Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent a report by U.N. experts who concluded that tens of thousands of people were killed in the last five months of Sri Lanka's civil war, primarily by government troops, to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday.
Ban said in April when the report was released that he would welcome a mandate from the Human Rights Council, Security Council or General Assembly to launch an international probe into allegations of possible war crimes at the end of the 26-year war between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said the Sri Lankan government was informed that the report was sent to the rights council and to U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay, both based in Geneva, but that it declined to respond.
Instead Sri Lanka "has produced its own reports on the situation in the north of Sri Lanka, which are being forwarded along with the (U.N.) panel of experts report," Nesirky said.
Ban's referral came the day the Human Rights Council opened its three-week session, where Sri Lanka is expected to be discussed.
SL to protest
The government of Sri Lanka will protest strongly against the taking up of the Darusman report at the United Nations Human Rights Council both in Geneva and the General Assembly in New York next week, Minister of External Affairs told the Daily Mirror.
“We will protest the taking up of this report at the UNHRC sessions very strongly, in Geneva and when President Mahinda Rajapaksa and I visit New York next week for the General Assembly,” he said.
The Lankan delegation to New York will also address the issues of the impartiality of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay and breach of procedure in presenting documents not sanction by the UN at the UNHRC sessions. “During our bi-lateral meetings on the fringes of the General Assembly we will address these issues and call for even handed treatment of Sri Lanka in accordance with the formal procedures of the UN,” he said.
DM
