UN Watch Geneva, referring to an editorial in The Boston
Globe titled “Probe war crimes in Sri Lanka”, says “blindly asking
the UN to do the job, however, risks achieving the opposite of justice.”
Hillel C. Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch Geneva
states:
Your May 24 editorial “Probe war crimes in Sri Lanka” rightly calls for a credible inquiry
into Sri Lanka’s
role in the estimated 20,000 civilian deaths during last year’s fighting.
Blindly asking the UN to do the job, however, risks
achieving the opposite of justice. That’s what the European Union and its
allies discovered in May 2009, after they finally mustered one-third of the UN
Human Rights Council’s 47 members to trigger an emergency session on Sri Lanka.
The council majority, composed of non-democracies such as China, Cuba,
and Saudi Arabia,
turned the proposed resolution upside down. The session ended by actually
“commending’’ Sri Lankafor its “promotion and protection of all human rights.’’ Initial references to
violations of human rights and international law, and their impact on women,
children, and vulnerable groups, were deleted from the final text.
Sadly, the recent
election of dictatorial Libyaand slave-holding Mauritaniawill only aggravate the council’s policy of turning a blind eye to victims of
the world’s worst abuses while praising the perpetrators. – (The Boston Globe)
