Reports last week said that the American Centre in Colombo was involved in a conspiracy to bring down the government while the US State Department was busy directing the operation to place Sri Lanka in the dock at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Sessions in Geneva next month.
The initial reaction of the government to intelligence that `classes` were being held at the American Centre to set the groundwork for its ouster, was to refuse Visa to US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women`s issues Catherine M. Russell who had planned to visit Sri Lanka.
The US official did not give up her mission following the rejection of her Visa application. She proceeded to Kathmandu and from there she got in touch with women in the North, widowed and victimized otherwise, during the war as well as their counterparts in the South subjected to various forms of injustice, through video conferencing.
US official Russell gathered all possible grist to her mill from the women victims, connected live from the American Centre in Colombo and US Corner in Jaffna A young widow from the North complained to Catherine Russell that she and many other war widows could not get back to their homes for fear of being raped and molested by the army personnel stationed in the Province. Another woman addressing Russell from the American Centre, told her that the Bodu Bala Sena were coercing Muslim and Tamil women in the North and the East to take up family planning.
President Rajapaksa was highly perturbed when he read the intelligence reports that carried the details of the video conferencing exercise. And when he attended Thursday`s Cabinet meeting, he made it a point to make a special statement at the very outset apprising the ministers of the situation. He said they could no longer turn a blind eye to the machinations of the US Government and the time had come for them to take a firm decision.
`Now that there is ample evidence that the US Embassy here is engaged in activity hostile to the government, we cannot look the other way any longer. We have to take some decisive actions,` the President told the ministers.
The President received another highly confidential document on Wednesday. It was a copy of the special statement on Sri Lanka that UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay is due to present at the March Geneva sessions.
The other vital document that the government is concerned about is the US-sponsored resolution against it, which is expected to be presented at the upcoming Geneva sessions.
Initial reports said this resolution will call for an international probe into the war crimes allegedly committed by government security forces. But the latest reports said the resolution is to call for the appointment of a special rapporteur to investigate the alleged war crimes. Thus the government now knows what is really in store for it in Geneva.
The copy of the special statement that UN Human Right Chief Navi Pillay is to make at the Geneva sessions, which the government received earlier caused the authorities much anxiety for she concludes the statement calling for an international probe into alleged war crimes.
The latest report that has jolted the authorities here is that both US President Barack Obama and the US State Secretary, John Kerry, have virtually thrown their hats into the ring to ensure the passage of the resolution against Sri Lanka. The fate of the US-sponsored resolution in Geneva depends on the pattern of voting by the Asian countries. In a bid to canvass the crucial votes of the member nations in Asia, US State Secretary John Kerry embarked on an Asian tour last Thursday.
The vote on the resolution against Sri Lanka at the Geneva sessions has now become something closely linked to the national pride of the US. For if the resolution is defeated by any chance it would be a great blow to the prestige of the global super power. According to diplomatic sources, President Obama himself is expected to undertake an Asian tour to lobby support for their resolution against Sri Lanka.
If lobbying against Sri Lanka by President Obama is bad enough,
worse is a piece of news reaching here from Saudi Arabia, which says that Saudi, a long-standing ally has taken a stand against Sri Lanka. According to informed sources, SLMC Leader Minister Rauf Hakeem had circulated a note among the countries in the Middle East saying that certain extremist religious groups in the country are engaged in a spree of attacking mosques across the country and therefore, they have to reconsider supporting Sri Lanka.
When this question was raised at the Cabinet meeting last Thursday, the President said he too had come to learn that Saudi Arabia has changed her stand on Sri Lanka
These alleged attacks on religious minorities figured even at Thursday`s weekly meeting of the cabinet of ministers. It came in the backdrop of reports that both
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, members of the UNHRC, are poised to vote in favour of the US resolution. Kuwait voted against the resolution (i.e. in favour of Sri Lanka) last year whilst Saudi Arabia is a new member. President Mahinda Rajapaksa told his ministers that the whole purpose of the upcoming US resolution was to bring about a regime change. He raised issue about a document circulated by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) listing places of Muslim worship where attacks have allegedly been carried out.
Remarks by Government ministers and senior officials this week make clear that they are resigned to the reality that the third US-backed resolution would be carried through in the Human Rights Council. Hence they have chosen, officially, to carry out a strong propaganda campaign against all those responsible for this during the ongoing polls campaign. But that could further marginalise Sri Lanka.
More of the taxpayer`s money would have to be pumped later to repair damages, more so with a non-existent foreign policy. If it is not for the UPFA Government, the increasing isolation is certainly a dilemma for Sri Lanka.
Really?
