Sri
Lanka
Says Silva Was
Out of Town,
Frechette Says
He Can't Come
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 28 --
Since UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
accepted
an alleged war
criminal onto
his Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
his
Secretariat
has tried to
make it
difficult or
impossible to
cover the
process.
Inner
City Press
went on June
27 and June 28
to stand
outside a UN
rented
building on
Third Avenue
to see if Sri
Lankan general
Shavendra
Silva, who is
depicted in
Ban's own
report on Sri
Lanka as
engaged in war
crimes,
attended the
SAG meeting.
Previously,
the UN
had said Inner
City Press
could not wait
outside the
meeting room
as
it would in
the North Lawn
building.
Still, on June
27-28 Inner
City
Press did not
see Silva
enter.
The
Sri Lankan
mission to the
UN argued to
Inner City
Press that it
is only that
Silva is out
of town.
So
at the June 28
UN noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky to
confirm that
Silva did not
attend, and to
state why.
Nesirky said
"I don't have
any comment on
that," saying
that
"evidently you
spoke with the
Sri Lankans."
Inner
City Press
followed up
that Ban
appointed SAG
chairperson
Frechette, who
says
she has no
spokesperson,
so the
question was
for Nesirky.
(Top
Peacekeeper
Herve Ladsous
had
explitictly
refused to
answer Inner
City Press
questions,
first about
Silva as
adviser, and
now about any
topic at all).
Nesirky
repeated
that he had no
comment,
adding as a
way of ending
the exchange
that
if he got any
information he
would provide
it. See below.
On
July 1, the
government
aligned Sunday
Observer
carried
another story
against
Inner City
Press:
The
United
Nations
Correspendents
Association
has expressed
displeasure
that Inner
City Press
blogger
Matthew Russel
Lee is
attacking the
UNCA and the
members of the
Board of
Examination
set up against
him,
in a reportage
which they
claimed 'one
sided and a
distortion of
facts'.
In
the
face of his
intense
attacks, one
of the five
members of the
Board
of Examination
has resigned
forcing the
UNCA to fill
up the vacant
post with a
new member,
authoritative
sources told
the Sunday
Observer
yesterday.
Lee
is
investigated
by the UNCA
for unethical
reporting and
unprofessional
behaviour
among other
things.
He
is
being accused
of using his
website as a
weapon for
attacking and
character
assassination
of his
colleagues who
has offended
or come to
disagreements
with him, the
sources said.
Lee,
writing
in his blog on
June 21
accused the
UNCA
examination a
'set
up' to get an
investigative
journalist
which he
called
himself,
expelled from
the UN, a
claim UNCA
Executive
Board has
denied.
Refuting
Lee's
accusations
that the
Association
has attempted
to suspend his
UN
accreditation,
the Executive
board has
requested Lee
to post a
full apology
in his website
for the
personal
attacks he had
made
against the on
going
investigation
and the
members of
UNCA including
its President
Giampaolo
Pioli.
Inner
City
Press began
its attacks on
UNCA President
following its
sponsoring of
a screening of
Sri Lanka's
film,
countering the
Channel
4's Killing
Fields.
That's
the pro
government
view - the
same
government
which on June
29 raided the
offices of two
websites and
arrested nine
journalists,
seizing seven
computers.
Inner City
Press asked
Nesirky about
this at the
noon
briefing on
July 2, and at
least got a
response, how
ever generic.
Then
this came in:
Subject:
On
the Senior
Advisory Group
on
peacekeeping.
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Mon, Jul
2, 2012 at
12:58 PM
To: Matthew
Russell Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
In
response
to your
question at
the noon
briefing on
Thursday, 28
June:
The Chair of
the Senior
Advisory Group
has already
previously
indicated some
time ago that
General Silva
is not
participating
in
the Group and
has notified
the
Secretary-General
to this
effect. We
do not have
anything to
add.
But
if Silva had
been in New
York and
physically
gone to
attend, what
would have
happened?
Watch this
site.
, 
