On
Sri
Lanka,
Ban Ki-moon's Buck Passing to UN Councils & Agencies
Questioned, No Answers on Nambiar Role
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
26 -- In the hours after the belated
release of the UN
Panel of Experts' report on Sri Lanka war crimes, numerous
diplomats
expressed surprise to Inner City Press at Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's cover letter saying that for an “investigation mechanism,
[Ban] is advised that this will require host country consent or a
decision from Member States through an appropriate intergovernmental
forum.”
“That
seems more
than a little strange,” a Security Council member's ambassador who
covers the issue told Inner City Press on Monday night at Colombia's
end of Council presidency reception. Others mentioned for example
Ban's investigation into the destruction of facilities in Gaza, and
earlier UN probes.
At a
malaria event
in the UN General Assembly lobby, Inner City Press asked one of Ban's
advisers -- not his chief of
staff, who was involved in the
White Flag killings described in the Report
at Paragraphs 170 and 171
-- whether Ban's passing the buck to “an appropriate
intergovernmental forum” was a reference to the UN Human Right
Council, which already converted a proposal on accountability into a
celebration of the Rajapaksa's bloody victory.
The
Security
Council, the Ban adviser responded to Inner City Press. But there a
veto seems assured, based not only on the issue of Sri Lanka being
kept off the Council's agenda in 2009 during what a then UN official
called the “bloodbath on the beach,” but also comments made,
notably by Russia, when the report was mentioned in the Security
Council last week by Department of Political Affairs chief Lynn
Pascoe.
While
the
Permanent Representative of one of the states most interested in Sri
Lanka told Inner City Press on Monday night that perhaps the make-up
or balance of views in the Human Rights Council has changed since the
last vote on Sri Lanka -- whose advocate at that time in Geneva has
since been kept out of the loop -- for Ban to defer to the HRC and
Security Council is a recipe for inaction and impunity.
Ban & M. Rajapaksa, Nambiar & actual investigation not shown
Monday
evening
at 9 pm US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice issued a statement, which
does not address Ban's argument that he and the UN are powerless to
order an investigation absent Rajapaksa consent or a vote in the
Security Council, General Assembly or Human Rights Council, from
which the US was initially unsuccessful in excluding Libya, and now
seeks to exclude Syria. Click here
for Rice's statement. A request to
the French Mission's spokesmen for France's position was not been
answered; a UK statement was said to be coming.
Ban's
Office of
the Spokesperson has still not answered question about chief of
staff
Vijay Nambiar's involvement in the White Flag killings and in
reviewing the Panel's report, which Inner City Press submitted on
April 21 and again on April 25.
Inner
City Press
debated these issues with a Sri Lankan journalist on radio on Monday
night, click
here
for the podcast, and watch this site.
Footnote:
while
some
media has made much of Ban's statement that “he will
respond positively to the Panel's recommendation for a review of the
UN's actions,” deferring even this to “after consultations with
relevant agencies, funds and programs” is telling.
UNICEF,
for
example, had its high energy biscuits excluded from Sri Lanka on the
theory that the Tamil Tigers of the LTTE could eat and benefit from
them, as detailed in the report. It was not any UN affiliate which
withheld casualty figures: it was the Secretariat, and Ban's own
chief of staff's role most needs to be investigated. But Ban has
allowed him to be involved even in reviewing the report. Watch this
site.
* * *
As
UN
Releases
Sri Lanka Report, Ban Says He Can't Investigate w/o Consent or
Vote
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
25, updated with
link -- After close of business on April 25, the UN belatedly
released -- and immediately undermined the recommendations of -- its
Panel of Experts report on war crimes in Sri
Lanka, eleven days after the UN told Sri Lankan Deputy Permanent
Representative Shavendra Silva it would be released in 36 hours.
The
Report was
released along with a page and a half cover letter by Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, which in pertinent part states that
“In
regard
to the recommendation that he establish an international
investigation mechanism, the Secretary-General is advised that this
will require host country consent or a decision from Member States
through an appropriate intergovernmental forum.”
Ban
"is advised" by whom? This is a huge letdown, and some say abdication.
We will have more on this.
Click here
to
view UN-released report.
Inner City
Press,
which obtained and quickly up online Monday morning a leaked copy of
the report, asked Silva about the report and its delayed release late
Monday afternoon in front of the UN Security Council, which Silva
visited for more than a half hour.
Silva
said he'd
seen the publication on Inner City Press, as well as the day's UN
noon briefing, at which questions about the involvement of Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar were left
unanswered.
Silva
is quoted in
the Panel's report, as well as his role in the 58th Battalion, which
moved in on the so-called No Fire Zones. He was polite but non
committal.
Ban's
undermining of the Report's recommendation must make him, and the
Rajapaksa and certain others, relieved.
Ban and Nambiar, Sri Lanka report now
shown, relief in some quarters
Ban's
spokesperson's
office has refused to answer questions about Nambiar,
not only in the briefing but also in writing. On Monday before the
release of the Report by the UN, Inner City Press asked some factual
questions, militating for a press conference by the Panel members and
Mr. Nambiar:
Paragraph
171
states
that “Defence Secretary Basil Rajapaksa provided
assurances that their surrender would be accepted... following a
particular route indicated by Basil Rajapaksa.”
Factual
questions:
since Gotabaya Rajapaksa was and is the Defense Secretary, is this
just a typo?
Who
is the Panel saying indicated the route: Basil or Gotabya Rajapaksa?
And
when specifically did the OSSG know about the Feb 22 meeting between
Mohan Peiris and the Panel, as set forth in Annex 2 of the Report?
Also
please state the role of Mr. Nambiar in reviewing the report, please
disclose how much was spent by the UN in preparing the report, please
state whether the Panel or any member traveled to Sri Lanka and if
not, why not, and please deny or confirm and describe any meeting by
any Sri Lanka government official since the Panel's work began.
None
of these
questions have been answered. Watch this site.
Here
is
Ban's
statement
Statement
attributable
to
the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on public
release of Panel of Experts' report on Sri Lanka
The
United
Nations
has today made public the advisory report of the
Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on accountability with respect
to the final stages of the decades-long armed conflict in Sri Lanka,
which was submitted to him on 12 April 2011. The decision to release
the report was made as a matter of transparency and in the broader
public interest.
The
report
was
shared in its entirety with the Government of Sri Lanka on
12 April. The Secretary-General has indicated his willingness to
publicize the Government’s response alongside the report. This
invitation was extended to the Sri Lanka Government throughout the
week, including again on Saturday by the Secretary-General to the
External Affairs Minister of Sri Lanka. The Government has not
responded to this offer which nonetheless still stands.
The
Secretary-General
expresses
his appreciation to the advisory Panel of
Experts who have provided their advice on how the undertaking on
accountability in the joint communiqué that he had made with the
President at the conclusion of Sri Lanka’s war can be fulfilled.
The
Secretary-General
is
carefully reviewing the report’s conclusions
and recommendations with regard to events that took place during the
final stages of the conflict, including its assessment that there are
a number of allegations of serious violations of international
humanitarian and human rights law committed by both the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government of Sri Lanka, some of
which could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The
Panel’s
first
recommendation is that the Government of Sri Lanka
should respond to the serious allegations by initiating an effective
accountability process beginning with genuine investigations. The
Secretary-General has consistently held the view that Sri Lanka
should, first and foremost, assume responsibility for ensuring
accountability for the alleged violations. This and a number of
other short and medium-term recommendations that the Panel proposed
in regard to steps that could be undertaken by the Government of Sri
Lanka, have now been shared with the Government. He encourages the
Sri Lankan authorities to respond constructively.
The
Secretary-General
has
decided that he will respond positively to the
Panel’s recommendation for a review of the United Nations’
actions regarding the implementation of its humanitarian and
protection mandates during the war in Sri Lanka – particularly in
the last stages. The exact modality of such a review will be
determined after consultations with relevant agencies, funds and
programmes.
In
regard to the recommendation that he establish an international
investigation mechanism, the Secretary-General is advised that this
will require host country consent or a decision from Member States
through an appropriate intergovernmental forum. The monitoring
and
repository functions it was suggested this mechanism undertake will
continue to be performed by the United Nations Secretariat.
The
Secretary-General
trusts
that the Government of Sri Lanka will
continue to respect the work of the UN and its agencies as well as
its obligations to the safety of UN staff in Colombo. He regrets the
inflammatory tone of some of the recent public statements emanating
from Sri Lanka.
The
Secretary-General
sincerely
hopes that this advisory report will make
a contribution to full accountability and justice so that the Sri
Lankan Government and people will be able to proceed towards national
reconciliation and peace.
New
York
25
April
2011
