Opinion

Cause and effect of UNHRC resolution - EDITORIAL

12 Oct 2015 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

any, including the ministers of the former regime who were staunch supporters of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, are commending the government for its handling of foreign affairs, especially the issues pertaining to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
True, compared to what this year’s UNHRC resolution and other actions in respect of Sri Lanka would have been, had the then president Rajapaksa still been in power, the stance taken by the world human rights body and the Western powers towards the country has been somewhat lenient. The apologists of the former regime question as to how the allegations of human rights violations against the security forces could be softened just because of a regime change in Sri Lanka. In fact no allegation has been softened, they have been more specific and detailed instead, but the actions recommended on Sri Lanka seem to be relatively lenient.

Needless to say, as claimed by the leaders of the former regime, the Western powers are selective in taking action against the countries in respect of violations of human rights. The best case in point is the soft stance taken by the Western countries towards the inhuman treatment meted out to the Palestinians by the successive Israeli regimes for the past seven decades. Also it was the US and some other countries,as claimed by the leaders of the former government that supported the government in its anti-terrorist drive against the LTTE despite their pressure at the winning moment to stop the war in the name of human rights, that has apparently led to the present situation. The contention that a resolution on the country being presented in the UNHRC is itself an assault on the reputation and the sovereignty of the country is vividly valid and also that the Western powers are pushing us to take action against some of the soldiers who immensely contributed in defeating the LTTE.

All these are true. But the reality is that they are powerful and we have given them ammunition by being at fault due to some of our actions during and after the war such as the killing of five students in Trincomalee and 17 ACF aid workers in Muttur in 2006 and the killing of demonstrators in Weliweriya in 2013. We promised them without any reciprocity on their part, for instance, in respect of their treatment of Al Qaida suspects, to investigate these incidents and punish the perpetrators, as we were compelled to do so. Unfortunately, the perpetrators seem to be few among the valiant soldiers who liberated the country from the jaws of terrorism.
Therefore we have to find a solution once and for all. There are three options -- to reject all reports and resolutions emanating from Geneva and face what may come, to cooperate with the Special Hybrid Court suggested by the OHCHR report or to do something on our own that would conform to international law. The government has chosen the least harmful last option. One can describe this as
an achievement.

But on the domestic front things continue to be worse. The spiraling cost of living has been eclipsed by the discussions on Geneva and by the antics of some of the politicians for which TV channels have spared a time slot in their daily news bulletin under various captions. The unemployed youth who reposed their trust in the government have begun to be restless with the absence of short-term or long-term programmes to be seen on the ground or on blueprint, in spite of the five million employment pledge by the leaders of the government. People almost lost confidence on the government’s ability to take action against the multi-billion-rupee corrupt transactions that were propagated during the last presidential election by the leaders of the
same government.
It is the habit of the people of this country to take the two major political parties as the malady and the remedy at each major election. At times they swap these roles of the two parties and change the regime. It is high time the government strikes a balance between the international and domestic fronts and reassures the people that it can still be treated as the remedy for their ills.

Opinion

Cause and effect of UNHRC resolution - EDITORIAL

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