On
Sri Lanka,
Keating Staffs
"Post
Internal
Review Panel
on UN (In)
Action"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 21 --
The UN's
review of its
action and
inaction
while 40,000
people were
killed in Sri
Lanka in 2009
is slow and
low
key, to say
the least.
After
the delayed
release of the
so-called
Petrie Report,
of which Inner
City Press
first
published the
unredacted
version
including the
executive
summary,
on
December 5 the
UN said that
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson was
to head up
another review
panel.
Now
45 days later,
Eliasson's
schedule
includes a
meeting with
"Michael
Keating, Head
of the
Secretariat of
the Post
Internal
Review Panel
Process on UN
Action in Sri
Lanka."
Who
is Michael
Keating? Inner
City Press was
previously
contacted by
whistleblowers
with the UN
Mission in
Afghanistan
that Keating
got
his post there
based on
lobbying by
Tony Blair, on
whose
Commission
for Africa
Keating
previously
worked in
Geneva. Keating
advised Mark
Malloch Brown
at UNDP from
1999 to 2001.
In
light of this
new post which
should inquire
into the UN
being too
close to a
government, it
is relevant to
know Keating's
view of the UN backing
down to
Afghanistan on
the murder by
Afghan forces
of UN staffer
Louis Maxwell.
He's
been out of
Afghanistan,
and out of a
job, for some
months. Now
this. Will
he do a good
job? Who
knows. Who is
he speaking
with? Why not
hold a press
availability?
We're open to
hear
differently,
but will not
stop reporting
on this.
It's
secrecy,
including the
covering
up of casualty
figures,
which got the
UN into this
shameful
position in
the first
place.
Meanwhile
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has
yet to speak
on the
impeachment of
Sri Lanka's
chief justice,
despite his
previous if
belated or
even
begrudging
calls for
accountability
for war crimes
in 2009. With
the
judiciary
under attack
by the
Rajapaksa
government,
the accusee of
war crimes,
how could
there be
accountability?
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
spokesman
about the
impeachment on
January 15
and was told,
"we don't have
any comment at
this time. We
are
obviously
aware of the
media reports,
and if that
changes and we
have
something to
say, I’ll
certainly let
you know." But
in the six
days since,
nothing. Watch
this site.
, 
