Russia opposes UN Panel on Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 June 2010, 19:29 GMT]
UN Secretary-General should have asked the Security Council or the General Assembly before appointing the panel to advise him on war crime investigation on the sovereign member state of Sri Lanka, says a statement of the foreign ministry of the Russian Federation Thursday. The UN should allow Sri Lanka's own investigations and the Secretary General's decision for the panel is unwarranted, is the Russian position. Russia's earlier stand against Eezham Tamils in the Human Rights Council and its present position have evoked serious concern among the traditional supporters of Russia in Tamil Nadu. The Russian stand paves way for international abetment of structural genocide of Eezham Tamils in their homeland, which the Sri Lankan state is presently carrying out, leftist circles in Tamil Nadu said.

The Russian Federation and its predecessor Soviet Union, in its long relationship with Sri Lanka, never took any initiation in persuading the Sinhala state to resolve the national question even by applying the Leninist principles, Tamil circles said.

Full text of the statement by the Russian Federation follows:

PRESS RELEASE

Concerning UN Secretary General’s Decision to Appoint a UN Panel of Experts for Sri Lanka

863-24-06-2010

Moscow has taken note of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s decision to appoint a UN panel of experts to investigate war crimes during the period of the campaign against the Tamil Tigers. As follows from UN sources, this panel is not a fact finding or investigation mechanism, but is designed solely to advise him on accountability issues relating to alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

In doing so, the UN Secretary-General as chief administrative officer of the United Nations should apparently have asked the opinion of the Security Council or the General Assembly on this matter. But this has not happened. What also makes us cautious is the fact that this decision was taken without regard to the position of a sovereign state and a member of the UN – Sri Lanka. As is known, they in Sri Lanka have already begun their own investigation process at national level (the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation with a mandate to review all aspects of the conflict). As follows from the statement made on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka by the External Affairs Ministry of that country, and the statement of its Minister of Information, Sri Lanka “regards the appointment of the Sri Lanka Panel of Experts as unwarranted and unnecessary and contrary to the position of a UN member state.” Lynn Pascoe, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, who visited Sri Lanka a few days ago, as we understand, was aware of this position of Colombo.

We believe that the primary responsibility for investigating the events that occurred in the past in Sri Lanka lies with its Government and that the newly appointed UN panel of experts, which, as follows from UN Secretariat statements, does not intend to visit Sri Lanka, will not take any steps that would complicate the investigation being conducted by the authorities of Colombo.

June 24, 2010

Chronology: