Sri
Lanka Silva
Not Seen at
SAG, As Ban's
UN Again
Hinders Press
Coverage
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 22 -- The
involvement in
the UN
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations of
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon of an
alleged war
criminal,
General
Shavendra
Silva
whose Division
58 is
depicted in
the UN's
report on Sri
Lanka as
shelling
hospitals and
civilians
three years
ago, has made
the SAG
meetings of
interest.
Of
Tuesday's SAG
meeting, which
the Sri Lankan
Mission to the
UN bragged
Silva would
attend, Ban's
Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit told
Inner City
Press "the
meetings of
the SAG are
not official
UN meetings
and we have
not been
informed of
the location
or time of any
eventual
meeting."
Previously, MALU had
told Inner
City Press
about covering
the SAG
meetings,
perhaps tongue
in cheek,
"we will be
happy to
help."
Without
help,
and with the
SAG meeting
moved from 380
Madison Avenue
to
another
UN-rented
building on
Third Avenue,
Inner City
Press observed
the entrants
and spoke to
several.
One
Asian Group
representative
urged Inner
City Press to
"stop"
Silva and not
let him come
in. On the
other hand,
another said
that
the Press
coverage would
goad Sri
Lanka's Silva
into coming.
But
still he did
not appear,
even as at
least two
African
Permanent
Representative
when in to the
meeting on the
10th floor.
Other UN
personalities
entered the
building,
which houses
the Department
of
Political
Affairs,
including Jan
Kubis, Ban's
envoy to
Afghanistan
who attended
the NATO
Summit in
Chicago with
him.
Ban
has refused to
speak out
about having
an alleged war
criminal as an
adviser. More
recently,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
spokesman what
if anything
was ever done
on the
petition to
Ban about
disappeared
Sri Lankan
journalist
Prageeth. The
question has
yet to be
answers,
as has another
Inner City
Press question
about the UN
system's own
finding that
the Sri Lankan
Army used
cluster bombs
in the 2009
conflict which
killed 40,000
civilians. And
so it goes at
the UN.
, 
