Hundreds demonstrate in front of UN Colombo office
Protesters demand UN halt war crimes probe.
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| Patriotic National Movement members protest at the UN offices in Colombo |
At the demonstration held outside the UN office in Colombo, more than 400 protestors from the Patriotic National Movement held up banners and posters against UN and US intervention in Sri Lanka. The group also blasted the Sri Lankan government for allowing the probe to go forward.
The UN Human Rights Council set up the inquiry in March to investigate war crimes allegedly committed by government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the country’s bloody decades-long civil war.
Rights groups said that at least 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of fighting alone.
But those who protested yesterday accused the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of judicial misconduct.
“We demand an inquiry into possible OHCHR malpractices in evidence-gathering for the Sri Lanka investigation,” said Buddhist monk Agulkele Ginanandha Thero.
“Thousands of Tamils have filed false testimony to the UN, and the UN human rights council’s final report is based on these alleged reports of relatives,” the monk said.
The group submitted a petition to the UN and accused it of offering money for false testimony.
“All these reports are false allegations against Sri Lanka,” the Buddhist monk said. “The resolution at the UN is clearly unacceptable, as it is intrusive and a biased misinterpretation.”
The UN council pressed the government to carry out a credible investigation over the killings and enforced disappearances.
The country opposed the decision to set up the UN investigation panel, which was backed by 23 nations including the United States.
Sri Lanka’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission report cleared the military of violations against civilians.
Ananthi Sasitharan, Northern provincial councilor, said that she never submitted illicit testimonies.
“I have advised some relatives of disappeared families that if they need a solution, they should give evidence to the UN investigative committee.”
“I have already submitted the petition to the UN committee when I went to the UN about my disappeared husband,” she told ucanews.com.
“The government has failed to hold a credible inquiry and [pursue] genuine reconciliation,” she added.
Brito Fernando, co-convener of Platform for Freedom, a local NGO that advocates for freedom of expression, said that the government did not allow the UN committee to enter the country but hundreds of Tamil victims are seeking justice for their loved ones.
“If anybody has taken signatures by force, then the police can make inquires. This is a pro-government group, and this is the only opportunity for the victims to air their grievances,” he said.
Source: ucanews.com
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