Julie Bishop stalls on UN call for SL war crimes inquiry
The Abbott government is resisting a push by its closest allies to establish a United Nations investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, where Australia has returned more than 1100 failed asylum seekers in the past 18 months.
A draft UN resolution, obtained by Fairfax Media, calls on the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct the inquiry into ”alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights” in Sri Lanka that leaves open the possibility it could lead to prosecutions, including for members of the current government.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed Australia had not co-sponsored the resolution and wanted a motion to reflect ”progress” in ”reconstruction and rehabilitation” in Sri Lanka.
Australia has previously co-sponsored resolutions at the UN’s Human Rights Council expressing concern on Sri Lanka’s record but is understood to have exasperated the US, Canada, Britain and the Europe Union by not yet backing this one, which for the first time calls for an independent and comprehensive inquiry into the allegations.
The end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009 was brutal as the rebel Tamil Tigers were crushed by the Sinhalese majority government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who remains the country’s leader.
Sri Lanka’s victorious security forces are accused of corralling civilians into no-fire zones and then launching artillery, assassinating surrendering rivals, and the rape and torture of civilians.
The Tamil Tigers are also accused of war crimes.
The UN inquiry, to be voted on next week, would investigate alleged atrocities by both sides.
Ms Bishop said the government wanted to see a final text of the resolution before deciding whether it would co-sponsor the resolution.
”Sri Lanka has made progress since the end of the violent civil war in 2009, including on reconstruction and rehabilitation and we expect this to be reflected in any final text,” she wrote in an email. ”We encourage all parties to take a constructive approach to assist the process of reconciliation in Sri Lanka.”
Any inquiry could place Australia’s policy of returning Sri Lankan asylum seekers in jeopardy. Returning asylum seekers to a country where there remains a genuine fear of persecution is illegal under international law.
Under a policy begun under the Rudd government, Sri Lankan asylum seekers are put through a stricter process to prove they are refugees, denying them access to legal advice and the right of appeal.
More than 1100 Sri Lankan asylum seekers have been returned, many forcibly, since October 2012 and that country’s government boasts it has stopped 4500 more leaving its shores, in part due to intelligence, materiel and financial support from Australia.
”Australia’s approach looks like capitulation to the wishes of the authoritarian Sri Lankan regime,” Human Rights Law Centre advocacy director Emily Howie said. (Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)
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Well done and thank you madam.
It must be pointed out that the SL government and most of the people there have no objection to having a full inquiery for the entire period of the LTTE terrorism in SL including the roles played by India and Norway.
If the US and their puppets want to go cherry picking, then please do not f all into the same level like the rest. Thank you for noting what has happened after the LTTE.
STILL LOTS OF PEOPLE DYING IN SYRIA DAILY. WHAT ARE THESE ANGELS DOING TO STOP IT OTHER THAN TALKING? pEOPLE THOSE WHO DIED IN SL ONE WAY OR ANOTHER ARE NO LONGER ALIVE!
Hey Indra
Who cares about the Aorigines who were decimated by Julie’s convict predecessors in Australia?
Who cares about the stolen generations of Australian Aborigines?
Indra, honestly, Australians are the world’s most rabid racists and Julie B is a symbol of Apartheid in Australia.
Hey Jerome:
The Australian government has made a formal apology for the past wrongs caused by successive governments on the indigenous Aboriginal population.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised in parliament to all Aborigines for laws and policies that “inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss”.
He singled out the “Stolen Generations” of thousands of children forcibly removed from their families.
The apology, beamed live around the country on TV, was met with cheers. (BBC; Wednesday, 13 February 2008)
Just to add to that one or two things you have forgotten or chosen to forget, When most of that injustice happened , Australia was a colony ruled by Cameron’s predecessors. Secondly, Aren’t Americans, Canadians, New Zealands, most of the majority in South American countries living in other peoples countries? Have they apologised? Have the Americans and British apologized for dropping atomic bombs on thousands and thousands of civilians to end a war OR to WIN it? IF Rajapaksha had done(as alleged) the same why is it wrong now?
An unprecedented British push for a Special Court for Sri Lanka on the lines of UN backed Special Court for Sierra Leone has surprised even those who have been calling for an international investigation into atrocities allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE during Eelam War IV (August 2006-May 2009).
Charles Taylor, the leader of Sierra Leone, who committed crimes against humanity, now languishes in a British high security jail.
Australia remains isolated in the initiatives of leading human-rights concerned nations of the World. This is shameful because Australia currently has a chair in the Security Council, the entry of which was supported by the free world.