At
UN on Sri
Lanka, After
Delayed Petrie
Report, Now
Muddled Launch
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 13 --
While the UN
has tried to
sweep under
the
carpet its
inaction and
worse during
the killing of
tens
of thousands
of civilians
in Sri Lanka
in 2009, the
thread they
couldn't make
go
away was the
report on the
UN's own
performance.
They
tried: after
it was
assigned to
outgoing UN
official
Thoraya Obaid
in
September
2011, no more
was publicly
heard about it
until Inner
City
Press repeatedly
asked about
its status.
Then it was belatedly
disclosed that
Obaid never
did the study,
that it had
been
reassigned
to another
outgoing (and
now moonlighting)
UN official,
Charles
Petrie. It was
said it would
be done in
July.
Last
month in
October, Inner
City Press
asked the
Office of the
Spokesperson
for
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon when
will the
"Petrie report
be finished?
What (three?)
other people
worked on it?
Has anyone in
the
Secretariat or
the SG seen
it? Will it be
released?
When?"
These
questions have
yet to be
answered. Last
week, Inner
City Press was
told -- not by
a source
currently
working for
the UN -- that
Charles
Petrie would
be in New York
from November
12, to meet
with Ban
Ki-moon and
present the
report to him.
On
November 7,
Inner City
Press asked
senior staff
of the UN
Office on
Genocide
Prevention and
the
Responsibility
to Protect,
Gillian
Kitley, about
the Petrie
report on the
UN in Sri
Lanka. She
said she
hadn't seen
it, and did
not respond
when asked to
ensure that it
official be
made public.
But
at the
beginning of
Monday, Petrie
was not on
Ban's
schedule, and
Ban's deputy
Jan Eliasson
is out of
town. Nor is
Petrie on
Ban's
schedule for
Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a
copy Petrie
calls
"penultimate"
is today out,
of which
former
Secretary
General Kofi
Annan's
spokesman
Edward
Mortimer and Sri
Lanka Campaign
chairman says
"I fear
this report
will show the
UN has not
lived up to
the standards
we
expect of it."
Not
only did the
UN pull out,
and then
conceal
casualty
figures -- the
coverup and
breakdown was
systemic afterward,
in terms of messaging
in the UN and
Ban Ki-moon
and his
Peacekeeping
chief
accepting one
of
the
responsible
Generals,
Shavendra
Silva, as a UN
Senior Advisor
on
Peacekeeping.
Ban told Inner
City Press
this was a
decision of
member
states;
Ladsous
refused to
answer any
Press question
on this or any
other topic,
protection of
civilians or
otherwise. Now
this. Watch
this site.
, 
