On Banning of Sri Lanka Film, UN's Ban Ki-moon Says It's Up to States, As Silva Lectures?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 25 – Ban Ki-moon's United Nations' ambivalent approach to war crimes in Sri Lanka continues. 

 Last week, Ban's spokesman told Inner City Press Ban is aware of the photographs showing the Army's execution of a 12 year old boy in 2009. The photos are in the new Channel 4 film, “No Fire Zone: Killing Fields of Sri Lanka.”

  Now the government is trying to ban the film from the session of the UN Human Rights Council that opened today. Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey if Ban thinks the film should be blocked from screening in UN premises.

  Del Buey had a prepared statement, which used the word “accountability” but again referred to a "national process" and said it is up to member states. Video here, from Minute 21:40.

  This is what Ban told Inner City Press when asked why he accepted Sri Lankan general Shavendra Silva as Senior Adviser on Peacekeeping Operations: "it was the member states that decided," he told Inner City Press: in that case, the Asia Group of states.

  (Now when the Asia-Pacific Group is Palestine as one of its three vice presidents for the upcoming Arms Trade Treaty, Inner City Press is reliably informed that a representative of Ban's Secretariat opined in closed door informal consultations that Palestine despite the November General Assembly vote that it is now a non-member observer STATE should have no more right to participate that last summer, when it sat in the corner. 

 Why isn't THIS up to the Asia Group and member states?)

 Sri Lankan sites are abuzz and a-Tweet with a photograph of Shavendra Silva with US military personnel, alternatively called Naval or Marines, giving a talk about defeating terrorism. Where did it take place? Did the US government allow it?

Footnote: The last “Killing Fields of Sri Lanka” film was not screened inside the UN in New York, though Sri Lanka's Mission to the UN including Shavendra Silva were invited in to present what they called their rebuttal. Click here for coverage by the Sri Lanka Campaign. This outrage reverberates still, here, this week, click to view. Watch this site.

As Sri Lanka PR Kohona Like UNCA Demands Apology, "Casa Pioli" On Market Against Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 9 -- While Sri Lankan government media uses a proceeding at the UN against Inner City Press as putting war crimes in the past, on June 8 in the UN's North Lawn building Inner City Press asked Sri Lankan Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona about two articles and one forthcoming.

  Kohona's answer was that the dogs would be called off "if you issue a public apology to me." 

 

  But Inner City Press' reporting that Kohona was involved in luring Tamil surrenderees to their deaths by summary execution is based on facts, including the recollection of the since deceased Marie Colvin.

 

  That Kohona paid money as rent to Giampaolo Pioli, the President of the UN Correspondents Association which has now "suspended" Inner City Press and began a "Board of Examination" with an eye toward total expulsion, has subsequently been admitted by Pioli himself.

   So it is striking that the demands of Kohona and Pioli are identical: a public apology, or else attacks that lead to threatening phone calls from Sinhalese extremists will continue. 

  Kohona may view this as just part of his job for the Rajapaksa government, like getting Pioli to let Sri Lanka screen inside the UN its video responding to UK Channel 4's documentary "Killing Fields of Sri Lanka" -- which was NOT shown in "Pioli's Playhouse" or elsewhere in the UN, due to a celebration for Ban Ki-moon.

 But for the president of a journalists' association to fan anti press freedom flames in order to extract a blanket apology for legitimate reporting on a conflict of interest is more surprising, and troubling.

   And increasingly the usually low (low) profile Pioli is being noticed. Ambassadors who had assumed that the "UNCA versus Inner City Press fight" was, as one of them put it early last week, "Reuters, AFP and Bloomberg as big media fighting a harder working blogger," now marvel at Pioli's deeds, and role.

  This being the UN, some see opportunity in all this, and are starting to inquire into how to pay for a place in what they call Casa Pioli. 

  Apparently, said one at a reception Friday night, if you pay rent to Pioli, he will use his position in UNCA to attack journalists who question your country.

   France, for example, has had some success in Pioli's UNCA, most directly through Timothy Witcher of Agence France Presse, which derives over 40% of its income from "subscriptions" to AFP by government offices. 

 

When the French Mission to the UN was shamed by Inner City Press' report that the Mission was unaware that the Sarkozy Administration had switched its candidate to head UN Peacekeeping from Jerome Bonnafont to Herve Ladsous, they got Witcher of AFP, through Pioli's UNCA, to spend weeks concocting a statement denouncing press use of what other journalists say. 

 

  (AFP was not the source, but this didn't matter. For the record, Witcher says he didn't "draft" the statement, but rather wanted greater punishment such as the lawless "suspension" Pioli meted out on June 8.)

So who wants to pay for space in Casa Pioli? Watch this site.

UK Blocks Sri Lanka's Silva Then Won't Confirm It, UN Erases Him From Transcript, Reinserts After Complaint

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 19 -- In the run up to a vote on Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, there is surprising silence in New York from the sponsor, the US, and also from the UK Mission. The UN of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, attempted to erase the issue even from its transcripts until an objection from Inner City Press.

Multiple sources say that the UK Mission made clear that Sri Lankan General Shavendra Silva, depicted in Ban's Panel of Experts report and UK Channel 4's "Killing Fields" as engaged in war crimes, should not attend a Commonwealth reception with Foreign Secretary William J. Hague.

But when Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Mark Lyall Grant to confirm and explain it at the UN on Monday, Lyall Grant declined to answer the question:

Inner City Press: if you could, I wanted to ask you one thing, if you could just say for the record, there’s the reports that this Commonwealth event that you deemed inappropriate, the presence of the DPR of Sri Lanka, given his record in the UN’s own report. Is that the case and could you say your reason for it?

Amb. Lyall Grant: I'm not going to comment...

Likewise requests to the US Mission to the UN for comment on Silva's continuing presence on Ban's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations have gone unresponded to, except for the statement that the Sri Lanka resolution is slated for a vote in Geneva on March 22, now apparently with India voting for the resolution.

Ban Ki-moon shakes with Silva, Kohona back to camera (c) MRLee

When Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among others, held a press conference last week, Inner City Press asked both groups about Silva and the SAG. Human Rights Watch said nothing; in the past, HRW has refused to provide even a summary of Ken Roth's meeting with Ban, ostensibly so HRW can retain "access."

Amnesty International's representative did provide an answer -- but when the UN issued its press release, the issue was not included. Inner City Press inquired, and the official of the UN unit in charge, to his credit, reviewed the recording and had the issue re-included:

The same correspondent [from Inner City Press] also asked about the "controversy" surrounding Sri Lankan General Shavendra Silva’s appointment to the Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations. The army division that official headed up had been cited in the report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka as having committed war crimes, he said. Mr. Pomi said that while he was unable to answer specific questions about the matter, he believed that the question of vetting was very important. “There are guidelines on that and the United Nations should apply them so that perpetrators do not enter the ranks of national army,” he said.

As for the "difficult" issue of screening out persons who would serve in the United Nations ranks — in peacekeeping or in other roles — he said, "What we would like to see is coherent and consistent policy by the United Nations to vet those applying for United Nations positions, especially in peacekeeping, because they work closely with local populations and with weapons."

And if such vetting were applied to Ban's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, it's hard to imagine Shavendra Silva passing the test. Watch this site.

No Comment by UN on Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, UK Speaks of Accountability

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 -- The day after the premiere of an hour long documentary showing UN staff in Sri Lanka who called in the GPS coordinates of a UN hub that was then shelled by the government, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Inner City Press "I haven't seen this documentatry, I don't have any comment on it." Video here, from Minute 9:43.

Inner City Press asked about the appearance in the documentary of General Shavendra Silva, now on Ban's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, calling a "frontal assault" on Putumattalan which killed 1500 civilians "very successful" - how can Ban accept his as an adviser? Again there was no response.

Click here to view: for Silva from Minute 21:56, for UN staff from 5:50.

Minutes earlier Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Representative to the UN Sir Mark Lyall Grant, this month's Security Council president, about the film:

Inner City Press: on UK Channel 4 last night there was a broadcast called “Killing Fields” which [is] about Sri Lanka, this seems to have caused quite a storm in the UK, depicting what they call war crimes, and depicting the DPR of Sri Lanka here, who’s now a UN Senior Advisor on Peacekeeping, as being at the scenes of one of the crimes and saying it was highly successful. I wanted to know what’s the UK Government’s reaction to this new showing, and both within the UN and elsewhere, what’s the response?

Amb. Lyall Grant: in my national capacity, you asked about Sri Lanka. Our view has always been that accountability is extremely important, including in Sri Lanka. There have been a number of international commissions, there have been some Sri Lankan commissions. We believe that all allegations of human rights abuses should be investigated, and those who are held accountable and are found to be guilty of those crimes should be brought to justice. That remains our position but I’m not going to comment on certain individuals against whom allegations may have been made and I haven’t seen the report that you mentioned last night on British TV.

Video here, from Minute 22. Minutes later the UK Mission informed Inner City Press that Alistair Burt had issued a statement, which is now on the web, here.

Burt cites to a weak resolution pending in the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Within the UN, almost always on background, there are suggestions at the UN that l'affaire Silva can be solved by substituting Palitha Kohona, who was also involved in the so-called White Flag killing of surrenderees and has overseen the Sri Lankan Mission's vituperative defense while not producing Silva to answer questions.

Ban Ki-moon shook Silva's hand, and berated his own staff in front of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa. War crimes unpunished, indeed.

As UK Film Shows Sri Lankan General Silva Bragging of Killing 1500 Civilians, What Will UN &Ban Ki-moon Say?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 -- During the killing of tens of thousands of civilians by the Sri Lankan government in 2009, the UN withheld its own count of casualties, withdrew its international staff and even played a role in luring to surrender people who were then summarily executed.

The UN Secretariat never called for a ceasefire, and the UN Security Council never had a formal meeting on the mass killings. Now one of the military leaders of the campaign, Brigadier General Shavendra Silva, has been made a part of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, and Ban has had nothing to say beyond "it's up to member states."

Silva appears in UK Channel 4's "Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished," which premiered last night on television in the UK, and re-appeared overnight on YouTube. Click here to view, for Silva from Minute 21:56.

The documentary focused on four particular war crimes, including an assault on Putumattalan which killed at least 1,500 civilians.

The direct assault was carried out by the 58th Division under the command of Shavendra Silva, who appears on screen describing it as "very successful."

While the Sri Lankan Mission to the UN has in a letter sent to Ban's spokesman's office and select UN scribes attacked Inner City Press for writing about Silva, claiming as subsequently did some in the UN Asia Group that Silva's 58th Division is not directly indicted in the UN Panel of Experts report, this new footage including Silva's bragging should put an end to that.

With so much talk at the UN about accountability, how can the general who led and bragged about the killing of 1,500 civilians continue as an adviser to the UN on peacekeeping? We'll see.

The documentary also has former UK foreign minister David Miliband and former UN humanitarian chief John Holmes taking positions much more protective of civilians than what either did when they had power. Holmes, for example, resisted calling for a ceasefire.

On the May 2009 trip to Sri Lanka with Ban Ki-moon and his outgoing political chief Lynn Pascoe, which Inner City Press went on and covered, Holmes on the record on the plane bemoaned all the e-mail pleas he was receiving from Tamils, saying "I just delete them."

After from Colombo Inner City Press reported the quote, Holmes demanded that it be removed, using other journalists from UK-based media organizations to pressure Inner City Press. Maybe he misspoke. Now in a cushy academic job, Holmes says Sri Lanka got away with it. Yes: with the UN's and OCHA's help.

Holmes refusal in 2009 to call for a ceasefire stands in contrast to his successor Baroness Valerie Amos' stance on Syria. But is this a personal or political difference?

Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN "does the UK have a position on if it is appropriate that Sri Lankan Brigadier General Shavendra Silva serve on the UN Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, given the way he and his 58th Division are depicted in the S-G's Panel of Experts' Report on Sri Lanka, and in UK Channel 4 films, past and to be broadcast in the UK tomorrow night?"

Midday on March 14, UK Mission spokesman Daniel Shepherd replied that the UK "highly values the Senior Advisory Group, and our own representative on it will work to help the Group come up with the best possible recommendations on the issues they are addressing. The Chairperson of the SAG has, following consultation with other SAG members, advised Major General Shavendra Silva that his participation is not appropriate or helpful for the purposes of the Group. We understand that he will not participate in its deliberations."

That is still by no means certain. Inner City Press covered the Asia Group meeting at which Sri Lanka tried to rally other countries in the Group to the defense of Silva; Ban Ki-moon has not spoken in support of Frechette.

Despite the harrowing footage and the high number of civilians killed, the Sri Lanka issue does not have the traction of Syria, or even #Kony2012. As viewers, mostly in the UK, tweeted about the film on Wednesday night, many expressed disgust at Ban's UN and said that if Sri Lanka had a lot of oil, the West would have intervened as it did in Libya.

But there are others not directly interested in oil who have held back on Sri Lanka, perhaps due to the specter of terrorism. To a three organization panel at the UN on March 14, Inner City Press asked if Silva's position as UN adviser on peacekeeping, and Ban Ki-moon silence, were appropriate.

The representative of Amnesty International said that advisers should be "vetted" for war crimes. But the representative of Human Rights Watch, when asked Wednesday on UN TV, had nothing to say on the topic. Video here, at end. HRW has previously refused to even summarize its boss Ken Roth's meeting with Ban Ki-moon, saying that to do so might undermine HRW's "access." Access for what?

There are many for whom it is convenient that the killing of tens of thousand of civilians in Sri Lanka in 2009 slip into the past without accountability.

There is a weak resolution pending in the Human Rights Council in Geneva; there are suggestions at the UN that l'affaire Silva can be solved by substituting Palitha Kohona, who was also involved in the so-called White Flag killing of surrenderees and has overseen the Sri Lankan Mission's vituperative defense while not producing Silva to answer questions.

Kohona and Silva appeared together at the UN to show a government film purporting to rebut the first Killing Fields documentary, which itself was not screened in the UN. As exposed by Inner City Press in video, Ban Ki-moon made time to watch the government "rebuttal" before he ever watched Killing Fields I. What will Ban say about Killing Fields II?

Ban Ki-moon shook Silva's hand, and berated his own staff in front of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa. War crimes unpunished, indeed.