It also requests the OHCHR to present a report to the UNHRC on the provision of such assistance at its 22nd session.

US submits draft resolution against Sri Lanka to UNHRC

US-resolution binds Tamils to less than the 13th Amendment

A draft resolution that appears in media reports as has been tabled by the USA at Geneva UNHCR, while specifying the constructive LLRC recommendations that has to be implemented, talks of only de-militarizing the North but not the East and confines the model of political solution to undefined devolution of powers to the provinces and not to the North-East homeland of Eezham Tamils. While internationally binding Tamils to further dilution of the already inadequate provisions of the Indo-Lanka Agreement, the US-resolution giving international endorsement to LLRC-implementation bails out Sri Lankan state and its regime from international investigations of the genocidal crimes and from the need of any constitutional restructure of the unitary state.
The resolution encourages the UNHRC to provide advice and technical assistance to such a hoodwink, the steps of which too will be decided by Sri Lanka, and requests the UNHRC to present a report after a year, at the 22nd session.

While limiting, specifying and binding Eezham Tamils to seek political settlement only within the provincial model that is already existing in the unitary constitution, the imbalanced resolution on the other hand gives much scope, freedom and time to the manoeuvrings of the genocidal state.

The resolution also seals and binds the UN or any other international organisation from pursuing the case of Sri Lanka any further.

The only irritant in the resolution projected by Sri Lanka is that for the first time the state requires to comes under official international scrutiny by a UN body.

But, while Sri Lanka as a state could always manipulate every step of international scrutiny through bilateral give and take or opportunistic alignments in the international bodies, the Eezham Tamil nation without state has no guarantees to get anything.

The game of farce enacted by the ultimate saviour and the genocidal state is ingeniously camouflaged to the gullible. Hats off to the management of the deception, as we see sections of Tamils are already thanking the Obama Administration.

Speaking at a side event organized by international human rights organizations on 6th March at the UNHRC, Sri Lankan human rights activist Sunila Abeysekera said Citizens of Sri Lanka cannot expect the state to defend their rights as it has failed again and again on delivering justice.

She said that Sri Lanka has a history of impunity in the context of the collapse of the rule of law. This has happened during the reigns of successive governments, for example, in 1971, during the JVP insurrection, in 1983 during the anti-Tamil riots, in the 1989/1990s during the time when mass disappearances took place.

The government has set up special laws to deal with these situations, for example in 1971, with the Criminal Justice Commission and later, in 1978, with the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Each of these laws has been found to fall short of accepted international standards, she said, according to Asoka Jayawardana in Geneva.

Successive governments have also set up Commissions of Inquiry to look into situations in which gross violations of human rights took place. Under the Presidential Commissions of Inquiry Act, these bodies only have a mandate to hear testimony and present their findings to the President. They cannot carry out a judicial process. So once a C.o.I. finds that some act that contravenes the law has been committed, they have to hand that over to the Police, if the President agrees to make the report public, and then the entire process has to begin again.

After the mass disappearances of 1989/1990, first there was one Commission appointed, then 3. But of all the people they found worthy of investigating for their involvement in disappearances, less than 50 were ever prosecuted. And many of the families to whom they awarded compensation have not received their money even today.

This is why we have no confidence in the mechanisms that every government keeps on setting up, because they don t and can t deliver accountability and justice to those who have suffered. It is because of this situation, because we cannot place our confidence that our human rights will be protected by our state, that we turn to the international community for support and solidarity to secure protection of human rights in Sri Lanka.

A businessman from Minuwangoda has complained to President Mahinda Rajapaksa that a deputy minister from Gampaha District had tried to extort Rs.25 million from him. The millionaire businessman had informed the president that the deputy minister had telephoned him and threatened to kill him unless he paid him Rs. 25 million. The deputy minister had asked the businessman to have the money ready

Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights, and other relevant instruments,

Reaffirming that States must ensure that any measure taken to combat terrorism complies with their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, as applicable,

Noting the Report of Sri Lanka s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and its findings and recommendations, and acknowledging its possible contribution to Sri Lanka s national reconciliation process,

Welcoming the constructive recommendations contained in the LLRC report, including the need to credibly investigate widespread allegations of extra judicial killings and enforced disappearances, de-militarize the north of Sri Lanka, implement impartial land dispute resolution mechanisms, reevaluate detention policies, strengthen formerly independent civil institutions, reach a political settlement involving devolution of power to the provinces, promote and protect the right of freedom of expression for all, and enact rule of law reforms,

Noting with concern that the LLRC report does not adequately address serious allegations of violations of international law, Calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the constructive recommendations in the LLRC report and take steps to fulfill its relevant legal obligations and credible and independent actions to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans,

2. Requests that the Government of Sri Lanka present a comprehensive action plan detailing the steps the Government has taken and will take to implement the LLRC recommendations and also to address alleged violations of international law,

3. Encourages the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant special procedures to provide, and the Government of Sri Lanka to accept, advice and technical assistance on implementing those. steps and requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to present a report to the Council on the provision of such assistance at its twenty-second session.

The issue at the Rights Council relates to Sri Lanka's unwillingness to admit to civilian deaths during the end stages of Eelam War IV (January-May 2009). While one pro-Sri Lanka academic, Rohan Gunaratne, put the number killed at around 1,500, a few in the Sri Lankan hierarchy have admitted to deaths being in the range of 2,800 to 3,000. The United Nations Secretary-General's Expert Panel on Accountability in Sri Lanka has said that upwards of 40,000 civilians were killed. The second issue relates to Sri Lanka delaying any kind of political solution to the Tamils of the Northern Province, where the Tamil Tigers held sway for over three decades.