U.S. Response to Report from LLRC
Posted on December 22nd, 2011

Ira de Silva London, Ontario,Canada

The Editor
The Island
Colombo, Sri Lanka

Dear Sir:

I refer to the response of the U.S. as stated by Ms. Vctoria Nuland. If ever there needs to be an example of expecting others to follow concepts of transparency and accountability while violating and disregarding these concepts in their own conduct, this is the best.

Ms. Victoria Nuland said the U.S. has concerns that the report prepared by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission does not fully address all the allegations of serious human rights violations that occurred in the final phase of the conflict. Ms. Nuland refers to allegations of human rights violations in the case of Sri Lanka. In the case of the U.S. they are not “allegations”, there is proof of gross violations of human rights in U.S. conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan that have been in the public domain for over a decade which the U.S. has made no attempt to investigate or remedy. There is never going to be accountability or remedy because the U.S. policy is that the rights of non-U.S. citizens are expendable in imposing U.S. policy.

“So this leaves questions about accountability” – has the U.S. shown “accountability” in any of it’s wars? Massive civilian casualties, many of them due to deliberate targeting of civilians as shown by their own documents, are dismissed without any accountability. So is the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people for which the U.S. shows no concern. The U.S. is consistently blind to the consequences of their own actions in this regard yet has the temerity to criticize a small third world country that has shown responsibility and concern in dealing with the displaced and in two years has done what the U.S. never intends to do. Their hypocrisy in overwhelming.

Ms Nuland calls on Sri Lanka to “fulfill all of the recommendations of the report as it stands, but also to address those issues that the report did not cover” – it is surprising that she in her great wisdom has not listed the issues that the U.S. wants the Government of Sri Lanka to cover. Considering that the U.S. believes in interfering in Sri Lanka to bully the country to do, not what is best for the country but what the U.S. wants, that is a remarkable omission.

She says that Assistant Secretary Robert Blake has been in contact with various Sri Lankan counterparts, as has the U.S. Ambassador in Colombo, Ms. Patricia Butenis. That is an ominous sign for Sri Lanka as both Mr. Blake and Ms. Butenis have their own blueprint for Sri Lanka. In the past it was to convince the GOSL that the LTTE was invincible and must therefore be accomodated. At present it is that the LTTE supporters in the Tamil diaspora who still want their Eelam and are carrying on their campaign with the full knowledge and assistance of Mr. Blake, should be given what they want courtesy of U.S. pressure on Sri Lanka.

Last but not least, it is nothing short of a joke that she actually states that her government is waiting “to hear what their (Sri Lanka’s) proposed timetable and their proposed roadmap is for remediating these issues”. Is it to contrast what plans the GOSL has for the country with what the U.S. plans are as well as to study them to see if the LTTE supporters in the U.S. will be satisfied?

When will the GOSL state clearly to the international community that it is responsible to the people of Sri Lanka and that interference such as is clearly evident from statements such as these will be ignored.

Yours truly,

Ira de Silva

London, Ontario

4 Responses to “U.S. Response to Report from LLRC”

  1. helaya Says:

    Who the hell is she to ask SOSL to produce road map for reconciliation? We should ask her to “annuge puke agili gahanto epa”

  2. Chintha Says:

    Why only talk about the last phase of the war? The only people who cry about the last phase is the seperatist LTTE terrorists themselves. Why is US representing LTTE terrorists and not people of Sri Lanka? Shameful.

  3. A. Sooriarachi Says:

    USA has no morals and do not care two hoots for human rights. Today the USA along with NATO nations are the biggest human rights violators as shown by their record in Iraq, Serbia, Afganistan and Lybia. However, groups like the AI, HRW and ICJ managed by the CIA, will not dare accuse them of such crimes.
    Like Hitler did before, the USA is today blinded with unbridled power and would do what they like when they like, while telling other nations what should be done.
    We are only banging our heads against the wall, trying to speak ethics to USA or NATO. They are dangerous for world peace. The next world war could begin when Russia and China run out of patience in tolerating never ending USA/NATO crimes, now directed at Syria.

  4. douglas Says:

    What right these people have in making observtions on LLRC report? Anyone who did not respond to public announcement of the LLRC to come before it and submit representations has no moral or legal obligation or right to comment or cirticize the findings or recommendations of its report.

    In this context any country or its representative, any Human Rights organization or any individual who did not appear or deliberately refrained from making representations are not qualified to comment or citicize the findings or recommendations. So the Government of Sri Lanka must unequivocally condemn such observations and refuse to respond to such demands.

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