Dilrukshi Handunnetti

Under the guise of demanding accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, the United States is exerting pressure on Sri Lanka to secure concessions, possibly of a military nature, Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, said.

Kunanayakam told Ceylon Today the US needed a strategic foothold in Asia and would use the UNHRC resolution to promote an international investigation into alleged rights violations to eventually secure a regional military base in the island for the US to achieve its ultimate goal of domination, even going to the extent of paving the way for the island’s partition as in South Sudan,” she charged.

The former ambassador noted the United States lacked a genuine interest in the island’s pursuit of peace, but wanted a foothold in a fast-growing region and to use that position to prevent a China-India alliance, which is part of President Obama’s Pivot to Asia 2012 policy.

“They don’t want human rights or equality for the Tamils, but a foothold here,” she insisted.
Claiming that the US would look at possible concessions instead of the imposition of direct sanctions, Kunanayakam said, the resolution is designed to demonstrate systemic state failure in Sri Lanka. “The entire text shows Sri Lanka as a failed State. “This is why there is emphasis on failed public institutions including the Judiciary and the absence of credible mechanisms to investigate alleged violations. There is great emphasis also on continued rights violations,” Kunanayakam added.

“The resolution has empowered the High Commissioner to conduct an inquiry and this means, an international investigation. The High Commissioner is an instrument of the Untried States and the report may be written in Washington,” she alleged.

“The US intends isolating Sri Lanka internationally. What the Americans would want to see is not whether the resolution is won or not. They would count the votes in favour and the abstentions to see how they could further isolate the island internationally.”

COURTESY:CEYLON TODAY