Removing Silva as UN Adviser Addressed Feb 17, Pakistan PR Tells ICP; No Thanks to Ban Ki-moon

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 16 -- For three weeks Inner City Press has asked the UN how it could accept as a UN "Senior Adviser on Peacekeeping Operations" of General Shavendra Silva, whose Division 58 is repeatedly named in connection with war crimes in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Panel of Experts report.

Ban's lead spokesman Martin Nesirky has said Ban can do nothing, and that Inner City Press should "ask the Asia group."

On February 13, Bangladesh's Permanent Representative Abulkalam Abdul Momen exclusively told Inner City Press that "we were surprised they sent a controversial participant... it's not fair."

Adding that Silva "individually is not acceptable," Abulkalam Abdul Momen told Inner City Press, "I, India and Pakistan, we have requested Sri Lanka to fix it up."

On February 14, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey about this, and was again told that Ban can do and has done nothing on this.

Outside the UN General Assembly meeting about Syria on February 15, the statement of Bangladesh's Momen was multiply confirmed to Inner City Press. Pakistan's Permanent Representative Abdullah Hussain Haroon told Inner City Press, "certainly we would like to see something beneficial happen, I think we are addressing the problem tomorrow."

This appears to be a meeting smaller than the Asia group as a whole, as another Asia group member told Inner City Press that "it should be Sri Lanka that fixes it, then the group will affirm it."

(Inside the GA, Haroon delivered one of the more nuanced speeches, that while some of Russia's amendments should have been accepted, Pakistan voted yes. Sri Lanka abstained.)

Prior to this development, the Sri Lankan Mission's action was to sent a letter of complaint to Inner City Press, sending a copy to Ban's spokesman as well as to some in the UN press corps.

Inner City Press in less than 24 hours published and responded to the letter, citing only some of the many references to Silva's Division 58 in the report.

Then, after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told Inner City Press on February 13 she had expressed her "concern" about Silva to Ban, the Sri Lankan mission issued a statement -- not to Inner City Press -- calling the concerns "unethical," and got it reported.

Earlier on February 16, Inner City Press observed Silva on the UN North Lawn Building's second floor, and asked him what he was doing there. He said he had a meeting. Accompanied by what could only be a bodyguard -- the individual stood back, looking in all directions -- Silva met with a slight man, on chairs by the men's room on the North Lawn's second floor.

It is hard to identify any other Deputy Permanent Representative in the UN system who has a bodyguard. Will Silva even remain as Deputy Permanent Representative? We'll see.

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

Footnote: a problem is that the "fix" offered by Sri Lanka to certain member states, according to these states, is to switch Silva for Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona, who is ALSO named in Ban's Panel of Experts report in connection with the so-called White Flag killings of people seeking to surrender. Watch this site.

From the UN's February 15 noon briefing transcript:

Inner City Press: A week ago, sitting where you are, Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous had said that on the appointment of this Shavendra Silva, the Sri Lankan general to be a senior adviser on peacekeeping, there was going to be further consideration. Martin said he’d ask him to see what he meant; he also told me to ask the Asian group, which I have, and the Bangladesh Permanent Representative has said that he and two other TCCs [troop-contributing countries] from Asia have told Sri Lanka to, quote “fix it”; that Mr. Silva is not acceptable. So, I wanted to know, is this what Mr. Ladsous was referring to and is the Secretariat playing no role whatsoever in seeking to fix having an alleged war criminal provide advice to Ban Ki-moon on peacekeeping?

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, I think Mr. Ladsous, and Martin and the Secretary-General have been very clear on this, it was a Member State decision. If Member States are taking actions, it is up to them to take whatever actions they see fit. But we are not going to comment on that because it is a Member State decision.

Question: So, just to be clear, if this does get fixed, the Secretary-General played no role whatsoever in blocking an alleged war criminal from advising him despite the advice of his own Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, just to quote you?

Deputy Spokesperson: Matthew, our position has been made very clear this is a Member State decision; it is for the Member States to decide.

Bangladesh PR Tells ICP Silva "Not Acceptable" As UN Adviser, He, India & Pakistan Have Told Sri Lanka to "Fix It"

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 13 -- The Sri Lankan government's first response to the more than two weeks of questions by Inner City Press about the appointment as a UN "Senior Adviser on Peacekeeping Operations" of General Shavendra Silva, whose Division 58 is repeatedly named in connection with war crimes in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Panel of Experts report, was to sent a letter of complaint to Inner City Press.

The Sri Lanka mission also sent copies to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman as well as to some in the UN press corps.

Then, after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told Inner City Press on February 13 she had expressed her "concern" about Silva to Ban, the Sri Lankan mission issued a statement -- not to Inner City Press -- calling the concerns "unethical," and got it reported.

But the concerns about Silva, Inner City Press has exclusively learned, extend to large Asian peacekeeping countries as well, and the Sri Lankan mission knows this, even as it sends out its missives .

Bangladesh' Permanent Representative Abulkalam Abdul Momen exclusively told Inner City Press, regarding Sri Lanka slipping in Silva as the Asian Group's representative on the Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, "we were surprised they sent a controversial participant... it's not fair."

Adding that Silva "individually is not acceptable," Abulkalam Abdul Momen told Inner City Press, "I, India and Pakistan, we have requested Sri Lanka to fix it up."

So even as Sri Lanka first attacked Inner City Press for calling Silva inappropriate as a UN adviser, then called Pillay "unethical," the Sri Lankan mission knew that three large Asian countries were saying Silva is "not acceptable" and that it must be "fixed."

Other sources say Sri Lanka has been seeking commitments not to push for accountability at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in exchange for switching Silva for Palitha Kohona, who also figures in the UN Panel of Experts report in connection with the White Flag murders of surrendees, in which Ban Ki-moon's own chief of staff Vijay Nambiar also played a role.

But with this Asian opposition known, does Sri Lanka's "leverage" decrease? Watch this site.

Footnotes: India and Pakistan are on the Security Council, which is on a trip this week to Haiti. India's Deputy Permanent Representative has headed back to India to prepare for a visit by the President of the General Assembly.

Inner City Press has repeated ask Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky to describe anything Ban or his team was doing about Silva as an adviser, and nothing has been said. So if and when this "fix" is made, it will be no-thanks to Ban Ki-moon.

Flaws in UN Aid to Central Africa Republic Detailed by Bangladesh Diplomat

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 7 -- After a UN meeting on "Civilian Capacities" from which civilians and the press were excluded on November 4, a detailed complaint about the endeavor and about the UN's engagement with civilians was made to Inner City Press by the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, Abulkalam Abdul Momen.

Momen told Inner City Press that inside the meeting, in a UN conference room that was far less than half full, he had described a recent and troubling trip to a country on the UN's Peacebuilding agenda, without in the meeting naming the country.

He said he visited UN projects in the rural part of the country and found that civil society groups and even direct neighbors had never heard of the projects.

He met with the president of the country, who said he did not know how much the UN spent in his country, or how. He said there are almost no roads in the country, "fifty years after independence."

Inner City Press asked him, "Is it the Central African Republic?" After hesitating, Momen said yes.

What was this meeting [closed]? (c) MRLee

Inner City Press has previously spoken about CAR with the head of the UN's Peacebuilding configuration for the country, Belgium's Permanent Representative Jan Grauls, who painted a rosier picture of things in CAR's capital, Bangui.

"There's not even a hotel there," Momen said. He contrasted CAR with his country and its vibrant civil society. When Inner City Press said, "Even the indigenous," referring to a previous story about complaints that Bangladesh denies it has indigenous people even in the Hill Tracks and uses their land to train UN peacekeepers, Momen laughed. Yes, vibrant.

Because the meeting was closed, Inner City Press had to wait until it ended to ask the presenter, the UN's chief of Field Support Susana Malcorra, about Momen's critique.

Malcorra told Inner City Press, that's why we had the meeting. She said, we have to focus on the needs of a country, not only on what the UN is already ready to deliver. We have to align ourselves with the plans of governments, she said.

Inner City Press asked her, what about governments which are killing their own people. Malcorra said the meeting was focus on "post-conflict" situations. But are those already without attacks on civilians? Now even in UN post conflict post child Liberia, political opponents are being shot by police.

The UN might benefit from having such meetings open, rather than reflexively keeping them closed to the press and public and making critiques diplomatically, without naming names. Public money is being spent, and it should all be public. Watch this site.