On
Sri Lanka
Murder of 12
Year Old,
Ban's UN is
Aware, Calls
for National
Process
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 20 --
As news
of the summary
execution of a
12
year old boy
by the Sri
Lankan Army in
May 2009
spreads
worldwide,
Inner City
Press on
Wednesday
asked UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
about it,
citing Ban's
“two reports
and a third
one still
ongoing.
Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
began with a
correction,
saying that
this
third report
“is an
internal task
force looking
at how
recommendations
will be
carried out in
the UN... it's
not to do with
looking into
the actual
events in Sri
Lanka.”
Some
wonder how the
UN can fully
assess its
inaction in
Sri Lanka
without
taking into
account new
evidence of
war crimes,
including the
murder
of children in
the days the
UN was playing
middleman for
surrenders
which ended in
summary
executions.
Nesirky
went
on to say “we
are aware of
the video
footage and
reports about
it,” but he
had “no
specific
comment”
beyond Ban's
general
statement on
the
“importance of
accountability.”
He again
referred to a
“national
process,” when
it is clear to
many that
has not and
will not
happen in the
run-up to the
UN Human
Rights
Council
session in
March.
In Sri Lanka,
the release of
e-mails from
Stratfor, the
privately
owned
intelligence
company, has
sparked a
controversy
regarding
Reuters'
bureau chief
there, Bryson
Hull.
One 2010
e-mail depicts
Hull promoting
his
“ace-in-the-hole
analyst, Reva
Bhalla of
Stratfor... a
consummate
information
dealer... we
had a very
successful
relationship
during the end
of the war in
Sri Lanka.”
Groundviews
has
been asking
Hull to
explain the
e-mail. (Inner
City Press has
learned from
some Hull
reports in the
past, for
example in
2012 on the Maldives.)
Hull
has replied,
among other
things, that
Reva Bhalla
"was quoted by
name in a
Reuters
story.”
That
would be far
better than
Reuters' UN
bureau, whose
chief Louis
Charbonneau in
2012 played a
leading role
in a campaign
to try to oust
Inner City
Press first
from the UN
Correspondents
Association
then from the
UN as a whole.
Triggering
the
campaign was a
story Inner
City Press
wrote about
Sri Lanka, war
crimes and
conflicts of
interest - click
here for the
account of the
UK-based Sri
Lanka campaign,
chaired by
Kofi Annan's
former
communications
chief Edward
Mortimer.
Most
troubling,
when the UNCA
proceeding
Reuters'
Charbonneau
was pushing
led to Inner
City Press
receiving
death threats
from extremist
supporters of
Sri Lanka's
Rajapaksa
government,
Charbonneau
refused to
stop or even
suspend the
proceedings.
“Go to the New
York Police
Department,”
he said
dismissively.
The
campaign only
stopped when
Inner City
Press
requested then
obtained
documents from
Voice of
America, which
reflected
among other
things Reuters
support
for VOA's
June 20
request to the
UN to “review”
Inner City
Press'
accreditation,
and Reuters
contemplating
a (SLAPP)
lawsuit
against Inner
City Press.
Inner
City Press
wrote several
times to the
top editors at
Reuters, Stephen J. Adler, Walden
Siew, and
Paul
Ingrassia,
trying
to
make them
aware of the
death threats
that were
triggered by
the actions of
their UN
bureau chief.
But as
reflected in
the documents
obtained from
VOA under
FOIA, Reuters
had adopted
and apparently
continues a
policy of not
responding to
any issue
raised by
Inner City
Press --
including the
receipt of
death threats.
On
October 2012,
Charbonneau
was asked in
writing to
explain some
of the
documents
obtained under
FOIA; he made
no response.
Charbonneau
remains
in 2013 the
first vice
president of
UNCA, which in
connected to
several anonymous
social media
accounts which
have said
without any
basis that
Inner City
Press is
funded by Sri
Lanka's Tamil
Tigers.
Reuters'
record of
using, even
stoking,
extremism in
Sri Lanka goes
well beyond
the Wikileaked
email of
Bryson Hull
about
Stratfor. But
who will
answer for it?
Watch this
site.
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