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| Item~ Lanka Fumbles To Cover Its Human Rights Shame As Case Examples Pile Up - An Exaggerated Media Hype Orchestrated By Pro LTTE Activists! March 9th 2008
Through the Periscope Of Sunny ~Global Sinhala Village For LankaWeb This item cross referenced to names such as Malloch-Brown, Bruce Fein Anne Arbour etc. finger pointing to Basil Rajapakse, Gotabaya Rajapakse, Sarath Fonseka and Mahinda Samarasinghe of the Sri Lankan Administrationd and Armed Forces* are accusations against individuals of high office in Sri Lanka and the naming of whom has little or no tangible links beyond speculation and conjecture where greater implications can be attributed to Prabhakaran, Thamilselvam, Balasingham both deceased, Adele the latter's wife, Pottu Amman, Soosai, Illanthirayan the list goes on........! of the Tamil tiger terrorists guilty of the worst human Rights violations perhaps on the planet after Hitler and Pol Pot! Ground reality of war sends shock waves according to Bruce Fein ( this man's transparencies and duplicities have been exposed several time over and his pure affront here is sending shock waves across the nation of Sri Lanka ! ) to move for Grand Jury ( as ludicrous as it sounds!) probe on Gotabaya and Basil Rarapaksha as well as Army Commander Sarath Fonseka. UK Minister Lord Malloch Brown tells HRC there are reports of disappearences and violence against media in Sri Lanka where the Government is accused. They in turn accuse the UK of finding it difficult to let go of historical possessions~ more than partially true and the part about the media again concocted to veil the LTTE's murders of prominent Journalists and intellectuals!) HRW brands Rajapakse regime as one of the 'world's worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances' While the 'myth' that the war was nearing an end came to be exploded by the government no less last week, with frightening figures of casualties reported, the international community came one step closer to slamming the door on Sri Lanka even as the opposition read the riot act to the Rajapakse regime spelling more disaster in the weeks ahead .(Worthless rhetoric where the International community has been totally misled by LTTE propaganda now being exposed as anti government and duplicitous with opposition party UNP involvement also!where the term innuendo needs to be incorporated towards portraying the real truth casting aside much of the arguments herein! The opposition is attempting to foment anger and incite hatred against the administration for which they need to be dealt with within the law!) For all the muscle flexing and the bravado displayed by the Rajapakse regime to keep the south quiet, their game plan was going terribly wrong on the economic, military and political fronts and by last week signs were evident, the President will be compelled to go for early elections more out of necessity than choice in a bid to start afresh.Hitherto, the government managed to keep a lid on southern dissent by marketing the war, but with no signs of victory in sight and more price shocks in store for the people in a climate of increasing international isolation, the President was slowly beginning to realise a general election was the only way out to overcome the stalemate scenario before things got worse and he conferred with confidants on the issue causing panic among the ranks of the UNP defectors. (Once again speculative innuendo and totally misleading!) Ground reality.The UNP defectors having got wind of the President's thinking ~ hurriedly (finally an admission of part of the sensationalism here!) met March 6 to consider their options in the event of a general election ( the UNP are all but buried from "a man on the street's" point of view and Ranil W 's name is mud as well as considered a duplicitous betrayer of the Nation towards power grabbing One only needs to ask around!) and what the Mahinda Rajapakse-Ranil Wickremesinghe meeting meant to them; but to the President ,(Zilch!) the plight of Karu Jayasuriya ( a good man) and his merrymen ( makers of merriment while the Nation burns yes! towards the greed of the likes of Ranil a good title for RW and his merry 'geri' men!) were the least of his concerns with the ground reality taking centre stage. (See Potshots) (this is the biggest cockeyed poshot to bear thus far!) This ground reality came from the battle front with the President slowly getting the bigger picture on what was really happening as opposed to the propaganda hype he too was taken in by on the basis of information given and the real shocker came with the petition filed in the Supreme Court by Major General Parakrama Pannipitiya , ( another opportunist, turncoat , betrayer and gutless wonder who needs to be courtmartialed and probably will be!) wherein the inner workings of the army came to be revealed. The significance of Pannipitiya taking the Army Commander Sarath Fonseka head on was not lost on the President. (But why is Lieut Gen.Sarath Fonseka's scathing response not recorded here and the outcome of it? what follows henceforth is the biggest pack of orchestrated lies and the more discerning are aware of it !) Making matters worse were comments from the Supreme Court when the case was taken up the previous week, where references were made to the government's Api Venuwen Api campaign for the security forces when in reality the war heroes were meted out shabby treatment.It is in this backdrop the people too received a shocker in the form of security forces' casualty figures from the battlefield detailed by none other than the Leader of the House, Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva during the emergency debate in parliament last week .( distorted facts and figures surely, towards the single objective of discrediting the Administration!) Having through a relentless propaganda campaign ( this is the propaganda campaigh more appropriate and it is in black and white! indeed creating a false perception!!) created the perception the Tigers were on their last legs, (They Are OnTheir Last Legs~ probably hands and knees !) Minister Silva's announcement that in the short month of February, 104 security forces personnel were killed and 822 injured came as an eye opener that all was not well in the northern battlefields .(Sounds relative to doubling, tripling or quadrupling terrorist casualty numbers. Alls well in the Northern, and Eastern Battlefields for the Armed Forces not the terrorists!) February casualties Mind you, this figure given by Minister Silva did not include the Missing in Action (MIA) and there hangs another tale, but the bottom line is in the month of February alone, the security forces had on average suffered 30 casualties per day and that is after having hardly made any inroads into the Wanni.And considering the propaganda hype generated that the Tigers were at death's door, the details divulged to parliament by the Minister came as an eye-opener to the people at large and drove home the stark reality that the war was not going to end anytime soon. ( Not tomorrow but in the near morrow!Assured if these types of bulletins are to be confounded and trashed! The reference to Armed Forces inroads into the Wanni is a reality known to almost every household within the nation which has even been admitted by pro-LTTE websites) For the President, what this reality meant was having to face another budget vote without a resounding military success to offset the economic nightmare faced by the people and it is in a bid to cut his losses that Rajapakse considered the early general election option last week before matters got worse for the government. ( High flown rhetoric here intended to mislead Speculative hearesay! without tangible evidence again where the Government is doing reasonably well given the circumstances~ Tamil Net flavoured for sure!) Such is the political plight of the President, having placed all his eggs in the war basket there is no way out now for him in the south and as the fighting escalates, so does the costs both human and economic and with that comes more international pressure over human rights, which in turn impacts once again on the economy. Good as gone. (The Presidents policies will surely win him a majority in another election.The LTTE are being decimated and will be a statistic sooner or later!The economy has recovered substantially by comparison to the CBK era! and is gaining momentum! Yes the fight against terrorism wrongfully called a war is eating into the Nation's economy but who is responsible? Sri lanka's Founding Fathers, the present administration or its vermin plague calling themselves liberators? However it is expected by many analysts that the economy will be in overdrive after Prabhakaran's head is delivered on a platter to confound the propagandists who create such muck ridden fodder for the cannons which will be fired back at them eventually!) This vicious cycle (Indeed! which the President finds himself trapped in is about to get worse for its perpetrators with the international community too taking a different stance very recently! tightening its screws on previous opinions that the LTTE cause was legit! whereas it has been disproved vehemently as a lost cause!) The GSP Plus facility given by the European Union also good as gone and with it, US$ 2 billion in export earnings as well as 100,000 jobs in the garment sector (something which the GOSL was prepared for and anticipated with other sources to compensate for whatever setback this might effect!) To get this facility, the government has to pass a constitutional amendment in parliament to give effect to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which it fears to do due to the human rights litigation that will follow .( This is the path that the propagandists have always pursued!So would it realistically have ill effects on a faction of the populace only rather than all of it? No! the propagansists are included in the effects of their own anticipated anti government fall out~ for the sake of argument! ) Further, the President will also have to appoint the Constitutional Council under the 17th Amendment in terms of good governance criteria which too he is reluctant to do, not wanting the independent commissions operational, all of which meant the loss of the GSP facility and with it another devastating blow to the economy. ( Speculation again!) This political quicksand the President finds himself in got worse last week with the international community taking a step closer to slamming the door on Sri Lanka while the Rajapakse brothers and the Army Commander Sarath Fonseka too came up under personal pressure on the human rights front .( Assumed Human Rights violations where the varince of the theme is outstading towards distortion of facts or mere baselessor finger pointing thereto which constitutes an attempt towards political blackmail and will never succeed as there are viable alternatives contrary to putrid LTTE backed reckoning to compensate for any anticipated attempts to denigrate the Administration and the Armed Forces.The door in reality has been slammed on the LTTE catching their mendacities in a chokehold in the process! ) The attack on Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse, Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapakse and Army Commander Sarath Fonseka came from a former US Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein (whose duplicity and yellow underbelly inasmuch as UN's Anne Arbour's both with pro LTTE agendas are well known! and have been exposed!) who has now made it known he intends moving for a Grand Jury investigation on the trio in the US for alleged human rights abuse. Fein who was a deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan's administration has gone so far as to set up a website calling for evidence to prosecute the Rajapakse brothers and Fonseka on the basis that they are either US citizens or green card holders with reports from Washington indicating, papers will be filed with the Department of Justice within weeks .(And if this is not without a pro LTTE agenda what other purpose does Fein have? On one hand his government has proscribed the terrorists and are behind the Present Sri Lankan Administration towards preserving Sovereignity and Territorial Integrity but he has the audacity to be partial towards its adversaries on the world scene deserving to be hauled in for his contradictary behaviour himself! His days are surely numbered and the resonse he received by the Sri Lankan Administration has been documented as meritworthy. What has dual citizenship got to do with all this? If this be the case the citizenships should be trashed and tossed into a shredder for good measure as incidental anomalies of no indemnity to their existences or personal well being to the contrary a liability as seems to be the case lately!!) Crimes against humanity ( petty arguments which will never hold up with any legal implication without tangible evidence or corroborating proof by any source who cannot be exempt from the conflict of interest clause nevertheless big accusations which need to be classified by the accusers or in turn face libel charges!!! as all of the following attests to the same.The cited examples seem sensational albeit with no drawable analogy beyond metaphorical rhetoric!) Titled The Bruce Fein Project, the website has this to say inter alia under the heading "Urgent request from Bruce Fein for evidence to prosecute Rajapakse brothers and General Fonseka in the United States courts for torture, extra judicial killings and crimes against humanity.A primary mission of the Bruce Fein Project is the criminal prosecution of Gotabaya and Basil Rajapakse and Army Commander General Fonseka in the United States courts for implication in torture, extra judicial killings and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Sri Lanka. Basil and General Fonseka are permanent residents of the United States, and Gotabaya is a United States citizen. All are subject to the criminal law jurisdiction of the United States." Adds Bruce Fein - "The law recognises the doctrine of command responsibility, i.e. holding a political or military superior accountable for the crimes of subordinates that they could have prevented. Command responsibility was recognised as early as the Hague Convention in 1907. Japanese General Tomoyuku Yamashita was held criminally liable for 'unlawfully disregarding and failure to discharge his duty as a commander to control the acts of members of his command by permitting them to commit war crimes. "Ernest Medina implicated in the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam was charged with being a commanding officer who remained passive despite awareness of human rights violations or war crimes. Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic was indicted for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity under the doctrine of command responsibility." Evidence~"The Bruce Fein Project needs your evidence in the form of affidavits, photographs or documents tending to prove that persons under the control or supervision of the Rajapakse brothers or General Fonseka, for example, Karuna or the Pillayan groups, committed torture, extra judicial killings or crimes against humanity. Torture is defined as the infliction of severe and prolonged physical or mental suffering. The Bruce Fein Project would also welcome the names of persons who could provide direct testimony of the aforementioned crimes," it is stated."The Bruce Fein Project will compile the incriminating evidence in a prosecution handbook for presentation to the Untied States Attorney in Los Angeles to jump start a grand jury investigation and prosecution of the Rajapakse brothers and General Fonseka..." the website adds. In motion Whether or not there is any basis to charge the Rajapakse brothers and the Army Commander in the US courts is another matter, ( Aha! This says it all and supports much of what is highlighted here in red and the fact remains~ just because the ball is now in play and is an issue 'they' will have to address sooner than later, will the ball reach its intended goal or be blocked by the real facts which point to all the huffing and puffing of Feinstein which is a mere exhaling of hot air and breaking wind from his rear against an administration which rejected his obstreperous and incongruous conclusions based on his pro LTTE sympathies at a time when he was ludicrously outspoken on an issue he knew little beyond the tip of his nose based on hearsay and eventual speculative conjecture bordering on innuendo!!). Needless to say, more such actions are forthcoming, the less the government will be inclined to subscribe to international conventions and with that reluctance will come further isolation and the resultant economic consequences .(This is an expectation and part, of the Fein objective so where does it put him but in the doghouse! Arent his duplicities instantly made pellucid and the corrupt nature of his long drawn tirade against the Sri Lankan Authorities more than obvious for intent? That is the vicious cycle the government has now trapped itself in (N0 More Vicious then Fein's intended attempt to discredit the Sri lankan Authorities for all the wrong reasons and primarily to up the LTTE!) and more strident the Rajapakse administration becomes, tougher the action that follows such as the withholding of funds and the GSP Plus facility and last week's developments added further momentum to this trend.It was only the previous week, the UK Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Lord Malloch-Brown told the House of Lords and the Tamil diaspora ( Case in point underlined and proof of the pudding of whom Fein is really championing!)! in separate meetings that the human rights situation in Sri Lanka was a matter of concern ( and a matter for interpretation also relative to accuracy) and last week he took the issue to the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva much to the Sri Lankan government's consternation. ( he has surely forgotten the Presence of Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleke in Geneva and the rude shochk he 's in for when Dr Jayatilleke expresses his opinion and responds to all the Fein Blarney! ) International action ( High Flown oratory now as opposed to rhetoric takes over!) Speaking at the sessions, Lord Malloch-Brown was to say inter alia that international action can, and does, make a real difference, "particularly when our efforts are sustained and coordinated." The words 'sustained and coordinated' were not lost on the Sri Lankan delegation headed by Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.Added the British Minister - 'In Sri Lanka, a country facing a substantial terrorist threat, unfortunately international concern has not made an impact. We condemn terrorism. But countering terrorism requires respect for human rights ."( In lighter vein it seems a pity the main perpetrators of Human Rights Violations in this case the Tamil tigers have not been approached by Lord Malloch-Brown!) (Once again the following is speculative and inconclusive as well as non inoccuous towards the Fein case!) "In Sri Lanka, there are reports ( yes reports inasmuch as there are such from other parts of the world where tangible proof is more often than not remitted towards the validation of the reports!) of disappearances, extra judicial killings and violence against the media. When Louise Arbour ( whose conflict of interest and duplicities towards the case relative to pro LTTE leanings are now history!) visited Sri Lanka in October 2007, she was alarmed by the weakness of the rule of law and the prevalence of impunity. Little had changed, and those who committed these appalling crimes remain free," Lord Malloch-Brown went on to say.Not stopping at that, the British Minister went on to say Sri Lanka's human rights institutions can play a vital role but that to do so they must be independent and have the necessary authority and resources.Said he - "I hope the Universal Periodic Review process about which I will speak in a moment will further identify Sri Lanka's problem and encourage and support the government in tackling them. The UK supports Louise Arbour's call for a human rights country office in Sri Lanka and urges the Sri Lankans to work constructively with her office to achieve this goal."Given the international pressure on Sri Lanka, over a period of time, the government delegation was not taken by surprise at the UK Minister's comments but the danger signs of possible steps the UN might take to set up a field office was not lost on Minister Samarasinghe who availed himself of the right of reply. Tougher stand ~ ( The Essence of what this document needs to be construed as a pro LTTE supportive mumbo jumbo as Minister Samarasinghe expresses his point of view which is closer to the reality of what the document represents!) Minister Samarasinghe of course wanted to take a more diplomatic tact on the reply but with Permanent Representative Dayan Jayatilleke calling for a much tougher stand and providing the Minister with a draft statement to be made, he complied. Said Minister Samarasinghe inter alia - "Sri Lanka regrets the misconceived approach of the United Kingdom's Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, in his address to this august assembly. We share the concerns of many members of the international community that such approaches only promote a growing belief that some individuals find it difficult to let go of historical possessions." "Today, the noble lord asserted that countering terrorism requires respect for human rights. As a practicing democracy of long standing, Sri Lanka is well aware of this and has over the years developed new institutions that a colonial tradition failed to install. We are proud of our record in dealing with terrorism, whilst minimising harm to civilians. We hope that Lord Malloch-Brown will not forget that when dealing with terrorism in other countries, our circumspection in this regard should be emulated," the Minister added.Said Samarasinghe: "The noble lord refers to 'reports' of problems but, in common with a few other countries, he fails to take into account substantial improvements in the situation in Sri Lanka. I pointed out yesterday, in response to arbitrary assertions that the situation was deteriorating, that we are strengthening democracy and pluralism in a manner that had proved difficult in the past." (No more big talk than that of the pro LTTE lobbysists here where this seems more logical and rational relative to the situation within Sri Lanka by someone in a capacity to make these assertions!) "His support for attempts to establish a UN Human Rights Office in Sri Lanka despite a clear position enumerated to the contrary by the Government of Sri Lanka, should be more productively replaced by a genuine concern for human rights for all citizens in the context of a genuine struggle against terrorism," Samarasinghe also said.Such tough talk is well and good and helps keep national pride alive and kicking but whether such rhetoric, rather than taking a diplomatic approach helps get the job done for Sri Lanka remains to be seen, when it comes to holding back UN intervention.Interestingly, hardly 24 hours lapsed after Samarasinghe's speech that the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) headed by former Indian Chief Justice Bagwati announced its withdrawal from Sri Lanka and the Presidential Commission of Inquiry investigating into cases of disappearances and extra judicial killings. It is the presence of the IIGEP, the government cited as a shining example of Sri Lanka's commitment to dealing with cases of human rights abuse, and its withdrawal citing a lack of political and constitutional will to investigate and inquire into cases before the commission only made a bad case worse. Termination of operation ~Said the IIGEP in announcing the withdrawal - "The IIGEP has decide that it will terminate its operation in Sri Lanka. It has taken this decision after due consideration and for fundamental reasons. The President charged the IIGEP to observe the proceedings of the Commission of Inquiry, to offer suggestions and to asses the conduct of these proceedings against international norms and standards. The eminent persons conclude that they have accomplished all that is possible within the constraints of the prevailing situation. They no longer see how they can contribute further to the protection and enhancement of human rights in Sri Lanka and have regretfully decided to bring it to an end their activities in this country." With that came to an end the role of the IIGEP in Sri Lanka and while the Attorney General and the Commission of Inquiry countered several assertions made by the observers, it found little resonance with the international community.The bottom line as far as the international community was concerned was that every opportunity given to Sri Lanka to address human rights issues was frittered away necessitating a more coordinated campaign at international level as articulated by Lord Malloch-Brown. That very Thursday, March 6, the day the IIGEP announced its withdrawal also came a damning report from the New York based Human Rights Watch wherein it was alleged that "The Sri Lankan government is responsible for widespread abductions and 'disappearances' that are a national crisis." Nightmares~In a statement issued following the release of the 241 page report titled Recurring Nightmares: State Responsibility For 'Disappearance' And Abductions In Sri Lanka where 99 cases were documented, HRW states, Sri Lanka's government's response todate has been grossly inadequate.In a telling comment, the Human Rights Watch stated that in 2006 and 2007, the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances recorded more new 'disappearances' cases from Sri Lanka than from any other country in the world. That record immediately hit the international wire services and the story was reported worldwide. "President Mahinda Rajapakse, once a rights' advocate, has now led his government to become one of the world's worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances," Elaine Pearson, Deputy Asia Director of HRW was quoted as saying after the report was released in what reflected the growing international chorus against Sri Lanka on the human rights front. In the meantime, the opposition has also decided to up the tempo with the launching of the National Council Programme for the formulation of a policy framework whilst also looking at a concerted campaign over the President's refusal to appoint the Constitutional Council. This campaign, the UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, SLFP (M) Convener Mangala Samaraweera and other senior members discussed at length last week with a street campaign planned for the weeks ahead in preparation for an anticipated general election. The President too knows he is skating on thin ice over the issue and told the ministers on Wednesday at the tail end of the cabinet meeting that he will appoint the Constitutional Council no sooner the Select Committee presents its report. Upset Having said that he turned to Constitutional Affairs Minister D.E.W. Gunasekera and inquired whether the report was ready, only to be told they had a long way to go.The problem for the President who is planning on holding provincial council elections in the east and later a general election is that making the independent commissions operational will upset his political applecart.For the moment the independent commissions become operational he loses control over police, public services and judicial appointments and such a situation is not conducive for the type of election Rajapakse has in mind.Such is his sense of uneasiness that the President is even concerned about the judiciary to the extent that he sees a Pakistan-type situation developing in Sri Lanka as told to the Government Parliamentary Group on Monday, March 3. The President referring to the case filed by the high court judges in the Supreme Court to get their salary anomalies rectified and the comments made over Major General Parakrama Pannipitiya's fundamental rights petition said there were those who were interested in creating a Pakistan-style situation through the judiciary and called on the MPs to be alert.In the final analysis it is the President who will do well to get his act together and face the ground realities lest he finds the UN at his doors. The final analysis of this document as an epilogue to the high flown rhetoric all of it entails merely suggests that all the ingredients contained in order to concoct a contentious albeit potent brew and a very substantial distortion of facts in order to appease the worldwide lobby by the supporters of theTamil Tiger terrorists in Sri Lanka which this tantamounts to, have misrepresented many facts relative to how the Sri Lankan Administration conducts its internal affairs and the realities of what truly transpires within Sri Lanka, a nation which is still under the threat and duress of intimidation by terrorists and embroiled in an all out effort to eliminate them where documents of this nature will only augment the terrorist cause rather than being any credible portrayal of facts as opposed to a garbled and hugely distorted case against the Sri Lankan Government and the alleged Human Rights violations where there are other parts of the world with living proof and substantial tangible evidence of their massive liabilities towards this very issue when considering Myanamar, all of Africa including Zimbabwe and South Africa, China relative to Nepal as well as within its own confines, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq with its American interference into Sovereignity, Iran, Turkey,the Soviet Union, Malaysia of recent and the Middle East with particular reference to Libya and other Arab nations not exempt from the notoriety of Police State type strong armed and intimidatory tactics against civilians not forgetting Palestine and Lebanon at the hands of Israeli intimidation! Hence the accusations against Sri Lanka by relative comparison seems tame by definition and the likes of Fein, Arbour and Lord Malloch -Brown in addition to some others mentioned here as opponents to Sri Lanka's Human Rights violations outstanding in their transparencies towards supporting the world lobby orchestrated by supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and should re think their rhetoric spewed here as an affront to Sri Lanka's Sovereignity and soften their tone of intimidation against the Government of Sri Lanka and its citizens who have been plagued for decades by the terrorists who are the main culprits guilty of Human Rights Violations in Sri Lanka today! They need to get their act together or else face the condemnations and raised eyebrows of the very international community whose attentions they are trying to distract with this emotional repartee while conveniently bypassing entities more culpable towards World Human Rights violations including the Tamil Tigers! |
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