Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, December 23 - One week ago about Sri Lanka, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "noted that the report of Sri Lanka's Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was tabled in parliament today and welcomed that it has been made public. The United Nations will be studying the report closely."
After a week of silence from Ban, even while the Sri Lankan government announced it would take legal action against non-governmental organizations which have joined the criticism for the LLRC report as no leading to accountability, Inner City Press on December 23 asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner City Press: a week ago I saw the statement by the Secretary-General that the UN will be studying the report closely and that he hopes that the Government of Sri Lanka would move forward to address accountability concerns in good faith. Today, the Ministry of External Affairs there has said that they will take legal action against NGOs which have criticized the lessons learned and reconciliation report. So I wonder, does that seem to be a good-faith response to the report, and also, in the week since their last statement has the UN actually studied the report and do they have any comment on it?
Spokesperson Nesirky: I think you can take it for granted that if we said the report is being studied, it is being studied. And if we have anything further then I will let you know. Other questions, please?
After that, Inner City Press inquired further with several Ban Ki-moon officials and learned that both the UN Department of Political Affairs and "Human Rights" have been asked to review and summarize the LLRC; the two summaries -- like "Cliff Notes" study aids, a/k/a Cheat Sheets -- will be put together and then and only then will Ban hear anything about it.
Ban & Mahinda Rajapaksa, threats to NGOs unacted on, Report not read?
And by then, more voices for accountability in Sri Lanka will have been targeted and silence. Good faith, indeed. Watch this site.