LTTE to assist UN panel

[lkdood]

The LTTE international network has offered to co-operate with the UN panel appointed by UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon to advice him on Sri Lanka and also urged the committee to protect witnesses who come forward to testify.

The LTTE also urged the panel to eventually publish its findings in order to ensure complete transparency, to help launch a needed public discourse about the violations of international law and to undertake the necessary remedial measures to ensure that this shall never happen again.

“We therefore offer our full cooperation to the UN's panel of investigators and we are willing to provide a large number of first-hand evidence to aid the panel. Despite the panel’s declaration not to visit the country, we call the UN to independently and freely gather first-hand accounts about the atrocities committed from the very population of the Vanni region, who will be able to depict the reality of the massacres,” US based LTTE activist and a member of the LTTE Transnational Government Visvanathan Rudrakumarn said in an email.

The LTTE however raised concern regarding the length of the investigation saying the scheduled four month period of investigation by a small panel of three seems to be too short to guarantee a just evaluation of the large scale of crimes committed last year.

“We therefore request the UN to extend its period of investigation to be able to draw an adequate report to a situation that is often called as the worst contemporary form of violation of international law,” Visvanathan Rudrakumarn said

Dailymirror

 

[surabada]

SF too.....



The detained former military commander in Sri Lanka says he is prepared to meet the special panel appointed to advice the UN chief on alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka.




Gen Sarath Fonseka told BBC Sandeshaya that even President Mahinda Rajapaksa has agreed with the UN to investigate alleged human rights violations during the last phase of the war.





The UN secretary general has set up a panel to look into alleged human rights abuses during the final stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009.





Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman said the three-man panel would advise on how to deal with alleged perpetrators.





Rights groups accuse both sides of war crimes - a claim which has been denied.





“I think this committee is a result of that agreement with President Rajapaksa,” Gen Fonseka told BBC.

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He stressed that any country should take steps to resolve issues with the international community if there are any question marks over the conduct of the said country.

Rejecting the appointment of the panel, the government said the panel members will not be allowed to visit the country.



In an interview with Times of India newspaper, President Rajapaksa has dismissed the panel.




“We should not try to get involved in a conflict with the UN,” Gen Fonseka said.




“As a citizen of Sri Lanka, if I get an opportunity to support such an inquiry, I think we shouldn’t hesitate to do that.”



The former military commander who is facing two military trials says that the conditions imposed by the European Union to extend the GSP+ facility are fair.



“I don’t think it is an intervention in internal affairs,” he said.




“The EU has demanded the release of political prisoners which includes me,” Gen Fonseka added.