{"id":111870,"date":"2021-02-20T16:42:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-20T23:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111870"},"modified":"2021-02-20T16:42:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-20T23:42:58","slug":"wanted-truth-and-justice-at-unhrc-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/20\/wanted-truth-and-justice-at-unhrc-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted : Truth and Justice at UNHRC now"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The increasing interventionist role of the UN and its agencies,\nmainly the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in the domestic affairs of Sri\nLanka, seen especially in the unwarranted excesses listed in the latest\nMichelle Bachelet\u2019s report, threatening, for instance, to report Sri Lanka to\nICJ, should come under unrelenting scrutiny to expose its (1) disproportionate\nscrutiny<\/strong> and intervention in the domestic affairs particularly when M.\nA. Sumanthiran says that progress has been made though not  to their\nsatisfaction; (2) partisan selectivity<\/strong> manipulated by\npro-Tamil\/LTTE agents abroad, including TNA, NGOs, INGOs, etc. (All these\nplayers have been complicit in one form or another, by word or by deed, \nin appeasing the Tamil Pol Pot killing his own people) and (3) politicisation<\/strong> to\nappease the Big Brothers who are engaged in  twisting the arm of Sri Lanka\nto serve the urgent interests in combatting and containing\nChina.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human\nRights, pretend to be the moral high priestess supervising all that is not to\nher liking on earth, she must be told in no uncertain terms that in burying the\nUN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR), the immediate  predecessor to\nUNHRC, Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General, quite  rightly pinpointed\nthat it was put six feet under because meddlesome interlopers like Bachelet overstepped\ntheir mark and violated the three evils mentioned above. She must also be\nreminded that the  new UNHRC was established not  for the  likes\nof  Bachelets to go back to the rotten old ways of the buried UNCHR but to\nhold the balance and steer human rights justly, even-handedly and\nproportionately to achieve the long-term interests of the  human rights of\nall and  not just those who are vindictively waging a war in Geneva to get\neven with the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) for crushing Tamil terrorists\nbanned by the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the case of M.A. Sumanthiran, the current holy cow of \nTamil politics, manipulating with the American Ambassadress, Alaina B. Teplitz,\nto fix Sri Lanka in the coming session of UNHRC on human rights principles. Not\nso long  ago he was on the other side, going on his bended to Velupillai\nPrabhakaran. During that time, he no qualms in pledging his loyalty to him as\nthe supreme leader of the Tamils when he knew that he had killed more Tamils\nthan any other. To this day he has not apologised to the Tamil people for\ncollaborating with the Tamil Pol Pot and willingly being a part of his killing\nmachine. At least Adolf Eichmann had a rather tenuous excuse for being a part\nof Hitler\u2019s killing machine. He claimed that he was only a cog in the wheel of\nthe Nazi system and he  had no choice. He said he was merely carrying out\norders. But Sumanthiram had a choice. There was no compulsion for him to be an\nintegral part of the Prabhakaran\u2019s killing machine. He did it on his own,\nvoluntarily, agreeing to be a partner in war crimes and crimes against\nhumanity, particularly the crimes against his fellow Tamils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, did he once go with a Tamil parent to Tamil\nChelvam, to plead for the life of an abducted  schoolgirl or school boy?\nHe is a lawyer. Did he  ever file a case in the Prabhakaran\u2019s court\ncomplaining about the violation of the  fundamental rights of Tamils in\nhis quasi-state? Did he go to the American Ambassador and put pressure on\nhim\/her to protect the dignity, justice, equality and peace of the Tamils\ndenied by his sole representative of the Tamils\u201d?  Today, he says that\ntruth will set him free, quoting the Bible. True. So when will he liberate\nhimself from the web of lies in  which he is trapped and walk as a free\nman? Also, will the American Ambassadress hold the hand of Prabhakaran\u2019s\npartner in war crimes and crimes against humanity and escort him to Geneva for\nhim to pose as champion of human rights?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of them will find themselves quite at home because UNHRC is\nbuilt on lies, biases and frauds. John Bolton, the arch conservative, was right\nwhen he said that US did not have sufficient confidence to be able to say that\nHRC wold be better than its predecessor.\u201d (p.56 \u2013 The United Nations\nHuman Rights Council<\/em>, Rosa Freedman, Routledge). He added: If the UN\nSecretariat building in New York lost ten storeys, it wouldn\u2019t make a little\nbit of difference.\u201d (ibid \u2013 p. 156). In any case, the UN and its agencies have\nbeen taken over from time to time by war criminals, liars, frauds, sex maniacs,\nmorally blind hypocrites, etc that one more going from Jaffna will not make\nmuch of a difference to UN\u2019s moral failure to be a universal instrument for\npeace, justice and the security of imperilled man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick glance at some facts will reveal why humanity\ncannot  depend on the UN as an instrument  for the overall good of\nman:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact 1: Between 1972 and 1981 the UN \u2013 the highest\ninstrumentality set up to protect human rights \u2013 was run by a war criminal:\nKurt Waldheim. As lieutenant in  the  Nazi killing machine he\noperated in Greece where more than 60,000 were deported to Jewish  death\ncamps. had no qualms. Waldheim served as Secretary \u2013 General for two terms. Is\nthis  the institution that is now pointing a finger at Sri Lanka?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact 2: On February 5, 2005 Colin  Powell, Secretary of\nState for Bush, deliberately lied to the Security Council, saying that Iraq was\nhiding weapons of mass destruction from inspectors and  refusing  to\ndisarm.  The unpardonable immorality of the UN-sanctioned lies \ndiminishes the credibility of  the UN making accusations against other\ncountries. In the case of Sri Lanka its worse. A case is constructed against\nSri Lanka by the three hand-picked characters sitting  in New York and\ncollecting  the evidence of accusers whose names will not be revealed for\nthe next thirty years. What credibility or justice will there be in a case\nbuilt out of anonymous  accusers whose identity will not be revealed for\nthe next thirty years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact 3: UN-sanctioned naval cordon thrown around Iraq killed 600,000\nchildren and when Madeleine Albright, America\u2019s State Secretary, was asked\nwhether the price was worth for achieving the aims of the West in Iraq she\nreplied that the price was worth it. This figure of 600,000 amounts  to\nmore than all the children killed in Hiroshima. UNHRC is crying its heart out,\nwringing its hands, on an unverified figure of 40,000 dead between September\n2008 and May 2009. Leaving all other factors out, at least on the principle of\nproportionality will Bachelet report Albright to the ICJ? She can do it because\nthere is no statute  of limitation for crimes against humanity. Will she\ndo it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact 4: Derek Halliday, former Assistant Secretary General of UN\nin charge of Humanitarian Operation in Iraq  said that the West is waging\na war through UN on the people of Iraq, with results that you do not expect to\nsee in a war fought under Geneva conventions. We are targeting civilians\u2026 its\nmonstrous situation for UN, for the Western world, for all who are part of some\ndemocratic  system and the implementation  of economic sanctions\u201d.\nHalliday calls it genocide and believes when history books are written the\nSecurity Council, the UN, Washington and London will be \u2019slaughtered\u2019 for their\nactions (British Medical Journal<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 March 11,  2000.\nJohn Pilger\u2019s documentary Paying the Price \u2013 the killing of the\nchildren of Iraq.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact 5 : Under UN Security Council Resolution 819 Srebrenica\nenclave was declared a safe area by UN. The safety status was extended to\nSarajevo, Zepa Gorazde, Tuzla Bihac. All cities were placed under UN\npeacekeeping units UNPROFOR. Member states who voted for it were for political\nreasons not willing to take necessary steps to ensure the security of the safe\nareas When the Muslims of Srebrenica were panicking fearing the imminent attacks\nfrom Serbs the overall UN Commander rushed and assured the Muslims that they\nare safe because they are under the protection of UN forces. The next day under\nthe very eyes of the of UN forces commanded by a Dutch unit 8,000 Muslim men\nand boys were massacred in a pre-planned genocidal attack. Dutch state was\nfound liable in Dutch supreme court and the Hague district court of failing to\ndo enough to prevent more than 300 deaths. (Wikipedia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Darusman report the GOSL is accused of firing into zones\ndeclared as No Fire Zones. This is denied by the GOSL. But let\u2019s assume that it\ndid happen. Unwittingly the Darusman report provides the answer. It says that\nthe LTTE placed  military equipment where civilians were to provoke fire\nfrom GOSL forces. GOSL forces did not rush into the No Fire Zone to launch a\ngenocidal attack under the blind eyes of the UN. It was reacting to provocative\nfire from the LTTE. This is different from UN forces turning a blind eye to the\ngenocidal attack  on Muslims who were in the UN protected Safe  Zone.\nIf anything near to what happened in Srebrenica happened in the No fire Zone in\nthe last days of the 33-year-old war Ms. Bachelet\u2019s would have danced by now\nher politicised Cancan in Geneva without  knickers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall pattern emerging from her irate report indicates\nthat she in cahoots  with the NGOs, anti-Sri Lankan Western powers who\noverlook \u2013 and even defend \u2013 the violations of  human rights of their\nallies, the Tamil diaspora, India with  its pinch-the-baby-and-rock-the-cradle\npolicy \u2013 all of which is taking UNHRC down the very same path that led to the\nburial of UNCHR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand the inexcusable immorality on which the whole\nattack on Sri Lanka is based one has to look at the framework on which it\nstands. Organised Tamil violence against the democratically elected began\nofficially when the Vellala elite declared war in the Vadukoddai Resolution on\nMay 14, 1976 urging the Tamil youth to take up arms and never rest until they\nachieve Eelam. Since then they have financed it, mobilised cadres for it,\ninternationalised it, lobbied and raised funds for Tamil terrorism in \nevery available corner  of earth for it, manufactured theories and excuses\nfor violations of human rights and  crimes against humanity, glorified war\ncrimes, triumphantly hailed every killing and\/or massacre that led to\nterritorial gains, demonised or eliminated any potential rivals including \nthe cream of Tamil elite, justified the suppression of all liberties that\ndenied the dignity, justice, liberty, and peace etc. This war ran for 33-years\nwith the backing of  the Diaspora, local elite and even at time with the\nsupport of India who never fails to profess eternal friendship with Sri Lanka.\nIt ended on May 19, 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now here comes the irony of ironies. In its infinite wisdom UN\npundits picks only eight months out of 33 years to accuse Sri Lanka in the main\nof violating human rights and subjecting Sri Lanka only to disproportionate and\nsevere strictures and judgment of the UNHRC and UN. The unanswered \u2013 and even\nthe unasked — question why limit the judgment on a war of 33 years to the last\neight months only? On what logic? On what rationale? And who was it who drew up\nthe dates? For what reasons?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dates were arbitrarily determined by the three UN zombies\nsitting in New York for their convenience. They were not  after serving\njustice or peace, or human rights, or the truth. They were out to pick bits and\npiece from wherever they could, stitch them together as credible evidence\u201d and\nhang Sri Lanka at the end of their rope. Apart from their personal convenience\nthere is a grand design behind  it. It was the only way they could\neliminate all the other responsible actors in originating, causing, promoting,\nfinancing, and directing a needless war and pin it exclusively on Sri\nLanka.  It provided the rationale for the whole world to gang up against\nSri Lanka as the only culprit responsible for the 40,000 (a figure picked out\nof the skies) that died in the  last days of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This arbitrary dating avoids (1) the key issue of crimes against\npeace committed by the Tamil leadership under the Charter of the Nuremburg\nTribunal principle where they planned and conspired and made preparations for\nwaging a war of aggression \u2013 the principle under which the Nazi war criminals\nwere tried and sentenced \u2013 in passing  the Vadukoddai Resolution on May\n14, 1976 declaring war against the democratically elected government of Sri\nLanka; (2) the interventionist role of India which engaged in deliberately\npursuing a policy of aggression in recruiting, training, financing and\ndirecting Tamil terrorist to destabilise a friendly neighbour violating\nuniversally accepted international law ; (3) the guilt of Western nations which\nprovided safe havens for agents of Tamil terrorist to raise funds and\npropagandize terrorism violating Resolution 1373 of the UN ; (d) war crimes and\ncrimes  against humanity committed by the IPKF in massacring patients,\ndoctors, nurses  in the Jaffna Hospital etc., (e) the issue of safe havens\ngiven in Western countries to LTTE agents who had directly aided and abetted\nthe violations of human rights  and been an active part of the killing\nmachine of Tamil terrorists (.e.g Adele Balasingham and V. Rudrakumaran, lawyer\nof Prabhakaran) (f) the refusal to give information on LTTE agents hiding in\nWestern havens as refugees , thereby hampering the overall attempt to bring\njustice and reconciliation based finding the truth, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the responsibility of the Ms. Bachelet\u2019s, if her office is\ngenuinely concerned about dealing with human rights issues to help the GOSL\nwith these issues instead of passing the  buck to GOSL on every minor\nissue. For instance, it is immoral for her to limit her investigations arbitrarily\nonly to the last eight months of a 33-year-old war. If truth finding is vital\nfor reconciliation and peace then revisiting the past \u2013 the entire length and\nbreadth \u2013 is imperative to arrive at a fair and reasonable judgment. If she\nsits in Geneva like the Darusman zombies in New York and continues to pass\njudgment impulsively, with eyes wide shut, is will be doing a disservice to the\nreputation and viability of UNHRC. Even at this stage she has to take a\nholistic view of the crisis and be fair by all parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNHRC has been battered by all sides. It has been used mainly by\nUS to wipe its feet whenever it decides to get out or come in. Her task is to\nlift the UNHRC to  a new level of respectability and acceptability. Can\nshe do it? Can she make a difference? Her latest report indicates that \nshe has the capacity to act only like the monkey dancing to the organ grinders\nbehind her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no great achievement in becoming a Dittohead to the\npaymasters. Any mug could do it. It is Ms. Michelle Batchelet\u2019s turn to write a\nnew chapter to the UNHRC. She should, for instance, go back to  the\nbeginning and start from the Declaration of War by the Tamils against the \ndemocratically elected state and see how it went all the way to Nandikadal. The\nDeclaration of War took place in Vadukoddai and though it\u2019s a short \ndistance as the crow flies to Nandikadal where the war ended it took 33 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How fair is it, Madam, to judge a journey of 33 years with \nthe events of only last eight months, eh? Can it serve truth and justice?\nDoesn\u2019t it all come back the original sins of selectivity and \npoliticisation? You didn\u2019t break through the glass ceiling just to follow in\nthe footsteps of the male chauvinists, did you Madam?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala The increasing interventionist role of the UN and its agencies, mainly the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in the domestic affairs of Sri Lanka, seen especially in the unwarranted excesses listed in the latest Michelle Bachelet\u2019s report, threatening, for instance, to report Sri Lanka to ICJ, should come under unrelenting scrutiny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}