Do we want blood on our hands?
Posted by JoJun 2
This news from Times Online, comes as shocking to me. India, instead of supporting the proposal for a war crime inquiry by UN Human Rights Council, decided to thwart the process along with China and Russia. I do not support the LTTE and it’s ways and I do not think that they are what the Tamils need in Sri Lanka, but when 1000 people were killed each day, which makes the civilian death toll to above 20,000, shouldn’t the Sri Lankan government be held responsible? Or at least have undergone a UN inquiry? With it’s crucial role in the sub-continent, shouldn’t India have supported this inquiry? Our hypocrisy is wide open, because we supported a war crime inquiry into Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip but chose to thwart a similar inquiry in Sri Lanka.
Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said that neither reason justified failing to act when the Red Cross warned of an “unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe”. India “could have saved many lives if it had taken a proactive position — and it would not have affected the outcome of the war,” he said.
Sam Zarifi, Asia Pacific director of Amnesty International, said: “India . . . simply chose to support the [Sri Lankan] Government’s notion that it could kill as many civilians as it would take to defeat the Tigers.”
India says that it provided Sri Lanka with non-lethal military equipment and sent officials repeatedly to persuade the Government to protect civilians. “We’ve consistently taken the line that the Sri Lankan Government should prevent civilian casualties,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
However, President Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka told NDTV: “I don’t think I got any pressure from them. They knew that I’m fighting their war.” [Via]
The Congress government at the center needs to answer for the murder of 20,000 civilians in Sri Lanka. We have blood on our hands.
(Thanks to Vassan for the links)
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One comment
Comment by Shaan on June 8, 2009 at 1:29 am
Latest anti-India rhetoric from Lanka. This is from the defence.lk website of the Sri Lankan govt.
…According to the Asian Tribune the most recent case is the new Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna who urged us to address the “root cause of the conflict” by effective devolution of powers to all communities in the Island nation. I say to Mr. Krishna “Who are you to tell us, a sovereign nation how to run our country? You just mind your own business or wind up like that woman Navi Pillai. The choice is yours.To India we say that not only will there be no devolution of any sort because it is the necessary and sufficient step to separation but also the Indo Lanka Accord forced on us by India will be annulled and thrown out so that we could cleanse this land of the last vestige of Indian hegemony. You created the LTTE with the intention of annexing our land. We liquidated what you created. You can annex the moon much easier than that…The complete article is available in Eelam through devolution