GREAT!! two white guys upset that the white lobby sponsored bill against Lanka failed at the UNHRC.

Honestly where do these guys get the audacity to tell us on how we should live our lives?

Is this not ironic? when and how did white boys become the voice of morality in this world? So the story goes;
1. conquer brown people
2. completely mess up their systems
3. continue to suppress and oppress them after "independence"
4. when they finally try to sort out their own matters hit them with what ever you have including the "human rights" bat

Above comment by Rajan shows why international community should forcibly intervene to implement Tamil Eelam solution. These comments are part of the Mahavamsa mindset - anyone who speaks for the Tamils is automatically a Tiger supporter.

World should understand this Mahavamsa mindset. It is not 21st century. It is 5th century. Same mindset that is now running torture camps in the North.

Ranjan
Human rights do not belong to "white west" , it belongs to everyone who longing to be civilized all over the world. West has moved on, but some are stuck where they were 100 yrs. ago.

The racialised discourse on the previous commentator is unbelievable - and fairly typical of the outlook of many Lankans. This kind of thing might be expected to some degree in any nationalist thinking - but is out of place in a time when the power is fast shifting to Asia. If this a typical mindest, then it is not difficult too how the "Para Suddha" mindset can easily become a "Para Demala" mindset.

The colour of the commentator is irrelevant, Focus on the message not the messenger.

Rajan,

It is perfectly acceptable to essentially have both hands out begging for funds and preferential trade from the "White guys," but unacceptable to hear their constructive criticism? Honestly, do you really think that the SL Armed Forces did not commit any war crimes? Is every reasonable voice a tiger agent?

Sri Lanka is truly hopeless and destined for failure.

GREAT!! Brown sinhala guys upset that the world has learnt their hidden agenda and won't give them more money, inspite of a victory from Rogue-countries sponsored bill.

Honestly, Where do these guys get the idea they will succeed in their genocide and the world will never know about it? where do these guys get the audacity TO DROP CHEMICAL BOMBS on CIVILIANS? Where do these guys get the AUDACITY to conquer the Tamils' lands in the North and call it their own? Where do these guys get the audacity to literally BULL DOZE PEOPLE and ask everybody else to shut up and just watch? Where do these guys get the idea that a mass murder of 20000 civilians can be hidden from the world ? Where do these half-baked guys get the idea they can act like a special race implanted here on earth?

Isn't it ironic that,

1. SL accuses west of conquering and messing them while they are holding 300000 people at concentration camps without basic needs at this very moment?
2. They ask the western countries to shut up only when criticised but will gladly accept money from them even today?
3. The sri lankan hot heads put forth further demands and requests to the western countries over LTTE after asking them to shut up all these days when questioned over the manner in which the war was conducted? Hey... if you don't listen to others, others don't have an obligation to listen to you! Got it, you hot heads??
4. Countries like India and Egypt voted in UNHRC sessions in Jan 2009 to facilitate an International probe into Israel for Gaza attack, but they voted against a similar move on SL last week citing sovereignity. Doesn't Israel have sovereignity?? Or is it the fear they will also be caught red handed when SL is probed?

Where do the these Lankan HOT HEADS and BIG MOUTHS get the idea that the rest of the world is a meek fool to succumb for that third world failed state called Lanka???

Rajan,

Morality is not the monopoly of "non-white boys." Seems like the truth they are trying to bring to the open is somehow a huge discomfort for you. Lack of substance and a mere vitriolic outbusrt castigating the messenger on baseless and irrelevant accusations merely reflects your desperation.

Here’s the problem - repeated calls for national commissions were made by Sri Lankans who wanted to see the end of impunity in our country after the following human rights violations (that at least I know of during my life time): 1) after the elimination of an entire generation of intelligentsia (mainly Sinhala although there were some Tamil and Muslims as well) by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) during the 1970’s JVP insurrection; 2) after the government sponsored pogram against the Tamil people in 1983 that saw about 3000 deaths; and 3) after 60 000 Sinhala people went missing in the South after the 2nd phase of the JVP insurrection in the late 1980s. No one was held accountable for any of these crimes. This is our (Sri Lankans) human rights that we are talking about that only WE can hold accountable those who violate them. It’s all well and good the intellectual dismissals by the Sri Lankan representative to the UN in Geneva, albeit a cogent argument, but lets see this backed by national actions to bring to justice those who violate OUR human rights.

But if you guys want to be helpful I would appreciate if you got your facts right and kept as close to the truth and did not engage in unfounded accusations – ICRC had access throughout the war with the exception of the last 4 – 5 days, where the ICRC reckoned it was too dangerous. The ICRC was in fact facilitating the movement of civilians out of the war zone together with the GOSL forces. The use of words like “genocide” and “concentration camps” are catchy but lead to easy dismissal as they are well defined in international law. On 4 June we had a bit of a surreal situation where Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary in Sri Lanka's ministry of disaster management and human rights, rejected reports that 20 000 civilians were killed and said that he estimates it between 3 000 – 5 000. We don’t really need to exaggerate the numbers - by his own admission war crimes have been committed. Now it is time to find out who is accountable for those crimes. Work with like minded national counterparts.

From the Sunday Leader....

The rendezvous of victory

"I really don’t care much for the GOSL but I do care about the possible economic impact to Sri Lanka... Viewing everyone who defends Sri Lanka as a GOSL flunkie (sic) is as nonsensical as viewing everyone who raises questions about the plight of the IDPs etc. as LTTE sympathisers."

— Rukmankan Sivaloganathan, "Fighting The PR War," Groundviews

"Who cares what the West thinks? We won the war, the Sinhala nation triumphed over terrorists and that is something the West did not believe could happen. Let the West go interfere in the Middle East and leave us alone, we have other allies and we have our country back for good. May this be a warning to all other people and groups, the Sinhala nation will always come out on top and the Sinhala people will continue to prosper in Mother Lanka."

— Lanka, commenting on "Fighting The PR War," Groundviews

It was reported on the BBC website this week that Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary, Palitha Kohona, speaking on the internment of over 250,000 IDPs in government camps, noted that everyone there had to be carefully screened, adding that it was "quite likely" that even many elderly people were "with the LTTE, at least mentally."

What this convoluted and bizarre statement means is anyone’s guess, but it is a telling insight into the government’s approach to and understanding of post-war peacebuilding and reconciliation.

My last column rejected the hypocrisy of the West in calling for investigations into war crimes in Sri Lanka, a position I have not shifted from since and many share. However, this is not in any way an excuse for postponing home grown truth-telling initiatives that are the fundamental basis of reconciliation, healing and a durable peace. It is clear the government, basking in domestic and international triumphalism, does not understand this, which is most unfortunate.

Historical moment

Not a single person I’ve met with partial or vehemently opposed to the government has dismissed the significance of the historical moment we are participants of today. Obviously however, deep divisions persist regarding the government’s willingness and ability to win and maintain a just and durable peace. These divisions in polity and society will continue to grow because many of us are still fearful of expressing what we care about – an essential critique of power.

Six months into the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge, those who killed him roam free. The attack on Poddala Jayantha last week, in broad daylight, clearly highlights that journalists critical of war and government still face physical violence, the possibility of death and a culture of impunity. Accounting for such monumental disasters to our country as Mihin Air are now forgotten. Critique of dangerously deified political power remains muted, overwhelmed by the enduring, thinly veiled violence of propaganda against dissent emanating from civil society and independent media.

Edward Said succinctly called them "scholar-combatants," individuals from retired military men to glib academics who are indistinguishable from policymakers in the service of legitimising violence and war. Their legacy both internationally and domestically is a miasma of hagiography, disinformation, partial truths, selective readings and blatant lies that seriously risk undermining fundamental post-war imperatives of peace and development.

Go beyond

Reconciliation fundamentally requires us all to go beyond this self-serving propaganda and confront multiple truths including those inconvenient to and incompatible with our beliefs. It will require us to confront the brutality and fanatical terrorism of the LTTE that held thousands hostage as fodder for collateral even as its demise was imminent. It will require us to investigate – meaningfully and in a transparent manner — allegations supported by a body of evidence ranging from eye-witness testimony to satellite imagery of atrocities against unarmed children, women and men in "safe zones" and IDP camps committed by the government armed forces.

We need to, without any prevarication, say that we are for such investigations as Sri Lankans, not as agents of some foreign agenda, but as citizens who love and care for the future of our country and as architects of a shared destiny. Three decades of war relinquished our control of this shared destiny. Belief in the agency of gods and heroes to solve our problems arises out of our own perceived powerlessness. Anxious, fearful and unable to say what we are for, we have been defined instead by what we could not be against – the war against terrorism.

And if this war captured our imagination, we must now free ourselves from the bondage of violence to develop – through dialogue, participation, listening and reconciliation – a sense of who we are as a people and what we must become in order to first heal and then grow as a united country.

Dialogue

Victory speeches and military parades are arguably vital vents for a triumphant army and cathartic for our Sinhala peoples. Yet, no army, no general, no defence secretary, no president can bring about durable peace without meaningfully supporting critical dialogues from political and civil society that focus care and attention on those displaced, the restitution of their livelihoods and above all, strengthen accountability.

We must be quite clear that the degree of public participation envisaged as vital for a durable peace was not witnessed even during the zenith of the CFA, when the government of the day demonstrated a marked inability to anchor its peace plans to the psyche of voters in the south.

The challenge of creating and sustaining inclusive, civil dialogues is central to peace, development and security. I strongly believe increasing access to and use of mobile phones as well as the internet and the web, along with the transformation of traditional print and broadcast to digital, participatory media are building blocks of a new deliberative democratic culture and participatory governance. Yet it is by no means a given that a government defined by, constituted for and celebrates war and violence can nourish or is even remotely interested in public debates contesting truth, justice, principles and convictions.

On the other hand too, the corruption, nepotism, parochialism and petty egocentrism of civil society with equal violence undermines radical new voices with innovative solutions tailored to address enduring socio-political and economic challenges. Both actors therefore need to rethink and remake their shared destiny together. This is why I chose to highlight two comments published on Groundviews online at the start of this article.

The first grapples with the challenge of being critical of Sri Lanka and government today as a patriot. The second reminds us of powerful voices from the Rajapakse regime, rendering critical engagement with government as it stands today difficult and dangerous.

Yet critically engage we must, for it is the fundamental basis of a new humanism and our peace. And even if we don’t all survive such a tempestuous engagement, we must believe our ideas will. As the acclaimed French poet Aimé Césaire said, "There is room for all at the rendezvous of victory."