Human Right Watch’s war on Sri Lanka

By: Dr. Chandrani Gunaratna

11 May 2009
On the eve of the scheduled informal UN Security Council meeting on Sri Lanka where the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French Counterpart Bernard Kouchner will attend on Monday May 11th, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) who is constantly attacking the Sri Lankan government has written, this time, to the Japanese Premier.

In a joint http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/05/10/joint-letter-japanese-prime-minister-sri-lanka report with representatives from other similar agencies that show clear sympathy towards Sri Lanka’s terrorist group LTTE, Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of HRW urges Japan to “support efforts for the Security Council to keep the situation in Sri Lanka under close and regular review and to consider the situation in Sri Lanka formally at the Security Council.”

It is amazing how determined HRW is to prosecute the Sri Lankan government. It churns out report after report against Sri Lanka showing clear hostility and citing mountains of allegations based on questionable evidence.

Combining anecdotal unverifiable evidence and speculations convincingly, HRW writes to every organization, every donor, who supports Sri Lanka and urge them to take actions against Sri Lanka.

In the letter to the Japanese Prime Minister on Sunday May 10th HRW writes that “the Sri Lankan government has refused access to the conflict-affected areas to the United Nations, impartial humanitarian and human rights organizations and the media. It should be clear that the world needs to know what is actually happening on the ground so that it can prevent abuses and help those in need.”

This allegation is far from the truth. The aid workers of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have access to the no-fire zone as well as to the welfare centers for the Internally displaced Persons. ICRC is allowed to be present at the screening points and UNHCR is present at the main screening point at Omanthai. There are about 20 aid organizations including Caritas, World Vision, IOM and UNICEF providing relief at the welfare centers.

On May 1st Huffington Post published a report by James Ross of HRW titled “Tigers End Game in Sri Lanka.” In the report Ross, reiterating the allegations that Army is shelling the war-zone says “Disastrously, the Sri Lanka army has obliged the Tiger’s death wish by indiscriminately firing heavy artillery into the strip, littering the area with bodies and body parts.”

Then he goes onto say that support for the Tamil Tiger cause remains strong for many Tamils in Sri Lanka and among the large Tamil Diaspora.

If he was in Sri Lanka lately and listened to the nearly 200,000 Tamils escaped into what HRW calls “internment camps” he would have learned that the LTTE have lost the support from Tamils in Sri Lanka. And only the demonstrators in several European cities and Canada are the ones now support the LTTE. It is clear Ross and the rest of the HRW are hoping for a LTTE resurrection.

The report continues to say that ‘instead of addressing Tamil concerns about governance, property rights, and civil liberties, the administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has only heightened them, pandering to the most nationalistic Sinhalese elements in society.’ In the same vein Ross says “Several Tamil politicians and journalists have been murdered and others have been prosecuted on dubious political grounds” attempting to level a thinly veiled accusation against the government.

The HRW really bares its teeth against the Sri Lankan state here. If they are not so blinded they would have learned that not a single Tamil politician is murdered by Sri Lankan governments but all the Tamil voices were silenced by the LTTE. Here is a http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/05/07/world_opi.asp?id=s10” list of all the Tamil politicians killed by the LTTE starting from the killing of Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappa on July 27, 1975.

The HRW however, was not satisfied with the coverage it received from the Huffington Post so it posted the same report in their web site on May 4th.

HRW issues another report on May 08 titled “Sri Lanka: Repeated Shelling of Hospitals Evidence of War Crimes” with few pictures it has received from the LTTE.

HRW, echoing the pro-LTTE media, says they received information about at least 30 attacks on permanent and makeshift hospitals in the combat area since December 2008 from the patients, medical staff, aid workers, and other witnesses and concludes that commanders responsible for ordering or conducting such attacks may be prosecuted for war crimes.

Citing anecdotal accounts, keeping in mind that these stories come from the individuals in the LTTE dominated no-fire zone, Human Rights Watch says that each time a hospital was established in a new location, the doctors transmitted GPS coordinates of the facility to the Sri Lankan government to ensure that the facility would be protected from military attack and on several occasions, attacks occurred on the day after the coordinates had been transmitted in a clear attempt to implicate the Sri Lankan government.

While there are dozens more conflicts currently raging in the rest of the world HRW spends a disproportionate amount of time on Sri Lanka’s conflict. It is determined to include Sri Lanka on the UN Security Council’s agenda and to scrutinize the country at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

It is clear there is a concerted effort by the HRW and other forces to save the fast-vanishing LTTE leadership. HRW’s report on May 8th on the alleged shelling of hospitals by the Sri Lankan Army, the call by the UN Human Rights Council expert, Philip Aston for international scrutiny on Sri Lanka and yesterday’s outrageous claim by the LTTE of over 2000 civilian deaths supposedly due to Army shelling, timed correctly just before the UN Security Council meeting, are all directed towards one goal – to stop the military offensive and call for a ceasefire to give the LTTE leadership time to find a way to get out of the trap they are in now.

HRW has reputation of being biased against democratically elected governments and siding with terrorist groups. Following are few statements other countries have said about HRW.

“The Human Rights Watch often provides false information about Viet Nam. Its report dated May 4th 2009 is biased and does not reflect the real situation in Viet Nam.”

“Ethiopia’s government was so incensed by the description of ‘systematic atrocities’ in the Ogaden that it commissioned a report of its own that dismissed Human Rights Watch’s allegations as hearsay and its methods as slapdash..”

HRW’s sympathy for terrorist groups is clearly evident the way it criticizes Israel. An independent study by NGO Monitor has shown that between 2001 and 2004, during the height of the terror attacks against Israel, HRW focused one-third of its entire Middle East effort on condemnations directed at Israel. “This went far beyond legitimate criticism, and suggested an obsession,” NGO Monitor says.

Gerald M. Steinberg of NGO Monitor says “When it comes to war crimes committed by terror groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, time and again Roth [Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch] ignores the clear evidence, refusing to issue public condemnations or hold press conferences claiming the need for thorough investigations. In contrast, Israel was found guilty from the outset.”

Steinberg says “apart from the tendentious reporting, the extensive use of loaded terms, such as ‘war crimes,’ ‘violation of international law,’ etc.-used far more often in HRW reports on Israel than in reports on all other Middle East states-fed anti-Israel divestment and boycott campaigns.” Sounds familiar?

Dr. Avi Bell in an “http://www.ngo-monitor.org/article.php?id=455” article in New York Sun referring to the bias against Israel says “HRW amplifies the image of Israeli wrongdoing by speculating as to the existence of improper Israeli motives and then sternly warning Israelagainst the speculated thought.” HRW is obviously demonstrating the same attitude towards Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka, also fighting a terror war similar to Israel receives the same treatment from HRW. The difference is in Israel’s case it has the support of the United States but when it comes to Sri Lanka unfortunately the US loses sight and believes the half-truths of HRW.

In an http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/12/17-2 to the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch, 118 academic experts on Latin America criticized the organization’s recent report on Venezuela, A Decade Under Ch vez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela, saying that it “does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility.”

The group questioning the credibility of the HRW report says “We find it troubling that a report on Human Rights depends heavily on unreliable sources. Would a report on human rights in the United States be taken seriously if it relied so heavily on Fox News, or even worse The National Enquirer?”

It seems that it is the practice of HRW to rely on the uncorroborated anecdotal evidences and pass them as the truth.

Anna Neistat of HRW clearly violated Sri Lankan government’s laws to gain entry into the conflict zone. She misrepresented herself as a lawyer, entered into the country on a tourist visa, visited the conflict zone without permission, interviewed patients at the Vavuniya hospital, and testified at the US Senate hearing. This is how HRW collects its evidence against “international war crimes” perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government.

Various organizations, governments, and journalists have often criticized HRW for its bias reporting and twisting tales. Looking at the above statements it is clear that HRW resorts to vicious propaganda attacks against certain governments and Sri Lanka is one of them subjected to the ire of HRW for whatever purpose.

Perhaps the funding agencies of the HRW should take a note of this disturbing approach of HRW in evaluating human rights and its practice of passing around personal accounts as hard proof of human right violations. Until the HRW sheds its bias, its reports lack credibility.

HRW: Useful Idiots and Ambassadors of Evil

Tilak Dias , Ph.D.

11 May 2009
Wall Street Journal reported on May 05, 2009, that U.S air strikes had killed dozens of civilians in Afghanistan.   This was attributed to the bombing runs carried out by U.S. led-coalition jets.  The real number is not dozens but over a hundred according to Abdul Basir Khan, a member of the provincial council of Farah province. The villagers have brought bodies of men, women and children, which were mutilated beyond recognition and even difficult to count.  However, the surviving villagers have counted over 100 dead bodies and transported several truckloads of wounded civilians to Farah’s hospital.   

After reading this, my eyes glazed over the official websites of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International trying to find out their response to this tragedy.  To my dismay, there was none.  Not even a symbolic condemnation, let alone any action to prevent such a tragedy in the future.  I assume that Afghans do not have human rights when they are being massacred by donors of these human rights watchdogs who make up the coalition.  The gratuitous praise at times of War-on–Terror under the pretext of new democracy being created and unassuming approval of these acts makes them “Useful Idiots” in the eyes of donors.  Yet the unconscionable silence of HRW on the face of such crimes committed by powerful coalition amply proves that for the suffering masses they are Ambassadors of Evil.  This proves their “malignant self love” not the human rights they profess to safeguard.  

The latest bombing run of coalition jets that killed over one hundred civilians is not the first one and may not be the last one either. In August 2008, U.S. bombing raid in Azizabad killed 90 civilians which was also confirmed by the U.N.  The U.S. denied it originally but later admitted that only 33 civilians were killed.  But the U.N.’s role is limited to verifying the deaths because it is some permanent members of the Security Council who are killing civilians playing mayhem in foreign lands.    

 Nonetheless, as the Afghan tragedy was unravelling, Legal and Policy Director of HRW, James Ross published an article in Huffington Post on May 04, 2009, fabricated with deceptive allegation against Sri Lankan security forces.   In it he claims “Tigers seem intent on fighting to the last man, woman and child. Disastrously, the Sri Lanka army has obliged the Tiger’s death wish by indiscriminately firing heavy artillery into the strip, littering the area with bodies and body parts.”  It is a fact that SL Forces have stopped using heavy weapons due to concern of the civilians.  Had the SL Forces used such weapons in an area equals to New York Central Park as Mr. Ross claims, war would have long ended.  Sri Lankan army has just rescued over 185,000 civilians from a death trap set by the terrorists. Yet Mr. Ross plays from the same old playbook of terrorists amply demonstrating HRW’s sinister motives to discredit the SL Forces.  

 He quotes the same death toll of 6,400 civilians that Navi Pillai of United Nations originally obtained from the Terrorist’s website and later repeated in the media giving it legitimacy. He conveniently and repeatedly uses the Terrorists’ playbook, that every terrorist clad in civilian clothes when killed in combat can be counted as a civilian.  His fallacy and cynicism seem to have no bounds when he asserts that “support for the Tamil Tiger cause remains strong for many Tamils in Sri Lanka and among the large Tamil Diaspora, most of whose families fled the country because of government abuses.”  and “even if the Tamil Tigers are defeated on the battlefield, few believe that their bombings and assassinations will end.” 

No one really knows how an ivory tower human rights watchdog formulates the beliefs for a majority about the possibility of new cycle of violence in Sri Lanka even after LTTE is eradicated.   Mr.  Ross’s attempt to manufacture an opinion in favour of a new war in Sri Lanka appears to be open invitation to terrorists and their cohorts to continue their lost cause.

 His hypothesis is that Sri Lankan government is unlikely to take up any initiative on its own to promote a multi-ethnic society in Sri Lanka.  Hence he suggests a role for the Unites States and others to play in shaping up the future of Sri Lanka.  Despite the unfounded allegations and malicious intents of HRW, the Sri Lankan government’s conduct of war has already rejected Mr. Ross’s null hypothesis with overwhelming evidence.   It has not only rescued 185,000 civilians but cared for them with utmost respect. Everyone admits that these camps are not the best but they are transitional points until the war zone is cleared out of all dangers such as landmines, which can kill and maim people and massive stocks of explosives and hidden weapons, which otherwise would fall into wrong hands leading to internecine gang warfare.  No one understands the haste of these HRW and other INGOs in trying to settle these people in danger zones.  Are they trying to influence the IDPs and sow the seeds of  hatred amongst the communities.  As the overwhelming evidence show that these INGos enriched terrorism in Sri Lanka, ( i.e. like the Danish Refugee Council delivered electric generators and satellite phone to LTTE leader), can the Sri Lankan authorities make sure that, if these same INGOs are allowed to operate freely in IDP relief, they would not deliver guns with bread and butter to terrorist sympathizers in order to begin a new cycle of violence? Is this the new cycle James Ross is predicting?

 This desperate call for a role to meddle in internal affairs of other countries is nothing new for creed of HRW and their donors.  I would like to reiterate the fact that Sri Lanka had been a country of tolerance since time immemorial until Ross’s forefathers came and sow the seeds of violence and social disharmony, and plundered the resources of the countries that are embroiled in violence today.  Therefore, I fervently urge HRW to clean its acts before it becomes irrelevant even in its role as a “Useful idiot.”   As for Sri Lanka’s ethnic harmony, I would like to mop up HRW’s ignorance with the fact that Sri Lanka is the only country, which crowned an alien Tamil as the King (Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe) of Sinhala Kingdom long before even British Empire knew it.

 As for the HRW’s roll-call for the United States and other countries for a role to play in shaping Sri Lanka’s future, Sri Lanka should say no thanks in one voice.  After all, it is a well known fact that the United States’ enemy number one, Osama Bin Laden was a strange bed fellow of CIA during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. So was Velupillai Prabhakaran of India’s.  Can Sri Lanka put its future in such hands?

Anna Neistat

Human Rights Watch official ban for violating immigration and emigration regulations

Lanka-e-News 08.May.2009, 6.15pm

Sri Lankan authorities have taken steps to ban Sri Lanka for a lady official of Human Rights Watch who has entered into the country in a false identity submitting fake information.

Ms. Anna Nistat, a senior researcher of the Human Rights Watch arrived in Sri Lanka under a tourist visa submitting fake information to immigration and emigration officials. She has then visited the camps of the displaced persons in Vauniya and recorded statements from inmates.

Following her Sri Lanka visit, she has passed this information to a US senator who then briefed to UN about Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan authorities later found that she had not obtained the credentials for such a research. Therefore, the Immigration and emigration Department of Sri Lanka has taken steps to ban visa for Anna Nistat of Human Rights Watch since she has found guilty of violating immigration and emigration regulations.

Lanka can ignore Foreign Ministers and Human Rights Watch

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Not surprisingly the Asia Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Brad Adams, has timed to announce a series of threats to the GOSL on the eve of their arrival. In his latest statement titled We cannot ignore Sri Lanka , he has threatened the GOSL with punitive measures if it does not yield to his political demands disguised as issues of human rights. He, in fact, goes out of his way to tell the visiting Foreign Ministers that they must “deliver a strong message to GOSL” on the following lines

1. “There will be a reckoning”

2. “Investigations into the conduct of the conflict by both sides will take place”

3. “A commission of inquiry will be established.”

4. “Tamils streaming out of the conflict area can no longer be treated as criminals and held in detention camps indefinitely.”.

5. “Humanitarian aid and independent observers must be allowed in immediately”

6. There is still time for the members of the UN security council and other countries to put people over political gamesmanship and allow the UN to finally bring its full and collective weight to protect some of the world’s most vulnerable people.”

7. “There is still time for the Sri Lankan government to show some respect for the rule of law, some tolerance towards critical voices from the Tamil community, and a vision for a political settlement that would make Tamils believe that Sri Lanka is also their country.”

First, it must be noted that there is nothing new in the instructions given to the Foreign Minister and the GOSL. Adams is merely repeating the political agenda of local NGOs who had been campaigning to stop the war against the one-man regime of Velupillai Prabhakaran. Adams too is plugging the same line knowing that neither human rights nor the plight of the Tamil civilians will improve one whit as long as Prabhakaran is allowed to hide behind the innocent civilians. 

Second, Adams ’ tone – not mention the thrust — is so arrogant and partisan (in favor of the Tamil Tigers) that it should be rejected out of hand by the GOSL even if it comes from the visiting Foreign Ministers. In putting pressure on the Foreign Ministers to deliver his message to GOSL he is hoping to use them as his messenger boys. Adams is assuming that he is he is authorized power to dictate terms to the GOSL through the visiting Foreign Ministers. Now that the local NGOs have lost their clout to interfere in the affairs of the state – the people in voting overwhelmingly to the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration in recent polls have confirmed this – Adams is eager to be their surrogate. Sri Lankans are sick to their back teeth with these unwanted and unwarranted interventionists trying to muscle in with their solutions which have failed to bring the nation to the end of the tunnel. So why go down that path again when it’s not going to bring the desired result of ending the violence of Tamil Tigers? 

Third, Adams ’ latest recommendation for “a pause in fighting….. to alleviate so much pain and suffering” has been tried and tested twice in recent times without any positive response from the Tamil Tigers who are determined to fight to the last brain-washed terrorist, spurning the call from India and the international community to give up arms, give up violence and release the Tamil civilians held as captives by Prabhakaran and his gang wanted by the international community.. So how many pauses does he want? And what guarantees can Adams give on saving the lives of Tamils if there is another pause? Will it enable the Tamils civilians to escape Prabhakaran’s grip?. Can Adams give a guarantee that his formula will work? If not why is he whistling in the wind to prolong the agony of the Tamil civilians by giving Prabhakaran a new lease of life to perpetuate his violence by throwing Tamil civilians as cannon fodder? Is he battling to save human rights or Prabhakaran?  

Fourth, for the first time HRW has, in passing as it were, threatened the Tamil Tigers too of reprisals. Why did it take so long to threaten action against them? The reason is obvious: it is because HRW was caught in a in a bind. It could not threaten the GOSL without threatening the Tigers. All these years it has let the Tigers off the hook even when they were accused by the UN of abducting children forcibly to fight in its futile war. The war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by the Tamil Tigers, for which they have been banned by the international community, did not prompt HRW to threaten the Tamil Tigers until they found it useful to threaten the GOSL. Adams ’ partisan politics is as objectionable as his hypocrisy.  

Fifth, he says that the GOSL will argue that it is a democracy carrying out the will of the people and they should be allowed to finish off the Tigers. Instead of accepting the will of the people Admas is bent on imposing his will. He has also conveniently avoided the fact staring in his eyes that the Tamil civilians t0o have voted with their feet to be with the GOSL abandoning “the Pol Potist regime” (New York Times) of the Tamil Tigers. Clearly, this reveals Adams’ ignorance of the ground realities and confirms the wisdom and the pragmatic knowledge of the victims who scorn the likes of Adams in INGOS and NGOs. They know that Adams and his ilk are singing for their supper by selling their suffering. If the pain and suffering of the victims are expressed unequivocally by the Tamil civilians seeking a better alternative (otherwise they wouldn’t have dared to face the bullets of the Tigers shooting them in the back as they flee) why is Adams trying to block their passage to a better alternative by stopping the military offensive?. 

Sixth, it is not the preachings and the punditry and the morality of INGOs and NGOs that opened the passage for Tamil civilians to escape Prabhakaran’s Evil-laam. It was decisively the successful breach in the sand bank opened by the military offensive that enabled the mass exodus from Prabhakaran’s prison. If the military failed to hit the sand back built by Prabhakaran and breach it the tens of thousands who escaped would be still under the grip, with the likes of Adams crowing that the Tamil civilians are with Prabhakaran. Isn’t it time for Adams to wipe the dust clouding his vision and took a more realistic view of how to save human rights by saving the Tamils civilians? 

Seventh, however flawed it may be, the liberation of the east from the Tamil Tigers is a compelling argument that indicates the respect for “law and order, some tolerance towards critical voices from the Tamil community, and a vision for a political settlement that would make Tamils believe that Sri Lanka is also their country.” If further proof is needed the Tamils voting with their feet confirms that “ Sri Lanka is also their country” and not –the pseudo-state of Evil-laam.

Unfolding events reveal that this war is not wanted by the people or the successive Sri Lankan governments. This war was officially declared in May 1976 in the infamous Vadukoddai Resolution drafted by the political leaders of the north. It is the Tamils of the north who l au nched the war, financed the war and prosecuted the war (waged partly by child soldiers recruited forcibly by the Tamil Tigers) killing peace-makers, Tamil dissidents and even international agreements.

Rajiv Gandhi was the first notable peace-maker (he negotiated the Peace Agreement with the Tamil leaders and Sri Lankan government) who was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers. Second, they nearly got President Chandrika Kumaratunga after she offered Velupillai Prabhakaran the north and the east for ten years without an election to challenge his one-man regime. She narrowly escaped death though she lost one eye. Third, Prabhakaran shot to pieces the Ceasefire Agreement of 2002 which came with international guarantees by violating 95% of the terms and conditions, according to Scandinavian peace monitors. This prompted the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to terminate it. Before that the Tamil Tigers had walked out of peace talks on the flimsiest of excuses.

Clearly, India, the regional super power and the Co-Chairs – Norway, Japan, EU and US, – representing the international community have failed to tame the Tigers. Nor did the Neville Chamberlainian kind of appeasement in handing over the territory claimed by the Tamil Tigers yield any lasting solution. The only experiment that was not tried was to fight fire with fire. When that succeeded under President Rajapaksa every international instrument has been introduced to tie the hands of the Government forces fighting the Tamil Tigers – the primary source that violates every cannon of international humanitarian law.

By and large, every segment of Sri Lankan society sympathize with the plight of the victims running away from the one-man regime of Prabhakaran. They want the war to end — rather fought to a finish as seen in the latest elections results. This is not different from the lines argued by State Secretary Hilary Clinton and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In heir latest statement Ms. Clinton had expressed disappointment about the failure of the Pakistan government to deal more decisively with the Talibans. And Mr. Brown argues (in front of camera) that Taliban violence should be terminated in Afghanistan bec au se it is spilling over to the streets of London .

Their arguments are valid. But the question is why Mr. Brown, who is so concerned about the streets of London , doesn’t care two hoots about the victims in the streets of Colombo ? It is also necessary to ask why Ms. Clinton (having possible recovered from water boarding and other form of torture) is urging the Pakistan government to wage a more intense and focused war on Talibans and, in the same breath, opposing the most successful war on terror in Sri Lanka ?

This is not an argument to give a free hand for the Sri Lankan Security Forces to go on the rampage among civilians. Their offensive is to save the civilians trapped inside the last spit of land held by the Tamil Tigers. There is no alternative to those genuinely concerned about saving lives. Besides, none of those proposing an end to offensive can guarantee that Prabhakaran will let the Tamil people go.
Right now the Sri Lankan forces are faced with the problem of how to make an omelet without breaking eggs. The positive results of the offensive have proved that there is no alternative than this to save the Tamil civilians. If the military offensive of breaching a sand bank opened the way for tens of thousands of Tamil civilians to escape the grip of Tamil Talibans it is clear as daylight that the elimination of Prabhakaran is he answer to overall humanitarian issue.

HRW has duty to ask a simple question before rushing into pass strictures on the GOSL. HRW should ask: who can and has served human rights better under prevailing conditions? The answer could found in the Tamils walking out of Prabhakaran’s gulag. It clear that the long-term and the positive answer to serve human rights is in eliminating Prabhakaran. Stopping the offensive at this late stage –a practice never adopted by the big powers in any of their wars – will only exacerbate the suffering and pain of he Tamil civilians. However, painful it may be a surgical operation to cure the cancer is the only way to peace, stability and protection of human rights.

Human Rights Watch uses barbed missiles against Sri Lanka

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha Secretary General Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process

28^th April 2009

Like the proverbial pig sticking its snout into swill, Human Rights Watch has leapt with glee onto the recent declaration by the Sri Lankan government that its security forces ‘have been instructed to end the use of heavy weapons’. HRW has immediately concluded that “By finally admitting it has been using heavy weapons all along, the Sri Lanka government has shed light onto its official deception as well as its brutal military tactics.”

This was the delightfully dense Brad Adams, who does not understand that not only was the government using heavy weapons, it has indeed reported regularly on its achievements through such means. The point the government had been making was that it was not using heavy weapons on civilians, and indeed its recent magnificent achievement in breaching one of the walls the LTTE had built up, and thus ensuring that over 100,000 civilians could get to safety, was without the use of heavy weapons as pointed out at the time.

Had Brad Adams understood the use of the English language, he would have realized that the government has made clear that it will continue with its efforts to rescue civilians, and this will involve the use of appropriate, and proportionate, weaponry. Though this had been the principle it had adopted in rescuing civilians from the safe zone and elsewhere, previously it had not eschewed the use of heavy weapons in defence. Just a couple of weeks back it had publicized its removal of LTTE heavy artillery which had been firing out of the safe zone. This was not done by snipers or even catapults, but involved precision bombing by the air force, and there was no reason whatsoever to conceal such action.

Similarly, when the LTTE used its tank to fire on fleeing civilians, the forces had an obligation to stop such action. Unfortunately they do not seem to have succeeded in this, but this means that, if at any point the LTTE resorts to such tactics again, the forces too will have to respond in kind to save civilian lives.

However, since the LTTE has now announced a unilateral ceasefire, it is to be hoped that they will refrain from using such heavy weaponry against civilians and against the aid that is being sent in – there were reports a couple of weeks back, it will be remembered, of firing on a food ship, and all the ICRC said then was that they did not think the ship had been actually targeted. If the LTTE sticks to its word, there will therefore be no need for government to use heavy weapons at all. However, if the LTTE does use heavy weapons, it would not make sense for government to nevertheless continue with its moratorium, and try to deal with anti-aircraft guns or tanks with the slingshots and catapults that Mr. Adams might advocate.

Offensive operations have stopped, as they should be while so many civilians are being used as human shields. However that does not take away from the moral obligation to release those civilians, and that is what the government has said it will continue to attempt. Mr Adams may think this his cue to engage in tendentious interpretation that betrays his ignorance of facts, and his Luddite understanding of what war means in the modern age. We can only hope that the visiting Foreign Ministers, Mr. Kouchner and Mr. Miliband, the current Castor and Pollux of NATO and of Western operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, will not fall in with this sanctimonious finger-pointing.

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Secretary General

Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process

Devil’s Logic triumphs on Easter Sunday

Tilak Dias Ph.D.

15th April 2009

(Ref- HRW Letter to CMAG --Full Report-(HRW-15/04/09))
Some governments in the West spearheaded by the UK and Norway appeared to have given momentum to the malicious disinformation campaign of terrorists and its Diaspora.   Their cohorts like HRW and UNO have also jumped in the bandwagon.   As the pressure mounted, the Sri Lankan military and humanitarian operations came to an abrupt pause over the Easter Sunday.  The Sri Lankan military has been carrying out a rescue operations of civilians, hitherto unseen in any civil conflict in the world while conducting a successful   offensive against the most barbaric terrorist group which has held Tamil civilians as a human shield.   It is not intriguing as to why these humanitarians have failed to see the truth.   The Devil’s Logic which sees evil as good and good as evil is the main reason.   That is what prevailed over the Eastern Sunday in Sri Lanka.  

According to norms of the civilized world, to render good for evil is divine; to render good for good is human; to render evil for evil is brutish; and to render evil for good is devilish. 

Throughout the conflict in Sri Lanka, government and its military forces have been adopting divine, humane and brute modes in dealing with scourge of terrorism.   On the contrary Tamil Terrorists and its cohorts like Norway, UK and its appendages such as HRW, UNO and other INGOS have consistently adopted one and only one mode-the devilish mode-which renders evil for good.   Every window of ceasefire (1987-2009) was marked by terrorists killing innocent civilians and gunning down military personnel in hundreds while partners of  Sri Lankan terrorists  like Norway enriched the terror outfit with military hardware and know-how and HRW provided  the humanitarian cover.  It was no different on past Easter Sunday when terrorist celebrated the military pause by killing 9 civilians and a soldier claiming the pause a ruse.   Meanwhile, its staunchest ally HRW walked lock step with LTTE urging commonwealth nations to pressure Sri Lanka for a longer ceasefire.  For all these God believing nations and their allied institutions, I have to this to say.  There is nothing in the world that renders people more unlike Christian and more like Satan—than to argue for the sinful liberty of perpetuation of terrorism. 

When countries like Israel sends their bombers to bomb convoys of trucks in Sudan suspected of carrying weapons to Hams and when USA and its handmaiden UK and other allies preemptively attack nations it deems a threat, killing and displacing millions of civilians (i.e. Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan) why can not a democratically elected government of a sovereign country like Sri Lanka combat terrorism in its own country?  

Perhaps one can reason that operations of Sri Lankan forces may have stunned the world because there is neither the UN—the so called expert in such affairs-nor the countries of advanced military capabilities is involved in this humanitarian operation.  The role of INGOs and NGOs has also rendered redundant in Sri Lankan situation as its forces are playing a dual role.   

Is this the reason for huge outcry asking a role to play in this conflict by the non-entity called International Community including the UN? I am baffled by the abrupt pause of operations.  The question that comes to my mind is: Is Sri Lanka still a colony of the UK or has it become a private business enterprise of so called “Donor Group” Norway, Japan, US and the UK?   Otherwise, I do not see any reason why, the Sri Lankan Government should halt its military and humanitarian operations under pressure.   Tamil Diaspora’s scream of bloody murder should not warrant such a pause as they are no longer constituents of Sri Lanka.  They have opted out and become citizens of Norway, UK, USA and Australia in a relative luxury.  Sri Lankan government’s responsibility should be toward its constituents who have been bleeding for thirty years due to terrorism.  Sri Lankan government should carry out the mandate given it by the Sri Lankans who voted the government to power to eradicate terrorism from the country and make it a peaceful place for everybody to live without discrimination based on caste, creed, religion or nationality.   

Why would a Government elected by its legitimate constituents heed the bogus call of non-constituents who have funded the perpetuation of  terrorism for 30 years?   Looking at the world capitals where the terrorist Diaspora roam, it appears that all the dollars, Sterling pounds, and Kroner that  previously went to procuring illegal arms, drug trafficking and money laundering are now being diverted to lobbying the Western governments and organizing massive rallies.    As a result,   some MPs of UK parliament and allied forces like HRW are even calling to expel Sri Lanka from the forum of Commonwealth.  Alas! Are we still proud to be part of this forum which constituted the shameful institution called Colonialism?  It is like the rapist threatening to expel the victims of rape from the Association of Victims.  Sri Lanka should be more than glad to opt out voluntarily.  

If the Sri Lankan government is doing the right thing it has nothing to fear.   Is the fear because “Donor Group” will not finance Sri Lanka’s development projects?  If that is the case, Sri Lanka for all practical economic and political purposes is a dependent entity and has no sovereignty to protect by this type of war.  It is therefore, better to give up rather than continuing the war by sacrificing precious lives of Sri Lankan soldiers because they are more worthy human beings than barbaric LTTE terrorists.  

If that is the case, in stead of conducting the war, Sri Lanka should immediately begin a new project to become politically and economically independent, sovereign nations like China and India.    How can Sri Lanka do it? It is very simple.  Great Parakrama Bahu did not apply for IMF loans but he made the Isle, the granary of the East.  What Sri Lanka should do is go back to the era of self sufficiency and begin eating rice and yams instead spending money on corn-fed beef and pizza.  After all Great Mahatma Gandhi brought the British Empire to its knees by wearing home spun cotton and making his own salt.  Only such a step will teach a lesson to Western hegemonies.  Until such time, we would not be independent.    Cuba finally prevailed in such a struggle against the world’s largest economy as most recently Obama Administration decided to lift embargo against this Island nation.  

We have seen the grave consequence of dependency  when all countries that are on a hot pursuit of terrorism in far away lands, refused even to sell weapons to a legitimately elected Sri Lankan government to combat terrorism in its own country.  What should Sri Lanka  do under these circumstances? It  should start manufacturing  its own weapons including the nuclear ones.  Then and only then the West will respect the sovereignty of countries like Sri Lanka.  Otherwise it will be like the property of a slut, which belongs to everybody who pays to sleep with her for short term gains and pleasure.  Sri Lanka had such customers in the past, for  example, Portuguese, Dutch and British are some of them.  No, Sri Lanka should not sleep with Norway or any other, no matter how powerful and handsome they may be.

Human Rights Watch: Can’t Count; Can’t differentiate; Can’t Tell the Truth!

Ramanie de Zoysa

14th April 2009
“Mr President, we are concerned about our people, and we do not need to be told by people who think that cluster bombs come out of the barrel of a gun how to look after our own.”- Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process and Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights in his response to remarks on Sri Lanka made by Non-Governmental Organizations (mainly Human Rights Watch) during the Inter-Active Debate on the Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday, 06 March 2009 

The latest press release issued by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 9 April 2009 was another Sri Lankan Government bashing using the usual ammunition of half truths, outright lies, and unbelievable capers; the only concocted ‘eyewitnesses’ being two Tamil moles posing off as doctors in the war zone trading highly fabricated statistics for payoffs in one form or another. 

HRW has made up to 143,000 civilians ‘vanish’; or a severe case of inability to count?  

HRW said in a 49 page report released on December 23, 2008 titled “Besieged, Displaced, and Detained: The Plight of Civilians in Sri Lanka’s Vanni Region,” that there were between 230,000 to 300,000 displaced persons trapped in the Vanni conflict zone. The Sri Lankan Government ‘s estimate of around 100,000 to 125,000 maximum was scoffed at as being untrue and arrogantly stomped on by HRW as well as many other international INGOs. In the latest press release dated April 9, 2009 titled “Sri Lanka: Stop Shelling ‘No-Fire Zone’ Brad Adams of HRW puts the number of civilians trapped by the LTTE at 100,000. If there were 230,000 to 300,000 ‘civilians’ trapped in the LTTE human shield in Dec 2008 and there are only 100,000 ‘civilians’ as at 9 April 2009  basic arithmetic would dictate that 130,000 to 200,000 must have either escaped to the Sri Lankan Government controlled area, perished or vanished into thin air. According to the Sri Lankan Government headcount only 64,147 civilians have arrived seeking its care from the Tiger clutches so far. The remaining 60,000 to 140,000 ‘civilians’ then, by a simple process of elimination, must have either perished or vanished into thin air. According to HRW’s own estimate as of 25 February 2009 at least 2,000 civilians have been killed and another 5,000 wounded in the period since December 10. Then, the total of 7,000 wounded or killed leaves us with a ‘vanished’ populace of around 53,000 to 143,000! 

Then again the HRW estimate of 5,000 wounded is a large number of patients to care for in one hospital. Where are they? Who is treating them? Is it possible that these 5000 patients are cared for by HRW’s moles in the Vanni, Drs Sathiyamoorthy and Varatharajah? 

HRW is unable or unwilling to differentiate incarceration from temporary IDP accommodation 

The use of words that are a million times harsher than what reality calls for – or the abuse of language- is a sign of the times. HRW is just as good at this game as the LTTE. If a Tamil non-combatant is killed inadvertently through Sri Lankan Government military action that is called genocide- but the actual genocide practiced by the LTTE like the slaughter of innocent Sinhala farmers in Buttala just after the ‘New Year ceasefire’ declared by the Sri Lankan Government on 13^th April hardly caused a ripple among the human rights industry or news merchants such as BBC; in fact BBC did not even mention the Buttala terrorist killings that included the slaughter of an infant by the LTTE. 

The word ‘incarceration’ has now been dusted off Europe’s own cupboards full of skeletons of the past, and is now in popular use by both the LTTE propaganda machine and the international NGOs with agendas such as HRW to describe temporary welfare centers set up to receive the exodus of Tamils leaving the Tiger clutches. 

The welfare camps set up by the Sri Lankan Government to receive and hold the escapees of Tiger terror are seen as “squalid government-controlled camps and hospitals with little access to the outside world”. These are empty emotive words which are freely bandied about by these INGOs to show that they have such lofty standards. What amazes one is that in these very areas there have been a multitude of INGOs and NGOS “tirelessly working” to develop these people over the last thirty or more years but have not a single hospital, school, house, toilet, road, pavement or a drain to show for all that time and all that ‘hard’ work! While HRW as well as the Sri Lankan Government would prefer five star comfort for these “civilians” the reality is that the Sri Lankan Government has had to put up accommodation for hundreds of thousands of people at short notice; these facilities are but temporary with the government’s intention being the re-settlement of civilians in their own villages once the terrorist menace has been wiped out. These are facilities that are run free of charge by a poor Government of a developing country. Sri Lanka is offering its best to these people who are in dire need of a roof over their heads, a square meal and some medical care. Though there are hoards of international busybodies to criticize and chastise Sri Lanka there is hardly anyone out there to actually donate a coat of paint to one of these buildings. When it comes to feeding, clothing and providing medical care for the Tiger escapees it has always been the Sri Lankan Government that has been the sole provider. It is pathetic that INGOs such as HRW can not comprehend that people trapped in the Tiger held areas do not earn money, they do not produce food in the terrorist held area and the Tiger terrorists are not spending their money to provide food and medical care for them. It is and it has been the Sri Lankan Government for the last 26 years that has been the provider of pensions, food, fuel, education and medical care for them if not which these people would have perished many years ago. 

When other INGOs such as Amnesty International (AI) come out and complain that “The situation at Vavuniya hospital was appalling. …Patients were being discharged and sent straight to the camps long before their injuries were healed…. When Human Rights Watch visited …. many of the hospital beds had no sheets, blankets, or pillows” it only shows the superficiality of understanding of the very issues they claim to deal with. The hospital beds may not have Egyptian cotton bed sheets and tri-pillows but what matters to us is that these people are given medical care as best as the country could afford and are fed and clothed and kept safe until the terror gang is completely liquidated when they will have the prospects of being rehabilitated and resettled. 

It is also ironic how HRW made the visit referred to by AI above. Daily Mirror newspaper carried a report on Monday, March 02, 2009 of how Anna Neistat, Senior Emergencies Researcher at HRW told the US Senate during a hearing on Sri Lanka last month that she had visited the Sri Lanka two weeks ago and carried out research on the plight of displaced people from the Wanni. Daily Mirror reported: 

“When contacted by the Daily Mirror the researcher confirmed that she visited Vavuniya and interviewed people. “I was in the hospital and at the camp sites but not inside the camps. But I did interview IDPs who were outside the camps as well as people who work in the camps,” she told the Daily Mirror. 

However when asked if clearance was given for the HRW to carry out such research in Sri Lanka both the Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management Mahinda Samarasingha and the Foreign Ministry said no such clearance was issued and a probe into the matter will be launched. 

“We have not given such clearance for anyone under that name Anna Neistat or for Human Rights Watch to come here and carry out research. They might have come as tourists and done work which is a clear violation of immigration laws. It is a serious matter and we will probe this and deal with it accordingly,” Minister Samarasingha told Daily Mirror.” 

When I say that this is ironic what amazes me is the nonchalance and the contempt with which Neistat and HRW treat Sri Lanka and its immigration laws. While spouting out warning after warning against Sri Lanka about law and order her ability to slip through the Sri Lanka Customs and Immigration under the pretext of being tourists and visit any part of the country speaks volumes not only about the thickness of HRW skin but also of the fact that HRW has got accomplices on the Sri Lankan soil, namely the same medical spies working in the affected areas who pump sensationalized and bigoted information to HRW. 

HRW can not differentiate a ‘No fire zone’ from a ‘picnic zone’ 

Brad Adams states that “Sri Lanka’s so-called ‘no-fire zone’ is now one of the most dangerous places in the world.” Well spotted! Brad! You must be a genius or something! Really, this is an amazingly obtuse statement even for HRW! The only reason why the Sri Lankan Government wanted to declare a ‘no fire zone’ was because there was firing and the place was dangerous. It is never likely that a ‘No Fire Zone’ created in the middle of a theatre of war would be serendipity complete with blossoming flowers, chirping birds and playing kids. The Government did not name it a “picnic zone” for that very reason. Even for future reference of HRW who are bound to be faced with war situations, a ‘No Fire Zone’ will always be a dangerous place because it always is going to be in the middle of a war! You do not declare a ‘No fire Zone’ in the middle of Sunset Boulevard for fun. HRW, please do us all a favour and remember when you see a ‘No Fire Zone’ anywhere in the future it usually means there is normally ‘Fire’ in the area and it is only by decree someone ‘wants’ the area avoided when firing- which may not be respected by the other party/ies concerned. 

Safety provided by a ‘No Fire Zone’ depends on the respect your opponents will have for your decree that the area remains free from fire. When you have the misfortune of dealing with an opponent that knows no chivalry, has no standards, principals or morals, then whatever action you take in good faith is bound to be abused. This is the case where the opponent is the unprincipled, immoral, cowardly, despotic LTTE. What was demarcated by the Sri Lankan Government in good faith as being a safe area for non-combatants could have been left as a safe zone if the LTTE had principles, morals or a sense of propriety; instead the LTTE is misusing the facility by entering the safety area hiding behind the women and children and using their cover to fire at the Sri Lankan military. What exactly do people like HRW expect the Sri Lankan military to do in this situation? Just throw hands up in the air in exasperation and say ‘Shucks! Can’t fire because of the civilians and let’s go back to Colombo and wait till LTTE realizes their folly and let the civilians go”? If HRW is thinking that then they are smoking something stronger than ‘three roses.’ 

HRW’s aversion to the Truth 

HRW’s assertion that “the military has largely prevented relief supplies entering LTTE-held territory despite the fact that for weeks tens of thousands of refugees have been struggling to survive without adequate food, shelter, clothing and medical supplies” is a despicable canard when the Sri Lankan Government has repeatedly ensured regular convoys of food and other essentials in partnership with Red Cross into the terrorist held areas despite attacks on these convoys by the LTTE. More often than not the food and medicine is paid for by the Sri Lankan Government; this is money that could have been used to alleviate poverty and suffering of others in other parts of the country- but no one is complaining. 

It is even more despicable that HRW is attempting to justify the LTTE attacks on the supply convoys to the terrorist held areas, by offering “excuses” for such attacks. HRW says that it has recorded the accounts of eyewitnesses who described how the army had used food convoys to advance on LTTE positions- as a result, a convoy was fired on and delayed. This is how Westerners justify atrocities committed by criminal elements that have their blessings such as LTTE while tut tutting the Governments of small, poor countries they do not like. This is how it goes- LTTE did that because the Sri Lankan Government is doing this- as if to say it was the Sri Lankan Government that caused the LTTE attacks on supply convoys! It is an open secret that the LTTE attacks the supply convoys to rob them to sustain their cadres. Another open secret is that the goods sent to these areas get robbed by the LTTE and sold to the ‘civilians’ at black market prices. According to first hand accounts given by escaped ‘civilians’ to the Government held areas, 500g of black pepper (a highly sought after ingredient in Tamil cooking) sells for Rs4,000. 

This is what people in ivory towers such as HRW either do not know or do not want to know; and, these are called ‘ground realities’.   

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, it is good to know that HRW is able to acknowledge even unintentionally that the Sri Lankan Government does send in supply convoys for the people trapped in terrorist held areas. 

Evacuate the civilians NOW? HOW? 

HRW calls on the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to urgently facilitate the safe evacuation of civilians from the conflict area. Sri Lankan Government is doing its darndest to get the civilians out unharmed which is why they are walking in inch by inch clearing the area for over three months now rather than dropping a couple of kilos of explosive stuff from the air and clearing the area in half an hour. Let’s hope the LTTE hears HRW call and shows some respect to it. 

HRW is encouraged to reserve their spiel about prosecutions for war crimes for those who actually commit war crimes. Sri Lanka is not worried about any threats for criminal prosecutions in this area despite the moles HRW may hire from within the war zone to make up sensational claims. Over the past 30 years or more some Tamils have proved themselves capable of selling Sri Lanka for a quick buck (as some Sinhalese have done) but after many years and millions of dollars spent by them in trying to destroy Sri Lanka- Sri Lanka has proved that truth prevails above all! 

Yes Mr Adams, responsibility is a two way street indeed! You responsibility is to find the truth and speak only the truth! 

Ramanie de Zoysa

HRW stop deceiving the world and stop being the terrorist mouth piece

Ben Silva UK

I am referring to the HRW report at http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/04/09/sri-lanka-stop-shelling-no-fire-zone Not only the Sri Lankan army has to face the heavy artillery fired from the “no-fire zone” by LTTE terrorists, they also have to face a verbal barrage of abuse and false reporting from bogus human rights groups such as HRW, who are simply parroting LTTE propaganda. HRW simply do not have the nerve to tell their apparent pay masters LTTE, to release the civilians from the iron grip of LTTE. Did HRW tell the coalition forces to stop killing over 100000 Iraqi civilians and to stop torturing them ?The ghastly loss of life, could have been prevented easily, if funding to LTTE was stopped. Did HRW ever lobby to stop funding going to LTTE ? Many doubt if HRW will ever do that as many suspect that LTTE are their pay masters. HRW in order to clear their name, should disclose who are funding them and how they spend their money.

HRW, the Human Rights Wankers, do not have the faintest idea about human rights. They are a group of people, who lead a life in luxury at the expense of the misery of fellow human beings. They create sensationalism and exaggerate reports, in order to show that they are working and to attract funding. The reports generated by them are not worth the piece of paper on which it is written, as the data for the reports are second hand biased, corrupted data, very often straight from LTTE agents. They either have either not heard of accuracy, authenticity or simply do not understand these terms. They produce garbage reports for the gullible that do not challenge their data.

Their anti Sri Lankan stand and pro LTTE views are well known and many believe LTTE agents write reports for HRW.

If their reports are to have any credibility, they should indicate the source of data, so that the accuracy and authenticity could be verified. If they do not disclose the source of data, their reports are as good as produced by any joker, simply garbage.

As for Sri Lankans, we had enough of terrorism and enough of bogus human rights organisations that only provide the function of being the mouth piece of terrorists.

Has HRW even touched on the major problems facing the world and that will affect the human rights of many such as Global warming, Population explosion, economic melt down, wealth gap, lack of opportunities and employment in poor countries, lack of clean drinking water ?

I would say, they have not even had a cursory glance on major problems facing humans and affecting their rights, but they are happy spending their energy defending the deadliest terror group in the world and being their mouth piece.

The most important thing now is to eliminate terrorism at any cost. Terrorists should not be allowed to escape as they will certainly pose a threat to our leaders as well as the ordinary citizens. No one in Sri Lanka would be safe if terrorists are allowed to survive. To my knowledge no other country in the world has exchanged the lives of terrorists to the lives of civilians as it would give a blank cheque to terrorists in the world to carry on terrorism. Terrorists that have killed ordinary law abiding citizens including Tamils, killed moderate Tamil Politicians and intellectuals, killed Sri Lankan leaders, killed the Indian PM, brought about misery to all Sri Lankans for the past 25 years should not be allowed to escape and should face Sri Lankan justice. Just to name a few Tamils killed by LTTE: Mr Lakshman Kadirgamar (Foreign Minister) ,Mr Fernandopulley (Chief Whip), Dr Neelan Thiruchelvam, Dr Rajini Thiranagama, Mr Alfred Duraiappah (Mayor of Jaffna), K Sivanesan, Mr T. Maheshwaran, Mr Nadarajah Raviraj, Mr Joseph Pararajasingham, Saranabawan Shanmuganathan, Mr Appapillai Amirthalingam,Mr V.Yogeswaran, K Alalasundaram,Mr S Dharmalingam and so on.

In case some of the countries that attempt to give a life line to the terrorists are still not aware of the real situation, I have given below a brief out line. Now is the time for our embassies abroad to get active and expose LTTE and their fronts.

Terrorism has caused a human rights crisis, that has affected all Sri Lankans, and has caused a massive damage to the country, economy and people:

1. Terrorism producing orphans, disabled persons, blind persons, and causing fear, mental illnesses and stress.

2. Ethnic cleansing, depriving livelihood and homes of innocent people

3. Loss of life of law enforcement officers and security forces

4. Loss of life, innocence and childhood of children due to child soldiering

5. Fund raising in the West that cause Terrorism and destruction in Sri Lanka .

6. Loss of Right to life of valuable Sinhala and Tamil National leaders.

Blake, Boucher, Human Rights Watch and All those who ask for a Ceasefire now want terrorism to continue in Sri Lanka. Why ?

By Charles.S.Perera

11th April 2009

In the Parliament Square in London two Tamils from the diaspora, one of who had come to London as recently as three weeks ago, are lying under the shade of umbrellas  showing the terrorist Prabhakaran’s dreamed Eelam.   

They are surrounded by terrorist sympathisers, with the Officers of the UK Police Force standing apart  hopelessly incapable of handling demonstrators  hoisting  the flag which has a symbol of  terrorism of a group of terrorists banned in the United Kingdom.  The two young men are  fasting unto their death demanding the intervention of the International Community to call for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.  

Between the two fasting men is a portrait of  Prabhakaran the terrorist leader.  This is a clear indication that the Tamil Diaspora in London, and the  fast unto death sponsored by them is a last minute attempt to save their terrorist leaders ,  rather than  defend  the Tamil Civilians who are being held by the terrorists as a human shield. By the way the Tamil Civilians are now being slowly and steadily saved by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and brought into the Army controlled safe areas, and provided with accommodation, food and medicine.

Tamil Terrorist flag over British Parliament
Tamil demonstrators calling for an end to the war against Tamil Terrorists
Photo: Courtesy AP

While this circus of fast unto death continues in the Parliament Square in  London , in a small stretch of land in  Puthukkudiyiruppu,  some thousand s of  Tamil Civilians are being held at gunpoint by the  LTTE terrorists. Their presence in the area, is for the terrorists the  only means to save their skins in an inevitable death or capture by the armed forces, in the  final count down on terrorism in Sri Lanka, which has lasted for the last thirty years. 

Unlike for those fasting duo and their supporters, it is not a dry clean broad stretch of road, medieval buildings , warm clothes,  tasty short eats and fruit juices  and fascinating onlookers for the Sri Lanka Soldiers, who weather the tropical rains, go even without food  and risk the artillery fire of the terrorists to rescue the Tamil Civilians forcefully kept in the small stretch of land by their terrorist guards, and bring them into safety, food, dry clothes and medicine in the areas controlled by the armed forces.  The food and medicine sent to this area  by the government are squandered by the terrorists for their  own use. 

The Sri Lanka Armed Forces have reached the area which had been declared a no-fire zone in which  the terrorists are now confined .  To liberate this area from the last “vestige” of terrorists in Sri Lanka, the Tamil Civilian population detained by the terrorists have to be rescued to avoid death  and injury, if caught in cross fire.  The Sri Lank Government forces contrary to the adverse publicity by the terrorist sympathisers, are kind and human  with a high moral standard.   

Their armed passage through Poonery, Killinotchi, Mulative to the Puthukkudiyiruppu no-fire Zone, had been a long tedious march without  brutality, with respect to human life, and material .  It was and continues to be motivated first by a humanitarian desire to rescue a mass of Tamil people that had been made to suffer under the jackboots of   terrorism, and secondly by their determination  not to  allow their motherland to be divided and mutilated. What matters to the valiant  Armed Forces is not where they have come to, but how they came to where they are now. Their fight was against the terrorists and not the Tamil people , and that was the principle on which they had taken arms against terrorists, what ever interpretation the pro-terrorists lobby in the diaspora or the Western Humanitarian Activists give. 

The Sri Lanka Armed Forces since they started their military offensive against the terrorists after the Mavil Aru incident, have avoided death and injury to the Tamil Civilian population. The Soldiers shed their uniforms when they captured the Madhu Church from the terrorists, and donned the garbs of manual workers to repair the damages caused to the Church by the terrorist.  They even built roads and bridges. They made it possible after twenty long years for the trains to run from Colombo to  Vavunia and from their to Jaffna.  They made it possible for goods to be transported from Colombo to Jaffna and back  on convoys of lorries.  They changed the lives of the Tamil Civilians in the North, and the East. 

It is NOT now that our great Sri Lanka Security Force, which has sacrificed large numbers of its Officers and Soldiers, and went through untold misery in the capture of the villages and towns  under terrorist control,  will resort to harming the Tamil Civilian population , when they have only a few square kilo meters of land to capture and end terrorism for good.  If the International Community cannot understand that, they are “stupid” or they are determined to make the Government of Sri Lank fail in their attempt to end terrorism. 

The Sri Lanka Armed Forces who are now within reach of the entrapped Tamil Civilian population in the zone which was declared a no fire Zone,  determined to rescue the Tamil Civil population have opened several escape routes from the no-fire zone into the Army held areas.  They have set up public address systems to  request the Tamil Civilians held by the terrorists to come into the  escape routes manned by the soldiers, to be taken  into safe areas. 

As result the Tamil civilians have decided to take the risk  of being fired at by the terrorists and taken the escape routes to freedom from their captives. They are now coming in large numbers and received by the Sri Lankan Soldiers, and conducted into the Camps of IDPs. 

Now about the Camps of the IDPs,  the personal publicity seeking Brad Adams, Charulata Hogg, Anna Neistat and other  activists of the Human Rights Watch, have begun to call the camps of IDPs’ concentration camps ( which by the way is an insult to those  Jews and others who died in  the Concentration camps of Hitler, in Gas Chambers, and in laboratories where Dr. Joseph Mengele “ the Angel of Death”, made medical experiment with live patients ).   

They have “peanut” brains and cannot understand the tremendous impact of  thousands of people that had been kept under gun point by brutal terrorists for years escaping in to areas controlled by the Armed Forces, seeking assistance, security and protection.   

The IDPs have to be accommodated, provide food, clothing and medicine.  The army has to sort out among them individuals  who are terrorists, or  terrorists with suicide bombs. Terrorism and terrorists are  different from rebels or freedom fighters.   Terrorists have no respect to life , be it that  of men, women children, babies or pregnant women.  The Army has to be vigilant if not all the victories against terrorism will be lost, and terrorism will come back with all its force.  There are already more than 65 000 refugees in these camps. 

The government cannot  immediately provide individual  homes to every ID family.  The Sri Lanka government and its Army  is doing a job that  no government in the world has faced up to date. 

A THREE-month pregnant woman escaping the LTTE grip in the “No Fire zone” along with several more fellow escapees was shot and critically injured by LTTE terrorists around 7.00 a.m. on Saturday(11), forcing fellow civilians to bring the injured pregnant woman to the cleared areas to be handed over to the Army troops in PUTHUKKUDIYIRUPPU. The pregnant woman who has received injuries to her shoulders and chest area was profusely bleeding at the time she ended up in PUTHUKKUDIYIRUPPU with the help of her fellow travelers.

The International Community and the humanitarian activists have no idea of the  difficulties that the government and its Armed Forces are faced with.  They have not only to fight the terrorists to their utter end, but also look after the interest of the refugees, their welfare as well as their security.  Above all the Government and the Armed Forces have to bear the incessant criticism without any help by the International Community and their Agents, calling for a cease fire, and  a pause.  The Armed forces are not fighting against saintly angels, but crude ruthless terrorists. 

Brad  Adams is talking through his hat when he says that, “ Sri Lanka’s so-called ‘no-fire zone’ is now one of the most dangerous places in the world.”   The intelligent readers should  not let themselves be fooled by the false propaganda that is fed to them by  the Human Rights Watch writing articles in favour of their favourite Sri Lanka  terrorists.   The Sri Lanka Government Forces have not and will not fire into the war Zone.   The article , “Sri Lanka :Stop Shelling “No-Fire Shone” “,  in the  Human Rights Watch website comes out of their prejudiced  minds without any verifiable fact.   

One begins to wonder why this haste and desire on the part of  Brad Adams to appeal  for UN Security Council to act against the Government of Sri Lanka, when it is on the verge of terminating its military operations against the terrorists putting a final end to terrorism  in Sri Lanka. 

Any one who objectively follows the military operations of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces against terrorists, would have noticed that the government Forces had avoided death and injury to  the Tamil Civilians through out its fight against terrorism during the last two years. The Human Rights Watch is depending on hearsay evidence to make accusations against the Government of Sri Lanka.  

These false accusation of the Human Rights Watch against the  Government Forces firing into the no fire Zone, and invoking the UN Security  Council to intervene  is by itself a denial of the human rights of a government to protect its people and territory without being interfered  into by   a third party, whose interests is to allow  continued terrorism in Sri Lanka, which would keep them employed for good number of years to come.  Brad Adams and the rest are  seeking to feather their own nests, while  pretending  to show their human kindness for the suffering of the  innocent people. 

The Sri Lanka Army is by any standard  one  of the best, if not the best Armed Force in the world.  In addition to its proven skill as  a fighting force, it is  experienced in  fighting under all situation, and  all conditions. They are well disciplined combatants.  They need the applause of the world, not its  criticism.   

The International Community minimises the military operational victories of  our armed forces against a group of ruthless terrorists- who had acquired most modern equipment and perhaps trained by foreign military personal.  This failure  of appreciation of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces  by the International Community  shows that it rather expected the Government and its Armed Forces  to fail in its  military solution against terrorism. 

Blake and Boucher who now propose a political solution favourable to the minority community is in fact suggesting a means to  divide Sri Lanka rather than help to  Unite the Communities for an undivided Sri Lanka. This is an attempt on their part to divide Sri Lanka, which the terrorists failed to do.   

The political  solution after terrorism is some thing they should leave  for the people of Sri Lanka to decide, as it is  not for  the International Community or the Tamil Diaspora to decide. 

The proposal of Blake and Boutcher is quite opposed to President Barrack Obama’s foreign policy. Blake had been from the beginning favourable to the terrorists, and continued  through out the military operations against the terrorists,  offensively  to remind the government to find a political solution to the problem.  The political solution Blake thought would be a division of Sri Lanka between the Government and the terrorists. Because the terrorists  accepted no solution other than the establishment of a separate Eelam State. 

To Blake, Boucher and Adams , the terrorists of Sri Lanka  are different from the terrorists they have in mind such as the Al Quaida, and the Talibans.   They cannot speak, crack jokes and wine and dine with the Al Qaida terrorists or the Taliban terrorists, whereas the terrorists of Sri Lanka are their chums, with who they may have wined and dined, cracked jokes and laughed together.  Therefore, they would like to perpetrate the cult of terrorism in Sri Lanka which is beneficial to them socially, and politically in the long run. 

It is far easier to criticise than actually do  what the Sri Lanka Government and its Armed Forces are doing.