Last Days Prophetic Conference, 2016 Singapore 2
Showing posts with label armed forces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label armed forces. Show all posts
He just wanted to go and kill
Former President and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Kumaratunga has urged the Nigerian government to maximize all peaceful effort in addressing the Boko Haram insurgency. She gave this advice in an interview with AYO OKULAJAin Lagos, where she discouraged the use of military onslaught against the fundamentalist on the back drop of the massive civilian casualty suffered in the Sri Lankan onslaught against the Tamil Tigers rebels. She also touched a number of global issues, such as growing inequality, minority demands and inclusive policy.
Your successor, President Rajapaska, completely quelled the Tamil Tigers insurgency with a military onslaught as against your peace initiative with the rebels. How will you advise the Nigerian government to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency; dialogue or an all-out military onslaught?-->
The Mahinda Rajapaksa’s onslaught against the Tamil tigers is a very big issue in the international community now and the United Nations Human Right Commission (UNHRC) is still investigating it but I still believe, it could have taken a bit longer; we could have ended the war in a different war.
The Tamil people have been discriminated against for a long time and they are demanding for their rights and my government was the first to agree to their demands to give their rights, comprehensive right, a federal state and no separate country. But Rajapaska never believed in minority rights. He was the only minister in my cabinet that was against negotiations, he just wanted to go and kill them.
And now the whole world is shouting about the onslaught, the Tamil diaspora are regrouping and condemning the attack and in a few years, there can be another rebel group if the government goes on with its strategy. There was lot of things they violated in the final onslaught such as civilian human rights because the Tigers surrounded themselves by civilians. The government also used fighter jets to shoot thousands of civilians the government had instructed to gather somewhere. Those killings could have been avoided if the government had a more humanitarian approach. There was no need to kill civilians and this is what is going round and everyone is angry. If only the Tamil Tigers were destroyed no one who have being bothered because they were very vicious. They produced the largest number of suicide bombers in the world before Al-Qaeda took over.
What do you think is the best solution to insurgency?
People don’t become very violent just like that. There are very deep-rooted causes, so you have to find these causes of the conflict and then resolve those causes but when they keep on killing like Boko Haram or Tamil Tigers, then you have to find those individuals and do whatever you can with them. But the agitation will not stop until you find the root causes and like in Nigerian and Sri Lanka, the people recruited by Boko Haram are the poor and those that have suffered discrimination, so you have to first resolve the problem of poverty, bring them in, you have to include them by building an inclusive policy.
What is your take on issues of reserved seats versus the Inclusive policy?
Groups of people, whether they are women, religion or tribes who have been discriminated against for centuries, people who have been trampled upon and cannot rise up to those that have been on top, those who do not have rights and those that have disadvantaged, should be given specialty till they become equal. There should be reserved seats for tribes and communities that have suffered from various types of discrimination. Such as it is done in India for people from lower caste, where it has been very successful.
What happens when the ruling class or those favoured by the status quo fight back in this demand to share power of inclusive policy?
Such groups will or may resist, sometimes, violently. The government must have extensive awareness campaign to tell the majority people also that, unless you share the benefits of development with everyone, there is going to be so much violence and trouble and you are not going to enjoy your wealth. For example in Sri Lanka, we went around the country holding seminars and workshop on these kinds of issues.
In your lecture in Lagos, you lamented the growing rate of inequality in the world noting the poor are even getting poorer in today’s world. Do you think the capitalist system has failed the 21st century?
I admitted that some developing countries are making giant economic strides and some poor people have been moved out of economic poverty but the poor that are getting poorer are mostly people who belong to the minority community. So in countries where this happens, there is discrimination. I don’t think capitalism has failed because it is the economic system adopted all over the world since socialism failed. I was also a socialist but when I came into power, I said I was bringing capitalism with a human face. What is now wrong with today’s capitalist is that they look after only the rich and forget the poor. But if they take a little from the rich via taxation and distribute to the poor, coupled with infrastructural development and provision of education and health care to the poor, then I don’t think capitalism is bad. But capitalism has to be properly managed, governments that are managing capitalist economies have to be not corrupt, or at least there should be minimal corruption and there will be enough to go round.
Considering the growing demands of minorities and battle of inequality, should the world do away with system of dynasty which you have benefited from?
I don’t agree with family dynasty, that is why I have not brought my children into politics. My father and mother were into politics but it is not that we were the only choice. We were elected. My mother refused to come into politics after my father was assassinated. The party wanted her to come, so it was not like we were building ourselves up and wanted to remain in power. My mother later became very popular and I think she did a very good job and after her, the party needed another leader. I said I didn’t want to do politics and I was forced into it after about three years of refusing and then I said dynasty ends with me. I have thought my children that they don’t have to come into politics. I think dynastical politics is not good. It allows the family to grab everything for themselves and corruption is worse in such a system. At the moment, the current President of Sri Lanka has become very corrupt as about 2,000 members of his family are in government positions and his four brothers in the cabinet as well as their sons are in the parliament. Such a system has more disadvantages than advantages because those in power will begin to think of it as a family heirloom and they become corrupt. It is not only the family members that have experience. There are many others who have experience to govern.
Talking about assassinations and suicide bombs how was it for you to have survived a suicide bomb attack?
It was great. I don’t know how I survived but it was almost miraculous. I lost one side of my eye, I am blind in the left eye and I still have steel in my brain. 26 people died in that attack including my driver who has being with me for about 25years.
Mrs Kumaratunga was in Lagos for the annual Osigwe Anyiam Osigwe lecture series where she delivered the keynote speech on Synthesis For Nationhood: Ethnic policy and National Integration From Indigenes to Citizens.
The UN's human rights chief yesterday warned Sri Lanka
 The UN's human rights chief yesterday warned Sri Lanka not to take too long in probing war crimes allegations, saying failure to carry out a credible inquiry could lead to international action. | |
| "There is now a high level of expectations expressed by member states that Sri Lanka should seriously inquire into these allegations" of prisoner executions and assaults, said Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "But this should not be an open-ended process," she stressed, noting that a previous Sri Lankan internal inquiry "failed to complete its task, never published its report and never led to a single prosecution." "If that should be the case again, there is an intention for the international community to take further action. I certainly believe that the Human Rights Council should actively consider this matter," said Pillay. Pressure has mounted on Colombo since Britain's Channel 4 broadcast a documentary that showed what it said were prisoner executions and bodies of female Tamil fighters who appeared to have been sexually assaulted. A recent UN report accused government forces of war crimes, alleging that they executed rebel leaders who had surrendered. An estimated 100,000 people were killed in the nearly four-decade-long Tamil separatist conflict, which began in 1972. Pillay's remarks echoed that of the United States, which on Tuesday urged Sri Lanka to move quickly to address allegations of war crimes. Colombo has questioned the authenticity of the Channel 4 footage but said that a local panel, known as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, would take action if the allegations are proven. The UN's human rights chief Thursday warned Sri Lanka not to take too long in probing war crimes allegations, saying failure to carry out a credible inquiry could lead to international action. | |
US Federal Court summons SL leader
A United States Federal Court has issued summons on President Mahinda Rajapaksa in connection with three Civil cases filed under the Hague Convention claiming monetary damages under US Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) over alleged extra-judicial killings, the Justice Ministry sources said.
Sources said the government was not overly ruffled by this decision, and would not respond to it. The civil cases against the Sri Lankan President were filed in Washington DC and the petitioners were seeking US$30 million as damages on six counts of violating the TVPA.
The summons on the President have been served on the Justice Ministry Secretary who is the Sri Lankan Central Authority in accordance with the provisions of The Hague Convention, to which the US and Sri Lanka are signatories.
The three cases were filed by the relatives of students Ragihar Manoharan, Premas Anandarajah, a humanitarian aid worker for Action against Hunger and T. Thavaraja. The petitioners claimed the students were victims of the extra judicial killings in Sri Lanka. They have cited President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is the Commander–in-Chief of Sri Lankan armed forces as the respondent.
The petitioners have alleged multiple violations of the TVPA under Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s command responsibility for the extrajudicial killing of plaintiff Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan’s son Ragihar, plaintiff Kalaiselvi Lavan’s husband Premas Anandarajah, and four members of the Thevarajah family, who were relatives of plaintiff Jeyakumar Aiyathurai.Ragihar was one of the five students allegedly killed in January 2006 while Anandarajah was one of the 17 Action Against Hunger (ACF) staff members who were killed during the war in the East in June 2006.
Jeyakumar's relatives were allegedly killed by an exploding shell that landed inside the safety bunker -- situated around the No Fire Zone demarcated by the government during the last phases of the war -- where the family was hiding from the artillery attacks by the Sri Lankan Army.
Under International Law, cases can be filed on the offences under war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and waging war against countries without reasonable cause.
The petitioners will argue the cases on the basis that universal jurisdiction under international law should also be recognized in civil suits founded on the Torture Victims Protection Act outlining torture or extrajudicial killings.
Sources said the government was not overly ruffled by this decision, and would not respond to it. The civil cases against the Sri Lankan President were filed in Washington DC and the petitioners were seeking US$30 million as damages on six counts of violating the TVPA.
The summons on the President have been served on the Justice Ministry Secretary who is the Sri Lankan Central Authority in accordance with the provisions of The Hague Convention, to which the US and Sri Lanka are signatories.
The three cases were filed by the relatives of students Ragihar Manoharan, Premas Anandarajah, a humanitarian aid worker for Action against Hunger and T. Thavaraja. The petitioners claimed the students were victims of the extra judicial killings in Sri Lanka. They have cited President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is the Commander–in-Chief of Sri Lankan armed forces as the respondent.
The petitioners have alleged multiple violations of the TVPA under Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s command responsibility for the extrajudicial killing of plaintiff Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan’s son Ragihar, plaintiff Kalaiselvi Lavan’s husband Premas Anandarajah, and four members of the Thevarajah family, who were relatives of plaintiff Jeyakumar Aiyathurai.Ragihar was one of the five students allegedly killed in January 2006 while Anandarajah was one of the 17 Action Against Hunger (ACF) staff members who were killed during the war in the East in June 2006.
Jeyakumar's relatives were allegedly killed by an exploding shell that landed inside the safety bunker -- situated around the No Fire Zone demarcated by the government during the last phases of the war -- where the family was hiding from the artillery attacks by the Sri Lankan Army.
Under International Law, cases can be filed on the offences under war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and waging war against countries without reasonable cause.
The petitioners will argue the cases on the basis that universal jurisdiction under international law should also be recognized in civil suits founded on the Torture Victims Protection Act outlining torture or extrajudicial killings.