Toronto
June 13, 2009
His Excellency Cuban Ambassador in Ottawa
388 Main Street
Ottawa, Canada
Phone: + 1 613 563 0141
Fax: (613) 563-0068
By Voting for Sri Lanka’s “self congratulatory” Resolution at UNHRC Cuba singularly ignored
Sri Lankan government’s repression of Thamil people
Dear Your Excellency,
Though belated we write to express our outrage and disappointment the way Cuba voted in favour of Sri Lanka’s “self-congratulatory” resolution session at the UNHRC special session to debate allegations of human rights abuses committed by Sri Lanka and to prosecute those responsible. It is a national disgrace that Cuba supported a state accused of war crimes and committing genocide against its own citizens. We can understand right-wing governments such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia but not Cuba which itself is a victim of oppression.
And the governments of the world, blinded as they are by the perverse notion that every evil is acceptable in the global ‘War on Terror’, seem to have completely lost their moral compass in the case of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government stoked fears of terrorism to provide a pretext for draconian anti-terrorism laws, emergency regulations, suppressing media freedom and subverting rule of law. According to unofficial UN sources more than 20,000 Thamil civilians were slaughtered during the last 3 days of the war.
UNHRC High Commissioner Navi Pillay told the emergency meeting that the United Nations should start a war crimes probe against Sri Lanka. She said Sri Lanka government was obliged to follow humanitarian law even when fighting terrorism.
The Westerns powers’ supposed concern for human rights may by hypocritical, given that they have for many years been supporting the Sri Lankan government’s war on the Thamils. Nonetheless Cuba should not have supported a racist and failed state like Sri Lanka whose human rights record is a national disgrace. It should now know the ugly face of Sri Lanka where politically and racially motivated murders, abductions for ransom, arrest and incarceration takes place routinely.
In voting for the resolution Cuba forfeited any pretence to be a communist state. According to Lenin’ “Guaranteeing the rights of a national minority is inseparably linked up with the principle of complete equality. That decision demands “the incorporation in the constitution of a fundamental law which shall declare null and void all privileges enjoyed by any one nation and all infringements of the rights of a national minority.”
Cuba has a long history of advocating the establishment of internationally acceptable standards for establishing a clear distinction between terrorism, which must be condemned and combated, and the legitimate right of peoples to fight, including through armed struggle, against aggression, occupation and foreign domination, colonialism or foreign hegemony, in order to achieve their liberation and self-determination. The LTTE armed struggle against the terrorist state of Sri Lanka is for the right of self-determination of the Thamil people. Thamil people suffer persecution by the majority Sinhala – Buddhists has the inherent right to self-determination under the Geneva Conventions and Protocols.
The down side is that Cuba had singularly ignored Sri Lankan government’s repression of its own people. This is contrary to Cuba’s generally principled internationalist position that seeks to aid the oppressed around the world: from Cuba's armed assistance in Angola that paved the way for the defeat of the South African apartheid regime, to its current practice of sending volunteer doctors to treat the poor in dozens of countries. Cuba voting for Sri Lanka risks tarnishing its image worldwide.
Cuba seemed to have carried away by Sri Lankan government’s portrayal itself as a victim of Western governments and the "Western dominated world media.” This was ridiculous given the financial and military aid that Sri Lanka receives from the West and the hostility of the Western media to the "terrorist" LTTE.
While we disapprove Cuba voting for Sri Lanka accused of committing war crimes, which in many ways tantamount to the universally revered revolutionary Che Guevera dying for a second time, we still like to discuss this matter with you in person. Could you please afford us an opportunity at the earliest? Thank you.
Yours truly,
Veluppillai Thangavelu
President
Cc. The Consulate
General of Cuba
5353 Dundas St. West, Suite 401
Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8
Tel: (416) 234 8181