"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
Shavendra Silva’s immunity: Lanka awaits response from US, UN?
[Monday, 3 October 2011 11:57] Featured, News
On Friday September 23, Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Major General Shavendra de Silva, occupied a seat assigned to the Republic of Timor-Leste at the hall of the United Nations General Assembly.
Shavendra de Silva
There was no room for him in the seats assigned to the Sri Lanka delegation. President Mahinda Rajapaksa was addressing the UNGA that morning and the seats were filled with ministers and VIP officials from Colombo who were visiting New York.
With that over, Major General de Silva joined President Rajapaksa and some members of his entourage for a late lunch at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New York’s Central Park. With the lunch over, conversations continued.
Around 4.20 p.m. whilst Maj. Gen. de Silva was with President Rajapaksa and his entourage, something else was happening at his apartment in downtown Manhattan. A caller knocked at the door and it was opened by a member of his staff. This is how it played out.
Caller: (with a long drawn American accent): I am looking for Shavendra de Silva.
Staffer: (with the door half open): “Yes.”
Caller: “Are you he?
Staffer: (Struggles to express himself in English): “…….he is in … United Nations office…….
Caller: “Do you work for him? Who are you?”
Staffer: “Pradip Kumara”
Caller: (Inaudible to him says) “I am sorry”
Staffer: “Pradip Kumara”
Caller: “You know Shavendra?”
Staffer: (unable to discern what the caller is saying) “I don’t know”
Caller: “I see. Do you work for him?”
Staffer: Silence
Caller: Are you employed by Shavendra? Is there anyone else at home? Are you the only person here? Are you doing something for Shavendra?
Staffer: “No ! No !!” (Points his hand at the direction of the caller) “You will office…office…”
Caller: (pointing to documents in his hand): “This is for him. This is a legal document.”
The staffer is then asked to spell his name again. Thereafter the caller leaves behind a set of documents with him. It was Friday night in New York when Maj. Gen. Silva returned to his apartment and realised it was a summons for a civil action against him in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. It was night time in the US and very early hours of the morning in Sri Lanka. So he promptly consulted President Rajapaksa and his officials. Telephone lines began humming between New York and Colombo.
The summons was served by Carlo Vogel on Pradip Kumara. It requires that Maj. Gen. Silva responds within 21 days (not counting the day he received it) with an answer to the plaintiff to the complaint made. The complaint relates to alleged war crimes committed by Maj. Gen. Silva when he served as General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Army’s 58 Division during the final stages of the separatist war in May 2009. Signed by Ruby J. Krajick, Clerk of the Court, the summons says, “if you fail to respond, judgement by default will be entered against you for the relief demanded in the complaint. You must also file answer or motion with the court.”
An Al Jazeera television crew recorded the delivery of the summons. In addition, a private detective used a hidden camera both to tape record and film the episode. The pro-Tiger guerrilla lobby responsible for initiating the Court action through the American University Washington College of Law’s UNROW Human Rights Clinic has distributed the recorded tape and an accompanying unclear video. The same recording has also been made by the Al Jazeera crew.
Though Maj. Gen. Silva said at first that he would face the charges, even ignoring diplomatic immunity, there appears to be re-thinking on the matter.
An External Affairs Ministry statement on Tuesday said: “The Ministry is of the view that Ambassador Shavendra Silva as the Deputy Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York enjoys diplomatic immunities and privileges accorded under the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations as well as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Therefore, Ambassador Shavendra Silva is protected by the relevant international treaties on diplomatic relations, immunities and privileges and accepted diplomatic practices.
“Consequently, it would be the responsibility of the host nation and the United Nations to ensure that Ambassador Shavendra Silva’s ability to conduct his duties as a diplomat of Sri Lanka is not hindered in any way by such disruptive activities. The Ministry of External Affairs will take all necessary measures to ensure that Ambassador Shavendra Silva’s ability to conduct his duties as a diplomat of the Government of Sri Lanka is protected.”
With the shift in focus, it is not immediately clear whether Maj. Gen. de Silva will respond to the summons stating that he is entitled to diplomatic immunity or ignore it altogether. An External Affairs Ministry source said yesterday that the government was consulting legal opinion in the US. “This is whilst we await a response to representations made both to the US government and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon,” the source added.
- Entries (RSS)
About us
Global Peace Support Group UK Ltd is a registered organisation based in London. The organisation dedicated to be involved in humanitarian and other related issues. We also work along with other similar organisations to promote peace and harmony among various societies..
GLOBAL PEACE SUPPORT GROUP - UK - TIRELESSLY WORK ON THE CONCEPT OF:
"SELF DETERMINATION IS KEY TO THE WORLD PEACE"
MOURNS ON THE CONTINUED TRAGEDY OF THE PEOPLE OF North & East of Tamil EELAM WITH THE HOPE OF ALL OF OUR ENDEAVOURS WOULD BRING AN END TO THOSE SUFFERING DURING THE YEAR AHEAD.
The International community has a duty towards the long suffering Sri Lankan Tamil population to restore their rights of SELF DETERMINATION.
Global Peace Support Group - believes that this is the ONLY way for a permanent PEACE in Sri Lanka.
Featured
Tamil Aricles
Latest from Tamil News Network (TNN)
- Sri Lanka sets up new courts to try war suspects May 24, 2012Sri Lanka is setting up new courts to accelerate cases against hundreds of Tamil rebel suspects three years after the end of the island’s bloody ethnic war, a government spokesman said Thursday. Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said the justice ministry would open three courts near the former war zone in the northeast of Sri Lanka to hear charges against more than […]
- Slaying of Tamil-Canadian underscores enduring ethnic violence in Sri Lanka May 24, 2012Andrew Mahendrarajah Antonipillai believed he was protected. Family and friends tried to warn him of the danger he faced returning to his native Sri Lanka. But Mr. Antonipillai, a man his Montreal neighbours knew as ready to help anyone in need, shrugged them off, saying his Canadian citizenship would keep him safe. “They can’t do anything to me,” he told fr […]
- Reconciliation: The Symbolic and the Substantive May 24, 2012Photo courtesy JDS Against the backdrop of grave planetary changes, Sarath Fonseka’s release, G.L. Peiris’s visit to Washington DC and the third anniversary of the defeat of the LTTE, an evaluation of the requirements of reconciliation are in order. There is a need to distinguish between the symbolic and the substantive – both in turn playing their part in […]
- India’s Marxist Communist Party calls for withdrawal of Sri Lanka military May 24, 2012The Marxist Communist Party of India (CPI-M) in a press release on Wednesday called for immediate withdrawal of the Sri Lanka military stationed in Tamil areas of the island. In one of the five resolutions passed at the state committee meeting of the party held at Ealakiri in Tamil Nadu last Sunday, it was decided to urge the Indian government to diplomatica […]
- Tamils will never accept Sri Lanka constitution: Sivajilingam May 24, 2012Eezham Tamils were not a party and will never accept the one-sided constitutions Sri Lanka enacted either in 1972 or in 1978, said former TNA parliamentarian MK Sivajilingam speaking in Jaffna on the 40th anniversary of the 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The 1978 constitution not only continued the unitary concept but also made it more […]
- 1972 constitution reminds Tamils not to backtrack idea of nationhood May 24, 2012The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised a unitary Sinhala-Buddhist state, was enacted without the participation or mandate of Eezham Tamils. Not only their political opposition was brushed aside but even the judiciary also played a game against legal challenges. The constitution forced the shift in Tamil pol […]
- Out of jail, Sri Lankan ex-general says government must go May 23, 2012He was pardoned by the president and released from jail, but Sri Lankan former army chief Sarath Fonseka had nothing but scorn for the government on his first day of freedom and vowed to fight for its downfall. The ex-general said it could take 5 to 10 years to change the political culture of the island nation but he was determined to join forces with opposi […]
- 40-year-old Sri Lanka constitution burnt at cremation ground of Parvathi Amma May 23, 2012The 1972 republican constitution of Sri Lanka, which for the first time constitutionalised the unitary Sinhala-Buddhist State and brought in the name ‘Sri Lanka’, against the wishes of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the island, has been burnt on its 40th anniversary on Tuesday, 22 May 2012, at the spot where the LTTE leader Pirapharan’s mother was cremated b […]
- Remembering Mu’l’livaaykkaal is for edification of international community May 23, 2012Remembering Mu’l’livaaykkaal is not wailing for a tragedy. It is remembering the highest achievement of modern Tamil history, when Tamils decisively said no to an entire international community abetting a genocidal state. Mu’l’livaaykkaal is not an end of a journey. It calls for our massive re-commitment of collective political aspirations more than ever, as […]
- Release Tamil political prisoners-TNA May 22, 2012The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) today renewed its request for the release all ‘Tamil political prisoners’. Making a statement in parliament under Standing Orders 23-II, TNA leader R. Sampanthan said as many as 234 Tamil prisoners had been on a hunger strike for six consecutive days and their health condition had deteriorated. Mr. Sampanthan said the govern […]