RANJITH SOYSA

Amnesty International continues with its tirade against Sri Lanka by going off their rocker again in their recent statement in 2020.( AI review of 2019 issued on 20^th Jan 2020) For AI almost everything is rotten in Sri Lanka especially the policies and programs adopted by Sri Lanka for the protection of its people, sovereignty etc.

It barks at the steps taken regards the attack by the Islamic terrorists on the unarmed civilians on the eve of the Easter Day 2019. AI  does not identify HR violations of this most brutal terrorist act in South Asia which killed more than 300 civilians and injured nearly 400. Instead,  the AI report goes it blind by mentioning that “the fallout from April bomb bred communal violence, endangered minorities”. This is practically a false reporting by any standards as apart from a few isolated incidents, the Government was able to maintain peace in the country.

Then the AI touches on the ‘justice and reparation for the 30-year conflict’. They have very conveniently forgotten that it was a non-international armed conflict against a terrorist group that was fighting the elected Sri Lankan governments for over 30 years. Sri Lankan government was fighting the  Tamil Tiger terrorists on behalf of its people. Then, how come reparations are applicable and claimed only by the Tamil ethnic group and on behalf of Tamil Tiger members?

We are well aware of the talk shops including the AI which keep on harping on thousands of missing Tamil people and Tamil youth. The million-dollar question is who

is crunching these numbers and what is the basis on which these claims are made? Who has reported the information and to whom? If one examines these claims

it will be able to see through the web of lies and about ninety-five percent of the so-called missing are actually the LTTE members and helpers who were killed in combat or

thousands who sought asylum in the West. The commentator. Shenali Waduge  who found holes in this unenviable story of missing Tamil people in Sri Lanka says:

“The President of, ” enforced disappearances organizations, a Tamil says ” her son surrendered to the Army at the Omanthai checkpoint just after the war ended in May 2009. We were all there. They said they would question him and release him. I am still waiting,”  So according to her, in her presence her son who was an LTTE combatant surrendered. With an LTTE-friendly Govt in power since 2015 and TNA playing a major part in it, how is it that Leelathevi Ananthanatarajah could not trace what happened to her son from Jan 2015 to November 2019? Where are the demands from her during this period?  Did she first file a complaint to the police? Did she inform SL Human Rights Commission? Did she report this to the OISL, is her case featured in any UNHRC report? Is her case recorded with the Paranagama Commission or even with the Office of Missing Persons? Has she filed habeas corpus? ” The stories of the majority of the missing persons are identical to the case of this mother. The disappearance took place after the innocent Tamil youth surrendered to the Sri Lanka defence forces!. Is this the truth?”

According to this narrative, only a few hundred took arms against Sri Lankan defence forces and they died in combat. And, many thousands were enforced to disappear by

Sri Lankan forces! “The war ended in 2009 and we are in the year 2020!

It is pointless taking this into another decade when no one is spending an iota of time on justice for the victims killed by LTTE.”

The absurd story weaved by anti-Sri Lankan NGOs and other campaigners for the terrorist LTTE is like playing the same tune for the last 10 years.

Next item on which the AI attempts ridicule Sri Lanka is about the freedom of religion. AI and the fellow travelers such as Human Rights Watch etc conveniently forget that Sri Lanka is home to four major religions in the world and the Sri Lankan constitution provides protection to the adherents of all religions to follow their practices. No one can deny that religion plays an important part in the lives of Sri Lankans unlike in many other countries where the places of worship are almost empty. By clinging onto a few incidents the anti -Sri Lankan advocates attempt to paint a dark picture of Sri Lanka even going off the rocker like AI to state that there is no religious freedom in Sri Lanka. The AI statement,  to say the least, compels one to question their basic I Q.

Then the AI  proceeds to dictate terms to Sri Lanka by rejecting the appointment of senior officers of the defence forces as there are ‘allegations’ against some of them regarding action taken in defeating the LTTE. By their determined action to deprive the brutal LTTE of capturing the Government controlled area and defending unarmed civilians, every member of the Government forces helped the liberation of 21 million people by going out of their way to protect the Tamil civilians. Their stories of how they sacrificed their limbs and lives to deter the Tamil Tigers are remarkable

monuments of upholding the human rights of all Sri Lankans. To harp on the so-called unproven allegations and attempts to make a stand on these and dictate to the Sri Lankan government how to promote the officers in the armed forces is indeed is frivolous.

Here, I like to quote Thuppiah’s review to reveal how the witch hunt for the defence forces and Sri Lanka was initiated.

“As the annual witch-hunt directed at Sri Lanka from the UNHRC at Geneva looms, we can benefit from recalling the role of the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in this pantomime. Ban Ki-moon is a South Korean who has been identified as a lackey” of the USA in the same category as Kofi Annan by the Canadian activist Chris Black in email communication on 20^th January 2020. Ban Ki-moon and the UN Rehabilitation Commissioner, Navy Pillai were behind the selection of Marzuki, Sooka and Ratner to man the UN Panel of Investigation whose report has served as the foundation

for the campaign mounted by the UNHCR offices in Geneva to hound Sri Lanka for human rights abuses. What occurred then? Ban Ki-moon descended on Sri Lanka. This – we know in retrospect –was a retributory mission. He immediately visited the camps at Manik Farm where the displaced Tamil people had been sequestered in a huge operation involving INGOs, NGOs and both Sri Lankan civilian and military personnel. His principal intent was then indicated when he flew by helicopter on the 23^rd May 2009 over the arena of fighting, with a hired cameraman taking photographs of the desolate wind-ravaged Last Redoubt.” His partialities and his limited desk-bound capacities of discernment were displayed to the world in his summing up of the scenario generated by the abandoned tent city” that had been one of the outstanding features of the overcrowded Last Redoubt.  Complete devastation,” he said in summary conclusion.“

Since then the AA, HRW, and other Sri Lankan bashers had been tickling the ears of parties who are dead keen in creating political instability in Sri Lanka by recounting the snippets from Ban Ki Moon’s retributory mission.

The AI also refers to the stance adopted by the present Sri Lankan President and the government that they refuse to accept the endorsement of UN HCR Council resolution 30/1. It is very clear to any unbiased observer that the contents in the resolution are half baked and are presented in a devious manner to the UN HCR as rebutted by Sri Lanka Global Forum in Geneva and differ from the views of the vast majority of the Sri Lankans. Hence, elected by a substantial majority the new President cannot democratically agree with the efforts of the interested NGOs and some countries to put a noose around his country.

Finally, the AI request that the Prevention of Terrorism Act should be replaced, This demand has been made- if the Sri Lanka government agrees to do away with the PTA- to push the country towards instability and anarchy. Many countries including the USA do have legislation to deter or prevent terrorism such as the Patriot Act as terrorism is one of the modern-day crucial issues facing the countries. The legislation on the prevention of terrorism in countries such as the USA and the UK, for example, limits the general rights of the public with a view to protecting the vast majority of the people from unlawful terrorism-related acts. If the  PTA is lifted one of the obvious, yet, the dangerous repercussions will that all who are convicted and those who are held to be charged under the PTA will have to be released. One should be able to guess the plan of the AI, the HRW and other INGOs who have been acting as the savior of the LTTE terrorists when they insist that the PTA should be replaced. They want the offenders under the PTA to be released. We should request the AI and the HRW to direct their efforts to USA’s Guantanamo prison and similar institutions of the UK in Diego Garcia as a first step to get the suspected offenders freed to uphold their human rights and not to bother Sri Lanka, one of the few countries which were able to put an end to the most brutal terrorist organization in the world.

We would request the AI, HRW and another anti- Sri Lanka NGOs and international and Sri Lankan do-gooders, to consider immediately to REAPPRAISE their obviously  biased attitude with regard to HR related issues in Sri Lanka. We wish to invite the AI’s attention to the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 and on the protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflict (Protocol II ) of June 8th 1977.

These have been approved and is a part of Customary Law. Its foundation is International Humanitarian LAW (IHL) and let those who are interested in the welfare of all Sri Lankans examine and judge the incidents and all aspects of the conflict in relation to IHL. Please remember that the armed conflict in Sri Lanka was non-international.

It is high time , that the AI , HRW, and  fellow travellers get off their beaten track and spend their valuable time and funds to be constructive in their approach rather than writing volumes to create instability in Sri Lanka