Slander Originated By External Ministry Of Sri Lanka!

By S. V. Kirubaharan -February 6, 2015

S. V. Kirubaharan

Why is Sri Lanka under the scrutiny of the International Community today? Some will say because of war crimes. Others will say genocide and crimes against humanity, etc. But having been involved in Human Rights and International lobbying for decades, we say that aggressive and racist elements within Sri Lanka’s Ministry of External Affairs, who play at double standards and duplicity, are also the cause of the international spotlight.

We have seen many Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers of External Affairs and others come and go. Their agenda is always the same but each regime has its own approach. Change of regime or change of cabinet, is not going to do any good for victims. The change should take place in the hearts and minds of Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinists.

On 19 January 2015, I wrote an article titled, “International investigation on Sri Lanka should continue”. Comments about it were mostly written under pseudonyms. In that article, I related my personal experience in the UN Human Rights Forums in Geneva, especially with the present Governor of the Northern Provincial Council, G. Palihakkara who was the first secretary and the ambassador of Sri Lanka in Geneva. Also he was the member of the magic Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission – LLRC. In fact, he was former President Rajapaksa’s original choice for the Governor post and the present President Sirisena validated it.

Knowing the racist approach and activities of Palihakkara and his colleagues in the UN, it was my duty to tell the truth to the public. In fact, I gave only brief details. It is to be noted that during Palihakkara’s period in Geneva, there was a so-called newspaper (The Archipelago) published in Colombo, in which many fictional stories were written about me, my colleagues and our organisation.

Legal action

Even though those writings were not taken seriously, we tried all available avenues to take legal action against this newspaper to set the record straight. We sent letters through lawyers locally and internationally and also reported the matter to the Press Council of Sri Lanka. While Chief Justices find it difficult to seek justice for themselves in Sri Lanka, it was no surprise to us in Europe that it would not be possible for us to find justice or even to receive a reply from the corrupt judiciary in Sri Lanka.

In fact, the fictional writings did some good things for us. We are still in action today. With the help of international NGOs, human rights defenders and countries which respect human rights, tireless lobbying brought three consecutive resolutions on Sri Lanka. In other words, their fictional writings never worked on anyone. It only served to please their funders.Read More