By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 22 -- The involvement in the UN Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of an alleged war criminal, General Shavendra Silva whose Division 58 is depicted in the UN's report on Sri Lanka as shelling hospitals and civilians three years ago, has made the SAG meetings of interest.
Of Tuesday's SAG meeting, which the Sri Lankan Mission to the UN bragged Silva would attend, Ban's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit told Inner City Press "the meetings of the SAG are not official UN meetings and we have not been informed of the location or time of any eventual meeting."
Previously, MALU had told Inner City Press about covering the SAG meetings, perhaps tongue in cheek, "we will be happy to help."
Without help, and with the SAG meeting moved from 380 Madison Avenue to another UN-rented building on Third Avenue, Inner City Press observed the entrants and spoke to several.
One Asian Group representative urged Inner City Press to "stop" Silva and not let him come in. On the other hand, another said that the Press coverage would goad Sri Lanka's Silva into coming.
But still he did not appear, even as at least two African Permanent Representative when in to the meeting on the 10th floor. Other UN personalities entered the building, which houses the Department of Political Affairs, including Jan Kubis, Ban's envoy to Afghanistan who attended the NATO Summit in Chicago with him.
Ban has refused to speak out about having an alleged war criminal as an adviser. More recently, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman what if anything was ever done on the petition to Ban about disappeared Sri Lankan journalist Prageeth. The question has yet to be answers, as has another Inner City Press question about the UN system's own finding that the Sri Lankan Army used cluster bombs in the 2009 conflict which killed 40,000 civilians. And so it goes at the UN.
Update of 1:30 pm -- at Tuesday's UN noon briefing, Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky refused to even take Inner City Press' question of whether Silva was told not to go to the SAG meeting. Nesirky allowed multiple questions from others, but only one from Inner City Press, and refused to respond on Sri Lanka..
