Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/untrip4may2srilanka061009.html
UNITED NATIONS, June 10 -- Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General who declined to visit Sri Lanka until after the government's assault on the "No Fire" Zone had been reached its deadly conclusion, has said he is closely monitoring "post-conflict" developments in the country. On June 10, Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban's Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe if Ban or the UN had any comment on the Sri Lankan government deporting a member of parliament from Canada, Bob Rae.
Ms. Okabe said she and Ban have no comment. "Again," she said, "I am not going to have reactions to everything you read in the newspaper about Sri Lanka.." The question and non-answer are not included in the UN's summary of the briefing.
This new approach appears to be designed to have the Sri Lanka issue fall off not only the radar of the UN Security Council -- a seemingly final "informal interactive dialogue was held on June 5 -- but of the wider UN. Journalists are allowed to ask persistent daily questions about many situations, without a similar reaction from Ban's Spokesperson's office: for example on the Middle East, Sudan or Pakistan. They try now however to make Sri Lanka off limits, to discourage even any questions being asked.
Ms. Okabe went on to imply that rather than ask questions, the Press should simply wait to see if and when Ban issues statements. "As he sees fit, he will be responding," Ms. Okabe said. Ban chose in recent days to comment on the death of Gabonese strongman Omar Bongo, and to praise President Obama's speech (whether he will do that for the other 191 heads of state's speeches is not clear). But apparently he did not see fit to respond to Sri Lanka extending anti-terror laws and deporting a Canadian elected official.
Later on June 10, Inner City Press posed the same question to a senior political adviser to Ban, who expressed frustration. He said, "we had predicted what two things would be asked today, and we said it would be the barring of Bob Rae" -- a longtime observers of Sri Lanka whom the adviser called fair -- "and the extension of the state of emergency anti terrorism laws."
About the latter, Inner City Press asked on June 9, and Ms. Okabe had no comment on that, either. The Ban adviser told Inner City Press that he would have said, of the blocking of Bob Rae, what while the UN usually does not comment on such actions, "it is not helpful."
So who is running the show at the UN? Does Ban Ki-moon's Spokesperson's Office actually speak for him? On June 11, Mr. Ban holds a press conference, at which he will offer his own answers to the questions which are allowed by his Spokesperson. While some questions are sure to focus on a range of initiatives and meetings by Ban's highest officials which many see as anti-press, the questions about Sri Lanka should, one imagines, be allowed. Watch this site.And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip4may2srilanka061009.html
