Questioning integrity of a sovereign nation:

Govt expresses regret over OHCHR media release

The Government expressed its regret yesterday over a media release issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) questioning the integrity of a sovereign nation, when it raised concerns on the conduct of the investigation on Sri Lanka.

The Government sent a letter to the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein through Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to UN in Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinha, expressing its strongest displeasure for insinuating that it was attempting to sabotage an independent international investigation.

The letter said, “As you would be aware, Sri Lanka has contributed consistently to the United Nations system in numerous capacities by taking a lead in norm-setting processes including the Law of the Sea Conference, disarmament and human rights.”

The media release attributed to the High Commissioner himself was issued soon after External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris met a selected group of Ambassadors in Colombo to convey what has been revealed in the recent arrest of a non-rehabilitated LTTE cadre.

He was arrested while collecting signatures on blank papers from those affected in the North of Sri Lanka.

In his statement, the ex-LTTE cadre said that he had been employed to collect the papers and they were meant to be submitted as evidence for the OHCHR investigation.

The Government shared the information with the country representatives in Colombo to caution these interlocutors of attempts being made to manipulate the investigation.

In the letter, the Ambassador had rejected, as implied, that the Government was trying to deter bonafide witnesses from submitting evidence. He said that ‘the submissions the investigators would have received by today would prove this fact.’

Aryasinha also questioned the contradictory statements by the spokesperson to the OHCHR who said that the evidence would be accepted even after the October 30 deadline, while the High Commissioner had affirmed the deadline and the closure of the email address, in his latest media release.

“Such conflicting positions only serve to call into question the integrity of the process of the Investigation on Sri Lanka,” he said.

Criticising the decision to conceal information by the Investigation, the Ambassador said that when the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission probing disappearances were in session, the venues and dates of hearings were made known to the public to ensure that no individual or organisation, local or foreign, would be excluded from the hearings.

“The Government of Sri Lanka has steadfastly maintained that the country’s dignity nor its people will be subject to an investigation that does not conform to even the minimum requisites of justice and fairplay. This position has been overwhelmingly endorsed by Parliament. It is a principled position which the Government chose to take that was supported by many countries in the Council.”

He said “the Government of Sri Lanka was not alone in raising concerns regarding the Investigation mandated by Resolution 25/1.”

The Resolution was passed by a divided Council in March 2014 and several countries expressed grave concern regarding the investigation not only then but also in September 2014.