http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/03/04/new05.asp


West’s bogus concern - Sri Lanka owes explanation to none’
Almost three years after the Government inflicted a crushing
defeat on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) - Sri Lanka is the only
country that has to date been able to defeat and destroy a terrorist
organisation - a section of the international community’s ad nauseam criticism
of the manner in which President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration has handled
the crisis is becoming a major irritant bordering on bullying, said the Indian
newspaper Daily Pioneer in a hard hitting editorial on Friday.
Titled “West’s bogus concern: Sri Lanka owes an explanation to none” the
editorial said that Western moves to find fault with Sri Lanka must be strongly
resisted by other countries. Sri Lanka needs help, not criticism, to heal, the
newspaper said.
The editorialist said, “The latest instance of this is a proposal that is
being fielded by the US, the European Union and other Western nations at the UN
Human Rights Council, calling for Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of
a UN probe into the Sri Lankan military’s role in alleged civilian killings. The
UN report demands that guilty soldiers be prosecuted but as the leader of the
Sri Lankan delegation to the Council, Minister of Plantation Industries Mahinda
Samarasinghe said, such a move is an ‘unwarranted incursion’.
It must be strongly resisted by all who do not wish for covert Western
imperialism to overshadow the functioning of a global, democratic world order.
Also, given the fact that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government is already
implementing the recommendations made by its own Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), there is no reason for such a resolution.
By common consent, the LLRC conducted an independent and fair review of the
seven-year-long last phase of the humanitarian operation and indeed, its report
is even critical of the Government in several sections. If anything, the
Government deserves credit for having already begun the process of implementing
the LLRC’s report even though it was presented before Parliament only two months
ago.
For instance, a census to ascertain the number of persons who died in the
conflict in the Northern Province has been completed and as expected proves that
the international community’s figures are exaggerated. Also, almost half of the
controversial High Security Zones have been cleared allowing for the
acceleration of the resettlement process.
Out of the 290,000 Displaced Persons living in welfare centres in 2009, only
6,647 now have to be resettled. The Government has also rehabilitated child
soldiers and former LTTE personnel, built homes and schools and taken steps to
de-militarise the conflict-torn Provinces where local Government elections have
been held and civil administration restored. Clearly, the Rajapaksa Government
has proved that it is committed to the reconciliation and reconstruction of Sri
Lanka. The international community must appreciate these efforts and refrain
from re-opening wounds that are yet to heal. After three decades of terrorism,
Sri Lanka has emerged victorious but badly scarred. It needs help, not
criticism, to heal.”