The UN Secretary General’s office has reiterated that the responsibility to probe alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka lies primarily with Sri Lanka and the UNSG will not launch its own investigation unless Sri Lanka or an inter-governmental agency makes a request.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s position was clarified by his spokesman Martin Nesirky at Friday noon’s news conference in New York. He was responding to a question from Inner City Press’ Mathew Lee who asked why Mr. Ban’s approach to war crimes in Sri Lanka was different from his approach to war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Accountability is for the national authority in any given case. And in this case, it is no different: accountability is for the Sri Lankan authorities,” Mr. Nesirky said echoing Mr. Ban’s position which was made known after the release of a report last month by a three-member experts panel the UNSG appointed to advise him on accountability issues during the last stages of Sri Lanka’s war in 2009.
“We’ve also said that, in this report on accountability that was given to the Secretary-General, it sets out that the Sri Lankan authorities should indeed be doing this. It also says that — and the Secretary-General said this in his statement with the report — that there needs to be, to take it forward, there needs to be either consent from the national Government, the national authorities — in other words the Sri Lankan authorities — or there needs to be a mandate from an intergovernmental body; and you know what they might be. And that’s the position,” the spokesman said.
An intergovernmental body refers to the UN General Assembly, the Security Council or the UN Human Rights Council.
Recalling that the UNSG launched its own probe on alleged war crimes committed by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi in Congo during the civil war from 1993 to 2003, the journalist asked which intergovernmental agency approved the Congo probe.
The question went unanswered, according to the Inner City Press.
Mr. Nesirky also confirmed that Sri Lanka had still not sent its response regarding the panel’s report to the Secretary General. |
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