N.A. DE S. AMARATUNGA Courtesy The Island

Bones found in a mass grave in Mannar have been found to be more than 300 years old by a laboratory in Florida, USA. Lord Naseby has called on all the countries sponsoring the Resolution against Sri Lanka to bring down the official figure of deaths during the last stages of the war against the LTTE to 5,000. Minister Kiriella has warned the Geneva delegation not to make any adverse changes in the latest resolution against Sri Lanka to be taken up at the UNHRC Conference. These three occurrences, though not apparently connected, tell the pathetic story of present Sri Lanka.

Judgments on the bones were passed by many even before the carbon dating reports were available and separatists were in great expectation that evidence for their genocide claims were forthcoming. UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet herself took the lead in this respect and issued a statement in consonance with the separatist sentiments. She spoke about past mass graves and future ones too, and the important role the Office of Missing Persons has to play in this regard. She had obviously jumped the gun and also given hopes to the separatists. All their hopes have been dashed to the ground by the lab reports. Ironically it was a laboratory in the US, the chief architect of the UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka which carbon-tested the bones. If it had been China or Russia there would have been a howl of protest. Yet the TNA wants another country to carry out further tests on the bones. Is it because the US has withdrawn from the UNHRC after calling it a “cesspool of political bias”? Further the TNA wants the bones to be identified! Is it to find out whether the bones belong to Sinhalese or Tamils? They also want excavations to continue. Each and every inch of the Island may have to be dug up to satisfy the TNA in order to get their votes.

This government did nothing to make use of Lord Naseby’s findings. To top all this blatant treachery Minister Kirielle in Parliament, faulted Mahinda Samarasinghe MP for drawing the attention to the possibility of the presence of adverse factors in Geneva.

The influx of officials of various kinds from the West into our country so frequently, and the statements they issue after holding discussions with separatists and their ilk, show how serious the matter is. The gradual erosion of our independence and sovereignty is clearly seen. To be forced into agreeing to cosponsor such a Resolution that recommends these laws is an insult to the collective intelligence of our people, and a slavish capitulation to say the least. The worst is yet to come, in the form of a federal constitution. Khema’s boy could take the full credit for this pathetic state the country has been surreptitiously dragged into, under the nose of the parliament and the president as it were. And the obedient boy gets hosannas sung by all the Powers.

Kirielle probably wanted to make sure that the TNA would not carry out its threat to vote against the budget. Leader of the House doesn’t want the Geneva Delegation to rock the boat that is being navigated with difficulty in choppy waters until the safety of land could be reached. TNA is a shrewd boatman who knows how to get what he wants. Why cannot the Government and the TNA face up to reality? Why cannot they accept the overwhelming evidence that no war crimes of any significant magnitude or of genocidal proportion have been committed? Can’t the UNP stomach the fact that it was their enemy who defeated the LTTE? Does the TNA want to take revenge from those who defeated the LTTE?

Should we be guided by the West and dance to their tune that says “there cannot be lasting peace without Truth, Justice, and Guarantee of Non-recurrence”? Coming from the West isn’t this hypocrisy of the lowest type? Do they want lasting peace anywhere in the world? In West Asia, in the Far East, in South Asia? They, who carpet-bombed Cambodia, which was not involved in the Vietnam War, caused the death of a million children in Iraq with their sanctions, destroyed the rich cultures of Iraq, Libya and Syria and turned them into eternal cauldrons? Are they genuinely interested in reconciliation among different communities in Sri Lanka? My foot! They would be the losers if there is to be peace in Sri Lanka. They did their utmost to prevent the ending of the war and now they are doing their utmost to divide the people and the country.

People in Sri Lanka, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims must realize the gravity of this situation, the danger to their very existence, and the duplicitous role some of their politicians are playing. They must believe Lord Naseby and not their politicians. They must believe the lab reports of the mass grave in Mannar and not what the biased HR Commissioner wants them to believe. They must realize that peace is not possible if there is unjust and biased treatment of one community, if there is punishment to one side of the conflict and reparation to the other. They must realize how and why the West and the politicians are playing the game of reconciliation. It is aimed not at peace but eternal mistrust, separation and division. Then only the racist politicians could be in power and the West could have strategic Sri Lanka as their base in the Indian Ocean. All Sri Lankans must get together in their common interest, if nothing else, if the country is to survive this grave peril.