The Great Debate UK
Genocide in Sri Lanka
- Suren Surendiran is the spokesman for the British Tamils Forum. The opinions expressed are his own. -
The news that over 20,000 innocent civilians were killed by the military onslaught of the Sri Lankan army has shocked the world, but not world leaders like President Obama, Prime Minister Brown, President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel. For, they knew exactly what was going to happen and what is happening now.
How right Albert Einstein was when he said, “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of those who are evil but because of those who don’t do anything about it”.
“When genocide is happening,” said candidate Obama, so eloquently during the second presidential debate, “when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us.”
The United Nations has yet again proved under the current leadership, that it is an ineffective organisation in conflict resolution and prevention of genocide.
It is a great shame for India to have had a hand in the mass killings of Tamils. The other countries that had helped Sri Lanka militarily do not have the best human rights record in the world and their moral values proved to be questionable. India produced the greatest of men on earth, the great Mahatma Gandhi.
The politicians who do not follow Gandhian principles are not worthy to hang his photograph in their place of work. Mahinda Rajapaksa has admitted that he fought India’s war, but as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces and Executive President of the country, he is the one who would be facing the War Crimes Tribunal, even if he pleads insanity.
Now everybody can see that Sri Lankan conflict is an extremely vicious one and we need rigorous scientific thinking to resolve it. That means the UN should start thinking about the cause – how sixty-year state terrorism or structural violence can be brought to an end. The UN will keep going in circles if it starts with the effect – the visible violence of the rebels.