UN: The Problem with Sri Lanka's Internment Camps Is....Noise

Now that the military conflict is over in Sri Lanka, the issue of internment camps with up to 300,000 Tamil refugees is getting a fair amount of attention. The BBC's top radio news programme even led with the item, above and beyond the crisis of Members of Parliaments' expenses, on Saturday morning.

And Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has given the United Nations' seal of concern with a visit to the camps. This does not mean, however, that the UN --- in contrast to the Red Cross and other international aid organisations --- sees access to the refugees as the major problem.

No, as Vijay Nambiar, the UN secretary general's chief of staff, explained to the press, it's just a question of everyone being very, very quiet:

As far as I can see, the government has told us that there is no restriction on access, there is perhaps a restriction on the number of vehicles, at any given time can go in, and I think this is a little more than just .... I’d like to make... they made it clear to us, that very often to have one NGO [non-government organisation] with ten vehicles going up and down, it causes a fair amount of disturbance to the local populations, the concept, the idea here is to be of a help to the IDPs [internally displaced persons], I think it is important if they can help if necessary by going on foot I think it would be useful to be a little more sensitive."