Rajiva Wijesinha

“ What has apparently moved him to tears and to talk of savagery was a release authored it seems by the indefatigable Zarifi, which began 'Amnesty International has denounced the reported use of cluster bombs in a civilian area by the Sri Lankan military as a serious violation of international humanitarian law. According to a UN spokesperson, the main hospital in the town of Puthukkudirippu was hit by cluster bombs and had to be evacuated.' The statement went on to quote Zarifi doing his Bruce Fein impersonation - 'The use of cluster bombs in such circumstances could constitute a war crime'. ”

“ Weiss's first correction however claimed that the vicinity of the hospital was hit by cluster bombs. Now, having granted that UN staff were in that area, he claims that all they heard was noise, which was obligingly interpreted for them by the eager beavers in Colombo.
Buhne, helpfully, while out jogging, assured me that the munitions which his Security Staff now claim were used are not illegal. Buhne's technological expertise is to be admired, but it is not likely to be shared by most people around the world. ”

“ Getting rid of terrorism is one priority, ensuring that the benefits of this liberation accrue to all our people is another. But in the process we must insist that our partners also behave with sensitivity and without making allegations that can then be used against us, in a way that will allow the Hydra to raise again its innumerable heads. ”

“ Just before getting to sleep I saw Splinte's message and also a news flash which said 'The UN in a statement to foreign media accepts Sri Lankan government's assurance that it does not have facility to fire cluster bombs'. ”

“ People tend to be Pavlovian in their reactions - as we saw with the Canadians and Rama Mani for instance - and we have to remember that these are conditioned by the appalling behaviour of the Jayewardene government in the eighties. ”

“ We are no longer getting regularly the information we need as to areas in which violations of human rights might be occurring, instead there seems to be concentration only on the conflict areas, with regular statements that are then made use of by less scrupulous forces. ”

“ Such mistakes are serious, because they add to the belief that we need external monitoring of our situation. And they are doubly serious when we have what seems a symbiotic relationship between ostensibly independent agencies such as Amnesty International and the UN and what passed for its partners. ”

“ Instead of simply admitting the mistake and suggesting Amnesty retract, the letter, from their spokesman, Gordon Weiss, explained that 'United Nations staff, who had the previous night endured 16 hours of constant bombardment in areas adjoining the hospital grounds where they were sheltering, confused the explosion of cluster munitions with air-burst fragmentation munitions, which deliver shrapnel over a wide area and which have a similar loud explosive report, followed by many smaller reports'. ”

“ They just want the Tamils crushed and wiped out'. This may be nonsense, but people are capable of believing nonsense. After all, as a distinguished diplomat once told me himself, we have to remember that most countries - India, as the recent record of those posted here shows, being an outstanding exception, though we can see something of the sort with Russia and China too - do not send their brightest and best to Colombo. ”