UN Advisor's Conclusions About Government Involvement In Child Recruits, Ludicrous!

November13th 2006

That the Sri Lankan Government has reacted angrily to the statement made by Special Advisor to the United Nations and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict on Sri Lanka Mr. Allan Rock that security forces assist the Karuna group to forcefully recruit children in Batticaloa district seems somewhat duplicitous and two faced based on the President's willingness to accommodate him and hear him out rather than giving him at least a cold shoulder for brazenness alone!( Not the Rajapakske style of course!) despite this apparent attempt to meddle in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka with unjustifiable accusations quite disregarding the protocols involved and overplaying his role as a United Nation's Special Advisor where diplomacy seems to have flown out the backdoor and verbosity taking precedence over the truth!!

It seems preposterous and presumptious that, based on sheer speculation the Government favours the Karuna faction as collaborators in the campaign to overrun the Wanni terrorists, a hitherto unproven fact and to further concludes that Karuna forcibly recruits child solders with the support of the GOSL seems intolerable.That this theory has to be propounded by someone with little knowledge of the realities involved then also becomes ludicrous. According to a conclusion drawn by UNICEF aided and abetted by dark forces( undoubtedly LTTE supportive ones) who have plied them as well as the UN with rumors to the effect as part of an unending ploy and persistent attempts to bring to disrepute the Government, this story seems to have gathered momentum in all the wrong areas including parts of the international community and given the predicament the LTTE are in presently with nowhere to run and the dragnet closing in on them slowly but surely the motivations and sources behind this innovative fiction becomes somewhat obvious!.
Realistically child recruitment is a hallmark of the Prabhakaran Wanni tigers and while it is easy for anyone to draw analogies to this as something the Government of Sri Lanka also indulges in based on LTTE propaganda, where is the absolute proof beyond innuendo? There seems a very dubious perspective to Mr Rock's story as there is every reason to believe that he too seems to have been drawn into the web of intrigue the LTTE are attempting to weave around Governmental credibilities.This comes in the wake of Government spokesperson and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella's report that Mr.Rock is alleged to have gone to Kilinochchi and then proceeded to Batticaloa while visiting about 24 kilometres in uncleared areas for a duration of three hours where the minister's euphemisms have also incorporate the following sentiment that "It is indeed surprising how a person could arrive at such conclusions after touring a very limited area and spending few hours" which is not merely surprising but mind boggling!

Now comes the interesting part about Mr.Rock! Based on some of the Canadian News Archives Reports about his past involvements, Mr.Rock seems to have had a reputation for hastily drawn conclusions and indulgences in indiscriminate repartee where there appear to be many instances of other international involvements relative to Mr Rock's status, assignment, mandate and office where he seems to have often missed by miles the point he has been trying to establish mainly due to his unorthodox approach towards resolution and closure and to all intents and purposes it appears that this time too he has in his typical bungling style implicated the Government of Sri Lanka with insufficient evidence and needs to rephrase the blatant allegations that suggest, the Sri Lankan Government facilitates child recruitment which is a very serious allegation and intolerable for its inaccuracy regardless of whether it comes from a misinformend Canadian UN official or Buckingham Place itself!

To facilitate this assertion one might ask "why is it, if this be the case that the Red Cross and many other voluntary Agengies incolved in this field, always eagle eyed on this particular issue have failed to draw this conclusion about the Government of Sri Lanka?" and why is it that a certain Mr Rock has to turn up to sound an alarm bell to this somewhat assinine allegation unless the ringer was assinine enough to believe the innuendo the LTTE propagandists appear to have pumped into his mindset?

The status and office of Mr.Rock therefore is of no consequence beyond the consequential implications it may have on Mr. Rock's credibility and reputation.Tantamount to the indulgence of a fantasy as the case seems to be as either a pro LTTE propagandist or a simple minded rumor monger whose faith in rumors circumvents his better sense of judgement to have made such contentious accusations against the Sovereign Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka engaged in a confrontation with ruthless terrorists in like manner to the rest of the world fighting global terrorism. It seems a great pity that based on the information official sources in Sri Lanka have received as a result of an ongoing investigation at its very preliminary stages, Mr Rock's comments show bias and appear to be a direct result of a flimsy and somewhat vaguely conducted tour into the Wanni in what has been termed by the Defence Ministry as one intended to ascertain first-hand the ground situation mainly in the North and East where the information perused by way of his tour has been second hand and somewhat tardy!

Mr.Rock who carries the status of Special Advisor to the United Nations has in the aftermath of all this sensational allegations met President Rajapaksa at Temple Trees yesterday where he is said to have revealed the details of his discussions with the LTTE representatives in Kilinochchi. Bearing in mind that the LTTE are a group of internationally proscribed and banned terrorists it must also be questioned as to who gave Mr. Rock carte blance to directly confront these terrorists and what kind of protocols were involved where the President rather than making a direct protest over the issue has as usual been his pragmatic self and entertained Rock to his deposition rather than showning him the exit to leave the country as Mr.Rock certainly seems to have overstepped his limitations as a diplomat and has had the nerve to make these accusations against the Sri Lankan Government without a semblance of truth to it.

While it can be safely presumed that there are genuine doubts over the accuracy of Mr Rock’s allegation based on the fact that Mr.Rock is not new to making controversial statements on many political issues during his career if the Canadian News Archives on this individual can be used as a yardstick, it also needs to be emphasized that there are some analysts who believe Mr.Rock's comments have been taken out of context and distorted as it usually is by media moghuls and their scavenging representatives to make a juicy story which if it is indeed the case certainly exonerates the gentleman of any breach of protocol but needs to be established together with his credibilities given the sensitive nature of the related issue .