UN
Insists Its Sri
Lanka Panel
Would Not Only Talk to LLRC, 4
Questions Refused
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 30 -- Responding to the Sri Lankan
government's claims to
the contrary, the UN insisted on December 30 that “it is NOT the
case that the Panel would only talk to the LLRC,” President Mahinda
Rajapaka's Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission.
Earlier
on
December 30, Inner City Press asked UN spokesmen Farhan Haq and
Martin Nesirky four questions about Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
panel on accountability for presumptive war crimes in Sri Lanka in
2009:
Martin
&
Farhan -- On Dec 23 and at the beginning of this week I asked
you about the Panel's trip to Sri Lanka which Ban Ki-moon announced
on December 17. My Sunday question was very specific and easy to
answer. But it has not been answered...
Now
it
is reported that “Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Keheliya
Rambukwella said the government would grant visas to the members of
the Panel only to go before the government appointed LLRC and not to
conduct any investigations on their own. Rambukwella said that the
government initially objected to the Panel's visit to Sri Lanka, as
it was to conduct an inquiry. However, the government has decided to
grant visas to the Panel since it has been stated that the members
only wished to meet the LLRC.”
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_10C/Dec30_1293719415JR.php
The
failure to answer, or to have noon briefing, is now more problematic
than ever. Before 12:30 today, please state:
1)
did
or will the staff of the Panel go to Sri Lanka?
2)
what
agreements or understanding have been reached about with whom
the Panel will speak in Sri Lanka?
3)
with
whom in the Sri Lanka government did Ban or the UN speak before
his Dec 17 announcement, talking into account that the External
Affairs Minister Peiris later said he learn of it in the media?
4)
why
have you refused to answer these questions? On deadline.
While
still not
answering any of the four questions, Haq responded with the
following:
From:
Farhan
Haq [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 12:20 PM
To:
Inner City Press, Nesirky [at] un.org, Soung-ah Choi [at]
un.org
Subject: Re: Press Qs on deadline re Sri Lanka & OSSG
failure to answer, 13 still outstanding
As
I
made clear to you at the time, the panel has not confirmed travel
to Sri Lanka yet. The arrangements would need to be right. It is NOT
the case that the panel would only talk to the LLRC. The panel made
clear to me that their work is broader than simply dealing with the
LLRC. That's all we have to say on it for now.
Comparing
this
to Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Keheliya Rambukwella's reported
statement about the visas and limits on the Panel, it seems that
either the UN is belatedly standing up to the Rajapaksa government or
that the UN doesn't read cited news reports, or both.
UN's Ban & Panel, answers to week old basic
questions not shown
Perhaps
Cabinet
Spokesperson Minister Keheliya Rambukwella is negotiating through
public statements. Perhaps the Panel's staff is in or traveling to
Sri Lanka to scope out a possible trip by the Panel -- which Ban
Ki-moon announced as a fact on December 17.
Was Ban
Ki-moon himself
only negotiating publicly with his December 17 statement?
The
four questions
Inner City Press has asked are simple and should be answered. Watch
this site.
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