Wednesday, 5 March 2014 00:55
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US official says Pillay’s office will probe past abuses and recent violations in Sri Lanka
Says Govt. has “refused to investigate” deaths of thousands of civilians during war
By Dharisha Bastians
The US Government confirmed yesterday that it was calling for a probe into allegations that “thousands of civilians” had died during the war in Sri Lanka by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), an international mechanism to address accountability concerns.
Daily FT exclusively reported in its lead story yesterday that the US draft resolution had set the stage for a probe into war time abuses in Sri Lanka led by the Office of the High Commissioner and assisted by UN special rapporteurs.
US Under Secretary of State Sarah Sewall told the UN Human Rights Council that the 2014 resolution on Sri Lanka was calling upon High Commissioner Navi Pillay’s office to investigate “past abuses and more recent violations” in the country, after the Government had failed to conduct its own probe.
“In 2012 and again last year, this council urged the Government of Sri Lanka to launch an independent investigation into the deaths of thousands of civilians during that country’s terrible civil war. To date the Government has refused,” Sewall told the Council’s High Level Segment in Geneva yesterday.
Sewall, who is the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights said the US resolution was also calling on the Office of the High Commissioner to examine more recent attacks on journalists, human rights defenders and religious minorities.
The US official said that a rigorous and systematic fact finding can play a critical role in helping countries heal the wounds of conflict. “Without such a process, grievances go unaddressed and impunity is allowed to triumph, creating a climate in which new abuses occur,” Sewall told the Council, in reference to Sri Lanka.
The US sponsored draft resolution circulated yesterday calls on the OHCHR to submit an oral report to the Human Rights Council in September this year and a comprehensive report in March 2015 about the findings of the probe. Pillay, whose term expires in August 2014, will no longer head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights by the time the reports are due. It is unclear if Pillay will be required to return to Sri Lanka on another fact finding tour, before her office is due to report before the Council.
The Council was to be addressed by US Ambassador to the UN and President Barack Obama’s Cabinet Member Samantha Power, but the official was held back for UN Security Council meetings on the Ukraine crisis.
