UN to notify Govt. about two senior experts on probe this week

Monday, 23 June 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Former Finnish President strongly tipped to join Dame Cartwright in supervising OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka

By Dharisha Bastians With Nobel Prize Laureate and former President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari strongly tipped to be the second senior expert consulting on the UN investigation into the final stage of the war, the Sri Lankan Government is likely to be notified of the appointments within the course of this week, Daily FT learns.

Ahtisaari who also served as the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his efforts to resolve international conflicts across several continents. Highly placed UN sources said that the Government would likely be informed of the names of the external experts by the end of the coming week. Former New Zealand Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright, whose name was first revealed as one of the two experts, is expected to resign from the Cambodian War Crimes Tribunal shortly, to be part of the UN probe on Sri Lanka, New Zealand media reports said. Cartwright has been an international judge on the mixed tribunal since 2006. Ahtisaari and Cartwright will be part of the expert “advisory group” that will be tasked with supervising the UN investigation that will be run by the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The OHCHR was previously keen to appoint at least one expert from an Asian or African country, but several persons approached were not immediately available, Daily FT learns. The two experts will work for on the probe for a period of 10 months on a pro bono basis, according to a UNHRC preliminary staffing outline.