On
Sri Lanka, UN
Review to 2Q
2013, Any
Silva Visit
Screening
&
Kilinochchi Qs
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 13,
updated -- A
week ago,
Inner City
Press asked
the UN
what it would
do in the face
of the
troubling
report on its
actions
and inaction
in Sri Lanka,
penned by
sometime UN
official
Charles
Petrie.
The UN
answered that
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson
would lead a
team to review
the report.
Today,
the UN
announced a
bit more: that
Eliasson has
asked UN
departments,
funds and
programs to
nominate
people to
participate in
the review,
and that the
review is due
in the second
quarter of
2013.
Inner
City Press
immediately
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
if any UN
specialized
agencies would
be
involved, for
example the
IMF (which
stands accused
of lending
into
increased
military
spending by
the Rajapaksa
government,
even after
2009).
Nesirky
reiterated,
only funds and
programs, and
not agencies
like the IMF.
Inner
City Press
asked how it
was that the Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
allowed
General
Shavendra Silva
of the Sri
Lankan Army,
showing up in
the UN's
report as
engaged in war
crimes, to
"inspect"
its troops in
the UNIFIL
mission in
Lebanon.
Doesn't DPKO
have some
type of
review?
Nesirky
said
he would ask
DPKO. The
chief of DPKO
Herve Ladsous
has refused
to answer any
Press
questions,
including
about Silva as
a "Senior
Adviser on
Peacekeeping
Operations"
and other human rights issues, see recent video
here. How
about Silva as
a UN troop
inspector?
The lack of
standards in
the UN was
exemplied by a
Shavendra
Silva
appearance in
September
2011,
complaints
about which started a
series of
anti-Press
moves profiled
by the UK
based Sri
Lanka
Campaign, here.
Months later
this has led
to a new move
in the UN: the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
After
a troubling
report
forwarded by
the SlC,
Inner City
Press asked
Nesirky about
at least 20
women brought
into a
military wing
of a
Kilinochchi
hospital and
not allowed
visits.
For
the record,
the SLC
recites
Of
the women
recently
recruited to
the 6th
Brigade of the
Sri Lankan
Army (SLA), 20
were admitted
to the
Kilinochchi
district
hospital on
December 11,
2012 between
11.00 pm and
12.30 am.
They
had recently
been trained
in Kilinochchi
and Mullaitivu
districts
They
were brought
from Navam
Arivu Koodam
located in a
village called
Krishnapuram.
Killinochi
West
Upon
arrival at the
hospital, some
of the women
were
unconscious.
They
were
immediately
isolated from
the other
patients and
subsequently
detained in a
small room in
the hospital’s
northern
section.
The
northern
section of the
hospital is
not accessible
to the public;
it
is used
exclusively by
army
personnel.
Shortly
after
the group of
women was
admitted, a
large group of
army
personnel
(male and
female)
gathered at
the hospital.
Only
SLA doctors
and nurses are
looking after
these female
patients.
Nesirky
said
that the
Eliasson
review is
separate, but
that the UN
maintains
a presence in
Sri Lanka. So
do THEY have
anything to
say about the
Kilinochchi
hospital?
Watch this
site.
Update
of 6:30 pm --
Here
was Thursday's
evening's UN
answer to
Inner City
Press' noon
question, note
the last line:
From:
UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Thu, Dec
13, 2012
at 5:33 PM
Subject: Your
question at
the noon
briefing - a
reminder
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
The
Spokesperson
later said
that Major
General
Shavendra
Silva was part
of the
Military-Police
Advisors
Community
(MPAC)
delegation
visiting
the United
Nations
Interim Force
Mission in
Lebanon from
28 Nov - 4
Dec 2012. The
official MPAC
programme
included
briefings and
visits
to UN
positions. The
MPAC is a
group
comprising
permanent
missions'
military
attaches and
police
advisors, and
the UN had no
authority
over the group
of visitors
that included
Gen. Silva.
"Had
no authority?"
The UN has no
say over who
visits and
inspects
its
peacekeepers?
Watch this
site.
, 
