Illusion-Mongering, For Geneva
Sunday, August 19, 2012
“The bamboozle has captured us”. - Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World)
By Tisaranee Gunasekara
The Rajapaksa administration’s tryst with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is just two months away. India, Spain and Benin are assigned to review the Lankan case; indubitably, Delhi’s will be the decisive voice.The UPR report will be submitted to the next UNHRC session. That session will also review the progress made by the Rajapaksa administration in implementing its own LLRC Report, since the one year grace-period accorded to Colombo under the UNHRC Resolution will end in March 2013. An unfavourable UPR report is bound to colour the way the UNHRC will view and judge Colombo’s record.
A negative outcome in Geneva will not cause an international tsunami; NATO forces will not swoop on the Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port; nor will the UN impose sanctions. But a second Geneva debacle can produce some serious international irritants. For instance, it will impact adversely on the 2013 Commonwealth Summit in Hambantota by strengthening boycott calls and igniting diplomatic efforts for a venue-change.
A über-successful Hambantota Summit is a Rajapaksa desideratum. President Rajapaksa’s unquenchable yearning to rub shoulders with Western leaders is no secret; and he must be imagining so many ‘The Queen and I’ moments – Lankan dinners and English teas, many a têta-à-tête and innumerable photo-opportunities. Mahinda Rajapaksa clearly intends to be the ‘Belle’ of the ‘Hambantota 2012’ Ball and he would not want anything to mar this gala he is giving himself, at an enormous cost to the nation.
So Colombo will go the extra mile to ensure a favourable UPR Report.
The question is what will that extra mile consist of? Will it consist of real improvements in the observance of human rights and the protection of democratic freedoms? Or will it consist of lies and deceptions?
