{"id":111790,"date":"2021-02-17T16:18:46","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T23:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111790"},"modified":"2021-02-17T16:18:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T23:18:46","slug":"michelle-bachelet-commissioner-of-unhcr-discriminates-against-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/17\/michelle-bachelet-commissioner-of-unhcr-discriminates-against-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelle Bachelet, Commissioner of UNHCR discriminates against Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It is sad that the UNHRC has now forgotten why such a council was\never established.  This is clear when the Commissioner of UNHRC\nhas called upon member States  to  refer  the\nsituation in Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court(ICC) and  \u2018actively pursue extra territorial or universal\njurisdiction and persecute international crimes committed by all parties in Sri\nLanka\u2019(Sunday Times.sl:31\/1\/2021) <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to note that this  directive from the Commissioner of the  Human Rights Council appears in the form of  an inquisition, even  aimed at\ninciting member States to act against Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has to be noted that the aim of the UNHRC is to promote and\nprotect Human Rights  around the world. ”\nand berating a sovereign country and trying to get other countries to take\naction against another sovereign country,   is  totally beyond the aims of UNHRC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Looking\nat infringements of Human Rights happening around the world in clear daylight\nlike what is happening in Israel, grabbing the land that belonged to the\nPalestinians and at several other places in the world, it is evident that the\nUNHRC is somehow   inactive and helpless to take any action. It\nlooks as if the UNHRC has bowed down to the might of the Superpowers and now\nhas taken in charge the task of punishing a powerless sovereign country, that\ntoo perhaps in order to appease certain  Superpowers! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Sri Lanka the UNHRC is\naccepting fabricated evidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is absolutely no firm evidence\nwhatsoever of any military officer torturing or killing anyone captured or\notherwise.  If evidence such as a person has seen, has heard,\nhas been told, I know, and a number of persons corroborating\u201d  is accepted as firm evidence there will be no end\nto instances  because the leaders of the armed forces who\ntook action to restore the sovereignty of Sri Lanka  are well\nknown and easily  identifiable which also invalidates any  identifying parade. If this type of mere\nstatement      :”I have seen, I\nknew etc ” is accepted as evidence even  civilian  administration will become impossible. When\nimplementing  any programme, those who do\nnot fall in line have to be reprimanded and corrected. I have served long as an\nadministrator and I  can state that if action is\ntaken against any administrator without firm evidence, administration will\ngrind to a halt. Administration creates enemies and the enemies do resort to\ncreate evidence. In all cases it is absolutely necessary that there has to be\nfirm evidence to hang anyone and in all cases that have cropped up against\nmilitary personnel, there is no firm evidence which prove beyond doubt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has Sri Lanka actually done to deserve such an inquisition <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has to be mentioned that Sri Lanka has acted in good faith\nright along, despite facing political upheavals.  When a\ncountry is democratic and holds elections  regularly\npolitical upheavals are  only to be expected.  United Nations bodies should recognize this\nfact. , <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lankan  Foreign\nMinister Dinesh Gunawardena  has\nexplained re Resolution 30\/1 of 2015, that  the\ncommitments of the Resolution bound the country to carry out an experiment\nwhich was impractical, unconstitutional and undeliverable\u201d. .(Adaderana:\n26\/2\/2021) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President of Sri Lanka, elected in 2019 has rightly commented\non following the stipulations in the Resolution: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not possible for the Government to act against its own\ncountry.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is right because certain stipulations in the Resolution cannot\nbe implemented as they are contradictory to the Constitution of the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Laksiri Fernando has voiced himself stating that the High\nCommissioner Report is more of a political report than a human rights\none\u201d.(The Island: 8\/2\/2021). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the Commissioner UNHRC has to be made  aware of certain facts <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LTTE was accepted  internationally\nas the most ruthless terrorist organization.in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LTTE used child soldiers, suicide bombers <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LTTE carried out attacks on civilian targets in entire Sri\nLanka, killing innocent people, including the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka,\nRanasinghe Premadasa, the Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi. and their own\nrevered leaders like the Mayor of Jaffna. The LTTE killed thousands\nof innocent people including monks and even over 600 police personnel who were\ninstructed by the Government to surrender to the LTTE, whom the LTTE agreed at\na Peace talk to hand them over to the Government at the border, but instead\nthey were all marched to death.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the LTTE controlled certain sections of the North of Sri\nLanka, the Government of Sri Lanka, sent food and essential supplies to  its own civilian citizens held captive in the\nareas they  controlled. This took the form of convoys of\nlorries, dispatched every few days..  The LTTE is\nsaid to have sold the goodies to the people, despite the fact that these were\nsent totally free. At times the lorries sent with the goodies were\nrequisitioned by the LTTE and the drivers never returned. One such driver was\nLionel Gunatileke, a driver recruited by me when I worked as the Senior\nAssistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services. He went driving one lorry, in a\nconvoy of lorries sent to the LTTE areas, carrying a load of rice never to\nreturn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LTTE when it controlled the Northern Province and certain\nsections of the  Eastern Province did not respond to overtures\nof peace by the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and stayed defiant. The LTTE\ndecided not to allow farmers water to commence cultivation on their traditional\nland.. They captured the Mavil Aru Dam and Canal and decided not to allow water\nto the cultivators. This was when Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered the\nArmy to  capture the Mavil Aru canal and\ndeliver water to farmers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the LTTE cadres were  defeated they\nretreated carrying with them Tamil civilians whom they used as a human shield,\nto avoid being attacked. When the LTTE was finally defeated there was a mass of\nover 300,000 civilians who formed the human shield the LTTE had forcibly taken.\nThe Army was instructed to save this mass of 300,000. civilians from the LTTE\ncadres.  When the LTTE was defeated, this\nmass of 300,000 were homeless, had no food and had to be housed, taken care of,\nand their homes had to be found, the areas demined, homes that were in ruins\nrebuild and settled down.  It is to the credit of the\nSri Lankan Government that this 300,000 mass of civilians were housed, fed,\ncared for, their homes rebuilt and settled down within around three months.\nThis task  was accomplished by Prime Minister Mahinda\nRajapaksa.  Minister Basil Rajapaksa  who was in charge of this humanitarian task\nand the military officers working with them  during this\nthree months had to work long hours. This task has never been equalled in any\nother country in the world and the UNHRC of all organizations should recognize\nthis fact. After the 300,000 homeless people were settled down the Government\nof Sri Lanka looked into the economy and developed the infrastructure of roads\netc in the North and the East, ignoring  the rest of\nthe country. This humanitarian task accomplished should be recognized by the\nUNHRC.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Comparatively in\nPalestine refugees thrown out of their homes and habitat by the Israelis are\nliving in makeshift camps for decades,. It was interesting to note that  homeless Palestinians living as  refugees in the West Bank  yet  own the deeds of their ancestral land\noccupied by force by the Israelis. That was yet their treasured possession. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile in April 2019 Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanhau\nopenly called for the annexation of West Bank and repeated it again in\nSeptember 2019. It is sad that the UNHRC is silent- gagged and bound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A UN Security Council Resolution adopted stated that Israel\u2019s  settlement activity constitutes a \u2018flagrant  violation\u2019 of international law and has no\nlegal validity and  demanded that Israel should\nstop. However the UNHRC is silent, but in the case of Sri lanka the UNHRC is\nbelligerant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka has rehabilitated 594 child soldiers. Instead of being\ngunned down, the child soldiers were captured, cared for, and rehabilitated and\nsent back to their homes as normal citizens. This is in sharp contrast to what\nthe US Army did when they captured leaders of the enemy in Iraq and\nAfghanistan. They were bound, inhumanly gagged and flown to the military prison\nat Guantanamo Bay.. The UNHRC should note that the military prison at\nGuantanamo Bay yet holds prisoners, incarcerated under  inhuman\nconditions. The UNHRC is silent and has been made dormant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is time the UNHRC comes to play a humanitarian role and\nunderstands that the LTTE insurrection was belligerent and that the military\npersonnel were performing  an essentially humanitarian\ntask to   save the territorial integrity and\nsovereignty of Sri Lanka from the rebel forces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact remains that today as well as earlier before the LTTE\ninsurrection as well as during the insurrection over fifty percent of the Tamil\npopulation of Sri Lanka lived outside the North and the East amongst the\nSinhala people as friends in total harmony and have been helped when necessary.\nI have for long served in  charge of a District and of\nthe Chief Clerks that served under me the best happened to be Rajasingham, a\nTamil gentleman. The entire staff was Sinhala taking instructions from him.\nThere has been always amity among the different ethnic people. That was a\nDistrict in the South of Sri Lanka and Rajasingham was loved by the staff. and\nthe people. There is absolutely no ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.  This over fifty percent of the Tamils that\nlive among the Sinhala people in total amity proves my point beyond doubt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Armed Forces were involved in the humanitarian task of saving\nthe civilian population from the massacres \ndone by the LTTE and it is a fact that in the LTTE controlled areas the\nLTTE held the Tamil people at gun point, extorting money and taking away their\nchildren by force to be trained as cadres and as child soldiers. After the LTTE\nwas defeated the Tamil people live freely. It is the Army that provides blood\nto the bloodbanks of the hospitals in Jaffna and other towns in the North. It\nis a fact that the Sinhala people and the Muslims who were living happily in\nthe Jaffna area were ordered to leave by the LTTE and they have not yet been\nable to go back to their habitats and employment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Darrusman Panel  claimed\nthat the Armed Forces killed 40,000 Tamil people. The Darusman Panel has no\nbasis for this statement whatsoever and has not adduced any proof . This can be\ncontrasted with  the figure of 10,000 by\nAmnesty International. A United Nations Study estimated the number killed\nat   7721 and 18,479 wounded.  The USA estimates range from 7000 to 9000\nbased on reports of US and UK military attaches. There is no basis whatsoever\nfor the sum of 40,000  killed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr.Rohan Gunaratna said that\nthe UN\u2019s unsubstantiated and oft-repeated allegation that 40,000 civilians\nwere killed by the Sri Lankan armed forces in the last phase of the war\ncontinues to be made even twelve years after the war ended in May 2009. The baseless\nfigure of 40,000 and other charges of war crimes are based on dubious,\nanonymous and unidentified sources, and \npassed off as credible evidence\u201d to provide a basis for accusing the\nSri Lankan armed forces of committing war crimes\u201d and demanding that its\npersonnel be dragged before the International Criminal Court (ICC) “he\nsaid<\/strong>.<\/strong> <\/strong>( Daily Mirror:17\/2\/2021<\/strong>) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Rapp, the US\nAmbassador for War Crimes and Global Criminal Justice(2009 to 2015)  has disclosed that  our President, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had when\nhe was the Defence Secretary, admitted to him that the LTTE leaders were killed\nafter surrender(The Island:16\/2\/2021). It is very strange how Stephen Rapp, a\nperson of international standing- specifically tasked for looking into Criminal\nJustice waited all these years without taking any action, He has waited for\nyears to tell this \u2018Once upon a time’ fairy tale.  The circumstances of his statement leads one\nto conclude that this statement is nothing other than fiction to use his\nearlier status as Ambassador to the US to bring some weight to hold Sri Lanka\nto ransom. Rapps\u2019 reputation stands tarnished due to the role played re\nRuwanda. He stands exposed due to ” his heavy baggage. His own culpability\nof covering up Ruwandas 1994 genocide as an attempt to whitewash the US\ninvolvement in that episode\u201d(Gammiris.lk: 16\/2\/2021) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human Rights have now come\nto be accepted as supreme. The League of Multinational Corporations in Sri\nLanka has insisted that everything needs to be fixed in the context of international\nstandards in terms of human rights  and\nlabour law too”.(EENews:14\/2\/2021) What right does the Multinationals have\nto interfere with a sovereign country? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Armed Forces were instructed to defeat\nthe LTTE which occupied certain sections of the North and East and to save the\ncivilian population of the area. The Armed forces did accomplish that task and\nthere is no evidence whatsoever that the Army killed civilians in the process.\nIt is to the credit of the Armed Forces that the human shield of Tamil\ncivilians were rehoused and re established in their habitat within the short\nspace of a few months. It is sad that the UNHRC is acting against officers of\nthe Armed Forces, who should actually be held in high esteem for the\nhumanitarian task they did perform. It has to be noted that 23,790 soldiers\nwere killed in quelling the LTTE insurrection. The author has lived in the UK\nand the USA  where  members of the Armed Forces are held in high\nregard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michelle Bachelet, the Commissioner of the  UNHRC should note that  her\ndiscriminative action could  lead to  destroy the amity that prevails today among\nethnic groups  in Sri Lanka. That will be an unfortunate experience all due to the UNHRC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ph D. Michigan State University <\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Consultant, former SLAS Administrator,  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author of the Youth Self Employment\nProgramme of Bangladesh, which is today the premier employment creation\nprogramme the World has known, a Programme \nthat has so far guided over three million to be self employed.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne\u00a0 It is sad that the UNHRC has now forgotten why such a council was ever established.  This is clear when the Commissioner of UNHRC has called upon member States  to  refer  the situation in Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court(ICC) and  \u2018actively pursue extra territorial or universal jurisdiction and persecute international crimes committed by all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111790","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=111790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}