“Chilcott is now chilling out in Washington. Though he became a household name here he would not be known outside his mission premises in the USA. His ego must be missing the boosters. When he preached to us on human rights, he conveniently forgot what his government did to the people of Diego Garcia, who were forcibly removed from their own country to make way for a US base.”_______________________________
by Thomas J Perera
(March 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) For God’s sake Mr. Ambassador stop preaching to us about human rights, your President (he would no doubt end up in hell) has today done the most inhuman thing any one can do when he has vetoed legislation to prohibit cruel, inhumane and degrading torture and permitted its continuance to extract information from those detained in your war against terror (if they were Christians would the decision have been the same? I doubt it very much) Please remember that our societies have valued human life for two thousand five hundred years. Human life and human rights did not become sacrosanct to us after the Second World War.
by Thomas J Perera
(March 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) For God’s sake Mr. Ambassador stop preaching to us about human rights, your President (he would no doubt end up in hell) has today done the most inhuman thing any one can do when he has vetoed legislation to prohibit cruel, inhumane and degrading torture and permitted its continuance to extract information from those detained in your war against terror (if they were Christians would the decision have been the same? I doubt it very much) Please remember that our societies have valued human life for two thousand five hundred years. Human life and human rights did not become sacrosanct to us after the Second World War.
And even then, do we not recall what your troops did to the people of Vietnam? And can we ever forget that your country de-stabilized Iraq on a made-up story that they possessed weapons of mass destruction? How many thousands have died and how many are dying each day including your own kind? I am not interested in embarrassing the likes of you, but you and former British High Commissioner Chilcott were taking too many liberties with us, I do hope their new man in Colombo will not follow in his predecessor’s footsteps.
Chilcott is now chilling out in Washington. Though he became a household name here he would not be known outside his mission premises in the USA. His ego must be missing the boosters. When he preached to us on human rights, he conveniently forgot what his government did to the people of Diego Garcia, who were forcibly removed from their own country to make way for a US base. Those unfortunate people are yet living as refugees though the highest British court ordered that they be returned to their legitimate homes - a ruling flouted with impunity by the British government. The British government also recently accepted (though they had denied earlier) that they had been a party to sending inmates of the infamous Guantanamo prison in Cuba to be tortured in countries outside US jurisdiction, where torture is practiced with impunity. Even Britain has resorted to this same practice, so who are they to preach to us?
It is not that we condone the abuse of human rights, it is without reservation abhorrent, but what we see is this, the so-called western self appointed do-gooders are ganging up to give us a bad name and then hang us. As for R2P Mr. Ambassador, our government is indeed exercising this as a duty to protect us the people of this country from the fascist totalitarian Prabhakaran in the same manner that your country went to war to protect the people of Europe from that other fascist - Hitler.
The second matter I wish to take issue with you is your asking us to negotiate with the LTTE, which has been described by your own defence department as the most dangerous terrorist outfit in the world far worse than Al Queda. The LTTE uncompromisingly stands for the establishment of a separate state, so what is there to negotiate with them about? You may not know this but we have tried from 1985 till April 2003 (and twice after that as you would know) to negotiate and arrive at a peaceful settlement but they have never compromised, they have only used the ‘ceasefire agreements’ and the periods of negotiations to prepare for the next round of blood letting. The LTTE is seeking to establish their own state in my country and you want us to negotiate with them? Would you dare to ask your own government to negotiate with Al Queda?
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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