China – a true friend of Sri Lanka

China’s Yang Jiechi and President Rajapaksa

When a recent top level Chinese delegation came here, they had a touching message for Sri Lanka. The message was.. “CHINA WILL STAND WITH SRI LANKA TO PROTECT ITS INDEPENDENCE, SOVEREIGNTY AND TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY AT INTERNATIONAL FORA” .

Contrast this response with the attitude adopted by some of our `friends’, such as the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, India and the EU. In many international fora, Sri Lanka has been at the receiving end of a hostile campaign by these countries with regard to so called human rights violations, war crimes, ‘genocide’, institutional violence, harassment of minorities, police brutality, lack of judicial independence, religious intolerance, absence of media freedom, etc. Further, in all these countries, the world’s most violent terrorist organization- the LTTE – which killed tens of thousands of people and terrorised 25 million Sri Lankans for more than 20 years are allowed to function and advocate HR issues and are sometimes recognized by the Governments.

When one analyses the charges levelled at Sri Lanka it is very clear that most of them are fabricated by the interested parties and backed by the NGOs. These nations and the NGOs conveniently forget the massive HR violations and crimes against the minorities in their own countries within the last few decades. They have the audacity to pressure a few countries at every turn to further their geo-political interests. It is true that Sri Lanka is facing many odds. But, the political reality should lead us to the friends who will not only help us financially, but also stand by us. We cannot dilly-dally; we have to choose the right path in international affairs. ‘

RANJITH SOYSA