FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AS-288-2007
December 24, 2007
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
WORLD/SRI LANKA: Update on Online Petition send your Christmas greetings by signing the online petition for UN human rights monitoring in Sri Lanka
On the 10th December 2007 Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in an official report to the UN Human Rights Council mentioned her efforts to assist Sri Lanka by way of sending a human rights monitoring mission. Just a few days later the Asian Human Rights Commission launched an online petition addressed to the president of Sri Lanka on this same issue. Many persons have signed this petition already and the AHRC calls upon everyone to express their Christmas greetings to the people of Sri Lanka by way of supporting this petition.
The symbolism of Christmas is about hope born out of reconciliation and peace. All societies throughout history have faced violent conflicts which have brought chaos to the social order and for that very reason each of these societies, at various times in their histories have yearned deeply for peace through reconciliation. While war and conflict are boosted forms of triumphalism peace requires humility born out of realism and the ultimate realisation that human lives matter more than any other form of victories.
In the Sri Lankan conflict all parties to the conflict have created themselves on expectations of military triumph rather than any considerations of mutual understanding of the problems of each other and finding ways to resolve problems, which if not resolved would continue to cause suffering. Resolving problems is a painful process for any society. Ideologies of triumphalism are hypocritical by their very nature since such ideologies are built on deliberate refusals to recognise common problems.
Attempts to resolve conflicts by recognising mutual problems often requires mediation due to the very fact of entrenched ideologies of triumphalism and the resulting overload of huge propaganda backlogs which are hard to dislodge. The clear example of this problem is demonstrated in the instance of Sri Lanka where, for decades all attempts at mediation has failed for the simple reason that the walls built by propaganda are thick and impenetrable.
However, the misery that such false propaganda can create, or the people suffer due to this conflict increases with each day and has reached a point where it is no longer bearable. Throughout Sri Lanka this situation is also quite visible. The conditions of living have become worse than ever before. Above all the level of insecurity and lawlessness has developed to an extent to demonstrate the ridiculousness of all the claims made by all the parties to the conflict. For the ordinary people life has been made a mockery by rampant corruption and the complete failure at political leadership within all parts of the country. As an expatriate Sri Lankan author, Michael Ondaatje, in his book, Anils Ghost observed the aim of war is the war itself.
The initiative for reconciliation and peace in Sri Lanka can arise only from the ordinary people of the country, be they Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim or others. It is they who want the end of the suffering enforced on them by various forms of triumphalism and nationalist ideologies. If an end to their suffering is to be seen the initiatives will have to come from the people themselves for it is the nature of every form of triumphalist ideology to silence the people.
The symbolism of the Christmas season is also the extension of good will to all, particularly those who are undergoing extraordinary forms of suffering. Therefore it is also fitting that the good will of the global human community be extended to the people of Sri Lanka during this time. There is no better way to express this than to support initiatives for reconciliation and peace to end these hard times.
The online petition calling on the Sri Lankan government to cooperate with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who has expressed her wish to assist Sri Lanka by way of a human rights monitoring mission, can be brought to the notice of all groups involved in the conflict during this time by promoting the online petition for this purpose initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission. Already many persons have signed this petition and we urge everyone to express their solidarity for the Sri Lankan people by signing and getting others to sign this petition.
Kindly see the petition and the other materials relating to the problems affecting Sri Lanka at: http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/monitoringsl/
