Time for Introspection at the UNHRC – Justice For Sri Lanka

By Dr. Ivan Amarasinghe, BSc., PhD., MIBiol UK., CBiolUK Former Ambassador to Viet Nam ; Former Chairman Ocean University, Sri Lanka

Justice, be it local, national, regional or global, should not only be done but also be seen to be done. Holistic transparency must be overtly evident at all times to all protagonist parties when addressing ongoing conflict in search of sustainable peace through resolutions or post-conflict enquiries and assessments. In 2006 the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was created with its Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR).An august guardianship of its lofty ideals were to be ensured through monitoring and assessments by its OHCHR.  Barely a decade since its inception, accusations on the modus operandi of the UNHRC have been made by member countries.  Accusations have been made of the OHCHR being partisan to certain pressure groups, and questionably dubious witness procedures. Asian countries such as Viet Nam, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar as well as China are perpetually accused of human rights violations. On the contrary, historically recorded blatant military adventurists who in cavalier fashion ignored global military conflict conventions such as the Geneva accords, appear to be beyond the search radar of the UNHRC. Some countries historically renowned as pacifists than military adventurists complain of deliberately spun falsehoods. Many accuse these former imperial countries of abusing their positions in global agencies such as the UNHRC aided by powerful International Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) such as the Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI). The system appears to be corrupt and neo-imperial.

Ethnocentric Tamil Dominance and Demands for Secession by Hook or by Crook

The loss of supremacy within the former British colonies for the Tamils became the main cause for the demand for a separate State exclusively for Tamils. The much heralded demand for Eelam, as an exclusive Tamil kingdom within Sri Lanka took the global centre stage since the Colombo Riots of 1983.What began as a post-colonial accommodative peace negotiation process following the riots within the Sri Lankan establishment was soon ridiculed by militant Tamils of the island. Indian military training and global support through the British media and certain Members of Parliament energised secessionist dreams of the Tamil militants. The British Parliamentarians and Borough Councillors depended on the block votes of the Tamils at elections. Those who had flooded to Britain as refugees from Sri Lanka since 1983 held the decisive block vote for the very empowerment as elected MPs. Canada and Australia took in refugees in similar fashion to their own founding father, Great Britain. They had to fall in line with Britain on the Tamil demands.

On the contrary Sri Lanka refused to create an exclusive racist substate within the island. They had Hobson’s choice in dealing with Tamil terrorists. That was to confront theirEelamist War mongers to bring the terrorists to the negotiating table.Sri Lankan defence forceshad to prioritise humanitarian interventions and safeguard measuresto save the vast population of innocent Tamils who had been taken as hostages by the LTTE.  To the surprise of the global community Sri Lanka won the war and saved the Tamil hostages from the clutches of the ruthless LTTE.

The LTTE accumulated vast finances through a global network during 30 years of war against Sri Lanka.When it was defeated in 2009, it left behind a vast wealth which attracted and empowered willing proxies for the continuation of their demands. The result has been the resumption of neo-colonial demands on behalf of the Tamils by Britain, Canada and their allies at the United Nations. These patron States unfortunately became proxies on behalf of the racist sectors of Tamils. The result has been that since winning the war in 2009 and settling the internally displaced Tamils within a decade, Sri Lanka now finds itself fighting a war at the UN and the international theatre against a shadow entity empowered through the financial fluidity of the global LTTE treasure troves. The political patrons, legal combatants and media warriors attracted to the LTTE war chest fightwith mercenary ferocity on the dictates ofthe Trans-national Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) demanding Tamil Eelam. The UNHRC is the Global body through which they make their demands. As a prelude to their final demand for establishment of a separate State of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, they also seek their own version of retribution for alleged Human Rights violations and war crimes.

Lackof Transparency Mixed with Smokes and Mirrors on the UNHRC Stage

The goals of the UNHRC are to address violations, promote human rights assistance and education, help develop international human rights law, review the human rights records of member States, work to prevent abuses, respond to emergencies, and serve as an international forum for dialogue on human rights issues.

Over the last decade, there have been many complaints from member countries of the UNHRC on a range of matters. They vary from bias against some as well as a general lack of transparency in its activities. 

Israel has made numerous complaints on bias with reference to its defence measures against the vast expanse of the Arab countries surrounding it, who they allege would prefer their ceding of the only hereditary land the Jewish people have on this planet. Within the first seven years of the establishment of the UNHRC, Israel had been condemned in 45 resolutions by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Israel in response ignores all Resolutions of the UNHRC.

Viet Nam, very much similar to Sri Lanka, has been the victim of UN Resolutions with international trade embargoes ever since it won the secessionist war against South Vietnamese aided by the brutal forces of the USA and its allies. It was as if the UN wished to erase all human rights of the innocent Vietnamese simply because they did not allow secession aided and abetted by the Western power block. Since granting access to the Americans in the 1980s to search for the bodies of their Missing In Action (MIA) in Viet Nam, most of these restrictions have been lifted. However, very much similar to that of Sri Lanka, the key complainants of the vast post-war global refugee diaspora with support from the legislators of their Western host countries and the media refugee diaspora together with INGOs such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI) and the Canadian Legal aid alliance, accuse Viet Nam of continuedhuman rights violations, State terrortogether with ethnic and religious restrictions etc. The calls for Resolutions against Viet Nam at the UNHRC never cease and the vociferous nature of the Vietnamese refugee diaspora together with their allies remain the same as for Sri Lanka. The only difference is that unlike the Sri Lankan ex-Foreign Minister Samarawera and the Yahapalanists, Vietnam or its Foreign Minister are not presenting any post-war punitive Resolutions against itself in collaboration with the OHCHR or Western governments.

The USA recently ceded its membership of the UNHRC where Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN, said that the UNHRC is a "hypocritical" body that "makes a mockery of human rights".

These are damning indictments on the UNHRC in general and the OHCHR in particular.

In the case of Sri Lanka, according to the most recent declaration of advocacy strictures issued by Michelle Bachelet as the Commissioner of Human Rights, “States can consider targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans against credibly alleged perpetrators of grave human rights violations and abuses,” as of last week of January 2021. This is an absurd situation reminiscent of a Kangaroo Court justice. The UN Human Rights Commissioner, it appears, has predetermined and prejudged the inferences of its proposed inquiry of alleged human rights violations together with unspecified war crimes and genocidal intents against the Tamils.

To add insult to injury, the alleged victim witness identities, their statements and presentations as “evidence” are cocooned within a strange secrecy reminiscent of Kafkaesque bureaucracy within the OHCHR. Such is the Institutional transparency at the OHCHR and the strident dictatorial usurpation of UN powers by its Human Rights Commissioner. It has reduced itself to a global entertainment theatre inclusive of hilarious smokes and mirrors acts in witness presentations and procedures in the manner of a grand magician!

Sri Lanka the Whipping Boy

It took some decades and voluminous media together with genuine independent global research and pedagogic material to identify the true causes of the 1983 race riots in Colombo.  The failure of the then government of Sri Lanka to contain the racist attacks, urban mob rule and punish the miscreants is the main cause of the subsequent war. Whether it justified the terrorist and racist intentions of the LTTE is another matter. Following the elimination of the LTTE, the alleged proxy-war conducted at the UNHRC against Sri Lanka is replete with accusations of Tamil ethnic solidarity and bias against Sri Lanka at the OHCHR, its Special Rapporteurs, investigative teams and a host of legal and media beneficiaries of the enormous remnant treasury of the LTTE.

The following are some key factors of relevance:

• The UNHRC gave credence to reports such as the Darusman report on Sri Lanka. It was  personally commissioned and compiled under opaque standards as a “preliminary, private briefing” to the UN High commissioner;  this report was not tabled for peer-review, or discussion, refutation etc., by those under review. It cast the first stone at the good name of the Government of Sri Lanka, its leaders and the defence forces on scant proof or evidence for justification.
• Overt partisan nature of the former HR Commissioner Navi Pillai in proclaiming atrocities by Sri Lankan forces against civilians and war crimes. She is a South African, ethnic Tamil of Indian ancestry. Instead of hiding her personal interests, she should have disclosedher intrinsic ethnic interests to the UN before or during her commissioned work against the Sri Lankans.
• In succession to Navi Pillai, the major voice against the Sri Lankan State is that of Yasmin Sooka with a similar South African origins. Her baseless and untenable accusations against Sri Lanka and its defence personnel must be challenged before the process leading to an inquiry commenced.Demanding international strictures against Sri Lanka before such initiatives only proves her partisan disposition on pre-judgemental punishments.
• The present Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet has gone even further than her predecessors in this charade. On Wednesday 27th January 2021 she called on States to impose “targeted sanctions” on former Sri Lankan military commanders implicated in alleged war crimes during the final years of a 26-year civil war that ended in 2009. This confirms the fears expressed by other States such as the USA that the UNHRC is “hypocritical” and “makes a mockery of human rights”. For small developing countries self defence has become a strange conundrum. For any country to seek prior approval from the UNHRC with its monitoring teams on site, as a sine qua non, before any defence or internal conflict resolution decisions are taken, resounds of colonial subjugations. 
• Various accusations ranging from delays in settling Tamil refugees to mandatory cremation of Covid 19 dead bodies as a violation of human rights, are made by a vociferous almost Goebbelsian team commissioned by the likes of the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), the Trans National Government of Tamil Elam (TGTE) and a few miscreant Muslims who have their own interpretations of the Quran.
• When the UN Human Rights High Commissioner recommends that States across the world should pass sanctions against another State and freeze assets together with imposing travel restrictions on otherwise honourably discharged Defence Personnel of such a State on the basis of accusations which have not even been inquired into, let alone judged, then the world at large would be surprised that UNHRC is staging nothing better than a parody on human rights.

Sri Lanka needs to confer with other ill-treated Asian colleagues and represent their fact files to the UN to request an impartial investigation on their allegations. Only then will justice be not only done but seen to be done.