Petition against UN Panel’s report on accountability: Opposing what exactly?
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The report on accountability produced by the panel appointed by the UN Secretary General hasn’t yet officially released it to the public domain. What little is known of its contents comes from leaks published in the mainstream media. Sinhala mainstream media have not translated and published in full the leaked version of the executive summary. Commentary in the mainstream media, including in the newspaper the leaks are published in, is vituperatively dismissive. Even senior members of government haven’t been shared copies of the report. Scanned copies of what appears to be the original executive summary have started to appear online on individual blogs. The UN Country office says it has not seen a copy of the report. Mainstream media reportage has focussed on vehement government denials. In sum, there is little or no information on the UN Panel’s report and its official contents with a lot of spin and misinformation.
This however didn’t stop Private Transport Minister C.B. Ratnayake launching a campaign to collect a million signatures against the UN Panel’s report. With the UN to date uncertain as to when the official report will be released, it is entirely unclear how the people who signed up got their information to oppose the report’s findings after critical reflection over its content. If Mr. Rajiva Wijesinha, a soi disant voice of government unleashed on the international community is himself in the dark about the contents of the official report, it is very suspect whether Mr. Ratnayake actually knows what he is so publicly opposing.
This petition, and others that will invariably follow after the report’s official publication, is emblematic of Sri Lanka’s peculiar democracy, where highly emotive issues ratcheted up by expedient politicians with little or no grounding in actual fact are actually able to whip up mass appeal and support. Whether this is true over the long-term remains to be seen, but in the short-term, the mere fact that if successful, this petition will generate a million signatures of Sri Lankans who know little or nothing of what they oppose reflects the significant challenge of reconciliation and accountability, post-war.
All photos courtesy Vikalpa.
True
Actions by GOSL so far regarding this issue border on frivolity
However believe Gota’s assertion ,that SL is seeking Chinese and Russian help ,is a preemptive move at any Indian/US hanky-panky against SL based on the report ,rather than mere rhetoric
Translate the leaks and publish in Sinhala News papers – so that people will know what they are signing up against!
Do these children know that decades ago we were envied by other South East Asian and South Asian countries and today we’ve gone down the drain ?
Let them ask questions and find answers before it’s too late.
How many teachers know that we’re in the middle of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development ?
Good Governance(inculcating equality for all citizens) is at the heart of Sustainable Development.
“Do these children know that decades ago we were envied by other South East Asian and South Asian countries and today we’ve gone down the drain ?”
They have started to envy us again as we have become a country with one of the highest economic growths!
Are the good innocent Sinhalese people getting hoodwinked to sign up with the Yakku? That will be a mistake!
The “Yakku” got killed on the banks of Nandikadaal lagoon!
Reconciliation has never been the goal of this administration. Pandering to the chauvinistic tendencies of the Sinhala public is the government’s raison d’etre, and any attempt at meaningful reconciliation or accountability will be shot down. In the mean time, the war-based economy will fall apart…
I see school children are signing.
Teachers, what do we teach our children?
Look at facts and weigh/reason out.
Are we looking for instant selfich results or selfless longterm vision??
Why haven’t we produced good leaders for six decades????
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/01/why_sirimavo_refused_to_visit.html
Why Sirimavo refused to visit Jaffna after 1964 cyclone
By Neville Jayaweera, 18 January 2009:
”…. Building a consciousness of nationhood(or deseeya cintanaya) is not a responsibility that can be left to politicians and constitutional lawyers. It cannot be legislated, nor can it be secured through structural changes. Unlike a jathika cintanaya, whether Sinhala or Dhamila, which have roots reaching back over two thousand years, the seeds of a deseeya cintanaya have yet to be planted. ….”
By Neville Jayaweera, 18 January 2009:
”…. Building a consciousness of nationhood(or deseeya cintanaya) is not a responsibility that can be left to politicians and constitutional lawyers. It cannot be legislated, nor can it be secured through structural changes. Unlike a jathika cintanaya, whether Sinhala or Dhamila, which have roots reaching back over two thousand years, the seeds of a deseeya cintanaya have yet to be planted.
It is pre-eminently an educational task, to be initiated at the level of our schools. ….”
I hope everyone will take this opportunity to read the “UN Charter” and the “UN Human Rights Charter”. It gives (or should give) pause to anyone who reads it. Specially, with the Human Rights Charter you can envision the ideal world we’re looking for, which does not include unreasonable expectations by any stretch of imagination, and the world we are living in today (specially in Sri Lanka).
But the politicians have signed and agreed to act by this charter; how hypocritical!
GLPeiris says that release of this report will prevent/delay any “reconciliation”.
The Island newspaper has obtained and published portions of the report.
How can there be any ‘reconciliation’ when the tamils in the north and east are under the jackboot of military and paramilitary cadres who also force themselves even into all social/religious events, thousands held in detention for months & years without any charges being filed against them, thousands more being denied return to their homes, resettled citizens being harassed and denied their daily vocations and livelihoods.
Foreign media are even now denied access to the ‘resettled’ areas.
The LTTE is resurrected in parliament each month to renew the emergency rule which denies the right to life, personal freedom from arbitary arrest and detention without any reason,torture, killings and human rights violations.
Political opponents in the south too are harassed and silenced.
”under the jackboot of military”:
http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-evidence-of-ongoing-repression-and-abuse
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/04/2011420114515626866.html
Armed troops all over the Northeast.
Billboards of the President all over the South.
That is to prevent the civilians from future maniacs of “Tamil Eelam”!
What kind of reconciliation was Prof GLP envisaging when the Sinhalese army was desecrating exquisitely maintained Tamil war cemeteries, bulldozing them and building military head quarters over them knowing that it will deeply affect every Tamil?
Now he sheds crocodile tears.
First, send the occupying army back to their barracks in the South.
The “exquisitely maintained” LTTE war memorials were destroyed in the same spirit as the Nazi wer memorials were razed to the ground after the WW-II.That is to prevent the glorification of sub-human criminals by certain maniacs in the society!
hey now you want to commomorate real war criminals ,the suicidal zombies of the LTTE ????
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the asinine attitude of the members of the Tamil Diaspora
Publication of the report will enable the Sinhalese to realise what was done to Tamils in their name. Sinhalese are friendly and peace loving people who wouldn’t have agreed to mass killings of Tamil civilians. This may pave way for reconciliation. What happens now in Tamil areas is that the army rules without allowing the civilians to seek justice or legal avenue to their complaints.
Another stupid act by the government.
These plaster solutions cannot resolve anything. Just popularity measures.
What should happen is state sponsored military backed colonization of the north to change its mono-ethnic Tamil only ethnic composition. Once there are no traces of all possibility of Tamil Elam, separatists around the world will have to give it up. DS Senanayake did it with remarkable success. But the modern leaders lack foresight. They are only concerned of short term popularity.
Why is there a cut out of Mahinda?Where are the pictures of soldiers who sacrifice their lives for this war??This is clearly shows Mahinda is crediting the victory of war all to himself..
Just like what YOU tried to do!
This is why we call “Modayas” signing a paper without knowing or understanding the content. [Edited out.]
Sri lanka needs a proper opposition political party solely to fight for prosecuting war criminals.At present, there is no constituency for such prosecution within Sri lanka’s major parties.Sarath F has to be called upon as a witness,may be pardoned in exchange for evidence.UN peace keeping force could keep Srilankan security forces under check until the international community could establish democracy, good governance.eradicate corruption,creating a secular society,self dtermination for the oppresed Tamilsand of course a new constitution (just for the Sinhalese majority in the south).If Mahinda needs pardon from a future UN war crimes tribunal. he better work with the UN and the international community. if not noone can help him.
Colombo Sophist
Brilliant ! I might say you were gifted with a remarkable understanding of Sri Lankan polity
Why even someone with an iota of wisdom can see ,any party calling for prosecution of the armed forces who taken part in the final chapter of anti Separatist military campaign would be committing political suicide.
That is why even the lunatic fringe to which the former leftists belong to are not calling for such action.
As for MR being dragged before UN War Crimes tribunal , dream on; UN has no authority to take any action against SL as Moon himself conceded. Even USA do not want to incur wrath of Sri Lankan people by directly working against it ( as opposed to behind the scene maneuvers) given Blake concluded Sri Lanka remains a Strategic Interest to USA. And US strategic interest matter to them than a cacophony of the phony asylum seekers of the Tamil Diaspora