29 Dec, 2011 The US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland’s statement that the report of the Sri Lankan government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) “does not fully address all the allegations of serious human rights violations that occurred in the final phase of the conflict” is a clear message that the Damocles Sword of ‘international action’ continues to hang over the head of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
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Sinhalisation: A Sinhala-only signboard at an important junction in Puthukudyiruppu |
If the US had a soft corner for Rajapaksa it could have given him a clean chit based on the LLRC report. Instead, it has asked a pertinent question, which incidentally is the central theme of the campaign by the Diaspora Tamils against the Sri Lankan government – ‘human rights violations in the final phase of the conflict.’
The LLRC report made public last Friday, concurs with the line of President Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, defence secretary, that the war that decapitated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a humanitarian operation.
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