28 March, 2024

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The Return Of Darusman: Navi Pillay’s Report On Sri Lanka

By Tamara Kunanayakam

Tamara Kunanayakam

“ ’Oh, but Grandmother! What big teeth you have!’
‘The better to eat you with!’ ”
And with that, the wolf lunged at Little Red-Cap, devouring her whole.”
Brothers Grimm

“The truth, the harsh truth” (“La vérité, l’âpre vérité”)
Georges Jacques Danton

Who’s behind Navi Pillay?

Given the reassuring and conciliatory noises that had emerged from the foreign policy establishment in recent months, including statements that it had no intention of criticising Navi Pillay countering the then Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka in Geneva,1 it is likely that the establishment was rudely awoken from its deep coma by the vehemence of the High Commissioner’s report and the almost simultaneous appearance of an equally vehement US draft resolution to be tabled at the Human Rights Council a few weeks from now!

Apparently, Washington and some of its European allies had succeeded in putting the establishment into a deep state of unconsciousness by trotting out assurances and reassurances that there will be no resolution this time because they were so pleased with the progress that had been made so far. And yet, it was self-evident that the Council will be obliged to take some sort of action, good or bad, on a report it had asked the High Commissioner to submit for its consideration at its 22nd Session, thus also formally placing Sri Lanka on its agenda.

The latest rabbit out of Navi Pillay’s hat!

The Government was requested by the Council to present a comprehensive action plan detailing the steps it has taken and will take to implement the LLRC recommendations, and to address alleged violations of international law. The Office of the High Commissioner was mandated to report on the advice and technical assistance the Office, along with relevant special procedures mechanisms, were encouraged to provide to implement these steps, requiring, however, that such advice and assistance be extended “in consultation with and with the concurrence of the Government.”
Nevertheless, grossly exceeding the technical character of its mandate, the Office has hatched a political report resembling that of a monitoring mechanism than a technical report, which describes the needs determined by the Government and the advice and technical assistance that the Office can offer in this regard. The Report contains an arbitrary evaluation of the ground situation, picking holes in the LLRC’s work, presenting allegations as facts, making a priori judgements on what the Government has or has not done, and unilaterally defining priority areas for action by the Government.

Having leap-frogged from the role of technical assistance provider to political authority, in violation of the mandate given to her Office and borrowing much of her recommendations from the Darusman Report, the High Commissioner virtually dictates the steps the Government must take!

The sting in the Report, however, is in its last paragraph, in a recommendation, this time addressed to the Council, which is nothing else but a reproduction of Recommendation 1 (B) of the Darusman Panel.

Reflecting the notorious partiality and selectivity of the Office and its persistence in playing the role of catalyst, a role expressly forbidden it by the Council, she calls for “an independent and credible international investigation into alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, which could also monitor any domestic accountability process.” She encourages the Council to do so, invoking the views of pressure groups she refers to as “many stakeholders in Sri Lanka, including prominent community leaders” who have reportedly claimed that the attention paid by the Council to “issues of accountability and reconciliation” has “helped to create space for debate, and catalysed positive steps forward.”

Navi Pillay was clearly inspired by Darusman! She begins and ends with Darusman, on the way providing the necessary ammunition and justification to take the Sri Lanka issue one step further, from a technical issue to a political issue to be brought under Item 4 of the Council’s agenda, thus setting the stage for international monitoring, and confirming what I said in an interview to Ayesha Zuhair of the Daily Mirror on 22 April 2012, that the reference to LLRC in the Council resolution was a feint as in military strategy and that the real objective of its authors was to bring into focus accountability and to give legitimacy to the Darusman Report. From there to New York is only a matter of time!

The prominence given to the controversial Darusman “Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka” in the second paragraph of the Report is hardly innocent, since Introductions to UN reports are generally devoted to listing the legislative authority upon which they are based. Calculated to serve a pre-determined political goal, the paragraph in question selectively parrots the notorious Darusman allegation that the Panel “found credible allegations of potential serious violations of international law committed by the Government of Sri Lanka and by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)”!

Recall the September 2011 session of the Human Rights Council, when we succeeded in galvanizing developing country support to prevent the back-door attempt by our detractors to legitimise the Darusman Report by bringing it into the Council through its then President?

In a caricatural vision of its role, the High Commissioner ties herself up in knots to justify addressing political issues. Hence, the Report proper bases itself on issues identified in a preambular paragraph, a paragraph that has no operational validity and which is unrelated to the specific request made to the Office. The result is a juggling of facts and a priori judgements to serve the political agenda of the prime movers of the resolution, which also happen to be the principal financiers of the High Commissioner’s Office and paymasters of the overwhelming majority of its staff – a fact known to all, but one that Sri Lanka’s foreign policy establishment has chosen to ignore! The Report makes a clumsy effort to re-write history, to demonstrate continuity between the 2009 events and the current situation, so that Sri Lanka falls within the purview of the Council, and to build a case that the Government is unwilling or incapable of protecting its own citizens, a legal prerequisite to invoke the infamous “responsibility to protect” by a nebulous “international community.”

The conclusion drawn from this crude attempt is reflected in the Summary to the Report, which is worth quoting:

“The steps taken to investigate further allegations of serious violations of human rights have also been inconclusive, and lack the independence and impartiality required to inspire confidence. Meanwhile, continuing reports of extrajudicial killings, abductions and enforced disappearance in the past year highlight the urgency of action to combat impunity.”
As I said to Ayesha Zuhair in my interview, the objective of the authors of the March 2012 resolution was to have a damning report at the forthcoming session, one that (a) gives legitimacy to Darusman, this time utilizing the High Commissioner, which is why the resolution was tabled under Item 2 dealing with her annual Report and not under Item 11 on technical assistance; (b) links the past, present and the future; and, (c) demonstrates the bad faith of the Government and the absence of political will to address the issues raised in the resolution. With my privileged access to information within the High Commissioner’s Office, I had early knowledge of this plan for Darusman’s re-entry, but the leaders of our foreign policy establishment dismissed this information, as they did all other information or analysis I provided or suggestions I made.

My observations and analyses are based on my own experience within the UN human rights system since 1989, beginning prior to its metamorphoses from Centre for Human Rights that functioned as Secretariat to a multilateral body to that of a political Office of the High Commissioner that is oftentimes in conflict with the body from which it derives its authority. I have known the UN to issue mission reports written by certain powerful Governments even prior to the mission having taken place! The rest is history!

In a foretaste of things to come, the latest rabbit that Navi Pillay has pulled out of her hat makes no bones about the real intentions of the authors – legitimise Darusman and international intervention; validate the March 2012 Council resolution; isolate Sri Lanka by rebutting the procedural and legal arguments some of us had advanced in March 2012 on the precedent setting nature of the resolution, which had helped galvanise developing country support, reflected in the votes against the US resolution or abstentions; encircle its leadership and set the stage for regime change.

Sri Lanka’s foreign policy establishment: myopia, incompetence, or calculation (or “playing to lose”)?

The myopia of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy establishment with regard to its strategic importance on the grand chessboard of global politics, or – if I’m to give it the benefit of the doubt – its incompetence, or the calculation of certain powerful sectors within who stand to benefit from defeat, has resulted in the creeping isolation of Sri Lanka internationally and the encirclement of its President with a view to ‘regime change,’ or simply put, the removal of an independent and too unpredictable, but still very popular, head of State, who, let’s face it, is the real target. I might be accused of being a conspiracy theorist, but it is not because the man and the dog appear to be physically located on opposite sides, they are not working together to round up the sheep between them!

Why else has the foreign policy establishment trapped itself and the country in circular arguments? Why the eternal defensive plea to our opponents for “time and space”, effectively “pleading guilty” for having defeated terrorism without their aid? Why blame an obscure “diaspora” for interventions engineered by big powers, dumping all Sri Lankans living abroad into a single basket, irrespective of the communities they belong to, including the majority of the Tamil diaspora who do not support terrorism or separatism? Why turn hot then cold on the person of Navi Pillay, without looking behind, at the institution she represents, which is a mere reflection of the international balance of forces in the real world, an instrument of the big and the powerful?

Has our foreign policy establishment posed the question, how Washington’s foreign policy goals are defined, or that of London, Paris, or Ottawa? Does Navi Pillay influence Washington’s decisions, or does Washington influence Navi Pillay’s actions? Does the “diaspora”, or the LTTE and its supporters, influence Washington and its allies, or are they just mere tools in their hands to advance imperialist goals through the establishment of a new international architecture founded on US supremacy and unilateralism rather than on multilateralism, a system based on principles of sovereign equality of States and the right of peoples to self-determination that they conside an anachronism, particularly in the context of a collapsing Western economy, a rising China, and a global balance of power shifting away from its orbit of control? Has Sri Lanka’s foreign policy establishment studied external interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Mali, or in Latin America, and how the interventionists create and utilise internal dissent and make mercenaries out of unscrupulous and unprincipled opponents?

Why is our foreign policy establishment blind to the global ambitions of the US and its allies, ignorant of a field of study called geopolitics, and the branch that deals with geostrategy? Not long ago, I was dismayed to hear the most senior civil servant in External Affairs tell me that Sri Lanka has no strategic importance!

Why doesn’t the foreign policy establishment confront head on the global challenges of our times of which Sri Lanka, like many other developing countries, is but a victim, joining forces with the like-minded and restoring its historic role as promoter of the Non-Aligned Movement, which played a vital role in building genuine multilateralism, the only system that can guarantee sovereign equality between the big and the small, the powerful and the weak, the rich and the poor, the developed and the developing, the North and the South? Are we moving away from the Mahinda Chintana?

Our foreign policy establishment has grossly underestimated the instruments and means that the multilateral system places at our disposal to ensure respect for sovereignty, while overestimating the role of the person, Navi Pillay. Had there been a modicum of understanding of the play of international balance of forces and the importance of strengthening Sri Lanka’s bargaining position internationally, External Affairs would have grasped the sense of my pre-emptive initiative to write to the High Commissioner asking to clarify an internal email that exposed the catalytic role played by her Office in promoting the 2012 resolution against Sri Lanka, raising doubts about its impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, in violation of the mandate given to it by the General Assembly. In lieu of seizing this golden opportunity, the Ministry of External Affairs publicly distanced itself from the statement of Sri Lanka’s own Permanent Representative, reassuring Navi Pillay that it had no intention of levelling accusations at her,2 surrendering an invaluable bargaining tool. The foreign policy establishment has also dropped like a hot potato our initiative to take the lead on a popular resolution to ensure transparency of the Office of the High Commissioner and render it accountable to the multilateral organ from which it derives its authority, a resolution that would be carried with an overwhelming majority and vastly strengthen our credibility and bargaining power. But then, the West is viciously opposed to any initiative that would weaken their hold over the institution, and undermining it is not part of the strategy of compromise chosen by our foreign policy establishment. Under the circumstances, the recent criticism of Navi Pillay by the Ministry’s Acting Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne for her statements on Sri Lanka rings hollow, and hypocritical, and carries little weight, disarmed as we are and swinging as we do from an exceedingly conciliatory attitude to an apparent outright hostility, devoid of reasoning and vision.

Why does the foreign policy establishment place endless trust in our detractors, while betraying our natural friends and allies in the international community, impeding the advancement of issues promoted by the Non-Aligned Movement, blindly implementing illegal unilateral US sanctions against countries that have stood by us, reneging on principles for ephemeral and questionable achievements by a deafening silence, tacitly supporting external interventions in Syria, Iran, DPRK and Palestine, and in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq under governments targeted for “regime change” by the very same powers which stood ready to intervene militarily to rescue Prabakharan and his cohorts, which haven’t forgiven Sri Lanka for its singlehanded victory over terrorism, and which have their eyes riveted on us? And, yet, that very same foreign policy establishment, unashamedly, goes to developing countries, which hold a majority in the Council, begging for their votes! No wonder Sri Lanka has achieved notoriety in Geneva as an unreliable and opportunistic ally, which seeks contact with developing country representatives only when a vote is needed!

Anyone who has had to negotiate knows that if anything is to be achieved, it must be done from a position of strength. Why then do we weaken our bargaining position at the most crucial times by going on bended knees to our enemies for help, begging for more money, more IMF loans, GSP +, arguing that our economic survival depends on their benevolence, succumbing to external conditionalities and compromising the very principles for which our parents and grandparents fought? Why does the foreign policy establishment choose crucial moments of battle to divide its forces pitting career diplomats against political appointees, Heads of Missions against their Deputies, trade representatives against foreign policy representatives, home-based staff against locally recruited staff, and so on, endlessly?

Why in the face of such hostility is the foreign policy establishment lowering the country’s defences, weakening our positions, strengthening theirs, allowing ourselves to be isolated, then encircled and exposed to an external onslaught of which, ultimately, the ordinary people will be victims?

Is our foreign policy establishment afflicted with myopia, or is it incompetence, or the greed of certain sectors of the establishment vying for a share in the spoils to be had from an opportunistic alliance with the rich and powerful?

Sri Lanka, in the eye of a storm?

On the eve of the Council’s 22nd Session, Sri Lanka appears in a grim light, in Grimms’ Little Red Riding Hood scenario, with objective and subjective conditions against it. Its bargaining power in tatters, it will be literally thrown to the wolves, or THE Wolf!

The Council will have before it, at least two official documents: the High Commissioner’s devastating Report and another on its Universal Periodic Review. There is also a possibility that the phantom of Darusman will make its re-appearance in the form of some reference to the Charles Petrie Report on the UN’s internal review on UN actions in Sri Lanka during the last stages of the war, a Darusman recommendation, which does not reflect Sri Lanka in a positive light.

Sri Lanka is not a member of the Council and has no voting power. It will have to confront a powerful block of countries with the US, still a voting member, in the lead and Poland presiding the Council.

If the foreign policy establishment decides to take on its opponents, head on – which is highly unlikely knowing its penchant for compromising on principles with its enemies, it will have difficulties finding a proxy to speak on its behalf, given that Cuba is no longer a member of the Council. Scarce are the countries with the courage to stick their necks out for principles, and gifted with that noble sense of solidarity toward fellow-human beings. Sri Lanka will also have lost Russia and China, who are out of the Council this year. It is also likely that, since March 2012, Sri Lanka will have lost a few of its Non-Aligned friends, which have been dismayed by attempts of the foreign policy establishment to sabotage issues close to their heart, issues that reflect continuation of the de-colonisation debate and the defence of multilateralism.

Unless we can demonstrate that keeping Sri Lanka on the agenda can set a dangerous precedent negatively affecting the sovereignty and independence of other countries and multilateralism as a whole, and unless in the few days and weeks ahead we can regain the confidence of the many friends and allies we lost over the past three years, since the 2009 Special Session, few developing countries will stick their necks out to defend Sri Lanka against a US-led initiative.

We have put ourselves in a position of weakness and the stage is set for a consensus resolution, in which Sri Lanka is against Sri Lanka!

Our country and people need a vision to restore its historical role, a long-term strategy that is in their interest, a correct analysis of the international situation, geopolitics and geostrategy, consistency and convincing arguments, and the means to defend its millenary values. Today, we may be a step closer to regime change, but the country is not disarmed, gifted as it is with women and men of quality, patriots, capable of confronting this renewed threat to its sovereignty, unprecendented in its gravity since independence was won in 1948!

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Latest comments

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    Tamara, you are absolutely right in your assessment that our foreign policy establishment is wholly incompetent and run by a set of egocentric officials who have never learnt the basic lessons of diplomacy — listening and taking good advice. The not invented here NIH syndrome is afflicting our ministry of external affairs, that seem to think they know it all, and if anyone who is not in their list of favorites makes a suggestion or provides an input, it is discounted and dismissed,as they do not want to lend an ear to someone they are threatened by. Listening and heeding advice is sadly an unnatural trait for our mandarins. Even with respect to the UN itself, and our critics in the West, we did not practice the basic courtesy of listening to their point of view, even if one disagrees, but give them a patient listening, engage them to convey our point of view, and develop a dialogue to fill the gaps in the understanding of the ground situation. The fact that we outright rejected any dialogue, and were not open to be positively engaged with them, has conveyed the wrong impression. So one could say, if the external affairs ministry mandarins do not listen to their own experienced diplomats with an ear to the ground, how could we expect them to listen to our critics.

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      Battle for Sri Lanka has now an ineternational frontline. It is not in Vanni anymore.

      The new international diplomatic war is being waged by self-serving, incomptent, political henchmen and cronies at the Ministry of External Affairs.

      Cunning LTTE overseas is pulling string via international agents very effectivley.

      GOSL lead by the corrupt Rajapassa clan continues to play into the hands of the Western Powers with vested geopolitical interests.

      Thank you Tamara for this awakening analysis.

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        Rajapaksa cunningly used America’s “war on terror” to massacre tens of thousands of tamils with the help of India and the West. When he went back on his promise to devolve power to the tamils at the end of the war and started playing the China card India and the West turned against Rajapaksa. What we see now is the result of Rajapaksa’s folly in making fools of the West and India. Now he is paying the price for it and ultimately likely end up at the Hague or losing his throne in a Western and Indian orchestrated regime change plot. Portraying Navi Pillay and the West as demons is not going to help the Rajapaksa regime as it will make more enemies for them. Sri lanka is a tiny fly with negligible importance in the geopolitics of big powers. The situation as it is today is pretty grim for the regime.

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        Ben Hurling

        The West is going through a charade of half baked hypocritical accountability issue. The key word here is “stability” at any costs.

        VP didn’t understand the game plan nor does MR.

        Regime can be changed any time it depends how India sees Sri Lanka as and usefulness of MR clan.

        As far as India is concerned Sri Lanka is the Sinhala state of India.

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      Yeah, for Tamara K, it is NOT IMPORTANT what the Rajapaksa regime did or did not do in fighting the LTTE. Whether Tamil civilians – the young and the old, women and children – were shelled, left in hunger or arbitrarily killed.
      What is important, from what is written and argued by her, is the fact that she, Tamara Kunanayakam with all her inside information and experience with the UN system, knew how best to save the Rajapaksa regime from all allegations on accountability and on war crimes, but those mandarins in the foreign ministry did not allow her to do it and has left the regime vulnerable.
      How loyal and faithful a diplomat Tamara is, for the Rajapaksa regime ! Though never bothered about the people; the innocent civilians whose case has to be fought for justice. She is crying, she had been deprived to play counsel for the “suspect” !!!
      AS

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    Madam
    You don’t have to read long histories. Just look at what successive governments have been doing since gaining independence in 1948. Just look at what these ”leaders” have to say about their ”rule”:

    1. http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers46%5Cpaper4558.html
    Sri Lanka: Indian Delegates go Home Empty Handed, Kumar David, 15 June 2011:
    ‘’The umpteenth Indian delegation (Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, National Security Advisor Shiva Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar) went back empty handed: President Rajapakse handed them a flat ‘Nyet’ and for once in a lifetime he spoke the truth. “If I make any devolutionary concessions to the Tamils, 13A Plus, Minus, Divided or Subtracted, it will be curtains for me.” The government’s parliamentary group met the evening before the esteemed visitors arrived and decided; ‘Let’s tell them the truth straight from the shoulder and upfront; let’s tell them, if we do it we are dead meat.’ ‘

    2. http://groundviews.org/2011/12/18/llrc-recommendations-can-the-rajapaksa-regime-digest/
    LLRC Recommendations: Can the Rajapaksa Regime Digest? 18 December 2011:

    One of the comments to the article:
    N.Ethirveerasingam
    Lalith Athulathmudali, on Feb 4th 1985, when I asked him why UNP, with their more than two-thirds majority, introduce a federal constitution to solve the problem, replied that, “It would be political suicide.”
    Ranil Wickremasinghe, in the presence of Mahinda Samarasinghe and Tyrone Fernando (Both then UNP.) on May 13th 1997, when asked, would UNP support a Federal Constitution, told me that, “We are a political party and we will not do anything that will not bring back to power or do anything when we are in power that would unseat us from power.”

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    Madam
    ”the wolf lunged at Little Red-Cap, devouring her whole” is better than physical and psychological humiliation by 65yrs of political, economic, social, cultural and environmental oppression:

    1. Sri Lanka: Indian Delegates go Home Empty Handed, Kumar David, SouthAsiaAnalysis, 15 June 2011:
    ‘’The umpteenth Indian delegation (Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, National Security Advisor Shiva Shankar Menon and Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar) went back empty handed: President Rajapakse handed them a flat ‘Nyet’ and for once in a lifetime he spoke the truth. “If I make any devolutionary concessions to the Tamils, 13A Plus, Minus, Divided or Subtracted, it will be curtains for me.” The government’s parliamentary group met the evening before the esteemed visitors arrived and decided; ‘Let’s tell them the truth straight from the shoulder and upfront; let’s tell them, if we do it we are dead meat.’ ‘

    2. LLRC Recommendations: Can the Rajapaksa Regime Digest? Kusal Perera, 18 December 2011:

    One of the comments to the article:
    N.Ethirveerasingam
    Lalith Athulathmudali, on Feb 4th 1985, when I asked him why UNP, with their more than two-thirds majority, introduce a federal constitution to solve the problem, replied that, “It would be political suicide.”
    Ranil Wickremasinghe, in the presence of Mahinda Samarasinghe and Tyrone Fernando (Both then UNP.) on May 13th 1997, when asked, would UNP support a Federal Constitution, told me that, “We are a political party and we will not do anything that will not bring back to power or do anything when we are in power that would unseat us from power.”

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    What tripe does this half educated Tamara write from the Latin American Nether-lands where she has been banished by her hero, Mahind Rajapassa ?!
    The time for hiding behind technical reports and legal jargon in Lanka is long past.. it is the substance and spirit of reconciliation and the political will to implement GENUINE reconciliation and power sharing that we Lankans are interested in.. And Navi Pillai’s report is spot on here.
    Sorry to say this so brutally, woman to woman, but Tamara you really need to shut your nasty trap!

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      Dodo:
      Thank you. I am sure you will have the 100% endorsement of anyone of conscience in this or any other country where honesty, justice and decency are considered of value.

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    Tamara, an image is worth a thousand words.. get a grip on yourself, have some humility, be silent, respect the dead.
    Please check out the photographic evidence of war crimes – a child, is a child, is a child, even the EVIL Prabakaran’s. And children should not be murdered.. That child’s innocent and troubled face haunts me, haunts us, OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIENCE and those photographs of Prabakarans 11 year old will turn the tide in the International communities’ approach to the brutal Rajapakse regime, just as the photograph of a child fleeing a bomb blast in Vietnam turned the tide in the US public opinion against the US state’s Vietnam war, and brought it to an end.
    Note well, the war in Lanka is not over yet and will not be over until the evil Rajapakse Brothers are tried and convicted for war crimes.
    There is clear evidence of brutal war crimes and disposal of bodies that need investigation, so please stop your ego boosting, vain, self-agrandaizing chatter that you would have done a better job in Geneva, that is very similar to Dayan Jayatilleke’s chatter, and be silent please – respect the DEAD and the bereaved who still need justice to be done.. Navi Pillai speaks to and for OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUS our better selves..

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    ”it will be literally thrown to the wolves, or THE Wolf!”:

    The Sri lanka WOLF has been feasting itself for 65yrs:

    CEYLON : A DIVIDED NATION, B H Farmer(1963):”The truth is simply that nobody unacceptable to the present Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism has any chance of constitutional power in contemporary Ceylon.”

    No war, no peace: the denial of minority rights and justice in Sri Lanka, Report by Minority Rights Group, 19 January 2011

    ”But that truth cannot excuse human rights violations that currently afflict the nation as a whole; or for that matter obscure the looming threat of the cultural and political colonisation of the north by the Sinhala Buddhist majority” – Biased and Prejudiced Collection on Sri Lanka, *Gananath Obeyesekere, Economic & Political Weekly, VOL 47 No. 04, 28 January-03 February 2012

    ”Conflict-affected areas remain highly militarised, which has made progress towards achieving durable solutions more difficult. The military has become an important economic player and a key competitor of local people including returnees in the areas of agriculture, fishing, trade, and tourism. It has also been involved in areas that would normally come under civilian administration. It continues to occupy private land, thereby impeding IDPs’ return. The government has failed to make durable solutions a priority, and humanitarian organisations have faced funding shortages and restrictions on programming and access” – Sri Lanka: A hidden displacement crisis, *Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 31 October 2012

    Bodu Bala Sena and Sinhala Ravaya ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,!?!?!?……

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    Madam

    Please get President Rajapakse release the reports on the 15 Commissions/Committees he appointed in the last seven years and we can easily get rid of the roadblock to solving our problems to become a decent nation of decent people.

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    I am glad you did not go to Cuba. This shows that you are a lady of integrity with self esteem, sensitivity and self respect. We need more of your kind. Your opinion on what is unfolding is welcome. I expect to read more from you in the days ahead.

    Dr.Rajasingham Narendran

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      Have you found a fellow soul, perhaps you could migrate too and start defending Gota!

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    Tamara, Have you not eyes?
    Then do you not see your own damnation –
    In the eyes of an innocent child who senses that something terrible is about..

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    Sorry to hear from Asita that your heavy baggage is still in Geneva. Govt cant afford to pay? Govt is bankrupt in more ways than in the economic sense.

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    Charity begins at home, Tamara.

    Before you talk about Navi Pillai, think about yourself.

    In one of the media, your pathetic situation as a non-career diplomat was highlighted by another non-career diplomat, the Ambassador to Italy Asitha Perera.

    Asitha Perera says :

    “I don’t know whether you know that the former Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam’s heavy baggage which should have left Geneva to Colombo several months ago , I think it is more than four or five months and it is still in Geneva. She was a capable head of mission we had and I think she made Sri Lanka proud. She told me “Asitha I can handle and fight the LTTE Diaspora, but I can’t fight three wars at a time”. She said, “I can’t fight the war with the LTTE diaspora , at the same time, I can’t fight the war with my staff in the embassy and with the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Sri Lanka”.

    Tamara, can give a proper explaination about these affairs to the CT readers.

    hhhm, are you discriminated by the government of Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka?

    You can approch Navi Pillai to get your heavy baggage from Geneva.

    IF NOT,can’t you make a complaint to Federal Castero and his collegues

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    Tamara, you say “Why the eternal defensive plea to our opponents for “time and space”, effectively “pleading guilty” for having defeated terrorism without their aid”? Do you mean that all those who are opposing Sri Lanka and the violence that went on and what is going on are OPPONENTS? Do you mean that we did not get support from any international players? You further say “defeated terrorism without their aid”?

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    Thamara whatever you write you are not going back to Geneva. Cuba is good enough for you. I hear they make some good soup out of goats brain. Tried it.

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    Sounds like sour grapes to me !

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      Probably trying to curry favour with the government so she can get back to Geneva or another plum destination…. sour grapes indeed! Get over it lady. You ain’t going nowhere since you are currently in the Rajapakse dog house. Some people just don’t learn!!!

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    Some Sri Lankans have been fighting the state terrorism for more than six decades. Man’s accepted system will not change for a long time to come and any ”sovereign” state however nasty it is, will be the one that has a seat at the UN, the Commonwealth or any intergovernmental organisation. Yes, many oppressed people around the world will just fade away before there is a change in the internationally accepted system that has the power to erase the terrorism of the oppressed.
    Madam, do you know what has been happening to women in this country, esp, those in the North and the East ?

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    Tamara like the name has sold her soul like many of the colombo 7 types who are not sure of any thing but their ‘uncle and aunty’ ethnicity. Only another 83 will demonstrate to her that carrying on supporting a fascist regime will be the only legacy of her english education. She should sell her soul to the american’s. even they might think twice about her credibility.

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    Why on earth dear lady are you trying to cover up a bunch of racists and murder’s? Have you totally lost your sanity? The photo accompanying the article seems to give some clue to your behaviour!

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      She is covering up scumbags for some reason.

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    For what help you gave in 1989 to Vasu and MR with the help of some Tamil groups in UK to Vasu and MR (you providing lodging and getting passes to enter U.N building in Geneva, etc.) you got the Ambassador’s post in Geveva appointed by MR. (a political appointment since you were not from the Foreign Service) When your usefulness was no more, you were dumped like ridding of Karapincha after the curry is cooked. Now you criticize the Foreign policy of the same government who sent you to Havana. It looks like “crying over spillt milk” Do you still believe that you are the best person for Geneva, and that MR regime has made a big blunder? However, even with when you were there last year, we lost the resolution very badly. What does it matter even if we loose this year too? Your magic did not work then, how would your advise, even if taken seriously, save us this time.

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    Tamara,most of those who comment here don’t seem to understand what you are saying. They seem more worried about your left over baggage and you posting to brazil. What you are essentially saying is ‘GULLA’ like chandrika said,has penetrated the sack and soon there will be nothing left. Spot on. I never trusted this assol from days of colombo university which was closed most of the time this assol was in charge.
    Then he jumped sides and became minister for constitutional affairs and almost each and every amendment to the constitution brought by him was rejected by the supreme court.
    When you see clearly the opposition is deviating from norms and fairplay and stick to ‘will do you by any means’ the only defence is attack,for better or worse. We have enough ammo to attack than we like to admit. Soon it will be time we attack or totally ignor like the North Koreans,Israelis and Iranians.

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    Tamara !! Could there be anyone like prof.Rajeeva, who served Rajapaksas to the utmost !!? You, yourself experienced Rajeeva to your own eyes, the way he unloaded lies and deceptions in the UNHRC to save Rajapaksas from the hands of justice. But see the Shakespear’s plight now. Everyone has to pay the price for the crimes they committed against humanity. VP paid it at last in 2009 and Rajeeva is counting his hours.
    Dear Tamara, you disagree with the Foreign ministry and their way of handling things. Why don’t you explain them your notorious ways – I mean the way you handled things in the 90s at the office of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Thousands of files, comprising missing cases from Sri Lanka (which were under your custody)simply disappeared, and you were fired. Wasn’t you !!? Rajapaksas and people like G Pandith who knows you well have forgotten eveything.
    People like Dr.Rajasingham are proud of you. For you didn’t take up the job in Cuba and thus you have proved your integrity as a Tamil !!? But he should be informed that you were rewarded the seat in Cuba by the GOSL in the 90s for your crimes at the office of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.Lakswhman Kadirgamar and Dr.Neelan Thiruchchelvam were men of Policies. But you are a pet under the table of any President of Sri Lanka.

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      Not as a Tamil, but as a person who was asked to do a job and tried to do it as best as she can. Also, as a person who was ready to throw her job, when she was made a scape goat and was about to be kicked around.
      Dr. Rajasingham Narendran.

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    the foreign policy establishment is reflection of the leader and the government that runs the country. assuming that they are different and independent is a joke. all the insults hurled at the foreign ministry lands at the feet of your dear leader. so watch out you might be ruining any chance of a future posting, even to a second or third tier location

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    In 1987,before she was recruited as a diplomat by Mahinda Rajapanse,Tamara Kunanayakam,as an intervensionist and member of the World Christian Students Federation gave a scathing report about Sri Lanka,to the UN Human Rights Commission.
    http://tamilnation.co/unitednations/uncom87.htm#tamara%20%20
    She described a whole litany of human rights violations by the sri lankan state.
    Now apparently,all these violations do not happen!
    Now Navi Pillai makes essentially the same accusations which Tamara K
    made!!!
    And,Tamara K objects !!

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    where did this Tamara figure come from? …

    This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy
    https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/

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    Maamanithar you are an idiot! How can you say that Tamara was working on disappearance in 1990 when she was in charge at that time of right to development and economic , social and cultural rights! She left the UN in 2005 and not in 90! She was never fired but she decided to quit the office of the High commissioner on human rights because she did’nt want to be a mercenary for the account of the US and the west! Before making this kind of stupid allegations you should get your facts straight. If you lie on one thing you can lie on every thing!

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      Dear ”Lewis wordsmyth” the way you write things and brand people, clearly shows that you are none other than the Ironsmyth under my hammer for quite sometime.
      Your knowledge of diary sounds quite good (I said 90s, not 90 – even then that’s not accurate).But I can not pronounce you as a genius for a simple performance or brand you as an idiot for a mistake. But thank you for reminding me to be perfect in my business.

      A prominent Activist in Geneva documented and denounced this scandal in the Working Group and its Secretariat in 2003 ( yes . not in the 90s) when Ms. Tamara Kunanayakam was a Secretary of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. An article too was published in ‘Human Rights Features’ of SAHRDC (Dehli).

      The publication of this article provoked a long meeting of the Working group. The Chairman (Mr. Diego Garcia Sayan – Minister of Justice in Peru,) resigned. Shortly after, Ms. Tamara Kunayakam went on sick-leave and was dismissed. It appeared that thousands of files of enforced diasppearances (mainly from Algeria and from Sri Lanka) had disappeared.
      You claim that Tamara decided to quit the office of the High commissioner on human rights because she did’nt want to be a mercenary for the account of the US and the west!!!!? If the , why did she decide to decline offer to Cuba ? Is it because she doesn’t want to be a mecenary for Russia and China !!? Do you claim her a ”woman of policy”!! pity on you Smyth.
      Finally you sounds like Socretes the 2nd. For you claim that ” If you lie on one thing you can lie on every thing”!
      Apply your philosophy in all nook and corner of life. For instance, if the GOSL wins a resolution in the UNHRC once, does it mean that shall be the result for ever?.A general behaviour need not necessarily be a theology to everyone.Anyhow thank you for the alert.

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      Given that you seem to know so much about her, can we assume you and Tamara are one and the same–or you are her husband?

      I strongly condemn the caste-based comments made by others here.
      But she, who supposedly called for action against disappearances in other countries when she was with the UN, had become an apologist for such enforced disappearances and mass murder in Sri Lanka. To claim she has any integrity or moral fiber, or that she is worthy of ever being taken seriously by anyone anymore, is tantamount to the claim that the prostitute you have just slept with, is a virgin.

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        Dear Agnos aka ”lewis wordsmyth” Please don’t sleep outside your home in an open air, like under a mangoe tree. For. the Japanese ( The biggest economy in Asia and a giant in the world) might remove your brain. !!?? Hahahahaah……If you consider me as her husband, can I apply your stupid theory to consider you as my Maschina – her brother. !!?

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          You seem to be confused. I was responding to Lewis Wordsmyth, not you.

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            Oh !!? Apologies.

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    Didn’t she leave to be Sri Lankan Ambassador to UNHCR in Geneva when MR repaid for her services rendered in 1989 and appointed her?

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    tamara, your days are over. i understand that you have been kicked out as an ambassador to tiny communist state called cuba. in my opinion you deserve what you got. after all you have been defending war criminals and the terrorist state of sri lanka at the human rights council. you are a traiter. apart from your surname nothing else indicates that you are a tamil. i believe you are a half caste catholic like angelo mathews who can’t speak a word of tamil. tamara, don’t make funny comments about madam pillai. she doesn’t deserve your crappy comments. madam navi pillay is an intelligent, articulate and a soft spoken respectable lady. madam pillai also belongs to one of the highest castes in tamil nadu second only to brahmins. even brahmins inter marry with pillai’s. anyway tamara, madam pillai is an experienced person who can deal efficiently with human right abuses and genocide as she did in the case of rwanda. in sri lanka the hutus are the sinhala people and tutsis are the tamil people. you are a loser who has been kicked out by your own masters. rajapaksa and the rest of the murderous gang have sent you where you belong. now the only thing you can do is to moan and complain like sinhala leaders and sinhala people.

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    Rama we live in 2013 and not in the pre-historic age you seem to be living in! Mahatma Gandhi was fighting against the system of caste and you still think that the value of a person has to do with the system of caste! No comment! You are not well informed: Tamara’s family belongs to the highest caste in Sri Lanka close friend to the Mahatma and to Nehru and also fought against the caste system in Sri Lanka.

    If you have read AND UNDERSTOOD the interviews she has given and the articles she has published, you will know that Tamara refused to go to Cuba as ambassador not because of Cuba but because of the policy of the Ministry of external affairs of Sri Lanka. Tamara was Ambassador to Cuba, where she did a fantastic work to promote Sri Lanka in Latin America. You seem to forget probably because of your ignorance that Sri Lanka was the first country in Asia to establish relations with revolutionary Cuba. And if you have no respect for Cuba you should know that Cuba has a great respect for the people of Sri Lanka, who ever they are: Tamils, Singhalese, Burghers, Muslims… By the way you should know that Tamara is going to Cuba to live there, in that beautiful country where all are equal and where there is no caste no racism, but respect and solidarity among people who are dignified, independent and sovereign people!

    You are such an illiterate donkey, though it is an insult donkeys who are cleverer than you, that you have’t understood a thing in her article. She is not attacking Navi Pillay but she is looking who is behind! That’s the first question she asks and obviously, you haven’t understood why she quotes from Little Red Riding Hood.

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      oi daft idiot, i don’t have to read and understand her crap. in fact i have better things to do than to read her waffle. from the moment she defended the terrorist pariah state of sri lanka and the war criminals at the human rights council, that is more than enough for me to hate this woman. all i can say is this woman is very jealous of madam navi pillai. no sinhala woman in a million years can reach madam pillai’s position. sinhala women probably can become maids supervisors in saudi arabia. i suppose that is a great achievement to sinhala hutus. if you go to tamnil nadu then you will realise the importance of caste. i know because i did most of my secondary education in a boarding school.

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      bogus lewis puftasmyth,in fact cuba is a paradise on earth. millions of people are queuing up to go and live there. why don’t you pack your bags and go there to live. what education you are talking about you black monkey. your so called qualifications are not worth the paper it’s written on. tamara or whoever doesn’t interest me at all. the only reason why i was talking about her was because she was defending the pariah state of s**t lanka and the sinhala [Edited out] war criminals at the human rights council. i would have done the same if it was someone other than tamara. so black monkey , are you a follower of mongolian buddha and mongolian buddhism. i tell you days are numbered for this imported garbage.

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    The impression I get from Tamara’s article is of a person with a taunted and bruised ego, and who had been unceremoniously dumped by a regime for sake of convenient politics, and a person who has an axe to grind.

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    Rama you’re very emotionnal , you must be very frustrated not to bring any kind of arguments and substance in your message. I don’t have to pack to Cuba , because that’s where I live and I am very happy! But you why don’t you have the courage to come over here? And why do you continue to live in s**t Lanka?

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