Monday, March 17, 2014

I hope our trumped up diplomats and spokesmen learn from Geneva


Having followed the way the US was heavily criticized by the UNHRC for its Guantanamo scandal and the drone program, and a myriad of other HR abuses, it must be apparent to the Sri Lankans that NO nation is immune from attack, if they break the fundamental rules of HR.

It is in this context that SL is also being hauled over the coals. We must get it into our thick skulls, that whatever wrong others are up to, so are we up to a whole host of wrongdoings in the name of the Rajapakse administration. We cannot pretend that we have a Govt in SL today, that to cover one shame is compounding the problem and NOT diffusing it.

The case mentioned in the earlier blog entry of the woman, a known activist, searching for the answers of what happened to her son who is PROVED to be in rehabilitation, as photos have been published, and now is not accounted for. It is a simple question, pure and simple. If he was in Govt. custody as shown in Govt. publications, where is he now? What is wrong with a Govt. which cannot answer that question?

It is the Govt of SL that has more to answer for than her, and taking her into custody over the harboring of someone, with much less blood on their hands than KP who is yet to confess and ask forgiveness is to be a case of double standards gone wrong. Yes this woman lost two sons to the LTTE to fight a lost cause, she has to live with that, but now a civilized state GOSL has it appears blood on its hands too for the disappearance of a minor in their custody!

Why can’t the GOSL admit to what happened, as trying to hide a small transgression convinces the world that they are guilty of much worse. Remember then that GOSL is now accused of committing crimes after 2009, up to now, today and has with impunity and there is NO evidence to show that they have in fact stopped this. That is what is so bad, and needs to be addressed.


Why cant they deal with it internally? Firstly, because they deny culpability, and we must be embarrassed that these are pointed out by foreigners! So don’t go after this messenger who is telling us we are wrong, just admit wrong doing, and change for the better, without denying and increasing the gravity of the crimes being committed in the name of the administration

Please train and build a new carder of Foreign Service personnel, to be professional and NOT sycophants, so that the interests of Sri Lanka can be better served by those who know what they are doing. The decimation of the once respected diplomats by the current GOSL must be reversed, firstly by removing friends and family from such appointments, including the Keheliya offspring, no matter what their apparent rights to their appointments are, then we can reclaim the UN and other positions. 

It is time that we are NOT made the laughing stock by our inability to defend our legitimate positions, and deflect any accusation in a diplomatic manner, rather than accuse the messenger or accuser of bias. That is bad diplomacy. No wonder we face an investigation!

We could have foreseen this a long time ago, and taken corrective action, without taking a belligerent approach. Instead we publicly state that Russia is our ally, when they are engaged in the same game of forcing a vote in Crimea, that they were bound to win, and so no one can then ask them to do otherwise if a vote is forced on the North which the GOSL will lose. Both are illegitimate processes, but we have backed the wrong horse.

So hypocrisy abounds, as our friends are just as guilty (Russia and China) as the Western powers so don't only accuse the West of hypocrisy, if you are you MUST include Russia and China in the same breadth - If you dare! 

This shows that the Nationalist line taken by GOSL is wrong, and if professional diplomats were left to argue the case, then we would not be facing imminent castigation by the UNHRC. I hope for once we learn from this and stop making the same mistake again and again.    

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