Statement on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council

MARCH 2, 2012
Oral statement during the Interactive Dialogue with the High Commissioner

In her statement,the High Commissioner noted that the report of the Sri Lanka Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission falls short of the comprehensive accountability process recommended by the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts and encouraged the Council to consider the matter.
Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, addressing the 19th session of the HRC on February 27, recited a laundry list of steps the government of Sri Lanka says it is taking to address accountability and reconciliation. What he failed to mention was that many of these measures were set up in haste on the eve of a possible resolution on Sri Lanka at the Council. As such, they represent little more than cosmetic gestures intended to avoid international action to promote accountability in the country. The recently announced army court of inquiry, for instance, had its members picked by Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, head of security forces in the conflict’s main battle zone. An inquiry appointed by the commander who oversaw and was a colleague of senior officers who might themselves have been implicated in serious abuses cannot possibly be expected to be an independent and impartial finder of fact. Full Story>>>