By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- Rapes in Sri Lanka, about which the UN's Zainab Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, publicly expressed concern on April 24, are the subject of a session at Canada's Mission to the UN on May 6.
Scheduled to attend representing Sri Lanka is controversial military figure Shavendra Silva, Inner City Press has learned. Soldiers under Silva's command were depicted engaged in war crimes in the UN's own Sri Lanka report; here is a story of Silva spinning at the UN, and some aftermath.
Accompanying Shavendra Silva to Canada's Mission on Second Avenue would be First Secretary Varuni Muthukumarana and "Documentation Officer" Dilup Nanayakkara. Among delegations slated to attend are New Zealand, Montenegro, South Africa and Norway.
It is a doubly-timely topic at the UN, the day after the 130 rapes at Minova by two Congolese army units which still receive support from the UN's MONUSCO mission resulted in a mere two convictions and three dozen exhonerations. A Press question on how this relates to the UN stated Human Rights Due Diligence Policy is pending at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
Inner City Press send questions to Canada's mission to the UN; the mission's Senior Political and Public Affairs Officer Patrick Travers replied, "Thank you for your inquiry regarding the meeting on sexual violence in Sri Lanka being held today in our Permanent Mission. As the meeting is closed, we will not be able to extend invitations to the press and have no comment at this time."
The rapists in Sri Lanka have not even been prosecuted, or are being facilely cleared, as were the Sri Lankan "peacekeepers" repatriated from Haiti. We'll have more on this.
Back on April 24 Inner City Press asked Bangura about the rapes in Sri Lanka and what if anything the UN is doing about it. UN video here from Minute 15:15, Inner City Press video here and embedded below.
Bangura replied that she is "concerned, worried" and has spoken with Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative, Palitha Kohona, about it, urging him that Sri Lanka designate a "focal person" on the issue. It is not Kohona slated to attend on May 5, but his deputy Shavendra Silva.
Inner City Press asked about the report authored by Yasmin Sooka, who previously served on one of the UN's panels looking at war crimes in Sri Lanka and who will give a briefing at the May 5 meeting, along with Kirsty Brimmelow. Here is a link to the report.
Earlier in April, Inner City Press asked yet another former UN panelist on Sri Lanka, Marzuki Darusman, if he thought the UN's response to his report had been successful. Darusman cited the example of Cambodia, for the proposition that justice can take a long time. But how long?
The UN can't even keep track of its own statements. On alleged rapes by UN peacekeepers in Mali, the UN told Inner City Press in January that the investigation was finished. Then on April 23, the UN's Mali envoy Bert Koenders said it won't be finished for two or three weeks, but predicted or pretold that the UN peacekeepers will be cleared.
Bangura, when Inner City Press asked, didn't know which was true, or any update on the rape charges against UN peacekeepers themselves.
Combined with the UN's refusal to be accountable for, or even acknowledge service of legal papers on Ban Ki-moon about, bringing cholera to Haiti, how can the UN effectively push for accountability by anyone else? We'll see. Watch this site.