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Why Does the U.S. Get All the Tornadoes?
Posted By Colum Lynch
Thursday, July 8, 2010 - 4:34 PM
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For the past week, Sri Lanka's minister for housing and construction, Wimal Weerawansa, has led a group of pro-government protesters that has ringed the U.N.'s Colombo headquarters, harassing U.N. employees, preventing staffers from entering and exiting the U.N. compound, and burning U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in effigy.
The protesters want to pressure Ban to reverse a decision he made last month to set up a panel to advise him on the U.N.'s response to alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka's victorious, but bloody, final offensive against the country's rebel Tamil Tigers. Adopting a little-used tactic of international diplomacy, Weerawansa vowed today to begin a hunger strike until Ban backs down.
Ban initially backed a request last year by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to carry out his own investigation into alleged war crimes during the conflict. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Ban established a three-member panel in June to advise him on how to ensure accountability for the possible war crimes.
The panel is chaired by Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia, Yasmin Sooka of South Africa, and Steven Ratner, an American lawyer. But Sri Lanka's government has accused Ban of exceeding his authority and refused to provide the panel members with visas to enter the country.
Ban has insisted that the panel will press ahead with its work. Today, he issued a statement saying that Sri Lanka's failure to "prevent the disruption of the normal functioning of the United Nations offices in Colombo was as result of unruly protests organized and led by a cabinet minister of the government" is "unacceptable." Ban recalled the top U.N.'s official in Sri Lanka for consultations in New York and ordered the U.N. office in Colombo shuttered.
But very little was heard from the broader U.N. membership, particularly developing countries like China, Egypt, and India, which have effectively blocked condemnation of Sri Lanka and served as enablers of Colombo's defiant behavior. Last week, Egypt, the chair of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), circulated a letter, first published by Inner City Press, calling on Ban to back down from his plan to probe atrocities.
The non-aligned countries expressed "serious concern about the selective targeting of individual countries which it deems contrary to the founding principles of the movement," according to the letter. "In this context, the movement firmly opposed the unilateral evaluation and certification of the conduct of states as a means of exerting pressure on non aligned countries and developing countries."
The statement was scheduled to be adopted on Friday. But some NAM members, including Pakistan and Malaysia, objected to the letter, not because of concerns over Sri Lanka's conduct, but because its message might undermine their efforts to press Ban to carry out an investigation into the Israel's Memorial Day commando raid against a flotilla of aid activists. Egypt has asked Sri Lanka to revise the statement to address those concerns.
The Sri Lankan authorities mounted a massive offensive last year against the country's rebel Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Ealam, a ruthless separatist movement that used tens of thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians to defend its fighters, killing those who sought to flee the war zone. But human rights groups claim that government forces may have killed tens of thousands of unarmed civilians in the course of the conflict, primarily through the indiscriminate bombing of civilian enclaves.
The U.N. membership's response has been particularly mild when compared to their reaction to alleged Israel excesses in Gaza and in the flotilla raid, where Israeli commandos killed nine aid activists that resisted the seizure of their ship. In those cases, the U.N. Human Rights Council, the General Assembly, and the U.N. Security Council have all pressed for independent investigations into alleged Israeli crimes.
But there has been little action on Sri Lanka, where the loss of civilian lives was exponentially higher. Last May, Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged the U.N. Human Rights Council to launch a commission of inquiry to probe potential war crimes by Sri Lanka's government and rebel forces. Instead, the council adopted a statement congratulating Sri Lanka for prosecuting a successful military offensive against the Tamil Tigers. The statement welcomed Sri Lanka's "liberation" of tens of thousands of its citizens that held by rebels "against their will as hostages."
In a recent interview with Turtle Bay, Louise Arbour, the U.N.'s former High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the rights council "completely misapprehended the magnitude of the civilian casualties" in Sri Lanka, urging it to reconsider its position. Arbour, a former U.N. war crimes prosecutor who now heads the International Crisis Group, maintains that at least 30,000 civilians were killed in the final months of Sri Lanka's 2009 offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Most of them, she said, were likely killed as a result of indiscriminate bombing of civilian enclaves by Sri Lanka military forces.
Arbour said Sri Lanka and its supporters have frequently protested that Colombo is the target of unfair political pressure from powerful western governments. But she pointed out that many of the same governments have not hesitated to call for Israeli war crimes probes, citing the Human Rights Council's decision to set up a commission headed by the South African jurist, Richard Goldstone, to probe war crimes during the Gaza.
"They are always complaining about double standards and look at how quickly they acted on Gaza, where according to the Goldstone report, casualties were somewhere in the range of 1,500," Arbour said. "In Sri Lanka, we believe on the basis of evidence we have so far, 30,000 is probably in the right range. So, for the Human Rights Council to have been very quick to launch an investigation in Gaza, which led to a 500 page report, knowing ahead of time that they would not have the cooperation of Israel, you know where the double standards are."
Sri Lanka's charge d'affaires, Bandula Jayasekara, did not respond to a request for comment.
Follow me on Twitter @columlynch.
And we keep giving high level positions to Sri Lankans @ Turtle Bay. They don't donate much but boy do they grasp all the best positions even when French fluency is a MUST.
Links 608 Danni
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What's worrisome, the Sri Lankan President’s victory speech in Colombo on June 18thstated that his troops carried a gun in one hand and a copy of the human rights charter in the other and their guns were not fired at a single civilian. If that is so, one wonders why the President and his Government now preventing the U.N. doing their job to find the truth about whether his troops carried a gun in one hand and a copy of the human rights charter in the other.
The case for an international independent inquiry is a must as it only will help to promote reconciliation between the Rajapaksa government and the minority Tamils. If there is impunity in human rights and humanitarian violations against its citizens in Sri Lanka, then other State violators confronting civil wars or secessionist rebellions will assume that there is no price to pay for copying the “Sri Lankan model.” As we all know the “Sri Lankan model” is a formula for scorched-earth repression, banning the international press, aid workers, rights groups, denying all charges of misconduct, and pretending the killers can conduct a disinterested investigation of their own killings.
There is something despicable about a senior government minister leading the siege on the U.N. office in Colombo and calling all Sinhala Diaspora to do the same in their respective countries to bully the U.N and to prevent the functionality of the U.N.
Despicable siege by Sri Lanka of U.N is bad example to the world
Sri Lanka is a signatory to the United Nations declarations and covenants relating to the international humanitarian and human rights laws and should be accountable to the U.N. for its citizens’ human rights as well as good governance of the country. But, the actions of the Sri Lankan Minister Wimal Weerawansa along with Sinhala nationalists; certainly with the blessings of the Government, in laying siege on the U.N. compound in Colombo, should not be viewed as a democratic exercise by the ordinary citizens of Sri Lanka.
Instead it should be viewed as the Sri Lankan government preventing the U.N. staff from doing their job. Despicable siege by Sri Lanka must not deter the U.N. from doing its job. It is sad that U.N office in Colombo forced to close by the Secretary-General and highest regional officer recalled, due to this despicable siege by the Sri Lankan minister tacitly supported by the government, Tamil civilians who were victimized, long tormented, brutalized, voiceless, helpless and hapless people forced to greatly suffer again.
Non-aligned nations should go for long-term solutions
.... for the prosperity of their countries and the world and not the short-term gains of hiding the injustice and corruption of present regimes.
Colum Lynch, thank you for this very clear posting.
The UN is toothless, it has passed its sell-by date, its Resolutions are either strangled at birth or ignored. Once you allow nations to be selective in their respect for such an institution it becomes just a pretty backdrop. It should be dismantled and something else put in its place, sited elsewhere than the US, armed with a militia drawn from all members, and enabled as the sole enricher of uranium. Ki-Moon is a disaster, would you employ him?
Sri Lanka is a signatory to the United Nations declarations and covenants relating to the international humanitarian and human rights laws and should be accountable to the U.N. for its citizens’ human rights as well as good governance of the country. But, the actions of the Sri Lankan Minister Wimal Weerawansa along with Sinhala nationalists; certainly with the blessings of the Government, in laying siege on the U.N. compound in Colombo, should not be viewed as a democratic exercise by the ordinary citizens of Sri Lanka.
Yes, good comment man!
yes good comment....
No War Crimes,Why Fear of War Crimes Trials???
Powerful Protests is part of a democracy- Srilanka says but if Tamils did the protests for the WAR CRIMES TRIALS in Colombo, Tamils will be arrested IMMEDIATELY and LOCKED THEM forever under PTA and Emergency rule as Srilanka have been doing for more than 30 years.
The Protests organised and carried out by Srilankan Government NOT BY PEOPLE.
If Srilanka don’t have anything to hide and CONTINUE TO BLAME the FREEDOM FIGHTERS LTTE for all killings and crimes, ONE WONDER WHY THE SAME SRILANKA so ALLERGIC to any kind of investigations and saving the so called lTTE terrorists despite the Srilanka blame them for all war crimes???????
This is TYPICAL Srilankan tactics to GET LICENCE TO CARRY OUT GENOCIDE of REMAINING Tamils and Muslims survived during 62 years of ETHNIC CLEANSING and GENOCIDE by each and every Srilankan governments.
AND, MOST OF ALL THE SP CALLED SACRED COW GANDHIAN INDIA STILL NOT CONDEMNED THE SRILANKAN GENOCIDE NOR THE SRILANKAN STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM AGAINST THE UN STAFF.
UN become OBSOLETE due to the so called UN Sec.Gen Ban Ki Moon
Mr.Ban Ki Moon not even fit for running a TINY SHOP let alone a massive organisation like the UN.
Who selected this feeble INCOMPETENT fool for the big job???He still not condemned the Srilanka even after SRILANKAN GOVERNMENT MINISTER SUPPORTED by THE SRILANKAN RULERS- alleged WAR CRIMINALS- threatening UN staff with death and taking UN staff as Hostages inside their buildings.
Mr. Ban Ki Moon either must have bribed heavily by Srilanka andits backers like China or Ban Ki Moon COLLUDING with the Srilanka to carry out Genocide of Minorities and get away with war crimes.
He just created a PANEL RELUCTANTLY after one year of the Srilankan troops mass killings of more than 70,000 Tamils in few months in 2009 and locking up more than 300,000 Tamils in CONCENTRATION CAMPS. He evenvisited the Camps LAUGHING to JUSTIFY the CONCENTRATION CAMPS.
Mr.Ban Ki Moon alsomust be tried for his part in the Srilankan Genocide.
This is an excellent piece from Colum Lynch. Thank you.
My worries about some of the NAM members who are responsible for dragging the 'Palestine problem' for too long and 'stone throwing'..
All the Kingdoms including Arab Gulf countries, Sri Lanka are members of NAM???
Is Malaysia - Bhumi Putra, Land only to certain group-
talking about Israel??
Can Myanmar, North Korea be part of NAM? Why not?
Bunch of Jokers -Rajapakse knows this very well. Because, Rajapakse was once human roights champion, a platform to get poor mass vote to enter politics.
Al-Bashir is far better.
Longtime Washington Post correspondent Colum Lynch reports on all things United Nations for Turtle Bay.
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