The 140 page report published today, by the HRW about post
conflict sexual torture against Tamils is timed to coincide with the UNHRC
sessions this week that will consider the SL implementation of the LLRC report.
This is willfully timed to add urgency to the previous
ultimatum, that the SL Govt. has no intention of looking into abuses then, pre
May 2009 or post when it comes to crimes against Tamils. There is no question
that the Tamil lobby against the SL govt. is a very strong one, with a lot of
support and pressuring of the host countries where the Tamil Diaspora reside.
One can read the whole document in the link below, or download and save to read anytime. If all is true then they are very serious. They are taken from people who live outside, who most definitely have claimed asylum due to the torture, and in many cases they are of people who have returned to SL from the UK and undergone the torture, and presumably managed to make their way back to the UK. If these are the cases overseas and they are true then they will only be a fraction of the ones that remain here with no chance to find refuge in the UK. Am I correct in that assumption?
Either way it will be shown to be one sided, and GOSL will state categorically that it is Diaspora propaganda. I don't know either way to make an educated guess, and would like to believe HRW as one having no agenda but to bring worldwide HR abuses to the forefront. So I must act with the conviction that if I suffer HR abuse also I would be able through them to find an international audience, but dare say it will be of no use, as they will not be able to save my bacon, as I am firmly in SL with no desire or inclination of seeking refuge abroad, and so my goose is right royally cooked!!
It would be nice to find someone living in SL who is credible and not frightened who has also undergone recent torture to surface, which is the only way Mahinda will have his royally cooked! SO HRW how about putting an ad in all the papers in Sri Lanka seeking a recently tortured victim, who is still alive and living in SL.
The 70 or so documented cases are far too many with living
witnesses available to corroborate that this violence continues. The problem I
believe is by only concentrating on the violence against Tamils, in this
report, it will not get any serious consideration within the MR administration
and be dismissed as another pack of lies concoted the Tamil lobby. It will receive
much anger from the MR support base, further strengthening the right wing
support base of the President instead of tackling the real issues which are NOT
JUST LTTE, and more the complete breakdown in the rule of law and order in Sri
Lanka, where there is no freedom of expression, no freedom of any sort from
abuse of the law by the Security Forces.
Put simply anyone can be abducted, irrespective of race,
caste creed or disability to be tortured by the State. It is this that MUST be
addressed by the UNHRC, not LLRC or empty promises by the SL Govt. It is the
today, that is important even more than the yesterdays. Whilst the yesterdays
are not to be forgotten, if we spend our energies on yesterdays, whilst todays
are worse, and fear and recrimination against dissidents continuing, why make
an academic exercise on past crimes.
The first duty of the UNHRC if it is to mean anything to
people on Earth is their sense of justice, that if a crime against humanity is
committed the perpetrators have an immediate chance of being brought to book.
That is the ONLY way we can remotely ensure that HR violations are reduced
dramatically all over the world.
In the Sri Lankan case the assurance that people can commit
HR violations daily as they have state patronage from prosecution is what gives
criminals carte blanche to engage in their daily pleasure of killings and
tortures of people they just dislike.
With too many of the world’s policemen engaged in HR
violations, there is NO mechanism at present for the oppressed of this world to
find justice.
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