{"id":111572,"date":"2021-02-11T17:38:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T00:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111572"},"modified":"2021-02-11T17:38:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T00:38:00","slug":"when-would-there-be-a-un-human-rights-commissioner-in-geneva-fair-and-objectiveable-to-separate-facts-from-fiction-to-give-sri-lanka-the-recognition-it-deserves-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/11\/when-would-there-be-a-un-human-rights-commissioner-in-geneva-fair-and-objectiveable-to-separate-facts-from-fiction-to-give-sri-lanka-the-recognition-it-deserves-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"When would there be a UN Human Rights Commissioner In Geneva fair and objective,able to separate facts from fiction to give Sri Lanka the recognition it deserves. – Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charles.S.Perera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Both\nthe UN High Commissioners for Human Rights  Louise Arbour and Navi Pillai\nwere Judges  with a legal background  therefore whatever sentiments\nthey have towards the Tamil as voters in Canada or as being racial equals in\nthe latter case of Navi Pillai,  they should have viewed the situation in\nSri Lanka during the military offencive against terrorism, more objectively\nwithout being biased.   But they failed in that, and the result is more\nand more aggressive and damaging reports against the Government of Sri Lanka\nbeing produced for each  Geneva UN Human Rights Council Sessions every\nyear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis almost as if the UN Human Rights Commission exists only to produce a report\non the Sri Lanka government Armed Force, as it  is the only Armed Force\nwhich  has committed violation against human rights in a terrorist\nwar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worst of it is that all those reports of UN High Commissioners\nfor Human Rights  are produced to satisfy the Tamil diaspora and to\naccuse  the Government of Sri Lanka and its Armed  Forces. No\naccusations have been levelled against the terrorists for the atrocities\ncommitted by them. Not only the UNHigh Commissioner, but also those member\nstates that present resolutions against the Government and its Armed\nForcesand,  those member states that vote against the  Government of\nSri lanka supporting those resolutions by USA etc.,  are doing wrong\nacting insensitive to the suffering that people of Sri Lanka went through 30\nlong years  subjected to live in constant fear  of unknown forms of\nterrorist attacks resulting in horrible deaths and mutilation. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terrorism\nin Sri Lanka created fear, damage, and untold human suffering amoung its\npeople, It is unfortunate that these people in Western countries or others do\nnot try to understand  the  terrible fear in which the people lived\nunder terrorism. Both parents from the same  home did not take the same\ntransport any time so that if one would be killed in a terrorist attack , the\nother would survive  to look after the children<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zaid Raad Al-Hussein  was the next  UNHigh Commissioner\nfor Human Rights  from 2014 to 2018.<\/strong> He was a Prince and a Diplomat and he had no\nspecial connection to the Tamil Community  like Louise Arbour or Navi\nPillai.  But he did his job as the previous UN High Commissioners for Human\nRights  bringing out an equally repressive strongly worded report against\nthe Government of  Sri Lanka and its Armed Forces. These reports were of\ncourse prepared by the Office of the UN Human Rights Commission. Probably a\ncopy and paste document  with additional material each time  to make\nit worse than the previous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfalse Darusmn  report is still the basic document on which the Office of\nthe UNHRC prepares the damning\u201d report on Sri Lanka.. The Government of Sri\nLanka had submitted a more reliable report- The Paranagama  Commission\nReport,  prepared by a Commission Led by a retired Judge Maxwell\nParanagama appointed by the Government to Investigate into missing Persons. But\nunfortunately it had not been read  by the UNHCHR Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nhe had read it he would have had second thoughts about relying on the Darusman\nReport to accuse Sri Lanka and its  Armed Forces for violation of Human\nRights.The Paranagama Commission report had challenged the Darusman report and\nstated that the number of civilians that may have died at the last phase of the\nmilitary operations is definitely  not  40000 civilians, but 7721\ncivilian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\na Diplomat  and a Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al-Zeid  having no interest\neither in the terrorists or the Tamil Diaspora  unlike the previous \nUN High Commissioners Louise Arbour and Navi Pillai, he should have atleast\nconsulted the Government of Sri Lanka on the Report he was to present at the\nGeneva HR Council Sessions. But unfortunately it  is not the way these High\nCommissioners set about doing the work, though that seems more fair and\nreasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mme Michelle Bachelet New UN High Commissioner for Human\nRights  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\ntime the UN Human Rights Council Sessions in Geneva begins with a new\nGovernment in Sri Lanka and a new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mme\nMichelle Bachelet. Perhaps we could expect  from her a different approach\nto Sri Lanka which had unfortunately  eliminated terrorism in its own\nterritory  and earned the wrath of the West  just for that, and now\nbeing accused regularly at each UN HR Council Sessions in Geneva for violation\nof human rights in the course of elimination of terrorism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ncould expect a different approach by the UN High Commissioner Michelle\nBachalet  because unlike the Previous UN High Commissioners for Human\nRights  she  has more political experience having been a member of\nthe Party Socialist of Chili and Twice the  President of Chili. While the\npeople of Sri Lanka went through  thirty years of  bitter suffering\nunder a  ruthless terrorism,   Mme Bachelet has  the memories of\nthe difficult times  Chili went through  under the Dictator Pinochet\nand his military rule, and the sad memories of her Father Alberto Bachelet who\nworked for Salvador Allande and later imprisoned and tortured by the Dictator.\nShe is also aware that Slvadore Allende we all respect and honour was killed by\nthe CIA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\ncan we expect Mme Michelle Bachelet not to rely on a report prepared by some\nmembers of her Office and put before her for her signature,  or will she\nlook at the situation differently by getting herself informed both about\nterrorists, and the Government of Sri Lanka. And how the  Armed Forces of\nthe Government  fought the war against terrorism, by reading the Darusman\nReport and  also the reports submitted by the Government-Paranagama\nCommission Report, because there are two sides to a story\u201d she should know\nbefore accusing any one of the parties ? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npresent  report on Sri Lanka she is to present at the next UNHRCouncil\nSession is devastating.   But do those who accuse the Sri Lanka Armed\nForces know what the Armed Forces  went through in eliminating  a\nruthless terrorism,  to bring peace and security to the people of all\nCommunities in  Sri Lanka,  to allow them to live normal lives\n? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreport put before her may have  been written perhaps by the same person or\nthe group of them in the Office of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, who also\nprepared the previous reports, for Mme Louise Arbour, Navi Pillai. and \nPrince Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nwrite such a report against  the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka one should\nhave  personal direct experience of the inhuman  unkindest \ncriminal actions of the Armed Forces of  Sri Lanka, if there had been\nany.  One cannot imagine  such an Armed Force to have built such\nhatred to civilians,   merely by reading the  false Darusman report.\nThere must be something wrong with those in the Office of the UNHRCouncil to\nwrite  such a report without getting to know bothe the terrorist side of\nthe story  and that of the  Armed Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSri Lanka Armed Forces are not as the UNHRC portrays it in the report she is to\npresent.. The Children of the  Tamil civilians in the North of Sri Lanka\nwere forcibly taken away from the families by the terrorists  to be \nchild soldiers. Poor Tamil men, women and children were herded away like cattle\nto be kept as human shields  among guns and  cannons of the\nterrorists. They lived  in utter  misery,  under\nunimaginable  sanitary conditions, in fear of death in some form or\nanother at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It\nwas almost towards the end of the war against terrorism.  A sudden move\nagainst the terrorists by the armed forces or a firing against Armed forces by\nthe terrorists would have resulted in the death of many of these Tamil\ncivilians held by the terrorists as human shields. The armed forces were aware\nof this. The Soldiers  are also human beings, who had nothing against the\nTamil civilians.  Therefore the Armed Forces had to move cautiously, in\norder  not to put the lives  of the Tamil civilians in danger,\nhence  they carried small arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to what the Tamil diaspora, and the report writers of the\nOffice of the  UN Human Rights Council make out, the Armed Forces of Sri\nLanka was a humanitarian Armed Force fighting against terrorists .  At a\ngiven moment before the final assault against the terrorists the Armed Forces\ndecided to evacuate the Tamil Civilians serving as a human shield for the\nterrorists. And  the Armed Forces  risked their lives in a  most\ndaring rescue operation perhaps carried out for the first time by an Armed\nForce in the World,  bringing away to safety 295,000 Tamil civilians \nheld by the terrorists as a human shield.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charles.S.Perera Both the UN High Commissioners for Human Rights  Louise Arbour and Navi Pillai were Judges  with a legal background  therefore whatever sentiments they have towards the Tamil as voters in Canada or as being racial equals in the latter case of Navi Pillai,  they should have viewed the situation in Sri Lanka during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}