Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.) Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada.
12 February 2021
Mr. Antony Blinken
US Secretary of State
2201 C Street NW, Room 206
Washington D.C 209520-2204
US.
Dear Mr. Blinken:
It was with special interest that I read the announcement of 8
February that the U.S. is rejoining the United Nations Human Rights
Council to re-engage immediately and robustly with the body to pursue a foreign
policy centered on democracy and human rights.
That is indeed a challenge and honourable on the part of President Biden’s Administration instructions.
However, Mr. Blinken, your involvement won’t be that easy to
unhook, thousands and thousands and thousands of members of the Sri
Lanka-Sinhalese Diaspora community from the bold words of Nikki Haley who said,
that the UNHRC is a cesspool of political bias, and a self serving body
that makes a mockery of Human Rights, and pulled out US being part of that
body. And not even wanting to touch it with a barge pole. I am one who
got hooked as she was so absolutely right.
As for USA’s record of human rights back-drop, I for one cannot
forget your former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright calmly asserting that
U.S. policy were worth the sacrifice of half a million Arab children during the
US-Iraq war, My stomach is still doing somersaults of anger and
sadness. If that is indeed the US stance on Human Rights, killing more
innocent children than who died in Hiroshima during the attack of Iraq on
a lie, then may God forbid!
How do you expect us to erase that from our memory? It is nice to
tell us that you want to engage with the UNHRC robustly, but will you be able
to win my trust? That is the bottom line Mr. Blinken after all that was
said by Madeleine Albright.
The recent-American history of Human Rights is defined by
the sentencing to death, the 46 year old African-American, George Perry Floyd
Jr, to die in 8 minutes and 46 seconds choked by one of your ‘white’
policeman’s kneeling knee on his neck. This sentencing of death was for
having passed a counterfeit $20 bill in a Minneapolis Store.
You know Mr. Blinken, you’re a Dad and so am I. What is
brutal about this killing was how this Dad was not given a chance to hug one of
his daughters to say ‘good-bye’ and telling her,
Listen, sweetheart, I am sorry, I did something wrong and I am
sentenced to die. I am leaving you and won’t be coming home for ever. Tell
Mummy, I am sorry, and that I love her genuinely and deeply, and all of
you. Lead a good life angel and have fun. Be nice to Mummy. She is
the best Mummy in the whole world, Give me a hug and don’t cry. And
give Mummy a Hug from me when you get home. I love you and I have always
loved you. Good-bye!”
Mr. Blinken, your American robust human rights
didn’t give Floyd that humanitarian last chance, and that was wicked, and that
was brutal. So
much of the US, Human Rights that you are hoping to sell me.
Mr. Blinken, I didn’t know this guy. All I knew of him was that he was a Dad and an American Black. As a Dad I cried my heart out – and I wrote this therapeutic poem. I had to and I want you to read it.
Tears of Blood
(for George Floyd)
Just now a cloud
of screaming black ravens
flew over Minneapolis,
perched on the leafless
trellis
of branches
of trees at the Powderhorn
Community and shed tears of
blood
from their paining red eyes
and I sighed
O my
brother George
O my
people.
It was no more a faceless
horror
that got you
it was a knee of a white-man
in a blue-serge uniform who
forced pressure
on your neck
Please
Please
I can’t
breathe
Mama
Mama
I can’t
breathe.”
It is this irrational
white-terror
O my God
I can’t
breathe
don’t kill
me officer,
Come on man
I cannot
breathe.”
And the clock keeps ticking’
every minute,
it is 5…6…7…8
that finally caught up with
Him and he couldn’t run.
Where is
Oprah Winfrey
Martin
Luther King,
Barack
Obama
are
you not going to give me
a spoon
full of water?”
O my brother
O my people
What have you done to meet
this whiteman’s
savagery’
in a country that you too
helped to build.
‘It’s my face
man
I didn’t do
nothing serious man
Please,
please man
I can’t
breathe.”
The clock counts minute 8
and 46 seconds,
and George Floyd is gone.’
He is dead!
I join the ravens singing
from the trees.
We shall
overcome
Some
day,
we shall
overcome
some day,
O deep in
my heart,
I do
believe
We shall
overcome
one day.”
And the ravens flew
away cawing loud
in an angry black cloud.
Brother George Floyd,
watch out for me, when
I will meet you in heaven,
Keep me a comfortable nook
and I promise I will look
forward to share my ration
of the spoon full of water.”
(Asoka Weerasinghe
2 June 2020)
Mr. Antony Blinken, when you re-engage with the United Nations
Human Rights Council immediately and robustly” the alleged Human Rights
violations in Sri Lanka during the last five months of the Eelam War will
be on your table for your American opinion and voting. I
hope and pray that you will be robust” with Your honesty too, and ask
the UNHRC members to be honest too like you:
- Tell them,
I know what terrorist wars are all about. We are still fighting the
Talibans in Afghanistan. If you talk of alleged killings of
Tamils by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces on their way to annihilate the most
ruthless terrorists in the world, on March 19, 2009, where the
numbers have been bandied from 40,000 to 100,000s being killed. Why
is it that we are not talking of the casualties of 80,000 to 200,000
Tamils, struggling, to walk, hopping with the help of crutches and
sticks, bandaged like mummies, soaking with blood, moving in single
file along the roads for safety. Why? Is it because the alleged
killings” are an exaggeration, or perhaps it never happened. May
I have the truth, and nothing but the truth as an answer.”
Madam
Bachelet, could you also tell me, how did the 80,000 casualties manage in a
sliver of land at Nandikadal, on improvised crutches, bandaged like mummies in
blood soaked bandages, and hopped over 40,000 dead Tamil bodies?
Can you explain to me in detail, Madam Michelle Bachelet. We are
now talking of the real Eelam war-theatre and not a surreal FairyTale War
theatre. Who is it that sustained these 80,000 casualties with food and
water?; Let’s be honest. Who organized these war theatre logistics.
Sounds surreal to me!
Is this why
Nikki Haley called your outfit a cesspool of political bias and a self
serving body that makes a mockery of human rights.”
This is
quite an indictment, and I believe that there is no smoke without a fire!.”
- Why is that we, at UNHRC, have not acknowledged
the Classic Textbook example of a major rescue mission inside a theatre of war.
The
Sri Lankan soldiers rescued, which is a recorded fact, 295.873
Tamil
refugees who were used as a human shield for 6 months by the
Tamil
Tiger terrorists, marching them from the west coast to the east
coast
under a scorching Jaffna-Killinochchi sun, like a herd of
unwashed
cattle. Why?
Madam
Bachelet, if your UNHRC is the police that is monitoring world’s
human
rights violations, why was it that UNHRC found it not that
important
and justified to recognize an amazing act of humanitarianism
when
Sri Lanka housed the 295,873 Tamils who were rescued by their
soldiers
in a temporary ‘White Camp-village”, and sustained them by
preparing
a million hearty meals of breakfasts, lunches and dinners
every
day. Why..why not?
Is
this not the very reason why Nikki Haley was bold enough to
tell
the world that your United Nations Human Rights Council was a
Cesspool
of political bias, and a self serving body that makes a
mockery
of human rights”.
Mr. Blinken, when you announced that the US will be rejoining the
United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to re-engage immediately and
robustly” with the body to pursue a foreign policy centered on democracy and
human rights”, a light was switched on in my honest democratic psyche”
and I thank you for that serendipitous moment.
The honest answers to the above probing questions will
be a good start not to harass the national heroes in khaki, blue-serge and
whites, of 20.5 million peoples in Sri Lanka, who gave back to them their
right-to-life which had been hijacked by the Tamil Tiger
terrorists who were aided and abetted by several forign countries like India,
US, UK, Canada, Norway, France and so forth, for 30 bloodying years.
That is no secret. And, of course,
the World Police of Human Rights, UNHRC, did nothing about it.
Mr. Blinkin, if you are honorable enough to clean the UNHRC, the
cesspool of poilitical bias, who have an ingrained habit of
cherry-picking their choice targets in support of their funding international
clients, for them to gain support from specific groups in their countries, like
the Tamils in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada, you take my word, that I will
unhook myself from Nikki Haley’s strong rightful indictment of the UNHRC,
and join you in your walk forward to create a Louis Armstrong world of
–
The colours of the rainbow
So pretty oi the sky,
Are also on the faces
Of people going by.
I see friends shaking hands
Saying ‘how do you do’
they are really saying,
‘I love you’
What a wonderful world.”
And you can be sure of one thing, that Madam Michelle
Bachelet at UNHRC won’t be in my this year’s list to send Valentine greetings
to celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day in two days.
Mr. Antony Blinken, my right palm is on my heart, to show my
honour and sincerity when I say to you, Congratulations on your
appointment as the US Secretary of State, Good Luck and God Bless!”
Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)
Ottawa, Canada.
