Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/sc7srilanka043009.html
UNITED NATIONS, April 30 -- In the run up to the Security Council's third “informal interactive dialogue” on Sri Lanka, slated for 5 p.m. Thursday in the UN basement, sources tell Inner City Press that a move is afoot to try to formally appoint a Special Envoy to Sri Lanka. Mexico, which passes the body's Presidency to Russia on Friday, is said to be looking to cap its schizophrenic month atop the Council by finally having an outcome, or output: an envoy.
Vijay Nambiar's trip on behalf of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is now widely viewed as a failure, even as buying more time for Colombo to continue its assault and siege on the conflict zone. Nambair, according to Ban, won a commitment by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to allow a UN humanitarian assessment team into the No Fire Zone. This commitment, if it was ever sincere, was immediately rescinded. Nambiar, a otherwise affable and approachable UN official, has yet to take a single Press question on what was in fact committed in Colombo.
U.S. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo did stop and speak with Inner City Press about the anticipated outcome of the upcoming basement meeting. “We would hope that the President would speak to the press again, but we'll see.” In fact, sources say that the idea of a UN envoy to Sri Lanka was - is? - an American idea, to raise the profile of the issue, opposed by the Sri Lankan government.
Wednesday, Inner City Press asked the UN's top humanitarian John Holmes, who is in charge of the UN's political strategy on Sri Lanka. Certainly not me, Holmes said. Okay then: who would make a good envoy? Realistically, who wouldn't be blocked by China or Russia? And will Mexico, mired in the Swine Flu problem, including its diplomatic aspect, be able to pull a rabbit out of its hat or sombrero on the last day of its presidency or is this just an illusion. La vida es un sueno, as the poem goes. Watch this site.
