abuse.
   This is a UN system staff member, arrested along with his mother for no reason, and still in custody. UNHCR's country representative has said nothing publicly about it, and has not responded to written questions on the matter. Will Ban Ki-moon raise this and similar cases, how ever belatedly? Watch this site.
Footnote / full disclosure: this reporter has been granted a visa, albeit for only two days, gratis by the Sri Lankan mission. A request for more than two days resulted in instructions to write a letter, which will be considered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “after a background check.” Watch this site.