Opinion:

Sinister forces intensify campaign against Lanka

by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

Every effort, every channel and every mode are being used to exert undue pressure on Sri Lanka as sinister forces that are lobbying in the country have intensified their campaign with only a few days away from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva.

The Jaffna Courts complex rebuild by the Government. Law and order has been restored following the defeat of the Tigers.

The LTTE rump, with the support of the Western politicians who thrive on the Tamil Diaspora vote in their countries, is making every effort to exert maximum possible pressure on Sri Lanka at the UNHRC.

At the same time, a few Western countries are using all their might for a regime change in Sri Lanka. All what they want is a Sri Lankan political leadership that dances to the melody of the West. Though they bring human rights as a tool to achieve their goals, they would opt even for a regime with the worst human rights record, as far as it says hosannas to the West.

Hence, the agenda of the West is crystal clear. They are not worried about human rights. If they are, they should have taken action against regimes of their allies which have the worst human rights record. The sinister forces in the West are only using human rights as a mere tool to tame Sri Lanka.

Fear psychosis

As President Mahinda Rajapaksa said last week, the masses should be ready to respond to international forces conspiring against the country. It is deplorable that certain elements in the country were trying to create a fear psychosis in the minds of the people in the run up to the UNHRC sessions with the ulterior motive of taking the people to the streets.

The anticipated US-led Resolution against Sri Lanka is nothing new. During the past two successive years, the US brought similar resolutions against Sri Lanka to the UN human rights body and on both occasions, India joined the US and its allies in voting against Sri Lanka. Hence, this is nothing new, but a well orchestrated battle against Sri Lanka and to undermine the country’s greatest achievements in eradicating terrorism.

It is pity that it is the self same countries which made a big hue and cry on the need to crush global terrorism are bringing resolution after resolution for reasons better known to them. If they had been sincere in their call to crush terrorism across the world, they should have hailed Sri Lanka’s exemplarily act. Instead of doing so, they are now attempting to discredit Sri Lanka’s Security Forces which have set new world standards in eradicating terrorism.

Democratic rights

Irrespective of their political affiliations, all patriotic and peace-loving people across the country will rally round the President and would never betray the country. Certain elements claim that the country lacked democracy when burning problems were solved by the government.

The local extremists who could never come to power through democratic means now day dream of Navi Pillai for short cuts. But those who cry for democracy have forgotten what the Government has done to restore democratic rights of the people in the North and the East by holding elections to the Northern Provincial Council and the Eastern Provincial Council.

Moreover, the Government has held elections even before their due time and that has been a headache for the Opposition as the UNP has suffered a series of election defeat. Hence, those who cannot win the confidence of the masses through ballot now resort to various means to capture power with the support if the extraneous elements in the West.

But the Government has been asked to show cause for bringing peace to the country by ending the three decades-long terrorism. Whether we respond or not, they will do whatever they want! That is because they have a set agenda. They are trying to single out Sri Lanka unfairly, hounded by certain nations on its human rights record.

Own solutions

As Minister of External Affairs, Prof. G.L. Peiris had said, there was a need for uniformity in raising human rights concerns when some other countries are left alone. Despite the quests of a few to target Sri Lanka, other countries stood behind Sri Lanka to have its own national solutions to its specific challenges and circumstances and not impose external solutions.

There is no doubt that UN and certain Western nations are being misled by the pro-LTTE diaspora to take punitive measures against Sri Lanka for defeating the Tigers. Though many in the West shouted from the rooftops after the infamous Channel 4 documentary – the Killing Fields, it has now come to light how the LTTE rump had been instrumental in producing that.

Conservative peer Lord Naseby said last week that conclusive evidence had emerged, that so-called witnesses to alleged war crime in a documentary by Channel 4 were fully paid-up members of the Tigers. He has suggested the British government is not abiding by David Cameron’s promised timetable for co-operating with the UN to set up an independent inquiry into claims the Sri Lanka government carried out war crimes.

Lord Naseby questions why the British government is “already working to influence the United Nations Human Rights Council” when the prime minister said in November that the UK would allow Sri Lanka until March to begin its own investigations into alleged war crimes before taking steps through the UN. He had also called for the publication of the UK military attache in Colombo’s dispatches about the final stages of the 26-year LTTE terror during his contribution at question time on Wednesday (26).

Reconciliation

The UK is voicing on human rights as if they are reborn. Perhaps, they would have forgotten their inhuman activities in the former British colonies but we in Sri Lanka have not forgotten how the British soldiers had indiscriminately killed our people in invading countries such as Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, they now project themselves as the godfathers of human rights and pontificate us on the importance of protecting human rights.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry has jumped the gun even before his country had brought the third successive resolution against Sri Lanka. Claiming that the Sri Lanka has not made sufficient progress on reconciliation and ensuring justice and accountability for alleged war crimes, Kerry had even threatened that they would meddle in the process. It is a threat to the sovereignty of an independent nation.

“We will do it in Sri Lanka, where the government still has not answered basic demands for accountability and reconciliation, where attacks on civil society activists, journalists, and religious minorities, sadly, still continue,” he was quoted as saying. We wonder on what basis he is making such a statement which could well have been based on the evidence given by the LTTE sympathisers.

We strongly urge the West to have a closer look at Sri Lanka, the progress it has made since the eradication of terrorism, restoration of democratic rights after the successful resettlement of the people liberated from the jaws of their death and above all, the peace and harmony enjoyed by all communities across the country. In brining resolutions, the West intends to disrupt this hard-earned peace because they would always like to see countries such as Sri Lanka being pressed with problems and conflicts.

Sincere effort

The Presidential Commission to investigate cases of persons from the Northern and Eastern Provinces who went missing during the period 1990-2009 will commence its first public sittings in the Eastern part of the country in the Batticaloa District next month. The public hearings will take place from March 20-22, 2014, in the towns of Vakarai, Chenkallady and Batticaloa, covering 56 Grama Niladhari Divisions in the district.

This is the first time the Commission is hearing cases in the East, and Commission Secretary H.W. Gunadasa has said that officials from the Commission will be visiting the district on Monday (March 3) to hold discussions with Divisional Secretaries for preliminary arrangements.

The Commission held its first public sittings in the Kilinochchi District in the Northern Province from January 18-21, 2014, where it heard complaints from 440 people. Another 984 people made submissions from Feb. 14-17, 2014, when the Commission conducted its sittings in the Jaffna District.

The Commission has thus far received a total of approximately 13,700 complaints from all parts of the country. Of those complaints, approximately 9,300 are of civilian disappearances while 4,300 are of disappearances of security personnel. President Mahinda Rajapaksa extended the mandate of the Commission by another six months until August 2014.

This is one good example that the Government is making a sincere effort to strengthen national reconciliation after the defeat of the terrorism.

But the West cannot expect Sri Lanka to perform miracles, achieves no other country had achieved before after such a bitter battlefront experience.

Sri Lanka needs time to make a notable advancement in reconciliation and completely address the grievances of the people in the North. They are not only the Tamils but also the Muslims and Sinhalese who had been forcibly ejected by the LTTE terrorists.

The Government has taken every possible step to develop the North and the East and built infrastructure facilities. As a result of mega development projects and finding livelihood activities for the people liberated, the two provinces have shown an unprecedented growth rate of around 25 percent, compared to around eight percent national growth.

Why can’t the Western countries take a serious note of these positive developments without continuing to hard on the human rights of the LTTE terrorists killed in action.