UN asks Sri Lanka to allow human right monitors

UN Reports from India - Tamil National

High Commissioner for UNHRC is in India on an official visit; Ms Navanetham Pillai raised the Sri Lankan issue during her discussion today with the Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee. Commenting on Sri Lanka to the reporters, she said ‘I have asked the Sri Lankan government to allow human rights monitors there. I have not got any response. I am going to press for that.’

She further said, ‘our view is that you can never succeed through military solution, the problem can be solved politically. UN wants Sri Lankan government to ensure safety of the civilians.’

More to this, today Human Rights Council concluded the general debates on human rights situations that require the council’s attention. At the debate, it listened from a series of non-governmental organizations about violations of human rights in countries around the world.

Karen Parker, of International Educational Development, said the lack of attention given to the situation in Zimbabwe left the international community to help prevent mass starvation. In Sri Lanka, the Tamils had been suffering in the country since 1948. In February 2009 at the invitation of the United States Senate, the speaker had made a statement on Sri Lanka. There was now support by Senators to address the need for humanitarian assistance for the Tamils, and that they not be driven by Sri Lankan authorities into concentration camps. The Council could not afford to abate genocide. The Council was urged to hold a special session in this regard.

Gotzon Onandia-Zarrabe, of Franciscans International, in a joint statement with Pax Romana, said the situation in Sri Lanka continued to deteriorate, and the number of victims was increasing. According to local sources, the condition of civilians in Vanni was desperate. The Human Rights Council should hold a special session on Sri Lanka.

Yasantha Kodagoda, Representative of Sri Lanka, speaking in a right of reply, said the speaker for International Educational Development had continued to utter complete falsehoods regarding the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka - this organization only supported the LTTE, which was now going through its final round of terrorism. The LTTE lobbying was not uncommon at the Council. The situation in Sri Lanka, as clearly observed by the United Nations coordinator on humanitarian affairs, was an exceptional one. There was no genocidal situation - the Government was engaged in a legitimate humanitarian and military operation aimed at liberating its own people from LTTE terrorists, who did not even spare the people they falsely claimed to represent, and were abusing the humanitarian gestures of the Government. It had positioned itself inside the no-fire zone that was observed by the Government of Sri Lanka and was attacking the security forces who were fast approaching the shrinking territory. The LTTE was using people as a human shield. Sir John Holmes had personally visited the villages being administered by the Government, in which persons were being sheltered and ensured decent conditions of living. It was a complete falsehood to refer to these shelters as detention camps