Gordon Brown's fight against terror

Sarath Wijesinghe

LLM (London) Solicitor, Attorney-At-Law- Convener - Committee for International Law and International Relations - [email protected]

Gordon Brown is going through a difficult period since he assumed duties as the Prime Minister of Great Britain after having patiently awaited for a very long period as the Chancellor of and Prime Minister in waiting. He brought about draconian and drastic changes to combat terrorism which includes long term detention and internment.

He was talking about cultural action against terrorist extremism and he said that by fulfilling the responsibilities as Chancellor to deny terrorists' finance and complex nature of sophistication of terrorist activity that he has taken on short and long term solutions. He stated by saying that global challenges must be globally dealt with all the means at their disposal military, security, political, economic and cultural. Tough anti terror measures including detaining suspects without charged beyond 28 days and the use of phone/tap evidence in Court, are being considered by Gordon Brown following the London and Glasgow attacks.

Unlike in Sri Lanka in the UK, the Conservatives promised to co-operate with Mr. Brown and indicated that they may be willing to drop their opposition to the extension of the 28 day detention period, provided it was shown that the Police need the extra time. In the United Kingdom the Conservatives helped Tony Blair to bring about a peaceful settlement on the Northern Ireland issue where the Northern terrorists laid down arms and entered the democratic process.

Northern Ireland originally has been an independent unit which was incorporated subsequently to form the United Kingdom. In Sri Lanka neither North nor East were independent entities. Therefore there are no similarities in the Northern Ireland and North and East issues as far as the basis of the conflict is concerned. But it is very salutary to state that all the parties in the United Kingdom have got together to resolve their conflict which destabilized the day to day lives over two decades. These are examples that we should follow and it is the duty of the opposition to help the government in power rather than going round the world tarnishing the good image of Sri Lanka.

Extended detention without charge is expected to be brought forward by Mr. Brown in a terrorism bill in the autumn to tighten the security. Two years ago Tony Blair wanted to push through 90 days continuous detention for which Conservatives and Liberals objected. Now having considered the volatile security situation in the United Kingdom all the parties have decided to rally round Mr. Brown to combat terror in the UK and international terrorism which includes attack by LTTE which according to the world community, of the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world.

Mr. Brown has long term plans to combat terrorism. He has realized how imminent and dangerous the situation in the UK and globally. The following quotation of Mr. Brown shows how far he has considered the gravity of the situation.

QUOTE BY MR BROWN:

"The terrorists were making a long term and sustained attack on Western values and it would have to be countered by not just military and security means, Mr. Brown said.

It is also about hearts and minds. If in the long term we cannot separate the moderates from the extremists and the extremists prey on young lives both in this country and in other parts of the world, then we will see culturally a distancing of people with extreme views from the rest of the community."

This indicates how difficult it is to differentiate the terrorists, terrorism, moderate and the innocents. The LTTE uses civilians, children and soft targets to achieve their ends. They are easy infiltrated into Colombo where the majority citizens are Tamils. It is to the advantage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa that Gordon Brown too has realized the gravity and multitude of the situation. It is time for the two leaders to get together in combating terrorism locally and internationally with the help of their two respective Secretaries of State. President Rajapaksa has spelt out his plans for a permanent solution after combating and eradicating terrorism completely and to pave the way for everybody to enter the path of peace as follows:

"My primary aim would be to arrive at a peaceful political settlement where the power of each and every citizen is strengthened to the maximum, without being trapped within concepts such as traditional homelands and right to self determination. My intention is to devolve power to the level of the citizen. I believe that by developing a strong citizen, we would be able to reach a solution in this national conflict."- Mahinda Chintana -

The bomb near London's bustling nightclub and theatre district that defused on Friday would have killed hundreds, after an ambulance crew spotted smoke coming from Mercedes filled with Lither mixed with gasoline, propylene and nails. Incidentally the pattern of bomb making in Sri Lanka too is similar to that of this device which shows a clear indication of a direct connection with the bomb making network of the underground movements in the UK and Sri Lanka LTTE net.

Thereafter British new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith called an emergency meeting of the top officials and later said the attempt attack was "international terrorism". He further said that they are currently facing the most serious and sustained threat to their security from international terrorism. He said "this reinforces the need for the public to remain vigilant to the threat we face all the times."

This is a lesson and an example to Sri Lankan government, the opposition and the people who are victims of terrorist's attacks. It is sad but true that some missions and NGOs have double standards distortions myths and misunderstandings on Sri Lanka. It is time for the Sri Lankan affairs raise above these odds and to work together in combating terrorism and those forces knowingly or unknowingly helping terrorism.

Gordon Brown called it stark reminder that Britain faces a serious and continuous threat of terrorist attacks. The double-decker bus on No 205 travelling on Grace inn near Kings-cross station caused a scare and a chilling warning to the UK and the government and also the network of diplomatic missions all over the world monitoring human rights situations in other countries on the basis that the UK has a right to interfere and intervene in Human Rights situations being a signatory to main human rights instruments.

His Excellency Mr. Dominick Chilcott in his detailed speech at Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS) justified the steps taken by him in Sri Lanka on the basis that, that it is their mandate to intervene and interfere on human rights situations in Sri Lanka and other parts of the world including Afghanistan and Iraq where the human rights situation is deteriorating fast.

The discovery of the bombs to blow London came hours after Gordon Brown named a cabinet to succeed Tony Blair. The first duty of the government is the security of the people and the police and the security services have said on so many occasions that they face a serious and continued security threat to their country. Therefore security around London was stepped up with Police body searching drivers of vehicles entering London. Large areas packed with tourist theatres, restaurants and pubs were sealed off.

The people in the UK have understood the threat to the country and the community and assisting the forces to solve it by taking all preventive measures militarily and strategically. When the UK, a world power and a rich nation does it for safety it is justified by the international community whereas in Sri Lanka when Sri Lankan government is taking measures to safe guard the lives of the majority of people, the international community including British agitates that human rights standards should be maintained even during extreme terrorist conditions.

This is technically correct but in reality a difficult task, an innocent Immigrant worker in the UK was followed and killed by British security forces by shooting him continuously at a short range on suspicion when there was no such tense atmosphere. The international community pardoned UK as having made a genuine mistake. In Colombo the atmosphere is serious as the LTTE has infiltrated into Colombo. Colombo mainly consists of non Sinhalese which is to credit and the tolerance of Sinhalese who live in harmony with all other ethnic groups. Sinhala as a minority in Colombo leads a very exemplary life, as peace loving, moderate citizens when Muslims and Tamils own the majority of property, wealth and businesses inn the capital which is a very harmonious and salutary situation.

Unfortunately the picture shown by sine Diplomatic Missions and NGOs to the world are the reverse. Some Diplomatic missions and NGOs, minutes after "Lodgers Incident" has transmitted to the world of mass ethnic cleansing by security forces on the steps taken to evacuate few hundred lodgers who could not give satisfactory answers with regard to identify themselves. How could there be ethnic cleansing when the majority of residents in Colombo are Tamils which amount to 125,456 and Muslims which amount to 120,109 as against Sinhala minority which amounts to 117,090. In fact real ethnic cleansing took place when all the Muslims in Jaffna were driven away by the LTTE some years ago. For some reason the Diplomatic Missions and NGOs who agitated for the lodgers were silent when there was real ethnic cleansing of Muslims by the LTTE.

By the mid 1990s the UK Intelligence Agencies and the Police were well aware that London was being used as a base by individuals involving promoting, funding and planning terrorism. London has been the centre and the heaven for LTTE. They managed, controlled and fought the war from abroad using funds raised legally and illegally. Though late it is a good sign that UK has taken steps to curb terrorism from their soil by terrorists organizations mainly headed by LTTE by freezing the accounts and rounding up the hard core activists.

LTTE terrorism has number of links and branches. Drug smuggling, humans smuggling, shipping, extortion are the main sources of income. For human smuggling the easiest and mostly used path is asylum process which is prevalent in the United Kingdom which is a signatory to the convention of refugees.

The definition a refugee for the purpose of the convention in Article 1A of the Convention of Refugees is important to note in this context which reads as follows:

"Owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race religion nationality membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside his country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence ... is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it".

The human smuggle trade is directly interconnected to asylum where immigrants claim asylum on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, social group etc.

It is important to have documents to substantiate the claim. In Eastham and Wembley forged Sri Lankan passports, birth certificates and identity cards are plenty for sale. What they need is paper reports and web information to substantiate. Most of the entries on abductions and disappearances are people from Kilinochchi and the NGOs promptly give wide and world publicity for disappearances and abductions. Now the truth is coming out of abductions and disappearances.

As a result of this back up work, UK government has relaxed the immigration rules which were tightened previously as a result of bogus asylum claims. Sri Lanka recently was in the white list, which means it is a safe place for Tamils to live. Now things have changed. It is no longer in the white list. It is a country not safe for Tamils to live and return which means it is easy for asylum claims and once asylum is granted free housing, free education, free income supports and many benefits to follow and Indian end up as a British and EU citizen.

Gordon Brown has an up hill task to fight terrorism and also the influx of immigrants who are misusing the facilities offered by the British for those who need help. London has been the most peaceful city with peace loving people.

It is no longer a peaceful place for tourists and a place for investments. It is time that the two countries to work out a common programmed to combat the common enemy, the terrorism, terrorists and the LTTE.