UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka adopted

[Gibbs]

then what is the use of such resolution?

It was more to do with global power politics..Growing Chinese influence in the region over US interests.. To keep SL in check.. No love for the Tamils

 

[Gibbs]

Amit Baruah, an independent Delhi-based journalist, was The Hindu’s correspondent in Sri Lanka from 1995 to 1997

Letting Tamil Chauvinists Attack Innocent Sri Lankans in Tamil Nadu is Neither Justice nor Good Policy but Sheer Lunacy

24 March 2013, 7:01 am


By
Amit Baruah

It took me some time as a Delhiwallah in Colombo to understand how important the politics of the various Dravida Kazhagams and some fringe groups in Tamil Nadu was to Sri Lanka. Soon after I landed in Colombo as The Hindu’s correspondent in 1995, their significance grew on me. Those were days that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was running amuck, striking the heart of Colombo time and again. They blasted the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and sent oil storage tanks in Kollonnawa up in flames. If there was an earth-shattering sound, you knew Tamil Tiger terror had struck.

In those pre-internet days, when the fax machine was God, I would get calls about reports published in The Hindu on what one or the other Tamil party had said in Madras (not yet Chennai). I would then pick up the phone and request a colleague in Madras to fax me the story.



If one knew in general terms that the politics of Tamil Nadu was linked to the Tamil-Sinhala politics of Sri Lanka, these calls from Tamil politicians in Colombo, sometimes even from Indian High Commission officials, came as confirmation. At that time, when the LTTE was battering the Sri Lankan state, picking off Tamil leaders like Ketheeswaran Loganathan and Neelan Tiruchelvam, killing innocent Tamilian and Sinhalese civilians alike, there was no protest from the various Tamil outfits in Tamil Nadu.

The LTTE’s reign of terror was total. And, Velupillai Prabhakaran, killed by the Sri Lankan army in 2009, was the unchallenged Tiger-in-Chief. I never mourned his death; he was a ruthless military genius who was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils, but I did and do mourn the deaths of ordinary Tamils killed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s forces around the time the LTTE boss met his end.

Yes, I do think there should be an honest, purposeful and finger-pointing inquiry into the deaths of these innocent Tamils as the Sinhala state triumphantly ‘mopped up’ the remaining insurgents in northern Sri Lanka. But the histrionics of DMK President Muthuvel Karunanidhi and his party’s withdrawal of support from the UPA Government have come four years too late to be taken seriously. The veteran politician could not but have been aware that India gave considerable behind-the-scenes help to the Lankan army as it went about the military campaign to decimate the Tamil Tigers. It was a subtle, dual approach that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government, like others before him, had adopted. Help Colombo militarily, but keep pushing the Rajapaksa government on the issue of Tamil rights.

If Karunanidhi were concerned about the fate of Tamils in Sri Lanka, then why didn’t he pull out in 2009 from the UPA? Why wait till now? Because he has nothing to go to the people with, come the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. So, with his senior leaders charged with corruption, the DMK chief is desperate to arm himself with something for the next general election. If nothing else, he will at least go down as ‘the giant defender’ of Tamil interests.


+++

As a defender of Tamil rights, Karunanidhi is in competition with the state’s Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. She has been proactive on this front, recently ordering a school football team home from Colombo, even going to the extent of suspending a sports official. Under her watch as Chief Minister, ordinary Sri Lankans (including Tamils) have been heckled and harried in Tamil Nadu, and at least two monks have been beaten up in the past few days. This makes for a bizarre situation, with ordinary Sri Lankans being attacked and persecuted for the alleged crimes of their government.

It makes a mockery of India’s efforts to sustain a good relationship with Sri Lanka and its people. What if these attacks provoke retaliation in Sri Lanka on the thousands of Indians visiting or living in Colombo and other parts of the island nation? What will Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa do then? Ask that India snap diplomatic relations with Sri Lanka? Or send in troops to defend Indian citizens?

Such a shortsighted approach to problems in Sri Lanka boggles the mind. Are these politicians concerned at all about what impact their actions might have on a country with which India enjoys good relations? The short answer: no. Karunanidhi’s faith in the United Nations and its organs to get justice for Sri Lankan Tamils is touching. We are all aware of the UN’s own record in failing to highlight the killings of Tamil civilians as the war wound down in Sri Lanka in 2009.

Barring one statement from the UN, on 14 March 2009, that the actions of the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE ‘may constitute international crimes, entailing individual responsibility, including for war crimes and crimes against humanity’, an internal UN report found that the global body ‘almost completely omitted to explicitly mention Government responsibility for violations of international law’.

Let us not kid ourselves. The draft resolution before the UN Human Rights Council only calls upon Sri Lanka to conduct an investigation of Tamil civilian deaths in 2009. It would be a bit of an embarrassment for Colombo if the resolution is passed in its present form, but nothing it can’t live with. “All the talk about killings and atrocities must be balanced and include also those committed by the Tamil Tigers,” Mahinda Samarasinghe, Sri Lanka’s Minister for Plantation Industries, said at the Council’s meeting in Geneva, displaying little appetite for a credible probe into the actions of the country’s security forces.

The fact is that LTTE forces have been decimated. The fact is that the power of the Sri Lankan State, which demonstrates all the traits of Sinhala chauvinism, is total today. And, it’s not as if Colombo has no friends in the international community—just read the record of the debate on the draft resolution at the Council meeting for details. At the end of the day, any inquiry into the excesses that were committed (according to UN estimates at least 2,683 were killed and 7,241 injured between 20 January and 2 March 2009) during the war can be conducted only with the cooperation of the Sri Lankan State. And, while there is no doubt that the government should be pressured to conduct a credible investigation, the record of the past four years has shown that Colombo has little interest in a real probe.

It’s not just that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers were responsible for taking the war to the Tamil Tigers (and to innocent Tamil Sri Lankans), it’s that there is no space for justice or Tamils under the Sinhala brand of politics that the Rajapaksas have patented. Realists would believe that after a massive victory in a bloody war that lasted a quarter of a century, the president would think it a good idea to codify and give greater rights to the country’s Tamil minority to forestall future disaffection. Instead, we see that the minimal 13th amendment to the country’s constitution enacted in 1987, which sets up provincial councils, is up for question. Far from getting more rights, there is every chance that Sinhala chauvinism may lead to the repeal of that amendment.

+++

Much as we would like foreign governments to do what we want them to, they are sovereign entities with minds of their own. Rather than talk down to them, or pass resolutions in Parliament, it would be far better to engage them and hope they see reason in the future—or that the next government is more receptive.

If Rajapaksa is pursuing his brand of chauvinist politics, Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa are practising the competitive Tamil Nadu kind. None of them is interested in the rights and aspirations of Sri Lankan Tamils.

Once again, Indian foreign policy is at the mercy of regional satraps. Not Mamata Banerjee this time, but Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa. Any foolish dramatic act of ‘support’ for Sri Lankan Tamils by New Delhi to save the UPA Government would have long-term implications for India’s relationship with Sri Lanka. Moreover, letting Tamil chauvinists attack innocent Sri Lankans in Tamil Nadu is not justice. Nor is it good policy. It is just lunacy.

 

[rubyjackass]

i think it will be important to declare tamilnadu as the official land of Eelam - an independent country, which is what many local tamilnadu residents have been calling for -- for quite some time actually

I know. Several of us called you and explained the situation. All the time, we have been talking with tongues in cheeks.

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

i think it will be important to declare tamilnadu as the official land of Eelam - an independent country, which is what many local tamilnadu residents have been calling for -- for quite some time actually

As a Tamilian i can understand sense of envy and possibly closest sense of inferiority you have towards us Tamilians.

After all once upon a time Tamil Nadu was similar condition as today's Pakistan. Tamil Nadu had LTTE cadres running around the town freely.

However after death of Rajiv Gandhi, both the state and central Govt bravely eliminated any vestige of LTTE in India. Unlike as in Pakistan where even chaps like Imran Khan chicken out on Taliban.

And thanks to this proper decision taken today Tamil Nadu is manufacturing hub, an emerging IT hub plus decent living standards by South Asian Level.



So each time i see these ejaculations of envy and inferiority by your ilk, i don't look down upon you contemptuously, i just pity and sympathize with the misery you live in

On a serious note, UNHRC resolution is a good thing to happen, as it will bring confidence for Sri Lankan Tamils towards their Govt.

Which is most important in the finishing stages of a civil war.

(SBU) Summary: Despite the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam and cessation of hostilities in Sri Lanka, the Sri
Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu are unlikely to return to their
homeland anytime soon. Release of internally displaced persons
(IDPs) from confinement in IDP camps is a precondition to the
refugees even considering return to the island. Refugee fears of
human rights abuses in Sri Lanka are another impediment; one that
will be more difficult to address in the long term because the
information sources on which the refugees rely stoke paranoia about
the Rajapaksa government. Finally, the length of time the refugees
have spent in India (many have been here for more than 20 years)
weighs against a quick return. End summary.

Sri Lankan Refugees In India Unlikely To Return Anytime Soon Despite War's End

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

As a Tamilian i can understand sense of envy and possibly closest sense of inferiority you have towards us Tamilians.

After all once upon a time Tamil Nadu was similar condition as today's Pakistan. Tamil Nadu had LTTE cadres running around the town freely.

However after death of Rajiv Gandhi, both the state and central Govt bravely eliminated any vestige of LTTE in India. Unlike as in Pakistan where even chaps like Imran Khan chicken out on Taliban.

And thanks to this proper decision taken today Tamil Nadu is manufacturing hub, an emerging IT hub plus decent living standards by South Asian Level.



So each time i see these ejaculations of envy and inferiority by your ilk, i don't look down upon you contemptuously, i just pity and sympathize with the misery you live in

On a serious note, UNHRC resolution is a good thing to happen, as it will bring confidence for Sri Lankan Tamils towards their Govt.

Which is most important in the finishing stages of a civil war.



Sri Lankan Refugees In India Unlikely To Return Anytime Soon Despite War's End

errmm yeahhh you sure got me on that one. I feel a lot of inferiority complex over people who stand 2 over feet shorter than I do and whom i can never understand a word of what theyre saying.


on a serious note - i have nothing against these tamilians you talk about. I'm just glad Sri Lanka - with the help of its allies and supporters (moral and materiel) in the region could help them crush the menace of terrorism - which got much of its lending hand from a restive province of a nearby trouble-causing "neighbour"

now if you excuse me, i'll go enjoy another one of those ejaculations you keep harping on about

 

[Umair Nawaz]

Why Indians think of going to WAR against Sri Lanka in the first place? that too over internal matter of Sri Lanka



Indians trying to ride over US move . funny.

Infact Indians lost here.

CHINA-SRI LANKA cooperation is going to strengthened and Pakistan should also support Sri Lanka militarily

We do help when they need us.

 

[sarthak]

good.....push them closer to China and the encircling of bharat can slowly take fruition

Encircling of Bharat won't stop the talibunnies from blowing up Pakistani troops on a daily basis. It won't stop killings in Karachi, nor will it delay the independence of Balochistan and FATA. It's like these things are a part of destiny. You can go to the extent of establishing a joint Chinese-Pakistani military outpost 20 miles off the coast of Chennai or Kochi .Still the next day , you will hear in the news about a failing economy,14 hour power outages , a talibunny who blew himself up and killed a 50 , and the BLA and other separatist tribals gaining power. It's not that an MQM sharp shooter or talibunny would read in the newspaper that we have encircled bharat and go like " Oh , so now we have encircled Bharat , I'm going to give up all this bad stuff because I'm so happy" . No the next day , the target killer will still pop a bullet into someone for 50 dollars or so , and the Talibunny will still do what he's best at. Pakistani planners still haven't realized that these issues aren't resolved by encircling Bharat and I don't even expect them to.

 

[jandk]

I believe the LTTE will rise once again. Sinhalese racism and blatant genocidal policies will continue and tamils will once again have to stand up for their rights. Sinhalese institutionalized racism and discrimination must end to ensure prolonged peace and harmony

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

errmm yeahhh you sure got me on that one. I feel a lot of inferiority complex over people who stand 2 over feet shorter than I do and whom i can never understand a word of what theyre saying.

Nice of you to admit it

 

[Vinod2070]

errmm yeahhh you sure got me on that one. I feel a lot of inferiority complex over people who stand 2 over feet shorter than I do and whom i can never understand a word of what theyre saying.

Frankly it is amazing how any one can have more "inferiority complex" than people living in stone age.

Apparently they are running in overloaded boats wherever the boats can take them. Most boats don't stay afloat before reaching the destination.

Apparently one managed to reach the shores.

on a serious note - i have nothing against these tamilians you talk about. I'm just glad Sri Lanka - with the help of its allies and supporters (moral and materiel) in the region could help them crush the menace of terrorism - which got much of its lending hand from a restive province of a nearby trouble-causing "neighbour"

now if you excuse me, i'll go enjoy another one of those ejaculations you keep harping on about

Yet your own kabilis and the Turis continue to get killed every day! By all sides.

Hope the world is able to save them. They are utterly helpless at this time, being massacred by all sides.