Another Appeal to the Honourable Delegates to the 25 Session of the UNHR Council, Geneva

                                              

                                              

 USA  has great scientists and technicians who have develop technology to reach into the outer space.They sent  men to the moon.  But the minds of the American  President, even Senators and those of the US State Department have not seen a parallel development, remaining at a  primitive level therefore following the rule of the jungle - the survival of the fittest. 

That is why American State Department continues with its  confrontational mentality. It pounces on the developing nations, like the predators capturing its prey, not allowing them to rise above their under development, holding them tied to America’s own set of jungle rules obey us lest we change regimes, or  impose sanctions.

In this lawless state USA is  the deciding factor for those who have not developed proportionately to challenge its mighty power. How else can one see this Honourable Delegates, the sadistic delirium in seeking satisfaction in claiming others are wrong without looking over its  shoulders to see the sufferings it has left behind ? 

The ruling class of USA which accepts no challenge, nor listen to reason  has gathered around it a coterie of supporters from the European Union with UK, Canada, France, Germany etc. the “Yes Men”.   They have all  their skeletons in  their cupboards, but pretends to the world they are  shining knights of honour.

They are all present in the UNHR Council in Geneva, with a resolution against a small country  Sri Lanka- which suffered for thirty years under terrorism, and with a great effort and at a great cost of lives, eliminated terrorism hoping to bring peace, prosperity and happiness to its people after those long years of suffering. 

But  since that historic elimination of terrorism in Sri Lanka, USA with its coteries have gathered  like vultures around a carcass,  demanding accountability for violation of human rights and war crimes.

The Prime Minister of UK David Cameron had said speaking in support of the US Resolution against Sri Lanka,  that, “…. without a credible investigation in to very serious allegations of the past, it will be very difficult for the Sri Lankan people to move forward in the true spirit of lasting peace, reconciliation and unity and for Sri Lanka to reach its true potential". It was repeated by Hugo Swire, Minister of State at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

British Foreign Minister William Hague has in the meantime suggested setting up a  Special Court for Sri Lanka on the lines of UN backed Special Court for Sierra Leone to investigate into atrocities allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan military.

Honourable Delegate, please ask yourself why UK is so keen about an investigation into  Sri Lanka’s just war against terrorism, when UK  itself is not free from accusations of  violation of human rights and war crimes. UK has still not published the Report of the Chilcot Inquiry -the British Public Inquiry into the Nation’s role in the Iraqi war. 

In the accusation and presenting a resolution against Sri Lanka for its just war to end the thirty year old terrorism, David Cameron, William Hague and Hugo Swire have conveniently ignored their own guilt of  violation of human rights and  war crimes during  the Iraqi war.

The war crimes and violation of human rights by the UK armed forces in Iraq have been well documented. Some of these items of violation of human rights are distressing to read:

On Januray 1st, 2004 Ghanem Kadhem Kati, an unarmed young man, was shot twice on the back by a British Soldier at the door to his home. Troops had arrived at the scene after hearing shooting, which neighbours said came from a wedding party. Investigators from the Royal Military Police exhumed the teenager’s body six weeks later but have yet to offer compensation or announce any conclusion to the inquiry…………..

Details of beating, electrocution, mock executions, and sexual assault by British troops during the Iraqi war  were alleged in a 250 page dossier on January,2014.  These alleged abuses could result in some Britain’s leading defence figures facing prosecution for “systematic” war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in which Britain is the state party.  The allegations included range from “hooding” prisoners, to burning, electric shocks, threats to kill and “cultural and religious humiliations”. Other forms of alleged abuses include sexual assault, mock executions, threats of rape, death and torture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_war_crimes

These are real allegations unlike those of doctored videos and faked films of the UK Channel 4 which  the UN Commissioner for HR Navi Pillai  has taken as evidence to demand an International  Independent Investigation into Sri Lanka’s military operations against the terrorists. 

The UK Channel 4 is heavily paid to make these horror films by the anti Sri Lanka Tamil Diaspora, some of them now manifesting with their red flags of terrorism in the UNHRCouncil premises in Geneva. 

TheUK Channel 4 films are false and without substantial evidence of any sort.  The selection of the UK Channel 4 films as evidence on which UNCHR proposes an International Independent Investigation  in Sri Lanka shows the partiality of the UN Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillai of Tamil origin, and her determination to punish Sri Lanka for the elimination of her distant cousins the Tamil Terrorists.

In the meantime the Prime Minister of Canada,  Stephen Harper demands Sri Lanka to respect human rights and rule of law and supports the US resolution against Sri Lanka demanding an International Independent Investigation in to Sri Lanka’s violation of human rights.  But Honourable Delegate the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is throwing stones sitting inside a glass house.

Honourable Delegate, utter discrimination of indigenous Indian/First Nation minority population is taking place under Stephen Harper’s  Conservative regime. His Conservative Party-dominated parliamentary committee has rejected the establishment of a national commission to investigate the blatant discrimination, murders , disappearances and rape of women and young girls who belong to indigenous minority ethnic communities, saying it has no use. 

Is it not hypocrisy of Stephen Harper to be more concerned with the Tamils of Sri Lanka to the exclusion of the aborigine Canadian Indians ?

Now with regard to USA the Prime Mover of the Resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC Geneva. The Honourable Delegate  knows very well the record of USA with regard to violation of Human rights and war crimes. It  is not necessary to give in detail the torture camps of  Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Guantanamo Camps in  Guantanamo Bay, My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, Hadith Massacre in Iraq, where there are crying evidence of American violation of human rights and war crimes.

There is the recent case of which the Honourable Delegates may have taken note.  It is the draft of Pakistan Resolution which proposes that nations “ensure transparency” when discussing drone strikes, and conduct prompt, independent and impartial investigations whenever there are indications of any violations to human rights caused by their use.”

“But the Obama administration has largely refused to supply UN experts with details about the classified US drone program, which has killed hundreds of suspected militants in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, and other countries over the past decade. Independent investigators say the strikes have also killed thousands of civilians, including large numbers of women and children, a charge the White House denies without providing evidence to the contrary.”
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_20/US-boycotts-talks-on-Pakistan-draft-resolution-on-American-drone-strikes-3854/

Andrea Prasow, an American lawyer who tracks national security issues for Human Rights Watch, said the United States was passing up a golden opportunity to influence the UN debate on drones.

"This resolution would be the first time the council is going to do anything about drones and the US is not participating in any of the informal discussions about language”, she said. "They are telling us they are reserving judgment on the resolution, which means they won't be happy with it. They are concerned that the council doesn't have jurisdiction over this issue. I think it's ludicrous to say the Human Rights Council doesn't have anything to say about drone strikes."
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_03_20/US-boycotts-talks-on-Pakistan-draft-resolution-on-American-drone-strikes-3854/

The declassified papers on Vietnam war show  US Atrocities went far beyond My Lai : Nick Turse and Deborrah Nelson reported to the Times on August,2006.  The men of the 8 Company  were in a dangerous state of mind having lost five of their men in a fire fight the previous day. The following morning  there were orders to resume their sweep of the country side, a green patchwork of rice paddies along Vietnam’s central coast.  They met no resistance as they entered a nondescript settlement in Quang Nam province. So Jamie Henry, a 20 year old medic, set his rifle down in a hut, unfastened his bandoliers and lighted a cigarette.  Just then, the voice of a lieutenant crackled across the radio. He reported that he had rounded up 19 civilians, and wanted to know  what to do with them.  Henry later recalled the company commander’s response: Kill any thing that moves.  Henry stepped outside  the hut and saw a small crowd of women and children.  Then the shooting began.  Moments later , the 19 villagers lay dead or dying.

These are some of the atrocities the prime movers of the resolution against Sri Lanka  is trying to hide behind calling for an International Independent Investigation into the violation of human rights and war crimes committed by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces in the course of the elimination of the terrorists.  But no one challenges USA,UK or even Canada because the future of the Sovereignty of small independent nations depend on  being on their side,  without pointing fingers at them.

The President and the government of Sri Lanka  have after the elimination of terrorism developed the country to a very great extent.  There are no poor people in rags living  in  shanties and dilapidated houses. The communities in Sri Lanka are living in harmony. Sri Lanka has  risen from its development  stage to become a middle income  country.

But these are   the Tamil sympathisers of the former terrorists living in USA, UK, Canada, Netherlands,  Australia etc. and Tamil Politicians the former supporters of the terrorists who have come to UNHRC premises in Geneva, to manifest against Sri Lanka trying to hide the real ground situation in Sri Lanka, supporting the USA resolution to pressure the Honourable Delegates to vote for the US resolution hoping thereby to force the International Community to change the regime in Sri Lanka, and divide the country to set up separate Tamil State.

Honourable Delegate  Sri Lanka really needs no such resolution, and there is no need for an International Investigation.

UNHRC is really wasting its time passing resolutions against Sri Lanka, which needs no immediate change as the country is peaceful, it is  developing fast, and the Communities are living in harmony. 

But, while UNHRC is passing resolutions against Sri Lanka,  in Nigeria, Somalia, Central Africa, Syria, and in  Lebanon, men, and women are being killed or massacred, young women and girls are kidnapped raped and killed, others  live in utter  poverty in shanties, or  in refugee camps, without , food, water, proper sanitary conditions, or schooling for children.

Those are the places that need the presence of  the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, where USA and its allies should rally round not to wage wars but to bring the people together, settle political issues in peaceful dialogue, and contribute to give those people a respectable living conditions.

In Sri Lanka USA, its allies and the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillai,  are raking the past where Sri Lanka was engaged in a just war to eliminate terrorism to bring peace to its people who for thirty years lived uncertain lives, waiting  for their children to return home safely , or worry until  husbands return home,   living in panic on hearing news of a bomb that exploded, when the husbands and wives avoided travelling together lest that one would live if the other were to die in a bomb explosion. 

If they want to rake the past they should go to Agentina where the people are still looking for their lost relatives.  In Sri Lanka the government has appointed a Commission to look for the lost relatives during  terrorism.

The Sri Lanka Armed Forces did not fight against the Tamil people but against the ruthless terrorists. USA and its allies want to know how many civilians had been killed by the armed forces at the last phase of the military operations against terrorists, some say there were 40,000 deaths others say, 100,000, yet others say 7000.  How can one really say what exactly happened at the end of a war,  and how many people were  killed ?

Does numbers matter? If there had been any deaths at all, at least they had given their lives for other millions to live in peace. 

Seven years after USA imposed sanctions on Iraq 1.5 million people had died.  Of them half a million were children, that is more children than in Hiroshima after the Atomic bomb.  When Leslie Stahl ( CBC -11 May,1996)  asked Madeleine Albright (USSecretary of State) Is the price worth it ?  She replied “ I think this is a very hard choice.  But the price, we think the price is worth it.”  Leslie Stahl says, “ Worth it, because she (Ms.Albright) believes the sanctions are working.” ((http://www.addictedtowar.com/docs/sanctions.htm)

Honourable Delegate,  please see the hypocrisy of the US Resolution against Sri Lanka. It is a cover up for its own violation of human rights, and war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Libya etc. 

Today USA has presented an amended resolution empowering the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights  to conduct an independent investigation.  This is completely out side the UN High Commissioner’s mandate.  Navi Pillai as the UN High Commissioner is empowered to look into Human rights issues,  and not  humanitarian issues.

Humanitarian issues come under the purview of the UNGeneral Assembly and the UN Security Council.

This has been done by USA and its allies to mislead the Honourable Delegates. Therefore if the Honourable Delegates were to vote in favour of the US resolution as amended it will allow US and its allies to intervene into the internal matters of Sri Lanka making  it easier for a regime change at their will.

Please remember what happened in the case of Libya where USA and its allies  got the sanction of the UN Security council for a no-fly zone over Libya, and ended up by getting the NATO Forces to bomb  Libya to rubble, and assassinated Colonel Gaddafi.

Therefore, Honourable Delegates the future of Sri Lanka is in your hands, please do not allow the USA and its allies to dupe you to vote for the US Resolution against Sri Lanka, and thus let them  have free access into Sri Lanka in the guise of  an International Independent Investigators.

If you hesitate because your country needs USA and its allies for political and economic advantages, or because of bilateral agreements, you have still  the independence and freedom to act in defence of your principles and convictions which are more important than profits and gains. Today USA and the West are not the only Nations the developing countries  could turn to for their needs , there are others such as China, and  Russia.  What US and its allies are proposing to do to Sri Lanka today, they will not hesitate to do to your own country tomorrow.

Honourable Delegate, I implore you to reject the US Resolution against Sri Lanka and allow this country to look forward to a peaceful future during which it could develop the country and build a  Nation of  united Communities.

Please say no to the US Resolution against Sri Lanka

Yours Respectfully,

Charles.S.Perera