President protector of human rights in Lanka - Former British envoy

LONDON: Former British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka David Gladstone in an interview with the BBC has described President Mahinda Rajapaksa as an avid campaigner for human rights.

Referring to the dark days of the 1988-89 period, Gladstone said the current Sri Lankan President was a young Opposition Parliamentarian and a leading human rights campaigner during the Premadasa Government. Gladstone admitted that he and Rajapaksa were very close friends during his time as the British High Commissioner in Colombo.

The young opposition MP launched a massive campaign in which he sought help from the international community, including the UN to end rights violations in Sri Lanka.

“We often talked about the situation in Sri Lanka. We found very much in common in our criticism in what was going on. But I naturally was very careful not to support him personally and in public or his party,” Gladstone added.

Rajapaksa, as an Opposition Parliamentarian, worked closely with the Amnesty International and the UN to protect human rights in Sri Lanka,he said.

Gladstone was expelled from Sri Lanka in 1991 by President Premadasa accusing him of interfering in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. The former British High Commissioner did not deny the accusation.

The clear instructions by the British Government to interfere to help protect human rights in Sri Lanka at that time marked a new chapter in very long tradition of international diplomacy whereby diplomats did not openly criticise their host countries, according to Gladstone.

“Rules of diplomacy have actually changed. I was thrust into the situation to pioneer (in 1991) a new approach to international diplomacy while I was in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Both the then Sri Lankan government and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) are accused of killing over 60,000 people as JVP took arms against the state.

Because of his strong criticism over the conduct of the then government, Gladstone had been often accused of being a JVP supporter, a charge he categorically denies.

There were clear instructions from the British authorities to condemn all human rights violations, including those carried out by the JVP. Senior journalist Richard de Soysa was abducted and later found killed during the Premadasa presidency. Prime Minister Premadasa, Gladstone said, was a very close friend of his but things changed as Premadasa became the President.

“Obviously the current JVP leadership might oppose this but the then JVP leaders gave the impression that they will kill all the diplomats when they come to power. So we were not keen on bringing JVP into power,” he told the interviewer.

Gladstone said he is reluctant to comment on Sri Lanka’s current human rights situation as he is not updated.

He told BBC Sandeshaya that the idea of war on terror offers legitimacy to criminal groups whose strategy is to terrorise civilians.

“I don’t believe on war on terror. I don’t know what it looks like. I live in London and I can’t say that I feel like in a war situation. It only glorifies those who are setting up bombs,” he said.

West’s war on terror, he said, is offering a free hand to many tyrants in the world to clamp down their opponents committing gross human rights violations.

The retired British diplomat and human rights campaigner is currently writing his memoirs, of which most of the chapters are on Sri Lanka.

(BBC News)