{"id":118327,"date":"2021-09-19T16:16:54","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T23:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118327"},"modified":"2021-09-19T16:18:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T23:18:06","slug":"americans-attempt-to-force-their-way-into-sri-lanka-through-the-backdoor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/19\/americans-attempt-to-force-their-way-into-sri-lanka-through-the-backdoor\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans Attempt to Force Their way into Sri Lanka Through the Backdoor"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Marcus Aurelius<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A moot point was made by the Sri Lanka\nStudy Circle on 15 Sep 21, in its piece about Mahinda \u2018Walking the Plank\u2019,\nsuggesting that America is attempting to force its way into Sri Lanka through\nthe backdoor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point made is alarming, considering that neither the Government nor the Opposition seems too concerned about this imminent threat, with nary a voice in Parliament making any noise about it. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat to National security in this context becomes even more ominous when inexplicably the mainstream media deliberately mislead the people by giving ambivalent explanations about the UNHRC resolution 1\/46, with a heavy American spin on it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse still, the media does not even\nreport on the 2 million Dollars budgeted by the UN – way before the voting on\nthe CORE resolution was taken up in March – to establish a special\ninvestigative and prosecutorial arm within Sri Lanka directly under the UNHRC;\nthe objective of this proposed mechanism is to probe the conduct of the\nmilitary combatting 30 years of terrorism.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unfolding events are troubling: The\nparliament remaining silent on the 2 million dollars budgeted by the UNHRC: No\npolitician or political activist spelling the dangers that portend the country\nif these \u2018rogue\u2019 funds get budgetary approval: The media maintaining a blanket\nof silence on this 2million dollar \u2018landmine\u2019 waiting to explode: The media\nspinning \u2018American\u2019 tales about resolution 1\/46.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this, transmits a strong signal that through some covert pipeline American dollars are flowing lavishly into the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is something obviously rotten in\nthe state of Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some facts, pertaining to the UNHRC, consensual resolutions and majority-vote resolutions, are being glossed over and need to be restarted. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact 1<\/strong>. Resolutions passed at the UNHRC are\nNOT binding on the UN member States. Fact 2.<\/strong> If a consensual\nresolution (or if something similar to that, like a state co-sponsoring a\nresolution against itself) is passed against a state, by moral obligation the\nresolution could become binding on the state. Fact 3.<\/strong> If there is\na resolution against a state and a vote is taken, and by a majority vote the\nresolution is passed, that resolution is NOT binding on the state against which\nthat resolution was brought FULL STOP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March this year, there was a\nresolution against Sri Lanka and Jayanath Colombage worked hard to have it\npassed as a consensual resolution. If Colombage had succeeded, the \u20182million\ndollars\u2019 would have validity for approval and the foreign investigative cum\nprosecutorial mechanisms would be already operating in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colombage failed, thanks to MR\nintervening and initiating action to get the support of Sri Lanka\u2019s friends to\nchallenge the resolution by calling for a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resolution was passed by a majority\nvote, with 11 countries voting for Sri Lanka and 14 more abstaining from voting\nfor the resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is the resolution that was passed, 1\/46,\nbinding on Sri Lanka? The answer is an emphatic NO<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What then is the problem? The problem\nis, the Americans having failed to enter the country through the front door are\nattempting to make their entry through the backdoor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2 million US Dollars, budgeted for\nSri Lanka\u2019s special investigative and prosecutorial mechanism (before the vote\non the resolution was taken up) could very well be approved along with all\nother budgeted sums of money for the different projects of the UN; budgetary\napprovals are customarily done annually during the September sessions of the\nUN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This 2-million-dollars could very well\ngo unnoticed and be passed by default unless Sri Lanka is alert and moves\nagainst it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not a complicated issue at all;\nall Sri Lanka has to do is to simply say that it does not accept the\nresolution. If the Americans try to be difficult, we have 120 non-aligned\nstates on our side who will vote with us, if we have done our homework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have we done our homework? Was MR\nattempting to do what our Foreign Ministry failed to do when he planned a trip\nto Bologna? Was it to block MR\u2019s initiatives that Colombage and Peiris were\nassigned to MR\u2019s entourage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A question arises How reliable are the\nrepresentatives of the government representing the people at the UN\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering the construct given above\nand given the unbelievable antics of the government – like the Ratwatte\nincident, the withdrawal of serious criminal cases against prominent members of\nthe government, the granting of pardons to convicted murderers to name just a\nfew- there is a strong sentiment in the country that the government is giving\nthe UNHRC the opportunity to slam dunk the country in Geneva. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opinion is that the government, the opposition and the media\nare seriously working towards establishing an American investigative and\nprosecutorial arm in this country. That sentiment perhaps explains why\nColombage worked towards surrendering to the CORE (after a fight) by arriving\nat a consensual agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proof of the\npudding is in the eating. Will the government allow 2 million dollars in the\nUNHRC budget, for the establishment of the American Attorney General\u2019s\ndepartment in Sri Lanka, be passed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Americans want the mechanism in\nplace and the Sri Lankans do not want it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nkey is, What does Basil Rajapakse want?\u201d He is a committed American who\nrenounced whatever loyalties he had for Sri Lanka and pledged to uphold the\naspirations of America even sacrificing his life in that cause<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Marcus Aurelius A moot point was made by the Sri Lanka Study Circle on 15 Sep 21, in its piece about Mahinda \u2018Walking the Plank\u2019, suggesting that America is attempting to force its way into Sri Lanka through the backdoor. The point made is alarming, considering that neither the Government nor the Opposition seems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118327","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=118327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}