AS UN SECURITY COUNCIL HEARS OF SRI LANKA REPORT, RUSSIA OBJECTS

UNITED NATIONS, April 19 -- Sri Lanka and the UN Panel of Experts’ report were listed in advance as topics of the Security Council briefing on the afternoon of April 18 by UN Department of Political Affairs chief Lynn Pascoe.

The issues had been so listed even before the leak, presumptively by the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, of a summary of the report to a local newspaper, reports Matthew Russell Lee for the Inner City Press.

But after the leak, that was the main topic inside the Council, multiple sources told Inner City Press afterwards. It was said, inside the Council, that the government was the likely leaker. But a range of Council members said it made no sense to have a discussion of a partial leak rather than the whole report.

Just as Russia opposed any Council discussion of Sri Lanka during the final, bloody stages of the conflict in 2009, on April 18, 2011 in the Council Russia raised a number of “procedural” objections, sources told Inner City Press afterward.

It should be noted that in the cases of Ivory Coast, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon took action, even military action, over Russian objections. Now, Ban is on his way to Russia, seemingly to try to smooth that over and seek to protect his chances at a second term as Secretary General, which Russia could veto.

Will meaningful action on the UN Panel of Experts report on Sri Lanka be sacrificed to Ban’s drive for a second term? Questions the Inner City Press.

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GL SLAMS ‘COLONIAL’ RIGHTS GROUPS

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris rejected “colonial” criticism Tuesday of a government-appointed civil war probe, after foreign rights groups snubbed an invitation to attend. New York-based Human Rights Watch, London-based Amnesty International and Brussels-based International Crisis Group last week accused the panel of a cover-up and refused an offer from Colombo to appear before it. Peiris said in a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a leading think-tank based in London, that the rights groups had displayed a “most unattractive attitude.” “It smacks of an attitude that is almost colonial, patronising and condescending, the assumption being that other people must step in because Sri Lankans are unable to chart a course for their own future,” he said. Peiris, who is in London for talks with the British government, said the LLRC was based on similar reconciliation commissions in countries such as South Africa. He urged rights groups and

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