At the 17th UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting presently underway in Geneva, UN rights chief Navi Pillai called an international investigation of war crimes in the final months in 2009 of Sri Lanka’s war.

Who supported: US, EU, France, Ireland

Who opposed: Pakistan, China, Cuba

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s categorical rejection of an investigation was delivered by Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe.

See the Daily Mirror’s report here

Channel 4 is to screen Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, a special one-hour investigation which features devastating new video evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sri Lanka, at the UN this Friday 3 June.

Presented by Channel 4 News journalist Jon Snow, the film features footage captured on mobile phones, both by Tamil civilians under attack and government soldiers as war trophies.

“The footage is probably the most horrific the channel has ever shown. The decision to show it at length was made only after serious and careful consideration,” Channel 4's Head of News & Current Affairs Dorothy Byrne, who commissioned the film.

“We believe this dossier of visual evidence combined with harrowing eye-witness testimony represents prima facie evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by forces of the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. It is of the greatest possible public interest and as such we have a duty to journalistically scrutinise it.”

The film provides powerful evidence - including photographic stills, official Sri Lankan army video footage and satellite imagery - which contradicts the Sri Lankan government's claims of a policy of ‘Zero Civilian Casualties'.

The film raises serious questions about the failures of the international community to intervene and prevent the deaths of up to forty thousand people and lends new urgency to the UN-appointed panel of expert's call for an international inquiry to be mounted.

The director, Callum Macrae, said:

"The Sri Lankan government wanted a war without witness - deporting journalists and pressurising UN representatives to leave - but it didn't allow for the extraordinary power of mobile phone and satellite technology.

“We have trawled through hours of painfully raw recordings of the some of the most awful events I have ever seen in many years of war reporting.

"Sri Lanka's Killing Fields raises serious questions about the consequences if the UN fails to act - not only for Sri Lanka but for future violations of international law."

“I conclude on the basis of the extensive technical evidence we obtained from independent experts that what is depicted in the video indeed happened. … I believe that a prima facie case of serious international crimes has been made."

"The prima facie case should go to the next level of investigation on a domestic and an international level. ...

"We should recognise the domestic process, but I think in parallel there should be an international investigation."

- Christof Heyns, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, speaking to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on an extended Channel 4 video broadcast Dec 2010 (see below) depicting Sri Lankan soldiers killing unarmed, restrained, naked Tamil men.

Heyns did not say what he meant by serious international crimes - which can be war crimes or crimes against humanity - but his findings on authenticity echo the findings of his predecessor, Philip Alston, last year on a shorter version of the video. (See also this from Sep 2009).

See also more comments by Alston:

Domestic inquiries into killings insufficient (June 2010)

On targetted killings (June 2010)

On Sri Lanka's LLRC commission (June 2010)

As speculation drove Sri Lanka’s stock market to a 1-week high, foreign investors net sold $1.5 m (Rs. 165m) worth of shares on Monday, Reuters reported.

Foreign investors have sold a net $58m (Rs. 6.36 bn) worth of shares in 2011, after a record $240m (Rs. 26.4 bn) in 2010.

 See our earlier posts:

Sri Lanka’s stocks: a closer look (Jan 2011)

Foreigners sell, state buys (Oct 2010)

Let me also refer to the report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka, which concludes that there are credible allegations of a wide range of serious violations of international law committed by both the Sri Lankan Government forces and Tamil Tigers in the final stages of the conflict.

It is incumbent on the Government to investigate these allegations and I also urge it to implement the measures recommended by the Panel.

I fully support the recommendation to establish an international mechanism to monitor national investigations and undertake its own as necessary.

It would be important for the Human Rights Council to reflect on the new information contained in this important report, in light of its previous consideration of Sri Lanka and efforts to combat impunity worldwide.

While Sri Lanka’s friends urge a domestic investigation into war crimes committed during the final months of the island’s war as a way of fending of an international probe, a defiant President Mahinda Rajapaksa made clear Friday there will be nothing of the sort.

See reports by the BBC and other agencies.

 “We were with you in the battlefield. It is the same today. We will not betray you before the world,” President Rajapaksa told his troops in a speech marking the second anniversary of the end of the war with the Liberation Tigers.

"I will recall what I said in the past - that our troops went to the battlefront carrying a gun in one hand, the Human Rights Charter in the other, food for the innocent displaced on their shoulders, and love of their children in their hearts," President Rajapaksa said.

"…we are proud of the humanitarian nature of our operation against the enemy,” he said.

Rajapaksa’s defiant speech comes as international support grows for the recommendations of the UN expert panel’s report which found credible allegations that war crimes were committed by both sides in the last days of the war.

But President Rajapaksa reiterated that Sri Lanka will not give into external pressure.

"Sri Lanka can solve its own problems and human rights cannot be guaranteed by only including them in the constitution", Rajapaksa said.
 
"We have established genuine human rights by eliminating terrorism", Rajapaksa told his military, 9000 of whom marched in the ‘victory parade’

He hailed Sri Lanka’s forces as "war heroes" and praised them for developing the country after the war.

"From the Foreign Service to the beautifying of Colombo city, war heroes contribute immensely for the betterment of this country. You who shed your blood for this country, are today toiling for the development process of the country," he said.

Though President Rajapaksa did not refer to the UN expert panel’s report directly, he dismissed allegations of war crimes as LTTE propaganda.

"Terrorism in a country begins with shooting down the truth. Even after war the Tamil Tigers continue to target the truth. As a result of this, conspiracies were launched to write false reports against our country and our war heroes," he said.

The rank of President’s Counsel (PC) in Sri Lanka – originally Queen’s Counsel (QC), as it is in UK – is awarded to the most senior lawyers who are experts in a particular field. The title refers to those considered sufficiently eminent as to be appointed to represent the head of state.

According to Sri Lanka’s constitution, PCs are those lawyers who have “reached eminence in the profession and have maintained high standards of conduct and professional rectitude.”

Thus, at a time Sri Lanka is under growing international scrutiny for mass killings during the final months of the island’s war, it is telling that this is what one PC, Jayantha Gunasekera, has to say:

“[UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-Moon and his panel [of experts] have been heavily influenced by the Tamil, Navaneethan Pillai, UN Human Rights High Commissioner, who is in cahoots with the LTTE Diaspora.

“She is highly communal minded.  She issued a strongly worded statement no sooner the report was released.  She welcomed the public release of the statement and supported the cause.  The report calls for further international investigations.  …

“She has for some time been a hater of the Sinhala led government and is playing a communal game.

“She has however, brought her influence to bear, and succeeded in securing a convoluted and psychotic report to satisfy her brethren   - the Tamil Diaspora.

“She too has opened herself, to and inquiry as to whether she is using her office to satisfy her personal agenda. As to whether she should continue as an employee of the UN, is a matter to be inquired into.”

See Gunasekera's full comment, published Saturday in the leading English-language daily, Daily Mirror here.

In the light of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s categorical refusal to investigate war crimes by Sri Lanka’s military, this is what US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Robert Blake, had to say during his visit earlier this month (see AFP’s report here):

"We look first to the host government, in this case the government of Sri Lanka, to take responsibility (for) these issues.

"The US has continuously expressed to the government of Sri Lanka to implement a credible process of accountability."

"[An] international mechanism can become appropriate in case of states that are unable or unwilling to meet their obligations."

From the Sunday Times, May 30:

Rehearsals for the Victory Day parade held on Friday began two weeks ago. Among those rehearsing were a group of 23 newly-recruited policemen from Jaffna, six of whom were women constables.

On the eve of the parade they were told, that due to security reasons, they had been dropped from the parade, but if they wished they could witness the parade.

See also our earlier posts:

Which nation’s team?  (April 2011)

Strict criteria ... (Dec 2010)

'Ethnocracy'? (Nov 2010)

Daily Mirror's cartoon Friday May 27, 2011

Sri Lanka on Thursday withdrew the on-arrival free visa facility for Indian tourists.

Although potential visitors from 78 other countries will also be impacted by the decision announced this week, the majority of tourists to the island are Indians. Over 120,000 visited last year, up from 85,000 in 2009.

See the Hindustan Times’ report here.

The move comes amid growing hostility to India, and Indians, amongst Sinhala society.

Amid barely-disguised resentment over India's refusal to support Sri Lanka against international demands for an investigation into war crimes in the final stages of the war.

There is also strident opposition being whipped up by the Colombo government against a long-dragging free trade agreement with India, the CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement).

And there is Sinhala hostility to India's urging of a political accomodation of Tamil demands. See the Daily Mirror editorial today.

Also see this editorial last August by the popular English daily, the Daily Mirror, criticising the inflow of Indian workers and comparing this to the intervention by Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) of the late eighties.

See our earlier posts:

India urgest rights probe (May 2011)

'India must lead international action' (April 2011)

Indian engines (April 2011)

IMF urges free trade deal with India (April 2011)

Sri Lanka's announcement of the appointment of yet another commission to investigate human rights abuses should come as no surprise. Following the release of report by the UN expert panel, calls for an international, independent inquiry into the final stages of the conflict are gaining momentum on a global level.

This new commission, like its predecessors, including the infamously impotent Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is a farce. Its announcement is a insolent retort at the UN report and all those advocating accountability, as well as another of Sri Lanka's habitual ploys to buy time for international attention to fade.

This new body, a group of government-appointed judges to serve as a revived Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, is just like those before it. Its conclusions are clear even before the commission is begun. Priyantha Perera, a retired Supreme Court Judge who has been instructed to lead, has already described those criticising Sri Lanka's human rights record as 'detractors' that he was able to put the 'correct picture of Sri Lanka' before.

Sri Lanka's inability and unwillingness to carry out any independent investigations is now widely recognised truth. It has been highlighted repeatedly by international rights organisations including Humans Rights Watch, Amnesty International and International Crisis Group. Moreover, the absence of the rule of law, exemplified by both political interference in the Supreme Court, and the latter’s servitude to the regime of the day utterly negates any possibility of genuine justice for victims of state violence, especially Tamil ones.

So far, the international community has played along with Sri Lanka’s theatrics. Even the LLRC, although having been categorically rejected by international rights groups as a farce, is still discussed by the US, for example, as if it has merit. This duplicity cannot continue. Two years since the mass killings of 40,000, the essential facts of 2009 have been laid bare by the UN expert panel. The Sri Lankan state’s military campaign, the panel made clear, constituted 'persecution' of the Tamil population of Vanni. The ‘systematic shelling’ of hospitals and civilian concentrations, and the deliberate blocking of food, medicine and humanitarian supplies, are not wayward acts of a few soldiers, but constituted an organised onslaught by a state against those, it tells the world, are its citizens.

Sri Lanka's domestic processes are unwilling to address the state’s own complicity or culpability in crimes against its citizens. This glaringly obvious truth is not new, but it was conveniently avoided by the international community. As leaked US embassy cables point out, the international community knows well that internal investigations into crimes of this sort have never been accurately investigated by those who committed them.

This cannot be allowed to continue. The deliberate slaughter of tens of thousands civilians makes international apathy inexcusable. It is time that the world put an end to Sri Lanka's games. The gravity and scale of these crimes requires an international, independent investigation - tolerance of anything less would be an indefensible sham, one complicit in a 21st century genocide.

The United Nations has signed a ‘routine’ agreement with Sri Lanka so that resources can be accessed when needed for peacekeeping.

This is despite 20% of a Sri Lankan peacekeeping force in Haiti being sent back in 2007 after UN investigations confirmed reports of sexual exploitation of children, and there having been no prosecutions against the soldiers once repatriated.

“[This] was a routine agreement, which the UN has already signed with 89 other member states," Martin Nesirky, the UN spokesman, told a news briefing. "It is meant to speed up the provision of resources to the UN when necessary."

Since 2004 Sri Lanka has contributed to the UN mission in Haiti, with about 950 personnel serving there.

A scandal in 2007 saw 114 troops sent back to Sri Lanka after a UN investigation found evidence of sexual exploitation of children.

The UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) concluded that “acts of sexual exploitation and abuse (against children) were frequent and occurred usually at night, and at virtually every location where the contingent personnel were deployed,” the Sunday Times reported.

“In exchange for sex, the children received small amounts of money, food, and sometimes mobile phones,” OIOS said.

The UN said Sri Lanka had responsibility for punishing the troops. It added that  charges should include rape because the sexual exploitation involved children.

But there have been no investigations, let alone prosecutions, of any soldier accused of sexual abuse on whilst UN peacekeeping duty.

Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, responding at the time to the reports, said of the troops: “I respect them profoundly and consider them as the most disciplined Forces in the world. They have not killed or raped anybody.”

This week, when asked whether there was any concern over the signing of a peace keeping agreement while there are allegations of war crimes against the country, the UN spokesman said the primary responsibility of ensuring that serving peacekeepers meet the highest standard of integrity required by the UN clearly lies with member states themselves.

"We insist with Member States that they should contribute personnel that have not committed human rights violations," Nesirky said adding that the UN carries out individual screening for uniformed personnel deployed as senior military or police personnel staff officers or experts on mission.

At the conclusion of the visit to Delhi this week by Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris, the two governments issued a joint statement which set out a range of bilateral policy.

However, no sooner had Peiris returned to Colombo, Sri Lankan officials were backpedaling from any commitments he may have given.

“Only discussions were held and no agreements signed though there are reports to the contrary,” the Daily Mirror quoted officials as saying in its front page story.

Interestingly, although Peiris’ visit to Delhi was widely understood to be about the recently released UN experts’ panel report on war crimes in Sri Lanka’s war, the joint statement makes no mention of it.

Peiris is now to go to China. The ‘primary reason’ for his visit, the Daily Mirror said, is secure support from China - described as "Sri Lanka's powerful ally" against the consequences of the UN report.

Notably, Peiris was the UNP’s chief negotiator during the Norwegian-brokered talks with the LTTE. The central agreement of those talks was the 2002 decision to explore federalism as a solution to Sri Lanka’s ethnic crisis.

At the time Peiris was, along with the LTTE’s chief negotiator and political strategist, Anton Balasingham, hailed by the international community as a key peacemaking figures.

However, after he defected in 2005 from the UNP and joined the Sinhala hardline regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Peiris wholesale rejected the idea of federalism. (See the Morning Leader's report here)

In 2007 Peiris explained his rejection of a political solution with a peculiar logic, especially given that he is a professor of constitutional law.

Notions like ‘federalism,’ ‘unitary’ and ‘united state,’ he told a press conference, were "mere words."

He also dismissed  the Oslo declaration on federalism as "brandishing words" whose meanings were vague and undefined.

"Today the intellectuals and experts worldwide agree that terms such as federalism, unitary and united have no clear definition and are indistinct at best," he declared.

Instead, what was required, he added as Colombo escalated the massive offensive which concluded in 2009 with the slaughter of 40,000 Tamil civilians documented in the UN report, was a "practical solution" to Sri Lanka's conflict.