{"id":111815,"date":"2021-02-18T18:03:36","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T01:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111815"},"modified":"2021-02-18T18:03:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T01:03:36","slug":"the-failure-of-unhrc-resolution-30-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/18\/the-failure-of-unhrc-resolution-30-1\/","title":{"rendered":"THE FAILURE OF UNHRC RESOLUTION 30\/1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janaki Chandraratna<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The UNHRC Resolution,\n30\/1 \u2013 Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka,\nwas co-sponsored by the Sri Lankan Govt., after the regime change in January\n2015. It is well known that the West, in particular, United States of America\n(USA), had a key role in backing the regime change. The new Govt. of 2015 was a\ncoalition of minority parties and the right wing, United National Party (UNP).\nThe 30\/1 co-sponsorship is known to be an appeasement for minor parties as well\nas a payback for the Western support for regime change. Currently however, many\na brow is raised as to why the 30\/1 Resolution had failed to achieve its\nobjectives. Although there are many reasons for this outcome, the following are\nconsidered significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of\nobjectivity of UNHRC when dealing with Sri Lankan allegations is an important\ncause for its failure. The allegations were biased against the Sri Lankan\nGovt., from day one of UNHRC involvement. It should be noted that the Darusman\nReport, which formed the basis for the allegations, did record some of the LTTE\natrocities undertaken during the war. These included, taking thousands of\ncivilians as a human shield, point-blank shooting at civilians escaping the\nconflict zone, firing from military equipment stored among civilians and\nhospitals, using thousands of child soldiers, engaging women as suicide\nbombers, having civilian combatants, etc. Despite these admissions, UNHRC saw\nit fit to allege the terrorist carnage as the responsibility of Sri Lankan\narmed forces and limit the investigations to the war-end mayhem. In addition,\nthe Govt.\u2019s request to extend the coverage of the investigation for the entire\nwar period, as civilian massacres of all communities, during the 30-year war,\nfar exceeded the year-end toll; was ignored and fell on deaf ears. Although,\nDarusman Report claimed there were credible allegations of serious violations\nby armed forces, no evidence was presented for such allegations, giving rise to\nspeculations that the allegations were spurious and UNHRC was on a witch-hunt\nagainst Sri Lankan Govt. In such circumstances it is not a surprise that UNHRC\nresolution, was doomed to fail, from its commencement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue was further\npoliticised by many Western member nations categorically supporting the 30\/1\nresolution, without any scrutiny, to be supportive of LTTE Diaspora domiciled\nin their electorates for polling benefits. The unconditional support of the\nWest did encourage Tamil parties; in particular, front-end LTTE political\nparties such as Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to not participate in\ninvestigative commissions appointed by the Sri Lankan State but to cry foul at\nevery turn. This was also, demonstrated by the return of the development\nappropriations for the Northern Provincial Council back to the Treasury,\nwithout spending on the earmarked projects. In this way the ruling LTTE parties\nwere able to hoodwink the average Tamil constituents to believing that the Sri\nLankan Govt. is not providing for northern development and the only way out is\nto call for a separate State. In fact with a view to the 46th session of\nGeneva, there has been calls for referenda in the North for a separate State.\nThese activities demonstrate that the ultimate goal of LTTE Tamil parties is\nnot reconciliation or resolve war crimes but to set up a separate State with\nWestern assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNHRC\u2019s bigoted\nattitude to Sri Lanka has blinded them from comprehending the fact that Tamil\nclaims for a separate State with a 2\/3 coastline for less than 12% of Tamils is\nnot only impractical but also unachievable due to demographic and ground\nrealities. Accommodating two states in a small island like Sri Lanka of 25,000\nsquare miles, with the Northern State having allegiance to an emerging world power\nof India, a country that trained Tamil terrorists, is no doubt a recipe for\neternal border surveillance and conflict. The non-LTTE Tamils, Muslims and the\nmajority Sinhalese would definitely want to avoid such a scenario at whatever\ncost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNHRC, with its\nprejudiced mind has to date, continuously refused to accept Sri Lankan\nexplanations for the inability to abide by the 30\/1 Resolution. The saving of\n300,000 Tamils from the LTTE human shield, re-settlement of refugees,\nde-mining, rehabilitation of LTTE terrorists, the unprecedented northern\ninfra-structure development, the unconstitutionality of the co-sponsored\nResolution, the non approval of the 30\/1 Resolution by the Cabinet or the\nParliament, Lord Nasby\u2019s revelations in British parliament, lack of evidence of\nalleged atrocities, were some of the explanations presented to substantiate\nGovt. claims. These assertions, as usual, failed to receive any recognition\nwith UNHRC leadership. In fact, UNHRC has not seen the post war development in\nSri Lanka. Colombo has turned out be a good example of multi cultural living in\nthe world. Many ethnic groups live in peace and harmony, running their\nbusinesses, participating in cultural and religious activities, without suicide\nbombers or ethnic violence of any sort after the end of the terrorist war in\nMay 2009!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, UNHRC has failed\nor not wanted to understand the recent changes that have taken place in the Sri\nLankan political settings. The overwhelming defeat of the 2015 govt. that\nco-sponsored the Resolution by a 3\/2 majority, did present is a rejection of\nthe 30\/1 Resolution. In fact the current High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet\u2019s\nreport \u2018Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri\nLanka\u2019, was not a honourable presentation, as it did not even recognise the\nGovt. withdrawal from the 30\/1, at a previous session. It was a negative\npolitical assessment of the initiatives of the new Govt., which is outside the\nmandate of UNHRC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\ntherefore, time for UNHRC to be practical and revisit 30\/1 and present\nevidence, underpinning the allegations of war crimes, so that a comprehensive\ninvestigation can be undertaken to cover the entire 30 year war period, or\nnegotiate with the Sri Lankan Govt., taking into consideration the post war developments to move the country forward as an\nundivided and a unified nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janaki Chandraratna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janaki Chandraratna The UNHRC Resolution, 30\/1 \u2013 Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka, was co-sponsored by the Sri Lankan Govt., after the regime change in January 2015. It is well known that the West, in particular, United States of America (USA), had a key role in backing the regime change. The new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111815","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=111815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}