North-East and South divide provide different justices!

Ban Ki-Moon is lame duck on Sri Lanka!!

By Rajasingham Jayadevan

(August 27, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) It has become a habitual preoccupation for the government of Sri Lanka to deny anything that highlights the adversity of its war against the Tamil Tigers or the predicament facing the Tamil population living either in the IDP camps or in the midst of the massive army presence in the North and East.

The paranoia discharged by the government is such that instant denial is the stubborn stand to counter any reporting that questions the conduct of the government and its forces. Without sincerely looking into the reports and objectively investigating the accusations, instant denials are made at strokes by its frontline media spokes persons, High Commissions and few ministerial secretaries specially empowered go on the attacking spree to deny the revelations. One wonders how long this mission of sweeping the skeletons under the carpet will go on and the coming days and months will be a testing time for Sri Lanka to win or lose its revengeful mission against the honest revelations about its conduct.

When Sinhala people went amok in Angulana (a fishing town in the outskirts of Colombo) few days ago for killing two Sinhala citizens, the President became emotional and even offered millions of rupees to the victim’s family. Police inquiry and arrests of police officers were set upon in a procedural and transparent manner as the government felt that justice should be meted to its Sinhala people of Angulana that is denied to the subjugated Tamils outright.

This feeling of responding in an official and emotional manner does not come about when the victims are Tamils. The government officials of conditioned minds will be up in arms with their microphones and phones to vehemently deny any serious incidences reported about the Tamils.

The latest of the government denial spree was on the London based Channel 4 news which reported with evidence of footages of nine Tamil youths stripped naked, blind folded, hands tied behind the back, kicked with the boots and being shot in the head at point blank and close range by the army. Any responsible government, if it is sincere and concerned about the reporting, would have announced an honest investigation. In a matter of few hours, official denials came from the Sri Lankan High Commissions in Delhi, London, the army hierarchy and then the government media bulldogs specially entrusted with the task of putting up instant denial statements on any issues on the conduct of the government.

The government is enjoying some respite as a result of silence of the United Nation that should have stood up for the moment when section of the Sri Lankan population is treated in an appalling manner due to their ethnicity and being a minority. There is no doubt the UN Secretary General after having eye witnessed the appalling ravages of the war during his flying visits has gone to sleep. For him, Sri Lanka is not in his agenda as it is not in the epicentre of international economic base. It is left to the INGO like Human Rights Watch and the Amnesty International to breast beat and cry. It is the few fair-minded media like the Channel 4, The Times and the Guardian that shows some genuine interests to expose the impropriety of the government of Sri Lanka which is systematically purging the Tamils even after defeating the so-called terrorism of the LTTE (that was of its making).

According to news reports, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said recently that he is prepared to face any court to defend Sri Lankan military commanders on charges of human rights violations during the recently concluded war with the LTTE. ‘The President emphatically stated that he was prepared to appear before any Court on behalf of the Military leaders,’ is the verbatim of his verses at a recently concluded provincial council election rally in the hill country. The President who made such assertive statement stands guilty of not opening the avenues to investigate the criminal conduct of his soldiers. As the Commander in Chief of the forces, the President’s method of defending his soldiers is clearly a method to shut the doors for any investigations or following a proper judicial process.

There were several inquiries ordered by the President on serious human rights violations since he became the President and all these are instruments used to ease the pressures the government was facing at the time of revelations of serious violations.

Will the UN Secretary General seriously find ways to address the issues that he agreed with the President of Sri Lanka in a joint statement when he visited the island? One of the three issues agreed is an inquiry into the war crimes committed by both the government and the LTTE. Procrastination practiced by both the UN and the President of Sri Lanka will make all such hyphened statement a façade.

The denial minded government will not discharge its agreement with the UN General Secretary and it will only work on the mission to belittle anyone attempting to lift the carpets to reveal the skeletons underneath.

The brutal murders by the army, reported in the Channel 4 news, took me though my memory lane. I recalled the brutality faced my friend Nalliah when he was doing his Advanced Level with me and the brutal deaths of persons like Inbam and many others in the 1970’s. The Sri Lankan forces have not changed, but the government tries to project them as professional forces. Unless serious international efforts are made with India taking a moral high ground, the Tamils will only progress from falling from the deep pan into the fire.

-Sri Lanka Guardian