By Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

The West blatantly interferes by continuing to threaten us directly and subtly by deploying strategies in different guises. The proxies of the LTTE in many countries in North America, Europe and the Pacific renewed their anti Sri Lanka propaganda by organising events to mark the 1983 Black July anniversary. These events were aimed at launching a campaign of disinformation on the eve of the General Elections slated for 5 August. Reflecting the overly wish of Western countries to interfere in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, officials and politicians of some countries too participated in the events organised by the Tamil Diaspora’s Eelam-lobbies.

In a surprising statement issued on 23 July, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, Today, we remember the horrific events of Black July in Sri Lanka and honour the memory of its victims. In July 1983, anti-Tamil pogroms swept across Colombo, Sri Lanka, following decades of unrest and rising tensions in the country.”

Last week, Amnesty International stated, The Sri Lankan Government should end the targeted arrests, intimidation and threats against the lives and physical security of lawyers, activists, human rights defenders and journalists”.

These are two instances of biased propaganda on the eve of an important Election in Sri Lanka. 

Canada militarily nipped the FLQ 

Canadian Premier Trudeau has conveniently forgotten about the separatist movement in his country, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ Québec Liberation Front) which posed a major challenge when his father Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister. The Marxist-Leninist terrorist movement FLQ, founded in the early 1960s, conducted a number of attacks between 1963 and 1970, which totaled over 160 violent incidents, including several killings and causing injuries to many more.

As a Sri Lankan analyst in Canada pointed out the FLQ was militarily nipped in the bud by Trudeau Sr.  But Sri Lanka had to face a protracted war due to the misguided good offices” of foreign powers who had no clear understanding of the actual situation in Sri Lanka. Mr. Trudeau’s Black July statement shows that Canada does not know the actual situation in Sri Lanka or how best to deal with Colombo.

People of the First Nations

Mr. Trudeau has rushed to remember the Black July in Sri Lanka, ever since he became the Prime Minster, but he has yet to come forward to remember the horrific events that have gone through over four centuries of blood-letting, murder and treaty cheating in North America. Unfortunately, that process occurs even today, though in a different guise, as one may see from the economic and civil conditions endured by the people of the ‘First Nations’. However, the tragedy of is that they do not control important blocks of swing votes in Metropolitan areas, as is done by the ethnic groups that Mr. Trudeau has so readily responded to, in his Black July” message,” he pointed out.

The Sri Lankan community in Canada called upon Mr. Trudeau to correct this historic lacuna, review the history of Canada, the European occupation of North America, and understand  the tremendous injustice of his witting or unwitting  neglect of what we have to learn from Canada’s own history, and what injustices need to remember on Black July.

Interfereing AI statement

The Amnesty International (AI) statement also questioned the Government decision to streamline Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). A probe into NGOs registered under the previous Government has commenced. In the months following the November 2019 Presidential Election, a number of organisations reported visits from intelligence officers who sought details of staff, programs and funding, in particular,  organisations  in  the  war-affected  Northern and  Eastern  provinces  of  the  country. Such visits are blatant attempts to harass and intimidate Sri Lankan civil society,” the AI statement said.

Any country has a right to inquire into the activities of NGOs to ascertain if the funds have been properly used and whether there are any hidden agendas detrimental to national interest. More stringent controls have been applied to NGOs in almost every country, including India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka is once again faced with blatant external interference in its domestic political process, an act inadmissible to any sovereign state. The extremists in Tamil Diaspora ranging from so-called Tamil Transitional Government to various eelam organisations continue their attempts to create a public opinion against Sri Lanka with the ultimate objective of using the West as a cat’s paw to get publicity for their fund collections. The funds are used for creating stability in Sri Lanka as a first step for the long-term goal of reviving Tamil terrorism. The Eelam lobby wants to create a climate of insecurity artificially to provoke a violent situation that will provide justification for external intervention.

The attitude displayed by most Western envoys based in Colombo toward the people of Sri Lanka and their leadership is a reflection of the old imperial mindset. These neo colonials want Sri Lanka to become dependent on the West, submissive and docile.

Amnesty International asserts that ‘a campaign of fear has intensified since the 2019 Presidential Election, and has cast a shadow over the 2020 Parliamentary Election campaign as well’ is a baseless accusation. Furthermore it could be construed as  blatant interference in the forthcoming General Elections. 

The AI has called upon the United Nations, as well Sri Lanka’s partners and foreign donors, to immediately call for full respect, protection and fulfillment of the human rights of all Sri Lankans, and particularly to halt the reversal of fragile gains in the protection of human rights in recent years. This is an indirect call by the AI to Sri Lankan voters to cast their vote to the political parties favoured by the West.

In the past too there were many instances of foreign interference in Sri Lankan elections. There were allegations of foreign funding to certain parties and selected politicians by foreign governments and organisations. The voters must be wary of these foreign agendas and cast their votes freely keeping in mind the best interests of the country and the need to safeguard the independent and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.