United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dodges query on presumption of War Crimes
Posted on September 3rd, 2016
Hafeel Farisz and Nabeela Hussain Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Answering questions posed to him by the Daily Mirror at the concluding media briefing held at the Galle Face Hotel last evening, Moon evaded specifics and instead couched his answers with diplomatic jargon.
Its true that there was a lack in the level of achievement or lack of involvement by the United Nations and that I admitted to in my statement. That’s what we have admitted to a long time ago. We really wanted to see why it had happened to that level and how. The United Nations could have done better in Sri Lanka particularly during the last stages of the war” he said instead.
Speaking further he also asserted to terrible events of the time”.
The UN has to address the legacy of its actions in Sri Lanka which did not meet the expectations of the people and the world. We reviewed our involvement of the terrible events of the time and continue to take steps to ensure that human rights are at the center of our decision making”
Speaking further Moon denied the assertion that the United Nations exerted double standards” with regard to global superpowers and Sri Lanka.
With due respect to all of you, I would not agree that there has been a double standard with regard to the actions of the United Nations. There has been one standard, one value and one vision with which we work with” he said.
Moon arrived at the podium in which he stood alone for close to half an hour just past 7 pm and immediately commenced the reading of a detailed statement. In it he addressed issues of accountability and commended the Unity Government headed by President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe” in the steps taken towards reconciliation”.
When questioned as to why the UN did not agree to a ‘ homegrown solution’ with regard to the ethnic conflict, Moon said that although a ‘gap’ did exist between the present government and the International Community, it had improved from his previous visit in 2009.
It has been rather difficult sometimes, even for me to talk with the government and the leadership. There was a gap between the expectations of the international community and the level of government help. Even though I think we are not fully there the level of gap can be reduced as soon as possible,” he said.
He further commended the progress in the North since his previous visit.
Since my last visit in 2009, there has been great progress. I welcome the initiative that the president and premier has taken to undertaken to promote good governance. I visited Jaffna and saw an enormous contrast with my experience back in 2009. Great progress has been made in elevating the problems associated with mass displacement” he said.
He however asserted the need of expediting the process of reconciliation stating that the victims cant wait for ever”.
Reconciliation will not be accomplished overnight. It is a complex process which needs continuous nurturing. I welcome the establishment of the office of missing persons and the process of constitutional amendment. These are positive steps but more needs to be done. The victims cant wait forever. They deserve credible transparent and solid transitional justice mechanism” he said.
The Secretary General also remained non committal on the issue of the participation of foreign judges in the proposed transitional justice mechanism.
I think both the UN and the government is involved in this process. There may be some level of difference in the level of involvement, difference of advancement and progress in major issues” he said. (Hafeel Farisz and Nabeela Hussain)
Video by Sanath Desmond and Janaka
– See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/115177/Ban-dodges-query-on-presumption-of-War-Crimes#sthash.3PLAmwds.dpuf
September 5th, 2016 at 3:39 am
In the Missing Persons Act, a relative or a friend can make an official inquiry (but a totally bogus inquiry) from the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) by email inquiring as to the whereabouts of their relative or friend.
There are over 8 lakhs to 10 lakhs Tamil diaspora asylum seekers (actually economic migrants), a vast majority of who support the separatist terrorist LTTE and its aim of a separate state. If even 40,000 of these Tamil diaspora who support the separatist terrorist LTTE write bogus emails to the OMP inquiring the whereabouts of their friend or relative (but this friend or relative is actually living alongside them in these countries i.e. the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) these inquiries will officially be accepted by the OMP as 40,000 missing persons.
According to the provisions of the OMP Act, even if the OMP inquires after these let us say 40,000 and finds out that these are all bogus inquiries and that all these 40,000 persons are actually living alongside the inquirer i.e. their relative or friend and these complaints about these persons being missing are all bogus, the missing persons, now found by the OMP, can request that their whereabouts not be revealed to their relative or friend or be made public. So officially these 40,000 persons will still be missing!!!
Then the OMP will use these bogus 40,000 missing persons (who are actually living comfortably in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) as manufactured ‘evidence’ that war crimes happened in Sri Lanka (and all these bogus inquirers will state that these persons went missing during the 2006-2009 period) and our Sri Lankan Armed Forces will be persecuted for committing war crimes that they never, ever committed by a judicial process using these bogus email inquiries.
The Missing Persons Act states specifically that if the missing person who is now found requests that the fact that they are now found not be revealed to the public that person will remain as missing as far as the OMP is concerned. That is how the OMP will manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ of 40,000 missing persons so that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces can be persecuted for committing bogus war crimes.
The OMP emails cannot be checked by any outside body as stated in the Act since all evidence (almost all bogus) gathered by the OMP remains confidential. The OMP cannot be taken to the Supreme Court on this issue. However the OMP should absolutely and immediately be taken to the Supreme Court regarding what has been written above which is what would happen when this OMP is set up.
The OMP will become a bogus ‘evidence’ manufacturing machine which will gather such bogus inquiries via email from those members of the Tamil diaspora who are supportive of the LTTE terrorists and who will send bogus email inquiries by their thousands. All these bogus inquiries (of people who are actually living in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) will then be misused as missing person inquiries.
I did not realize that the Sinhalese were this stupid as to allow such a process within the Missing Persons Act which can be blatantly misused in order to manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ like this. The OMP process is not transparent, it will happen in totally secrecy, no one in Sri Lanka will be able to question it, not our police, not our courts, not our Sri Lankan citizens, nobody. All the OMP will do is gather bogus email ‘evidence’ such as described above which will then be misused as missing person inquiries to try the Sri Lankan Armed Forces for bogus war crimes that they never, ever committed.
The OMP process as described above must be stopped immediately. If a relative or a friend really and genuinely wants to find out about their genuinely missing relative or friend (i.e. perished LTTE terrorist), they can make a complaint to the OMP in person in public. This is the only way that Sri Lanka and the world will know that their inquiry is genuine. This was the methodology followed by the earlier Paranagama Commission which then received 23,000 complaints from relatives or friends of the missing person (i.e. perished LTTE terrorist or our perished Sri Lankan Forces soldiers) but they made their complaint in public in person to the commission. This is the only way to ensure authenticity and make the process transparent since this happens in the public arena. However, even with such safeguards, even some of those complaints may have been bogus.
The OMP should be stopped immediately since it is not a transparent process at all as described above but a totally secretive process where no one and nobody can request to be provided an opportunity to even peruse, investigate or look at the email inquiries received by the OMP. If the UNHRC, the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India, the TNA and the separatist terrorists genuinely want to find out about perished LTTE terrorists, this Yahapalanaya Government could expand and extend the scope of the already set up Paranagama Commission in order to make such inquiries. This process should be totally following Sri Lankan Law, within Sri Lankan jurisdiction, paid for totally by the Sri Lankan Government only and with only Sri Lankan citizens appointed as commission members and investigators. In fact the entire staff should be composed Sri Lankan citizens only. The process should be a totally domestic process with no interference or input whatsoever from foreign countries. Most importantly, all complaints should be made in person by relatives and friends in public if their complaint is genuine.
The Missing Persons Act is totally dangerous as pointed out above and should be dismissed totally as it is highly dangerous and a totally secretive process as described above designed and set up to manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.