Insight By Sunil Kumar

February 13th 2012

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Of all people, Kevin Rudd the former Aussie prime minister now foreign minister who was replaced by a female counterpart as a result of many inconsistencies pointing to administrative ineptitude to lead Australia as it was pointed out by his critics at the time seems to be an apathetic choice for Australia to added a voice to international criticism of a Sri Lankan Government report on the country’s civil war. This time it seems to point to foreign policy ineptitude!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Somehow curiously he has not called for a fresh, independent inquiry like his allies on the bandwagon of ‘Lankabashers ‘comprising Canada and The UK have and perhaps for obvious reasons, that his rhetoric is more speculative inasmuch as that of the others and appears to simply be a typical response Australia, a Commonwealth country would come up with, through some sense of perverse obligation rather that the presence of real tangible proof as part of his verbal armoury to back any related claims.

The Canadian and British governments who have been persistent over their criticism of Sri Lanka on the related issues with allegations that both sides in the conflict committed ‘war crimes’ do not publicise one of the main reasons for their finger pointing and insistence.This could be the presence of proactive pressure from former Tamil Tiger supportives within their caucases plainly visible for their intent and identity by the more discerning although not to the seemingly blinkered critics as has often been the case in Canada both in previous as well as the current regime where the accusations against Sri Lanka often tend to ring hollow and are steeped in bias, innuendo and disruptive towards Sri Lanka’s attempt to reconcile and nation build in the aftermath of three decades of internal armed insurrection which the bandwagon of’ Lankabashers’ refuse to recognize and appears to be an abject display of bourgeois arrogance linked to their own agendas and sympathies to the wrong side for all the wrong reasons.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ When the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) – set up by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in May 2010 – released its report on the final stages of the 26-year conflict two months ago they presented the real tangible evidence many world powers including Canada, the UK and Australia should have accepted as credible towards the realities behind the Tamil Tiger conflict at the time.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ They were not as outspoken as they were at the time however and even recognised along with many world powers that the Sri Lankan Government were on the right track for the tremendous and unprecedented acheivement of defeating terrorism!

But somehow with the passage of time and the falsey presented albeit cleverly doctored evidence of disgruntled loyalists to the Tamil Tiger cause began to surface, the mood of these countries seem to have changed radically exposing a change of opinion which seems somewhat difficult to comprehend other than being either bourgeoise or to a degree naive.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It must also be remembered that the United Nations too once maintained a similar atttitude towards Sri Lanka and made similar allegation which have now ceased where sanity and justice seems to have prevailed towards this reckoning based on the facts presented by Sri Lanka to state her case. So why is it that Australia, Canada and the UK continue to insist to the contrary one might ask?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Indeed all of these allegations against Sri Lanka have subsequently been proven as false and unacceptable and trashed by many analysts and experts who examined then closely yet the bickering continues. Hence when Aussie Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd suggests that while the LLRC report contained some constructive proposals, and states that it did not fully address allegations of international human rights law violations, he does not seem to be aware inasmuch as Canada and Britain also appear to be,( to suit their conveniences maybe) of its accuracy and importance where a hidden agenda is not improbable on the part of Sri lankas tormentors.Yet it needs to be emphasized that theirs surely is a wasted effort unless they produce the tangible evidence needed to corroborate their accusations, related transparencies could surface to embarrass their persistence and question their credibilities if they do not while also exposing their true intent.