When a journalist referring to a recent report on Major General Shavendra Silva's appointment to the UN asked the Spokesperson of the UN Chief whether the military commander would be interrogated by the expert panel on alleged war crimes charges, the Spokesman declined to answer the question.
"The Deputy Permanent Representative to the Mission is an employee of the Government of Sri Lanka, so I would refer those questions to the Government of Sri Lanka," Ban's acting Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
Major General Silva, who was a frontline commander during the battles, commanded the Sri Lanka Army's 58 Division during the battles to clear the North of the LTTE and was instrumental in capturing several former LTTE strongholds including the Mannar Rice Bowl, Nachchikudha, Devils Point, Pooneryn, Kilinochchi, Elephant Pass, Visuamadu and Puthukkudyiruppu.
When questioned about the Panel's role and the amount of time it is spending to probe Sri Lanka's alleged war crimes, the spokesperson said the Panel is "putting in considerable time."
"They [the Panel] also have a regular secretariat that is beyond the three panelists themselves; the secretariat that is putting together information so that work continues," he said.
According to the spokesperson, the Panel will send its report to the UN Chief once the investigations are complete.
"As you are well aware, we haven't been putting out a day-by-day summary of the people from whom the Panel gets information. They will report to the Secretary-General once they have their advisory report ready. And at that point we'll have some information on that," he clarified.
He said the Panel is an internal body and it will be up to the Secretary-General to determine what he makes public once he received the information.
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