President vindicated
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has put the lid on a
long-standing accusation against him by the main Opposition UNP.
It had been the UNP’s claim all these years that then Opposition
MP Mahinda Rajapaksa made frequent visits to Geneva to besmirch
the image of the country and deny it Western aid.
That was the time of the height of the second JVP uprising
when rivers of blood flowed across the country as a result of
the JVP’s campaign of terror and the bloody crack down launched
by the Government sponsored vigilante groups. Sri Lanka was
described as a pariah State at the time, the same label that is
now frequently being used by the self same UNP these days to
embarrass the Government.
The country was witnessing a killing spree with innocents
eliminated in the counter offensive including journalists and
Opposition politicians. The blackest episode in that crackdown
was the cruel death of journalist Richard de Zoysa which had all
the hallmarks of a revenge killing on the orders of the
political elite at the time. The killing of SLFP politician
Indrapala Abeyweera was also by no means related to the anti-JVP
crackdown.
It was at such a time when even the mainstream Opposition was
rendered feeble and voiceless that one man single handedly took
on the Government. Mahinda Rajapaksa came to the forefront to
become the voice of the thousands of mothers who had lost their
sons and daughters to the Government sponsored bloody
retaliation. He was in the vanguard of the Mothers’ Front to
trace and locate those disappeared in this killing spree and was
the only voice among the Opposition that caused unease and
discomfort among the Government ranks.
In fact Mahinda Rajapaksa’s crusade against the violation of
human rights and enforced disappearances preceded his re-entry
to Parliament in 1989 for a second time when he came to the
forefront and gained prominence in agitating against the death
in Police custody of Human Rights Lawyer Wijedasa Liyanaarchchi
in 1988.
This is an indication that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s zealous
crusade to protect human rights was virtually in his blood and
devoid of political considerations. That is why the frequent
accusations made against him by the Opposition these days
distorting the purpose of his visit to Geneva during those
harrowing days to say the least are malicious and without basis.
Addressing an election propaganda rally in Ratnapura on
Sunday the President set the record straight. “I always spoke
for the rights of the people. I went there (Geneva) to complain
about the massacre of youth. In fact President Rajapaksa at the
time underwent great risk and even humiliation in his bid to
highlight the extra judicial killings taking place in the
country. He was detained at the Airport and his baggage searched
for ‘incriminating material’ that would expose the Premadasa
Government.
He went to these great lengths to expose a Government who was
killing its own people and to speak on behalf of the innocent
and the defenceless as a doughty campaigner for human rights.
This trait was indeed a hallmark of his entire political career
and not confined to a single episode. This was misconstrued and
distorted by the then Government who charged that his mission
was designed to blacken the image of the country and halt aid.
This refrain is being carried out to this very day by the
bankrupt and faction ridden UNP who has no other ammunition to
attack the President.
One does not recall the President during those humanitarian
missions aligning himself with the LTTE groups in
anti-Government protests or joining Tiger demonstrations in
Geneva or any other Western capital like some of the present day
UNP MPs who have no qualms about doing so. In fact the President
remarked at the Ratnapura rally that when he went to the Geneva
conference by foot Tiger terrorists arrived in Benz cars. Funny
enough the UNP Government of the day even accused him of
demoralising the Army who too was involved in counter terrorist
measures. This indeed came from a party who at every turn tried
to discredit and demoralize the Forces during the heroic battles
to eliminate the LTTE.
The UNP leaders as always have missed the wood for the trees.
The President’s mission to Geneva was purely to highlight the
rampant human rights abuses under cover of the anti-JVP crack
down where torture chambers were conducted under the supervision
of leading politicians of the day. The UNP by harping on this
point has only succeeded in unravelling its bloody past once
again to the new generation of voters further plummeting its
already depleted stocks.
Hopefully the Opposition will henceforth direct its artillery
in another channel without self-inflicting itself with further
damage to its credibility. Besides the Government of the day was
a darling of the West and need not have feared about any aid
cuts due to human rights violations whether raised by Mahinda
Rajapaksa or any other Opposition politician at that time. |