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Sri Lanka finds a champion on Capitol Hill amid human rights accusations
The top Democrat on the House foreign affairs panel on Asia attacked America's criticism of Sri Lanka's human rights record during a routine hearing Tuesday.
“Why is the most powerful country in the world picking on a small, little country like Sri Lanka?” American Samoa Del. Eni Faleomavaega asked the State Department's top diplomat for South Asia. “We are forgetting the fact that for ... 29 years, the Sri Lankan government has had to deal with [a] terrorist organization.”
Faleomavaega made the remarks during a hearing on America's role in South Asia. He was in Sri Lanka last week on that country's dime and met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the minister of Defense who is credited with defeating the decades-old Tamil Tiger insurgency in 2009.
The United States announced last month that it would be sponsoring a resolution on human rights violations at the United Nation Human Rights Council. The resolution would call on Sri Lanka to live up to its commitments made in the wake of reports of widespread violence following the defeat of the separatist Tigers.
Faleomavaega denounced the resolution and said the United States was applying a double standard while ignoring human rights violations elsewhere. He made similar comments during last week's trip.
“Why is the United States taking the lead in bullying a small country like Sri Lanka; when Sri Lanka has gone through a terrible conflict?” Faleomavaega said in comments posted on the Sri Lankan embassy's web site. “Should we be looking at other countries when our own situation is yet to be cleared, for example even with Vietnam.”
Panel chairman Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) said there was another side to the story.
Attempts at reconciliation “have been disappointing in many respects,” he said. “Sri Lankan leaders for example are talking about repealing the 13th Amendment, which guarantees certain basic rights to provincial councils.”
Robert Blake, the assistant secretary of State for South and Central Asia, confirmed that the Obama administration was pursuing a resolution at the UN council.
“I must say, progress thus far on implementing the … action plan [for reconciliation and accountability] has been slow.”
The unexpected focus of the hearing caught other members off guard.
“I want to get away from Sri Lanka is I could,” said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) before switching to a much broader question about the impact of pending sequestration cuts on U.S. diplomatic effects in the region.
