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Is it
all that important to be seated on the UN Human Rights Council?
USA & Israel doesn't think so - why should Sri Lanka?
Shenali Waduge
Desmond Tutu must be happy, so too must be Adolfo Perez Esquivel &
former President Carter & perhaps many more of the human rights activists
& NGOs that set in motion an international propaganda to project Sri
Lanka as a nation in the grips of anarchy & urged member nations to
reject Sri Lanka's attempt to secure a re-election to the 47 member
UN Human Rights Council.
But is this seat all that important? Why is the US & Israel not a member
of it since they voted against the establishment of the UN Human Rights
Council on 15th March 2006 & why did Venezuela abstain from voting citing
that certain paragraphs paved the way for intervention in the internal
affairs of States. There are likely to be many interpretations of the
denial of Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council, of course in the
world of diplomacy it may be considered a slap to the Sri Lankan Government
& possibly a jolt to its ego internationally but then considering the
countries that have secured election purely by the structure of the
Council, it becomes questionable whether Sri Lanka should feel disheartened
at all.
Sri Lanka presently being accused of atrocious human rights abuses
must feel quite content for being omitted from a seat in view of the
members having to uphold highest standards in the promotion & protection
of "human rights" not to mention being subject to periodic review. Arguably
it would have been better for Sri Lanka to be bound to the Council rather
than elected out of it. Would the status of exclusivity do justice to
the oft hyped about injustices supposedly carried out by the Sri Lanka
Government? This is certainly food for thought for Desmond Tutu, Aldolfo
Perez Esquivel, President Carter & the scores of others who campaigned
against Sri Lanka's bid for re-election & consider their actions as
may be perhaps unknowingly helping the enemy to carry out violations
with impunity! Apart from making international headlines they have really
not done justice to the human rights they are supposedly aiming to uphold.
None of us can recall their engagement throughout the 25 years of conflict
in Sri Lanka either....why this sudden interest in Sri Lanka?
The Human Rights Council has been elevated to the status of a subsidiary
body of the General Assembly & as such the 47 members being elected
for a 3 year term by the following structure: 13 seats for Africa, 13
seats for Asia, 6 seats for Eastern Europe, 8 seats for Latin America
& the Caribbean & 7 seats for Western Europe & other groups. Sri Lanka
gained election to the first human rights council in 2006. In 2008 re-election
Sri Lanka lost out to Pakistan & Bahrain obviously due to the Islamic
lobby.
Following the 2008 UN HRC elections it is surprising to note that
only 22 of the 47 Council members are fully free democratic states.
If the UN HR Council is so beholden with the desire to chastise any
state guilty of human rights abuses then ideally it should rightly ignore
the membership structure & deny a seat to most of the present member
states in the 47 member Council. With quite a number of states whose
human rights records are more than questionable it does make mockery
of the Council. With Zambia, Gabon, Bahrain & Pakistan all under scrutiny
for countless human rights abuses now members of the Council, we can
perhaps safely assume that the human rights abusers are now dominating
the UN's human rights body! Who's guarding the chickens now?
Be that as it may returning to the question of human rights abuse -
who are the guilty? There are many countries over the years that have
been under the scanner of human rights for violations & abuses & even
the United Nations has also been guilty of some violations. China's
Additional Foreign Minister He Yafei declared in Beijing that the very
countries that are pointing their accusing fingers at Sri Lanka on human
rights issues are themselves guilty of the same violations. Japan too
recently claimed that every single country has a human rights issue.
We are well aware of the treaties that have been established to punish
the violators for war crimes, crimes against humanity & genocide.
The international courts like the European Court of Human Rights &
the International Criminal Court have been set up to judge such violations.
In addition there is the Geneva Convention which sets out to formalize
the laws of war, then there is the UN's Universal Declaration of Human
Rights & individual countries have set up their own institutes & bodies.
Sri Lanka too has set up institutes to monitor human rights while some
of the presently elected member states do not have even a single. Of
the elected member states to the Human Rights Council the Human Rights
Watch have classified them as follows : Pakistan & China (undermining
the rule of law); Russia (stifling the media & civil society); Nigeria
(outright fraud); Malaysia (controlling electoral machinery).
Yet there seems to be a very large & prominent lobby against a state
like Sri Lanka which is plagued with a terrorist situation & trying
its level best to get out of the situation within its means considering
it is a developing nation. Where there is a "war on terrorism" declared
by the West one would expect some sort of support to the Government
of Sri Lanka struggling with an internationalized terrorist group. However,
Sri Lanka is targeted for detaining men & women for questioning in view
of the LTTE threats while UK following a single incident has drawn up
legislation allowing it to detain people without trial, the detainees
were subsequently deported to third countries under "diplomatic assurances'"
that they will not be subject to torture - but what is the assurance?
At the same time the US is also being accused of violating human rights
by holding secret prisons & torture cells & secret detention facilities
in foreign countries. In 2007, of the 405 detainees held in Cuba, the
Pentagon released 100 "war on terror" detainees but 305 remained without
being formally charged. The US is breaking international law since their
status remains "disappeared" until the US can account for them. The
same year 2.2million people were imprisoned in the US as well making
the US having the largest prison population the world over.
Another controversial feature that questions the US human rights abuses
is with regard to execution of juvenile offenders. In Sri Lanka we have
a ruthless outfit that openly indulges in child recruitment UNICEF report
accounts for 6183 cases of child recruitment by the LTTE but these numbers
are perhaps only a fraction of the actual numbers that the LTTE is guilty
of recruiting forcibly. It is prudent to remember that it was while
holding a seat in the UNHRC that Sri Lanka managed to liberate the East
of LTTE rule & within months held the first provincial council elections
& reformed a child-soldier into contesting & ultimately ending up the
Eastern Chief Minister.
Many were doubtful of the Government's ability to hold elections in
the East even the US emissary in Colombo took great pains to question
the Government's status quo in the East. Besides all the odds, elections
were held, over 60% did vote & a Chief Minister was elected. Has the
US being able to do such a fete in Iraq despite years of presence &
with such a military force? Prabakaran & the LTTE similarly have been
given the same opportunity to denounce violence & enter the mainstream
of politics & be elected by the people he is claiming to protect. It
is a surprise to any that he remains adamant to trod along the path
of destruction.
The human rights tag is being used & misused by many the world over
- it has become a maxim for "liberators" to open offices, raise funds,
generate employment & document reports. There are today countless agencies
that "monitor" "record" & "report on" human rights violations & abuses
but strangely enough we do not see any abatement in human rights abuse
cases the world over.
We have had people like Bruce Fein a former Associate Deputy Attorney
General for the United States, yet this US citizen who is openly lobbying
for an independent Tamil State & his Lichfield Group gets a retainer
fee of USD100,000 per month from the LTTE to represent them in the US
& paid USD300,000 upfront as advance from a group that is banned in
the US. "Bruce Fein used to write articles against the LTTE - now they
are his client. How does peace have a snowball's chance in a world where
money can buy the conscience of a man with such a high and distinguished
reputation?" (Stephen Long)
The international emissaries like Tutu, Carter & others who imagine
Sri Lanka as a hell hole have not even set foot in Sri Lanka to point
fingers without seeing the cases that are being projected by groups
with vested interest. Flying visits will not suffice either nor meeting
with the same circle of NGO activists who seem to always side with the
terrorist groups. CNN reported the secret visit of actor Ben Affleck
to Sudan to see for himself the ground situation. He stayed 5 days without
the knowledge of any NGO summarizing for himself what he saw of Sudan
- a country that has for 21 years lost over 1.5million people.
Diplomacy is good so long as it is matched with genuine goodwill. An
olive leaf of peace must be accepted in the same gesture. Sri Lanka
has countless times offered the olive leaf to the LTTE- the previous
Governments have sat to negotiate with the LTTE each time their response
has been a gruesome killing. For all of the atrocities that the NGO
coalition & international community claim to exist in Sri Lanka we have
never seen a time how the American blacks suffered in the US or the
blacks of South Africa were treated & are presently being treated despite
the end of apartheid. Rev. Tutu may like to comment on the latest happenings
in South Africa? Violence aimed up foreign migrant workers & even NGOs
erupting in Johannesburg & Pretoria resulting in over 26 dead & damage
to property while Some 15,000 people have sought shelter from the attacks..
The Institute of Race Relations issued a scathing indictment on Mbeki's
style of government, listing rampant crime, unemployment, education
and corruption as they key areas where his government had failed.
Human rights is not merely subject to terrorism or conflicts alone.
Of course the terrorist element creates plenty of scope for human rights
violations but we have yet to see international action against terrorists
for recruiting children as cadres, detaching them from parental guidance
& family life, having to live in fear & without friends with possibly
no salary or nutrition & denied an opportunity to make use of the productive
years of their life & for the female cadres the denial of marriage &
motherhood.
The LTTE has managed to deny a generation the basic human rights that
any child deserves & other than countless reports by the Rappateur in
charge of Children & Women we are yet to see stern action taken against
the LTTE despite the Governments request for Mrs. Radhika Coomaraswamy
to do so. But The LTTE is also guilty of attacking "threatened villages"
& massacring Sinhalese & Muslim villages including women & children,
they have chased away thousands of Muslims & Sinhalese who were once
living in the North of Sri Lanka, how about when the LTTE decide to
send a suicide mission or a bomb in public places & cause mayhem & destruction,
what about the human rights denied to these innocent people irrespective
of their gender, ethnicity or religion - very few of the human rights
activists seem to show this side of the picture to the outside world.
There are also plenty of other human rights violations taking place,
children are without basic education, food & shelter, sex scandals associated
with the Church, children taking to drugs, an influx of gay marriages
that questions the sanctimony of marriage. The world is full of human
rights violations.
Let it be understood that Sri Lanka is a nation faced with a terrorist
problem; it does not know its enemy, since that enemy indulges in guerilla
warfare. These killers mix with the public & wait for opportune moments
where public gathers to wage their lethal suicide cadres or deadly bombs.
In an environment such as this, what can any democratically elected
Government do? Are the terrorists not violating the rights of the public?
Does the international community wish the Government to confine its
army to barracks & allow the terrorists to bomb at will - will this
solve the LTTE lobby that the Sinhalese are discriminating the Tamils
& so all Sinhalese should be bombed? Can this terrorist group that proclaims
to be a freedom movement liberating its Tamil people from the Sinhalese
discriminations explain why it eliminates Tamil leaders who do not subscribe
to their modus operandi? The Tamil leaders presently decrying the status
of the Tamils are nicely living in Colombo provided security by the
Government - if the situation was so dire they should be amidst the
LTTE in the North of Sri Lanka as should the 55% of Tamils presently
living amongst the Sinhalese?
It is obvious that the LTTE enjoys courting the international community
with its propaganda machinery but it then raises a question of how long
the international community itself will court a proscribed terrorist
entity. In a similar situation that the Sri Lankan government is faced
with one wonders what methods the international community will adopt
if negotiations do not even get off the ground!
Credit must be due to the LTTE for their propaganda, an area that the
Government of Sri Lanka needs to draw attention to & revitalize from
its slumber status. But, those falling for these false propaganda like
Rev. Tutu, President Carter must surely use their resources to verify
whether anarchy really prevails. Recently, former emissaries made a
holiday tour of Sri Lanka & proclaimed that what they saw was completely
the opposite of what was told to them. Many perceive Sri Lanka as a
haven of bombs & land mines. This is not the case unlike in many countries
that human rights abuses are rampant. We have only one scrooge & that
is the LTTE. President Bush recently claimed that no nation should have
to negotiate with terrorists. With the LTTE banned in the most influential
countries of the world, we wonder why they should insist that the Government
engage in negotiations with the terrorist group that clearly has no
interest in the Tamil population other than continuing its killing empire
in a bid to reign supreme at least until its leader lives. Our next
best hope until the international community realizes the need to assist
the Government to net in on the LTTE is to wait until the LTTE dies
a natural death like one of its leaders died of a heart attack.
There is no denying that there are certain shortcomings in the Government
& they need to be addressed. At present the important & most sensible
approach is to identify the crux of the problem prevailing in Sri Lanka.
That is the terrorist problem & the need to either force the LTTE to
give up arms & enter a democratic path (like Pillayan) or be forcefully
disarmed. The choice has been given to them countless times yet they
persist in the path of destruction. What is the next alternative? Obviously
it is the alternative taken by the present Government to disarm them.
Simultaneously, the Government has also set up rehabilitation centers
to rehabilitate captured LTTE cadres.
Yet an internal approach needs to be matched with external assistance
where the LTTE purchases arms & ammunition & raises funds to make these
procurements. This is where the international community's assistance
is called for. We have seen a few arrests in the UK, US & Canada but
these need to be intensified for the LTTE have become veterans at guerilla
warfare. The Government has a lot to deal with, while every step it
takes is being critically criticized. While no actions are taken against
the LTTE, the Government has to also deal with NGOs that have been caught
supplying arms to the LTTE & even a UN Staffer carrying arms for the
LTTE. Is this ethical practice?
By & large it is evident that there is something behind the faE7ade
of human rights & obviously it returns us to the subject of a new scheme
that is being pushed by the UN using its agencies & agents like Gareth
Evans & the International Crisis Group, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Bruce
Fein, Martti Ahtisaari, I.K. Gujral & two of the patrons of the Global
Center for the Responsibility to Protect are Kofi Annan & not surprisingly
Rev. Desmond Tutu - all promoting a new model of governance that borders
on a neocolonialism of sorts known to most today as "responsibility
to protect or R2P". Exponents of this theory are traveling the globe
promoting the urgency to implement & the best excuse has been the human
rights maxim. So when all of these plus plenty more similar thinking
"experts" start decrying human rights abuses we can well imagine the
line that they are pursuing.
It is possibly this paranoia that may have awakened Burma junta to
open their doors to UN & the foreign aid - France's Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner (founder of Doctors without Borders) was pushing for
the R2P doctrine by the UN on Burma to legally allow foreigners into
Burma. But such intervention in the light of a natural disaster doesn't
fall into paragraphs 138 and 139 of the UN summit's outcome document
that countries of the world bore the responsibility to protect its population
from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.
It just proves that there is more than meets the eye where Sri Lanka
is concerned & raising the issue of human rights records against the
Government kick starts the first steps towards their obviously ultimate
objective.
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