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UN launches Sri Lanka war crimes inquiry, Australia declines to support resolution
ABC Radio Australia - March 28, 2014
The inquiry is the culmination of a long campaign by countries and human rights groups who say Sri Lanka has failed to investigate past crimes and abuses.
Australia has declined to co-sponsor the resolution, saying it wants to see the final text first. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she does not believe the inquiry, without the cooperation of the Sri Lankan government, is the best way forward.
"I do not think the resolution adequately recognised the significant progress taken by the Sri Lankan government to promote economic growth and its investment in infrastructure in areas formerly dominated by the LTTE in the north and north-east of the country," she said in a statement.
"We should recognise the brutality of the LTTE, a proscribed terrorist organisation, during the 30-year civil war from which the country is struggling to emerge."
The Australian Tamil Congress says they are disappointed at the Government for not co-sponsoring the resolution, with Australia having co-sponsored the previous two resolutions on Sri Lanka.
"It is our belief that Australia will change its policy approach towards Sri Lanka on a more principled footing by carefully considering the long-term interests of both Australia and Sri Lanka," the organisation said in a statement.
The Human Rights Law Centre's Emily Howie says Australia's hesitation is linked to its "perceived need" to keep Sri Lanka close.
"Australia's short-term, one-eyed interest in stopping boats and its perceived need to keep Sri Lanka close in order to do that, has led to these outrageous results where we don't support accountability for war crimes in our region," she said.
UN probe biased: Sri Lanka
America's deputy assistant secretary of state Paula Schriefer says Sri Lanka's lack of action in pursuing alleged war crimes justifies an international inquiry. "The human rights situation in Sri Lanka continues to deteriorate, despite some areas of limited progress," she said.
"The resolution highlights this council's growing concern over persistent sexual and gender-based violence, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, torture, violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, threats to judicial independence and the rule of law as well as intimidation of and reprisals against human rights defenders."
But Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ravinatha Aryasinha, slammed the resolution as a "serious breach of international law", telling the council it constituted "an infringement of state sovereignty and pre-judgement of the outcome of domestic processes."
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse also condemned the vote. "We reject this," Mr Rajapakse told AFP in Sri Lanka. "This resolution only hurts our reconciliation efforts. It does not help. But I am not discouraged. We will continue with the reconciliation process I have started."
Mr Rajapakse, who has tightened his grip on power after crushing the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, has argued that he is being unfairly targeted by Western nations. But they question the credibility of his efforts to come clean on the past and to stem what they say are ongoing rights violations.
Mr Aryasinha countered that such allegations were biased, and being driven by pro-Tiger activists around the world.
"Such biases and extreme ideologies ignore the ground realities, the legitimate aspirations of the Sri Lankan people, and trivialise the price paid by all Sri Lankans to defeat a 30-year brutal terrorist conflict and consolidate peace," he said.
The resolution noted that UN rights chief Navi Pillay had herself demanded an "international inquiry mechanism in the absence of a credible national process with tangible results".
Ms Pillay's office will now be tasked with investigating events between 2002 and 2009 – a time-frame criticised by Sri Lanka as being too short, but which its critics note is the period covered by the country's own truth and reconciliation process.
UN monitors say that thousands of ethnic Tamils died in the army's final offensive that ended the Tigers' fight for an independent state.
Ms Pillay had told the council on Wednesday that it was crucial to recall the "magnitude and gravity" of the violations allegedly committed by both the government and the rebels, who were known for their trademark suicide bombings. The 1972-2009 conflict claimed 100,000 lives, according to a UN estimate. (ABC/AFP)
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