Double standards in the global war on terror
 

BY KALINGA Seneviratne

SINCE the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse last November, the West's double standards in the global fight against terrorism have been exposed.

Immediately following the narrow poll victory of Rajapakse on Nov. 17, the Western media dubbed him a "hardline" nationalist. When he picked another nationalist politician, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, as the prime minister, one headline read: "Hardline Sri Lankan president to swear in a hawkish prime minister".

Such terms have also been used by the LTTE and non-Governmental Organisations such as the Norwegian-funded National Peace Council.

The Western media dubbed Rajapakse a "hardliner" because he refused to accept their Western ideas on peace and minority rights, and instead argued that there should first be a consensus among the majority sinhalese Buddhists on what constitutes a peace deal.

This needs to be taken into account when negotiating with the LTTE and other Tamil groups. Rajapakse's predecessor, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, tried to negotiate for peace by ignoring the views of the majority community, which triggered a backlash against both.

While Rajapakse beat the latter with only 50.3 per cent of the national vote last November, he won many Sinhala-Buddhist votes by a landslide - between 60 and 70 per cent.

He began building a Sinhalese consensus by meeting all political parties in the south, as well as various Tamil parties.

At this time, the LTTE began a campaign of violence in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

After three landmines exploded in the northern city of Jaffna, killing over 30 soldiers last month, it became clear that the ceasefire negotiated in 2002 between the government and the LTTE, with Norwegian mediation, had come undone.

After the blasts, the European Union condemned the attacks, warning of reprisal against the LTTE if they did not take up the government's invitation to talk peace.

Pressured by the government, three of the Colombo-based "peace" mediators - Norway, the European Union, Japan and the United States - went to the rebel-held territory of Killinochchi to meet with LTTE's public relations boss, Mr. Thamilchelvan.

Following the meeting, which was boycotted by the US envoy, the group conveyed LTTE's message that the landmine explosions were not the work of the LTTE, but that of the people of Jaffna, who were angered by army harassment.

The Colombo media ridiculed the envoys, saying that such sophisticated explosions could not have been executed by mere civilians, but by a well-trained terrorist group.

In a Dec. 27 statement, the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) warned that LTTE's latest campaign was aimed at provoking the armed forces to attack civilians so that they could build, a case, in the eyes of the global community, to go to war.

"Our monitoring of LTTE behaviour from the early 1980s... shows that the thrust of LTTE politics is never to defend the people or secure their welfare, but to work towards making them fodder for military gains and propaganda," they said.

After the assassination of the respected Tamil foreign minister, Mr. Laksman Kadirgamar, in August last year, the EU imposed a travel ban on LTTE members. The LTTE's response was a suicide bomb attack that killed at least 13 people.

In an interview with The Washington Times, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that his country needs action, not just statements condemning repeated LTTE atrocities.

"The US must realise they are not dealing with a liberation movement but a ruthless killing machine more dangerous than Al Qaeda," he said, adding, "tea and sympathy are no longer enough."

Thus, the people and the media in Sri Lanka are now questioning whether one is considered a terrorist only when one launches attacks in the West or kills Westerners.

When a terrorist group attacks non-Westerners, do they justify the term "liberation movement" and is the government that is trying to stop them, "hardline"?

(The writer is a Sri Lanka-born journalist, TV producer and media analyst currently based in Singapore. - TODAY).