11-Jul-10 News -- Sri Lanka's bitter disagreement with the United Nations - 11-Jul-2010 - Generational Dynamics

I apologize for the delay in today's posting, but that sometimes happens when life calls.

Sri Lanka's bitter disagreement with United Nations over war crimes

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa offers a glass of water to his Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa to end his hunger strike (Source: VOA)

Sri Lanka's Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa is lying down because he's been on a hunger strike for three days, fasting "to the death."

The man to the left is the President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is offering Weerawansa a drink of water, and encouraging him to end his hunger strike. Weerawansa did, in fact, end his hunger strike at that point, according to VOA.

He went on his hunger strike to protest the appointment, by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, of a three-man international panel to explore possible war crimes by Sri Lanka's army during the civil war that ended last year.

That's not all. Hundreds of furious Sri Lankans demonstrated outside the U.N. offices in Colombo on Wednesday, the country's capital, causing Ban Ki-Moon to close the UN offices on Thursday. On Saturday, ten country embassies in Colombo, including those of the UK, US and Germany, issued a joint statement condemning the protests, according to the BBC.

There are two ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, the minority Tamils and the majority market-dominant Sinhalese. A terrorist group, the Tamil Tigers, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fought a civil war for a Tamil homeland ("Tamil Eelam") for 26 years. During this time, the Tigers conducted many terrorist acts, including blowing up buses and buildings, killing innocent men, women and children.

After 26 years of bloody fighting, the government (Sinhalese) army was able to defeat the LTTE, and force a surrender last year.

And now, with everyone still raw from the war, the United Nations, which has almost no credibility whatsoever, wants to come in and tell the government what they did wrong.

On Saturday, Sri Lanka's defense ministry issued a contemptuous statement with the following excerpts:

"It is baffling that the UN and the countries which are attempting to take Sri Lanka before a war crimes tribunal for reasons best known to them are blind to the manner how the world's largest human rescue mission was carried out by Sri Lanka's brave Security Forces.

In keeping with all accepted international conventions and treaties, Sri Lanka's Security Forces rescued over half a million people from the clutches of LTTE terror. Apparently, even Ban Ki-Moon who seems to be highly perturbed over the alleged human rights violations during the height of the battle against terror, has not uttered a word of comfort on behalf of those innocent civilians who had been forcibly held by the LTTE as a human shield.

Surprisingly, not a single INGO or UN official bothered about the flagrant violation of human rights of those hapless civilians who suffered immensely due to the barbaric acts of the LTTE leaders.

At a time when the UN and the entire international community should be wholeheartedly supporting Sri Lanka in the reconciliation and development process in the North and the East, the UN and the EU are attempting to take Sri Lanka to task. Is this because they are reluctant to concede the fact as the US-led NATO Forces are still struggling in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Even certain countries, which project themselves as the godfathers of the global battle against terrorism, seem diffident to acknowledge Sri Lanka's resounding success in eradicating terrorism. Why don't they make a genuine effort to take a cue from Sri Lanka's victorious formula?

If those countries, which preach to high heaven on the need to eliminate global terrorism, are sincere, they must take Sri Lanka as a role model and support those countries which are affected by terrorism to overcome the problems caused by extremist groups.

Unfortunately, it has been the other way round and Sri Lanka has been at the receiving end as a result of a well-organised campaign by its pusillanimous Opposition politicians and Tiger proxies.

The UN and the EU should not for a moment forget the fact that it has only been a year since Sri Lanka emerged victorious in vanquishing the LTTE which had been threatening Sri Lanka for over three decades. The losses Sri Lanka had suffered during that period, in terms of lives, property and opportunities for growth are incalculable. Terrorism spelt doom to domestic and foreign investments while the measures imposed to maintain security also ran counter to attract tourists."

It's pretty certain that the Sri Lankan government is not going to be cooperating with any U.N. panel.

Did the Sri Lanka army commit any war crimes? Undoubtedly many bad things happened, though nothing that I'm aware of came anywhere close to the level of, say, the massacre at Srebrenica.

The U.N. panel is a political stunt in world where everything is political. Whatever conclusion it reaches will be political decisions unrelated to whatever may have happened during the civil war.

South Korea says American troops killed civilians during Korean War

A South Korean commission charged with investigating atrocities during the 1950s Korean War found that American troops killed groups of civilians on 138 separate occasions, but only 8 of the 138 were criminal.

The remaining ones were "were more like cases of negligence than of liability or war crimes," according to a commission member quoted by the NY Times.

Families of alleged victims, who have been demanding money as compensation, are accusing the commission of a political coverup.

Officials commemorate the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica

More than 7000 Muslim men and boys from the town of Srebrenica were killed by advancing Bosnian Serb troops in July, 1995, in what is considered the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. (See the 2008 report, "Accused Bosnian war criminal Radovan Karadzic captured.")

Hundreds of victims of the massacre, previously left in mass graves, will be re-buried on Sunday in a mass funeral, in a ceremony to mark the 15th anniversary of the atrocity, according to the BBC.

For many years, Serbs denied that any massacre had occurred, but in March, Serbia's parliament passed a landmark resolution apologizing for the massacre, saying Belgrade should have done more to prevent the tragedy.

However, many people blame the United Nations for failing to stop the massacre, according to the Associated Press. A huge Srebrenica massacre memorial will be unveiled next year. The "Pillar of Shame" monument, by German activist Phillip Ruch, will be a huge jumble of more than 16,000 worn shoes, each pair representing a victim.

When the monument is seen from afar, the jumble of shoes will spell out "U.N" in gigantic letters. According to Ruch, it will serve as a "warning for all future U.N. employees never again just to stand by when genocide unfolds."

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-Jul-2010
11-Jul-10 News -- Sri Lanka's bitter disagreement with the United Nations

Sri Lanka's bitter disagreement with United Nations over war crimes

South Korea says American troops killed civilians during Korean War

Officials commemorate the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica

Web Log Pages

	Generational Dynamics
	Forecasting America's Destiny ... and the World's

\| HOME \| WEB LOG \| COUNTRY WIKI \| COMMENT \| FORUM \| DOWNLOADS \| ABOUT \|

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-Jul-2010 11-Jul-10 News -- Sri Lanka's bitter disagreement with the United Nations

Sri Lanka's bitter disagreement with United Nations over war crimes

South Korea says American troops killed civilians during Korean War

Officials commemorate the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica

Web Log Pages

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 11-Jul-2010
11-Jul-10 News -- Sri Lanka's bitter disagreement with the United Nations