CoI meeting with diplomats inexcusable - Forces’ Attorneys
COLOMBO: Attorneys-at-law S.L. Gunasekara and Gomin Dayasri,
who appear before the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Human Rights as
Counsel for the Army and the Special Task Force have informed President
Mahinda Rajapaksa in a letter that the Commissioners have acted in
excess of and/or misused their powers in a manner that is totally
inimical to their independence and national interest.
Gunasekara and Dayasri said the Commissioners have conducted a closed
door meeting with several Western Ambassadors in total violation of
their mandate and rules.
“This, to our mind is a shocking revelation. The Commission is a
quasi judicial body appointed by you to investigate certain despicable
crimes committed in Sri Lanka - i.e. internal matters which are none of
the business of any foreign diplomat.
Having such discussions with foreign diplomats is utterly unthinkable
and totally incompatible with their duties and functions and hence
constitutes a gross abuse of their positions and the trust reposed in
them by you,” they said in the letter addressed to the President.
“A fact that necessarily gives us even more cause for concern is the
undeniable fact that these diplomats have repeatedly been publicly
critical of the `human rights record’ of Sri Lanka and indeed called for
foreign intervention in that regard, and have also been publicly
critical of the military operations that are being conducted to regain
that part of our territory over which the LTTE has usurped control,”
they said.
Judging from the public statements made by the diplomats in question,
we have little doubt that they are of the same mould of ‘thought’ as the
IIGEP. This makes that secret meeting even more sinister and brings into
focus the question whether sensitive material relating to our Armed
Forces could safely be placed before the Commission.
We have also been reliably informed by an impeccable source that this
secret meeting was initiated, not by the diplomats but by the
Commissioners themselves, they added.
“This secret meeting with the three diplomats was, in our considered
view, wholly inexcusable and deprives the Commission of credibility.”
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