Bankrupted war crimes and human rights pundits meet King Kekille

In the wee hours of Western dominance in the world came the allegations of Sri Lankan War Crimes. It could perhaps be one of the weakest stands that west has ever made. Instead of punishing Sri Lanka with their so called evidence now they are slandering in their backyards.

In every war conducted so far there had been war crimes. If you go by the standards defined in world bodies and agreements such as Geneva Convention, every war has at least once crossed their allowed limits. If you consider post-WWII era, especially the main wars that west has engaged such as the invasion of Vietnam, Panama, Iraq or Afganistan, the numerous wars of Israel and even the mere military assistance given via UN - there exists no virgin war - as far as crimes are concerned. Yet they were never challenged. Like Dayan Jayathilake once said, the victorious party was never questioned.

However, the debate becomes further heated up when it comes to the war against terror. So far there have been a few number of completed wars against terror. And we noticed that in each of those cases there was no way you can hold into whatever the guidelines set for the wars against two nations. Nobody has conducted any academic analysis into war against terror and redefine the conventions.

Having said all these, the recently completed war against terror in Sri Lanka gives a novel low for those groups who master the topic of war crimes. It has been more than six months since the completion of war, yet they are looking for the smoking gun. Even that given, it is beyond comprehension why most such parties conduct defamation and slandering campaigns, instead of taking appropriate actions, if they really can.


The lowest point of the campaign so far is the call for allegations against Mr Palitha Kohona. 

Mr Kohona was the secretary for Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he was not involved in war by any means. Nor did he hold a power to decide anything related to war. But the fact that some people have imagined of a possible case of gunning down a terrorist with a white flag has been made synthetically connected to Mr Kohona.

How can one trust a terrorist carrying a white flag is a debatable question. They have not only used white flags but also used signs of supposed to be neutral institutes such as Red Cross, UN etc. Still, the call against Mr Kohona is a pathetic low, even if you ignore such pragmatic points.

It reads, "There's nothing to suggest Dr Kohona was directly responsible for committing these alleged war crimes, though international law does recognize principles of what's called command responsibility, where if someone had direct command, whether it's legal or political, with respect to the commission of these types of of offenses,"

Dr Kohona was not in a position of command - direct or indirect, formal or de-facto - when it mattered to this kind of decisions. He was said to be approached by someone asking SLDF to obey certain rules. Just as Dr Kohona says, "There was a general query about surrendering and I told them that I was the wrong person, that I had nothing to do with surrendering and asked them to go and deal with the matter in the way it ought to be dealt with."

Goly, they did not have my phone number, otherwise I'd be compelled to give them the same answer and hence conduct a "war crime".

The whole hype on the allegations - rather the craving for allegations - tells us one thing. The parties of vested evil interest on Sri Lanka, have reached their lowest point after bankruptcy. they are slandering in the dark shades of their backyards. Humorous human rights groups have taken up the tactics of the village house wives. If they cannot take actions against this tiny third world island of 20 million people, with absolutely no influence on any nation whatsoever, that means that they are so powerless, and absolutely obsolete today.

Moreover it tells you that perhaps this war in Sri Lanka had no criminal offenses in whatever convention they use to judge them. Nobody who were really involved in this war have been found with evidence for war crimes, so you catch Dr Kohona, since he is an Australian citizen. Just for that matter of citizenship.

Nevertheless they are not alone. Perhaps if you go with folklore, there once was this king Kekille who gave at least one similar verdict.