Sri Lankan society — which has experienced two violent youth insurgencies and a 27-year terrorist onslaught during the critical part of its development trajectory — is one that is now gradually coming into its own.
Sri Lanka's decision to engage the Liberation Tiger terrorists militarily in 2006 followed their arrogant refusal to return to peace negotiations and their persistent resort to unbridled terrorism. The massive toll on civilian lives, public assets, religious and world heritage sites, vital economic assets and the immense suffering of civilians could no longer be tolerated by a responsible and democratically elected Government.
Sri Lanka respects and firmly identifies with the principles underlined in the thematic resolutions adopted by the Security Council since 1999. It will continue to strengthen its human rights framework as the security situation further improves.
Pivotal to civilian protection is the partnership based on trust that was established with United Nations agencies and other humanitarian actors on the ground. Trust is the first casualty of any subtle politicization or assumption of a judgmental approach by external entities, which invariably upsets the delicate balance between the parties in such situations.
As has been repeatedly emphasized, our military engagement with the Liberation Tigers was clearly based on a well defined distinction between the terrorists and the Tamil civilians, and its goal was a humanitarian rescue operation to relieve approximately 300,000 civilians held as human shields and used as a bargaining chip by the terrorists. The terrorists were not averse to locating heavy weapons amidst those innocent civilians.
The challenges ahead also concern the implementation of normative standards. We support the use of benchmarks, which would facilitate monitoring the implementation of those standards and peacekeeping mandates.
Slovenia believes that the Council must increasingly focus on preventing conflict, including through early warning, as failure to do so bears only grave consequences for the affected civilians.
Situation-specific resolutions have increasingly called for prioritizing the protection of civilians in the implementation of peacekeeping mandates. They have requested missions to develop protection strategies.
Last year was an important year in the Security Council for the issue of the protection of civilians. Resolution 1894 (2009) introduced new provisions that focus on humanitarian access, the implementation of protection measures in peacekeeping missions, and monitoring and reporting. In the past year, the Council also took several important decisions related to the special protection needs of women and children.
