For over 10 years, since the defeat of the most dreaded terrorist outfit in the world, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, there were upsurge of anti-Sri Lanka activities in Europe and North America. The propaganda machinery of the LTTE, which is powerful in Europe, Canada and the United States, pursuing its cause of Tamil Elam swings into high-gear action every year prior to the September Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC).
Since 2018, they have been trying to add another incident of mass violent deaths on Easter Sunday blasts to the Government account, though all the evidence showed it was the handiwork of ruthless Islamic militants.
Of the Western media, which seemingly under the influence of the Tamil diaspora groups, Channel 4 takes the top position. Year after year, Channel 4 kept on telecasting biased programmes to blame the Sri Lankan Armed forces for the ‘genocide of innocent Tamil civilians’.
This September they added another fabricated accusation that the intelligence arm of the military was behind the Easter Sunday bombing.
There are numerous pseudo organisations in Europe, Canada and the United States representing the LTTE’s Eelam cause and they have massive funds for anti-Sri Lanka propaganda work. Although terrorism in Sri Lanka was eliminated in 2009, the Western powers vigorously pushed for action against Sri Lanka for alleged human rights violations. The manner in which the big powers are pushing the human rights and so-called war crimes issue at the UNHCR, it looks like they need Sri Lanka to be painted as bad as Hitler’s Germany or Pol Pot’s Kampuchea.
As the World Socialist website pointed out, Washington, which backed Mahinda Rajapaksa’s war against the LTTE, is no more concerned about human rights in Sri Lanka than in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. However, they want to use it in its strategies to change regimes perceived as unfriendly to the USA. In May 2009, after the defeat of the LTTE, the US supported European countries in putting a resolution to the UNHRC on human rights in Sri Lanka. The resolution was defeated after Sri Lanka obtained the support of China, Russia and India, as well as other countries. This resolution came in different forms since then and the resolution 51/1 passed later will be taken to the UNHRC session this month.
Timing the UNHRC Session the Channel 4 telecast a film on Easter Sunday attacks pointing a finger at the accusation that it was a conspiracy by the Rajapaksa brothers to ensure Gotabaya’s victory. The trailer which was available online and people got the opportunity to view it in advance and make some analytical conclusions.
The investigators concluded that the attack was carried out by a gang of extremists inspired by the ISIS ideology. Still, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith asked for a probe to identify the master brain behind the serial bombings. Based on such conspiracy theories, the rumour mill suggested that the bombings were engineered as part of political machinations to ensure the victory of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the 2019 Presidential Elections.
The Channel 4 trailer has given rise to such speculation, and sparked fresh talks on probes into the Easter attack. In the video, Head of State Intelligence Service Major General Suresh Sallay is implicated in the alleged orchestration of the attack, a charge denied by him. Sally said that he was not even in Sri Lanka during that period as he was serving as Deputy High Commissioner in Malaysia.
Channel 4 interviewed a whistleblower Azad Moulana who served as the media spokesman of the political party, ‘Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulihal (TMVP)’ led by State Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilleyan who was an LTTE child soldier, who defected later to join mainstream politics.
National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), founded by Zaharan Hashim who also blew himself up at a hotel during the Easter attack, also operated from the Eastern Province. Mr. Moulana claimed he was privy to dealings between Suresh Sallay and NTJ in the orchestration of the attack for political ends beneficial to the Rajapaksas.
It is also questionable because Mr. Moulana makes these allegations as someone now seeking asylum to live in Switzerland.
Switzerland has a record of blaming Sri Lanka on fabricated stories. In 2019 immediately after Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s electoral victory, one Ganiya Bannister Francis, a Sri Lankan Tamil woman from Maligawatta, who worked at the Swiss Embassy as a visa officer cooked up a story that she was kidnapped by armed forces personnel in civil dress. When Police wanted to record her evidence, she was given refuge in the Swiss Embassy premises and when she was called to Courts, she was accompanied by not only the lawyers appointed by the Embassy, but also by senior diplomats of the Embassy. Later she admitted that she made a false complaint.
However, the outgoing Swiss Ambassador boasted that she was given asylum in Switzerland last December, while the Swiss Government knew how she fabricated a story to malign Sri Lanka.
Although the colonialism ended and Sri Lanka became an independent country, neo-colonialism remains in full swing. Sri Lanka, like many former dependencies of those Western powers, is in the thick of it.
The Channel 4 allegation has been timed as the West-dominated UNHRC in Geneva is about to take up the resolution against Sri Lanka.
The Government has decided to downplay the importance of the UNHRC session with no high-level representation as in the past. The Sri Lankan position will be outlined by the Permanent Representative Himalee Arunathilake.
There is no need to give any undue importance to the UNHRC session on Sri Lanka as it is merely a periodic reporting by the UNHRC Secretariat on Resolution 51/1 of the council, which the Government of Sri Lanka, anyway, refused to accept it in toto.
Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena attended the UNHRC in March 2021 as Foreign Minister and categorically stated that the allegations of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka by several countries including the UK, Canada and Germany is an action taken for political purposes, by concealing the truth.
Responding to a question raised by journalists at the Foreign Ministry in this regard, he pointed out that it is not the responsibility of an internationally recognized Human Rights Council to accuse or take a vote on the internal affairs of our country.
“Over the years, various allegations have been levelled against our country, alleging human rights abuses. We have been cautious about this. After our Government was elected, a Presidential Commission has been appointed to investigate human rights allegations. Funds have been allocated from the budget to activate the Office on Missing Persons. While the present Government was taking a number of such positive steps, it was not fair to ignore it and accuse us repeatedly in various manners at the Human Rights Council in Geneva” Minister Gunawardena said.
“We try to defeat the false accusations levelled against us. Many friendly countries have joined hands with us in this”, he added.
The Resolution against Sri Lanka is basically on two counts. First, the allegations of human rights violations during the last stages of the armed conflict waged by the LTTE in 2009, and second, the council shifted the goal-post to include human rights violations due to the State of the economy. The inclusion of the economy is contrary to the mandate of the UNHRC.
There is no doubt that pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora groups in the West as well as Colombo-based diplomatic missions and the foreign-funded NGO sector must have provided much ammunition – some fabricated – to the UNHRC to go ahead and damn Sri Lanka in any case.
Sugeeswara Senadhira