Opinion:

Lanka ready to face any challenge

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

Anti-Sri Lankan forces, here and abroad are making every effort to use the ongoing sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to exert the maximum possible pressure and intimidate our nation and the country.

But whatever the amount of pressure it generates, Sri Lanka is equally confident to face the challenge ahead with the help of friendly countries. Sri Lanka is ready to face any challenge to preserve its independence and sovereignty.

As Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has pointed out, achieving a stable peace has made it possible for the government to secure Sri Lanka's sovereignty, independence and food security thus strengthening its resolve to face any challenge.

The third US resolution against Sri Lanka in as many years calls for the UN's Human Rights Council to investigate the alleged human rights violations. But as the Minister of External Affairs Prof G.L. Peiris has pointed out, Sri Lanka doubts the independence of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the office of the UN's human rights chief.

Questionable

As a nation which values the principles of the UN, Sri Lanka is deeply concerned that the lack of financial independence of the OHCHR leads to the erosion of independence in its overall functioning. The UNHRC pays disproportionate attention to some countries, while ignoring large-scale human rights violations in other parts of the world.

The conduct of the UNHRC chief, Navi Pillay, a South African of Tamil ancestry, has always been highly questionable. Even during the heights of the LTTE terror during which a 21 million people had been subjected to massive bomb explosions by the world's most ruthless terrorist outfit, Pillay has been issuing a plethora of statements that pampered blood-thirsty Tigers.

As Prof. Peiris had pointed out, the recommendations in Pillay's report "are not placed within the ambit of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), as demonstrated by the call to establish an international inquiry mechanism".

The Western hypocrisy and the double standards of the UNHRC is crystal clear. Though Pillay has been extraordinary harsh on Sri Lanka, she turns a blind eye on gross human rights violations by the US-led NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pillay has failed to investigate the military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya and allegations of human rights abuses taking place in those countries.

Transparent manner

Hundreds of people, including women and children, have been killed by the US drone attacks in Pakistan. What right does the US have to invade Pakistan airspace and kill civilians in the guise of combating Al Qaeda terrorism? While the US goes that extra mile in the guise of its national security and protecting the American citizens, they attempt to take Sri Lanka to task for crushing the LTTE.

If Pillay and the UNHRC are sincerely interested in protecting human rights in a transparent manner, they must also take action against the countless number of human rights violations by the US forces outside their territory.

On the other hand, the US and its allies want a Sri Lankan leadership that dances to their melody. Human rights are being used as an effective tool when they don't have a puppet leadership in Sri Lanka. Neither the US nor the UK raised concerns against those Sri Lankan governments during the uprisings in 1971 and 1989 when, in particular in 1989, thousands of innocent Sinhala youth were killed.

That was because those Governments, mainly the 1988/89 UNP regime, were extremely loyal to the West. There have been violations on several occasions during the UNP regimes, the worst of it 1983. But none of the god fathers in human rights in the West cared too hoots. There were no crocodile tears on human rights violations or crimes against humanity.

The highly prejudiced action taken by sections of the international community and the Office of the High Commissioner to give disproportionate attention to Sri Lanka has only made the separatist diaspora Tamil elements and their proxies in the North more intransigent, making the intensely difficult task of reconciliation in Sri Lanka even harder.

Pillay was well aware of the important political decisions the Government had taken in the restoration of normalcy to those affected following the crushing of the LTTE, channelling resources to develop the North and the East.

Democracy

The successful resettlement and the restoration of normalcy enabled the Government to restore democracy as well by holding elections to the Northern Provincial Council last September. That replaced the power of the bullet maintained by the LTTE for 26 years without allowing the authorities to conduct elections. It is pity that Pillay is blind to these positive developments.

Sri Lanka has drawn the attention of the UNHRC chief on the objections Prof. Peiris had made to the report submitted by her to the current Human Rights Council sessions where the Minister detailed the lack of objectivity and patent bias evidenced in Pillay's report which also called for the setting up of an international inquiry mechanism on Sri Lanka. There is no doubt whatsoever that Pillay's report was both one sided and politicised.

It is unfortunate that the High Commissioner should have issued such a controversial and one-sided report after having the benefit of an extended visit to Sri Lanka where she was given unimpeded access to first-hand information.

Noting that the High Commissioner had undertaken her visit almost two and a half years after the original invitation was extended by the Government. She postponed this visit since 2011 for reasons better known to her.

Some of the comments made by Pillay during her stay in Sri Lanka and her final report represented a lost opportunity in contributing positively to Sri Lanka's reconciliation process. The bias and unfair manner in which Sri Lankan was being treated was also evident in recent acts such as the refusal of the OHCHR to, as done last year to place Sri Lankan's comments on the High Commissioner's report as an addendum, as done when she presented her report in the previous year.

Transformation

We are deeply concerned about the methodology and sources that continued to inform the High Commissioner's reports and action on Sri Lanka. It is deplorable that Pillay has failed to prove her neutral conduct in any part of the report. Undoubtedly, it is a document that was carefully worded to please the West.

Afghanistan is a country which has been badly affected by terrorism and they too see the tremendous transformation that had taken place in Sri Lanka under the political sagacity of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who toured Colombo last week, said that it is an eye opener to him that in Sri Lanka peace has been achieved by President Rajapaksa, which accounts for the tremendous gains made under his watch such as a growth rate of around eight percent.

President Karzai said that it is his wish that Afghans also enjoy such peace and the resulting peace dividend. As the Afghan leader had pointed out, peace is the most important factor for any nation to develop.

When asked about the NATO bomb attack in his country last week that killed five soldiers, Karzai said that the NATO has informed him that it was a mistake. While the US-led NATO forces go scot free by labelling their human rights violations as "mistakes" they continue to point an accusing finger on others.

As President Karzai had quite rightly pointed out, the US troops and other Western forces are in Afghanistan not due to an interest in Afghan people but in their own interest.

Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of their sovereign state. Now that the peace has been restored, the UNHRC should not take any action that is detrimental to the peaceful environment that has been created after the dawn of peace.

Terror outfit

The LTTE had violated human rights of 21 million people for a period of three decades. Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim persons did not have the freedom of movement without fear of threat. Irrespective of ethnicity, everybody was subjected to violent attacks.

It is the Government which took bold decisions to restore the human rights of the people.

The President, Defence Secretary and the Chiefs of the Armed Forces acted to end terrorism. Their great roles helped Sri Lanka to vanquish LTTE terror by May 2009 to fulfill the desired objectives of the UN Human Rights Declaration of 1948.

In other words, the military defeat of the LTTE terror outfit safeguarded the human rights of all the citizens of the country, especially those hapless civilians who had been forcibly held as a human shield. Tamils did not get any freedom or liberation from LTTE terrorism. It was our own leaders and the true sons of our soil who brought us this hard-earned peace, not the UNHRC.

The UNHRC acted as a toothless Tiger when the LTTE had been massacring thousands of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people. Where were the god fathers of human rights who now weep buckets of crocodile tears on the so-called human rights violations in Sri Lanka?

Pillay was not there when we were at the receiving end. None of the world human rights watchdogs was there when our lives were at risk, without knowing when the LTTE would explode their next massive bomb to disrupt civilian life? Pillay and her human rights prophets were at a faster asleep then.

Now that we have won our own battle, we don't need advices from Pillay and her cohorts.

We have our own mechanism for reconciliation. That has already been implemented. There are no shot cuts.

Pillay and the UNHRC should not expect Sri Lanka to perform miracles, achieve something which no other country had achieved after such a bitter battlefield experience.