In
Geneva, essentially, it will be a West vs East battle, considering the
key players. It is no secret that moves against Sri Lanka are
orchestrated principally by Britain and EU countries, operating as
proxies more or less of the USA, which opted out of the UNHRC’s annual
drama on account of the infamous descriptive ‘cesspool of bias.
The
endgame has been clearly visualized and what we now see are strategic
moves that envisage a movement towards that particular Promised Land. To
this end, eight Human Rights Ambassadors of Europe including the
United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden have in a joint statement called on
the Sri Lankan government to "respect human rights defenders such as
Hizbullah.”
Obviously it’s not just that. The recent case of a
lawyer being assaulted by the Police has also been talked of. They’ve
made a lot of noise about the issue of disposing the bodies of Covid-19
victims. That prompt action was taken in the first case and delayed
action (for not altogether indefensible reasons) taken in the latter are
ignored. A fact-starved project must squeeze as much juice as possible
from even a puny, half-rotten orange, after all. Marketing will do the
rest, especially after appropriate flavor enhancers, coloring and
additives are spooned in.
The example of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet’s foot-in-the-mouth claims some time
ago regarding mass graves in Mannar should cure the consciously or
unconsciously blind of their myopia. Bachelet insisted on scripting in
that mass graves ‘issue’ even though forensic tests revealed that they
told a story that was several centuries old!
So we have the case of Hizbullah being reinvented as poster boy. The wording is telling.
Hejaaz
Hizbullah is described as ‘a prominent Attorney-at-Law.’ According to
the EU’s Human Rights Ambassadors, he is ‘a leading advocate of the
rights of people from minority communities, including Muslims in Sri
Lanka.’ He is, in their eyes, ‘a vocal critic of discriminatory
policies.’
Never mind ‘leading,’ he certainly has credentials in
terms of being a rights advocate. Is that all, though? People wear all
kinds of hats. We have seen members or open supporters of terrorist
organizations offering that they were human rights advocates, media
personnel and such. Hejaaz stands accused. That does not mean that he is
guilty; the jury is out on the matter. The fact remains that a country
that suffered through thirty years of attacks executed by the world’s
worst terrorist outfit and saw the carnage left behind multiple suicide
attacks by Islamic fundamentalists CANNOT be faulted for erring on the
side of caution.
The relevant authorities, to be fair by
Hizbullah, have erred in this case, but he’s by no means out of the
woods. Yet. The EU (or for that matter the UK or USA) would not take
chances on terrorist suspects. Sri Lanka cannot either. The Ambassadors
have called on Sri Lanka to ‘respect human rights defenders such as
Hizbullah.’ All well and good if such people did nothing other than
advocate human rights. What if they have not. In this case Hizbullah is
considered a suspect. Prison is not a happy place, but they are not
illegal entities. ‘Respect’ does not amount to mandatory pardons and
release of all suspects. Systems don’t work that way.
Systems.
Interesting word. They are not perfect and there are degrees of
imperfection. Indeed those degrees are not independent of political
will. Take the case of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, better known as
Pilleyan. He was held without trial for five years. Five years! That
went unnoticed and uncommented on by the human rights saints in the UK,
USA and the EU. Neither Michelle Bachelet nor her predecessors uttered a
word of objection/concern.
Why not?
Ends. It is always
about ends. What serves ends will be pursued. What trips ends will be
ignored or pushed aside. Footnoted at best. Poor Hizbullah is in an
unhappy position. If he is innocent, and let’s be clear that he could be
very well be innocent, he’s being played as a pawn in the endgame
studies of multiple parties.
He’s just one. Every single citizen
of Sri Lanka is a pawn of such games Any narrative that leaves out
context is a game. Any narrative that inflates/deflates as per preferred
endgame is a game. It is never about what it is supposed to be, let’s
not kid ourselves. When an entire edifice (like every statement and
resolution related to Sri Lanka emanating from the EU, UK, USA and the
UN) is built on a monumental lie called ‘The Darusman Report’ and when
relevant missives and/or reports from the British High Commission, the
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the International Red Cross
are ignored, it amounts to a slur on every tenet held sacred by the
community of nations. It amounts to an insult to every Sri Lankan. Most
of all, it is an insult to every single individual who suffered directly
or indirectly on account of an unwanted conflagration. Even cases that
have legitimacy (for no war is clinical and not all soldiers are
exemplary adherents to the Geneva Convention) get shortchanged.
Hizbullah,
if indeed he’s innocent, could get shortchanged too and he would have
to thank the overzealous end-justifies-means bullies in the
international community. One hopes it doesn’t come to that.
In any case, he’s not the only pawn. The UNHRC is the Mother of all Pawns.
malindasenevi@gmail.com
[Malinda
Seneviratne is the Director/CEO of the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian
Research and Training Institute. These are his personal views]
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