David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Suspected Sri Lankan ‘war criminal’, Shavendra Silva, former top military commander, played an alleged key role in the slaughter of 40,000 civilians and is also accused of clipping down separatist political group leaders, killed at gun-point, in the midst of surrender; now sits in a pool of full diplomatic immunity at the United Nations. The Srilankan government has expressed no interest in holding this human rights abuser accountable, as evident with their latest appointment of a war criminal as ‘deputy permanent U.N. representative’.
“Thousands were killed or starved. There were massive human-rights violations and he’s the No. 1 suspect,” said the investigator, a human-rights group expert who asked not to be identified.
Now, the UN panel has a war criminal, a man with first-hand knowledge of the slayings, coming into the UN to represent Sri-Lanka.
Human-rights groups are outraged that Shavendra Silva, 46, a top ex-military commander, was named Sri Lanka’s deputy permanent U.N. representative in August, after which he moved to New York.
His arrival came a year after his troops defied international pleas and shelled a no-fire zone packed with women, children and elderly refugees, according to observers.
“It’s a slap in the face,” said an investigator familiar with Silva, who last year oversaw the final months of a brutal 26-year civil war against Tamil separatists on the island nation off India’s southeastern tip.
The war started in 1983 after the Tamils, a Hindu ethnic minority, were denied power by the ruling Sinhalese, Buddhists, and formed a violent resistance group, the Tamil Tigers.
Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva’s presence in New York coincides with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon setting up a panel of experts to advise him on accountability for human rights violations during the final stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka.
It was after the New York Times published an article critical of the Sri Lankan Government’s appointment of Major General Shavendra Silva as the Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN that a journalist questioned the acting Dpt. Spokesman of UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon whether Silva will be interviewed by the expert panel.
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed a panel of experts to advise him on Sri Lanka’s alleged violations of human rights and humanitarian law during the last stages of the war against LTTE.
He was further questioned on whether the final report of the findings of the Expert Panel will be made public, the Farhan Haq, Acting Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said that, “We’ll have to see. As you know, it is an internal body, but it will be up to the Secretary-General to determine what he makes public once he received that information.”
In a phone interview from London, Mr. Keenan said it appeared to be more than a coincidence that Gen. Silva would be appointed to the mission in New York at the same time as Mr. Ban set up the panel of experts.
“So it seems fair to assume that he is trying to influence it, which is the right of the Sri Lankan government. But I think that is disturbing that someone who himself was involved in the very incidents that the U.N. has begun looking into should have any chance to influence the panel’s operations,” Mr. Keenan said.
For more information, please see:
The Washington Times – Sri Lankan war crimes suspect get post as representative to U.N. – 5 December 2010
Live Lanka – UN not sure whether Expert Panel will interview Shavendra Silva – 11 December 2010
FOX news – ‘War criminal’ gets a UN job – 21 November 2010
Free Malayasia Today – ‘War Criminal’ gets a UN job – 8 December 2010
