Sam slams Pillay

Thursday, 28 February 2013 01:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Dharisha Bastians

Sri Lanka’s Head of Delegation to the UN Human Rights Council yesterday slammed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay for unfairly targeting Sri Lanka, calling her report to the Council “skewed and imbalanced”.

In a strongly-worded speech, especially with regard to the conduct of High Commissioner Pillay, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who is leading the Sri Lankan Delegation at the UNHRC’s 22nd Session told the Council that undue internationalisation of Sri Lanka’s domestic issues would hamper reconciliation efforts in the island.

Calling into question the bona fides of High Commissioner Pillay, who was sitting in the assembly room during the segment, Minister Samarasinghe charged that since May 2009 the High Commissioner had made regular negative observations about Sri Lanka both at UN and other forums.

“Her frequent comments to the media, some in close proximity to sessions of the Council, could well have the effect of influencing delegations, especially when there are Resolutions contemplated. This runs counter to the detachment, objectivity and impartiality expected from the holder of such an exalted office,” the Lankan Head of Delegation told the Council at the High Level Segment of the session last afternoon.

Minister Samarasinghe said Pillay’s constant targeting of the country was based on unsubstantiated evidence led by pro-Tiger groups inimical to Sri Lanka.

Accusing Pillay of “shifting the goalposts and seeking to impose new conditionalities” with regard to her visit to Sri Lanka, Samarasinghe said that Sri Lanka had been inviting the High Commissioner to visit the country since April 2011.

The Sri Lankan Minister said that there was no substitute for experiencing, at firsthand, the ground situation.

“We reiterate... a visit by the High Commissioner would be an ideal opportunity to view the developments objectively and holistically, imperative for the discharge of her mandate,” he said.

Samarasinghe also criticised the High Commissioner’s report to the Council that will be taken up in March as “skewed and imbalanced,” saying very little attention had been paid to progress achieved post-war and that the report had instead placed “great emphasis” on the perceived negatives.

Samarasinghe told the Council that Sri Lanka did not need lessons in democracy and human rights.

Referring to accountability issues that some foreign governments claim have been untouched by Sri Lanka in the past year, Samarasinghe announced to the UNHRC Member States that the Attorney General had instructed the Police to commence a non-summary inquiry into the killing of five students in Trincomalee in 2006. High Commissioner Pillay made special reference to this issue and the outstanding issue of the killings of 17 aid workers in Muttur in her report to the Council.

“This matter may be brought to a conclusion and is concrete evidence of our commitment to accountability,” he said.

He called the selective focus on Sri Lanka, which he said was a country that had always cooperated and engaged with the UN System and the international community, “unacceptable” and requested “time and space” from the UN body to continue reconciliation efforts in the country.