In the backdrop of a statement supposed to have been made by the Northern Province(NP) governor last week, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s (UNHRC) office lost no time in emphasizing that the High Commissioner did not have any misgivings on her March 2019 report, as erroneously reported in the Sri Lankan media.
The response by the High Commissioner’s office explained that news reports quoting a senior Sri Lankan government official seriously misrepresented her comments made at a meeting to discuss her report with a Government delegation attending the Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, on March 20.
Following the embarrassing gesture, the Northern Province Governor,(whose comments reported in the media gave the contentious twist), clarified on Friday that his remarks at the press conference on his meeting with Michelle Bachelet Jeria- a former twice elected President of Chile and its first female president - was misquoted by certain sections of the media. He disowned the reports and said, ‘he has the utmost respect for the High Commissioner and her work.’
The said press conference was organized by Dr. Suren Raghavan on Monday March 25th, to brief the media on the Government delegation’s visit to Geneva, to attend the closing segment of the UN Human Rights Council’s 40th sessions. The 40th session started in February with Sri Lanka on its agenda. In his remarks about their interaction with the High commissioner Bachelet, the media quoted Dr.Raghavan as saying, the High Commissioner “admitted that certain facts incorporated in the UNHRC report against Sri Lanka, could not be condoned whatsoever.”
The newspapers quoting the Northern Province Governor ,also said that High Commissioner Bachelet had advised two of her senior officials, “to be more responsible and cautious hereafter” with reference to the compilation of the report.
“Neither of these claims are true,” Bachelet said in the statement issued by her office. “Either the newspaper misunderstood the Governor, or the Governor misunderstood – or misquoted – me.”
The High Commissioner said she stands fully behind the report and the oral statement she made when presenting it to the Human Rights Council, and that she believes it fairly and objectively reflects the situation in Sri Lanka.
“I am deeply disappointed by the spin that has been put on my discussion with the Sri Lankan Government delegation,” she said, noting that other news outlets in Sri Lanka were also continuing to significantly misrepresent the Human Rights Council process in Geneva.
The High Commissioner said she and her Office remained committed to assisting the Government to implement the Human Rights Council’s resolutions 30/1 which was co-sponsored by Sri Lanka in 2015 and 34/1 passed with consensus in 2017.
Last week the Human Rights Council in another resolution (40/1) gave the Government two more years to deliver fully on the set of commitments it made four years ago on the reconciliation and human rights fronts.However, Foreign Affairs Minister Tilak Marapana, PC (during his remarks after High Commissioner Bachelet presented her report to the Council on Geneva), drew attention to several references in the report on the recently discovered mass grave site in Mannar and on the release of military occupied northern lands to civilians.
Pointing out the US laboratory tests concluded the Mannar grave site was not related to the recent LTTE conflict he said, Bachelet’s report assumes that “other mass graves might be expected to be found in the future,” which is not accepted in a public report of this nature.
Emphasising the land release data in the report should also have been updated to show recent data, he said these reports must be compiled by engaging closely with the relevant local institutions and independent bodies, including the National Human Rights Commission, in verifying facts on the ground.
The High Commissioner did not make any reference to these concerns of the Government in her rebuttal of Northern province Governor’s comments, but reiterated that she believes the report ‘fairly and objectively reflects the situation in Sri Lanka’.
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‘Not the way to do reconcilliation or diplomacy’ - Dr. Sara
Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu unimpressed by the Northern Governor’s remarks, commented- “The resolution 30/1 has been extended. That is good news. We now have to get on with the task of implementing it in full, especially the issues of accountability and the reversing of the culture of impunity. What is disappointing and embarrassing is the exchange between the Governor of the North and the UN High Commissioner. The former has put out a press release expressing full confidence in the High Commissioner, but without responding to her categorical rejection of the specific allegations he made against her staff, which, he also said, she had accepted. The High Commissioner has dismissed his allegations and robustly stands by her position. Clearly this is not the way to do reconciliation or diplomacy”.