Barely few days ahead of the United Nations Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Sri Lanka has begun a no-holds-barred attack on its “enemies”, is making fervent appeals to countries it considers friends, and is galvanising support back home in a bid to cash in on the siege mentality it is trying to create.
Varied numbers
The issue at the Rights Council relates to Sri Lanka's unwillingness to admit to civilian deaths during the end stages of Eelam War IV (January-May 2009). While one pro-Sri Lanka academic, Rohan Gunaratne, put the number killed at around 1,500, a few in the Sri Lankan hierarchy have admitted to deaths being in the range of 2,800 to 3,000. The United Nations Secretary-General's Expert Panel on Accountability in Sri Lanka has said that upwards of 40,000 civilians were killed. The second issue relates to Sri Lanka delaying any kind of political solution to the Tamils of the Northern Province, where the Tamil Tigers held sway for over three decades.
The UNHRC session will witness a resolution against Sri Lanka, which will cite the lack of progress on the promises it had made earlier on a political solution to the Tamils of the Northern Province, and also on make adverse comments on the complete absence of accountability and respect for human rights during the end stages of the war. The United States has made it clear that it will support a resolution of this nature. Canada, United Kingdom, and most of Europe, are likely to demand greater accountability for war crimes.
In Geneva, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris warned on Wednesday that any adverse resolution on Sri Lanka will impede the process of reconciliation at this crucial juncture. He held consultations with a wide range of diplomats, while another Minister, and President Mahinda Rajapakasa's Special Envoy on Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, revealed ahead of leaving for Geneva that a task force would be set up to expedite the human rights action plan. Mr. Samarasinghe, the head of the delegation in the last session of the UNHRC, came under attack for his proposal from the opposition though. The Opposition Leader in Parliament, Ranil Wickramasinghe, asked how such a national action plan could by-pass Parliament and reach Geneva.
On another plane, stopping short of accusing United States of mischief, Sri Lankan Permanent Representative to the United Nations Tamara Kunanayakam said on Wednesday that an e-mail “purporting to have originated from the Mission of the United States to the United Nations and other International Organisations at Geneva, signed by one Miriam Shahrzard Schive had been sent to Member States of the Human Rights Council and Diplomatic Missions in Geneva”.
She said that the e-mail “creates the impression that diplomatic officials of the U.S. have been in close contact with the Government of Sri Lanka, as well as this Mission, to work, “collaboratively on issues of accountability (in Sri Lanka) and the implementation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission's Report”. She said that Sri Lanka had “continued to openly and comprehensively brief the international community in Geneva and elsewhere of all recent developments… We have received wide spread support on the endorsement of the principle, that a domestic mechanism must be given the time, space and given the necessary impetus to achieve its objectives.”
Restarting talks
Meanwhile, in a widely publicised move, Mr. Rajapaksa met Tamil National Alliance Leader R. Sampathan, in a bid to find some common ground. The talks between the government and the TNA on finding a political solution had all but stalled, and both have since reworked their positions, after meeting with representatives from the U.S. and India.
Keywords: Sri Lanka human rights issue
This is an internal matter for Sri Lankans to resolve and we in India must not get sucked into this issue. We have enough problems as it is from our own "militant" (aka Terrorist) groups who are currently carrying out all kinds of gory killings on our very soil - yes, they all have a "beef" just as the LTTE had/has in Sri Lanka. Just as we Indian would not want to see China get involved in our internal affairs, we must respect Sri Lanka's sovereignty and resist calls from these LTTE-remnants to get involved and support their agenda. After all, the last time we got involved, the LTTE made sure it sent a couple of thousands of our army personnel back home in body-bags. Once bitten, twice shy should be our motto here. We cannot expect to eradicate terrorism in India if we are going to play the utter hypocrite vis-à-vis terrorism in our own neighborhood.
I cannot see how Sri Lanka can ever move on from its present state of being accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. I say this because the very people who are supposedly setting up enquiries about such matters in Sri lanka are the very people accused of the crimes. I refer here to the current regime of the Rajapakse family. If this family have nothing to hide why exactly are they spending huge amounts of money and expending enormous amounts of energy trying to avoid a proper independent international enquiry ? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out the answer to that.
India fought along side Srilanka to wipe out LTTE. Now the time has come for the Indians to take the side of human rights and stand up against Srilanka’s racist regime. The future of the Tamils in Srilanka lies in the hands of India.
The official report of the United Nations Secretary General’s Expert Panel on Accountability issues in Sri Lanka, "that upwards of 40,000 civilians were killed," is a blood chilling account,and all those from top to bottom, including military commanders in charge of this cold blooded, ghastly carnage, must be brought to justice in the Internatinal Court of Justice in The Hague, as a warning to others. They, as followers of Buddha, failed miserably in being gracious in victory.
People all over the world would want the Sinhalese and the Tamils to live together in peace, taking inspiration from Switzerland where three language groups live in perfect harmony, to the admiration of the entire world! Prayers must be offered regularly in Buddhist and Hindu temples, Christian churches and Muslim mosques for
this noble cause.
The Sri Lankan govt admitted that there are over 90,0000 war widows in North and East of the country. Yet another 10,000 women must have killed with their husband. There must over 10,000 widows fled the country. So it is obvious over 110,000 males between the age of 25 and 75 must have been killed during the war. War never kills men alone. There must be over 100,000 females of the same age group must have killed. If so over 100,000 children must have killed. The total number of people killed during the war is over 300,000. Saying that over 40,000 killed during war is not the truth.
Sri Lanka once again is trying very hard to mislead the International Community eg: by setting up another last minute investigation into Army's rights violations by the Army. Decades of political suppression, violation of human rights, war crimes etc in that nation for Tamils and other minority population, it's now time to act convincingly for India and other Nations -no time for political hypocracy for any nations in the interest of justice, reconciliation & long term solution.
Please Email the Editor