IFUNHRC resolution...

Samarasinghe flew from Geneva to the Ecuadorian capital of Quito after Thursday's voting. There, he will join a delegation led by Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa who is taking part in the 128th General Assembly sessions of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU).

After the passage of the resolution, Goro Onojima, Secretary of the Council reported that additional UN funding to the tune of $ 105,000 (over Rs. 13 million) would be required for just five months for work related to the resolution. This includes carrying out substantive research, liaise and consult with relevant stakeholders, produce draft texts and coordinate the submission, editing and publication of requested reports and conference services for translation of the report.

The Government's headaches are not over. Another area where the adoption of Thursday's resolution would be felt is the plan now under way for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November this year. Last Tuesday, members of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CIMAG) together with Britain held a strictly informal tele-conference ahead of their scheduled meeting in midApril. The member countries are Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Jamaica, the Maldives (now suspended), Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu. According to diplomatic sources, the speakers at the tele-conference noted that there was still no agenda formulated for the CMAG meeting. They also noted that the CMAG had no mandate to decide on cancellation of a venue for CHOGM. They deal with only serious or persistent violations of Commonwealth's fundamental political values enshrined in Harare and the Latimer House principles.

Different sections of the Government have blamed different parties for the passage of the UNHRC resolution. Whilst some accused the overseas remnants of Tiger guerrillas or their supporters, others said this was an 'international conspiracy' against Sri Lanka. Yet others directed their anger at the United States, and India. On Thursday, the National Freedom Front (NFF) whose leader Wimal Weerawansa is a cabinet minister, staged a protest outside the US Embassy at Kollupitiya. Joint portraits of President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which some protestors carried bore two lines. One called them 'Idots' (presumably 'Idiots'), but the other is unprintable. To say it more politely, it challenged the paternity and maternity of the two leaders.

Other than the flak the Government has been forced to take, some brought upon by a literally non-functioning External Affairs Ministry, one of the lessons from the recent events in Geneva is the need for an urgent self-appraisal of the situation.

The focus, in the absence of what has remained a cohesive strategy, would be to identify where things went wrong. That would, among other matters, no doubt, reveal that a clear foreign policy initiative is absent. Instead, the domestic practice of naming and shaming those not in agreement with the official view, whether right or wrong, has extended to external affairs. Delegation leader Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe cast serious aspersions on the integrity of UN High Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay in his main speech. As a result, the US and its allies tightened some provisions of the resolution to acknowledge Ms.Pillay's initiatives. It was only last year that she began her second four-year term. According to government sources at least one member of the Sri Lanka delegation to Geneva, described as a speechwriter, has now come under close scrutiny. Checks are being made to ascertain whether he obtained official approval before departing Colombo.

There are also other domestic political compulsions as a result of the passage of the resolution. According to highly placed government sources, legal advisors are working on a 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Contrary to earlier plans where it related to restricting the term of the Chief Justice, these sources say, the purpose now was different. It was to make provision to enable a President to contest after he had completed three years in office instead of the existing requirement of four years. Such amendments, if the draft now being worked on is accepted, would also seek to reduce the term of President from the current six years to five. A number of other provisions are also being worked on.

If indeed these amendments are passed, the sources say, Presidential elections are likely early next year. The latest US resolution would mean that in September, at the UNHRC 24th sessions an oral update will be given by the High Commissioner for Human Rights. By March, next year, it will be followed by a discussion at the 25th session. It would be the time when the US and its allies would embark on their next move at the Council. Accusations that provisions of the resolution have not been implemented may force another resolution calling for punitive action. The challenges that lay are many.

Former Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama says that diplomacy is not one of switching on and switching off. That no doubt is a moot point. He underscores the need for engagement with not only those friendly but perceived enemies. There are definitely no alternatives to diplomatic hara-kiri or grand standing through press releases. It is Sri Lanka and its people that will suffer most.