{"id":63256,"date":"2019-03-20T18:47:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T23:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=63256"},"modified":"2019-03-20T18:47:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T23:47:18","slug":"un-human-rights-chief-michele-bachelet-tells-human-rights-council-that-sri-lanka-could-slip-back-to-conflict-unless-it-addresses-through-a-judicial-mechanism-the-worst-crimes-committed-during-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=63256","title":{"rendered":"UN Human Rights Chief Michele Bachelet Tells Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka Could Slip Back to Conflict Unless it Addresses Through a Judicial Mechanism the “Worst Crimes” Committed During War"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UN human rights chief yesterday warned Sri Lanka it could slip back to conflict unless it addressed the \u201cworst crimes\u201d during the final stages of its ethnic war.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka was yet to set up the special judicial mechanism as promised four years ago to try war criminals. <\/p>\n

Sri Lankan Government troops have been accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final months of the island\u2019s 37-year guerrilla war that ended in May 2009. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Colombo had agreed to ensure an accountability mechanism by March, but Sri Lankan authorities have said they want another two years to deliver. <\/p>\n

The Council is expected to decide on granting an extension, but Bachelet said Sri Lanka\u2019s failure to address emblematic cases had led to a lack of confidence. <\/p>\n

\u201cContinuing impunity risks fuelling communal or interethnic violence, and instability,\u201d she said. \u201cResolving these cases, and bringing the perpetrators of past crimes to justice, is necessary to restore the confidence of victims from all communities.\u201d She noted a \u201clack of progress in setting up a special judicial mechanism to deal with the worst crimes committed during the 2009 conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n

Delays were partly due to a power struggle between President Maithripala Sirisena and his estranged Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe late last year, she said. <\/p>\n

Sirisena sacked the Government and called a snap election, but the Supreme Court restored the status quo after ruling that the President had violated the Constitution. <\/p>\n

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe are also at odds over ensuring accountability. <\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Sirisena said he wanted the Rights Council to drop the demand to prosecute war criminals, but later retracted and agreed to the Government\u2019s call to buy more time. <\/p>\n

\u201cA contributing factor to delays appears to be a lack of common vision among the country\u2019s highest leadership,\u201d Bachelet said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDeadlock on these important issues is an additional \u2013 and avoidable \u2013 problem, with damaging impact currently on victims from all ethnic and religious groups and on society as a whole,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

A UNHRC resolution in October 2015 granted Sri Lanka 18 months to establish a credible investigation. The two-year extension to that expires this month and there have been no tangible results.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

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The UN human rights chief yesterday warned Sri Lanka it could slip back to conflict unless it addressed the \u201cworst crimes\u201d during the final stages of its ethnic war. Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka was yet to set up the special judicial mechanism as promised four years ago to try …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘UN Human Rights Chief Michele Bachelet Tells Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka Could Slip Back to Conflict Unless it Addresses Through a Judicial Mechanism the “Worst Crimes” Committed During War’ »<\/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\/63256"}],"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=63256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63257,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63256\/revisions\/63257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}