This is not THE resolution. Let’s keep that in mind. It is not even a ‘draft’. It is a leaked draft, at best. But in these days of leaks and gushes when the key political issue that bothers the world is, in a word, Ukraine, but ‘Geneva’ thinks Sri Lanka is bigger than Ukraine, Russia, the USA and the EU put together, there’s no harm in commenting on this piece of paper, one might argue.
Is this resolution on (sic) Sri Lanka (read, ‘against Sri
Lanka’) a ‘tightening’ considering the wording in the 2013 document? If it is indeed a tightening, does it amount
to pinch, punch or strangulation? Well,
those who were salivating at a choking-prospect are dismayed. That should say something.
At best it is a lazy (tired?) upgrading of the 2013 document
(upping, if you will) that appears like a copy-paste exercise from some
good-governance guidebook. There are
keywords, though. There’s ‘concern’ and ‘deep
concern’. There is ‘alarm’. There is ‘taking note’ of this and that. There is ‘recollection’. There is ‘reiteration’. There is ‘affirming’ and reaffirming’. There
is ‘report’. There is ‘allegation’. There is underlying assumption. No, ‘assumption’
is not a keyword, don’t get us wrong here; it is the thread that loosely ties
one paragraph to the next and the next.
Reading through the litany of woes (reports of woes, to be
precise) and the usual disclaimer about ‘intimidation and retaliation against
civil society members’ (who, by the way, roam around Colombo and party to their
hearts’ content), one might think the authors are talking about Albuquerque,
New Mexico or Anaheim, California. One
could also think of places in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other places
where the Democracy Squads of the USA have opened the doors to ‘sexual and
gender-based violence, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings,
torture, violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and
peaceful assembly, intimidation of and reprisals against human rights
defenders, members of civil society and journalists, threats to judicial independence
and the rule of law’. The USA has not
only ‘opened the doors’ but done the honors too, let us not forget.
There’s mention also of demilitarization. That’s troop withdrawal, folks. No, not of US troops in some 150 countries,
not of withdrawals from Japan almost 70 years after THAT war ended, but the
treatment of the North and East of Sri Lanka as though they are no-go zones for
the state. ‘Funny,’ did someone say?
So we have exaggeration. We have selectivity too. Come on, there’s worse stuff being ‘reported’
in other countries but no finger-wagging ‘no-no’ resolutions being tabled in
the UNHRC about them. Really, if this is what the UNHRC is about,
and if it is indeed serious about right all (assumed) wrongs, the sessions
should be 12 months long, for that’s the time it would take to table, debate,
listen to submissions and counter-submissions, prepare texts, pencil in
amendments, take votes etc., on all the countries that deserve this kind of ‘censure’.
And yet, this is still a watered-down resolution of the kind
that would upset the delicate sensibilities of the likes of Fr (sic) Emmanuel,
Navi Pillay, Callum Macrae, Frances Harrison, Louise Arbor, David Cameron and
other Sri Lanka haters. Indeed it is
surprising that the USA, such a mover and shaker, such a lover of those who
love to hate Sri Lanka, has not upped the ante here. Makes one wonder.
Is it that the USA fears a harsher document would get shot
down because a) it is ridiculous, b) the membership has bigger things to worry
about, or c) Sri Lanka might call the US bluff and say ‘ok, let’s investigate
all atrocities committed by all parties from 1975 to 2009, India included, and
if you want post-war stuff, let’s go with that too; and since we need the world
to be lovely let’s extend the logic to include all nations, happy?’
It might be that in the aftermath of Obama’s ‘cost-warning’
to Russia over Ukraine (which didn’t stop Russia) and John Kerry’s ‘you can’t
invade a country on a trumped-up pretext in the 21st Century
(although we invaded Iraq), the USA is worried that some countries might begin
to figure out that Washington was, is and will always be full of sh**. Some might even think that they would be
digging their own graves by saying ‘aye’ to this blatant bullying, meddling,
destabilizing and indeed wrecking the chances for peace and
reconciliation. It might even upset
India, come to think of it.
Since ‘Ukraine’
remains unresolved and signs are that Obama may have to eat his words, voting
representatives at the UNHRC might do a re-think of ‘best do what boss says’. If someone, anyone, gives the boss the finger
then ‘bossness’ is under threat and a threatened boss can’t exactly throw his
weight the way he did before. Is that
the problem, one might ask.
With regime-change fanatics betting heavily on a fillip from
Geneva, this kind of watering down will be seized by the Government as a
victory that’s sweet and, all things considered, adequate. If this is what all the frenetic lobbying by
powerful persons (US and UK envoys in Colombo were canvassing the support of the
voting members in blatant violation of protocol; this too is indicative of
desperation) yielded, it is a sad indictment on their powers of persuasion.
That too will be noted by the Government.
Let Sri Lanka not entertain any illusions. The deck is
stacked. Against Sri Lanka. Watered down or otherwise. The watering down, however, constitutes a ‘blinking’
on the part of Uncle Sam. Let Sri
Lankans have no illusions. A ‘come down’
on the part of the USA would do the country good, but that does not mean Sri
Lanka is a perfect nation. Its imperfections are many and quite apart from the
fact that many imperfections flow from a flawed constitution, the arrogance of
the powerful and a manifest reluctance of fixing the democracy-gap embedded in
the constitution is not something to cheer about.
If this is THE draft, it can’t get ‘harsher’. It can only get further diluted as March 29
approaches. For now, though, let’s not
forget the ‘leaked’ element of the matter.
At the same time, let us not forget that the dynamics alluded to above
will not go away in the next few weeks.
Let the circus roll on, either way.
We might as well get entertained if that’s the best we can obtain from
all the clowning that has since of late come to be associated with Geneva in
the month of March.
msenevir@gmail.com
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