US led UNHRC Resolution on Lanka disappointing -Karuna
Posted on March 5th, 2014
Mahinda Gunasekera
By E-mail 84 Tambrook Drive
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M1W 3L9
March 5, 2014
The Editor
ZeeNews.com
Essel Studio,
FC-19, Sector 16-A,
Noida – 201301, India
Dear Sir/Madam,
Re: ‘US led UNHRC Resolution on Lanka disappointing -Karuna’ – March 5, 2014
I refer to the above captioned news report published in your edition of March 5, 2014, and wish to
comment as follows:
The DMK Party Chief, Mr. M. Karunanidhi is either under a misapprehension or is deliberately trying
to mislead Indian leaders in taking extreme steps at the UNHRC against Sri Lanka, by claimimg that
the military action taken against the Tamil Tiger terrorists was an act of genocide against a minority.
The Tamil Tigers thrust a war on the Sri Lankan authorities by cutting off drinking and irrigation water
to 30,000 farming families living downstream from Mahavil Oya (Mavilaru) in July 2006. They also
forced the Tamil civilians of the Vanni region to move with the retreating LTTE to be exploited for
their labour, conscripted to replace fallen cadre and serve as a human shield. They did not permit the
civilians to leave their control in spite of Sri Lanka unilaterally arranging for two 48 hour ceasefires
to enable them to cross over to safety, and even opened fire on those who attempted to leave. The
LTTE were offered two opportunities to lay down their weapons and surrender, but they opted to
fight to the very end in the hope of an intervention by western forces who would spring them out
and obtain asylum elsewhere to resume hostilities.
The Sri Lankan forces not only defeated the terror forces of the LTTE, but also rescued 295,873
Tamil civilians being used as a human shield. Former LTTE cadres numbering 11,800 including 594
child soldiers were rehabilitated and released to society with new life skills.The Tamil IDPs were well
cared for in transit camps, and resettled in their former villages with livelihood assistance after
necessary infrastructure costing over $3 billion had been carried out within just four years. These
Tamil IDPs fled towards the Sri Lankan forces in the midst of gun fire, artillery shells and suicide
bombers being directed against them by the LTTE. They did not rush towards a genocidal army but
came over voluntarily to escape from LTTE terror and seek refuge and solace for themselves.
Perhaps Mr. Karunanidhi is not aware that only 700,000 Tamils live in the predominantly Tamil north
whilst the rest numbering 2.5 million live in the rest of the country in mixed ethnic surroundings where
they enjoy equal rights and democratic freedoms. Sri Lanka has adopted a process of healing and
reconciliation based on restorative justice instead of retributive justice as outlined in her own Lessons
Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’s report. An Action Plan with time lines has been set up to
implement the home grown package of solutions, with much headway being achieved in the short
period after the end of the armed conflict. Any external probe into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka
will only hinder the prevailing peace and ongoing reconciliation. Sri Lanka does not want to dig up
the role of the DMK in providing funds, sanctuary and other material help to the Indian trained Tamil
militants including the LTTE terrorists used for destabilizing her tiny neighbour Sri Lanka. Even the
war crimes and HR violations committed by the IPKF against Sri Lanka Tamils from 1987 to 1990 needs
to be put on the back stage for now. Sri Lanka does not intend to scratch these old wounds and bring
up animosities to the surface, but to forge ahead with the new found peace to build a united Sri Lanka.
Yours sincerely,
Mahinda Gunasekera
March 5th, 2014 at 3:15 pm
The United States Tortures and waves cudgels at Sri Lanka while China befriends and helps Sri Lanka! What a CONTRAST!
The United States spends $25 million/year on Sri Lanka funding “democracy” and “good governance” projects to fund anti-national NGOs to buy influence and destabilize Sri Lanka, while China gives hundreds of MILLIONS of Dollars in GIFTS and BILLIONS of Dollars in development LOANS.
Clearly, the United States has NOT EARNED the right to get Sri Lanka’s attention t foster US national interests.
Threatening Sri Lanka with its military might and global political influence in pursuit of US global hegemony is not going to win any friends for the US in Sri Lanka, except those of anti-national traitors and separatists. The US is LOSING the hearts and minds of the Sri Lankan people by threatening their personal and national interests.
The MONUMENTAL FOLLY of the United States in alienating a Natural Democratic Ally of the United States in Asia BOGGLES MY MIND!
……………..
China company lands 1 bln USD highway project in Sri Lanka
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Mar 05 (Xinhua) China is deepening involvement in Sri Lanka’s massive infrastructure development with state-run China Merchant’s Group earmarked to build a 1 billion U.S. dollar expressway that will kick off later this year, an official said Wednesday.
The northern expressway is considered to be the largest highway project embarked upon by the Sri Lankan government to date, aimed at linking the former war torn north through the tourist hot spot of Kandy to capital Colombo. When completed, the highway is expected to be about 300 km in length.
Construction of the first phase of about 48 km is expected to begin in August and will be done under the Build Own Transfer (BOT) system, Highways Ministry Secretary Ranjith Premasiri told Xinhua.
“The feasibility study has been completed and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with the company. We are discussing details of tax holidays and land allocation presently,” he added.
It was earlier reported that the construction of the first 100 km of the Northern Expressway was awarded to two China Merchant group companies, China Merchant Holdings International (CMHI) and China Merchant Huajin.
The venture was earlier reported to be funded by China Development Bank. The first phase stretch will have five interchanges, 50 overpasses and 30 underpasses.
CMHI are also in charge of a 500-million-U.S. dollar expansion of the Colombo harbor, which is also under the BOT system.
The first phase is estimated to cost 1 billion U.S. dollars and will take a minimum of 18 months to complete, he added.
On March 15, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will ceremoniously open a 30.81 km extension to the Southern expressway also funded by China EXIM Bank. The cost of the highway extension is 18.7 billion rupees (about 139 million U.S. dollars).
The third phase of the Southern expressway will be handed over to China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation ( CATIC) for construction.
China remains involved in almost all the large scale projects taking place. Some of the biggest projects include a 1.3-billion-U. S. dollar coal power plant on the north western shore as well as a host of other investments in the south of the country that are estimated to exceed 4 billion U.S. dollars, including a 1.2- billion-dollar harbor.
Railways, highways, airports and more are all part of this development push that has been actively pursued by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government with support from China. Tourists from China are also becoming a major focus between the two countries.
March 5th, 2014 at 3:17 pm
STRATEGICALLY we should allow old fart Karuna gain popularity in Toilet Nadu now.
Otherwise Lolita will sweep the election with HUGE number of seats in election in 2 months.
IF Toilet Nadu seats are divided between the two Tamill fools (Karuna and Lolita) they lose clout. Both will lose.
Only racism ticks Tamils so it is understandable.
March 5th, 2014 at 3:24 pm
“The third phase of the Southern expressway will be handed over to China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation ( CATIC) for construction.”
VERY VERY INTERESTING!
CATIC is a DEFENCE company MAINLY into manufacturing WEAPONS.
We purchased our J-7 fighter jets from this company (the manufacturer).
EXCELLENT move to get them involved in ROAD CONSTRUCTION!!
Of course they should not stop at just constructing roads!! Roads + SILK ROAD + defence + airports + air bases ++++++
March 5th, 2014 at 6:57 pm
Toilet Nadu is in a disgraceful state where some have big mansions and most do not even have a toilet. If you walk along the streets outside these mansions you will see lines of young children squatting along the drains or the edge of the road and using it as their toilet. If these Toilet Nadu Politicians spend their time attending to the needs of their people instead of wasting it protesting against Sri Lanka, where everybody has a toilet, maybe they will do some good and win a few votes.
March 5th, 2014 at 8:17 pm
It is not toilet Nadoo. As there are no toilets in Tamil Nadoo it should be called No Toilet Nadoo. Uncivilised animal squat in public. So where is the personal integrity with the Indians except Dr. Subramanium Swamy my mentor.
March 6th, 2014 at 7:36 am
I think Karunanidi is referring to LTTE terrorists as the Tamil civilians and is ignoring the real Tamil civilians who were rescued by the Army by defeating the LTTE terrorists. This shows what values this man has.
March 6th, 2014 at 3:31 pm
DEMOCRACY in Action … the WILL of its People is that Crimea joins the Russian Federation … as the Ukraine as a whole spirals towards disintegration into smaller “empowered democracies”.
The USA used this very argument to undermine, destabilize and divide many other countries aligned with the USSR in the past … like Yugoslavia. Now Putin is deploying the same strategy to return the favour.
All of this INTERFERENCE by foreign powers undermines NATIONS as units of governance and sovereignty, which moves me to ask: Are there NO LIMITS to the SIZE of a region that can demand secession to exercise its own democracy in opposition to the will of ALL the people of a nation? Can a Province, a District, a County, a City, a Town, a Village, or even a Street exercise its DEMOCRATIC right to secede? Where does it end?
Most nations are rarely perfectly uniform in demography, and have local concentrations with respect to ethnicity, religion, language, etc etc, that are small in relation to the population of the country as a whole. So, does the will of the people of each local region, no matter how small, have priority over the will of ALL of the people of a nation? Does the will of Eastern Ukraine supercede the will of all of Ukraine? Does the will of Crimea have priority over both?
This issue was addressed by Abraham Lincoln, during the US Civil war. President Lincoln argued that the legitimate aspirations of ALL people of the United States had accrued an inalienable right to a United Nation incorporating all of its territories, that had priority over the RIGHT of the Confederate States that had voluntarily united but now wished to secede. He argued that that RIGHT ACCRUED OVER TIME since Indeoendence from Britain, had a greater validity and force than the right of the Confederate States to secede. That was his LEGAL justification for waging the Civil War, and denying the DEMOCRATIC right of the Confederate States to a separate existence.
But we Americans, the inheritors and beneficiaries of Lincoln’s legal justification for preserving the Union, have since been all over the mao on this issue, with only our SELF-INTEREST deciding which side we are on.
In former Yugoslavia, we held that its individual provinces Serbia, Solvenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Hetzegovina, Macedonia, even Kosovo province of Serbia, had an inalienable right to a separate existence …. because we had an interest in Balkanizing the powerful Yugoslavia aligned with the USSR. In doing so, we opened up a Pandora’s box spilling out all of the old Balkan evils that Marshal Tito had managed to keep bottled up in a united Yugoslavia. That witches kettle is still brewing. Determined to divide up Sudan opposed to the US, we have similarly managed to stir up divisions and create a South Sudan, with another new nation in the Darfur region a distinct possibility. South Sudan is now at war with itself … that should keep them busy for a while, eh?
On the other hand, in Ukraine, the US is arguing that the National Sovereignty of Ukraine must remain inviolate while Russia has become the defender of Democracy and the Will of the People of Crimea! There is no “Internal Law” here, only the Rights of the Mighty and Powerful to have their way.
We Americans, in particular, should be wary of the recent trend in our foreign policy to exploit “human rights” and “democracy” to undermine, destabilize and partition other countries. We should be mindful of the demographic changes that are taking place within the United States, that are leading to polarization and alienation of people and regions of the US from one another on ethnic, linguistic, religious and political bases, and the po
tential for those to grow and crystallize into secessionist movements. There is now AMPLE EVIDENCE that is happening right now.
If that unfortunate situation were to again arise, as it did during the US Civil War period, all of the arguments we are currently using to dismantle other countries would be used against the United States by segments of its own citizens, aided and abetted by enemies of our country. Would then, an Abraham Lincoln arise to formulate new arguments and convince Americans to wage war against each other to keep the nation whole, so our descendents can enjoy the benefits of a one united nation extending from ocean to ocean, as we did?