The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR) has defended the findings of its report on alleged
war crimes in Sri Lanka, which drew criticism from several quarters for
its “silence” on genocide in the island nation.
Responding to a question sent by The Hindu in
this regard, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the High Commissioner,
stated via email: “This [the U.N. report] does not preclude such a
finding [that genocide was committed] being made as a result of further
criminal investigations, including by the hybrid court that we
recommend.”
“The crime of genocide requires specific
objective and subjective elements. On the basis of the information we
were able to gather, we did not come to the conclusion that these
elements were met,” she said.
In February, Sri
Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council passed a resolution,
blaming successive governments in the country of committing “genocide”
against Tamils.
The spokesperson pointed out that
given the circumstances in which the investigation was carried out, the
OHCHR was able to conduct “a comprehensive investigation”, with over
3,000 written submissions, interviews in 11 countries, photos, videos,
and satellite imagery with expert analysis.
However,
criticising the report on different counts, including that of relying on
the testimony of people whose identity has been kept confidential,
former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, G.L. Peiris, argued that the
“purported evidence, on which critical findings are based, is shrouded
in secrecy”.
“There is, consequently, a breach of the requirements of fairness and transparency even at the basic level.”
He
contended that Sri Lanka had every opportunity to use well-established
principles of international humanitarian and human rights law, applied
with “reasonable uniformity in precedents” across the globe, to make a
cogent case for the protection of the military personnel. “Sadly, we
seem to be treading instead a different path fraught with the greatest
danger.”
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