IPS,  Wed Mar 10 20:04:46 EST 2010

    COLOMBO, Mar 10, 2010 (IPS) - The war of words between the Sri Lankan government and the United Nations has begun all over again, this time over the creation of an experts’ panel on the island’s human rights record.


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- The Academic

Let them build their dubious panel with its double standards. Let's take the pictures from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo bay and ask what the UN has done about these.

Let's also take the illegal invasion of Iraq and the killings in Afghanistan and ask what they have done about it.

Let's also talk about the impending attacks on Iran and North Korea and ask them what they are doing about it.

Let us ask them what they are doing about Israel's announced aggression to further build 1600 housing complexes in the Gaza strip.

The only answer I can think of is, they have been printing UNICEF greeting cards!

... and must remember to ask Brad Adams about what he was doing when NATO conducted it's largest campaign in Afghanistan to-date

aren't we overreacting here? This panel is to advice the SG and not appointed to to investigate or bring charges against sri lanka. Isn' it the right of the SG to get what ever advice he requires from the panel on handling situations like in Sri Lanka similar to how our own President has advisors to advice him on Cricket and home gardening. As far as the reports go the panel does not have investigative powers.


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VOTER COORAY
"A nation is a collective enterprise - outside of that it is a gambling hall for the opportunism and adventurism of power."-Wole Soyinka

votercooray wrote:

This panel is to advice the SG and not appointed to to investigate or bring charges against sri lanka.

That seems to be it's ultimate aim
"(I) intend to move forward on a Group of Experts which will advise me on setting the broad parametres and standards on the way ahead on establishing accountability"

Romeo wrote:

Let them build their dubious panel with its double standards. Let's take the pictures from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo bay and ask what the UN has done about these.

Let's also take the illegal invasion of Iraq and the killings in Afghanistan and ask what they have done about it.

Let's also talk about the impending attacks on Iran and North Korea and ask them what they are doing about it.

Let us ask them what they are doing about Israel's announced aggression to further build 1600 housing complexes in the Gaza strip.

The only answer I can think of is, they have been printing UNICEF greeting cards!

Seriously should justice to our own brothers and sisters in NE from any war crimes be relative to application of such laws in Abu Ghraib and Guantanam Bay? So if the Americans keep bombing Afghanistan and iraq killing hundreds gives license to do such acts to our own people? My policy is very simple. At a minimum appoint a Sri Lankan panel to investigate war crimes and charge people for such crimes if necessary. If nothing has taken place then clear our valiant soldiers of any wrong doing. Or i suggest that we get rid of all war crimes laws and HR conventions so that no country in the future will be accussed or harrased for committing war crimes.

I am surprised that people are against this while we are ready to send the highest ranking army commander to prison on lesser charges.


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VOTER COORAY
"A nation is a collective enterprise - outside of that it is a gambling hall for the opportunism and adventurism of power."-Wole Soyinka

I think the charge of "treason" is pretty high up in the list of no-no's...  - of course we don't know what charges the General will face but "Conspiring To Overthrow Elected Government" seems to be a likely one and another could be "Violating the Oath of Office"

The problem is only some countries (usualy third world) are accused or harrassed for war crimes while others commit them with impunity and have no problems and indeed, issue reports on the others who (they say) commit war crimes !!

votercooray wrote:

Seriously should justice to our own brothers and sisters in NE from any war crimes be relative to application of such laws in Abu Ghraib and Guantanam Bay? So if the Americans keep bombing Afghanistan and iraq killing hundreds gives license to do such acts to our own people? My policy is very simple. At a minimum appoint a Sri Lankan panel to investigate war crimes and charge people for such crimes if necessary. If nothing has taken place then clear our valiant soldiers of any wrong doing. Or i suggest that we get rid of all war crimes laws and HR conventions so that no country in the future will be accussed or harrased for committing war crimes.

I am surprised that people are against this while we are ready to send the highest ranking army commander to prison on lesser charges.

No, you didn't get my point. My point is humanity is faced with much larger scale transgression than Sri Lanka and the UN is bothered only about Sri Lanka?


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I'm the only one

I feel that there will be no 'Pannel'  because:

1.  It is difficult to set a TOR;

2.  By doing this UN setting precedent and for all the cases like Sri Lanka have to be treated in the same manner.  Pl. see below:

"Mar 16 (Xinhua) It appears "unlikely" that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will establish a panel of experts to look into human rights issues in Sri Lanka any time soon, UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said on Monday. "He is still considering such a panel's terms of reference and is in contact with his advisers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on this."  

Romeo wrote:

My point is humanity is faced with much larger scale transgression than Sri Lanka and the UN is bothered only about Sri Lanka?

This is like a murderer on trial saying "So many people have gotten away with murder why am I being prosecuted?"
There might have been worse transgressions than SLs in the history of the world, though I can't think of any, shouldn't Srilanka come to terms with itself ?
By sweeping this whale carcass of an issue under the carpet we are letting war criminals of the worst order get away with unspeakable crimes against people they were supposed to protect. Future mass murderers would use SL as an example to why they shouldn't be punished. They'll tell the world you let the SL G get away with it, why are you coming after us? (Actually, Israel already did so) It's not about the west wanting to harass poor SriLanka. Yes the very west who were our champions till very recently.  Shouldn't we ourselves seek the truth for our own sakes, and face it however bitter it may be?
I don't buy the argument that a full scale investigation into the happenings of the last few months of the Eelam war and subsequent revelations would somehow hamper development and reconciliation. Instead it'll give the nation a chance to start afresh with the past having been dealt with not just hidden away to rot and putrify under the carpet. Only Then we'll truly be a nation of equals.

jaffnaman wrote:

Romeo wrote:

My point is humanity is faced with much larger scale transgression than Sri Lanka and the UN is bothered only about Sri Lanka?

This is like a murderer on trial saying "So many people have gotten away with murder why am I being prosecuted?"
There might have been worse transgressions than SLs in the history of the world, though I can't think of any, shouldn't Srilanka come to terms with itself ?
.

Let me help you there: Rwanda, Sudan, Occupation of Tibet, on going HR violations in wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, Abu Grahib, Drug war in Mexico, etc, etc.


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Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way! - Proximus
"I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways" - Michael Jackson

Dammika wrote:

jaffnaman wrote:

Romeo wrote:

My point is humanity is faced with much larger scale transgression than Sri Lanka and the UN is bothered only about Sri Lanka?

This is like a murderer on trial saying "So many people have gotten away with murder why am I being prosecuted?"
There might have been worse transgressions than SLs in the history of the world, though I can't think of any, shouldn't Srilanka come to terms with itself ?
.

Let me help you there: Rwanda, Sudan, Occupation of Tibet, on going HR violations in wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, Abu Grahib, Drug war in Mexico, etc, etc.

....we as sri lankans should be more concerned about sri lankans being killed from war crimes or being accused of war crimes than what is happening in other parts of the world where we have little influence to change anything.....at a minimum it is the responsibility of our own government to look into this as both the victims and alleged perpetrators are Sri lankans.......let us do that before a UN panel has to....then both the victims and those accused can put this episode behind and move on......


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VOTER COORAY
"A nation is a collective enterprise - outside of that it is a gambling hall for the opportunism and adventurism of power."-Wole Soyinka

votercooray wrote:

Dammika wrote:

jaffnaman wrote:

Romeo wrote:

My point is humanity is faced with much larger scale transgression than Sri Lanka and the UN is bothered only about Sri Lanka?

This is like a murderer on trial saying "So many people have gotten away with murder why am I being prosecuted?"
There might have been worse transgressions than SLs in the history of the world, though I can't think of any, shouldn't Srilanka come to terms with itself ?
.

Let me help you there: Rwanda, Sudan, Occupation of Tibet, on going HR violations in wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, Abu Grahib, Drug war in Mexico, etc, etc.

....we as sri lankans should be more concerned about sri lankans being killed from war crimes or being accused of war crimes than what is happening in other parts of the world where we have little influence to change anything......

Human life is cheap in Sri Lanka. When that life belongs to a Tamil it’s even cheaper. If we are to trot out names like Abhu Garibh..Ruwanda etc and some how imply that our behavior is justified based on those incidents we lose the plot. Man kind evolved for thousands of years killing ,maiming and abusing each other.. And the next time some one asks for accountability we can state that Jengis Khan or Attila the Hun did the same so it is ok to have lack of accountability as a state policy. The level of intelligence on this forum seem to go up by the day


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There are no minorities in Sri Lanka. --- Dr.Percy Mahinda Rajapakse Ph.D

Level of Intelligence may be going up.
Ignoring reality in favor of some lotus-land moralities which have never been realised in any civilisation is even better !

Those who ask for accountabiity and those who want to ignore it are at two oposite ends! As a nation being at either end would bring us all back to square one!


What would UN say to this (from Daily Mirror)?

Pakistan wants “Tiger” operation

Hundreds of tribesmen from Pakistan's semiautonomous regions near the Afghan border ended a rare tribal council meeting over the weekend with a declaration calling for the army to crush the Taliban like Sri Lanka did against the LTTE, the Pakistani media reported.

The meeting in the city of Peshawar was called by an umbrella group of aid organizations and political parties in an effort to bring together people from the violence-battered region.

Participants called for the army to escalate its attacks, dismissing earlier offensives as "military dramas." Sayd Alam Mehsud, a powerful tribal leader, said, "It should be a genuine military operation like the Sri Lankans did against the Tamil Tigers." He was referring to the military campaign that destroyed the separatist Tamil army in Sri Lanka, the Pakistani media said.[url][/url]