No
Comment
by UN on
Killing Fields
of Sri Lanka,
UK Speaks of
Accountability
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 15 --
The day after
the premiere
of an hour
long
documentary
showing UN
staff in Sri
Lanka who
called in the
GPS
coordinates of
a UN hub that
was then
shelled by the
government,
the
spokesman for
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon told
Inner City
Press "I
haven't seen
this
documentatry,
I don't have
any comment on
it."
Video
here, from
Minute 9:43.
Inner
City Press
asked about
the appearance
in the
documentary of
General
Shavendra
Silva, now on
Ban's Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
calling a
"frontal
assault" on
Putumattalan
which killed
1500 civilians
"very
successful" -
how can Ban
accept his
as an adviser?
Again there
was no
response.
Click
here to view:
for Silva from
Minute 21:56,
for UN staff
from 5:50.
Minutes
earlier
Inner City
Press asked UK
Permanent
Representative
to the UN Sir
Mark
Lyall Grant,
this month's
Security
Council
president,
about the
film:
Inner
City
Press: on UK
Channel 4 last
night there
was a
broadcast
called
“Killing
Fields” which
[is] about Sri
Lanka, this
seems to have
caused quite a
storm in the
UK, depicting
what they call
war crimes,
and depicting
the DPR of Sri
Lanka here,
who’s now a UN
Senior
Advisor on
Peacekeeping,
as being at
the scenes of
one of the
crimes
and saying it
was highly
successful. I
wanted to know
what’s the UK
Government’s
reaction to
this new
showing, and
both within
the UN
and elsewhere,
what’s the
response?
Amb.
Lyall
Grant: in my
national
capacity, you
asked about
Sri Lanka. Our
view has
always been
that
accountability
is extremely
important,
including in
Sri Lanka.
There have
been a number
of
international
commissions,
there have
been some Sri
Lankan
commissions.
We believe
that all
allegations of
human rights
abuses should
be
investigated,
and those who
are held
accountable
and are found
to be guilty
of
those crimes
should be
brought to
justice. That
remains our
position
but I’m not
going to
comment on
certain
individuals
against whom
allegations
may have been
made and I
haven’t seen
the report
that
you mentioned
last night on
British TV.
Video
here, from
Minute 22.
Minutes later
the
UK Mission
informed Inner
City Press
that Alistair
Burt had
issued a
statement,
which is now
on the web, here.
Burt
cites to a
weak
resolution
pending in the
Human Rights
Council in
Geneva. Within
the UN, almost
always on
background,
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.
Ban Ki-moon
shook Silva's
hand, and
berated his
own staff
in front of
Sri Lankan
president
Mahinda
Rajapaksa. War
crimes
unpunished,
indeed.
, 
