Member European Parliament on UNHRC Lanka ‘probe’
Wednesday, 23rd July 2014
‘There should be an inquiry on the inquiry’ said Member European Parliament (MEP) Niranjan Deva Additiya when he was interviewed on the SLBC program People’s Power by Rajpal Abeynayake last morning.
MEP Deva Additiya said this when he was asked whether the UNHRC (UN Human Rights Commission) initiated investigation on alleged human rights violations in the last phase of the hostilities is tantamount to a witch hunt due to the way the probe Committee has been constituted.
He was asked whether the fact that several persons who were found to be patently biased in previous UN investigations being appointed to the (OHCHR) panel indicates prejudice towards Sri Lanka. The questioner also added that certain media statements made by panelist Asmar Jahangir for instance indicates further prejudice against Sri Lanka, almost before the panel discussions have got underway proper.
In answer MEP Deva Additiya said that if the panel process is flawed there should be an inquiry on the inquiry to determine how a UN process became so apparently prejudicial to the interests of a UN member country, considering the way the panel was constituted and initiated.
Mr. Deva Additiya also made clear that he thinks the Disappearances Commission Advisory panel appointed by the President recently is a very good idea. He said that the head of that panel Desmond de Silva QC is a forensics expert and a person who has served on such panels in the past -- particularly UN Panels such as the one on Sierra Leone.
However, he said that neither Desmond de Silva nor any of the other panelists appointed by the President were in any way formally affiliated to the UN, being lawyers and persons of eminence in their own right who were distinguished for their own work and have made immense contributions to international probes and other issues dealing with disputes between countries etc.,
Though he was of the opinion that such a panel as that appointed by the President, was long overdue, he nevertheless said that Sri Lanka has nothing to hide -- which fact is proven by the appointment by the President of such a body which comprises persons of a proven record in probes such as the one undertaken by the Disappearances Commission.
MEP Deva Additiya has a widely acclaimed record as a Legislator representing the British Conservatives, and he was a distinguished former legislator in the British House of Commons and is now member serving his second term in the European Parliament.
From: http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=local/inquiry-inquiry
