| Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions |
Sri Lankan News & Discussions |
|
Report this post by 'Berty' for abuse
When you submit an abuse report, the modetrator will take an immediate look at this post and his/her previous posts to
see if there are any posting guideline violations are done by 'Berty'.
|
|
[Mahinda acted role of HR activist
Once upon a time Mahinda Rajapakse was looked upon both locally and internationally as the champion voice for the protection of human rights in the country. He was an active campaigner, so much so that he was considered somewhat of a guardian angel by mothers of youth who were victims of human rights abuses during and after the JVP insurgency of 1988/99. In collaboration with the mothers of missing persons, he established the Mother s Front of missing persons. He worked closely with them and with other local human rights activists and was in regular contact with the UN Organisation for Human Rights in Geneva. He kept records of extra judicial killings and of the whereabouts of persons taken into custody and prepared a dossier on the subject implicating the government, the police and the armed forces at the time. On one occasion he even tried to smuggle this dossier out of the country on a trip to Geneva but was prevented from doing so by CID sleuths at the airport. A seemingly angry Mahinda proceeded to Geneva minus the dossier to enlighten the UN Human Rights Organisation of what was happening in the country. When the government changed in 1994, Mahinda, then a cabinet minister, along with some other ministers went about unearthing skeletal remains from graves all over the country, one of which was at Suriyakanda. Today the government stands accused of the very human rights the president strived to uphold by the people affected by the abuses, by local and foreign human rights organisations and by the UN Human Rights Organisation in Geneva itself. Also today Mahinda is in an altogether different role as the all-powerful President and his government is in power. He has undergone a complete change of character as far as human rights abuses are concerned. The government scoffs when told that human skeletals are being unearthed from various parts of the country and when reference is made of disappearances via the white van, extra judicial killings, and of the harassment and killing of media personnel.The government refers to these as cooked up accusations to discredit the government and accuses those who raise human rights issues and go to Geneva of being traitors to the country. Considering Mahinda s present and past attitude towards human rights abuses, there is no doubt that when he was involved in the role of a human rights activist, he was merely using that role for political expediency and has since switched roles also for political expediency. During a recent cabinet meeting, a minister mentioned the fact that Mahinda himself was a human rights activist during the insurgency of 1988/99 to which an amused Mahinda is said to have burst out laughing exposing all his molars and saying, that is politics. R. Senaratne, Moratuwa] This gentleman is a terrorist..cos he spoke against MR |
(C) 2000-2008 www.lankanewspapers.com - Sri Lankan News & Discussions - Contact Us - RSS Feed - News Archives - src - FAQ |
Search All News and Discussions