UN
Resolution on
Sri Lanka
Passes 24 to
15, Can Its
Silva Remain
Ban Adviser?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 22 --
After a series
of surreal
speeches, a
belated
resolution on
Sri Lanka and
accountability
was adopted by
the UN Human
Rights Council
in
Geneva on
Thursday
morning, with
24 in favor,
15 against and
eight
abstaining.
At
issue is the
killing of
some 40,000
civilians in
2009. There
were some
votes that
might be
called
surprising.
The
Philippines
recently
pushed and got
one of its
nationals a
judgeship on
the
International
Criminal
Court,
and tried to
explain its
abstention on
a General
Assembly
resolution
on Syria by
referring to
its expatriate
workers in
that country.
But the
Philippines
voted against
the Sri Lanka
resolution,
without any
reference to
or impact on
its expatriate
worker there.
By
contrast,
Nigeria said
it has just
opened a
diplomatic
mission in
Colombo, and
partners with
Sri Lanka in
the
Commonwealth
and
Non-Aligned
Movement.
Nevertheless
Nigeria voted
for the
resolution.
There
were
references to
issues ranging
from the Obama
administration's
failure
to closed down
the detention
center at
Guantanamo Bay
to its use of
drones. These
are topics
that should be
considered,
but hardly a
reason to
grant impunity
for the
killing of
40,000
civilians.
More
pointedly it
was said that
40% of the
weapons used
by Sri Lanka
were sold to
it by
the US, UK and
Israel, and
that Western
intelligence
services
assisted the
Rajapaksa
government.
There should
be
accountability
for
this too.
Sri
Lanka's
representative,
with G.L.
Peiris behind
him, claimed
his
country shared
information
with the UN
Human Rights
Council. But
in
fact the
Rajapaksa
government in
2009
successfully
pressured the
UN
to withhold
OCHA death
statistics
until they got
leaked to and
published by
Inner City
Press.
Uganda
said it
would vote no,
because one
must "exhaust
domestic
mechanism"
before such a
resolution.
But the
Museveni
government
referring the
Lord's
Resistance
Army's Joseph
Kony, now of
#KONY2012
fame, to the
International
Criminal
Court.
Kyrgyzstan,
recently
charged with a
role in the
ethnic
cleansing and
killing of
Uzbeks, said
that it would
abstain, as
did Angola, a
country
recently
visited by UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon in
what at least
one wag
calls Ban's
impunity
roadshow.
Most
recently when
Sri Lanka
pushed as a UN
Adviser on
Peacekeeping
its General
Shavendra
Silva, whose
58th Division
is depicted
engaged in war
crimes in the
"Killing
Fields" films
and even Ban's
on
Panel of
Expert report,
Ban had
nothing to
say, except
that is
entirely up to
member states.
Some
leadership.
With
a shifting,
almost Alice
in Wonderland
position by
India, it now
remains to be
seen how
things will
proceed in the
Asia
Group,
which many had
expected to
bring about at
least a switch
from Silva to
Sri Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
Palitha
Kohona, who
also had an
involvement
in the
so-called
White Flag
killings
covered by
Ban's Panel of
Experts
report.
But things
have become a
showdown, due
in part to
lack of
leadership by
Ban and
others. Watch
this site.
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