War Crimes, Genocide and Hypocrisy - EDITORIAL

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is gearing up to launch its 46th session virtually on February 22. It is likely the session will spotlight alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka in its war against terrorism.
The UNHRC, according to ‘justsecurity.org’ of Feb 1, 2021 started taking a strong stance in 2012, in part due to interventions by the US mission in Geneva and a core group of support states, where the body anticipates producing a new Resolution on our country.

The document adds a UK-led Sri Lanka Core Group working to negotiate a consensus resolution and ponders, as to what may be sacrificed at the ‘altar of consensuses.
Leaked copies of the document reveal the High Commissioner for Human Rights intends suggesting sanctions against specific individuals allegedly involved in commission of war crimes among other punitive measures against this country. 

The ‘Daily Mirror’ in no way defends War Criminals or the commission of genocide, BUT this newspaper also stands for the universality of the application of justice and the prosecution of violators of the same. The ongoing war crimes by Israel, against the people of Palestine seem to have bypassed the UN and ‘rights conscious’ governments in the US and Britain.

The practice of claiming to have ‘higher standards’ or more ‘noble belief’ than is the case, has been a hallmark of Britain and America.
Yet, up till the mid-1940s large swathes of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean were ruled, raped and pillaged by imperial Britain. 

Rape was not limited to the natural resources of these lands, but extended to the women and children of the then colonies.
At its height, in 1922, the British Empire governed a fifth of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s total land area.
Unfortunately, the so-called ‘British justice’ did not extend to the populace of the British colonies. Mass killings were a hallmark of British policy toward those who protested British rule.

For example, when peaceful protesters defied government orders and demonstrated against British colonial rule at Amritsar in India on April 13, 1919, they were blocked inside the walled Jallianwala Gardens and fired upon. The soldiers, under the orders of Brigadier Reginald Dyer, kept firing until they ran out of ammunition, killing between 379 and 1,000 protesters and injured another 1,100 within 10 minutes.Brigadier Dyer was later lauded a hero by the British public, who raised £26,000 for him as a thank you gift.

Again, between 12 and 29 million Indians died of starvation while it (India) was under the control of the British Empire, as millions of tons of wheat were exported from India to Britain as famine raged in India.
In 1943, up to four million Bengalis starved to death when Winston Churchill diverted food to British soldiers and countries such as Greece while a deadly famine swept through Bengal.The ‘Independent’ of Jan 2016 reported Churchill speaking of the Bengal famine in 1943, said: “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine was their own fault for breeding like rabbits.” Yet Churchill is lauded as a great British hero and not a war criminal. 

In Kenya (Africa) thousands of elderly Kenyans, claim British colonial forces mistreated, raped and tortured them during the Mau Mau Uprising (1951-1960). They launched a £200m damages claim in 2016 against the British government.
In Africa once again, the ‘Independent’ reported members of the Kikuyu tribe were detained in camps, since described as “Britain’s gulags” or concentration camps, where they were systematically tortured and suffered serious sexual assault. 

Estimated death tolls vary between 100,000 to 200,000. In America, Native Americans were seriously discriminated against and the killing of them was rewarded. The ‘Global times’ exposed US President George Washington describing Indians as being like the “Wild Beast of the Forest” and the “Wolf”. 
As late as 1862, on the orders of President Abraham Lincoln, thirty-eight Dakota Indians were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota, in the largest mass execution in US history. President Theodore Roosevelt famously asserted that, “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every 10 are. And I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.” 

American settlers were paid -according to the expose- for each Native they killed --- 50 pounds for adult male scalps, 25 for adult female scalps, and 20 for scalps of boys and girls under the age of 12. 
No UN investigation, no UN resolution and No sanctions... a SHAME on us all.