Thus spake Ban
Posted on September 8th, 2016
Editorial Courtesy The Island
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has come and gone, but brouhaha one of his controversial remarks triggered has not yet died down. The government was over the moon about Ban’s visit, but now it has been left with egg on its face. How sad!
The UNSG, delivering a lecture, Sustainable Peace and Achieving Sustainable Development Goals, at Colombo Hilton last week, went out of his way to bracket Sri Lanka with Rwanda and Bosnia while speaking of the Vanni war. His comparison was not unintentional, at all. It was calculated to have the impact he had in mind. It looks as if he had come all the way here to say just that!
The government seems to think the UNSG came here in appreciation of its style of governance. He only wanted to dictate the tempo of the process of initiating the proposed war crimes probe, justify the UNHRC action and remind the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration of its commitment to the Geneva resolution. He apparently wanted to come out with something to shock the conscience of the global community while international media attention was on this country so as to give the UNHRC war crimes probe project a turbo boost. He succeeded in his endeavour.
A diplomat is said to be capable of telling someone to go to hell in such a way that the latter looks forward to the trip. The UNSG has done just that and the government worthies are getting ready for the journey. Having naively expected the UNSG’s visit to bring about some positive results the government leaders have gone into damage control mode. As if the problem of setting up a war crimes probe were not enough now they have an obliquely made genocide allegation to contend with!
Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, addressing the media on Tuesday, cut a very pathetic figure, trying hard as he did to defend the indefensible. He, in his wisdom, vehemently denied that the UNSG had ever sought to compare the civilian deaths during the Vanni war with genocidal killings in Rwanda and Bosnia. Why he undertook to speak for the UNSG defies comprehension. Not even the UN Spokesman Farhan Haq has cared to clear the air; he has only told this newspaper the UNSG’s words speak for themselves whatever that means. If Ban had made a mistake in Colombo his office would certainly have corrected it unambiguously. Nothing of the sort has happened.
Minister Samarasinghe’s argument that the UNSG’s remark in question was not part of the text of his speech and, therefore, it should not be taken seriously, does not hold water. Copies of all written speeches made available to the media always carry the tag, ‘check against delivery’. What prevails is what someone says in public and not what finds itself in the text of his or her speech. There have been instances where Sri Lankan leaders have announced government decisions while speaking without script. The late President Ranasinghe Premadasa’s call for the Indian Peace Keeping force (IPKF) to go whence it had come from is a case in point. He said so while speaking at a Colombo temple, of all places. The IPKF left in the end, didn’t it?
There are no asides in diplomacy, especially where top officials such as the UNSG are concerned. It is inevitable that Ban’s words will become official and accepted worldwide if they are allowed to go unchallenged. His attitude presages more turns of the screw in Geneva. The government ought to realise that the architects of the Geneva resolution, it naively co-sponsored, are not driven by any love for it in spite of their blandishments. They are only using it as a handmaiden to further their geo-political interests in this part of the world.
The government, without trying to fool itself, should seriously consider registering its protest with the UN against the UNSG’s statement at issue.
September 7th, 2016 at 3:48 pm
UNSG Banki Moon is another Indian puppet. Indian Empire, Indian colonial parasites and vermin have been making these comparisons for a long time. With his persona connected to Indian Union what else could you expect.
September 7th, 2016 at 8:00 pm
As I told before, Upali group’s two papers are acting differently. The Island Editor is doing a good job as expected but the editor of DIVAINA is still going on some petty issues and defending Maru Sira and the Clan.
There is no vehicle for these events to be taken to general public other than Sinhala dailies. But no one talks about these dangerous issues… So the Sinhalayas are just continuing on sleeping.
September 8th, 2016 at 2:17 am
In the Missing Persons Act, a relative or a friend can make an official inquiry (but a totally bogus inquiry) from the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) by email inquiring as to the whereabouts of their relative or friend.
There are over 8 lakhs to 10 lakhs Tamil diaspora asylum seekers (actually economic migrants), a vast majority of who support the separatist terrorist LTTE and its aim of a separate state. If even 40,000 of these Tamil diaspora who support the separatist terrorist LTTE write bogus emails to the OMP inquiring the whereabouts of their friend or relative (but this friend or relative is actually living alongside them in these countries i.e. the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) these inquiries will officially be accepted by the OMP as 40,000 missing persons.
According to the provisions of the OMP Act, even if the OMP inquires after these let us say 40,000 and finds out that these are all bogus inquiries and that all these 40,000 persons are actually living alongside the inquirer i.e. their relative or friend and these complaints about these persons being missing are all bogus, the missing persons, now found by the OMP, can request that their whereabouts not be revealed to their relative or friend or be made public. So officially these 40,000 persons will still be missing!!!
Then the OMP will use these bogus 40,000 missing persons (who are actually living comfortably in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) as manufactured ‘evidence’ that war crimes happened in Sri Lanka (and all these bogus inquirers will state that these persons went missing during the 2006-2009 period) and our Sri Lankan Armed Forces will be persecuted for committing war crimes that they never, ever committed by a judicial process using these bogus email inquiries.
The Missing Persons Act states specifically that if the missing person who is now found requests that the fact that they are now found not be revealed to the public that person will remain as missing as far as the OMP is concerned. That is how the OMP will manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ of 40,000 missing persons so that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces can be persecuted for committing bogus war crimes.
The OMP emails cannot be checked by any outside body as stated in the Act since all evidence (almost all bogus) gathered by the OMP remains confidential. The OMP cannot be taken to the Supreme Court on this issue. However the OMP should absolutely and immediately be taken to the Supreme Court regarding what has been written above which is what would happen when this OMP is set up.
The OMP will become a bogus ‘evidence’ manufacturing machine which will gather such bogus inquiries via email from those members of the Tamil diaspora who are supportive of the LTTE terrorists and who will send bogus email inquiries by their thousands. All these bogus inquiries (of people who are actually living in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) will then be misused as missing person inquiries.
I did not realize that the Sinhalese were this stupid as to allow such a process within the Missing Persons Act which can be blatantly misused in order to manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ like this. The OMP process is not transparent, it will happen in totally secrecy, no one in Sri Lanka will be able to question it, not our police, not our courts, not our Sri Lankan citizens, nobody. All the OMP will do is gather bogus email ‘evidence’ such as described above which will then be misused as missing person inquiries to try the Sri Lankan Armed Forces for bogus war crimes that they never, ever committed.
The OMP process as described above must be stopped immediately. If a relative or a friend really and genuinely wants to find out about their genuinely missing relative or friend (i.e. perished LTTE terrorist), they can make a complaint to the OMP in person in public. This is the only way that Sri Lanka and the world will know that their inquiry is genuine. This was the methodology followed by the earlier Paranagama Commission which then received 23,000 complaints from relatives or friends of the missing person (i.e. perished LTTE terrorist or our perished Sri Lankan Forces soldiers) but they made their complaint in public in person to the commission. This is the only way to ensure authenticity and make the process transparent since this happens in the public arena. However, even with such safeguards, even some of those complaints may have been bogus.
The OMP should be stopped immediately since it is not a transparent process at all as described above but a totally secretive process where no one and nobody can request to be provided an opportunity to even peruse, investigate or look at the email inquiries received by the OMP. If the UNHRC, the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India, the TNA and the separatist terrorists genuinely want to find out about perished LTTE terrorists, this Yahapalanaya Government could expand and extend the scope of the already set up Paranagama Commission in order to make such inquiries. This process should be totally following Sri Lankan Law, within Sri Lankan jurisdiction, paid for totally by the Sri Lankan Government only and with only Sri Lankan citizens appointed as commission members and investigators. In fact the entire staff should be composed Sri Lankan citizens only. The process should be a totally domestic process with no interference or input whatsoever from foreign countries. Most importantly, all complaints should be made in person by relatives and friends in public if their complaint is genuine.
The Missing Persons Act is totally dangerous as pointed out above and should be dismissed totally as it is highly dangerous and a totally secretive process as described above designed and set up to manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.
September 8th, 2016 at 3:03 am
What else can we expect from Christian Monkey Moon! He would have loved to denigrate a Buddhist land and categorise Sri Lanka alongside Rwanda and Bosnia. He is the shame of Asia!
September 8th, 2016 at 10:30 am
Ban Ki Moon is anther puppet of the Indian Empire. His daughter is married to an Indian. Jai Hind.
September 8th, 2016 at 1:33 pm
Sri Lankans, if smart, should take the UNSG’s remark about ‘genocide’, and take the opportunity to present the facts to the world that :
(a) Over 300,000 Tamil civilians held as an illegal Human Shield by the LTTE, were rescued at great costs to the Armed Forces of Lanka, especially the Army.
(b) Seal Lanka with absolutely fool proof SECURITY, so that NO ILLEGAL MIGRANT CAN EVER STAY ON IN LANKA and claim citizenship here.
* Also, ensure that Tamil folk who joined P’karan’s LTTE army, are deported.
* Ensure that Tamil Nadu camp people are given INDIAN CITIZENSHIP, as requested by TN Chief Minister, Jayalalitha.
(c) Take the chance to REMOVE the ILLEGAL 13-A imposed by INDIA on the JRJ govt in 1987.
(d) Make sure that the deadly Vadukoddai Resolution of 1976 is OFFICIALLY REVOKED by the Tamil leaders of today.
Or else, Lanka will slowly but surely become a sub-state of INDIA & an extension of Tamil Nadu, Caste System and all !
September 8th, 2016 at 4:30 pm
Read as “Also, ensure that Tamil Nadu Tamil folk who joined P’karan’s LTTE army, are deported”.