Plot to create conditions for R2P, says Protect Sri Lanka

Chamikara Weerasinghe

Six international organisations operating in Colombo are compiling reports of alleged human right violations in Sri Lanka in a sinister move to form the background justifying “R2P” (Responsibility to protect) posing a grave threat against the country’s sovereignty, mainstream patriotic organisations said on Tuesday at a press conference held in Suasiripaya, Colombo 7.

The panellists of “Protect Sri Lanka” a confederation of the patriotic national movements, said that international Human Rights Watch, International Panel of Jurists, Amnesty International, International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, UN Human Rights Commission and International Crisis Group and a number of their dependent NGOs are all out to denigrate the Government of Sri Lanka on alleged human rights violations in a move to induct a foreign army into Sri Lanka under the aegis of UN.

Dr.Gunadasa Amarasekera of the Patriotic National Movement said that these groups are engaged in compiling lengthy reports of alleged human rights violations eyeing the March meeting of the UN Human Rights Council.

“These organisations are all out to paint a bad Human Rights picture of Sri Lanka to create a Kosovo like situation , firstly to justify the Louis Arbour Plan for Sri Lanka to establish a UN human rights monitoring mission in the country,” he said.

The doctrine of Responsibility to Protect was first implemented in Rwanda under a UN convention of 1948 as there were killings which tantamount to genocide in that country with over 800,000 people butchered , he said.

There are no instances of ethnic cleansing or genocide in Sri Lanka to justify any foreign intervention under the circumstances, the panellists said.

The actions of these international organisations goes on to prove that they were on a mission to destabilise the country at a stage the government has reached the tail end of the battle to defeat LTTE terrorism, they said.

S.L. Gunasekera of Sinhala Jathika Sanvidhanaya said that it was sad to note how these international organisations have come foreword to pressurise the government at a time it was on the verge of defeating the LTTE. He said that not a single international organisation or NGO turn up and speak on behalf of Sinhala Buddhist youth who were killed by the former UNP regime when there was a JVP insurgency.

“These organisations do not seem to highlight how Sri Lankan security forces have helped people in Vaakarai. The SL army has resettled 14,000 families in the area ,” he said.

The SL Army is in the process of rehabilitating the displaced under various programmes, training them in vocations such as plumbing and carpentry,” he said.

“ The situation being so , we came to learn that UNICEF and UNFCR officers have refused several supplies requested by needy people in Vaakarai stating that they could not give anything unless they come to rehabilitation camps,” he said. The purpose of this is to have more people in the camps so that they can show the rest of the world that there is a serious IDP problem in Sri Lanka, he said.

Representatives of National Joint Committee, Patriotic National Front , Sinhala Jathika Sanvdhanaya, Jayagrahanaya, Weera Parakramabahu Foundation of Australia, Manel Mal Vyapaaraya and Tavalama Foundation were among the panellists.