Dilrook Kannangara

Recently the UN revised itƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s assessment of human rights in Sri Lanka. Following on from this revised assessment, Australia stopped entertaining people smugglers who smuggle paid potential immigrants from Sri Lanka and elsewhere to Australia. However, the US human rights report doesnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t take into account this new assessment. As long as Robert Blake ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” a hated individual in Sri Lanka ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” heads the South Asian division of the State Department, Sri Lanka cannot expect anything positive from him and from the entirety he unfortunately has control of or influence over. In this context his request to share power with Tamils should be totally disregarded. In fact it should taken as anti-Sri Lankan as everything else that is associated with Robert Blake.

He cannot be unaware of 3,500 lives saved for the past eleven months

The 26 year old war killed over 100,000 people. That is equal to 3,846 deaths a year. For eleven months it would have been 3,526. In other words, 3,526 people survived in the past eleven months alone solely due to Sri Lanka winning the war eleven month before. If the war continued as it did for the previous 26 years to May 2009, 3,526 more men and women would have perished from it. This taken alone is a significant achievement that must be commended. However, Robert Blake finds it unbearable that people donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t die anymore unnecessarily in Sri Lanka. That obviously highlights Afghanistan and Iraq with no comparables anywhere else in the world. In other words, the only major threats to world peace are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which are pointless and illogical anyway. No Weapons of Mass Destruction and no Osama Bin Laden either!

Consequent to the ending of the war, human rights situation in Sri Lanka improved drastically. Today the island nation is expanding development projects throughout the country and attracting unprecedented amounts of investments that benefit everyone. Restarting racial divisions and racially motivated power sharing havoc and only ruin these developments.

US strategic interests in the region ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

US strategic interests in the region can be best served by making friends, not by disgruntled employees at the State Department playing fool. Otherwise other superpowers will find vital inroads to the region. To make matters better, right throughout history they have correctly disregarded US human rights allegations as rubbish. The region teaming up with newly emerging superpowers with practical and real human rights management practices that are much better than hypocritical US methods is a very good sign for the region. That will improve human rights in the whole region.

Sadly Afghanistan and Pakistan have been unnecessarily dragged to the US war and horrendous human rights violations take place there. To satisfy western financiers, leaders of these countries have turned their respective countries into hotbeds of violence. Two decades after the US financed armed groups in Afghanistan, now the US is fighting them! Soon they will be fighting the militias and governments they finance today. The situation in Iraq is much worse as can be seen from daily news reports.

This highly unsustainable policy cannot be relied on by the affected nations if they are serious about peace, good governance and economic development. Billions of dollars worth bribes have been paid to Afghan and Pakistani officers to keep war flames burning.

US created political instability in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan affects their neighbours too. This has led up to an increase in human rights issues and violence in neighbouring countries as well.

Sri Lanka to decide and US to support it

What is best for Sri Lanka is to decide on priorities and how best to achieve them. Thereafter US help may be sought. USA can be part of it by helping it or lose all rights of involvement by not helping. There is no need to do what the Americans dictate. Sri Lankans must decide on a political solution that best suits them. It may go against US strategic interests in the region. It may fall short of creating the third Christian country in Asia. But if it suits Sri Lanka, thatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s all that matters. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Blake still tries to mess with Sri Lankan politics after repeated failures. He must stop this for healthy relations between the two long term friendly nations. Recently Blake made a slanderous statement that ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Sinhala hardlinersƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ were not elected to parliament. What about Tamil National Alliance ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Tamil hardlinersƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ who lost half their seats? And what about the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Tamil hardlinerƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ who is contesting from Kandy district who is likely to lose his parliamentary seat despite violence? Obviously Blake is politically biased towards the anti-Sri Lankan camp that suffered a crushing defeat at the recent elections.

The 2010 General Election symbolised Sri Lankan nationalism. A number of Sri Lankan nationalists entered parliament for the first time and others increased their votes. Continuing the nationalist journey is the best course of action for the winners and the losers can gain lost ground by increasing their nationalistic flavour. Unfortunately for Blake these developments donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t fit in with his agenda for South Asia. Blake is an American diplomatic disaster.