Sri Lanka & the UN panel to probe war crimes
Posted on July 7th, 2010
Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .Canada
July 7, 2010
The Editor (Letters)
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
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Sir:
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“Demonstrators led by a Sri Lankan cabinet minister surrounded the UN office in Colombo on Tuesday and kept staff under siege to protest against a UN panel set up to probe war crimes…”, you said.
I understand their frustrations and anger against Ban Ki-Moon the Secretary-General of the UN for appointing the panel, as I too am incensed by his audacity.
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I was given the impression by the world leaders that we are all fighting to eliminate terrorism after the 9/11 terrorists attack and Sri Lanka just did that by eliminating the most ruthless terroristsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the Tamil Tigers single handed, with no help from Canada nor any other western nation, who had haemorrhaged Sri Lanka for 27 years killing over 100,000 innocent civilians for the want of their separate Tamil state, Eelam.
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Ban ki-Moon is clearly in the wrongƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ when the same issue was dealt appropriately in June 2009 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva where the members decided in a 29 to 12 vote to not to intervene in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But Ban Ki-Moon went ahead anyway appointing a panel thus exceeding his powers prescribed in Chapter XV of the UN Charter where his role as the Chief Administrative Officer and the limits of his authority are detailed clearly in Articles 97 and 98.
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What Ban Ki-Moon has clearly ignored wasƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ that Sri Lanka is a sovereign and an independent nation, having the undisputable right under the UN Charter itself, to act in its best judgement on issues relating to its internal affairs, and has every right to maintain peace and security defending them against external forces.
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His double standards are glaring when he has decided to ignore human rights violations in other theatres of war involving major powers like the US and the UK. This isƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ not right.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Unless Ban Ki-Moon is going to be judicious in hisƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ decisionsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ on impartiality over charter nationsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ very soon many of us will be questioning the relevancy of the existence of the United Nations.
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Asoka Weerasinghe
July 7th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Could anyone ask Ban KI Moon the Secretary-General of the UN to appoint a panel to find war crimes done by LTTE during the 27 years of bloody war which killed nearly 70,000 innocent civilians, and also get compensation for them by the organisations who helped the LTTE with money and arms.
July 7th, 2010 at 11:32 am
The U.N. suffers from the same weakness as its pre-cursor, the League of Nations. It is captive to the whims and desires of “strong” nations, witness Hitler. The U.N. should have been disbanded long, long ago. It is a complete waste of every penny spent on it. Currently, the U.N. has been completely subverted by Norway, a U.S. lackey, in every arena. Hence, Norwegian clients like the scumbag Tamil terrorist diaspora has its issues pushed despite the NAM which has 118 members , all of whom are U.N. members. Ban Ki Moon is just a miserable puppet, and as so often happens, the puppet master uses and likes to have its puppets, but does not respect them, witness Juul’s leaked memorandum about Moonface.