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Lanka open to OHCHR’s technical assistance to expedite probes: FM
View(s):By Chandani Kirinde
Sri Lanka is open to obtaining technical assistance through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including that of forensic experts, to expedite investigations into past crimes in the country, a senior government source said yesterday.
Such cooperation would include assistance to identify the victims of mass graves being exhumed in several areas of the country, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said.
He told the Sunday Times that obtaining the assistance would depend on directives of the judicial officials under whose purview the mass graves are being exhumed.
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the vote on the new resolution on Sri Lanka, but amendments to the draft resolution have to be submitted by September 25. Minister Herath said no major amendments to the draft resolution are expected, and Sri Lanka will remain under the watch of the OHCHR for the next two years.
The draft resolution to extend the mandate of the OHCHR on Sri Lanka was handed over to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last week by its main sponsors, namely the United Kingdom, Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, and North Macedonia.
Minister Herath said he held talks with UK and Canadian representatives in Geneva and sought more time for a domestic accountability mechanism to deliver justice.
The resolution refers to the identification of multiple mass grave sites in Sri Lanka and stresses the need for ongoing work to be provided with adequate resources and the importance of the independent and effective functioning of the Office on Missing Persons.
It urges the government to proactively seek international support to ensure sufficient financial, human and technical resources to conduct exhumations in line with international standards, as well as seek international assistance to strengthen capacities while investigating and prosecuting some emblematic cases of human rights violations, as well as the Easter Sunday bombings.
With the extension of the mandate of the OHCHR in Sri Lanka, the term of the OHCHR’s Sri Lanka Accountability Project (OSLap) too will be extended.
“We have opposed the external investigation mechanism, including the OHCHR’s Sri Lanka accountability project. There is no change in that,” he said.
The project is an evidence-gathering mechanism to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka and to support relevant judicial and other proceedings, including in Member States with competent jurisdiction.
He added that the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) will be repealed within this year, with the draft anti-terrorism law to replace it in its final stage. “We should be able to table it in parliament this year,” he said.
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