Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations: "Amid Death in Sri Lanka, UN Wedding in New York, Ban's Visit Delay Questioned
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, May 11 -- As in Sri Lanka Saturday bombs rained down on the supposed Safe Zone, in New York UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon prepared to celebrate the wedding of his son, Ban Woo-hyun. The ceremony was kept secret. South Korean media quoted an unnamed Ban aide that “Ban may have thought that an ostentatious wedding party for his son would be inappropriate.”

Well, yes. Earlier in the week, in the run-up to what even the UN had predicted as a “bloodbath on the beach” in Northern Sri Lanka, Ban had been invited to visit the country. His spokesperson Michele Montas said that if Ban thought it would save civilian lives, he would go. Inner City Press, having been told by well-placed Security Council sources that Ban would not be going in the coming days for scheduling reasons, inquired into this at two separate UN noon briefings and otherwise."