By Lakshman I. Keerthisinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today

 I detest that man, who hides one thing in the depth of his heart and speaks forth another”– Homer- Illiad (Deciet)

The United States is fully committed to the universal protection and promotion of human rights”

– Antony Blinken- US Secretary of State -Video Message to 46th UNHRC Session in Geneva

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressing the 46th UNHRC Session stated: We encourage the Council to support resolutions at this session addressing issues of concern around the world, …the lack of accountability for past atrocities in Sri Lanka.” He also announced the US will seek election to the UN Human Rights Council for the 2022-24 term.  Being surprised by this new stance of the Biden administration, the remark on alleged ‘lack of accountability in Sri Lanka’ as alleged by Blinken raises the issue of lack of accountability by the US for its past grave atrocities in global human rights abuses. Sri Lanka has already taken meaningful steps in appointing Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), Office of the Missing Persons and Reparations Commission and several other institutions to investigate any such allegations and take appropriate action. 

As stated by Lord Naseby in the UK Parliament the statement that 40,000 deaths occurred during the last stages of the conflict has been disproved with evidence but Commissioner Bachelet repeats these unsubstantiated charges against Sri Lankan Armed Forces baselessly. 

A horrible video depicting LTTE child soldiers being trained by Adele Balsingham presently based in UK tying cyanide capsules around the necks of innocent Tamil children forcibly removed from parental custody by the brutal terrorists is presently circulating in social Media. Further evidence produced by Lord Naseby indicates the humanitarian manner in which Sri Lankan troops assisted civilians escaping from the LTTE human shield to protect their terrorist cadres in combat. It was proved the LTTE massacred escaping civilians from the LTTE human shield. 

Sometime ago responding to such adverse remarks of  then US Ambassador Sisson, Sri Lanka’s President then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said, The job of an ambassador was to strengthen relations between two countries and not to ruin them by giving lessons in good governance in the host country.”

US human rights violations

Hence, this article attempts to investigate the accountability of the US in its own record of global human rights in addition to recent racist brutal police shootings of Blacks in US and other human rights violations in the form of cowardly drone attacks killing large numbers of innocent women and children in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries in the world. Subsequent to the 9/11 attacks in the US by the Al Qaeda, US appears to be engaged in a witch-hunt indiscriminately murdering human beings all over the world in acts of unwarranted revenge targeting innocent Muslims. American website Policymic reported thus: ‘Meanwhile, U.S. drones are killing children and terrorising families abroad. Earlier this year, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that 176 children have been murdered in Pakistan alone. And along with drone attacks, an average of 4.8 children is killed per day in Afghanistan where earlier this year, a U.S. sergeant is reported to have killed nine children. Will these murders be deemed worthy of our thoughts and prayers, or even our news headlines?

Thus before talking about fictitious past atrocities committed by Sri Lanka we invite Blinken to first put his own house in order. 

Antony Blinken are you aware of the human rights violation in the form of atrocious torture committed by US troops in Vietnam, Guantanamo Bay and other prison camps maintained by the US? The US Government adopted American Service-members’ Protection Act (ASPA) to protect any US citizen from appearing before International Court of Criminal Justice (ICJ). The ASPA is a United States federal law introduced passed in August 2002 by Congress. The stated purpose was to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the US government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which US is not a party.” When attempting to falsely implicate our heroic soldiers in alleged past atrocities with the UN Commissioner applying universal jurisdiction, is the US prepared to annul the ASPA and produce the US servicemen before the ICJ for necessary reprisals?

In conclusion, the painful truth behind the deceitful American concerns about human rights violations in Sri Lanka is to bully the present regime in to submission so as to make Sri Lanka a power base in Asia subservient to the edicts of the US Government and thereby gain a foothold in the Indian Ocean region by planting the US troops in our peaceful motherland. Homer’s statement quoted above comes to mind.

The writer is an Attorney-at-Law with LLB, LLM, MPhil.(Colombo)-keerthisinghel@yahoo.co.uk