UK, US SHOULD TELL UN TO WITHDRAW: NASEBY

SRI LANKA KNEW THEY WERE INNOCENT OF THE CHARGES MADE BOTH THE UK AND THE US MUST KNOW THEIR ACTIONS TOTAL UNDERMINE THE UN CHARTER AND ITS HUMAN RIGHTS PROVISIONS

Lord Naseby, the President of the All Party British Sri Lanka Parliamentary Group, said this after reading the UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee report published on June 28 entitled Detainee Mistreatment and Rendition 2001 – 2010.

In a statement on Saturday, Lord Naseby said he was shocked and appalled that the UK should not only condone Torture and extensive mistreatment of prisoners but actually in certain cases instigate it.

“To me as a senior Politician of 44 years in Parliament whatever the threats may be, such practices are totally unacceptable. As I read the report I reflected on the nearly 30 years of fighting in Sri Lanka between the forces of the democratically elected Government and the LTTE Tamil Tigers, the worst Terrorist Body in the World and proscribed in over 30 countries: a War that only ended on May 18, 2009 with the total defeat of the Tamil Tigers,” he said.

He said he thought how could it be that Countries most critical of Sri Lanka’s action to defeat the LTTE so much so that they the UK and the US felt it necessary to jointly sponsor a critical Human Rights Motion whilst at the same time being complicit in atrocious Human Rights abuses.

“It is totally unacceptable. Sri Lanka knew they were innocent of the charges made with proof coming through from the extraction of Colonel Gash’s Despatches by Lord Naseby under the Freedom of Information Act. There ever increasing evidence that the numbers of civilians killed were never anywhere near the 40,000 claimed by the UN; possibly as low as 5,0006,000 nor that there was ever a policy to kill civilians,” Lord Naseby said. He said now they know the truth that the UK and the US were really guilty themselves of atrocities.

“In my opinion, these two nations should now tell the Human Rights Commission in Geneva to withdraw the motion against Sri Lanka.after all, it is already clear that good progress is being made to find out the missing persons, enact a new Prevention of Terrorism Act and create an independent Truth & Reconciliation Commission. Both the UK and the US must know their actions total undermine the UN Charter and its Human Rights provisions,” he said.

He said even now they do not know the whole truth behind ‘Detainee Mistreatment & Rendition’ including torture as the UK Government has refused to publish all the material they have. “One wonders why in terms of Sri Lanka the UK government refused to release the Gash Despatches in full. It is increasingly clear to me that these refusals may well hide data that in the case of Sri Lanka will exonerate the actions of Sri Lanka’s forces or they will expose some actions that the UN/ UK/USA took to undermine Sri Lanka and their publication would in effect fully vindicate Sri Lanka,” he said.

Both the UK and the US must know their actions total undermine the UN Charter and its Human Rights provisions