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To Visit Sri Lanka,
Ban Ki-moon
Called “Too Busy” by UN Sources, Despite Japanese Urging and
Invitation
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 7 -- In the face of a “bloodbath on the beach” in Sri Lanka,
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “feels that if it can save lives,
he will definitely consider” making an invited visit to the
country. Inner City Press has learned that during Mr. Ban's little
noticed bilateral meeting with Japan's Ambassador Yukio Takasu on May
4, Ban was briefing on the visit to Sri Lank by Japanese envoy
Yasushi Akashi, and was urged to make his own trip. Click here for
Inner
City Press' exclusive account of Ban's mysterious dash into the
Council while it met in consultations on May 4.
But
now Secretariat insiders tell Inner City Press such a trip, for now, is
unlikely. Ban has to attend Russia's May 11 debate on the Middle
East,they say. And he intends to be in New York for a May 15 meeting
with China's deputy foreign minister, so “there is no time,”
they've been told. Some question his commitment.
UN's Ban on UN plane, Sri Lanka trip not shown
Ban
spoke
genially to the Press at a World Press Freedom Day event at the
residence of French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert on Wednesday
night. While wishing to give full off the record treatment to Ban's
comment, Inner City Press did ask him about going to Sri Lanka,
taking the Press, pushing the country's leadership for real
investigations of the deaths of journalists. Perhaps on the record
answers will be given.
At
Thursday's UN
noon briefing, just before publication of this article, Inner City
Press asked Ban's Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq to confirm Ban's
meeting with Japan's Takasu, and that May 11 and May 15 commitments
(with “Chinese diplomats”) make it unlikely Ban will go to Sri
Lanka. “Scheduling is a separate issue,” Haq said. “If he can
make a difference... then he will go.” Video through here. We include this
denial, and emphasize if necessary -- in light of sensitivity the UN
Secretariat has shown in the recent past -- that the "too busy"
characterization is from senion UN Secretariat staff, anonymous for
fear of retaliation, and not from Ban himself.
Haq did confirm Ban's
meeting with Takasu and said “we don't provide read outs of
meetings with Ambassadors.” Why wasn't the Takasu meeting -- about
Sri Lanka -- even put on Ban's public schedule? “It came up all of
a sudden when he had a bit of timing.” Timing is everything. Watch
this site.
Footnote:
UK and
French foreign ministers Miliband and Kouchner are said to be
requesting a Security Council meeting on Sri Lanka when they are in
New York on May 11. This, perhaps, is what US Deputy Permanent
Representative Alejandro Wolff meant when on May 4 he told Inner City
Press, maybe we won't need a footnote on Sri Lanka in May's program
of work for the Council. We'll see.
On May 6, Inner City
Press asked Ban's spokesperson about a widely seen piece on Britain's
Channel
4, filmed in an IDP camp with allegations, on camera, of the
disappearance and
rape of young women. Video here,
from Minute 17:42. "You know I do not comment on press reports,"
the spokesperson said. "I haven't seen it, and I don't think the S-G
has
seen it either." Well maybe he should:
Channel
4 in the UK with allegations of rape and
disappearance
Footnote:
We continue to wait for the
UK's formal answer to the first of the two
questions which Inner
City
Press asked the UK Mission to
the UN two questions on Sri Lanka early on April 15:
Does the UK
believe that international law and the
rights of UN humanitarian staff are being violated by the
now-acknowledged
detention of UN staff in the Sri Lankan government's “IDP” camps?
It has been reported
this morning that Sri Lanka's “minister also told the
British
Foreign Secretary that there was concern that the LTTE would
continue to
consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone.” Please confirm the
accuracy
of that, and of this
and if so, does the UK interpret it as saying that
an offensive on the No-Fire Zone and the civilians in it will begin?
What did
the UK Foreign Secretary say?
As
of
this press time weeks later, the formal answer has been
referral to Minister
Miliband's April 12
statement, and this.
On April 21, Inner City Press put the question to U.S. Ambassador Susan
Rice, whose spokesman the following day cleared this response:
"UN personnel should have freedom of movement and be treated with
respect." But they are still detained as of this writing. As more
answers arrive or are released we will report them on this site.
Click here
for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters
footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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
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[at] innercitypress.com
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