The latest ‘horror drama’

One year has elapsed after Sri Lanka’s Security Forces crushed LTTE terrorism and became the first country to eradicate terrorism. During Sri Lanka’s relentless battle against terror, many international organisations and a few countries made desperate attempts to disrupt the operations of the Security Forces.

Some countries, which profess to be the Godfathers in the international battle against terror, made many an attempt to resurrect the LTTE when the world’s most ruthless terrorist organisation was on the verge of being vanquished.

Even when the Security Forces were about to trounce the LTTE leadership in the final battle at the Nandikadal lagoon, some countries, at the eleventh hour attempted to pump in the last drop of oxygen to the moribund terrorist organisation which had killed a countless number of innocent people and inflicted untold hardships on millions of people of all ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

Although these countries and organisations, including some INGOs, could not directly support a terror outfit which was violating all accepted norms and international conventions, they buttressed moral support for the LTTE and attempted to discredit the country’s Security Forces which rendered a magnanimous and invaluable service.

Certain countries and some international organisations shamefully used human rights as an effective tool to exert pressure on the Government, in an insidious attempt to bring about a premature end to the operations of the Security Forces.

Fortunately for us, we had the invincible political leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who did not yield to mounting pressure from all quarters, including a handful of local opportunistic Opposition politicians who attempted to gain petty political mileage.

Had it not been for the indomitable and determined effort of President Rajapaksa and unfailing support extended by Sri Lanka’s friendly countries, we would, perhaps, never have eliminated terrorism and liberated the country.

Ironically, the same extremist elements which had made numerous attempts to protect Tiger terrorists and disrupt Sri Lanka’s battle against terror, have again surfaced at a time the entire nation is celebrating the first anniversary of the country’s liberation from terrorism.

Controversial Louise Arbour, the then UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a high-ranking international official, was one whose conduct was questionable. The International Crisis Group (ICG), headed by Arbour, has now made the latest attempt to discredit Sri Lanka’s Security Forces.

As exclusively reported in our lead story last Sunday, the ICG has made an ignominious attempt to level war crimes charges against the Security Forces which liberated over half a million people who had been forcibly held by the LTTE terrorists as a human shield. Arbour’s move from the UN to the ICG has not changed her moral responsibility one wee bit.

The ICG report, released last Monday to coincide with the first anniversary of the LTTE’s defeat, not only puts the scale of civilian casualties far higher than previous UN estimates, but also declares that the ICG has “credible evidence” to suggest that the Security Forces shelled civilian targets and hospitals during the battle against terrorism.

This is, no doubt, a shameless and unethical attempt to distort the truth and fabricate stories to deny the credit of the Security Forces which had maintained a near zero civilian casualty rate at all times.

The ICG said that its report was based on eyewitness statements, photographs, video satellite images, electronic communications and documents from a “wide range of sources”. One has reason to wonder how the ICG had based its facts or was it influenced by the tampered video footings such as the infamous Channel 4 incident which championed concocted stories.

The ICG report could well be the first in the latest series of conspiracies that are likely to emerge in the international arena against Sri Lanka. The few remaining international leaders of the now defunct LTTE, along with a section of the Tamil diaspora and a handful of LTTE sympathisers are behind the latest conspiracy of which Arbour’s ICG, perhaps, is only a partner.

In these circumstances, the credibility of the ICG report is at stake as ICG personnel have made hostile expressions on Sri Lanka’s conduct of the conflict and the public perception is that their report will be unfairly hostile and cannot be relied upon.

In a subtle attempt to give credibility to itself, the ICG has faulted the extinct LTTE too, as part of a balancing act, knowing only too well that in the absence of personnel or an organisation, no action can be taken against the LTTE. It seems that the sole aim of the ICG report is to frame war crimes charges against the Government and its Security Forces.

To hound a democratically elected government, which has every right to defend its sovereignty and protect its people against the most ruthless terrorists in the world which had bled our nation for 30 years, with the support of certain countries in the West to restore the right to life to its subjects, to say the least, is certainly mind boggling.

Why is the ICG keen on holding an inquiry into the alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka? Are the backroom boys at the ICG playing the role of scripting the ghost report to discredit the Defence Forces of Sri Lanka? The prime objective of the report is to bring Sri Lanka into disrepute in the eyes of the international community. Unlike the non-existent LTTE, Sri Lanka is a nation State that can be subjected to international sanctions. Certain Western powers and its allied INGOs tried their best to concoct stories to discredit Sri Lanka in its effort to defeat terrorism.

It is patently clear that certain countries in the West and their shadow INGOs are staging their latest `horror drama’ against Sri Lanka. These extremist elements, who fought tooth and nail to protect the LTTE and failed, now need a busybody such as the ICG to unearth material to sully Sri Lanka’s reputation.

Why are these organisations conspiring only against Sri Lanka? Having woefully failed in their attempt for a regime change by using a traitor who was only too willing to favour war crimes’ allegations, they are now resorting to everything under the sun in an attempt to tame the leadership which had never been a Western puppet.