UN/OCHA DEMARCHE REQUEST - NEXT STEPS ON SRI LANKA

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000340 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/31/2019 TAGS: PREL PHUM CE SUBJECT: UN/OCHA DEMARCHE REQUEST - NEXT STEPS ON SRI LANKA REF: STATE 29272 Classified By: AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE, FOR REASONS 1.4 B/D ¶1. (C) On March 31, Ambassador DiCarlo raised reftel points with U/SYG for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, after speaking over the weekend with A/SYG for Humanitarian Affairs Catherine Bragg. Regarding the proposed Secretary-General,s statement on Sri Lanka, Holmes said the UN is working on a strong statement, and is considering how to address the issue of a humanitarian pause. He noted that the pause would need to be of an appropriate length, and asked for U.S. views on this. ¶2. (C) On the return of Special Representative Kaelin, Humanitarian Affairs officer spoke with Kaelin,s advisor on March 30 and was told that the government of Sri Lanka had extended an invitation that day to Kaelin. The news of the invitation is scheduled to be announced this week. Kaelin's advisor noted that USG interventions helped to pave the way for the Sri Lankans to extend this invitation and thanked the U.S. for its support. ¶3. (C) Regarding the possibility of the UN announcing a special envoy, there is resistance to this idea from the UN Secretariat. Holmes and others in the Secretariat think that they can make more progress through discreet channels. However, Holmes agreed that if the UN does not make progress soon, it will need to consider other mechanisms. According to Holmes, the government of Sri Lanka is strongly opposed to a Special Envoy and it will take a lot of convincing to get them to agree. Rice