tw news-features

UN Watch Expresses Concern After Sri Lanka Rejects UN Human Rights Monitoring as ‘Unqualified’

Geneva, Jan. 16, 2008—UN Watch expressed concern today after Sri Lanka’s representative in Geneva called the office of High Commissioner Louise Arbour “unqualified” to report on the island’s bloody conflict. Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based NGO, said it was legitimate to debate statements by the world body but was “disappointed that a vice-president of the Human Rights Council would negate a core duty of the UN’s highest human rights official.”

Earlier this week, Ms. Arbour issued a statement calling on all parties to the Sri Lankan conflict to respect international law and ensure the protection of civilians. Yesterday, in response, the office of Sri Lanka’s envoy to the Human Rights Council, Dayan Jayatilleka, called Arbour’s statement “gratuitous” and complained of “obvious bias” by her office. “The High Commissioner has once again proven…how unqualified the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is in monitoring and reporting human rights in Sri Lanka as an independent actor,” said the statement.

“We regret the use of ill-advised language and the disputing of the UN’s jurisdiction to monitor the events in Sri Lanka,” said Neuer.

The office of Ambassador Jayatilleka also repeated a charge often levelled by China and other countries who oppose scrutiny of their records, saying the “OHCHR should be more transparent in its funding and decision-making” and “more representative of the world’s peoples and regions in its composition.”

Neuer said Sri Lanka’s latest statement against High Commissioner Arbour’s office “only underscores the dangerous attempts by repressive regimes to eliminate all forms of independent human rights scrutiny.” China, Iran, Sudan and other members of the “Like Minded Group” successfully introduced a Human Rights Council resolution (HRC 4/6) in March 2007 that imposed geographic requirements, instead of merit, as the basis for staff hiring by Ms. Arbour’s office, and sought to curb her independence.

UN Watch is a Geneva-based human rights organization founded in 1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its Charter. It is accredited as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information.

The revered United States broadsheet, The Wall Street Journal has published two reader responses today, 16th of January, 2008 - ‘Two Views of the Recent Violence In Sri Lanka’ – on its recent editorial ‘Rajapakse’s Big Bet’,

Full Text of letter by Roy Ratnavel as follows:

January 16, 2008

Regarding your editorial on Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil Tigers (”Rajapakse’s Big Bet,” Review & Outlook, Jan. 11): Almost three decades ago, the Sri Lankan army occupied Tamil heartlands with logistic support from the government, and the tacit support of other Western nations. Since then, under the watchful and complicit eyes of the international community, millions of Tamils have been displaced; many thousands have been killed.

Sri Lanka is one of the poorest countries on our planet. It is also the largest recipient of foreign aid in Southeast Asia. I worry that some of this “aid” money may have been spent on buying arms and subjecting the Tamil people to this humanitarian misery.

Without the financial support of donor countries, Sri Lanka would not be able to survive a single day in Tamil heartlands, let alone three decades. The international community must share the blame with Sri Lanka for the atrocities committed against the Tamil people. To kill the innocent in a vast scale is horrifying; but the hubris of the international community to deny the horror is simply inhuman.

Sri Lanka and its Western supporters may beat their “democratic drums” around the world claiming that they are working for democracy and good governance. If Sri Lanka wins, it will be a stupendous victory for state terrorism — not for democracy.

Roy Ratnavel
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada
_______________________

Western media continuously use the phrase “address discrimination against minority Tamils,” which has no basis in fact: Click for letter by Ira de Silva
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Amnesty International, in a press release issued on Wednesday said it was gravely concerned that the end to the Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam today will lead to an increase in hostilities that will result in a dramatic rise in indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population.

Amnesty International has called on all parties in the conflict to comply with their obligations under international law to protect civilians and urged the international community to support the call to establish an independent, international monitoring presence on the ground without delay.

Full text of the press release issued by the Amnesty International follows:

Sri Lanka: Amnesty International calls for urgent protection of civilians amidst return to hostilities

16 January 2008

Amnesty International is gravely concerned that the end to the Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) today will lead to an increase in hostilities that will result in a dramatic rise in indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population.

“The end of the ceasefire is likely to unleash fresh violence that will lead to serious human rights abuses, including an increase in enforced disappearances and abductions as a counter-insurgency strategy, as well as unlawful killings. We call on both parties to the conflict to return to a genuine implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement and to uphold the protection of civilians at all times”, said Catherine Baber, Programme Director for Asia-Pacific.

“The withdrawal of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, in addition to the downgrading of the National Human Rights Commission by the International Co-ordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions which has brought its credibility into question, leaves a vacuum in independent investigation and monitoring of human rights abuses. The establishment of a United Nations field operation with a strong monitoring mandate is now more urgent than ever” she said.

“The ongoing climate of impunity for grave human rights abuses and the ongoing violence exemplified by the recent assassination of government minister, DM Dassanayake and Tamil MP, T Maheswaran, is a serious concern”, Baber said.

Amnesty International calls on all parties in the conflict to comply with their obligations under international law to protect civilians and urges the international community to support the call to establish an independent, international monitoring presence on the ground without delay.

The Embassy of the United States of America, in a press release said it strongly condemned the attack on a civilian bus. Expressing condolences to the victims and their families, the U.S. statement said the targeting of civilians serves to foster fear and cause further suffering among the Sri Lankan people. Only a political solution to the country’s conflict offers a way out of the current cycle of escalating violence.

Full text of the press release follows:

United States Condemns Attack on Bus in Uva Province

Colombo, January 16, 2008: The United States strongly condemns today’s vicious terrorist attack on a civilian bus in Uva Province that killed at least 24 persons, including many women and children, and injured more than 60 others. We express our condolences to the victims and their families.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, it bears all the hallmarks of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The targeting of civilians serves to foster fear and cause further suffering among the Sri Lankan people. Only a political solution to the country’s conflict offers a way out of the current cycle of escalating violence.

United Nations Human Rights Chief Urges Respect for International Law with the End of Ceasefire in Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government’s move to scrap a six-year ceasefire with rebels could trigger renewed fighting that could have a devastating effect on rights of civilians, the U.N.’s top human rights official said on a statement released on Tuesday, January 15th.

Reporting on UN High Commissioner’s statement, Reuters news reports said that, “The government’s move to annul the ceasefire, which technically expires on Wednesday but degenerated on the ground into renewed war in 2006, has shocked the international community and is seen as ruining any hopes of resurrecting peace talks soon.”

Full Text of Statement:

As the Ceasefire Agreement in Sri Lanka is due to effectively end on 16 January 2008, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, reminded the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of their obligations under international law to respect human rights.

“An intensification of hostilities will likely have a devastating effect on the human rights of many Sri Lankans from all communities,” the High Commissioner said.

The High Commissioner noted that international law obliges all parties to protect civilians without discrimination and includes prohibitions against the arbitrary deprivation of life, arbitrary detention, forced displacement, enforced disappearances, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also forbids the recruitment and deployment of children as soldiers.

The High Commissioner warned that violations of these rules by any party could entail individual criminal responsibility under international criminal law, including by those in positions of command.

The High Commissioner visited Sri Lanka in October 2007. In her dialogue with the Government she has stressed the critical need for independent, public reporting on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and the readiness of her Office to assist in this regard.

Middle Class Misery

by R. A. Ratwatte
[Kandy]

Seated at the dinner table last night with my family under a single florescent bulb with the lights in the rest of the house turned off (as the electricity bill is unbearable), I looked at my two boys and baby girl and their plates that contained sausages (not nourishing but affordable), lots of vegetables (only the kind that grows in the garden), and thought of the fact that dessert would be out of the question, and wondered what my father would have said. We never ate this frugally when he “brought home the bacon” and currently I earn a whole lot more than he ever did!

Just look at the plight of the middle class of this country. I dare not use the word ‘upper’ to specify the middle class I am talking about because that would be politically incorrect wouldn’t it? We who pay taxes, live off a salary or two if the spouse works as well, who have no one abroad to send in remittances that cushion the inflation; we who under saner economic regimes were allowed tax relief on our loan interest, interest that was around 17% which is now 24%; we who had acknowledgement from the government for being the engine of growth of the economy; we are languishing now! Completely ignored and being squeezed dry by punitive taxes, interest rates and salaries that can in no way match the spiralling inflation.

What are we going to do? Farmers I am told, resort to partaking of the pesticides that they use in their fields. Can we swallow our computers or mobile phones? I doubt if the necessary effect would take place!

The facts are that spiralling prices are due to effects of the world economy and the price of oil. Any government that was in power would have had to face these facts. However, this is not something that happened “out of the blue.” This was predicted and anticipated. If not for “cheap politics” that used a screwed up nationalistic line to gain power on the premise of fighting a war, the taxes need not have been so high. If not for the need to have a huge cabinet of ministers and pay all their expenses the interest rates need not have been so high as the anomalies in the money supply would have been controlled.

EVERYTHING is being done in the name of this war that is going to unite the country. Any unity will only be geographical because we are alienating our Tamil brethren and creating more and more potential Tamil tigers with every abduction and every assassination. Not to speak of every funeral at which a bereft little girl is shown in the national newspapers crying her heart out for a father who is lost forever.

The naivety of a bunch of monks who have no right to wear the sacred “Chivaraya” and conduct themselves in violation of the “Vinaya” have been exposed to the maximum. It is not their fault. Their fragile egos have been pandered to by opportunistic businessmen and bankrupt environmentalists and they are being used as a front to deal in Benz cars and power.

The JVP is also out there on view. The sight of the “king with the invisible robes” is nauseating to say the least. They have no leg to stand on (let alone a robe to cover their nakedness), but they continue to make what they think are clever speeches in parliament and allow empty rhetoric to reign supreme.

Meanwhile, the bombs have started again. When the children go to school in the morning, one doesn’t know if they will come back alive. Here again it is only our children, not those of the people who are responsible for this situation who are in danger. Every journey has the potential of ending in disaster and all it would take would be to be at the wrong place at the wrong time! Maybe we should take the fatalistic line and say that when our time is up, it will be up. No sir, all we ask is for the same chance to extend our “time” that a politician and his children have!

It really wasn’t us who voted for this. The metropolitan and urban vote (of those who were allowed to vote), went against this war. It was the people in Moneragala, the NCP, Sabaragamuwa and Wayamba who wanted this war. Who is affected the most on a daily basis is US dear “middle classer” and what can we do about it?

Nothing much after all. This is a democracy isn’t it? And some part of a majority must have asked for this.

Be labelled as a TRAITOR by showing your dissent or pack your bags and get the hell out of this paradise that seems to have been lost forever, if you can! [a letter to the editor, published in island.lk]