As
Sri
Lankans Meets
Ban, Sexual
Violence &
Rights
Officials
Present
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 24,
updated --
When Sri
Lankan
President
Mahinda
Rajapaksa
met on
Saturday night
with Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and an
abnormally
large team of
UN officials,
the session
went ten
minutes
over the
allocated
twenty,
leaving the
next
delegation
from
Montenegro
waiting.
While
most of
Ban's meetings
and photo ops
this week have
been entirely
routine,
according to
officials who
have been in
the meeting,
this one had
more people at
it. Before the
6:20 pm
meeting began,
Ivan
Simonovic,
the New York
representative
of the Office
of the High
Commission for
Human Rights
Navi Pillay,
arrived and
went in to
wait.
Simonovic
was
followed in by
Margot
Wallstrom, the
special
adviser on
Sexual
Violence and
Conflict. That
is among the
war crimes Sri
Lankan forces
are accused
of, including
in the Channel
4 documentary "Killing
Fields" that
Ban and his
advisers have
yet to watch.
Not
surprising but
worth noting
was the
presence of
Ban's chief of
staff Vijay
Nambiar,
who is accused
of complicity
in what are
called the
White Flag
murders of
surrendering
Tamil Tiger
rebels.
Ban
leads in
Rajapaksa,
past Nambiar
&
Wallstrom,
Simonovic
& Silva
not shown
The
White Flag
incident also
involved
Palitha
Kohona, who as
Rajapaksa's
Permanent
Representative
to the UN was
also present
at the
meeting, along
with
foreign
minister G.L.
Peiris, who
met on
Thursday with
Nambiar and
Ban's top
political
official Lynn
Pascoe,
also present
Saturday
night.
Based
on Inner
City Press' reporting,
media
in Sri Lanka
have
extrapolated
that
Peiris lodged
a complaint
with Pascoe
about the
Panel of
Experts
report on war
crimes in Sri
Lanka having
been
transmitted to
Pillay
and the Human
Rights Council
in Geneva.
Simonovic's
presence
at Saturday
night's
meeting would
seem related
to that. But
Wallstrom's?
Rajapaska
shakes with
Ban: agreement
on what
happens in
Geneva?
After
the initial
photo op,
cameramen are
usually
shepherded off
the North Lawn
building's
third floor.
But this time,
a Sri Lankan
security
officer
arranged for
the three
other
photographers,
all Sri
Lankan, to
stay
up at the
entrance to
Ban's office.
Inner City
Press stayed
as well.
When
ten minutes
late the
meeting ended,
Ban escorted
Rajapaksa to
the elevator.
There
the two men
engaged in
discussion
well out of
the earshot of
Ban's
spokesman,
Martin
Nesirky, who
stopped Ban on
his way back
in to the
waiting
Montenegro
delegation and
asked him
questions.
Sri Lankan
side: Peiris,
Rajapaksa,
Kohona;
Nambiar hidden
Earlier
on
Saturday at
the photo op
of Ban and
Madagascar
coup leader
Rajoelina,
Nesirky had
told Inner
City Press, "You don't take
pictures of
talking
points, okay?
Now I know." A
more senior
Ban adviser
later laughed,
"there's
nothing IN the
talking points,
they are
as empty as
the read-outs
Martin gives."
This time, six
hours
later, the
talking points
were turn over
to face the
table, which
some at the
photo op
laughed at.
Nesirky did
not seem to be
laughing.
His office
will, it seems
sure, issue a
read out of
the meeting.
But
will the Sri
Lankans?
Update
of
8:10 pm --
this was put
out at 8:06
pm:
Read-out
of
the
Secretary-General’s
meeting with
H.E. Mr.
Mahinda
Rajapaksa,
President of
the Democratic
Socialist
Republic of
Sri Lanka, on
the
margins of the
66th General
Assembly
The
Secretary-General
met today with
H.E. Mr.
Mahinda
Rajapaksa,
President of
the Democratic
Socialist
Republic of
Sri Lanka.
They
exchanged
views
on the
post-conflict
situation in
Sri Lanka. The
Secretary-General
reiterated
the need for a
credible
national
accountability
process as
envisaged in
the joint
statement of
23 May 2009.
He also
underlined
the need to
find a
political
solution to
the underlying
factors of
the past
conflict.
New
York,
24 September
2011
Watch
this site.
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