Shenali D Waduge

Manjari Dissanayake is the daughter of Former Sri Lanka Navy Spokesperson Commodore D.K.P Dassanayake. Thinking the UN to be righteous, unbiased, transparent she arrived to hand over a complaint on behalf of her father and others to the UN officials who came to investigate those arbitrarily detained. She was in for a rude shock. ‘Is this an LTTE complaint’ she was asked when she replied in the negative, the UN official chose to ignore Manjari. Where is the neutrality and fair play that the UN boasts off? Where in the UN Charter does it give UN envoys the right to say that they are personally happy that Sri Lanka’s war heroes are in prison? We want answers from the UN. We are shocked and disgusted by the behavior of these know-it-all envoys and our exasperation has got enhanced after realizing from UN’s own internal investigations that UN officials are taking bribes and can be monetarily influenced. Now we know why UN Officials are behaving as they are in Sri Lanka. UN is today an emperor without clothes.

LTTE is a designated terrorist organization remaining banned in 32 countries. It is unlikely that the UN delegates were mandated to ONLY visit LTTE for Article 55c of the United Nation’s Charter clearly binds UN to uphold universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”

https://www.facebook.com/ManjariDassanayaka/videos/933253693496722/

https://www.facebook.com/GlobalSriLankanForum/videos/1961756954038729/

https://www.facebook.com/SLchathu/videos/vb.1559412267707189/1919800991668313/?type=2&theater

Manjari Dassanayake came to hand over a complaint regarding her father & commander Sumith Ranasinghe who are both under arbitrary detention.

Some salient points she raised to the media while the UN officials sat in the committee room

• The UN officials arriving in Sri Lanka to investigate those under arbitrary detention José Antonio Guevara Bermúdez, Leigh Toomey and Elina Steinerte spent 11 days in Sri Lanka but did not visit a single non-LTTE detainee. WHY? Was the mandate of these UN special delegates to visit only LTTE detainees? If so they should have arrived specifically with that mandate made clear. If their mandate was to look into everyone arbitrarily detained why did they not look into the war heroes who have been detained without charge?
• Commodore Dassanayake and others have been in prison for 5 months – that length of time without charge does constitute arbitrary detention or does the UN have another definition for arbitrary detention confining it to only LTTE terrorists?
• Manjari informs media that her father is a public figure, a war hero with a good name & questions why he is being kept inside for no reason? A question for those in the present government to answer especially why CID has not provided Commodore Dassanayake’s February 2015 statement.
• According to Manjari her father was arrested without the consent of the Attorney General but using the powers invested in the investigating officers of the CID without any credible evidence while CID refuses consent to bail being given. Is there some political motivation for this action?
• Manjari also informed the media that the 1^st suspect was out on bail.
• Manjari also brings out some interesting points – the Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera addressed the UN Human Rights Council on 3^rd March 2017 and the day prior (2^nd March) these Naval officers were arrested by the CID. Then UN Special Envoy Ben Emmerson arrives to visit Sri Lanka 14^th July 2017 while Commodore Dassanayake was arrested on 12^th July 2017 – were these arrests made to curry flavor with the visiting UN officials? Why have their bail applications been postponed 4 times?
• Why couldn’t the UN Committee spare just 5 minutes to accept her letter?

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=176505

Shamindra Ferdinando writing to the Island newspaper also highlighted the arrest of the Naval officers. Commodore Dassanayake was one of the senior officers responsible for an ‘unprecedented naval blockade meant to prevent a possible attempt to evacuate LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran, his family and senior most cadres such as Pottu Amman & Soosai”. Is this the reason for the Commodores arrest?

Commodore Dassanayake is fondly remembered for the seizure of an LTTE vessel (meant to evacuate Prabakaran) in early December 2009 following the interrogation of Prabakaran’s successor having captured him in Malaysia in August 2009.

The golden question is – are these naval officers who had been responsible for curtailing and curbing LTTE terror attacks in prison because of their heroism? With the UN system itself admitting that UN officials are taking bribes and can be monetarily influenced has LTTE blood-money politically motivated these imprisonments and is that why bail is being refused and charges are not being framed? Are these arrests revenge punishments for sabotaging LTTE objectives?

Leaving aside the shortcomings of the previous & present government or the influences that LTTE illegal monies can exert the key question is why is the UN behaving so biasedly? With unabashed bias they have the arrogance to even ask Manjari if she is appearing on behalf of an LTTE cadre and when she denied she was completely ignored to the extent to say that they would not come out of the Committee room until Manjari left.

These UN officials should have had to decency to at least accept the letter by Manjari and officially acknowledged her. Whether they throw the letter into the dustbin as most probably that is what would happen, the onus was on these supposedly unbiased and fair officials of the UN to have accepted her letter.

We know that all of the submissions by non-Tamils to the UNHRC when it called for investigation on Sri Lanka would have all landed in the dustbin because their reports did not draw any of the concerns of those who submitted. It was based on this realization that many chose not to make submissions. UN has lost all its credibility not only in Sri Lanka but in all of the developing nations as well. UN is today regarded as a puppet of Western imperialism. Though puppet governments will bend over backwards accepting these UN viceroys that arrive every other day, in the eyes of the general public these UN officials are toys of the West reading out prepared statements aligned to bigger agendas & motives.

It is absolutely shameful that the UN would stoop this low and it calls for China and Russia to raise a voice in the General Assembly regarding the highhanded behavior of UN officials and the manner that they dictate to sovereign countries without realizing the limits to their mandate

Shenali D Waduge