2ND LEAD (UPDATE)

Genocidal Sri Lanka hits back at UN, claims it passed ‘litmus test’ on human rights in 2019

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 October 2019, 18:26 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena deployed his Foreign Secretary to tell the UN Department of Peace Operations (UNDPO) in New York that the 2011 Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability, led by Marzuki Darusman, was “so seriously flawed that the Human Rights Council at the time had rejected to issue it with a formal number, as a UN document.” Brushing away the criticisms being levelled against the SL State for promoting war criminals in the rank and file of the military, Ravinatha Ariyasinha ‘reminded’ the UNDPO that the 2015 OISL report was not an outcome of a criminal investigation. SL Commander Lt Gen Shavendra Silva has not been subjected to any criminal investigation and the public domain reports of the UN cannot be taken as substantive as establishing his culpability, Ariyasinha told the Under Secretary General of the UNDPO, Mr Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

There are “serious discrepancies” in the information released to the public domain by the UN, Mr Ariyasinha maintained.

The heated exchange comes after the Under Secretary General recently went on record stating that the UNDPO would no longer deploy SL troops for its peacekeeping missions.

Mr Ariyasinha was also addressing the UN General Assembly (UNGA) representing SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on Monday.

“[T]he post Easter attack period has proved to be a ‘litmus test’ to Sri Lanka’s resolve to adhere to human rights standards, while fighting terrorism, and also determine the strengths and shortcomings of the democratic institutions that have been strengthened in recent years,” he told the UNGA.

Mr Ariyasinha also warned the UN Assembly: “[I]t is incumbent upon the UN policy implementers to refrain from being misled by entities with vested interests. The UN must also desist from making decisions without a valid consultative process, as its work has to be always member state-driven. Failure to do so will not only vilify this august body and negate the values that it represents, but will also break the trust of Member States, jeopardizing the partnership with the UN.”

Obstacles must not be placed on Sri Lanka’s long-standing Peacekeeping contribution to the UN, he said at the UNGA.

Ariyasinha described the establishment of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), which has been entirely rejected by the victims in the North-East, as a significant achievement.

“The Offices on Missing Persons and also on Reparations are now fully operational. The Cabinet of Ministers is also discussing the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” he said.

He classified the Tamil armed struggle for independence as ‘separatist terrorism’.

“Given Sri Lanka’s experience of the recent past in low and high-intensity conflicts with terrorist groups, few countries can qualitatively match the troops sent by Sri Lanka who have extensive professional experience in all aspects of peacekeeping and providing humanitarian assistance,” he claimed.

“Efforts are also underway to curb the terrorists’ use and abuse of the internet and social media platforms,” he further said.

Ariyasinha was outrightly lying that the so-called economic growth was being “built on a strengthened, inclusive society” by the SL State.

“Each country has its own unique post conflict situation. While we can learn from other experiences, in charting our own path to reconciliation we are committed to find innovative and pragmatic solutions to protect the country’s national interest and the well-being of all Sri Lankans, guided by the provisions of the Constitution.”

The “Sri Lankan” Constitution, which Ariyasinha was referring to is the unitary framework of genocidal Sri Lanka imposed upon Tamils without Tamil mandate and it denies the nation of Eezham Tamils to exercise its inalienable right of self-determination even by peaceful means.

Avoiding to take a position on Kashmir issue, the SL representative was talking about implementing the UN General Assembly resolutions regarding the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to statehood and the attainment of the two-State solution.

He was using the phrase ‘rules-based global order’ to please the US geopolitics and ‘the spirit of multilateralism and cooperation’ to comfort China.

Chronology: