As Ban Ki-Moon Meets Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka, Shavendra Silva There, Where's Report?
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Sri Lanka president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday at 6 pm, another Sri Lankan official came into the meeting room.
It was Shavendra Silva, a military figure whose Army unit was depicted engaged in war crimes in the UN's own report on Sri Lanka.
Ban previously accepted Silva on his Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations, telling Inner City Press it was a decision of member states.
But was Ban told that Silva would be coming up with Minister Peiris and Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona? First photo here.
Inner City Press was up for the photo-op. Silva came into the room, started walking toward the middle of the table where Mahinda Rajapaksa signed Ban's UN book. But then Silva retreated to the back, and then walked out of the room.Second photo here; third photo here.
Did Silva re-enter after the photographers were ordered out? Inner City Press remained on the 38th floor, with others, for Ban's meeting with Evo Morales of Bolivia. When the Sri Lanka meeting ended, two other UN officials came out: Political Affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, and human rights official Ivan Simonovic.
But where was the UN report on its inaction in 2009, which Ban has had since August? Will it be released? Or play hide and seek like Silva? Watch this site.
Then this read-out:
Readout of the Secretary-General’s meeting with H.E. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
The Secretary-General met today with H.E. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. They exchanged views on the post-conflict situation in Sri Lanka and the country’s cooperation with the United Nations. The Secretary-General noted the Government’s latest efforts to conduct the provincial elections and to implement the recommendations of its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. The Secretary-General also addressed the remaining challenges in reconciliation and emphasized the need for a more holistic approach.
New York, 24 September 2013
The controversial Deputy Head of Mission to Sri Lanka’s representative office to the UN in New York, Major General Shavendra Silva made a brief entry and exit into the meeting between President Mahinda Rajapaksaand UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon yesterday.
Controversial Diplomat Shavendra Silva Slips In And Out Of Mahinda-Ban Meeting
September 25, 2013
The controversial Deputy Head of Mission to Sri Lanka’s representative office to the UN in New York, Major General Shavendra Silva made a brief entry and exit into the meeting between President Mahinda Rajapaksaand UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon yesterday.
Major General Shavendra Silva
De Silva was pictured briefly leading the Presidential delegation but walked out soon afterwards and did not remain inside the meeting room for the Rajapaksa-Ban talks, sources said.
De Silva was recently excluded from participating in the deliberations of a committee on Peace Keeping Operations advising the UN Secretary General.
The Sri Lankan diplomat was General Officer Commanding of the military’s controversial 58 Division that battled the LTTE in the Wanni in the final days of the conflict. The UN Panel of Experts Report alleged that it was in surrendering to Silva’s 58 Division that several LTTE members were shot dead. The Major General is also the subject of a US lawsuit that accuses him of war crimes.
During the meeting with President Rajapaksa, Ban called for a holistic approach in dealing with the island’s outstanding problems of reconciliation and noted the conduct of the recently concluded Northern provincial elections. Read More
