Hard-earned peace will not be compromised

The United Nations (UN) has come out strongly against human rights violations and its Human Rights Council (UHHRC) has been exerting undue pressure on Sri Lanka, highlighting only the final phase of the country's battle against terrorism.

While turning a blind eye to the human rights violations of the US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan and the American drone attacks in Pakistan like a toothless tiger, UNHRC chief Navi Pillay has evinced extraordinary concern about the human rights violations of the LTTE terrorists killed in action.

At a time the impartiality and transparency of the UN has been questioned by many around the world, the staff of the United Nations have now accused the world body and its Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of violating their human rights.

The worldwide Staff Union representatives of the UN took up these issues when they met the Secretary-General in the US last Wednesday.

The UN commemorated Human Rights Day this week amidst damning charges that the world body is unilaterally proposing drastic changes to the working conditions and salaries of staffers without due consultation, thereby violating their basic rights.

The Geneva-based United Nations Staff Union is protesting against "the withdrawal of the right to union recognition by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his refusal to honour negotiating rights for elected representatives of his employees".

The US has proposed an eight-percent pay cut while the UK, the largest contributing country, has asked the Secretary-General to slash costs further.

The UN's Geneva Staff Union President Ian Richards, in a letter to his colleagues, has said that the discussions on pensions have included a proposal to increase the staff contribution by one percent, reduce the organisation's contribution by one percent and review the two-track system.

Apart from Pillay, British Prime Minister David Cameron waxed eloquent on human rights and campaigns against Sri Lanka. To cap it all, he even went to the extent of unilaterally setting deadlines for Sri Lanka.

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known by the stage name Moliere and undoubtedly France's greatest playwright, had identified hypocrisy as the most protected by vices. This indeed is food for thought when one considers the Western hypocrisy on Sri Lanka.

Last month, more light was shed on the circumventions in Whitehall and Washington delaying the publication of the findings of Sir John Chilcot's marathon inquiry into the background of the Iraq invasion.

The UK's Chilcot Inquiry was convened under the then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, to sanction the decisions taken by the UK government and military, pre- and post-invasion. It ran from November 24, 2009 to February 2, 2011 at an estimated cost of 7.5 million sterling pounds. The unpublished report is believed to run into 1,000,000 words.

The British Prime Minister, during his tour to Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2013, unleashed an undiplomatic public tirade, alleging that his host country was guilty of war crimes during the battle against the LTTE.

Surprisingly, these accusations come from the very man who covers up the genesis of massacres of genocidal magnitude - and who enjoined in the near destruction of Libya, the resultant lynching of the country's leader, the murder of his sons and small grandchildren and others in another decimation of a country which had threatened no other, according to an article published in the Global Research.

Moreover, Cameron is also accused of backing funding for the cannibalistic-orientated insurgents in Syria, the beheading, dismembering, looting, displacing, kidnapping, chemical weapons lobbying, child killing, infanticide-bent crazies, including those from his own country.

Cameron demanded that Sri Lanka ensures "credible, transparent and independent investigations" and said if this did not happen by March 2014, the deadline he arbitrarily imposed, he would press the UN Human Rights Council to hold an international inquiry. Cameron has perhaps ignored the fact that Sri Lanka, in spite of its battle against terrorism, is the only country in South Asia to be rated high on the Human Development Index while the UK and its allies' recent victims - Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan barely make it to the bottom.

Cameron is at sixes and sevens as to how he could evade telling the truth to the Chilcot Inquiry whether he had read a letter from writer Lesley Docksey in The Independent of November 18 or not.

These are only a few instances where the UN and British leaders have shown their true colours, contrary to what they preach to countries such as Sri Lanka.

Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has said that foreigners "should not tell us what to do. We are not a pack of fools". He has called upon the TNA to arrive at a political settlement with the Government so that there would be no room for foreign intervention.

The Archbishop has warned of a possible foreign intervention unless Sri Lanka worked towards reconciliation and address allegations of war crimes during the battle against LTTE terrorists. This is precisely what the Government is engaged in at present.

Based on the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), a census is now under way to ascertain the exact number of persons killed, injured, victimised and the losses from 1982 to 2009 during the height of LTTE terror.

Needless to state that Sri Lanka is making a sincere and determined effort in reconciliation and implementing the key recommendations of the LLRC Report. The West should not impose anything on Sri Lanka and expect miracles overnight.

There is no need whatsoever for any international investigations as it would pose a serious threat to the country's sovereignty. The international community should bear in mind that barely four-and-a-half years have elapsed since Sri Lanka crushed three decades of brutal LTTE terrorism.

The Government has spared no pains to uplift the living standards of people in the North and the East who had been liberated from the clutches of LTTE terror. More importantly, people of all ethnic and religious persuasions are now living in perfect peace and harmony in all parts of the country. A population of nearly 21 million people - Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers, who had been subjected to mass-scale indiscriminate bomb explosions are now enjoying the dividends of peace.

The West should take cognizance of these positive developments as Sri Lanka marches towards new horizons. Harping on the human rights of Tiger terrorists killed in action would get us nowhere. Perhaps, some Western leaders may be doing so to appease the Tamil Diaspora and increase their vote bases through their adopted Tamils.

Be it Cameron or any other Western leader, nobody has the right to challenge a sovereign nation such as Sri Lanka. The masses have reposed implicit faith in President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the UPFA Government at successive elections. The Government is only answerable to the people of Sri Lanka and certainly not the Western politicians who sing hosannas for the LTTE rump.Sri Lanka has come a long way with the end of terrorism and set new world standards in resettlement. In this scenario, is it fair for the West to expect Sri Lanka to perform miracles and achieve more than any other country after such a bitter battlefield experience with a ruthless terrorist outfit?

Nobody should be permitted to rob Sri Lanka's hard-earned peace on the pretext of protecting human rights.