Europeans and Human Rights

Human Rights Activist

To the Europeans the values of safe guarding human rights and the sanctity of life dawned on them only after the Second World War and they are today seeking to atone for their past sins by preaching to the ‘barbarians’ in the south about human rights. They who have history of a thousand years of civilized living are looking down on us who have been civilized when their ancestors were living in caves.

The Buddha preached, 2,500 years ago, on Compassion for ALL beings not just human beings and he spoke thus: “Whatsoever living being there be, feeble, strong, tall, short or medium, small or large, seen or unseen, those dwelling far or near, those born, those yet to be born, may they all, without exception, be secure; let none deceive another nor despise any person in anger or wish them ill will. Just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life so may we cultivate a boundless heart towards all beings.

May these thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world, above, below and across without any obstruction.

Whether one stands, sits or lies down he or she should cultivate this awareness .... “ the Buddha in the Meththa Sutra so please understand that we were conscious of our obligations by our fellow beings long before your UN Charter of Human Rights.

So we do not need to be preached by those who have ‘discovered’ the sanctity of life after 1946, after committing horrible crimes such as the Holocaust among others and visiting horrible atrocities on innocent people.

We do understand the need to secure the fundamental right to life of our people, It is only that we are embroiled in a war and what happens in such situations is better known to those who seek to preach to us today.

Let us pause to see how and when they attained enlightenment, it was only after they massacred over one hundred million human beings on both sides of the conflict in two World Wars in the 20th century.

The massacres of millions of Jews by the Germans and the Poles is too well known to need recounting here.; there were also the collaborators and the British Royal hurrah boys who probably could not forget his Hanoverian ancestry and cheered the Nazis on.

Yes, who could forget the concentration camps and the holocaust between 1932 and 1945.

The Europeans have, in more recent times, been guilty of permitting the slaughter of thousands of Muslims in Bosnia by the Christian Serbs. They looked on without intervening to stop the slaughter and even after they intervened and sent in their troops to keep the peace, they looked aside whilst the Serbs murdered thousands of Muslims in cold blood, in Srebrenica, (because they were not Christians but Muslims, no doubt).

Can they deny that? Did they not watch whilst millions were killed in Rwanda when they could most easily have intervened. Did the European’s oppose the white Afrikaners like Malan when the three million whites imposed Apartheid and ruled over 23 million black Africans, committing horrible atrocities on them the native people? Ask Mrs. Thatcher amongst others of how they supported the wholesale violation of the human rights of the African people of South Africa.

Let us also recall other situations of Human Rights violations by those who are today preaching to us. In the period 1945-1962 we saw continuous Torture and brutal extra-judicial killings by the French of Algerians during the Algerian War of Independence In the period 1954 -1956 we saw Torture and killing of at least 50,000 Kenyans, perhaps far more, by the British during the Mau Mau Rebellion.

Then there was the Paris massacre in 1962 and the Government was accused of sanctioning the abuses of Human rights which led to that massacre. There was also the 1978 Ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that alleged torture by the British government of suspected IRA Irish Republican Army members constituted “cruel and inhuman treatment”.

Let us also look into the record in other areas of Human Rights today; the treatment meted out to the Gypsies of Europe, next we have the Asylum Seekers and minorities in their own countries; did we not see what happened in France for the second time in recent years. Incidentally the EU does NOT support the Charter of Fundamental Rights!

Many EU countries are mentioned in the annual Amnesty International report as being violators of human rights including human trafficking, and are these the people preaching to us ? On the subject of human trafficking was it not the ancestors, whose blood still runs in the veins of those who are preaching to us, who ran the slave trade from Africa.

Regarding Human Rights, the Council of Europe is responsible for both the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. These institutions bind the Council’s members to a code of human rights which, though strict, are more lenient than those of the United Nations charter on human rights.

There is no doubt that the HR situation in this country has deteriorated, but to have Europeans and others from the Western hemisphere, who have much blood on their hands, preaching to us is unacceptable.

Let us not forget the fact that we are fighting a war in our country, though this is no absolute excuse. We are fighting the most unscrupulous of terrorists who think nothing of sending children to act as canon fodder before they send their trained cadres to battle, let us not forget that these same terrorists have used human shields and have been targeting innocent civilians without any compunction. This is the enemy we are fighting against and civilians are bound to suffer as in any war.

We do accept that our forces must never be accused of having deliberately targeted civilians. When such incidents occur those responsible must in the interest of the armed forces themselves, be punished.

Today the people of this vulnerable country feel that there is an international conspiracy to lash together isolated incidents of human rights violations into one damning indictment to make out a case for an intervention on humanitarian grounds. We most urgently need a measure of sophistication to attend our approach to the international involvement in our national problem.

In conclusion a word to the Prime Minister of our great neighbour India; you Sir, have in a joint statement with the EU, called for a negotiated settlement; please tell us with whom are we to negotiate ? Are you not aware of the fact that we have sought without success to effect a negotiated settlement and that the LTTE has made use of every such effort to prepare for the continuation of the war ?

You should also be fully aware that the LTTE will not call off their demand for a separate state, nor will they give up their armed struggle to achieve that end, so what is there to negotiate about ?

A separate state is not negotiable with us the people of this country, other than the LTTE, and this includes Tamil citizens as well (there are more living amongst us in the south than in the Jaffna peninsula).

You have spoken of ‘a credible devolution package’, the Indian Government helped this country in 1987 to forge a “credible devolution package”, did the LTTE accept that ? No they killed not only the grandson of Shri Jawaharlal Nehru and the son of Indira Ji, but also over 1,000 Indian soldiers and maimed a further 3,000 in pursuance of their struggle, I wonder what you in particular and the EU have to say to that ?

The Government has stated that it is prepared to go further than the devolution proposals incorporated in the constitution in 1987, and when the LTTE rejects that too, as their only goal is a separate state, are you and the EU prepared to help us end the insurgency, which is what we are seeking to do now?

Since you and the EU have stated in your joint statement that you “are closely watching the situation in Sri Lanka” please issue a joint or separate statement that if the Government of Sri Lanka comes up with “credible devolution proposals’ within a united sovereign Sri Lankan state acceptable as a fair basis for a settlement, the LTTE should call off their demand for a separate state and further that India would never permit the establishment of such a separate state. Further they should be called upon to lay down arms; such a statement would compel the Government of Sri Lanka to expedite its work and come up with its long overdue proposals which in the words of the President himself would constitute devolution to the furthest possible extent within a united Sri Lanka.