As
UK Film Shows
Sri Lankan
General Silva
Bragging of
Killing 1500
Civilians,
What Will UN
&Ban
Ki-moon Say?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 15 --
During the
killing of
tens of
thousands of
civilians by
the Sri Lankan
government in
2009, the UN
withheld its
own count of
casualties,
withdrew its
international
staff and even
played a role
in luring to
surrender
people who
were then
summarily
executed.
The
UN Secretariat
never called
for a
ceasefire, and
the UN
Security
Council never
had a formal
meeting on the
mass killings.
Now one of the
military
leaders of the
campaign,
Brigadier
General Shavendra
Silva, has
been made a
part of
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
and Ban has
had nothing to
say beyond
"it's up to
member
states."
Silva
appears in UK
Channel 4's
"Sri Lanka’s
Killing
Fields: War
Crimes
Unpunished,"
which
premiered last
night on
television in
the UK, and
re-appeared
overnight on
YouTube. Click
here to view,
for Silva from
Minute 21:56.
The
documentary
focused on
four
particular war
crimes,
including an
assault on
Putumattalan
which killed
at least 1,500
civilians.
The direct
assault was
carried out by
the 58th
Division under
the command of
Shavendra
Silva, who
appears on
screen
describing it
as "very
successful."
While
the Sri Lankan
Mission to the
UN has in a
letter sent to
Ban's
spokesman's
office and
select UN
scribes
attacked Inner
City Press for
writing about
Silva,
claiming as
subsequently
did some in
the UN Asia
Group that
Silva's 58th
Division is
not directly
indicted in
the UN Panel
of Experts
report, this
new footage
including
Silva's
bragging
should put an
end to that.
With
so much talk
at the UN
about
accountability,
how can the
general who
led and
bragged about
the killing of
1,500
civilians
continue as an
adviser to the
UN on
peacekeeping?
We'll see.
The
documentary
also has former
UK foreign
minister David
Miliband
and former UN
humanitarian
chief John
Holmes taking
positions much
more
protective of
civilians than
what either
did when they
had power.
Holmes, for
example,
resisted
calling for a
ceasefire.
On
the May 2009
trip to Sri
Lanka with Ban
Ki-moon and
his outgoing
political
chief Lynn
Pascoe, which
Inner City
Press went
on and
covered,
Holmes on the
record on the
plane bemoaned
all the e-mail
pleas he was
receiving from
Tamils, saying
"I just delete
them."
After
from Colombo
Inner City
Press reported
the quote,
Holmes
demanded that
it be removed,
using other
journalists
from UK-based
media
organizations
to pressure
Inner City
Press. Maybe
he misspoke.
Now in a cushy
academic job,
Holmes says
Sri Lanka got
away with it.
Yes: with the
UN's and
OCHA's help.
Holmes
refusal in
2009 to call
for a
ceasefire
stands in
contrast to
his successor
Baroness
Valerie Amos'
stance on
Syria. But is
this a
personal or
political
difference?
Inner
City Press
asked the UK
Mission to the
UN "does the
UK have a
position on if
it is
appropriate
that Sri
Lankan
Brigadier
General
Shavendra
Silva serve on
the UN Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
given the way
he and his
58th Division
are depicted
in the S-G's
Panel of
Experts'
Report on Sri
Lanka, and in
UK Channel 4
films, past
and to be
broadcast in
the UK
tomorrow
night?"
Midday
on March 14,
UK Mission
spokesman
Daniel
Shepherd
replied that
the UK "highly
values the
Senior
Advisory
Group, and our
own
representative
on it will
work to help
the Group come
up with the
best possible
recommendations
on the issues
they are
addressing.
The
Chairperson of
the SAG has,
following
consultation
with other SAG
members,
advised Major
General
Shavendra
Silva that his
participation
is not
appropriate or
helpful for
the purposes
of the Group.
We understand
that he will
not
participate in
its
deliberations."
That
is still by no
means certain.
Inner City
Press covered
the Asia Group
meeting at
which Sri
Lanka tried to
rally other
countries in
the Group to
the defense of
Silva; Ban
Ki-moon has
not spoken in
support of
Frechette.
Despite
the harrowing
footage and
the high
number of
civilians
killed, the
Sri Lanka
issue does not
have the
traction of
Syria, or even
#Kony2012. As
viewers,
mostly in the
UK, tweeted
about the film
on Wednesday
night, many
expressed
disgust at
Ban's UN and
said that if
Sri Lanka had
a lot of oil,
the West would
have
intervened as
it did in
Libya.
But
there are
others not
directly
interested in
oil who have
held back on
Sri Lanka,
perhaps due to
the specter of
terrorism. To
a three
organization
panel at the
UN on March
14, Inner City
Press asked if
Silva's
position as UN
adviser on
peacekeeping,
and Ban
Ki-moon
silence, were
appropriate.
The
representative
of Amnesty
International
said that
advisers
should be
"vetted" for
war crimes.
But the
representative
of Human
Rights Watch,
when asked
Wednesday on
UN TV, had
nothing to say
on the
topic.
Video here,
at end.
HRW
has previously
refused to
even summarize
its boss Ken
Roth's meeting
with Ban
Ki-moon,
saying that to
do so might
undermine
HRW's
"access."
Access for
what?
There
are many for
whom it is
convenient
that the
killing of
tens of
thousand of
civilians in
Sri Lanka in
2009 slip into
the past
without
accountability.
There
is a weak
resolution
pending in the
Human Rights
Council in
Geneva; there
are
suggestions at
the UN that
l'affaire
Silva can be
solved by
substituting
Palitha
Kohona, who
was also
involved in
the so-called
White Flag
killing of
surrenderees
and has
overseen the
Sri Lankan
Mission's
vituperative
defense while
not producing
Silva to
answer
questions.
Kohona and
Silva appeared
together at
the UN to show
a government
film
purporting to
rebut the
first Killing
Fields
documentary,
which itself
was not
screened in
the UN. As
exposed by
Inner City
Press in
video, Ban
Ki-moon made
time to watch
the government
"rebuttal"
before he ever
watched
Killing Fields
I.
What will Ban
say about
Killing Fields
II?
Ban Ki-moon
shook Silva's
hand, and
berated his
own staff in
front of Sri
Lankan
president
Mahinda
Rajapaksa. War
crimes
unpunished,
indeed.
, 
