Editorial of The Island news paper of Srilanka Is it CHOGM or UNHRC summit? November 14, 2013, 8:05 pm The Commonwealth leaders meet today. Usually, they gather, talk and depart and nothing comes of their summits. But, this time around there is likely to be a difference with some leaders trying to turn the Colombo CHOGM into a UNHRC session of sorts. They are here to haul their host over the coals. This is an interesting development. Sri Lanka’s human rights record, no doubt, has to improve, as we keep saying in these columns. International pressure is mounting on the incumbent government and it has brought this situation upon itself. But, we hasten to add, in the same breath, that the self-righteous leaders who have taken the trouble of coming all the way here to lecture Sri Lanka must prove that they themselves have impeccable human rights records. British Prime Minister David Cameron has thrown his weight behind some groups calling for a war crimes probe against Sri Lanka. He is obviously singing for votes back at home, so to speak. Shouldn’t he, before taking up allegations of war crimes against this country, put his own house in order by holding former British PM Tony Blair accountable for killing nearly one million Iraqis in an illegal war? Interestingly, The Independent newspaper (UK) has exclusively reported that the Cameron government is blocking the publication of the Chilcot report on how Britain went to war with Iraq. It is doing so in view of strong objections from the US to the release of key evidence except in a heavily redacted form, we are told. We thought it was only in Sri Lanka that probe reports were ‘swallowed’. We stand corrected! The Independent expose could not have come at a worse time for Cameron. He has been left with egg on his face though he is trying to keep a stiff upper lip in typical British style. While urging others to address accountability issues he is sitting on the findings of a high-level inquiry into a war waged on the basis of falsified intelligence reports. What a shame! How would he reconcile these two contradictory positions on ‘war crimes’? We hope our hectoring Channel Four friends covering CHOGM will waylay their Prime Minister and ask him why he is not releasing the Chilcot report. It is being widely speculated that the British government will either release a ‘neutered’ Chilcot report or a redacted version thereof to appease the US. This is the shameless manner in which the Cameron government has chosen to subjugate its human rights concerns to its ‘special relationship’ with the US. So much for the knights in shining armour defending human rights! British Foreign Secretary William Hague, too, has asked Sri Lanka to conduct a ‘transparent and independent’ investigation into alleged war crimes. He is trying to build his image as an indefatigable campaigner for human rights. He is free to do so as a politician, but will he set an example to others as regards transparency by urging PM Cameron to release the Chilcot report? Unless he does so, he should stop talking about the so-called Commonwealth values. Another issue that the Commonwealth Heads of State should take up at the Colombo summit is the dastardly drone attacks the US is carrying out with impunity on Pakistani soil regardless of the staggering civilian death toll. It is unbecoming of them, especially the western leaders crusading for human rights and global democracy, to turn a blind eye to the huge destruction of lives in a Commonwealth country. Amnesty International has called those attacks war crimes. So, they should not avoid addressing this vital issue if they are really concerned about war crimes and other forms of human rights violations. None could ever do a greater disservice to human rights than the conceited hypocrites who advocate them.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 13:31:05 +0000
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