SL offers combat aircraft to UN

16 June 2011 05:29 pm Views - 9728

Sri Lanka has offered to supply the United Nations with three Mi-24 attack helicopters and a pair of fixed wing aircraft, a pledge that would help the UN meet a severe a shortfall in lethal combat equipment in places like the Congo and Sudan and help protect civilians, UN based officials told ‘Turtle Bay’ news agency.

But the UN may not be able to accept them.

The Sri Lankan armed forces have come under scrutiny for allegedly committing mass atrocities during the final 2009 offensive against the country's separatist Tamil Tigers. A decision to accept the Sri Lankan offer would not only generate controversy but potentially trigger a U.S. review of Sri Lanka's human rights conduct.

Under the so-called Leahy law, written by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) the State Department is required to vet the human rights records of foreign military contingents serving in UN peacekeeping missions, if there is reason to believe they may have been engaged in atrocities.

The Sri Lankan pledge appears calculated to improve Sri Lanka's relationship with the United Nations at a time when it is facing mounting U.N. pressure to hold alleged war criminals within the army's ranks accountable for crimes, according to U.N. officials. It would certainly be harder, they say, to criticize Colombo if the organization was dependent on its air force for vital assets in combat.

Peacekeepers from other countries, including Rwanda, have faced scrutiny over alleged rights abuses. The Rwanda government threatened to withdraw its peacekeeping force from Darfur, Sudan, after the U.N. moved to force out a Rwandan commander, General Karake Karenzi, who was allegedly involved in rights abuses in Rwanda and eastern Congo during the mid to late 1990s. The United States backed Karenzi, despite internal U.S. government concerns about his rights record.

Sri Lanka has participated in U.N. peacekeeping operations for more than 50 years, and it currently has more than 1,200 blue helmets serving in U.N. missions.
(turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com)