Sugath Kulatunga

She was a pawn of Ban Ki Moon who was the main conspirator against Sri Lanka. Moon misinterpreted a routine statement made jointly with the President of SL and went along to appoint an illegal Panel which made a report based on hearsay and unchallenged evidence which are hidden for 20 years.

Darusman report is an illegal report based on uncontested evidence.  At the time of the appointment of the expert panel Moon said that their report was for his information but presented it to the UNHRC.

Ban Ki Moon had no authority to appoint a Panel of investigation against a member country of the UN. Article 1 of the United Nations Charter states that nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state.

The UN General Assembly resolution 60/251 establishing the Human Rights Council has laid down unequivocal principles of ‚cooperation‚ with member countries. They are non interventionist and have the objective of strengthening the capacity of member countries to comply with their human rights. They are not intended to hold member nations accountable. Following are a few relevant extracts.

Recognizing also the importance of ensuring universality, objectivity, and non-selectivity in the consideration of human rights issues, and the elimination of double standards and politicization,

Recognizing further that the promotion and protection of human rights should be based on the principles of cooperation and genuine dialogue and aimed at strengthening the capacity of Member States to comply with their human rights obligations for the benefit of all human beings”.

The Secretay General Ban Ki Moon had no authority to appoint the Darusman/Sooka report which is repeatedly quoted by the UNHRC. It is an illegal document on which all High Commissioners depended for support.

According to Article 97 of the UN Charter,‚ the Secretary-General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. As stipulated in Article 98 the SG’s primary function is that of the Chief Administrative Officer of the Secretariat and any other function has to be entrusted to him by the organs mentioned in the Article. The appointment of the Darusman panel the SG had not been approved by any organ of the UN. According to Article 99 ‚The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security‚ The terms of reference of the Darusman panel had no relevance to international peace or security.

All allegations against SL are based on Darusman/ Sooka fiction which is the mother of all unverified allegations and on various Special reports of Rapporteurs. Special Reports are made by so called voluntary experts, who spend only a couple of weeks in a country and base their findings mainly on information fed to them by biased NGOs and journalists.

The main plank of accusations by Ms. Bachelet‚ was that there was militarization of Civilian Government and reduction of space for civil society and and independent media. Recently she has been alleging war crimes by our military. Other charges are primarily on noncompliance of previous requests by HRC and assurances by GOSL.

The stress placed by Bachelet has to be viewed from her own background and experience. Her father Air Force Gen. Alberto Bachelet died after torture in the public prison of Santiago six months after the military coup. https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/americas/chile/chile0903-6.htm

After the loss of her father in 1974, she and her mother also suffered torture when they were detained as political prisoners.

Michelle Bachelet was detained in 1975, tortured together with her mother at the infamous Villa Grimaldi political prison, and then exiled for four years.

she had taken courses at the Inter-American Defense College in the United States, and later received a master‚s degree from the Chilean Army War College.

https://clas.berkeley.edu/research/human-rights-michelle-bachelet-%E2%80%93-inspiration

It is obvious that she suspected that Sri Lanka was moving towards a military dictatorship which makes her traumatic experience under the military regimes in Chile influences her thinking, which is natural and justifiable. She should have realized that Sri Lanka is the first country in Asia to adopt a Parliamentary system of government which the country has steadfastly retained under many stresses and strains.

She had been elected twice as President of Chile and had made progressive changes in governance in Chile. From an ideological standpoint, Bachelet had consistently supported the fiscally conservative policies of Andres Velasco, a US trained economist and once a Professor at the Harvard University, thereby signaling her commitment to the market model..

Even in her imputations in her last report against SL are matters within the domestic jurisdiction of a sovereign state and under the UN Charter cannot be intervened by the UN and moreover by a subordinate agency of the UN. Making wild allegations against the SL military which fought an internationally condemned terrorist organization is unacceptable and brings down the dignity of the UNHRC. When a charge is made the charge must tell the time, date and place that the war crime allegedly took place, the alleged involvement of the accused, and the details of the crime itself. Her recent report only indicated credibly alleged to have been responsible for gross violations”. Only positive aspects of the report is the action urged on economic crimes and easter bombings. For her the storming of the Presidents house and the Presidential Secretariat are peaceful demonstrations of university students. She should read what is happening now in USA on the storming of the Capitol. In that case the trioters were in the Capitol only for a few hours, but in SL they occupied both the house and the secretariat for days.

The only time she had the courage to speak the truth about China US has pounced on her and she was compelled to resign. Bachelet is not in the same league as Sooks who is a mercenary but was pathologically anti-military.