HR violations: EU reprimand for forces

The European Union is expecting to forward a resolution to the UN Human Rights Council chastising Sri Lanka's security forces for human rights violations.

It is to be presented to the next sessions of the Council starting in Geneva on September 18.

The move is the outcome of discussions that a core group of ambassadors of EU member states in Colombo have had, well informed diplomatic sources said.

Initial discussions on the EU ambassadors’ plan to disgrace Sri Lanka were held in Brussels last Wednesday when officials of the Committee on Asia met at the EU headquarters in the Belgian capital, diplomatic sources in Brussels familiar with Sri Lanka told The Sunday Times.

The committee unanimously agreed at that meeting to present a highly critical report on Sri Lanka.

There is a strong feeling among officials that Sri Lanka is not doing enough to settle the core issues relating to the conflict and that it is time to "crack the whip", the sources said.

The draft resolution might be discussed with the four Co-Chairs involved in the now stalled Sri Lanka peace process when they meet in Brussels this week to assess the situation in Sri Lanka following the outbreak of hostilities, the worst since the ceasefire agreement four years ago.

The EU and Norway, the facilitator of the peace talks, are two of the Co-chairs.
Brussels diplomatic sources said that Norway which is not a member of the EU, is pushing hard to have the resolution presented to the Human Rights Council in an attempt to discredit Sri Lanka and, at the same time, have the EU which banned the LTTE, take a critical stand in the hope of having the ban lifted in the near future.

The basis for the push by the Colombo-based ambassadors is the report by the former head of the SLMM Ulf Henricsson, who relinquished his duties a few days back.

Oslo hopes to try and persuade Japan and the US, the other two co-chairs, to support the move so that a unified stand will strengthen the EU's hand when the resolution reaches the HRC in Geneva.

Norway is peeved that its behind-the-scenes efforts to have the European Parliament pass a highly critical resolution condemning Sri Lanka did not find favour in Strasbourg last Thursday.

Two amendments moved by British MEP Robert Evans condemning Colombo for freezing the assets of TRO and calling on the EU to lift its restrictions on the LTTE were defeated by a majority of about 30 votes each time. Less than 60 members were present in the chamber when the vote was taken.

Evans, apparently annoyed at his failure to do something for the LTTE, left the chamber soon after his amendments were defeated, sources in Strasbourg told The Sunday Times.

The Human Rights Council before which the resolution instigated by some EU ambassadors in Colombo would be presented, was set up earlier this year and held its first meeting in June. Sri Lanka contested a place on the council and was elected.

But the election to the council places a heavy burden on each member which is expected to have a clean human rights record or, at least, be seen to have a mechanism in place to investigate human rights violations and punish perpetrators.

Members have their human rights records closely monitored and are expected to adhere to a strict code of conduct which Sri Lanka might not have fully comprehended when it sought election to the council.

The EU ambassadors are said to be following a two-track policy. One is the chastising resolution and the other a threat to cut development aid provided by EU members.

This pressure is to be exerted because the EU ambassadors have reported negatively on President Mahinda Rajapakse's handling of the conflict. They believe that he is resorting to military action instead of pursuing negotiations and see the all party talks approach as non-productive.

They appear to be supporting the UNP position that the government must first come up with concrete proposals that could be used to kick start the talks.

This attempt to whitewash the LTTE's murderous actions and human rights violations is to make an opening, in the long run, for the EU to lift the ban on the Tigers and start a dialogue with them if nothing substantive from the government to settle the issue appears on the horizon soon, the line being pursued now by Norway with the support of Sweden and Denmark, diplomatic sources in Brussels said.