Lanka says Geneva resolution combined US-EU project

March 22, 2013, 9:39 pm 

by Shamindra Ferdinando-March 22, 2013,

The Sri Lankan government yesterday pointed out that the majority of those who had voted for the US resolution targeting Sri Lanka, at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions on Thursday, were either member states of the European Union (EU) or those waiting to join the grouping.

Of the 25 votes received in support of the resolution, as many as 12 EU member countries and those seeking EU membership threw their weight behind the US resolution.

The resolution titled ‘Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka’ was really a joint US-EU proposal, a senior government official told The Island. Those accusing the government of failing to thwart the US project in Geneva had conveniently ignored how the 47-member UNHRC was sharply divided over the second US resolution.

Asked whether the decision to vote for the US resolution was taken by the EU or individual member states, EU Ambassador in Colombo Bernard Savage said the decision was in line with agreed conclusions of the EU Foreign Affairs Council of Feb 18, 2013.

The membership of the UNHRC comprises 13 African, 13 Asian, 8 Latin American and Caribbean, 7 Western European and six Eastern European states.

At the conclusion of the vote the Office of Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative in Geneva said that 22 countries (13 opposed the resolution, eight abstained, and 1 absent) out of a total of 47 members declined to support the US sponsored resolution.

This cross regional group included the Congo, Ecuador, Indonesia, Kuwait, Maldives, Mauritania, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Thailand, UAE, Uganda, Venezuela (opposed the resolution) and Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, and Malaysia (abstained) and Gabon (absent).

The resolution was supported by 12 EU and EU aspirant member countries which voted as a block (Austria, Czech Rep., Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Spain, Rep. Moldova, Romania and Switzerland), as well as by Argentina, Benin, Chile, Costa Rica, Gabon, Guatemala, India, Ivory Coast, Libya, Peru, Rep of Korea and Sierra Leone supported the resolution. The US being a member of the UNHRC was able to vote for its own resolution.

Government sources told The Island that South Korea, too, would have abstained like Japan if it was given the opportunity to take a decision on its own. The current situation in the Korean peninsula could have had an impact on their decision, sources said, adding that the Sri Lankan government, in fact had been amazed by the US going out of its way to justify unsubstantiated allegations made by the LTTE rump.

Sources said that that India had made a desperate attempt to prevent a vote on the US resolution by diluting it in a bid to secure Sri Lanka’s consent to present ‘Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka’ as a joint proposal. Although some sections of the government, too, favoured a compromise formula, President Mahinda Rajapaksa had directed that regardless of the wording of the resolution, the government should go for a vote. Having diluted the resolution to facilitate Indian efforts, the US and its allies were quite upset when New Delhi failed in its endeavour.

Responding to a query, sources said that India’s strategy had been aimed at averting a vote as it did not want to show its hand. India would have been the real winner had it succeeded in its strategy, sources said, adding that India ended up diluting the resolution much to the anger of the LTTE rump and its supporters in Tamil Nadu. Sources said that India had been involved in the process right from the beginning. Although India felt it could reach an understanding with Sri Lanka on the resolution, the latter took up the position it opposed external intervention as it was inimical to post-war reconciliation process.

Well informed sources said India couldn’t have supported the original US resolution, though the LTTE rump initially believed Premier Manmohan Singh’s government would go along with it.

Sources pointed out that a high profile propaganda blitz was launched in Tamil Nadu in the run-up to the Geneva vote to bring pressure on the Centre to go with the resolution. Instead India diluted the resolution in line with its own strategy, thereby undermining the ongoing Tamil Diaspora project targeting Sri Lanka.