KAMALIKA PIERIS

Soon after the defeat, in Eelam War IV, the separatist forces went into its next phase of attack, which was UN action against Sri Lanka.  Sri Lanka was to be punished for defeating the LTTE and the LTTE was to be exonerated, using the farce of Human rights”. A separatist war is a political and military matter. It is not a human rights matter. Therefore this approach is very weak. But it was the only avenue available. The Security Council would have rejected the matter outright.

USA and the Tamil Separatist Movement had known well before the war actually ended that LTTE would lose. They had the next move ready, which was to erase the victory by showing the war to be unfair, unjust,    unclean and therefore not a legitimate victory at all.

This was not something that the local Tamil Separatist Movement could handle. It had to be done by the USA.  USA went to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva with a series of Resolutions against the government of Sri Lanka   in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

  Then came Resolution 30/1 of October 2015, Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” ( A/HRC/RES/30/11). This Resolution  was drafted by the US, with, we are told, the concurrence of India and the Tamil Separatist Movement . It was prepared by Ms Sandra Beidas, formerly of the Amnesty International . It was  supported  in Geneva by the Yahapalana government of Sri Lanka , a puppet government supported by the USA.

The purpose of Resolution 30/1 is to erase the   government  victory, and bring the Tamil separatist  matter onto front stage. This Resolution is  therefore an Eelam Resolution”, not a human rights one. It starts be referring to three  matters which are not  relevant to the Eelam War, but are  very relevant  to the Tamil Separatist Movement, namely, 13^th amendment,  19^th amendment  and the Yahapalana regime change of 2015.

The Resolution then goes directly into the issues relating to  the war  victory. The Resolution implies that the war should not have taken place at all. Tamil Separatism was legitimate .The government of Sri Lanka must  therefore apologize for carrying out a war at all. There should be a commission for Truth, Justice , reconciliation, reparation and non recurrence. The inclusion of the term ‘non recurrence ‘ has not received the attention it should. It means that the state should never again  wage war against the Tamils.

The evidence of victory should be removed as soon as possible. The Resolution speaks of  the removal of high security zones, the withdrawing of the military from the north, return of land held by the military to its owners. 

The Resolution then turns to the conduct of the war. Those responsible for violating the rules of war must be  investigated and punished, said the Resolution.  The Resolution implied that the state army, from top to bottom, was guilty of  massive war crimes. That the government forces were at fault. Eelam War  IV  was  therefore      won by foul means. It is not possible for Sri Lanka to be proud of this victory.  ( Continued)