Sri LankanPresident RanilWickremesinghehas accused the West, and the United States in particular, of “double standards” in addressing human rights concerns in Gaza and Sri Lanka.
“All measures taken to combat terrorism must comply fully with states’ obligation under international law. In particular, international human rights law…” he told a gathering on Friday, at the inauguration of a courts complex.
Naming the U.S. and Canada, Mr. Wickremesinghe said: “they all got together and passed a resolution against Sri Lanka”. He was referring to the October 2022 resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council that, among other things, called upon the Sri Lankan government to ensure the “prompt, thorough and impartial investigation and, if warranted, prosecution of all alleged crimes relating to human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law, including for longstanding emblematic cases, with the full participation of victims and their representatives.”
From the time Sri Lanka’s civil war ended in 2009, after claiming tens of thousands of Tamil civilian lives, it has been subject to regular scrutiny at the Council in Geneva. Contending that “what applies to us must also apply in Gaza,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said: “What U.S. has told us, they must also ensure is enforced in Gaza.”
Sri Lanka — along with all South Asian countries barring India — voted in favour of the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly last month calling for “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.” Meanwhile, Sri Lankans have been holding protests in solidarity with Palestine in different parts of the country, including one in the eastern Trincomalee district on Friday and in Colombo on Saturday, which saw women and children participate in large numbers.
Escalating tensions in Gaza under sharp focus in civil war-scarred Sri Lanka
While Mr. Wickremesinghe sought to call out the West for its “double standards”, his comments drew immediate backlash from government critics and rights advocates, who took to social media and reminded President Wickremesinghe of the Sri Lankan state’s own obligations, amid enduring calls for truth, justice and accountability. Prominent human rights activist Ambika Satkunanathan said on social media platform X: “The standard is not whether the US applies diff laws to SL and to #Gaza, but whether intl law is being violated. Intl law was breached in SL and it is being breached in #Gaza…”
Opposition MP and Leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance Mano Ganesan said on X: “Need no explanation, Mr. President... That’s the western world order. What’s wrong in #Ukraine is right in #Gaza. But before blaming West look at the so called #SriLankan order,” he said, adding that “what is right for Palestinians is wrong for Sri Lanka’s Tamils”.
Observing that it was time to stop looking at the US, the West or India, Mr. Ganesan said Mr. Wickremesinghe could “stop going to Geneva” if he can “be a statesman” and tell fellow citizens, “let us build an all-inclusive Sri Lankan state, and not a Sinhala Buddhist state”. The criticism comes at a time when Tamils living in Sri Lanka’s north and east repeatedly raise concern over the government’s apparent inaction on the many instances of their land being occupied and held, on grounds of archaeological or forest “conservation”.
