Wednesday September 14th 2011

Minister Samarasinghe lashes out at Navi Pillai

UNHRC 18th Session in Geneva:

September 12, 2011, 12:00 pm

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, Special Envoy of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Geneva, in a statement at the UNHRC sessions yesterday faulted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay for not having informed Sri Lanka of a decision by the office of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to transmit the report of his Advisory Panel on Sri Lanka to her office as well as that of the President of the Human Rights Council. The Minister said he had learnt of that decision from a third party at a luncheon meeting on Sept. 09, 2011.

Minister Samarasinghe said: "Previous to this communication, in the course of an interaction with you, Madam President, there was no direct reference to any such transmission. It was rather embarrassing that both you and I had to learn of it from a third party at the luncheon meeting in the presence of representatives of 29 Member States of the Council."

Calling the failure on the part of the UN Human rights High Commissioner to inform Sri Lanka of that decision, ‘wholly inappropriate’, Minister Samarasinghe went on to point out that it might ‘lead to a loss of confidence in the Office of the High Commissioner’.

"Today, it may be Sri Lanka but tomorrow it could be any other Member State faced with this predicament," Minister Samarasinghe said, urging Pillay to ‘abide by the same principles that govern the work of the Human Rights Council, such as universality, transparency,impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity with a view to enhancing the promotion and protection of human rights in a fair and equal manner while recognising the importance of the elimination of double standards and politicisation’.

Minister Samarasinghe told the assembly that the report of the UNSG’s Advisory Panel on Sri Lanka did not have the sanction of any inter-governmental body and it had been purely an exercise of the prerogative of the UNSG. Asking how such a report could be brought to the attention of the Council in that unconventional and improper manner, he warned that if that kind of circumvention of procedure was allowed, it would eventually make a mockery of the UN Human Rights Council as a whole.

Minister Samarasinghe said the well organised LTTE rump active overseas was ‘using every resource at its command to maintain and magnify’ pressure on Sri Lanka. He said the government of Sri Lanka was willing to accept justified criticism but would assail with might and main ‘unjustified repetition of some blatant propaganda by persons or groups with an agenda inimical to that of the new Sri Lanka’ being created.

Minister Samarasinghe said President Rajapaksa’s government’s approach was ‘predicated upon the principle of construction reengagement and it had never been timorous or diffident’ and therefore Sri Lanka had no reason to be unduly defensive.

Explaining Sri Lanka’s achievements since the end of the war in May 2009, Minister Samarasinghe said it had made tremendous progress in its reconstruction effort. Caring for IDPS in welfare centres had cost the government USD 31 mn and a further USD 2.1 billion had been mobilised for the Joint Action Plan for Assistance for the Northern Province based on a tripartite agreement among the government, the UN system and civil society. The bulk of those funds had been debt incurred by the government, he said.

Demining was in progress at a pace which compared with the best efforts anywhere in the world, Minister Samarasinghe said adding that the Sri Lanka Army was responsible for about 75 to 80 per cent of successful demining operations. "In 2009 alone, nearly USD 20 mn had been committed by the government to demining operations," he said.

Explaining the progress in the resettlement process, Minister Samarasinghe told the UNHRC assembly: "Given the caseload of over 290,000 internally displaced persons at the end of May 2009, our achievement in bringing down the numbers to a mere 7,000 in this regard is a potential role model for other countries and conflict zones. USD 360 million has been expended by Government on the resettlement programme. Along with resettlement, restoration of livelihoods has been accorded the highest priority."

Minister Samarasinghe said over 11,600 ex-combatants had been put through varying programmes of rehabilitation depending on need and level of involvement in terrorism and many of them been released through the judicial system. He praised the office of the Commissioner-General of Rehabilitation for its yeoman service. He said: "Approximately 9,000 persons including child combatants have been reintegrated and just over 2,700 remain within the rehabilitation process. Every effort is being made to draw down the numbers still further."

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), Minister Samarasinghe said, was inquiring into the conflict and its causes and in the process of revolving recommendations to ensure that such a situation would never arise again in Sri Lanka. He said: "The persons engaged in the Commission are highly regarded professionals. They should be given time and space to come up with their findings and recommendations. We have briefed our friends in Geneva and elsewhere of the interim recommendation made by the LLRC and the measures taken by the Inter-Agency Committee to implement them without delay."

Speaking of measures adopted by the government to find a lasting solution to the national question, Minister Samarasinghe stressed that a putative solution arrived at between two or three political groupings was not going to be ultimately successful if a substantial portion of the Sri Lanka polity opposed it. "All attempts and measures taken in the past 50 to 60 years have, at some point, broken down due to a lack of across-the-board acceptance and bipartisan buy-in," he said. Therefore, he pointed out, a Parliamentary Select Committee was to be tasked with formulating a series of measures that the vast majority, if not the entirety, of the Sri Lankan people would find acceptable.

Of the Universal Periodic Review process, Minister Samarasinghe said, "During the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process in May/June 2008, we took stock of what we had achieved, what our challenges were and how we were going to address them. It was an accurate snapshot of the human rights situation in the country at that time. In my then capacity as Minister for Human Rights, I oversaw the drafting of the National Report that was submitted to the Council. Our report was commended by a majority of those who participated in the UPR on Sri Lanka, in particular, the frank and candid manner in which we presented the factual situation and the level of detail the report went into.

During the UPR, we pledged to devise a 5-year National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. We worked hard on fulfilling that pledge with the assistance of key Government institutions and civil society groups. We were greatly supported by the UN system in that work. The Attorney-General gave leadership to the process of drafting and refining the final proposed Action Plan which was placed before the Cabinet of Ministers, and has now received its approval.

We are now in the process of setting in motion the implementation phase, including monitoring and evaluation. Once adopted by Government, we will popularize the Action Plan and secure buy-in by every segment of society. To us, this is at the core of the National Action Planning process."

The lapsing of Emergency, Minister Samarasinghe told the UNHRC session, was a meaningful step the government had taken to enhance the normalization process.

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