Days after Sudan’s Omar Al Bashir was indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court, UN envoy to Sudan Scott Gration said that the indictment “makes my job harder.”

  This not surprisingly gave rise to outrage among human rights advocates. Tuesday at the UN, Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice if Gration’s in the Obama administration’s view. Video here, from Minute 2:49.

Ambassador Rice responded,“No, the United States is very clear and united behind President Obama’s policy towards Sudan.” [...]

While the UN Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka war crimes did, the UN confirmed on July 20, have the first of three days of meetings in New York on July 19, the UN now says that the four month clock for the Panel’s report will not beginning in these three days. The UN would not say when it would begin.

On June 22, UN Spokesman Nesirky said the Panel would finish "within four months of the commencement of its work." [...]

Sri Lanka and the Non Aligned Movement letter it requested to oppose UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s advisory panel on accountability were inquired into at the UN throughout the day on July 16, at the UN noon briefing, in front of the Security Council and later upstairs at a celebration of Nelson Mandela’s 92nd birthday.

The draft NAM letter, which Inner City Press first obtained and exclusively published, has now been stalled by a protest or demarche from Guatemala, which does [...]

We’ll “take our time” on the Sri Lanka letter, the current head of the Non Aligned Movement told Inner City Press on Thursday night, to see if they can “make up to Secretary General” Ban Ki-moon.

  He added that “a lot of comments” against the letter were received from NAM members, on “the relation to the flotilla” and other issues.

Meanwhile the Council representative of a Permanent Five member, also on Thursday evening, told Inner City Press that Sri Lanka [...]

When UN Secretary General issued a statement late on July 9 minimizing the mandate of the UN panel of experts on accountability in Sri Lanka, the purpose of the statement was opaque. Hours later, Sri Lanka government minister Wimal Weerawansa called off his “hunger strike to the death” a mere two days in.

On July 12, Inner City Press asked Ban’s Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq if the statement was negotiated with Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa government to provide ground cover for Weerawansa [...]

A week after the UN characterized as “individual” Sri Lankan government minister Wimal Weerawansa’s urging that UN staff be taken hostage until the UN advisory panel on possible war crimes in the country be disbanded, on July 8 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon belated deemed “unacceptable.. the unruly protests organized and led by a cabinet minister of the Government.”

Ban recalled his resident coordinator Neil Buhne, who had declined comment while his stage were blocked in the UN building, and announced he [...]

With 300 UN staff kept out of work in Sri Lanka due to Tuesday’s hostage situation, the UN on Wednesday told Inner City Press it had gotten assurances “at a high level” that this would not continue.

  Before Inner City Press could ask if the UN had yet spoke with any of the three Rajapaksa brothers who run the country, UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq specified the “high level” meeting: it was between the “chef de cabinet” of Secretary [...]

A day after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was burned in effigy in Sri Lanka, on his way into the UN Security Council he stopped to greet the Press. Inevitably, Inner City Press asked him what he was going to do about the taking hostage of UN staff in Colombo and the closure of the UN facility today.

Mr. Ban smiled. His Associate Spokesman cut in, “The Secretary General will speak at the appropriate time.”

But UN staff have been held hostage, [...]

With Sri Lanka government minister Wimal Weerawansa threatening to get “more serious” than Tuesday’s hostage taking of UN staff, and the UN capitulating by closing its office in Colombo on Wednesday, in New York the UN Security Council will meet on Wednesday morning. The topic is “The Protection of Civilians.”

On Tuesday evening the political coordinator of a non-permanent Council member told Inner City Press his Ambassador may raised to other Council members the hostage taking of and threats against UN [...]

In the wake of the government sponsored or allowed hostage taking of UN staff in Colombo, Inner City Press on Tuesday asked the Permanent Representative to the UN of a major South Asian country if he still supported Sri Lanka’s requested Non Aligned Movement statement opposing the UN’s war crimes panel.

  We’ll just stay out of it now, the Permanent Representative said. He and his Deputy expressed disgust at the Rajapaksas allowing hostage taking at the UN compound, and [...]

The UN continued running scared of Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa, even after its staff in Colombo were held hostage by a mob led by a minister in Rajapaksa’s government, Wimal Weerawansa.

   Inner City Press asked the Associate Spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Farhan Haq, what he made of Weerawansa’s cell phone call to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, after which police pulled back and allowed the mob to continue to trap UN staff. Video here, from Minute 6:28.

Haq did not dispute [...]

The UN’s compound in Colombo has been surrounded, UN staff held hostage by a crowd led by Sri Lankan government minister Wimal Weerawansa. "We warn the U.N. to withdraw the (investigating) panel if they want to get the employees out," Weerawansa told the protesters.

The siege came six days after Weerawansa urged crowds to take UN staff hostage. Inner City Press on June 30 and July 2 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq for Ban’s response.

On [...]

As the European Union cut off Sri Lanka’s trade concession on human rights grounds, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense claimed that EU member (and World Cup semi finalist) The Netherlands “appreciates the diplomatic and strategic position upheld by the Government of Sri Lanka with respect to the pressure exerted by certain countries in connection with the internal political issues of the country.”

This appreciation was sourced to Leoni Cuelenaere, The Netherlands’ Ambassador to Sri Lanka in a July 2 meeting [...]

The UN said it was an “individual opinion,” when Sri Lanka’s Minister for Housing and Construction Wimal Weerawansa last week called for UN staff in Colombo to be taken hostage to forestall any consideration of war crimes.

  Inner City Press inquired a second time, and the same UN spokesperson, Farhan Haq, said “we have received some indications that an apology might be in order… I’ll let you know if something like that comes through.”

Now, Weerawansa has said he was [...]

When a government’s minister openly urges that UN staff members be taken hostage, what does the UN say? If the country were for example Sudan, the UN would immediately denounce it. But Secretary General Ban Ki-moon takes a different approach to Sri Lanka.

At first this was, sources in the Ban administration said, due to Ban’s contacts with Mahinda Rajapaksa back when Ban was South Korean foreign minister. Now added to Ban’s reticence is the pro-Rajapaksa positions of Russia and China, [...]