The realpolitik behind the UNHRC actions: Can Sri Lanka fly with the Eagle and ride the Dragon?

The Western countries behind the UNHRC resolution have their own highly developed intelligence sources of information on the Eelam war, as it was of intense interest to the Western nations.  In fact, the foreign ministers of UK and France actually came to Colombo to intervene personally.  Given that level of interest, they had reams of information on the Eelam war.  Lord Naseby has exposed the tip of this hidden iceberg of information possessed by the British Government alone.  The US, Indians, French, Canada with its huge Tamil Diaspora, and most of all the Norwegians possessed first-hand information.  None of that has been exploited by the UN, but remains hidden because, in all probability, what is in them are of little use to the agenda of the core group of nations behind the UNHRC resolution.

All such information is ignored by the “moral crusaders” who also try to claim that this was a vicious war conducted without witnesses whereas there were many witnesses, and first hand reports, from journalists like M. Reddy, representatives of the IRC, UN, and TULF MPs who were in close contact with the LTTE, churchmen.  There were military observers of diplomatic missions who were working closely with some Western aid organizations and NGOs embedded in the Vanni.  Existence of some of these NGOs depended on the existence of the Tigers.  They had such a symbiosis with the Tigers that one such NGO even surreptitiously allowed the Tigers to use their earth-moving equipment to build earthen bunds to prevent the advance of the army.  Information from such sources were available to foreign missions.  The Norwegians were personally close to Balasingham and other top Tiger operatives and knew the facts and often concealed the facts in their belief that such connivance will help “peace” negotiations.  However, they did appeal to the Tigers to release the hostages held as a human shield.

Then there were the TULF/TNA MPs who were the political arm of the Tigers.  Why do commentators conveniently forget what Mr. Veersingham Anandasangaree, the then General Secretary of the TULF  told at the Annual Meeting in December 2008?  Sangaree mentioned how the LTTE was killing its own injured, including civilians in cold blood, as they were regarded as a liability.  Reports of the LTTE loading it’s injured into buses that were too damaged for use, and setting them on fire exist.  The pro-LTTE TULF member from Mutative (Mooladoova) who was present at the Dec. 2008 meeting is said to have retorted that such things are necessary in the fight to achieve Eelam!  But such dead are also conveniently attributed against the Armed forces.

Furthermore, there were “student volunteers” from some Canadian Universities who had been brainwashed by the Canadian Diaspora to work in the Vanni.  They came to “help” the Tigers in the romantic adventure of creating an “exclusive Tamil homeland” that will herald a great Tamil Nation stretching from South Africa to  Malaysia.  Their ethnic-Tamil academic peers were in touch with these student volunteers.

The UNHRC itself, in 2014 had appointed a 12 member committee  to conduct an investigation into the allegations of human rights violations in Sri Lanka during the war. .The investigators, coordinated by  Sandra Beidas  http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/30427 expelled from the Sudan for alleged “unethical” ivestigations) had analyzed the evidence they had gathered and given an overall picture of trends of human rights violations.  The analysis provided an official report of atrocities committed by the LTTE during the war,  to the anger of the Tiger sympathizers who had long demanded an international investigation, but only into the actions of the GOSL!

 Furthermore, the investigation rejected the chrage of genocide that has been leveled against GOSL by the Tamil Diaspora.  Here it should be noted that the TNA spokesman, Mr. Sumanthiran had also rejected the charge of Genocide.

So there is enough hard evidence from a variety of independent sources, and even partisan sources like the Tamil net that imply no more than some 7000 as the number killed in the period under review.  The UN has the capacity and diplomatic clout to access information available only to governments, and to hire competent investigators and research analysts to dig out the information.  But the UNHRC effort is not a fact-finding exercise. 

Yasmin Sooka was a  Mère Fondatrice of the NGO entitled “Campaigne for Justice  and Peace in Sri Lanka” (CJPSL).  Its mission stated in 2009 was to bring Sri Lanka before the International court of Justice for war crimes.  It worked closely with a prominent Colombo NGO that proposed “policy alternatives”, with another Hong Kong based “human rights” NGO, and Western diaspora groups.  They even got Naom Chomsky on their side for a short time.  Even the prospective names of what finally came out as the “Darusman committee” were submitted to the office of Mr. Ban-ki-Moon by individuals connected with the CJPSL,  So it is not surprising that Yasmin Sooka was shooed in.

So the UN exercise is an operation directed by political agendas.  Thus the claim that the GOSL carried out a massacre of not 40,000, but 170,000 was recently stated by Navi Pillai after her retirement from the UNHCR.  This narrative is best suited for  (a) the local politics of the Western politicians who depend on Tamil Diaspora votes in their electorates,  (b) Indian government’s need to be au fait with Tamil Nadu politicians,  (c) geopolitical needs of the West in punishing the Rajapaksa government for not cooperating with the West with its Status of Forces agreement etc., and in being increasingly pro-Chinese.

Even the Sri Lankans, i.e., even the Tamils and Moors (Muslims), and not just the Sinhala Buddhists who have become the devil incarnate, are going to be punished by the West for putting back the regime headed by the Rajapaksas who depend on the votes of the Devil Incarnate.  That was the war-winning regime that the West successfully conspired to dethrone in 2015.  They put in the Sirisena-Wickermeasinghe-Samaraweera-Sampathan government that allowed Washington to even overseer the writing of a new constitution for the country, while Jayasuriya, the Speaker of the Parliament had a US-funded “advisor” to guide him in running the parliament and link with Western lobby groups!

So, given the political, rather than factual basis of the UNHRC actions, what is the strategy that exists for Sri Lanka to close the UNHRC file and terminate Western antagonism?

Sri Lanka has been attacked by Islamist Jihadist elements even though it had stayed away from engaging with the US and Pakistani efforts against the Taliban.  There are unconfirmed reports that the US had indeed approached the SL government for possible use of a Sri Lanka contingent in Afghanistan.  The Taliban had destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2003, and Sri Lanka could have justified such intervention as defending Buddhist heritage by deploying some of its forces to give protection to archaeological sites of the ancient Gandhara, given that the Eelam wars are over.  Unlike the Trump administration that hoped to bring all US forces in Afghanistan back to the US by 1st April 2021, the Biden administration is inclined to keep a continued presence.  If Sri Lanka opts to work with the US, but with the accord of Islamic nations like Pakistan, one can predict that the behavior of the US in Geneva in 2022 will be a complete about turn!  However, engaging in any war, even to defend archeological sites, has its own unpredictable consequences.

So, Sri Lanka’s future lies in its capacity to fly with the Eagle, under the crescent moon, but without being singed by the Dragon.  Given the mismanagement of the Covid cremation issue, cautious diplomacy may be well beyond the capacity of  Sri Lanka whose diplomacy is crippled and diluted by the appointment of political henchmen and family members of politicians even to key diplomatic positions.

Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandre_Dharma-wardana