Shenali D Waduge

Prince Zeid has come to Sri Lanka to point fingers and give orders. He is violating Article 2.7 of the UN Charter ‘United Nations has no authority to intervene in matters which are within the domestic jurisdiction of any State’. Why should the Government of Sri Lanka entertain such visits where UNHRC head is virtually giving orders to Sri Lanka and interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state? In fact we do not know why he has come. Is the silence due to the illegalities of the UN/UNHRC against Sri Lanka getting international attention?

http://www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/principles.shtml#rel5

The UNHRC/OHCHR head and the UN has been demanding Sri Lanka demilitarize, confusing war crimes with general crimes which can be dealt under prevailing laws, demanding resettlement of people who we do not know are our citizens as the statistics of Tamils does not make sense and we need to question how many Tamils from Tamil Nadu have illegally made Sri Lanka their home and pose as Sri Lankan Tamils and Tamil refugees.

Questions for the UN/UNHRC to answer

• What evidence have we seen of UNHRC/UN officials looking into the welfare of the victims of LTTE terror? 300 suicide attacks throughout 3 decades have left plenty of victims. Why are their grievances never a subject for the UN/UNHRC or human rights organizations?
• If the Resolution says to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, as applicable”, why is it only the armed forces/GOSL under investigation omitting LTTE and all those who supported LTTE (locally & overseas) including foreign nations and even UN officials?
• Isn’t the UN’s failure confirmed in its own report by Charles Petrie on the total inadequacy of the UN and its agencies to handle the unique circumstances associated with the Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka proving that UN did nothing to stop terror that lasted 30 years?
• Is it not correct that there was no commitment by the Sri Lankan President to UN Head Ban Ki Moon in May 2009 for an accountability process?
• Is it also not correct that inspite of the GOSL appointing the LLRC on May 15, 2010 the UN Head went to appoint a 3 member panel on on June 22, 2010? How can the GOSL determine in 5 weeks what took place in 30 years? Moreover a report meant for the UNSG only was released to the public. This is a blatant violation of the UN Charter.
• The arbitrary allegation of 40,000 civilian deaths is being used as a battering ram with no justification or evidence. This needs to be clearly corrected by the UN.
• Moreover with no bodies, no names, no evidence of such deaths except exaggerated statements and hyper emotions on what grounds exactly are these war crimes charges stemming?
• Let us also remind the UN/its local office and others in the UN system that they were very much functioning and involved throughout the 30 years of the conflict. They cannot pretend to be babies unaware of what took place. They were at weekly meetings with the former Defense Secretary right upto the end of the conflict. Now these participants are trying to wash their hands as if they did not know anything. Release these reports to establish how well briefed the international community were.
• How come this Panel of Expert report that was meant to be for the UN head to refer ended up in public domain and the foundation for the UNHRC Resolutions against Sri Lanka? We would like to know how an Internal Document can be used to vilify a sovereign nation?
• We would like to know why OHCHR set up a special investigating team within the OHCHR in Geneva when Paragraph 10 of the Human Rights Council’s Resolution on Sri Lanka specifically states: …the need for an international inquiry mechanism in the ABSENCE (emphasis added) of a credible national process…”.
• Why have appeals to investigate the illegalities of the consecutive resolutions fallen on deaf ears? An advisory opinion from the ICC can easily lay to rest doubts of illegalities at play.
• Prince Zeid is violating Article 2.7 of the UN Charter by ordering Sri Lanka what type of courts to establish and who are to sit in judgment. All these are violating Sri Lanka’s constitution.
• Is it not correct to say that the UNHRC heads reports have all been a farce – does the UN entity really have a case with provable evidence against Sri Lanka? It most certainly does not.
• Why has the UN ignored the contents of the reports commissioned by the GOSL one which included eminent legal experts who had been part of UN war crimes investigations in other countries? Their reports conclude that no war crimes was committed. If your office says war crimes have been committed and the international experts commissioned by the GOSL says no war crimes have been committed is it not best to appoint a new independent team of experts selected and appointed by the UN General Members?
• Why is the OHCHR head ignoring the Sinhalese & Muslim victims? Why is it always and only Tamils being referred to and visits directed at only the North? Why has the whole world forgotten that it was LTTE who started terror and Sri Lanka was only defending its citizens?
• Since the Prince is travelling to the North, his office should tell him to ask about the state of affairs of low caste Tamils in the rigid and cruel caste system that divides Tamils more than uniting them.
• If Zeid is here as an unbiased official why is he not inquiring about the displaced Sinhalese & Muslims who were chased out from their homes in the North by the LTTE in the 1980s. None of these have been allowed to resettle in their original habitats? Why is the UN silent on their plight?
• We would also like to have the OHCHR make public all the visits by pro-LTTE groups (most of whom were listed under UN Resolution 1373 as LTTE fronts) to the OHCHR office to meet officials of your office including yourself. These fronts are boasting that they have been in and out of your office which does raise eyebrows as to why?
• Why does the OHCHR head only visit pro-LTTE leaders and their representatives? Meetings with one side obviously gives one-sided views. How can a  day visit with one sided views establish what is relevant for the whole country?

Questions for the Sri Lankan Government to answer

• Why is the GOSL allowing the UN, UNHRC and foreign nations and their envoys to interfere in the internal affairs of the country?
• When there is no evidence to prove that the Sri Lankan Army killed civilians with malicious intent to kill why did the present government forsake the country’s armed forces by co-sponsoring a UNHRC bogus resolution that names service commandos as war criminals?
• This government is failing the nation in agreeing to evidence-less allegations/accusations and accepting wild notions of hybrid courts which are obviously an experiment for the UN to penetrate into nation states and overrule the existing law of the land.
• Why is this government failing to demand UNHRC/OHCHR action on the 5000 missing soldiers?
• What the GOSL should be doing is to table a motion in the General Assembly listing out all of the irregularities, illegalities and lies that have been manufactured against Sri Lanka and request an independent expert panel to be appointed by the UN General Assembly. All nations that abstained or voted against the Resolutions on Sri Lanka need to realize that today it is Sri Lanka, tomorrow it could be them and the day after it most likely will be them because the UN is now a puppet organization manipulated by a handful of nations only.

We cannot help that we are a small island nation without the same clout that bigger powers have. It is for these reasons that we expect better from the UN and its officials. However, the manner that Sri Lanka has been hounded and the very visible witch-hunt clearly seen and can be shown with evidence should highlight to the world that the UN should now close shop for it is not serving the world equally and is favoring the West and covering the West’s crimes unashamedly.

 Shenali D Waduge