Protests and the United Nations

The people of Sri Lanka are enraged at the appointment of a Panel of Experts by the United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) to advise him on Sri Lanka. Civil society organizations, political parties and the Government have expressed their displeasure and disapproval of the measure.

In doing so the UNSG has been influenced by certain officials of the UN whose partisan attitude towards Sri Lanka is well known. The fact that the UNSG has thought it not appropriate to constitute and seek advice from similar panels when there were large scale violations of human rights, even amounting to genocide, committed by powerful members of the UN makes one wonder whether he is also biased against Sri Lanka.

Going by official records of the UN there has been no adverse decisions taken by any of its official bodies such as the Security Council, the General Assembly or the UN Human Rights Council. In fact the latter has made a strong approval of the conduct of Sri Lanka when there were attempts to pass resolutions against Sri Lanka in that body over the conduct of the Humanitarian Mission of the Armed Forces.

Hence the UNSG’s action appointing the Panel is both unwarranted and without any mandate. In this context the protests and demonstrations against the conduct of the UNSG is understandable. The UN as the highest international body upholding human rights would and should concede that the people of Sri Lanka are entitled to express their opinion in democratic ways and means they deem suitable.

However, it is unfortunate that certain vested interests are attempting to interpret the protests as actions against the United Nations, of which Sri Lanka is also a member. The issue is with an official, viz. the UNSG and not with the UN. It is both mischievous and misleading to confuse the two. The Government has rightly stated that it ensures the normal functioning of the United Nations Office in Colombo. In fact it is functioning as usual despite the protests which are democratic expressions of the people.

It is regrettable that the Opposition is trying to mislead the masses by interpreting public democratic expressions as anti-UN activities conducted with official government backing. The Opposition’s conduct is most unfortunate and unpatriotic.

The UNSG’s conduct borders on infringing the rights of a sovereign nation to manage its own affairs. It is an unfriendly act. People expect the political parties and their leaders to voice their opinion unanimously against it irrespective of their political differences.

Sri Lanka has very cordial relations with the UN. It has always fulfilled its member obligations as a State with honour. UN Agencies are not only operating freely in the country but also are assisting the Government in many fields including rehabilitation and reconstruction tasks in the North and the East. It is only a few days ago that the UNHCR praised the Government for bringing back normalcy to the North. Similar encomiums have been made by other UN agencies too.

Strange conduct

External Affairs Minister Prof G L Pieris told Parliament Thursday that Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had requested the United States to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to probe war crimes and human rights violations committed by Security Forces during the last phase of the war against terrorism.

The Minister also quoted extracts from the US State Department publication Sri Lanka: Re-charging US strategy after the war which said that Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had stated that the United States “should keep pressure on the Government” and dismissed Government’s criticism of certain US remarks as “complete nonsense”.

It would be hard to find similar anti-national sentiments among Opposition leaders in other countries, for whatever the differences with the government on domestic politics they all always defend the country’s interests in association with the government.

As Minister Prof G L Peiris said in Parliament the Opposition Leader’s act of instigating the US against Sri Lanka was both “inimical and detrimental”. All patriotic Sri Lankans would also agree with the Minister that “by asking the US to hound out the Sri Lankan soldiers, he had defamed the good name of the country and its people”.

Whose interests does the Opposition Leader serve?