{"id":216160,"date":"2021-01-30T19:53:13","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T14:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=216160"},"modified":"2021-02-01T03:43:31","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T22:13:31","slug":"mohan-pieris-accuses-unhrc-in-geneva-of-being-tool-for-vanquished-terrorists-suffers-rebuke-from-un-secretary-general","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/mohan-pieris-accuses-unhrc-in-geneva-of-being-tool-for-vanquished-terrorists-suffers-rebuke-from-un-secretary-general\/","title":{"rendered":"Mohan Pieris Accuses UNHRC In Geneva Of Being Tool For ‘Vanquished Terrorists\u2019; Suffers Rebuke From UN Secretary General"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disgraced former Chief Justice and Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>\u2019s envoy to the United Nations in New York Mohan Pieris<\/a><\/span> embarrassed himself and the Government of Sri Lanka in his very first address to the UN General Assembly on Thursday (28), accusing the Human Rights Council in Geneva of being a tool of terrorists.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mohan Pieris<\/p><\/div>\n

With the whole world in the chamber, Pieris also accused UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet of engaging in an \u201cexercise\u201d in regime change in Sri Lanka, in her latest report<\/a><\/span> to the Human Rights Council, which was a damning assessment of the Nandasena Regime\u2019s human rights trajectory.<\/p>\n

The exercise was an attempt to score points with his masters in Colombo sources told Colombo Telegraph.<\/p>\n

The humiliating incident occurred as the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres presented his annual report to the UN General Assembly that did not specifically mention Sri Lanka. However during an informal interactive session soon after the Guterres\u2019 address, Sri Lanka\u2019s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Mohan Pieris thought it fit to question the motives of the UN Secretary General and the UN system with regard to its concerns on human rights in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fascinated with the theme that we must make it happen together, which was perhaps said a countless number of times during your presentation.<\/p>\n

But Sri Lanka has a problem. We are made to feel we are not in it together. It\u2019s 12 years since the end of the conflict and we have come a long way from those times. The temperature in the country is very low now. It is peaceful. But it appears that the global temperature for Sri Lanka, particularly in the Human Rights Council has been maintained at an all time high and that\u2019s regrettable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohan Pieris who has a dubious record as a gross human rights violator<\/a><\/span> during his tenure on the bench added \u201cIt appears today that the vanquished…it appears that terrorist groups and terrorism is making use of very civilised mechanisms to unleash a different kind of terrorism. To walk themselves into the very mechanism that protect a civilised world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShould our mandates extend to interfering with local processes such as perhaps an exercise in a change of regime which is being critiqued in a recent report form the human rights council,\u201d the Sri Lankan Envoy continued.<\/p>\n

Pieris\u2019 decision to equate the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), victim groups and human rights organisations as tools of \u201cvanquished terrorists\u201d invoked a strong response from Secretary General Guterres who decided to use the opportunity to school the former \u201cChief Justice\u201d in the UN\u2019s commitment to truth, justice and reconciliation. The Secretary General told Pieris that the involvement of others would be drastically reduced if the Sri Lankan Government takes reconciliation and justice seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to recognise that in today\u2019s world there is a growing concern and interest including international institutes from the human rights and legal dimensions on post conflict situations, mainly reconciliation and accountability. I hope that all the interventions that are taking place at present will help the process of effective reconciliation and effective accountability. ..a country has to heal its wounds. Truth is essential for this and without truth and reconciliation it is impossible to move forward. ..Accountability is an important instrument in that regard. I can only hope that the Sri Lankan people and the Sri Lankan government will take seriously these two needs, reconciliation and accountability and reduce the interest of other entities to be also directly involved,\u201d the Secretary General of the United Nations said.<\/p>\n

Antonio Guterres is a former prime minister of Portugal and served as the UN High Commsioner for Refugees prior to being elected as the UN SG. He was an activist against the Portuguese dictatorship until 1974.<\/p>\n

Mohan Pieris on the other had is a disgraced Chief Justice who in 2013 entered to through the \u2018exit\u2019 with a large contingent of military personnel to be placed as Chief Justice after the flawed impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.<\/p>\n

While Pieris was \u2018CJ\u2019 he informed the UN Committee on Torture that journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda was comfortably and safely living in a certain country; and when called upon by a court of law to disclose which country that was, replied that \u201conly god knows\u201d. Presiding over a torture and custodial death case as \u201cChief Justice\u201d Pieris once proclaimed from the bench that terror suspects have no human rights<\/a><\/span> after the custodial death of PTA prisoner Ganesan Nimalaruban, who died in police custody under torture. Nimalaruban was not charged for a crime at the time of his death. Nimalaruban\u2019s parents had filed the fundamental rights petition that came before Peiris.<\/p>\n

Prior to being elevated to the position of CJ Peiris was Chairman of the Seylan Bank, Director of Lanka Logistics (the arms purchasing unit of the Ministry of Defence), Director of Rakna Lanka Security (a security company established by then Defence Secretary Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa), Legal Adviser in the Ministry of Defence and Attorney General.<\/p>\n

Through Mohan Peris the Sri Lankan government has framed its human rights issues as an extension of the war on terror and repeatedly eluded that those raising concerns on human rights, including the High Commissioner of Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, activists victims and all others as terrorists.<\/p>\n

In the past Sri Lanka has been successful in keeping its human rights war crimes related issues out of the agenda in New York. Mohan Pieris on his own volition, without reason or provocation has raised Sri Lanka\u2019s human rights issues at the UNGA. A senior career diplomat quipped that Pieris\u2019s desire to please his political masters and get a sound bite into local media has now not only highlighted Sri Lanka at the UNGA but ensured a strong and embarrassing rebuttal by the Secretary General himself.<\/p>\n

Peiris\u2019 irrational intervention before the General Assembly comes as the Tamil human rights lobby ups the ante on calls to move the Sri Lanka issue from Geneva to New York, which is the home of not only the UNGA but also the Security Council. The Sri Lankan Envoy\u2019s idiotic submissions following a damning report by Bachelet, who urged member states of the Human Rights Council to consider the option of referring Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, because the conduct of the Sri Lankan government had proved it was unwilling to seek justice for atrocities committed during the war. The Security Council of the UN, which meets in New York, must refer a country to the ICC for prosecutions to take place.<\/p>\n

Prominent Tamil academic Dr K. Guruparan called for the Sri Lanka issue to be moved from the UN in Geneva to the UN in New York. Guruparan said in his tweet \u201cThere should be NO negotiation\u00a0 with Sri Lanka about a consensus resolution. Sri Lanka will whittle it down to the bare minimum and then refuse to co-sponsor. As the Tamil side has repeatedly said move it from Geneva to New York”. (By Chinthika De Silva<\/a><\/span>)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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