Arbour's visit reflects Govt's transparency

by Shanika Sriyananda

Reiterating the Government's willingness to have a continuous dialogue with the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe said that the transparency and openers of the government would reflect on the visit of UN Commissioner of the Human Rights Louise Arbour.

Minister Samarasinghe addressing a special media briefing jointly with the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, yesterday, said that Sri Lanka has proved that it was a viable democracy and the government was ready to have healthy dialogues with its international partners. "The Government does not have anything to hide and we believe in the Rule of the Law", he said. Ending her four-day visit in Sri Lanka, Arbour who visited Jaffna and held several meetings with officials of the security forces, civil societies and the Jaffna Bishop said that her mission was not a fact finding tour but a visit following the invitation by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Minister Samarasinghe said that the discussions with Arbour were purely centred on capacity building of national institutions, and technical cooperation and not the UN presence in Sri Lanka for monitoring purposes or setting up an UN office in Sri Lanka.

Minister Samarasinghe said that the Government was ready to implement programs to improve capacity building in state institutions dealing with human rights but would be done within a certain framework as the country was an independent nation.

He said Arbour was given free access to the places where she wished to visit but was well informed why she was not allowed to visit Kilinochchi. " We do not want to gain cheap publicity by sending her to show how ruthless the LTTE is. The fact is well known to the whole world", he said, adding that no Government officials were present at some of her meetings in Jaffna and the Government intended to give her full freedom to do her assessment about Jaffna.

Addressing the media, Arbour said that the main challenge of Sri Lanka was that a technical assistance program for human rights had not been adequately addressed and people do not have a concience as to what the reality was. " There is an apparent credible public information gap.

There are lots of allegations and assumptions from both sides where everything that stands out of political loyalty. This shows bias to one side or many sides", she said. Arbour appreciating the warm welcome by the Government said that she did not have the opportunity to convey directly to the LTTE about her deep concern about the violations of human rights and humanitarian laws including child conscription, forced recruitment and abductions of adults and political killings by the LTTE.

"I am very concerned by the many reports I have also received about serious violations by the TMVP and other armed groups", she said.

However, she said that in the context of the armed conflict and of the emergency measures taken against terrorism, the weakness of the rule of law and prevalence of impunity was alarming. " There is a large number of reported killings, abductions and disappearances which remain unresolved. This is particularly worrying in a country that has had a long, traumatic experience of unresolved disappearances and no shortage of recommendations from past Commissions of Inquiry on how to safeguard against such violations", Arbour said.

The UN Human Rights Commissioner said that though the Government pointed out several initiatives that had been taken to address these issues, there was no an adequate and credible public accounting for the majority of these incidents. " In the absence of more vigorous investigations, prosecutions and conventions, it is hard to see how this will come to an end", she said. Meanwhile, Arbour said that it would be highly desirable for the Government to consider an early ratification of the new International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.