At the UNHRC spin is truth and truth is spin

The UN’s top human rights official, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet has expressed disappointment regarding ‘the spin that had been put’ on her ‘discussion with the Sri Lankan Government delegation.’ Apparently, it was reported that the Northern Province Governor Suren Raghavan had claimed that Bachelet had ‘agreed’ that certain facts incorporated in the UNHRC report on Sri Lanka ‘could not be condoned.’ 

The claims of both need to be taken with more than a pinch of salt. Raghavan is known to shoot himself in the foot with his statements. One recalls how this tri-lingual Governor issued a statement when he assumed office which appeared to be a single message in three languages but in fact had seriously divergent content, the Tamil text clearly claiming a distinct Tamil ‘nation’. There are other reasons not to trust Raghavan, but let’s justleave it at textual hanky-panky.   

Bachelet puts it in black and white thus: ‘Either the newspaper misunderstood the Governor, or the Governor misunderstood – or misquoted – me.’ Correct.   

Raghavan has since submitted a ‘clarification’ claiming he was misquoted. He has gone on to give Bachelet a character certificate, praising her for being ‘an exemplary high commissioner who displayed the highest order of diplomacy and skills’ which Raghavan has ‘valued so much’.   

Bachelet for her part, elaborating on her statement, claims that the Government’s views were taken into account when finalizing the report. Interesting term, this ‘taken into account’ business. It does not necessarily mean that views of the Government were incorporated into the account, but the implication is that the Government ‘went along’ with the final draft. How about that for a bit of Bachelet spin?   

Raghavan however is small fry and that little spat is of a storm-in-a-tea-cup proportion. There’s more serious stuff being dished out. Serious spin, that is, in the name of truth.   

Bachelet is yet to respond to the statement to the High Commission made by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Minister Tilak Marapana, who categorically refuted several of Bachelet’s claims. Of course, the following question needs to be asked from the Government: ‘were these claims which were disputed in Geneva questioned by “the wide range of Government officials” Bechelet claims her team shared the draft report with?’   

In any event, Bachelet is obviously aware of Marapana’s statement and the damning charges against her embedded therein (in ‘diplospeak’ of course). They amount to accusations of downright misrepresentation, deceit and irresponsibility on the part of the High Commissioner. Indeed, we can even say that Marapana has accused Bachelet of ‘putting a spin on thing’! How’s that for pots, kettles and the colour black eh?   

Let’s elaborate. Marapana, in his submission to the UNHRC, disputes Bechelet’s figures regarding the amounts pertaining to occupation and release of land. Bechelet claims that only 75% had been released which, Marapana said ‘is at significant variance with the actual numbers,’ i.e. ‘as at March 2019, 88.87% of State lands and 92.16% of private lands have been released.’   
Marapana also took issue with Bachelet’s uninformed or deliberately mischievous reference to the Mannar mass graves. She claims that ‘other mass graves might be expected to be found in the future,’ and Marapana states the obvious: ‘An assumption of this nature in a public report, on a matter of this magnitude and seriousness, is not acceptable, and may even cast a doubt as regards other assertions in the report.’ This he said after pointing out to the results of carbon dating which indicates the graves to be 300-500 years old! Spin, Bachelet?   

So when Bachelet expressed disappointment by the alleged ‘spin’ on her discussion with the Sri Lankan Government delegation, one would expect her her reports to be squeaky clean (which they are obviously not!).   

Her spin is not limited to the above. She claims, ‘The recent appointment to a senior position in the Sri Lankan Army of Major General Shavendra Silva, implicated in alleged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, is a worrying development.’   

What is this if not ‘guilt by accusation!’? What happened to ‘burden of proof’ and ‘innocent until proven guilty’? We could go into the entire (malicious) narrative of war crimes, crimes against humanity, targeting of civilians in the last days of the war (or in the long-long that preceded those ‘last days’ some people are fixated with), bringing in the statements of high level representatives of the UN, US, EU, Indian, Japanese and others. However, in a world slanted in favor of the powerful (Bechelet has said nothing so far of the UK refusing to accept the ICC ruling on the Chagos Islands), spin IS the order of the day and it is the preserve of the powerful and their lackeys (like Bachelet).   

Truth is spin, and spin is truth. That’s Michelle Bechelet in a nutshell. No, sorry, that’s the UN as agent of Europe and North America, in a nutshell. And those who praise the likes of Bechelet and apologize on behalf of pain of mind caused by the likes of Raghavan or those who Raghavan implies put spin on his statement, are essentially Euro-peons (to use a term coined by Krisantha Sri Bhaggiyadatta). Yes, that’s Mangala Samaraweera.   

Truth helps reconciliation, no doubt. Spin delays or wrecks such laudable outcome preferences. Bechelet and her local lackeys are spinning like crazy. No wonder their statements are so twisted. Dizziness can do that.   

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