Human Rights
Ranil meets Moon in New York, tells him opposition ready to support a government that shows remorse
Sri Lanka’s Opposition Leader met UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon today (July 5) at 3.30pm to brief him on the Opposition’s views on the Advisory Report of the Secretary General’s Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka.
Speaking with Lanka Independent minutes after the meeting, Opposition Leader Wickremasinghe said he had reiterated to the Secretary General the several points he had made to Sri Lanka’s parliament in the aftermath of the report.
“I mentioned to the Secretary General what I had mentioned in Parliament, that the government of Sri Lanka will have to submit what we are going to do in respect of the several issues arising out of the ethnic crisis, the matter of national reconciliation, strengthening democracy and expressing remorse,” Wickremasinghe said.
“The Secretary General said that since the Panel report is in the public domain the government of Sri Lanka should take some measures to deal with the issues arising therefrom, Wickremasinghe added.
Show remorse
“I also informed the Secretary General that we have already told President Mahinda Rajapakse and the government that the opposition will support a response to the Panel Report that has been formulated and prepared together with the Opposition and effectively focuses on a viable solution to the ethnic issue, strengthening democracy and human rights and expressing remorse. I also said that freedom of expression is absolutely necessary for a final reconciliation,” Wickremasinghe told Lanka Independent.
Opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe(Left) and President Mahinda Rajapakse (Middle) at an event to celebrate Deepavali
Lanka Independent also learns that the Opposition leader had in Colombo advised President Rajapakse not to give into outside pressure but as in the Asian Buddhist tradition to show genuine remorse and forgiveness and that the Opposition will support any genuine gesture that would bring about true reconciliation and strengthen democracy in the country.
Earlier in Sri Lanka’s parliament in the aftermath the Panel Report’s release in April, Wickremasinghe in a wide ranging speech had said that the ‘present situation is perhaps the most difficult position the country has faced since the airdrops of 1987. “In whatever we do, we as a responsible party in the opposition are committed to putting the country first. I do not intend to make political debating points on a partisan basis. The stakes are too high for this. We need to be unified and dignified in our response to what is a major challenge to our nation.”
However Ranil Wickremasinghe himself is a man beleaguered. He faces many challenges to his political leadership from an ever growing number of disgruntled party members from within his own party – the UNP, and has been accused of pandering to the government and to the dictates of President Mahinda Rajapakse to secure his own position as the opposition leader.
Credible allegations
Ranil and Mahinda: Reconciliation?
Meanwhile, President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government has been facing increasing pressure from the international community following the UN report which stated there were credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity against both the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers). The government of Sri Lanka has repeatedly denied it violated any humanitarian or international human rights laws saying the entire military offensive was part of a humanitarian operation and that there were zero civilian casualties.
In May 2009 President Rajapakse at several political rallies also said that Sri Lanka army soldiers fought with the gun in one hand and a copy of the UN Human Rights Declaration in the other – a position that has been roundly rejected by the international community, the UN and human rights organisations.
The UN in its report has said at least 40,000 civilians died in the last months of the war if not more and the recent release of the Channel 4 documentary titled Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields showing documentary evidence of summary executions by Sri Lankan soldiers, has prompted renewed calls for an international war crimes investigation.
UNSG Spokesperson Martin Nesirky speaks to Lanka Independent during an extensive exclusive interview
Human Rights Council
In May, shortly before the Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva on May 30th, Lanka Independent asked the office of the Secretary General whether it would send the report to UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay and the Human Rights Council for serious deliberation. Lanka Independent also asked the Secretary General whether he was trying to distance himself from a report he himself had commissioned.
The spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Martin Nesirky told Lanka Independent the UNSG was committed to the recommendations in the Panel of Experts Report on Sri Lanka.
“…precisely because he instituted this report he takes it extremely seriously and far from distancing himself from it he is very much committed to the report,” Spokesperson Martin Nesirky said.
Excerpts of the interview
LI: Has the report been officially sent to the Human Rights High Commissioner Ms Navi Pillay?
MN: Well as you know it’s in the public domain it specifically refers to the Human Rights Council and the Resolution taken in 2009 and says that should be revisited. So it’s in the public domain and one of the reasons why I’m answering you this way is because the Secretary General said when the report was issued that he wanted to ensure that he could hear the response from the Sri Lankan authorities and that he would also be reviewing the findings that there are and the recommendations that there are and this is what the SG is doing.
LI: Has he received any response from the SL government as yet?
MN: Not an official written response. He has had at least one conversation with the Sri Lankan authorities on this topic but what we are suggesting is and what we have offered including to have it printed and published alongside the report…that offer was there. It was not taken up. That offer was there, that offer was there. It was not taken up, the offer still stands. Certainly the offer still stands for any official response to be placed alongside the report that we have published.
LI: True the Report is in a the public domain but will the Secretary General send it officially to the Human Rights Council for consideration at its current sessions. If it is just out there in the public domain but the Secretary General shies away from directing its course is he not distancing himself?
MN: Two elements here. Precisely because it is in the public domain already it has been widely discussed, widely read and member states are taking it extremely seriously including in Geneva where the Human Rights Council is based as you know. The second point is that the Secretary General has repeatedly said that the accountability process is something that should be nationally driven but that the UN will continue to monitor what is happening especially regarding the LLRC because there are concerns in the international community as expressed in that report. If that doesn’t work, if the international community feels strongly that that does not work then there are member states of the UN who could take action if they so wished on the basis of the report of the panel of experts. ……because it is in the public domain. I find it hard to believe that there is any member state or any part of the UN system that is not aware of this report. One of the gravity of the content and two of the recommendations that the report makes.
Read the full interview here
5 Comments to “Ranil meets Moon in New York, tells him opposition ready to support a government that shows remorse”
July 18, 2011 at 2:58 pm
[…] the rare meeting with the UNSG (who almost never meets with Opposition Leaders of nations) Wickremasinghe briefed […]
July 14, 2011 at 10:51 pm
[…] State Department officials earlier this month, on July 5th Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremasinghe met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki […]
July 10, 2011 at 5:16 am
Who says that the Sri Lankan troops committed any excesses?You are taking the Channel 4 video and the Darusman Report as based on authentic evidence.At the present time the authenticity of both these are being investigated.Has the US GOVERNMENT EXPRESSED REMORSE FOR EXCESSES COMMITTED AT GUANTANAMO BAY OR THE VIOLATION OF THE SOVEREIGNTY OF PAKISTAN IN KILLING UNARMED BIN LADEN AND HIS FAMILY MEMBERS?
July 7, 2011 at 3:15 am
The troupes come under the Government who should take responsibility for any excesses committed by the troupes on their own. Showing remorse is only to that extent. The offenders must be identified from the video and charged in a court and punished. They are the ones who brought the MR government into disrepute, if the government stand is that they faught a clean war. The government must allow the people their democratic rights without using government power to suppress the people. Prime Minister said in Parliament that politicians are involved in helping the drug dealers. Government should take immediate action to arrest such situations and bring to book the politicians who are helping the drug dealers. Government without showing honesty will not be trusted by anyone anywhere. We as Sri Lankans must win the prestige that is lost now and unless the government acts positively the country will go down the pallang.
Ram
July 6, 2011 at 6:20 am
Ranil is asking the Sri Lankan Government to show remorse for doing what.Is it for the killing of Prabhakaran during the war and decimating the ruthless LTTE.IN THAT CASE THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES SHOULD SHOW REMORSE FOR THE KILLING OF UNARMED BIN LADEN AND FAMILY MEMBERS.Ban ki Moon would do well to appoint an expert panel to investigate the Killing of Bin Laden on the soil of another sovereign country Pakistan without obtaining the permission of that country.This act was a blatant violation of the sovereignty of a member nation of the UN.WHAT IS THIS DUPLICITY ON THE PART OF THE UN.MIGHT IS RIGHT SEEMS TO BE THE ORDER OF THE DAY.ALL THE QUESTIONS RAISED IN THE INTERVIEW WITH THE UN REP HAVE BEEN ANSWERED BY DR.DAYAN JAYATHILAKE IN HIS ARTICLE ‘ENOUGH’ PUBLISHED IN THIS WEB SITE.AS SRI LANKANS WHO LOVE THEIR MOTHERLAND WE SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH AND HANDS OFF SRI LANKA.