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As Ban
Ki-Moon Meets
Rajapaksa of
Sri Lanka,
Shavendra
Silva There,
Where's
Report?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 24
-- When UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon met
with Sri Lanka
president
Mahinda
Rajapaksa on
Tuesday at 6
pm, another
Sri Lankan
official came
into the
meeting room.
It was
Shavendra
Silva, a
military
figure whose
Army unit was
depicted
engaged in war
crimes in the
UN's own
report on Sri
Lanka.
Ban
previously
accepted Silva
on his Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
telling Inner
City Press it
was a decision
of member
states.
But
was Ban told
that Silva
would be
coming up with
Minister
Peiris and
Permanent
Representative
Palitha
Kohona? First
photo here.
Inner
City Press was
up for the
photo-op.
Silva came
into the room,
started
walking toward
the middle of
the table
where Mahinda
Rajapaksa
signed Ban's
UN book. But
then Silva
retreated to
the back, and
then walked
out of the
room. Second
photo here;
third
photo here.
Walk-out
photo here.
Did
Silva re-enter
after the
photographers
were ordered
out? Inner
City Press
remained on
the 38th
floor, with
others, for
Ban's meeting
with Evo
Morales of
Bolivia. When
the Sri Lanka
meeting ended,
two other UN
officials came
out: Political
Affairs chief
Jeffrey
Feltman, and
human rights
official Ivan
Simonovic.
But
where was the
UN report on
its inaction
in 2009, which
Ban has had
since August?
Will it be
released? Or
play hide and
seek like
Silva? Watch
this site.
Then
this
read-out:
Readout
of the
Secretary-General’s
meeting with
H.E. Mr.
Mahinda
Rajapaksa,
President of
the Democratic
Socialist
Republic of
Sri Lanka
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 and
the country’s
cooperation
with the
United
Nations. The
Secretary-General
noted the
Government’s
latest efforts
to conduct the
provincial
elections and
to implement
the
recommendations
of its Lessons
Learnt and
Reconciliation
Commission.
The
Secretary-General
also addressed
the remaining
challenges in
reconciliation
and emphasized
the need for a
more holistic
approach.
New
York, 24
September 2013
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
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