Colombo must read the signs
There is a specific context to India shedding its traditional inhibition of not supporting country-specific resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council, and going with the American sponsored move in Geneva on Thursday to censure Sri Lanka over its violation of the human rights of its Tamil minority. This derives from a historical change in circumstance. The Sri Lankans can fail to see this at the expense of their own cohesion.
Until the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, India remained solicitous of Colombo’s concerns regarding the preservation of its unity in the face of the LTTE’S efforts at breaking it up. It paid no heed then to domestic voices that sought to fetter the Lankan military in its fight against the LTTE.
Once that objective was attained three years ago, New Delhi returned to the fundamental question in Sri Lanka of attending to the long-festering grievances of the minority community. It repeatedly urged Colombo through diplomacy to come good on earlier promises to visit the question of the basic human rights of the Tamils in the North and East of the island, and give these provinces constitutional powers, particularly in the area of authority over land and the police. The commission of inquiry instituted by President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government — the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission — after the LTTE’S destruction also notes in its observations that the “root cause” of the conflict was the grievance of the Tamils. In spite of this, Colombo has remained evasive on basic Tamil issues.
For India, it is this that tipped the scales in favour of voting the way it did at UNHRC. It would be an unhistorical reading of the situation to think that the vote came under pressure of political opinion in Tamil Nadu, as Sri Lankan foreign minister G.L. Peiris has implied in a fit of pique. (It can safely be assumed that there was zero chance of the DMK withdrawing support to UPA-2, or the government falling even if it did.)
If Colombo is smart, it will recognise that India, in fact, came to its rescue by preventing an intrusive resolution being passed against Sri Lanka. The original resolution would have ensured international advice and support to Sri Lanka in protecting the Tamils’ rights even if Colombo did not desire these.
The UNHRC episode also makes it plain that Colombo cannot any more dangle the China card before India.