'West uses HR as weapon against smaller countries'

by Uditha KUMARASINGHE

Senior Minister for Scientific Affairs Prof. Tissa Vitarana said when Sri Lanka takes an independent foreign policy and ends the war against terrorism and the divide and rule policy which certain Western countries would like to perpetuate in our country, they react against us using Human Rights.

It is sad to see the Opposition Leader and some Opposition MPs trying to encourage these foreign forces to meddle in our affairs. We should try to prevent that at all costs, the Minister told the Sunday Observer.

Prof. Vitarana said the Human Rights issue has been made into a weapon by some powerful Western countries to control smaller countries. These countries that talk loudest about the protection of Human Rights, historically, have been the biggest violators of Human Rights.

"They continue to be violators of Human Rights because they control the media and it is shovel under the carpet. When a small issue arises with regard to any country that does not bow down to their policies, they use this Human Rights weapon to attack them.

The classic example is Vietnam; Americans bombed Vietnam with more weightage of bombs than what was dropped on Europe during Second World War. They used toxic chemicals such as Agent Orange to get rid of the foliage so that they can easily detect and kill Vietnamese soldiers.

That was a complete violation of Human Rights. Up to now they have not given any compensation for what they did. There are hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese who had fallen ill as a result of Agent Orange.

If there are small issues or differences between Buddhists and Catholics in Vietnam, they claim these as Human Rights violations and exert pressure on Vietnam. This is the type of policy which these powerful countries follow," he said.