US arrogance and Resolution 40 – 1 on Sri Lanka
Posted on March 23rd, 2019
By Kusal Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror
How the war-affected Tamils are being used by extremely opportunist Western power bloc to manipulate Governments for their geopolitical agenda
A big joke made rounds about Sri Lanka sending out two opposing but official teams for the ongoing Fortieth UNHRC Session in Geneva; one by President and another by PM.
A brief stroke of sanity changed this and Sri Lanka sent one team to
Geneva. What they would say about the UNHRC Report on Sri Lanka and the
new Resolution 40/1 this time led by Canada, Britain, Germany and a few
more countries isn’t clear, except that this Government is broadly in
line with it.
This whole hype about the International Community demanding
accountability and good governance from Sri Lanka since the conclusion
of the war in 2009 May, does not lead Sri Lanka to any sanity in
political life and in its Governing culture.
This International Community which is basically the Western Power Bloc
has never provided any space for accountable and decent governments
anytime anywhere in any part of the globe.
Financially controlled by this Western power bloc, the UN and its
agencies have never been able to peacefully settle any conflict in this
post WW II history while it lent covert support for change of
governments in the poor and developing world.
UN decisions are very much influenced by the US administration. That makes no difference in who sits in the Oval Office.
It was no different with George Bush Jnr. and with Barak Obama. It was
no different during the Cold War period and now after the end of the
Cold War from 1991.
Over the last 77 years since the first declaration in January 1942, or
from the formal establishment of the UN in 1945, this world body with
193 Member States by now, has been a colossal failure in spite of its
massive growth into a giant bureaucratic organisation in establishing
its mandate; Global Peace.
There are at present nine major armed conflicts amounting to over a
hundred deaths per year in each conflict from Afghanistan since 1979,
stretching to Northern Mali, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Boko Haram, Nigeria,
Iraq and Somalia according to the Swedish Uppsala University’s Conflict
Data
Collection Programme.
These nine conflicts alone had led to the deaths of more than 98,200
civilians during 2018 only. Sadly, Uppsala have not included the
Israeli-Palestinian war that has had 131 Resolutions adopted by the UN
Security Council since its first Resolution in November 1947. The
Israeli-Palestine conflict has resulted in over 10,000 Palestinian and
around 200 Israeli children being killed by year 2012. Maimed, blinded
and seriously injured children not counted.
The UNHRC since its creation in 2006, had adopted more Resolutions
condemning Israel than all other Resolutions condemning other countries
put together.
The US administration despite who the President was and presently is,
gave Israel a free hand to continue with its savage expansionism
ignoring Palestinian deaths. UN General Assembly has adopted at least
nine Resolutions between December 1981 to December 1984 that said:
Strategic relationship with the United States encourages Israel to pursue aggressive and expansionist policies and practices.”
Beyond adopting Resolutions, the UN member States have not been able to
stop Israel from doing what they did. In re-enacting Hitler on a Zionist
platform in the same savage Hitlerite form. Difference being the entire
Gaza Strip and the West Bank being turned into one massive, open
concentration camp, unlike that of Hitler’s
closed ones.
- “International Community basically Western Power Bloc never provided any space for decent governments anytime anywhere”
- “Gotabhaya believed his war without witnesses could establish there were no crimes committed”
- “UN decisions are very much influenced by the US administration”
What can we expect from this UN and its UNHRC? Does it have credible
authority to dictate terms to sovereign countries, when it does not show
that same authority when dealing with Israel and the US? Invasion of
Iraq shows how the US with British collaboration had the UN complicit in
invading Iraq to destroy Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). While it
was later exposed the UN Security Council was provided with fake
evidence and there were no WMD, the UN did not even want to accept the
blunder they made causing massive damage and destruction to the Iraqi
people.
Did not even censure the USA and Britain for consciously misinforming
the whole world to invade Iraq for their own geopolitical needs. NATO
strikes on Libya followed Iraq. Funding and arming Libyan rebels led to
total anarchy on Libyan soil. In Afghanistan, the US created and funded
the Taliban.
Afghanistan is still bleeding and Obama as President was directly responsible for drone attacks on
Afghan civilians.
Their geopolitical decisions ignore the UN completely and UN member
States don’t think they have a right to condemn and censure the big
powers openly violating international law.
It was on geopolitical needs that the USA kept pressure on the Rajapaksa regime too.
The China factor with Rajapaksa was all that they focussed on. They thus
used actual post war issues to develop a strong campaign against
Rajapaksa. Their advantage was in Rajapaksa ignoring the necessity to
address post war issues democratically.
President Rajapaksa’s Sinhala Buddhist politics given crude practical
interpretations by his brother Gotabhaya as Defence Ministry Secretary
vowed it was a zero casualty war.
Gotabhaya believed his war without witnesses could establish there were no crimes committed.
Sadly for them, this modern world had more than enough evidence
collected through mobile phones and satellite images backed by survivors
of the war. They provided more than a justifiable reason for Human
Rights campaigns against Rajapaksa using the UNHRC and the heavily
funded Colombo based human rights campaigners. Consistent campaigning
for over 04 years, this international community led by the US was able
to dislodge Rajapaksa from power in 2015 January.
Have the US and its allies who moved the Resolution 30/1 in 2014 March
for the third consecutive time, achieved anything significant under this
government led by PM Wickramasinghe? Untold but plainly evident fact
is, the US and its Western allies in fact do not intend going any
further with war crimes investigations and accountability issues, now
that Rajapaksa had been dislodged from power.
Four years gone for now under this government, there are only piecemeal
legal provisions adopted every time UNHRC Sessions come around and this
government is given more time. The war-affected in North and East reject
these cosmetic answers. In war devastated Vanni people are on their
own, demanding permanent and justifiable answers for their grievances
overlooked by both Rajapaksa and Wickramasinghe governments for over
nine years and 10 months for now.
UNHRC Resolution 40/1 would provide this government another year till elections are concluded, expecting the UNP to return.
The war-affected Tamil people are being used by this extremely
opportunist Western power bloc to manipulate Governments on their own
geopolitical agenda.
This UNP government as the previous UPFA government nor the next
government that would be voted in at the next election, will not
implement Resolution 40/1.
Both major parties and their small allies are racially biased and
corrupt. They lack the political will and the vision of the New Zealand
Prime Minister Ms Jacinda Ardern who after the attacks on 02 Muslim
mosques in Christchurch on Friday 15 March, took responsibility for the
safety and security of all Muslim people in her country as equals and as
New Zealand citizens who have the right to live and practise their
religion without hindrance. She as PM rallied New Zealanders in support
of the Muslim community.
“This International Community which is basically the Western Power Bloc has never provided any space for accountable and decent governments anytime anywhere in any part of the globe “
Politics in Sri Lanka is not that of Jacinda Ardern. Yet we have Human
Rights written into the Constitution, we are signatory to most
international conventions and charters that guarantee labour, women and
child rights, we stand for ethnic and religious equality and freedom, we
have laws for environmental safety.
We say yes for everything just, fair and democratic. But respect and
honour none. Living with Sinhala Buddhist majority dominance, we don’t
believe we want them. Sinhala Buddhist dominance is what PM
Wickramasinghe cajoles, when he says it’s he who saved Sri Lanka from
direct international probing on war crimes, by refusing to sign the Rome
Statute.
That is precisely what the US stands for. Having rejected the Rome
Statute, President Trump refuses to allow any investigations into US
military interventions in Afghanistan or elsewhere by the International
Criminal Court (ICC). His Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told media last
Friday, The ICC is attacking America’s rule of law.” This was what
Rajapaksa said, President Sirisena is saying and the Wickramasinghe
government is accepting, with international war crimes investigations
rejected. In Sri Lanka it is said in Sinhala to the Sinhala Buddhists
whereas the US says it to the whole world in English with arrogance and
no shame.
Secretary Pompeo told media:-
I’m announcing a policy of US visa restrictions on those individuals
directly responsible for any ICC investigation of US personnel” adding
the US would not hesitate to impose economic sanctions if the ICC does
not change its decision.
It is also extremely important to note the impunity Israel is provided
under US patronage. These visa restrictions may also be used to deter
ICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without
allies’ consent,” the Secretary told media.
Now, what does all these mean to Sri Lanka and to the democratic world?
There is no necessity to answer those who brutally violate all laws but
demand Sri Lanka respect the law. But that does not allow Sri Lanka to
go without answers to war-related issues.
We have a moral and a political responsibility to provide justifiable
answers to all issues effecting the North and East and they cannot be
outsourced. That no doubt needs a decent, respectable leadership much
different to Trump and most other international community leaders.
They’ve proved they are not the right individuals to follow.
Comments – 2
- Lord Wolfstein Friday, 22 March 2019 06:12 PM Part 1 There is a very big difference between the war crimes committed by some Western powers and the war crimes committed by the Sri Lanka Forces. While the Western powers committed war crimes in foreign countries, the Sri Lanka forces have committed war crimes against civilians in their own country. One is just as reprehensible as the other. Sri Lanka is probably more comparable to Cambodia or Yugoslavia in this regard. Similarly, the crimes Nazi Germany committed to its own people, especially the minorities. In Sri Lanka, ethnic minorities have to live with daily encounters with their tormentors, who run around freely without being held accountable. This malady has already lasted for 10 years. Although Sri Lanka has promised its minorities and the UN to try its war criminals, nothing has happened yet. The reason for this is, that the big parties do not want to scare their Sinhalese Buddhist electorate, which is the majority of the country. End Part 1
Lord Wolfstein Friday, 22 March 2019 06:17 PM
Part 2 Many of this majority see themselves as superior to the Tamils, which is historically proven to be the opposite. It is time for the majority to change its attitude. A democracy is only as good as it treats its minorities. These minorities currently have only the opportunity to turn to foreign powers for righteousness. Thus, it would be best for the country to establish war crimes tribunals in Sri Lanka with unprejudiced and experienced foreign judges. Local judges, and however honourable they are, are always suspected of being biased and continue to be in danger of being murdered by accused war criminals or their supporters. All of this should give you food for thought. The national pride and the throbbing on the sovereignty of the country must be put back. There will be no reconciliation and peace in this country unless the last war criminals and those responsible in the highest offices have been punished. End
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