UN
Won't
Confirm Nambiar Present At Sri Lanka Meeting, Hasn't Sent
Report
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 7 -- The UN on Thursday confirmed
that Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon “discussed the report of the Panel of Experts
on accountability in Sri Lanka in his meeting on Tuesday with Ranil
Wikremesinghe” -- but refused to say if Ban's chief of staff Vijay
Nambiar, involved in the so called White Flag killings of
surrenderees in Sri Lanka in May 2009, was present at the meeting.
“We don’t have
to give lists of all the senior officials who were present at
different meetings,” Ban's deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told
Inner
City Press. “That’s not what we do.”
But
even in the
past two weeks, the UN allowed independent media including Inner City
Press to observe and photograph the beginning of the meeting of Ban
and his aides with Israel's opposition leader Tzipi Livni.
Yet when
Sri Lanka opposition leader Ranil Wikremesinghe came, despite a
timely request Inner City Press and all independent media were barred
from even the beginning of the meeting.
Only
for that
reason is it unclear if Nambiar, and Ban's top lawyer Patricia
O'Brien who like Nambiar has rejected repeated previous requests to
brief the press, attended the meeting with Ranil at which war crimes
were discussed.
The
context is
that Ban Ki-moon has not even transmitted his Panel of Experts report
on Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Ban & M. Rajapaksa Sept 2010, Killing Fields and UN review not shown
Haq on July 7
said, “Regarding any onward transmission to other bodies, the
Secretary-General is considering next steps, and if and when we have
further course of action to announce, we will announce it at that
point.”
Why
would Ban and
his spokesperson's office apply a double standard and not allow even
independent photographs of Ban's -- and Nambiar's? -- meeting with
Sri Lankan figures while allowing such photos of meetings with other
countries' opposition leaders, and why has Ban not even transmitted
his report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva? We'll have more on
this.
* * *
In
Ban's
UN,
Press Barred from Photo Op with Sri Lanka Opposition
Leader
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
5 -- That UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “runs
scared,” as one of his staffers puts it, more on Sri Lanka than
other countries was again on display,
but not to be photographed, on July 5. Ban was to meet with
Ranil Wickremesinghe, described in Ban's schedule as “Leader of the
Opposition.”
But
when Inner
City Press asked to attend the photo opportunity at the beginning of
Ban's meeting with Ranil, the double standards began.
Only
last week,
with “Leader of the Opposition” of Israel Tzipi Livni met with
Ban, Inner City Press was allowed to go to the photo op, observing
the banter between Ban and the Israeli delegation.
At
the July 5 noon
briefing, Inner City Press
asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press:
there is this meeting till this afternoon with the
opposition leader; I wanted to know, actually I wanted to know
whether it is possible if there is going to be any kind of photo op
for even the Sri Lankan delegates or UN Photo? And I also wanted to
know, just sort of yes or no, if the Secretary-General has now seen
the Channel 4 documentary Killing Fields depicting war crimes and
somewhat critical of the UN’s…?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
On
the first, UN Photo will certainly be there, and I know
that you’ve already requested to the Media Accreditation and
Liaison Unit [MALU]whether you can be present. And I am checking on
that. And as for the other, as I think you already heard from Farhan
in the last few days, a copy of the film, the documentary has been
given to the Secretary-General. I don’t know whether he has had
the time to see it yet. But as I have told you before as well, he
has been fully briefed on its contents.
Shortly
after this
noon briefing exchange, Inner City Press was informed by MALU that it
could not attend the photo op. While Nesirky told MALU he would ask
UN Photo to put the Ban and Ranil photo online shortly after the
meeting, as of 7 pm on Tuesday the photo was not up -- unlike
the
UN's
own Livni - Ban photo.
Ban & Israel "Opposition Leader" Livni June 29,
Ranil July 5 not shown
Inner
City Press
waited downstairs from the meeting. Ranil and his escort, Deputy
Permanent Representative Shavendra Silva, never walked through any
public area of the UN. Instead, going up at 3:30 pm were Ban's top
lawyer (who refuses to speak with the press) Patricia O'Brien and the
UN staffer who accepted a Tamil petition earlier this year then asked
that his name not be published.
What
is wrong with
Team Ban on the Sri Lanka issue? Ban's chief of staff was involved in
the so-called White Flag killings of surrenderees. Does that explain
it? Or is there more? Watch this site.
* * *
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