UN acts diplomatically on anti-Arbour JVP protest

The JVP protest in front of the UN compound in Colombo on Wednesday did not trigger a hard-hitting response from the international community or the United Nations itself. Instead, a representative from the UN office in Colombo expressed his appreciation regarding the peaceful manner, in which the demonstration took place, Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona said.

“A representative from the UN office who spoke to me on Thursday expressed his satisfaction regarding the peaceful and systematic way the JVP protest was conducted,” Dr. Kohona told The Sunday Times. A large crowd including JVP members of Parliament, provincial councils and local bodies took part in the rally protesting against recent remarks of UN Human Rights High Commissioner Louise Arbour.

Placards and banners with colourful slogans such as “Neo-Colonial Arbour, Hands off Sri Lanka!”, “Arbour Keep Your Aid!”, “Neo-Colonial Arbour, arrest LTTE mass murderers in your country Canada”, “What you did to Kosovo cannot be repeated in Sri Lanka”, “UNO, shut Arbour’s gab!” and “Stop singing lullabies to tigers, Hands off Sri Lanka” were displayed and chanted for approximately one hour.

Dr. Kohona said despite the violent nature of the pronouncements made, the demonstration itself was methodical and peaceful.“The UN representative said that Sri Lanka was a free country where the people had the right to express themselves,” he said. The protest was sparked off by recent remarks made by Ms. Arbour in the aftermath of the unilateral abrogation of the ceasefire agreement by the Sri Lankan government.

Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe who spoke at a media meeting last week, called Ms. Arbour’s warning as international terrorism. He said, “If any politician or military officer is taken before international law for taking decisions on behalf of the Motherland they would have to take them over our dead bodies. We emphasize this to the military leaders of this country and the international community.”

The Patriotic National Movement (PNM), backed by Mr. Weerawansa warned that the day when patriotic people in Sri Lanka will want to close down the UN agencies was not far away. They said that such drastic measures will be necessary if high ranking UN officials continued to hinder the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to eradicate one of the worst terrorist groups in the world.