Insight By Sunil Kumar

July 27th 2010
For as long as there are displaced and disgruntled Tamils who have lost family members, friends and acquaintances alike during the Tamil Tiger insurgency the cry to address The Issue Of War Crimes allegedly commited by the Armed Forces on the orders of the Government on the part of these Tamils will never cease.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This is the only means in their vision towards vindicating the loss of those close to them and they will continue to blame it on the hierarchy which exercised its legitimate right to put down a terror campaign which was nation destructive where it was not only the Tamils but other nationalities that were victimised through the loss of loved ones and friends and a major part of the blame has to be attributed to the terrorists and their supportives around the globe and the Government involved in an assertive albeit fierce campaign to maintain the Sovereignity and Territorial Integrity of the Nation and in this respect no amout of protestations or marches will address the real issue which does not hinge on alleged war crimes by the Government!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ To a greater part there were crimes against humanity commited by the Tamil Tiger terrorists who even pointed their weaponry at their own community and if the fairness of war in the situation created by the terrorists needed emphasizing there could be no greater case for it than the military campaigns conducted by the Armed Forces and those who paid the ultimate price on both sides of the divide victims of war which now need to be laid to rest as the reconciliation process by the Governnment and the Sinhala Nation has begun appreciably and very visibly.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In this respect, calls for further investigations by the UN seem a total waste of time as the Government has stated its case very clearly that any investigations will be conducted internally which is appropriate as it is indeed an internal matter and the term war crimes a dirty word which has been borrowed from other situations globally perhaps despite there being no tangible link nor conclusive evidence beyond cooked up and graphically distorted material to strengthen the case of the accusers!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It therefore seems of no consequence that a British Tamil has embarked on a two-week walk from London to Geneva to ask the UN to initiate an independent investigation into allegations that ‘war crimes ‘ were committed when the Sri Lankan Government crushed the Tamil Tigers last year as it simply will not address a cooked up allegation against the Government of Sri Lanka nor will it stand up in any International Tribunal or court of law based on the circumstantial evidence that point to the Government’s legitimate right to crush the terrorists!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Hence when Mr Gobi Sivanthan, a young businessman from Hayes,Middlesex, UK left Downing Street As part of his “walk for justice”, which is due to end outside the offices of the UN Human Rights council in Geneva Switzerland, while also calling for a boycott of Sri Lankan goods in exchange for internally displaced persons to be allowed to return home, and for access to be granted to prisoners of war he seems to be floundering in deep water where rather than his case being heard in any rational perspective towards the means he expects he would be wasting his time, efforts and resources and better off pitting his emotions and intelligence in the manner of some other Tamils with grievances of a similar nature towards nation building for all Sri Lankans. Furthermore the demands he seems to have requested are already being met by the Government.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Nation building and reconciliation needs to be done casting aside past enmities and hatreds fomented by the despicable, now deceased megalomaniac terrorist leader who virtually led the Tamil Community to unprecedented near disaster and were saved only by the timely actions of the Rajapaksha Administration and its Armed Forces if the record needs to be set straight.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ If Sivanthan’s protestations hinge on UN estimates that about 7,000 people died in the final months of fighting that culminated in the defeat of the Tamil Tigers at the end of the island’s 25-year civil war he must be made aware along with the UN that this number in all probability includes not only Tamils but also the other ethnic groups inhabiting the areas of conflict and made an issue of by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on the instigation of certain Tamil sympathisers within the UN who have their own agendas towards discrediting the Sri Lankan Administration albeit to no avail thus far!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ And in keeping with their objectives regardless of the accuracies posted in the allegations against the Sri Lankan Government, various Human Rights groups have accused government forces of war crimes and towards making it sound plausible the same accusations directed at the Tamil Tiger terrorists of targeting civilians where Mr Sivanthan should pause a bit to ponder upon the credibilities of the accusations as being one sided as it then involves attrocities against his Tamil community committed by the sources perhaps he himself may have once championed as liberators towards secession.

In this sense it may be best for him to leave the major overhauling of Sri Lanka and her rebuilding to its administration and its magnanimous leader who has already reached out to the Tamil Community in many gracious perspectives rather than hamper the cause through calling for incongruous UN intervention which will neither compensate for the long suffering displaced persons nor bring back lost lives in any real sense.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is indeed a great tragedy what has transpired in Sri Lanka during the terrorist attrocities but blaming the casuallties as being a direct result of deliberate Government negligence rather than on the mendacities of the Tamil Tiger terrorists seems more than ill conceived and deliberately misleading!

If it is justice that is being sought by the likes of Mr Sivanthan based upon his protestations it needs to be a justice for all Sri lankans rather than a fragmented selective section of the population and the strongest case for justice is a coming together of all ethnicities in unity towards nation building and reconciliation which some honourable Tamils are already involved in where the lives of those lost and unaccounted for will not have been in vain!