UK trying to open up a can of worms?
The Editorial of The Island on 24th March 2014
The US is reported to be busy giving final touches to a resolution against Sri Lanka and campaigning to ensure its passage with a higher number of votes than last time. India pretends to be still undecided but it will definitely vote for the resolution to curry favour with the US and appease Tamil Nadu politicians.
Meanwhile, the British government has called for a UN-backed tribunal like the one which tried former Liberian President Charles Taylor for his involvement in war crimes in Sierra Leone, to probe Sri Lanka’s alleged accountability issues, as we reported on Saturday.
Britain’s call for such a tribunal runs counter to its position that only what is said to have happened during the last four or five months of Sri Lanka’s war should be probed. The UN-backed special court’s jurisdiction was not confined to the closing stages of the Sierra Leone conflict (1991-2002); it covered six years. So, the tribunal Britain is mulling over to probe Sri Lanka’s ‘war crimes’ will have to have jurisdiction extending to at least the last twenty years of the conflict here. It will also have to be given powers to try outsiders responsible for creating and aggravating it.
In the event of such a tribunal being set up, Britain, for its part, will have to extradite Adele Balasingham, who is currently residing in London, to Sri Lanka to stand trial for her involvement in LTTE crimes. There is irrefutable proof that she was involved in training female LTTE cadres who committed heinous crimes against civilians including massacres. It will also have to explain why it allowed Adele’s husband Anton Balasingham, a British citizen, to engage in LTTE activities as Prabhakaran’s spokesman in London and why it has not taken any action against fundraising for the LTTE which is banned on its soil. British politicians who have benefited from the LTTE in numerous ways will also be exposed.
Some of the EPRLF (Eelam People’s Revolutionary Left Front) kingpins who led India’s puppet militia––the Tamil national army––responsible for many crimes here against civilians in the late 1980s, are today senior leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). They are campaigning for human rights and demanding that war crimes allegations against others be investigated!
Most of the TNA heavyweights would have a lot to answer for if a war crimes tribunal were to be appointed in that they officially recognised the LTTE as the sole representative of Tamils, acted as its spokesmen in Parliament defending its actions and benefited from its violence at elections as evident from the EU polls monitors’ report on the general election in 2004. Some TNA members even took part in LTTE passing out parades! There is ample evidence to prove that there existed a nexus between the LTTE and the TNA.
Britain’s call for a war crimes tribunal must be a worrisome proposition for India, which created, armed and funded Sri Lanka’s terrorists to further its interests. Former Liberian President was sentenced to jail for 50 years for his involvement in terrorism in Sierra Leone, as we have argued in these columns previously. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), which came here on the pretext of disarming terrorist groups, was accused of various crimes including rape, abductions, massacres, killing of prisoners etc. The question is why these accountability issues are not taken up at the UNHRC.
Having heard all such cases and brought those responsible for war crimes to justice, the special court may take up what is alleged to have happened during the Eelam War IV between January and May in 2009. Let the chronological order be strictly followed.
Britain is sure to draw the ire of its allies for its call for a war crimes tribunal to deal with Sri Lanka while they are on a campaign to have accountability issues probed selectively so as to further their interests. A special court here like the one in Sierra Leone will open up a can of worms for most of the self-appointed human rights campaigners. All signs are that Britain will come under pressure from its strategic partners to abandon the idea.
691 Viewers