Misguided agenda of UN
Ban Ki Moon rebuked by Non-Aligned Nations for trying
to violate UN Charter:
Philip Fernando
Sri Lankan is well within her rights to thwart anyone trying to probe
its internal affairs or visit the country for that purpose. Most
observers believe Sri Lanka, is on solid diplomatic and legal grounds in
its stand to desist the attempt to probe the last days of the terror
war. No panel will visit Sri Lanka. Non-Aligned Nations have expressed
their opposition in no uncertain terms.
According to UN sources the largest single political coalition has,
in a rare rebuke, castigated Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his
decision to appoint a panel of experts to advise him on the so called
accountability issues relating to pre and post-conflict Sri Lanka.
A UN observer said, the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM),
currently chaired by Egypt, has expressed “deep concern” over Ban’s
unilateral decision to create the proposed panel, and accused him of two
serious charges: attempting to violate the UN charter and trying to
interfere in the domestic affairs of a member state.
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Navanethem Pillay |
Ban Ki Moon |
The decision to set up a panel of experts was made over the strong
objections of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government, which
claimed a decisive victory over the LTTE battling for a separate state
in northern Sri Lanka. Ban Ki-Moon is trying to exculpate the Tiger
atrocities.
Issues within domestic jurisdiction
Sri Lanka defended her soverignty against attacks by the Tigers. Sri
Lanka did not commit any violations many pointed out.
“The Non-Aligned Movement strongly condemns selective targeting of
individual countries, which it deems contrary to the founding principles
of the Movement and the United Nations Charter,” said Egyptian
Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, in a letter to Ban. The letter followed a
NAM meeting which unanimously agreed to protest the Secretary-General’s
action. “As you are surely aware, the Sri Lankan President has confirmed
in public his intention to appoint a domestic mechanism to address
accountability issues, voluntarily,” the NAM Chair said.
The letter also points out that neither the Security Council, nor the
General Assembly, or its subsidiary Human Rights Council, have made any
pronouncements on alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka or
mandated any particular course of action.
“The situation in Sri Lanka is not on the agenda of any of these
bodies, and there is nothing in the UN Charter that authorizes
intervention in matters which are essentially within the domestic
jurisdiction of any state, without prejudice of course to the
application of enforcement measures under chapter VII,” the letter
argues.
Under that chapter, only the Security Council has the authority to
intervene - if and when it determines the existence of any threat to
peace, breach of peace, or act of aggression - primarily to maintain or
restore international peace and security.
Allowing domestic processes
The NAM letter implicitly accuses the Secretary-General of playing
politics when it says that the non-aligned countries “are of the
conviction” that the proposal to appoint a panel of experts on the eve
of Parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka “could do more harm than good to
the country’s relentless efforts aimed at reinforcing reconciliation and
national unity.”
Based on the principles of national ownership and leadership, the
Non-Aligned countries say they wish “to underscore the need to allow
enough space and time for the Lankan Government to complete its own
domestic processes, without interference or unsolicited assistance” from
the United Nations.
Ban Ki-Moon may have been misled by the alleged bias of U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, when she strong-armed Ban Ki-Moon
to appoint a panel on human rights violations. She is off her rocker,
said one observer. President Mahainda Rajapaksa had vehemently denied
all or any violations charging that allegations of human rights
violations were motivated by “misrepresentations by apologists of the
LTTE” and “by some non-governmental organizations” with a “misguided”
agenda directed against Sri Lanka. |
