CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

US Ambassador to Sri Lanka lectures the natives - A native responds

By Sesha Samarajiwa

At a recent seminar titled 'Sri Lanka: the Way Forward', organized by the Fulbright Association in Colombo, US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, lectured the unruly natives of Sri Lanka. This is a word to the wise from a native.

Dear Ambassador,
As a professional foreign office man, you should, first and foremost, make an urgent effort, even at this late stage, to understand the ground realities in Sri Lanka. Here's a primer. Consider it 'Sri Lanka Country Studies 101'.

First, the basics. A sovereign nation has a sovereign right to defend its sovereignty from all internal and external threats. The LTTE wages war to break up Sri Lanka and runs a de facto rogue state. The Government of Sri Lanka, like any other, has the right to use force to eliminate a sworn enemy of the state. In the United States, manifestos and actions like the LTTE's would be considered high treason. I'm sure you know that people in your country have been fried for less on the electric chair.

You want all parties to be statesmanlike, taking for granted that Tiger Warlord and a man on Interpol's most wanted list of criminals is a statesman. Clearly your definition of statesman is different from mine. In my book, a mass murderer, responsible for the killing of countless thousands, including a former prime minister of India, is not a statesman. He is a pathological killer. That is why Interpol has listed him on their most wanted list. That is why India wants to bring him to justice there.

You should also know that Sri Lanka has been pursuing all possible avenues to resolve this conflict, now one of the world's longest-running.

American High Hypocrisy
For long the Eelamists enjoyed free rein in the United States until terror came home in a blast of fury in the form of Al Qaida-piloted jetliners crashing into the Twin Towers in New York and into the heart of the US defense establishment, the Pentagon. Hitherto, US policy, like the policies of other Western nations, had been liberal towards terror groups operating on their soil, as long as they did not pose a threat to them. The 9/11 attack jolted your politicians and defense advisors awake and a new policy, under the banner, Global War on Terror, was quickly put into effect, sanctioning strikes against the enemies of the United States whoever they maybe, wherever, whenever. By definition, the Global War on Terror did not allow partiality, separating our enemies and theirs. However, in practice, the United States and your Western allies like Canada, the UK and Australia, not to mention EU states, maintained their partiality.

Unlike the separatist conflict in Sri Lanka, in the separatist conflict the Philippines, America took an unambiguous position: America is with the Philippines government and against the separatists. America does not lecture the Philippines to parlay with the separatists. That's why the United States marines wasted no time conducting joint operations with the Philippine Armed Services to try and neutralize the Muslim insurgency in the Southern Philippines, and continues to help the Philippines government fight the Moro separatists, who, like the Tamil separatists, are also fighting for a separate state in the Southern Philippines. America has compelling reasons for their policy in the Philippines: the insurgents in Mindanao are Muslims subscribing to the same philosophy as Jamah Islamiya in neighboring Indonesia, responsible for the Bali bombings which killed more than 100 white Australians. Jamah Islamiya, of course, subscribes to the overarching ideology of its leadership, Al Qaida: violent Jihad against the West. Different strokes for different folks?

The Tiger terrorists, who have been wreaking mayhem in Sri Lanka, on the other hand, have no grudge against the United States or the West as such. On the contrary, they look to the U.S. and the West at large as potential patrons. So, from the points of view of your national interests and priorities, I suppose you are justified in your partiality to them. Besides, Tiger terror is directed exclusively at a beleaguered little island in the Indian Ocean; their victims are not Americans, Australians or Europeans, but fellow brown natives. There seems to be in Western minds such as yours a qualitative difference between the suffering wrought by terror on Americans and on natives like us. Is terror against America more grievous than terror perpetrated against Sri Lankans, ambassador?

This is not Vietnam or Iraq
You assert:
"But these tactical successes should not tempt the Government to re-consider whether Sri Lanka's conflict can be won by military means. It cannot."
Mr Blake, you are either naïve or you have bought the defeatist mindset of the UNP Leader Ranil Wikramasinghe and ex-president Chandrika Bandaranayake both of whom were convinced about the invincibility of the Tigers; they too believed that the Tigers were too powerful for the Sri Lanka Armed Forces to defeat, making them follow a disastrous policy of appeasement.

Did the United States follow your stance when it waged your many wars in distant places? Sri Lanka is not fighting a phony war, propelled by paranoia of the Domino Effect - that if Vietnam goes communist, the whole of Asia will fall to communism like a deck of dominos - which dominated the American imaginary at that time, as the Yellow Peril (Bad, threatening China) haunts you still as the Evil Doctor Fu Manchu haunted America in those days.

Sri Lanka did not invade a country 10,000 miles from home, like your country did in the long war waged by the US in Vietnam. The Sri Lanka Air Force is not dropping napalm bombs on villages the way the US Air Force did in Vietnam. The Sri Lanka forces did not kill people the way America killed 3.5 million Vietnamese. (Compare that with the 60,000 American dead in that war, whose names are carved on the Wailing Wall in Washington.)

Is Sri Lanka waging an oil war, like the war America is waging in the Middle East, launching invasions, to secure oil, under false pretexts - the WMD card? Most definitely not. In fact, Sri Lanka is fighting to save innocent Sri Lankan citizens who have lived under Tiger tyranny for too long. They are fighting to liberate a jungle territory with no natural resources worth mentioning, not even major waterways or catchments, except, of course, Trincomalee Harbor, the greatest deep water harbor in the world, in the recently liberated East.

Is Sri Lanka fighting to prop up friendly South American dictatorships, a distinguishing feature of American foreign policy over the years, a task entrusted to the CIA? Sri Lanka is not fighting to prop up any dictatorship; it is fighting to topple one.

'Shock & Awe' is OK as long as the US is dishing it out?
Immediately after the terrorist attack on the United States, your president George Bush Jr. announced that the US would hunt the perpetrators wherever they are and destroy them. "They will have no place to hide," he said. "Bring 'em on," he challenged cockily, in classic gunslinger drawl. "We gonna give 'em shock and awe," warned ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and that's indeed what the US military gave Baghdad. Before that, George Bush Sr. put together a Coalition of the Willing (COW), comprising your ethnic cousins in the UK and Australia, led by your country, to defend the Sultanate of Kuwait from being grabbed by Saddam Hussein. Kuwait, of course, has plenty oil and, America, we know, is addicted to oil. We also had a glimpse of the carnage unleashed on Iraqis by your General Norman Schwarzkopf, especially along the 'highway of death' leading from Basra to Baghdad, where the Iraqi army, like sitting ducks, was 'taken out', to use a pithy American euphemism, by your boys of the high-tech US Air Force. We also saw the 'shock and awe' unleashed on Baghdad during the latest American invasion and see the ongoing turmoil created by America in your latest military adventure, an adventure fuelled by your need for fuel.

Mr Blake, I suggest that you take a refresher in history. Then you would realize that the United States has never had any qualms about waging war. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, did one your ancestors advise the US president to be statesmanlike and sort things out with Emperor Hirohito over a cup of green tea? No, after horrendous warfare on land, sea and air, the United States solved the problem emphatically - when Japan was down and almost out - by dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, just to make sure the Japanese learnt a lesson they would never forget. Indeed, it put an end to Japanese fanaticism. There were no more suicide pilots dive-bombing US ships on kamikaze missions. There were no more imperial Japanese invasions of neighboring countries. They never again tried to set up fake states like Manchukuo. To twist the blade, the US administration in Japan banned their industrial powerhouses like Mitsubishi from manufacturing anything remotely warlike. In fact, Mitsubishi, which had once made the Zero fighters planes and warships for the Imperial Japanese navy, were compelled to make buckets.

What about the European Wars of the last century? True, the United States minded its own business while Nazi Germany conquered the whole of Europe, except Britain. But when their ethnic cousins in the old country sent out an SOS, the United States mobilized double quick, and went to save Europe from tyranny.

Obviously what is OK for America is not OK for Sri Lanka. Despite the countless terror attacks and killings and attempted killing of its leaders, peacemakers, innocents, despite their attempts to destroy Sri Lanka politically and bankrupt it economically, should Sri Lanka halt its defense forces from doing the job all defense forces are meant to do - to defend their nation from a ruthless and single-minded enemy of the state, amply supported by their external patrons. We don't think so.

Why do you continue to ignore other Tamil voices?

Mr. Blake, I would hope that your tenure in Sri Lanka has been long enough to prevent you from buying uncritically the LTTE propaganda line that they are the sole representatives of Sri Lanka Tamils. You should know that there are many other Sri Lanka Tamils parties who vehemently oppose the LTTE's separatist ideology and abhor what they have done and continue to do. Please take the effort to familiarize yourself about Tamil leaders such as TULF leader V Anadasangaree, EPDP leader and Minister for Social Service and Social Welfare of the present government, Douglas Devananda. Perhaps it would be good idea if you also familiarize yourself with the long list of Tamil leaders violently eliminated by the Tamil Tigers - politicians, ministers, government servants, intellectuals, peacemakers, civilians - to add credence to their claim of sole representatives of Sri Lanka Tamils. In case your research people are too busy to supply you with the information, I'll make it easy for you. Just follow this link.
http://www.svik.org/tamilleaders.htm

Is it OK for us to defend our little patch of earth?
Mr. Blake, you should know that the Sri Lanka armed forces, with their meager resources, have, in the recent past, achieved significant victories in their fight against the world's most ruthless terrorist organization. You should know that thousands of brave Sri Lankan soldiers have shed their blood to defend this small island nation. Recently, the Sri Lanka Navy, with its modest fleet, under able command, destroyed a Tiger weapon transport fleet, dealing a major blow to the LTTE. The Sri Lanka Air Force has carried out precision bombing of Tiger bases and ammunition dumps, giving critical support to the army and navy, further debilitating the Tigers. The army has regained territory handed to them on a platter by naïve, weak Southern politicians hungry to gain power by any means, at any cost; they trusted the Tigers to keep the peace, but all they did was to use the breathing space - and the territory, including vast swathes of the coast - to strengthen their position to consolidate Eelam.

Despite the immense psych-ops by various INGOs, in cohorts with unscrupulous southern politicians, to demoralize and destabilize the Sri Lanka Armed Forces, they have risen to the challenge. You say that the recent victories are tactical. Of course they are! But tell me, does the US army underestimate the value of tactics and tactical gains in the service of overarching strategy?

Hail, the Lords of the Earth
We acknowledge America's manifest mission to be the world's policeman. But we expect the cop to have some common sense. We are also well aware about your sense of superiority. We acknowledge it; it would be foolish not to. But when you lecture the natives in future, please try not to insult their intelligence - or yours. We are also rather tired of being hectored by white folks about how to put our house in order: it's patronizing and distasteful.

You advise:
"While the Government must continue to defend the nation against terrorist attacks, the way forward lies in continuing to lay the basis for a negotiated settlement that will meet the aspirations of all of Sri Lanka's communities: Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese."

Mr Blake, why not give the natives some brownie points; they are, and have been, making a serious attempt to do just that. The problem is a feral outfit claiming to be the saviors of Tamils from Sinhala aggression, a canard constructed to hide their real agenda: their lust for power and a kingdom. They understand only one language: force. As you would know, their phony engagements in many negotiations and peace talks were simply their way of continuing war through other means.

You give undeserved brownie points to the UNP:
'The opposition UNP, which deserves much credit for the important steps it took to advance peace in 2002-2003, should, for the sake of all Sri Lankans, build on that record of achievement and work responsibly with the Government to ensure a successful APRC outcome."

You may applaud this calamitous blunder, but you give the UNP undeserved brownie points. How can you ignore the real negative outcome of this one-sided peace pact, which the Tigers broke more than 3000 times with impunity during that period, while the Sri Lanka armed forces held fire? Many Sri Lanka soldiers had to sacrifice their lives to regain Sri Lanka's sovereign territory illegitimately handed to an outlaw outfit by cowardly southern leaders.

I would also draw your attention to the recent survey carried out by the Marga Institute. In that, 86% of respondents, who, as participants in a deterministic survey, were prior informed about the issues involved, agreed that it was necessary to militarily defeat the Tigers; that, even a peasant understands is vital to set the stage for real peace and progress. As long as the Tiger supremo is powerful, peace in Sri Lanka will have the chance of an ice cube surviving in a furnace.

'One Nation Under God' is OK, I guess
You hope that:
"All parties in the APRC will frame the final APRC proposals in a manner that avoids the use of divisive, emotive terms like 'federalism' and 'unitary'."

Let me ask you this, ambassador. How do you consider this supreme maxim of the United States of America- "One Nation Under God". Is that line, for you, rational, emotive, perfectly in order? Let me also ask you: why are terms like 'federalism' and 'unitary' anathema to you in the context of Sri Lanka? I thought the 'United' States of America is comprised of 52 'federal' states.
Then again, the local Sun God wants to have one Tamil Nation under him.

You counsel:
"Let me a say a word about the stabilization and reconstruction process in the east, which also is an important part of the way forward."

Thanks for reminding us, but this is exactly what the Nagenahira Navodaya or Revival of the East programme is designed to do. If only the Tigers stop trying to throw a spanner in the works!

Ambassador, while you are at the task of supporting America's divine destiny of spreading democracy around the world, ramming it down obstinate throats when necessary, would you also make an effort to explain the basics of democracy to the Sun God? I'm sure the recluse in the Vanni would be delighted to give you an audience in his bunker in Kilinocchi. But going by how he carved out a rogue state by the bullet and not the ballot, and how he violently suppressed all forms of democracy in Tigerland, I'm afraid Piripaharan obviously does not subscribe to the system.

You promise:
"The United States, as a friend of Sri Lanka and a Co-Chair, stands ready to assist in any way we can."

Yes, please, sir! You could start by making an effort to better understand our problems, counsel your superiors to desist from enacting policy which would be detrimental to Sri Lanka (some are already in the offing), resolve not to be swayed by Tiger propaganda, hark to other Tamil voices of reason, ensure that the United States maintains its proscription of the LTTE as a terrorist organization, resist the impulse to let off the hook terrorists who do not pose a threat to America or to the West in general, ensure your Law enforcement agencies take vigorous and consistent action to apprehend and punish LTTE agents and sympathizers, close down Tiger fronts in their many guises, freeze their funds and, last but not least, continue to supply the modestly equipped Sri Lanka Armed Forces with their military needs so that they can carry on with the work they are entrusted to do by the people of Sri Lanka.
Much obliged!

About the Writer
Sesha Samarajiwa commands expertise in neo-colonialism/neo-imperialism and their overt and covert manifestations.

courtesy Asian Tribune

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