By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 8 -- On Sri Lanka, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday insisted to Inner City Press that “there was an agreement” and that his “Panel will visit Sri Lanka.”
But not only have seven weeks gone by since Ban praised President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his “flexibility” and announced his Panel on Accountability would go -- since then, a range of UN officials have acknowledged that Sri Lanka has now refused to let the UN Panel go and speak with Rajapaksa's Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission.
Inner City Press has it from both sides that the UN is now offering a mere video conference call or even answers to written questions.
So much for the agreement.
Left unanswered, still, is with whom the stated agreement was.
From the UN's transcript of Q&A with Mr. Ban on Tuesday:
Inner City Press: Sri Lanka – I need to ask you this. In both of your two last monthly press conferences, you said that your Panel was going to travel to the country, you praised President Rajapaksa’s flexibility. It now appears, and I’ve now heard from people on both sides that the Panel is probably not going to go, that they’ve offered a video conference. I just wondered what happened. Who did you speak with before you said that they could go and how do you read this now, with their failure to go, as the deadline approaches?
SG Ban: I can tell you that there was an agreement and that my Panel will visit Sri Lanka and they are still discussing about the format and their role in Sri Lanka. And whenever it is decided, I will let you know.
{Inner City Press: If they don't go, their work is not finished?}
SG Ban: I didn’t say that they [wouldn’t] go.
{Inner City Press: They will go?}
SG Ban: They will try to go anyway.
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