US tells Sri Lanka is ‘NATO’

• Germany defends Navi Pillay against Mahinda Samarasinghe’s remarks
• In a fresh salvo, the US criticises Sri Lanka for ‘lack of genuine’ action on reconciliation and accountability
• US expresses concern about undermining of judicial independence and rule of law in SL

By Dharisha Bastians- March 2, 2013 |
No-Action-Talk-Only (NATO) appeared to be the underlining criticism against Sri Lanka when the US fired a fresh salvo on Thursday at the ongoing UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) sessions.

The US rapped Sri Lanka for a lack of genuine action on the part of the Sri Lankan Government to address reconciliation issues and investigate allegations of war crimes, and expressed concern about recent attempts to undermine judicial independence in the country.
In the strongest criticism of Sri Lanka’s post war progress yet by the US since the UN Human Rights Council’s 22nd Session commenced on Monday (25), the US Delegation to the UN in Geneva said Sri Lanka must promptly implement the constructive recommendations of its own Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission.
Echoing sentiments expressed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay in her report to the Council on Sri Lanka’s human rights situation, the US Delegation said it shared the High Commissioner’s “concerns about the Government’s lack of genuine action on these issues as well as its recent efforts to undermine the independence of the Judiciary and the rule of law.”
The US Delegation was addressing the Council during General Debate regarding the annual report presented by High Commissioner Pillay on Thursday.
“Sri Lanka must address accountability for violations of international law and investigate allegations of war crimes,” the US Delegation said. The US said it was imperative to promote reconciliation and accountability through transitional justice when conflicts end.
“We stand ready with OHCHR to help Sri Lanka address outstanding issues related to reconciliation, democratic governance and accountability,” the US Delegation noted.
Meanwhile, speaking at the Interactive Dialogue with High Commissioner Pillay, Germany hit back at remarks by Sri Lankan Head of Delegation Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, saying the High Commissioner and her team were being subject to “unjustified criticism.”
German Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Hanns H. Schumacher told High Commissioner Pillay that it was his impression that she was “personally and increasingly subject to unfair criticism.” He said that the statement delivered during Wednesday’s High Level Segment by Cabinet Minister Samarasinghe from Sri Lanka was an illustration of his point.

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“Madam High Commissioner, your matter of fact but well founded presentation remains silent on the difficult circumstances in which your team and yourself have to do your work and on the extent also to which you are personally, and according to my own impression, increasingly faced with unjustified criticism,” Ambassador Schumacher said.

Rani’s Story: A Story Of Sri Lanka’s Torture And Gang-Raping

By Roma Tearne -March 2, 2013

Roma Tearne

The place has been difficult to find and I am late.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say.

And then I hand her the bunch of flowers bought on impulse. It is an unremarkable day in February. The sun does not shine and the damp air threatens rain. I have travelled up to London for this interview but at the station I hesitated, then bought some hyacinths.

The girl I am about to talk to, Rani, is twenty-six, and because I too am Sri Lankan I am interested in her story. But still, I must admit, I have been dreading this meeting. For I am neither journalist nor councillor, lawyer or doctor and I have no experience of interviewing someone who has endured what she has. So, as an uncertain gift, a token of respect, I have brought her flowers, blue as a tropical sky, scented like the air of her lost childhood. I hold them out and instantly see, even before she says a word, a desolation in her face. She is detached from her surroundings, muffled, in some way. The interview room is small. A low bed, an empty desk, a blank computer screen. No plants, no pictures on the walls, nothing personal. When I came in I noticed a row of grey socks drying on a radiator. A faint trace of incense hovers suggesting prayers. I am aware of listeners behind closed doors.

‘Tell me,’ I say, dismissing all thoughts of where I might be, ‘start at the beginning.’

But she cannot. Like all memories hers arrives in fragments, in vivid shards, hesitant flashbacks relived again and again in the retelling.

‘They killed them,’ she says, and I wait.

Once they had been six. Now Rani is just one. Alone; the emblematic story of the destruction of Tamil families.

‘On the ninth day of the seventh month last year,’ she tells me, closing her eyes, arms wrapped around herself, ‘my aunt rang me. She told me they had set my home on fire. She told me my mother and sister had been burnt alive. When I went back all that was left was their skeletons.’

The statement lies between us in a shock of silence. She has started with the thing upmost in her mind. Outside on the busy north London road a siren rises and falls, then fades into nothing.

Rani’s story is medieval in its savage retribution. It is a story of innocence, idealism, and betrayal in a time of civil war. One that is repeated again and again in Sri Lanka. To its shame the country has collectively mastered the art of camouflaging its horrendous crimes, bussing in western tourists to its golden beaches and fronting a campaign of faux-peace. So that the world with its limited attention span, its short supply of pity, turns a blind eye. In the glossy brochures and magazines of the west Sri Lanka is called the ‘Number One Holiday In Paradise.’ Read More