Is Peace Rainbow High? O, Sri Lanka!
By Chandi Sinnathurai
20 February, 2009
Countercurrents.org
"Peace does not come from the barrel of a gun but is achieved when cultural differences are respected and the fundamental rights of all are recognised and upheld." Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The UN is beginning to shift its blame on India, for its inaction on the plight of Tamil civilians. This is just the tip of the iceberg. But underneath it all, the international system, is drowned in political hypocrisy, lop-sided justice and bureaucratic bungling.
Yet again, the Rwandan genocide, and the UN's inaction comes to haunt one's memory.
India - the emerging super power has kept its lip sealed only to say that the Tamil Tigers will have to disarm (which is equal to surrender) and only then, will it intervene to sort out the mess in Sri Lanka. India's policy is to rock and pinch. Rock the Rajapaksha regime and pinch the Tigers.
What is so important in asking the Tigers to disarm?
If the Sri Lankan military has already cornered the Tigers and as the state propaganda claims that the Tigers are in their last legs what difference does it make if they surrender their arms are not? Why is it the world powers are so very reluctant to condemn the criminal actions of the Sri Lankan state? Civilans are being killed daily in their hundreds while no international organisation is allowed into the conflict zone to verify the situation! Why? Not a single international body wants to publicly raise that question with the Sri Lankan regime.
What the worldpowers wants us all to believe is that the Tamils (Tigers) are the bad guys and as always, the good guys are the Sinhala State. Isn't this what's happeing in the Israel-Palestine conflict? Sri Lanka is no different.
The international powers do not want to entertain the thought that there are terror states which systematically subjugate certain sections of its people. Sadam Hussein's Iraq was not a terror state UNTIL he began to cross the line of the Imperium (and the West). If international justice, and, international systems including the UN work on this basis, sadly, that will only engender further disillusionment, and will work against all conflict resolutions to world-wide conflicts.
The UN must regain its credibilty and trust particularly among the majority of the peoples of the world. As one renowned scholar in the US commented, the "Majority" are the poor and the subaltern who are struggling for their emancipation.
The UN must be seen by all as a bringer of peace. Not as a circus elephant.
