In Sri-Lanka, ethnoreligious fascism has spread like cancer since 1948. Linguistic nationalism came in 1956 with the Sinhala only Act.
Since Sri Lanka’s independence in 1948, Sri Lanka’s
Tamils have been killed, kidnapped, disappeared, raped, robbed, displaced and
arbitrarily detained by the successive regimes dominated by the majority
Sinhalese.
In an under-developed
country, appealing to the majority (majoritarianism) and discriminating against
the minority is the easiest path to power. This has led to the tyranny of the
majority, insurgencies and a bankrupt economy.
Impunity Breeds Impunity
Sri-Lanka has a long history
of state-sponsored terrorism and violence dating back to the 1970s and a
culture of impunity.
There have been numerous riots against minorities since
1956.
For example, in July 1983,
then President J. R. Jayawardene supplied armed gangs of Sinhalese with voter
lists to identify Tamil homes and businesses. He incited the thugs to hack
Tamils to death in their houses, offices, and places of work. Thousands of
Tamils were murdered.
Remembering Sri
Lanka's Black July:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23402727
In 2015, the UN called for a special court to try war
crimes committed by all sides during the civil war.
According to the UN, years of denials and cover-ups mean
the Sri Lankan system is "not yet ready to handle these types of
crime".
According to the former UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein:
"Our investigation has laid bare the horrific level
of violations and abuses that occurred in Sri Lanka, including indiscriminate
shelling, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, harrowing accounts
of torture and sexual violence, recruitment of children and other grave crimes."
He also called on the Sri Lankan government to remove
from office anyone, if there were credible grounds to believe they had
committed human rights abuses.
The report's main findings include:
· Numerous unlawful killings between 2002 and 2011, allegedly by both sides;
· Enforced disappearances affecting tens of thousands over decades;
· The "brutal use of torture" by security forces, in particular during the immediate aftermath of the conflict;
· Extensive sexual violence against detainees
by the security forces "with men as likely to be victims as women."
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields
The Latest Report from UNHRC
Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, issued a report last month.
She described
“a deepening and accelerating militarization of civilian government functions.”
Since 2020, she wrote, “The President has appointed at least 28 serving or
former military and intelligence personnel to key administrative posts,”
including senior military officials who have been alleged in UN reports to be
implicated in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/29/sri-lanka-un-rights-chief-decries-mounting-abuses
Sowing the Seeds of Conflict
Former UN officials and independent experts
call on the international community to take immediate steps towards justice and
accountability to end Sri Lanka’s cycles of violence
https://www.scribd.com/document/495016947/Sowing-the-Seeds-of-Conflict
UK’s Double Dealing in Covering Up War Crimes
While the UK pretends to promote human rights around the
world, it is also involved in arming, training and protecting the Sinhalese War
Criminals.
In 2013, the UK allowed Mahinda Rajapaksa to host the
Commonwealth Summit. Since then the Commonwealth has become the Common-Filth!
During a visit to Sri-Lanka for the Commonwealth Summit,
David Cameron condemned Sri Lanka's failure to investigate allegations of
"chilling and appalling" war crimes and promised to raise continuing
allegations of human rights abuses and the need for an independent inquiry into
historic war crimes.
But David Cameron has failed to do anything after dining with Sinhalese War Criminals in Colombo!
https://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-commonwealth-queen-meeting-grotesque
The UK has been providing military assistance to the Sri-Lankan military for several decades while condemning the same military for human rights violations!
https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/uk-defence-engagement-sri-lanka-questioned-parliament
The UK has imposed sanctions on some Russian and Saudi officials, but it has yet to take any action against the Sinhalese War Criminals!
UK imposes sanctions against
human rights abusers:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53303100
Even though a cross-party group of British parliamentarians (including several former ministers) have asked the UK government to take action against the Sinhalese War Criminals, the UK government has not done anything!
The Core group led by the UK is likely to pass a weak resolution again at the UNHRC this month to avoid taking strong action against the Sinhalese War Criminals! They plan to drag the process by using sophistry until victims’ families give up.
Incredible India with No Credibility
Since 1948, every Sri-Lankan regime has taken India for a
ride. India has demonstrated that it has no spine to deal with the rogue Sri-Lankan
regimes.
The persecution of Sri
Lanka’s Tamils started with the passage of the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948.
It denied citizenship to One Million Indian Tamils who were brought by the
British to work on tea estates.
The Act was inspired by Adolph
Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws of September 1935, which provided: “A Jew cannot be a
citizen of the Reich. He cannot exercise the right to vote.”
Estate Tamils, the Ceylon
citizenship act of 1948 and Sri Lankan politics:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09584939908719856?journalCode=ccsa20
The 1956 Sinhala Only Act
was a landmark in the history of Tamil oppression. It generally excluded or
handicapped Tamils in public employment, education and housing.
During the Indo-Pakistan War
in 1971, Pakistani aircrafts refuelled at the Bandaranaike airport in Colombo.
In June 2011, Pakistani High
Commissioner to Sri-Lanka, Seema Ilahi Baloch thanked Sri-Lanka for all the
help it provided to Pakistan during the 1971 war against India.
For helping Pakistan during
the war, India gave Katchatheevu to Sri-Lanka as a gift in 1974!
Last month, an Indian
minister V. K. Singh, said that India was making sincere efforts to take back
the island and India would have to wait for the Sri Lankan government to
respond!
No self-respecting country would
ever hand over its territory to another country – especially a country that is
run by dodgy people with a criminal past!
The Indian Peace Keeping
Force (IPKF) received air support from these for-hire British pilots despite
Indian diplomats publicly condemning the presence of UK mercenaries in Sri
Lanka, according to the book, 'Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got
Away With War Crimes',
Indo-Lanka
Accord
The accord was signed by
India and Sri-Lanka in 1987.
The accord among other
things bestowed upon India the responsibility (shared with Sri Lanka) of ensuring
and protecting the security and safety of all communities living in the
Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka. Clause 2.16(e) says: “The
Governments of Sri Lanka and India will cooperate in ensuring the physical
security and safety of all communities inhabiting the Northern and Eastern
Provinces.”
Successive Sri-Lankan Regimes have failed to devolve
power as required by the accord and managed to fool India for more than 33
years!
Most of the Tamil civilians were killed by the Sri-Lankan regimes after 1987 and India has failed to protect the civilians!
http://www.dailynews.lk/2018/07/30/features/158264/indo-lanka-accord-31-years
India will play its usual
role in watering down the resolution at the UNHRC this month to protect the Sinhalese
War Criminals and display its
impotence to the world again!
India is not a leader, but a
follower and it is playing second-fiddle to China in South Asia!
An Oscar Winning
Performance by the US
Like all Western Countries,
the US is very good at talking about human rights and in pretending to promote
human rights and rule-of-law.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa was a US citizen when he was involved
in mass murders in Sri-Lanka.
After the end of the civil war in 2009, he travelled to
the US many times and the US government took no action against him!
The only action the US government has taken so far is to
ban one Sinhalese War Criminal, Shavendra Silva, from entering the US!
The US has taken action to bring murderers to justice
when US citizens were the victims, but it has failed to take any action against
the Sinhalese War Criminals.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/02/lasantha-wickrematunge-ahimsa-rajapaksa/
Weak and Clueless EU
In 2017, the EU reinstated GSP Plus after the “new
Sri-Lankan regime” gave various promises to improve the human rights record, including
revocation of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
The reinstatement of the GSP Plus was met with widespread
criticism from human rights organisations.
The “new Sri-Lankan regime” has failed (as usual) to
deliver on any of the commitments it made to the EU. The EU has done nothing so
far!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/10/sri-lanka-eu-trade-cut
Sri-Lanka relies on the US, UK and EU markets for more than 50% of its exports.
If Western countries are serious in dealing with the Sinhalese War Criminals and preventing future human rights abuses in Sri-Lanka, they can impose economic sanctions.
The current Sri-Lankan regime has repeatedly boasted that it was elected purely from the votes of the Sinhalese. Therefore, the Sinhalese who voted for the War Criminals and fraudsters need to be made to pay a heavy price.
The Sri-Lankan regime is the
model for future rogue regimes around the world.
If the regime gets away without punishment, it will
create similar odious regimes around the world in the future.
“Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere”
Martin Luther King Jr
Other Useful Articles:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/26/sri-lanka-high-ranking-officials-involved-war-crimes
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/26/sri-lanka-high-ranking-officials-involved-war-crimes
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/22/sri-lanka-seeks-diversion-not-justice-over-wartime-abuses
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/3/20/ex-leaders-brother-led-death-squad-in-sri-lanka
https://thediplomat.com/2021/02/myanmar-and-sri-lanka-bound-by-travails/
