Writing in the UK's The Guardian, Callum Macraw, the director of the documentaries 'No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka', said that the UN "was given its first real test by the last few months of the war in Sri Lanka; it failed, shamefully and catastrophically."
See here for full opinion piece, extract reproduced below:
See here for full opinion piece, extract reproduced below:
"Two years ago the Commonwealth of Nations pledged a renewed commitment to its core principles of "democracy, the rule of law and human rights". If Sri Lanka hosts the next meeting of Chogm, normal practice decrees that its president will assume the chairmanship of the Commonwealth for the next two years. And so a regime accused of some of the worst war crimes of this century will be in charge of the Commonwealth's drive for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. As Human Rights Watch has observed, this is a situation that will hold the Commonwealth up to ridicule; and it is a decision Cameron appears to have endorsed.
The Commonwealth is not the only important international organisation involved – there is also the UN. The UN's Responsibility to Protect – formally adopted in 2005 – was given its first real test by the last few months of the war in Sri Lanka; it failed, shamefully and catastrophically.
The Rajapaksa regime has had more than four years to launch a credible independent investigation into the war crimes. It has shown itself neither willing nor capable of doing so. Such inquiries as it has made have been transparently bogus and internal repression is worsening – apparently encouraged by the failure of the world to seriously engage.
As a result it is increasingly likely that in March next year the UNHRC will call for an international inquiry into the crimes. If it cannot even manage that, it will give a green light to Rajapaksa, Assad and their kind, who slaughter their own citizens in confident expectation of impunity. Perhaps even more seriously, it will send a message to the beleaguered Sri Lankan opponents of the Rajapaksa regime that they are on their own.
As for the Commonwealth, if it expects to survive as a credible advocate of democracy and human rights, Cameron must raise objections to it being led by a regime accused of these crimes."