Dr Bandula Kothalawala London N7

It is that time of the year again. The annual carnival is back in town! The main protagonists are busy putting finishing touches to their masksƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦

The XIX Session of the UN Human Rights Council opens on 27 February 2012 and is due to end on 23 March 2012. I have no intention of scoffing at human rights or being dismissive of the need to have international mechanisms in place to deal with serious violations of human rights. No fair-minded person should have any objections to the respect for human rights being accorded high priority at all levels ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” national, regional and global. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ However, what is happening in Geneva in the name of human rights is quite curious, to put it mildly.

Perhaps, a brief word on the role of the prima donna is useful to contextualise the issue. The UN General Assembly Resolution (A/RES/48/141) which authorised the appointment of the Commissioner for Human Rights explicitly states[1] that he/she should respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and domestic jurisdiction of states. The current incumbent of the post does not appear to have the foggiest notion of the principles concerned and has allowed herself to be routinely manipulated not only by quite a few international gendarmes with unsavoury records on human rights, but also by hordes of self-selected, self-appointed international vigilantes masquerading as human rights organisations hell-bent on punishing developing nations for alleged violations of human rights. There is not an iota of doubt in my mind that Ms Navi Pillay harbours a grudge against the Government of Sri Lanka for its success in rooting out terrorism from the Sri Lankan soil despite the shameful last-ditch attempts by the holy trinity ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” US, UK and France ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” to throw a life line to the LTTE in the last days of the war against the blood-thirsty outfit. Ms Pillay who rarely misses an opportunity to scarify small nations for their peccadilloes has nonchalantly looked away from the horrific massacres of thousands of innocent civilians by the US and its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years. If the references to Sri Lanka in the High CommissionerƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s last report are anything to go by, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” cardinal principles that should characterise the work of the UNHRC[2] – are anathema to Ms Pillay. Surely, the High Commissioner seems rarely mistaken as to which side her bread is buttered on.

The self-proclaimed angels manage to flap their wings in perfect unison with a motley assortment of unscrupulous journalists, dishonest politicians with an axe to grind, intellectually bankrupt academics and on some occasions even fraudsters fleeing domestic justice etc and seem ready to make common cause with just anybody as long as they can take a few cheap jibes at a small developing nation. Of late, Mr Robert O Blake, US Assistant Secretary, South and Central Asian Affairs ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” zealot with an incurable obsession for ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-other peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s accountabilityƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ – has been burning mid night oil. The bloke has yet to answer the most elementary question. If accountability is so important, why does the US continue to refuse to ratify the Rome Statute and recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court? After all, the ICC was founded precisely to deal with the issue and to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-bring to justice the perpetrators of the worst crimes known to humankindƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

Much has been written and commented upon about what happened during the last days of the war against the terror outfit in May 2009. Mr Blake and his buddy, Mr Stephen Rapp, Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, have been eloquent on the need for accountability for the conduct of the Sri Lankan armed forces in the last days of the war. Strangely enough, Mr Rapp has been rather discreet, to say the least, as to why the United States should not, by the same logic, face charges on crimes against humanity for the horrific massacre of some 100,000 civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the last days of the Second World War. Mr Blake and Mr Rapp should know that the war had ended in Europe and that the Germans had already surrendered by 8 May 1945 when the United States committed some of the most appalling and horrendous crimes against humanity on 6 and 9 August 1945 in the cities concerned. Let me remind the two gentlemen of how, during the Second World War, the allied forces resorted to strategic bombing of civilian installations inFrance occupied by the Nazis in order to prevent their use by them. In 1941-1945, the allied forces bombed ports, railway stations, communications centres, power stations, factories etc. It is estimated that some 67,000 French civilians died in the bombings.

The US Strategic Bombing Survey estimated that some 305,000 persons were killed and 780,000 were wounded as the consequence of all Allied bombings against Germany in World War II. As for the principle of proportionality in war, suffice it to have a cursory look at the accounts of the US attacks on the Iraqi Army on the KuwaitƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…”Basra road which was appropriately dubbed the Highway of Death later. Perhaps, the AmbassadorƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…”atƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…”large will be kind enough to explain why those responsible for the slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians are still at large.

Some nations like some individuals appear to have no sense of shame.UK, Franceand the Netherlands are responsible for innumerable acts of barbarity and unspeakably horrendous crimes against people in their former colonies. Today, the ministers representing the saintly nations parade themselves as paragons of virtue and strut around the globe, hectoring small nations and lecturing them on human rights. And their henchmen are impudent enough to scream their heads off in the European Parliament on human rights and pass resolutions on Sri Lanka, safely hidden behind the twelve-star European Flag! Surely, the lily-white France still considers herself to be a virgin when it comes to violations of human rights! No ghost from Indochina, Algeria, Rwanda, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ just to name a few countries where she has few rivals in the genre, seems to disturb her sleep or stir her conscience.

The Geneva Carnival is on. It is enough to make Rio blush with shame.

Dr Bandula Kothalawala

LondonN7