‘Action’ only by lobbies outside:

Lanka off the hook in Geneva

by Manjula Fernando

After three straight years of turbulence in Geneva, with negative resolutions being moved against the country back to back, Sri Lanka will face a relatively peaceful UN Human Rights Council session this March. In fact, any ‘action’ is only likely to occur in the lobbies outside the Council Chamber.

Sri Lanka was taken off the Agenda, when the UN Human Rights Council granted a request by High Commissioner Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein to defer the war crimes report on Sri Lanka by six months until September.

The UN report containing findings of a year long investigation and recommendations to improve Sri Lanka’s human rights situation was to be tabled on March 25.

However, the civil society groups and the TNA who had been pushing for the release of the report on schedule, are expected to strongly protest during the course of the sessions, for the delay. It is anticipated the international human rights groups and certain hard-line Tamil diaspora groups will also join in to wage a battle on the sidelines.

The 28th sessions of the UNHRC will be held from March 2 to 27 at the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilisations Room at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The deferral has been approved after Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera requested time to show the new government’s commitment for accountability and reconciliation during his visit to Washington and New York early this month.

Foreign Minister Samarawera is scheduled to leave for Geneva straight after his current high profile visit to China. He will arrive in Geneva on March 4 to attend the first session, the ‘High level segment’ where government leaders will take part. One of the key discussion points under this segment is the question of the death penalty.

Nimalka Fernando of the Platform for Freedom, who was in the forefront of pushing the UN Human Rights body to initiate an international investigation on Sri Lanka over the incidents connected to the final stages of the conflict told the Sunday Observer, “We hope the delay will not help the government to forget all”.

She said, “When one aspect gets delayed, the whole process gets delayed.”

“Even though this is a government of good governance, it is still a state. We are not saying the Prime Minister and the President are responsible but any inquiry needs to have a major international involvement. She added the LTTE should not be spared in whatever action that will be contemplated against the offenders.

She also opined that the victims should not be subject to further torture by asking to give evidence before another commission. “ A victim had to recount their experience at least 35 times over and over again before different commissions.”

A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry said, the Government is moving ahead on different aspects, and shown good progress so far hence, the NGO community should also assist them on this matter.

“It cannot be done overnight. The government has given a strong commitment, it has achieved progress on certain issues. There was a state of denial but the new government is not doing that any more,” he said.

JHU’s Nishantha Warnasinghe said his party had always opposed an intrusive, meddlesome international mechanism to probe internal affairs of this country.

He said this government received a mandate to restore good governance.

“We are capable of carrying out a transparent and impartial inquiry. If someone still presses for an international inquiry, they are playing out a political agenda. “

He said the LTTE’s international network, pro LTTE non governmental organisations and certain Western powers were behind the call for an international investigation, since 2009.

“The JHU does not support the notion that the Security Forces committed deliberate crimes during the war. But if there are accusations, these claims need to be investigated and offenders brought to book within the country,” he said.

“There were reservations earlier about state institutions that preserve law and order in the country.

Even the judiciary and the police service were politicised. The despotic Rajapaksa regime was to be blamed for this state of affairs.

“The situation is no more the same. People have chosen a better government and the domestic mechanisms have now been revived and depoliticised. “ He added that the resolution of genocide passed by the Northern Provincial Council recently with TNA’s support will hurt the ongoing reconciliation efforts.

The investigation on Sri Lanka was mandated by a US resolution moved in Geneva last year. Prepared by a team of 12 from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and overseen by three international experts, it has covered a period from February 2002 to November 2011. The report allegedly contains recommendations to address outstanding issues of human rights.