SRI LANKAN PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE LOBBIES

C O N F I D E N T I A L GENEVA 001713 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/02/2017 TAGS: PHUM UNHRC PINR CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKAN PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE LOBBIES AGAINST HRC RESOLUTION; MAY LOOK TO CHINA FOR SUPPORT REF: GENEVA 1659 Classified By: Polcouns Velia M. De Pirro. Reason: E.O. 12958: 1.4 (b)( d) ¶1. (C) Recently arrived Sri Lanka Permanent Representative, Dayan Jayatilleka, used an introductory courtesy call with Ambassador Tichenor June 27 to lobby hard against any kind of resolution on Sri Lanka in the Human Rights Council. Jayatilleka stressed that Sri Lanka saw all country resolutions as bad, including consensus resolutions focused on technical assistance and cooperation. He noted the role of the European Union (EU),particularly the United Kingdom, in efforts in the fall of 2006 to gain Sri Lanka's consent to a consensus resolution that would have some kind of role for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Sri Lanka. He speculated that the UK's interest in the resolution was partially motivated by the government's need to attract voters among the UK's Tamil communities in upcoming elections. (Note: Under the EU's burdensharing agreement in Geneva, the UK had the lead in negotiations on the Sri Lanka resolution, which remains pending.) Jayatilleka also dismissed EU assistance to Sri Lanka as insignificant and said that if the EU continued to pressure the GOSL on human rights issues, Sri Lanka would turn to China for funding and guns. ¶2. (C) Jayatilleka went on say that the international community's (IC) focus on human rights violations by the government was misguided and would lead to a backlash against the IC by the Sri Lankan people. He pointed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa's June meetings in Geneva with NGOs, UN agencies, and High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, as an example of Sri Lanka's cooperation with the international community and UN human rights mechanisms. He noted that the GOSL would not consider any type of monitoring mission in Sri Lanka until all other UN human rights mechanisms had been exhausted. Although Jayatilleka pointed to the government's agreement in principle to a visit by Arbour as indicative of GOSL cooperation, he said that the July dates requested by Arbour posed problems since the GOSL does not want a report, especially a negative one, in September. He said the government is considering dates in September, which would mean the High Commissioner would not report until the November-December session of the Council. 
In addition to considering a visit by Arbour, the GOSL has invited the Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, and the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to visit later this year. ¶3. (C) Jayatilleka stressed the brutality of the Tamil Tigers and their failure to honor commitments as proof that they could not be trusted to negotiate in good faith or to be included in a process to monitor human rights violations by all sides. He said that the Tigers were a situation to be dealt with by the GOSL. Jayatilleka was adamant that no permanent presence by the OHCHR would be accepted in Sri Lanka. Further rejecting international human rights monitoring, Jayatilleka added that Sri Lanka would be happy to discuss human rights concerns and the spread of democracy after it had dealt with the Tamil Tigers. Comment -------------- ¶4. (C) Mission suspects that the GOSL is thinking of the UNGA Third Committee session, which ends in November, in its rejection of a July visit by High Commissioner Arbour. A negative report in September could lead to action at the September Council session and/or follow-up action in the Third Committee. A negative report to the HRC in November-December could not have follow up in the Third Committee. End comment. ¶5. (U) CV Provided by Mission of Sri Lanka: H.E. Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka presented his credentials as Permanent Representative of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland on 6 June ¶2007. He has also been appointed Consul General of Sri Lanka to Switzerland and Ambassador to the Holy See. Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka, who is a well known political analyst, is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is also a member of the Council of Management of the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) and the editorial board of its journal, and is a regular commentator in the media. He served as Minister of Planning & Youth Affairs in the North-East Provincial Council in 1988-89. Ambassador Jayatilleka, who holds a First Class Honours degree in Political Science from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, recently completed his Ph.D. at the Department of Politics and Public Policy, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He obtained his MPhil from the University of Colombo in October 2002. He was also a Fulbright Scholar in 1982-83. He was educated at St. Josephs College Colombo, Aquinas University College Colombo, Peradeniya University, at the State University of New York at Binghamton and Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka, who has a distinguished academic record, is also author of numerous publications including "Sri Lanka: The Travails of a Democracy: Unfinished War, Protracted Crisis" (1995) and the forthcoming book entitled "Fidel's Ethics of Violence: The Moral Dimension of the Political Thought of Fidel Castro" to be published in September 2007 by Pluto Press (London) and the University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbour). Ambassador Jayatilleka is the son of the late Mervyn and Lakshmi de Silva. He was born in 1956 and is married to Sanja de Silva, an accountant and chartered secretary. End text. TICHENOR