‘Unrest’ and NGO manipulation

Last week Leader of the House Nimal Siripala de Silva told Parliament that certain international forces were conspiring with groups in Sri Lanka against the government. Speaking during the adjournment debate on January 19 he said that some internationally-funded groups goaded people to take to the streets in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi and were making similar attempts at ‘regime change’ here.

He said that these international forces knew that the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa could not be defeated through democratic means. They were organizing protest meetings to discredit the government.

Co-incidentally, that same day Mark Urban, the diplomatic and defence editor of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘Newsnight’ programme, revealed what many people already knew, that hundreds of soldiers belonging to British, French and other special forces teams had been involved in the fighting on the ground in Libya.

Gaddafi government

The deployment of these units was synchronous with the sudden rebel offensive which led to the capture of the Libyan capital of Tripoli after months of see-saw fighting; their use of sophisticated weapons such as Milan anti-tank missiles was what probably tipped the balance.

In the past few days, reports have come through about fighting in Bani Walid, an anti-rebel stronghold, between rebel militias and the local residents. Rebel militias hold about 90 percent of the town. Clashes have also been reported in Tripoli and elsewhere.

Human rights

Meanwhile, the United Nations has expressed concern at the fact that the rebels have been holding over 8,500 people prisoner, accusing them of being supporters of the Gaddafi government. Many of them are black civilians - the rebels have a deep-seated racist hatred of their dark-skinned compatriots, and ‘ethnically cleansed’ the city of Tawargha at the height of the war. There are reports that these prisoners are being tortured, many of them to death.

A joint report, by the Arab Organization for Human Rights, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and the International Legal Assistance Consortium, on human rights violations in Libya published (again) on January 19 found that both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces and their rebel allies had been responsible for war crimes. These included the deliberate killing of civilians and wounded soldiers from the air and indiscriminate and retaliatory murders on the ground - by slitting the throats of victims.

Western media

Libya provides an almost textbook case of disinformation, subversion and destabilisation followed by regime change. The Gaddafi government had been responsible for uplifting the living standards of the people of Libya to the highest levels in Africa. The rebellion against him, fuelled mainly by expatriate Libyan groups allied to the old feudal regime took the guise of peaceful protests; it was as such that they were reported in the Western media.

However, the joint human rights report mentioned above found no ‘clear demarcation between peaceful protests and armed opposition, and the Mission received credible information indicating that protestors took up arms in the early stages of the revolution’. Hence, UN

Petroleum reserves

Security Council Resolution1973, under which foreign intervention took place in the guise of ‘defending civilians’ was itself based on a media lie.

The ‘regime change’ in Libya took place in a world which is rapidly changing. Oil-rich, it was a prime target in a world of fast-depleting petroleum reserves. It was firmly committed both to non-alignment and to the empowerment of the Third World in a world of growing neo-colonialism. And it had its internal enemies in the former political masters and their cohorts, who looked with envy upon the formerly impoverished common people succoured by Gaddafi.

These disaffected sections, in a coalition of ‘civil society’ and émigré groups, all well funded by ultra-rightist foundations such as Freedom House (which is associated with the neo-imperialist Project for a New American Century – which was itself behind the invasion of Iraq) and international corporations, was ultimately responsible for the overthrow of the Gaddafi government.

Sri Lanka has been known for some time to be endowed with petroleum (either in oil or gas form), although obviously neither so abundantly as Libya nor as easily accessible. Sri Lanka has been steering a very careful course, extending friendship to the allies who helped the country in its hour of need, but trying not to make enemies.

Plus we have a disgruntled Opposition supported by an upper middle class which feels itself hard done by. It is unlikely that President Mahinda Rajapaksa can be beaten at the hustings, so it is necessary to create the conditions which can lead to instability.

Shortage of funds

The task of the anti-government forces is aided by the existence of a multitude of irritants and unfulfilled aspirations among the populace. The bureaucracy is glacially slow due to requirements of procedure as well as shortages of funds - in reacting to public needs, which grow with economic development.

The government, for its part must be patient with protesters, so long as they do not exceed the bounds of democratic convention. Protesters, on the other hand, should be careful that they are not being manipulated by vested interests they should especially check if any of the NGOs involved are funded by ultra-right foundations or by proxies of foreign intelligence organizations.