Anger as rights abuse office’s Sri Lanka mandate renewed
Everest climber dies in avalanche
AT LEAST 26 people have been killed after an avalanche struck climbers in the Indian Himalayas, officials said last Friday (7), with bad weather hampering search and rescue efforts.
A group of 41 climbing trainees and their teachers were caught in last Tuesday’s (4) massive snowslide near the summit of Mount Draupadi ka Danda II in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
“We retrieved 26 bodies so far – 24 of them were trainees and two bodies are those of instructors,” an official from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, a government agency, said.
Three members of the expedition remained missing, the official added.
Among those killed was Savita Kanswal, who had summited Everest this year. She was an instructor with the expedition and had been feted by the climbing community for summiting the world’s highest peak and nearby Makalu in just 16 days – a women’s record.
Uttarakhand state disaster agency spokesperson Ridhim Aggarwal said 32 people had been rescued from the site. An update from the Uttarkashi district disaster management agency later clarified the figure included 20 people at the trek’s advance base camp who had not been hit by the avalanche.
Sunil Lalwani, one of the rescued trainee climbers, credited the instructors for saving many lives, media reports said.
“We were 50-100 metres from the summit with our instructors ahead of us, when suddenly an avalanche hit us,” Lalwani said. “It happened in a matter of seconds... It’s because of them that we are alive today.”
CHINA AND PAKISTAN JOIN COLOMBO CRITICISM OF UN VOTE OVER ‘WAR CRIMES’ INVESTIGATION
THE UN rights body last Thursday (7) renewed the mandate of a UN office to collect evidence of alleged wartime human rights crimes in Sri Lanka, despite opposition from the government and allies including China.
The resolution brought by Britain,
Canada, the United States and others passed with 20 votes in favour and seven against at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. China and several other countries supported Sri Lanka’s view that the monitoring amounted to meddling.
“Sri Lanka categorically rejects the resolution presented without our consent, despite our efforts to engage with the main sponsors,” foreign minister Ali Sabry said, rejecting it as “rambling” and a “drain on resources”. China, a close ally of Sri Lanka, voted against the resolution, which it called an example of “politicisation” of human rights issues. Pakistan called the resolution “intrusive”.
India, which has extended the most financial support during the island’s financial crisis this year, was among 20 countries in the 47-member council which abstained.
The resolution renews the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to observe Sri Lanka’s progress towards establishing a credible investigation into alleged war crimes during the civil war that ended in 2009, and promote demilitarisation of its north and eastern regions.
The renewed resolution also called for the government to investigate and prosecute former and current public officials who triggered the country’s worst financial crisis in more than seven decades, plunging the population of 22 million into soaring inflation, currency depreciation and severe food and fuel shortages.
The resolution follows a report by the UN high commissioner released in September that encourages the international community to support Sri Lanka, but also address the underlying causes of the crisis, “including impunity for human rights violations and economic crimes” by officials.
The council voiced concern at the human rights impact of the crisis. It called for those responsible for violence against peaceful protesters and government supporters that resulted in deaths, injuries and destruction to be held to account.
It also urged a “comprehensive accountability process” for rights violations and abuses and extended the UN rights office’s capacity to collect evidence for future accountability for serious violations.
The council called on Colombo to ensure a safe environment “in which civil society can operate free from hindrance, surveillance, insecurity and threat of reprisals”.
In addition, it asked the UN rights office to enhance its reporting on the situation, with oral and written updates at future Human Rights Council sessions.
“We strongly object to the draft resolution pronouncing on domestic, economic and financial policy matters which are outside the framework of this forum,” Sabry said ahead of the vote.
“Solutions to economic and financial crises faced today by many countries will not be found in the mandate, instruments or expertise of this Council.”
It mandates the UN rights office to prepare a comprehensive report for release in 2024, essentially giving Sri Lanka two more years to meet its rights-related obligations.
India said it would work with Sri Lanka to achieve the aspirations of the Tamil minority.
Rights group Amnesty International welcomed the resolution, but said more needed to be done.
“The adoption of the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution reflects the need for continuing international scrutiny on Sri Lanka,” said its deputy regional director for south Asia, Dinushika Dissanayake.
Sri Lanka’s then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country in July after widespread riots.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe is tasked with tackling the country’s heavy debt burden, maintaining political stability and finalising a $2.9 billion (£2.62bn) bailout plan from the International Monetary Fund.