On
Sri
Lanka, As Ban
Sends Report
to Geneva,
Lame Internal
Review
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED*
NATIONS,
September 12
-- Months
after a UN
report
documented
presumptive
war crimes by
Sri Lanka, and
negligence at
best by the
UN, Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon past 8
pm on
September 12
announced he
was belatedly
transmitting
the report to
the Human
Rights Council
in
Geneva.
Earlier
on
September 12,
Inner City
Press had
asked Ban's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky if Ban
had yet taken
the time to
see the
graphic
documentary
depicting war
crimes in Sri
Lanka,
"Killing
Fields."
Nesirky said
he would
check, but 11
hours later
there was no
answer,
other than the
announcement
of
transmittal.
Inner
City Press
also asked
Nesirky about a statement by
Sri Lanka's
Ambassador to
the
UN Palitha
Kohona the
previous week,
when the
government's
rebuttal
to Killing
Fields was
shown in the
UN
(despite
Killing Fields
not
having been
shown in the
UN - more on
this including
conflicts of
interest
anon.)
Kohona told
Inner
City Press,
"that's a
question you
should ask Mr.
Nambiar,"
when asked
about
assurances
given to
surrendering
Tamil Tiger
leaders
who were
subsequently
killed.
(As reported
in Sri Lanka,
beyond
Kohona's
answers to
Inner City
Press, he
wrote a text
message
conveying that
the
surrenderees
should just
come out --
they did, and
were killed.)
So
Inner City
Press asked
Nesirky to
make Nambiar
available for
the questions
even
Kohona said
should be
asked of
Nambiar.
Nesirky said
he would check
if Ban's seen
Killing Fields
but did not
answer about
Nambiar. When
Pressed he
said, "I think
you know that
answer to that
question."
Silva, Pioli
& Kohona,
"Killing
Fields" not
shown in UN,
conflicts anon
So
Ban's own
chief
of staff
refuses to
answer
questions
about
witnessing or
being
involved in
war crimes,
that even Sri
Lanka's
Ambassador
said "you
should ask Mr.
Nambiar."
Meanwhile Ban
appoints the
former head
of UNFPA to
belatedly
perform the
review of the
UN's own
actions
which the
Panel
suggested
months ago.
Inner
City Press
has been told
that UNDP has
been resisting
transmittal of
the report.
Thoraya Obaid,
while at
UNFPA, was
close with
UNDP, and is
unlikely
to rock the
boat in her
review. She
also pleaded
to keep the
UNFPA
post, and will
be unlikely to
be critical of
the
Secretariat
which
can give her
other jobs.
Only at the UN.
*
- with
reporting from
the UN.
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