Bravery of soldiers helped prevent holocaust of 300,000 civilians - Jayantha Dhanapala

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Bravery of soldiers helped prevent holocaust of 300,000 civilians - Jayantha Dhanapala

Former UN Diplomat calls for new protocol to safeguard armed forces fighting terrorism `
Retired UN Diplomat Jayantha Dhanapala said the Sri Lankan armed forces took major risks to avoid a holocaust of 300,000 Tamil civilian deaths in the last stages of the fight against terrorism when the LTTE kept the civilians as a human shield. Making a submission at the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies, he said the tragedy would have reached an alarming level if the forces had not exercised restraint in attacks in order to avoid civilian casualties.
Dhanapala, former Chairman of the United Nations Disarmament Committee said that the international community should adopt a new protocol to deal with the armed forces battling terrorism spearheaded by non-state actors.
Armed forces should not be charged with war crimes when they launch offensives against terrorists, he said. He pointed out that some member nations of the international community interfere in affairs of other countries by aiding and abetting terrorism, funding terrorists, promoting terrorism and allowing funds from those countries to be used for supporting terrorist organizations.
"It is the responsibility of the international community to come for the protection of the nations victimized by the export of terrorism he said, adding that the international community should also take action against countries assisting terrorism in other countries. He said that such interference is a clear violation of the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
Dhanapala proposed that the concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) should be enhanced by new innovative ideas to assist the vulnerable nations faced with difficulties in their fight against terrorism unleashed by non-state actors. "There are many members of Nonaligned Movement faced with this situation. They will support it if there is a move to improve the provisions in the R2P concept to safeguard such nations," he said.
Dhanapala, who served as Sri Lanka's ambassador to the United States, was critical of all the political parties for 'bad governance'. "All the political parties should extend a joint apology to the nation for their failure to establish good governance and to bring in reconciliation in society," he said.
The former top diplomat urged the government to enact a Race and Religious Relations Act to promote reconciliation. There should be punishment for hate speech and action against acts or speeches against other races and religions, he said.
"President Rajapaksa's laudable 'Mathata Thitha' has brought in good results. Now that the conflict is over the government should launch a programme, 'Aviyata Thitha' to prevent proliferation of unauthorized small arms and light weapons in the Sri Lankan society," Dhanapala said.
Answering questions raised by the members of the Commission, he said that Sinhala and Tamil languages should be taught from the beginning of the education of children. When a person is addressed in his own language, it is easier to build trust and confidence. "Other political leaders should emulate President Mahinda Rajapaksa's practice of speaking in Tamil, whenever it is necessary," Dhanapala said.
"Constitutional reforms should receive the first priority and the people's views should be taken into consideration in this process," he said. "To begin with, the APRC proposals should be published, together with new proposals so that widespread consultations could take place," he suggested. Dhanapala was critical of the 1978 constitution and the 13th Amendment of 1987 as 'forced down from top' without taking the people's ideas into consideration.
Courtesy : President Media Unit