H. L. D. Mahindapala

At a time when neither the TNA nor India is talking about federalism” – they talk of only 13+ — Atul Keshap, Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asia, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, who visited Sri Lanka last week, charged in like a headless bull looking for its chopped tail in a China shop and accused Sri Lanka of not taking steps to advance towards federalism”. This is another example of America’s penchant for making enemies out of friends and driving even non-aligned neutrals into the arms of its rivals.

Politically illiterate Keshaps” are a serious threat to America’s interests abroad. Not all the far-flung 800+ bases blanketing the globe can protect America if the likes of Keshap are let loose to roam unguided in the highways and byways of the world desperately searching for peace and stability. His proven skills are in planting verbal land mines and, accordingly, he should be used in Afghanistan or Ukraine and kept as far away as possible from nations recovering from futile wars like Sri Lanka. He should be caged permanently inside a cubicle in the State Department if the future of America’s interests are to be protected. He stands out as a typical symbol of the declining power of America unable to comprehend the basic grammar of politics in Afro-Asia.

Atul Keshap did not stop at exposing his ignorance. First, he blamed Sri Lanka for not  solving its political problems within five years, even though Iraq, a protectorate of America, is on the verge of collapsing after pouring in billions for the last ten years. In Sri Lanka he insists on playing the role of Speedy Gon”-salez demanding that the North-South issues be resolved in five years – a long time, according to him. But does he know how long it  took America to liberate the Afro-Americans who were brought in and sold as slaves? Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. But that remained as a dead letter in statute books for over a century. It was Lyndon B Johnson who finally signed the Civil Rights Act on June 2. 1964 to end lynching, segregation, unlawful imprisonment, injecting the Afro-Americans in the southern Bible belt with syphilis, the denial of voting rights, the use of toilets, and even giving a seat in schools, buses and restaurants to Afro-American children. Sri Lanka sacrificed 26,000 soldiers to liberate the Tamils from the Boko Haramist of Jaffna in three years. How’s that for speed, Mr. Speedy Gon”-salez?

Second. he accused Sri Lanka of being the only country — other than N. Korea, Syria and Iran – that has categorically refused to cooperate with UN probes. This is another instance of America first creating the problem and then blaming the victim of its  interventionist machinations for not cooperating with its self-serving agenda. If America did not initiate and goaded the other members in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to act against Sri Lanka the current problem facing Sri Lanka would not have arisen. It is America that led the anti-Sri Lankan resolution  at the UNHRC the second and third time. It failed the first time in 2009. Then it mobilized its entire global diplomatic forces and got the resolution passed the second and the third time. Keshap who might have been a part of this anti-Sri Lankan machinations is now surprised that Sri Lanka is not conforming to the American agenda which is disguised as UN-approved resolution. Sri Lanka did not reject the first UNHRC decision which reflected the free will of  the international community — free from manipulations and pressures of America and its Western cohorts. What Sri Lanka rejected was the American agenda pushed through the UNHRC after it failed to nail Sri Lanka at the UN and UNHRC.

In the latest turn of events Keshap arrives in Colombo and pushes the State Department line of blaming Sri Lanka. And he resorts to the cheap tactic of demonizing Sri Lanka as the only country, other than N. Korea, Syria and Iran that has refused to comply with a UNHRC resolution. This statement is utterly irresponsible coming from a high-up in the State Department. He has climbed  up the hierarchical ladder in the State Department and arrived at his present key position with impressive credentials. Considering his wide range of experience in diverse international organizations and diplomatic missions one would expect him to have more than a basic knowledge of global affairs. So it absolutely baffling as to why he deviated from the known truth and accused Sri Lanka falsely.

One cannot accuse him being a latter day Rip Van Winkle. Nor is he naïve greenhorn. He knows – or at least should know — his onions. After all he has worked with the Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake Robert O’Blake when he was as Director of the Office of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Bhutan Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. According to his bio-data he is the recipient of several Department of State individual Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, as well as a certificate of recognition from Secretary of State Colin Powell for duties performed in the State Department Operations Center on September 11, 2001 and afterwards.”

Now an American career diplomats of  this standing does not go astray on key aspects unless it is a deliberate ploy to target nation-states that are refusing to fall in line with its political agenda. He knew that long before Sri Lanka refused to let UNHRC appointees to intrude and probe the last stages of the 33-year-old war that Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East, not only expressed outrage” at UNHRC’s decision to probe alleged violations of   international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the Gaza strip, particularly in connection with Gaza War, but also quit UNHRC, stating that they would never cooperate with any probes and would prevent any members of the mission from entering the territory.

Sticking to its guns Israel did not cooperate with UNHRC which appointed the South African jurist Richard Goldstone to head the international fact-finding mission. This example gives the lie to Keshap’s statement during his recent  visit that only Sri Lanka, other than Syria, Iran and North Korea, has refused to cooperate with UN probes. He went all out to link Sri Lanka with Syria, Iran and North Korea deliberately omitting Israel. He was obviously twisting the truth to demonize Sri Lanka – a common tactic of the State Department delineated by Noam Chomsky as a prelude to justify drastic action like regime change, as in the notorious case of Nicaragua. Besides, Keshap should know the example of Israel like the back of his hand because US State Department has backed the Israeli stand of refusing to cooperate with UNHRC to the hilt.

Both Israel and Nicaragua are two leading examples where USA refused bluntly to cooperate with the UN. The basic principle involved here is the question of compliance by member states with UN resolutions, judgments, and programs. Before censuring Sri Lanka Keshap should have examined how America had complied with the resolutions and judgments passed by the UN institutions. The most deplorable case of US non-compliance was when US refused to adhere to ICJ’s judgment which ordered US to pay compensation to Nicaragua for laying mines to the entrance of its harbour, violating international law. It was a clear cut case which has drawn the critical condemnation of international jurists. Knowing that the case was going against US it announced in 1985 that it was ending its policy of automatic compliance with Court. So why is Keshap deliberately lying  through his teeth when his own country has refused to comply just not with a UN resolutions – there are many instances of this – but with an independent and objective judgment passed the by the World Court on USA.

Defying the judgment of the eminent jurists of the World Court US never paid reparations to Nicaragua. The question that arises from this is simple : if America, the self-appointed guardian  of international law and morality, can reject a judgment of the independent World Court why can’t Iran, Syria and N. Korea refuse to comply with a mere resolution passed by a non-judicial, politicized  body like the UNHRC? America’s failure to give credible moral leadership has undermined and reduced its image to that of a brutal Indian rapist getting away with impunity in Delhi.

Besides, how many resolutions passed by the UN Security Council – the highest law-making body – have been honoured in the breach than in the observance by many other nations? And how many illegal moves have been initiated and implemented by US to block international law? For instance, when Nicaragua went to the UN asking for compensation as laid down in the ICJ judgment US used its veto in the Security Council to block it.

Israel and Nicaragua are only two glaring examples out of the multitude of resolutions and judgments gathering dust in the shelves of the UN. If Keshap had taken greater care to check the facts before letting his loose tongue run riot in Colombo he would have known that there are many skeletons hidden in the cupboards of the State Department. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, his false statement  that Sri Lanka is the only nation, other than N. Korea, Syria and Iran, to have not honoured a UN resolution can explain why US foreign policy has run aground in many critical global flash-points. If the State Department can’t get its basic facts right how can it devise effective policies to resolve global crises?

Sri Lanka like most other small nations has been a victim of Big  Power interventions. Besides, Sri Lanka is in a unique position where the UNHRC in the first instance commended its role of ending the war against Tamil terrorism. So when Keshap lectures to Sri Lanka based on misleading information and double standards to force it to comply with the American-led resolution there is no moral obligation for Sri Lanka to follow the diktats of the State Department. For the sake of argument, Sri Lanka can easily turn round and accuse US of not following the first decision of the UNHRC. If Sri Lanka could gather just a few more votes at the UNHRC to overturn the American-led resolution it could easily end American bullying overnight. Clearly, it is not morality that won in Geneva. America managed to win through its mighty muscle power. Of the three resolutions passed by the UNHRC there is greater moral weight in the first one which commended Sri Lanka than in the second and third ones manipulated by America to suit pursue its anti-Sri Lankan agenda. The only reason why Sri Lanka is under pressure now is because of politico-economic clout of America.

So it isn’t too late for American to adopt a mid-course correction to its misguided and misinformed policy on Sri Lanka and return to its moral base – a base on which it lays so much emphasis – rather than sticking to its might-is-right policy which has driven it insanely into the prevailing international disasters, killing more civilians than Bush Jr., under the stewardship of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Undoubtedly, a return to basic morality can save America’s lost prestige in the  global theatre which it once dominated with a respectable commitment to values. After attaining great civilizational and technological heights it would be a colossal tragedy if America should be remembered in the history of the multipolar world as a nation that declined because it lost its moral base in its last phase.

America should not leave room for another  Edward Gibbons to write The Decline and Fall of American Empire due to its moral corruption. Gibbon’s verdict on the history of the Middle Ages is memorable, apt and telling: “I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion.”

Is this going to be epitaph on the grave of America?