CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Time to prove, Mr Chilcott!

S. Akurugoda

After reading the analysis of speeches, and considering the extent of involvement in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka as High Commissioner, one may tends to believe that there is no other foreign diplomat who could match the potential of Mr Chilcott, when figuring out a solution to terrorism. Perhaps he may have not come up to the same standard of Mr A.N, Dixit, who attempted to do the same thing during late 1980's while serving as the Indian High Commissioner. However Mr Chilcott must have definitely exceeded, by now, the efforts of one of the former British High Commissioner who was made 'persona non grata' by President Ranasinghe Premadasa due to the diplomat's unwarranted interest in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka.

We also learnt from media reports that terrorism has once again threatened the lives in Britain and anti-terrorist squads in UK are on high alerts and have taken several suspects into custody. The immediate reaction to the latest terrorist attacks was for the administration to increase the threat level from "severe" to "critical" - the highest possible level of threat alert which indicates the gravity of the deteriorating security situation in Britain. The search operation has gone as far as Brisbane in Australia within days and a suspect, a young Muslim physician of Indian origin, is now in Australian custody for having mobile phone records with the physicians involved with the foiled bomb attack.

The Glasgow airport incident should open the eyes of all those who preached against military solutions to combat terrorism in poor nations like Sri Lanka. It is their time now to put the philosophy of their own into practice and use the magic formula to find a credible solution without combating terrorism.

Under the circumstances, as per the magic formula, the so-called 'international community' should ask 'both parties' to stop violence and start negotiating. Obviously, Mr Chillcott can play a great role in this case to advise his own government regarding the benefits of 'talking' to the terrorists and placing a political package for negotiations etc. Accordingly the British government should stop its military support to combat terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan and should start 'talking' to the terrorist immediately to win the confidence of the Muslim community.

Mr Chilcott may recommend Erick Solheim as the facilitator, a well recognised Norwegian by the international community, if the government (British government, I mean) can not talk to the terrorist straight due to the prevailing tension between the two parties involved.

The opponents of Norwegian facilitation and organisations such as NAT (Norwegians Against Terrorism) may come out with facts and figures to prove that some involved in the process are convicted criminals and Norway has had provided financial and other military support to the terrorist outfit in Sri Lanka. However, Mr Chilcott and his country can not face such a situation due to the obvious political, religious, and cultural links exiting between England and Norway.

The international community should also ask 'both parties' to preserve human rights and the government to be more careful when implementing the' shoot to kill' policy to prevent further loss of lives of innocent 'tourists' instead of 'terrorists'. They may ask the US led coalition to present a 'credible' solution package to commence negotiations with Al Qaeda, keeping inline with what the international community and the so-called co-chairs' are proposing to Sri Lanka.

However, the advocates of the 'no military solutions to ethnic conflicts' may reject this suggestion immediately on the ground that there is no ethnic conflict in this case since the terrorists are not Tamils but Muslims. When a person becomes a believer of Allah he or she becomes a Muslim irrespective of his or her ethnicity. Since the terrorists are said to be 'Islamic extremists' and the government or the country in question is of 'Christian', then the conflict could be 'religious',' cultural' or even 'ethnic', all depends upon how you look at it and or interpret it.

As per the latest Australian press, former High Court chief justice Sir Gerard Brennan attacked the anti-terror laws under which the suspects are held, saying they may be seen as targeting Muslims. Since there is a wide spread belief that Muslims are being harassed and targeted, a personalty like Mr Chilcott (who has gone out of the way to register his concern on alleged violation of free media and human rights in Sri Lanka) can not ignore such concerns. Mr Chilcott's visit to the office of the editor of Daily Mirror to register his concern over an alleged threat posed on the editor by a Sri Lankan defence personality is a case in point.

Being a passionate in the day-to-day events of Sri Lanka, Mr Chilcott must be aware of the growing concern, among the Sri Lankan population about the undue foreign interference and bullying through the diplomatic missions in Colombo and apparent pressure on the President to take remedial action to safeguard the sovereignty of the country.

Hence, the present security situation in Britain is a challenging opportunity for Mr Chilcott to prove himself, by putting his country in order, thereby showing the way to achieve peace without firing a single bullet.

To his advantage, the terrorism in the Sri Lanka has produced uncountable personalities and organisations, with the full blessings of third parties led by the Church and financed by some EU countries and Norway. Peace Councils, Free Media Movements, Policy Alternatives, Anti-War group, International Alerts, etc. are basically preaching the same ideology of Mr Chilcott for decades and are doing a tremendous service to their masters. If Mr Chilcott needs moral support for his endeavour to meet this challenge, ample resources are thus freely available around him.

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