Sri Lanka must be Declared Rogue State and Economic Sanctions Applied

Sri Lanka must be Declared Rogue State and Economic Sanctions Applied
by Malarthamil

The international community is slowly waking up to the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka which is quite overdue for the last few months. However it is regrettable that a discussion in the Security Council of United Nations, either about the humanitarian crisis or about the political settlement for Ealem Tamils, has been kept in abeyance due to the geopolitical considerations of the member countries. The day by day account of the last week indicates a stalemate in this issue.

Mr Ban Ki-moon called on for a “suspension in fighting”.

On 19 February 2009 the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, on a three day visit to Sri Lanka, stressed the need to ensure the protection of civilians caught in the conflict zone in Sri Lanka

On 20 February 2009 UK Ambassador John Sawers at the UN spoke of a Security Council briefing once Holmes return from Sri Lanka.

On 21 February 2009 while returning after the visit Mr.John Holmes urged combatants on both sides of the battle ravaging the northern Vanni region of Sri Lanka to make greater efforts to stop the rising toll of civilian casualties

On 23 February 2009, the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on for a “suspension in fighting” between the Sri Lanka government and Tamil Tiger separatists to allow civilians to escape. Ban further told “There is an urgent need to bring this conflict to an end without any further unnecessary loss of civilian life and destruction of Sri Lankan society,”. He also said the United Nations was renewing its call on all sides to work for a “political discussion to achieve an orderly end to the conflict.” But on the same day Sri Lanka Government rejected a call for ceasefire by LTTE.

On 24 February 2009 the U.S. Senate committee focused its attention on the situation in Sri Lanka.. Witnesses at the Senate hearing descried the actions of both sides. Anna Neistat, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, described a deplorable situation in the so-called safe zone, established by the government to protect refugees. “We received several detailed accounts from people who stayed within the safe zone, and these accounts suggest that the shelling by Sri Lankan forces killed dozens if not hundreds of people inside there,” she said.



[UN Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes addresses journalists during a press conference in Colombo on February 19, 2009-AFP pic by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi, via Yahoo! News]

Other witnesses in the US Senate Committee described what they called the Sri Lankan government’s growing assault on dissent and pointed out that nobody has been prosecuted for any of incidents of attack on journalists or abduction and disappearance of Tamils. Ambassador Lunstead said the world community could play an important role in shaping Sri Lanka’s future. He recommended that international donors impose conditions on economic aid to the government of Sri Lanka. He said those conditions should include an improvement in the country’s human rights record, the resettlement of displaced persons and a devolution of power from the capital, Colombo, to local areas to allow all Sri Lankans to have a greater say in how they are governed. Anna Neistat further urged the United Nations Security Council to hold a special session to address Sri Lanka’s humanitarian catastrophe.

On 24 February 2009 Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, agreed with UK parliamentarians who said that the Sri Lankan government is “quite prepared to go ahead with acts of genocide.” Responding to Mr. Elfyn Llwyd, MP, Mr. Miliband said “the resolution of [a] terrorist problem cannot be achieved at the expense of the rights of minority communities in Sri Lanka, and that is what we are trying to work on.”

But to the dismay of the Human rights activists, few days back, at the UN, it is learnt ,a move by Mexico to bring the Sri Lanka situation on to the Security Council was scuttled by Russia. Russia took up the position that Sri Lanka was not on the agenda of the Security Council. A Foreign Ministry source in UK said there was little chance that the Sri Lanka situation would be brought up before the Security Council. He said both Russia and China would oppose such a move because the Russians wanted to avoid its human rights situation in Chechenya being put on the Security Council agenda and the Chinese would protect their flank against any attempts to put Tibet on the agenda.

These happenings only show the diplomatic manipulations of the state of Sri Lanka in keeping the big powers beyond the focusing distance of the crisis at Sri Lanka.

But what the international Community could not ignore is that the State of Sri Lanka enjoys unabated impunity in spite of having engaged in extrajudicial killings, abductions, extortion, conscription, and the use of child soldiers. Despite confirming use of cluster bombs by the Sri Lankan Army, the United Nations could take no further action on such open crime.

Under these circumstances, Tamils are wondering whether any country in this world is concerned about putting the Humanitarian or Political aspirations of Tamils in the agenda of the Security Council.

Sri Lanka turning a deaf ear to the international community is understandable but the International Community showing a blind eye to the sufferings of Tamil population could not be explained by its own standards set in the United Nations.

In all their statements the UN, UK, USA or EU appeal to both GOSL and LTTE, accepting very well that LTTE represents the Tamil nation in the island of Sri Lanka and they equally deplore both parties for the crisis but at the same time have proscribed LTTE and allowed the GOSL to proceed with genocide. This is seen as an off-balanced stance and is not justified. Just blaming both sides or appealing both sides could not be considered as neutral if it is not going to stop the killing. They should either declare Sri Lanka a rogue country and apply economic sanctions or lift the ban on LTTE or openly discuss the issue in the security council putting aside the geopolitical compulsions of the big powers and come to a conclusion to stop the count down of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka first and to declare freedom to Ealem.

(Malarthamil is a civil engineer and writer-poet inspired by Thirukkural.This piece appeared in Kalugu.com)

Posted by transCurrents on February 27, 2009 10:17 PM | Permalink