U.N. Chief Heading for New Brawl over Sri Lanka Panel

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 2 2010 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is heading for a second round of political brawling with the powerful 118-member Non- Aligned Movement (NAM) over his decision to appoint a panel of experts to advise him on possible violations of humanitarian law by the Sri Lankan military during the concluding stages of its war against Tamil separatists last May.

A draft letter of protest, currently in circulation among NAM members, expresses “serious concern” about the appointment of the panel “against the clearly expressed wishes of the country concerned, and without any mandate from the Human Rights Council, the Security Council or the General Assembly”.

The letter will be formally submitted to the secretary- general next week provided there are no objections from any NAM members.

Asked for his comments, U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq told IPS: “As far as I am aware, discussion is still going on in NAM about the letter.”

“I am not aware whether the membership agreed to it or not,” he said.

NAM is the largest single political coalition at the United Nations, after the Group of 77, a 130-member economic coalition of developing countries.

He also said the U.N. secretariat is apparently arguing that the NAM letter will jeopardise Ban’s plans to appoint a similar international panel to investigate charges of war crimes against Israel over last month’s attack on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.

But the proposed panel to investigate Israel was authorised by the Security Council while Sri Lanka’s panel wasn’t.

A similar NAM letter of protest was sent to Ban last March warning him against the appointment of the proposed panel on Sri Lanka.

After a response from the secretary-general, in which he claimed he had a legitimate right to appoint such a panel, NAM virtually backed down from a possible confrontation with the U.N chief.

“I am convinced it is well within my power as secretary- general of the United Nations to ask such a panel to furnish me with their advice of this nature,” Ban told news reporters in March.

“This does not in any way infringe on the sovereignty of Sri Lanka,” Ban explained.

But with the current letter, NAM is reverting back to its original hard-line stand, namely, that Ban has exceeded his political authority in naming the panel.

At the time of this writing, several NAM members, mostly members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), have objected to the letter primarily on the ground that it would undermine the secretary-general’s push for an international probe of the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla.

The letter also says “the Non-Aligned Movement expresses serious concern about the selective targeting of individual countries which it deems contrary to the founding principles of the Movement.”

“In this context,” the letter continues, “the Movement firmly opposes the unilateral evaluation and certification of the conduct of states as a means of exerting pressure on Non-Aligned countries and other developing countries.”

The letter says that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already appointed his own commission of inquiry to probe any violations of international norms and standards during the conflict.

“It is a well recognized international norm that in situations where there are allegations or breaches of international law that the country concerned should in the first instance be allowed to conduct its own investigation and to make known its findings,” the letter says.

In this instance, says the letter, the secretary-general has appointed a panel on Sri Lanka to advise him on the modalities, applicable standards and comparative experience with regard to accountability processes “even before the commission of inquiry in Sri Lanka has commenced its inquiry and without any express request from any member state or group or U.N. body or without seeking the opinion of any group of member states or U.N. body”.

The three members of the Sri Lanka panel, who were named last month, are Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia as chair, along with Yasmin Sooka of South Africa and Steven Ratner of the United States.

The panel is expected to advise the secretary-general on “implementing the commitment on human rights accountability” made in a joint statement issued by Ban and Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa after the U.N. chief visited the island nation in May 2009.

Rajapaksa, who scored an overwhelming victory at recent elections, primarily on the strength of his military’s defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has consistently denied charges of war crimes and violations of humanitarian law.

The United Nations, however, has said that an estimated 7,000 or more civilians were killed during the height of the battle that continued for over three decades.

And international human rights groups have accused the military of executing LTTE rebels even as they surrendered.

At the same time, these groups have also accused the LTTE of committing war crimes and killing civilians.

The panel has a four-month deadline to complete its mandate from the day it starts work.