The lies need to stop, at least now

By Kishali Pinto Jayawardene

The continued shrill beating of the nationalist drum in regard to the resolution tabled this week before the United Nations Human Rights Council by the United States of America, calling on Sri Lanka to set a time frame for the implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), is stupendously counterproductive. Interjection of local politics into international diplomacy So indeed is the unwise framing of the ongoing diplomatic event as a ‘battle’ or a ‘war’, which is what we are hearing from Sri Lanka’s mission in Geneva, as its representatives abandon even the façade of diplomatic niceties on the one hand while scurrying around for favourable votes on the other. Meanwhile, taxpaying citizens back at home foot the bills of a massive delegation which includes quarrelling ministers and their hangers-on, those desperately trying to sustain political favours by lying through their teeth and those simply there for the entertainment.   This is crude strategy of the worst kind. First, whether we like it or not, the interjection of local politics into international diplomacy in such rude posturing only lumps Sri Lanka into the same category as Sudan and Somalia for example, which classification is becoming far too common for comfort now. This is a sad reality for a country which once had well seasoned diplomats of the likes of a Lakshman Kadirgamar and a Neville Kanekaratne. read more..