News
Dhanapala to hold talks with UN Human Rights Chief
View(s):Jayantha Dhanapala, President Maithripala Sirisena’s Senior Adviser on Foreign Relations, will go to Geneva, tomorrow for talks with UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.
Mr. Dhanapala is going as a special emissary of the Government to discuss the ongoing probe into war crimes allegations by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Last year, the investigators requested permission to enter Sri Lanka for the purpose of their work. The previous government rejected their proposal.
The Commissioner is expected to present to the UNHRC an update on the progress of the probe during the council’s 28th session in March.
This week, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the Government supported a domestic mechanism to look into allegations of serious human rights violations and war crimes (see Page 8). But he said, “We will certainly cooperate with the UN.”
Mr. Samaraweera said the OHCHR team has not made a fresh request to visit Sri Lanka. “Not so far but we have requested the President’s Senior Adviser, Mr Dhanapala, to meet the UN Human Rights Commissioner in Geneva to discuss matters pertaining to this inquiry,” he said. “We hope to take a new approach to it but we will be able to give more concrete details on how we are going to proceed once Mr. Dhanapala comes back from Geneva.”
“This whole investigation was brought upon the country by the bungling of the previous government,” he added. “If we had handled it carefully and pragmatically, it could have been avoided.”
In its resolution adopted in March last year, the Human Rights Council requested the UN Human Rights Commissioner to “undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka during the period covered by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), and to establish the facts and circumstances of such alleged violations and of the crimes perpetrated with a view to avoid impunity and ensuring accountability, with assistance from relevant experts and special procedures mandate holders”.