Compassion vs. Hypocrisy:

Sri Lanka’s South unites to help North

We Sri Lankan citizens make up a nation most unfairly treated by the so- called “International Community” that represents only the Western countries in recent times. Any discernible person would perceive this on seeing the large crowds thronging at places where aid is collected for the war-affected people in the North. Thousands of men, women and children are seen handing over food, clothes, sanitary goods, toys, etc., to the best of their ability.

At present, there are over dozen such aid collecting programs sponsored by the State and non-state institutions. Aid collecting centres have been established in every major town, whereas vehicle conveys are travelling across the country receiving donations made even at the remotest village.

No one had to ask them to make donations; it is the spontaneous response of the Sri Lankan citizens to the sufferings of their own brethren. One cannot see any racial barrier to their compassion, but there is a firm resolution on their faces. A resolve to stand against all odds and to help their brethren is clear on every face.

Goods being loaded at the B.M.I.C.H. to be despatched to the North

Never in her 2500 year old documented history, has Sri Lanka fought a war aimed at destroying another nation or to exploit wealth of the others. Never has she committed despicable crimes like helping terrorist movements in neighbouring countries, or driven millions of people to their death by starvation by maintaining economic blockades.

The war she has been fighting during last quarter century is to free her own citizens from the clutches of the most barbaric terrorist outfit known to mankind. Yet, it is so unfortunate that the so-called international community has been so miserly in lending its helping hand to the people of this Third World nation to end its misery.

Sri Lanka’s war against terrorism has been often misinterpreted as genocide against the Tamil minority. The Western media has been using a variety of adjectives when commenting on Sri Lanka’s war, to convince the world that it is not a war against terrorism, but one between two ethnic groups.

Ironically, none of those adjectives can be found in their reportage on Iraq, Afghanistan or on the Gaza Strip. The terrorists who use child soldiers in combat, pioneered suicide bombing, enjoy the most abominable orgies of violence in ethnic cleansing raids are being shown to the world as a rebel group fighting for the rights of the Tamil people.

Throughout our effort to combat terrorism, a section of the International Community has been pressuring all governments in Sri Lanka to negotiate with the terrorists.

This controversial policy of treating a terrorist outfit and a democratically elected government as equals has robbed us of our opportunity to rid the country of terrorism more than once. Tens of thousands of lives could have been saved but for this duplicity.Unfortunately, we are being asked to undergo the same predicament once again.

Dirty tricks of politicians in some countries (preaching us on ceasefires) during election time are understandable as cheap politics. They have no other option other than taking their voters for a ride on communal sentiments, as they had done no other service to their people. Feverish clamouring of the false Tamil “Diaspora” who is agitated over the possibility of losing their asylum status can also be understood. They need no Eelam but to live their luxurious lives in Western countries at the expense of continued sufferings of the Sri Lankan citizens.

What is not understood is the interest of the Western powers to stop us from eradicating the terrorists that have committed horrendous crimes against us.

Some want us to give amnesty to the terrorists, some asks us to let a third party to take care of the terrorist leaders, some wail for a ceasefire, some have made it a habit of making the most absurd comments on our war time and time again.

The Government has let all foreign media, foreign envoys, UN workers, etc. to meet the people who had been recently liberated from being hostages of the LTTE.

They have listened to the sufferings undergone by these people from their own ears. They have met thousands of parents whose children had been forcibly conscripted by the terror outfit. They have seen thousands of others who had been maimed by the same terrorists they want to save from the approaching military defeat.

If they have any knowledge about the short history of this conflict they should be able to understand that the terror outfit we have been fighting with, seriously lacks scope to engage in any meaningful negotiation process. Ironically, we hear the same story, “genocide against Tamils”, and warnings for “both parties”, “ceasefire”, etc. This barefaced denial of reality does not deserve any other description than hypocrisy of the first degree.

Anyone who visit those collection centres for aid for Northern IDPs could witness how the people in the South have joined hands to help their brethren in destitute. This response of our people is not stage-managed or something unusual. It is something they have inherited from the 2500-year-old history and rich culture; a history of getting together and helping each other when in need.

What we seek is empathy, not sympathy, from all discernible people in the world over. We want them to understand the way we feel about being forced to live with the most brutal form of terrorism for nearly three decades. We want them to understand the frustration that we are in, for being so unfairly labelled as a racist nation, and as a group of barbarians who enjoy killing each other. Finally, we want them to fathom, the extent of despair we have about the behaviour of the so-called Western human rights champions.

The general idea among the common people in Sri Lanka, whose voice is rarely heard in the Western media, is that the whole international opinion about Sri Lanka is based on one big lie created by those so-called independent media and other opinion makers.Has anyone experienced similar responses in other country’s that are engaged in internal conflicts or global wars of terror? Do they represent a nation that is plagued with racial or religious hatred?

What all peace-loving Sri Lankans we request from the Western world is to help us finish the job we have started and bring peace to our nation. If Sri Lanka loses this time, the whole world will be lost.....by the encouragement given to terror. Moreover, her fate would go into the annals of world history.

Courtesy: www.defence.lk