(Sept.16,2009): The United Nations said on Wed. that a senior official, Lynn Pascoe,
is due to arrive in Sri Lanka for two days of talks on urgent matters. The world body
has been expressing concern at the slow pace of release of Tamil refugees. Many are
still detained in government-run camps four months after the end of the war. Pascoe,
the UN's head of political affairs, will hold talks on "critical issues", the UN said.
"We're very concerned about the pace of progress," Pascoe said in New York before
leaving. In the same breath he referred to agreements made by the government,
when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon visited in May, including ones on accountability
for possible violation of human rights laws, and on the movement of Tamil refugees
out of their camps. The government is now letting more people return home but still
detains many others, he said. It has also just rejected the idea of a European Union
investigation into its rights record, saying: "We do not have human rights issues."
Pascoe said he will also discuss Sri Lanka's decision to expel the spokesman for the
UN Children's Fund for allegedly parroting Tamil Tiger propaganda, and will raise
the continued detention of two Sri Lankan UN staff.