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Message: <blockquote data-quote="netlife007" data-source="post: 18995059" data-attributes="member: 79514">It has  been suggested that the present Government has been influenced by a some lobbies  to delay the release of this report until after the Geneva sessions are effectively over, so that the unverified allegations of up to 40,000 civilian deaths in the final months of the war contained in the Darusman Report remains unchallenged and intact.The announcement made in Geneva by the Minister of External Affairs, Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, that the Paranagama Report would be presented to the Sri Lankan Parliament later this month suggests that the Government of Sri Lanka  has been  misled into keeping this report from being considered by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. It is important that your Excellency is properly briefed on the Geneva process, and we would like to take the liberty to bring to your attention that although the OHCHR had given the Government of Sri Lanka 5 days to respond, and that deadline has already expired, the Government still has the right to table this report at the UNHRC, as the final resolution draft is still in circulation, and would only get finalized on the 24th of September 2015, and only be taken in for consideration on the 30th of September.Therefore, in the interest of transparency and good governance, we are extremely concerned that this important Paranagama Report, prepared with the assistance of the aforementioned distinguished experts, that was expected to delve into the allegations made by the Darusman Panel, which the OHCHR was expecting has not been presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week.As Your Excellency is also aware, certain lobbies made an attempt to influence you against Sir Desmond De Silva, QC and the international advisory council that prepared this vital report for the Paranagama Commission, by submitting a petition to you on the 4th of August 2015, imploring on you to rescind his appointment and discontinue the panel  just 10 days before they were expected to release their report!Your Excellency would have noticed that the petition was also copied to Prince Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Mr. Pablo de Grieff, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparations and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, in a deliberate attempt to discredit the Paranagama Report in advance of its release. The petition based its request on a complaint to the Bar Standards Board in England against Sir Desmond.What was hidden from everyone’s eyes, was that the organization making the complaint in the UK was the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice, which has listed the co-author of the Darusman Report, Ms Yasmin Sooka, as its Executive Director!The TNA M.P.  Mr. M.A. Sumanthiran, led the campaign against Sir Desmond and the international panel in Sri Lanka, raising the matter in Parliament on the 17th of  March 2015 and urged the government itself to forward a complaint against Sir Desmond de Silva to the Bar Standards Board in England. Fortunately better sense prevailed, and we commend your Government for ignoring Mr. Sumanthiran’s request.Having failed in his attempt to convince your Government to do this, Mr. Sumanthiran seemed to have secured Yasmin Sooka’s assistance to lodge the complaint in the UK.  That complaint was used by several local civil society groups as the basis to send you a petition, in a last minute attempt to sabotage the 2nd Mandate Report of the Paranagama Commission.</blockquote>

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