By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/untrip9may7srilanka110409.html
UNITED NATIONS, November 4 -- The mission to Sri Lanka by the UN's Patrick Cammaert, which had been set for early November until the Rajapaksa administration changed its mind, is back on the schedule to begin December 5, Inner City Press has learned.
Seeking confirmation from Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN Palitha Kohona on November 4, Mr. Kohona said yes it is set, "the visa will be issued in due course, we have confirmed the visit." He added, in response to Inner City Press' question about Sarath Fonseka, that Fonseka "has gone back," has left the United States. He was not questioned by the U.S. State Department about the Department's recent report on crimes of war in Sri Lanka this year.
In response to a question from Inner City Press, the UN's Radhika Coomaraswamy last month disclosed that Caemmart would be going to Sri Lanka at her request. Inner City Press was later told that the visit was postponed, and reported that. Some requested that Inner City Press withhold publication, as Sri Lanka might retaliate even at the coverage. Now the visit is back on, and confirmed by Sri Lanka's Ambassador. One assumes this will not change.
As Austria takes over the presidency of the UN Security Council for November, its Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting has spoken on and off camera about the benefits gained by the Council's so-called basement meetings on Sri Lanka earlier this year.
As previously explained by now-gone UK Ambassador to the UN John Sawers, no procedural vote to put Sri Lanka on the Council's formal agenda was ever called for, and now the Council does not follow-up, even as IDPs remain trapped in closed camps, refugees flee and humanitarian NGOs face expulsion.
Inner City Press asked, in light of the reports of war crimes, what the benefit was of keeping Sri Lanka off the agenda. Video here, from Minute 34:41. As summarized by the UN's own Department of Public Information
"Sri Lanka, [Mayr-Harting] said, turning to another question [by Inner City Press], which was not included in this month's programme of work. When the situation came up, there had been an option to force an open debate. However, the Council had chosen for another format of meeting which had resulted in some important messages to all sides to the conflict, including the Government conducting a legitimate fight against terrorists, that international law had to be respected. Those messages had been heard. Those messages would have been impossible, had one not agreed on the special format."
After this answer, given at a mid-day briefing on November 3, Inner City Press understands that Sri Lanka's Kohona discussed it with Mayr-Harting. Sri Lanka has become even more vigilant, or overbearing as some see it, than for example Sudan, both in the face of war crimes charges. Watch this site.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/untrip9may7srilanka110409.html
