Opinion:

Cameron eats his own words

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

It seems that the British Prime Minister is now eating his own words after unilaterally setting deadlines upon Sri Lanka on the alleged war crimes. Having told Sri Lanka that he would give time until March next year, for Sri Lanka to hold its own investigation on alleged human rights violations, Cameron finally had to admit the peaceful situation in Sri Lanka when he had to face barrage of questions in the British Parliament on his return to London.

The scene outside a clothing shop after a parcel bomb placed by Tiger terrorists exploded. Pic: Sudath Nishantha (File photo)

Two youth transporting coconut husks to a coir factory in the North.

Having made many negative comments on Sri Lanka during his stay here, Cameron finally had to admit the peaceful environment that prevails here and that the country has so much of potential and grown. When his Opposition legislature questioned whether Britain would entertain asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, Cameron played a different melody, saying that Sri Lanka is safe and has a peaceful atmosphere after the eradication of terrorism.

War crimes

It was the British who invaded Sri Lanka and brutally killed thousands of Sinhalese in 1818. Before asking Sri Lanka to have an investigation on alleged human rights violations of the LTTE terrorists killed in action, Britain must have a credible investigation on the war crimes they have committed here and acts against mankind when invading a sovereign nation such as Sri Lanka.

It won't be a surprise if somebody says that Sri Lanka should give time to British Prime Minister until March 2014 to have a credible investigation on the war crimes committed by British Forces in 1818 and that Sri Lanka must take it up at the next UNHRC sessions in Geneva.

If Cameron argues that those are a thing of the past, then we have enough and more examples on human rights violations by the British Forces in recent times. Hence, Britain must clear the loads of rubbish in their own backyards before pointing an accusing finger on Sri Lanka.

IRA

Soldiers from an undercover unit of the British Army in Northern Ireland killed scores of unarmed civilians. Speaking publicly for the first time, the ex-members of the Military Reaction Force (MRF), which was disbanded in 1973, have said they had been tasked with 'hunting down' IRA members in Belfast.

The details emerged a day after Northern Ireland's Attorney General, John Larkin, suggested ending any prosecutions over troubles-related killings that took place before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The former members of the Military Reaction Force have said that their group consisted of about 40 men handpicked from across the British Army.

Three former members of the unit have said they had posed as Belfast City Council road sweepers, dustmen and even "meths drinkers", carrying out surveillance from street gutters. One of the soldiers said they had also fired on suspected IRA members.

Another former member of the unit has said that they never wore uniforms and few people knew what rank anyone was anyway. In 1972 there had been more than 10,600 shootings in Northern Ireland.

The former members have said that it is not possible to say how many killings the unit was involved in. The MRF's operational records have been destroyed and its former members refused to incriminate themselves or their comrades in specific incidents. But they have admitted shooting and killing unarmed civilians.

Genocidal magnitude

Cameron's accusations contradicts the UK's conduct in recent times as a US ally in the NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan which had left thousands of hapless civilians innocent victims of war. These accusations on Sri Lanka comes from the man both covering up the genesis of massacres of genocidal magnitude - and who enjoined in the near destruction of Libya, the resultant lynching of the country's leader, the murder of his sons and small grand children and uncounted others in another decimation of a country who had threatened no other, an article published in the Global Research stated. Cameron's Libya, is Blair's Iraq. As Iraq, the dying continues daily.

The pontification also from a Prime Minister backing funding for the cannibalistic orientated insurgents in Syria, the beheading, dismembering, looting, displacing, kidnapping, chemical weapons lobbying, child killing, infanticide-bent crazies, including those from his own country.

During his short say in Sri Lanka Cameron demanded the country ensure "credible, transparent and independent investigations into alleged war crimes" and said if this did not happen by the March next year - the deadline he arbitrarily imposed, he would press the UN Human Rights Council to hold an international inquiry. Further: "truth telling", he said, was essential. To cite hypocrisy of breathtaking proportions has become a redundant accusation, but words are failing.

Set an example

As President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the final news conference during CHOGM 2013, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. If Cameron is honestly concerned about human rights, he must first and foremost set an example by ordering credible investigations against ethnic cleansing by the British Forces in Sri Lanka two centuries ago and then the acts against the mankind by the British Forces.

It is a pity that Cameron has ignored the fact that Sri Lanka is the only country in South Asia rated high on the Human Development Index. The UK and allies recent victims, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan barely make it to the bottom.

Cameron flew back to London, grappling with how to evade delivering truth to the Chilcot Inquiry. It was none other than the British taxpayers who funded the Chilcot Inquiry, and they would wants their money's worth.

British Prime Minister Cameron was pontificating Sri Lanka on transparency when his Government is yet to prove it.

Ironically on 31st October 2006, David Cameron voted in favour of a motion brought by the Scottish National Party and Wales' Plaid Cymru ("The Party of Wales") calling for an Inquiry into the Blair government's conduct of the Gulf war. On June 15, 2009, in a parliamentary debate, the terms of the Chilcot Inquiry were presented in detail, duly recorded in Hansard, the parliamentary records.

Inquiry

This is what the then Leader of Opposition Cameron said; "The whole point of having an Inquiry is that it has to be able to make clear recommendations, to go wherever the evidence leads, to establish the full truth and to ensure that the right lessons are learned... in a way that builds public confidence"

"The inquiry needs to be, and needs to be seen to be, truly independent and not an establishment stitch-up... The Prime Minister was very clear that the inquiry would have access to all British documents and all British witnesses. Does that mean that the inquiry may not have access to documents from the USA ... On the scope of the inquiry, will the Prime Minister confirm that it will cover relations with the United States," Cameron had said by concluding his speech, demand for openness and transparency once again.

Though the West makes a big hue and cry over media freedom, Cameron conducted his GHOGM press conference in his own style. A few top row seats were kept 'reserved' after those who had sat in those seats were chased away.

When Cameron walked into the press conference head table, his favourite media personalities too walked along with him and occupied in those front row seats that were kept reserved for them.

The cat came out of the bag when Cameron opened the floor for questions - but from only his selected media personalities. He insisted that they could start from Sky News. Only one local media personality was able to ask questions. Hard critics of British policy in the local media were prevented from asking questions from Cameron. Is this the media freedom the West is practicing?

Unforgettable lesson

Full credit should go to legendary cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan for the manner in which he opened the eyes of Cameron.

After a short tour of the North and meeting only a few LTTE sympathisers who posed as ordinary Tamil citizens, Cameron had returned to Colombo with a negative picture.

But in his meeting with Cameron at CCC grounds last Saturday, Murali taught the British premier an unforgettable lesson.

Murali enlightened the British Prime Minister and said that the North has improved and developed by more than 1,000 percent. Though he looked shocked at once, Cameron himself had later admitted that Murali was right.

Murali had another doosra at the controversial Channel 4 who is notorious for doctored video clippings. When Channel 4 tried and failed to use Murali and get critical comments from the celebrated cricketer, the notorious Macrae and his team cut short the 45-minute television interview they had with the world record holder to less than four minutes.

Muralitharan later said today that Channel 4 had lost its credibility in his eyes due to airing an edited clip of an interview which distorted the context he spoke in.

"It was unethical for them to edit three minutes of a 45 minute interview and air it. Channel 4 lost all credibility in my eyes," Murali was quoted as saying. When questioned as to if the journalists assured him of airing the entire interview prior to agreeing on the interview, he replied in the affirmative.

There is no doubt that Cameron had overstepped his limits and Commonwealth protocol in intimidating the host nation. He has no right whatsoever to act in such undiplomatic manner and set headlines to Sri Lanka.