Tuesday 24th June, 2025

United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk is here on an official visit, with a packed agenda. He is however needed most in Gaza, which has become a human rights blackhole, with civilians perishing in Israeli attacks almost daily. Opinion is divided on the purpose of his Sri Lanka visit.

It is hoped that Türk, unlike his predecessors, will remain open-minded, listen to views from all sides, consider all perspectives and rationally assess facts, without leaping to preordained conclusions. He will have to separate facts from propagandistic claims, and make evidence-based observations and conclusions rather than assumptions derived from hearsay and unsubstantiated allegations made by influential lobby groups, and politicians dependent on them.

The biggest challenge before Türk is to restore the credibility of the UNHRC, where the interests of strategic alliances backed by powerful nations determine the outcomes of crucial votes and prevail over genuine concerns about human rights violations. He ought to remember that not even the countries that use the UNHRC as an instrument to advance their agendas hold it in high esteem; the US, which is pushing for a probe into the alleged accountability issues here, has called the UNHRC a ‘cesspool of political bias’. In 2018, Nikki Haley, US Ambassador to the UN, did not mince her words when she said the UNHRC was a ‘protector of human rights abusers’, and called for radical reforms. The Global South considers the UNHRC a white-dominated outfit, which baulks at condemning human rights violations committed by the western powers and their allies but turns to soft targets in the developing world. The UNHRC has ruined his reputation on numerous occasions. It may be recalled that in 2011, when the then UNHRC Chief Navi Pillay issued a statement condemning Bahrain for using brute force against protesters calling for reforms, the US and its allies backing pro-western King Al-Khalifa made her retract it. So much for the independence and impartiality of the UNHRC!

The very purpose of the UN as well as the UNHRC is in serious doubt. Big powers resort to military aggression against less powerful nations according to their whims and fancies, and commit war crimes with total impunity. Israel and the US have carried out unprovoked attacks on Iran. The UN has been reduced to a mere spectator. It also failed to prevent the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Tens of thousands of lives were lost in the US-led invasion of Iraq. The western powers also engineered a regime change in Libya and plunged that country into anarchy. The UN and the UNHRC just looked on.

Without the trust of the global community, even the most powerful institutions lose moral authority, and with it their legitimacy. Of what use is the UN, which looks on while world powers bomb weak nations back into the Stone Age regardless of the human cost of their military aggression? The US, which is totally unconcerned about preventable civilian deaths in Gaza, is using the UNHRC, which it has condemned in the strongest possible terms for ‘bias’, etc., to have accountability issues probed in Sri Lanka. It has slapped sanctions on four International Criminal Court (ICC) judges who authorised arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The ICC intrepidly hit back, saying, “These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe.”

Sadly, the UNHRC continues to be at the beck and call of the US-led Western bloc, which has weaponised human rights, as it were, to achieve their geostrategic goals. One can only hope that Türk will care to put his own house in order before trying to put the world right.

Monday 23rd June, 2025

US President Donald Trump stopped vacillating and ordered attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites, which he subsequently boasted of having obliterated. He has repeated his call for Iran’s unconditional surrender. His action has made it abundantly clear that Israel would not have launched unprovoked attacks on Iran without an assurance from Washington that the US would join its bombing campaign. Iran struck back with might and main, taking as it did targets in Tel Aviv itself and proving that Israel’s famed Iron Dome and other such air defence systems were not impenetrable vis-a-vis barrages of hypersonic missiles.

Now that President Trump has claimed that Iranian nuclear facilities were obliterated and thanked the US Air Force for a ‘spectacular job’, it does not make sense for him to call for Iran’s surrender, for what the US made out to be the casus belli was Iran’s alleged potential to produce nuclear weapons. Since the US says it has accomplished the mission of scuttling Iran’s nuclear programme, it ought to pressure Israel to stop attacks and thereby de-escalate the Middle East conflict that threatens global peace.

The US bombed Iran regardless of an assurance by Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi that there was no evidence of Iran working towards producing nuclear weapons. Above all, US Director of National Intelligence, Tusli Gabbard, testified before the US Congress in March 2025 that Iran was not building nuclear weapons. President Trump’s knee-jerk reaction was to claim that Gabbard as well as the US intelligence community was wrong. Either he lied in a bid to justify unprovoked attacks he was planning to carry out on Iran, or he actually has no faith in the US intelligence agencies. If the latter is the case, then the US will not be able to rely on its intelligence outfits to safeguard its national security.

In a strange turn of events, after President Trump’s rebuttal of her statement before the Congress, Gabbard made an about-turn, claiming that Iran could produce nuclear weapons within months! She has changed her position apparently under duress. Trump’s claim sounds like that of his predecessor, George W. Bush, prior to the US-led invasion of Iraq. Bush and his partner in war, British Prime Minister Tony Blair had intelligence dossiers falsified to have the world believe that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was trying to purchase 500 tons of yellowcake uranium powder from Niger to revive his nuclear weapons programme.

Bush’s WMD claim turned out to be a blatant lie as the US-led invaders could not find any evidence of such weapons. But both Bush and Blair got away with their war crimes. The so-called new world order is far from rule-based; it is defined by the law of the jungle. Might is right in the modern world, and even a lie Trump utters passes for the truth!

The US and other military superpowers are labouring under the misconception that they can ensure their own security by means of military aggression against the countries they consider their enemies. History is replete with instances where their military power did not yield the desired results. The US had to bite the bullet and negotiate with the Taliban, in spite of having declared that it would never talk to terrorists. It had to leave Afghanistan, without accomplishing its mission.

Israel’s involvement in never-ending military conflicts may serve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political interests at home amidst several trials he is facing. He is on trial in three corruption cases. He now says attacks on Iran will go on until a regime change in Tehran, according to media reports. By invading Iraq, George W. Bush reportedly sought to overcome the so-called ‘wimp factor’ troubling him, and Trump has apparently tried to rid himself of the pejorative TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) label, which encapsulates his repeated behaviour characterised by threats followed by retreats.

Schumacher has said, ‘Small is beautiful’. Similarly, in modern warfare, it has become evident that small is dangerous. A swarm of cheap drones may be able to carry out far more devastating attacks than the B-2 stealth bombers the US deployed to attack Iran. So, the question is whether in this day and age, it is prudent for any country to rely entirely on its military prowess to safeguard its national security. A dirty bomb or a radiological dispersal device in the wrong hands could become as dangerous as a nuke in a populous city anywhere in the world. It was not missiles but fuel-laden jets that Al-Qaeda used to carry out the 9/11 attacks and bring down the Twin Towers.

In a world riven by conflicts, no country is safe. It is the duty of global superpowers to act responsibly, and work towards de-escalation in the Middle East.

It is popularly said in this country that a politician out of power is like a ‘banana without skin’. These days, we see several such politicians being escorted in and out of various courts. They blatantly flouted the law with total impunity while in power, and roared like lions in Parliament and elsewhere. They may not have thought that they would have to face the consequences of their unlawful actions.

Deputy Solicitor General Lakmini Girihagama has made a shocking revelation before the Maligawatte Magistrate’s Court. Presenting to the court a report issued by a WHO-accredited laboratory in Germany, she said, on Thursday (19), it had been found that a stock of human immunoglobulin fraudulently procured under Keheliya Rambukwella’s watch as the Minister of Health, had no therapeutic efficacy and was contaminated with bacteria. Similarly, Rituximab, a cancer drug, procured in a similar manner, contained only sodium chloride, she said, informing the court that indictments would be filed before the Permanent High Court Trial-at-Bar shortly.

It is heartening that the law and karma have caught up with at least some politicians and their associates.

Former Ministers Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Nalin Fernando have already been jailed for causing losses to the state by procuring carrom boards and checkerboards through Sathosa for distribution among sports clubs, ahead of the 2015 presidential election. Former North-Central Province Chief Minister S. M. Ranjith, and his sister-in-law, who was his private secretary, were sentenced to prison for misusing state funds while in power. Cases have been filed against several other former ministers and their cronies as well for corrupt deals, etc.

Cases against the aforementioned politicians were filed before last year’s regime change. The incumbent government has vowed legal action against three former Presidents over what has come to be dubbed a dairy cow scandal, which caused a loss of over one billion rupees to the state coffers, according to NPP politicians. One can only hope that the government will carry out its pledge to bring those politicians to justice, without making another about-turn, after gaining some political mileage. One of the NPP’s main election promises was to evict the former Presidents from the state-owned houses currently occupied by them and do away with their perks. It is now humming a different tune.

The present-day government politicians would do well to learn from the predicament of their political rivals languishing behind bars or facing legal action for corrupt deals and other such transgressions. When they lose power, they, too, will be like the proverbial ‘bananas without skin’; they will be left with no one to turn to. It may be recalled that during the previous government, the then President Ranil Wickremesinghe defended Rambukwella to the hilt, and even had a motion of no confidence against the latter defeated in Parliament. Legal action was instituted against Rambukwella because he became too embarrassing for the government to defend. Wickremesinghe has reportedly told the CID that Rambukwella misled the Cabinet and is therefore solely responsible for the procurement irregularities in question. His former Cabinet colleagues and political masters who threw their weight behind him while in power cannot absolve themselves of the blame for the procurement of fake drugs.

A committee, appointed to study the green-channellng of 323 red-flagged cargo containers in January 2025, under suspicious circumstances, has submitted its report. The reported findings of the committee confirm suspicions about the release of the containers without Customs inspection. The committee has recommended a further audit. This recommendation runs counter to the government’s claim that there was no wrongdoing. A future government is bound to reopen the probe into the questionable release of containers, and if any official tries to cover it up, he or she will be held answerable; such state employees will be without anyone to protect them. They will be compelled to reveal the truth under interrogation, the way some junior police personnel are doing at present before a committee probing their former boss, interdicted IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon. The predicament of some former Health Ministry panjandrums allegedly involved in the procurement scandal while in service will deter the state officials responsible for the controversial clearance of cargo containers from defending politicians.

It is hoped that the NPP government will go all out to have all the crooks who committed serious transgressions during the previous administrations brought to justice, and the politicians and officials accused of malpractices under the current dispensation will be dealt with similarly under a future government.