Category: Articles

A Parliamentary ‘debate’ on the OHCHR report and the related resolution is scheduled for the 22^nd and 23^rd of October, if I’m not mistaken.  All indications are that the Government will trounce the opposition by branding them ‘extremists.’  (By ‘opposition’ what I mean are those who see the OHCHR report as inimical to Sri Lanka’s interests, and want to resist the related recommendation for a ‘Domestic Mechanism.’)

The opposition, meanwhile, seems to lack a coherent and focused plan of action.  Their strategy appears to consist mainly of various efforts at informing the public that the predicament Sri Lanka faces at present is really bad (i.e. similar to 1815 or worse) which is all true, but hardly useful if what one wants is a practical way to address the said predicament.

One should be rather wary of taking on Mr. Izeth Hussein because he claims to be one the five great diplomats of the world. With such self-proclaimed credentials – he has yet to name the other four greats which will indicate the true measure of his greatness! – one expects his justification for Siri-Wicky regime’s co-sponsorship of the latest UNHRC Resolution, (see Colombo Telegraph – 10/10), to be a solid counterweight to silence the rising opposition to it. But all what he has done is to add the concept of “sovereignty” to his list of harams. Earlier he said haram to President Mahinda Rajapaksa kissing the tarmac when he alighted from his plane at Katunayake airport, celebrating the victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorists. He said kissing the tarmac (an imported product) was haram. Instead he wanted Rajapaksa do what the Caliph who conquered Constantinople did : bathe in sand.

Hybrid is a word unseen in the resolution. It’s presented in an inverted form, more emphatically and in greater detail, in the amended text. The UNHRC report was bold and courageous to use the word ‘hybrid’ upfront. Deception was the intention in the resolution by clouding it with more words and succeeded in looking more alarming.                                                               

Prefer speaking face to face rather than adopting double standards of lavish praise cosmetically applied on the face of the Sri Lankan Government with a knock-out blow directed on the other cheek. The joint resolution shows an associate Sri Lankan fist in the writing: “…affirms in this regard the importance of participation in a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism, including the Special Counsel’s office of the Commonwealth and other foreign Judges, defence lawyers and authorized prosecutors and investigators”.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has released his report dated 16^h September 2015 on the investigations into the incidents which took place between February 2002 and November 2011 plus ‘on going violations’ . His briefing on the report and his suggested hybrid mechanism to investigate into the said incidents and his comments such as some issues are of grave nature and country’s legal system do constitute an assault on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and the defence forces.

 The investigation of the OHCHR was based on THREE sources.  (1) The report of the Panel of Experts appointed to advise the Secretary General of the UN.  (2) The Channel 4 presentations of Callum Macrae and his team and (3) The petitions received by the OHCHR with regard to the purported incidents relating to war in Sri Lanka.