“Let us not lose the victory achieved by war heroes by sacrificing their lives” read one placard at a pro-government rally soon after the draft of the U.S.-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka, at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was available in the public domain.
That rally was on February 27. Since then Colombo, and many parts of Sri Lanka, have witnessed rallies, some on their own, some encouraged by the government. In fact, it's protest season and every community and organisation, which depend or want the government to do them a favour, are falling over one another to join in. The protest is against the foreign powers. At most of the rallies, leaders denounce many countries, notably the U.S., U.K., Norway, and European Union in general. Surprisingly, there was little anti-India rhetoric.
In fact, on March 13, Minister Wimal Weerawansa, called for a boycott of American products. The National Freedom Front leader wanted people to boycott even Google. Of course, no one seems to have taken him seriously.
The resolution comes up this week, and hence, last week saw the maximum number of protests. The theme as seen from the placards is: “Keep off Sri Lanka. We know how to deal with our problems.” The rallies also blamed the opposition United National Party, which has not publicly criticised the Geneva move. “UNP, do not betray the country” one placard read.
Last week, it was the turn of the organised professionals, monks, trade unions, Muslims, and Tamils to protest. A group of Muslims, who protested in front of the United Nations Development Programme office here on March 15, demanded that the “UNHRC allow Sri Lankans to live peacefully”. Another placard asked where the UNHRC was when the LTTE massacred the Muslims at the height of its segregation campaign. “Our support”, one placard made it clear, was “to protect our motherland”.
Many organisations that seem to have been floated recently have also joined in with statements. One such statement came from “working professionals and trade union members” under the banner of an outfit named National Organization for the Protecting the Country. It described the resolution as an “unwelcome action”.
What confirms the suspicions who is behind the protests was the fact that one such was organised in Jaffna. Ever since Sri Lanka took control of the northern province, nothing happens in the area without the Army being informed about it. The last protest in Jaffna was against India — in front of the Consulate — demanding its fishermen stay off Sri Lankan waters. The March 17 protest attracted a sizeable crowd, including former LTTE cadre, who were rehabilitated into society. One poster was telling: “Emadhu naatirkku velinaattu soozchigal vendam.” (Our country does not need conspiracies by foreigners!).
Keywords: UNHRC, LTTE, Sri Lanka war crimes
If Tamil people go back to Tamil Nadu, then all problems will go away.
Tamil people are unable to live in harmony with Sri lankans.
If you do a war without witness you will have to face this
situation.This is what happened to SL government.They thought that when
India,China,Russia is with them,no one could question them.Today the
Drama changed dramatically.My congrats to India again.They are spending
millions to get people and protest against this resolution world wide
but they cannot run away with these allegations.God will punish all
these murderers.
"We don't think of this as a symbolic vote," Ms. Donahoe said in an interview.
India, Now what is your opinion ?
Being with US ignoring SL is a historically wrong. US will not be with India always.
From 3 participating parties of Elam war now only SL army and Indian army is there. What a stupid decision by Indian Government
the LTTE tried to control part of our mother land. they couldn’t do it. now they are trying to get us in trouble by saying we committed war crimes. all the LTTE supporters including channel 4 and jayalalitha are doing all they can to gain a separate country for Tamils. our army did not commit war crimes. the LTTE did. they killed un-armed people by hundreds. they set up bombs everywhere including temples and killed people. they recruited kids aged 12 for the war. They introduced suicide bombing.
Tamil people came running to army controlled area at the last stage of war coz the LTTE used their own as a human shield.
ex-LTTE people are being given jobs by the SL gov.
if USA and others are so worried about human rights, why didn’t they speak up when ltte killed people?
and when they kill Osama its ok when we kill prabha, its a crime? Jealous much?
hello? wake up. they both are terrorists.
channel 4 type of false videos mean nothing. just watch youtube videos about ltte bomb blasts if you want to know the real thing
what would USA do if a group of people wanted part of their country and that group killed people in hope of getting a separate country? They would fight right? That’s what we did too.
We love normal Tamil people, Tamil food, the saris and the Tamil movies too. We love living in the same country in peace with them. It’s the terrorists that we destroyed.
So don’t be fooled by the terrorists. Open your eyes and see the truth. please…
During the war time, we were always afraid we didn’t know when a bomb would blast killing people. when we went out in the morning we were not sure if we would be able to return home alive.
Now we live in a peaceful country and we are happy. For gods sake, I share my lunch with a Tamil friend so stop trying to portray us as monsters. we are very friendly and innocent people. We are Buddhists. we don’t hurt other people.
@Shiva Apartheid? You must be talking about India, right? In Sri Lanka
the policy is one country for all - no land divisions by ethnic group.
You can shout all you want, and pass resolutions - Sri Lanka will not
waver.
@Leela. Thanks for your eye-opener. So yes all war crime in Lanka was committed by India and the Tamils in Sri-lanka as the Sri-lankan govt. was mere spectators and pacifiers! For the first time the cruelty of this Govt. going to be addressed in an International arena. No one cares whether its driven by US, UK, etc. Its just that the truth is being brought out! By the way where do you think the weapons for Sri-lankan army coming from? are they indigenous products?
Suppose America or European Union sponsors a similar UN resolution tomorrow on Kashmir - Are we going to honour it?
Any country that votes for the American resolution in Geneva against Sri Lanka will, in so doing, not only endorse the American double standards on human rights but also give the America carte blanche to use human rights as a weapon against the countries that refuse to toe its line, while protecting the worst war criminals and human rights violators.
The comment made by LEELA i am afraid shows her blatant racism. The people voting for the UN resolution on Sri Lankas human rights abuses are not all white people as she would suggest. Many people of African and Asian origin ( not neccesarily Tamils ) are supporting this resolution in the UK. Human rights are nothing to do with the colour of your skin , as is anything else.
By the way , regarding the US who are the sponsors of this resolution, last time i looked their president was not a white man.
SRI LANKA will not give nor they dont allow a third party solution to solve the national problem of Sri lanka.the tamils demanded a domestic solution from 1947 till 1977 by only non violant protests within the democratic lines. the problem would have been solved if the Banda-Selva pact or Dudley-Selva pact implemented in the sixtees. However the hardline Sinhala Extremists sometimes partners of the then governments never allowed any solution for the tamils and their violant reactions led the tamils to take arms to protect themselves.the extremists protested against the 1987 Indo lanka pact and the Norway sponsored 2002 ceasfire agreement. today while the problems of tamils continue in the same way and with the fall of the armed struggle in 2009 by taking advantage of the situation the same Sinhala extremists succeeded to some extent to fullfill their dreams by occupying the tamil areas and destroy the cultural identities and colonise the tamil villages with their sinhala military.
SL state has been and still is a failed terrorist state which gave birth to the violent JVP in the early 1970s and the violent LTTE in the late 1970s on account of its warped policies and murderous actions. Hopefully those who cherish human freedom and values will vote for the US and other countries Resolution to hold SL accountable for its murderous actions with impunity and put in place a system aimed at good governance for all its citizens and justice. The removal of the treacherous and draconian PTA which has institutionalised murder and all evil actions by state agents will go a long away in alleviating a lot of the suffering of people even after the end of the internecine war.
India should always be on the side of "what is right and humane" even
if the its immediate interests lie on the other side, even if the
power blocs of the world lie on the other side because its very
important for us to remain faithful to the values that brought us our
freedom and that's why we were able to unite India for the first time
in the history of the subcontinent on August 15, 1947 and more
importantly because we have to be true to our culture which is our
identity and which teaches us that just 5 men on the side of Dharma
and fighting for "what is right, just and humane" can beat 100 men on
the side of adharma. By dharma I mean justice, truth, duty towards
humanity and adharma means its opposite. If the Sri Lankans have dome
wrong with tamils and abused humanity then India should support the
resolution and ensure justice for Sri Lankan Tamils.
Leela, we don't need your advice, you cheated the world that you will
give equal rights to Tamils and in turn systematically raped and
killed them. Don't you have any shame on posting your comment here?.
If your "Rogue"Pakse is so confident, why cant he conduct free and
fair referendum on what Tamil Needs to do. Time is ripe for the birth
of Tamil Eelam, that would be the only assuage for all our Tamils,
especially the girls/kids who are raped and killed.
India is for Indians and not Srilankans, India will do as it people
aspires not that "Rogue"Pakse needs or his fellow racist Sinhalese
like you thinks. Don't ever scare us with your rallies, do you think
that you guys have a chance against US, Europe with the help of
Chinese?. This is the just beginning of the end, you have lost an
valuable friend in India.
India should not vote against Sri Lanka. China is waiting to make an
offer on those Mannar oil fields close to all of India's nuclear plants.
Very true owing to the fact that we were welcoming all refugees from Sri Lanka no matter what ethnicity when you had civil war based on ethnicity. This problem was never Internal to Sri Lanka. Genocide is a crime and war doesn't justify it.
Now if you really want to have a stand off , be bold and take back your citizens from my Nation and stop killing Indians in high seas. You cannot kill somebody for Fishing even if they gonna fish in your waters as per your claim as killing is never justified.
Else open free trade and try dissolving borders. Sell License to fish in your waters so that you get revenue out of it. This will help both of us.
After all we value friendship just as you do.
70% of the Tamils live among the Sinhalese not in the so called Ealam.
Anti India rhetoric was when India was training LTTE terrorists, and
when India violated our airspace, dropped lentils and save LTTE
leaders in 1987, and when India rammed 13A on Sri Lanka, and when
Indians fish in our waters, and not otherwise.
If India vote with white neo-colonialist liars, hypocrites and war
mongers against Sri Lanka then we shall consider India not as our
friend and therefore demonstrate against India as well.
Waste of time. SL will lose at UNHRC.
It is a failure of India and the Western nations that gave green signal to the Apartheid Sri Lankan regime without assessing its real intentions that is to eliminate Tamils from Eelam.
Even After the War Rajapakse denied access to the Intl Community, Journalists and NGOs as the regime continued with ethnic cleansing.
Similar to the US attack on Serbia to bring the Milosevic to the ICC should be done in Sri Lanka to bring the Rajapakse regime to face the law.
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