By Priyamvada Gopal –
Priyamvada Gopal
The more interesting question is: what kind of international network would truly hold governments to account?
As the Commonwealth summit approaches, the shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, among others, has urged David Cameron to boycott the meeting next week in Colombo, while the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, has withdrawn. At issue are the war crimes alleged to have been committed under the host government in Sri Lanka, for which there is mounting evidence. Thousands of Tamil civilians were killed during the bloody civil war. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also accused of attacks on the press and violence against government critics. With the UN too calling for an independent investigation, refused so far, it is certainly depressing that Commonwealth leaders show so little appetite for challenging his intransigence.
Read more in the Guardian
Siva 2007 / November 4, 2013
Dr. Priyamvada Gopal,
I wish to express my sincere thanks and gratitude, for publicising the terrible human rights and governance records of the Rajapaksa government and its 99% ethnic Sinhala military.
The human rights violations committed by the LTTE have been very well documented by int’l human rights, jurist, journalist and other orgs, such as AI, HRW, ICG, ICJ and others. The SL government and its military have committed at least ten (10) times as much human rights violations during the past 30 years, compared to HR violations by the LTTE. This is the main reason that the GOSL is terrified about the possibility of an international war crimes investigation taking place. Also terrified or very worried about such an investigation, is the Congress party of India and its current government.
The Congress Party, under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, provided the GOSL with weapons, intelligence, training and logistical support to conduct a war of genocidal proportions against the Tamil people in Ilankai/Sri Lanka. Most importantly, Sonia Gandhi and the current Indian government, provided diplomatic cover for the GOSL during the final few years of the war. India, which was founded by great human beings such as Mahatma Gandhi, and politicians such as Jawaharlal Nehru, orchestrated a big share of the war crimes committed by the GOSL! India provided diplomatic cover to deflect international concern and outrage over the civilian casualties!
Despicable Indian nationals, such as Kamalesh Sharma, the secretary general of the commonwealth; Vijay Nambiar, the Chef de Cabinet of the United Nations and Ban Ki-Moon’s right hand man, have almost certainly been bribed by the GOSL.
In the late 1980s, when Rajiv Gandhi sent Romesh Bhandari as his emissary to Sri Lanka, the GOSL won this despicable individual over, by sending the most expensive prostitutes in Colombo, to his hotel room. This can be confirmed by knowledgable persons in Sri Lanka.
I kindly request you to research the Government of India’s role in the war in SL, and the continuing diplomatic cover which Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party are providing the GOSL.
In case you may not have seen some of these sources, I am listing them for you and my fellow CT readers:
[1] An excellent book, by a world renowned expert – in this case, a political scientist:
The Break-Up of Sri Lanka: The Sinhalese-Tamil Conflict
by Alfred Jeyaratnam Wilson
http://www.amazon.com/The-Break-Up-Sri-Lanka-Sinhalese-Tamil/dp/0824812115
http://tamilnation.co/books/Eelam/wilson.htm
[2]
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
SINHALA BUDDHIST ETHNO nationalism
– masquerading as Sri Lankan ‘multi – ethnic civic nationalism’
http://tamilnation.co/tamileelam/fundamentalism/index.htm
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
[3] The Broken Palmyra, the Tamil Crisis in Sri Lanka, An Inside Account (Paperback)
by Rajan, Somasundaram, Daya, Sritharan, K and Rajani Thiranagama Hoole (Author)
My note: This book and UTHR, document HR violations up to around 1991, committed by the GOSL, Indian army, LTTE and other Tamil armed groups. One of the authors was murdered by the LTTE.
http://www.uthr.org/BP/A%20FOREWORD.htm
http://www.uthr.org/BP/Content.htm
[4]
Buddhism Betrayed?
Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka
By S.J.Tambiah
Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah is emeritus professor of anthropology at Harvard University, and was a former chairman of that department.
Front Cover of an earlier paperback edition by the same publisher:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/0226789500/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0
http://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-Betrayed-Religion-Politics-Violence/dp/0226789500
[5]
http://tamilnation.co/index.htm
http://tamilnation.co/indictment/index.htm
http://tamilnation.co/tamileelam/democracy/index.htm
http://tamilnation.co/intframe/india/index.htm
http://tamilnation.co/heritage/index.htm#In Sri Lanka, the Sinhala people
Thanks very much, Dr.Gopal!
sincerely,
Siva 2007.
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Dinuk / November 4, 2013
Thanks for this! The Commonwealth of Nations is Dangerous because it boosts third world quasi-military dictators like Museveni and Rajapassa and should be CLOSED DOWN.
Asian and African civil society and post-colonial scholars need to form a movement to shut down this colonial relic for British influence peddling..
The UNP is dead in the water and there is no political opposition in Sri Lanka today. Hence Trade Unions and the Left nationalists MUST protest the British Colonialism CHOGM show to celebrate third world dictators in Colombo. CHOGM is a huge waste of funds to boost the CORRUPT and Criminal Rajapassa dictatorship.
The Commonwealth of Clowns today has NO MORAL PURPOSE OR geopolitical, economic or social security ROLE or PRINCIPLES and has NO use and is a relic that celebrates war criminals and human rights violators and should be SHUT DOWN.
All this time no one had heard of this Colonial outfit, as it was hosted by odd African dictators, but in Asia where there has been a strong critic of colonialism this party to celebrate British imperialism and its lackey Military Dictators in Africa and Asia needs to be SHUT DOWN.
Rajapassa has turned CHOGM it into a massive military security operation, and ego boosting exercise while his brother Gota the Goon’s military has destroyed Colombo’s tree canopy in the name of security for the CHOGM clowns principle among whom is Prince Charles and Camron!
The more irrelevant and UN-PRINCIPLED the British Commonwealth of Clowns the more extravagant the SHOW!
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Max Silva / November 4, 2013
Hi lady,how about thousandsof Sheiks murdered in cold blood at the golden temple by Indira Ghandi?Then how about the thousands of women raped by your monkey IPKF?Not to mention the thousands of Tamil civilians murdered in cold blood by your monkey IPKF.
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Javi / November 4, 2013
“how about thousandsof Sheiks murdered in cold blood”
&Proud & Brave Singh is PM
Max vol, “Camembert”,
–
Phew, there’s an awful smell round here, is it you??
0:3
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Max Silva / November 4, 2013
Javi,What’s wrong with your thick nut repeating what i say.Can’t you come up with something of your own.May be you have gone completely nuts after that unfortunate Nandikadal incident.
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Javi / November 4, 2013
“May be you have gone completely nuts after that unfortunate Nandikadal incident”.
Max vol, “Camembert”,
–
You put the ice cubes in hot water to wash them
–
and they have disappeared! WhooooHoooo ～゜k・_・k゜～
–
Gota “Booo”tha…Gooo yak.
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Ram / November 4, 2013
The writer is British and is well aware of what followed the illegal invasion/occupation of Iraq by the Bush/Blair combo with the resultant 1.5 million deaths according to some sources, (though the conservatives estimates have now settled on the 500,000 ONLY figure).
Sri Lanka still follows British tradition in these matters, and therefore should appoint a commission to look at ‘the War to Anhilate the LTTE – the terrorist group’. If the findings are somewhat unpalatable, the report could sit on as has been done with the Chilcot report. Parts could be published (after suitable redactions) after about thirty years.
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Mahadana Muththa (Jnr) / November 5, 2013
Mahinda Rajapaksa caught David Cameron by his balls with the Rolls Royce deal.No amount of “urging” will stop this man from attending the summit.
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Andre / November 5, 2013
How many of the Rolls Royce have they purchased ? LEAVING THE MAJORITY IN BADAGINI ?
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Andre / November 5, 2013
If a state should buy extravagant luxury items, they should have get them passed in the parliament. Have the MR admin done so ? I find it looks they do whatever they feel is right without discussing them in the parliament. I know it is impossible in Germany to do whatever the ruling coalitions intend to do without getting them being properly debated in the parliament…
/