UN human rights chief welcomes Sri Lanka report

GENEVA —The High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Tuesday welcomed the public release of the report of the Secretary-General’s  Panel of Experts on accountability issues related to the final stages of  the conflict in Sri Lanka, and supported the report’s call for further  international investigation.

  “The way this conflict was conducted, under the guise of fighting  terrorism, challenged the very foundations of the rules of war and cost  the lives of tens of thousands of civilians,” the High Commissioner  said.  

“I hope the disturbing new information contained in this report  will shock the conscience of the international community into finally  taking serious action. As the report itself says, addressing violations

  of international humanitarian or human rights law is not a matter of  choice or policy; it is a duty under domestic and international law,”  she added.  

The Panel reported credible allegations which, if proven, indicate that  a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and  international human rights law was committed by the Sri Lankan military  and the LTTE (often referred to as the Tamil Tigers), some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Military  commanders and senior leaders on both sides could bear individual  criminal responsibility.

The alleged crimes include the repeated and systematic shelling by  Government forces of hospitals and spaces where IDPs were crowded,  despite ample warnings and knowledge of the risk to civilians. Testimony  and visual images also indicate LTTE cadres or suspects were executed, disappeared and possibly subjected to rape and sexual violence by Sri  Lankan military forces.  The LTTE is also reported to have shown a  callous disregard for civilians, using them as a “human buffer,” forcibly recruiting them for military purposes, and preventing them from  fleeing.

  “The eyewitness accounts and credible information contained in this  report demand a full, impartial, independent and transparent  investigation,” the High Commissioner said.  “Unless there is a  sea-change in the Government’s response, which has so far been one of  total denial and blanket impunity, a full-fledged international inquiry  will clearly be needed.”

  The Panel concluded that the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation  Commission established by the Government is deeply flawed and cannot  satisfy the joint commitment of the President of Sri Lanka and the  Secretary-General to an accountability process.

  The High Commissioner noted the recent initiatives taken by the Human  Rights Council to combat impunity and address accountability issues in  different parts of the world, and encouraged its members to reflect on  the new information and findings contained in the report on Sri Lanka.

  She also urged the Sri Lankan Government “to quickly carry out the  measures suggested by the Panel which could bring immediate relief to  victims.” 

US lawmaker urges Sri Lanka to act after report

WASHINGTON — A senior US lawmaker on Monday urged Sri Lanka to take concrete action on human rights after a UN panel found credible allegations of war crimes in the bloody 2009 finale to the civil war.

Representative Howard Berman, the top member of President Barack Obama’s Democratic Party on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sri Lanka must “ensure that those involved in violations of human rights are held to account in a transparent and expeditious manner.”

“I am deeply concerned that the government of Sri Lanka has thus far chosen to protest the report’s conclusions rather than accept the recommendations of the UN panel,” Berman said in a statement.

Berman said he also favoured action against any surviving members of the Tamil Tiger rebels accused of rights violations.

“Unless the government takes real action to investigate and punish those guilty of war crimes, I fear there can be no sustainable reconciliation process to move the country forward,” the California lawmaker said.

A UN panel of experts recommended an international investigation over the army’s 2009 final offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels, saying there was credible evidence of war crimes on both sides.

Greatest challenge for Sri Lanka is real reconciliation – Blake

The greatest challenge for Sri Lanka is to reunite the country and achieve real reconciliation for all communities to live in harmony, the United States says.

The United States Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert O. Blake, Jr. made this remark on Monday in an interview with the CNBC TV18 in Philadelphia.

“The greatest challenge for Sri Lanka I think is to reunite its country and to achieve real reconciliation so the Tamils and Muslims and everyone else enjoy all of the same political rights and the same freedoms and can live in harmony with each other,” Blake has said.

Responding to a question, Blake has said that Sri Lanka has many different strengths, among which are the highest education and health indicators in the region and an abundance of natural resources.

The Assistant Secretary has noted that additionally Sri Lanka has the great fortune of being at the southern tip of India “they have a free trade agreement so they can benefit very much from the economic dynamism of India.”

Blake was the former United States ambassador to Colombo from 2006-2009.

UN report: India should not bail out Sri Lankan government, says BJP

India should not bail out the Sri Lankan government from being implicated in the report of the United Nations Secretary General’s panel of experts on Sri Lanka for violation of human rights during the final stages of the war in the island nation in 2009, BJP national executive member L. Ganesan said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters here, he said there had been charges that India supported, financed and armed the Sri Lankan government in its war against the Tamils.

Now there are allegations that India is attempting to protect Sri Lanka from being implicated of war crimes in the report of UNSG’s panel expected to be released in a week’s time. “India should not subject itself again to be charged as supporting genocide by Sri Lanka.”

On Jan Lokpal Bill issue, he said, “The Congress is nitpicking against civil society members of Jan Lokpal Bill drafting committee.”

Asked whether the government-side members in the drafting panel were not clean, he said: “If you look for clean persons then you have to search outside the Congress. They are just the government’s representatives. Only for that reason civil society members have been included and they are clean.”

On the electoral performance of his party in the just concluded elections, he said that the BJP would have members in the new Assembly.