"The climate of impunity that may have been created, lack of support that may be given, really need to be discussed."

US Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Blake, speaking at a news conference to mark the end of his three day visit to Sri Lanka, urged the Sri Lankan government to ensure accountability, stop paramilitary activity in the North-East and pursue devolution through talks with the TNA.

“We are not in the business of making threats to our friends.

There is a need for a credible process of accountability for those who have violated international humanitarian law and there will be pressure for some mechanism to ensure that this takes place.

However we hope that (such pressure) is not necessary.”

"The solution to achieving a just and lasting peace in Sri Lanka is not just about accountability," he added, however.

Highlighting the recent mock protest orchestrated by Douglas Devananda's EPDP, Blake condemned the use of paramilitaries in the North to maintain law and order, insisting the government must make progress on disarming such groups.

“I am concerned about human rights.

I discussed with relevant officials the importance of disarming paramilitary groups, on which progress is being made.

It is important to deploy Tamil policeman in the north so the military no longer needs to perform these functions.”

 “Paramilitary groups are not allowed to carry weapons in public.

While I was in Jaffna I myself, experienced the power of the EPDP who was able to prevent me from meeting with some university students.”

Officials from the European Union and the United States have welcomed the informal discussions at the Human Rights Council in Geneva and called for a speedy process to bring accountability for crimes committed during the warin Sri Lanka.

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillai used her speech at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council Session (HRC) to criticise Sri Lanka for its human rights record.

Whilst talking about the ‘insufficient regard for human rights’ by the anti-terror measures adopted by several member countries, she pointed out Sri Lanka as a prime example of a state which undermines human rights to combat terrorism.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent the UN panel of experts’ report on wartime mass killings in Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, the Associated Press reports.

See NDTV’s report from Vanni (broadcast Sep 10, 2011) which includes:

-  survivors' accounts of mass killings of Tamil civilians during the final months of the conflict,

The United States and other governments must move without further delay toward an independent international investigation into mass atrocities during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict, and desist from lending credibility to Sri Lanka’s sham domestic investigation, Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) said in a statement Monday.

In a statement released Tuesday, the TNA, slammed the Sri Lankan government’s failure to make any meaningful progress on accountability or genuine efforts at reconciliation.

The statement was issued shortly after reports confirmed the transmittal of the report by the UN Panel of Experts to the UN High Commissioner, by Ban Ki Moon.

Slamming the LLRC as 'flawed', with a 'limited mandate' and having only resulted in 'very modest interim recommendations', the statement was severely critical of the government's recurrent failure to deliver. 

“The failure of the government to implement even the modest interim recommendations of its own domestic mechanism highlights the importance of a genuine, credible and independent mechanism to advance accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.”

Cataloguing a series of false promises and the Sri Lankan delegation's recent remonstrations to the contrary at the UNHRC, the TNA urged the government to “be more forthright and honest in its representation of the situation in Sri Lanka to the international community”, accusing it of engaging in a “constant flow of misinformation".

Amnesty International called for immediate action to address ‘the crisis of impunity that plagues Sri Lanka’ at the opening day of the 18th United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) session today in Geneva.

“Any sustainable peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka will depend on a genuine, independent effort being made to learn the truth about serious violations during the civil war and deliver justice to the victims and their families,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.

“National efforts to date have fallen far short of the mark, and the ongoing culture of impunity in Sri Lanka is shielding those responsible for past and ongoing abuses from being brought to justice.”

Amnesty’s statement came after the head of the Sri Lankan delegation Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe  told the council that the Sri Lankan Government's response to alleged human rights violations was “second to none”.

Sri Lanka came under mounting pressure from the United Nations and Western powers on Monday to ensure that perpetrators of atrocities committed i

Faced with the rising tide of voices calling for an independent international investigation, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka's plantation minister and representative at the UNHRC meeting in Geneva, launched a desperate counter attack.

The Sri Lanka delegation has evidently been caught off guard by news that Ban Ki Moon plans to hand over the report by the UN Panel of Experts into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka to Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, imminently. 

Samarasinghe fought back, reportedly criticising the UN for being 'biased' and for failing to inform Sri Lanka previously regarding the handing over of the report, and for the very fact Sri Lanka was informally discussed.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, Samarasinghe remarked,

"The Government of Sri Lanka was concerned at a growing trend in the Human Rights Council to depart from well established principles of procedures in the conduct of the affairs of the Council and noted the failure on the part of the High Commissioner to inform the concerned State, Sri Lanka, regarding a report about Sri Lanka that was transmitted between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General."

He is also said to have remarked, that the High Commissioner's 'failure' to inform the state in question, raises "serious concerns" and leads to a "loss in confidence" in the High Commissioner's office.

The ruffled Samarasinghe, attempting to seek cover behind the infamous LLRC, added, "It is critical to wait for that body to finish its deliberations and come up with its conclusions in due time."

Citing the removal of emergency regulations, the Sri Lankan government has ordered the dismantling of the Ministry of Resettlement and announced the intended aquisition of private lands within High-Security Zones.

Rauff-Hakeem, the Justice Minister who made the announcement, explained that if in some areas, the HSZs were needed, the Government would acquire the land legally. He is reported to have said a security assessment would be made before deciding which areas were needed to be retained as HSZs, situated mainly in Vadamarachchi, Valikamam and Thenmarachchi.

The dismantling of the Resettlement Ministry, whilst no doubt insignificant in terms of resettlement productivity, serves to undermine the on-going IDP situation over two years after the government declared peace.

Moreover, it diminuishes the plight of remaining IDPS, whose right to return to their original lands appears increasingly precarious and their right of appeal, hopeless. 

In Sampur, where the proposed coal plant will result in over 900 families losing their homes, the Governor Rear Admiral Wijewickrema has threatened that any IDPs who refuse land offered to them by the government will no longer be deemed 'displaced'.

See our earlier post 'IDPs branded 'squatters on state land'.

These moves are the latest in a draft of measures that expidite the aquisition of private lands in the North-East, with no room for appeal.

The National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) of Sri Lanka has called for the closure of all 470 children’s homes in the country due to ‘rampant’ abuse of the inhabitants.

Around 20,000 orphans and children from abusive family backgrounds are housed in homes around the country.