{"id":26136,"date":"2013-09-24T22:13:31","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T02:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=26136"},"modified":"2013-09-24T22:14:19","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T02:14:19","slug":"sri-lanka-un-at-loggerheads-over-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=26136","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka, UN at loggerheads over human rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Rosie DiManno<\/strong><\/p>\n

While President Mahinda Rajapaksa will paint \u201cParadise Island\u201d in democratic colours for the General Assembly, the UN human rights commissioner will deliver a damning appraisal<\/em><\/p>\n

\"President<\/a>

President Mahinda Rajapaksa at UN General Assembly, Sep 24, 2013-pic: news.lk<\/p><\/div>\n

C<\/strong>OLOMBO, SRI LANKA\u2014Twenty-four hours after Sri Lanka goes on the defensive at the United Nations in New York, the UN will go on the offensive against Sri Lanka in Geneva.<\/p>\n

In a coincidence of timing, President Mahinda Rajapaksa will address the General Assembly on Tuesday \u2014 one day before UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay is scheduled to deliver what\u2019s expected to be a damning appraisal of the nation that calls itself \u201cParadise Island.\u201d
\n
\nThis past March, by a vote of 25-13 (with eight abstentions), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reaffirmed U.S.-led Resolution 19\/2 from a year earlier, intensifying criticism of Sri Lanka\u2019s failure to pursue accountability and promote meaningful reconciliation between minority Tamils \u2014 losers in a 27-year civil war \u2014 and the majority Sinhalese.<\/p>\n

The resolution also called upon the government to \u201ccredibly investigate\u201d allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law during the final phase of combat.<\/p>\n

The conflict, which ended in 2009, left at least 100,000 people dead. But there are no confirmed figures for the tens of thousands of civilians killed in the final months of fighting, when Tamil Tigers were pushed by the Sri Lankan Army into a sliver of land along the eastern coast. Caught in the crossfire, civilians faced heavy bombardment from one side and threats of execution from the other if they attempted to escape across no man\u2019s land.<\/p>\n

The resolution\u2019s strongest passage expressed concern over reports of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, threats to the rule of law, religious discrimination, intimidation of activists, reprisals against human rights defenders and threats to journalists.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka rejected the resolution, accusing the UNHRC of focusing its critical gaze, under pressure from Washington, on countries that are weak in stature while ignoring human rights violations elsewhere.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, Rajapaksa takes bows for the \u201cSri Lankan Model\u201d to defeat global terrorism, with the country experiencing not a single incident of violence since the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were wiped out in 2009. (The LTTE set the standard of ruthlessness for subsequent terrorist groups, from Al Qaeda to Al Shabab.)
\nOn the other, Rajapaksa claims the situation in Sri Lanka is still tenuous, with rule of law vulnerable to a lingering Tiger ideology in Tamil areas and the dream of secession kept alive by the same Tamil diaspora that funded the LTTE.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s estimated that nearly one million Tamils have sought refuge in other countries, including 143,000 who, according to the latest census data, have made their home in Canada.<\/p>\n

At his UN address, Rajapaksa will no doubt point to this past weekend\u2019s provincial council elections in the Northern Province \u2014 Tigerland during the brutal war \u2014 as evidence of the democratic process unfolding within the \u201ctime and space\u201d required, as government officials describe it.<\/p>\n

In groundbreaking limited-autonomy provincial elections, the first that the 95-per-cent Tamil province has been permitted since the civil war ended, the Tamil National Alliance enjoyed a sweeping victory, taking 30 of 38 seats, despite obstacles thrown up by the Colombo regime.<\/p>\n

It was a humiliating rebuke for the Rajapaksa dynasty: the president; his defence secretary brother Gotabaya, considered the most powerful man in the country and architect of the military campaign that vanquished the Tigers; another brother who heads the Ministry of Economic Development; and various relatives in other senior state positions as well as heading up some of Sri Lanka\u2019s richest companies, such as Sri Lanka Airlines. The Rajapaksas control about 70 per cent of the country\u2019s national budget.<\/p>\n

Over five days in New York, the Sri Lankan mission will conduct bilateral discussions with several heads of state from Africa, the Middle East and Asia to \u2014 in the words of External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris \u2014 \u201cexplain matters convincingly\u201d with respect to \u201cunparalleled\u201d postwar achievements and holding Tiger Lite aspirations at bay.<\/p>\n

The president will meet as well with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who hailed the provincial council elections as \u201can important opportunity to foster political reconciliation between Sri Lankans after many years of conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on the agenda is a t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate with Kamalesh Sharma, secretary general of the Commonwealth, as Colombo gears up to host the 54-member Commonwealth heads of government meeting in November.
\nPrime Minister Stephen Harper has already said he will not personally attend the summit, in protest over Sri Lanka\u2019s human rights record, though Canada will send a delegation.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll probably have further ammunition once UNHRC head Pillay delivers her oral presentation in Geneva on Wednesday. Though Pillay\u2019s full report won\u2019t be released until March, Pillay \u2014 an ethnic Tamil from South Africa \u2014 gave a preview in sharply critical remarks at the conclusion of her first official fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka last month.<\/p>\n

The president, surprising many, allowed Pillay unfettered access everywhere and with anyone. At a concluding news conference, Pillay provoked public outrage by revealing \u201cdisturbing reports\u201d that individuals she had met with had been harassed and intimidated afterwards, by both army personnel and police.<\/p>\n

Pillay slammed the Rajapaksa regime for a culture of \u201cpersistent impunity,\u201d a sustained assault on freedom of expression and failure to implement core recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.<\/p>\n

Of course, the UN itself doesn\u2019t have clean hands on Sri Lanka.
\nLate last year, it released a report admitting the UN had failed its mandate by not protecting civilians who came under heavy shelling by the army in the late stages of the war and withdrawing its staff from the area as the populace pleaded for them to stay. There were no international witnesses to what unfolded because journalists were not allowed to cover the war.<\/p>\n

It remains unknown how many of the 330,000 civilians trapped in what became known as \u201cThe Cage\u201d \u2014 where the Tigers made their last stand \u2014 were killed. The UN now estimates up to 40,000 people may have died, though other rights groups such as Amnesty International suggest the numbers may have been as high as 70,000. The government, which released its own investigation results in 2011, estimated 9,000 perished in the final five months of combat and blamed the Tigers.<\/p>\n

In its too-late mea culpa, the UN report acknowledged: \u201cThe UN\u2019s failure to adequately respond to events like those that occurred in Sri Lanka should not happen again. When confronted by similar situations, the UN must be able to meet a much higher standard in fulfilling its protection and humanitarian responsibilities.\u201d courtesy: Toronto Star<\/em><\/p>\n

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By: Rosie DiManno While President Mahinda Rajapaksa will paint \u201cParadise Island\u201d in democratic colours for the General Assembly, the UN human rights commissioner will deliver a damning appraisal COLOMBO, SRI LANKA\u2014Twenty-four hours after Sri Lanka goes on the defensive at the United Nations in New York, the UN will go on the offensive against Sri …<\/p>\n

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