From UN, Sri Lanka Shavendra Silva to Leave After Controversy, to South Africa

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 5, updated -- Sri Lankan Major General Shavendra Silva, the source of controversy when appointed as Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN then to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Senior Advisory Group of Peacekeeping Operations, will now be leaving New York for South Africa.

  Since Silva's forces are depicted as engaged in war crimes in the UN's own report on killings in Sri Lanka, his appearance as the Asia Group's representative on the SAG set off a chain of events, starting with repudiation of Silva by some major Permanent Representatives in the Asia Group.

  Several of them told Inner City Press they had no idea who Shavendra Silva was, and did not support him.

  Even then, Ban Ki-moon did not speak or act on having Silva advising him on Peacekeeping. Then after some arm twisting, the issue was recast as the right of the Asia Group to send whomever it wanted. But had it wanted Silva? The answer seems clearly at have been no.

  But still nothing from Ban Ki-moon. Inner City Press asked Ban's head of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous and he tellingly refused to even answer the question.

   Inner City Press sought to cover the SAG meetings, which were moved out of the UN to rented buildings on Madison Avenue then Third Avenue. The UN made it nearly impossible to cover the meetings. Still, Inner City Press shot some video: click here for Silva's February 22, 2012, exit from 380 Madison Avenue.

  It was said that while Silva could attend, he couldn't speak. This was not fully tested, as Silva began to be out of town when the SAG met. 

  Most recently Inner City Press was told by a Permanent Representative on the SAG that Silva's name might not be on the group's final report.  (It's said Silva will remain in New York for a couple months - is it for that purpose?)

  Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson's office to confirm this, but they wouldn't.

  Ironically, on October 31 Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa publicly asked Deputy Shavendra Silva to "look for any Sri Lankans affected by Hurricane Sandy." One wag asked, and do what to them?

  Now days later comes the announcement that Shavendra Silva is being moved out, to South Africa, again as a Deputy. 

Update: at Monday's UN noon briefing Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky about the SAG report, and if Silva's name will be left off it because of the controversy surrounding his involvement in the SAG. Video here from Minute 30:45. Nesirky said, "I do not know at this stage, I'll let you know." Watch this site.

After NYPD Arrests UN Official, UN Withholds Report & Its Action, Silva Fallout

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 25 -- Even after the NY Police Department has arrested the head of the UN's Emergency Preparedness unit for sexual abuse, the UN has just refused to tell the complainant what discplinary action it has taken.

  In a June 22 letter obtained and now first reported by Inner City Press, the officer in charge of the UN Office of Human Resources Management Martha Helena Lopez has told the complainant that despite a June 14 request to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, neither the fact-finding report nor information about the disciplinary measures taken will be provided.

  The UN tells the complainaint "it is the practice of the Organization not to publicly disclose the discliplinary action(s) imposed on a given staff member." And the administrative instruction about releasing fact finding reports has been repealed or "superseded" under Ban Ki-moon, in UN-ese.

  Inner City Press is choosing not to publish the letter itself, to not identify the complainant.

  Back on June 14, after reporting the arrest and after confirmation by NYPD the name of the arrestee, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky

 

about an incident at 380 Madison Avenue, which initially I was asking about because of the Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping and General Shavendra Silva...  now it’s been confirmed to me by the New York Police Department, a UN official, who will remain unnamed, the head of the Emergency Preparedness Unit submitted himself to the 17th Precinct and was, in fact, arrested for sexual abuse... So, I wanted to know... [if] this individual has been downgraded from P5 to P4 at the same salary and with the same job, which some people see as not consistent with the zero tolerance policy?

  Nesirky replied that "I can’t comment on what may or may not have transpired at the New York Police Department; that’s for them to comment on. I cannot comment on that. On the second part, there was an internal procedure, which is confidential in nature, and therefore I cannot comment further on that."


  But, Inner City Press asked, "Is immunity going to be sought?"


   Nesirky said, "my answer in two parts will suffice there. And I am just checking on other questions."


  No further information has been provided; now, the UN denies the infromation to the complainant herself.

  Since February 22, Inner City Press has covered this sexual abuse complaint. on June 12 Inner City Press was reliably informed that the abuser, whose name we knew throughout, was called into the 17th Precinct on 51st Street to surrender to police, with his lawyer. Inner City Press went and staked it out, in the rain. Later, Inner City Press obtained the file number: 2011-017-3670.

  NYPD spokesman Lt. John Grimpel told Inner City Press that yes, he was arrested on June 12 for a complaint filed in October 2011 of sex abuse in the Keats bar at 842 Second Avenue. So after having withheld the name since we first reported on this case on February 22, 2012, we ran his name: Dushyant Joshi, the head of the UN's Emergency Preparedness unit.

  Back in on February 22 when Inner City Press went to the UN-rented building at 380 Madison Avenue to see if alleged war criminal Sri Lanka general Shavendra Silva attended Ban Ki-moon's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, it witnessed the NY Police Department being barred from entering the building to arrest a UN staffer.

  While Ban's spokesperson's office on March 1 and thereafter denied that the NYPD was at 380 Madison to arrest any UN staffer, based on a case of abuse filed by a female UN contractor, this was multiply confirmed to Inner City Press.

   The UN's Office of Human Resources Management under Catherine Pollard has belatedly "found cause" in the female contractor's complaint, and has (merely) demoted the abuser from P5 to P4 level, but with the same job: head of the UN's Emergency Preparedness unit.  Now the stonewalling continues.

Footnote: As we tweeted at the time, hat tip to the work on this of UN Justice, including on June 21 regarding the June 14 request. May the struggle for accountability from the UN on these matters, and those like the introduction of cholera into Haiti and role in the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka, report already delayed for months, continue.

We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

UN Hinders Coverage of Advisory Group & War Criminal Silva's Role, Minders?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 6 -- When it emerged in January that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping would have on it Sri Lanka General Shavendra Silva, whose 58th Division is depicted in Ban's own Panel of Experts report as engaged in war crimes, Inner City Press asked Ban about it and went to stand outside the first SAG meeting on February 22.

Ban said it was a decision of member states, and on February 22 Inner City Press was ejected from the UN-rented building at 380 Madison Avenue, after spotting Silva in attendance (and then filming him driving away in a $100,000 BMW).

The chair of the SAG, Louise Frechette, issued a press release that Silva's participation would be inappropriate. Sri Lanka sought the support of the Asia Group, and vowed that Silva would attend the next SAG meeting, set for April 2. Ban still said nothing.

On April 2, Inner City Press again went to 380 Madison Avenue to observe who went in to the 16th floor meeting room. As Inner City Press stood by the elevators, various SAG members came to speak, noting that Silva had yet to show up.

A UN Security officer came, and Inner City Press explained what it was doing. The officer went into the suite of offices and emerged to say that they weren't asking for the Press to be removed. He added that he'd told them that if they later did, they should call and he would ask the Press to leave. Fine.

After this, the UN's Media and Accreditation Unit has twice written to Inner City Press. The first:

"I wanted to double check with you if you went to cover recently a meeting of the senior advisory group on peacekeeping, which took place in UN offices located on Madison Avenue."

While this inquiry was cc-ed elsewhere in the UN, Inner City Press went directly to the sender, usually genial, and explained exactly what happened, including that UN Security had inquired and then allowed Inner City Press to stay. But then this formal follow-up:

"Thank you for your explanation regarding your presence a few days ago on Madison when the Senior Advisory Group for DPKO met. It's not clear exactly to whom the security guard in question spoke to but the organizers say they did not give their permission for press coverage nor did they speak to a security guard.

"As we discussed with you and the UNCA Executive Committee recently in Stephane's office, press need to contact MALU if they want to cover anything in the UN offices on Madison, the Innovation Building, DC1 & 2, and any other off-campus building. I recall Stephane being extremely clear on this point. So if you wish to stake-out a meeting in one of those places, just call us and we will be happy to help."

It is unclear who the referenced "organizers" are, since the SAG is a meeting of many countries' Permanent Representatives, some of whom invited and spoke with Inner City Press. If the undisclosed organizers "did not give their permission for press coverage" -- some concept, that -- why would they in the future? And if not, what help would be provided?

In the referenced meeting, the Correspondents' Association did little to fight for more access -- but later told Inner City Press that it had been resolved, and that such meetings could be covered.

At the same time, the Correspondents' Association complained that another of Inner City Press' Sri Lanka related articles was inappropriate, and asked that it be changed.

Previously, the Correspondents' Association screened inside the UN the Sri Lankan government's response to Killing Fields, which itself was never screened in the UN. As Inner City Press noted, the President of the Correspondents' Association used to accept money from Sri Lankan Ambassador Palitha Kohona as rent -- far in the past, he now argues.

So what it is, about the UN and Sri Lanka? Why are the SAG meetings, primarily of member states' Permanent Representatives, held not in the North Lawn building but in 380 Madison? Why the attempt to apply different rules there, as if it were a staff meeting?

In context, the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit rather than helping to cover UN news is acting like a "minder," as many criticize for example in North Korea. Why should Ban Ki-moon's minder unit be permitted to shadow the Press, either observing who speaks or discouraging such contact by its presence? Why have these issues never been brought up? Watch this site.

At UN, DFS Seat Said Sought by Khare or Pollard Amid Sex Abuse Delay Beyond 3 Months, Stonewalling

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- In ongoing UN musical chairs, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday announced that the current chief of the Department of Field Support Susana Malcorra will become his chief of staff on April Fool's Day.

While Ban and his spokesman Martin Nesirky did not take any questions on this topic, over the weekend UN sources told Inner City Press that among those considered to replaced Malcorra at DFS are not only Atul Khare, whose "Change Management" post is being taken by Ban's most senior adviser Kim Won-soo, but also current Office of Human Resources Management chief Catherine Pollard.

But concurrently Ban's office has been dodging Press questions about how Pollard's OHRM has handled a sexual assault case. On September 22, 2011 a complaint was filed against an OHRM manager working at 380 Madison Avenue.

The complainaint says the New York Police Department was blocked from entering this UN-rented building to effectuate an arrest for sexual assault.

Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the top two spokesmen of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the incident, only to be told that the harassment claim is "sub judice" -- being investigated -- and can't be commented on.

As Inner City Press as asked about this, the UN spokesman have repeatedly blurred the barring of NYPD from entering to arrest a UN employee for harassment with a separate incident which Inner City Press witnessed last month after the UN allowed the Sri Lankan Mission to the UN to use UN Security to discourage press coverage of the presence at the UN Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations of General Shavendra Silva, whose 58th Division is identified in Ban's own Panel of Experts report as engaged in war crimes.

Seeking the UN's response and explanation for banning the NYPD, Inner City Press has provided increasingly detailed information, including citing a January 12, 2012 letter from OHRM chief Catherine Pollard, which we have put online here.

In the letter, Pollard acknowledges the complaint was filed on September 22, 2011. There is the applicable UN rule:

5.17 The officials appointed to conduct the fact-finding investigation shall prepare a detailed report, giving a full account of the facts that they have ascertained in the process and attaching documentary evidence, such as written statements by witnesses or any other documents or records relevant to the alleged prohibited conduct. This report shall be submitted to the responsible official normally no later than three months from the date of submission of the formal complaint or report.

Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky has refused to answer questions about this, or even to take them on these aspects of Ban's "Change Management." Watch this site.