Parliament approves move to reject UNHRC probe; Opposition cries foul

Thursday, 19 June 2014 00:48 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Resolution opposing the much-debated investigation to be conducted against Sri Lanka by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was passed in Parliament yesterday with a majority. With the 33 members of the United National Party abstaining, the Government received 144 votes in favour, while the 10 members representing the TNA voted against. JVP members left the House before the vote began. Notable absentees at the time of voting were Minister Rauff Hakeem and all seven other SLMC members and Minister Rishad Bathiudeen. Starting the yesterday’s debate, opposition MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakse stated that the Sri Lankan Government wilfully entered into an agreement with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon immediately after the war allowing an international investigation under Clause 12 of the Rome Convention. “The agreement the Government entered into with Ban Ki-moon is far more serious and a clear betrayal compared to the 1815 Kandyan Convention. This is more than what Don Juan Dharmapala did. This agreement will make all of us suffer in case an embargo is enforced against Sri Lanka. Now the President is stuck simply because of signing an agreement with Ban Ki-moon on 19 May 2009. This was even before the soldiers in the frontier or their officers got back home after winning the war. “The agreement was to establish an internal mechanism to find any human rights violations or war crimes which could have taken place during the final days of war and to establish an international committee on par with the Rome Convention Clause 12. So the Darusman Committee was established. We established the LLRC, which has good recommendations. The Darusman report held that 40,000 civilians were killed, including those who surrendered with white flags and bombed the hospitals. No action can be taken in relation to the charges against the LTTE. Those who were with the LTTE are now with the Government. The six charges against the LTTE are now isolated,” charged MP Rajapakse. Highlighting the “silly movies” by the President and his Ministers threatening the international community, MP Rajapakse said: “During the final days of the war we saw some of our Ministers telling the US State Secretary to mind her own business, Ban Ki-moon was threatened and his effigies were burnt. John Holmes, Vijay Nambiar and Navaneetham Pillay came to Sri Lanka to talk about the issues. All of them were labelled as terrorists. Tony Blair and Hilary Clinton were identified as Tigers living off LTTE money. We antagonised the entire international community. I met the President on 14 February and told him that the war would come to an end but to expect war crime allegations even before the ash settled. This is just because of the arbitrary actions he and his Ministers followed challenging the international community.” “The UN, which has 193 member countries, has the legal framework in place to punish any nation having committed war crimes. India, US and Europe stood in line to corner Sri Lanka for war crimes. They failed with the first attempt but then took another angle – the Rome Convention, which was not signed by the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. Having failed at both attempts, they went for a third try, by using Clause 12 of the Rome Convention. According to this clause, even if a country is not a part of the convention, investigations can be conducted if the particular country willingly allows the international community to conduct investigations in search of war crimes. “We used to have a good foreign service, which is no longer in existence. Our foreign service is none other than a system to treat kith and kin. How many of them understand foreign policy or have the necessary qualifications? We all know that Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe contributed a lot in favour of the country, although he is not the Foreign Minister. In case our Foreign Minister went to Geneva representing the country, we will all be in big trouble. That is because on 15 February 2011, Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris writing to Ban Ki-moon following the President’s instructions commended the appointment of the Darusman committee and the LLRC. This is where the Government failed most. If this is your standard, it should have been brought here by the Prime Minister or the Minister of External Affairs,” he added. In response, Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena said: “The Opposition is raising a point which is ultimately allowing foreign intervention. We need to consider the support the UNP gave during the fight against the LTTE and in the post-war era. Actually, they were looking for the Government to fall. But those expectations were not fruitful. Internal conflicts of a country should not be used by external sources. You are only looking at supporting any party which is going against the Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Let us solve our problems but not intervene to resurrect dead terrorist organisations. We all experienced the difficulties of a 30-year war. Should we take the country back to it? A small country such as ours was capable of achieving something which was not possible for larger nations. You are held by petty political ambitions.”

UNP proposes amendment

UNP MP Mangala Samaraweera yesterday moved key amendments to the Government’s proposal of rejecting the UNHRC prove which came up for vote in Parliament. “Rejecting an international investigation can only be done acceptably if there is a credible domestic mechanism: credible and independent democratic institutions must be restored to address the issues of accountability as a matter of national urgency,” Samaraweera said. It is in this context the UNP proposed the following amendment to resolution No.P.212/14 of 13 June: The House regrets that the Government failed to consult Parliament prior to issuing a joint communiqué with the Secretary General of the United Nations on 23 May 2009 jointly sponsoring a resolution at the UNHRC bearing No. S11/1 in May 2009 and the matters agreed upon and making written submissions to the Darusman panel. And the Parliament calls upon the government to: Bring the relevant bills to before the house within two months; Fully implement the totality of the LLRC recommendations. Revive the provisions of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution. Incorporate Latimer House Principles as an integral part of the constitution and Make provisions for the freedom of information.