On
Sri
Lanka, Ban
Said Give
Rajapaksa Time
for Own
Inquiry,
UNredaction
Shows
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 14 --
It has become
more clear why
the UN blacked
out portions
of its report
on its actions
and inaction
in Sri Lanka,
and then took
the report
off-line once
asked about
the
redactions, by
Inner City
Press.
The final
redaction in
the report,
from Paragraph
173, blacked
out Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
position
against an
international
review of Sri
Lanka's
killing, by
his own
report's
calculation,
some 40,000
civilians.
Inner
City Press has
re-posted
the report
as it appeared
with
redactions,
and has gone
behind the
redactions.
Here from
Paragraph 173,
the
material the
UN blacked
out, but is
now being
"liberated"
by Inner City
Press, appears
in brackets,
followed by an
explanation.
"the
Secretary-General
met with
President
Rajapaksa and
urged him 'to
uphold his
commitment to
establish an
accountability
process.' On
30
July the
Policy
Committee met
again at UNHQ
to address
'follow-up on
accountability'
in Sri Lanka.
[Discussing
whether
or not the
SecretaryGeneral
should
establish an
international
Commission of
Experts, many
participants
were reticent
to do so
without the
support of the
Government and
at a time when
Member
States were
also not
supportive. At
the same time,
participants
also
acknowledged
that a
Government-led
mechanism was
unlikely to
seriously
address past
violations.
The
Secretary-General
said that
'the
Government
should be
given the
political
space to
develop a
domestic
mechanism and
that only if
this did not
occur within a
limited time
frame would
the UN look at
alternatives.]
The
meeting
agreed"
So
Ban Ki-moon,
even after
being advised
that a Sri
Lankan
"Government-led
mechanism was
unlikely to
seriously
address past
violations,"
said Rajapaksa
should be
given more
space -- and
time.
And
as of November
2012, no one
had been held
accountable.
In fact, one
of the General
most
associated,
including in
Ban's report,
with the
killings in
2009,
Shavendra
Silva, was
accepted by
Ban Ki-moon as
a
UN "Senior
Adviser on
Peacekeeping
Operations."
(Ban
told Inner
City Press
that this was
a decision of
member states;
his
head of
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
outright
refused to
answer this or
any other
Press
question.)
On
September 6,
2011, Silva
appeared with
Sri Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
Palitha Kohona
at a film
screening
in the UN's
Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium, fallout
written up by
the SLC, here.
Ban through
this spokesman
Martin Nesirky
said midday on
Wednesday
he'll be
setting up a
senior group
to advise him.
Inner City
Press asked if
Vijay Nambiar
will be
involved.
Whatever the
advice -- will
Ban Ki-moon
follow it?
Watch this
site.
, 
