Navi Pillay is disqualified to be Head of UNHRC
Posted on March 5th, 2014
Shenali D Waduge SRI LANKA
When public sentiments against international public officials are voiced internationally there is an urgent need to investigate why the world public should openly find an international public official unsuitable. Thus, the UN Secretary General is duty bound to listen and in the least hold an impartial inquiry to ascertain the grounds on which people in different parts of the world are vocalizing their dissatisfaction with Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Countries too need to pay heed to calls of the public and place an official No Confidence Motion against her. Navi Pillay’s bias against Libya, Rwanda, Syria and Sri Lanka are highlighted below.
Navi Pillay bias against Libya
· Invoking R2P on Libya overriding principles of national sovereignty and international law.
· Helping demonize Gaddafi and son Saif at the UN
· Accused using NGO Bouchuiguir’s lies to suspend Libya from UNHRC and referring Libya to Security Council.
· Using UNHRC to call for an international inquiry into violence against civilians in Libya. Her call for an international inquiry led the ICC to indict Gaddafi and son for alleged human rights violations and the Western media did the rest to portray that Libya had failed its citizens giving reason enough for the West and NATO to intervene. The plan was set in place to oust Gaddafi and replace the Libyan Government was the NTC (National Transition Council), comprised of Western stooges that had been arranged by the UNHRC and 70 NGOs on February 25, 2011 initiated by UN Watch and National Endowment for Democracy (NED). There was no evidence of Libya committing crimes against its civilians though.
· In support of above, she temporarily suspended Libya’s membership at the UNHRC before the meeting to deny Libya the chance to respond to the charges. Navi Pillay was chairing this meeting. Why would the Head of the UNHRC not allow Libya to respond to charges, would an impartial head function as she did?
· Navi Pillay went on to at this same meeting call for the international community to ‘act without delay’ to protect the Libyan civilians from serious human rights violations. She went on to forward her report to the UN Security Council after formally suspending Libya from the UNHRC. Libya was prevented from appointing a new ambassador to the UN after 2 of its representatives defected to the Opposition and were given special passes to deliver ‘anti-Gaddafi’ remarks. When Libya appointed Rev. Miguel D’Escoto Brockman (former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister) as its new Permanent Representative, his attendance was blocked by Susan Rice, former US Ambassador to the UN using excuse that he was on a tourist visa and not diplomatic visa. Brockman criticized UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for betraying the UN Charter calling the UN ‘a lethal weapon of the Empire’.
· In what was a remaking of the Kuwaiti incubator babies lies that led to Gulf War 1, WMD the lie for Gulf War 2, excuse for Libya’s invasion was the mass rapes using Viagra by Gaddafi troops. Like the previous cases these were all fabrications with no evidence but the lie was sufficient for the US to carry out a scathing international campaign which led to the ICC Chief Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo (who has indicted 29 Africans) issuing an indictment against Gaddafi and son and accusing them of war criminals. Incidentally, all of ICC’s indictments under Ocampo not surprisingly were Africans and Pillay was a judge alongside Ocampo. All Africans who did not align to US policy goals ended up indicted. US citizens however are immune from ICC prosecution which makes international law and justice laughable.
· She is accused of quoting civilian casualty figures without verifying truth – February 22, the UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay claimed that two hundred and fifty people had been killed in Libya….going on to say “widespread and systematic attacks against the civilian population” which “may amount to crimes against humanity.” – these were all lies prepared for the intervention by US and NATO.
Navi Pillay bias against Rwanda
· Pillay is accused of establishing her international credentials as a servant of the US empire following a US-sponsored proxy war in Rwanda.
· Pillay was President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
· Opposition was made against her appearance by lawyer, Justry Patrice Lumumba Nyaberi in view of her bias.
· She is accused of covering up US culpability in Rwanda – Stephen Rapp prosecutor at ICTR concealed US culpability in Rwanda
· Rwanda’s civil war and “ethnic massacres were an integral part of US foreign policy, carefully staged in accordance with precise strategic and economic objective.” (Michel Chossudovsky)
Navi Pillay bias against Syria
· Abusing official position of UNHRC Head
· Regime change exercise in Syria started in early 2011 funded through ‘Friends of Syria” (initiated by Canada) conference on 1 April 2012 attended by Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and represented by 70 countries. US committed to provide ‘communications equipment’, Saudi and Qatar pledged large sums of money, Canada committed to provide $8.5m
· 18 Feb 2013, repeating calls for Syrian President Assad to be referred to the ICC. Is Assad who is repelling mercenaries attacking Syria wrong or the mercenaries funded and trained by the West?
· Calling for military intervention in Syria (under the disguise of a humanitarian intervention) ignoring the ground realities of rebels following orders by the West
· Seeking an arrest warrant against Assad to officially delegitimize his Government and to turn Assad into an international fugitive.
· Referring to foreign compiled bogus-films to accuse Syria of crimes against humanity.
· Completely ignoring US/Allies call to send mercenaries to oust President Assad. Did she forget the Nuremberg Principles, the London Charter of 1945, and Article 1 of the UN Charter that regime change within a sovereign country was a war crime? Did Pillay have to be told that to threaten regime change in a sovereign country was a violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter. Did she not look at the video footage filmed by the western-backed mercenaries themselves taking part in extralegal assassinations, execution of military prisoners, destruction of public places and infrastructure? As head of Human Rights should she have not done something when she can look at western created films and declare people and nations war criminals!!!
· Urging UN Security Council to refer widespread human rights abuses in Syria to the ICC. Navi Pillay’s involvement with West’s & Gulf States Syrian agenda started in August 2011. Repeating this call in December 2011 and several times in 2012 and she continued to do so in 2013. In a CNN Interview with Hala Gorani she complained that Russia and China were using vetoes to oppose resolutions targeting Syria.
· Brief to UN General Assembly on 13 February 2012 she declared that ‘the failure of the Security Council to agree on firm collective action appears to have emboldened the Syrian Government to launch an all-out assault in an effort to crush dissent with overwhelming force”. She then called for the matter to be referred to the ICC.
· Navi Pillay quotes casualty figures supplied by foreign-backed Syrian opposition – another example of bias.
· Syria’s delegation at the UNHRC ” My country’s delegation inspected the Commissioner’s report and wants to express their deep denunciation and regret at the obvious bias which Pillay practices in her dealing with the events in Syria’. (Faisal Al-Hamwi)
· Accused of ignoring human rights violations of Al Qaeda and Al-Nusra groups and takfiris arriving from 40 states facilitated by Qatar and Turkey.
· Accused of not condemning Qatar or Turkey a serious drawback to credibility of UNHRC and its head. Qatar is said to have spent $3billion on war in Syria.
· Accused of ignoring Syria’s states right to protect its people
· Accused of presenting an unprecedented exaggeration of situation in city of Al-Qseir – predicting massacres were going to happen 20 days before events started.
· Accused of hiring an American agency in taking eyewitness accounts on Syria resulting in biased one-sided versions.
· Accused of continuously referring Syria to the ICC which was not part of her mandate.
Quotes from Syrian delegation: “If the High Commissioner’s office isn’t qualified to give documented data, then it’s better for it to remain silent,”
Quotes from Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates: “It is really strange that she used the UN human and financial resources against Syria, based on lies and calls outside her jurisdiction,”
”The Commissioner has rejected to consider the acts of terrorist groups as crimes against humanity, although all standards of identifying crimes against humanity apply to them, and chose instead to level this accusation at the state which is doing its duty in protecting its own people,”
Navi Pillay bias against Sri Lanka
· Navi Pillay’s Tamil ethnic origins are a direct conflict of interest in functioning as a mediator in Sri Lanka’s conflict. Nemo iudex in causa sua (or nemo iudex in sua causa) means no one should be judge in their own cause. This is a principle of natural justice that no person should judge a case in which they have an interest. Justice should not only be done but should be seen to be done. That cannot happen when there is a suspicion of improper interference in the course of justice. Judicial disqualification or recusal warrants abstaining from participating in an official action if there is a conflict of interest. Navi Pillay’s emotional, genetic and ethnic ties being a Tamil with roots to Tamil Nadu disqualifies her from functioning in a neutral, impartial, unbiased and emotionally detached manner. This directly links to UN ethics guidelines at organizational and personal level. We then question why she has not voluntarily withdrawn using law of recuse a requirement under continental civil law and by the Rome Statute.
· Her neutrality is questioned why she kept using data supplied by the LTTE news agencies to question a legitimate government and continues to quote from LTTE front organizations as sources for her allegations against the Sri Lankan state.
· Navi Pillay’s Indian Tamil community in South Africa was said to be aligned with LTTE, funding LTTE and secretly operating military camps to train LTTE – these camps were dismantled by President Mandela after consultations with former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadiragamar.
· She can listen with empathy to spouses of dead LTTE leaders but she has no time to travel to other parts of Sri Lanka where LTTE struck terror for 30 years.
· Within 4 years spending $3billion when Sri Lanka has
§ rescued from LTTE and resettled 295,873 Tamil IDPs
§ Rehabilitated and reintegrated 11800 former LTTE cadres including 594 child soldiers given a Presidential Pardon
§ Demined virtually all habitable areas
§ Set up massive infrastructure that sees new roads, buildings etc on what grounds does Pillay have to say she is still dissatisfied when none of the recent military interventions have done nothing near Sri Lanka’s achievement after over 10 years of occupation?
· Accusation that Navi Pillay’s call for an ‘international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka’ are to satisfy the 3 prime movers (US,UK and India)
· Accusation that Pillay has totally ignored over 30 years of war crimes including that of Indian War crimes by Indian Peace Keepers in Sri Lanka and no reference has ever been made by her
· Accusation of UNHRC & UN being used as an open forum by LTTE fronts lobbying to force UN/foreign politicians to bring charges against the Sri Lankan State and the reluctance to even investigate them.
· Accusation of her being a peace maker or trouble maker in demanding that the GOSL charge the over 11,000 rehabilitated former LTTE cadres who have integrated into society and starting a new life.
· Accusation of attempting to polarize communities by bringing up isolated cases of religious issues while totally ignoring the over 700 attacks of mosques in the UK and attempting to link rapes in the North with military presence in order to use that as a ground to demand the removal of the military, another imperial outsourced agenda item.
· Accusation of procedural bias by circulating her own incriminating report while refusing to attach Sri Lanka’s response giving Sri Lanka’s
· Accusation of making statements without substantiate evidence in accusing the GOSL as being ‘authoritarian’.
· The number of instances that she has issued derogatory statements against Sri Lanka from her office without any evidence or quoting from LTTE sources are many and can be listed separately were an investigation to be launched.
Why does Navi Pillay
· Not investigate the military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Yugoslavia and the suffering of these people as a result of US/NATO bombing?
· Not investigate the allegations of human rights abuses taking place in these occupied countries?
· Not investigate the devastation of land/property/infrastructure and people by US/NATO forces?
· Not investigate the Human Rights violations of over 26million refugees living in sub-standard UN-run refugee camps where 12million of these refugees have been living for over 10 years. Why does she not take up the cause of these 12million refugees?
· Not investigate the violation of using international mercenaries to destabilize countries and affect regime change?
· Not investigate and take action against West for using banned chemicals like DU, white phosphorus?
· Not investigate the funding/training of locals in countries targeted for regime change
· Not investigate NGOs and other religious institutes that are foot soldiers for Western regime change agendas – who while spreading their faith through unethical conversions are building the foundations to oust national leaders and place puppets instead?
· Not investigate terrorists disguised and functioning under charities and NGOs and using tax-free status to transfer money and arms to terrorists in a transnational exercise which foreign governments complicit and involving money-laundering elements too.
Navi Pillay needs to be investigated. Her credibility is wearing thin. She has shown that she is nothing but an imperial tool, a modern version of the Indian sepoy ever ready to use the international position given to her to serve the white masters. If the allegations are baseless, they can only be proven if the UN were to carry out an impartial investigation. That numerous countries have openly through their officials conveyed their government’s position of Navi Pillay’s bias should have warranted the UN Secretary General to hold an investigation into these allegations given that he and Pillay are ever ready to make allegations against others.
A No Confidence Motion needs to be signed and submitted to the UN if it does not hold an internal inquiry. Public Officials holding important portfolios such as that of Human Rights cannot be violating the very rights they are supposed to protect.
March 5th, 2014 at 3:03 pm
Nowee Peeillay is a war criminal by proxy to US war crimes.
March 5th, 2014 at 3:12 pm
It is OBVIOUS Tamil Pee-illey is BIASED.
But GOSL take her word as Dhammapada.
First GOSL should REJECT all her findings and allegations saying she is TAMIL and therefore biased.
Would Endia allow a Pakistani head a team investigating Kashmir?
Would Israel allow a Palestinian head a team investigating Israel?
Would USA allow a Muslim head a team investigating war crimes in Afghanistan?
NO.
Then why Tamill Pee-illey on SL?
March 5th, 2014 at 3:16 pm
The United States Tortures and waves cudgels at Sri Lanka while China befriends and helps Sri Lanka! What a CONTRAST!
The United States spends $25 million/year on Sri Lanka funding “democracy” and “good governance” projects to fund anti-national NGOs to buy influence and destabilize Sri Lanka, while China gives hundreds of MILLIONS of Dollars in GIFTS and BILLIONS of Dollars in development LOANS.
Clearly, the United States has NOT EARNED the right to get Sri Lanka’s attention t foster US national interests.
Threatening Sri Lanka with its military might and global political influence in pursuit of US global hegemony is not going to win any friends for the US in Sri Lanka, except those of anti-national traitors and separatists. The US is LOSING the hearts and minds of the Sri Lankan people by threatening their personal and national interests.
The MONUMENTAL FOLLY of the United States in alienating a Natural Democratic Ally of the United States in Asia BOGGLES MY MIND!
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China company lands 1 bln USD highway project in Sri Lanka
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 05 (Xinhua) China is deepening involvement in Sri Lanka’s massive infrastructure development with state-run China Merchant’s Group earmarked to build a 1 billion U.S. dollar expressway that will kick off later this year, an official said Wednesday.
The northern expressway is considered to be the largest highway project embarked upon by the Sri Lankan government to date, aimed at linking the former war torn north through the tourist hot spot of Kandy to capital Colombo. When completed, the highway is expected to be about 300 km in length.
Construction of the first phase of about 48 km is expected to begin in August and will be done under the Build Own Transfer (BOT) system, Highways Ministry Secretary Ranjith Premasiri told Xinhua.
“The feasibility study has been completed and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with the company. We are discussing details of tax holidays and land allocation presently,” he added.
It was earlier reported that the construction of the first 100 km of the Northern Expressway was awarded to two China Merchant group companies, China Merchant Holdings International (CMHI) and China Merchant Huajin.
The venture was earlier reported to be funded by China Development Bank. The first phase stretch will have five interchanges, 50 overpasses and 30 underpasses.
CMHI are also in charge of a 500-million-U.S. dollar expansion of the Colombo harbor, which is also under the BOT system.
The first phase is estimated to cost 1 billion U.S. dollars and will take a minimum of 18 months to complete, he added.
On March 15, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will ceremoniously open a 30.81 km extension to the Southern expressway also funded by China EXIM Bank. The cost of the highway extension is 18.7 billion rupees (about 139 million U.S. dollars).
The third phase of the Southern expressway will be handed over to China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation ( CATIC) for construction.
China remains involved in almost all the large scale projects taking place. Some of the biggest projects include a 1.3-billion-U. S. dollar coal power plant on the north western shore as well as a host of other investments in the south of the country that are estimated to exceed 4 billion U.S. dollars, including a 1.2- billion-dollar harbor.
Railways, highways, airports and more are all part of this development push that has been actively pursued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government with support from China. Tourists from China are also becoming a major focus between the two countries.
March 5th, 2014 at 3:27 pm
UNHRC – Part I: Navi Pillay Faulted For Abuse Of Power </b<
By Kalinga Seneviratne
InDepthNews.info
March 3, 2014
SINGAPORE (IDN) – UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) head Navi Pillay’s current campaign against Sri Lanka over alleged human rights violations – along with similar campaigns against Libya and Syria earlier – could jeopardize the cause of human rights around the world, analysts say.
Pillay released a report in February calling for an international investigation into alleged war crimes when the Sri Lankan armed forces crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a final battle in May 2009.
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Envoy in Geneva conveying the Sri Lankan Government’s response to Pillay’s report stated that the UN High Commissioner’s recommendations, “reflect the preconceived, politicised and prejudicial agenda which she has relentlessly pursued with regard to Sri Lanka”, and in a 18-page document pinpointed her double standards accusing her of giving “scant or no regard to the domestic processes ongoing in Sri Lanka”.
The Sri Lanka government has also criticized the report for arriving at conclusions in a “selective and arbitrary manner” and ignoring requests from the Sri Lankan government to provide factual evidence to substantiate allegations and to refrain from making general comments.
Sri Lanka’s criticism of Pillay is not new. But, commentaries in both mainstream and online media in Sri Lanka indicate a hardening of attitudes in the island state against Pillay’s perceived bias and alleged abuse of power as head of UNHRC. She is said to have got away with it in the international media because the western media apparently tended to believe – and continue to – most of the propaganda put out by the LTTE supporters in the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora over the past 30 years.
At the twenty-fifth session of the UNHRC from March 3 to 28 in Geneva, Pillay’s report is due to be officially tabled, and she has refused to entertain a request from the Sri Lankan government that its response to the report be attached as an appendix. The United States has indicated – supported by EU and India – that they may table a resolution at the meeting to establish an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes and human rights violations in Sri Lanka, which the government is sure to reject.
“How many of the bullying countries accusing Sri Lanka of crimes against humanity and war crimes have clean hands or a flawless record?” asks Senaka Weeraratne, a Sri Lankan lawyer and international affairs analyst.
“What we see today in western dominated international organisations such as the United Nations related bodies such as the UNHRC, ICC and the like are proceedings conducted on an Inquisitorial footing i.e. witch hunts aimed at devastating the target country or individual usually of non–European descent thereby perverting the course of justice. No quarter is given to the other party until it submits to the political will of the bullying nations,” argues Weeraratne.
“It is a shameless display of brute power making a mockery of institutional rules and procedures. The targeted country is assumed to be guilty right from the start ruling out any mitigating circumstances. It is virtually a re-enactment of the Inquisition under the auspices of the United Nations rather than the Catholic Church as in the days gone by.”
It is not only Sri Lankans that are complaining about the UNHRC and Pillay’s tactics. Anti-war activists in the West and supporters of the former Libyan regime and that of Syria have also pointed out how these UN agencies, and particularly UNHRC under Pillay, are practicing double standards to promote Western imperial designs.
Veteran Canadian antiwar activist Ken Stone writing for the website ‘Syria 360’ argued in an article written last year that Pillay has abused her power to facilitate western military interference in Libya and Syria to change regimes. He argues that the western media, and CNN in particular, have used interviews with Pillay to promote military intervention in Libya and Syria, where she relates the actions of these regimes to defend their country from rebel forces, to human rights violations and crimes against humanity.
In the name of humanitarian intervention
“Two very useful precedents for illegal, but so-called ‘humanitarian’, intervention by NATO were set by the United Nations in regards to Libya,” argues Stone. “The first was that the doctrine of the responsibility to protect (R2P) was successfully invoked, for the very first time, as a legal ground for over-riding the fundamental principle of national sovereignty as the basis of international law.”
R2P holds that, if a government cannot protect the human rights of its own citizens, the international community may step in to do so. In the case of Libya, R2P was used to justify United Nations Resolution 1973, the motion that authorized NATO to create a no-fly zone over Libya.
“Resolution 1973 was perverted by NATO within hours into a full-blown military intervention for regime change in Libya that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Libyans, pogrom against black persons resident in Libya, the assassinations of Muammar Gaddafi and members of his family, massive infrastructure damage, the de facto partitioning of the country, and a failed state machine,” notes Stone.
He argues that the first precedent (above) could not have been realized without the fancy legal footwork executed in advance by the nimble Pillay in demonizing Mouammar Gaddafi and his son, Saif, at the UN. “The second precedent, then, was the initiative taken by the UN Human Rights Council, chaired by Pillay, in calling for an international inquiry into violence against civilians in Libya,” he says.
Stone goes on to detail how Pillay has been playing a similar role in appearing in the international media accusing the Syrian government of crimes against humanity and calling upon the ICC to mount a war crimes investigation against President Assad, while ignoring the role played by foreign-funded mercenaries in the civil war. “Humanitarian intervention is a powerful tool in the West, where even people on the ‘left’, who should know better, fall for it,” notes Stone.
Libya is the real tragedy of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ that has turned into an ‘Arab Winter’. This brings into question the real motives of those International NGOs who promote human rights with an evangelical zeal.
Libya under Gaddafi may have been an authoritarian state in terms of freedom of speech (not any worse than U.S. allies in the region such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE), but, was a success story in human development. In Gaddafi's Libya, the right to free education for everyone from elementary school right up to university and post-graduate studies at home or abroad were implemented with government subsidies; there was free health care with 1:673 doctor-patient ratio; free electricity for all citizen; interest-free housing loans; and free land for farmers.
Libya had no external debts and its reserves amounted to $150 billion. Today we have a Libya that is ruled by warlords and terrorists and human rights campaigners are silent about the human rights abuses taking place today in Libya and no one is asking the question what is happening to Libya’s huge financial reserves and its oil? Who is benefiting from it?
What happened in Libya amounts to a war crime for which both NATO and International Crisis Group (ICG) that came up with the R2P formula should be held accountable, analysts say. But, UNHRC is muted about it. Instead, a report will be tabled at the current session titled “Technical assistance for Libya in the field of human rights”.
The report does not discuss accountability issues with regards to human rights in the implementation of the R2P formula nor does it address in any serious manner the problem of the anarchy created as a result of regime change. It assumes that there is a regime in charge, when there is not.
A question often asked by Sri Lankans is why Pillay is not calling upon President George W Bush, Tony Blair, David Cameroon and ICG to account for the war crimes USA, UK and NATO forces have indulged in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya?
During her visit to Sri Lanka last year, at a press conference, she said that UNHRC has indeed questioned these countries on certain human rights issues and they have responded. But, what the Sri Lankan journalist didn’t press her on is why she cannot do the same with Sri Lanka, rather than indulge in a public spat and witchhunt?
Opening up old wounds
Most people in Sri Lanka believe that what she is trying to do is to open up old wounds and it is completely counter productive to promoting reconciliation between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities. Nor is it helping to improve human rights in Sri Lanka, where a government that is threatened by what they see as an international conspiracy to change regime, has cracked down heavily on internal dissent and freedom of expression.
Weeraratne argues that Pillay’s methods are harming human rights and increasing the credibility gap of UN agencies in the eyes of the international community (which is not just the U.S., EU and its allies). Instead he argues that UNHRC should adopt the Japanese model of solving a post-war crisis.
“The Japanese approach advocated by the Buddhist Prince Shotuku to use the method of consensus and dialogue, and not allow the accused party to lose face is a far more enlightened approach to resolution of complex human rights issues than the ‘ burning at the stake’ inquisitorial approach of the West” notes Weeraratne.
“It is the employment of double standards and devious methods to achieve ulterior political ends of powerful Western actors that have resulted in the moral collapse of the UN and related agencies.”
*Kalinga Seneviratne is IDN Special Correspondent for Asia-Pacific. He teaches international communications in Singapore. [IDN-InDepthNews – March 3, 2014]
March 5th, 2014 at 3:41 pm
Traitors SPILLING out of the Woodwork; let us NEVER FORGET their Treachery!
The more the GOSL listens to calls for “Reconciliation” the worse their TREASON of these HIDDEN SEPARATISTS gets. As always, WEAKNESS BEGETS AGGRESSION.
WHEN is the GOSL going to ARREST, PROSECUTE and PUNISH these TRAITORS for Crimes of the PAST and the PFRESENT? When?
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Mannar Bishop leads call for int’l war crimes probe
‘Identify specific units, senior officers’
by Shamindra Ferdinando
Island.lk
March 4, 2014
A group of Catholic priests and Rev. sisters from the Northern and eastern provinces has urged the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to adopt a strong and action oriented resolution on Sri Lanka.
The appeal was made by 205 persons on the eve of the inauguration of the UNHRC’s 25th sessions.
The move is led by the Bishop of Mannar, Rt. Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph, who has been in the forefront of local Tamils’ push for an international war crimes inquiry.
Well informed sources told The Island that the group had made its move in spite of last month’s controversy over the Mannar Bishop and Jaffna Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Thomas Saundranayagam calling for an international war crimes investigation during a meeting with US Ambassador-at-large at the State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice Stephen J. Rapp in the North and US Ambassador in Colombo Michele J. Sison. Sources alleged that the UK based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) was behind the latest project undertaken by the priests.
Asked whether the GTF had played a role in this project, Rev. Father S.J. Emmanuel, the leader of the GTF told The Island that it was an initiative taken by the victims and witnesses on the ground.
External Affairs Ministry sources alleged that the petition was meant to justify the US-led effort to move a resolution against Sri Lanka at the ongoing Geneva session. Sources said that the group of clergy was obviously working closely with the LTTE rump/Diaspora. In fact, the petition was most probably prepared in London or Washington and sent to Sri Lanka to collect signatures, sources said.
The priests, in their petition to the member states of the UNHRC alleged that the government had done nothing to address the grievances of those who suffered during the conflict. Alleging that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) as well as other domestic mechanisms had failed to achieve desired results, they emphasized the importance of international intervention in Sri Lanka.
They also accused the military of still interfering in civil affairs particularly in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Following are the areas they have requested to be covered in army probe:
1. investigate allegations of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the war by all parties to the conflict, moving beyond existing findings, such as “credible allegations”, which have already been established by the UN Panel of Experts and others
2. identify clearly specific units and individuals responsible, with a focus on most responsible senior officials.
3. monitor ongoing human rights violations all over Sri Lanka
4. monitor progress, assist and advice on domestic accountability mechanisms for past allegations
5. consist of experts from different parts of the world, and supported by a well resourced secretariat with competent full time staff
6. receive input from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Procedures of the UN HRC
7. provide for victim and witness protection
8. have an initial mandate of one year, with an interim report being presented to the 27th session of the UNHRC and full report to the 28th session of the UNHRC, where an extension and enhancement of the mandate could be considered
9. recommend next steps at national and international level towards ensuring accountability
10. have unrestricted access to all relevant places, people and documents.
March 5th, 2014 at 3:45 pm
“WHEN is the GOSL going to ARREST, PROSECUTE and PUNISH these TRAITORS for Crimes of the PAST and the PFRESENT? When?”
NEVER! GOSL lacks a backbone.
That is why a form of “LTTE” should be revived and send them after TE supporters.
March 5th, 2014 at 4:03 pm
As is most often the case, what is now required is not mere words but action. Action at the UN by the GoSL to remove Navi Pillai from ofice and barred from dealing with matters on Sri Lanka for “conflict of Interests”. She is NOT an impartial person to hold the position she has considering the prejudice she has shown consistently against Sri Lanka – In a sentence she has prostituted her respected position and it is time that she is kicked out! -S de Silva – London
March 5th, 2014 at 5:31 pm
This is not something new. We all know that Tamil Pillay is biased and has got the tigers by the tail. The question is “what is the government doing about it?”. Why not bring a no confidence motion against her?
March 5th, 2014 at 6:05 pm
GOSL should have capitalised on the issue of Nae-Wee Pee-illey’s questioning of Buddhist flag.
It is a proof of Peeilley’s biased ignorance.
Our buggers entertained her too much rather than displaying our culture and treating her like a Sakkili, which she deserve.
March 5th, 2014 at 6:24 pm
The diaspora is collecting necessary ammunitions to fire MR the day he loses power. They have a long term plan. Anti Sinhala racists Tamils want to take the revenge from MR. They are aware that MR is solid as a rock in the field of politics in Sri Lanka. The world saw what happened to Gadaffi, Noriega and others. One day MR clan will have to seek political assylum in China and Russia. The patriotic Sri Lankans will not be able to protect them. That will be the sad day for all lanka lovers. I wish that will not happen. All racist Tamils, Rayappu, Saundranayagam will join hands with traitors of mother Lanka including Bahu and Vasi Devaya. Please mark my words. Five to ten years the enemies will collect evidence. The world saw what happened to Milasovich and the army generals. The only way that samaller nations can be saved by break away from the UNO. Call Russia and China to form a alternative to the UNO.
March 5th, 2014 at 6:30 pm
Stanley,
What you are saying is absolutely true. Our fool should realise this and become POWERFUL by aligning properly with CHINA.
The fool MUST give up Endia fully and officially. He should give up endian habits, Hindoo worship by visiting Kovils.
March 5th, 2014 at 6:54 pm
The article makes a compelling case to place Navi Pillai into investigation of misuse of her power and by that disqualify her. But since she has managed to get a second term from the UN I have doubts that any UN body would dispute the words of Navi Pillai.
Then it falls on Colombo to ban her from the country and by that the UNHRC till Navi Pillai is put under international investigation. The article points to other nations who have fallen victim to the power crazed Navi Pillai and her clumsy and racist exercise of that power. That means Sri Lanka can garner the alliance of other nations to petition an inquiry or investigation on the actions of the head of the UNHRC and state till that is done the authenticity of the UNHRC is in question and cannot be allowed to function in Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka will not recognize any findings of the UNHRC under the dubious leadership of Navi Pillai.
March 5th, 2014 at 8:07 pm
continuing from BW, exactly.
Na-Wee Peeilley is (salary , in addition to bribe) paid by USA.
It is the time to pursue NaWee Peeilley case seriously.
March 5th, 2014 at 8:45 pm
SP is right.
Tamils will NEVER EVER forget war defeat. They brainwash kids too so hatred will go from generation to generation.
That is their plan. NO FAMILY can stay in power forever. So MR family will leave office one day. Then Tamils will kill them.
This is why he should DILUTE Tamil power in SL NOW.
HALF his ministers are also plotting his death. They are there for the money.
March 6th, 2014 at 1:29 am
It’s a bit late in the day to howl “umpire hora”.
(principle of natural justice that no person should judge a case in which they have an interest)
By the same token is the author, Shenali saying Sri Lanka should not lead the “credible and independent” investigation into alleged war crimes?
March 6th, 2014 at 6:04 am
Navy Pillai is another Indian colonial parasite from South Africa; like the Indians in Ceylon, Fiji,Mauritius, Kenya, Uganda etc etc.
Then there are the Indian vermin from UK, USA, Canada and the EU and of course the Indian Imperialists from India.
March 6th, 2014 at 7:11 am
Navi Pillai and USA/UK/LTTE/UK/Canada grouping could not have gone this far with their fabrications against Sri Lanka, had the Indian Government and the UNP behaved in a civilised manner and opposed these false allegations, instead of stooging the West. I do not think any of the nations in the SAARC grouping respect India any more, having observed its despicable conduct in relation to a member state. Maybe just like the TNA and the LTTE diaspora, India too is afraid that a resolution could be passed to investigate the entire 30 + years, instead of the present move to investigate only the last few months, which effectively protects the TNA, LTTE diaspora, India, Norway and Canada being exposed for any complicity in crimes against humanity committed through the LTTE terrorists.
March 6th, 2014 at 11:02 am
Lorenzo is right. Since the war in Sri Lanka is now categorized as a war against Tamil terrorism then the terrorist mentality continues to flourish in India under the TESO (Tamil Eelam Supporters Organization) and TELO (Tamil Eelam Liberation organization) which India fully endorses. It is akin to Pakistan endorsing the Taliban to work against India.
This also brings up the issue of the existence of the Tamil National Alliance in their current form where their manifesto still contains language that supports the creation of Eelam. They have to be dealt with or they will work within Sri Lanka to do the bidding of Navi Pillai, India and the Tamil Diaspora. In the same vein the 13th amendment must be officially nullified and the transfer of the Buddhist Sinhalese people especially families with military personnel should be transferred to the North and Eastern coasts.
March 7th, 2014 at 6:29 am
GLP’s legal arguments against the usage of what was meant to be a private consultation being leaked, and then, counter to UN proper procedures, being elevated to official usage by the HIgh Commissioner, Navi Pillay are very valid points. The leakage and the ensuing official usage of this material should be subjected to a high level investigation. Furthermore, as a Tamil, she should recuse herself from any inquiry pertaining to Sri Lanka. No doubt many nations are taking note of the malpractices at the UN.
Hopefully, strong objections to her actions would be made to the UN by individuals, civil societies and organizations about how the malpractices at the top of the UN organization hierarchy were used in order to bring in a Resolution selectively against a country that had been subjected to suicide terror for 30yr by the LTTE , and in an effort and an agenda to undo the peace now prevalent in the country.