{"id":30478,"date":"2014-06-10T17:03:21","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T21:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=30478"},"modified":"2014-06-10T17:03:54","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T21:03:54","slug":"sri-lanka-reiterates-rejection-of-us-sponsored-resolution-and-categorically-refuses-to-cooperate-with-unhrc-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=30478","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Reiterates Rejection of US Sponsored Resolution and Categorically Refuses to Cooperate with UNHRC Investigation."},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/p>\n

Dharisha Bastians<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka yesterday categorically refused to cooperate with the UN investigation into alleged war crimes and major rights abuses in the last seven years of the war, and called into question the credibility of senior UN staff that will be leading the probe.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ravinatha Aryasinha told the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s 26th Session that opened in Geneva yesterday that the US-led resolution adopted by the Council in March this year violated the principles of international law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reiterate Sri Lanka\u2019s categorical rejection of Resolution 25\/1 and our non-cooperation with the OHCHR driven \u2018comprehensive investigation\u2019 emanating from it,\u201d Ambassador Aryasinha emphasised.<\/p>\n

He said the resolution that calls for a \u201ccomprehensive investigation\u201d to allegations of major human rights violations by both sides to the conflict was based on \u201cprofoundly flawed premises, inimical to the interests of the Sri Lankan people\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last Friday, the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) informed Sri Lanka\u2019s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva about the broad structure of the investigation and naming senior officials leading the UN staff team, a spokesperson for Pillay\u2019s office told the Daily FT.<\/p>\n

Senior UN staffer Sandra Beidas has been named \u2018senior coordinator\u2019 of the Sri Lanka investigation, which will be supervised by two senior independent experts who will work pro bono with the team.<\/p>\n

Beidas was expelled by the South Sudanese Government after the UN Mission in South Sudan released a report accusing Government troops of atrocities.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan Government is citing the controversy in South Sudan involving Beidas to call her credibility into question.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prejudice and bias concerning Sri Lanka repeatedly displayed by the High Commissioner and the OHCHR remain of deep concern, while reports which question the credibility of the coordinator appointed for the investigation have already emerged,\u201d Ambassador Aryasinha told the Council in his official remarks.<\/p>\n

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who delivered her last report to the 47-member Council yesterday, urged the Sri Lankan Government to cooperate with the probe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Office has now put in place a staff team that will be supported by several experts and Special Procedures mandate holders, to conduct the comprehensive investigation mandated by this Council in order to advance accountability, and thus reconciliation,\u201d the UN Rights Chief, who retires this August, told the Council yesterday.<\/p>\n

The 15-member investigation team is tipped to commence work in July 2014, the OHCHR Spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The investigators will travel to North America, Europe and through the Asia Pacific and Sri Lanka \u2013 if access is granted \u2013 to gather evidence and witness testimony, according to a preliminary staffing guideline document.<\/p>\n

UNHRC representatives for the US, UK and Montenegro also urged the Sri Lankan Government to cooperate with the OHCHR probe.<\/p>\n

Referencing Sri Lanka twice in his statement to the Council yesterday, US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Keith Harper said the investigation signalled the importance of promoting justice, accountability and reconciliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge the Sri Lankan Government to cooperate fully with the investigation, including granting access to investigators and preventing retaliation against those who provide information to the High Commissioner\u2019s Office,\u201d Ambassador Harper noted.<\/p>\n

UK\u2019s Representative to the Human Rights Council also encouraged the Sri Lankan Government to facilitate access and ensure those cooperating with the investigation can do so without fear of intimidation of reprisals.<\/p>\n

Aryasinha said the March resolution\u2019s lack of clarity set a dangerous precedent and would destabilize the intricate balance in the homegrown process of national reconciliation.<\/p>\n

In its national statement to the Human Rights Council, the Government highlighted the activities of the LTTE\u2019s overseas networks, including trained cadre and funding by sections of the Tamil community, despite its military defeat in 2009.<\/p>\n

The Government said in the statement to the Council that in 2012, LTTE cadres operating on instructions of LTTE operatives in France carried out an assassination of a member of a political party (EPDP) in Trincomalee. \u201cThis was the initial indication that the LTTE was regrouping to carry out acts of violence in the country,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Aryasinha said the operations continue to pose a security challenge to Sri Lanka and the region.<\/p>\n

Navi Pillay’s Swansong after Six Years as UN Human Rights Commissioner<\/strong><\/p>\n

Outgoing UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay delivered a final poignant report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday, with many member states in the 47-member body hailing her contribution and rights advocacy in her six years in office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been an honour to serve,\u201d the 72-year-old former South African Judge told the Council, following a broad critique of the human rights situation world over, including in the US, EU, Israel and many other parts of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cDalit or Brahmin, Peul or Pole, gay or heterosexual, tycoon or pauper, woman, child or man \u2013 regardless of our ethnicity, our age, our form of disability, our beliefs, or our economic might, all human beings are equal in dignity,\u201d Navi Pillay told the world human rights body, in an impassioned appeal to the international community to keep fighting to safeguard the rights of all humankind.<\/p>\n

Pillay said the reporting and analysis by her Office and calls for investigations have frequently been greeted with stone-walling and denial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this because we have criticised governments? Surely that is the nature of human rights advocacy \u2013 to speak truth to power; to confront privilege and entrenched hierarchy with an unshakeable belief in human dignity, equality and freedom,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Keith Harper thanked High Commissioner Pillay for her outstanding leadership of the OHCHR.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe OHCHR achieved numerous breakthroughs on critical human rights issues \u2013 from the Commissions of Inquiry on the DPRK (North Korea) and Syria to the human rights violations and abuses in Sri Lanka,\u201d Harper noted.<\/p>\n

Parliament to decide on access for UN investigators says President Rajapaksa<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision on whether to allow UN investigators access into the country will be made by Sri Lanka\u2019s Parliament, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday, breaking his Government\u2019s silence on the access issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people are asking our permission to investigate, go here and there and dig up things, to check if we have committed war crimes,\u201d President Rajapaksa told a function in Polonnaruwa yesterday.<\/p>\n

The President said the responsibility to make that decision had to be borne by Parliament, because it was in the legislature that the peoples\u2019 will is represented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will put it before Parliament and allow the MPs to decide whether to allow these investigators in or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

COURTESY:DailyFT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians Sri Lanka yesterday categorically refused to cooperate with the UN investigation into alleged war crimes and major rights abuses in the last seven years of the war, and called into question the credibility of senior UN staff that will be leading the probe. Sri Lanka\u2019s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva …<\/p>\n

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