Sri Lanka Monday raised objections with the UN office in Colombo regarding the manner in which the investigation is being conducted on allegations of human rights violations during the war against the Tamil Tigers.
Minister of External Affairs G.L. Peiris met Resident Coordinator of the UN in Sri Lanka Subinay Nandy and conveyed to him the government’s “extreme discontent” concerning the manner in which the investigation was being conducted by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
The external affairs ministry said the minister’s protest to the UN resident coordinator focused on the “unacceptable way” in which the deadline for evidence submission which had originally been set Oct 30 by the OHCHR had been changed unofficially and reset once again.
According to the OHCHR’s call for submissions on its website, the deadline was definite and mandatory.
However, an OHCHR spokesperson, in response to a question from a local newspaper, stated that although officially the deadline was Oct 30 and will not be extended, it was understood that some materials might take time to arrive and submissions arriving late, therefore, would not necessarily be refused.
Corresponding to this comment, the OHCHR website did not announce the closure of the e-mail address for the receipt of submissions even after the official deadline had passed. It was only pursuant to the matter having been taken up very strongly by the government that the OHCHR later issued a news release announcing that submissions ended Oct 30 and the e-mail address had ceased to exist.
“The Minister pointed out that what was particularly disturbing was that this development took place while a campaign to collect fabricated evidence was under way in Sri Lanka with the collusion of both local and foreign parties,” the ministry said in a statement.
“During this period, evidence was being concocted fraudulently in Sri Lanka on blank sheets of paper, with signatures procured under false pretences and with financial inducements. One of the main agents in this criminal enterprise was arrested, while another has left the country unlawfully.”
“ Further, the Minister observed that no reasons have been given so far by OHCHR as to what inspired the Spokesperson to make a statement that was entirely inconsistent with the OHCHR’s original deadline and for the insistence much later, and in response to protests by the Government of Sri Lanka, that the submissions had ended on 30 October,” it said.
Expressing objection to OHCHR’s conduct that is inconsistent with essential standards of objectivity and fairplay, Professor Peiris questioned why such irregular behaviour has to be resorted to in carrying out this investigation which claims to be open, candid and fair.
