UNITED NATIONS, May 5 -- Two months after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would form "without delay" a panel of experts to advise him on possible war crimes in Sri Lanka, still no such panel has been named.
In the interim, the UN has said that Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe will travel to Sri Lanka. But that has not happened or even been nailed down yet.
A senior UN official told Inner City Press on May 5 that they think Sri Lanka is putting off the trip so that they can put certain things in place and show "goodies" to the UN. Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN Palitha Kohona continues to predict that Ban will never go forward and name the panel. "Ask them why they would name a panel," Kohona has urged Inner City Press, "for anything more than fundraising."
Inner City Press has put Kohona's question to the senior UN official, who while not confirming that the panel idea is dead or dying, said the UN is happy to think that improvements are being made under the shadow of a visit. In fact, Inner City Press was told that an Austrians national was approached about being on the panel. But two month are two months.
Meanwhile in Sri Lanka itself, the Red Cross still does not have access to the so-called rehabilitation centers, and there are whispers of a slew of babies being born to women who were in government detention nine months before.
The IMF has delayed the next tranche of its loan, as the government has not followed through on its commitments.
The so-called CHAP was rejected by presidential brother Basil Rajapaksa, NGOs complain. They do not complain loudly, threatened as they are with expulsion from the country. Watch this site.
