CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

UN hypocrisy is simply astounding

Dr Kamal Wickremasinghe

Recent news from the battle front in the North and East of Sri Lanka suggests that at last, the much acclaimed military capability of the LTTE is on the wane and they are on the run. This outcome was somewhat predictable.

By continuing their unprincipled and cowardly attacks on Tamil moderates and poor Sinhala villagers over the years, the LTTE has managed to gradually alienate the Tamil community, resulting in difficulties in recruitment and decline in financial support to this murderous Fascist organisation. The LTTE forces have been reduced to an ‘army’ (in the pejorative sense of the term) of forcibly recruited twelve year olds.

The Sri Lankan Army on the other hand, appears to be battle-hardened, and beginning to show results of all the training they have been receiving and the more advanced equipment in their possession. (One can only say God speed to them).

Now we come to the ‘ridiculous’ reaction of the international cabal to the setbacks the LTTE has been receiving. These players have a record of ‘strategically’ intervening in the Sri Lankan affairs whenever the balance tilts in favour of the wider Sri Lankan community: they are filled with moral outrage and usually reprimand the government on account of the civilian casualties.

The latest outburst has originated from a Ms Ann Venemen (of the United Nations Children's Fund-UNICEF): she has found the bombing of an (alleged) child home ‘shocking’ and has called on both the rebels and the government to ensure a safe place for children. (Needless to say, she has failed to recognise or mention the government’s assertion that the place was a training camp, albeit of forcibly recruited children).

While all decent men and women obviously regret ‘any’ loss of life including these, this self righteous moral outrage coming from a woman who represents the UN organization needs to be discarded purely on the basis of the utter hypocrisy involved, coming so soon after the mayhem caused by Israeli bombing of Lebanon over the last month.

People the world over were appalled by the ghastly pictures that were being beamed into their living rooms over the last month, of babies and elders being bombed to shreds by a ruthless Israeli Air Force without the scantest regard for human life. They virtually bombed an innocent Lebanese nation back to ‘stone age’ (the foundation of US foreign policy these days).

Ms Venemen might do well to review the reaction of the UN (as an organization controlled by the so-called ‘Security’ Council) to these war crimes: the US resisted French efforts to stop the carnage by negotiating a cease-fire, allowing Israel to continue the bombing – until they found that they couldn’t win this particular war with this particular strategy. The cease-fire was only installed after Israel lost 30 soldiers in one day, and was not prepared to loose their ‘precious’ lives who are only exchanged at a ratio of about 1:1000 of others!.

Through this immoral reaction (as described by the French President), UN has lost any right to react to, or lecture any murderer (let alone the Sri Lankan government) on morality. UN has simply lost any pretensions to being a body that represents all peoples of the world: not until the current hegemony of the Security Council is dismantled.

Continuing in the same vain, the next most outrageous remark has come from Mr Jehan Perera of the National Peace Council, in response to the cowardly murder of Mr K. Loganathan by the LTTE.

Mr Perera has 'vehemently' condemned the assassination and gone a step further by accusing the LTTE of ‘lacking the basic ethics in democracy and governance’. A late awakening indeed!

But there is sting in the tail! Mr Perera greatly disappoints any one who assumes that he has seen the light. In the very next breath, he urges the Government and the international community to adopt 'the carrot and stick method' in peace building, keeping the LTTE ‘within a democratic frame’.

We are entitled to make the inference that Mr Perera believes that the LTTE is operating within 'a democratic frame' (therefore the need to keep them there). He also advocates that 'pressure on LTTE should be accompanied with correct incentives'.

Out of all the jokes Mr Perera has been cracking over the years on the Sri Lankan situation, this is one of the funniest: a man who claims to be the guardian of democracy and fair play is referring to the LTTE as an organisation which currently is, or has the potential to convert to, a democratic organisation: pigs are likely to master flying before that happens!

Mr Perera and others of his ilk (the ‘NGO wallahs’) have been part of the problem that plagued Sri Lanka over the last quarter of a century. They are a part of our colonial legacy.

This breed of men creates NGOs with grandiose names (such as Centre for policy Alternatives, Institute of Policy Studies etc) probably with foreign money, and help foreign empire builders achieve their goals. They parrot the catch phrases such as Human Rights, Freedom and Democracy) of their masters and provide succour to the LTTE. They fail to understand that the Freedom George Bush is speaking of is his freedom to bomb any country in the world when he wishes. They also fail to understand that the Democracy the Americans are advocating is a two party system where both parties are led by their puppets and act at their whim.

Led by people like Jehan Perera, Pakyasithi Saravanamuttu and Radhika Coomaraswamy this group of 'enlightened' commentators (and participants in the war at the same time) are characterised by a number of salient features: they are part of the colonial hangover that is afflicting the developing countries; they are ‘bogus intelligentsia’ that ape a peculiarly Western approach to issues, unwittingly serving their interests. (One breaks into tears when listening to commentaries by Saravanamuttu on Australian radio (ABC), trying to ape a 'plummy' British accent); most of them have not been to (or good enough to enter) a Sri Lankan university and have graduated from institutions with imperialistic credentials such as the London School of Economics, Harvard University or some State University in the USA. It seems they have come back to Sri Lanka carrying the heavy cultural baggage of their masters (and are serving the political interest of the owners).

By and large, they represent (knowingly or unknowingly) the vested interests of various foreign groups including the mainly American evangelical Christian groups, foreign intelligence organisations and agents of middle eastern groups who are constantly looking for diversions from the bleeding sore of the Palestinian situation. Criticising the government efforts to solve the issue and sympathising with the LTTE (which they seem to consider a true representative of the entire Tamil community)

It is important that the Sri Lankan government disregard the ramblings of these local, international and UN conspirators and maintain the course .

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