Geneva: Elephant in the room
Editorial-January 12, 2014,
The US is at it again. While carrying out indiscriminate drone strikes, adductions and assassinations in a bid to neutralise terrorist threats it has begun crusading for human rights in time for the Geneva summit. Ambassador-at-large Stephen Rapp was here to prepare the ground for another UNHRC resolution against this country. He wasted his time and energy by coming all the way here, pretending to be on a fact finding mission; Washington is determined to go ahead with its anti-Sri Lankan move with or without his input. Was it that he wanted to escape a polar vortex spell which brought temperature below zero back at home?
Ambassador Rapp and the US mission in Colombo have given away their battle plan with a twitter post which claims that hundreds of families were killed in army shelling in 2009 in one place alone in the North. One wouldn’t have been surprised to find such an unsubstantiated claim on a pro-LTTE website. Instead of plucking figures out of the air like a lazy schoolboy writing an argumentative essay, the US ought to provide reliable information to support its claims.
It is not being argued that everything is hunky dory on the human rights front in this country. A certain amount of international pressure may be necessary to keep the government reminded that the sky is not the limit. But, the countries which have taken upon themselves the task of having ‘accountability issues’ during the final phases of the Vanni war probed ought to mention specific instances of alleged war crimes without making sweeping statements.
The US wants the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations implemented forthwith. Yes, there shouldn’t be any delay on the part of the government in implementing recommendations by its own commission. But, how would the US reconcile its call for implementing LLRC recommendations and its campaign to prevent the publication of the Chilcot report on the UK’s involvement in the Iraq war and the correspondence between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair as regards that illegal war?
Strangely, in Geneva, nobody dares take up numerous, blatant human rights violations and war crimes committed by the US, which has beaten the rap by virtue of being a leading world power.
Flying frogs
Animals have made headlines during the past few weeks. A venomous snake found in the Opposition Leader’s parliamentary office caused quite a stir. (It has been all snakes and no ladders for the Jumbo Chief!) A UNP rebel has claimed that a croc was put into his swimming pool the other day. A white turtle has gone missing from a hatchery in the south. Last month, a crocodile had to be chased out of a GCE O/L examination centre. A female anaconda in the Dehiwala Zoo has become internationally known—for the wrong reason though. She devoured her beloved mate. Two peafowls have recently collided with an aircraft, forcing it to make an emergency landing at the newly built airport at Mattala, where one sees more jumbos than jets.
National Geographic reported, last year, that a new type of flying frog had been discovered in Vietnam. It has special aerodynamic adaptations like webbed feet and ability to parachute from tree to tree, we are told. But, our parachuting frogs are peerless. Elections are the times when they usually become quite active. A cacophony of croaks is heard from the lake isle of Kotte.
Some of the frogs have already begun leaping ahead of the provincial council polls and many others are expected to do likewise in the next few weeks. The problem with frogs is that they go places in politics!
