Pillay, Sam lock horns in Geneva again

By Dharisha Bastians

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights remains convinced that an international inquiry into serious ‘human rights crimes’ in Sri Lanka is necessary, her office said yesterday, even as the country’s Head of Delegation slammed the report saying it served as a launching pad for a fresh resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Presenting the report by the Office of the High Commission of Human Rights on Sri Lanka on behalf of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, Deputy High Commissioner Kyung-wha Kang told the Council that no meaningful steps had been taken by Sri Lanka to address rights abuses highlighted in the controversial Panel of Experts report commissioned by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

Kang warned of the “continued danger of entrenched impunity” in Sri Lanka, saying long standing cases such as the five student killings in Trincomalee and the killing of 17 aid workers in Muttur and continued reports of extra judicial killings, disappearances and threats to human rights defenders and journalists remained unaddressed. The Deputy High Commissioner criticized the Government’s National Action Plan on Reconciliation, saying it had made selective, piecemeal commitments to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.

“The Government has not built upon the vision of the LLRC,” she said.

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who leads the Sri Lankan delegation to the UNHRC’s 22nd Session slammed the report by High Commissioner Pillay’s office, calling it an ‘exercise in information gathering’ to launch a fresh resolution against Sri Lanka.

Samarasinghe urged the Council to evaluate the report’s scope to ensure that a dangerous precedent was not set by the OHCHR report on Sri Lanka.

He said that Pillay’s report made several references to the UN Panel of Experts report – dubbed the Darusman report in Sri Lanka – even though the Sri Lanka delegation had requested the office of the High Commissioner to delete references to the report by the controversial panel. Samarasinghe also criticized Pillay’s lack of response to an invitation extended since April 2011 for the High Commissioner to visit Sri Lanka.

The US, United Kingdom and Canada welcomed Pillay’s report on Sri Lanka in Geneva yesterday. The US delegation to the UNHRC said that the report on Sri Lanka clearly demonstrated the need for the Council’s continued scrutiny and hoped the council members would vote in favour of the resolution.

The UK particularly thanked Pillay’s office for its Sri Lanka report and said continued intimidation of journalists and human rights defenders and the impeachment of the Chief Jusrtice raised questions about Sri Lanka’s respect for the rule of law.

“It is vital that SL immediately takes further steps to demonstrate its commitment to the democratic values it has pledged voluntarily to uphold in particular given its scheduled hosting of this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting,” the UK delegation said. The UK also urged the Government of Sri Lanka to redress accountability issues through a credible, independent investigation into events depicted in Channel 4 Footage authenticated by UN Special Rapporteurs.

Intervening during the debate, the Canadian delegation said it was “deeply discouraged” by the lack of progress by the Government of Sri Lanka in implementing the recommendations of its LLRC. Raising questions, the Canadian delegation asked Pillay to speak further on how her office proposes to monitor progress on accountability. Russia, China, Venezuela, Belarus, Myanmar, Cuba and Vietnam expressed confidence in Sri Lanka's efforts towards achieving national reconciliation when Pillay's report on Sri Lanka was taken up at the UNHRC today.