In Sri Lanka, US Samantha Power Now Cites Ranil, Accountability Questions by Free UN Coalition for Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 8 -- On Sri Lanka's election, after Mahinda Rajapaksa conceded defeat but before 10:30 pm on January 8 in Washington, US Secretary of State issued a statement, below. 

  Inner City Press published it, and asked the UN for its comment. Told to expect one in the AM, New York time, Inner City Press noted, the earlier the better. Twelve hours later, nothing  (but see below).

 Now at 8 pm on January 9, US Ambassador Samantha Power has chimed in, and we publish it in full:

"I congratulate the people of Sri Lanka for successfully concluding their elections and I salute the efforts of the Sri Lankan Elections Commissioner, security forces, members of civil society, and the candidates themselves, who worked to ensure a peaceful environment for voters to exercise their rights. The country’s constitutional transfer of power is further proof of the strength of Sri Lanka’s democracy.

"The United States looks forward to working with the people of Sri Lanka, President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the Sri Lankan government to strengthen democracy and human rights, and ensure a better future for all Sri Lankans."

  Some questioned whether Power said enough during the Bloodbath on the Beach in 2009, and since. The point, now, is what is done to ensure that there is accountability. We will cover this.

  Earlier on January 9 Inner City Press asked at the noon briefing, after new President Sirisena's inauguration, and UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said the UN welcomes the transfer of power, then later in the briefing read out this statement:

"The Secretary-General congratulates the people of Sri Lanka on the successful conclusion of the presidential election, and welcomes the constitutional transfer of power.

"The Secretary-General applauds the Sri Lankan Elections Commission for its professionalism in ensuring a peaceful and credible election. He also commends the efforts of the candidates, including in particular outgoing President Mahinda Rajapaksa, law enforcement agencies and civil society for upholding and respecting democratic governance.

"The Secretary-General looks forward to working with President Maithripala Sirisena and the people of Sri Lanka. He affirms the continuous support of the United Nations for development, reconciliation, political dialogue and accountability in Sri Lanka."

  Inner City Press immediately asked Haq if what this reference to accountability portends for the UN inquiry into the events in 2009. We'll have more on this.

  Amnesty International has said that "Sri Lanka has for years resisted all international efforts to investigate the conflict years, and instead relied on domestic investigation bodies that toed the government line. This has to end – the new government should cooperate fully with the UN investigation.”

   Watch this site.

  In other possible routes to accountability, talk of seeking justice in US courts as to several joint American citizens in Team Rajapaksa - or on the team during the 2009 "Bloodbath on the Beach" -- has picked up. Some team members have reportedly already left the country: we'll have more on this.

 Kerry said:

STATEMENT BY SECRETARY KERRY

January 8, 2015

Conclusion of Sri Lankan Elections and Election of Maithripala Sirisena

The Sri Lankan people deserve great credit on the successful conclusion of their elections.  They turned out in great numbers to exercise their democratic rights and every vote was a victory for Sri Lanka.

The United States applauds the Sri Lankan Elections Commissioner, the security forces, Sri Lankan civil society, and the candidates themselves for making sure this election was not marred by unrest and for ensuring a significant drop in campaign-related violence. It will be important for that effort to continue in the coming days.

I commend President Rajapaksa for accepting the results of the election in the proud tradition of peaceful and orderly transfers of power in Sri Lanka. His words tonight about accepting the verdict of the people and moving forward are important.

I look forward to working with President-elect Maithripala Sirisena as his new government works to implement its campaign platform of a Sri Lanka that is peaceful, inclusive, democratic, and prosperous."

  It's done. But what does it portend for the Rajapaksas' military / diplomatic corps, like Shavendra Silva and in New York, Palitha Kohona?

   

On Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim Speaks on White Flag Killings, Palitha Kohona, UN Theater

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 9 -- On Sri Lanka, the UN has entirely stonewalled Press questions about the new White Flag killings report and the light it sheds on current UN official Vijay Nambiar and former UN official, now Sri Lankan Ambassador Palitha Kohona.

Now Erik Solheim of Norway has given an interview and said:

Solheim: On 17 May, 2009, the Norwegians and others received calls by Pulidevan and Nadesan who wanted to surrender. We told them it was too late for us to arrange anything and advised them to hoist a white flag. On 18 May, we were informed they were killed.

Q: However, Dr. Palitha Kohona declared, after the war, that the LTTE senior militants shot and killed Prabhakran and his immediate members as they did not want anyone to surrender to government troops. Isn't this a possibility?

Solheim: You will have a huge difficulty finding any other person believing this story.

  In the UN, however, when Inner City Press reported on the background to Kohona getting the Rajapaksa government's denial of war crimes, “Lies Agreed To,” screened in the Dag Hammarjkold Library auditorium, the reaction from the then-president and executive committee of the United Nations Correspondents Association are summarized here. One wag wondered whether the 2009 Bloodbath on the Beach has now been echoed as Blowhards on the Beach, here.

   In Sri Lanka now the Rajapaksa government blocks websites it doesn't like. The UNCA board asked that Inner City Press articles be removed from the internet. This was refused. One UNCA board member claimed to Google that his “for the record” complaint to the UN trying to get Inner City Press thrown out was in fact private and “copyrighted.”  Here is a response from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

   This got it banned from Google's Search, under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which threatens to be globalized through the Trans Pacific Partnership. Who said there is not censorship in the UN, and in the United States?

  Now the new Free UN Coalition for Access opposes all of this, and attacks on media work both inside the UN andfurther afield. Solheim has said he is willing to testify; outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay's said to be eying Sandra Beidas to head the probe. Watch this site.

   

On Sri Lanka, After Inner City Press Publishes Ban Ki-moon's Post-Failure Plan, His Spokesperson Says It "May Not Exist" - But See Video

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 17 -- Ever since the UN of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did nothing, and worse, as 40,000 civilians were killed in Sri Lanka in 2009, its officials and spokespeople have claimed they want to learn from what happened.

  But now, not only did the UN withhold its internal report on the lesson learned. After Inner City Press obtained andexclusively published the report on October 11 and Ban's associate spokesperson Farhan Haq answered Press questions about it, today lead spokesperson Martin Nesirky said that nothing had been confirmed, the documents referred to "may or may not exist." 

   Well, it exists and cannot be covered up. Inner City Pressput it online here.

  Asking about the UN system human rights plan citing failure in Sri Lanka as its impetus, which it published on October 14, Inner City Press sought clarification from Nesirky: was this proposal to merge "Rule of Law" into human rights the UN's main response?

Nesirky replied that Inner City Press must be a "member of the magic circle," since it cites "documents that may or may not exist."

Really? Here is the post Sri Lanka "action plan" which Inner City Press published on October 11.

Here is the UN system human rights / rule of law proposal Inner City Press published on October 14.

Back on October 11, Nesirky's associate Farhan Haq told Inner City Press "in terms of other information that we can put out, we’ll be preparing a summary of the Action Plan."

Actually, the "one pager" of the action plan already existed. Inner City Press had it, and now publishes it here.

  The UN already failed, massively, in Sri Lanka in 2009. Why would it now be trying to deny the existence of its own reports into the matter? We will have more on this. Watch this site.

Footnote: Despite Nesirky saying he had read the UN's transcript of what his associate Farhan Haq said on October 11, when his office called "the lid is on" and closed at 6:30 pm on October 17, the day's noon briefing transcript had still not been put online.

  Inner City Press has noted that these UN transcripts are intentionally inaccurate, for example when Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson was the guest, omitted the name "Free UN Coalition for Access" which the UN otherwise tries to silence but leaving in "UN Correspondents Association," Ban's UN Censorship Alliance (including on Sri Lanka, here).

 So we are using video now, as more trustworthy. Click here for a sample, and there will be more.

   

After Inner City Pres Publishes UN Sri Lanka Report, Spokesperson Admits "No Fire Zone" Didn't Work - But It's Worse Than That

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 11 -- After Inner City Pressexclusively published the UN's internal report on its "systemic failure" in Sri Lanka in 2009, on Friday Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's associate spokesperson Farhan Haq said that the UN had called for "safe zones." 

  Inner City Press asked if this was the notorious "No Fire Zone" in which tens of thousands were killed, which even the UN's John Holmes called the Bloodbath on the Beach. Video here, from Minute 25:27.

  Haq replied of the idea of "safe zones" and "days for halting" conflict that "many of those concepts did not work out or be implemented in the way we would have wanted them to be."

  You don't say. But did the UN call for a ceasefire? No. Did it say anything about the weapons bought or used by the Sri Lankan government? No.

  Now that Inner City Press has published the internal report, with its call for the Deputy Secretary General to take issues to the Security Council, when will it be implemented? Inner City Press asked, and Haq said, "this is something we're going to be in dialogue with member states about." Video here from Minute 6:07. 

 Haq said the Secretariat would be briefing NGOs and "the media" - when?

Now that the report has been obtained and published, it's time for the UN to speak out more.

  Since the slaughter, the UN has accepted one of the most involved military figures, Shavendra Silva, on the UN Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations; this month, Silva's putative boss Palitha Kohona, also involved, took over the chair of the UN General Assembly's Sixth (Legal) Committee.

  So what was learned from the cited 1999 Independent Inquiry on UN Action in Rwanda and the 1999 review on the fall of Srebrenica?

  Syria is cited in, and explains, this "Plan of Action to strengthen the UN’s role in protecting people in crises." The report says: "Today we are witnessing the agony of the Syrian people. That conflict is a test - not just of Member States’ will to fulfil their responsibilities, but of the UN’s ability to use all the tools at its disposal to make sure that people are protected."

  Again, this may explain the report: while the Western P3 members of the Security Council, the US, France and UK, did not much or at all push Ban Ki-moon to "do something" about the slaughter in Sri Lanka -- the UK is holding its Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting there -- they are pushing, and hard, on the issue of Syria and ousting Bashar al Assad. So, now a UN report and plan for "Rights Up Front." What next? 

The plan says the UN will "hold accountable staff, particularly at senior levels." But if the UN can't even admit and apologize for bringing cholera to Haiti, what does accountability mean?

  If Ban's UN allows its head of peacekeeping Herve Ladsous to openly refuse to answer Press questions about mass rape by his partners in the Congolese Army, where is the accountability? Now that farce has been reported this week in the UK New Statesman, here.

 This comes after the UN's Censorship Alliance tried to oust Inner City Press for its Sri Lanka reporting, then spied against it to the UN, click here for that; it is the new Free UN Coalition for Access, despite threats from the UN, now working to further open the UN.

Watch this site.

   

On Sri Lanka, Deputy SG Eliasson Cites UN's "Systemic Failures," But Report Not Yet to Ban, Nor Public

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 3 -- Now more than four years after the UN's “systemic failure” during the killing of 40,000 civilians in Sri Lanka in May 2009, Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson has before him a report about the UN's failures and what can be done.

Inner City Press asked Eliasson about the process on May 9, 2013; he said the report would be finished and in front of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon by “mid-June.”

  Once mid-June came and went, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson about the report, but got nowhere. So on July 3 when Eliasson re-appeared to brief about his trip to Afghanistan, Inner City Press asked again.

  Eliasson said the report was given to him on June 17, but not yet to Ban Ki-moon. He said it is up to him and his colleagues in the Executive Office of the Secretary General to go through the report and draw conclusions, about “human rights early warning signals” and how to be ready to act quickly, as did not happen in 2009.

  Then, as Inner City Press reported daily in detail, the UN pulled out of Kilinochchi in northern Sri Lanka, did little when the government locked up local UN staff, and did not even call for a ceasefire in the run up to the bloodbath on the beach. There was murdering -- and apparently misleading -- of surrenderees.

  Since then there has been little to no accountability, and the Secretariat did nothing when Sri Lanka maneuvered to make military figure Shavendra Silva, depicted in the UN's own report as engaged in war crimes, a member of the UN Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

  It is still a troubling tale, and one wonders if Eliasson can move to at least turn it around somewhat. Inner City Press asked -- over the spokesperson's objection -- whether the report will be public. Eliasson said that will be up to Ban Ki-moon, but pledged “maximum transparency.” Watch this site.

Footnote: while Ban's deputy spokesman tried to disallow a single follow up on Sri Lanka and if the report will be public, he allowed two UNCA executive committee members follow ups, and gave one of them a second round of questions.

  UNCA is the group which screened, inside the UN's Dag Hammaskjold Library Auditorium, the Sri Lankan government's film denying war crimes, then tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN for writing about it.

  Following that, Inner City Press co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access to defend journalists from these type of insider attacks. The result has been... more attacks, including most recently threats from the UN to suspend or withdraw Inner City Press' accreditation for merely hanging a sign of the Free UN Coalition for Access on the door of its office, while UNCA is allowed two big signs and more.

This is being fought back, taking the battle beyond the space and other issues on which the UN openly favors UNCA to the online world, through @FUNCA_info. Watch that feed, and this site.

  

At UN on Sri Lanka, Ban Ki-moon Panel Under Deputy Eliasson Met Egeland, De Mistura and Schulenburg, To Finish in June: Public?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 -- Four years ago in May 2009 the Sri Lankan Army was advancing north toward a "bloodbath on the beach" in which tens of thousands of civilians were killed.

  The UN has been criticized for its inaction (and some of its actions) in Sri Lanka, and is now again studying itself to come up with recommendations. A panel under Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson was announced, in response to an Inner City Press question, on December 5, 2012. What has it accomplished?

  On May 9, 2013 Inner City Press asked Eliasson where things stand. He answered that earlier in the day he had an hour and a half meeting about the Sri Lanka review, by video, with such "outside experts" as Staffan De Mistura, Jan Egeland and Michael von Schulenburg, who was thrown out of Sierra Leone.

(The 2009 successor to Egeland and Eliasson as Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, has been interfacing with UN-linked NGOs, but apparently not on this report on Sri Lanka. When Inner City Press quoted him about deleting at least some e-mails from Tamils, his staff complained with UN Media Accreditation. And see second footnote below.)

The goal, Eliasson said, is to come up with recommendations to not have this happen again (he cited Myanmar and Syria). He will get the report, from two of his staff members and Michael Keating, and assess it and give it to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, all by mid-June.

Will the report be public? That is a question that will be asked. Watch this site.

Footnotes: 1) Following up, Inner City Press asked the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay if there has been any progress on her visiting Sri Lanka. The answer was, Discussions continuing with Sri Lanka on possible dates.."

  2) When the Sri Lankan government screened its war crimes defense film inside the UN and Inner City Press wrote about it and some background, a fight began that continues to this day. Most recently, a pro government Sri Lankan told Inner City Press they will "complain to UNCA." And what? (Though even the threat is quite telling.) Due to attempts at censorship, for example demands that articles be taken down, Inner City Press co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access. So, send away. We may have more on this.