Changing Western preceptions of the terrorist

Bin Laden may have little interest in Sri Lanka but yet his actions have impacted on Sri Lanka’s position often and that too, quite favourably. When little Sri Lanka was waging a lone battle against the most deadly terror organization and while the Western ‘international community’ was prodding the government of Sri Lanka on the self emulating path to be more and more accommodative to the terrorist, bin Laden (as popularly believed) crashed in to the twin towers in America and brought the harsh realities of terror to the doorstep in the USA. And in London some Muslims, believed to be members of Al Qaeda bombed an underground rail station in London killing 41 passengers.

Those two events caused a change of perception in Western countries on global terrorism making them recognize the indiscriminate and the sheer inhuman nature of terrorism. Thus the much hyped war against global terror saw the light of day and under that new world outlook Sri Lanka’s fight against terror appeared somewhat justified. Further the West could not take extreme action against Al Qaeda terror without a similar treatment to the LTTE which the US intelligence said is the most ‘ruthless and organized’.

Sri Lankan issue

But when Rajapaksa with ‘Non Aligned’ credentials overcame the more West aligned Ranil and Chandrika to power in Sri Lanka the Western perception of the Sri Lankan issue again changed with the likes of Hillary Clinton advocating the ‘inappropriateness of painting all terrorists with the same brush’ insinuating that there were ‘good terrorists’ and ‘bad terrorists’. ‘Tamils for Clinton’ and ‘Tamils for Obama’ cashed on the unpopularity of the Bush administration and the fall of Republicans certainly made things worse for Sri Lanka. Now Sri Lanka, even though by then has survived a diplomatic offensive by the West to castigate its victory over terrorism in to a ‘crime against humanity’ still faced insidious attempts by this ‘international community’ to malign its image. Thus the UN Secretary General, for the first time in the history of that office, has appointed a commission to ‘advise him on the last stages of the Sri Lankan conflict’.

This ironically, was not to ascertain how Sri Lanka, the UN member, overcame terror but rather to study why the LTTE, with its global propaganda network and with its protective ‘human shield’, could not keep the Sri Lankan government at bay.

High security zone

It is in this internationally cloudy situation that Osama bin Laden, or the circumstances of his recent death, threatens to come to Sri Lanka’s rescue again. Assassination of Osama bin Laden by a US drone attack within a high security zone in Pakistan has created a diplomatic as well as a political row between US and Pakistan. The simmering issues and the difficulties in separating Islamic fundamentalists from what US may call ‘terrorist’ has always been at the core of US assistance to the Pakistani government in its efforts to rid the country of terror activities. May be that the Pakistani government had been keen in having peace in the country but with the continuing US operations, there were political dimensions in the country that the government could ill afford to ignore. The recent incident where the US withdrew one of its diplomatic attaches from Pakistan after having shot two Pakistanis point blank, enraged the average Pakistani and now this unwarranted intrusion into Pakistan’s high security zone even embarrassed the Pakistani government.

US funds

On the other hand from the US point of view the realization that the worst national enemy that US had been ransacking for years is being ensconced within the security of its foremost ally in that very operation would be embarrassing and annoying. The reality is, what portion of US funds that was doled out Pakistan to ‘hunt for Osama’ did go to fortify Osama’s own security? The more important question now for the US is, in such a milieu could the US place its trust in Pakistan and its government’s ability to protect US interests in the region.

India is not likely to accommodate an alternative US base within its soil and Bangladesh, being a Muslim country, is likely to have the same issues Pakistan had in affording a place for US interest. It is in this light that Sri Lanka stand to be viewed from a more favourable US perspective.

The recent anti terror events in Sri Lanka and the present government’s popularity in their aftermath would all but convince the US that either looking for a base in a possible Tamil Eelam or engineering a regime change in Sri Lanka appears a distant dream. Even though the US may be averse to Rajapaksa’s avowed non-alignment, pushing Rajapaksa too much to the Chinese orbit would again be detrimental to US interest. US foreign policy, viewed from its customary tinted glasses, always see the world in a by-polar power struggle. Thus it would be more practical for US now for its interest in South Asia to kiss the hand that cannot be chopped off than to wait for Godot.

International community

This change in attitude is evident in the tone of the recent meeting the US Under Secretary for South Asian affairs, Robert O’Blake had with the Sri Lankan External Minister Gamini Peiris and the resultant press release called for a ‘more permanent and lasting relationship’ between the US and Sri Lanka.

In such a scenario of changing international political interests the rest of the West, the ‘international community’ will have little choice but to fall in line with the US interest. UK, though is the home for the ‘Tamil economic diaspora’ with a strong Tamil vote base, is but an empire where the sun has finally set.

Therefore Ban ki Moon may now find his much hyped report against the Sri Lankan armed forces ‘in the last stages of the conflict’ not all that useful. After all it was a report that was commissioned to ‘advise him personally’ and he could always maintain that he is ‘now satisfactorily advised and that is it’.

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