Somalia comparison irks Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 December 2008, 01:49 GMT]
Following the statement from John Campbell, a World Food Program (WFP) official, reporting from LTTE-held Tharmapuram to the BBC, that conditions there are "as basic as in Somalia," WFP country director for Sri Lanka, Adnan Khan, had reportedly said Mr Campbell was giving a "personal opinion." Peter Foster, in his column in UK Telegraph says Campbell has stepped unwittingly into the minefield of Sri Lankan politics, and adds "this piece of mealy-mouthism [of Khan] reflects the invidious position of all aid agencies in Sri Lanka, and particularly the UN which I know from personal contacts has a rocky relationship with the Sri Lankan government."

Two international reports released this week have serious implications to Sri Lanka on its conduct of war, that may have caused further embarrassment to Colombo: one carrying a indictment on Sri Lanka by placing it among countries where Governments are engaged in genocidal war, and the other, a report that points to imminent policy changes in the coming Obama administration on third world countries that hide behind sovereignty to perpetrate genocide.

New York-based Genocide Prevention Project in a report published Tuesday included Sri Lanka as one of the eight "red alert" countries where genocide and other mass atrocities are underway or risk breaking out.

A day earlier, a US-based Genocide Prevention Task Force led by Madeleine K Albright, former Secretary of State, and an advisor to Obama and Clinton, released a report on world genocide threats which will likely be used by the Obama administration as a guide post to prevent developing genocides.

The report urges the Obama administration to take preventive action, adding, "states have a basic responsibility to protect their citizens from genocide and mass atrocities. No government has the right to use national sovereignty as a shield behind which it can murder its own people. The challenge for the world community is not only to state this principle, but to implement it."

Related Articles:
09.12.08   Sri Lanka in "Genocide Red Alert" watch list
08.12.08   Obama receives guidepost on Genocide


External Links:

BBC:		S Lanka's 'Somalia conditions'
DefenceLK:		WFP apology for BBC falsehood on Sri Lankan IDPs
Telegraph:		Conditions in Sri Lanka's north 'like Somalia'