UN spokesman regrets premature publication – Ban “reviewing’’ Advisory Panel report
April 16, 2011, 7:33 pm
In a note to UN correspondents on Friday evening, the UN spokesperson told correspondents accredited to the United Nations that the Secretary General is reviewing the report of the Independent Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka which has been furnished to the Sri Lankan Government. The briefing note said that the release of the report to Colombo was “so that they can respond to the report; (and) that response could be published at the same time as the report is made public.”
It further said that it was “deeply regrettable that parts of the report found its way prematurely to a Sri Lankan newspaper.” The advisory said that the full report will be released this week.
There was no word in Colombo of the source of the leak although some diplomats and observers said that the reference in the note to UN correspondents about the report finding its way to a Sri Lankan newspaper seemed to hint that the leak occurred in Colombo.
“It could have happened from anywhere,” a senior official said. “Several people had it.”
The Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry rejected the report as ‘flawed’ and ‘biased’ saying “the government views the UN report as fundamentally flawed in many instances.”
“Among other deficiencies the report is based on patently biased material which is presented without any verification.”
The ministry said that the government will in due course comment in detail on the contents of the report.
External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris who is due to accompany President Mahinda Rajapaksa on his state visit to Bangladesh on Monday will be separately briefing Colombo based diplomats and the press on the government’s stance on the report.
He said yesterday Colombo will work with foreign governments to present Sri Lanka’s point of view on this matter to the world.
Although the version of the report that has now been published faulted both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE for events during the final phase of the war saying that there were credible allegations indicating serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights committed by both sides, diplomats and observers said that the available version of the report is strongly tilted against the Sri Lankan State.
“As far as the LTTE is concerned, from whom can there be a demand for accountability?” one analyst asked.
The six core categories of potential serious violations against the LTTE are: (i) using civilians as a human buffer; (ii) killing civilians attempting to flee LTTE control; (iii) using military equipment in the proximity of civilians; (iv) forced recruitment of children; (v) forced labour; and (vi) killing of civilians through suicide attacks.
Against the Sri Lankan government, they were: (i) killing of civilians through widespread shelling; (ii) shelling of hospitals and humanitarian objects; (iii) denial of humanitarian assistance; (iv) human rights violations suffered by victims and survivors of the conflict, including both IDPs and suspected LTTE cadre; and (v) human rights violations outside the conflict zone, including against the media and other critics of the Government.
Ban’s Panel has also recommended that the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva be invited to reconsider its resolution adopted at a special session in May 2009 regarding Sri Lanka “in the light of this report.’’
“That’s not a matter for the panel,’’ a high official said in Colombo. That’s a matter for the Secretary-General.’’