Prescient
Repost This ArticleWhen Lasantha wrote the editorial that predicted
his imminent assassination he suggested the civil war
would turn steadily uglier, then move inwards,
as a lizard searching for its tail, insidious in the way
each institution begins to lose its independence,
the machinery of the ruling family greasing every
Tom, Dick and Banda—forgive my allusion to white
rulers of a more genteel if not innocent nursery school—
this forsaken Ceylonese child has turned monstrous now
in the eyes of Whitehall and Ottawa’s Parliament Hill,
betters going wild about pressures in Canberra to present
a bold brief on behalf of human rights and investigation
of war crimes as Commonwealth heads prepare to meet,
while on the island rival thugs, from within the all-powerful
ruling group, battle over drug routes and a parliamentary seat.
Thank you, Indran.
The Commonwealth countries are allergic to human rights and that will suit Sri Lanka well:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/commonwealths-heads-are-nodding-off-20111021-1mc8u.html#ixzz1bWVR852v
Commonwealth’s heads are nodding off, 22 October 2011:
”The difficulty of generating consensus is also likely to burst into the headlines in Perth as Sri Lanka stubbornly resists efforts to bolster the Commonwealth’s role in upholding human rights.”
http://transcurrents.com/news-views/archives/4932
Sri Lanka reacts negatively to Commonwealth report on enforcing human rights, 9 October 2011:
A recommendation for the Commonwealth to assume a more active role in enforcing human rights in member countries has raised Sri Lanka’s ire.”
I’d like to ask all former Tiger supporters now turned human rights activists living in Canada, engaged in pressing the Canadian govt to persecute Sri Lanka, “Why are you not equally busy demanding an inquiry into the shooting death of Gaddafi?”
If i was a Libyan i would be demanding an inquiry and at the same time demand an inquiry into human rights violations by Gaddafi.
FYI, Hilary Clinton (backing), Navi Pillay and Brad Adams have indeed called for an inquiry into the shooting of Gaddafi.
Judging by the pictures of Namal.R and Mahinda.R hugging Gaddafi, they may be asking for investigation into Gaddafi’s death.
Sri Lankan Tamils would like to sort out their Northeast problem first. They cannot even bother about the rampant murders in the South. Libya or anyone of the many other conflicts cannot be their concern now.
Human rights violators in the UN and the Commonwealth are going to be siding the Sri Lankan government and other violators for a long time to come.
For decades successive Sri Lankan governments have been controlling damage at intergovernmental organisations (where the oppressed have no representation): can someone remember the number of ”commissions” appointed in the last 25/30 years just to ward off sanctions by the UN?
Tamils have been fleeing Sri Lanka over the last five decades to escape non-stop state terrorism. Now there are enough to raise their voice against state terrorism of Sri Lanka. But ”sovereign” Sri Lankan government has clout with many other states to keep accusing Tamils as terrorists so that it can wriggle out of their continuing state terrorism. Rajapakse terrorism is slowly gobbling up the South after a tasty Northeast ”feast”.
Libyans in other countries are reported to have said that they would have liked to see Gaddafi investigated for his crimes and are sad that he has been ”let off the hook” and that he ”escaped” the agony he put others into.
Some Sri Lankans think that it’s only Sri Lanka that is ”punished” by being questioned by international human rights organisations. They need to visit websites of AI, HRW, ICG, etc to see the hundreds of other reports on other countries too.
The bottomline for most(NOT all) in the South is how the ethnic minorities have been politically and economically oppressed since independence is right and should not be questioned – Buddhism is for Poya Day.
ChandraJ,
In fact, majority of the Tamil people are with you.
They are very well aware of the West’s hypocrisy in using R2P for Libya meanwhile sitting quiet when the Sri Lankan state was butchering people they call their own citizens.
They are also aware why such an international investigation isn’t moving forward against Sri Lanka despite enough evidence – in a “war” that took place with the covert back up of international community.
Chandra
Tamil citizens who had to flee Libya may do so – we need to check other websites – they won’t come to GV.
All Tamils who have been fleeing Sri Lankan riots from 50s onwards are not necessarily Tiger supporters. Those who refused to support him might even wish now they supported him – the last 30 months have been more hellish for the people of the Northeast than the previous 61 years.
The country is rid of LTTE terrorism, but not rid of state terrorism of the last 63 years. Kolonnawa murder may not be the last chapter.
When can anybody defeat a President who has such big mandate from the South:
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/10/23/the-rajapaksa-troika
The Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI), National Education Commission (NEC), Udarata Development Authority, Strategic Enterprises Management Agency (SEMA), Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA), National Salaries and Carders Commission, Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), National Research Council (NRC), Telecomm-unication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC), Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), Human Rights Commission (HRC),
J. R. Jayewardene Centre, Office of the Cabinet of Ministers, Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (Ombudsman), Department of Elections, Auditor General’s Department of Sri Lanka, Public Service Commission (PSC), National Police Commission, Constitutional Council, Finance Commission, Commission to Investigate Bribery and Corruption, Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), Institute of Fundamental Studies (IFS), National Procurement Agency (NPA), National Council for Economic Development (NCED), Tsunami Housing Reconstruction Unit (THRU), Land Reforms Commission (LRC), Ceylon German Technical Training Institute, Public Enterprises Reforms Commission (PERC), Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLRDC) are the statutory bodies that come under President Rajapaksa.
”investigation of war crimes” ?
what about the backlog of decades of court cases ?
what about the crimes going in the Northeast since VP was killed ?