What Hypocrisy! America’s Push for accountability in Sri Lanka
Posted on February 13th, 2014
By Bandu de Silva-Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to France, and the Vatican”
For a small country like Sri Lanka, meeting the challenge of a super power like the US is an up-hill task. There is no match at all. Sri Lanka does not have even economic resources as Iran or Libya under Colonel Gaddafi had, to hit back at US, as they once did in their own way-occupation of US Embassy, and bombing of Pan-Am plane, respectively. Nor does Sri Lanka have the missiles and a few nuclear war heads as North Korea possesses, using which that country threatens devastation around in case of a US military threat.
Sri Lanka has been a very peace loving country historically, nurtured in the peaceful religion of Buddhism but which had to fight wars in defence of her territorial integrity for near two millennia against inroads from neighbouring lands and later from western colonial powers. It was as a result of a three decade long recent terrorist war which was originally, foreign supported, that Sri Lanka had to shift to a programme of defence capacity building. She is presently under immense international pressure to provide proof of accountability in respect of the war against terrorism she fought and won at a great sacrifice of material and human resources.
The country has devised its own mechanism to meet these demands but all round pressures area overwhelming and try to create a breakdown of the system of governance. These challenges are manifest in the way US Embassy in Colombo has been responding, more in a hegemonic role wielding a big stick in hand and interfering in the country’s internal affairs, more than in a helpful pacific role. The usual claim is US’ own commitment to this and that, R2P and the lot, forgetting that US passed its “US Servicemen Protection Act” and withdrew from the Rome Treaty which it initially supported. It even punished other countries which supported the Treaty. What hypocrisy!
This is not a situation that even the most servile country can endure. Neighbouring India reacted very strongly recently over the manner one of her senior diplomatic officers was treated in New York, That despite all the high profile bi-lateral relations that the two countries have developed in recent ears.
Bellin the cat
Am I right if I suggest that it is Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and not the Ministry of External Affairs who is seen questioning the doings of the US Ambassador and visiting US officials. These have now been coming out one by one in recent days. The US Ambassadors in Colombo is now not been seen in the traditional diplomatic role of building cooperation with the host country in contrast to what their predecessors did. This shift was especially noticeable from the time of Ambassador Patricia Butenis and now continued by her successor, Michele Sison. I asked recently, if this was due to some personal deficit on the part of female occupants of the high position, as such demeanour was not seen in previous occupants of the high diplomatic position, including Ambassador Robert O Blake.
In this context, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa first took on US Ambassador Michele Sison for her recent visit to Jaffna and meeting Ananthi Srithharan, wife of former LTTE political leader of Trincomalee and other reasons, (see my article: ‘Gota Has a Case’, Ceylon Today, 31 January 2014) came as a first response by a government spokesman on any matter that the US Ambassador had been engaging in recently and interfering in the country’s domestic affairs.. There was no indication, however, the Ministry of External Affairs raised the issue. The Defence Secretary who met visiting US Assistant Secretary, Nisha Biswal, who also met Ananthi Sritharan, Bishop Saundaranayagam, and Chief Minister Vigneswaram, has said that “she was ignorant” of affairs in Sri Lanka. That was after she held a media conference at the end of her visit. Now comes the news that rowing US Ambassador, …….Rapp, met former LTTE cadres in IOM office in Killinochchi facilitated by IOM and also that Ambassador Rapp forced his way into military detachment at Boosa Camp.
Are these indications of Sri Lanka, though clawless, wanting to take on the US ‘Tiger on the Mountain’?
Disagreement
I have gone into in detail on Biswal’s visit in my last article published in Ceylon Today on February 4th and 5th 2014, but for the purpose of this article, with due respect to Secretary of Defence, I beg to differ from his assertion but on matters of emphasis. I would hesitate to call Biswal affair a case of blissful ignorance as it might appear but one of self-imposed ignorance arising from subscribing to a view that has been incubated and nurtured in the State Department under Hilary Clinton’s administration and ably supported by Biswal’s immediate predecessor Robert O Blake. Biswal has nothing more to add to the Sri Lanka dossier but to follow the US government’s policy guidance that has been laid down in relation to dealing with Sri Lanka.
As I quoted a former powerful President of US, the task of the Assistant Secretaries is to implement the policy set down by the President and others who immediately assist him. One cannot think that the situation has changed under President Barack Obama unless he was deficit in foreign- policy- decision making, or he abdicated foreign policy making to others. One can think that he wanted to give to his former party rival for the Presidency, Hilary Clinton, who but lost in the primaries, a free hand in decision making in the realm of foreign policy in her capacity as State Secretary in his first term in office, and Clinton was a competent person at that as a lawyer and former Senator. But whether or not Clinton herself drafted her policy speeches or she depended on her Assistants and Secretaries, is the question.
Clinton’s Prejudice Against Sri Lanka
Clinton disclosed her prejudice against Sri Lanka –One should not forget that it was disclosed that the Diaspora, especially Raj Rajaratnam had contributed to Hillary Clinton’s and Barak Obama’s election Funds –in her statement on rape as “war tactic” made by her as US representative in the Security Council at the last session presided by her in 2009, where she listed Sri Lanka along with offenders like Congo, Sudan, Bosnia and Burma, but ignored rape committed in Iraq, Palestine, as well as in Guinea.
What I Wrote on Rape
On that occasion I wrote:
“ Clinton’s Rape story in Sri Lanka –a mutual bail out”, The Island, 10/10/2009
“……Nor have any of the other members of the Security Council and the Secretary General endorsed what Ms. Hilary Clinton said about Sri Lanka though a number of them made reference to the situation in Congo. The Libyan representative made reference not only to Congo but also to Iraq and Palestine as well as Guinea. Pointing out that perpetrators of sexual violence irreversibly maimed survivors, and calling for the adoption of legislation to ensure that those crimes did not go unpunished, he drew attention to (yesterday’s) scenes from Conakry, Guinea, where women had been raped, tortured and then killed, and truly horrific…. Any perpetrator of such crimes, whether in Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Palestine, must be brought to justice,” he concluded”. (See statement by Abduurahman Shaglam of Libya at the UNSC session).
“On the contrary, Ms. Hilary Clinton dragged Sri Lanka’s name while omitting a country like Rwanda where during the 1994 genocide, up to half a million women were raped; and Sierra Leone, where incidents of war-related sexual violence from 1991 to 2001 numbered about 64,000; (Matthew Lee) and Guinea where rape was reported as the Security Council session presided by her was taking place.
“UN records refer to 200,000 cases of rape in Congo, Sudan (unlimited?); Balkans (60,000 cases of rape in 1990s). (Matthew Lee’s report of September 30th 2009 for Associated Press)”.
“The omission of Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Guinea (where rape was raging as the Security Council was meeting) in Ms .Hilary Clinton’s speech could not have been accidental considering that [she] thought of including Sri Lanka which country, as Ambassador Patricia Butenis explained later, was one where there were “allegations” just as in other conflicts. [The Ambassador ] has moderated her Secretary of State’s statement whereas the latter held no such reservation to use the word “alleged” but was firm in calling Sri Lanka a country “which had practiced rape as a war tactic.”
“Matthew Lee reporting for the Associated Press on the adoption of the UNSC resolution could not agree. Obviously he saw the weakness of including Sri Lanka in that list. He observed in general that rampant sexual violence has also been seen in other conflict zones in Africa, Asia and Europe ”” from Bosnia to Myanmar. He thought including Sri Lanka in the category of other countries short-listed by Hilary Clinton whose record as documented at the UN, ….., was horrendous.”
Why Clinton Did Not Retract?
Clinton could not have retracted her statement about Sri Lanka without damaging her credentials in the face of critics like Dr.Nile Gardiner, Director of Margaret Thatcher Centre for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, London, who wrote about her flagging foreign policy postures, in “Invisible Secretary of State: Hilary Clinton’ Failure of Leadership on the World. (http://www.heritage.org/Research/worldwideFreedom/wm2548.cfm July 17,2009)
My Open Letter to UN Secretary General
In my Open Letter addressed to UN Secretary General, Ban-ki-Moon on14/10/2009 published in another newspaper, I wrote:
Ms. Hillary Clinton’s book on Rape has Blank pages on Okinawa
“One may not be able to accuse the U.S. troops today as practicing rape systematically as policy, not even in Okinawa I have taken up in this paper, but it did happen in Vietnam in Mai Lai. Here is what Nick Terse wrote on 31 August 2009 (not long ago) in American Empire Project.(http://usmacmillan.com/HenryHolt.aspx.
“If you recall what actually happened at My Lai, Calley’s more-than-40-years-late apology cannot help but ring hollow. Not only were more than 500 defenseless civilians slaughtered by Calley and some of the 100 troops who stormed the village on March 16, 1968, but women and girls were brutally raped, bodies were horrifically mutilated, homes set aflame, animals tortured and killed, the local water supply fouled, and the village razed to the ground. Some of the civilians were killed in their bomb shelters, others when they tried to leave them. Women holding infants were gunned down. Others, gathered together, threw themselves on top of their children as they were sprayed with automatic rifle fire. Children, even babies, were executed at close range. Many were slaughtered in an irrigation ditch. “
These were not events that took place in Ceylon in 1818 during the Wellassa rebellion or the later 1848 Matale uprising, though there was enough of them here like decapitating all males above 14 years in Kandyan families, but in late 20th century in Asia. I continued to quote Nick Trese, in order to show the mockery of justice in the US on Caley’s confession:
Mock Justice
“For his part in the bloodbath, Calley was convicted and sentenced to life in prison at hard labor. As it happened, he spent only three days in a military stockade before President Richard Nixon intervened and had him returned to his “bachelor apartment,” where he enjoyed regular visits from a girlfriend, built gas-powered model airplanes, and kept a small menagerie of pets. By late 1974, Calley was a free man. He subsequently went on the college lecture circuit (making $2,000 an appearance), married the daughter of a jeweler in Columbus, Georgia, and worked at the jewelry store for many years without hue or cry from fellow Americans among whom he lived. All that time he stayed silent and, despite ample opportunity, offered no apologies.
“Still, Calley’s belated remorse evidences a sense of responsibility that his superiors — from his company commander Capt. Ernest Medina to his commander-in-chief President Lyndon Johnson — never had the moral fiber to shoulder. Recently, in considering the life and death of Johnson’s Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who repudiated his wartime justifications for the conflict decades later (“We were wrong, terribly wrong.”), Jonathan Schell asked:
No Regrets
“[H]ow many public figures of his importance have ever expressed any regret at all for their mistakes and follies and crimes? As the decades of the twentieth century rolled by, the heaps of corpses towered, ever higher, up to the skies, and now they pile up again in the new century, but how many of those in high office who have made these things happen have ever said, ‘I made a mistake,’ or ‘I was terribly wrong,’ or shed a tear over their actions? I come up with: one, Robert McNamara.”
“Because the United States failed to take responsibility for the massive scale of civilian slaughter and suffering inflicted in Southeast Asia in the war years, and because McNamara’s contrition arrived decades late, he never became the public face of slaughter in Vietnam, even though he, like other top U.S. civilian officials and military commanders of that time, bore an exponentially greater responsibility for the bloodshed in that country than the low-ranking Calley……”
I wrote further:
“Marching forward” is the name of the game that critics against those who quote WW II atrocities and impingement on freedom of its own citizens like Japanese Americans recommend. But there was no “marching forward” by America even two to three decades later if one looks at the horrendous crimes committed by American troops in Vietnam; and more recently in Iraq and now in Afghanistan. It is much worse. This is not long past. It is in our memory. The crimes by Pol Pot regime are now under investigation.
“What is America’s response to the situation in Vietnam? The American Servicemen’s Protection Act of 2002 I suppose! How could Ms. Hillary Clinton as her country’s representative at the UNSC express no word of repentance or even express shame as the British representative did, during the UNSC debate on September 30th, 2009. Or, at least say U.S. has ‘marched forward’ since then. How high the bona fides of UNSC itself would have risen if such a response was forthcoming from her, rather than trying to pick up holes in a small country like Sri Lanka and find herself in the embarrassing situation of allowing her administration to swallow her words later almost admitting that she said an untruth. What a shame!
“Now the situation of rape and violence against Okinawan women by U.S. soldiers is a serious one. Your Excellency [Secretary General], it is happening very close to the doorstep of your home country! Many cases have been reported, some investigated and perpetrators penalized. There are horrendous cases like the rape of a 10 year old girl; and the abduction, gang rape and murder of by marines of a 12 year old girl from the Kin village which received wide publicity. These cases were brought out not by me but by Emrt. Prof. Charmers Johnson, one of the leading intellectuals of the world (some may disagree) who was the co-founder of the Japan Research Institute and its current President at San Diego University, a former consultant of CIA, and the author of a number of studies on Japan, China and Japan-US relations; and more importantly, the author of best selling books” Blowback Trilogy-Blowback” (2000), “The Sorrows of Empire” (2004), and “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic” and numerous other works and interviews. He raised the plight of Okinawan women in an article he published in ‘Asia Times’ of 7, March, 2008.
“What prompted the writing in The Asia Times was a long series of sexual violation of young Okinawan girls I referred to. “Other incidents of bodily harm, intimidation and death continue in Okinawa on an almost daily basis, including hit- and- run collisions between American troops and Okinawans on foot or on auto-bikes, robberies, bar brawls and drunken and disorderly conduct” wrote Prof. Johnson.
“As he says, after each of these incidents and innumerable others that make up the daily police blotter of Japan’s most southerly prefecture, the Commander of the U.S. forces in Okinawa and the US Ambassador in Tokyo made public apologies for the behaviour of US troops. ….Occasionally the remorse goes up to the Pacific Commander-in –chief, or in a recent case to the [former] Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice and still end up in an apology. The officers responsible for discipline of US troops in Japan invariably promise to tighten supervision of the 92,491 troops, civilian employees and dependents. “That is as far as things go. Nothing ever changes.” Always the usual apology; and at best an invocation of the “friendly relations which exist between the two countries” diplomacy.
“While Your Excellency and other representatives of member countries of the UNSC last month elaborated the high principle that expressed about women victims of the war, in these pious declarations and the Resolution adopted the case of these Okinawian women has gone by default. The Russian representative was the only one who said that over emphasis on war situations might tend overlook the general problem of rape in the society and suggested a comprehensive approach. The Japanese representative at the UNSC remained lock-jawed over the situation in Okinawa. What does that indicate? On the one hand, it is a case where pathetically, one is unable to raise the issue of one’s own country. On the other hand, aren’t these Okinawan women caught up in a situation where they are being raped and even murdered occasionally, over which the UN SC or the General Assembly have expressed no interest as no war situation exists there. This proves the point how this excess emphasis on rape in war situation has come to overlook other rape situations.
“As some of the bloggers claimed in respect of Sri Lanka, there could be other cases un- reported in Okinawa because of the social stigma attached to rape. On the other side the poor victims receive no solace from the Japanese government as it looks the other way when diplomatic niceties like “friendly relations” are invoked by the country of the offenders; and the American Servicemen’s Protection Act of 2002 hangs over them like the Sword of Damocles. The author of the Asia Times article attributed it to the Japanese government speaking with a fork-tongue. It is because Okinawans are made to live with 37 US military bases around them. Tokyo condemns the assaults but that is as far as it goes on the Japanese side too, he wrote.
Where does the Okinwan case fit in in the UN system?
“It is hoped that under the current presidency of UNSC under Vietnam, the issue of rape and murder of women during America’s war in Vietnam would be placed in proper perspective and the issue of Okinawan women will be correctly focused. Please do not allow new empire builders to sweep these situations under the carpet by using weapons like cutting military and economic aid as was done in the case of the Rome Statute.
Colombo, 14/10/2009
Bandu de Silva
Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to France, and the Vatican”
Consequently, it was up to Melanne Merveere, Ambassador- at -large on Women’s issues, the predecessor of Catherine Russell who wanted to visit Sri Lanka this month but was asked to delay the visit (US Embassy said she was refused a visa), to try to explain that the cases Clinton referred to in Sri Lanka took place before 1995, i.e. before President Rajapaksa entered the scene. This is why I called it a “mutual bail-out.”
Why This Long Discussion on Rape?
Why have I extensively quoted Hillary Clinton’s remarks on rape in Sri Lanka? It is because this single case aptly demonstrates the prejudices the US is currently holding against Sri Lanka. That shows the basic foreign policy stance of that country towards this small country. It might be argued that US is trying to bring Sri Lanka back on the path of democracy, from which she is seeing her deviating. Is that an argument?
Granting that everything was not alright in Sri Lanka which faced a thirty year war against brutal terrorism, and there could have been instances of aberration, is an adversarial position the best method to be used to coax the country back to the path that US and others who set their own agenda on commitment to certain western –originated values born primarily out of the Judaic-Christian environment – want?
Why the Adversarial Policy Towards Sri Lanka?
Why is this adversarial stance towards Sri Lanka? Is it because it is too small a country – a “peanut” as former Indian High Commissioner, J.N.Dixit might wont to say, a country not worth such application of soft diplomacy, and which could be brow-beaten through an iron-fist?
The explanation is that America is committed to uphold certain norms (see US Embassy explanation on Russell’s proposed visit to Sri Lanka: Ceylon Today, 4 February 2914). In other words, she wants to impose her will on other countries which she has identified for selective treatment. It is the same attitude that Ambassador Sison took on the issue of American Evangelist activities in Sri Lanka.
An alternative to Adversarial Approach
Aren’t there other ways like soft diplomacy like what under President Clinton was used through the medium of Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbot, Clinton’s well-honed journalist friend whose discussions with Jaswant Singh, then an adviser to the Indian government who later rose to become the Foreign Minister of the BJP government? Didn’t that type of diplomacy make major gains for US by winning over India to the US way of thinking and make her abandon decades of not-so-pro US policies to anti-US policies followed by this leading Asian country, and later lead even to cooperation in nuclear technology to selling Nuclear reactors to India by US companies for which there was a ban earlier in view of India not having signed the Non Proliferation Treaty? Hasn’t US succeeded through this soft diplomacy to make India shed her dependence on the former Soviet Union under the Security Treaty signed between the two countries in the aftermath of India’s border war with China?
Challenges to Globalisation
This is now becoming unacceptable in a changing global system, as I told visiting Prof. Ernest Petric, Judge of the Constitutional Court of Slovenia when he delivered a lecture at the Kadiragamr Institute recently. As I said, this is a situation now emerging differently from the current concepts of globalization, with the re-emergence of countries like China [reaching world economic power status] and India similarly calling for a share for their own cultural traditions, over which Europe with its changing face after the admission of countries in Middle and East Europe and the Mediterranean was well suited to play a mediating role between the West and the East.
The fact that US or any other state, being committed to certain values and programmes, based largely on Judaic-Christian values cannot be accepted anymore for imposing them on other countries, even if they might have gained the imprint of UN sanction. People are seeing this as manipulation of international bodies by vested interest to keep the former colonized countries which form the Third World under further bondage to satisfy economic and political needs of the west.
Geo-Politics Determines US Policy?
Arising from this long discussion, is the conclusion that it is neither Assistant Secretary Nisha Biswal, nor Ambassador Sison, nor Ambassador-at-large Catherine Russell who determine bilateral or multi-lateral policy in the US. They are all cogs in the wheel supporting the pre-set agenda and have the freedom to fill in the gaps.
The policy determination takes place according to US’s geo-political and strategic interests in which entities other than the State Department are involved. This was clear from the change of US policy on other countries of the Asian region like India from the days of President Clinton as described above, and now progressed under Obama –Manmohan Singh to an understanding to cooperate in the nuclear field, permitting US firms to sell nuclear reactors to the country which has refused to sign the non-proliferation treaty; encouragement given by Hilary Clinton to selected ASEAN countries to resist China’s claims over islands in the South China Sea, and to Japan to resist China’s claim over Senkuku island (Diagou) in the northern sea.
These US functionaries have room for free action to fill in the gaps needed to achieve the basic objective of pre-determined policy. The traditional idea that an Ambassador’s main task is to promote close bi-lateral relations between the host country and the sending country is not in operation here in Sri Lanka, any more. What is now on is denigration of the principle of state sovereignty to directly interference in internal affairs of states. The role of the US Ambassador in Colombo now is to create as much embarrassment as possible to the government of Sri Lanka. This has reached high proportions under the present incumbent and the one immediately preceding her, Ambassador Patricia Butenis who even had the temerity to make some presumptuous pre-departure comment before she arrived in Sri Lanka, and make a true demonstration of her commitment by meeting members of the Tamil Diaspora in US including the LTTE rump, which made me write “It did not matter to Sri Lanka if it was a Butenis or Haramanis-” The Island.
China at the Bottom?
US is not seen to have abandoned her strategic interest in Sri Lanka as a country which lies on the strategic oil supply route to the West and East. Her collaboration with India to keep the pot simmering in Sri Lanka over the ethnic issue can be seen as her present strategy of keeping the growing Chinese influence at bay in the island. All these resolutions at UNHCR in Geneva and other actions through the UN are all part of that strategy, and have the least to do with any moral compunctions arising from commitment to so called values.
Where are the US Apologies?
As I asked five years back, where are US’s apologies to the countries she devastated, starting with the dropping of The Atom Bomb on two highly populated civilian centres in Japan, and dropping of millions of napalm cluster bombs in Indo –China, hundreds of thousands of which did not explode; and more recently, to the people of Iraq where millions of children were made to die of starvation due to sanctions applied, not to speak of the war dead, mothers included. For that matter, where are the apologies to the German people in Dresden who were subjected to aerial bombing for days as punishment after the end of the war. After all, Churchill did not die without blood soiled hands!
Consequently, there is not going to be any change in US policy towards Sri Lanka, however much the Sri Lankan government shows progress on investigations into allegations of human right and humanitarian law violations during the war against LTTE terrorism.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, on the basis of above discussion, it can be assumed that Under President Obama’s administration, the US policy towards Sri Lanka has not been fair; it is unjust and selective in relative terms. The credibility of the US to engage in such a policy is in question looking at her own record of expressing no regrets, not to speak of apologies, for her own horrendous record commencing with the end of WW II as committed in Japan and Germany, in Indo-China, and more recently, in Iraq and other theatres of war where US was the principal belligerent party. There is no indication of any policy changes since new Secretary of State John Kerry took over. The same Clinton policies continue, with officials seemingly demarcating the parametres . The same process of destabilization which marks US policy elsewhere, is very much in operation here.
5/2/2014
February 13th, 2014 at 12:47 pm
Even NOBAMA sacked her. Now she is a NO BODY. She should be prevented from contesting the next presidential poll due in 2016. She had brain cancer. Her tumor was removed.
IF she was referring to IPKF then she is right.
USA is our #3 enemy.
Endia #2.
Endians in SL who vote for TNA #1.
February 13th, 2014 at 4:36 pm
“For a small country like Sri Lanka, meeting the challenge of a super power like the US is an up-hill task. There is no match at all”. That is true to a point. Small nations have taken on powerful nations using their alliance with other powerful nations.
Both China and Russia have demonstrated their support to Sri Lanka and both Russia and China are in their own program of containing the power of the US from their areas of dominance. Russia has effectively neutered the US on Iran, Syria and Afghanistan, nations Moscow considers as her domain. China has effectively made the China sea hers as she has deftly make alliances with some of the nations recruited by the US to contain her.
At this very moment the US is engaged a a massive military exercise with China called “Cobra Gold 2014”. In that article titled “China flexes its muscles in U.S.-led military exercises” states that the US has to recognize the growing power of China who is a strategic partner with Sri Lanka.
r
February 13th, 2014 at 5:18 pm
There is a saying in Sinhala that the wisdom of a woman is only the length of the handle of the spoon. To my mind all these women like Clinton, Nuland (of f* case ), Biswal et al, if allowed to continue will one day, lead to the path of destruction (or f*) that country which used to be a great democratic nation. That is what happened to our country also under bandit queen and her mother.
February 13th, 2014 at 7:06 pm
At the same time SL should NOT get into the MIDDLE of Endia-China problems and China-USA problems.
We have to MANAGE all 3 for our benefit ONLY. We can bring China to SL on terms beneficial for us TOO, not just China. So far it has been so.
We should not forget there had been a time in the past when SL didn’t have enough RICE and no foreign money to import. China to the rescue! SL sent rubber and China sent us rice. Both happy.
Look what the US did. They sent us wheat ON LOAN. When we couldn’t pay the loan it ACCUMULATED interest. We still pay. People ate wheat and became sick with heart attacks, diabetes, etc. SINGAPOREAN PRIMA company became RICH and people REDUCED eating rice. Our rice farmers went BUST.
What a CONTRAST!
February 13th, 2014 at 7:34 pm
“There is a saying in Sinhala that the wisdom of a woman is only the length of the handle of the spoon.”
Aloy, There is no such Sinhala saying. Replace “wisdom” with brain ( Molay), then OK. “Wisdom” is translated to Sinhala as “Pragna” or (Pangna in Pali).
February 13th, 2014 at 7:35 pm
” SINGAPOREAN PRIMA ” has Tamil blood.
February 13th, 2014 at 8:42 pm
Nanda, “Gahanige nuwane dhiga handimata thek pamanai”. This is what I have often heard; you may not have. Sorry, I had to connect it with our lady as she was not capable of knowing that tigers could make a fake a video and her sob stories added some credence to the war crime charges. Just imagine, she was our commander in chief for nine years prosecuting the war against the terrorists.
February 14th, 2014 at 3:06 am
The worst USA Ambassador in Sri Lanka was Robert O’Blake, vining and dining with Tamilchelvam and the crowd. Butenis and Sison are following him. They should be asked to confine their activities as the Ambassors and leave Sri Lankan internal affairs to the Government. We should ask them to close down the American Centre in Jaffna, while also asking India to close down their Council office in Jaffna.
February 14th, 2014 at 5:27 am
Patriots,
Please write to UNHRC. Keep it SHORT and to the point.
civilsociety@ohchr.org
This is the address we should write to. Write our concerns as a society.
So far I got replies. Good for that. But they say they are unable to reply to all.
February 14th, 2014 at 7:35 am
It all boils down to COLD WARS and PREPARATION FOR COLD WARS which may lead to WOLRD WARS.
All of Lanka’s troubles stemmed from Colonisation and Cold Wars (you know, which side are we on ? Colombo goes west and rural goes east !) and the ‘divide & rule’ folk are delighted !
The world had some kind of peace for about 10 yrs after WW II. After that the Cold War started in earnest and countries were asked to divide themselves between the superpowers. As someone said ‘proof of love’ is constantly being asked for by super power/s involved !!!
Is life on Planet Earth some kind of football match ? Or is it something more for us ordinary folk ? When Super power play is on, ordinary folk and small countries like Lanka get smashed, and truth of matters is made a mockery of.
Isn’t it time for the SE Asian region to sign a Treaty of Peace to stay NON-ALIGNED in Cold Wars and World Wars ? Use the Law to guard the region. Such a Treaty should override all other Agreements signed in by Lanka & India (and other smaller countries in the region), including various Commonwealth obligations etc.
Isn’t it time the HUMAN RACE (includes Human beings > Humanity > Humane > Humanitarian – such high sounding words on a high pedestal !) grew up and leave behind the Childhood times ? Surely, after TWO World Wars, we are on a better wicket now to manage our affairs on Planet Earth ?
February 14th, 2014 at 7:49 am
NEW CHALLENGES FOR ALL OF MANKIND : Climate Change is wrecking havoc in a number of countries, and the sea, air and waters are all getting polluted too. Now a METEOR half a mile wide headed toward Earth, (don’t worry just yet, it will take about a hundred years to reach Earth, says the Scientists involved), which will probably decimate Planet Earth, enough to bring us all together in a common game of Survival ?
If it doesn’t bring us together, we have all got an ‘F-plus’ for Failure.
February 14th, 2014 at 11:03 am
Jayawewa! As I had predicted previously, Russia has UNEQUIVOCALLY DECLARED it will defend Sri Lanka against the US’s resolution at the UN demonizing Sri Lanka!
This tactic is BACKFIRING on the US which is INCREASINGLY being recognized by the citizens of the world as the WORST OFFENDER against human rights and PERPETRATOR of war crimes, and their policy is being recognized as a Outrageous Tactic to deployed Over and Over again to advance their NeoColonialist Agenda throughout the world !
This OVERT LEGACY of the Bush Administration has metamorphosed into the COVERT LEGACY of the Obama Administration! Despite the difference in the Sheepskins, the ravenous Wolf hiding below remains the same, and is pursuing the same criminal agenda!
Russia, with Vladimir Putin at the helm, is proving to be a bulwark for vulnerable nations around the world against the excesses of the world’s self-appointed champion of “democracy and human rights” wielding these double-standards aloft to undermine sovereign nations and advance its own hegemony!
Long Live Russia! The Defender of the Innocents!
……………………
Russia will support Sri Lanka against US-resolution
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Feb 14, Colombo: Russia on Friday said that it will support Sri Lanka against a resolution sponsored by the US and other Western nations for an international probe into alleged war crimes in the final phase of the three-decade long war against the Tamil Tiger terrorists.
A visiting senior Russian diplomat said today that Russia has come to the state of officially supporting Sri Lanka at the forthcoming United Nations Human Rights Council Session in Geneva next month.
Addressing a media briefing in Colombo, the Director of the Department of Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russia Anatoly Victorov said the attempts to impose an international inquiry into the allegations of war crimes would be counterproductive.
He said that Sri Lanka’s war situation could not be compared by any means to the situation existed in Rwanda.
The Russian official said the topic of human rights has been politicized extremely in the international political arena and the human rights issue in a country should not become a reason to meddle in the internal affairs of a country.
He said Sri Lanka is a confidant of Russia, which is one of the five permanent members in the UN Security Council and a member of the UNHRC, and the two countries maintain a similar stance on issues in the international fora despite the differences in political and cultural aspects.
Another permanent member of the UN Security Council, China also has opposed the resolution to bring an international inquiry against Sri Lanka and offered support to the Sri Lankan government in safeguarding national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
China said that people in Sri Lanka have the wisdom and capacity to manage their internal affairs and opposed some countries’ interference in Sri Lanka’s domestic affairs under the pretext of the human rights issue.
The US says it is not pleased with the Sri Lankan government’s progress in addressing the accountability issue and human right violations and the international community’s patience is wearing thin.
The US with the co-sponsorship of the UK has decided to table a third resolution building up on the two previous resolutions it sponsored and adopted by the UNHRC2012 and 2013.
UK Prime Minister has vowed to use Britain’s position in the UNHRC to see to get the resolution adapted at the council’s 25th session beginning on March 04.
February 14th, 2014 at 11:29 am
WOW! Read this … It is Truly Frightening how DESTRUCTIVE a Force the USA is becoming, and why the left-wing Obama Adminstration is as bad as the right-wing Bush Administration it replaced!
………………………………………….
Caught Red Handed
Secret Tape Reveals US-backed Plot to Topple Ukraine’s Democratically-Elected President
By Mike Whitney
“Information Clearing House – “Counterpunch”
InformationClearingHouse.info
February 12, 2014
“In the latest debacle for the US State Department and the Obama Administration, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was caught on tape micro-managing Ukraine opposition party strategies with US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. That the Ukraine regime-change operation is to some degree being directed from Washington can no longer be denied….The taped conversation demonstrates in clear detail that while Secretary of State John Kerry decries any foreign meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs, his State Department is virtually managing the entire process.”
– Daniel McAdams, “‘F**k the EU’: Tape Reveals US Runs Ukraine Opposition“, Ron Paul Institute
Washington is at it again, up to its old tricks.
You’d think that after the Afghanistan and Iraq fiascos someone on the policymaking team would tell the fantasists to dial-it-down a bit. But, no. The Obama claque is just as eager to try their hand at regime change as their predecessors, the Bushies. This time the bullseye is on Ukraine, the home of the failed Orange Revolution, where US NGOs fomented a populist coup that brought down the government and paved the way for years of social instability, economic hardship and, eventually, a stronger alliance with Moscow.
That sure worked out well, didn’t it? One can only wonder what Obama has in mind for an encore.
Let’s cut to the chase: The US still clings to the idea that it can dominate the world with its ham-fisted military (that hasn’t won a war in 60 years) its scandalized Intel agencies, its comical Rambo-style “Special Ops” teams, and its oh-so-brilliant global strategists who think the days of the nation-state will soon be over hastening the onset of the glorious New World Order. Right. Ukraine is a critical part of that pipe dream, er, strategy which is why the US media puts demonstrations in Kiev in the headlines while similar protests in the US are consigned to the back pages just below the dog food ads. In any event, the crisis is likely to intensify in the months ahead as Washington engages in a no-holds-barred tug-o-war with Moscow over the future of civilization.
For bigwig strategists, like Zbigniew Brzezinski, Ukraine is a war that Washington must win to maintain its position as the world’s only superpower. As he sees it, the US must establish outposts throughout Eurasia to diminish Russia’s influence, control China, and capitalize off the new century’s fastest growing region. Here’s how Brzezinski sums it up in Foreign Affairs in an article titled “A Geostrategy for Eurasia”:
“America’s emergence as the sole global superpower now makes an integrated and comprehensive strategy for Eurasia imperative…Eurasia is home to most of the world’s politically assertive and dynamic states. All the historical pretenders to global power originated in Eurasia. The world’s most populous aspirants to regional hegemony, China and India, are in Eurasia, as are all the potential political or economic challengers to American primacy…
Eurasia is the world’s axial supercontinent. A power that dominated Eurasia would exercise decisive influence over two of the world’s three most economically productive regions, Western Europe and East Asia. A glance at the map also suggests that a country dominant in Eurasia would almost automatically control the Middle East and Africa…
What happens with the distribution of power on the Eurasian landmass will be of decisive importance to America’s global primacy and historical legacy.” ( “A Geostrategy for Eurasia”, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Foreign Affairs, 1997)
Okay, so the not-so-subtle Brzezinski is telling US policymakers that if they want to rule the world, they’ve got to take over Eurasia. That’s pretty clear. It’s the Great Game all over again and Ukraine is one of the biggest trophies, which is why the US has allied itself to all kinds crackpot, rightwing groups that are stirring up trouble in Kiev. It’s because Washington will stop at nothing to achieve its objectives. Of course, there’s nothing new about any of this. The US frequently supports violent, far-right organizations if their interests coincide. Here’s a little background on the topic from Eric Draitser in an article in CounterPunch titled “Ukraine and the Rebirth of Fascism”:
“In an attempt to pry Ukraine out of the Russian sphere of influence, the US-EU-NATO alliance has, not for the first time, allied itself with fascists. Of course, for decades, millions in Latin America were disappeared or murdered by fascist paramilitary forces armed and supported by the United States. The mujahideen of Afghanistan, which later transmogrified into Al Qaeda, also extreme ideological reactionaries, were created and financed by the United States for the purposes of destabilizing Russia. And of course, there is the painful reality of Libya and, most recently Syria, where the United States and its allies finance and support extremist jihadis against a government that has refused to align with the US and Israel. There is a disturbing pattern here that has never been lost on keen political observers: the United States always makes common cause with right wing extremists and fascists for geopolitical gain.” (Ukraine and the rebirth of Fascism“, Eric Draitser, CounterPunch)
Death squads here, jihadis there; what difference does it make to the big shots in Washington?
Not much, apparently.
But, wait, what’s all this talk about the US being on the side of anti-Semites and fascists in Ukraine? Is that true?
It sure looks that way. In fact, there was a funny story in the World Socialist Web Site about Assistant Secretary of State Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland which shows how far these people will go to achieve their objectives. In this case, Nuland, who — according to the WSWS — is “the grand-daughter of Jewish immigrants who fled to America to escape pogroms in Tsarist Russia”…was seen “handing out cookies in Maidan square to Svoboda thugs who venerate the mass murderers of Hitler’s SS.” (“Leaked phone call on Ukraine lays bare Washington’s gangsterism“, Bill Van Auken, World Socialist Web Site)
Nice, eh? So Vickie was having a little snacktime with guys who’d probably shove a knife in her back if they were given half a chance. That’s what you call dedication. By the way, Nuland’s “husband is Robert Kagan, the right-wing foreign policy pundit who served as the founding chairman of the Project for a New American Century, the neo-conservative Washington think tank that played a key role in the political and ideological preparation for the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The fact that Obama and Co. are directly involved in this latest would-be coup, doesn’t surprise anyone. According to a recent poll conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center, “almost a half (45%) of Russian citizens think that protests in Ukraine have been provoked by Western special services.” By “special services” we presume the survey’s authors mean US Intel agencies and US-funded NGOs which have a long history of poking their noses in other country’s affairs. Here’s a statement by Rep Ron Paul in 2004 to the US House International Relations Committee which helps to throw a little light on the issue:
“It is clear that a significant amount of US taxpayer dollars went to support one candidate in Ukraine. …. What we do not know, however, is just how much US government money was spent to influence the outcome of the Ukrainian election.
Dozens of organizations are granted funds under the PAUCI program alone, (Poland-America-Ukraine Cooperation Initiative, which is administered by the US-based Freedom House.) and this is only one of many programs that funneled dollars into Ukraine. We do not know how many millions of US taxpayer dollars the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) sent to Ukraine through NED’s National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute. Nor do we know how many other efforts, overt or covert, have been made to support one candidate over the other in Ukraine.
That is what I find so disturbing: there are so many cut-out organizations and sub-grantees that we have no idea how much US government money was really spent on Ukraine, and most importantly how it was spent.” (“What has the NED done in Ukraine?“, Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell)
The fact is, the USG gives away tons of money to all types of shady groups who carry out their agenda. As far as Ukraine is concerned, we actually have a better idea of the money that’s been spent than Paul thinks. Check out this video of Nuland addressing various industry groups and admitting that, “Since the declaration of Ukrainian independence in 1991, the United States supported the Ukrainians in the development of democratic institutions and skills in promoting civil society and a good form of government…We have invested more than 5 billion dollars to help Ukraine to achieve these and other goals.” (“Washington’s cloned female warmongers“, Finian Cunningham, Information Clearinghouse)
5 billion smackers to topple a democratically-elected government in Ukraine while 8 million Americans still can’t find a damn job in the US. That tells you a lot about Obama’s priorities, doesn’t it?
Last week’s fiasco surrounding Nuland’s leaked phone conversation has clarified what’s really going on behind the scenes. While the media has focused on Nuland’s obscenity, (“Fuck the EU”) it’s the other parts of the conversation that grabbed our attention. Here’s a brief summary by the WSWS’s Bill Van Auken:
“The call (exposes) the criminal and imperialist character of US policy in Ukraine …What the tape makes clear, is that Washington is employing methods of international gangsterism, including violence, to effect a political coup aimed at installing a regime that is fully subordinate to US geo-strategic interests…
The precise goal of US efforts is to shift political power into the hands of a collection of Western-aligned Ukrainian oligarchs who enriched themselves off of the private appropriation—theft—of state property carried out as part of the Stalinist bureaucracy’s dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In doing so, it aims to turn Ukraine into a US imperialist beachhead on the very border of Russia, whose territory it also wants to divide and subjugate to neocolonial status as part of its drive to assert American hegemony throughout the strategic landmass of Eurasia…
Nuland makes clear that behind the scenes, Washington is dictating which leaders of the opposition…should enter the government to swing it behind Washington and what role the others will play…”(“Leaked phone call on Ukraine lays bare Washington’s gangsterism“, Bill Van Auken, World socialist Web Site)
Same old, same old. Like we said earlier, there’s nothing new here, nothing at all. All the blabber about “democracy” is just public relations crappola. It means nothing. US elites want to trim Moscow’s wings, set up shop in Eurasia, control China’s growth, be a bigger player in the continent’s oil and natural gas markets, export its financial services model, and make as much money as possible in the 21st century’s hottest market, Asia. It’s all about profits. Profits and power.
But then, you probably knew that already.
Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.
February 14th, 2014 at 12:09 pm
The “Caught Red Handed” article highlights why foreign NGOs of any ilk … humanitarian, democracy building, religious ….. ad infinitum, ad nauseam … funded and controlled directly or indirectly by foreign powers, should be prevented from interfering in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.
Funding for promoting “good government and democracy” from the US should be REFUSED by the GOSL, and all foreign funds given to civil society organizations and political parties should be channeled through the GOSL after review for compliance with Sri Lanka’s laws and National Security imperatives.
No doors should be left open for the Western NeoColonialists to undermine and destabilize the country in their own interest under various self-serving pretexts.
Sri Lanka’s National Interest in ensuring the welfare of its own people, should be the PARAMOUNT, and indeed, the ONLY consideration.
February 14th, 2014 at 1:17 pm
What about Cigar Rape of Monica Lewinsky within the Whitehouse? Hillary Clinton couldn’t have forgotten this so easily