Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

On Sri Lanka, As UK Disagrees With NAM Letter, IMF, Pascoe and Panel After Election?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 19 -- Ten days after Sri Lanka got a Non Aligned Movement letter submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon telling him he has no jurisdiction to seek advise on accountability for war crimes in Sri Lanka, the UK Permanent Representative to the UN Mark Lyall Grant told the Press his country disagrees with NAM's argument.

Outside the Security Council chamber, Inner City Press asked Ambassador Lyall Grant about NAM's letter, and war crimes in Sri Lanka. The Secretary General, Ambassador Lyall Grant said, "does have a mandate through the UN charter to uphold human rights and humanitarian international law, and therefore he is entirely within his rights to set up a group of experts who will advise him on taking forward his concerns about some of the allegations that have been made in the recent months in Sri Lanka."

As such, he said, the UK "would disagree with the Non-Aligned Movement, who are arguing that he is acting beyond his mandate." Video here, from Minute 2:49.

Since the UK at the UN has had little at least publicly to say about Sri Lanka of late, Inner City Press asked Ambassador Lyall Grant what the UK thinks should happen. He replied that the UK "want[s] to see an end to impunity, that we want to see allegations of war crimes, human rights violations, human rights abuses, thoroughly investigated."

Also on the NAM letter, Inner City Press on March 19 asked the spokesman for this year's President of the UN General Assembly, Libya's Ali Treki, if he supports or opposes NAM's arguments. You have to ask the Secretary General, was the reply, or NAM or Sri Lanka. But the Sri Lankan mission declined to even give a copy of the NAM letter to the press.

UK's Lyall Grant and PGA Ali Treki, NAM letter on Sri Lanka not shown

Separately, Inner City Press asked a senior UN official about his involvement in the UN's decision not to send any personnel to Sri Lanka before the Presidential election, to try to safeguard minimal fairness.

While publicly UN spokespeople said the UN could not act without a General Assembly vote or mandate, this official confided that the UN had offered the Sri Lankan electoral official to send a team of five to ten experts. But this offer was turned down.

On the financial front, Inner City Press asked the International Monetary Fund on March 18 about the status of the third tranche of the IMF's credit facility to Sri Lanka. IMF spokesperson Yoshiko Kamata told Inner City Press in reply that IMF "staff will visit Colombo after the parliamentary elections and the formation of the new cabinet, to discuss with the government its plan for a 2010 budget."

The long-promised visit of the UN's political envoy Lynn Pascoe appears to have been pushed back to after the election. Some now say that, following the NAM letter to which Ban has yet to formally response, he is spending more time on "terms of reference" and membership of the announced Sri Lanka panel than he did on his panel on the killing of 150 civilians in Guinea -- specifically so the timing extends until after the elections. What was that again, about "no delay"? Watch this site.

March 19, '10 stakeout, transcribed by Group of Friends on ICP

Inner City Press: The SG said he would name a panel to advise him on Sri Lanka human rights and the NAM complained and said he doesn't have the right to intervene on human rights issues not on the Council's agenda. What does the UK think? Is he within his rights?

Ambassador Lyall Grant: Well, we believe that the Secretary-General does have a mandate through the UN charter to uphold human rights and humanitarian international law, and therefore he is entirely within his rights to set up a group of experts who will advise him on taking forward his concerns about some of the allegations that have been made in the recent months in Sri Lanka. So we would disagree with the Non-Aligned Movement, who are arguing that he is acting beyond his mandate.

Inner City Press: Does the UK have concerns about conduct on both sides?

Ambassador Lyall Grant: Well, we have made it very clear that we always want to see an end to impunity, that we want to see allegations of war crimes, human rights violations, human rights abuses, thoroughly investigated.

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On Sri Lanka, UN Puts Spin on "No Delay," Jabs at NAM, Will Fonseka Meet Pascoe?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 18 -- Amid charges by the UN that the Non Aligned Movement's letter defending Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa government was not agreed to by all NAM member, notably India, the UN is insisting there is no contradiction between its statements about a panel to advise Ban Ki-moon about approaches to war crimes in Sri Lanka.

On March 18, Inner City Press asked Ban's Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq about his quote that the panel would not be established very soon and Ban's March 16 statements that there would be "no delay."

"To many it seems contradictory," Inner City Press began. "By many you mean you?" demanded Farhan Haq. Video here, from Minute 7:55.

Well, no. Even after the briefing, a number of UN correspondents who neither ask nor write about Sri Lanka approached Inner City Press to say they too found it confusing, no delay but not very soon.

Haq tried to square the comments by saying no delay in considering the terms of reference. Presumably Ban considered this before informing Mahinda Rajapaksa he was going to name the panel. Again, timing in this regard should be compared to Guinea, where the September 2009 killing of 150 civilians has already triggered a UN panel, terms of reference and investigation long completed. No delay?

Senior Ban advisors have told Inner City Press that they are mad at the NAM letter, claiming that India for example did not agree to the letter. Inner City Press is inquiring. For now, Inner City Press has obtained the NAM letter -- the Sri Lankan Mission to the UN declined to provide it to the press -- and puts it online here.

Ban and Basil Rajapaksa depicted with gun, delay and NAM not shown

Just as the "no delay" panel may in fact be intentionally delayed past Sri Lanka's April election, so too many the trip of Ban's envoy Lynn Pascoe. The question is, will Pascoe as least ask for, and hold out to receive, permission to meet with Sarath Fonseka, the imprisoned opposition candidate and former general? One cynic pointed to the UN asking to meet in Myanmar with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Another senior Ban advisor said that the Sri Lanka "case calls out of investigation" even more than Guinea, in that the "general who shot the gun at people with white flags" is saying he was ordered to. But what about the UN official, Ban's chief of staff, who told them to come out with white flags, that it would be ok? Watch this site.

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At UN, Ban Says "No Delay" in Naming Sri Lanka Panel, Report Only to Him

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 16 -- Stressing that his panel on Sri Lankan war crimes will only report to him, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday told the Press that the Non Aligned Movement "misunderstood" his announcement about the panel.

Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban, in a press conference before his travel to Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East Quartet, to respond to criticism that he has moved much more slowly on presumptive war crimes in Sri Lanka in early 2009 than on the killing of 150 civilians in Guinea in September.

There will be "no delay" in naming the panel, Mr. Ban replied. The previous day, his spokesman Martin Nesirky told Inner City Press the panel would not be established very soon. So which is it -- "no delay" or "not very soon"?

UN's Ban at NAM Summit, with Egypt's president, Sri Lanka panel not yet shown

Mr. Ban said he will be responding directly to the NAM, which wrote that "there is nothing in the U.N. charter that authorizes intervention in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state, without prejudice of course to the application of enforcement measures under chapter VII."

Several of Ban's advisors have expressed outrage at the NAM letter. The request for the letter by the Rajapaksa government been ascribed to "internal politics" in Sri Lanka. But it would set a precedent.

As Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban, "the argument would apply to other countries, from Myanmar to Guinea to North Korea." He did not respond to this aspect, nor to the comparison in speed to his actions on Guinea. Did the NAM letter slow his hand? Mr. Ban has now said there will be "no delay." We'll see.

Footnote: later in his March 16 press conference, unprompted, Ban said that while "standard diplomatic practice" is to agree on how to describe a phone conversation, not only Israel but also Sri Lanka have recently violated that practice or protocol. For Israel, the reference was to statements that Ban was told to be "more balanced."

For Sri Lanka, it appears to refer to President Mahinda Rajapaksa's statements about how he stood up to, or dressed down, Ban during their call about the panel. But why then say, as Ban's spokespeople have, that the panel's appointment will be "not very soon"? What will "no delay" mean?

UN transcript below, video here

Inner City Press: Mr. Secretary-General, you've received a letter from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) which argues that you and your office as Secretary-General really don't have any jurisdiction over human rights or alleged war crimes. The letter is about Sri Lanka, but the logic would apply to Myanmar, Guinea, North Korea. I wonder what's your response to their argument of limiting the scope of your jurisdiction, and how do you explain what some see as the delay in naming a panel compared to, say, what you did in Guinea, where you named one and it's already reported out? Some say that the NAM letter has caused you to delay naming a panel to advise you on Sri Lanka. Can you respond to that?

SG Ban Ki-moon: First of all, about the letter addressed to me by the Non-Aligned Movement. It is clear from the NAM letter that there is a misunderstanding on the nature and purpose of the panel of experts that I intend to establish. I will take this up directly with the Non-Aligned Movement. On this report which you have seen quoting the Sri Lankan Government, that my establishment of this commission of experts would be tantamount to interfering in the internal matters of Sri Lanka, again this is in accordance with the joint statement issued as a result of my visit and as a result of my meeting with President [Mahinda] Rajapaksa, in May last year. It contained, this joint statement contained, a commitment related to ensuring an accountability process for addressing valuations of international humanitarian and human rights laws. The panel I am establishing will advise me on the standards, benchmarks, and parameters, based on international experience, that must guide any accountability process such as the one mentioned in the joint statement. Now this panel will report to me directly and not to any other body. It is well within my power, I believe. I am convinced that it is well within my power as Secretary-General of the United Nations to ask such a body to furnish me with their advice of this nature. This does not in any way infringe on the sovereignty of Sri Lanka. I'd like to make it clear that there will be no delay in the establishment of the panel.

We'll see

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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