Skip to main content

Sri Lanka a problem for us all

With the news out of Sri Lanka getting worse by the day - for example, see a Washington Post piece "UN says nearly 6,500 civilians killed in Sri Lanka" here] Joseph Traub a director of policy at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, writing an op-ed piece in The Age "Sri Lanka a problem for us all" [reproduced from the Washington Post] says:

"When we think of mass atrocities, we think of regimes, or their proxies, massacring defenceless citizens, as in Rwanda or Darfur. The situation in Sri Lanka is more complicated, morally and legally: this is a situation of armed conflict in which both parties are acting in ways that pose a grave risk to innocent civilians. The rebels answer to no one and the Sri Lankan Government has been able to operate with virtual impunity because it is fighting "terrorists". Even Western states that usually condemn violations of international law have given the situation a wide berth.

But states engaged in combat do not have the right to perpetrate atrocities; nor does the cruelty of opponents absolve states of their responsibility to protect citizens. And there is no one better equipped than the US to recognise the cynicism behind the language of the war on terror, which allows states to do as they wish in the name of defeating supreme evil."

And:

"There is widespread agreement about what must be done: the LTTE must allow civilians who wish to leave to do so; the Government must agree to observe a more extensive cease-fire, guarantee the safety of those civilians and treat them according to international standards governing internally displaced peoples. The Tigers might refuse to release civilians, whom they view as the only thing standing between themselves and annihilation. But the army must not use this as a pretext to resume hostilities: the rebels no longer represent a threat to the state.

The time for behind-the-scenes diplomacy has passed. The UN Security Council must take up the issue and remind both sides that there will be consequences, in the form of prosecutions for crimes against humanity. The council should also demand that the Government grant humanitarian groups and the media access to the conflict zone, send a special envoy to the region, and consider imposing sanctions. Ultimately, it must help bring about a durable political solution to the fighting. In 2005, the world accepted the obligation to protect civilians at risk of atrocities. The moment has come to redeem that pledge."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Robert Fisk's predictions for the Middle East in 2013

There is no gain-saying that Robert Fisk, fiercely independent and feisty to boot, is the veteran journalist and author covering the Middle East. Who doesn't he know or hasn't he met over the years in reporting from Beirut - where he lives?  In his latest op-ed piece for The Independent he lays out his predictions for the Middle East for 2013. Read the piece in full, here - well worthwhile - but an extract... "Never make predictions in the Middle East. My crystal ball broke long ago. But predicting the region has an honourable pedigree. “An Arab movement, newly-risen, is looming in the distance,” a French traveller to the Gulf and Baghdad wrote in 1883, “and a race hitherto downtrodden will presently claim its due place in the destinies of Islam.” A year earlier, a British diplomat in Jeddah confided that “it is within my knowledge... that the idea of freedom does at present agitate some minds even in Mecca...” So let’s say this for 2013: the “Arab Awakening” (the t

The NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) goes on hold.....because of one non-Treaty member (Israel)

Isn't there something radically wrong here?    Israel, a non-signatory to the NPT has, evidently, been the cause for those countries that are Treaty members, notably Canada, the US and the UK, after 4 weeks of negotiation, effectively blocking off any meaningful progress in ensuring the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.    IPS reports ..... "After nearly four weeks of negotiations, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference ended in a predictable outcome: a text overwhelmingly reflecting the views and interests of the nuclear-armed states and some of their nuclear-dependent allies. “The process to develop the draft Review Conference outcome document was anti-democratic and nontransparent,” Ray Acheson, director, Reaching Critical Will, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), told IPS. “This Review Conference has demonstrated beyond any doubt that continuing to rely on the nuclear-armed states or their nuclear-dependent allies for l

#1 Prize for a bizarre story.....and lying!

No comment called for in this piece from CommonDreams: Another young black man: The strange sad case of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. Police in Jonesboro, Arkansas  stopped  him and two friends, found some marijuana, searched put Carter, then put him handcuffed  behind his back  into their patrol car, where they say he  shot himself  in the head with a gun they failed to find. The FBI is investigating. Police Chief Michael Yates, who stands behind his officers' story,  says in an interview  that the death is "definitely bizarre and defies logic at first glance." You think?