{"id":121059,"date":"2014-03-06T01:17:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T19:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=121059"},"modified":"2014-03-14T00:51:24","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T19:21:24","slug":"is-the-noose-tightening-on-the-regime-and-what-is-awaiting-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-the-noose-tightening-on-the-regime-and-what-is-awaiting-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Is The Noose Tightening On The Regime And What Is Awaiting Sri Lanka?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By G K Nathan<\/span><\/a> –<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. G. K. Nathan<\/p><\/div>\n

Military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was achieved in May 2009 with direct and indirect military and political support from many countries and the military victory was celebrated led by President Rajapaksa, without any remorse for many thousands innocent people killed in the conflict, which has become the point of contention in the international arena. After the end of military a golden opportunity was lost and President Mahinda Rajapaksa miserably failed to usher peace between the Sinhala and Tamil Nations, but acts such as: militarization, sinhalization and Buddhistization have widen the ethnic, religious and linguistic gaps between groups.\u00a0 Infrastructure bridges, roads and railways development initiated with aid and loan from China and India and use of foreign labour have failed to benefit the ordinary people, but a handful of people who made money. After five years, Government\u00a0 of Sri Lanka (GSL) readying to face the consequences of inaction and discarding the initial goodwill shown in the world arena. Immediately after the end of military conflict, the first UNHRC resolution critical of Sri Lanka for military omissions in the war was introduced, but was changed to a congratulatory message spearheaded by India, in the hope there will be peace in the region.\u00a0 Today, current Government of India stands disillusioned and facing many challenges in their own backyard, after facing the second betrayal by GSL; the first one was after the unfulfilled Indo-Lanka accord of 1987 to devolve power and to find a solution to the long standing Sinhala \u2013 Tamil conflict, started at the time of Independence in 1948.\u00a0 Failures met by India, clearly demonstrate successive regimes of Sri Lanka dominated by Sinhala Buddhist majority will not find a peaceful resolution based on the International Bill of Human Rights<\/a><\/span>. Seventy five million Tamils most of them living in Tamil Nadu, India and their uprising in support of their brethren in the neighbouring Sri Lanka is posing many challenges, particularly to the Government of India. India as a key regional power has supported Tamil insurgency and promoted diplomatic initiatives, but failed to promote a political solution in the immediate neighbour Sri Lanka due to lack of gutsy leadership, as shown by Indira Gandhi before she was murdered in 1984.\u00a0 Three years after passing of the first UNHRC resolution in 2009, India joined in with other countries and passed two more UNHRC resolutions in March 2012 and in March 2013, calling on Rajapaksa regime to implement the Report of Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) which was appointed by President Rajapaksa, himself, as agreed with United Nation Secretary General in March 2009. Almost five years since the end of military conflict, expectations of many countries that there will be a political resolution has failed, but with tacit approval of members of GSL retrograde steps have been taken by attacks on Christians and Muslims religious minorities and places of worship. On the contrary to expectation of Western democratic countries, Rajapaksa regime has ignored all international calls and moving towards the establishment of an authoritarian Sinhala Buddhist regime. President Rajapaksa has gained two-third majority in the parliament by offering in all 60 cabinet positions and also political kickback to minor parties. President Rajapaksa made use of the numbers to amend the constitution from limited to two terms presidency to life time, contrary to democratic practices in almost every other country, except in North Korea. Ms Navi Pillay, United Nation High Commissioner of Human Right, on her first visit in August 2013 to Sri Lanka said that the regime is moving towards authoritarianism. Taking into account, the past failures of GSL to internally implement the previous UNHRC resolutions, a group of countries has taken an initiative to move a new resolution at the 25th<\/sup> session of UNHRC in March 2014, may call for an International Inquiry to examine the alleged breach of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law by all sides in the conflict because of failure of Internal Inquiry based on past UNHRC resolutions.\u00a0 The call poses a serious challenge to GSL led by President Rajapaksa. There are lessons in recent history for example Yugoslavia splintered into six and the Sudan into two. The current events in Ukraine and military intervention by the immediate neighbour Russia, poses a big challenge to Rajapaksa regime, which has very few friends who will stand with them; avoiding any Chaos in Sri Lanka requires careful diplomatic skill.<\/p>\n

Observations by International Community<\/b><\/p>\n

Two reports issued end of February 2014, first issued by Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights<\/span><\/a> (OHCHR) released by High Commissioner Ms Navi Pillay and the second one US State Department Human Rights report 2013<\/span><\/a> released by US Secretary of State John Kerry, highlight failures of GSL to advance reconciliation and establish accountability for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 Ms Navi Pillay has supported the setting-up of an \u201cIndependent International Inquiry\u201d (III) because the \u201cNational mechanisms have consistently failed to establish the truth and achieve justice\u201d and \u201cthis can no longer be explained as a function of time or technical capacity, but that is a fundamentally a question of political will\u201d, she concluded.\u00a0 US Secretary of State John Kerry<\/b> releasing the Annual Country Report on Human Rights 2013 fired the first warning shot \u201cWe will do it in Sri Lanka, where the government still has not answered basic demands for accountability and reconciliation, where attacks on civil society activists, journalists, and religious minorities, sadly, still continue\u201d<\/b>.\u00a0 He said \u201cOur concern about this ongoing situation has led the United States to support another UN Human Rights Council resolution at the March session. We will do so because we know countries that deny human rights and human dignity challenge our interests as well as human interests. But we also know countries that advance those values, those countries that embrace these rights are countries that actually create opportunities\u201d. \u00a0Statements prepared by two independent bodies corroborate and substantiates what is said by each other.\u00a0 President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, as Commander in Chief of Armed Forces, will have to face the judgement day, if there is any truth on these allegations, but he has made a casual and callous decision to reject these reports without any serious scrutiny of the facts presented nor examination of the consequences to the country. The GSL has referred to UN High Commissioner\u2019s report and called for Independent International Inquiry as an \u201cUnwarranted Interference\u201d; President Rajapaksa referred to US State department report as \u201cuncomfortable\u201d and said Sri Lanka is being used as a \u201cpunching bag\u201d and “There should not be a resolution at all.” “We feel acutely uncomfortable by the pressure brought on us by a powerful country.” \u00a0\u00a0On the contrary, a number of Human Rights Organizations: Human Rights Watch<\/a><\/span>, Amnesty International<\/a><\/span>, International Crisis Group<\/a><\/span> etc have independently made similar observations and having called for an Independent International Inquiry from the OHCHR.<\/p>\n

The UK Foreign office minister Hugo Swire welcomed the report from the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and supports her call for an international investigation into Sri Lanka; he said \u201cThe British Government attaches great importance to lasting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. This is a message \u00a0that the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and I gave when we visited Sri Lanka last year (during CHOGM, November 2013). We welcome the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sri Lanka and share her concerns about human rights situation in Sri Lanka and the lack of progress on accountability.\u201d\u00a0 British Foreign Office issued report<\/a><\/span> in January 2014, soon after CHOGM in Sri Lanka, where British Prime Minister David Cameron<\/a><\/span> \u201d has put Sri Lanka on notice to address allegations of war crimes within months or else he will lead a push for a United Nations investigation\u201d.\u00a0 The three reports: OHCHR released by Ms Navi Pillay, US State department released by John Kerry, British Foreign Office issued by Hugo Swire have all emphasized the need for establishment of Independent International Inquiry because GSL has so for failed to address reconciliation and accountability through internal mechanism, records show the exercise undertaken by the GSL is focussed on procrastination rather than the facing main issues raised in these documents. Five years since the end of the conflict, the current situation of all groups: ethnic, linguistic and religious have worsened and the issues identified and raised in the above three reports are summarised below:<\/p>\n