Government Defiance Pays Off: UNHRC Draft Resolution Falls Well Short of Tamil Demands
Posted on March 6th, 2014
Dilrook Kannangara
Sri Lankan government should be congratulated for its defiance against threats by the UNHRC Chief, many rapporteurs, US diplomats, British PM, Indian foreign minister and PM, TNA politicians, NGO camp and the likes of Dayan Jayatillake. They knew very well UNHRC has no mandate to impose an international investigation as it violates the supreme concept of sovereignty on which the UN is based. Knowing very well their inability to impose international investigations, demilitarisation demands and devolution demands, they opted for fear tactics. They hoped for an “out of court settlement”. However, the government stood firm and rejected their threats.
Now the terror and extortion camp has realised their inability to impose international investigations, demilitarisation and devolution demands and have backtracked. The draft resolution “leaked” to the media has none of these!
Government defiance paid off well.
The draft resolution has no more teeth than the 2012 and 2013 resolutions. It makes no reference to an international investigation, war crimes, genocide, further demilitarisation, devolution, 13A and political solutions. Most of these are beyond the mandate of the UNHRC.
Diego Garcia Replacement in Sri Lanka at the Heart of UNHRC Resolutions
USA has gone into panic mode over the expiration of the lease in Diego Garcia islands forcibly occupied by the British and leased to a US military base until 2016. The lease must be extended by 2014 or it expires. UK faces severe legal and community challenges from Chagossians over the forcible occupation and genocide therein. An ICC case is pending against UK occupation. Pull-out date (end 2014) from Afghanistan was also set taking into account these pending complications. However, against all morality, human rights and sovereignty of Chagossians, UK may well extend the lease. However, it is a risk USA is unwilling to take concerning the most strategic foreign military base. Invasions of Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other naval, air and other military operations in Asia (excluding Far East Asia) were carried out from Diego Garcia. It is the only foreign nuclear weapons deployed US base. In view of these complications, USA is looking for alternative bases in the region. Northern, north Western and North Eastern Sri Lanka offer the best location for US military basing. UNHRC resolutions against Sri Lanka are aimed at coercing Sri Lankan government to give into a US military base. Failing which USA plans to stir chaos in the island, intervene and occupy under the guise of protecting human rights.
USA intervened in former Yugoslavia under the pretext of protecting human rights. But it was obvious the occupation was to disrupt Russia and extend NATO eastward.
Mauritius cosponsoring the US resolution against Sri Lanka this year further confirms this. Mauritius has claimed the Diego Garcia islands. Therefore it is in their interest that USA finds an alternative military base elsewhere so that the territory they claim would be released.
Perfect Replacement
During the war, USA helped Sri Lanka rid Tamil terrorists. US defence expertise flowed free of charge in the form of advice in 2000 which among other advice included the need to stock cluster munitions, fortify the navy and enhance air and ground capabilities. USA was generous to hand over a warship to Sri Lanka and provided vital satellite data on LTTE floating weapons warehouses. USA was the first country to ban the LTTE (since 1991) and hunted down Tamil front organisations. In 2006 FBI arrested 15 Tamils trying to buy weapons for the LTTE. Despite all this help, USA swiftly changed its position on Lanka after the war.
US help during the war must be looked at from the point of view of their interests, not out of humanity or the concern for Sri Lankans. USA intended Sri Lanka to cleanse the north and the east of terrorists so that it can occupy for a military base. After the extermination of Tamil terrorists, the north is perfectly safe for US military basing.
USA made no secret of their military plans for the north of the island. Several approaches were made on Trincomalee; a US listening station and transmission station was set up in Iranawila (north western Sri Lanka) and an American Centre was set up in Jaffna. US defence officials were regular visitors to the island during the War on Terror. USA carried out at least 5 joint naval and air force drills with Sri Lankan counterparts since the war ended familiarising their troops with the Lankan territory.
War displaced millions from the north making it less populated than otherwise. Sri Lankan military has been greatly reduced by the demilitarization demand. There is fast and easy access to shipping lanes with the potential of introducing access denial against China and India (two fastest growing economies of the world). Northern Sri Lanka has a Tamil majority which can be very easily manipulated as the people of Kosovo or Okinawa, to agree to any US military presence.
John Kerry report (2009) identifies further reasons for US strategic interests in the island.
These are the driving forces behind intriguing US action on Sri Lanka. UNHRC is just a tool the US use to achieve its military objectives and hegemony. Anti-Sri Lanka resolutions will die a natural death in two years (2016) as the Diego Garcia issues would have settled by then one way or the other. Until then the nation will have to put up with toothless UNHRC resolutions.
Dayan and Other Extortionists
Obviously Dayan Jayatillake, TNA, Tamil Nadu and the LTTE Rump are disappointed with the draft US resolution. There are no demands in it for international investigations, genocide, demilitarisation and devolution. They have done well to conceal their defeat and disappointment.
Faced with this humiliation they try to terrorise the Lankan government to give into their demands, mostly Tamil racist demands denied to the LTTE including demilitarisation and devolution. Nothing should be entertained. There is absolutely no reason to give into any demands that are not contained in UNHRC resolutions.
The aim of Dayan and other Tamil separatists and fear mongers is to terrorise the government into submission and offer unsolicited advice leading to dividing the nation. His conduct resembles that of a classic espionage agent. Their demands also border Indian interests. India obviously doesn’t want a closer US military base but wants its own extension in the island including a permanent military base.
Way Forward: From Reconciliation to Integration
Sri Lanka must reject all UNHRC demands. UNHRC is powerless to take any action against a UN member without UN Security Council sanction which is not forthcoming. Any accountability process must essentially include the atrocities, associations and abetments of the activities of the LTTE, Tamil political parties, IPKF and India, the Tamil Diaspora, NGOs and other connected entities. A domestic investigation into their activities, past and present, will put them on the back foot. There is no further need for demilitarisation, political solutions, devolution and other Tamil demands. There is no need for the implementation of further LLRC recommendations. After all, these are only recommendations, not instructions. There is absolutely no need for a Truth Commission either.
The reconciliation process must end now as five (5) years have passed since the end of the war. A new national integration process must commence now which will unify the island nation into one unitary nation where people are united. Sri Lanka is home not just to Tamils, but also to other communities that make up more than 85% of the people. Enough preoccupation with just 15% of the people with no use for the rest and the nation. Reconciliation process must be graduated to national integration.
March 6th, 2014 at 10:41 am
This article demonstrates how much can be achieved by a small nation when it really stands up to injustice. I must congratulate the Rajapakse Government for this show of strength. Sri Lanka should continue to oppose the dictum of the UK, US, Canada and other western nations who have powerful Tamil lobby promoting their cause. This definitely includes the Navi led UNHRC. They have even less power to dictate to Sri Lanka.
Regarding the US interest in setting up a military base in Sri Lanka that would anger and alienate Sri Lanka’s stalwart alley China. It would serve Sri Lanka better if China is allowed to set up a military base in Sri Lanka. If that is done then the pressure from the US or India against Sri Lanka will also be pressure against China who is a Security Council member and whose alliance with Russia who just annexed the Crimea and won would null and void the interference from India and the US
March 6th, 2014 at 10:52 am
Second Comment;
When the Soviet Union collapsed he central Asian Muslim nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan turned to India. At that time the Soviet Union were enemies with Maoist China so when the Empire collapsed these nations naturally turned to India because India was the Soviet Union’s strongest alley, had the second largest Muslim population in the world and is the largest Democracy.
Instead of taking this opportunity to create a power base that would have extended deep into central Asia New Delhi turned to the US to sign a broad comprehensive alliance under President George Bush Sr. This was a big mistake on India’s part for in the 1990’s both Russia and China cashed in on these strategically important nations and nations rich in untapped natural resources thereby creating two organizations, Russia’s CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) and China’s SCO (Shanghai Cooperative Org).
Now India is simply a guest member along with Sri Lanka in the SCO and her only major alley the US is floundering as her economy continues to collapse (Google US national debt clock real time). I bring this issue up because if China is given a chance to build a military base in Sri Lanka it will also link Russia to Sri Lanka. In a scenario as such Sri Lanka will have created a regional power base that even India would be envious.
March 6th, 2014 at 1:10 pm
TOO EARLY to celebrate but this is a small victory.
Read the article by Bandu de Silva that says SL foreign ministry maintained “NO AGREEMENT” policy but Mahinda Samarasinghe may COMPROMISE.
March 6th, 2014 at 3:09 pm
What is most disturbing is that the Tamil National Alliance is also equally disappointed as the Tamil Diaspora that supports the LITE and the concept of Eelam. In the “Island” there is an article covering the Tamil National Alliance who is demanding from India to act in a stronger manner and has voiced her disappointment on the human rights resolution drafted in Geneva.
How more clear and transparent could the Tamil National alliance be. To whom do they place their “alliance”? certainly not for a unified Sri Lanka, certainly not to address the daily problem of those who voted for them, yet they spend a disproportionate amount of their time and Sri Lankan taxes that pay their salaries on the issue of penalizing Sri Lanka and being the voice of the Pro LITE movements across the globe.
One has to question where their allegiance really lies. Are the Tamil National Alliance allied with TESO or TELO? Do they listen more to Jayalalithaa than President Rajapakse? why are they interfacing with India who supported the LITE for close to 30 years and continue to act as if they are a bonafide Sri Lankan political party.
I quote Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman Senator who stated this about the enemy within such as the Tamil National Alliance:
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”
March 6th, 2014 at 3:36 pm
“Government defiance paid off well.”
Well, it is COMPLUSORY FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO BE DEFIANT. Otherwise they all are TRAITORS.
What else can be given to the Tamil troublemakers ? It is already TOO MUCH.
BW , by quoting “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. ” points finger at TNA and VEggi. But I am afraid the TRAITORs can be more significant that those. If that happens we are gone !
March 6th, 2014 at 3:45 pm
DEMOCRACY in Action … the WILL of its People is that Crimea joins the Russian Federation … as the Ukraine as a whole spirals towards disintegration into smaller “empowered democracies”.
The USA used this very argument to undermine, destabilize and divide many other countries aligned with the USSR in the past … like Yugoslavia. Now Putin is deploying the same strategy to return the favour.
All of this INTERFERENCE by foreign powers undermines NATIONS as units of governance and sovereignty, which moves me to ask: Are there NO LIMITS to the SIZE of a region that can demand secession to exercise its own democracy in opposition to the will of ALL the people of a nation? Can a Province, a District, a County, a City, a Town, a Village, or even a Street exercise its DEMOCRATIC right to secede? Where does it end?
Most nations are rarely perfectly uniform in demography, and have local concentrations with respect to ethnicity, religion, language, etc etc, that are small in relation to the population of the country as a whole. So, does the will of the people of each local region, no matter how small, have priority over the will of ALL of the people of a nation? Does the will of Eastern Ukraine supercede the will of all of Ukraine? Does the will of Crimea have priority over both?
This issue was addressed by Abraham Lincoln, during the US Civil war. President Lincoln argued that the legitimate aspirations of ALL people of the United States had accrued an inalienable right to a United Nation incorporating all of its territories, that had priority over the RIGHT of the Confederate States that had voluntarily united but now wished to secede. He argued that that RIGHT ACCRUED OVER TIME since Indeoendence from Britain, had a greater validity and force than the right of the Confederate States to secede. That was his LEGAL justification for waging the Civil War, and denying the DEMOCRATIC right of the Confederate States to a separate existence.
But we Americans, the inheritors and beneficiaries of Lincoln’s legal justification for preserving the Union, have since been all over the mao on this issue, with only our SELF-INTEREST deciding which side we are on.
In former Yugoslavia, we held that its individual provinces Serbia, Solvenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Hetzegovina, Macedonia, even Kosovo province of Serbia, had an inalienable right to a separate existence …. because we had an interest in Balkanizing the powerful Yugoslavia aligned with the USSR. In doing so, we opened up a Pandora’s box spilling out all of the old Balkan evils that Marshal Tito had managed to keep bottled up in a united Yugoslavia. That witches kettle is still brewing. Determined to divide up Sudan opposed to the US, we have similarly managed to stir up divisions and create a South Sudan, with another new nation in the Darfur region a distinct possibility. South Sudan is now at war with itself … that should keep them busy for a while, eh?
On the other hand, in Ukraine, the US is arguing that the National Sovereignty of Ukraine must remain inviolate while Russia has become the defender of Democracy and the Will of the People of Crimea! There is no “Internal Law” here, only the Rights of the Mighty and Powerful to have their way.
We Americans, in particular, should be wary of the recent trend in our foreign policy to exploit “human rights” and “democracy” to undermine, destabilize and partition other countries. We should be mindful of the demographic changes that are taking place within the United States, that are leading to polarization and alienation of people and regions of the US from one another on ethnic, linguistic, religious and political bases, and the potential for those to grow and crystallize into secessionist movements. There is now AMPLE EVIDENCE that is happening right now.
If that unfortunate situation were to again arise, as it did during the US Civil War period, all of the arguments we are currently using to dismantle other countries would be used against the United States by segments of its own citizens, aided and abetted by enemies of our country. Would then, an Abraham Lincoln arise to formulate new arguments and convince Americans to wage war against each other to keep the nation whole, so our descendents can enjoy the benefits of a one united nation extending from ocean to ocean, as we do now?
March 6th, 2014 at 4:02 pm
Bravo, Dilrook! A very nice analysis and REcommendations for the future.
I agree 100% with your recommendations. No more “Reconciliation” is necessary. Sri Lankan Tamils must take up and row the national boat in concert with all other citizens without demanding special treatment.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka should INCREASE and ACCELERATE the PROSECUTION, CONVICTION and PUNISHMENT of all TRAITORS … PAST & PRESENT for their Criminal Activities against the nation. WEAKNESS BEGETS AGRRESSION … let us get on with Holding the TNA, the Catholic Priests aiding and abetting SEparatists, and anti-national NGOs of various stripes, NOW!
Furthermore, do not reduce the presence of the Armed Forces in the North and East. Instead, INCREASE their presence, and build military bases and townships wiithin eyesight of each other along the coastline to interdict all criminal activities by sea between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
March 6th, 2014 at 4:59 pm
Russia, China, etc. should finance Mexicans to push for SELF DETERMINATION in southern US states.
They should also help African Americans gain their self respect and HOMELAND within USA.
Mexicans in USA doubled from 1990 to 2010 and redouble by 2024 and will be the largest ancestral group by 2026.
Mexican language should be made the official language in Mexican majority states.
MANY Americans have guns so it will be fun. I love to see how they will struggle to cope up with it. The world should rally around human rights violated Mexicans and African Americans.
Islamic people will be 35% of UK in another 2 decades. Russia, China and Saudi should help them achieve their legal status, Sharia, etc. in the UK. That will be TOTAL FUN.
UK and USA the biggest anti-democracy countries are undermined from WITHIN!! Give them 25 years and they will look totally different. We MUST maintain our Sinhala Buddhist UNITARY identity at ANY COST. Let the secular countries SINK into violence and break-up.
It’s a matter of time! It’s a matter of time!
March 7th, 2014 at 1:11 am
All the big brothers advise SL to find a solution. Why do we have to find a solution when there is no problem?
March 7th, 2014 at 2:27 am
CW,
Exactly. Leave aside big brothers , why our ball-less leaders talking about a problem when there is no problem ?
What they should say is THERE IS NO PROBLEM. Come and see.
But when they come, there are a small number of trouble makers saying THERE IS A LOT OF PROBLEMS.
So the problem is the TROUBLE MAKERS.
But the trouble makers are entertained and even given councillor status by the GOVERNMENT.
Therefore the PROBLEM IS THE GOVERNMENT !
March 7th, 2014 at 2:53 am
Thank you Dilrook for the insight into the somewhat hidden militay aims of the US. Something most commentators had missed!!
March 7th, 2014 at 7:07 am
Patriots! Have some good news….From LankaCNews lankacnews[dot]com/sinhala/news/111585/
Apparently the NIC office has become a mess due to the new Sinhalese and Tamil ID cards!!!!!!!!!!!
..and guess what… Sinhalese people are complaining that their names written in Tamil are wrong!!!!!!!!!
The message has got through….way to go ……. way to go!!!!!!!
Stupid things have to be scrapped. We should keep up the fight!!!
March 7th, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Fine analysis by Dilrook. Thank you.
We agree wholeheartedly that NATIONAL INTEGRATION is the top priority issue for Sri Lanka. In fact, National Integration is the best thing that can happen for the ordinary Tamil people too.
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Sri Lanka will only get further embroiled in power politics if any outside military base is set up in Lanka. Say NO to any foreign military base/s in Lanka.
The situation is bad enough with the Tamil Diaspora inventing lies, cheat & deceit with foreign powers.
If we are geographically close to India, then we must endeavor to be good neighbors with India, as well as with China and all the other smaller countries. We have to be free to do trade with both the East and the West. That is real Democracy.
Best thing for Lanka to do is to sign up an Agreement/Pact with India and all the SE Asian countries to be NON-ALIGNED. A NATIONAL INTEGRATION PLAN, the Law of the Land, properly implemented (6-A especially) and a NON-ALIGNED Agreement with neighbors will be Security enough for us. We can gradually include and sign up the whole of Asia in such an Agreement.
After all, even wars are fought for PEACE ! So why not get to that point of peaceful co-existence in a peaceful/civilized way, with no loss of life or limb for any human being, wherever they come from. Ask any war vet whether they want peaceful resolution of issues or through a war, and they will all say ‘peaceful resolution is best’, as they all know the horrors of war.
The World has had two World Wars with nearly 100 million dead. Have we learnt nothing ?