‘Moon’s panel of experts went beyond its task’:

Lanka’s UN allies express solidarity

by Manjula FERNANDO

Sri Lanka’s UN allies have expressed solidarity against the UN Panel of Experts report which tries to pin war crimes charges on Sri Lanka.

The country began mustering support from its UN allies amidst announcements of the report being released to worldwide media in full today.

The Government said the panel has breached its mandate by proposing punitive action against the country for crushing one of the world’s most feared and ruthless terror organisations and rescuing thousands of civilians held hostage for months at gunpoint.

“The panel which was appointed exclusively to advise the UN Secretary General, as repeatedly communicated and announced by the UN, has overstepped its mandate and we would be seeking support from our allies to fight against this obvious move to frame war crimes charges against Sri Lanka,” a Foreign Ministry official told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

The official said the heads of missions of friendly nations based in New York including some of the superpowers have communicated their solidarity towards Sri Lanka and the same assurances have been extended by the foreign offices of the respective countries via Sri Lankan missions overseas.

Russian Ambassador Valdimir P. Mikhaylov who met Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week said that they do not consider the panel as a UN body.

“Unfortunately it seems that the Panel of Experts went beyond its task, at least as it had been made known to our representatives of New York”.

He said the UN should render assistance without complicating the reconciliation process when Sri Lanka was trying to heal its wounds after long armed conflict.

The official declined to comment if there would be a written response to the Panel report by the Foreign Ministry but said the Minister has made it clear that he would not be commenting on the contents of this report.

Acting spokesperson for the UNSG Farhan Haq on Thursday said they hope to publish the report along with a review by the senior advisors of Moon and a response by the Sri Lankan Government.

External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris in a media briefing on Thursday said the Government considers the panel as an Interim Committee which has neither the backing of the Security Council nor the UN itself.

Expressing strong objections to the publication to the report, he said the move would damage the UN system seriously and harm relations with one of its foremost members. He also said the report interferes with the post conflict reconciliation process and causes divisions among the communities.

Moon is expected to consult Minister Peiris before releasing the UN Panel of Expert Report, official sources said.

Meanwhile, Secretary General Ban ki-Moon was in Russia late last week to meet the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev from whom he sought backing to continue into the second term as the Head of the UN.

“I would like to really count on your strong support, and leadership and guidance in continuing my work as Secretary-General,” he said at the meeting with the Russian President.

The Secretary General received an honorary doctorate at Ukraine’s Kyiv Institute of International Relations.