CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Karuna Amman should have been used as an example, to lure dissidents from other terrorists groups in the World to find political solution through democracy.

By Charles Perera

Karuna-has been convicted to serve a prison term in the United Kingdom for entering the country on a false document. One cannot dispute a legal decision, but one can always dispute the facts that lead to his imprisonment.

That was not the first time, or the only case that some one had entered Great Britain on false documents. There had been reports of passports not only of Sri Lanka but also of Great Britain and Netherlands, stolen and sold to individuals seeking entry into those countries. It is also a known fact that false passports are fabricated and sold to individuals , criminals and those dealing in human trafficking, such as it is said to happens in Thailand.

In Karunas case the occasion was too good for those individuals and groups out to discredit the Government of Sri Lanka, and the Defence Secretary, to make capital of the situation to make accusations to involve the government in the issue of false passports.

The worst of it was the so called human rights activists waiting like vultures raising their rabid voices in unison accusing Karuna Amman, asking for his blood. Those who were making the loudest voices were those who were directly or indirectly helping the terrorists in Sri Lanka, - the terrorists who are a group banned in the United Kingdom. That it self shows that the Human Rights activists in U.K.are groups without principles. They are ever ready to come out making the biggest noise possible to make themselves heard as great humanitarians. But they little realise, that they are themselves blood thirsty elements seeing human rights violations by some, and blind to the need for justice and fair play for the other.

With Karuna Amman Great Britain was playing into the hands of the pseudo humanitarians, who are aiding and abetting directly or indirectly a deadly group of terrorists in Sri Lanka, without taking in to account, that Karuna Amman represents a repenting terrorist who had realised that terrorism is an evil force, which damages the individual as well as the society and turned his back to it, risking his own life, to toe the democratic line and help the authorities to fight terrorism.

If the British administrators were wise, they should not have accused Karuna Amman as a criminal entering great Britain on false documents, but instead he should have been projected as an example, to encourage dissidents from other terrorists groups in the World to break away and turn towards peace and democracy. In that respect United Kingdom lost a great opportunity to make counter propaganda, against world terrorism, using Karuna Amman as an example.

Karuna Amman's case also demonstrates the hypocrisy of the British Administration. In the United Kingdom there are persons who openly work for the LTTE terrorists- a banned terrorist group, by holding manifestations at the Hyde Park , demonstrations on the streets, and collecting funds, and the BBC reporters, helping terrorists in Sri Lanka by making reports favourable to them, and discrediting the Security Forces, with impunity. But ironically, Government of United Kingdom arrests a person who was once a terrorists, but gave up terrorism believing that the solution to political problems is not in terrorism, but in following a democratic process. Karuna Amman was accused for maintaining an armed group. It was necessary to keep himself alive as the LTTE terrorists are after him, as he is largely responsible to the debacle Prabhakaran's terrorism is faced with in Sri Lanka.

Karuna Amman's case brings to light another instance of British hypocrisy in dealing with the violation of human rights about which there is much ado at the moment.

It was in October,1998, that Augusto Pinochet the Dictator of Chile visited the United Kingdom for medical treatment. He was immediately arrested on a Spanish provisional warrant for murder of Spanish Citizens in Chile. And five days later a second warrant was issued charging him with systematic torture, murder, illegal detention, and forced disappearances in Chile. It was the first time that a dictator was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

After having been placed him under house arrest in Britain and initiating a judicial battle, he was eventually released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the then Home Secretary Jack Straw without a trial. But, how ill he was at the time of release, and whether the medical certificate was not faked for his release, are questionable from the report that followed from Chile. Pinochet returned to Chile on the 3 March,2000. His first act when landing in Santiago de Chile's airport was to triumphantly sit up from his chair to acclaim his supporters.

Two personalities and two forms of justice, one can of course argue that Karuna's case is different, however hypocrisy of it is undeniable.

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