Moon Panel report:

Hypocrisy and a tide of international deceit

The government’s position that the report of UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon’s advisory panel is fundamentally flawed and should not be published is fully in keeping with the position it has taken from the outset with regard to this hardly-veiled attempt to punish Sri Lanka, for its success in defeating the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world.

That the UNSG is showing signs of moving in tandem with his Western and allied backers to retain his office for another term is no surprise. It is a position from here he could pretend to carry forward the mandate of the United Nations Charter, while gladly stooping to serve the interests of those who manipulate the UN through his office, while also officially tapping the telephone conversations of his office; as revealed by Wikileaks, and not denied by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose office authorized such tapping.

Tamil Diaspora

The pattern of the UNSG’s Office pandering to the wishes of the so-called Tamil Diaspora, which, to be correctly described, comprises well funded groups - raising money from crime, extortion and fraud, too - functioning in the West, that are pursing the LTTE’s defeated agenda of seeking to establish a separate State within the territory of Sri Lanka, by the use of terror, bribery, falsehood and misrepresentation of facts.

They are the darlings of Western politicians who see in them the chance for ‘bloc votes’ or pocket boroughs for their much vaunted forms of representative democracy, which are proving to be a very bad export commodity - even with the use of arms.

The government is quite clear in its position that this report is fundamentally flawed, and therefore, the UN should not take any action to publish it.

It has warned that the UN’s decision to publish this panel’s report on human rights abuses during final stages of the Sri Lanka military operation with the humanitarian aim of defeating LTTE terror, especially to liberate the Tamil people, would damage the post-conflict reconciliation process.

External Affairs Minister Prof. G L Peiris has emphasized that the three-member panel had overstepped its advisory mandate to UNSG Ban ki-Moon; that both the publication and subsequent action, if any, the UN takes based on this report would be wrong, as the report in its entirety was flawed, and that it would also be totally unacceptable if the report was made public before the government-appointed Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) finalized its own report.

Compliant media

What is more intriguing than Ban ki-Moon’s evident interest in publishing this report, is the complete misrepresentation about it found in the international media and among commentators who are expected to either know better or make inquiries about the accuracy of what they state. The BBC carries a frequent trailer about its news service where it boasts of ‘asking questions’ forever so long. ‘We don’t stop asking’ is the theme. Yet in its news reports and comments on this report it has the gumption to describe it as a ‘UN Report’. Obviously no question has been asked about what it is.

Whether it is said by the BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, France 24 or any of the wire services - as any journalist or news organization must do - it would be abundantly clear to anyone who makes genuine inquiries that this not a United Nations Report. It is a report to the UNSG by a panel appointed to advise him, and not requested or a specially authorized by any UN body to do so to serve the needs of the UN.

There is also the important aspect of continuity in the Sri Lanka government’s position on this, from the time of its appointment for any such inquiry into the final stages of the battle to defeat terrorism was mooted, to this day.

United Nations

It is revealing to go back to some important statements that relate to this determined attack on Sri Lanka by parties that are clearing manouevring the UNSG’s Office to tread on the rights of Sri Lanka as a sovereign State and member of the United Nations.

If one takes the Joint Statement by the Sri Lanka and the United Nations following the visit here by Ban ki-Moon in May 2010 as the point of departure, it makes reference in the final paragraph to the UNSG in his meeting with President Rajapaksa, underlining the importance of an accountability process for addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and the government’s assurance that it will take measures to address those questions.

In its statement on June 23, 2010, issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, the government was emphatic in its opposition to appointment by the UNSG of the Sri Lanka - panel of experts announced by the SG’s spokesperson the previous day. Here is what it states: “Sri Lanka is a sovereign State with a robustly independent judiciary and a tried and tested system for the administration of justice.

The government of Sri Lanka has consistently promoted and protected human rights. Indeed, this has been explicitly acknowledged by legitimate organs of the United Nations system. The Human Rights Council of the UN has formally adopted, after the cessation of the conflict situation, a resolution commending, inter alia, the commitment of Sri Lanka to the promotion and protection of human rights.

“Sri Lanka regards the appointment of the Sri Lanka - panel of experts as an unwarranted and unnecessary interference with a sovereign nation. This interference, moreover, has potential for exploitation by vested interests hostile to the process of reconciliation taking place in Sri Lanka”.

Military operations

“The government of Sri Lanka notes that the joint statement of the President of Sri Lanka and the Secretary General issued at the conclusion of the Secretary-General’s visit to the country on May 23, 2009 makes no reference to “allegations of violations of international humanitarian law committed during the military operations between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).”

In the event, the worst fears expressed by the government at that time have come true. It is that this interference of the Sri Lanka - panel of experts has potential for exploitation by vested interests hostile to the process of reconciliation taking place in Sri Lanka. Who and what these forces are need little explanation - they are best described collectively as the ‘Tamil Diaspora’ in the West.

It is also necessary to recall the discussions that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had with SG Ban ki-Moon in September 2010, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting addressed by the President.

“Ban ki-Moon explained to the President that the Committee appointed by him relating to Sri Lanka was in no way empowered to investigate charges against Sri Lanka, but was solely to advise him with matters relating to Sri Lanka.

“President Rajapaksa informed the UNSG that the LLRC had shown it was ready to reach out to the people affected by the conflict by holding sittings in the war torn areas; it was fully accessible, and was ready to give a hearing to anyone or any organization that had information of value to the process of reconciliation and restorative justice in Sri Lanka.

The discussions between President Rajapaksa and Ban ki-Moon covered a wide range of issues relating to post-conflict development in Sri Lanka, especially the ability of the government to resettle more than 90 percent of the internally displaced in the 16 months since the defeat of the LTTE.”

This report remains un-contradicted or clarified by the office of the UNSG, although references have been made to it at media briefings at the UN.

Child soldiers

What is happening today is the UNSG’s office working to an agenda that had been worked out by it, with no reference to the important bodies of the UN such as the Human Rights Council or the Security Council, in dealing with a country that has decidedly defeated terrorism, which countries such as the UK and USA, and their allies are failing to achieve; despite all their fire and economic power, while also carrying out regular and brutal attacks on civilians whether by unmanned drones or helicopter gunships.

What matters much more than the blatant hypocrisy of the UN Secretary General’s Office in this matter, when considering what’s happening just now in Bahrain and for so long at Guantanamo, is the deliberate use of the facilities and instruments of the United Nations, to serve the needs and interests of those who continue threaten the territorial integrity of a sovereign member state of the UN, and are acknowledged even by the UN as having held Tamil civilians as human shields leading to so much death and injury to them, using child soldiers till the very defeat of their terror, and spreading the cult of the suicide killer, as well as designing, producing and marketing the equipment of the suicide killer, as reported by the US State Department.

It is a tide of international deceit that is sweeping the Office of the UNSG in New York, seeking to destroy the efforts at reconciliation and inclusive democracy in a country that is emerging from the ravages of a 30-year war against terror, where UN staffers, Western donors and the great missionaries of democracy were themselves working with and for the forces of terror.