Adopt the same yardstick for Sri Lanka too

LTTE cohorts and certain Western politicians who thrive on the Tamil Diaspora vote and funds are working round-the-clock to take Sri Lanka to task at the next UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva in March. The moderates in the international community should ponder seriously before jumping to any conclusions on Sri Lanka. The international community should by no means be swayed by concocted stories dished out by LTTE cohorts. The international community, especially the UNHRC's member countries, should first and foremost look into the track record of the countries which had brought resolutions against Sri Lanka and those who projected themselves as the godfathers of human rights. Do they practise what they preach?

While making wild allegations against Sri Lanka and attempting to haul its valiant Security Forces before an international war crimes tribunal, these self-same countries have mountains of garbage in their own backyards. Their track record during the past decade bears out their double standards on human rights.

It has now come to light how US-led NATO Forces had conducted their military operations in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. While US drone attacks in Pakistan kill hundreds of civilians, these countries weep buckets of crocodile tears over the human rights of LTTE terrorists killed in action.

There have been stunning disclosures of alleged human rights violations by the US and British forces during their overseas operations. But more often than not, the authorities there declare that they are conducting an investigation on it. Even if they are found guilty after their own investigations, the action is merely confined to an apology. If those found guilty are punished, they receive a special pardon after a few weeks.

Surprisingly, the same countries continue to harp on the final phase of Sri Lanka's battle against terrorism and demand an international probe on the so-called human rights violations. The billion-dollar question is why don't they hold an international probe or credible investigation on a wide range of human rights violations by their own soldiers? Do they enjoy immunity when it comes to accountability issues?

At a time when some Western countries are getting ready to bring in resolutions against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, it's opportune to take a closer look at the human rights violations by US and British forces which had been spotlighted in the international media in recent times.

The United States military is conducting a formal investigation on American soldiers burning the dead bodies of what appeared to be Iraqi insurgents after a stunning disclosure last week.

The TMZ website published 41 pictures of notorious acts by the US forces in Fallujah in 2004. Two pictures show a US Marine pouring gasoline or some other inflammable stuff on the remains of what officials believe are two insurgents. Two other pictures show the bodies on fire and the charred remains.

The TMZ published another picture which shows a US Marine crouched down next to a dead body, mugging for the camera, and moreover, another, a Marine rifling through the pocket of the pants on a corpse. The website claimed that there are over a dozen bodies in the photographs obtained by them and some had been covered with flies while one is being eaten by a dog.

When these gruesome photographs were referred to the Pentagon last week, a Pentagon official merely said that the photographs had triggered a Marine Corps investigation. Reports claimed that the US Central Command - the US military wing in charge of military operations in the Middle East, also reviewed the photographs to determine whether they had been brought to their attention earlier and determined they hadn't.

Press Operations Director of the US Department of Defence, Colonel Steve Warren had told the TMZ that the controversial photographs show US soldiers in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which makes it a crime to mishandle the remains of dead bodies. There is no statute of limitations on the crime and even if the soldiers are no more in US military service, they could still be prosecuted and landed behind bars.

Top British defence personnel could also face prosecution for war crimes in Iraq, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague was presented with a dossier last week, containing thousands of allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

The complaint is a sequel to several years' investigation by Public Interest Lawyers and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights. It is the largest presentation of alleged British war crimes in Iraq, and names, among others, the head of the British Army, the former Defence Minister and former Defence Secretary.

"What this application does is to throw down the challenge to the court to show that there are no double standards," Prof. William Schabas at Middlesex University was quoted as saying.

The ICC is evidently a toothless tiger when it comes to dealing with war crimes involving Western nations. Hence, the time is now opportune for the ICC to prove its transparency and impartiality when it comes to equal justice for one and all the world over.

However, it seems that Britain would put the case under the carpet for quaint reasons. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said last week that there was no need to investigate the allegations, since they were "under investigation already or have been dealt with already in a variety of ways".

British Prime Minister David Cameron screamed to the high heavens during his visit to Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 in Colombo and demanded an international investigation against Sri Lanka. Breaching all accepted diplomatic protocol, he had the audacity of even setting a deadline to take international action against Sri Lanka. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper boycotted CHOGM 2013, citing human rights allegations against Sri Lanka's Security Forces in its battle against terror. One wonders whether Harper would maintain the same stance and avoid touring the US and the UK in future.

Moreover, it would be heartening to see whether Cameron would adopt the same yardstick when it comes to the British Forces. He must prove the British government's transparency by adopting the same criteria which he used to level allegations against Sri Lanka.

More importantly, one must consider the circumstances in which Sri Lanka's Security Forces had to act, compared to the manner in which the US and the British forces teamed up with the NATO forces. The US-led NATO forces invaded Iraq and Libya, claiming that they had weapons of mass destruction. But lo and behold, they found none in Iraq or Libya.

In contrast, the Sri Lanka Government was constrained to conduct its own battle against the world's most ruthless terrorist outfit to protect 21 million people from indiscriminate mass-scale bomb attacks by Tiger terrorists. None of those who now shed crocodile tears over human rights made even a whimper at the time the human rights of all civilians were abused when LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran went on the rampage, massacring tens of thousands of civilians for no fault of their own.

The US brazenly invades Pakistan airspace in launching drone attacks that kill many hapless civilians including children, in the guise of protecting the American people. This is understandable and we respect the right of the US Government to protect its citizens against terrorist attacks.

By the same yardstick, they too must respect the Government's inalienable right to protect its people. This is precisely what the Security Forces did in vanquishing the LTTE leadership and usher in peace. The perfect harmony and the peaceful coexistence among all communities are ample testimony that the nation is now enjoying the rich dividends of peace. It behoves the international community to take serious note of it.