Opinion:

TNA follows bidding of LTTE cohorts

by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga

War crimes, human rights violations, media freedom and public protests are attractive headlines that surface from time to time, each time before an international fora or sessions of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Those are the periods even Callum Macrae and his men, who produced the notorious No Fire Zone to discredit Sri Lanka on controversial British television Channel 4, work overtime to discredit Sri Lanka.

The rebuilt library of Vayavilan MMV, in Jaffna.

The Elephant Pass railway station being rebuilt.

With Sri Lanka gearing to host the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November and the upcoming UNHRC sessions in Geneva, international nosy parkers are back in their business of discrediting Sri Lanka.

The LTTE cohorts and certain quarters in the West made every effort to tarnish Sri Lanka’s image and force the Commonwealth to move the 2013 CHOGM out of Sri Lanka. But when all those sinister moves became unsuccessful, they have now resorted to a different tactic.

Macrae initially attempted to make a huge issue on media accreditation for the the 2013 CHOGM. Macrae and his men prayed for a situation that Sri Lanka would prevent them from coming here. Their target was to see them being denied of media accreditation for the 2013 CHOGM so that they could make a huge issue out of it.

Credibility

When the Government announced that all international journalists who had followed proper media accreditation application would be granted access, Macrae’s plan went for a six. He must now be ‘cooking a fresh story’ and it won’t be a surprise if Macrae and his disgraceful Channel 4 release another film on the eve of the 2013 CHOGM summit in Colombo.

Even then, they will face an issue on credibility as most people in the international community are now acutely aware how Macrae and his goons have come out with concocted stories to mislead the West. LTTE cohorts and a section of the Tamil Disapora have spent a colossal amount of money to produce such films through their agents in international media.

Channel-4 has made serious mistakes by misinterpreting what the witnesses have said in Tamil, to suit the Channel-4 agenda. The 'Killing Fields' documentary, the civilians who spoke in Tamil at no stage stated that the attacks were carried out specifically by Sri Lanka’s Security Forces, rather they always mentioned that “they attacked”, leaving it ambiguous.

Anyone with a sound knowledge of the Tamil language would identify the serious mistakes and misinterpretations and manipulations done to suit the Channel-4 agenda. As the civilians’ statements constitute important evidence in any conflict, tampering them to give a completely false view, is a matter of serious concern.

Ruthless

The LTTE was not an ordinary group of terrorists, but was one in which all its cadres mandatorily carried cyanide capsules to kill themselves if captured by the Army. It was also a ruthless terrorist group which never hesitated to use even disabled and pregnant women as suicide bombers to achieve its objectives.

Irrespective of Sri Lanka’s categorical rejection of the Channel-4 footage and its authenticity, Sri Lanka nevertheless, is in the process of investigating the allegations. In this context, Sri Lanka’s request to Channel-4 to provide original materials available with them to help the investigation process rather than pleading for Pounds through projects such as the ‘Kick-starter’, to go on a globe-trotting venture with the film.

The damage and injustice to the ordinary Sri Lankan people by the controversial film was immense. These people had been yearning for nothing but peace, dignity and normalcy in life. If the supporters of this venture believe that by cooking up stories like the 'No Fire Zone' can bring them peace and dignity, it is nothing but a grave mistake.

But time is now opportune to make a careful study of countries and people who often pontificate to us on human rights.

These countries in the West should not be allowed anymore to shout from the rooftops on human rights in Sri Lanka when they have loads of rubbish in their backyards.

Canada depicts itself a ‘Paragon of Virtue’, acts as the model of excellence on democracy, good governance, rule of law and human rights giving advice and counseling to nations such as Sri Lanka.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that he will not be attending the 2013 CHOGM, alleging that the country’s human rights record is not impressive. Despite the ‘counseling’ position Canada has thrust upon itself to pontificate Sri Lanka, Canada has given the country’s spy agency - Canadian Security Information Service - permission to use information extracted from suspects through torture, despite claims that it would never use such data, according to a Press TV report.

Torture

It has now come to light how Canada’s intelligence services, including the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), recently got an annual budget of about 400 million dollars to use and share information extracted through the use of torture, despite the Canadian government’s claim that it does not condone such acts. Human rights activists condemned the move, arguing that Canada is propagating the use of torture. Secretary General of Amnesty International, Canada, Robert Alexander has said that whenever information obtained under torture is used by other people, whoever that may be - a police officer, a government agency, a journalist, anyone , “then all that it does is encourage the torturers to continue to torture. It’s essentially creating a market”.

In a directive, issued in December 2010, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was given permission to employ such information in cases where it claimed ‘public safety is at stake’.

The move is part of a broader, so-called Five Eyes intelligent sharing network involving the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

It was reported that the Canadian government has quietly given Canada’s national police force and the federal border agency the authority to use and share information that was likely extracted through torture. Newly disclosed records show Public Safety Minister Vic Toews issued the directives to the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency shortly after giving similar orders to Canada’s spy service. The government directives state that protection of life and property are the chief considerations when deciding on the use of information that may have been derived from torture.

Blind eye

It was also exposed how USA’s influential cabinet member, former US Secretary of State and United States ambassador to the United Nations - 1993 to 2000 - during Bill Clinton presidency, Madeleine K. Albright turned a blind eye and ignored the open genocide and carnage in Rwanda in 1994. She subsequently side stepped taking ‘global action’ against the Rwandan perpetrators led by their current president Paul Kagame. Albright was the US Secretary of State during the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.

In a report released recently in Washington, authored by her, the United States And R2P: From Word To Action - Commissioned by the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the US. Institute of Peace and the Brookings Institution, Albright had the audacity and nakedness to use the ‘interpretations’, ‘fabrications’, and ‘diabolical falsehood’ provided by the separatist-elements of the Tamil Diaspora in labeling Sri Lanka as a ‘genocidal state’, a term the activists within the Tamil Diaspora continually use to depict this South Asian nation before the international community.

Madeleine Albright is the last person who could brand Sri Lanka of ‘genocidal actions’ during the country’s relentless battle against terrorism. Clinton’s ambassador to the UN (from, 1993-1997) got the US administration to ignore the open genocide in Rwanda and failed as the American envoy to the world body to initiate action to stop the killings witnessed by the entire world. She further failed to take steps as the US secretary of state (1997-2000) in the Clinton administration to get Paul Kagame who grabbed political power through the genocide to face consequences but let him run the country.

Humanitarian operation

The same Albright, in the July 22 report, made a disgraceful attempt to paint a gloomy picture on Sri Lanka, alleging as a genocide state. She seems to have conveniently forgotten the fact that it was a merely a humanitarian operation that Sri Lanka’s Security Forces had carried out to liberate over half a million people from the jaws of death and secure the lives of over 21 million Sri Lankans. Where were these officials when Sri Lanka was at the receiving end with Prabhakaran and his goons were playing with the lives of an entire nation?

The genocide in Ruwanda was based on two ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. The population in the year 1994 was approximately seven million people of which 85% was Hutu, 14% Tutsi, and 1% was Twa. The Hutus feared the minority and the Tutsi rule because of the population increase and social, political and economic pressures.

Estimated reports said that over 800,000, or 75 percent of the Tutsi population in Rwanda, were killed in the genocide. Anyone suspected of being a Tutsi was killed while fleeing the roadblocks and leaving the country. Hutus opposing the genocide were also killed, being proclaimed traitors. The Hutu extremists, called the Interahamwe were successful in their genocide.

Paul Kagame, the leader of the Rwanda Patriotic Front, that invaded the country with the support of Uganda, became the president of Rwanda. But all those who now come out with concocted stories and weep buckets of crocodile tears were fast asleep then.

Human shield

Sri Lanka waged a battle against terrorism, that too against the world’s most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world. The Government was duty bound to protect its people and the Security Forces merely exercised their right to protect people against a group of terrorists who had been forcibly holding over half a million hapless civilians as a human shield.

Countries such as the US have done everything under the sun in the guise of national security. As a sovereign state, Sri Lanka too should enjoy the same inalienable right. The West should not forget the fact that Sri Lanka has merely exercised its right to defend. Be it the US, Sri Lanka or any other sovereign nation, they should enjoy the same right when it comes to the national security and territorial integrity. The West should no longer get carried away by various ploys adopted by the LTTE cohorts to woo international sympathy. People in the North and the East, who have begun a new lease of life after being rescued by the Security Forces four to five years ago, will provide enough and more proof on the legitimacy of the humanitarian operation.

Democratic right

People in the North have now got a chance to elect representatives of their choice to run the provincial administration. President Mahinda Rajapaksa requested people in North to seize the opportunity and elect their own representatives in the upcoming Provincial Councils election without fear or intimidation.

Prabhakaran undermined the power of the ballot through the bullet and the people in the North had been deprived of their democratic right. It was President Rajapaksa who have give people in the North their democratic right again.

President Rajapaksa told the monthly breakfast meeting with media heads that people in the North who were deprived of their democratic right by the terrorists for more than three decades have already exercised their franchise at Presidential, General and Pradeshiya Sabha elections. Participating in a democratic process is a clear indication of new freedom they are currently enjoying.

It is the duty of the people in the North not to fall prey for the Minister moves of the TNA, which had shown a blind eye when the people in the province had been subjected to LTTE terror.

The Tiger-proxy party has not done anything for their own people. Hence, Sampanthan and his men do not have any moral right to beg for votes of the people in the North. Sampanthan has only danced to the melody of the LTTE and the Tiger sympathisers in the West. Neither Sampanthan nor his TNA leaders read the pulse of the people in the North.

They only understand the whims and fancies of the LTTE cohorts and a section of the Tamil Diaspora which funds them. That is far from the aspirations of Tamils in the North. Could a Colombo 7 resident such as Vigneshwaran ever feel the pulse of the oridinary Tamils in the North who had undergone untold hardship due to LTTE’s three decades of terror?