By Charles.S.Perera

The symptom of Sri Lanka phobia which is common among the politicians in the West, is caused through  personal political ambitions. It comes from the presence of a large number of expatriates Tamils living in these Western countries. It makes the patients have a distorted view of human rights. They become blind to their own actions of violation of human rights, and war crimes.

Suffering from this phobia they commit  war crimes, torture, rape, impose  sanctions and trade embargoes that kill children  as in Iraq, they kill men, and women not in their own countries but in foreign countries. They incite  rebels of diverse mentalities against the governments in place in their own countries, by encouraging them giving them arms and ammunition , and sending military instructors.  They make criminals of governments,  and  make freedom fighters of criminals and terrorists.

They turn to Sri Lanka to diffuse their guilt, and dump their sins on Sri Lanka for their redemption.  They cannot think of Sri Lanka without their  conscious clear of their own crimes. Then they begin to accuse Sri Lanka  inventing crimes it had not committed.

We have seen it happening in Bengazi in Libya, in Syria and now in Ukraine.  They use Napalm and various other gases, and drone attacks to disarm people who fight against them and kill innocent civilians without any human concern, because they are not their people but coloured strangers in foreign countries, just fodder for their cannons of strategic craze.

We see the symptoms Sri Lanka phobia- the anxiety disorder in the patients in their various actions.  For instance the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was held in Sri Lanka in November, 2013.  The Queen Elizabeth the Head of the Commonwealth was represented by Charles the Prince of Wales.  CHOGM is the making of the United Kingdom in order to maintain  its relations with the British Colonies,  after they were given independence. Therefore it is an event of a greater importance to Great Britain.

Sri Lanka as a member Nation of the Commonwealth is of significant  importance to the Commonwealth. Because it eliminated terrorism that lasted thirty years and despite the great loss of men,  material and a drained economy, had within less than five years  made a formidable financial, social and infrastructure development, raising the  living standard of the people to a remarkable level, and  showed its ability to organise and present the 23rd CHOGM in great splendour.

Sri Lanka one of the poorer members of  the Commonwealth should have been respected for the initiative it had taken, and treated as a model of development of an  independent British Colony, a pride to the Commonwealth of Nations.  David Cameron as the Prime Minister of  the lead Nation of the Commonwealth, should have been pleased to participate in the CHOGM. 

But unfortunately for David Cameron his psychiatric problem- the Sri Lanka phobia surfaced.  He instead of paying homage to a once British colony for its upholding of democratic principles introduced by the British, sought  to downgrade  Sri Lanka’s achievements, its exceptional progress and development, by making  use of his invitation to participate at the CHOGM to go to the North of Sri Lanka to investigate  whether Sri Lanka had violated human rights in the course of the elimination of terrorism, terrorism which know no human rights, and collateral damages in its elimination  an unavoidable loss, the cause of which is terrorism itself.

No mentally sound  politician from a developed Nation, among the Commonwealth of Nations , should have behaved  as David Cameron did in such a lowly  fashion without least respect to  the host nation.  There are times to do certain things and there are time when best not to do things.  David Cameron did not know to do the right thing at the right time.  He will stand out as the most un-British English politician of the recent past, at least in the memory of Sri Lanka. For British as Colonial rulers have committed most heinous crimes in Sri Lanka

David Cameron  was no doubt under pressure from the Tamil expatriates in UK who were holding the ” carrot of their votes”, for his next election victory. But for a right thinking British politician –a Prime Minster at that it was  not the right thing to do.  This inability to understand between what was right to do,  and what was not is symptomatic of a psychological deficiency.

Stephen Harper the Prime Minister of Canada falls into the same category or rather to a worse.  Canada is one of the developed Nations-development is now considered from a nations ability to devastate developing sovereign  Nations by bombardment, imposing trade sanctions, or withdraw from paying contributions to the Commonwealth of Nations.

Canada has turned out to be one of these developed Nations among some others in the Commonwealth, participating in bombardments along with NATO Forces devastating countries like Libya, Afghanistan , Iraq etc. Stephen Harper’s mental deficiency is far greater than even that of David Cameron.

David Cameron  attended the CHOGM abusing the invitation to insult Sri Lanka the host Nation, by visiting the North of Sri Lanka meeting all and sundry anti- Sri Lanka Government groups, and individuals including the Udayam Press- well know for its deformed news reporting.  Not so the Canadian Stephen Harper, he preferred to get information on Sri Lanka from the expatriate pro-terrorist Tamil Community in Canada expecting in return their votes for the trust he places on them.

Stephen Harper’s boycott was the result of his principle  consideration  of assuring his political victory at the next Canadian election, which for him is more important than participating in the CHOGM in Sri Lanka.  His boycott of CHOGM in Sri Lanka was in no way a loss to the prestigious occasion, but he demonstrated his rank disrespect  not only to the people of Sri Lanka, but to all Commonwealth Nations who were present at the ceremony.

For Stephen Harper to consider that his boycott would be a lesson to Sri Lanka to  refrain from violating human rights is not the  mindset of an intelligent man.  He is also dangerously ill  from Sri Lanka phobia which all the Western political leaders are now suffering from.  This phobia seems to be permanent until the political ambitions is lost.  Stephen Harper has violated the human rights of the aborigine Indians in all respect, leaving no room for them to rise ever again as a significant Community in Canada.  Could that be the contribution of a great political leader to its Nation?

Then the other Sri Lanka phobic patient Hugo Swire the British Minister of State  Foreign and Commonwealth  Office is  a politician like Siobhain McDonagh the Labour MP , who jump to criticise the other Member States of the Commonwealth without the least knowledge of the atrocious history of British Colonial rules from which the former colonies like Sri Lanka still suffer.

Swire says he is concerned, ” Let us take values first the Commonwealth Charter, agreed in 2012, is historic: the first ever declaration  of our common values in a single document.  But, frankly, implementation is patchy.?  We have real concern in Sri Lanka, the Commonwealth’s Chair in office, where there h     as been very little progress in investigating  the terrible atrocities in the civil war that ended five years ago.”

Swire and the British Labour and Conservative Politicians should stop looking at  Sri Lanka through the wrong side of the telescope.  There is every reason for them to be happy that it is Sri Lanka that  upholds Commonwealth values when Britain and Canada are regressing from  being the upholders of those values.  Swire’s rhetoric of Commonwealth values do not match to  what Britain is doing abroad following in the footsteps of America.

The Commonwealth  values apart,  is Great Britain a safe place to those who are different from the white British ?

Even the streets of Great Britain are not safe to  those British whose skin colour is different. It is not uncommon  that a coloured man  in Britain would be accosted, humiliated  or even murdered.

It was the case of  Sri Lankan Thavisha Lakindu Peiris, who came to Britain to complete his university education and try to build a better life. Instead, he was stabbed to death in a senseless and brutal attack, in Sheffield.  ” The 25-year-old, described by his family as a ‘gentle boy’, was found slumped over the wheel of his car after the vicious attack on Sunday night. A small amount of cash was found on him and police have yet to discover a motive for the crime.”

Then again, “Nilanthan became the 50th young person to be murdered on London’s streets since the start of 2007 after he was stabbed in the neck, police said. Nilanthan Moorthy and some of his friends were gathered outside a party when a man in the back of a minicab, who was having an exchange of words with the driver, turned his attention on the group. The white man in his 30s started shouting ‘You f****** Indians, you f****** P***s’ before being driven away, his friends claimed.

But he came back and stabbed Nilanthan in the neck at 1am in Croydon, South London, The Sun reported. Nilanthan later died in hospital at 4.30am on Sunday morning.”

“More than 70 youngsters died at the hands of gangs in Britain in 2008. In London, 26

were stabbed to death. More than 170 gangs, with members as young as ten have been

identified by police in London alone. Many are loose affiliations of friends from the same

area intent on controlling a ‘turf’ or territory, often defined by a post code. the penalty

for straying into the wrong area is to be robbed, beaten or stabbed. Many teenagers

now routinely carry a knife out of fear, in order to defend themselves if attacked.

Experts blame the breakdown of family life for the rise of gang culture. the gang has

replaced the family unit and provides youngsters with a structure and a sense of

belonging which generates the ‘post code pride’ which leads to murder. ”

( http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpsubject/socsci/topbib/gang/knifecrime.pdf)

While Hugo Swire is occupying action against Sri Lanka, unknown to him there are many things happening in UK itself, which are far from the Commonwealth Values he speaks of with pride.  In reality it is with UK that Hugo Swire should be concerned  about and not Sri Lanka.

He should put into action his thoughts about the Commonwealth, “The Commonwealth remains an extraordinary organisation. It creates friendships and partnerships in places that would otherwise not exist.”

Swire is contaminated  with the Sri Lanka phobia which seems to be taking  an epidemic proportion.  Swire too seems to depend on  expatriate Tamil votes for a Conservative Party’s return to office  at the next elections to  remain in Parliament, and therefore continues to pander to the expatriate Tamils in UK.  He has recently met with some NGOs to discuss follow up action after the UNHRC Resolution against Sri Lanka

The British were once spoken of as  a fair, just, polite, well mannered, people. But they have lost that credence making it only a myth with the emergence of politicians  like Cameron, Milliband, Swire etc. They are acutely affected by Sri Lanka phobia.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, too has caught the phobia and  said, ” As host of the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and current Chair in Office, Sri Lanka has a duty to take meaningful action on human rights, political reconciliation and accountability. However, Sri Lanka has failed to realize progress on any of these issues. ”

But Sri Lanka is doing nothing other than help the communities and develop the country to make every one from all communities benefit from the progress he is striving hard to make.

These Phobic Western politicians cannot stand that the President of Sri Lanka is doing so well;  in reality much better than them, having eliminated terrorism, he is developing the country  bringing  it to the level of a medium income country, and organising a lavish ceremonial opening of the 23^rd CHOGM. They wanted to overshadow the event with their accusations and show of concerns of the violation of human rights.

President of Sri Lanka has a more ambitious programme for the Commonwealth for which he had selected the theme, ” Growth with equity: Inclusive Development.”  While Britain the lead Nation and Canada accuse and propose sanctions and punishments to a fellow Commonwealth Nation, the President of Sri Lanka holding the Chair of the CHOGM for the next two years said in his opening speech, “We believe that this theme has broad relevance to the larger Commonwealth, and highlights the importance of equity in economic development, particularly in view of the existing disparities in the  distribution of wealth, and economic benefits. Inclusive development promotes progress and contributes towards achieving Millennium Development Goals.”

It is not surprising that  the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had said, “Canada believes that if the Commonwealth is to remain relevant, it must stand in defence of the basic principles of freedom, democracy and respect for human dignity, which are the very foundations upon which the Commonwealth was built,”, has now announced withdrawal of funding to the Commonwealth of Nations.  Where are his principles ?  He does not know what he is doing, his phobia is taking  a more serious turn.

When the leaders are ill their followers too fall ill. It is a show of  affinity. These second grade politicians have a problem of thinking for themselves, therefore they depend on others to tell them what they should do.  Recently a well known Sri Lanka Cricketer  Muttiah Muralitharan who has set up a Community Development Project in Sri Lanka called the Foundation of Goodness, had invited  a group of Labour and Tory MP’s to visit Sri Lanka for an all cost covered tour of Sri Lanka.

But their Sri Lanka phobia is such that they refused the invitation, perhaps for the fear of having to change  the distorted image of Sri Lanka that had been drilled into their minds by the expatriate Tamils in UK.

This is what Sharon Hodgson a Labour Party MP who was one of those invited said, “I have a long-standing interest in seeking justice for those who have been the victim of war crimes and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, and was a co-signatory to a letter in 2010 calling for an independent, international inquiry into them.

“I was, therefore, delighted when the UN resolved to do just that last month. However, when comments from the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister earlier this week were brought to my attention, indicating that the Government would refuse to co-operate with such an inquiry, I took advice from colleagues and decided to withdraw from the delegation.”  That was because a Senior Labour front bencher had told her that the “visit would be toocontroversial in light of the UN Inquiry.”

Are these intelligent British Politicians ?  They are of course Christians and therefore  follow to the letter what Christ told Thomas, ” Blessed are those who believe without seeing.”

The worst affected from the phobia is of course America, because they want a scapegoat to hide behind to shed  their skin of sin infected with worst crimes that they have committed in the centres of conflict they had created in the world, starting from America, to Chile, Vietnam to Japan, Europe  to Africa, Iran to Syria, and now in  Ukraine.

But still America thinks it has  a high standard of moral sense and goes round accusing all and sundry for Violation of Human rights and war crimes when they are the worst perpetrators in the world today of  violation of human rights and war crimes.  America has become a State of terrorism. Neither China nor Russia has shown an intention for world power, but America nudges and provokes China and Russia. America and its European allies have taken to vilify Russia, supporting  the extreme rightist Ukranian groups in Ukraine.

USA resolution against Sri Lanka is incomprehensible as it is USA that should be called for accountability, not Sri Lanka.

In 1960s USA  requested great Britain to allow them to use an Island in the Indian Ocean for an American Army base.  UK promptly offered the Island Diego Garcia.  As America wanted the inhabitants of the Island, and in the Islands around removed, The Government of Great Britain removed more than 2000 inhabitants of the Islands who had been living there for over 200 years, and allowed the USA to set up their Army Base. The Natives of Diego Garcia the Chagossians  were dumped in the slums of Mauritius.

Following is the rest of the Story:

“ Before the Americans came, more than 2,000 people lived on the islands in the Indian Ocean, many with roots back to the late 18th century. There were thriving villages, a school, a hospital, a church, a railway and an undisturbed way of life. The islands were, and still are, a British crown colony. In the 1960s, the government of Harold Wilson struck a secret deal with the United States to hand over the main island of Diego Garcia. The Americans demanded that the surrounding islands be “swept” and “sanitized”. Unknown to Parliament and to the US Congress and in breach of the United Nations Charter, the British Government plotted with Washington to expel the entire population.

After demonstrating on the streets of Mauritius in 1982, the exiled islanders were given the derisory compensation of less than £3,000 per person by the British government. In the film, former inhabitants Rita Bancoult and Charlesia Alexis tell of how, in accepting the money, they were tricked into signing away their right to return home: “It was entirely improper, unethical, dictatorial to have the Chagossian put their thumbprint on an English legal, drafted document, where the Chagossian, who doesn’t read, know or speak any English, let alone any legal English, is made to renounce basically all his rights as a human being.” (http://johnpilger.com/videos/stealing-a-nation)

Where is Navi Pillai the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ? Is this most inhuman crime against  a whole people- the Chagossians, not a crime against humanity for which both UK and USA is responsible ?   Isn’t it a colossal violation of human rights of a people for which Barack Obama and David Cameron should be taken before an International Tribunal ?

There is also unconfirmed information floating in the internet that the Malasian Aircraft flight Number MH370 has probably been hijacked by the CIA and flown to Diego Garcia.

” One person who has been all over this “missing” aircraft from the very beginning has been “Jim Stone” who writes the fabulous website: Jim Stone Freelance Journalist, at www.jimstonefreelance.com.   And now, Jim Stone may have broken the entire “missing” Malaysian flight MH370 controversy right out of the water… For according to his latest post at his site, which I have the link to right here, it seems that at least one of the passengers survived the flight to Diego Garcia and was able to fire off one message from his captivity on that island. …..”

(http://northerntruthseeker.blogspot.fr/2014/03/did-malaysian-flight-mh370-land-at.html )

Navi Pillai’s psychological problem comes from elsewhere. It is another aspect of the Sri Lanka phobia. She is a Tamil and having suffered under apartheid, she  would have been delighted that a Tamil Terrorist Leader had sprung in Sri Lanka, to challenge a “Sinhala” Government, which in her mind she would have compared to apartheid Regime of South Africa.

Hence it is revenge  for the elimination of her Tamil heroes that Navi Pillai is preparing an International probe into the Sri Lanka’s military operations against terrorism to bring Sri Lanka before a International tribunal.  Sri Lanka needs no such investigation as  Sri Lanka carried out a normal military function to rid itself of terrorism, which any country in such a situation would have done.

Moreover if the Tamil politicians and the Civilians had helped Sri Lanka and its Armed Forces initially,  the terrorism could have been nipped in the bud without prolonging it for thirty long years.  But, if  even after that disaster, the Tamil politicians and the Tamil civilians refuse to cooperate with the government and its Armed Forces, there would be another terrorism  leaving another generations to suffer, until another President like Mahinda Rajapakse is born again.

Let us also hope that there would not be another, G.G.Ponnambalams, Chelvanayagams or Perumals with a  separatist ideology to push Sri Lanka into an unsurmountable precipice  of disaster, and be bothered by interfering phobic Western politicians.