On
Sri Lanka at
HRC, Sudan's
Math,
Philippines'
Review,
UN Theater
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
15 -- At the
UN Human
Rights Council
in Geneva on
Friday, in
speeches that
flew by at
cross purposes
without
response,
the death of
40,000
civilians in
2009 and
“Sinhalese
Buddhist
triumphalism”
since,
including
attacks on
mosques and on
human
rights
defenders,
were detailed.
Sri
Lankan
minister Mahinda
Samarsinghe
bragged
that his
country has
accepted 110,
then 113, of
the 210
recommendations
of the
Universal
Periodic
Review
process.
But what
accountability
has there
been?
Military figures
responsible
for many of
the death have
been sent to
the UN as
diplomats.
Sudan
claimed Sri
Lanka accepted
210
recommendations.
Call it
Khartoum
math. The
Philippines
called the
Rajapaksas'
response
“heart-warming.”
Recently
families
of the
disappeared
were blocked
from traveling
from Vavuniya
to the UN in
Colombo. In
New York,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman how
this is
acceptable
and was told
there are
other ways to
get
information to
the UN.
Ban
Ki-moon
recently accepted
a whitewash
report about
Sri Lanka
from
Japan's
Ambassador;
repeated
requests after
that for a
copy of the
report were
denied. Ban
went on to
praise the
whitewash
report
when
he was asked
about Sri
Lanka.
NGOs
got to speak.
One of them,
Human Rights
Watch, has
refused to
disclose even
what topics it
raised to Ban
Ki-moon during
director
Ken Roth's
March 4
meeting with
him. For more
on Sri
Lanka in the
UN
theater --
literally
-- and continuation,
click
here.
Watch this
site.
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