Sri Lanka put on Security Council schedule

Photo courtesy: UN News & Media

By Matthew Russell Lee | Inner City Press
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

While UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sits on the Panel of Experts' report on Sri Lanka, it was scheduled to be a topic in the UN Security Council's Monday afternoon meeting, Ban's top political official Lynn Pascoe told Inner City Press Monday at 3 pm.

Inner City Press asked Pascoe, “Are you one of the senior advisers studying the report among with Ban?”

“I'm always a senior adviser,” Pascoe quipped in reply. Later two Security Council members told Inner City Press that the topics known in advance to be coming up in the so-called “horizon briefing” by the UN Department of Political Affairs specifically included Sri Lanka, as well as Pascoe's trips to Qatar and Cairo.

During the final stage of the conflict in 2009, requests by then members Costa Rica and Mexico to take up Sri Lanka in the Security Council were blocked, by Russia, China and others. Non official Council meetings -- called informal interactive dialogues -- were held in the UN basement, to little avail.

Now in 2011 the Security Council itself has moved to the basement, and with the new “horizon briefing” format, Sri Lanka will come up in the Council. Some say, better late than never. But what will the Security Council do?

A Council member told Inner City Press that the leak of portions of the report -- which many attribute to the government of Sri Lanka itself -- may change how the matter is considered. But how?

Footnote: Sri Lankan officials have named Pascoe as being presenting at the meeting between Lankan Attorney General Mohan Peiris and Ban's three member panel, and as the one discussing the secrecy of that meeting.

© Inner City Press