Gary Anandasangaree, monitor for Sri Lanka at Lawyers' Rights Watch, and legal counsel for the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC),writes in the Sunday Leader on the recently passed resolution at the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
See here for full article, extracts reproduced below:
"The expectation that the Sri Lankan government would use this international censure to gravitate towards a peace pact seems overly optimistic. Initial responses from Sri Lanka are worrisome, given the statements of people like Mervyn De Silva, a government Minister, who promised to break the limbs of human rights defenders who returned to Sri Lanka from Geneva. Several protests were orchestrated in Colombo condemning the resolution – protests that could not be held without government endorsement. G. L. Peiris, a high ranking Minister deferred any decision to implement the resolution at the hands of President Mahinda Rajapaksa."
"The government controlled media continues to polarize the nation into the Bush mantra of either you are with us or against us, thereby failing to provide the context and analysis necessary for the message to be properly delivered to its people so they could understand the resolution. There is a lack of independent media able to provide this narrative to its readers. If Sri Lanka continues towards this eccentric, irrational response to the resolution, it may squander yet another opportunity towards the path to peace. The resolution as adopted is considered very weak, yet the significance lies in the international community finally giving Sri Lanka enough rope to hang itself."
