US pleased to get India's support in UN showdown with Sri Lanka.

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Poseidon

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US pleased to get India's support in UN showdown with Sri Lanka.
by Uttara Choudhury Mar 20, 2012

New York: US officials don't want to count their chickens before they're hatched. Still, they are incredibly pleased that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came out on Monday and told parliament that India was "inclined" to back a US-sponsored UN resolution asking Sri Lanka to investigate if their armed forces committed atrocities against the Tamil Tigers at the climax of the country's 26-year civil war.

India has a working relationship with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, so Singh has baulked at the idea of siding with Britain and the US in a bitter showdown with Sri Lanka. However, Singh's ruling coalition is under pressure from political parties in Tamil Nadu, including its second- largest ally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), to support the resolution. The DMK has threatened to pull out its ministers from the UPA if the government doesn't back the international resolution rebuking Sri Lanka over war crimes.

The PM came out on Monday and told parliament that India was "inclined" to back a US-sponsored UN resolution asking Sri Lanka. PTI

"We hope that the government of Sri Lanka recognises the critical importance of this issue and acts decisively" Singh said in parliament. "We don't yet have the final text of the resolution. However, we are inclined to vote in favour of the resolution."

The US is very keen on India's support on this issue since it is a key regional player. The US media said that building diplomatic consensus for the resolution has been a struggle for America given that the abuses occurred three years ago and isn't part of an ongoing crisis.

The US is planning to bring its resolution before the United Nations Human Rights Council as early as this week and it has angered Sri Lanka, which claims that the resolution could stir separatism.

"We don't think of this as a symbolic vote," Eileen Donahoe, US ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, told The Wall Street Journal. "We see this as a meaningful effort to encourage the Sri Lankan government to take credible steps"¦We fear the government of Sri Lanka might fail to take those credible steps."

The motion, if successful, won't legally bind the Sri Lankan government to any policy. Donahoe said an earlier version of the resolution had sought an action plan from Sri Lanka by June, but as tabled now, the resolution calls for the UN Human Rights Commissioner to report to the council a year from now on the steps Sri Lanka has taken.

A United Nations report released in April 2011 said the military and rebel Tamil Tigers may have committed serious violations of international law in the final stages of the conflict, causing as many as 40,000 civilian deaths. Experts say thousands of people may have been killed, largely through shell fire by Sri Lankan government troops.

Sri Lanka has dismissed the US claims and a large team of Sri Lankan officials and diplomats are lobbying countries to oppose any resolution, saying such a move would damage reconciliation efforts.

"We feel the US is being intrusive," Bandula Jayasekara, a spokesman for Rajapaksa told the Journal. "Nobody likes pressure being brought unnecessarily without giving us time and space for reconciliation."

US pleased to get India’s support in UN showdown with Sri Lanka | Firstpost

If US is pleased,I am happy.
 

nitesh

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[guess] Is it some sort of settlement, let us have Iran, toy with Sri lanka? [/guess]
 

nitesh

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more speculation

India get those NGOs off the back (as mentioned by PM that they were getting funding from US), and US gets a vote
 

noob101

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i guess its ironc that US sold weapons to SLA and is now asking why they used them to kill innocent civilians with them
 

amoy

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Don't see how India's backing of the resolution serves India's own interest, except being instrumental for domestic politics (DMK alike)
 

The Messiah

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of course they are pleased that they have made a mockery out of us due to coalition compulsions.
 

KS

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An excellent comment from one of the readers:

It is every country for itself. If China has Sri Lanka, India has Taiwan. If China has Pakistan, India has S. Korea. Every move will get a counter move. India and China are clearly elephants, and the rest are rabbits; one wrong move and the rabbits are crushed. So, if I were a Sri Lankan, I would not be full of bravado. While Sri Lankans were right to crush the LTTE, where they went wrong was with handling of the civilians at the end of the war, nothing short of ethnic cleansing; it was a tough task to do with the murderous mindset on both sides, but the ruling state should always be magnanimous. If the ruling state is unable to do that, it is unfit to be a ruling state. India's confused state is because of its plurality; while most Indians apart from Tamilians feel that we should side with SL, we also realize for Tamilians, this is a make or break point. Indian govt risks alienating Tamil Nadu and Tamilians, and by extension rest of the non-Hindi population, by the manner it handles this so called non-hindi population's issue. So whatever decision India takes, it will be unpopular within India and will affect India anyway. Hence, we are only left with choosing between the lesser of the two evils - the one on the side of good. Truth be told, Sri Lanka has failed and it should realize this. Sri Lanka might think it is being politically suave by siding with Pakistan and China, but in the bargain, mark my words, LTTE will raise its head again in Sri Lanka - unless Sri Lanka sincerely addresses the real issues from the bottom of its heart.
Don't see how India's backing of the resolution serves India's own interest, except being instrumental for domestic politics (DMK alike)
Respecting the valid concerns/aspirations of 7% of the Indian population is more important than any thing else.
 
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Mad Indian

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Respecting the valid concerns/aspirations of 7% of the Indian population is more important than any thing else.
But for many, its not because its against national interest.

But whats funny is, if a country cant even protect the interest and aspirations of its own citizens, then there is no point in trying to take on the Chinese:bounce:
 

amoy

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But for many, its not because its against national interest.

But whats funny is, if a country cant even protect the interest and aspirations of its own citizens, then there is no point in trying to take on the Chinese:bounce:
Frankly backing such a resolution does no substantial harm to Sri Lanka's incumbent govmt or their armed forces. It only works to increase Lankan hostility toward India. And those Tamils were not even Indian citizens .

Of course it's up to u to weigh 7% or the whole .

If India is to take on China of course SL has to be seen as a whole to be won over instead of merely their Tamils
 

noob101

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keeping it real, India will always be Sri Lanka's big brother, neither SL nor any other country can do anything to change this. SL can get a new girlfriend in the form of China but wont change the fact that India is the big brother. And I think all the speculation that SL falling Into China's grasp is a little premature as India's economy grows SLG can't ignore India and has to develop very close ties with us and I think that there will come a point in the future where for example SL decides to give the Chinese an Air base they would have to fear the Indian response...

Contrary to what many people have been saying on this fourm I don't think that India had much of a choice but to support the resolution... Here is why

1 US built a lot of political capital with the UPA government with the civil nuclear deal and it was expected that India would fall into line when it was needed
2 There is no way GoI could have opposed the resolution and expected some lee way with the Iran oil situation, Unkil is kind of vengeful that way
3 The UPA government has been pandering to the Tamil population and Tamil political parties that it would do something about the humanitarian crisis in SL, but until now has done little, voting against it would alienate their key allies DMK party on the other hand voting for it would be enough to keep their support
4 If the Indian military still wants access to Unkils weapons it can't embarrass it publicly
5 IMHO India has done enough to damage relations with SL in the past that this wont have much of an impact on the whole relationship.
 

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An excellent comment from one of the readers:

Respecting the valid concerns/aspirations of 7% of the Indian population is more important than any thing else.
For many of the remaining 93%, the part of 7%'s so called concerns are baseless and invalid. Nothing more than arm twisting as we see in coalition govts where they use "aspirations" to further their vested interests.

SL Tamils are not Indian citizens and apart from having moral obligation like the rest of the world and to a little more extent than the rest of the world as we are neighbors, we have nothing much to do.

Let me put it this way, did we appreciate Paki interference and promotion of Punjabis to a point of terrorism after Bluestar?

For me, our TN mates are just too emotional as unreasonable.
 

panduranghari

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keeping it real, India will always be Sri Lanka's big brother, neither SL nor any other country can do anything to change this. SL can get a new girlfriend in the form of China but wont change the fact that India is the big brother. And I think all the speculation that SL falling Into China's grasp is a little premature as India's economy grows SLG can't ignore India and has to develop very close ties with us and I think that there will come a point in the future where for example SL decides to give the Chinese an Air base they would have to fear the Indian response...

Contrary to what many people have been saying on this fourm I don't think that India had much of a choice but to support the resolution... Here is why

1 US built a lot of political capital with the UPA government with the civil nuclear deal and it was expected that India would fall into line when it was needed
2 There is no way GoI could have opposed the resolution and expected some lee way with the Iran oil situation, Unkil is kind of vengeful that way
3 The UPA government has been pandering to the Tamil population and Tamil political parties that it would do something about the humanitarian crisis in SL, but until now has done little, voting against it would alienate their key allies DMK party on the other hand voting for it would be enough to keep their support
4 If the Indian military still wants access to Unkils weapons it can't embarrass it publicly
5 IMHO India has done enough to damage relations with SL in the past that this wont have much of an impact on the whole relationship.
But Sri Lankans I know in Britain hate India. That is a personal observation and it no way reflects the whole country and its countless citizens.
 

Mad Indian

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Frankly backing such a resolution does no substantial harm to Sri Lanka's incumbent govmt or their armed forces. It only works to increase Lankan hostility toward India. And those Tamils were not even Indian citizens .

Of course it's up to u to weigh 7% or the whole .

If India is to take on China of course SL has to be seen as a whole to be won over instead of merely their Tamils
Frankly you did not understand what i meant nor did the one who thanked you. SO bugger off.
 

W.G.Ewald

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i guess its ironc that US sold weapons to SLA and is now asking why they used them to kill innocent civilians with them
Do you have more information on type and numbers of weapons that were sold by US?
 

Yusuf

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Do you have more information on type and numbers of weapons that were sold by US?
Don't know about the US, but then the moral brigade across the Atlantic did this http://euobserver.com/13/28155

But then the US also did this

http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/09/28/us-'preferential-treatment'-autocratic-human-rights-violating-bahrain-sri-lanka-gets
 
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