PM Cameron pledges to call for international investigation at CHOGM in Sri Lanka Nov 2013

Welcoming the passing of the UN Rights Council’s resolution on Sri Lanka, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was proud of his country’s role in securing an international investigation into war times atrocities there. 

“I said that we would achieve more by standing up for our values rather than sitting on the sidelines. And that is exactly what we have done,” he said in a statement issued shortly after HRC members states approved the resolution.

The full text of the statement follows:

“I am pleased that the UN Human Rights Council has today agreed to press ahead with its own independent investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.
 

The Canadian Tamil Congress has welcomed the international investigative mechanism mandated by the UN Human Rights Council earlier today, stating that it “represents a significant step forward in achieving accountability and justice on the island of Sri Lanka”.

In a statement released after the Council voted in favour of a resolution, the CTC said,

The passing of a resolution by the UN Human Rights Council, which will see an investigation undertaken by the Office of the High Commissioner Human Rights, has been welcomed by Human Rights Watch.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) welcomed the passage today of UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka, saying it ‘marked a historic moment’ that ‘provides a meaningful opportunity for all communities in Sri Lanka to join an impartial, independent process’ to grapple with rights violations and crimes committed in their names.

“The resolution is a victory for all Sri Lanka's peoples in their struggle for truth, justice and reconciliation,” the TNA said in a statement.

“The resolution sends a strong message to the Sri Lankan government that the undemocratic, militarized and discriminatory trajectory on which it has set the country is unacceptable and unsustainable.” 

In a statement released today, Amnesty International has said that a UN inquiry into human rights violations in Sri Lanka, which was approved by the Human Rights council earlier this morning, must be “as robust and far reaching as possible”.

The statement welcomed both the resolution and investigation as “important steps towards breaking the cycle of impunity”, with David Griffiths, Asia-Pacific Deputy Director at Amnesty International adding,

President Mahinda Rajapakse said to AFP that Sri Lanka rejected the UN Human Rights Council resolution ordering a war crimes probe, adding that he would instead press ahead with his own reconciliation plan.

“We reject this. This resolution only hurts our reconciliation efforts. It does not help," Rajapakse said.

“But I am not discouraged. We will continue with the reconciliation process I have started.”

 

Commenting on the UN Human Rights Council’s decision to set up an investigation into human rights violations in Sri Lanka, US Secretary of State John Kerry has emphasised the importance of justice and accountability for a lasting peace on the island.

In a statement released after the vote, Kerry said,

“Today’s vote in the UN Human Rights Council sends a clear message: The time to pursue lasting peace and prosperity is now; justice and accountability cannot wait.”

The Secretary of State went on to address the current human rights situation on the island, adding,

“We are deeply concerned by recent actions against some of Sri Lanka’s citizens, including detentions and harassment of civil society activists. Further reprisals against these brave defenders of human rights and the dignity of all Sri Lankan citizens would elicit grave concern from the international community.”

See the full statement below.

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.”

Reiterating the TNA’s (Tamil National Alliance) welcoming of today’s UN Human Rights Council resolution mandating an investigation into Sri Lanka’s wartime atrocities, the party spokesperson, Suresh Premachandran expressed his deep disappointment at India’s support for abortive last minute efforts to first defang the resolution, and then to postpone the council’s voting on it.

Mr. Premachandran spoke to Tamil Guardian shortly after the Sri Lanka resolution had been adopted, after intense and heated deliberations in the HRC plenary, which he had sat through.

“We are hopeful this [UN investigative process] will eventually lead to the possibility of a dignified political settlement for the Tamil people,” he said.

“But one pathetic aspect [of today’s Council’s debate] I could see was Indian representatives supporting Pakistan in seeking to postpone the vote on the resolution, and to weaken it,” he said.