COLOMBO - Sri Lanka on Saturday rejected demands for international monitoring of human rights by a top UN envoy who warned of a “disturbing” lack of investigation into reports of killings and abductions.
Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, that Sri Lanka would not agree to her call for UN monitoring of human rights in the country. “We are not willing to discuss a UN presence in Sri Lanka for monitoring purposes nor are we willing to allow an office of the High Commissioner (here),” Samarasinghe told reporters at the end of Arbour’s four-day visit.
| Apparently the Lankans have figured out that UN 'human rights' aren't for all humans, just the favored ones. And the Lankans aren't too favored since the Tamil Tigers are trés chic. |
Arbour and Samarasinghe addressed a news conference together, but both made it clear they disagreed on how to tackle the human rights situation in the embattled country, where more than 60,000 people have been killed since 1972.
Arbour said authorities had dismissed allegations of human rights violations as propaganda by separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, but she believed there were “credible allegations that deserved to be investigated.” “There is a disturbing lack of investigation that undermines the confidence in the institutions set up to protect human rights,” Arbour said, adding Sri Lanka’s culture of “impunity” was a serious concern and calling for thorough investigations and monitoring. “In the context of the armed conflict and of the emergency measures taken against terrorism, the weakness of the rule of law and prevalence of impunity is alarming,” she said.
| I think the major mistake the Lankans made here was allowing Louise into their country. Bet they don't make that mistake again. |
“There is a large number of reported killings, abductions and disappearances which remain unresolved... While the government pointed to several initiatives it has taken to address these issues, there has yet to be an adequate and credible public accounting for the vast majority of these incidents.”
| It's a civil war, Louise. Nasty things are done by both sides in civil wars. They aren't pretty at all, and the quickest way to stop the human rights violations is for one side to war the war completely and utterly. |
Arbour was not allowed by the government to travel to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi for talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). “I regret I did not have the opportunity to visit Kilinochchi,” she said. “I would have liked to convey directly to the LTTE my deep concern about their violations of human rights and humanitarian law including the recruitment of children, forced recruitment and abduction of adults and political killings.”
| Oh sure you would have, just as well as the mealy-mouthed Carla del Ponte no doubt. |
Human rights activists accused the government of ”stage-managing” Arbour’s visit, but Samarasinghe said they did not want her to travel to the Tigers’ political capital out of concern for her own safety.
However, she travelled to the former rebel stronghold of Jaffna in the north of the island and met families of people who had been killed or disappeared allegedly at the hands of government forces. |