{"id":205076,"date":"2019-09-27T14:28:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T08:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=205076"},"modified":"2019-09-28T13:04:10","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T07:34:10","slug":"suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN &#8211; ITJP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The announcement by the UN of a suspension of Sri Lankan soldiers going abroad as peacekeepers is a sad day for the country.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>This is a direct consequence of the Sri Lankan President\u2019s move to woo election support by appointing alleged war criminal, Lt. Gen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Shavendra+Silva\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Shavendra Silva<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, to the post of Army Commander, despite the warnings that this would affect peacekeeping.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_122015\" style=\"width: 285px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Yasmin-Sooka.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-122015\" class=\"size-full wp-image-122015\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Yasmin-Sooka.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-122015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yasmin Sooka &#8211; Executive Director &#8211; International Truth &amp; Justice Project<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Shavendra Silva commanded the Sri Lankan Army\u2019s 58 Division in the final phase of the civil war in Sri Lanka in 2008-9. There are<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>reasonable grounds to say his forces were involved in indiscriminate and intentional attacks conducted against the civilian population, attacks on hospitals and medical staff, attacks on No Fire Zones and the use of prohibited and indiscriminate weapons. The scale of civilian casualties and injuries among the civilian population as a result was nothing short of catastrophic. However ten years after the war ended and despite committing itself to a transitional justice programme, Sri Lankan politicians still shamefully hail Silva as a \u201cwar hero\u201d. As a result younger soldiers who joined after the civil war are now barred from peacekeeping jobs.<\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cShavendra Silva\u2019s appointment was a tragic own goal for the country. We would much rather see Sri Lanka enlist the help of the international community to implement genuine criminal accountability for the crimes of the past to give victims and their families truth and justice and reform its security services to eliminate ongoing torture,\u201d<\/i> said\u00a0<span class=\"qu\" tabindex=\"-1\" role=\"gridcell\"><span class=\"gD\" data-hovercard-id=\"itjpsl@gmail.com\" data-hovercard-owner-id=\"140\">Truth &amp; Justice Project&#8217;s\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Executive Director, Yasmin Sooka.<\/p>\n<p>The ITJP has been documenting recent cases of torture by the police and army in Sri Lanka \u2013 79 such cases since 2015 \u2013 including in the last year.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For many years, ITJP staff have been working on the vetting of security and public officials, meticulously researching individual units and their locations in the final phase of the civil war and building up expertise on units, as well as dossiers on individuals. The research was based on detailed knowledge of the conduct of the war derived from interviewing hundreds of survivors and eyewitnesses, combined with open source research, including the Army\u2019s own Situation Reports which had been deleted from the Internet but were retrieved. The work focused on identifying the regimental units present in a location where there were credible allegations that violations of international humanitarian law occurred, in order to argue that the risk to the United Nations in deploying such a person was unacceptably high.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cMany Sinhalese and Tamils who want their security forces to be held accountable, discreetly assisted in this research and we are immensely grateful to them though we can\u2019t name them for security reasons,\u201d<\/i> said Yasmin Sooka. <i>\u201cAlready the news that the UN is acting has given hope to Tamil victims of the war who have yet to see any justice.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p>What is known about the suspension suggests currently deployed Sri Lankan peacekeeping units will remain in place until their tour ends but then be replaced by soldiers from another country. However, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations appears to be adding a proviso that it might override the suspension if it exposed UN operations to serious operational risk.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cWe will be looking for more clarity from the United Nations on what this means; the reputational risk to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations would be enormous if it tries to fudge this important human rights issue.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>If you are going to talk about a \u2018zero tolerance policy\u2019 it has to be zero and it has to be done with conviction,\u201d <\/i>said Ms. Sooka. <strong><em>(By ITJP)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":200165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN - ITJP - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN - ITJP - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-27T08:58:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-28T07:34:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"610\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"396\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/\",\"name\":\"Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN - ITJP - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-27T08:58:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-28T07:34:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg\",\"width\":610,\"height\":396,\"caption\":\"Soldiers from Sri Lanka's UN peacekeeping force attend their passing out parade at the army cantonment in Colombo's suburb of Panagoda December 3, 2008. About 748 military personnel completed their training and will be joining Haiti's peacekeeping force later this month, according to a military spokesman. REUTERS\/Buddhika Weerasinghe (SRI LANKA)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN &#8211; ITJP\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN - ITJP - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN - ITJP - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2019-09-27T08:58:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-28T07:34:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":610,"height":396,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/","name":"Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN - ITJP - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg","datePublished":"2019-09-27T08:58:16+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-28T07:34:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg","width":610,"height":396,"caption":"Soldiers from Sri Lanka's UN peacekeeping force attend their passing out parade at the army cantonment in Colombo's suburb of Panagoda December 3, 2008. About 748 military personnel completed their training and will be joining Haiti's peacekeeping force later this month, according to a military spokesman. REUTERS\/Buddhika Weerasinghe (SRI LANKA)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspending-sri-lanka-from-un-peacekeeping-needs-more-clarity-from-un-itjp\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Suspending Sri Lanka From UN Peacekeeping: Needs More Clarity From UN &#8211; ITJP"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Sri_lankan_soldiers_army_004.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205077,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205076\/revisions\/205077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}