UN ambivalent on Advisory Panel's agenda

United Nation's Secretary General (UNSG), Ban Ki Moon, told the Inner City Press that the members of the Advisory Panel on Sri Lanka "are now working very seriously on finalizing the dates of visiting Sri Lanka," and responding to a question that the panel cannot investigate anything [on Sri Lanka's war crimes], Ban replied, "[t]hey will be able to...They are now discussing that." ICP's Matthew Lee notes that "[t]his again in contradictory to what the Sri Lankan government has said, and even to what Ban's spokespeople have said. Ban's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq, bypassing Inner City Press' outstanding questions, told BBC's Sinhala service that the Panel might only meet the LLRC outside Sri Lanka."

Mr Lee was prevented from asking questions to Ban Ki Moon during his 45-minute conference, but was able to obtain Ban's response when Ban passed by the Dag Hammarskold library after the press briefing Friday.

United Nation's checkered history in monitoring, exposing rights abuses, and taking effective action to prevent, prosecute egregious rights violations and war crimes in Sri Lanka has propelled the actions of the Advisory Panel into spotlight. The recent US Embassy cable leaks which accused the Rajapakses as largely responsible for war-crimes in Sri Lanka, and that the Sri Lanka's commission as anything but a "dud commission" have provided further urgency for the last potent instrument of the UN, the Advisory Panel, to take bold and decisive action on Sri Lanka, expatriate Tamil observers say.

TamilNet coverage of UN's defective handling of Sri Lanka's war provides a stinging testimony of inaction, signs of collusion, and deliberate attempts to whitewash Colombo's crimes:

Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, who was sent to Sri Lanka as the United Nations envoy to report on the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the beaches of Mullaiththeevu has expressed reluctance to have "even a closed door briefing" on the crisis.
UN withheld casualty figures and satellite information on the no-fire zone in Sri Lanka, while it released such information on Gaza was the question put to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
UN passes a resolution commending Sri Lanka in its conduct of war. "This is one of the most unprincipled and shameless resolutions ever adopted by any body of the United Nations in the history of that now benighted Organization. It would be as if the U.N. Human Rights Council had congratulated the Nazi government for the "liberation" of the Jews in Poland after its illegal and genocidal invasion of that country in 1939," said Francis Boyle, professor of International Law.
During the final days of the fighting in Sri Lanka, that Vijay Nambiar was telephoned by leaders who sought to surrender, who ended up being killed. So, there is a big controversy right now in Sri Lanka about the charge that the Defence Minister, with whom Mr. Ban has met, gave the orders to kill surrendering prisoners.
Sri Lanka’s military massacred as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final onslaught against the Liberation Tigers in 2009, according to a former United Nations official with detailed knowledge of events, press reports said. The former United Nations’ spokesperson in Sri Lanka, Gordon Weiss, has resigned from the UN after 14 years and returned home to Australia, where he was interviewed by ABC News.
The statement made by the United Nations spokes person and the news release from Sri Lanka's President office, after the meeting between the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, and Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa in New York Friday raised doubts if there is any collusion between the two officials to interfere with the mandate by the UN appointed war-crimes advisory panel, a report filed by Inner City Press strongly suggested.
Unchecked for the role he played in the genocide of Eezham Tamils last year, Vijay Nambiar’s UN villainy is now targeting ethnicities struggling in Burma. The Burmese military now plans to adopt the Rajapaksa doctrine of military solution to the national question in Burma, with the backing of the same establishments that backed Rajapaksa, and Vijay Nambiar is in the scene again, facilitating the agenda and shielding the war crimes.

ICP:

Ban Says Panel “Finalizing” Sri Lanka Dates

GENOCIDE SRILANKA

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UN ambivalent on Advisory Panel's agenda