Insight By Sunil Kumar

The recent Canadian Globe and Mail Item “Why a UN probe of Sri Lanka would spark new hope for reconciliation” posted by a team of journalists ~ Maruzka Darushman, Steven Ratner and Yasmin Sooka by virtue of some glaring errors of ommision concerning the Tamil Tiger insurrection in Sri Lanka whether deliberately or not towards an agenda which seems intended to appease Tamil Tiger sympathetic Tamil Diaspora and misrepresent information to a world unknowledgeable about the stark realities which transpired needs addressing towards correction.This as well as any intentions to mislead a world audience into continued belief that there is no other side to the realities involving the horror that was inflicted on Sri Lanka by the Tamil Tiger terrorists.    

Five years ago, Sri Lanka’s civil war did indeed  reach a bloody conclusion on a stretch of beach in the island’s northeast known as Nandithikaddal , as government forces put down the the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam  (no longer existent in Sri Lanka despite attempts to recussitate them that is) and labelled a globally condemned terrorist organization) and in the process of their elimination freed a multitude reaching into many thousands of Tamil and other civilians who were being used by the terrorists as a shield of human hostages as the Armed Forces pursued them.
 
The government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa,  was not flushed with triumphalist fever as reported and very justifiably insisted it had done no wrong during that eventful rather than fateful campaign.Eventful for those who believed in freedoms and the right to live peacefully. Those who told a told a different tale however, contrary to the realities involved  appear to have taken it upon themselves to distort the facts to suit their dissipated and frustrated mindsets relative to failed objectives through championing the Tamil Tiger terrorists  and what the UN, the USA, The UK, The EU and others are hoodwinked into believing them, base their accusations and calls for investigations on, carry little or no weight towards their justification and rationally a wast of time and the taxpayer’s money as in the end they would appear fruitless based on the hard evidence which exists to prove Sri Lanka did nothing wrong in the eyes of International Law. 
 
It also seems a travesty of justice that while  suggesting  that tens of thousands may have perished during the last phase of the war where the importance of the term ‘may’ plays a significant role towards the conjecture implied by those within Sri Lanka who are aware of the salient truth and the blatant distortions orchestrated towards contradicting it .This said on the compelling evidence that exists as well as the responses of a vast number of Government supportive Tamils who have already contradicted the accusations against the Government on the basis that they too have a say towards upholding an Administration that has delivered them from the mendacious clutches of the ruthless Tamil Tigers all of whom now live in peace, contentment and harmony in all parts of the Island although their existences are sometimes threatened by the undercurrents of Tamil Tiger sympathisers mostly from outside Sri Lanka and visibly known as the Tamil Tiger sympathetic Tamil Diaspora.
 
This team refered to,  appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to cull the evidence and advise him on holding both sides accountable for those atrocities, recommended that the Sri Lankan Government investigate war crimes and that the UN step in with its own international investigation if the Government failed to do so.
This then is a matter of opinion where attestations to the realities of what the Government is doing to address related issues exist to those who care to observe them through unbiased eyes and vision! 
 
While this report suggests somewhat brazenly that it  garnered support within Sri Lankan civil society and abroad when perhaps some of it, very little realistically came from a section of disgruntled Tamils in all likelihood, and opponents of the Government egged on by opposition parties and authoritative, autocratic leaders of high office incarcerated for their wrongs within the Nations Justice System who have also teamed up to discredit the Government for very obvious reasons instigated by the global Tamil Diaspora, there is and always has been a nationwide surge of support for the Government for the actions which resulted in the liberation of the nation from terrorism ever since that eventful day at Nandithikaddal when the Nation was finally freed from the scourge of terrorism after almost three decades. 
 
When the Government rejected the hue and cry in the aftermath as a sort of plot by LTTE sympathizers as reported there was much justification towards this  where in a clear sign of international frustration with the Government, the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva urged Sri Lanka in both 2012 and 2013 to investigate the events at the end of the insurrection as opposed to what is wrongfully termed a war.
It was in a sense  playing the wrong hand in choosing the wrong candidate for the job for the incredible bias and conflict of interests it involved where The UN’s top human rights official, Navi Pillay a Tamil herself who had every reason to justapose her views alongside the Tamil Diaspora, visited the country last year, telling Mr. Rajapaksa in absentia that an investigation was long overdue. This year, with no further progress as she puts it, she too called for an international investigation where the progress exists in mountains of evidence for all to see.
 
While her presence and UN’s choice appeared to be an objectionable one, there was no fairness or justice involved in her choice as much of her so called accusations too were based on conjecture and hearsay which were virtually scoffed at by those who saw the irrationality of her selection for this assignment and saw through the huge biases and conflicts of interest involved vis a vis what Sri Lanka was being transformed into today  as a Wonder of Asia. 
 
It seems unsurprising therefore that the report suggests once again in total distortion of the facts that ” the human rights situation continues to deteriorate, as opponents and journalists disappear, the Tamil areas in the north remain highly militarized, survivors live in fear, and many missing from the war remain unaccounted for. Last year, the government engineered the removal of the supreme court chief justice, silencing a rare independent voice. The peace in Sri Lanka about which the government brags is based on conquest and fear. It could not be more the opposite of the peace based on truth, justice, and reconciliation that Nelson Mandela insisted upon for South Africa; and the fate of those two states could also not be more divergent.” While tha South African analogy and quoting Nelson Mandela are debatable  it is wrong and a deliberate distortion to say all this as conditions for all Sri Lankans have improved tremendously where the Justice System as in any other country deals with those who disregard it as well as violate it, some of them in high office to whom there are no exceptions nor privy to exceed their powers or misappropriate funds as well as using their authority to suit their advantage and naturally these types are dealt with causing a huge furore from the enemies of the Government ever ready to pounce!
The military presence in the North is a necessary one which should continue until all threats from terrorism or the resurgence of the Tamil tigers (an attempt towards this was seen and put down just days ago) is eliminate totally which may take time.
The list of missing person applies to all ethnicities where it is believed many are unaccounted for having fled the shore to foreign lands ` no lists maintained and the exit of refugees continue to this day of which there is tangible proof. 
 
That the Human Rights Council has already  voted on a resolution submitted by the United States and other states that would ask Ms. Pillay to conduct a UN investigation of alleged rights violations by the Government and the LTTE seems academic although perhaps the vote by virtue of its importance relative to the accusations should have been conducted on a two  third majority rather than a simple one and given the nature of what transpired  and those who were undecided SriLanka might not have been intimidated or castigated to the extent she was and is being in some circles today .
 
While not as formal as a freestanding commission of inquiry like that for Syria, this mechanism could finally provide the independent investigation that is long overdue. It will need a budget and staff sufficient to the challenge of investigating the events of 2009.So if this is not a free standing commission of inquiry what purpose would it serve in a Sri Lanka that is making great progress towards the future and well being of all her citizens one might ask?
 
Indeed Sri Lanka has deployed her diplomats worldwide to try to persuade the developing states on the Council that an investigation by the UN is an attack on Sri Lankan Sovereignty in a show of strngth of her convictions that this is an unnecessary and unjustifiable intimidation where Sri Lanka has agreed to  maintain all the human rights standards endeavoured as always where the UN investigation could prove to be a deterrent to the morale of the country which at present is very high.
And how could a UN inquiry  ascertain the facts if distorted  and without prejudice when the prejudices, biases and conjecture it will be steeped in visibly through the peron who conducts it collectively becomes an outstanding issue?
In this sense as well as from many other perspectives detrimental to Sri Lanka the view presented here in support of an International Inquiry by itself seems biased and inopportune!