Geneva debacle: Turn the searchlight inward - Editorial

22 March 2013 06:30 pm

The crisis that hit the Sri Lankan Government with the adoption of the US-led resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva on Thursday had reverberated in New Delhi with tidal wave after tidal wave hitting the ruling UPA Government. Its main ally the DMK led by M. Karunanidhi carried out its threat to pull out of the Central Government. The DMK on Tuesday withdrew its support to the UPA and pulled out its five Central Ministers over the issue of alleged human rights violations of Tamils in Sri Lanka but the Congress-led government said there was no threat to the Government’s stability and  that it was ‘neither lame nor a duck’.

Political analysts here believe that the Sri Lankan Government found itself in this mess and muddle because of its flippant, complacent and amateurish attitude on the second US-led resolution which was passed with 25 countries voting in favour, 13 against and eight abstentions. The international community, it appears, was not convinced by the unprofessional diplomacy of Sri Lanka’s missions and stressed that the Rajapaksa regime had failed to fulfil the promises it had made. This complaint of the regime being more of a promise breaking rather than a promise keeping Government has been regularly made here and abroad.

The country’s main opposition UNP said that the resolution was not a condemnation of Sri Lanka but a censure of the Rajapaksa regime’s attitude and approach to vital issues. “For anyone who followed the situation since the war ended, the resolution contains nothing new. It calls for exactly what the government had repeatedly promised the international community.  The government has failed miserably when it comes to keeping its promises and this resulted in this mess. Rule of law, good governance, media freedom and democracy have been openly flouted resulting in this sort of international embarrassment for the Government,” the UNP said.
The TNA said it welcomed the resolution and urged the government to desist from taking a combative approach to the international community but instead work together in giving effect to the resolution.

“The resolution was passed because the Government had repeatedly failed what it undertook to do. The promises given to the UN Secretary General and to the UNHRC were not carried out resulting in this resolution,” the TNA said.

The JVP held the Sri Lankan government responsible for creating an internal situation that had warranted international intervention.
“The government did not keep its promises. The dismal track record on Human Rights, the breakdown of democracy and the rule of law, the blatant threat to the independence of the judiciary have all contributed to the current mess this country is facing,” it said.

It’s not too late even now for the Government to restore democracy, judicial independence, accountability, good governance, freedom of expression and transparency instead of playing the numbers game and attempting to show that it won when it lost.