Nutshell report of LLRC is all we can offer in our own time
by Pearl Thevanayagam
(September 01, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Now the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) will not reveal its report to the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) simply because it has no binding powers to meddle in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation.
Rather, it would discuss the findings of its commission in a non-confrontational manner which would exonerate the government from any war crimes it certainly committed in the absence of the media and INGOs (international non-governmental organisations) which could prove beyond reasonable doubt the government was directly complicit in the massacre of the island’s Tamil minority to establish Sinhala hegemony in the pretext of wiping out LTTE terrorism in the last throes of the war in May 2009.
The LLRC died a natural death at birth since the government was not at all sincere in setting it up. The toothless commission is not fooling anyone but how the government will thwart war crimes investigation remains a mystery.
This comes as no surprise since the nouveau royalty has surrounded itself with advisors who are twisting and turning the UN’s mandate to placate a regime which has neither the will nor tolerance to abide by international humanitarian laws since it has violated all decent norms expected of a democracy.
The trouble with instant royal families which are allowed to run countries is they provide instant relief like Band-Aid but fail to cure the illness or the underlying symptoms. Since Mahinda Rajapakse became President in 2005, he quickly established instant royalty with all his family and relatives in key positions in the government and government-run national commercial ventures who in turn rule the country and re-distribute its wealth among themselves much to the chagrin of the voters who brought him to power for want of a meagre 190,000 votes the opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe could not muster.
Thus he started to push the country down the slippery slope of total disregard for law and order and made it regress to the days when kings ruled with absolute power and democracy was but an embryonic dream. The speed with which he ensconced his family and near relatives beside him and around him on the throne make these members behave like kids let loose in Boots Chemist’s tasting and testing all the beauty products willy-nilly and they are more than pleased with their images of clowns in the shop mirror.
At least the kings of yore had learned and enlightened counsellors and spiritual advisors to stop them on their tracks towards absolute anarchy and mayhem which is a far cry from the advisors/sycophants who are former poosaris, brainwashed academics, opportunistic party hopping politicians and journalists who sold their credentials to diplomatic perks and who would jump through burning hoops to maintain their new-found luxury lifestyle courtesy of the government and whose ultimate aims are to please the President and amass positions of power and the nation’s wealth for themselves. No politician ever came to power with the intention of appeasing his voters barring Kamaraj in India.
But by the look of things the country is sinking deeper and deeper into billions of rupees of debt through ill-conceived and over-ambitious projects led by these members such as Hambantota Port, airports, golf courses in nature reserves and hotels built on mangroves thereby making the country vulnerable to more flooding and depleting nature’s defences as well as breeding mosquitoes further inland in the human habitat to make Sri Lanka `The Miracle of Asia’.
The President has surrounded himself with family among whom shines the former 24/7 petrol shed assistant in the US to where he absconded when the going got tough and who in turn was given the portfolio of Defence Secretary all because once he enlisted in the national army who is none other than the President’s brother and who hijacked the victory over the LTTE from Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka who is now languishing in jail all because he challenged Big Brother MR in the presidential hustings in 2009.
Muammar Qaddafi and Hosni Mubarak pale into insignificance when compared to comrade Mahinda Rajapakse and his acolytes and neophytes in governance. They neither have the will nor yearning to uplift he majority Sinhala populace who placed their blinding trust in the Lion King .and as much as lion is no longer a presence in the island, the Rajapakses have no foothold to claim they would become the custodians of this Serendib Isle.
It is no secret that Presidential Commissions are set up when the masses rise up against government misdemeanours of human rights violation such as media suppression, extra-judicial killings, disappearances and arbitrary arrests on the one and corruption and nepotism on the other.
While publicly proclaiming it is doing away with the Emergency Regulations, it has given more powers to the defence forces thus negating and in fact adding more fear into people’s minds. The grease devils are not a new phenomena. There once lived in Jaffna a serious and ingenious thief called Muththiah. He struck fear into everybody as he clambered up the roof and descended into the house by way of a rope and coating himself with petrol grease so as not to get caught while he set about burgling jewellery and cash.
Rumours are abound of the grease devils such as they are the government’s ploy to reinstate ER or find a more menacing regulation in place, that it is the work of the jealous opposition UNP etc; etc;.
The government is also publicly challenging the UN but it is weakening at the knees that it would become an international pariah if it did not appear to be adhering to the norms set out by the UN in times of conflict. The overwhelming evidence against the government cannot be buried any more or any longer. The pressure from the international community is intensifying and will explode excreta in the face of the government if it does not somehow admit war crimes were committed and that the LTTE has its equal share of war crimes.
The LLRC died a natural death at birth since the government was not at all sincere in setting it up. The toothless commission is not fooling anyone but how the government will thwart war crimes investigation remains a mystery.
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