Sri Lanka to Face Rights Investigation
By MARGHERITA STANCATI-March 21, 2013
A United Nations human-rights body Thursday harshly criticized Sri Lanka for failing to heal the wounds of a civil war that ended four years ago and for continued rights violations.
European Pressphoto Agency
Tamil community activists held placards and posters during a demonstration Thursday against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and against the alleged human rights violation against Sri Lankan Tamils.
At the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, 25 of 46 member countries voted for a strongly worded U.S.-sponsored resolution calling on Colombo "to conduct an independent and credible investigation" of crimes allegedly committed by government forces against the minority Tamil community at the climax of the 27-year civil war in 2009. A U.N. panel in 2011 found that 40,000 people, mainly Tamil civilians, died in the final stages of fighting.
The resolution urged the government of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to address "continuing reports of violations of human rights" in the country, including threats to judicial independence and media intimidation.
In May 2009, Sri Lankan troops mounted a massive campaign to end the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group better known as the Tamil Tigers. Mr. Rajapaksa promised an independent inquiry into alleged abuses, including charges the army had fired on schools and hospitals.
But the U.S., other governments and rights groups say Sri Lanka's own investigations have largely whitewashed the actions of its military forces. Human Rights Watch in a recent report said the army was using rape as a means of torture in Tamil areas.
At the same time, the U.S. and rights groups say the government has eroded democratic freedoms.
Earlier this year, Mr. Rajapaksa removed the country's chief justice from office after a parliamentary inquiry concluded she had accumulated unexplained wealth and misused power. The chief justice denied the allegations, saying she was dismissed for defending the courts from political interference.
Sri Lankan officials say the dismissal was constitutional. They blame the Tamil diaspora for fueling allegations of continued army abuses, which they deny.
The U.S. hopes the U.N. resolution will push Sri Lanka to address the criticisms.
"Sri Lanka must take meaningful action on reconciliation and accountability and address growing concerns over the deteriorating human-rights situation," said U.S. Ambassador Eileen Donahoe, speaking in Geneva.
Washington is working directly with Colombo to address these issues. "We have been continuously engaged with the government of Sri Lanka on matters address in the resolution," said a U.S. State Department official. "We are going to continue offering our hand in friendship."
But the resolution isn't binding, and a similar vote at the Human Rights Council last year failed to break the impasse between the U.S. and Sri Lanka.
Colombo pushed back against the U.S., forcefully rejecting the resolution and saying it plays down the country's efforts to rebuild Tamil areas and to promote reconciliation between the country's Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority.
Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Sri Lankan envoy to the Human Rights Council, argued that to censure it now is premature given how recently the civil war ended. "We have confidence in our domestic process and mechanisms," he told the council. "Our efforts in this regard are ongoing and have not reached a conclusion."
While Tamil areas in the north of the country remain militarized, the government announced it will hold local elections there in September. Sri Lanka's northern province is currently ruled directly from Colombo.
The resolution welcomed the coming elections and the government's progress in areas such as building infrastructure and clearing land mines, but said it failed to secure justice for victims of abuse.
Pakistan was among 13 countries that voted against the resolution, describing it as politicized. There were eight abstentions.
India was among those that backed the resolution. The country has a sizable Tamil minority, and India's ruling coalition includes parties that draw support from Tamil areas.
One Tamil party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, pulled out of India's government this week, saying it was concerned India wasn't taking a hard-enough stance toward Sri Lanka.
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared March 22, 2013, on page A11 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Sri Lanka to Face Rights Investigation.
LOST DECADES OF CIVIL WAR MUST NOW BE LEFT BEHIND - BRITISH MP
March 22, 2013
The international community has been clear once again that the lost decades of civil war and brutality in Sri Lanka must now be left behind, said British MP Douglas Alexander, commenting on last night’s vote of the UN Human Rights Council.“But to allow all sides of the conflict who have lost friends and family members to move forward peacefully, the Sri Lankan Government must now take meaningful action on reconciliation and accountability,” the Labour Party’s Shadow Foreign Secretary said in a statement on Friday .
“I have called previously on the British government to use the prospect of the forthcoming commonwealth meeting in Colombo to encourage the Sri Lankan government to now meet its clear international obligations.
“The Foreign Office must urgently raise with the Sri Lankan government the need for a full, independent, international investigation into the allegations of war crimes committed by all parties,” he said.
