by Melani Manel Perera

For Buddhist lawyer S.G. Punchihewa, anti-UN protests are stupid and useless. The government is trying to hide its mistakes. For Anglican Rev Marimuttu Sathivel, protests are another “terrorist action of the present government” carried out in broad daylight.

Colombo (AsiaNews) – The protest launched yesterday by local politicians and supporters in front of the United Nations headquarters in Sri Lanka is into its second day. Demonstrators are opposed to the commission of inquiry set up by United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon to determine what happened in the final stage of Sri Lanka’s civil war between the military and Tamil Tigers (LTTE) rebels. The actual fighting ended in May 2009, but it was followed by stories and allegations of war crimes committed against ethnic Tamil in the dying days of the conflict.

Members of the National Freedom Front (NFF), a party that is in the governing coalition,  are leading the protest.  NFF leader and Minister Wimal Weerawansa was one of the organisers of the action.

“We began this fight against Ban Ki-moon’s effort to bring the commander of armed forces, the head of the armed forces and the soldiers who defeated terrorism before the International Criminal Court,” Mr Weerawansa said.

However, many are critical of the protest some who spoke to AsiaNews raised doubts about its purpose. Indeed, many are asking that if there were no war crimes, the government has nothing to hide. A United Nations inquiry would find nothing.

For S.G. Punchihewa, an important Buddhist lawyer, the protest “is a stupid and useless action. The fact that a minister is taking part in the protest means that protesters are backed by the government. The danger is that everyone in the country will be suffer from it.”

But there is more behind the protest than meets the eye. “There have been many incidents [during the civil war], human rights violations, abductions, unjust actions, killings,” Mr Punchihewa said. “Now the government wants to cover up its mistakes, misleading people with these protests. The whole world will mark us down as a nation incapable of discipline.”

Rev Marimuttu Sathivel, an Anglican priest, is also upset by the protest.

“These demonstrations are just another terrorist action by the current government done in broad daylight. They want to stop the UN commission so that what happened in the Mullivaikal area will never come out,” he said.

Mullivaikal is village in northern Sri Lanka where more than 40,000 civilians were killed or injured during the final stages of the civil war.

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• lanka
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