The Honourable Delegates to the 25th Session of the UNHR Council, Geneva.
Posted on March 16th, 2014
Charles.S.Perera
Your Excellencies,
UN Commissioner Navi Pillai’s report calling for an International Independent Investigation should be rejected as her impartiality is questionable due to obvious conflict of Interest.
Delegates to the 25 Session of the UNHR Council in Geneva have been hearing complaints against Sri Lanka for no other reason but for the eliminating of terrorism under which the Tamil civilians themselves suffered for over three decades. Those complaints which may have no direct connection to the elimination of terrorism are nevertheless off shoots of the same complaint.
You may have notices that those Sri Lankan Tamils who complains against Sri Lanka and support the US Resolution, and the report of the UNCHR Navi Pillai are not ordinary Tamil people, but Tamils who have a vested interest in opposing the Government of Sri Lanka. Those Tamils who have come from Sri Lanka presenting their complaints against Sri Lanka are from the Sri Lanka political party Tamil National Alliance which was set up by the terrorist leader Prabhakaran to be his representatives in the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
The Government after elimination of terrorism did not disband the Tamil National Alliance, but they continue with the separatist agenda of the Terrorists in breach of the Constitution of Sri Lanka. This itself shows the leniency with which this political party is treated by the President of Sri Lanka who they claim responsible for war crimes by the Armed Forces.
The President of Sri Lanka could have used his executive powers and moved to take action against the Tamil National Alliance for the breach of the Constitution. He did not do so, as much as he never discriminated against the Tamils of Sri Lanka. He deployed his Armed Forces against the Tamil terrorist and never against the Tamil people.
This goes to show that the propaganda that is being carried out by the Sri Lanka Tamil politicians and their supporters are false and the government ever since the elimination of terrorism had been doing every thing possible to help the Tamil people of the North and East and reconcile them with the rest of the Communities.
But it is these Tamils led by the Tamil National alliance and the Tamil Diaspora who are now very much present in the UNHRCouncil premises who carry false propaganda against the Government and the Armed Forces, refusing to cooperate with the government in its effort to reconcile the Communities in Sri Lanka, and bring real peace into the country.
Honourable Delegates you may have met, seen or observed a vociferous Tamil Woman –now a Provincial Councillor who has come to UNHRC and makes lot of Allegations against the Government of Sri Lanka and its Government Forces. She is Mrs. Anandhi Sridharan. She is none other than the wife of a terrorist who was in charge of recruiting Tamil children to be trained as child soldiers of terrorists.
The “recruitment” was in fact taking away children by force from the parents or forcibly taking them away while they were on their way to school or when they were returning home from schools. This person as a wife of terrorist had been an active supported of terrorism. And she is now trying to complete the unfinished work of her terrorist companions.
This again shows that the Government of Sri Lanka has not restricted the freedom of the Tamils after the end of terrorism even if some of them were closely connected with terrorism before. This is evidence of the falsehood of statements they make against the Government and its Armed Forces.
The Tamil are only a 13 percent of the population of Sri Lanka. Of this 55 percent of the Tamils lives in the South with Sinhala people. If the whole of the Tamil population supported the terrorists, the Government would not have been able to defeat them. But not all the Tamils were with the terrorists.
The terrorist were ruthless and did not hesitate to kill any one who opposed them . Therefore those Tamils who opposed terrorism did not speak up against terrorist for fear of their lives.
Even many of the Tamils in the diaspora lived in fear of the terrorists Front Agencies, and made their contributions to the terrorist Fund Collectors through fear for themselves and their kith and kin in Sri Lanka.
Some of them nevertheless confessed in private of their opposition to terrorism even if they were compelled to pay money demanded by the terrorist money collectors. Even today this fear exists and the Tamils opposed to terrorism still prefer to keep silent.
Though the terrorists were eliminated by the Government of Sri Lanka, the local sympathisers of the terrorists and those pro-terrorist Tamils in the diaspora want to realise the creation of a separate Tamil State which was the object of the terrorists, and for which the pro-terrorist Tamil diaspora had financially and actively contributed and still continue to do so.
The Sri Lanka Tamil politicians led by the Tamil National Alliance , and those Tamils of the diaspora, are supported by all “well to do” Tamils, and Tamil politicians the world over even if they knew nothing of the ground situation in Sri Lanka during terrorism, and nothing of the governments contribution to the welfare of the Tamils after terrorism, merely because they are also Tamils.
Their attachment to their Tamilness is such that they blindly cast their lot with the pro terrorist Sri Lanka Tamils, unconcerned whether the Tamil terrorists were right or wrong.
Thus you have the Tamils from Mauritius forcing their government to sponsor the US Resolution against Sri Lanka.
The Tamils in Malaysia, as much as the Tamils of the Tamil Nadu of India supported the course of terrorism, and now they are all supporting the efforts of the Pro-terrorist Tamils of Sri Lanka- Tamil National Alliance along with the Tamils of the diaspora to set up a separate Tamil State in the North and bring the Government and the Armed Forces in Sri Lanka before a tribunal accused for violation of human rights and war crimes in the course of elimination of terrorists.
The Tamils in South Africa supported the course of the Sri Lanka Tamil terrorists, and continue to so with Archbishop Desmond Tutu taking a leading role. Hence all Tamils where ever they are tend to support Tamils, and help them to take revenge from the Government of Sri Lanka for elimination of Tamil terrorist.
Navi Pillai the UN Commissioner for Human Rights is a Tamil from South Africa. Hence being a Tamil her sympathies are with the Tamils of Sri Lanka, her allegiance is to the course of the Tamils of Sri Lanka to take vengeance from the Government of Sri Lanka and its armed forces for the elimination of Tamil terrorists.
Navi Pillai the UN Commissioner of Human Rights , who is a Tamil is no different from other Tamil. She is in the correct place to help her Tamil counterparts in Sri Lanka to take revenge from the Government and its Armed Forces for the elimination of their Tamil terrorists. That is the motivation behind her recommendation of an International Independent Investigation into the elimination of terrorism, to examine the violation of human rights, and war crimes.
Navi Pillai was the wrong person to have been invested with the authority to investigate to what an extent the Government of Sri Lanka is responsible for any violation of Human rights in the course of the elimination of terrorists.
There is an obvious conflict of interest and she being a Tamil she cannot, but take sides with the Tamils of Sri Lanka and support their call for an international investigation and indirectly support the efforts of her Tamil counterparts to set up of a separate Tamil State.
Her report and her call for an International Independent Investigation which has now been “copied” by USA should be rejected, as her report does not show that she had been able to obtain reliable evidence from her investigations, and therefore she has come to very partial and therefore unacceptable conclusions.
Navi Pillai visited Sri Lanka on an invitation by the Government of Sri Lanka and stayed on for a week. She visited most of the places in the North of Sri Lanka interviewing people from all levels of Society, and anti- government press offices in the North.
But as an independent UN Official and an Independent objective investigator, she did not think it necessary to visit the South of Sri Lanka and interview the Sinhala people who also suffered from terrorism. However, in her visit to the North she had not been able to collect any valid reliable evidence to accuse Sri Lanka and its armed forces for violation of human rights.
Hence her report presented to the 25 Session is based on a very controversial report issued by a Panel appointed by the Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
This report of the Panel cannot be accepted as it is first not an official report and secondly the evidence on which the report is based is questionable as a condition of the release of the report was that the identity of the witnesses on whose evidence the report was prepared should not be released before twenty years after the issue of the report. The report of the Panel lacks transparency, and therefore not a reliable document.
This Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka consisted of Mr.Darusman from Indonesia, Yasmin Sooka from Southy Africa, and Steven Ratner an American. This report becomes one of Navi Pillai’s sources for her report now presented to UNHRC. Ms. Navi Pillai had accepted the document as a valid undoubtedly because the Panel which drew the report consisted of her compatriot and a friend perhaps Ms.Yasmin Sooka of South Africa. The report has not been officially accepted as a UN Document.
Her second source of information is a supposed to be Documentary prepared by the UK Channel 4TV. This documentary consists of images juxtaposed without any eye witness evidences showing scenes of atrocities the film recounts as committed by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces against the Tamils. This is a sort of ” horror film” prepared using modern film technology which gives the images a realistic dimension. It could move persons, and acceptable to those people who have not scene documentaries made using modern technology and virtual reality.
The Channel 4 films cannot be accepted as evidence of any sort. Such documents will not be accepted in a court of law as evidence. No person with a knowledge of modern film technology will accept them as authentic.
Therefore I as a concerned Sri Lankan, appeal to the Honourable Delegates to reject the report presented by the UN High Commissioner Ms.Navi Pillai and also reject the US Resolution against Sri Lanka which also includes Ms.Navi Pillai’s call for an International Independent Investigation.
Yours Respectfully,
Charles.S.Perera
March 16th, 2014 at 9:54 pm
Is it not proper for the GoSL to bring a no confidence motion against Pillai woman. MR and company was good enough to impeach Shirani B. But they shiver in their boots befoer Pillai woman. How can the GoSL say they are balanced when they adopt a double standard while accusing American double standard.
March 17th, 2014 at 3:28 am
Did we present the Delegates to the Sessions of the UNHR with what transpired at the discussions held between the Sri Lanka Government Authorities including the President and the UN High Commissioner during her visit to the country? She had an assignment to visit Sri Lanka and report on her findings to the Sessions. If she did not mention her findings after the meetings with the President and the rest, we had a responsibility to tell what questions were asked and what answers were given to her to be included in the report.
If we did not present what transpired. what questions were asked and what answers and information were given at the meetings held in Sri Lanka, how do we expect the Delegates to form an impartial and a balanced opinion?
I say the above, because the Sri Lanka Government response to the report did not mention any matters or facts brought up at those meetings excepting a lengthy developmental presentation. Perhaps I could have missed it and someone could correct me. Thank you.
March 17th, 2014 at 8:44 am
Douglas The above is only a draft, before editing, but with regard to discussion between Navi Pillai and the President, there is not much I could get searching in the net. However, the following gives an idea of what Navi Pillai gathered from her her visit to Sri Lanka.
http://www.asiantribune.com/node/64307
http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/26171
March 17th, 2014 at 5:42 pm
Dear Charles: Thanks for your response. I understand your dilemma. I am not alone and believe there are so many to be in that situation.
However, what I was trying to say was that the leader of the Government delegation viz. Prof. G.L.Peiris should have made it a point to show how the UN Commissioner conveniently or deliberately avoided the presentation of facts laid out to her at those meetings she had with the President, Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Secretary to the Defense etc. If such “Authoritative” facts and information, (better known to the Govt. delegation) were stated across the floor of the venue, Ms Pillai’s report leaning on the Dharusman Report and her reliance on “unconfirmed and unsubstantiated” allegations would have been exposed to the advantage of our country. Also her “preconceived ill-feelings and being bias” towards the Govt. and Sri Lanka could have been well established to create a very reasonable “doubt” in the minds of the Delegates of the Sessions. We should have taken that advantage to create an “environment of doubt, guessing and most importantly questioning”at least among the delegates who are “on the fence” as regards the Resolution to be voted.
I am aware if such facts and information that were laid on the table at those meetings are available, you would certainly have made a very impressive and a hard hitting presentation. Perhaps, if you join hands with Shenali, Chanaka, Daya Gamage of Asian Tribune more substantiated information and facts could be obtained.
March 20th, 2014 at 1:44 am
Good on you Mr Charles Perera and thank you for trying to educate the delegates with the true situation. However, it would be difficult as the 13 EU members and many nations depending on their aid, do not have the freedom to decide for themselves. EU members are forced to vote as a block and this shows democracy in practice within the EU, though they blamed Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi for being authoritarian. As Mr Putin said it is good news even to hear that the West is aware of International Human Rights laws.
I believe these are good times for so called refugees or possible fugitives or economic queue jumpers, to take boats and go to developed nations, skipping their own neighbouring nations, as I feel, Navi Pillai is doing all within her power to keep the doors open for Tamils to get in, by endorsing their bogus torture claims.
Navi Pillai did not see the 300000 hostages the Govt rescued but accepted a fabricated figure of 40,000 killed as true. She believes in CH4 fiction, and may be she also believes those TV advertisements and movies where animal are shown talking like humans or even the ‘Jurassic Park’ movie to think those creatures are still alive. This is a case of what she wants to believe and nothing to do with human rights. Neither Navi Pillai, nor Dharusman or Louis Arbour or any other shameless liar, be even a member of a Kangaroo court the USA/UK/India are trying hard to establish. India by trying to take mean advantage of Sri Lanka’s predicament, may one day learn a bitter lesson, when it backfires on them, with the blessings of the very nations it has now joined o destabilise Sri Lanka’s forward March. However, it is refreshing that Russia and China are beginning to stand their ground against these International Humanitarian Law violators, whether Russia and China themselves could be right or wrong in their actions. Already they have helped to save three nations, Iran, Syria and Crimea. Today we need a alliance of nations to balance the NATO led juggernaut, steam rolling over independent sovereign nations, like Hitler did in the recent past.