{"id":36757,"date":"2012-04-01T14:59:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T14:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=36757"},"modified":"2012-04-01T14:59:27","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T14:59:27","slug":"sri-lanka-reacts-to-the-unnationalists-do-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-reacts-to-the-unnationalists-do-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Reacts To The UN:Nationalists Do Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cHILLARY CLINTON is naked! Obama is naked!\u201d shriek the Sinhala-language graffiti across a wall in Colombo. Following their government\u2019s lead, many Sri Lankans are reacting angrily to the passage of\u00a0an American-led initiative in the UN Human Rights Council<\/a>\u00a0which seeks reconciliation and accountability for war crimes that are alleged to have been committed at the end of their state\u2019s civil war against the Tamil Tigers.<\/p>\n

Three decades of war ended in 2009 with a bloody climax that left thousands of civilians dead and the Tigers defeated. Rights groups now want the government to account for the civilians who were killed by the army and to investigate allegations of serious war crimes that have been levelled against its soldiers. Having gained the UN\u2019s support, the activists now face the wrath of a nationalistic public.<\/p>\n

A very different group of critics say that the resolution, which was passed by a clear majority on March 22nd, was so watered down that it bordered on the blas\u00e9. But Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka\u2019s president, is bristling. Speaking at a function in a remote village on March 24th, he insisted that Sri Lanka will not tolerate\u00a0\u201carbitrary interference\u201d\u00a0in its affairs.<\/p>\n

So no deal, and no compromise. That was the position Sri Lanka took at the Geneva-based council, explained G.L. Peiris, the external affairs minister. Addressing a crowded press conference on March 26th, he blamed India squarely for having swayed the council in favour of the resolution.<\/p>\n

Manmohan Singh, India\u2019s prime minister, had announced two-and-a-half days before the final session that his government was \u201cinclined to vote\u201d for the resolution. His statement was swiftly circulated among the council\u2019s members. Several among them who would have opposed the initiative consequently chose to vote for it or to abstain,\u00a0Mr Peiris said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Some analysts in Colombo saw this as an admission of just how influential India has become in shaping international opinion on South Asian issues. Others felt the Sri Lankan government was fumbling around for a scapegoat.<\/p>\n

The real trouble was that India had said initially that it would oppose the resolution. Things changed after a senior member of the Sri Lankan delegation indiscreetly announced India\u2019s position to the press. Major political parties in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which claim to share an affinity with the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, then combined forces to demand a policy reversal.<\/p>\n

After weeks of relentless haranguing from their coalition partners, India\u2019s central government backtracked. Mr Peiris says this came as a \u201cshock\u201d. Hours before the vote, however, India\u2019s diplomats negotiated with America to\u00a0dilute the draft\u2019s language<\/a>. That intervention however, did not earn India any kudos with its neighbour to the south. Instead, Sri Lanka\u2019s media is accusing the Indians of duplicity.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s political relations with India will weather this storm. As Basil Rajapaksa, the powerful economic development minister and the president\u2019s brother conceded, \u201cWe will never forget our relationship with India\u201d. By contrast, China\u2014which voted against the resolution and denounced it for good measure\u2014is being praised generously.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s strained ties with the West will undoubtedly get worse, not least because the resolution is regarded here as a hostile move. Western diplomats prefer to characterise it as a means of pressing the Rajapaksas\u2019 lethargic government into keeping promises it has made in the name of accountability and reconciliation.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s initiative was co-sponsored by 40 countries. (Among them was Norway, which once attempted\u2014and failed\u2014to negotiate a permanent peace between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels.) Among other things, its language urges Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of a presidential commission that tried, ineffectually, to unravel the confusion of the war\u2019s final stages.<\/p>\n

The conclusions of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) are widely regarded as being inadequate, when it comes to the task of fact-finding. Still its report offered\u00a0other\u00a0proposals<\/a>\u00a0to solve the country\u2019s\u00a0longstanding\u00a0ethnic grievances. For instance, it called for devolution of power and a rapid demilitarisation of the island\u2019s north and east, where large numbers of the Tamil minority live. The government has so far resisted both.<\/p>\n

Even before the dispute at the Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka was shifting its foreign policy emphasis to Asia, Africa and Latin America. As a part of this change, several of its diplomatic missions in Europe are to be closed down even as more are opened on other continents.<\/p>\n

The government is seething that the West will not let up on demands for accountability. It sees these as being motivated by the pro-Tamil Tiger diaspora. During the weeks that preceded the resolution\u2019s passage, government ministers went so far as to accuse America and its allies of conspiring to topple the regime.<\/p>\n

The same sycophants warned that their heroic president was on the verge of being hauled up before an international war-crimes tribunal, though in fact he never was. Crowds protested outside Western diplomatic missions, burning effigies and jeering. One minister called for a boycott of all American products, including Google, Coca-Cola and McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

It is grimly ironic that there is still no discussion on the contents or aims of the resolution. For its part, the government seems to be growing ever more belligerent. Nimal Siripala de Silva, a senior minister,\u00a0said on March 27th that\u00a0the commission had \u201cgone beyond its mandate\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and that careful consideration would be given before its proposals were implemented.<\/p>\n

For months, the government had flaunted the very fact of the LLRC as a means of fending off international calls for a war-crimes investigation. Now it is questioning the commission\u2019s own report. This is precisely what independent analysts had feared would happen. But at least Sri Lanka is officially under watch\u2014if only overseas.<\/p>\n

(Picture credit: AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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