Yesterday
The US Secretary of State of
International Organisation Esther Brimmer spoke of another US Resolution to be
moved against Sri Lanka, and said, “The Council’s work remains unfinished so
long as Sri Lanka continues to fall short in implementing even the
recommendations of its own Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission, or in
addressing the underlying sources of its longstanding ethnic conflict”
But the US
State Departments foreign policy against Sri
Lanka came to be criticised at the US House Foreign
Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific
on Tuesday (Feb 26). In that the
Congressman Eni F.H.Faleomavaega who had
visited Sri Lanka,
criticised the US double standard in its Foreign Policy towards
Sri Lanka, and asked what is
the necessity for a resolution against Sri Lanka
a small country Strategically important to USA.
Following is the extract from portion of Congressman Eni F.H. Faleomavaega’s
statement related to Sri Lanka
at the hearing of the US
House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and
the Pacific. February, 26,2013
“The US simply cannot afford to lose Sri Lanka due to its strategic importance. Last week I had the privilege of visiting Sri Lanka and met with president Rajapaksa for more than 2 hours . I also met with governor of the Northern Province. And personally visited Jaffna because I wanted to see for myself the post conflict developments since 2009,when Sri Lanka finally became the first country in the world to eradicate terrorism on its own soil, by defeating the Tamil Tigers - which remains listed as a terrorist organization by 32 countries including our own country Mr. Chairman, India , Canada and the members of the European Union , and dubbed by the FBI as one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations in the world.”
“After a 30-year terrorist conflict
or war the challenges Sri Lankan government faces are enormous. But the strides
the Government has made to rebuild in a way that establishes lasting peace and
equality for all citizens should be firmly acknowledged.”
“The United
States should join Australia
in praising the work that Sri Lankan government has done in the North and East
of the Island in such a short period since the
war. As Australian deputy opposition leader Julie Bishops and the parliamentary
delegation she led recently, stated on their visit.”
“Regrettably in the resolution it
intendeds to submit again to the United Nations Human Rights council, the
US fails to mention one , not even one positive development for Sri Lanka
. Such failures suggest that the United States is not being even
handed when it comes to dealing with sensitive human rights issues across the
globe.”
“So I call upon my government , the United States of America to find a better way
forward rather than using United Nations resolutions to destabilize developing
nations like Sri Lanka while
ignoring human rights Abuses in nations like Indonesia , where our geological
strategic and military interests supersede our Human Rights Agenda.”
“The US
led United Nations resolution should also be withdrawn for focusing only on the last few months of the war and failing to
acknowledge therefore almost 30 years, Mr. Chairman, the Tamil Tigers hacked to
death innocent men , women and children in Sri Lanka, carried out some 378
suicide attacks more than any other terrorist organization in the world.”
“We also do not need to criticize Sri Lanka for borrowing money from China. And by
the way I was there Mr. Chairman . In terms of our ability to provide
assistance to these third world countries, China was able to provide Sri
Lanka with 500 million dollars of low interest loans, for them to rebuild their
sea port as well as a brand new international airport that I was there to
witness….”
Secondly, Ranking Member
Faleomavaega reiterated a number of his points from his opening remarks,
raising concern over the double standard with which the U.S. Administration
seems to approach human rights in the context of its foreign policy.
“I have mentioned in my statement
about the double standards that we are applying in as afar as violation
of Human Rights and the sense that I have is why is the most powerful country
in the world picking on a small little country like Sri Lanka- the size of West
Virginia , 60,000 square miles with only 3 million people- and yet
in Sri Lanka we are talking about 21 million people living there.”
“The serious question that I have is
that for 27 or 29 years this country was in the state of civil war. It is not a
conflict. It is not the question of the Tamil people asking for more
autonomy. We have to understand not all Tamils are members of this
terrorist organization called the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers, that our government
along with 32 other countries also categorized as a terrorist
organization.”
“And in the process you are talking
about for 27 years some eighty to hundred thousand Sri Lankans ended up
dead. Lot of innocent men ,women and
children”.
“What I am trying to seek here is
that there also was a country that had civil war. It was the United States of America,
for four years we ended up with 600,000 of our soldiers died form that terrible
conflict. Ant it was not the question of Southern States asking for more
autonomy. They wanted to secede, pull away from the mother country , just
like the Tamil Tigers wanted to do in their efforts in seeking this war
against the Government .”
“My concern here is that we a
looking at such a small little sequence, of this two or three months that
now we are questioning . And the reason why we have this resolution before the
United Nations Human Rights Council, but forgetting the fact for 29 years that
Sri Lankan government has had to deal with this terrorist organization that I
just could not believe the atrocities that were committed by these people.”
“And now overnight we just thought
that we've got to hit this resolution against them this is where my
concern with double standards.”
“Our government to the 10 year
period that we were in war in Vietnam
. In Vietnam
Mr. Secretary, let’s ask the tens and thousands of women and children innocent
civilians that we exposed to Agent Orange , when we were there for the ten year
period . Let’s ask the people in Laos
and Cambodia
for the six million pounds of cluster bombs we dropped there, and these
countered never declared war on us.”
“Where is the consistency in our
standards as far as Human Rights are concerned . We are pointing the finger at this
little country Sri Lanka.
and the thing that perhaps may be we need to clean up our own backyard ,
as suggested may be we be little more consistent , if we are going to do it
against Sri Lanka.
Let’s make sure that we are clean ourselves.”
“So I just need your comment on that
as I ‘ve got only one minute left on this”
I know I‘ve only got, ten more
seconds Mr. Secretary. I just want to say, that was part of the subject that I
discussed personally with the president of Sri Lanka, and he is concerned. In
fact, he is spending more time on the Northern
Province , and all the amount of resources their
trying to do, to make this as part of the reconciliation process.”
“Thank
you Mr. Chairman.”
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