‘West’s bogus concern - Sri Lanka owes explanation to none’

Almost three years after the Government inflicted a crushing defeat on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - Sri Lanka is the only country that has to date been able to defeat and destroy a terrorist organisation - a section of the international community’s ad nauseam criticism of the manner in which President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration has handled the crisis is becoming a major irritant bordering on bullying, said the Indian newspaper Daily Pioneer in a hard hitting editorial on Friday.

Titled “West’s bogus concern: Sri Lanka owes an explanation to none” the editorial said that Western moves to find fault with Sri Lanka must be strongly resisted by other countries. Sri Lanka needs help, not criticism, to heal, the newspaper said.

The editorialist said, “The latest instance of this is a proposal that is being fielded by the US, the European Union and other Western nations at the UN Human Rights Council, calling for Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of a UN probe into the Sri Lankan military’s role in alleged civilian killings. The UN report demands that guilty soldiers be prosecuted but as the leader of the Sri Lankan delegation to the Council, Minister of Plantation Industries Mahinda Samarasinghe said, such a move is an ‘unwarranted incursion’.

It must be strongly resisted by all who do not wish for covert Western imperialism to overshadow the functioning of a global, democratic world order. Also, given the fact that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government is already implementing the recommendations made by its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), there is no reason for such a resolution.

By common consent, the LLRC conducted an independent and fair review of the seven-year-long last phase of the humanitarian operation and indeed, its report is even critical of the Government in several sections. If anything, the Government deserves credit for having already begun the process of implementing the LLRC’s report even though it was presented before Parliament only two months ago.

For instance, a census to ascertain the number of persons who died in the conflict in the Northern Province has been completed and as expected proves that the international community’s figures are exaggerated. Also, almost half of the controversial High Security Zones have been cleared allowing for the acceleration of the resettlement process.

Out of the 290,000 Displaced Persons living in welfare centres in 2009, only 6,647 now have to be resettled. The Government has also rehabilitated child soldiers and former LTTE personnel, built homes and schools and taken steps to de-militarise the conflict-torn Provinces where local Government elections have been held and civil administration restored. Clearly, the Rajapaksa Government has proved that it is committed to the reconciliation and reconstruction of Sri Lanka. The international community must appreciate these efforts and refrain from re-opening wounds that are yet to heal. After three decades of terrorism, Sri Lanka has emerged victorious but badly scarred. It needs help, not criticism, to heal.”