President’s focus on deceit and duplicity against Sri Lanka
 The
Rotary Conference in Colombo last Sunday saw what must have been the
largest gathering of business persons from South Asia, and other parts
of the world too, learn of the new situation in Sri Lanka, in
post-conflict development, as a place of peace, an increasingly
attractive location for investment, and a country that can teach others
on how terrorism can be defeated.
‘The Express Tribune’ of Pakistan quoted key speakers at the
conference on ‘Development and Cooperation’ who spoke of the lessons
that could be learnt from Sri Lanka today, with Kalyan Banerjee, and
Indian who is the current head of Rotary International stating that
“South Asia is looking again at the Sri Lankan model... (that) continues
to lead the way for the rest of us to follow.”
Another key speaker was reported stating: “There is much to learn for
Pakistan and not just in terms of human indicators. For one, President
Mahinda Rajapaksa says that the war against terrorism was won by his
government without the backing of world powers and without the billions
that have been poured into the effort in other countries”
‘The Express Tribune’ also reported the observations that: “It is
clear that the security forces in Sri Lanka are better trained and
equipped than Pakistan - an irony given that it was Pakistan that first
trained and helped them. After 20 years of conflict, what we see is a
force that had defeated one of the most efficient terrorist outfits in
the world and brought peace to the land”.
Humanitarian law
The major Rotarian event in Colombo was also the venue when President
Mahinda Rajapaksa come out most strongly not only about the pride of Sri
Lanka in having defeated the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world
(vide US State Department analysis) and as a country that had also made
South Asia safer from terrorism.
After a considerable period of facing continued attacks on Sri Lanka
from a range of sources that took no trouble to consider the depth of
the crisis and tragedy that Sri Lanka had gone through under nearly
three decades of terror, President Rajapaksa made his strongest
criticism of these voices of ranged against Sri Lanka from governments
and institutions that had little time or regard for the truth about this
country.
In the context of those who are carrying out this well orchestrated
attack on Sri Lanka, with the decibels rising as important international
meetings of UN and other related organizations are due to take place,
and the litany of unproven allegations of war crimes and violations of
humanitarian law heard louder, the President made what can be considered
the strongest criticism of the ‘deceit and duplicity’ of these accusers.
Arab Spring
In a statement that had considerable weight and pulled no punches at
the accusers he said: “We now stand proud as a nation that has
eradicated terrorism from our country. In doing so, we have made South
Asia too, safer from terrorism. We have achieved this with much less of
the assets, and none of the deceit and duplicity of those who have been
waging a War on Terror for more than a decade; those with much more
economic and fire power than we had and many more allies than we ever
had, but are still caught up in the killing fields made by un-manned
drones and other lethal devices that attack civilians, too. “It is
regretted that the very individuals and institutions that point their
fingers at us for our defeat of terror seem to be unaware of the truth
about our prolonged battle against terrorism, and the very nature of
those terrorists.” The targets that President Rajapaksa had in mind in
making this studied response to the organized chorus of accusers are not
difficult to identify.
The President went further and drew attention to how these very
accusers, who today are in the forefront of supporting the Arab Spring
that is thawing the winter of four decades when they all supported
autocrats and dictators and still support ruthless monarchs, had been in
fact supportive of the terrorists that threatened the very existence of
the Sri Lankan State.
His words were clear and the message left no room for doubt or
confusion. “We are now being warned that the same terrorist groups are
rapidly raising funds for their bloody cause. Many of those who fault us
today are harbouring those who funded terror in our country, and still
raise funds for this brutal cause.
“They were also glad to give safe haven to the very theoreticians of
terror in Sri Lanka. Have they no concern for the truth about Sri
Lanka’s agony and the humanitarian actions that under-scored our battle
against terror? Have they no interest in the truth?”
These observations on deceit and duplicity have greater relevance
today as we see the revelations each day of how these countries and
their intelligence organizations have been carrying on what was
obviously a very cozy relationship with the leaders and brutal
intelligence organizations of the countries that are now coming under
the sweep of the Arab Spring. The countries still calling for the
extradition of the Lockerbie Bomber were quite happy to have the closest
intelligence sharing with Libya, before and after the release of the
‘bomber’.
Terrorism suspects
David Cameron is now having a very hard time trying to explain the
relations that the British Intelligence organizations MI5 and MI6 had
with Libyan Intelligence and what they really did in collusion. There
are also important questions coming up, that may require much more than
a committee to advise the UN Secretary General on the entire question of
‘extraordinary renditions’ of alleged terrorism suspects, to countries
that are known to have systemic torture in interrogations, under the
rule of the authoritarian or dictatorial leaders that were well funded
and supported by the West, and are now falling down too fast for the
comfort of the West and its duplicitous leaders.
The latest ugly stain that the UK has difficulty in wiping off is the
damaging blow to the British Army’s carefully cultivated image,
following a high-level public inquiry finding the conduct of its
soldiers who served in Iraq ‘appalling’ and said ‘corporate failure’
allowed them to use banned interrogation techniques, often bordering on
torture.
These observations were on the death of an Iraqi hotel receptionist
Baha Mousa, while in British Army custody in Basra in 2003, following
confirmed allegations of beatings and torture he suffered at the hands
of British soldiers.
The inquiry on a limited scope of this single killing concluded that
his treatment which included hooding, brutal beatings and kickings
contributed to his death.
Iraqi detainees
Although the inquiry did not make any charges against the British
Army for this brutality, there are increasing demands for a much wider
public inquiry into the entire treatment of Iraqi detainees by British
troops during their period of operation in Iraq. One would expect
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch et al to add their voices
to such demands, even with half the vigour they show in making often
unfounded allegations against Sri Lanka, and pass judgment on the
situation here based on biased hearsay evidence.
What President Rajapaksa did last Sunday was to tell the world,
through a non-political audience of entrepreneurs and business leaders
not only that Sri Lanka was fully open to business, but that there was
much more to be told of the truth behind our defeat of terrorism, and
the deceit, duplicity and overall hypocrisy of those who are at the
ready to point their fingers of accusation at Colombo, with the least
regard for the truth.
One hopes there are more such forceful and compelling statements from
the President that can give new strength to the diplomatic initiatives
and responses that Sri Lanka is carrying out in many fronts worldwide
today. |
