The Hindu : International : Global rights panel soon, says Colombo

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Friday, Oct 27, 2006
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Global rights panel soon, says Colombo

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Thursday said an international independent panel of eminent persons would soon investigate allegations of human rights violations. The U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions recently called for a "full-fledged international human rights monitoring mission."

At a function to mark the U.N. Foundation Day here, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the Government "consulted" the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on President Mahinda Rajapaksa's decision to constitute the panel. Sri Lanka mooted the idea following an international outcry on the execution style killing of 17 workers of an international NGO in Muttur in August.

A Presidential Commission of Inquiry has been looking into the charges of human rights violations and there are complaints that it has dismissed lots of cases without hearing. The international panel would go into the conduct of the Commission.

Mr. Samaraweera said the international community must see the conflict in its correct perspective. "Let there be no romanticising of the LTTE, with whom we are now negotiating to find a lasting peace. Sri Lanka is not a run-of-the-mill case of conflict resolution but one of the most complex and nuanced conflicts in the world. There are no easy answers."

Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly (Third Committee) on October 20, U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston said the "dramatic attacks in recent days and spiralling number of extrajudicial executions" indicate that "Sri Lanka is not so much on the brink of a new crisis but, instead, only in the midst of an interminable and intractable crisis that has already exhausted its fair share of international attention."

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