{"id":72682,"date":"2013-02-06T10:37:33","date_gmt":"2013-02-06T10:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=72682"},"modified":"2013-02-12T11:37:05","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T11:37:05","slug":"an-open-letter-to-president-rajapaksa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/an-open-letter-to-president-rajapaksa\/","title":{"rendered":"An Open Letter To President Rajapaksa"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Laksiri Fernando<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr Laksiri Fernando<\/p><\/div>\n

Dear Mr President<\/a><\/span>, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

I have read your speech at the 65th<\/sup> Independence Day celebrations in Trincomalee with considerable mixed feelings or rather disagreeing with some of the key pronouncements that you have made particularly on the UN. Even on others, I have serious doubts since your noble pronouncements do not match with the existing realities.<\/p>\n

Let me begin with the epitaph of \u2018freedom of the Kata Kirilli or Gomriththa.\u2019 It is true that whether our village farmers completely know about the Ambattha Sutta of the Lord Buddha<\/a><\/span> or not they respect the freedom of Gomriththa to nest in their paddy fields without making any hindrance to them as you have correctly mentioned. As the Buddha said \u201cBut, Ambattha, even the quails, that little birds, can live freely and chatter freely as they like in their own nests.\u201d But in the case of Sri Lanka, even after the end of the war, how many family nests have been destroyed by thuggery and violence perpetrated through political patronage at various levels? How many voices of \u2018chattering\u2019 journalists have been silenced in the North and the South? Do I have to mention about Lasantha, Nimalarajan, Pradeep and long list of others?<\/p>\n

Today (5 February 2013) I read your full speech in The Island<\/em> newspaper, along with the news of the \u201cMonks Killing: Moratuwa Dy Mayor [UPFA] Arrested.\u201d This gruesome killing of the chief monk has happened next to my home village, Koralawella, at a place very dearly known to me at the Egoda Uyana Sunanda Upananda Temple. Isn\u2019t this a continuation of what has been happening in Kelaniya, Kolonnawa and many other places with the patronage of some ruling party politicians? More dangerous in the present incident is the people themselves taking the law unto their own hands and allegedly executing the suspected perpetrators.<\/p>\n

I remember how you came to Geneva in 1991 with Vasudeva Nanayakkara<\/a><\/span> with long lists of the disappeared of that time to present before the UN Human Rights Commission<\/a><\/span>, the predecessor of the current Human Rights Council. We met with the delegates of many countries to present the human rights violations in Sri Lanka irrespective of whether they were from the West or the East, but mostly with the Western delegates for obvious reasons. We also interacted with the LTTE<\/a><\/span> representatives without any inhibition. Didn\u2019t we? That time I was in-charge of the human rights program of the World University Service (WUS), Geneva. Those days, the \u2018sovereignty\u2019 or \u2018meddling in internal affairs\u2019 that you talk about today was not important matters to you. Why?<\/p>\n

Let me come to the main point of this letter and that is the UN. I strongly feel that you have not given the correct picture of the UN principles to the people in Sri Lanka; what is given is a partial and a distorted picture. You have quoted three paragraphs of Article 2 of the UN Charter but those are not 1, 2 and 3. Those are paragraphs 1, 4 and 7. There are altogether 7 numbered paragraphs in the Article and they are prefaced by saying \u201cthe organization and its members, in pursuit of the purposes<\/strong> stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following principles.\u201d (my emphasis).<\/p>\n

The purposes of the UN are grouped into four paragraphs in Article 1 and they broadly relate to (1) maintaining international peace and security (2) to develop friendly relations between countries (3) promotion and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and (4) to be a centre for harmonizing these common ends. Therefore the organizational principles that you have quoted are nothing but subject to and in the promotion of the above objectives. If there is any dispute between your government and (some) other countries at present, they are related to human rights and issues of reconciliation after the end of the war. These are also the disputes within the country between your government and the opposition, your government and the TNA and your government and even the judiciary.<\/p>\n

The Charter as you know begins with saying, \u201cWE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED<\/p>\n