{"id":44873,"date":"2016-01-27T06:19:04","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T10:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=44873"},"modified":"2016-01-27T06:19:30","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T10:19:30","slug":"us-envoy-to-un-in-geneva-keith-harper-says-mechanism-probing-war-crimes-in-sri-lanka-must-have-foreig-involvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=44873","title":{"rendered":"US Envoy to UN in Geneva  Keith Harper Says Mechanism Probing War Crimes in Sri Lanka Must Have Foreign Involvement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By<\/p>\n<p>P.K.Balachandran<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n The involvement of foreign judges, prosecutors and  investigators is a must for a credible Sri Lankan probe into war crimes charges, said Keith Harper, US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.   <\/p>\n<p>In a terse but strong tweet on Tuesday, Harper said: \u201cCredibility of any accountability mechanism requires involvement of foreign judges etc. That has not changed and will not change.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The US envoy was reacting to Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s statement in an interview to the BBC Sinhalese service  on January 21 that there is no room for foreigners\u2019 involvement in the proposed judicial mechanism to investigate and try war crimes cases because Lanka has the required experts and that outsiders should not get involved in Lanka\u2019s domestic affairs. <\/p>\n<p>His government had given a written pledge to the UNHRC in October 2015 that it would allow foreign involvement. But four days later, he said that  the country had to stick to promises made to the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Global Tamil Forum has said that it is \u201cdeeply concerned and disappointed\u201d over Sirisena\u2019s views. However, the TNA is treading cautiously. One of its top leaders told Express, \u201cWe will  take it up with the President privately.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Missing Persons  panel Seeks time<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Sri Lankan Missing Persons\u2019 Commission headed by retired Justice Maxwell Paranagama, has requested the government to extend its term by a year from February 15, 2016 as it still has thousands of cases to investigate. Justice Paranagama told Express on Tuesday, that out of the 14,000-odd representations from civilians before it, interviews have been conducted only in 5,000-odd cases so far.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:New Indian Express<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton44873\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D44873&amp;text=US%20Envoy%20to%20UN%20in%20Geneva%20%20Keith%20Harper%20Says%20Mechanism%20Probing%20War%20Crimes%20in%20Sri%20Lanka%20Must%20Have%20Foreign...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By P.K.Balachandran The involvement of foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators is a must for a credible Sri Lankan probe into war crimes charges, said Keith Harper, US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. In a terse but strong tweet on Tuesday, Harper said: \u201cCredibility of any accountability mechanism requires involvement of &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=44873\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;US Envoy to UN in Geneva  Keith Harper Says Mechanism Probing War Crimes in Sri Lanka Must Have Foreign Involvement&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44873"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44873"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44875,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44873\/revisions\/44875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}