German
aid ultimatum
By:
Durand Appuhamy
http://www.island.lk/2007/01/08/opinion1.html
Courtesy The
Island 08-01-2007
The Basque separatist group ETA was alleged to have exploded a car
bomb inside a multi-storey parking garage at Madrid’s Barajas
airport on Saturday 30th December 2006.
Two people were missing, assumed killed and twenty-six injured. This
incident took place while there is an on-going cease-fire of nine-month’s
duration and planned negotiations with the ETA for a permanent solution
to the problem. Spain is a member of the European Union and receives
refunds of millions of Euros from the central Brussels Budget for
various economic activities including agriculture.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, condemned
the attack as "incompatible with a permanent cease-fire"
and ordered "the suspension of all initiatives to develop a dialog"
with ETA. He further said "the condition for dialog was and is
the unequivocal desire to abandon violence. The very grave attack
today by the terrorist band ETA is radically contrary to that desire.
ETA has taken a road that leads nowhere, that only provokes pain"
(The Island 1st Jan. ‘07). Word for word, what the Spanish PM
has said, is applicable to the LTTE and the numerous bombs they have
exploded all over Sri Lanka. Yet Sri Lanka has not suspended peace
negotiation with LTTE nor banned it as a terrorist outfit. But Germany
chose to punish the Sri Lankan Government.
The German government, however has thought it necessary to punish
Sri Lanka by announcing a halt on new Tsunami aid disbursements following
a decision made in October to freeze all new commitments of German
development aid to Sri Lanka.
The German Minister for Economic Cooperation, Frau Wieczorek-Zeul
has gone out of her way to urge all international aid donors to Sri
Lanka to follow the German example and deny all aid to Sri Lanka.
Unlike Mr. Zapetero, who singled out the ETA for the violence, the
German minister appears to have ignored the main culprit, the LTTE
for the violence it started in early Dec. 06, almost immediately after
the Presidential election. The bias towards the terrorist outfit,
the LTTE, of Frau Wieczorek-Zeul is patently obvious. All the atrocities
the LTTE commits are obviously ignored or deleted from your radar
by the pro-LTTE German NGOs. Needless to say that what you do with
your taxpayers’ funds is your business nevertheless an equitable
assessment of terrorism cannot be ignored in making public judgements.
On the other hand you could help Sri Lanka to take the stand taken
by Mr. Zapetero in order the bring the LTTE to the table to negotiate
a genuine peace.
The relevant questions I have in my mind for Frau Wieczorek-Zeul is
this, As Germany is now the President of the EU, will you be demanding
of Mr. Zapetero that he negotiates with ETA just as much as you have
demanded of Sri Lanka vis-a-vis the LTTE? Will you be taking measures
to halt the budget refunds to Spain as much as you have done for Sri
Lanka, vis-a-vis development aid to Sri Lanka? We the readers of The
Island newpaper and Sri Lankans in general, who have many German friends,
would like to know the answers to the two simple questions I have
posed.
Have an unbiased happy Presidential Year!
Durand Appuhamy
