{"id":216265,"date":"2021-02-02T23:13:15","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T17:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=216265"},"modified":"2021-02-03T01:16:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T19:46:02","slug":"suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: ITJP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The<b> <\/b>United Nations Peacekeeping department should suspend all deployments from Sri Lanka following the<b> <\/b>latest report of the UN human rights body which warns that the independence and credibility of the body tasked with vetting the troops had been fundamentally eroded.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cThe UN Department of Peace Operations has a legal duty to ensure due diligence before deploying troops,\u201d<\/i> said the Executive Director of the International Truth and Justice Project, <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Yasmin+Sooka\">Yasmin Sooka<\/a><\/span>. \u201c<i>The report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights confirms that<\/i> <i>New York is not in a position now to certify that the Sri Lankan troops have been properly vetted and screened and must urgently take steps to move the screening process back to Geneva.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-194494\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army-1024x749.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army-300x219.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army-768x562.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Under the current arrangement the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka carries out the vetting of troops in Colombo. As Michelle Bachelet has pointed out, the Human Rights Commission has been politicized and its independence undermined by the appointment of a former government Minister as its chairperson.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet, also said she was particularly troubled by the appointment of two men alleged by the UN to be implicated in war crimes to head the Sri Lankan Army and run the Defence Ministry. The appointment of Shavendra Silva to Army Commander in 2019 triggered the UN\u2019s<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>announcement that it was suspending deployment of all Sri Lankan peacekeepers, except where operations could be endangered.The UN later clarified that its suspension would affect a quarter of Sri Lankan peacekeepers<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>&#8211; namely those deployed in Lebanon who would be replaced by troops from other countries.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, departing Sri Lankan contingents were photographed repeatedly saluting an alleged war criminal, Shavendra Silva, at farewell parades. This is in spite of the widespread international criticism of the appointment of Shavendra Silva to Army Commander in 2019. A group of UN experts called the appointment of Shavendra Silva an affront to his victims and a move that defied understanding. This view was echoed by the US Government, Canada and the European Union.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Later in February 2020, the US Government made public its designation of Shavendra Silva and his family for alleged gross violations of human rights. Shavendra Silva was subsequently given the additional responsibility of acting Chief of Defence Staff \u2013 the top most military position &#8211;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>and was recently promoted to the rank of four star General.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cIt\u2019s time for UN Peacekeeping to show the Government of Sri Lanka that there are consequences for its promotion of alleged war criminals,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>in line with the Secretary General\u2019s principled stance on human rights and justice in Sri Lanka,\u201d<\/i> said Ms. Sooka. <i>\u201cPeacekeeping jobs are a privilege not a right and the latest OHCHR report makes it clear the country is not delivering on its commitments to the UN Human Rights Council.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":194494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","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>Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: 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\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: ITJP - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-02T17:43:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-02T19:46:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"749\" \/>\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\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/\",\"name\":\"Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: ITJP - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-02T17:43:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-02T19:46:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":749},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: 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":"Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: 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\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: ITJP - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2021-02-02T17:43:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-02-02T19:46:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":749,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.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\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/","name":"Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: ITJP - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-02T17:43:15+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-02T19:46:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg","width":1024,"height":749},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/suspend-deployment-of-sri-lankan-peacekeepers-itjp\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Suspend Deployment Of Sri Lankan Peacekeepers: 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\/2018\/10\/UN-peacekeeper-Sri-Lankan-Army.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216265","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=216265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216269,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216265\/revisions\/216269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}