Editorial, Daily FT.
Last week the UK government imposed sanctions on Generals Shavendra Silva and Jagath Jayasuriya, Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, and former deputy leader of the LTTE Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan. Karannagoda and Silva had previously been sanctioned by the US government. These actions of the UK government are steeped in hypocrisy, racism and double standards. Yet, they need not and should not be ignored.
The West follows a long tradition of hypocrisy when it comes to human rights. While Europe was transforming during the ‘Age of Enlightenment’, they were also thriving through the slave and opium trades via conquest of nations by genocide. In the early 20th century while European citizens were gaining their universal franchise, colonised and subjugated peoples of Africa, Asia and South America were facing occupation and disenfranchisement. The same European champions in the fight against fascism in Europe were the imperialist scumbags causing the Bengal famine and refusing to grant independence to India.
The current UK government is a proud follower of this long tradition. It has granted the diplomatic and political cover for the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the advanced weapons to the European settler-colonisers who have already killed over 60,000 civilians since October 2023, 70% of them women and children.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy who imposed sanctions on Sri Lankan military personnel last week was a staunch defender of ‘Israel’s right to defence’ which in his opinion includes the massacre of tens of thousands of women and children, starvation of a whole population, blockade of humanitarian aid, cutting off electricity, water and food, and targeting hospitals and medical personnel.
Hypocrisy and double standards cannot be resolved by appealing the lowest denominator. The answer to appalling double standards on Gaza is not demanding that other countries also get to commit the same type of heinous crimes as Israel with the backing of the UK and the West but to ensure that those who are currently committing and abating genocide are held accountable to the same standard applicable in international law.
Sri Lanka would not have had to face the ignominy of facing sanctions by a State currently backing a genocide if it had addressed its own human rights issues domestically. These international actions, including targeted sanctions by individual countries and UN evidence gathering mechanisms are happening because the Sri Lankan State has time and time again failed to demonstrate that it is willing and capable of delivering justice to its own people.
For example, in 2019, Karannagoda, was named as the 14th suspect in the Navy 11 case which involved the enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killing of mostly Tamil men by naval personnel at the time he was the commander. The case which was probed by the CID and prosecuted in the courts was derailed due to political interference. The Attorney General in 2021 dropped all charges against the admiral. The Navy 11 case remains one of the most heinous crimes committed by the security forces against civilians with neither the victims nor their families being given any justice by the courts or the State.
Therefore, rather than ranting about the hypocrisy and the double standards, the Government and the people of Sri Lanka would be better served through introspection and a genuine commitment to right the many wrongs committed by the State against its own people. It then will not have to suffer the humiliation of being sanctioned and lectured on human rights by genocide-abating States such as the UK.