{"id":221403,"date":"2021-08-05T00:50:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=221403"},"modified":"2021-08-17T01:12:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-16T19:42:55","slug":"secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dayan Jayatilleka<\/a> –<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka<\/p><\/div>\n

An official can have his\/her opinions on any matter, or be forgiven for being ignorant of a subject, but he\/she should not place on the public record his\/her wildly unfounded version of the facts of history while utterly ignorant of them. <\/span><\/p>\n

As Mao Zedong said \u201cno investigation, no right to speak\u201d. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne<\/a><\/span> should seek a briefing from the PM or Lalith Weeratunga<\/a><\/span> before going on the record on subjects outside his scope. <\/span><\/p>\n

The dangers of the type of education that will be imparted if the KNDU<\/a><\/span> bill goes through are best evidenced in an interview given by Gen Kamal Gunaratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Defense. <\/span><\/p>\n

The interview was conducted by <\/span>Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka Chief Media Officer Amy Yang on the first anniversary of the Sri Lanka chapter of the Alumni of China\u2019s National Defense University (NDU). The Lankan chapter was founded by Gen Gunaratne. Here is a quote from the interview, in which (through no fault of the Chinese interviewer) Gen Kamal Gunaratne engages in outright falsification of history. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>When we were challenged by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on \u2018war crimes\u2019 and \u2018crimes against humanity,\u2019 China supported us by exercising the veto power against the UNHRC Resolution against Sri Lanka, which will never be forgotten even by our future generation.\u201d (May the long-lasting friendship bear new fruits: Defence Secy. | Daily FT<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

If as Gen. Gunaratne says, \u201c<\/span>China supported us by exercising the veto power against the UNHRC Resolution against Sri Lanka\u201d, how could Sri Lanka have lost the vote at the UNHRC in 2012, 2013, 2014 and this year, 2021?<\/span><\/p>\n

Contrary to Gen. Gunaratne\u2019s flattering account, China couldn\u2019t \u201csupport us by exercising the veto power against the UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka\u201d because there is no veto power at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC<\/a><\/span>). <\/span><\/p>\n

No wonder the best-educated stratum of our society, i.e., the community of university academics as a totality, is utterly horrified by the implications of the KNDU bill for the ethos and substance of higher education and the training of the mind of \u201cour future generation\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is a veto at the UN Security Council (UNSC) though, but there was never any \u2018resolution against Sri Lanka\u2019 on \u2018war crimes and crimes against humanity\u2019 in New York because of an assured Russian and Chinese veto. Geneva was the only access-route and battlefield.<\/span><\/p>\n

China, like India, Pakistan, Russia, Cuba and the Nonaligned Movement, was a member of the strong coalition amounting to a near two-thirds of the UNHRC\u2019s member-states, that Sri Lanka assembled at the UNHRC on the occasion that Gen. Gunaratne speaks of as one which \u201cwill never be forgotten even by our future generation\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

China supported Sri Lanka robustly during the war, as it did diplomatically at the UN, but just as the war was fought and won by the Sri Lankans (of whom Gen Gunaratne was a frontline commander), so too was the diplomatic battle at the UNHRC, a week after Nandikadal. <\/span><\/p>\n

Gen. Gunaratne\u2019s version is the equivalent of saying that China, which assisted our war effort (and it did), delivered victory by dropping a bomb on the LTTE at Nandikadal (which it didn\u2019t).<\/span><\/p>\n

What must \u201cnever be forgotten even by our future generation\u201d is the factual historical truth. <\/span>A Chinese veto would have meant that the challenge to Sri Lanka was deterred or stopped in its tracks and we were saved from having to battle. What actually happened was that the challenge came \u2013 there was no veto possible, to stop it– and Sri Lanka won. <\/span><\/p>\n

If the KNDU proliferation takes hold, d<\/span>oubtless Gen. Gunaratne\u2019s imaginary version of Sri Lanka\u2019s diplomatic history at the UNHRC would be imparted, so that it \u201c<\/span>will never be forgotten even by our future generation\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

No wonder the regime cannot manage Geneva, and suffers grave defeat. It cannot understand what went on there. Its topmost defense official doesn\u2019t even know what on earth happened. Instead of pontificating about it, he should adhere to Mao Zedong\u2019s famous instruction: \u201cseek truth from facts\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

*Dr. Jayatilleka was an elected Vice-President of the UN Human Rights Council 2007-2008 and Ambassador\/Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka 2007-2009, including in May 2009. The only time Sri Lanka won in Geneva was in May 2009. It lost four times since then.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":199516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,46,8,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nSecretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Secretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-04T19:20:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-16T19:42:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"491\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dayan Jayatilleka\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dayan Jayatilleka\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/\",\"name\":\"Secretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-08-04T19:20:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-16T19:42:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/754610f57449c7be5e5814d3d53310f6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg\",\"width\":770,\"height\":491},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Secretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/754610f57449c7be5e5814d3d53310f6\",\"name\":\"Dayan Jayatilleka\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bbfd553b46b4b6b7e8b3a4a4c91f66c2a0d8a3bcbeec217c521cd46dbf3b8815?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bbfd553b46b4b6b7e8b3a4a4c91f66c2a0d8a3bcbeec217c521cd46dbf3b8815?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dayan Jayatilleka\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/djaya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Secretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Secretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2021-08-04T19:20:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-16T19:42:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":770,"height":491,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dayan Jayatilleka","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dayan Jayatilleka","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/","name":"Secretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg","datePublished":"2021-08-04T19:20:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-16T19:42:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/754610f57449c7be5e5814d3d53310f6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg","width":770,"height":491},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/secretary-mod-gen-kamal-gunaratne-displays-ignorance-falsifies-diplomatic-history\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Secretary MoD Gen Kamal Gunaratne Displays Ignorance, Falsifies Diplomatic History"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/754610f57449c7be5e5814d3d53310f6","name":"Dayan Jayatilleka","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bbfd553b46b4b6b7e8b3a4a4c91f66c2a0d8a3bcbeec217c521cd46dbf3b8815?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bbfd553b46b4b6b7e8b3a4a4c91f66c2a0d8a3bcbeec217c521cd46dbf3b8815?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Dayan Jayatilleka"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/djaya\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Kamal-Gunaratne-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221403"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221405,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221403\/revisions\/221405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}