UN On Verge of
Deploying Sri Lanka "War
Criminal" Hewage to Lebanon,
Lacroix Is Told
By Matthew
Russell Lee, video here,
Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS,
February 14 –
UN Peacekeeping
chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix has
been informed of the troubling
past history in 2008 in Sri
Lanka of a commander that
country is seeking to deploy
to the UN in Lebanon as early
as February 18, Rathnappuli
Wasantha
Kumara Hewage,
Inner
City Press is aware.
When Lacroix held
a rare press conference on
January 24, Inner City Press
asked him how
the UN is
vetting
“peacekeepers”
from Cameroon,
as that
country's army
is burning
down whole
villages in
the Anglophone
zones. Lacroix
insisted that
vetting is
intensive.
Inner City
Press asked
about what
sources tell
it, that the
ostensibly
vetting of
troops from
Sri Lanka,
after the
bloodbath on
the beach
there,
consists of
one OHCHR
staffer in
Geneva.
Lacroix said
he wasn't sure
on that. Video
here.
After the press
conference Inner City Press
was contacted, and ultimately
copied on this letter to
Lacroix, "c/o Debbie Berman,
Copy to OHCHR, Geneva and
InnerCityPress:
Dear Mr. Lacroix,
STOP DEPLOYMEMNT OF UN
PEACEKEEPER WITH FRONTLINE
COMBAT EXPERIENCE IN SRI
LANKA’S 2009 WAR - This is to
request you to stop the
planned deployment to Lebanon
on Sunday 18 February 2018 of
a Sri Lankan contingent
commander with frontline
combat command
experience in the final phase
of the civil war in 2008-9. We
believe that under the UN’s
current vetting criteria, this
commander should have been
screened out of all UN
peacekeeping duties. We note
that the Human Rights
Commission of Sri Lanka has
been asked to vet UN
peacekeepers from Sri Lanka
but consider that ultimately
the responsibility lies with
your department, as according
to the UN, it seeks to ensure
that only “individuals with
the highest standards of
integrity, competence and
efficiency” are hired. The Sri
Lankan Army says Lt. Col.
Rathnappuli Wasantha Kumara
Hewage is due to head the 12th
Force Protection Company (FPC)
for the United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) An
online search of Lt. Col.
Hewage reveals he was involved
in the assault on Kilinochchi
town in Northern Sri Lanka on
22 December 2008 and located
in PTK in late February 2009."
Inner City Press
accompanied and covered Ban
Ki-moon's trip to Sri Lanka in
2009, and subsequent
acceptance of Shavendra Silva
as a senior UN Peacekeeping
adviser. After Inner City
Press published how Palitha
Kohona got his former landlord
to sponsor, on behalf of the UN
Correspondents Association,
a screening of the
government's genocide denial
film "Lies Agreed To," Inner
City Press was threatened with
ouster from the UN, which
occurred, and Inner City Press
is still restricted
to minders under the
Department of Public
Information run by British
Alison Smale. Meanwhile as
noted in the letter, the UN
does less and less human
rights vetting. We'll have
more on this.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2018 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
