{"id":112992,"date":"2021-03-25T17:03:54","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T00:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=112992"},"modified":"2021-03-25T17:04:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T00:04:37","slug":"why-sri-lanka-had-no-bargaining-chips-at-the-unhrc-and-tamils-hadall-trump-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/03\/25\/why-sri-lanka-had-no-bargaining-chips-at-the-unhrc-and-tamils-hadall-trump-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sri Lanka Had No Bargaining Chips at the UNHRC and Tamils Had All Trump Cards?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Reconciliation and\naccountability. These are the two words the international community imposed on\nSri Lanka since it defeated Tamil terrorists in 2009. However, it was a one-way\nstreet; or, two one-way streets. Only Sri Lanka had to do reconciliation while\nTamils always torpedoed it. Only Sri Lanka was pushed for accountability while\nTamils were off the hook. This was why Sri Lanka lost the UNHRC vote in 2021.\nSri Lanka had no bargaining chips, let alone trump cards. Tamils on the other\nhand had all trump cards against Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN Thinks It Was a\nOne-Sided War!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN including its\nagencies consider what happened in Sri Lanka as a one-sided war. Sri Lanka was\nfighting a war against Sri Lankans! This absurd view is because Sri Lanka\nfailed to present its case officially to the UN. Officially. To the UN and UN\nagencies. Making videos, documentaries, etc. for the consumption of the general\npublic is different to presenting the UN with facts and figures of Tamil war\ncrimes. It was not done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamil war crimes are\ntwo-fold \u2013 LTTE war crimes and war crimes by Tamil civilians. Sri Lankan\ngovernment mostly failed on highlighting LTTE war crimes and totally failed on\nwar crimes by Tamil civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can one blame the\nUN for taking the side of Tamils when Sri Lanka failed to present its case\nagainst Tamil war crimes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War Crimes by Tamil\nCivilians<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beating the dead LTTE\nis important but does not give Sri Lanka a bargaining position. As all UNHRC\nsessions proved, it is a matter of bargaining and negotiating based on\nbargaining power. Highlighting war crimes by Tamil civilians would have put Sri\nLanka in a commanding position. Unfortunately, it was never done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War crimes by Tamil\ncivilians and India include (but not limited to), <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.       Tamil mono-ethnic political parties arousing anti-Sinhala and\nanti-Muslim racism since 1922. This has not ceased. In fact, hateful statements\nby Tamil politicians against Sinhalas have worsened since 2009. Tamil youth\nwere driven to violence because of these hateful statements and slogans. Tamil\npoliticians have also not given up on their demand to divide the island nation\nbased on ethnic lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.       Tamil civilians robbed the land belonged to Sinhalese in Jaffna District\nin 1977 when more than 20,000 Sinhalese lived in Jaffna District. Tamil\ncivilians occupy these lands to this date! Tamil civilians robbed the land\nbelonged to Muslims in Jaffna District in 1990 when a large population of\nMuslims lived in Jaffna District. Tamil civilians occupy these lands to this\ndate! Displaced Muslims had to be resettled in the Wilpattu national forest\nreserve because Tamil civilians would not let them return to their original\nhomes. As a result, the Jaffna District has suffered two events of ethnic\ncleansing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.       Tamil Diaspora in western nations remitted over $300 million a year to\nthe LTTE, a proscribed terrorist organization in those countries. Financing a\nforeign terrorist organization is a crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.       Indian troops in Sri Lanka killed, raped and abused locals, particularly\nTamils from 1987 to 1990. Various pro-Indian military groups including the\nTamil National Army were also involved in these. India financed and armed Tamil\nterrorist groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.       Tamil civilians (and foreigners) facilitated the recruitment, training\nand passing out of Tamil terrorists including suicide bombers and child\nsoldiers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is\naccountability for these war crimes? The world must know the nature of the\nelements Sri Lanka dealt with and still dealing with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka must submit\nofficial statements with facts and figures to UN bodies and other nations about\nTamil civilians\u2019 war crimes. That will force them to come to a compromise.\nSadly, it was not done and as a result, they do not see the need for a\ncompromise. Why should they!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Post-UNHRC Resolution\nRemedies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of Sri\nLankan government not highlighting Tamil war crimes, the UNHRC resolution is\nlopsided. It only blames Sri Lanka. It must be balanced with remedial action\nthat must be taken by the Sri Lankan government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\ninclude implementation of the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, introducing\nnew laws to ban and punish hate speech, new laws to punish separatism and the\nLTTE ideology, removal of Thesawamali, Muslim and Kandyan laws, re-demarcation\nof district and provincial boundaries of Trincomalee and Ampara districts to\nbetter align with modern ground realities, ethnicity based proportionate\nuniversity admission that is fair for all ethnic groups and overhauling the\nparliamentary election system to reflect equity in parliamentary representation\nnationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN agencies\nand other nations must be presented facts about Tamil war crimes (LTTE and\nTamil civilians’ war crimes). Let them be forewarned about the gory nature of\nTamil Elam if it ever becomes a reality. Made them feel disgusted about\ncontinuing Tamil racism that will put them off from supporting Tamil\nseparatism. A Tamil nation would be a living hell of Tamil war crimes, so it\nmust not be supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless Sri Lanka\nregains powerful bargaining chips and preferably trump cards on the matter by\ncalling out Tamil war crimes, UNHRC, etc. are going to push Sri Lanka around\nall the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reconciliation\nmust be a two-way street. It cannot be a tool to tie down Sri Lanka while the\nother party can continue with separatism and racism. Since the UNHRC has put\naccountability ahead of reconciliation, Sri Lanka must do the same. Sri Lanka\nmust demand accountability and punishment for Tamil war crimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can Sri Lanka rise\nabove petty politics and do these? If not, war heroes whose action that already\nsaved 47,400 lives since the war was won in 2009 at 3,950 lives saved annually\nfor 12 years, will be punished for doing the right thing. And real war\ncriminals will get away. It will also lead to dividing the island into multiple\nnations disproportionately benefitting aggressors at the expense of the silent\nmajority. But most importantly, it will let down and undermine the true friends\nof Sri Lanka that stood by and trusted Sri Lanka at the UNHRC voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world must hear Tamil war crimes, some of them continuing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Reconciliation and accountability. These are the two words the international community imposed on Sri Lanka since it defeated Tamil terrorists in 2009. However, it was a one-way street; or, two one-way streets. Only Sri Lanka had to do reconciliation while Tamils always torpedoed it. Only Sri Lanka was pushed for accountability while Tamils […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112992","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=112992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}