Perhaps he was miffed with everybody over charges that he did not know his job properly. Whatever it is the Secretary General has so far failed to explain the rationale behind the move to appoint an expert panel in the middle of a parliamentary election campaign in Sri Lanka, a key point mooted by the Sri Lankan government. The government had warned that it would be compelled to take ‘necessary and appropriate action’ if Moon goes ahead with his plan since it considers that as an attempt to influence the elections. While the UN may deny such manipulations, one may recall that Sri Lanka faced a barrage of flak in the form of statements from international organizations including UN in the run-up to Presidential polls as well. Coincidence? Well one has points for and against. Moon’s remark that NAM statement against the panel is based on a ‘misunderstanding’ and that he would talk to the organization directly on the matter, could be viewed as an attempt to be in the good books of NAM’s 118 member states whose vote he counts on when running for the second term. It would be quite interesting to follow how NAM would respond to the Secretary General’s overtures now that he is going to revert to them. While Moon may take pains to explain his side of the story, whether he would get the NAM members around or not will largely depend on the strength of Sri Lanka’s relations with the influential NAM members. However there is no denying of the fact that he was only telling the truth when he declared on Monday that there’s a delay in implementing the steps Sri Lanka promised to take as per the joint statement in May 2009. The government may well argue that digging up the past would not do any good for national integration and it is better to focus on the future and let bygones be bygones. However now that it has committed itself to hold probes the government cannot simply get away as it wishes. It is the ‘slowness’ process of looking into rights violations, Moon maintains, that has forced him to appoint an expert panel to advise him on how to deal with Sri Lanka. Making promises to the UN and breaking them is a wee bit difficult than trying the same here in Sri Lanka.
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