Setting the record straight

The much awaited Defence Ministry document cataloguing the events leading up to the liberation of the Tamil people from the clutches of the LTTE in one of the most poignant humanitarian acts is now in the public domain and for international consumption.

Hopefully as declared by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa this Defence Ministry account of elaborately detailing the final stages of Eelam war will put to rest the vilification campaign against Sri Lanka that has now taken on a most virulent form, and put things in their right perspective. More so it is hoped the present circus that is been staged by the international media in the form of the spurious documentary by Channel 4 which has given rise to international opprobrium against Sri Lanka would be seen for what it really is and things viewed in a clearer light.

Humanitarian Operation - a factual analysis - is perhaps the first document of its kind published by a government anywhere which had catalogued every detail of how a terrorist war was fought on its own soil but with a difference. Sri Lanka’s case was unique in which while the military operations were directed at wiping out terrorism it also had at its object the liberation of a community held captive by a band of ruthless terrorists with strict adherence to the zero civilian causality policy enunciated by the government.

In this regard elaborate precautions were taken to conduct precision attacks only on terrorist targets during air raids and in ground operations most often the forces suffered causalities while holding back fire to avoid civilian causalities to adhere to this dictum. This is in contrast to the indiscriminate saturated air strikes that are being carried out by the US drones in the Pakistan border with Afghanistan in their bid to target the Al-qaeda fighters killing in the process hoards of civilians.

On the contrary Sri Lanka’s war against terrorism had a different dimension. While waged to protect the country’s territorial integrity it also had as its main target the liberation of civilians held captive by the LTTE and in essence was truly an operation centred on liberating the civilian community. The whole war was fought on this footing with the humanitarian element the dominant feature unlike elsewhere in the world today where wars are based on sinister motives such as invasion of countries for their oil wealth or geo-political designs.

This is where Sri Lanka’s war differed with the rest of the wars waged today around the world. We had a human element involved and thus it was in our own interest to ensure that no community was harmed.

The West and the rest who apportion blame on Sri Lanka and are baying for the heads of its military and political leaders fail to appreciate the context in which this war was waged. Like the Defence Secretary said at the launch of the publication the purpose of the report that has been compiled by the Defence Ministry is to set out the factual background and operational context which brought peace to Sri Lanka by liberating the people from brutal terrorism in May 2009, against which baseless allegations have been made.

Perhaps it is difficult for those accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes to swallow the fact that a small country with limited resources were able to engineer one of the greatest exodus of civilians of Biblical proportions from the clutches of terrorism while they with their much superior arsenal and resources are still grappling with the problem of terrorism. The recent International Military confab in Colombo where leading military experts of the world expressed their wonder on the methods adopted by the Sri Lankan forces confronted as they were by an implacable foe is indeed a vindication of this acknowledgement of the Humanitarian Operation.

Today the people of the North are a fully liberated community no longer under the jackboot of a vicious terrorist organization. They are breathing the air of freedom and enjoying the fruits of peace with all restrictions that hampered their lives and livelihoods removed. What is more they are now firmly integrated into the democratic mainstream and are exercising their franchise after being under the dictatorial rule of a terrorist organization for three decades.

It therefore behoves the international community who preach about human rights and democratic freedoms at every turn to help these people who are just emerging from a harrowing nightmare to bury the ghosts of the past and help them enjoy their new found democratic freedoms instead of keeping the problem brewing forever and perennially on the boil, if for nothing else other than to give credence to their oft proclaimed tenets and principles. The Defence Ministry publication which no doubt is a genuine and truthful cataloguing of events on the battlefield leading to the final liberation of the Tamil people it is hoped would be read by a wider section of the international community before coming to a true judgement on Sri Lanka.