Has the World Forgotten the Horror of Mullivaikaal?
Are Tamils “Children of a Lesser God”?
| by
Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah – Senator TGTE
( September 21, 2012, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) An
opinion on the recently concluded CPA meeting in Sri Lanka and the 2013 CHOGM
set to be held in Sri Lanka.
At
about the same time that the images appeared on Groundviews, Sri Lanka
was hosting the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) meeting and
getting set to
host the Commonwealth Head Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled for
November
2013, External Affairs Minister, G L Peiris just now calling the 2013
CHOGM
“a historic opportunity to showcase Sri Lanka.”
‘Show case” alright but what Sri Lanka will not want to
show are the skeletal remains of more than 40,000 Tamils buried in Mullivaikkal.
Having successfully kept the CPA delegates at bay from finding any clues to
what the Times news paper (UK) called the “Hidden Massacre”, G L
Peiris was patting himself on the back: “Those delegates would
be able to effectively counter the false and malicious propaganda against Sri
Lanka when they return home,” the minister said, feeling chuffed with the
outcome he has supposedly produced for his for boss.
The delegates may need to do some
soul searching if indeed they never once asked the critical questions
that needed to be asked of their host. But the Minister may have been reacting
to what the Secretary General of the CPA, Dr.
William Shija said “that he
had really had a change of his negative perception of Sri Lanka after visiting
the war affected area,” however the first person (up to the time of
writing) who has said any thing since leaving Sri Lanka’s shores is Tavish
Scott who has written that “Human rights are of secondary concern in Sri
Lanka.”
There are some serious issues the brazen
attitude of the Commonwealth raises. Against a backdrop of a plethora of
evidence already out in the public domain that “war crimes” were
allegedly committed, coming from credible sources such as the UN Panel of
Experts, that could lead to possible charges of genocide being levelled against
the hire echelons of the government including the Sri Lankan President and his
brother Gotabaya, the Commonwealth has decided to carry on with Sri Lanka as
venue for 2013 CHOGM.
Has the world forgotten the horror of
Mullivaikkal?
For the Commonwealth it didn’t seem to matter, prompting
the question: Has the
Commonwealth lost its moral compass?
Dr.
Shija didn’t appear to be bothered by Sri Lanka’s war crimes
history as he spoke of Sri Lanka’s social and cultural vibrancy at his
opening address at the CPA meeting with Chamal Rajapaksa in attendance: “I
believe Delegates will join me in having noted that Sri Lanka now appears to
enjoy its peaceful atmosphere after years of conflict as we can see the
indications of social and cultural vibrancy;” he said in a prepared
speech.
How can people confer and party with war criminals as if nothing had
happened? What was the Commonwealth doing in Sri Lanka holding an international
conference where the Rajapaksa regime had only three years ago presided over
what in international law is termed as, and in the R2P document (sadly not
applied to Tamils) is referred to as Mass Atrocities – war crimes, crimes
against humanity and genocide?
President
Rajapakse’s speech at the CPA meeting showed himself lacking in integrity
from beginning to end. He could have fooled his foreign audience but not those
who know the truth. He talked of traditional parliamentary democracy when he
bulldozed the 18th amendment overnight without real debate in
parliament which virtually makes his executive presidency so powerful; one with
no checks and balances, turning him into a dictator, using increased political
patronage to further strengthen his office and bolster his powers as he and his
family fill their pockets, extracting a fee for every project, every favour
that goes through or not.
“We have continued
this tradition of parliamentary democracy through the past 81 years, protecting
it from those who plotted against it, both in uniform and through insurrection,”
Rajapaksa told his audience, when in fact, it is ‘parliamentary
democracy’ that needs protection from this man.
He defended the JVP
insurgents who were liquidated; he fought for the protection of their human
rights. What an about face. History tells another story about the Sinhalese
insurgents and Rajapaksa – the man who defended their right to justice
standing alone at the UN.
“I myself sought a
second term in office, even before the expiry of my first term, to obtain a
truly national mandate, because the terrorists whose agents are still active in
some parts of the world, denied many people in the North and East the right to
vote, the first time I sought the Presidency in November 2005,” Rajapaksa
said, pretending that nothing had happened and he could give the right spin to
his unsuspecting audience to cover up his undemocratic usurpation of power, virtually
stealing the presidency in 2005.
It is common knowledge
that Rajapakse, as a presidential candidate was responsible in convincing the
LTTE through mediators with offer of money to allow him to win over Ranil
Wickremasinhe by asking Tamils to abstain from voting that gave him the
presidency on a platter.
Rajapaksa ended his
speech by lending support to the Commonwealth: “Your efforts to promote
parliamentary democracy by enhancing knowledge and understanding of democratic
governance, and interest in building an informed parliamentary community among
the member nations, has our strongest support.” It was another lie.
It’s beyond belief
that people sat there listening to this ‘despot’ talk to them about
democratic governance, something which is alien to the Rajapaksa regime and his
clan, where ‘family bandyism’ reigns and nepotism has become a way
of life. Where Rajapaksa’s cabinet and the MPs of his party are muzzled
and his opponents are “white vanned”.
S L
Gunesekara in an article titled “Family Bandyism” that appeared in
the Island News Paper in January 2012 says of Rajapaksa: “Today, we have
Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom the Bandaranaike family did not want as President and
with him a whole host of members of the Rajapaksa family in various high positions.
It is no secret that even ministers pay unctuous obeisance to the Rajapaksa
family whether they are technically higher or lower in precedence to them. They
pay obeisance not because of any table of precedence or genuine respect but
purely and simply because they realize that as things look today, it is only
through the Rajapaksa family that one could get anywhere in politics. Is this
over simplifying matters? I think not,” he concludes.
Gunesekara
has a piece of advice for Sri Lankan citizenry: “If we are to progress
and hold our own among the nations of the world, we must forthwith free
ourselves from this horrendous feudal mindset of servility to politicians and
allegiance to their families and replace the ‘family bandyism’ that
now reigns supreme with a ‘meritocracy’. If we do not, we are
surely doomed,” he says.
Was the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Kamalesh Sharma trying to
say some something here to Rajapaksa when he addressed the meeting: “Parliament
should be the primary forum where the voice of the people, especially the poor
and the marginalized is heard with absolute clarity,” and ………that
national
parliaments, state assemblies and local councils ….in turn, serve the
people by holding the executive to account and by ensuring democracy delivers
for all.”
But
there was no hint that Kamalesh Sharma might have
given Rajapaksa who has war crimes allegations hanging over him any
honest
advice. Other than expressing his satisfaction at Sri Lanka’s
preparation
for the 2013 CHOGM and his readiness “to deepen commonwealth’s
partnership with Sri Lanka in the years ahead through the Commonwealth
Fund for
Technical Cooperation in development assistance collaboration with Sri
Lanka, Sharma was comfortable conducting business as if nothing had
happened. The
Commonwealth website said (apart from at present strengthening the
public
service technical assistance), it will in the future pursue
possibilities for
new enhanced assistance in the following areas: “Public service strengthening, Youth entrepreneurship,
Sports for Development and Peace in the North and
East, Youth
Ambassadors for Peace’, strengthening of the Office of the Elections Commissioner, assistance in
implementation of the Lessons Learned and
Reconciliation Commission, legislative drafting Capacity and strengthening
of the media.”
The Commonwealth needs to
be vigilant of giving funds to Sri Lanka. The system is so corrupt in Sri Lanka; funds could go into the wrong pockets.
Has the world forgotten the horror of
Mullivaikkal?
Doesn’t The Commonwealth have any other venue? A natural question
when the Commonwealth plans two meetings in Sri Lanka in two consecutive years?
Sri Lanka is famous for its hospitality to foreign
guests – and the regime is expert at diverting guests’ attention
and keeping them mesmerized.
So it was no
rocket science to predict the inevitable. Dr. Shija who led the visiting
parliamentarians on their tour of affected areas, taken round by Kilinochchi
Brigade Commander Hathurusinghe told the Daily Mirror “that he had really
had a change of his negative perception of Sri Lanka after visiting the war
affected area,” adding that “though the scars of destruction were
still visible, a great deal of development work had been done to resuscitate
the economy of people.” Dr Shija is supposed to have said “he had a
different view after being taken round by the Kilinochchi Brigade
Commander” and had implied that the international media had been
misleading.
Dr.
Shija,
according to the Daily Mirror at the conclusion of his tour said “that
the international media had painted a negative picture of Sri Lanka to
the effect that nothing had been done about the rehabilitation and
reconstruction of
the war affected areas.”
Was Dr. Shija
aware that the international media or even the local media were rarely given
free access to the affected areas?
“The
Kilinochchi Brigade Commander explained to us how the entire population of that
district was displaced due to the war over a couple of years ago. Now, almost
all of them have been resettled. We wish best of luck for peace and prosperity
in Sri Lanka,” Dr. Shija told the daily Mirror, taking the military
version as gospel.
Dr. Shija
didn’t ask what a military commander is doing welcoming them in the
North?
Dr. Shija
should have asked why international human rights groups are not freely allowed
into Tamil areas in Sri Lanka.
The
Commonwealth Parliamentarians should have found it odd that except for Douglas
Devananda no other Tamil
parliamentarian was there to welcome the Commonwealth parliamentarians; it will
never be known if the Tamil MPs did ask to meet with the visitors.
There were
plenty of pictures of the delegates being draped with silk shawls only by the
Military Commander and there was news of the visitors breaking coconuts at
Nallur Kandasamy temple.
Has the world forgotten the horror of
Mullivaikkal?
There
was no sign that the commonwealth was going to change the 2013
CHOGM. Kamalesh Sharma took the opportunity in fact to urge Canada not
to boycott the 2013 meeting that prompted a letter from me. “Canada must not yield to pressure from any quarters;
boycotting the meeting will send a strong message to Sri Lanka, to other heads
of governments and the rest of the world, for no head of state who presided
over unimaginable mass atrocities must be allowed to play host to and sit side
by side with heads of governments who put human rights on top of their agenda
and no country must be allowed to continue with ‘business as usual’
and host an international conference on the dead bodies of its citizens,”
I wrote.
Some how I feel my adopted country, Canada would put human rights at
the top of its agenda and not attend CHOGM. I felt sure that our Prime Minister
would stick to his resolve when the human rights situation and the culture of
impunity hadn’t changed in Sri Lanka.
The
open
letter that ten human rights organizations had written to Commonwealth
Foreign Ministers must be considered by the Commonwealth. The letter
called for
a change of venue for the 2013 CHOGM, stating the consideration of Sri
Lanka as host was “grossly inappropriate” citing continued human rights
violations and the need for an international investigation.
Human Rights Watch, Sri Lanka Campaign
for Peace and Justice, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Centre for
Policy Alternatives (CPA) were among those who expressed concern: The letter
said “Awarding the next CHOGM to Sri Lanka would not only undermine the fundamental values on which the
Commonwealth is based, but also has the potential to render the Commonwealth’s commitment to human
rights and the promise of reforms meaningless,” and
that “'The fact that the
host country of the CHOGM goes on to hold the chairmanship of the Commonwealth
(from 2013 to 2015) is also a serious concern, stating that “Handing over leadership
of the Commonwealth to a country with a questionable record in terms of human
rights and democracy should not be the outcome of an event that will celebrate
the twentieth anniversary of the Harare Declaration.”
The
letter also outlined some bench marks to asses Sri Lanka’s suitability as host in 2013 which included the following: “1. bringing all legislation in
line with international human rights standards 2. Supporting and cooperating
with independent and credible domestic and international investigations 3. Committing
to collaborate with the Office of the UN Secretary General to initiate the
implementation of the recommendations set out in the report of the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts”.
With
new evidence emerging of “human skeletons” of people burnt to ashes
being found in Ananthapuram and other parts of Pudukuduirippu area the
international community has to sit up and take stock and act; and act they
must.
There are some serious
issues the brazen attitude of the Commonwealth raises.
Will the Commonwealth
act with a conscience and change the venue for its 2013 CHOGM?
Has the Commonwealth Lost Its Moral Compass? Or is it becoming an anachronism
and is now merely ceremonial?
Has the World Forgotten the Horror of Mullivaikaal:
Are Tamils “Children of a Lesser God?”
