At the last HRC sessions,UNSG transmitted the PoE(expert panel) to the HRC & UN Human Rights Commissioner without even bothering to inform Sri Lanka.!

SL denied opportunity to counter Ratner

Geneva confab on alleged war crimes:

January 24, 2012, 9:23 pm

By Shamindra Ferdinando



Sri Lanka was not invited to a recent roundtable conference held under the auspices of the UN in Geneva, where a key member of UNSG Ban Ki-moon’s Panel of Experts (PoE) on accountability in Sri Lanka, Prof. Steven Ratner reiterated the demand for an international investigation.



Responding to Monday’s The Island exclusive headlined ‘Ground being prepared for int’l war crimes probe’, External Affairs Ministry said that the Sri Lankan mission hadn’t received an invitation hence couldn’t comment on the latest event staged by those wanting to haul Sri Lanka before an international war crimes tribunal.



A senior official said that there could be a couple of more events, including the screening of ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ in the run-up to the UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva late next month.



The roundtable discussion, "Delivering on the commitment to accountability,’ at Villa Moynier-Rue de Lausanne had been an exercise aimed at reaching agreement on an international war crimes inquiry on the basis of unsubstantiated report by UNSG’s PoE and Lanka’s Killing Fields,’ produced by a British company at the behest of the LTTE rump, the official said.



The PoE comprised former Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, Sreven Ratner and South Africa’s, Yasmin Sooka.



The Island learns that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had inquired from the External Affairs Ministry as to the measures taken by the ministry to counter stepped-up propaganda efforts ahead of the forthcoming HRC sessions.



Among those invited in the discussion were US Ambassador to the HRC, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, Canadian Permanent Representative, Elissa Golberg, British Permanent Representative, Peter Gooderham, Norwegian Permanent Representative, Steffen Kongstad, French Permanent Representative, Jean-Baptiste Mattei, German Permanent Representative, Hanns H. Schumacher, Australian Permanent Representative, Peter Woolcott, EU Permanent Representative, Mariangela Zappia, Rory Mungroven (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights), Peter Splinter (Amnesty International), Pooja Patel (Forum Asia), Philippe Dam (Human Rights Watch), Alex Conte (International Commission of Jurists), Ms Beris Gwynne (World Vision International).



The External Affairs Ministry said that since the conclusion of the conflict in May, 2009, an international grouping with the support of some disruptive elements in Sri Lanka had been trying to undermine the country. The ministry said that the last HRC sessions in Geneva and Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2011), too, were turned into anti-Sri Lanka projects.

Addressing the Colombo-based diplomatic community recently, External Affairs Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris pointed out the illogicality of a Canadian move to have a firm decision on an ‘interactive dialogue’ on the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) at the 19th Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) scheduled to begin in late February 2012. Prof. Peiris said that Canada had wanted to decide on this issue at the 18th Sessions of the HRC in Geneva even before the LLRC released its report. Calling the move a gross abuse of process, Prof. Peiris urged those skeptical about Sri Lanka’s intentions not to pre-judge.

Minister Peiris said that there could be more victims in the future if Sri Lanka’s case was allowed to be manipulated now.

At the last HRC sessions, UNSG transmitted the PoE to the HRC and UN Human Rights Commissioner without even bothering to inform Sri Lanka.

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