Double Standards

Jeanne Jayasinghe Australia

"Rosenstrasse " is the name of a film set in 1943 in Germany. The film tells the story - based on true facts - of events that took place in Berlin on Rosenstrasse. Women and children gathered outside a building on this street in silent protest. These people were born and had lived all their lives in Germany. They spoke German. Yet there was a difference. They were not German, they were Jewish or they were Germans who had married Jews. They were demanding the release of their husbands and fathers incarcerated by the Nazi's within that building, which was a prison.

The film showed how brutal and tyrannical were the Germans towards the Jews or those who were in a "mixed" marriage. The humiliation and degradation they suffered at the hands of the Germans.

The whole world, apart from the holocaust deniers, knows that Germans were responsible for the murder of 6 million Jewish people. What went on in those concentration camps is no longer a secret to anyone. Apart from the 6 million Jews, there were also Gypsies, homosexuals and all kinds of other minorities who were exterminated by the Germans. The German nation will never outlive their legacy from the Second World War. The major cause of the problems in the Middle East today is a result of the policy of extermination followed by the Germans against their own Jewish citizens during the Second World War.

Yet, when they assumed the Chairmanship of the European Union, Germany began dictating terms to Sri Lanka - withholding the aid promised to Tsunami victims and threatening to lift the EU ban placed on the LTTE - a gang of terrorists as ruthless today as the Nazi's were then.

The Sinhalese have never tried to exterminate Tamils, a majority of whom still live in the South of the country in preference to living in the North or East among their so called representatives the LTTE. There has never been a policy of discrimination - in spite of the allegations made by separatists - against any of the minorities. There is no discrimination in education or in employment. The many Educated Tamils in the Diaspora who actively support the LTTE are living proof of the fact that no barriers were placed in their way towards achieving an education.

There was no two tier marking system in place based on ethnicity. In fact, the marking system that was introduced in the 70's was to give rural Sri Lankan children a better chance of entering Universities and benefited all rural children, not just the Sinhalese.

The Sinhalese have not done even a tithe of what the Germans did to the Jewish people alone - to any minority living in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is the only country where street names are given in three Languages: Sinhala, Tamil and English. Sri Lanka is the only nation that has given Tamil a National Language status and has given a place to the minorities on their National Flag. Sri Lanka is the only country in the world where official forms are available in three languages Sinhala, Tamil and English, giving a choice of language to the user. There are government schools that are exclusively Tamil, even in Colombo. Tamil students are able to attend any university of choice, a luxury that is not afforded to Sinhala students who will face extermination if they dare to even try to enter the Universities of Jaffna or even Batticaloa in the North and the East of Sri Lanka.
The LTTE have even killed the very Tamil people that they are supposed to exclusively represent. Parents and teachers watch helplessly as children as young as ten years of age are dragged away to be drafted into the "baby" brigades of the LTTE. Once indoctrinated and brain washed, these children are displayed to the world as willing volunteers. The world well knows that syndrome where captives identify themselves with their captors after a long association with them. It is the same with these children who are then turned into inhuman killing machines whose ultimate plight is to become a living bomb for the "cause". A sacrifice that none of the LTTE "leadership" or their families or even those Tamils living overseas are willing to make for the self same cause.

It is not only the Germans at whom fingers can be pointed for a duplicitous attitude towards terrorism in general and the LTTE terrorism in particular.

It looks as if all Western Democracies, the politicians and media, treat terrorism that threatens themselves, i.e. the Islamic terrorism and the terrorism aimed against Sri Lanka i.e. LTTE terrorism differently. For example, the treatment of David Hicks and those accused of being complicit in planning a second spate of suicide bombs in London.

Notwithstanding the fact that LTTE terrorism has mentored Islamic terrorism to a great extent Western Democracies are bending over backwards to force the democratically elected government of Sri Lanka to accommodate the demands of the LTTE terrorists while even the suspicion of being associated with Islamic terrorism is enough to get a person accused, convicted and condemned by western governments.

Strangely enough, this mechanism whereby accusations against the Government of Sri Lanka in general and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in particular, become more strident and urgent is when the LTTE are losing battles when the Sri Lankan government carries out a counter attack against LTTE aggressions. This mechanism does not seem to get activated when the LTTE abducts school children and innocent civilians or they assassinate politicians - even Tamil politicians, or they set off suicide bombs in public places causing carnage among innocent civilians and causing extensive property damage or massacre sleeping villages or people at prayer in places of worship or any of the myriad types of savage, brutal attacks carried out by the LTTE over the past two decades. There was not a peep out of any of these Western Democracies and even the UN when the LTTE violated that sacred cow, the so-called Peace Accord, over 6000 times from the day it was signed. Not one of these Democracies condemned Norway and the Sri Lanka Monitoring mission for not carrying out its obligations in an impartial manner. The highly partisan, pro-LTTE bias of both Norway and the SLMM went unnoticed and uncorrected.

Western Democracies should put their money where their mouth is and support the Sri Lankan government that has been elected in a democratic election by a majority of the people of Sri Lanka to carry out the mandate they have been given to eradicate this scourge the LTTE from its soil or at the very least, desist from aiding and abetting the LTTE terrorist fund raising that is being blatantly carried out in violation of the anti terrorist laws that have been enacted in their countries.