UN-ACCOUNTABLE: What Ban Ki Moon did not admit in Sri Lanka
He came, he saw, he went. Thankfully there was no joint statement. Obviously, the ground situation would have been sussed up by his advisors as not conducive to any controversial statement. Instead, the unity government would have assured all of UN’s wishes would be met by their side without publicity. That was enough for UN and UNSG. It is a pity that no one questioned the UNSG on the legality of using his internal report as a basis for successive resolutions by nations flouting all customary laws and questioned the non-binding nature of UN resolutions and the most important question is why the UN and UNSG views only Tamils as being the victims while he also needed to be reminded that the Sri Lanka Army fought against terrorists and not Tamils and why the UN and the IC are mixing up two issues the separatist claims of which have no basis at all.
Deciphering Ban Ki Moon’s speech
“I congratulate the Government and the people of Sri Lanka on passing the 19thConstitutional Amendment and the recent Right to Information Act”.
Since when have UNSG’s started interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states by commending on internal matters and is Ban Ki Moon aware that RIA denies over and above what it claims to give as rights?
“I commend your efforts to move forward on a comprehensive transitional justice agenda, and on a constitutional reform process”.
What exactly is being implied by comprehensive transitional justice agenda? Why is UN so interested in changing our country’s constitution, does the UN ask the US, UK or EU to change their constitutions?
“I also welcome the symbolic steps you have taken, including the decision to sing the National Anthem in Sinhala and Tamil on Independence Day last February for the first time since the 1950s”.
Does the UN ask US to allow the Native Americans to sing their anthem alongside the US anthem? Why doesn’t UN Chief ask India to incorporate Tamil into the Indian national anthem given that there are over 70milion Tamils living in India? These remarks all constitute interference into the internal affairs of Sri Lanka and is a violation of the UN Charter.
“More can and should be done to address the legacy of the past and acknowledge the voices of the victims.”
Who are the victims you are referring to – LTTE cadres? LTTE families? LTTE child soldiers? LTTE civilians? Can UN give us statistics of who exactly died to claim war crimes was committed?
“Sri Lanka is still in the early stages of regaining its rightful position in the region and the international community.”
Who are the international community – if it is only to please the US, UK and EU no thank you because these nations make up hardly 15% of the UN membership but are using UN to fleece nations of the third world. Why has the UNSG not appointed an internal PoE to appraise him of the reasons for the increase in conflicts and connect that with all the covert/overt operations involved by US,UK and NATO nations by arming militants and overthrowing governments. How is it that the UN is not addressing the root of all problems in this world?
“There is still much work to be done in order to redress the wrongs of the past and to restore the legitimacy and accountability of key institutions, particularly the judiciary and the security services,”
The UNSG has no business to be questioning a country’s judiciary or any of its internal systems – this again constitutes a violation of the UN Charter. He has no right to even suggest changes. Corruptions are taking place even inside the UN – corruption hasn’t lessened either, whistleblowers end up losing their jobs or getting sidelined inevitably cornered into leaving their job. A UN that did nothing throughout 30 years to end terror and came into the scene ranting ‘Accountability’ after the SL Army ended terrorism has no business to be preaching about ‘wrongs of the past’. How many wrongs has the UN committed over the years – even Kosovo and South Sudan are in a bloody mess after helping to declare them independent. While UN allows NATO and US to forcibly and illegally occupy Iraq and Afghanistan while doing nothing about bombing Syria or arming mercenaries. The emphasis by the UN bodies on reducing Sri Lanka’s army in the North is unfounded and again constitutes an interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan National Army can be stationed ANYWHERE in its legal territory and does not need the permission of US, UK, NATO or UN. What is the UNSG doing about all the illegal military occupations by US & NATO? The US has close to 1000 overseas bases in 38 countries – if UNSG treats all as equals why is he not calling for the removal of troops from Iraq & Afghanistan or Libya?
“Sri Lankans across the country have suffered too much from decades of violence. People now need ways to overcome distrust between communities and mend the fabric of their society. This country is at a crossroad and I commend your bold decision to face the past and deal with the legacies of conflict. The United Nations also has to address the legacy of its actions in Sri Lanka which did not meet the expectations of the people and the world”
What the UNSG needs to admit is that they did NOTHING to stop LTTE terror from 1980s to 2008 which is far bigger than not doing anything during the last 3 months! Overcoming distrust cannot be achieved by pouring more distrust which is what the UNSG just did by arriving for the second time and going only to the North and just to camouflage doing a short trip to the South to meet students. We will not fall for such sham tactics.
I met Tamil leaders to discuss ‘transitional justice and peace building and reconciliation’
Ban Ki Moon these Tamil leaders you are speaking with was formed by the LTTE, they took separate oaths in front of Prabakaran, they were regularly summoned to LTTE and dictated on how they should function. How can reconciliation coincide when these leaders are seeking separatism? What transitional justice are you talking about when the conflict was against terrorists and not Tamils. Are you and your organization taking all of us for a jolly good ride selling us reconciliation while you are contriving to separate Sri Lanka as was done to Kosovo and South Sudan and both these nations are today in peril. These two examples suffice to say your organizations solutions to ‘transitional justice’ are absolutely failures and you should not interfere to create another failure out of Sri Lanka!
A journalist questioned UNSG on the UN’s double standards and whether UNSG believes war crimes took place, Ban ki Moon response was that they followed ‘one standard, one value, one vision when we work with member states….. one UN Charter’
If this were the case why has the UNSG not appointed a single PoE on US and NATO follies? Why is the UNSG not calling for changes to US judicial systems where they have changed terminologies, why is the UN not stopping extraordinary renditions and tortures by the US upon people who have no access to even lawyers and their families do not know where they are? Why is the UN silent on regime change operations where US and Western governments are sponsoring NGOs to topple democratic governments and replace them with puppets who would help Western imperial agendas? Why does the UNSG not admit that Islamic terrorism is co-sponsored by Wahhabi nations supplying the manpower and Western nations providing the arms and directions to destabalize countries and in the migrant/refugee crisis is part of that gameplan to further destabalize even continents!
‘True that there was lack of involvement by the UN’….‘I launched in internal investigation …we found lapses.. lack of involvement on the part of UN’
What is the assurance that the same lapses will not continue. We are talking about 30 years of lapses that had given no relief for the people of Sri Lanka and still the lapses continue with the UNSG’s visit indicating that in his eyes the victims are only Tamils totally forgetting that LTTE had a civilian armed force who were fighting with the army and we do not know who were in that force and if they died during hostilities that is not a war crime. The problem we have is that no Tamil will admit that they either voluntarily or involuntarily supported LTTE terrorism. But until we know this and who they are it is unfair to treat all as victims forgetting the Sinhalese and Muslim victims who had nothing to do with LTTE at all and were targeted and killed.
‘the victims and families cannot wait forever’
Justice must come to the people LTTE killed not the LTTE who were killed. The enemy of all was the LTTE not the Sri Lankan Army. This is where the UN and UNSG and all others in the same camp have got their knickers in a twist. Throw all these dumb vocabularies of ‘transitional juctice’ ‘reconciliation’ to the dustbin we want to know who created LTTE and other armed militants, who funded and trained them, who was paying for their arms and ammunition, who ran their propaganda, who gave them orders to kill.. this is the TRUTH we want. The battlezone is a battlezone. The fight was fair and square. LTTE were given 2 chances to surrender they refused. Inspite of that the Army saved 300,000 people. When guns are exchanged from both sides no one is sending roses. There are deaths. But the deaths were caused because LTTE refused to release the people they were keeping by force. Ban Ki Moon may remember that he too appealed for the release of these people which LTTE ignored. However, the deaths were minimal in the light of the greater lives saved this is a factor we all need to accept. If anyone is claiming that an X number of people died, why don’t they come and name these dead. Without naming dead it is the most stupidest idea to have a war crimes tribunal.
We have been going round the mulberry bush for 7 years now. The UN had 2 investigations which apart from fairytale reports they produced they have not produced any evidence to claim systematic war crimes deliberately was committed. If individual soldiers have done wrongs the military courts and the courts of Sri Lanka are quite able to take on these trials after producing evidence. Even that is not forthcoming. Instead the UN has come up with some dumb witness protection program sealing identities of people for 20 years and an imprisoned soldier will have to wait minimum 20 years to be told that no such witness ever existed and the file in the UNHRC is bogus. We will not agree to subjecting a soldier to such humiliation and ruining his career and family life just to please people’s egos.
It is also a pity that the media did not make reference to the expert opinions of the international terrorism experts who have in their deliberations argued that the SL Army did not commit war crimes and this is the key to nullifying demands for war crimes tribunals and will question the absurdity in hurriedly passing the Office of Missing Persons bill which is opening a can of worms that will backfire on the present government electorally.
There is nothing special in the UNSG’s visit. In a world of chaos with UN having no control the question is why should member nations put up with such a body when a handful of nations are bullying the rest. The Philippine and Venezuelan leaders have called for nations to quit the UN and nations must seriously ponder this and Russia and China must come up with a viable alternative that would no longer treat the developing nation as a battering ram for the West’s imperialism.
Shenali D Waduge
655 Viewers
