Category: Articles

The Island editorial of Nov. 24, 2015 entitled ‘Power Play’ about Samantha Power’s Sri Lanka visit provided the cue for this article. Power (45), American Ambassador to the UN, and President Obama’s trusted advisor on American response to global genocide and human rights abuse issues, according to news reports, went back early that day local time after a brief visit to Sri Lanka. Her professional and political authority within the America-dominated UN establishment is beyond doubt. What is in question, however, as far as we Sri Lankans are concerned, is whether her visit is likely to help or hinder post-war normalization in our country. This is particularly so, given her controversial political and diplomatic track record. A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, a book she authored in 2002, won several awards including the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction the following year. She wrote this book (which came to be widely acclaimed within the Western bloc) while she was serving as a professor in human rights practices at Harvard university. It is claimed that Power was a key figure behind the meddlesome American role in Libya. She has been criticized for recommending ‘solutions from hell’ to ‘problems from hell’! (i.e. for advocating interventionist and militaristic responses to alleged genocide and human rights violation problems).

In many ways, the US’ celebration of Thanksgiving is analogous to setting aside a day in Germany to celebrate the Holocaust. Thanksgiving is the American Holocaust.

The sad reality about the United States of America is that in a matter of a few hundreds years it managed to rewrite its own history into a mythological fantasy. The concepts of liberty, freedom and free enterprise in the “land of the free, home of the brave” are a mere spin. The US was founded and became prosperous based on two original sins: firstly, on the mass murder of Native Americans and theft of their land by European colonialists; secondly, on slavery.

The French response to Nov. 13 Paris massacre should be examined against the backdrop of Sri Lanka having to address accountability issues during eelam war IV (Aug 2006-May 2009).

In accordance with overall Western strategy, France, a current member of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), pushed for war crimes probe, targeting Sri Lanka. The Western project was meant to undermine the previous government of war – winning President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Western powers accused Sri Lanka of atrocities, as well as excesses. However, French counter-terrorism operations, launched in the wake of the Paris massacre, underscored the use of maximum force against a ‘target,’ according international media. Obviously, the French wanted the alleged ‘mastermind’ of the Paris massacre dead.

U.S. Permanent Representative for the United Nations Samantha Power, Obama administration’s top foreign policy advocate is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka November 21-23. This is her second visit, the previous one being June 2010 during the Rajapaksa administration.

In January 2016, American multi billionaire George Soros is scheduled to visit Colombo – it is said – for an economic discourse.

Both visits are significant when both of them, since 2012, have been direct participants of UN-Department of Political Affairs- initiated ‘promotion of federalism’ in Third World nations envisaged to bifurcate nations on ethnic lines.

 The two visits are even further interesting when Colombo has an American diplomatic envoy – Atul Keshap – who is a strong believer of a federal structure in Sri Lanka. He has gone on record advocating the system.