{"id":121985,"date":"2022-01-09T18:13:16","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T01:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=121985"},"modified":"2022-01-09T18:13:16","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T01:13:16","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-25d2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/01\/09\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-25d2\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 25D2"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Instead of keeping the UN as a\nskeleton organization servicing the needs of member states and acting as a\nmeeting place for them, the western powers have piled more and more tasks on\nthe UN system and then funded these activities, creating a great dependency on\nthem to keep the system going. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN now depends on ten to 15\nwestern countries for funds and these countries have turned this dependency to\na handle to make the UN further their foreign policies, said analysts.  They use their money to make the UN system do\nas they wish. There is at least one document that admits that this\ndistorts the priorities of the UN system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all member states in the UN\nrank equally in the UN, the money contribution to the UN varies. Some countries\npay large amounts. The dominant\ncountry in the UN is at present the USA. It is the largest donor to the United Nations,\ncontributing USD10 billion in 2018, slightly less than one-fifth of the total\nbudget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA does not want a strong independent Secretary-General. Boutros Boutros Ghali, Secretary-General from 1992 to December 1996 was denied a second term due to a US veto. He\nhad 14 of 15 votes. Ghali wrote a book where he gave an insider\u2019s view of how\nthe UN and it s Secretary-General were manipulated by\nthe USA. He said US Secretary of State, Madeline Albright demolished Ghali’s\nauthority in the UN and tarnished his image with a smiling face and expressing\nadmiration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Sashi Tharoor ran for the\npost of Secretary-General in 2006 against Ban Ki Moon of South Korea. In the\nfinal round, Ban emerged as the only candidate not to be vetoed by the Security\nCouncil, while Tharoor received one veto from the United States. U.S.\nAmbassador was instructed by Secretary of State “We don’t want a strong\nSecretary-General.” Tharoor was a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of the independent minded Kofi Annan\nand the US was determined to have “No more Kofis.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to retain their jobs the\nUN officials, starting from the UN Secretary General, have to please these\ndonors. The Secretary\nGeneral plays a subservient role to the big powers, but asserts his authority\nto the rest of the member states, said Thalif Deen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post of\nSecretary General is not as   powerful as\npeople seem to think it is, he said. The Secretary General of the UN is not\nequal in rank to a Head of State. He is subservient to the Heads of state and\nambassadors accredited to the UN, said Thalif Deen.   He is simply the CEO of the UN. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When told that the Secretary General had\nbanned smoking in the UN building, Russia\u2019s foreign minister Lavrov lit a\ncigarette and replied that this building does not belong to the Secretary\nGeneral it belongs to the member states. \nThe Nigerian ambassador said the Secretary General is not my boss, I am\nhis boss, reported Thalif Deen.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics point\nout that the Secretary General of the UN cannot intervene in the internal\naffairs of   member countries. The UN Charter says that the UN shall not intervene in\nmatters that  were within the domestic\njurisdiction except upon a  Security\nCouncil finding that       there is a\nthreat to peace, breach o peace or act of aggression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the Security Council, not Secretary General that\nis granted powers of intervention under Chapter VII of the Charter.   This Chapter too, supports the right of a\ncountry to protect itself. Article 51 speaks of the inherent right of\nself-defense of a member state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 100 of the UN\nCharter says  in the performance of their\nduties the Secretary-General and the staff shall not seek or receive\ninstructions from any government or from any other authority external to the\nOrganization. But today, it  is difficult\nfor the Secretary\nGeneral to follow this, observed analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General showed an\ninterest in  Eelam . In 1995,   he had had publicly expressed his concern\nfor a potential humanitarian crisis in Jaffna, and the need for a relief\noperation. This resulted in a sharp reply from the Minister of Foreign Affairs.\nThe government  was able to provide the\nhumanitarian assistance needed, the Minister said, and made it clear that Sri\nLanka  did not want a large UN presence,\nlet alone direct UN intervention in the matter. The conflict was an internal\naffair, to be managed by the  Sri Lanka government\n. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,  Bank Ki Moon visited Sri Lanka soon after the\nEelam War IV ended and issue a joint statement with President Mahinda Rajapaksa\n.Rajiva Wijesinha and Dayan  Jayatilleka\nwere concerned about the content of this statement. It seemed to allow for\nfuture criticism and interference.  Palitha\nKohona has also been concerned, but Prasad Kariyawasam said it was ok, reported\nRajiva Wijesinha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thereafter, Ban Ki-moon<\/a>  appointed a panel of experts to advise him on\nthe issue of accountability<\/a> with regard to any alleged violations<\/a> of international\nhuman rights<\/a>\nand humanitarian\nlaw<\/a> during the final\nstages of the Sri Lankan Civil\nWar<\/a>.[1]<\/sup><\/a> The report, issue in 2011, is  known as Darusman Report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Secretary General\u2019s action in appointing\nthis  inquiry  is highly illegitimate and in fact illegal\nunder the UN Charter, specifically, Articles 2(7), 99 and 100, said Darshan\nWeerasekera. The Darusman Report was not authorized or requested by the General\nAssembly, the Security Council, the HRC, or any other such body and the report\nhas not been filed officially before these bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics observed that the\nSecretary General would  not have taken\nthis  step unless he was instructed to do\nso  .he was violating UN regulations.\nThe  aim of this \u2018inquiry\u2019 was to legitimize\nthe  accusations against Sri Lanka made\nby interested parties. This report would serve as the groundwork for the next phase. That phase is\nunlikely to be through the Security Council, because some of the Security\nCouncil members will not support it. So they will probably go thought the Human\nRights Council in Geneva, predicted analysts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ban KI Moon \nvisited Sri Lanka again in \nSeptember 2016. He spoke of a \u2018new union\u2019 for Sri Lanka. But he dodged\nquestions at the press meeting. He uttered platitudes and fled when the awkward\nquestion started coming in, reported Chandraprema. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Darusman Report  had also pointed out that that   there was a need for the UN to review its\nactions in the Eelam War IV. UN had\nfailed in its task of manipulating the Eelam war. Sri Lanka had won the Eelam\nwar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Resource Panel of the UN\nfound a systemic failure\u201d in the UN response during the final months of Sri\nLanka\u2019s conflict, evoking comparisons to UN failures in Rwanda in 1996 and\nSrebrenica in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN Secretary-General then established an\nInternal Review Panel under Charles Petrie, to review UN actions in Sri Lanka\nduring the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka and after. The Petrie report\nwas asked to find out why the UN failed to stop the Eelam victory, why it\nfailed to create the state of Eelam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrie report said that the UN office in\nColombo had insufficient political expertise and experience in armed conflicts,\nhuman rights and humanitarian law issues to deal with the extraordinary challenge\u201d\nthat Sri Lanka presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 UN\naction in Sri Lanka was not supported by Member states, said Petrie Report. In the absence of clear Security Council\nbacking, the UN\u2019s actions lacked adequate purpose and direction. Member States\nfailed to provide the Secretariat and UN Country Team in Colombo with the\nnecessary support. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government of Sri Lanka did not trust the UN and there was\nfriction between the government and the UN.  16 ICRC ships came to the conflict zone to\ntake   people away from the conflict zone\nat the end of  Eelam War IV in 2009. The Government did not allow United\nNations staff on the ships.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nUN\u2019s relationship with the Government was difficult, said Petrie Report, due to\nthe Government stratagem of UN intimidation.\u201d Government of Sri Lanka had used\nvisas to control UN staff critical of the government. The Government declared\nseveral Resident Coordinators persona non grata, or made them understand that\ntheir visas were at risk of being withdrawn, while also rejecting proposed\nreplacements with previous experience in crisis situations.  The Government refused to give visas when UN\ntried to send in more staff to deal with the humanitarian aspect of the War,\ncontinued Petrie Report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN Office for the coordination of\nhumanitarian operations (OCHA) asked for visa for a Britisher, Holdsworth, who\nwas  to  report on matters which  came under the Competent Authority.  This visa was not recommended by the Ministry\nof Defence.  This Holdsworth was  an employee of the British government who had\nbeen released to OCHA.  The next\nBritisher recommended, was not in humanitarian assistance at all, but was\nexperienced in conflict analysis, security and crisis management, said Rajiva Wijesinha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1995 UNDP had to send back two medical doctors, from UN Volunteers, when the\ngovernment refused permission for their radios which the UN Volunteers said\nwere essential for their work in the north. The government had also formally\ncomplained when the director of UNESCO in Paris, on the basis of an MSF-France\npress release, condemned the death of schoolchildren in an air raid on the Jaffna\npeninsula. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relations between the UN agencies and the government were never\nrosy. Government of Sri Lanka\nplaced restrictions on UNHCR\u2019s operations in\nLTTE-controlled areas, including on the passage of fuel and communications\nequipment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The events in Sri Lanka highlight the urgent\nneed for the UN to update its strategy for engagement with Member States in\nsituations where civilian populations caught up in the midst of armed conflicts\nare not protected in accordance with international human rights and\nhumanitarian law, said Petrie Report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Petrie report was presented to the\nSecretary General in November 2012, and led to a new policy within the UN\ncalled Rights-up-Front. In 2013, in direct response to the Petrie Report, the\nSecretary-General launched the Human Rights Up Front initiative. He issued a\nHuman Rights Up Front Detailed Action Plan (updated March 2014). This called on\nthe UN system to play a strong role to prevent human rights crises [1]<\/a> and elevated the role of the Resident Coordinator\nfrom mere Head of UNDP to Head of UN operations in Sri Lanka. ( Continued)
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Guidance Note on HUMAN RIGHTSfor Resident Coordinators &UN\nCountry Teams  https:\/\/unsdg.un.org\/sites\/default\/files\/UNDG-Guidance-Note-on-Human-Rights-for-RCs-and-UNCTs-final.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Instead of keeping the UN as a skeleton organization servicing the needs of member states and acting as a meeting place for them, the western powers have piled more and more tasks on the UN system and then funded these activities, creating a great dependency on them to keep the system going. The […]<\/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-121985","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\/121985","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=121985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}