What accountability in justice for bin Laden?

The resonance of the Osama bin Laden killing by US Navy Seals continues with increasing embarrassments for the Obama administration in the contradictory reports of the operation to eliminate bin Laden.

Interestingly, this killing of the 'World's most wanted terrorist' has come when several moves were under way to hold Sri Lanka 'accountable' to the world or a powerful part of it, for the eradication of the most wanted terrorist leader here, together with the terror outfit that he had established and many in the West had funded, or otherwise assisted, either directly or through organizations that peddled the call for peace or policy alternatives over here.

Among the many observations about the bin Laden killing what struck me most was Dayan Jayatilleke's statement that: 'We in Sri Lanka had a 9/11 every year from the attack on Anuradhapura in 1985. Osama bin Laden did far less damage to the USA that Prabhakaran did to Sri Lanka' (Daily Mirror - May 5) The impact of the Twin Towers attack on 9/11 was certainly more shocking as a single incident, for the numbers it killed, and also to the instant and live publicity it received worldwide due to the advances in electronic media.

But the fact remains that Sri Lanka lost many more civilians in the terror unleashed by Velupillai Prabhakaran, than that single highly publicized and sophisticated act or terror of 9/11, for which Obama says that justice has been done by American people in the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Western media

This act of 'justice' claimed by Obama, and echoed through the world with a fillip given by the mainly Western media, has helped to refocus attention on the Ban ki-Moon directed controversial Darusman Report, on what happened in Sri Lanka, in the final phase of our authorities seeking to do justice by the Sri Lankan people, for 50,000 or more civilians killed in the prolonged scourge of terror by Prabhakaran and the LTTE.

Thankfully, the Sri Lankan head of State and Commander-in-Chief was not in any Ops or Briefing room watching the real time action of the killing of Prabhakaran, the most wanted terrorist here, as Barak Obama did as he watched what is now revealed as the killing of an unarmed terrorist leader.

And the human shield that protected Prabhakaran and the LTTE in that final phase of elimination comprised thousands of men, women and children and not a singe woman, who was his bin Laden's wife, that reportedly resisted the attack on him and was shot and injured in the leg, before his unarmed resistance, was killed with two shots above his eye.

One is not certain whether Ban ki-Moon, in his current term or in a possible or most likely second term as UN Secretary General, will be looking for 'experts' to form a panel to inquire, investigate or merely advice him, on the aspects of 'accountability' of the Obama administration in its final phase of the extended military activities to capture Osama bin Laden, and its culmination with Operation Geronimo last Sunday. Who will raise the call for an international probe into this near decade long operation, and will they be satisfied if such a probe is done by all the US allies in its 'War on Terror' that has caused so much tragedy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Search for justice

Will such a probe, if ever held, extend to the hoax of the Weapons of Mass Destruction, through which President George W Bush and his Secretary of Defence Collin Powell, ably supported by Tony Blair, misled the United Nations, in launching the regime change operation in Iraq that had no real UN mandate? And, will those within Sri Lanka and outside, who call for an 'independent' probe, apparently strengthened by Darusman & Co., on what took place in Sri Lanka's search for justice by its own people, and those of India, ask us to follow the example of Gordon Brown in the UK, who appointed the Chilcott Committee to probe the UK's entry into the war in Iraq and how it was carried out.

It is necessary to underscore here that the Chilcott Committee, of which much has been made of, has nothing international about it, being wholly made up of UK citizens, while the operation they are allegedly probing took place in a foreign country, and involved the killing of thousands of Iraqis, both unarmed civilians and those who offered resistance, and was done in concert with a coalition of many nations.

In contrast, the operation in Sri Lanka, from beginning to end, except for the short period of the IPKF presence, was an entirely Sri Lankan affair, certainly supported with intelligence, arms and other assistance from several friendly nations, and also purchased from abroad.

As for transparency of the Final Phase exercise, it will be interesting to see how many voices will be raised insisting that Obama and the CIA release photographs of the assassinated Osama bin Laden, however shocking and sensitive they may be.

Ground Zero in New York

Nobel Laureate Barack Obama, who did not consider it necessary or important to visit Ground Zero in New York since assuming office as President of the USA, suddenly saw it the proper time to do so, after the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Whether he saw this as an important move in his bid for re-election to a second term or as a genuine show of support for the families of the victims of 9/11, is a matter that will be the cause of much study and comment by American political analysts. However, it is important to take note of Obama's comments when meeting the families of 9/11 victims of how 'America will never forget.'

It is good for a nation never to forget its victims of terror. If this is the pride of the US President, it is also necessary to note that other nations too have a right not to forget their own victims of terror, especially when they were much larger in number, and spread out over a much longer period, as it happened in Sri Lanka.

This is hardly a matter about which those who remember fellow nationals felled down by the brutal forces of terror should be made accountable or answerable to anybody. The White House, Pentagon, CIA, State Department and all others associated with the killing of Osama bin Laden will have to face much grilling and change their versions of how their most wanted terrorist was killed, in the weeks and months to come.

They will also have to face the reality of the terrorism that has been spread through many parts of the world by the ideology of al Qaeda over the past two decades, although the founder of the organization, who once worked for the CIA, has been killed.

The reality is that through the killing of bin Laden, the USA and Barack Obama have not made the world any safer a place, except for the personal joy of having done justice by a terrorist leader of great influence.

The conditions that spawned the forces of terror, especially in the Middle East and other Arab territories, which are the consequences of Western colonialism, the effects of the Cold War and all such aspects of the balance of power in the world, remain to be dealt with.

Human shield

What's necessary is not only the satisfaction of 'Justice' for a Nobel Laureate who takes delight in watching an unarmed terrorist being killed in cold blood, but also the ability to establish a world where peace prevails, without the disastrous influences of Western powers that seek to protect their economic and strategic interests; as we see the uprisings in the Arab Streets today.

This is after more than four decades of the USA and its allies against terror, supporting ruthless authoritarian rulers, whether wearing crowns on their heads (crowns that largely came through colonialism) or claiming questionable mantles of elected presidency or any other form of brutal national leadership.

The world will need much more than a US President basking in the glory of justice carried out, having humiliated the native Americans by using of the name of that great Apache leader, Geronimo, for its operation against Osama bin Laden; or, the assurance that America does not forget its victims of terror, to bring genuine peace to the world. Sri Lankans can well understand the joy of Americans on hearing of the news of Osama bin Laden being killed. Their dancing on the streets and all other expressions of joy is part of the great relief they felt at the death of that singular image of terror unleashed on their land and people on 9/11.

This is no different to the joy that Sri Lankans felt at the announcement of the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran, and the freeing of over 300,000 people, mainly Tamils, from the grip of LTTE terror, many of whom were actual human shields, unlike the single woman shield of Osama bin Laden.