It has been quite evident to the international community that the Sri Lankan government headed by President Mahinda Rajapakse gives two hoots to what the other nations say about it. In the latest development, a panel of international experts observing a Sri Lankan investigation into a raft of human rights abuses and killings said on Thursday it was quitting Sri Lanka, saying the government was hindering the process.
This was to be expected. The Sri Lanka government has decided to end the Tamil insurgency with military force. The thinking of Mahapakse seems to be to achieve that goal, whatever may be the cost. It has been repeatedly reprimanded by all major western powers for its pathetic human rights record. Bodies like the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have cried themselves hoarse protesting against the inhuman tactics used by the Sri Lanka security forces, not only against the LTTE fighters, but also against suspected agents of the terrorist organization.
Mahapakse, when criticized some months back by the UN, had struck back at the international body and accused it of being biased against smaller nations like Sri Lanka. He had said then that the UN too had many handicaps and needed improvements. He had also said that the UN remained silent when big powers did something wrong, but lifted a reproving finger at Sri Lanka, whenever some human rights abuses were reported.
Mahapakse seems to have taken to heart the old Indian saying that iron cuts iron. That the Sri Lankan forces have to act as brutally, if not more, than the LTTE to defeat it. But he should also remember Gandhi had said that an eye for an eye makes the world blind. Mahapakse should understand that complex problems will not be solved by military means alone. He should observe the Palestine problem and that Israel’s military force has solved nothing in more than fifty years. The blind eye turned by the Sri Lanka government on human rights abuses will slowly brutalize the nation’s society beyond repair.
