{"id":86685,"date":"2019-03-23T15:42:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T22:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=86685"},"modified":"2019-03-23T15:46:33","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T22:46:33","slug":"us-arrogance-and-resolution-40-1-on-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/03\/23\/us-arrogance-and-resolution-40-1-on-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"US arrogance and Resolution 40 – 1 on Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kusal Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n

How the war-affected \nTamils are being used by extremely opportunist Western power bloc to \nmanipulate Governments for their geopolitical agenda<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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A big joke made rounds about Sri Lanka sending out two \nopposing but official teams for the ongoing Fortieth UNHRC Session in \nGeneva; one by President and another by PM.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A brief stroke of sanity changed this and Sri Lanka sent one team to \nGeneva. What they would say about the UNHRC Report on Sri Lanka and the \nnew Resolution 40\/1 this time led by Canada, Britain, Germany and a few \nmore countries isn\u2019t clear, except that this Government is broadly in \nline with it. 
\nThis whole hype about the International Community demanding \naccountability and good governance from Sri Lanka since the conclusion \nof the war in 2009 May, does not lead Sri Lanka to any sanity in \npolitical life and in its Governing culture. 
\nThis International Community which is basically the Western Power Bloc \nhas never provided any space for accountable and decent governments \nanytime anywhere in any part of the globe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nFinancially controlled by this Western power bloc, the UN and its \nagencies have never been able to peacefully settle any conflict in this \npost WW II history while it lent covert support for change of \ngovernments in the poor and developing world.
\nUN decisions are very much influenced by the US administration. That makes no difference in who sits in the Oval Office. 
\nIt was no different with George Bush Jnr. and with Barak Obama. It was \nno different during the Cold War period and now after the end of the \nCold War from 1991. 
\nOver the last 77 years since the first declaration in January 1942, or \nfrom the formal establishment of the UN in 1945, this world body with \n193 Member States by now, has been a colossal failure in spite of its \nmassive growth into a giant bureaucratic organisation in establishing \nits mandate; Global Peace. 
\nThere are at present nine major armed conflicts amounting to over a \nhundred deaths per year in each conflict from Afghanistan since 1979, \nstretching to Northern Mali, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Boko Haram, Nigeria, \nIraq and Somalia according to the Swedish Uppsala University\u2019s Conflict \nData 
\nCollection Programme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nThese nine conflicts alone had led to the deaths of more than 98,200 \ncivilians during 2018 only. Sadly, Uppsala have not included the \nIsraeli-Palestinian war that has had 131 Resolutions adopted by the UN \nSecurity Council since its first Resolution in November 1947. The \nIsraeli-Palestine conflict has resulted in over 10,000 Palestinian and \naround 200 Israeli children being killed by year 2012. Maimed, blinded \nand seriously injured children not counted. 
\nThe UNHRC since its creation in 2006, had adopted more Resolutions \ncondemning Israel than all other Resolutions condemning other countries \nput together.
\nThe US administration despite who the President was and presently is, \ngave Israel a free hand to continue with its savage expansionism \nignoring Palestinian deaths. UN General Assembly has adopted at least \nnine Resolutions between December 1981 to December 1984 that said:
\nStrategic relationship with the United States encourages Israel to pursue aggressive and expansionist policies and practices.\u201d 
\nBeyond adopting Resolutions, the UN member States have not been able to \nstop Israel from doing what they did. In re-enacting Hitler on a Zionist\n platform in the same savage Hitlerite form. Difference being the entire\n Gaza Strip and the West Bank being turned into one massive, open \nconcentration camp, unlike that of Hitler\u2019s 
\nclosed ones.              <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • “International Community basically Western Power Bloc never provided any space for decent governments anytime anywhere”<\/strong><\/li>
  • “Gotabhaya believed his war without witnesses could establish there were no crimes committed”<\/strong><\/li>
  • “UN decisions are very much influenced by the US administration”<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n


    \nWhat can we expect from this UN and its UNHRC? Does it have credible \nauthority to dictate terms to sovereign countries, when it does not show\n that same authority when dealing with Israel and the US? Invasion of \nIraq shows how the US with British collaboration had the UN complicit in\n invading Iraq to destroy Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). While it \nwas later exposed the UN Security Council was provided with fake \nevidence and there were no WMD, the UN did not even want to accept the \nblunder they made causing massive damage and destruction to the Iraqi \npeople.
    \nDid not even censure the USA and Britain for consciously misinforming \nthe whole world to invade Iraq for their own geopolitical needs. NATO \nstrikes on Libya followed Iraq. Funding and arming Libyan rebels led to \ntotal anarchy on Libyan soil. In Afghanistan, the US created and funded \nthe Taliban. 
    \nAfghanistan is still bleeding and Obama as President was directly responsible for drone attacks on 
    \nAfghan civilians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


    \nTheir geopolitical decisions ignore the UN completely and UN member \nStates don\u2019t think they have a right to condemn and censure the big \npowers openly violating international law.  
    \nIt was on geopolitical needs that the USA kept pressure on the Rajapaksa regime too. 
    \nThe China factor with Rajapaksa was all that they focussed on. They thus\n used actual post war issues to develop a strong campaign against \nRajapaksa. Their advantage was in Rajapaksa ignoring the necessity to \naddress post war issues democratically. 
    \nPresident Rajapaksa\u2019s Sinhala Buddhist politics given crude practical \ninterpretations by his brother Gotabhaya as Defence Ministry Secretary \nvowed it was a zero casualty war. 
    \nGotabhaya believed his war without witnesses could establish there were no crimes committed. 
    \nSadly for them, this modern world had more than enough evidence \ncollected through mobile phones and satellite images backed by survivors\n of the war. They provided more than a justifiable reason for Human \nRights campaigns against Rajapaksa using the UNHRC and the heavily \nfunded Colombo based human rights campaigners. Consistent campaigning \nfor over 04 years, this international community led by the US was able \nto dislodge Rajapaksa from power in 2015 January. 
    \nHave the US and its allies who moved the Resolution 30\/1 in 2014 March \nfor the third consecutive time, achieved anything significant under this\n government led by PM Wickramasinghe? Untold but plainly evident fact \nis, the US and its Western allies in fact do not intend going any \nfurther with war crimes investigations and accountability issues, now \nthat Rajapaksa had been dislodged from power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


    \nFour years gone for now under this government, there are only piecemeal \nlegal provisions adopted every time UNHRC Sessions come around and this \ngovernment is given more time. The war-affected in North and East reject\n these cosmetic answers. In war devastated Vanni people are on their \nown, demanding permanent and justifiable answers for their grievances \noverlooked by both Rajapaksa and Wickramasinghe governments for over \nnine years and 10 months for now. 
    \nUNHRC Resolution 40\/1 would provide this government another year till elections are concluded, expecting the UNP to return.
    \nThe war-affected Tamil people are being used by this extremely \nopportunist Western power bloc to manipulate Governments on their own \ngeopolitical agenda.
    \nThis UNP government as the previous UPFA government nor the next \ngovernment that would be voted in at the next election, will not \nimplement Resolution 40\/1. 
    \nBoth major parties and their small allies are racially biased and \ncorrupt. They lack the political will and the vision of the New Zealand \nPrime Minister Ms Jacinda Ardern who after the attacks on 02 Muslim \nmosques in Christchurch on Friday 15 March, took responsibility for the \nsafety and security of all Muslim people in her country as equals and as\n New Zealand citizens who have the right to live and practise their \nreligion without hindrance. She as PM rallied New Zealanders in support \nof the Muslim community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    “This International Community \nwhich is basically the Western Power Bloc has never provided any space \nfor accountable and decent governments anytime anywhere in any part of \nthe globe “<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n


    \nPolitics in Sri Lanka is not that of Jacinda Ardern. Yet we have Human \nRights written into the Constitution, we are signatory to most \ninternational conventions and charters that guarantee labour, women and \nchild rights, we stand for ethnic and religious equality and freedom, we\n have laws for environmental safety. 
    \n We say yes for everything just, fair and democratic. But respect and \nhonour none. Living with Sinhala Buddhist majority dominance, we don\u2019t \nbelieve we want them. Sinhala Buddhist dominance is what PM \nWickramasinghe cajoles, when he says it\u2019s he who saved Sri Lanka from \ndirect international probing on war crimes, by refusing to sign the Rome\n Statute. 
    \nThat is precisely what the US stands for. Having rejected the Rome \nStatute, President Trump refuses to allow any investigations into US \nmilitary interventions in Afghanistan or elsewhere by the International \nCriminal Court (ICC). His Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told media last\n Friday, The ICC is attacking America\u2019s rule of law.\u201d This was what \nRajapaksa said, President Sirisena is saying and the Wickramasinghe \ngovernment is accepting, with international war crimes investigations \nrejected. In Sri Lanka it is said in Sinhala to the Sinhala Buddhists \nwhereas the US says it to the whole world in English with arrogance and \nno shame.
    \nSecretary Pompeo told media:-<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    \nI\u2019m announcing a policy of US visa restrictions on those individuals \ndirectly responsible for any ICC investigation of US personnel\u201d adding \nthe US would not hesitate to impose economic sanctions if the ICC does \nnot change its decision. 
    \nIt is also extremely important to note the impunity Israel is provided \nunder US patronage. These visa restrictions may also be used to deter \nICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without \nallies\u2019 consent,\u201d the Secretary told media.
    \nNow, what does all these mean to Sri Lanka and to the democratic world? \nThere is no necessity to answer those who brutally violate all laws but \ndemand Sri Lanka respect the law. But that does not allow Sri Lanka to \ngo without answers to war-related issues.
    \nWe have a moral and a political responsibility to provide justifiable \nanswers to all issues effecting the North and East and they cannot be \noutsourced. That no doubt needs a decent, respectable leadership much \ndifferent to Trump and most other international community leaders. \nThey\u2019ve proved they are not the right individuals to follow.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Comments – 2 <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    • \n \n \n\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLord Wolfstein Friday, 22 March 2019 06:12 PM \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPart 1\nThere is a very big difference between the war crimes committed by some \nWestern powers and the war crimes committed by the Sri Lanka Forces.\nWhile the Western powers committed war crimes in foreign countries, the \nSri Lanka forces have committed war crimes against civilians in their \nown country. One is just as reprehensible as the other.\n\nSri Lanka is probably more comparable to Cambodia or Yugoslavia in this \nregard.\nSimilarly, the crimes Nazi Germany committed to its own people, \nespecially the minorities.\nIn Sri Lanka, ethnic minorities have to live with daily encounters with \ntheir tormentors, who run around freely without being held accountable. \nThis malady has already lasted for 10 years.\n\nAlthough Sri Lanka has promised its minorities and the UN to try its war\n criminals, nothing has happened yet. The reason for this is, that the \nbig parties do not want to scare their Sinhalese Buddhist electorate, \nwhich is the majority of the country.\nEnd Part 1\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Lord Wolfstein Friday, 22 March 2019 06:17 PM <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Part 2\nMany of this majority see themselves as superior to the Tamils, which is\n historically proven to be the opposite.\nIt is time for the majority to change its attitude. A democracy is only \nas good as it treats its minorities.\n\nThese minorities currently have only the opportunity to turn to foreign \npowers for righteousness. Thus, it would be best for the country to \nestablish war crimes tribunals in Sri Lanka with unprejudiced and \nexperienced foreign judges. Local judges, and however honourable they \nare, are always suspected of being biased and continue to be in danger \nof being murdered by accused war criminals or their supporters. All of \nthis should give you food for thought. The national pride and the \nthrobbing on the sovereignty of the country must be put back. There will\n be no reconciliation and peace in this country unless the last war \ncriminals and those responsible in the highest offices have been \npunished.\nEnd<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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