UNSG Ban Ki-Moon’s comments in Sri Lanka
Posted on September 10th, 2016
Asoka Weerasinghe Ottawa, Canada
Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester. Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada
9 September 2016
Rt. Hon. Maithripala Sirisena: President of Sri Lanka,
Presidential Secretariat, Galle Face, Colombo 1, Sri Lanka
Hon Ranil Wickremasinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka,
Prime Minister’s Office, 58 Sir Ernest De Silva Mawatha,
Colombo 7, Sri Lanka
Hon. Karunarathna Paranawithana, MP.
Deputy Minister of Parliamentary Reforms and Mass Media.
Fife Road, Colombo 5, Sri Lanka
Honourable Gentlemen:
Sunday (4 Sept.16) THE ISLAND’s news item bylined Maheesha Mudugamuwa regarding the UN Secretary General (UNSG) Ban Ki-Moon’s comparison of civilian deaths during the Vanni war with acts of genocide in Rwanda and Serbia in 1994 and 1995, was commented on for the GoSL by the Deputy Minister Karunarathna Paranawithana. He, …said the GoSL would not seek clarification as UNSG’s remarks were not mentioned in his prepared speech made at the Colombo Hilton during Moon’s recent visit to Sri Lanka, and therefore UNSG’s personal comments would not be accounted as that from the UN.”
This is claptrap, this is poppy cock, and this is insane. Didn’t Ban Ki-Moon visit Sri Lanka in the capacity of being the UN’s Secretary General? If he indeed did, then the GoSL’s position is a cop-out. And reducing Sri Lanka as a door-mat to be treated as a door-mat by this arrogant western-lackey UN official. Letting Ban Ki set his feet on Sri Lanka’s charnokite-kabook soil, and let him Moon Sri Lanka one more time without seeking an explanation is being gutless on our part and deplorable. His comment should have been challenged by asking for an explanation, as his arrogant twin-Mooning was an outrageous insult on yours and my sovereign nation, but importantly was vulgar and disingenuous tarnishing of the dignity of our valiant armed forces that annihilated the most ruthless terrorists in the world, the Tamil Tigers, on 19 May 2009. He also showed his disrespect to the poor village Mothers and Fathers who had inculcated their sons to be true patriots and let them march into battle with the Tamil Tigers to save our island nation from being decapitated and give you three back, and 20 million other Sri Lankans your right-to-life which had been hijacked by the Tamil Tigers for 30 bloodying years. And Ban Ki-Moon was so cocky and sure of himself when he insulted those parents who greeted their sons with chest-thumping wailing when they returned home in plywood caskets. For God’s sake don’t you three see through all this? That is a reality check for you three. Take a deep breath, sit in a half-lotus, clear your minds and ponder!
And you all let this UN official get away that easily providing him with another window of opportunity to Moon at Sri Lanka one more time, without having rapped his knuckles as protective-rulers of our beautiful sovereign nation. Gentlemen, this is not acceptable. This is asinine!
And you, Deputy Minister Paranawithana continued with your statement which was tantamount to covering-up the UNSG’s twin-moons. This was sick. You said, The government has no intention of taking up that issue as it was not the way to handle diplomatic relations.”
Phew! Man, come again Mr. Paranawithana. My question to you is, did your official visitor from the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, cross the sacred line of good diplomacy when he made that calculated oblique comparison of genocide in Rwanda and Serbia with the Wanni war that was not acceptable to our dignified sovereign country and our disciplined armed forces. Come on, Deputy Minister, let’s be real. Don’t you understand that Ban Ki-Moon caused considerable harm to Sri Lanka with his comment? This was well calculated as he made it happen just prior to the judicial inquiry into War crimes allegations against our valiant armed soldiers.
It is obvious that your knife cuts only one way reducing Sri Lanka into a door-mat for this arrogant, I-know-Sri Lanka-is- not-going-to-touch-me cocky UNSG, and you bet, he will treat Sri Lanka as his door-mat. You know what Deputy Minister; my knife has cut both ways on such issues always in Canada. Did I get results? Of course, I did, always, upholding the dignity of my Motherland, Sri Lanka. And, then, I was not a paid employee of the GoSL. I did my part as an expatriate Sinhalese-Sri Lankan for the love of my Motherland.
But to be honest, I thought that you three honourable gentlemen had at least 75 years experience between you of international- diplomacy having dealt with foreigners who interfered in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. It would have been a cake-walk for one of you to have dealt with Ban Ki-Moon as a class act and taught this UN official a lesson in Diplomacy 101. I am disappointed, I am stymied and flabbergasted.
Gentlemen, think for a moment. Did you not realize that Ban Ki-Moon succeeded well with his statement to tighten the screw on Sri Lanka’s neck one more time, by shocking the pro-Sri Lankan international conscience, thereby strengthening the process for a UNHCR War Crimes Probe? Don’t tell me that you three are naïve not to see through Ban Ki-Moon’s successful, cunning endeavour.
Let us not forget that Ban Ki-Moon was the UN’s point hitter for his western government clients against Sri Lanka to bring her down to her knees for getting rid of the Tamil Tigers when they demanded from the Rajapaksa government to stop firing bullets at Prabhakaran and his gang of terrorists and declare a ceasefire. And the response they got quite rightly was We are not your colony anymore”, Why don’t you go fly a kite”, and why don’t you go home and jump in the river” and leave us to deal with our troubles that you all created in the first place, by aiding and abetting these Tamil Tiger terrorists.
It was Ban Ki who ‘Mooned’ at Sri Lanka once again by appointing the anti-Sri Lanka Darusman Gang to investigate the alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka. Remember? Most of us questioned the UNSG of the impartiality of the panelists.
Marzuki Darusman, the former Attorney General of Indonesia who was heading the panel was also a member of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIEGP). This Darusman left the panel with a huff disagreeing with the Sri Lanka Government and made hostile observations about Sri Lanka, and yet signed the report without paying a single visit to Sri Lanka to ascertain himself the actual ground situation. And Ban Ki-Moon, who you all have decided to cover his twin-Moons over his comments on ‘genocide’ is unbelievable. Durrr…! What impartiality did you expect from your friend Ban Ki-Moon? Do I trust him? Na! Not even for a bushel of Roasted Korean Coffee Beans.
The second panelist who Ban Ki-Moon appointed was Steven Ratner, an adviser to the NGO, Human Rights Watch (HRW) that had been very critical of Sri Lanka from the inception of the Tamil Tiger terrorists’ Eelam War. Ratner had also-authored a book, with Jason Adams titled Accountability of Human Rights: Atrocities in International Law beyond the Nuremberg Legacy”. On page 123 he had stated that the convention on banning apartheid should be invoked in relations to countries such as Sri Lanka”. With that backgrounder Steven Ratner should have been dismissed instantly as a panelist by your friend Ban Ki-Moon, but he didn’t. So he turns the screw tight on Sri Lanka’s neck one more time. So you trust this UNSG to the point of making an effort to cover his twin-Moons from flying angry darts. Durrr!
What a thing!
The third panelist was South African Yasmin Sooka who was a close associate of South African Tamil, Navi Pillai, the Head of the UNHRC in Geneva, who was the patron of the Sooka Foundation, and also responsible for the failed resolution that was brought against Sri Lanka before the UNHRC in May 2009. In the world of ‘you scratch my back and I will scratch yours’, what impartiality did UN’s Ban Ki-Moon expect from Sooka? Durrr… This was stupid wasn’t it? Not smart but was the appointment of an anti-Sri Lanka panel deliberate! I won’t trust Ban Ki-Moon even for a stick of Korean candy- floss from a Seoul carnival stall.
What got my goat most about Ban Ki-Moon was that he let his Commissioner in Geneva, Navi Pillai use the Darusman Report as the Bible of Sri Lanka’s alleged Human Rights violations during the last phase of the Eelam War when the Report was explicit in saying on the opening page: Due to the scarcity of objective reporting from the conflict zone, it was difficult to determine precisely what had happened during the final military assault,” You honourable gentleman should take off your rose-coloured glasses, and you would see what I see. There is an anti-Sri Lankan vindictive rat in the UN office in New York.
Mr. President and Mr. Prime Minister, although your Yahapalanayos have got better at playing Cops and Robbers with the Rajapaksa and Company watching them traipsing in and out of revolving doors at Magistrate Courts, you have shown your pathetic servile-diplomacy when dealing with the United Nation’s and western government personnel and allowing them to tighten the screw on Sri Lanka’s neck. It’s just too bad. It is time that the Yahapalanayos snap out of the silly season of servile-diplomacy when Sri Lanka is been thumped with ‘genocide’ allegations and clawing at the dignity of our kaki, sky-blue and Indian Ocean-surf white uniformed heroes of the Army, Air Force and Navy who gave the 20 million peoples their dignity and their right-to-life by ridding the last Tamil Tiger terrorist with a live bullet on the beach of the Nandikadal lagoon.
It is time you draft a press line-manthra in your choice diplomatic words which your Deputy Minister of Mass Media is quite competent to write, something to this effect: But it is unfortunate that no government or Sri Lanka Human Rights Watchers who are ever ready to charge Sri Lanka with ‘genocide’ during the final three months of the Eelam War, acknowledged that by 19 May 2009, the Sri Lankan armed forces, had rescued 295,873 Tamils from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers who used them as a human-shield and herded them for 30 months from the West to East in the North under a scorching sun like unwashed cattle, and that even soldiers participated in preparing a million healthy meals a day, to feed these Tamil refugees a hearty breakfast, lunch and dinner, to keep them alive. This amazing humanitarian Class Act, a major rescue Mission in modern times, surely cannot fit into your charge of ‘genocide’, will it? What has been your problem to acknowledge publicly this fact that does not fit into any creative formula or definition of the word ‘genocide’. There lies the disingenuous hypocrisy of the Sri Lanka bashers.” Let’s use this as a manthra and drum it into every thick skull of the Sri Lanka bashers like that of Ban Ki-Moon. Let every Head of our Foreign Missions memorize it and spit it out at every charge directed at Sri Lanka and her armed forces heroes. Gentleman, the silly season of servile-diplomacy is over. Let’s be smart and be on the offensive. The screw around Sri Lanka’s neck is getting tightened by the day. And Ban Ki-Moon did his bit with his statement on the Wanni killings and the massacres in Rwanda and Serbia
There is a wee bit of advice that I wish to pass on to you. Please stop challenging the intelligence of persons who question what your ‘Yahapalanaya Good governance’ is up to. It is their prerogative to question and it is your responsibility to respond, without being uppity or having a hissy-fit.
Sincerely,
Asoka Weerasinghe
Ottawa, Canada
September 13th, 2016 at 2:11 am
The UNSG Ban Ki Moon’s Outrageous, Total and Utter Lies With no Proof Whatsoever Regarding the Sri Lankan Conflict during His Speech in Colombo, Sri Lanka, is Insulting to the People of Sri Lanka
The UNSG Ban Ki Moon’s statement that ‘thousands of civilians died in the last stages of the conflict in Sri Lanka’ at a speech Ban Ki Moon gave in Colombo, Sri Lanka on the 2nd September, 2016 is a total and utter lie, is outrageously wrong and an extreme insult to all the victims of the brutal terrorist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). If Ban Ki Moon makes such outrageous statements, it is better he has any proof whatsoever to show for it. His utter lie is totally deplorable, is condemnable and an insult to the people of Sri Lanka and the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has had 26 years of conflict from 1983-2009. In this period (inclusive of the first, the middle and the last stages of the war), it is the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorist group who massacred over 47,000 mainly Sri Lankan Armed Forces members and also civilians.
The LTTE massacred over 35,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members, Police Force members and Civil Defense Force members over 6000-7000 overwhelmingly Sinhala but also Muslim civilians, 1,253 Indian Peacekeeping Forces (IPKF) members, over 2,000 Tamil Armed Group members who supported the Government of Sri Lanka and who were against the LTTE, around 3,000 Tamil civilians and all this add upto 47,000. Around 35,000 LTTE terrorists are estimated to have perished too. In all around 84,000 in total have perished in total in the war.
As you can see it is the brutal LTTE terrorists who massacred over 47,000 mainly Sri Lankan Armed Forces members, Police Force members, Civil Defense Force members in over 26 years of war. Over 23,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members are today both temporarily and permanently disabled due to the war. Over 13,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members are permanently disabled due to the war. Over 156,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members have been injured due to the war. Over 6,000-7,000 overwhelmingly Sinhala but also Muslim civilians have been massacred by the LTTE terrorists in the war of over 26 years. Ban Ki Moon is insulting all these civilians who perished at the hands of the LTTE terrorists. Ban Ki Moon is also insulting all the over 35,000 Sri Lankan Armed Forces members, Police Force members and Civil Defense Force members who perished at the hands of the LTTE terrorists.
If Ban Ki Moon can prove the above statistics wrong, please do so. Otherwise please do not insult the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka and the thousands of Sri Lankan citizens who were massacred by the LTTE terrorists for over 26 years. Thankfully the Sri Lankan civil war is at an end.
Regarding Ban Ki Moon’s deplorable statement further, the UN did absolutely nothing while the LTTE terrorist group recruited over 20,000 child soldiers, all Tamil youth, as attested by UNICEF itself which stated in 2007 that perhaps the LTTE has recruited over 20,000 young persons under the age of 18 years into its cadre between 1983-2007 inclusive.
The LTTE terrorist group also ethnically cleansed the entire Sinhala and Muslim population of the Northern Province, of over 65,000 Sinhala people and over 75,000 Muslim people of the Northern Province in the 1980s and the 1990s. The LTTE also ethnically cleansed the entire Sinhala population of the Batticaloa District in the East of over 25,000 Sinhala people. The UN did absolutely nothing then too.
Today, the Sinhala people and their descendants of over 135,000 are yet to be resettled in the North and in the Batticaloa District and Muslims of over 115,000 are yet to be resettled in the North. Uptil 2012, of the above number, around 32,000 Sinhala people and around 32,000 Muslims has been resettled in the North.
The LTTE was notorious for its horrific terror tactics such as large scale bomb attacks and the use of suicide bombers in carrying out hundreds of attacks against mainly Sinhala civilians and the country’s leadership, horrific attacks against Sinhala civilians using IED devices, claymore mines and bombs, the massacre of Sinhala villagers in their villages in the North Central, Eastern, Northern and North Western Provinces, the coerced recruitment or abduction of Tamil youth and children for recruitment as child soldiers, forced money collection from Tamils with threats to life in case of non-compliance, attacks on Sri Lanka’s economic infrastructure such as the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), Sri Lanka’s the then only international airport, oil storage facilities, hotels, planes, buses, trains etc. ethnic cleansing of Sinhalese and Muslims from the North and East of Sri Lanka, the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the systematic assassination of over 120 noteworthy Sri Lankan politicians, civil servants, senior military and police officers, prelates, activists, academics, journalists and other professionals who were assassinated by the LTTE who were but a few of the hundreds of assassinations carried out by the LTTE, including the former Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
My plea to Ban Ki Moon is to leave Sri Lanka alone and for the UN to stop supporting once and for all, the brutal terrorists group the LTTE at least now. The UN has continuously supported the brutal terrorist group the LTTE while it massacred over 47,000 as shown above for over 26 years.