Matthew Lee of the Inner City Press in the UN has been chasing aggressively various stories concerning Sri Lanka. Here is what transpired between him and Martin Nesirky at the UN noon briefing this week.
Lee: On Sri Lanka, on this Panel of Experts.
I saw them yesterday in the North Lawn Building. Does this mean that the four-month clock for them to produce the report has begun? Also I'm aware they met with Mr. [B. Lynn] Pascoe and Mr. [Nicholas Fink] Haysom. Did they meet with anyone else? They went into the DC-1 building; are they going to have offices there? What's the staffing going to be? Is Jessica Neuwirth, in fact, going to lead the staff? What can you now say about the Panel, now that they were all three here and met yesterday?
Spokesperson Nesirky : The experts who will be advising the Secretary-General on Sri Lanka are indeed in New York. Well-spotted. They're here for three days of initial meetings and briefings. They are meeting amongst themselves, as I believe you were privy to, and with their staff, and as you also said, they would be meeting with senior Secretariat officials.
However, contrary to what you are saying, the four-month clock did not start in the North Lawn Building when they were chatting. It does not start from this first series of meetings. They are constituting the Panel, pulling together the small staff team that will be working with them full-time for the duration of the work of the Panel. In addition, no, you're wrong on who is the Chief of Staff of the Panel of Experts.
The Chief of Staff of the Panel of Experts, which is under the umbrella of OHCHR [Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights], is Richard Bennett, who until now was the Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal. He also held a similar position in Afghanistan before that. You asked who else the Panel members will be meeting; well, it includes the Under-Secretaries-General for Political, Humanitarian and Legal Affairs, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Chef de Cabinet, and as you also already saw or guessed, the Political Director in the Office of the Secretary-General.
Just finally on the staffing, you asked about details on staffing; we don't go into details on staff on a technical level. But as I said, it's a small staff, they will be working full-time for the duration of the Panel, and it includes people who obviously have the appropriate experience in relation to the topic at hand.
Kiriella's quip on consensus and crossovers
It was UNP frontliner Lakshman Kiriella, who buttonholed President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The President had visited Minister Wimal Weerawansa's official residence at Stanmore Crescent, Colombo 7, for the funeral of his mother.
"Apey anith kattiyath gannada hadanney?" (are you trying to take the rest of our people," asked Kiriella. He was referring to the ongoing dialogue between UNP and UPFA leaders. After a previous dialogue failed, a group of 21 UNP MPs crossed over to the UPFA.
"Apu kattiya koholla vagey alavila innava," (they are sticking to me like the gum in the jak fruit) the President told Kiriella. “Eheth, Karuwa alava ganna beri wuna”. (However, I could not get Karu (Jayasuriya) to stick on to us), he said.
Plunder and pillage amid poverty
According to the Hambantota District Secretariat's Annual Performance and Accounts Report presented to Parliament last week, in 2008, the Engineering Section spent Rs. 6,366,833 to repair the gate of the Additional District Secretary's quarters, Rs. 235,747 to repair the bathroom of the residence of the District Secretary, another Rs. 204,407 to repair the gate of the District Secretary's residence and Rs. 112,865 to supply curtains to his office.
Extravagant repair jobs in one of the most poverty stricken districts in the country.
Ban says fast uneatable
UN Resident Representative to Sri Lanka, Neil Buhne who was recalled to New York by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, returned to Colombo. This week, he had a meeting with External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris.
He conveyed a message from Ban. The Secretary General is disappointed and unhappy that a Government minister had resorted to an unprecedented protest outside the UN compound in Colombo. Ban had expressed "extreme displeasure" and hoped it would not happen again.
After that, Buhne was off again. This time on three week's home leave.
No fast over these advisors
For the first time after his abortive 'fast unto death', Minister Wimal Weerawansa attended last Wednesday's cabinet meeting.
He provoked some laughter when they were discussing the appointment of advisors to ministries. The cabinet decided that every ministry should have an advisor.
It also accepted another proposal. Ministers could also formulate their own panel of honorary advisors or those who will not enjoy a pay and perks. There was a suggestion that each minister should forward a list of such honorary advisors to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He would in turn pick those suitable. "That could be misunderstood as being a partisan act," remarked Weerawansa to the laughter of his colleagues at a time when Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented crisis with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon over his appointment of advisors on issues relating to Lanka.
Weerawansa had carried out a fast over this issue. Weerawansa wanted the honorary advisers, who are experts in their respective fields, to be picked by the respective minister. He had his way.
Grand Old School like Grand Old Party
This State School's AGM held last Saturday was, as one old boy said, similar to what is going on in the GOP - the UNP.
When the secretary's post came up for election, a distinguished old boy, a past secretary himself, came up to the microphone perhaps to propose another candidate to contest the candidate proposed by the Principal from the chair. Not only was he obstructed to do so, but also shouted down quoting a long lasting tradition that the post of secretary has always been by consensus and not by vote!! One was not even sure why the past secretary came up to the microphone as he was banished, pronto.
Whether the secretary's post has been by consensus always is fact or fiction, is not the question, but that he was not allowed to speak even one word, is completely diametrical to what this school has taught its children over its long history. One old-boy added whether "Democracy at the GOP is now followed by this school, too?"
At another time, two old-boys were pitted against each other for election. One of them most cordially stood up and said he was withdrawing his nomination to avoid a contest. "Not so" said the Principal from the Chair, "have the contest" and the old boy who withdrew lost by two votes.
Then came the speech made by the retiring secretary, who held the post for the past three years. An old boy told Jamis that the entire speech was laced with pieces of self-glorification with a tear or two being shed, to add warmth to the drama. It was an emotional exit where he thanked everyone but the cat at home, for the sacrifice made to keep him going in this most difficult task - one of which was the 'cricketgate tape' on which he was caught in the gully trying to influence the First XI coach.
The AGM ended with the passing of a resolution, unanimously, to stop interference into the selection of teams, henceforth. A sad indictment for a college of a 175 years that never needed such a resolution in all its years.
Does the official
language prevail?
With Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs being re-named the Ministry of External Affairs, its letterheads too have undergone the change. However they continue to read as Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sinhala, while it's only the English one that has been changed.
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