PHONEY: ICC EVADERS UK, WANT LANKA TO SUBMIT-Allegations of war crimes by British Forces in Iraq
Posted on February 1st, 2014

Chaminda Perera and Dharmashri Abeyratne Courtesy The Daily News

UK, signatory of Rome Statute evading ICC-Talks big about Rule of Law, Good Governance

A British government spokesman said two days ago that UK will not go before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the allegations of war crimes committed by British Forces in Iraq, while Britian demands that Sri Lanka go before an international tribunal. Observers said the double standard is shocking.

A spokesman of the British Defence Ministry was quoted last week as saying that there was absolutely no need for ICC intervention as the allegations against UK were either under thorough investigation or had been dealt with through various means including through the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, independent public inquiries, the UK and European Courts and in Parliament.

Sri Lanka Human Rights Commissioner Dr. Prathiba Mahanamahewa said that British Prime Minister David Cameron led UK being a signatory of the Rome Statute in 2001 is evading the International Criminal Court, when two leading organizations in the UK and Germany had filed a dossier of alleged war crimes by British Forces with evidence before the ICC.z_p01-PHONeY-02.jpg

Mahanamahewa added that Cameron while evading the ICC process to deal with those who have allegedly committed war crimes during invasion of Iraq, is calling for an international investigation into what they call war crime charges without having any evidence. The Commissioner accused the United Kingdom of adopting double standards over allegations of war crimes by the British Forces during the Iraqi invasion in search of what they called Weapons of Mass Destruction.

He stressed that the United Kingdom crowing about the Rule of Law and Good Governance is disregarding the allegations of serious human rights violations by their forces during the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan tries to drag this country’s leaders out before the ICC when Sri Lanka is not a signatory of the Rome Statute.

Mahanamahewa said the UK is berating Sri Lanka over human rights violations which had never happened in the country to consolidate their stature in the post colonial era. “These imperialist forces that committed massive human rights violations in Sri Lanka when the country was under their dominion are trying to dictate terms to us again,” he said. This was said regards a prominent British law firm, Public Interest Lawyers (PIL) and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) moving the ICC in The Hague. The PIL and the ECCHR based in the UK and Germany, respectively, submitted a 250-page dossier titled, The Responsibility of UK Officials for War Crimes Involving Systematic Detainee Abuse in Iraq from 2003-2008 to the ICC calling for its intervention.

Meanwhile, Scientific Affairs Senior Minister Prof. Tissa Vitharana said that such a demand could not be justified.

He told the Daily News that the UK is talking about the resolution to be moved at the Human Right Council in Geneva and talking about taking action against us at the ICC while declining to accept the jurisdiction of ICC.

“The UK refuses to appear before ICC on issues pertaining to illegal attack on Iraq and they are expecting Sri Lanka to appear before ICC. It is clearly and completely unwarranted and unjustified. Hence, at this juncture, we feel a clear instance of double standards,” the senior minister said. The minister added that it is unfair to hound Sri Lanka for the elimination of terrorism, that brought much misery to the country over three decades and for doing it in a way that minimized civilian casualties.

“I can state very clearly that the President acted in a way to minimize civilian casualties during the last stage of the humanitarian operations,” Senior Minister Vitharana said. When considering the entire history of the conflict, which had been going over 30 years, there were no allegations on human rights violations at any point of time except at the very final stages, when the LTTE were using civilians as human shield and using civilians as hostages, he noted.

– See more at: http://www.dailynews.lk/local/phoney-icc-evaders-uk-want-lanka-submit#sthash.OEC8MePK.dpuf

4 Responses to “PHONEY: ICC EVADERS UK, WANT LANKA TO SUBMIT-Allegations of war crimes by British Forces in Iraq”

  1. S de Silva Says:

    The question is what has to be done and what can we do to defend ourselves at the UNHRC as the NEXT step?? We must focus on that. Now that the UNP has also made some utterances in support of the GoSL, the immediate task should be to secure a powerful majority vote in the Sri Lankan parliament that SL will NOT accept a unilateral (= one sided) accountability investigation confined to Sri Lanka. Instead, the publicly stated Sri Lankan position of the GoSL to the rest of the world and ratified by the Sri Lankan Parliament must be that “ANY investigation must include all parties to the conflict: ie the LTTE and their financial diaspora supporters and India, covering the full 30 year period of the conflict”. That MUST be the terms of reference for SL to submit itself to such an investigation. A majority vote in the SL Parliament in support on these lines is essential to block international pressure to the contrary. It must be stressed to all concerned that any other terms of reference will be unacceptable to SL and SL is ready, in that event, to cease to participate in the UNHRC matters any further – S de Silva – London

  2. Nanda Says:

    First we should call emergency SAARC meeting and issue a Memo to UNHRC in support of Sri Lanka ( to hell with India we must get majority support).
    Then we get a similar Memo from Non Aligned countries as well as ALL other possible country alliances such as ASEAN or even the South American block ( which is also possible).

  3. jayasiri Says:

    thanks S.De Silva & Nanda for your comments. I feel BOTH are valid suggestions to proceed with. Even though SAARC is NOT that powwerful, the Non Aligined Bloc is very powerful & we must proceed with those two anyway.

    Other suggestions as ASEAN ountries & other countries in Africa might help us as we have helped them. ALL avenues must be explored to DEFEAT this menace called USA /UK/INDIA axis that prevails against Sri Lanka.
    INDIA has already refused to VOTE in favour of Sri Lanka for the THIRD TIME. WHY on earth do we need INDIA, best is to cut off ties with India and develop more relationships with PAKISTAN & CHINA.

    Thank you all……..GOD BLESS OUR UNITARY STATE OF SRI LANKA…May the Noble Triple gems guard our MOTHERLAND….J

  4. Nimal Says:

    Yes we could follow UK’s example, have an investigation but to get on with the process, ask the UK govt to extradite Adelaide Balasingham from UK and other military personal that seems to have presented video evidence of the CH4 documentary. If the latter is going to Geneva then why not show up in Colombo as well?

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