Col R Hariharan
Highlights
- UN Rights Commissioner’s report: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Navneetham Pillay in a draft report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has recommended an "independent, international inquiry mechanism, which would contribute to establishing the truth where domestic inquiry mechanisms have failed" to investigate the allegations of war crimes and human rights excesses in Sri Lanka.
- Skeletons from the past: Skeletal remains of nearly 80 people have been unearthed at Manthai near Mannar. The first skeletal remains were spotted by workers while digging at a construction site. The forensic excavations have continued as efforts are underway to establish the identity and period of death. The government has claimed that they probably belonged to the victims of LTTE killings or those killed during IPKF’s occupation of the area from 1987-90.
- Norochcholai power plant’s woes: The continued failure of the $450 million Chinese aided Norochcholai power plant to generate to its slated capacity of 300 MW and frequent breakdowns have become a major source of embarrassment for China. The Chinese company responsible has refuted allegations that it was due to corruption in securing the contract.
UN Human Rights Commissioner’s report
In a scathing report submitted to the UNHRC, the UN Human
Rights Commissioner Mrs Navneetham Pillay has recommended an "independent,
international inquiry mechanism, which would contribute to establishing the
truth where [Sri Lanka’s] domestic inquiry mechanisms have failed" to
carry out a credible investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses by both
sides during the Eelam War. Her report would be discussed at the 25th
session of the UNHRC scheduled to meet in March 2014.
The Report has reinforced the US bid to push through a
resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHCR meeting. Explaining the rationale for
the US move, the US Secretary of State John Kerry said“…the [Sri Lanka]
government still has not answered basic demands for accountability and
reconciliation, where attacks on civil society activists, journalists, and
religious minorities, sadly, still continue. Our concern about this ongoing
situation has led the United States to support another UN Human Rights Council
resolution at the March session. We will do so because we know countries that
deny human rights and human dignity challenge our interests as well as human
interests.”
Mrs Pillay’s report quoted specific instances of lack of
progress in establishing accountability for crimes including the killing
of five innocent students in January 2006 in Trincomalee by suspect Special
Task Force’s paramilitary personnel. The judicial process has been stalled in
this case. She has also cited the failure of the government to investigate the
August 2006 execution of 17 persons belonging to French INGO at Muthur.
She criticised the Sri Lanka government’s
failure to implement the recommendations of the LLRC saying they they have been
either rejected or ignored as they found that the army was responsible for
shelling civilian areas. Mrs Pillay also expressed her concern that legal
proceedings have not begun against any LTTE cadre or leader suspected of
involved in war crimes or other human rights abuses.
The report also said the government did not publish the
results of any investigations into disappearances, nor did it publish
information on any investigations, indictments, or convictions of
anyone involved in cases related to disappearances.
Sri Lanka’s permanent representative has out
rightly rejected the Human Rights Commissioner’s report and recommendations in
his 18-page point-by- points rejoinder sent to the UNHCR. It said the report
“gives scant or no regard to the domestic processes ongoing in Sri Lanka within
the framework” of the LLRC’s action plan. As expected, President Rajapaksa has
not taken kindly or to the role of the US in bringing a resolution before the
UNHRC. He tried to trivialise it as of no consequence citing the examples of
Cuba and Israel which had been facing such resolutions many times in the UNHCR.
With the US leading the protagonists of international
inquiry, and as India is unlikely to help out Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka will face an
uphill task in preventing a vote for the US draft. At best it can hope to
tinker with the wording to make it milder. However, national interest of
nations plays a big part in international diplomacy which could persuade some
of America’s close allies like Japan and Australia to abstain from voting.
Japan has said it would like to help Sri Lanka’s domestic process rather than
an international inquiry. Australia would probably factor the close cooperation
extended by Sri Lanka in preventing illicit immigration from the island while
deciding its vote. Much of Sri Lanka’s problem in the UHCR is its failure to
hone its strategy in tune with developments in accountability of nations
particularly in respect of human rights.
Skeletons from the past
Skeletal remains of nearly 80 people have been found in
forensic excavations carried out in Manthai near Mannar in Northern Province.
The skeletal remains were first spotted by construction workers at
Thirukatheeswaram, Mannar in December 2013. This has sparked speculations that
these could be the remains of persons disposed of in mass graves by the LTTE or
Sri Lanka army. The government has said that they were the remains of civilians
killed when the LTTE controlled the area or when it was under the IPKF from
1987 to 90 as Sri Lanka army never occupied the area. Attributing it to the
IPKF is a probably a canard as Mannar never saw high intensity operations when
Indian troops were present. IPKF operations mainly focused on LTTE strongholds
located in Wanni area east of A-9 Highway.
China and Norochcholai power plant’s woes
China is facing an embarrassing situation with the
continued failure of 300 MW Norochcholai (Lakvijaya) coal power plant
constructed by Chinese engineers with loans from Export-Import Bank of China in
2012 at a cost of $ 435 million. The plant has been dogged by breakdowns and
failure to achieve optimal efficiency amidst speculation that the state-owned
Chinese company had made illegal payments to secure the contract which affected
the quality of the plant's performance.
Rejecting the allegations, Li Chaoyang, Vice
President of China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC) in a letter to the
Power and Energy Ministry Secretary, said the negotiations and signing of the
agreement were done “strictly as per the official procedures.” He termed the
reports of corruption as “completely baseless, severely distorted and totally
irresponsible and nonsense.” Li said the report had “ruthlessly insulted all of
the staff” involved who have devoted “their hearts and exerted their utmost
efforts to this project for so many years, and it is just a deliberate sabotage
and attempt to destructing of long-history friendship (sic) between the two
countries.”
The allegation of corruption and continued poor performance
of the plant are interesting as a Sunday Leader report in July 2013 quoting
unnamed source had hinted at “a sinister plan in motion to hand over the entire
operations of the Norochcholai coal power plant to a Chinese company”, claiming
that the local engineers were incapable of handling the operations efficiently.
The report said that Sri Lanka would lose the entire coal power plant to the
Chinese.
In this context the opposition United
National Party (UNP) said the government had recently awarded a contract to the
state-owned China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC) for a new
port city in the capital Colombo although the company was debarred by the World
Bank, is interesting.
Written on February 28, 2014
Courtesy: South Asia Security Trends, Volume 8, No.1, February 2014
URL: www.security-risks.com
(Col R Hariharan, a retired Military Intelligence
specialist on South Asia, served with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri
Lanka as Head of Intelligence. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for
China Studies and the South Asia Analysis Group. E-Mail: colhari@yahoo.com
Blog: www.colhariharan.org)
1 comment:
Aftermath of the Geneva resolution GOSL got into a delima of diplomatic set back at international level which they didn't want to admit openly and they wanted to portray the world that they aren't affected by the resolution. GOSL's main forte is the strong relationship with China which may be a serious concern for the western world especially for India as there are numerous national projects awarded to Chinese company which is operated by the Chinese government.
GOSL imposed serious measures to hurt the Tamil communities from all over the world by imposing ban on almost all the tamil organizations which carry the name starting with alphabet 'tamil' which in turn triggered serious concern among the tamil diaspora communities resulting to cut down the traveling to Colombo. This has inflicted serious damage to tourism. March /April is the time the kovil festivals take place in grand manner in most of the kovils in northern and eastern provinces where tamil people make it a point to pay visit their respective village temples to worship in numbers. Hope and pray at least for the famous Nallur festival the situation might calm down to allow more tamil people visit north and east.
This is where the GOSL fails miserably to understand the ground situation and relationship suffers to lose the elections in north and east. Hope in future GOSL will make its move intelligently to win the heart of the minorities.
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