China, Russia back Lanka at UNHRC

by Manjula FERNANDO

Russia, China and several other countries stood by Sri Lanka at the 17th regular sessions of the UN Human Rights Council when Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay called for an international monitoring mechanism on Sri Lanka, citing the UN expert panel report, in her opening day speech on Monday.

Responding to Ms. Pillay’s call, the representative from China Xia Jingge said it believed that the Sri Lankan Government and its people had the ability to deal with their internal affairs and the international community must support the government in its efforts to reconcile the country and should provide helpful assistance in this regard.

The representative said the group of experts sent by the UN Secretary-General (UNSG) was to only advise the Secretary-General and asked the Human Rights Council to adopt a prudent approach to the country.

This was a sentiment echoed by the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi during External Affairs Minister Prof.Peiris’ recent state visit.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi assured Prof. Peiris that China has ‘total confidence in the capability of the Government and people of Sri Lanka to resolve their own issues’.

He said that China will stand by Sri Lanka in achieving the tasks of reconciliation and reconstruction.

While inviting the President for a state visit, the Chinese Foreign Minister expressed his State’s appreciation of the accomplishments of the Sri Lankan Government in eradicating terrorism and putting the country on the track of rapid economic development.

Following remarks by Pillai, the representative from Russian Federation, Konstantin Dolgov speaking in support of its longstanding ally welcomed the steps taken by the Sri Lankan Government to address the allegations.

Dolgov said the Russian Federation believes that the approach to this issue must be independent and impartial, as experience showed that all parties to a conflict commit violations.

Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to UN in Geneva Zamir Akram, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the Organization of the Islamic Conference was of the opinion that the report concerning the events of Sri Lanka was an internal document of the Secretary-General, included information never verified, and that the ongoing efforts in Sri Lanka for peace and reconciliation should be supported by the international community.

Pakistani diplomat Mariam Aftab highlighting a report on official development assistance to help Sri Lanka fight poverty noted that the international community should assist Sri Lanka to rise since it has fought the scourge of terrorism and won.

Norwegian representative Bente Angell-Hansen noted the intent of Sri Lanka to address the residual issues after the conflict in an inclusive and just manner.

“Norway remained committed to supporting the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka in ensuring rights, development and prosperity of all its citizens,” she said.

According to reports Ireland joined EU, US, UK and France to renew a call for an international investigation.

Sri Lankan permanent representative in Geneva Kshenuka Senewiratne rejecting the call by the Human Rights Commissioner at the inauguration on Monday slammed that her remarks indeed questioned her objectivity and call into question, the professionalism and independence of the Council.

In a subsequent speech Senewiratne said the Commissioner wished to cite from a report that was produced not as a result of an inter governmental process, and ignored all relevant rules of procedure.

She said this would establish a dangerous precedent and certainly undermine the credibility and objectives of this august body.

“We call upon the member states of the World Body to unite against such possible machinations, by disallowing negative precedents to become concretised.

“It may wrongly be used on us today and one of you tomorrow.”

She said “It is widely known that the said report was borne outside of an intergovernmental process.” It is a report which was initiated solely by the UNSG to advise himself on the modalities, applicable international standards and comparative experience relevant to an accountability process in respect to the conflict in Sri Lanka.” It is extremely unfortunate, Mr President, that the High Commissioner has thought fit to refer to it in her report to the 17th Session of the HRC.

The High Commissioner has resorted to drawing on recommendations culminating from a report of a non intergovernmental process, which also has no official status in the UN system. This Council would agree that at no point has it sought this so-called information referred to by the High Commissioner.

The High Commissioner unbecomingly deems it appropriate to call for action on the recommendations of the said report which are based on unverified information and also un-sourced.

In fact the Report itself states that the facts are unsubstantiated, whereas the information being processed by Sri Lanka’s domestic mechanism, has been collected through the conduct of open and transparent hearings, including from the former theatre of conflict, which would enable a careful evaluation of such material to culminate in considered conclusions, the Lankan envoy explained to the 47 member body.

She said the High Commissioner has prejudged the ability of the domestic mechanism even before it has completed the mission, by pledging her full support to an international mechanism being established to monitor national investigations.

The bona fides of her position in this regard comes into question, as the accepted practice is to provide the domestic processes adequate time and exhaust all available domestic recourse, prior to resorting to any international mechanism.

This basic requirement of the need to give the domestic mechanism space, time and opportunity should be known by the High Commissioner, unless she wishes to ignore it for a reason of her own.

The lack of objectivity shown by the High Commissioner does not augur well on the work of her office to engage construction with the Government of Sri Lanka. The unrelenting criticism, constant negativity in approach and the unwillingness to recognize the enormous strides made by the Sri Lankan Government are counterproductive to the process of engagement.

She added unfortunately the High Commissioner’s statement has also given the cue for similar references by some countries concluding that Sri Lanka looked forward to the dawn of a better era of engagement with the Office of the High Commissioner.

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe in his address to the assembly said Sri Lanka believes healing the wounds of the recent past is important to sustained reconciliation and it was one of the biggest challenges of the post-conflict phase.

It is to address this challenge, that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was established in May 2010 by the President.

It is important to remember that this domestic process was established and commenced work prior to the establishment of the advisory Panel of the UN Secretary General.

The LLRC is pursuing truth, justice and reparation. It has been engaging in hearing the experience of affected persons, listening to their stories, examining them to elicit the truth and draw possible investigative material to enable further follow-up action. “Despite the repetitive clarion calls for accountability, we have taken on the responsibility to examine the conflict which lasted nearly three decades, in a holistic manner, with a view to prescribing remedial action that will prevent any further violence in our country.”

“Having commenced its substantive work in August 2010, this domestic process has yet to complete one year, and similar processes elsewhere, as you very well know, have taken far longer.”

The Minister emphasised that in this context it is disconcerting to note the haste of the sections of the international community to dictate terms to Sri Lanka on its domestic process of accountability.

“Undoubtedly, there is no international panacea that can be applied to such a complex set of domestic issues. We firmly believe that our home-grown process is capable of addressing the nuances of our unique situation.”

The minister explained that the LLRC which was earlier scheduled to conclude its work this month, has sought and received an extension of its tenure by six months, to examine further relevant testimony and information which have come to light.

“We urge those critics, to desist from arriving at hasty conclusions, and afford Sri Lanka the time, space and opportunity it needs to complete our domestic process,” he said adding that some of the already implemented recommendations of the LLRC include the reduction of High Security Zones, the closure of the Omanthai detention centre, the release of a large number of ex-combatants, the resolution of land disputes and the swift steps taken to ensure that no groups carry firearms with a deadline for the surrender of illegal weapons.

It is undeniable that the humanitarian operations in Sri Lanka resulted in the rescue of over 290,000 persons - innocent civilians - held hostage by a terrorist organization proscribed in over 30 countries.

The humanitarian operation was therefore a part of an act of the sovereign State and its people in the wake of terrorist aggression. It is equally undeniable that Sri Lanka has taken definite steps at great cost to resettle and rebuild the lives of the people in the conflict-affected area.

In this light, Minister Samarasinghe said, the recent characterisation by the High Commissioner Pillai of the very nature of the operation as one which was conducted “under the guise of fighting terrorism”, is most unfortunate. Such a characterization is wholly misplaced, as the community of nations was well aware that Sri Lanka was combating one of the most ruthless terrorist organisations in the world.

The sessions will continue till June 17.

Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva and Attorney General Mohan Peiris comprised the Lankan team led by Minister Samarasinghe and included experts from different fields of concern to counter the allegations against the country.