At
UN,
Sri Lankan
Defends
Religion From
"Human
Rights of
Alien
Cultures"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 23
-- Amid war
crimes
charges, Sri
Lankan
President
Mahinda
Rajapaksa's
speech Friday
at the UN
General
Assembly was
full of
ironies.
Known
for ruthlessly
ending a
separatist
movement,
Rajapaksa in
his speech
said that
dialogue is
the only way
to resolve
problems.
He
has insisted
that the Panel
of Experts
report
detailing war
crimes is not
a UN
report -- but
he thanked
that UN.
Having
opposed an
aspiration for
independence
or autonomy,
he
nevertheless
expressed
support for a
Palestinian
state. He
invoked
religion and
wished his
audience
peace, even as
he's sued for
war crimes.
The
religious
reference was
perhaps the
most telling,
as he said
that
longstanding
beliefs cannot
be trumped by
"human
rights... from
alien
cultures."
Ban & M
Rajapaksa 364
days ago: this
year more
stonewalling
The
Panel of
Experts report
is now
belatedly at
the UN Human
Rights Council
in Geneva. On
September 22,
Rajapaksa's
foreign
mininster G.L.
Peiris had
separate
meetings with
Lynn Pascoe
and then Ban
Ki-moon's
chief of staff
Vijay
Nambiar, who
played a role
in what are
called the
White Flag
murders
of
surrendering
Tamil Tiger
leaders.
Nambiar
declined to
summarize
his meeting
with Peiris.
While
several UN
sources close
to Ban Ki-moon
have told
Inner City
Press Ban will
meet
with Rajapaksa
on September
23, Ban's
schedule as
put out
Thursday
night and
Friday morning
did not list
any meeting
with Mahinda.
Inner City
Press has
asked Ban's
spokesman,
"today's
'Appointments
of the S-G'
does not list
Mahinda
Rajapaksa of
Sri
Lanka --
please confirm
that this
means Ban
Ki-moon is not
meeting
with Mahinda
Rajapaksa
today." No
response has
been received.
Watch this
site.
Sri
Lanka's
Request to
Screen "Lies
Agreed To" at
UN Granted by
Kohona's
Ex-Landlord
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 21
-- At the UN
some countries
and
state-funded
media try to
use access and
even "ethics"
as a club,
with
Sri Lanka the
most recent
example.
Earlier
this month
a Sri Lankan
government
video was
shown inside
the UN in the
Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium,
described as a
rebuttal the
UK Channel 4
documentary
"Killing
Fields," which
despite a
request was
not shown
inside the UN.
At
the front
after the
September 6
screening sat
Sri Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
Palitha Kohona
and the
President
of the UN
Correspondents'
Association Giampaolo
Pioli, who
asked
Kohona if the
Tamil Tiger
rebels were
not akin to
the Red
Brigades in
Pioli's native
Italy.
Whereas
repeatedly
throughout the
summer
proposals for
movie
screenings and
briefings in
the Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium
were e-mailed
for
consideration
and
debate by
members of
UNCA's
executive
committee,
including this
reporter, in
the case of
Kohona's Sri
Lanka
Mission's
request to
screen "Lies
Agreed To,"
this was not
done. The
decision
was made by
Pioli.
The screening
in the UN was
described
as a big
victory for
Kohona and the
Rajapaskas, in
Sri Lanka's
"largest
English
language
newspaper,"
here.
But
undisclosed at
the time was
that Pioli
collected
money as rent
from Kohona
for
years.
When this
obvious
conflict of
interest was
raised, the
response was
that the
monetary
relationship
began when
Kohona was a
UN staff
member. But in
a sense that's
worse: how can
a reporter
ostensibly
covering the
UN objectively
have a
monetary
relation with
a senior UN
official?
In all of New
York, Pioli
couldn't find
a tenant he
didn't
purportedly
cover as a
journalist for
"QUOTIDIANO
NAZIONALE / LA
NAZIONE / Il
Resto del
Carlino / IL
GIORNO,
Poligrafici
Editoriale
S.p.A." among
those he lists
working for?
Now
on September
21, after
Pioli among
other things
came to Inner
City Press'
office
demanding to
know Inner
City Press'
sources, UNCA
sent out a
vague
statement
purporting to
tell
journalists
how to prepare
news reports.
Silva, Pioli
& Kohona
at UN, payment
of money not
shown, "Lies
Agreed To"
While
it was
raised that it
is hardly the
UN
Correspondents'
Association's
job to
tell
journalists
what to
publish, it
was not
allowed to
attach a
dissent to
this effect to
the statement.
Pioli has
sought to
retroactively
put things off
the record,
but said
things that
are public,
like that, can
of course be
published.
Going forward,
Inner City
Press has
counter
proposed a
number of
other ethical
reminders,
including:
UNCA
reminds
UN
correspondents
that
disclosure of
possible
conflicts of
interest,
particularly
the receipt of
money whether
present or
past,
is proper when
making
decisions that
impact UNCA
and its
credibility.
Pioli
has said
it's not the
time to vote
on that, even
as he openly
hands gifts to
UN officials.
Ethics? So it
goes at the
UN.
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