{"id":116877,"date":"2021-08-07T15:06:47","date_gmt":"2021-08-07T22:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116877"},"modified":"2021-08-07T15:06:47","modified_gmt":"2021-08-07T22:06:47","slug":"uk-suppressed-robust-evidence-at-sri-lankas-expense-at-unhrc-lord-naseby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/07\/uk-suppressed-robust-evidence-at-sri-lankas-expense-at-unhrc-lord-naseby\/","title":{"rendered":"UK suppressed \u2018robust evidence\u2019 at Sri Lanka\u2019s expense at UNHRC \u2013 Lord Naseby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It is unforgiveable and a black day for my UK\nGovt.\u2019<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It was reprehensible that the UK, as the leader of the Core Group\non Sri Lanka and a member of the UNHRC, had suppressed \u2018robust evidence of\nutmost importance\u2019, Lord Naseby said on Tuesday (23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Conservative party member said in his capacity as the President of\nthe All Party Parliamentary UK \u2013 Sri Lanka Group: It is unforgivable and is a\nblack day for my UK Government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The following is the text of a statement made available by Lord\nNaseby\u2019s Office in the aftermath of the UNHRC adopted accountability resolution\nwith 22 voting for, 11 against and 14 countries, including India skipping the\nvote: The Core Group chaired by the UK tabled a shoddy motion based on a\nhostile UNHRC Report riddled with factual errors and unproven allegations going\nback to 2009; none of which qualifies as robust evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a gross intrusion on the sovereignty of a state, Sri Lanka, based\non a simple majority vote when Motions of this significance would need a 2\/3rds\nmajority. Even worse, the UK Minister for Human Rights Lord Ahmad is the same\nMinister, who despite a series of Written Questions from me has purposely and\nconsciously withheld \u2018Robust evidence\u2019 of the utmost importance being sent to\nthe UNHRC. I refer to the UK Military Attach\u00e9, Lt. Col. Gash\u2019s Dispatches from\nthe War front. Dispatches that highlight the care the Sri Lankan armed forces\ntook not to kill civilians, indeed how nearly 300,000 civilians were rescued.\nHe also witnessed the war actions of the Tamil Tigers in recruiting and putting\nin the front line several thousand Child soldiers, a War Crime in itself, plus\nthe 250,000 poor Tamil civilians forced out of their homes to be a human\nshield. Finally, Lt Col Gash makes his own estimate as 7,000 civilians sadly\nkilled of which 25% were probably LTTE cadres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find it unacceptable that the senior UK Minister responsible for Human\nRights policy should state that the UNHRC did not ask for these Dispatches. The\nMinister knew how crucial the contents of these Dispatches are to the truth. He\nshould have sent them unredacted to create an informed Report. The action is\nmade even worse by the UK Chairing the Core Group and is absolutely\nreprehensible. It is unforgiveable and is a black day for my UK Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we approach\nEaster, I remember a phrase from St Mathew in the Bible: \u2018Why beholdest thou\nthe mote that is in thy brother\u2019s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in\nthine own eye?\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Island \u2018It is unforgiveable and a black day for my UK Govt.\u2019  It was reprehensible that the UK, as the leader of the Core Group on Sri Lanka and a member of the UNHRC, had suppressed \u2018robust evidence of utmost importance\u2019, Lord Naseby said on Tuesday (23). The Conservative party member said in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116877","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=116877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}