Attempted German bargain at the cost of Sri Lanka's Human Rights

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 July 2008, 21:38 GMT]
Der Spiegel, a renowned German weekly news magazine, in its 23 June edition, has revealed that Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the permanent representative of the government of Germany in New York in February, agreed to a deal prior to the voting in U.N. General Assembly in May, where Germany would vote for Sri Lanka's re-election to the Human Rights Council, and Sri Lanka in turn will vote for German seat in the Security Council in 2010. The paper said Germany's deal with the Human Rights violator Sri Lanka was 'indelicate', despite Sri Lanka's defeat in the race.

"In order to be included again in the Security Council of the United Nations, the [German] government is obviously willing to pay any price necessary," the paper said.

"The deal is very fiery because Sri Lanka has aggravating accusations of violating Human Rights," Der Spiegel said. It cited Human Rights Watch's listing of 99 cases in March, that dealt with the disappearance or kidnapping of Tamil civilians, Human Rights officials and journalists with alleged involvement of the Sri Lankan forces.

The German foreign office had refused to comment on the deal, according to the weekly.

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Unfeiner Deal