Sri Lanka: IIGEP chief disappoints over HR investigations in Sri Lanka

Sunday, 14 October 2007

The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) appointed by the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to observe investigations on 16 alleged rights abuses in Sri Lanka including 17 International Aid workers from Action Farm (ACF) in last year early August, P.N. Bhagwati, Chairman of the IIGEP expressed disappointments and dissatisfaction regarding the Sri Lankan Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights violations.

Saying those investigations are taking place either in a snail pace and the 17 ACF aid workers investigation still in front of the Sri Lankan Attorney General (AG) office without moving forward and only two out of 16 cases were taken up for the investigation and he said he is not sure when the rest of the investigation will take place.

Last June, P.N. Bhagwati, Chairman of the IIGEP accused by the Sri Lankan Attorney General and he had called on IIEGP members to refrain from engaging in "improper conduct", and that it had exceeded its mandate in proposing an international human rights monitoring mechanism be established, or invited to Sri Lanka.The mocking criticism of the IIEGP comes in a continuing exchange of accusations between the IIGEP and the Attorney General after Justice Bhagwati, the 84-year old former Indian Supreme Court judge.An investigation by Sri Lankan police into the killing of 17 local aid workers last year is seriously flawed, independent legal experts have said last June.The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) report said there has been "a disturbing lack of impartiality and transparency in the investigation".The ICJ also urged the authorities to seriously consider reforms to the criminal justice system "to ensure impartial and effective investigations and independent decisions as to prosecution". Since President Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected to the office back in November 2005, over 5 472 people have been violently killed, thousands abducted and disappeared while almost 500,000 Tamils civilians are internally displaced and languishing in temporary shelters without proper access to food, medicine and basic essentials. Thousands of Tamils including journalists, religious leaders, aid workers, academics, women and children are being abducted, tortured, disappeared and unlawfully killed without any traces by the Sri Lankan state’s security and paramilitary forces as you made aware from various international, local media and NGOs.

The international community failure to decisively act against Sri Lanka and dragging their feet in isolating Sri Lanka, freezing aid, arms, ammunitions and other non essential items sales also have contributed in deteriorating the humanitarian situations in Sri Lanka while Sri Lanka offering lip services in the peace front and pursuing military options vigorously at very high human cost, says a political pundit in Colombo.

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