India should stop the West: Sri Lankan daily

Colombo, March 24 (IANS) A leading Sri Lankan daily Saturday urged India to stop the West from enforcing its "hidden agenda", after a US resolution on rights abuses in the island was passed by a UN body.

"The onus is on India to prevent the abuse by the US and its allies of the resolution on Sri Lanka to further their hidden agendas the way they acted last year to intervene in Libya militarily," The Island said.

It said the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution was not legally binding and "India has removed the most intrusive element which would have allowed the meddlesome UNHRC panjandrums to force themselves" on Colombo.

"But it is still fraught with the danger of serving as a stepping stone to another sinister campaign against Sri Lanka through the agency of the UN infested with terror sympathizers and INGO activists in high posts."

So "the general consensus in this country is that there is an element of danger in the resolution though India has tweaked it to the effect that UNHRC would have to give advice and technical assistance in consultation with the concurrence of Sri Lanka", it added.

This is one reason, the daily said, the government needed to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was appointed by the government.

"There is no reason why the government should dillydally further. It ought to carry out its promises (to implement it) whether there is a threat of foreign intervention or not.

"It is also good for the government's political health to implement the LLRC recommendations which enjoy wide currency and, if properly implemented, have the potential to strengthen democracy."

At the same time, the Island took on the US and Tamil Nadu politicians for coming out fully in support of the resolution.

"Housing is a pressing need in Sri Lanka's former war zone, and the US and its allies could prove that their love for the war victims is genuine by building some houses for them as India has done.

"How many houses has the US, which is weeping buckets for the people in the war ravaged areas, built for them?

"The same question should be posed to Tamil Nadu politicians including Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who has taken up the cudgels for the war-affected here," it said.