| by N.S.Venkataraman
( November 17,
2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) An internal United Nations Report is reported to have blamed its own officials,
who were part of its Mission in
Colombo, for failing to protect
civilians in the last months of Sri Lanka’s civil war.
However, Sri
Lankan government has denied that it has forced the United Nations or acted
against it in any manner. It has justifiably
argued that it cannot intimidate the
United Nations and force it to act in the way that it would want, particularly considering the fact that Sri Lanka is a
small country.
Whatever may be
the fact or otherwise of the internal report of the United Nations, the fact is
that Sri Lankan government had to fight to protect its territorial integrity
and its sovereignty. When a section of
the people form themselves into a rebel group and wage war to split the
country, no government worth its name can afford to remain silent. Any country in the world would have reacted
only in the way that the Sri Lankan
government did.
In case that the Sri Lankan government had not fought
against the militants, the country would have been split, creating new zones
of tension and conflicts causing even
more miseries to the people.
Obviously, innocent people have suffered who were caught
between the army and the rebels and also hundreds of people died on both the
sides. The United Nations played its role to the extent possible in the
circumstances and perhaps, its observers in the war zone had their own views
and therefore, they acted in the way that they did. Now, once again, raking up the issue is
unnecessary and is not going to serve any
purpose. The war waged by Americans in Vietnam and Korea, the killings
in Iraq and Afghanistan by the multi national forces to defeat the rebels are
all matters of recent history and nobody is blaming the Americans and its
allies for the happenings and the United Nations is conspicuous by its silence
with regard to such unfortunate events .
One can be sure
that millions of Sri Lankans feel extremely upset and unhappy about the
sufferings of the innocent people during the period of this counter productive
conflict , initiated by the rebels who wanted a separate state. It was a very unfortunate situation and
nobody would feel happy about this.
Sri Lankan
government is facing criticisms in some forums across the world for its act of
commissions and omissions during the stressful
war period and from all
indications, Sri Lankan government really feel
unhappy and concerned about the reactions in some quarters across the
world. The only thing that it can do
now is to take quick measures to rehabilitate the victims and create confidence
in them that the government and the citizens feel sorry about their bitter experience and would
do the utmost to help them out of the distress situation.
It would be more
useful and purposeful , if United Nations would come out with steps to help Sri
Lanka and mobilize international funds and technical expertise to relieve the
pressure on the victims of war. Instead of this , if mere post war criticisms
would be the focus of United Nations , then it would have to face the criticism
of beating around the bush and not remaining true to its purpose and objectives.
 An internal United Nations Report is reported to have blame...){kind=link}