Dayan Jayatilleka, The Firewall of Sri Lanka Denied Access to Navi Pillai, The Terror Diplomat

Awesome relpy by Dr. Dayan Jaytilleka in response to UNHRC High Commissioner. He stressed that Sri Lanka, as a sovereign country will decide on the degree of access that it grants anyone from outside. Speech: Madam High Commissioner welcomed last weeks Human Rights Council Special Session may I echo that with a slight modification Sri Lanka welcomes the outcome of last weeks Human Rights Council Special Session. We hope it was as good for the co-sponsors of the Special Session as it was for us in Sri Lanka, though I am not sure I would recommend that we should all do it again sometime soon.

0:36 Mr. President, Madam High Commissioner made the point that transition periods warrant close scrutiny. She also made a strong plea for a comprehensive process of accountability for human rights violations committed by all sides, and concretized that in a call for an International Inquiry. Mr. President, I would like to draw the attention of the Council to the fact that there are as many transition processes and experiences of transition as there are experiences of armed conflict. There is no one-size that fits all.

1:10 We recently had a judgement by Spain that inquiries into a seventy-five year old conflict the Civil War seventy-five years ago, should be frozen because it would have seriously destabilizing social consequences. We respect that that judgement. 1:32 We also have the example of Nuremberg, after World War II, where it was the defeated fascists who were tried, and certainly not the victorious liberating Allies who among other things burned Dresden to cinders. We respect that experience too. 1:48 We also have the experience of our brothers in Cambodia, who have a UN-assisted process to which is investigating the war crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge. And Im sure that they, like all of us, would be appalled by any suggestion that that include the valiant efforts made by those who overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime.

2:14 So, Mr. President, I think we have to be very clear about this. Sri Lanka is fully conscious that every transition is different from every other. Every search for accountability is different from every other. Much depends on the degree of social pressure, of social maturation, and the sovereign decisions made by each country as to which tasks assume priority at any given point of time.

2:49 After 30 years of war, Mr. President, Sri Lanka privileges the search for normalcy, for stability, for healing and for reconciliation. And it is in the light of those priorities that the issues of accountability will be taken up. And when those issues are taken up, they will privilege the national institutions and the national processes.

3:15 I must say very clearly, Mr. President, that in the case of Sri Lanka, we must not look for formulae which are derived from entirely different contexts of the transition from military dictatorship to democracy. 3:29 Sri Lanka is not a newly emerging democracy. 3:32 Sri Lanka is not the case of an army of occupation invading and occupying another peoples or another country. 3:37 Sri Lankas is a military that serves a constitutional democracy, a military that fought a war strictly within its recognized borders against a separatist, terrorist militia, with whom the State had tried to arrive at a peaceful settlement on numerous occasions. 3:59 Therefore, we will not have forced upon us formulae and paradigms derived from entirely different contexts.

4:06 Mr. President, Sri Lanka does not believe in any attempt to equate the two sides involved in the armed conflict in Sri Lanka. 4:18 We cannot equate, and we will not equate the fascists and the anti-fascist armies, the terrorists and the legitimate army of a democracy, the separatists and those who fought in order to reunify the country. 4:33 This, we shall not do, Mr. President. And we shall not allow anyone else to do so either.

4:38 Sri Lanka will accept, and welcomes, the offers of international assistance. We have absolutely no problem with access, 4:47 but whenever I hear the words unfettered access, Mr. President, I reach for my report of the Stiglitzs Commission, because laissez-faire and free-market fundamentalism whether it is in economics, or any other sphere, is equally damaging. 5:01 Sri Lanka, as a sovereign country will decide on the degree of access that it grants anyone from outside. That access will be broad and wide as it has always been. 5:12 Unfettered? I doubt it.
Mr. President, we would be happy to accept the offer of assistance of the OHCHR in all these endeavours, as soon as the OHCHR, itself, is regionally far more representative and transparent a body, as the majority of this Council has sought it should be.
Remarks: http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-40097320090604
critic:
http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/06/ambassador-of-india-responds-to-ms-na...
Profile: Dr Dayan Jayatilleka http://www.adaderana.lk/opinion.php?nid=2154

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[NoEalamInSL]

Navi Pillai, What do USA and EU do in Libya? Please make notes in your UNHRC agenda for Libyan masacre by USA and EU. During last stage of Sri Lanka war against most rulthless terrorist group LTTE (proscribed in USA, EU and many other countries), EU,USA, UN and UNHRC criticised Sri Lanka. You condemned GOSL for civillian casualites killed in targeted air attacks on LTTE. You brought resolutions in UNHRC and UN Security council against GOSL. We look forward to see UNHRC investigations into Libya.

[NoEalamInSL]

Jan 15 (Diplomat) pushing Sri Lanka toward China. That old habits die hard is clear from the way in which the European Union has been seeking to corner Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for daring to defeat the LTTE, rather than heeding their advice to call a ceasefire when the army had overrun the last sliver of territory controlled by the LTTE. With each advance the army made in early 2009, the demands for a ceasefire grew more strident.

[NoEalamInSL]

Is there anyone else out there to tell UN clearer and more convincing than Dr. Dayan that war crimes investigations in Sri Lanka is unfair and not necessary? Please let this be heard by UN SG Ban Ki-moon over and over. Do not let tarnish the credibility of UN by appointing a UN war crime panel against the will of Sri Lanka and without a mandate of UN security council, UN General Assembly and UNHRC. Question is what is UN? UN means Europe? or UN means USA?

[NoEalamInSL]

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 HRC, SC or the Genl Ass”.

[NoEalamInSL]

Mr. Ban also plans to appoint a similar international panel to investigate charges of war crimes against Israel over the May 31 attack on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. But the proposed panel to investigate Israel was authorised by the Security Council while the panel on Sri Lanka was not. A similar NAM letter of protest was sent to Mr. Ban last March, warning him against the appointment of the proposed panel on Sri Lanka. After UN response NAM backed down to avoid confUN

[NoEalamInSL]

(Island 5May)UN should have intervened under R2P in Lanka war says Oxford Chancellor. Lord Patten, currently Chancellor of Oxford University, makes a startling reference to Sri Lanka, asserting that the UN should have intervened politically and diplomatically under the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) "to protect Tamil civilians in the Sri Lankan government campaign to wipe out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam". by Dayan Jayatilleka

[MrJunda]

Bada yanna dunna.. ela ela sir!

[Wanted005]

awesome stuff... WE will not do it and we will nto anyone else do it...war is over.... time to reconcile...

[rajithaify]

superb

[NoEalamInSL]

DM:Friday, 05 March 2010:

The government today rejected a fresh call by UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay for an investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, saying that Pillay should respect the decision made by the inter-governmental UN Human Rights Council last year. Pillay said yesterday I am convinced that Sri Lanka should undertake a full reckoning of the grave violations committed by all sides during the war, and that the international community can be helpful in this regard"

[NoEalamInSL]

29 January 2010 1801HRS. The European Union (EU) says the large turn out at the recent Presidential elections in Sri Lanka demonstrates the wish of the Sri Lankan people to participate fully in the democratic process.

EU High Representative/ Vice President Baroness Catherine Ashton, in a statement, however reiterated concerns that a significant number of incidents occurred during the election campaign.

[firoz85]

You are right up there next to the war heroes !

Bloody Solid stuff ! This man should be more involved with the running of Srilanka and should get rid of Bull-agama!