Sri Lanka’s onward march
From what could be gathered, President Mahinda
Rajapaksa has had a fruitful, cordial and frank exchange of
ideas with UN Secretary General Ban-ki-Moon in New York on
issues arising from the Darusman Report and allied matters and
we hope the Lankan state and the UN would continue to forge
ahead together on the road to complete normalization in Sri
Lanka. While there is no question that the Lankan government
would continue to engage the UN constructively, it is up to the
key decision-making bodies and personnel within the UN system to
ensure that they continue to relate to Sri Lanka on the basis of
the principles of the UN Charter, which is an important
component of International Law.
It was in the fitness of things for President Rajapaksa to
raise with the UN Secretary General, the issue of the purely
advisory nature of the Panel Report. An year ago, the UNSG had
admitted to the informal status of the Report with the President
but had gone on to submit it to the formal structures of the UN
as the months went by. The UNSG had admitted that a lapse in
communication had occurred and this frank admission would accrue
to the benefit of UN-Sri Lanka ties. What is of crucial
importance is that the two sides have agreed to move on ahead on
their cooperative track without in any way being constricted by
these past lapses. In other words, the past is to be left
behind.
Now that the two parties have arrived at a closer
understanding on the issues that are currently at the heart of
their ties, we believe that a considerable responsibility
devolves on the UNSG to ensure that the Panel Report and the
issues growing out of it, do not in any way obstruct Sri Lanka’s
progress towards complete normalization and a better tomorrow.
In other words, the UNSG would need to see to it that the
infamous Report does not figure in any formal deliberations of
the UN and its agencies.
Needless to say, it is of the utmost importance that these
conditions are observed. For one thing, Sri Lanka is busy
putting things on the path of normalcy and would need the
complete cooperation of the UN to forge into the future.
As is well known, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation
Commission (LLRC) would be coming out with a comprehensive,
final report on the progress it has registered in terms of
meeting its mandate by mid-November and we believe the
international community would be erring tragically by
pre-judging the issues in this country, instead of first
studying the LLRC report.
Over the months, we in this newspaper have been going more
than the extra mile to highlight the positive developments which
have been occurring by way of reconstruction, rehabilitation and
development in general. It should be plain to see that the
communities of this country are being treated with consideration
and concern by the state. Besides the development drive which is
being vigorously pursued in the North-East, the majority of
former LTTE cadres are being rehabilitated by the state and are
being re-integrated into mainstream society. Discriminatory
treatment of these ex-cadres is something that the state would
not be resorting to.
It is up to the state to continually highlight these and
other achievements to the world community. Some state reports
are already out on these important ‘pluses’ and the government
would do well to distribute these documents more liberally among
the international community and to continuously keep it informed
about Sri Lanka’s achievements.
The international community would also need to consider the
adverse political ripples its harping on the Panel Report would
have, locally and internationally. While it is apparent that a
considerable proportion of the Report’s contents is based on the
input provided by the LTTE rump, the anti-Lanka slant in the
Report would only keep ethnic chauvinists in Southern Sri Lanka
in particular, busy and vociferous and frothing.
This could be one of the biggest setbacks for Sri Lanka in
its onward march. Ethnic chauvinism in either Southern or
Northern Sri Lanka is highly detrimental to nation-building in
this country and the Report would be considered by these groups
as a most handy present. If Sri Lanka is to be helped,
therefore, the Report should be out of the international
community’s agenda, for good. |