|
|
Foreign experts slam Sri Lanka over slow rights probe
Tuesday, 12 June 2007 - 6:14 AM SL Time
|
|
|
Sri Lanka was Monday accused of dragging its feet despite a promise to tackle major human rights violations, as Western diplomats warned they will deny visas to security personnel linked to abuses.
An 11-member panel of international experts said a presidential commission of inquiry into cases including the massacre of aid workers had failed to make headway since it was launched more than six months ago.
`We remain concerned that current measures taken by the government and the commission to address issues such as the independence of the commission, timeliness and witness protection are not adequate,` the panel said in an eight-page report.
Retired Indian chief justice P.N. Bhagwati said in the report that there was `hardly any noticeable progress` in promised investigations into what the Colombo government itself had acknowledged were grave human rights violations.
The high profile cases include the massacre of 17 aid workers employed by the French charity, Action Against Hunger, in August last year.
France`s new Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, also a member of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), had earlier said the panel would be critical if Sri Lanka failed to make any progress.
Kouchner told AFP in an interview in February that the panel -- set up as a result of Colombo`s pledge to be more accountable in how it fights Tamil Tiger rebels -- would not allow the government to use the mechanism to give an air of respectability to a flawed investigation.
However, Kouchner said he believed that international monitoring was making an impact.
The government was forced to stop the eviction of hundreds of ethnic Tamils from the capital last week after the Supreme Court intervened and the country was subjected to a barrage of international criticism.
Other diplomatic pressure also appeared to be mounting amid an escalation in fighting and related rights violations including unexplained abductions, extortion and murders.
Western diplomats said Sri Lankan security force members and police may be denied visas if they have human rights abuse charges against them, after one senior police officer said a European country had rejected him.
`The checking on any reports of abuses was something that was done even before, but now there is a new urgency to screen more thoroughly,` an official at a Western embassy said on condition of anonymity.
He said all visa applicants were routinely subjected to interviews, but in the case of military personnel and police any adverse rights record would be grounds to deny a visa.
Human rights organisations have already called for foreign travel bans on Sri Lankan officials implicated in rights abuses. More than 1,000 people have `disappeared` or are suspected to have been killed by security forces in the past 15 months.
Both the government and Tamil Tiger rebels have been accused of rights abuses in the island`s north and east, where a surge in fighting has claimed more than 5,000 lives since December 2005.
The IIGEP said government systems to probe human rights abuses had not been transparent.
`No detailed work plan has been announced. Essential staff have not yet been fully recruited,` the panel said.
`Investigative and witness protection units are not functioning and significantly, evidence already known to be in the possession of governmental bodies relating to the cases has not been gathered and transmitted to us.`
Other members of the panel include experts and professionals from Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and the US as well as the EU and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
|
|
|
Goodfinger
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 10
Member Profile
|
12 Jun 2007 03:50:08 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Well, what were we expecting?
ACF killers still on the loose, the murderers of 5 youth in Trincomalee are still walking the streets, no result in the investigations of the abducted TRO workers....Police have not even been able to bring the suspected assistants in the Kadirgamar killing to court, despite holding them since September 2005.
I wonder if it is incredible incompetence or just lack of will to investigate? |
nirupam
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2191
Member Profile
|
12 Jun 2007 10:24:33 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Investigations after investigations have been going on for last 18 months to cover up the human rights violations and hoodwink the international community. What happened to Tamils in Colombo lodges is a tea party when compared to abductions and killings behind the cameras in Northeast.
THe IC is still in the dark but they are for a shock when the horrors come to light. The NGOs and human Rights watchers are louding these gross hienous crimes but IC relies on the lies propagated and promised by the most extremist president of all times. |
samanj
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 1555
Member Profile
|
13 Jun 2007 14:14:29 GMT Report for Abuse
|
What they do not know is that the obstacle is the Wanni cadjan Curtain.
These id8ts are hallucinating |
alwaysalion
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 306
Member Profile
|
13 Jun 2007 14:55:13 GMT Report for Abuse
|
Hey you western guys! Haven't you heard of Sri Lanka time?
Always a couple of hours, days, weeks, months years late.
Try applying for any permit and you will know.Don't forget to pay bribes! |
|
Search All News and Discussions