'Blame Russia and China for Sri Lanka failure, not UN's Ban'

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Ban Ki-Moon has come under attack for failing to push for a war crimes probe in Sri Lanka. But a former UN Deputy Secretary-General tells Channel 4 News Ban is powerless to defy Russia and China.

 

A former senior UN official has defended Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon after critics accused the UN chief of failing to take on China and Russia in pushing for a war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka.
Ban said he lacks the authority to personally order an inquiry into allegations of mass killings of civilians in the final months of the island nation's bloody civil war in 2009.
The advocacy group Human Rights Watch say he could set up an international investigation without the backing of the UN security council.
Critics say Ban is reluctant to take on China and Russia - veto-wielding permament council members who are against a probe into the Sri Lankan conflict - as he intends to stand for re-election for the UN's top job and needs their backing.    Full Story>>>
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With truth about Sri Lankan war crimes emerging, we need a proper inquiry

The government denied shelling hospitals or stopping aid – but a UN report says all this happened before the war with Tamil Tigers ended in 2009       

Gordon Weiss  guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 April 2011 18.43 BST

   

Tamil women and girls who escaped a rebel-held area following fighting between Sri Lanka's army and Tamil Tigers queue for water in a refugee camp in the north of the country in February 2009. Photograph: Nir Elias/Reuters

Sri Lanka's response to the release of a UN panel report on the end of the civil war by three eminent international judicial experts has been entirely predictable. After failing to stall its release altogether, the country's government has set about attacking it with its customary sledgehammer diplomacy. Unlike Libya, the battlefields in Sri Lanka were sealed off to reporters, preventing them from covering the alleged war crimes as they happened. The government is similarly hoping to limit coverage of the report.      Full Srory>>>