Deconstructing The Pillay Visit And Report
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha MP
I noted earlier that the visit of Navanethem Pillay should be seen as an opportunity by the Sri Lankan government, and the way the visit went, as well as the statement she made, confirms this view. Of course we had to contend with the fact that not all the advice she received was constructive, but the manner in which she reversed her earlier intention to lay flowers at Mullivaikkal indicates that she herself wanted to be positive. Though she argued that she had placed flowers elsewhere, she is too intelligent a woman not to have realized that her gesture would have been seen as a tribute to theLTTE, not to the victims of the long drawn out conflict.
I suspect too that, having come here, and seen our basic commitment to pluralism, she would have for the first time realized what an aberration the LTTE was. Though I do not think she would ever have stuck up for terrorists, she might have thought previously of the LTTE as at least in part freedom fighters, given her own upbringing in South Africa, where the Africans were without dignity or rights in the dark days of apartheid. Coming here would have helped her to understand the difference, and that I believe prompted the first foursquare condemnation of the LTTE from the UN system that we have now finally heard.
Sadly this was accompanied by the one blot on an otherwise very balanced and potentially helpful statement. She claimed that the LLRC report ‘side-stepped the much-needed full, transparent, impartial investigation into the conduct of a conflict that saw numerous war crimes and other violations committed by both sides’. This parroting of the American stance was a pity, because it could allow her detractors to side-step the other important points she raises.
I say American stance, because it was the Americans who, alone of what they term the international community, attacked the LLRC report on these grounds, in a perverse statement by Victoria Nuland that was in sharp contrast to the very positive approach of other countries – including the British, who had first started the call to hounds in this connection, but whose current High Commissioner, John Rankin, is a very different person from the David Miliband groupies we had previously.
The American condemnation of the LLRC report was taken up also by the TNA, just as it had taken up the American support for Sarath Fonseka in 2009, and by the CPA. This in turn led to the extremists in government attacking the LLRC from the other side. Though I think they were wrong to do this, instead of supporting government commitment to its recommendations, I can understand their fears that the Americans and their allies, having waited till these recommendations were implemented, would then have also demanded their pound of flesh. Unfortunately the negative approach of Wimal Weerawansa and his ilk have meant that the LLRC recommendations were not implemented swiftly.Read More
