President urges Bhagwati to continue; clarifies AG’s remarks

The President’s Office on Friday sent an urgent letter to Justice P. N. Bhagwati, Chairman of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) monitoring the probe on human rights investigations in Sri Lanka clarifying the Government’s position on the ongoing exchange of accusations between the Group and the Attorney General.

The exchange that began early last month with Justice Bhagwati questioning the ‘conflict of interest’ issue by the Attorney General being involved in the investigations — now before the Commission of Inquiry —saw Attorney General C.R. de Silva PC issue a sternly-worded response accusing the IIGEP of interfering with the legal system of Sri Lanka.

Mr. de Silva made a specific charge of the IIGEP visiting the Kantalai Magistrate and making inquiries on the on-going murder case of the 17 aid workers of a French-based NGO.

The President’s Office Friday informed Justice Bhagwati that the Attorney General’s position was not necessarily that of the Government, and requested Justice Bhagwati to continue with his work in Sri Lanka.

This came in the wake of a meeting held this week between Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and 84-year-old Justice Bhagwati in New Delhi where the former Chief Justice of the Indian Supreme Court had expressed his concern over the Attorney General’s allegations and conveyed his unwillingness to continue as Chairman of the IIGEP in such circumstances.

The public exchange of accusations has also been discussed when European Union officials met Sri Lanka embassy officials in Brussels this week where it was held that it would have been prudent if these issues were resolved through a dialogue rather than issuing public statements. The IIGEP was sent to Sri Lanka on the recommendations of the EU, one of the members of the Co-chairs monitoring the peace process of Sri Lanka.

The EU officials had told Sri Lankan officials that a person of the calibre of Justice Bhagwati would have made the statement he made only if he had good reasons to do so.An official of the Attorney General’s Department said the Attorney General was only defending the law officers of the state against unfair allegations made by foreign observers who were not even in the country.
The Commission of Inquiry probing human rights violations in Sri Lanka is headed by retired Supreme Court Justice N. K. Udalagama.

Meanwhile our New York correspondent Thalif Dean adds: The United Nations has been rebuffed in its attempts to send two high-ranking officials to Sri Lanka to check both the humanitarian situation in the north and east and the security of UN relief workers caught in the war zone crossfire. A request for a visit to Sri Lanka by John Holmes, Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, has received a non-response from the government. The Foreign Ministry has also side stepped a request for a visit by David Veness, Under Secretary-General for Safety and Security.

Asked to respond, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam told The Sunday Times that a proposed visit by Mr. Holmes "will take place at a mutually convenient time". Since Mr. Holmes is a senior UN official, he said, "we need to ensure the availability of senior government ministers to meet him."

Addressing the Security Council last week, Mr. Holmes criticised Sri Lanka for its failure to track down the killers of some 24 aid workers, including 17 "in a single horrifying act." He said that killing humanitarian staff and arbitrarily denying access violates international humanitarian law.

Early this year, the government also rejected the nomination of David Shearer as the new Resident Representative of the UN Development Programme and UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka.

The government was apparently sceptical of Mr. Shearer's hands-on approach to humanitarian assistance in his previous assignments. In his last posting in Lebanon, Mr. Shearer criticised the Israeli Defence Forces for their attacks on civilian infrastructure and demanded a halt to all actions hindering the supply of humanitarian relief to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people across the country.

As a result of the Sri Lankan government's negative response to Mr. Shearer's nomination, the UN has named a new Resident Representative, Neil Buhne, described as a development expert. "There's no love lost between the UN and the Sri Lanka government," says one observer. "But the worst is yet to come."