Godfrey report thrown out of the UNHRC in Geneva

 

Wednesday, 17 September 2014 

On Monday 8th September 2014, the very 1st day of the 27th session of the UN Human Rights Council, there was only one briefing in the UN building. It was organised by the Sri Lankan government mouth-piece, the “International Buddhist Foundation”, (IBF). In fact, these types of NGOs are known among the participants of the UN as “GONGOs” - meaning Government NGO (GONGO). If one goes through statements and meetings of the IBF right from the beginning, it is clear they are doing none other than justifying the Sri Lankan government’s atrocities, policies and positions. They also slander and criticise whoever presents the case of Sri Lanka.

The Lankans in Geneva who assist the meetings of IBF inside the UN are all Rajapaksa supporters, especially the Lankan drivers in Geneva, who work for some foreign Embassies. They enter the UN building with their embassy badges to take photographs and videos for the IBF, extreme Sinhala websites and some Sinhala newspapers in Colombo. The main person believed to be behind all this is Kirthi Warnakulasooriya who writes fiction for a Sinhala newspaper ‘Divaina’ in Colombo.

Therefore it comes as no surprise that the “Godfrey report” (Narrative III) was brought to the UNHRC through the IBF. Those who have had doubts about the Marga Institute for a long time, got a chance to clear them, on 8th September, when the Institute tried to present Godfrey’s report in the UN.

Since 2009, Rajapaksa’s government has sent their lobbyists through different organisations, agendas and reports. Therefore many states and international human rights organisations expected that this session too, there would be a delegation from Colombo. As expected, three lobbyists arrived in Geneva with the “Godfrey report” on 1st September, to meet a few delegations.

Those three lobbyists do not seem to know the methods of working in the UNHRC, especially in a briefing. They thought they could speak like addressing a political rally and escape without answering any questions.

This is where those three, Dr Godfrey Gunatilleka, Dr Ashoka Gunawardena and Jeevan Thiagarajah were trapped and had a difficult time. The result was that Godfrey Gunatillkea spent a few sleepless nights and wrote an article in the form of an interview, “Marga CHA to Sandara Beidas : ‘Remove war crime charges, revisit IHL’,  which was published in one of the English newspapers (The Sunday Times of 14 September) in Colombo.

Usually any fiction about the UNHRC in Geneva is written by Kirthi Warnakulasooriya and then appears in a Sinhala newspaper (Divaina). As everyone is beginning now to understand Kirithi Warnakulasooriya’s racist style of writing, this time Dr Godfrey Gunatilleka wrote the interview-style article published in another newspaper (The Sunday Times).

However, one must thank Dr Godfrey Gunatilleka for accepting a few truths in his writing. One observation in his writing is that, in the Geneva briefing, one of the panellists Ashoka Gunawardena was introduced as a ‘Doctor’. But in Godfrey's writings, he is reluctant to call him a ‘Doctor’.

Then the missions that they met were Canada, Russia, India and South Africa. Out of 193 UN member states they managed to meet only these few states, showing how many other UN member states were reluctant to receive the Godfrey report.

The number he gave of people who attended this briefing was an exaggerated figure. They made a video recording of this briefing. If the figure given below is wrong, they can count the number of participants on their video images.

There were only 40 attendees! About half of these included local Lankans living in Geneva, brought by the IBF especially for this meeting, the four panellists including moderator and three other delegation members from China, Cuba and Venezuela.

 States making presentations in a NGO briefing is a joke and this proves that the Sri Lanka delegation is behind this meeting.

Most of the remaining “attendees” did not attend this meeting throughout. They came and went. This is what Gunatilleke counts as 70-75, stating “We had a good audience”. This is just one example of what he wrote in his so-called “interview”.

Then he writes about one “Kirumal, if I am not mistaken – an important LTTE spokesman”. This Kirumal is KIRUPA of France (S. V. Kirupaharan), who has been attending the UN human rights forums since 1990. Gunatilleke hides his identity for a good reason. Kirupa believes in legal action against defamation.

In fact, an ex-civil servant who is a person well-known in the UN and amongst VVIPs of Sri Lanka, Mr David Whaley; the Amnesty UN representative, Mr Peter Splinter and Kirupa were the people who challenged Godfrey’s report and questioned them about their funding and activities. In fact, David Whaley checkmated the panellists on many of the subjects they spoke on.

Even though the right answer was not given in that briefing, Gunatilleka’s writing now reveals the right reply to an interesting question. He says under a sub-title, “Who funded the Marga/CHA exercise?” that “……. .. Both CHA and we (Marga) were keen there should be no direct government funding of this — though if we had approached the Government we might have had some support from it.”  Thank you Dr Godfrey Gunatilleka for letting the cat out of the bag!

Then came the question about the “Darusman” report. An NGO which is supposed to respect the Paris principles, naming a UN Expert report as the “Darusman” report will not be accepted in any UN forums. The Sri Lankan government has been using this description since this report was first published and their GONGOs are following suit.

The Godfrey report was then and there rejected by the majority of the UN member States, International NGOs and institutions in Geneva.

Dr Godfrey Gunatilleka who could not cope with the shock treatment given in the NGO briefing, is presently using his influence in Sri Lanka to justify his blunders in Geneva. Today’s question is, has he done even this properly?

By writing fiction and utter lies about the happenings in the UNHRC in Geneva, one group of newspapers has already lost its credibility. Now they are trying to tarnish the image of another newspaper (Sunday Times) in Colombo. Hope the management of Sunday Times  will take a note of it.
Geneva correspondent