HRW Blames Russia, China Over Sri Lanka
By Easwaran Rutnam
New York based Human Rights Watch blamed Russia and China over the failure by the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Sri Lanka during the war to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“While war raged in Sri Lanka, Russia and China’s strong support of the government in Colombo thwarted almost all efforts to even discuss the known horrors committed during the war by both sides,” International Justice Director at HRW Richard Dicker told The Sunday Leader.
“Against this backdrop, referral to the ICC remained a dim hope.”
Meanwhile the government says it advocates negotiations, mediation and other peaceful means to settle internal and global disputes.
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Dr. Palith Kohona said that countries must be allowed to create their own local mechanisms to consolidate peace, encourage reconciliation and strengthen democratic institutions.
He was speaking during a full day debate at the UN on the Security Council on the International Criminal Court (ICC), Kohona’s office said.
Kohona said that the rule of law must be understood in the context of individual rights, as well as in ensuring the progress of individuals and societies, particularly with the right to development.
“The United Nations could play a crucial, helpful role in domestic compliance with treaty obligations by helping States build capacity. Close cooperation in applying laws nationally, regionally and internationally was vital to address the growing problem of transnational organized crime and terrorism, which threatened global peace and good order.” he said.
Confronting those challenges, Kohona said required close cooperation and capacity-building nationally and regionally, including enforcement by the law.
“Unilateral and selective application of international law rules must be avoided. Sri Lanka had always advocated the settlement of internal and global dispute through negotiation, mediation and other peaceful means. Countries must be allowed to create their own local mechanisms to consolidate peace, encourage reconciliation and strengthen democratic institutions. They must have the much-needed space to begin that restorative process. In such situations, the Organization could address the gaps, taking into account local sensitivities,” he said.
HRW is an orgaisation that supports pro western terrorists.
They are OK with killing of Bin Laden and Al Qaida but not Prabakaran and LTTE terrorist.
Terrorist is a tTerrorist in whatever shapes or forn and shoul be eradicated.
United States of America, United State, others divided states, even United Kingdom is United Kingdom, others divided Kingdoms. These two country telling to world, “DO WHAT AS WE SAY NOT AS WE DO” The got licence from even UN to kill innocent humanbeings of this world.
I agree to an extent Psycho.
But in Russia & China they dont even protect their own people. Western countries are against/punish the people who are against them and not killing or abducting their own. If an American or English face a problem anywhere in the world the entire country get involved and save them. Sri lanka on the contrary killing their own people when they are against the regime. So its not strange that western countries pay no attention to these two countriues and their followers. MR made a mess. He doesnt even know how to greet a diplomat, let alone the diplomacy in handling things.
Thats half the truth.
They are all in it together.
The known west is better than the unruly country.
ha ha ha what a idiot! the west has fallen no jobs recession. they are begging on the roads & going to gulf fr jobs!!!
How can you expect a Govt. voted by a majority community (Sinhala),
who are totally against granting the Tamil minority equal status to solve the ethnic problem by an internal mechanism???
It must be mentioned that right from the time of independence, the poilitical
leaders discriminated against the Tamils imoder to win elections and to continue
ruling. That was the reson LTTE was formed to protect their community against
State terrorism.
what equal rights men! come to srilanka & see. then why did LTTE kill more of their community than the army? fine way to protect!!!
there is only a rich /poor gap in srilanka nothing else.
Spot on comment.. poor people suffer here and rich people have no issues.. irrespective of the race… TNA and SLMC should stop communal politics if they want a truly balanced development .. communal politics won’t get them anywhere in a majority sinhalese country.. it i will only strengthen the MR clan.. TNA/SLMC leaders are only interested in making money for themselves.. unfortunately…
Why is that every time we talk Lankan politics you all bring the bloody LTTE in there? LTTE was not an elected government but a terrorist group. So is it logical to bring the JVP in here when you complain against the Lankan government?
Equality has never been a problem. The demand for privileges based on ethnicity (granted to them by the British during colonial times) has always been. The terrorism by the Tamils was attempt to retain these privileges. No consideration whatsoever should be given to these ethnicity-based demands. In fact they should be banned.
The demand for 50% representation in Parliament for a mere 12% Tamil minority was the most ludicrous demand. The British were fortunately not taken in.
Hi Godaya..Dont say that..In this day and age, money talks in Sri Lanka….Look no further to see who has been invited and as ministers after being senior members of terror organisations.
Donbt be surprised if the usual happens and the Boss changes his stance for mega bucks…we have seen it before right.
In Sri Lanka ‘strengthen democratic institutions’ are weakened by the executive president who was elected by the ‘ethnic majority’. The government and the all-powerful president are of the ethnic majority, elected by this ethnic majority and for the ethnic majority. The elected representatives of the ethnic minorities are not treated on par and insulted when it comes to initiate development of their areas or treatment of suspects. Only those support and obey the leaders of the ethnic majority are favoured for any consultation or special treatment. When judges who do not meet the wishes of the those leaders are beaten in public and any independent journalist who writes the facts are threatened and in many cases killed how can there be justice for the weak or those considered against the government.. Tens of thousands of ethnic minorities were killed without any eye-witness and those who escaped bombing and shelling after months of deliberate starvation were interned behind barbed wires. Not a single problem involving the mistreatment of ethnic minorities been resolved by ‘mediation’ or negotiation, as the agreements thus reached were violated and taken advantage of for the benefit of the leaders of the ethnic majority.
Yes , what about HRW also, They knew LTTE terror group had weapons, who funded them, who supports them (and still doing so) , why only china russia. HRW also responsible for that or must shut up.
why keep bringing LTTE, they are no longer talk about solving the burning problem inSL. Do not talk communal politics re draft the constitution and give 50-50 that is the way forward. do not try to protect any war crimes, it is in black and white punish those who committed crimes against humanity that includes the LTTE leaders, and those kept in un disclosed locations. if you have courage bring them before the courts and do justice without that this country will go deep and deep into older age.
In their mad rush to dominate the world, the West using proxies such as HRW continues to poke their fingers in our affairs and chooses to ignore that the majority of Sri Lankans were living in fear of being blown up by a terrorist outfit funded by the western agencies. The President fought this terror and saved us from untold misery whilst the HRW etc., pursued their deadly agenda. Russia and China understood our plight and helped us, and thanks to their timely support we now live free of terror. Instead of applauding Russia and China for their help, they are being chastised. Stop trying to fool the world.
There is enough of blame to go around, but primarily the blame starts here at home. Decisions were made by this government.
Where is the Rule of Law in sri lanka? Politicians who are suspects in murder trials are allowed to continue in their posts.Trials are postponed many times.Deaths in custody are common.
Post Mortem reports in murder cases are kept a secret.
Crime scene investigation is deliberarely haphazard. Paraffin Test – cheap & easy – to detect those who fired guns is never used. Fingerprinting of guns & bullet casings is nil. Crime scenes are never photographed.
The “resorative process” has not even begun. Now a new ‘red herring’ called PSC is mentioned – to procrastinate further.
When a country is suspected of HR violations,it has to be investigated. To call this “unilateral & slective” is absurd – investigations are by their very nature, unilateral and selective.
HRW is not a credible organization. It is a lapdog and a representative of extremist organizations paying homage to certain western block countries. They pick and choose their projects depending on a) Amount of funds they will get from their sponsors b) How much publicity they can derive to support their existence. Obviously Russia and China have never been their pay masters. With regard to Sri Lanka, they disliked and despised us from the days of J.R.Jayawardene. I remember when one of the HRW directors in New York, confronting Late Lalith Athulathmudali (when he was in a tour in the USA to address the friends of Sri Lanka). Most likely, when Athulathmudali was assassinated by the LTTE, HRW may have had a Tamasha with their sponsors.
red china and russia are a curse to humanity. these two nations committ the worst form of human right violations in their respective countries. no wonder that they come to the aid of the offenders like sri lanka. without any shadow of doubt sri lanka has committed war crimes during the final stages of civil war . in my opinion internal mechanism is inadequate and impotent to investigate the violations. an international war crimes investigation is vital to establish how 40,000 tamil people perished and their suffering without food , medicine and water. war criminals have to be punished whoever they are. as regards reconciliation some ignorant idiots think repairing roads, building toilets etc. amounts to reconciliation. as an ordinary tamil put it ” you can’t trade these off for our rights “. besides the same ordinary tamil said ” in order to do do justice for those who perished an internatrional investigation is vital”.
It is quite understandable why China and Russia favour SL because it supplied WMDs like napalm, fuel burnig kerosene bombs and cluster bombs, jet fighters adn arms adn armaments for huge amounts of money to commit genocide against tens of thousands of innocent people by a badly failed state. Both China and Russia are not exponents of human rights, rather of state repression. Both countries have a notorious fame for mass killings under dictatorships and have lent support to a failed regime. No wonder they do not even want a free and impartial investigation by the UN as they will will stand exposed in complicity!
The LTTE is still alive and no amount of lies by this thug Govt will stop that.