UN Media Briefing on Sri Lanka Protest Against UN llegal Panel -07 July 2010

Today (7th July) Sri Lankans have protested UN Colombo office yesterday. protesters did not blocked UN staff entering and leaving office. At UN media briefing on Sri Lankan protest of Illegal UN panel, the UN media spokesman responded to the questions of the LTTE mouthpiece "Inner City Press", whether the " pro government protest in front of United Nations (UN) office in Colombo lead by a Minister who threatened to take hostage of UN staff six days ago and "forth coming apology from GOSL" for threatening UN let handled by country representative without direct communication between UNSG Mr Ban Ki-moon and Sri Lanka President Rajapakse 0:11 , the UN spokesman answered 0:33 UN received statements from govt at highest level including Prime Minister who contacted UN country representative and repeatedly assured safety and support of UN work and has clarified the protest as a different view of a coalition partner within the government. 1:13 hindrance to movement of UN is a serious concern and hopes govt abide and honour commitments towards UN.
Q (ICP LTTE mouthpiece): 1:32 call from Gatabaya
Q(ICP LTTE mouthpiece): 2:45 Threat of barricade
Q: (ICP LTTE mouthpiece): 3:33 SG called to Rajapakse?
Q: 3:53 what Commitments?
The protest continued for the second day. Sri Lankans vowed to stay outside UN office until UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon disband the panel to probe on human right violations in Sri Lanka. The protesters have threatened national and international protests if the United Nations doesn't disband the panel. The UN has so far rejected the demand.

The Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa leads the protests. "We're fighting for the withdrawal of Ban Ki-Moon's advisory panel," Weerawansa said to media.

"Today they have a chance to respond to our request. If not, from tomorrow one of our representatives, a parliamentarian, will start a hunger strike to death." he added.

BACKGROUND OF THE PROTEST
The UN Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-Moon has appointed a panel of experts to advise him on accountability issues relating to alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the final stages of the conflict that ended last year between the Government & LTTE. The three-member panel -- comprising Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia, Yasmin Sooka of South Africa and Steven Ratner of the United States. The panel is expected to wrap up its responsibilities within four months of starting work.

The UN Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-Moon has appointed the panel of expertise against the will of Sri Lanka and without a mandate of UN Security Council, UN General Assembly and UNHRC. Question is what is UN? Who is UN? What powers have UN Secretary General to appoint such a panel by him? Is UN means UK? or EU? or USA?

Mr. Ban Ki-Moon has clearly exceeded the powers prescribed per Chapter XV of the UN Charter where his role as the Chief Administrative Officer and the limits of his authority are specifically defined in Articles 97 and 98.

The UN Charter provides that the Secretary General shall perform such functions as are entrusted to him by the General Assembly, the Security Council and other subsidiary bodies such as the
Human Rights Council, but lacks authority to act in such matters on his own. In fact, Sri Lanka's human rights issues have been dealt with appropriately by the international community in June
2009 at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva where the members decided in a 29 to 12 vote to not intervene in Sri Lanka's internal issues.

Non Aligned Movement (NAM) nations are preparing to challenge UN SG Ban Ki-moon over his appointment of a 3-member panel to advise him on accountability issues during the final stages of war against LTTE. The UN move is a precursor to an imminent war crimes inquiry against troops and LTTE. The 118-member NAM has expressed "serious concern "about the appointment of the panel
"against the clearly expressed wishes of the country concerned, and without any mandate from the Human Rights Council, Security Council or the General Assembly.

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories." http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
In defence of Wimal By Nalin de Silva - The Island
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-deta...
UK ANTI SRI LANKA POLICY
Inner City Press(2010 Mar 19): As UK Disagrees With NAM Letter, IMF, Pascoe and Panel After Election? http://www.innercitypress.com/ukun1namsri031910.html

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• Debrief News - 07. 07. 2010

[NoEalamInSL]

UN PANEL: PRETEXT & BAISED TOWARDS LTTE: 2weeks afterGOSL appointed a commission "Lessons Learned" The American nominee Steven Ratner has authored a book titled Accountability for Human Rights: Atrocities in International Law-Beyond the Nuremberg Legacy. In that book, on page 123 it states that there is systematic discrimination by the GOSL towards the Tamils. Obviously this shows his partiality. Without giving any consideration to the atrocities committed by the LTTE during the past 30 years.

[NoEalamInSL]

2010 March 19: On Sri Lanka, As UK Disagrees With NAM Letter, IMF, Pascoe and Panel After Election? -- Ten days after Sri Lanka got a Non Aligned Movement letter submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon telling him he has no jurisdiction to seek advise on accountability for war crimes in Sri Lanka, the UK Permanent Representative to the UN Mark Lyall Grant told the Press his country disagrees with NAM's argument.

This post is on 2010 Mar 19 not 2009

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[NoEalamInSL]

2009 Mar19: Outside the Security Council, Inner City Press asked Ambsdr Lyall Grant about NAM's letter, and war crimes in Sri Lanka. The Secretary General, Ambassador Lyall Grant said, "does have a mandate through the UN charter to uphold human rights and humanitarian international law, and therefore he is entirely within his rights to set up a group of experts who will advise him on taking forward his concerns about some of the allegations that have been made in the recent months in Sri Lanka."

[NoEalamInSL]

UN Resident Coordinator for Sri Lanka, Neil Buhne, will return to Colombo with a message to the Sri Lankan government from UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon. UN Associate spokesman Farhan Haq said that Buhne will convey the SG’s strong expectations for a better treatment of the UN family in Sri Lanka, as well as for progress on the range of commitments covered in the Joint Statement of May 2009 including resettlement of internally displaced persons, political reconciliation and accountability.

[NoEalamInSL]

EU, UN, UK, US evading obligations, promised recontructions aids and Tsunami donations due to Credit crunch by appointing an illegal UN-panel and withdrawing EU-GSP

[NoEalamInSL]

No mention of advisory panel in joint statement - SL Govt

The government says there is no mention in a May 2009 joint statement issued by president Mahinda Rajapaksa and United Nations chief Ban ki-Moon of the UN forming an advisory panel on Sri Lanka's accountability issues. It says in a statement the only reference to human rights issues made in the last paragraph of the statement calls for the government to take measures and does not refer to the formation of any outside commission.

[dinapoli123]

@Sunny066

The war is over, tamils lost. Be a good loser accept ..that both singhalese and tamils got killed during the war. If tamils asking for investigation...Let us investigate all killings by the LTTE and blame it on the tamils ..? how about that?. Dollar and Kent farm massacer where singhalese childrens heads got smashed in the wall by LTTE.

[Chamath5]

The whole world is jealous of Srilanka.Cruze on UNO UN EU Tamilnadu,Stephen Harper,NGO,SOUTH AFRICA,Hillary Clinton,NorthKorea and Somalia

[Sunny066]

but what harm is there for a war crimes investigation being led out if there was no war crimes done in the first place? there might be reason to believe an anti-Lankan stance and bias towards Tamil movement by the UN panel...but why should this get in the way of a war crimes investigation?....speaking as a Sinhalese... after 38 years of war there has to come some closure. History has taught us not to believe in what the governments always say as being right.