{"id":117605,"date":"2021-08-29T16:02:46","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T23:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117605"},"modified":"2021-08-29T16:02:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T23:02:46","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-25b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/29\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-25b\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 25b"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The UN Security Council was\napproached, without success by the Tamil Separatist Movement to get the Eelam\nwar stopped and Eelam declared.\nAccording to the UN Charter the only UN body that can discuss the Eelam war was\nthe Security Council. This was clearly stated in article 7 of the UN\nConstitution. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Security Council refused to discuss\nthe Eelam war. They said it was\nan internal matter that did not affect international security. UN could interfere in the affair of a country\nonly if a situation developed that would spill over into the neigbor8ng countries\nor affect another country. UN Charter forbids interference in the internal\nmatters of member states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Petrie\nReport stated that Sri Lanka\u2019s war was never formally considered by member\nStates at the UN, whether at the Security Council or the General Assembly. A UN\ndiplomat told me in a private communication They did not hit us in New York.\u201d <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they saw that Sri Lanka was winning,\nwestern countries, led by the EU made five attempts to table a resolution\nagainst Sri Lanka at the UN Security Council. China and Russia vetoed this on\nall five occasions, said Sergei de Silva Ranasinhe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From late 2008, when Eelam war IV was in\nprogress, a small group of non-permanent members of the Security Council had\nbecome deeply concerned by events and by early February 2009 wished the\nSecurity Council to formally consider the situation in Sri Lanka. However, they\ndid not have sufficient support within the Security Council for this said the\nPetrie Report   Norway\nsaid it tried unsuccessfully, to take Sri Lanka before the UN Security Council. But UNSC was divided and efforts to get Sri\nLanka on its main agenda were stymied by Russia and China, reported Norway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the final stages of the conflict,\nMember States did not hold a single formal meeting on Sri Lanka, whether at the\nSecurity Council, the Human Rights Council or the General Assembly, continued\nPetrie Report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unable to agree on placing Sri Lanka on its\nagenda, the Security Council held several \u2018informal interactive dialogue\u2019\nmeetings. The Sri Lankan ambassador to the UN participated in these meetings,\nproviding the Government\u2019s version of events and potentially influencing\ndiscussions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These \u2018informal interactive dialogue\u2019 meetings\nhad no formal status, no written records and no formal outcomes. The first of three\ninformal dialogues took place on 26 March 2009, followed by another meeting on\n22 April where the Council was also briefed by the Secretary General\u2019s Chief of\nStaff, Vijay Nambiar and Catherine Bragg, Assistant Secretary General for\nHumanitarian Affairs. A third meeting was held on 13 May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before that a meeting was held on 11 May\nhosted by eight UNSC members, the Foreign Ministers of UK, France, Austria,\nhumanitarian organizations and other concerned UN members. At this meeting, the\nUS, working through Britain, France and Austria, tried to get the UN Security\nCouncil to examine the numbers of deaths in the last stage of the Eelam War.\nThis was to be at a Security Council briefing. \nBut US was not able to secure the 16 signatures needed   and UN Security Council refused to discuss\nthe situation in Sri Lanka.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the move was \u2018strenuously\nwarded\u2019\noff by seven countries led by China and Russia. These seven, China, Russia,\nJapan, Turkey, Uganda, Vietnam and Libya,  \nsaid that the current situation in Sri Lanka did not warrant a briefing\nin the Security Council.\nChina\nvehemently” opposed any discussion in the Security Council on the issue\nof civilians trapped in the fighting between government Security Forces and the\nLTTE arguing that it was “purely an internal matter”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign Ministers from two member countries of\nthe Security Council went to Sri Lanka in late April 2009.  On 12th<\/sup> May, 2009 they called for\nSri Lanka to be placed on the Security Council\u2019s agenda. But this came too late\nto change the course of events, said Petrie Report. The Security Council did not issue a press\nstatement until three days before the end of the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 13.\n2009, five days before the war ended, Security Council issued a press statement\n.The press statement said, <\/em>the\nmembers of the Security Council express grave concern over the worsening\nhumanitarian crisis in north-east Sri Lanka, in particular the reports of\nhundreds of civilian casualties in recent days, and call for urgent action by\nall parties to ensure the safety of civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members\nof the Security Council strongly condemn the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam\n(LTTE) for its acts of terrorism over many years, and for its continued use of\ncivilians as human shields, and acknowledge the legitimate right of the\nGovernment of Sri Lanka to combat terrorism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members\nof the Security Council demand that the LTTE lay down its arms and allow the\ntens of thousands of civilians still in the conflict zone to leave. The members\nof the Security Council express deep concern at the reports of continued use of\nheavy calibre weapons in areas with high concentrations of civilians, and\nexpect the Government of Sri Lanka to fulfill its commitment in this regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members\nof the Security Council demand that all parties respect their obligations under\ninternational humanitarian law. The members of the Security Council call on the\nGovernment of Sri Lanka to take the further necessary steps to facilitate the\nevacuation of the trapped civilians and the urgent delivery of humanitarian\nassistance to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members\nof the Security Council take note of the steps taken by the Government of Sri\nLanka to address the humanitarian situation of displaced persons and call on\nthe Government of Sri Lanka to ensure the security of those displaced by the\nconflict and to cooperate with the United Nations, the International Committee\nof the Red Cross (ICRC), and other international humanitarian organizations in\nproviding humanitarian relief and access to them as soon as they leave the\nconflict zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members\nof the Security Council reiterate support for the personal involvement of the\nUN Secretary General and urge the Government of Sri Lanka to extend full\ncooperation to the United Nations in order to resolve the humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members\nof the Security Council, mindful of the necessity to find a long-term solution\nwithout the threat of violence, underline that the needs of all communities in\nSri Lanka have to be addressed. (End of statement.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN Secretary\nGeneral Ban Ki Moon used this statement to visit Sri Lanka soon after the war\nended and issued a joint statement with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.Ban Ki Moon\nthen set up the Panel of investigation which issued the Darusman Report (2011).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Secretary General presented the Darusman\nReport to Security Council, though the report did not have a Security Council\nmandate.  It was not welcomed by China\nand Russia. Russia objected, saying\nthat it was not a UN report. It was not done in accordance with the\nregulations and the procedures of the UN. \nThe report was a private one for the Secretary General <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian\nambassador to Sri Lanka told Sunday Times<\/em>\nin May 2011 that Russia had opposed the Darusman project from the start.  When the panel was appointed Russia had\nissued a statement saying that \u2018the UN Secretary General as Chief\nAdministrative Officer of the UN should have asked the opinion of the Security\nCouncil or the General Assembly before embarking on this project.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the very\nbeginning we were skeptical of the panel, the Ambassador said. We were assured\nby the Secretary General and his staff that this was not a fact finding\nmission,   the task was not to\ninvestigate but only to advise the Secretary General. But what we saw later was\nvery different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allegations are\nmade against the government of Sri Lanka in the Darusman Report. The\nallegations are not proved. The Report says the conclusions were  based on the evidence of individuals and\ngroups that were considered \u2018reliable\u2019 by the Panel itself which means they\nwere choosing who was reliable and who was not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are too\nmany questions about the Darusman Report. The authors of the report were far\nfrom objective. The report cannot be grounds for any further action. If any country\ntried to punish or shame Sri Lanka, using this report Russia would oppose them,\nconcluded the ambassador “We should not veto the Darusman report itself,\nbut we may veto a resolution.”Russia will oppose any such attempt at the\nUNSC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other\nhand, if a resolution criticizing the Darusman report was brought up in UNSC,\nRussia would support it. The Russian ambassador added that as at May 2011 there\nwere no moves to bring in a Security Council resolution against or in support\nof Sri Lanka.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, efforts\nto take the Eelam war before the UNSC are continuing. USA approached the UNSC\nin 2015 and was refused.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2021\nCanada\u2019s Foreign Minister Rob Oliphant rejected a call from Tamil Diaspora\ngroups for Canada to take up Sri Lanka\u2019s case before the International Criminal\nCourt. Oliphant said that the Resolution adopted by the Tamil Separatist\nMovement in Canada in March 2021 does not incorporate a mechanism to refer Sri\nLanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Only the United Nations\nSecurity Council could refer cases to the ICC if the country concerned is, like\nSri Lanka, not a party to the Rome Statute or has not accepted the ICC\u2019s\njurisdiction.(Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS The UN Security Council was approached, without success by the Tamil Separatist Movement to get the Eelam war stopped and Eelam declared. According to the UN Charter the only UN body that can discuss the Eelam war was the Security Council. This was clearly stated in article 7 of the UN Constitution.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117605","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=117605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}