Will Manmohan Singh Shake Hands With Mahinda Rajapaksa?
By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole -November 7, 2013
Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
Every recent Sri Lankan expatriate conversation has been on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting – why the UK, Australia and New Zealand are fully behind Sri Lanka, whether India’s Manmohan Singhwould and even whether he should go. Naturally tonight’s (Nov. 3) Channel 4 Broadcast has added to the anxiety of those on all sides.
Many have asked me what I think. As a Sri Lankan I want a Sri Lankan state that is multicultural and respectful of the rule of law. All the evidence I have seen points to terrible things having happened at the end of the LTTE’s rule and the life of its leader Prabhakaran – I deliberately avoided saying end of the conflict as many say because, the way government is going, it is adding to the list of causes that resulted in that terrible war.
All the conversations I have had with friends and associates who lived through those terrible days of bombs, and death all around them in Mullaitivu, and being shot at if they tried to flee, leave no doubt in my mind as to the accuracy of the UN Marzuki Darusman Report. The little doubt that would remain in any rational person’s head as to whether the government could be telling the truth vanishes quickly as its leaders evade an inquiry that could only help it, if things are as it claims.
Yet, plans for CHOGM on Sri Lankan soil continue under the primary case that Sri Lanka must be engaged by Commonwealth member-states to help her correct course. However, when a neighbor rapes a householder’s wife and kills his children, can he argue that the neighbor must be engaged? For minor offences such a principle would work, but not for the major ones that Sri Lanka stands accused of. In this case, the primary duty of the CHOGM is to protect and safeguard the people, rather than the system of solidarity among member states.
Britain, the primus inter pares among the members of the Commonwealth, is vulgarly rushing to participate in the CHOGM meeting. David Cameron says that he will push for accountability in Colombo, something, I note, he can do even from Downing Street. Indeed what better incentive for Sri Lanka to investigate current allegations than to be threatened with isolation? Verbal entreaties made while rewarding the Sri Lankan President with the chair of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, constitute active encouragement to do nothing.
