United Nations is not the place for Navi Pillay to serve

By Durga Velautham in New Delhi

(March 17, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay is sure that the situation in Wanni is absolutely desperate. In fact she herself had stated that in a statement recently.

But then she dramatically flees into an unacceptable tangent of compromise overlooking the actuality that human rights violations in this respect has been brought about by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE, when it mercilessly herded up the civilian population of Wanni, uprooted them from their traditional habitats and marched them on foot day and night as human shields. This was done at gunpoint.

The Tigers have done this before; and in the long and torturous march of October 1995 from the peninsula to Wanni thousands perished. They have always used this weaponry whenever forced into a crisis of this nature and have conscripted children into the forces with impunity and mercilessly snatched away young people from their families to be used as frontline fodder. What does a government do when such things happen – write to Navi Pillay and ask her for her counsel?

Perhaps she is unaware of all the brutal iniquities of the Tigers and has not done her homework properly. May be she sees them as of her own blood if Navi Pillay is indeed a Tamil who may not even speak Tamil being a South African citizen.

It is a pity that such a question has to be raised because she cannot, when holding such an important position give comfort to a group that is blackmailing a community with such an awful ransom. She should have told the LTTE plainly that they should let the people go and whatever happens to the LTTE is not her concern.

The Tiger chief has not even the guts to come out into the open and face this problem. How can a megalomaniac be an inspirational leader? He cannot even trust his deputy and how many deputies has he shot point blank? He is a merciless killer very much like the vicious Pol Pot of Cambodia who caused the deaths of a million Cambodians because of his delusions. Prabhakaran shares almost the same delusions.

Over thirty years, the LTTE has systematically and most brutally conducted a campaign of not only human rights violations but also ruthlessly got rid of the Tamil community’s moderate leaders and intellectuals. What they are doing right now with thousands of civilians in their grip is only the tip of the iceberg of treacherous villainy that Madame Navi Pillay visualizes as a mere gaze and not as an in-depth understanding. In failing to understand this horrendous reality she has abused her office.

She should have understood that but for this march, the current crisis of thousands of civilians forced as human shields would not have been possible. And all that the Tigers are seeking is a respite that will help them to be freed of the trap they are in, re-form and continue their brand of terrorism, considered the most ruthless in the world. The choice before Sri Lanka and for the Tamils in particular is that the Tigers are rooted out altogether.

In a world that is being threatened with terrorists, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam should not remain as a role model inspiration to them. If people like Navy Pillai cannot appreciate this, the United Nations is not the place she should serve in such an important office.

One day very soon the world will acknowledge with immense gratitude that Sri Lanka got rid of terrorism through determined leadership that not even the most powerful country in the world, the United States could achieve. If civilians are being affected in the fight against terrorism, let Navi Pillay do her homework in Iraq.

-Sri Lanka Guardian