http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/03/18/main_Editorial.asp

Throwing stones from glass houses
Most countries, especially those in this part of
the globe, swallow hook, line and sinker what the Western media dishes out from
time to time.
Nevertheless, if one were to make an analytical study of what some of the
most prominent news agencies in the world and international television channels
say, it is crystal clear that most of them dance to the tune of some Western
countries. A few powerful nations in the West manipulate these key news agencies
and TV channels to suit their thinking.
Over the years, most people in this part of the world believed that what was
projected by these news agencies and TV channels was independent, impartial and
unbiased.
However, the true colours of these news agencies and TV channels now stand
exposed. They make a big hue and cry over human rights when there is an isolated
incident in countries such as Sri Lanka. But for reasons best known to them,
they turn a blind eye to even greater human rights violations by the US-led
Forces, including the drone attacks which had missed the target and killed many
innocent civilians, including women and children.
The latest human rights violation by the US forces was spotlighted last
Sunday when an American soldier opened fire at civilians in Afghanistan, killing
16 civilians including nine children in southern Kandahar Province, according to
Afghan officials.
According to eyewitness reports, US soldiers, who appeared to be drunk, had
gone on the rampage, showing no mercy whatsoever to human lives. One Afghan
father said that his children were killed in the shooting spree and US soldiers
later burned their bodies.
Witnesses said that they had seen how a group of US soldiers arrived at their
village in Kandahar's Panjwayi district at around 2 am on that fateful night,
entered homes and opened fire indiscriminately. The US Embassy in Kabul washed
its hands saying that an American soldier had been detained over the shooting
incident. This flagrant inhuman act is one of the worst of its kind since the
US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
The so-called 'accountability process' of the country, which pontificates to
us on the subject of human rights is mind boggling - such incidents are vaguely
referred to and 'regretted' for same with not even a formal apology being
tendered. On the latest human rights violation by the US Forces in Afghanistan,
the course of action taken by the US was short and simple; a senior defence
official saying that "The US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was deeply saddened
to hear of the incident and is closely monitoring reports from Afghanistan". The
White House also expressed "concern".
Even the minuscule action taken against such human rights violations by the
US Forces ended in ultimate presidential pardons. An American soldier who was
sentenced to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for human rights violations was
pardoned barely three days after the judgement.
The Kandahar incident came to light weeks after US soldiers burned copies of
the Holy Quran at a NATO base, triggering widespread anti-Western protests.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the rampage as 'intentional murders' and
demanded an explanation from the United States.
One Afghan said that eleven of his relatives had been killed in one house,
including his children. Pictures showed ghastly blood-splattered walls where the
children were killed. "The American soldiers poured chemicals over their dead
bodies and burned them," a weeping relative at the scene was quoted as saying.
Barbaric acts of this nature remind us of the thousands of Tamils, Muslims
and Sinhalese who were brutally massacred by LTTE terrorists for almost three
decades before Sri Lanka's Security Forces eradicated terrorism in May 2009. By
a strange quirk of fate, the same country has brought a resolution on Sri Lanka
before the current United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in
Geneva.
It would be a small wonder if some member countries of the UNHRC, which show
an extraordinary sympathy over the human rights of LTTE terrorists, bring a
similar resolution against the innumerable human rights violations by the US-led
NATO Forces in Afghanistan.
It was only last year that a South Korean court sentenced a US soldier to 10
years in prison for raping a teenage girl - the second harshest punishment
handed down to a convicted American soldier in Seoul in two decades. The
Uijeongbu District Court convicted the 21-year-old US private of sexually
assaulting the 16-year-old Korean girl many times after breaking into her small
boarding room near Seoul last September. The American soldier had committed many
"sadistic and sexually perverted acts" while threatening the girl with a pair of
scissors, a knife and a lighter, as disclosed in Court.
The US came under heavy scrutiny following the United Nation's 2011 Human
Rights report presented by High Commissioner Navi Pillay, for its alleged human
rights abuses, according to Press TV. Pillay and the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation were disappointed that the US has not closed the Guantanamo Bay
military base that had served as a torture camp, a Press TV correspondent in
Geneva had reported.
In November 2010, accusations of human rights violations were levelled
against the US for the first time at the UNHRC sessions. The UN human rights
body levelled a barrage of criticism at the US administration, calling for the
closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison and for investigations on alleged torture
by US troops abroad. These are a few of the numerous unruly acts committed by US
soldiers all over the world.
The US, indeed, has an inalienable right to protect itself against external
threats, especially against a deadly terror outfit such as Al Qaeda. The US
action to crush terrorism in their region is no doubt praiseworthy because
terrorism in any part of the world is terrorism and should be eradicated
likewise. At the same time, the US and all other countries must respect Sri
Lanka's legitimate right to protect its people against the LTTE - the world's
most ruthless terrorist organisation at one time.
A democratically elected government has a bounden duty to protect its people
against terror and safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial
integrity. Sri Lanka, under the illustrious leadership of President Mahinda
Rajapaksa only exercised the right to protect the human rights of over a half a
million people held forcibly by the LTTE.
Goes the popular maxim, those who live in glass houses should not throw
stones at others. Those who accuse Sri Lanka of human rights violations should
be told in no uncertain terms that they must take a closer look at their own
human rights record before passing judgement on others.