Film maker Callum Macrae has called for a UN investigation, which was mandated by the Human Rights Council earlier today, to be “urgent, rigorous and robust”.
Mr. Macrae, the director of the documentary ‘No Fire Zone: the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka’, said in a statement released after the Council’s decision,
“For five years the Sri Lankan government has repeatedly denied that its forces engaged in terrible war crimes and crimes against humanity – whilst simultaneously claiming it was capable of investigating those crimes itself.”
“Today the international community has finally lost patience… After this overwhelming vote at the Human Right’s Council, it is clear that this enquiry must be urgent, rigorous and robust.”
Commenting on the resolution he went on to add,
“This resolution may well be the turning point, but it is not, on its own, the solution. Today in the north and east of Sri Lanka, the repression of the Tamils continues – and indeed is growing. In the last couple of weeks we have seen a wave of arrests of Tamil human rights activists. Land grabs and sexual violence are rampant. The ethnic re-engineering of the region is intensifying. Meanwhile in the country as a whole the repression of critical voices across all communities continues.”
“I hope this historic decision will finally mark the turning point in the search for justice. Because without that justice, there can be no progress to peace, political solutions and reconciliation in that troubled island.”
Macrae also commented on votes by the member states, noting,
"The attempts during today’s Human Right’s Council debate to portray this resolution as an infringement of Sri Lankan sovereignty is misleading. This vote is about universal principles of human rights. The suggestion that the global south was united against this resolution is also simply wrong – as demonstrated not just by those who voted for it – but also by the recent appeal for support for an international inquiry issued by some forty leading human rights defenders from the global south, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu."
Find full coverage of the UNHRC vote and reactions to the resolution mandating the OHCHR to undertake an inquiry here.