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Monday, 18 May 2009

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The great rescue mission

The last surge of civilians have now arrived, fleeing from their liberators turned captors, into the cleared areas, snowballing the figures to around 250,000 displaced.

These civilians were liberated by the security forces ending one of the longest and bloodiest hostage dramas in known memory.

TV footage showed these hapless people arriving in the Government controlled areas, a majority of them in various forms of degradation and mutilation, the result of LTTE firing at those fleeing. All civilians though in a state of anguish praised the Security Forces for rescuing them.

This episode speaks eloquently to the world as to who the true liberators are. But what one cannot fathom is why even at the last stages of the hostage drama were the Western Governments calling for a Ceasefire from the Government.

There had been strident calls by Britain, the US and the EU calling on the Government to go for a ceasefire to allow the civilians to go while leaving out the LTTE in the bargain. Wasn’t it evident to them that the initial rescue operation was carried out with no Ceasefire on the side of the LTTE. Isn’t this call for another ceasefire from the Government an attempt to revive a dying outfit to serve the ulterior motives of these Western powers.

Why aren’t the UN and the EU who showed so much concern for the civilians not even acknowledge the role of the Security Forces for freeing all these civilians without causing any harm? Had they not intervened would not these hapless people be condemned to a much worse suffering.

It looks as if the international community has lost it’s leverage on the Government now that all the civilians have come to the safety of the Government controlled areas. It is obvious that they had been using the civilians as an excuse to secure a Ceasefire and thereby allow some breathing space for the LTTE. The civilians it appears had never been in the forefront of their concerns.

If not how could one view the efforts being made by various parties to block the economic aid from coming to Sri Lanka? The other day US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Sri Lanka was not in a position to receive the IMF loan without putting a peace process in place.

While conceding that a peace process would have to be evolved some time soon for an ultimate solution to the problem is this such an overpowering need at this juncture at a time the Government’s compelling priority is dealing with the unfolding humanitarian problem?

Is not the West, whose hearts bleed for the plight of civilians, by trying to stall economic assistance to Sri Lanka in effect contributing placing these civilians into a worst plight now that they have sought freedom with the Government.

Isn’t it by giving all the necessary assistance that the welfare of the civilians could be assured. It is time the West stops it’s duplicity and help Sri Lanka address the problem the way she sees fit. The insistence by Britain to allow humanitarian agencies access into IDP camps too smacks of this duplicity.

Why in the first place did not it force the LTTE to let the civilians go? Why only now the urgency to attend to the civilians after the security forces had already liberated the civilians from the loosening grip of the terrorists.

The Government should be firm in resisting such pressures as it has done so far, lest these international do-gooders use the plight of the civilians to sow the seeds of hatred by the rest of the world towards Sri Lanka.

True, we need all the assistance we can get to ameliorate the conditions of the civilians, but this should not be at the cost of blighting the image of the country. We already saw how certain Western media had described IDP transit centres as concentration camps.

Sri Lanka can well do without such adverse publicity. Already there will be many good Samaritans swarming into the country with the assistance to civilians. The Government would do well to harken to famous saying “Don’t trust Greeks who bear gifts”.

Why LTTE failed

Sri Lanka’s Security Forces appear to have redeemed their professional reputation with their resounding success in the fourth edition of the Eelam War, which has been going on since 2006 against the LTTE, popularly known as the Tigers. They were not able to achieve decisive results against the LTTE in their three earlier outings.

Full Story

When Tigers are caged

The past few weeks have seen four major public demonstrations in Ontario by Tamil-Canadians demanding that the federal Government do something to stop what they describe as a genocide against their people by the Government in Sri Lanka.

Full Story

The bitter endgame

After 26 years of vicious civil war on Sri Lanka the Government has decided to do what it once sought to avoid: destroy the fanatical LTTE uprising in a relentless offensive. If the result is an ethnic and sectarian bloodbath, so be it. After all, ‘suicide attacks’ are a Tiger trademark.

Full Story

 

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