Pre-Commonwealth sniping at Sri Lanka
Response to FT’s Gideon Rachman:
Shenali D Waduge
The Financial Times has posted an article by Gideon Rachman who
claims that foreign leaders should feel sick about accepting hospitality
from a government whose human rights records are grim. Rachman goes on
to say that the “sins” of the Sri Lankan government are not merely being
ignored but are about to be “rewarded”. This certainly gives the
opportunity to set the records straight.
What has the UK human rights record to really boast of - “There are
over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 population in the U.K., making it
the most violent place in Europe. How about the crimes committed by the
British.
1. Crimes of the British Raj
Would Mr. Rachman describe 1.8 billion violent and non-violent
avoidable deaths in the period 1757-1947 committed by the British in
India as a “sin”? Major British-imposed genocidal events in India
included the Great Bengal Famine (1769-1770), estimated 10 million
Indians murdered by the British in reprisals for the so-called Indian
Mutiny. Rajendra Prasad’s book corrects history that there was no
“benevolent” Raj and that British colonial rule was one of crimes
against humanity!
David Miliband |
Madeleine Albright |
Gideon Rachman |
British crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka: 1817 Uva Rebellion was
one of a shoot-to-kill policy leaving not a woman or child spared
(December 9, 1817), Matale 1848 Rebellion, the massacre of Sinhalese
Buddhists protecting their lands, the plunder of land, demarcation of
territory, creation of ethnic divides.
2. Concept of Concentration Camps introduced by British not Hitler
Britain introduced concentration camps on a massive scale during the
Boer War from 1899 to 1902. They deny the Boer guerrillas food - 28,000
Afrikaaner women and children died in British concentration camps
3. Allied Forces treatment of Germans
Specifically targeted civilian populations with strategic area
bombing and post—war comprehensive starvation campaign that killed two
million German POWs and 5.7 million German civilians. 150 German cities
was bombed between 1940 and 1945 (reference book by historian Jorg
Freidrich) – cities included Kassel, Paderborn, Aachen, Swinemunde, and
of course Dresden. Cities like Cologn and Essen experienced more than
250 raids each with British bombers turning ruins into ruins! Hamburg
experienced the first firebomb which killed 45,000 people. Lets not
forget that a staggering 87 per cent of all bombs dropped by American
planes “missed” their targets and left thousands of German civilians
dead.(2000lb cluster bomb)
Former LTTE child soldiers |
4. Tasmanian genocide
Between 1803 and 1830 the Black aborigines of Tasmania were reduced
from an estimated five-thousand people to less than seventy-five. “We
make no pompous display of Philanthropy. The government must remove the
natives–if not, they will be hunted down like wild beasts and
destroyed!” An article in the Tasmanian Colonial Times (December 1,
1826). Declaration of martial law in November 1828, Whites were
authorized to kill Blacks on sight
5. UK crimes against humanity in Iraq
We know that WMD was a lie but did the UK not get dragged into a
fictitious war because Tony Blair ignored MI6 findings that Saddam
Hussein had no nuclear weapons or WMD a year before Tony Blair agreed to
commit British troops?
When accountability is the buzz word how is it that it has taken four
unsuccessful inquiries (Foreign Affairs Committee into Iraq
War/Intelligence and Security Committee/Hutton Inquiry and Butler
Inquiry) launched into the Iraq War with the 5th Inquiry (Chilcot)
likely to end up an “establishment stitch-up” in the words of Premier
Cameron himself!
Was it not a “sin” to send 179 British troops to their death as well
as kill close to 200,000 civilians wherein 70 per cent of all targets
were Iraqi civilians and which cost UK tax payers more than £9 billion?
Is it also not a “sin” to use depleted uranium shells on a country
that did not even threaten either US or UK? Is it not a “sin” to use
depleted uranium which UN classifies as an illegal weapon of mass
destruction and is also blamed for the Gulf War syndrome and is it not a
“sin” that UK has not even assessed the British troops health conditions
since they may be subject to exposure?
6. UK eviction of Chagos Islanders
Is it not a “sin” for the natives of an entire island to be chased
out of home and land just because the US wanted a military base in the
Indian Ocean? Didn’t UK secretly lease Diego Garcia to the US for 50
years in 1966 and the Chagossians chased out? It was only in November
2000 that a landmark decision by the High Court ruled that the expulsion
of the Chagossians was unlawful.
We would like to remind Mr. Gideon that the LTTE is an
internationally proscribed terrorist organization which his own
government has banned since 2002 though we are keen to know why the UK
government allowed LTTE to use London as its international headquarters,
allowed LTTE to raise funds and hold events and continues to allow Adele
Balasingham the nurse who first trained children as young as seven to be
child soldiers and more over commit suicide by swallowing a cyanide
capsule! So how would these truths add up to define the “sin” the UK has
committed?
The victory of Sri Lanka over terrorism remains controversial so long
as the versions promoted by elements that had been supporting the LTTE
are accepted without demanding veracity on the accusations being made.
With nothing to support allegations the dirge of “controversy” remains
simply a politically motivated slandering slogan.
Mr. Rachman, what can you say when UK MPs David Miliband (former
foreign secretary), Keith Vaz, Virendra Sharma, Simon Hughes, Siobhain
McDonagh and a long list of other British MPs speak on behalf of the
LTTE and on LTTE platforms even though LTTE is banned in the UK, when
people like US congressman Danny Davis’s trip to Sri Lanka in 2005 is
funded by LTTE, Congressman Brad Sherman, Rush Holt, David Price and
even Hillary takes and returns funds given by pro-LTTE groups, when
Canadian MPs Bob Rae, Jason Kenney, Paul Martin are pro-LTTE speakers,
when pro-LTTE MPs like Australian John Murphy, Senator Lee Rhiannon
whose website is full of anti-Sri Lankan and pro-separatist propaganda
even bordering on pro-Tamil Tiger (LTTE), misinformed the House and the
Australian public, runs contrary to what Julie Bishop MP and Scott
Morrison MP said – we know an international publicity campaign to smear
Sri Lanka is taking place. Therefore, when you say Canada has “guts” not
to send its Prime Minister we are simply not surprised!
International organizations
It is people who makes things “controversial”. Just like these
“humanitarian organizations” that have no credibility.
How respected are these international organizations Mr. Rachman
mentions – Human Rights Watch board members are past and present US
government employees who have direct links to foreign policy lobbies in
the US, HRW’s Rwanda Report was financed by Oxfam and Novib both of
which are funded by UK/US/EU governments, the bulk of its funds come
from George Soros.
Amnesty International is itself clouded in controversy and when this
organization accepts 50,000 Canadian dollars from a LTTE linked
“charity” Canadian Tamil Congress, President of CTC, Suntharamoorthy
Umasuthan, who made the donation to AI is himself a subject of terrorist
investigation. Umasuthan’s associate Thavarajah Pratheepan, Deputy Chief
of LTTE procurement, is in US custody. The Director of Communications of
CTC in 2005, Sahil Sabaratnam (28), is serving 25 years in a US Prison
for procuring weapons for the LTTE. Do we need not to elaborate any
further.
International Crisis Group which claims to be “non-governmental” but
40 per cent of its funds come from Western governments. It is also
funded by George Sores Open Society Institute, Ford Foundation,
Rockefeller Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of
New York, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Henry Luce Foundation
and United States Institute of Peace Louise Arbour is president and CEO,
the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour who is
alleged to be responsible for covering up the murder of the deceased
President of Rwanda, the President of Burundi and many other persons who
were assassinated on April 6, 1994.
Human Rights Watch report “‘We will teach you a lesson’: Sexual
violence against Tamils by Sri Lankan Security Forces” is a 140page
report published on February 22, 2013 giving 75 cases of alleged rape
and sexual abuse between 2006-2012 in official and secret detention
centres throughout Sri Lanka. The 140 page report gives three accounts
out of 75 cases (without verification) through a six year period. When
Sri Lanka’s Army saved 297,000 Tamil civilians braving LTTE fire and
losing 5,000 government troops in the process, are these 75 cases the
supposed to be “widespread rape”. Widespread rape is what took place in
Rwanda in 1994 when upto 250,000 or more women were raped in three
months, or the more than 60,000 women raped in Sierra Leone (1991-2002),
or the more than 40,000 raped in Liberia (1989-2003), or the 60,000
women raped in former Yugoslavia (1992-1995) and the 200,000 raped in
the Congo.
All reports generally have a habit of being released at an
international event Sri Lanka is attending or during the Geneva Human
Rights Sessions – we are definitely likely to see another soap drama by
Channel 4 closer to CHOGM in November this year. So everyone has to be
tuned into see the sensationalism of its globe trotting Director and new
human rights spokesman. It will be wonderful to see him do a film
documentary on Child Soldiers of the LTTE given that the head trainer
remains domiciled in UK and she would give first hand accounts of how
she trained little children to shoot and kill and how to take a cyanide
capsule. What a crime it is for a seven year old child to be trained to
kill and then be asked to kill oneself by a nurse – this must be
terrorist euthanasia!
Reporters without Borders placed US at 32nd place of its Press
Freedom report 2013 and now it emerges that the NSA has been
eavesdropping on everyone so one can hardly call that “freedom”! The
organization is funded by the US regime change operator National
Endowment for Democracy.
There is also the accusation that an investigative journalist was
shot at his home without stating that it had anything to do with his
profession but was a personal matter – such type of misadventures has
been part and parcel of the large numbers of supposed “casualties” that
have become tied to the sneer campaign against Sri Lanka wherein
“journalists” are able to suddenly “disappear” without applying for
visas and find themselves in the West happily ready to tarnish their
land of birth for personal gain.
Victory of LTTE terrorism
What no one can deny is that it was ONLY AFTER courting the LTTE
through over five peace talks, numerous ceasefires and peace
negotiations and 30 years of terrorism much of which was suicide and
targeted at civilians that the decision was taken that LTTE terrorists
had to be militarily defeated to protect 20 million populace from
becoming further prey. Therefore, the evidence against the LTTE suffices
for any military intervention unlike the manner the US and UK and NATO
allies have invaded nations and caused colossal damage and loss of life
without prior negotiations, investigation, evidence or UN mandate. So
when bombs have not gone off in four years in Sri Lanka and people can
leave their homes without fear of not returning compare that to
Madeleine Albright who said “the price was worth it” inspite of
thousands of Iraqi children deaths from sanctions, which logic is
brutal?
Can Mr. Rachman or any other explain what type of “sin” it is to save
over 295,000 Tamil civilians, to grant amnesty to over 500 former LTTE
child soldiers, to save over 12,000 former LTTE combatants and run them
through an indigenous rehabilitation programme and reintegrate them to
society where save for 200 who will face trial for their terrorist
activities all others are now involved in livelihood pursuits some of
whom are even absorbed into the country’s civil defense forces whilst
all the refugees are now picking up their lives in their new homes too.
What has UK and US been able to show in terms of resettlement,
rehabilitation or even reintegration over decades of illegal occupation
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Millions remain IDPs inside Iraq or refugees in
adjoining nations, infrastructure remains damaged and whilst two areas
which were LTTE stronghold have been given electricity after three
decades Iraqi people still have electricity for one or two hours a day
while many suffer without potable drinking water…. As a Third World
developing nation our records supersedes that of the UK therefore Mr.
Rachman is totally out of line for insinuating that any foreign leader
should be sick to attend the CHOGM summit; it is we who should be asking
if we can do what we have in four years why can’t US or UK?
As for the chides that Mr. Rachman has taken during the rest of the
article – all we can ask is does “democratization” mean that every
nation has to follow the Western culture, precepts, laws and practices
ONLY? Does it become “undemocratic” to forge links with non-Western
nations because these ties end up strategic bottlenecks for Western
spheres of influence and obstacles to Western hegemony?
The citizens of Sri Lanka are absolutely happy if the entire
Commonwealth is disbanded altogether because far more than the former
colonies the British Raj has sins to pay for and it is now long overdue
that reparations for these crimes that have been committed are paid just
as the Mau Mau rebellions got justice for the injustices after 60 years.
Since we are on the subject of racism it is good for all to review
how the present day international laws have emerged to showcase
Eurocentric and colonial mentality still prevails.
If we are talking about morals the Anglo-American nexus has much to
be embarrassed about and that includes neocolonialism that takes place
using IMF, World Bank, neoconservatives and conglomerates that continue
to plunder nations, the arms profiteering nexus, the global
pharmaceutical giants all linked up to ensure the Third World remains in
debt forever.
Therefore, Mr. Rachman may project a very cynical atmosphere against
Sri Lanka but we would rather have a decent debate if morality and sins
are what is to be argued and we are prepared to face these accusations
so long as they come with evidence and if UK is ready to come clean on
its crimes committed over centuries too. The former colonies are the
victims of colonial rulers and continue to be under neocolonials.
The list of UK crimes against humanity is a long one and a Bill for
these crimes need to be sent for true accountability to take place. If
at all anyone needs to be feeling sick with disgust it is the former
colonies and not the British Raj!
Yet we are a nation known for its compassion and hospitality!
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