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| Tamil families who have lost members to disappearances or abductions met the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbourwhen she visited Jaffna, but Sri Lanka’s refusal to accept a UN presence means there is little that she can do to alleviate their suffering. |
Sri Lanka last week rejected demands for international monitoring of human rights by a top UN envoy who warned of a "disturbing" lack of investigation into reports of killings and abductions.
Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, that Sri Lanka would not agree to her call for UN monitoring of human rights in the country.
"We are not willing to discuss a UN presence in Sri Lanka for monitoring purposes nor are we willing to allow an office of the High Commissioner (here)," Samarasinghe told reporters October 13, at the end of Arbour's four-day visit.
Arbour and Samarasinghe addressed a news conference together, but both made it clear they disagreed on how to tackle the human rights situation in the embattled country.
Arbour slammed Sri Lanka's lack of interest in improving its handling of the human rights of civilians, warning that the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka continues to deteriorate with possible devastating consequences.
Arbour said the "weakness of the rule of law and the prevalence of impunity is alarming" as far as the armed conflict and the emergency measures taken against terrorism are concerned, BBC News reported.
"One of the major human rights shortcomings in Sri Lanka is rooted in the absence of reliable and authoritative information on the credible allegations of human rights abuses," she said.
The Sri Lankan government refused to use the best opportunity of her visit to put a full stop to the deteriorating human rights abuses against civilians, particularly by the Sri Lankan security forces and paramilitary forces in Sri Lanka, according to the sources in Colombo.
Arbour said the authorities had tried to dismiss allegations of human rights violations as propaganda by the Liberation Tigers, but she believed there were "credible allegations that deserved to be investigated."
"In the absence of more vigorous investigations, prosecution and convictions, it is hard to see how this will come to an end," Arbour said.
"There is a disturbing lack of investigation that undermines the confidence in the institutions set up to protect human rights," Arbour said, adding Sri Lanka's culture of "impunity" was a serious concern.
Arbour cited the lack of confidence in a presidential commission tasked to probe abuses, such as the killings of 17 workers in August 2006.
Arbour also expressed dissatisfaction over the denial of the Sri Lanka government for the UN request to visit the LTTE-controlled area in the north to talk about the human rights situations in the area.
"Throughout my discussions, government representatives have insisted that national mechanisms are adequate for the protection of human rights but require capacity-building and further support from the international community," Arbour said.
"In contrast, people from across a very broad political spectrum and from various communities have expressed to me a lack of confidence and trust in the ability of existing, relevant institutions to adequately safeguard against the most serious human rights abuses," she noted.
"In the context of the armed conflict and of the emergency measures taken against terrorism, the weakness of the rule of law and prevalence of impunity is alarming," she said.
"There are a large number of reported killings, abductions and disappearances which remain unresolved... While the government pointed to several initiatives it has taken to address these issues, there has yet to be an adequate and credible public accounting for the vast majority of these incidents."
In response Sri Lankan Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said his government will not accept any foreign official on its territory, adding that the government’s own Human Rights Commission can do the job.
Many activists have however questioned the Commission’s work and transparency. Four of its members resigned (see box story) accusing the government of not doing enough to stop violence and abductions.
One former member of the Commission said the agency set up by Minister Samarasinghe in response to international pressure has never been a priority for the government which is instead more interested in pursuing its war.
Meanwhile, the UN has also been critical of Sri Lanka’s rights record in a confidential note prepared by senior UN officials for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
"Any offensive against the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka would have major humanitarian consequences, including displacement of up to 400,000 civilians," the Sunday Times quotes the note as saying.
"The space for UN and NGO humanitarian operations in Sri Lanka is also under continued pressure from the government which seeks to control relief activities through imposition of bureaucratic obstacles."
The government is also accused of "helping create a climate of fear among UN and humanitarian staff in Sri Lanka."
The note accuses the Foreign Ministry of refusing visas to officials of the UN Office for Coordinating Humanitarian Activities (OCHA) "and demanding that OCHA hire government officials instead of our own international staff in sensitive locations such as Jaffna in the northern Tamil region."
A senior UN official told the Sunday Times that visiting Sri Lankan ministers and officials had made promises and pledges but had failed to deliver on them.
The note to the secretary-general also blasts the government for "continuing to deny the existence of a humanitarian crisis or human rights violations in Sri Lanka."
"Outside comment on the situation in Sri Lanka, however constructively packaged, is usually labelled by the government media as support to the LTTE while international pressure is diverted through such devices as the establishment of commissions of inquiry which have little chance in practice of properly investigating abuses."
The meeting between Ban Ki-moon and President Mahinda Rajapaksa has been dismissed as inconsequential because the President's response has been described as "essentially evasive, sheltering behind the difficulties (genuine though these of course are) of dealing with a determined terrorist movement."
"The tone of the conversations was warm, but there was no acceptance that the negative statements of his ministers and government-owned newspapers have a serious impact on the safety and effectiveness of UN and NGO operations in Sri Lanka, or that they are systematically reducing our ability to help those in need."
Nevertheless, "we should continue to impress on the government the need for them to take proactive steps to improve the working environment, including in practical areas such as visas and the free import of essential security and communications equipment."
The Sri Lankan government has committed a wide array of human rights abuses such as illegally detaining some opponents, secretly abducting others and waging battles with little regard for the safety of civilians, a human rights group said.
At least 5,472 people were killed, over 1000 people were abducted and over thousands disappeared including hundreds of children in the enforced violence according to another rights group.
Many rights groups and rights activists said, that the Sri Lankan Security forces in Jaffna chased the relatives of the abducted and disappeared people who gathered at the UNHCR Jaffna office to meet with the UN Commissioner when she visited the northern town.
