Lord Naseby accuses UK, US of double standards over Sri Lanka
Posted on July 17th, 2016

Editorial

The ever outspoken House of Lords peer Lord Naseby who always maintains his sense of  fair judgement and perception has spoken out on behalf of Sri Lankaa as the Island Nation continues to maintain her right to handle her own affairs without interference from foreign powers seemingly with their own agendas.

In his recent satement  to the  British and global media he has  indicated this by his outspoken stand as always that it is unfair to include foreign judges to probe alleged war crimes where he has pointed to the double standard where the UK specifically uses its own judges to inquire into the iraqui invasion which has differences of opinion about its justification and legality globally.

The specifics of his statementy certainly has fruition in favour of Sri Lanka and highlights  the vagaries of Britain’s bourgeoisie attitude towars Sri Lanka long after Independence and conveys a statement to the world that Britain’s actions are not always kosher when it comes Sri Lankan matters almost to an eyebrow raising degree.

lordNaseby

Them full statement is as follows:-
Speaking at the House of Lords on the Chilcot report on the invasion of Iraq by the British government and the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Lord Naseby said that he was surprised to see the GreeK and US governments endorsing the recommendation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to include foreign judges in the Sri Lanka war crimes panel, which is against the Geneva Convention.
Continuing, he said: “I supported the action that was taken in going to war against Iraq. I did it because of the environment at the time. We forget too easily what the environment was: 9/11, other atrocities against the United States, considerable evidence of chemical warfare and of provisions for chemical warfare and the evidence that was given to Parliament.

“There is no way that Tony Blair is a war criminal or that he is guilty of war crimes. The action he took as Prime Minister was taken in the interests of our country. ?He was the democratically elected leader of our country, not a dictator. This maxim about democratically elected leaders must apply all over the world as far as leadership is concerned.

“Others have commented on military equipment. Whatever one says, it was an absolute shambles and a total disgrace. Post-war planning was poor. Post-Brexit planning is poor. That lies with the Prime Minister of the day and his Cabinet.

“Have we learned the lessons, or have we had to wait for Chilcot to learn them? As far as I can see, we have not. Why did we go into Libya? It is not at all clear to me. Why did we try to force democracy on Egypt? We must have known that the Muslim Brotherhood had been trying since 1921 to get “democratically elected”. We supported elections there and what happened? It got elected, and then we discovered that it is almost as bad as Daesh, and the army in Egypt moved in again.

“Why did we not think twice about Syria? Why did those of us who know a little about that part of the world not realise that it is the fourth Sunni/Shia war. The only thing that is slightly different is that there are far more western-educated people on one side. That war had no real implications for the West. Why did we not check who the people supporting the new democracy in Syria were? Surely we should have been able to discover that the vast majority of them are jihadists.

“I urge my noble friends on the Front Bench to get a proper communications strategy and action plan geared solely against Daesh and to work with Assad to implement it. If that does not happen, we shall once again be in terrible turmoil.

“Action Aid and Christian Aid are right to raise the problem of the 3 million people—at least 3 million refugees, poor souls—with nowhere to live and no livelihood, wondering day after day what is going to happen to them. Have we in the West really got an action plan to deal with that? If we have, I hope that somebody is going to deploy it so that we can discuss it.

“This may surprise most though not all of your Lordships but I need to relate Chilcot to the situation in Sri Lanka today. A press release on 7 June from our High Commission in Colombo after the visit of no less a person than the head of the British Diplomatic Service, Sir Simon McDonald, concludes:

“The UK will continue its program of support for Sri Lanka to help the government fulfill its goals on reconciliation, human rights and strengthening democracy”.

“That is fine, but there is a parallel with Iraq where the UK was, in effect, tackling terrorism in the form of weapons of mass destruction. A battle is undertaken.?

The Chilcot inquiry’s assessment was undertaken by British judges and members of the Privy Council. No foreign judges were called in to do this assessment. We see how well it has been done. In Sri Lanka, there was a war against the terrorists, the Tamil Tigers. However, instead of its being assessed against the Geneva convention, to which I have just referred, the UK and US Governments have endorsed investigation by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights with the addition of foreign judges.

“This is wrong and misconceived. After all, there is a reasonable number of fair-minded judges across the ethnic groups who could undertake the task of judging what happened against the principles of the Geneva convention.

“If the UK Government really want to help, they should release the full text of the dispatches of our military attaché there during the war, Lieutenant-Colonel Gash, containing his independent observations. The Ministers here will know that for two years I have been trying to obtain these under the Freedom of Information Act. However, so far I have received some 30 pages of those dispatches, provided reluctantly, some very heavily redacted.

“As I go to the next stage of the tribunal, I find the Foreign Office hiding behind policy that releasing these dispatches might undermine relationships with other countries such as Saudi Arabia, which is hardly a democracy. I ask the Foreign Office to reflect carefully on the full implications of Chilcot, namely that we should treat each situation separately and recognise that the truth will get out. It is better to publish evidence that is available than to hide it.

“If in future we, as a country, follow that in any engagements that we may have, we shall be a country that can be proud of what we achieve democratically. Parliament owes a huge debt to Chilcot for what he has done. It must be for Parliament to decide how to take it forward”.

10 Responses to “Lord Naseby accuses UK, US of double standards over Sri Lanka”

  1. Ananda-USA Says:

    Exactly what I wrote about before: DOUBLE STANDARDS being waved aloft by DYED-IN-THE-WOOL HYPOCRITES!

    At this rate no developing nation will be able to defend itself, no matter HOW DEMOCRATIC it is! Indeed, DEMOCRACY becomes a LIABILITY to SURVIVAL as a Nation with these HYPOCRITES undermining them plying their NEOCOLONIAL agendas!

    Well said, Lord Naseby! Well said!

  2. S.Gonsal Says:

    Thank you for posting this.
    Lord Naseby has been supportive of our “eradication of terrorism”. He has always been consistent on terrorism. Only our government is not consistent. Change of government should ( by right) bring about change of policy on terrorism. Now that government is releasing terrorists and arresting those who eradicate terrorism. Only the terrorists all over the world are happier.

  3. Dilrook Says:

    Very bold statements.

    It is very important for the world and Europe in particular to be clear on this at a time when their very existence is under threat from terrorism inspired by Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka. All modern terror groups are hot on the heels of Tamil terrorists, copying them. The way to rout them essentially includes learning from Sri Lanka.

    Thank you Lord Naseby for telling the truth as it is.

  4. Sooriarachi Says:

    Due to petty politics in Sri Lanka and to cover up the pathetic economic situation in the country due to incompetence and the stopping of infrastructure development projects started by the previous regime, coupled with the mind boggling losses to the nation from the two irregular Central Bank bond sales under the present regime, the Sri Lankan Government is trying to deflect blame for all ills, to the previous regime by going along with this apparently illegal investigation, forced by the UNHCR, which has been misguided by the wealthy Tamil separatist lobby. Sadly, this type of investigation of a sovereign nation has never been undertaken since the establishment of the UN and those responsible for agreeing to this investigation should be removed from their positions.
    We could only hope that justice will prevail, as many respected foreign dignitaries like Lord Naserby, even without a request from the current Sri Lankan regime, are freely expressing their utter consternation, seeing the double standards being applied to Sri Lanka. Today, Sri Lanka is in dire need of a strong patriotic leadership.

  5. mario_perera Says:

    Terrorism has only begun in Europe. It must continue and continue it will considering Europe’s involvement in regime change especially in Muslim countries.

    Europe must feel the effects of terrorism right down to the commonest European on the streets. Europe must undergo all that Sri Lanka underwent during thirty years of totally unrestrained horrendous Tamil terrorism.

    Right now European populations are in the thralls of a siege mentality. They are in the grip of fear. Even assisting at musical events and at national commemoration ceremonies are wrought with danger. They are learning that raiding bomb factories and arms manufacturies are totally inadequate measures. Even ordinary means of transport are lethal weapons in the hands of terrorists.

    Europe is learning that regime change itself is inadequate when the terrorists are homemade and home grown products.

    Formerly when they were at open war they bombed and flattened the enemy country to the ground. Now the enemy is within. They can neither bomb them out or even hound them out because they are part and parcel of the European social and religious fabric. Fighting terrorism is not like fighting criminality. Criminality does not have social or religious support. The type of terrorism Europe faces has both social and religious support: of Islamists and Islam.

    With the fight against the enemy at home, there will be previously unknown restrictions imposed on the ordinary citizens. Their very identities and possessions will be checked day in and day out. The freedoms Europe boasts of will evaporate into thin air. Human rights will have to be kept in abeyance indefinitely.

    Europeans will learn that their values are hypocritical. They will realize that their systems, be they social, religious or economical are defective and cannot be imposed on others. Already many are coming to the understanding that ‘dictatorships’ were not bad. They were necessities for some. Europeans will realize that they are not Gods born to fashion others to their own image and likeness.

    This will take time. One or several acts of terrorism are insufficient for such a transformation. So terrorism must continue unabated in Europe. it must continue until it flattens Europe’s detestable superiority complex and its abhorrent value systems.

    Allah Hu Akbar. Allah is the greatest, Only HE can bring down the self-exalted mighty European nations to their knees.

    This is a fight of the GODS…monotheistic Gods…the One of Christianity and the One of Islam. At one time the former won. Now the tide has definitely changed.

    Mario Perera
    Kadawata

  6. Sooriarachi Says:

    I disagree with some of the comments by readers, that Europe should suffer the consequences of having not contributed to getting rid of Tamil Tiger separatists, terrorists. I do not wish terrorism to get a foothold anywhere in the world, nor do I wish innocent civilians in any country, whether Sri Lanka, Europe, USA, Africa or wherever, suffering from the actions of brutal terrorists like the Tamil Tigers, PolPot’s Khmer Rouge etc.
    All innocent civilians are like you or me and must not suffer, but it should be those Politicians, Journalists etc who accepted favours from these terrorists and allowed them to destroy another county

  7. Eusense Says:

    sooriarachi,
    You appear to be preaching politically correct and dharmishta scenarios. It is all good. But the modern world does not work that way. When the US, UK, Canada and the other western countries set out to destroy Iraq, they very well knew that Saddam had nothing to do with 911 and he did not have weapons of mass destruction. Where did you see honesty? Did they think about the innocent civilians who will be suffering for the rest of their lives? When SL was desperate to end the terror the LTTE brought on us for 30 years, what help did they give us? Why did they ask us to negotiate while the LTTE was rearming with weapons bought from the west? Why did they call our terror war “Sri Lanka’s unwinnable war”? Why did the UK allow all funneled terror funds to be banked in the UK?
    After all that, once SL eliminated the menace of terrorism we have suddenly become war criminals. This is all while they have killed millions of Iraqis invading Iraq and while Israel killing Palestinians on a daily basis with no UNHRC actions! How do you think we can educate these racist, discriminatory, dishonest, opportunistic criminals of these so called world powers? Talking sense to them???

  8. Ananda-USA Says:

    I agree with both Eusense and SooriarachI.

    That is, I sympathize with innocent victims of terror wherever they suffer and whoever they are, irrespective of nationality, skin color, race, religion, sex or any other communal attribute. I think, that all those who have commented here also feel that way very deeply.

    Nevertheless, we see MOSTLY hateful DOUBLE STANDARDS being applied by these sanctimonious Westerners all over the world, and particularly against Sri Lanka.

    Their hateful attitudes and actions impact us strongly, for they contribute to undermining and denying our inalienable right to live securely in a peaceful and prosperous sovereign country free from conflict and terror, preserving those things which we hold dear.

    Our comments, as citizens and expatriates, of the Sri Lankan nation that has clung more than most others to human rights and a democratic way of life through 30 years of HELL, are a PLEA for EQUAL TREATMENT and CONSIDERATION.

    That PLEA must be supported by valid and cogent arguments which expose their DOUBLE STANDARDS and HYPOCRISY by comparing and constrasting what the Westerners do when our people die versus when their people die. That is NOT BEING ISENSITIVE to their pain and suffering, but helping to establish a common basis on which we can assess our actions under a single set of impartial rules.

    As long as we allow them to get away with their HYPOCRISY, especially in their time of pain when they are more attuned to our shared humanity, they will NEVER RECOGNIZE OR ACCEPT THEIR HYPOCRISY, and our pain and suffering will continue unabated.

    Thereforr, we MUST FORCE THEM to walk in our shoes, to kindle the needed spark of enlightenment, empathy and understanding in their hearts and minds!

  9. Dilrook Says:

    With all due respect, I disagree with Sooriarachi solely based on political realities. On a moral plain, I agree with him.

    Warfare saw a transition in the 1800s. Before that, forces met at a battlefield and attacked each other in war. Civilians were mostly kept away from battle. However, modern warfare focuses on specifically attacking civilians! Wars since 1900 have killed more civilians than combatants. Very latest weapons focus on destroying economic, communication, governance and other vital civilian positions quickly to get the other side to surrender or compromise.

    Therefore, the sufferings of people in Europe is no different to modern warfare anywhere else. The problem is double standards. When Tamil terrorists were killing Sinhala civilians, Europeans and Americans preached nonsense without helping Sri Lanka exterminate Tamil terrorists. Now that they are at the receiving end of terrorism, they cry to high heavens, want the rest of the world to condemn attacks on them and join in their fight against terror. It will not work as long as “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”.

    The more the West suffers, the more hope and support Sri Lanka will get in it’s impending war against Tamil and (potentially) extremist terror groups. Post 9/11 laws and UN resolutions hugely helped Sri Lanka defeat the LTTE. Had those events not happened, LTTE and its fronts may not have been banned efficiently.

    Given political sensitivities, Sri Lanka will not ban Islamic terror groups (unless a governing party wants to lose 10% of the vote almost entirely). It is a bold move by a pro-western government. These are facts that defy political correctness and morality but shape the world.

  10. S.Gonsal Says:

    Without 9/11 Prabhakaran is still the king of Vanni. “War on terrorism” was a new term came into effect since 9/11 when “humans” of the west were affected by it. Before that only innocent monkeys died.

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