Cuba blocks thorough review of Sri Lanka

As expected, Cuba’s seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council has already become an obstacle to the process of investigation and recognition of gross human rights offenses. Yesterday Cuba succeeded in blocking debate on abuses in Sri Lanka, which many countries have pushed for after the extreme violence that rocked the country earlier this month. As the Sri Lankan government declared an end to the 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels, the military closed off a conflict zone, driving hundreds of thousands of civilians from their homes and killing thousands of people cornered at the coast. It is not clear how many unarmed civilians may have been killed in the conflict, and human rights monitors from the United Nations have never been allowed to deploy in the country.

Several EU countries (e.g. France, Britain, Germany) called for an investigation into possible war crimes during the conflict, and indeed, the UN Human Rights Chief wondered whether the area might have become a “killing field.” Sri Lanka put forth a written statement of the situation in the country at the request of the UN Human Rights Council, and included mentions of human rights abuses committed by Tamil Tigers but none by the military. This seemed too convenient to many EU countries, including Germany and Switzerland, but Cuba retorted, calling the European countries “arrogant” for trying to completely rewrite the Sri Lankan text.

EU countries (and the United States) might not have their hands clean in terms of human rights, as some have pointed out in this case, but that is no reason to allow abuses in yet another country—or to avoid investigating whether they are occuring. And Cuba, meanwhile, is revealing yet again its unwillingness to make a high priority of human rights.