UnderpalaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Tomorrow the circus will begin. The tents are up in Geneva. The trapeze artistes, the tightrope walkers and the clowns are all dressed up raring to get on with the job of entertaining the multitude.

In the days of the Roman empire the people may not have had rights (human at that) and freedoms but they had bread and circuses. Maybe just to keep the plebs happy the Roman emperors gave it a high-sounding Latin name – panem et circenses.

The Roman populace seemed to be happy enough even if their only right was to trek to the closest amphitheatre and see Christians thrown to the lions or a couple of muscle-bound gladiators stab each other to death like Spartacus does in the movie by the same name.

Having enjoyed the spills and thrills they returned home and satiated their hunger with bread so generously distributed by the gormandizing emperors and their fawning courtiers. That is if they could not lay their hands on enough cheap wine to drink themselves to sleep, saying to hell with human rights.

How times have changed. Indeed. Today British MPs who hoodwink the taxpayers by diddling their parliamentary expense accounts – maybe that Tiger-supporter Siobhain McDonagh might know a thing or two about all this – those who have coerced working Tamil families to part with their hard-earned money in the name of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”donationsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ to the cause of Eelam, human rights activists who are living on public generosity or hidden funding from ultra- right foundations or accepting money from LTTE front organizations, are all gathering in Geneva.

They are all coming, often at otherƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s expense to speak about human rights. Never mind that their countriesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ economies are collapsing around them, that the great Eurozone constructed with much fanfare and highfalutin nonsense as though it is a permanent altar to their economic well-being, they continue to maintain the facade of power, influence and strength.

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Tis the time to feed on the weak

So why are they all congregating in Geneva? Why, this is the time of year when vultures who have spent their days preparing diatribes against the small and the poor get together like carrion eaters to feed on the weak.

Among this lot are the real carrion consumers, the leftovers from the Eelam Project. They have been liberal with other peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s money, buying up politicians and some in the press who are ready to do any bidding for a fistful of dollars.

They all have one objective in mind, one cause to espouse. That is to try and rub Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s face in the dust. And why is this? Because Sri Lanka did what nobody thought it could do despite all the prognostications and expert advice from armchair analysts and political leaders that we could never defeat the LTTE.

All this ho ha has little to do with human rights, war crimes or crimes against humanity. These are mere phrases that keep the human rights industry and its hangers-on active and alive.

I dare say there are some who genuinely care about the rights of others and are committed to carrying on the good fight on behalf of them.

But most of the others are publicity seekers, some on the take and those who like to fatten themselves at the expense of others, even if it means driving those who they claim to help to penury.

Now many of those who have gathered in Geneva are hoping that the Human Rights Council will somehow push for an international inquiry against Sri Lanka. One of those who would like to see this happen and so elevate herself to a status that will ensure another term for her, is a woman called Navi Pillai out of southern India via South Africa. It was probably this Pillai woman who managed to get Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint another South African buddy of hers to the so-called expertsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ panel that is a disgrace to any panel of experts.

She has collected round her a motley crowd which has been singing from the same hymn sheet for quite some time now, determined to make Sri Lanka pay for defeating what many have conceded is perhaps the most ruthless and vicious terrorist organization in the world.

Instead of being thanked for doing a job that some countries have failed to do with other terrorist groups even though these countries have resources far superior to that of Sri Lanka, we are being castigated for a job well done.

If the US and the UK have still not been able to eliminate terrorism and violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, it is not because they are so concerned with human rights, strict adherence to the Geneva Conventions and the laws of war. Surely not! It is simply because even with their technologically sophisticated wherewithal they have not mastered the techniques of fighting terrorism.

So from several thousand kilometres away in the US mainland, the brave American warriors send drones into the air intending to kill suspected terrorists and instead killing civilians attending wedding ceremonies, at a funeral or simply going about their business like any normal person.

It wasnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t us!

When they kill the wrong people the first reaction of those who sent the drones is to deny any knowledge of such an incident. Then they admit the incident but claim they killed and maimed killed militants or terrorists. Then sometimes, quite reluctantly and diffidently, they accept that maybe a civilian or two did die.

Ha! So then where are these advocates of human rights, those brave souls who step forward to condemn Sri Lanka but are scared out of their wits to say a word against the US of A lest a drone or two visit them at home or the CIA plants pornography on them or put suspicious sums of money into their bank accounts and then catch them with their pants down?

Is it only the LTTE Tamils who have human rights? DonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Libyans who are now being tortured and killed by the new democrats planted there by the West, and Pakistanis living in the border areas with Afghanistan have human rights like those over whom the West continues to lament.

Surely more independent-minded people have a right to ask these international and local do-gooders who thrive on fat donations from dubious sources why they do not press for international – or even truly independent domestic – inquiries into what is turning out to be routine killing of civilians by western armies or their henchmen almost daily?

Has the world community left to the once-powerful but declining West to tell the rest who has rights and who does not and who should be investigated and who should not?

Who the hell gave them that right anyway?