The UNHRC High Commissioner as expected has rejected Dinesh Gunawardane’s disapproval of Resolution 30/1 cosponsored by the UNP Government. She has opted to sit with the critics of Sri Lanka and questioned that Sri Lanka “has not addressed impunity for past violations nor undertaken security sector reforms.”
She firmly believes in the numbers killed as churned out by the Darusman Report and other pro-LTTE fronts. These figures vary from 40,000 to 200,000 making the war against Tamil Tiger terrorism almost a genocide, a term used by the political arm of the LTTE. Can High Commissioner Bachelet re-examine the words impunity and the security sector reforms used and vouch that her words are based on facts or fantasy created by interested parties as she knows who, what and where. She has completely ignored the UN Colombo report, Lord Naseby’s comments, Col Gas’s observations, Paranagama Commission Report and Census carried out by the Government of Sri Lanka. Hence the Sri Lankan Government’s position that Resolution 30 /1 is misleading, can stand the test and if UNHRC is aware of its powers that it cannot force any solutions that impinge on the country’s sovereignty and is interested in a productive dialogue, the High Commissioner should reconsider grasping ground realities.
The High Commissioner had regretted the change in the approach to the issues by the new Government compared to the ‘commitments previously made’. She should realise that the Government is determined to extricate the country from bogus reports based on disinformation, and take steps in keeping with the mandate received at the recent Presidential Elections in which the baseless UNHRC resolution received a lot of attention. The High Commissioner should understand that the previous government’s foreign minister did not have the approval of the Parliament and the President for him to have made a commitment on behalf of the country.
She has commented critically about the Government’s stand on Constitutional Reforms carried out by the previous government. Such statements are further proof of the fact that the UNHRC’s resolve to intervene in the affairs of sovereign Sri Lanka whereas there are many countries who consider UNHRC as a dead duck or a cess-pit as the USA representative referred to.
Ranjith Soysa