Exposing the Lies: Why the ‘Joint Statement’ between Sri Lanka and UN Secretary General is continuously referred to

There is a reason why there is constant reference to a supposed ‘joint statement’ issued between Sri Lanka and the UN signed by the Sri Lankan President and the UN Secretary General. The effort is to create a notion that a ‘contract’ prevails as a result of that ‘joint statement’ binding enough to warrant the appointment of the Panel of Experts, to make public their report, to have that report form the basis for the Resolutions and provide the foundation on which the UNHRC head could carry out an investigation against Sri Lanka. Obviously, a lot of minds and hours had gone into contriving the masterplan. The question, next needs to be asked is how valid and legal is this masterplan?

Firstly, what needs to be accepted is that an investigation against a UN member state can take place based on the following scenarios:

1. If it is endorsed by the UN General Assembly
2. If it is endorsed by the UN Security Council
3. It can also be done as a self-initiative by the UN Secretary General based on 2 criteria:
4. UN Charter Article 99 which says “The Secretary General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
5. Based on a contract or an agreement with the country in question.

We are well aware that NONE of the reports to date has been either endorsed, approved or commissioned by either the UN General Assembly or the UN Security Council.

As for UN Charter Article 99, though Ban-Ki Moon’s advisors contemplated this option, it was set aside for the simple reason that the UN Security General had no basis to commission a report because the situation in Sri Lanka posed no threat to ‘the maintenance of international peace and security’. With the conflict over, LTTE ground force eliminated Ban-Ki Moon would have looked a fool to suggest a report citing Article 99. Even Sri Lanka’s worse critic will not be able to provide a single example of how Sri Lanka’s ‘accountability process’ can pose a threat to international peace!

Therefore, the next option was to entice Sri Lanka and lure it to agreeing to a ‘contract’ that would attempt to bind the country to enable an investigation to be conducted. We can but wonder how many of our own officials would have been enticed or manipulated into this deal in accepting to go with the flow in what has turned out to be a devious plan to craft out a war crimes investigation against Sri Lanka and select leaders.

The projected ‘contract’ being promoted as prima facie case to establish the UNSG’s right to appoint a panel to investigate Sri Lanka is based on a flimsy concluding para to a joint statement signed on 23 May 2009 after he arrived in Sri Lanka within days of the conclusive defeat of the LTTE.

That flimsy sentence in the joint statement reads thus:

The Secretary General underlined the importance of an accountability process for addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The Government will take measures to address those grievances” (Nowhere does the Sri Lankan Government commit to undertaking an investigation nor does the GOSL agree to an international investigation)

http://www.mea.gov.lk/index.php/component/content/article/1753-joint-statement-by-the-gosl-a-the-un-at-the-conclusion-of-un-secretary-generals-visit-to-sri-lanka

Let’s not fool ourselves into believing these lines equate to a contract.

These lines have absolutely no legal basis to argue as a legal contract between Sri Lanka and the UNSG that Sri Lanka has undertaken to even do a domestic inquiry.

Nevertheless, we should begin to understand the reason for the inundated reference to the ‘joint statement’ and attempting to project it as a ‘contract’ that the GOSL has breached and violated that warranted the UNSG to take action by establishing a Panel of Experts and thereafter collaborating with the UNHRC to kickstart the Resolutions and ultimate investigation. Every step of the exercise resonates a scheme, a manipulation, lies and unethical practice within the halls of the UN.

The manipulative nature of the UNSG’s office in collusion with the UNHRC office needs to be publicly exposed.

Far too many statements have been made public without scrutiny and international condemnation.

Failure of Sri Lankan officials to stand up for what is right and on behalf of their country over diplomacy and fear of upsetting fellow nations has led to the abysmal situation Sri Lanka now has fallen into.

Why should anyone feel shy to tell the truth if the truth needs to be told?

Why would any country feel upset if they too stand for truth and wish to be part of honest governance?

Why were statements like  “In March 2010, in the absence of Government initiative on the issue, the UN informed the Government and Member States of plans to establish a UN Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka.”  not condemned publicly? The statement is an utter lie.

The Appointment of the Panel of Experts, the mandate given to them, the choice of the Panel had nothing to do with the UN General Assembly or the UN Security Council. It was solely a self-initiative by the UN Secretary General. The Panel of Experts was not appointed by or endorsed by the UN General Assembly and no report has any right to give the impression that it was. The Panel of Expert Report has no right to refer itself as a UN report.

This scenario needs to be conveyed across the diplomatic channels to all Members of the UN so that they can be made to understand the nature with which the UN and certain officials are signaling out Sri Lanka in an obvious attempt to create precedents that would be detrimental to other nations of the developing world and enemies of the West.

It is for these reasons that the UN General Assembly and nations that are not mere armchair members attending annual sessions begin to realize what a monster the UN is shaping itself to becoming.

It is no better a time for the developing world to start thinking of formulating a new world body that does not function to the dictates of a handful of nations and their lobbies based on the perks and remunerations that crosses hands. With the calls for an Asian Union comprising Russia, China, India and all nations of Asia it is for think tanks to start drawing up a new world entity burying for good a biased and failed UN.

 

– by Shenali D Waduge

Please take time to read these reference articles:

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2013/03/19/the-illegality-of-un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moons-approach-to-sri-lanka/view-all/
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/08/19/the-bogus-joint-statement-between-president-of-sri-lanka-and-ban-ki-moon/