Articles

The discerning observer of events sees the recent voices of a constructed calumny raised against Sri Lanka, accusing it of being a major violator of human rights, as an ominous sign of the malevolent designs of the Western Powers to bring about the death and destruction of a great civilization that has hitherto been the envy of many in the world.  Is this the revenge which the West seeks against Sri Lanka which has defied the grim forebodings of inevitable defeat in the “unwinnable war”, that was unfailingly preached during the last two decades, to kill or undermine the Island’s determination to defend its sovereignty and protect its territorial integrity? This serves as a timely warning to all loyal and patriotic citizens of Sri Lanka to be ready to man the barricades in defense of our motherland and meet this challenge unflinchingly and with determination.

Ominous portents of the feared intrusions appear on the radar screen.  Indeed this may prove to be the fateful Year of Foreign Intervention. The early “pilgrims”, from Rock to Holmes, from Arbour to Novak have left their unmistakable markings to pave the way for heavy traffic in Human Rights Tourism, including safaris into the Vanni marketed by their local guides.

Intervention inevitably promotes the intrusion of a foreign element. Those who descended to Sri Lanka with the Bible and Bayonet in each hand in earlier times,  are now in the twenty first Century  seeking an arrival visa preaching a sermon called Human Rights while administering soporifics called Aid and Assistance.  Human Rights serve as a smokescreen for neo-colonialism and recolonization.

Historically, the more powerful nations have entered the forbidden territory of weaker nations scattering sovereignty to the winds. Often it has been to impose an ideology favoured by them, to increase their centres of power, to gain control of valuable resources, or to secure advantages in a geo-strategic area.

In modern times, to give naked intervention a veneer of legitimacy, a moral and ethical standard has been projected as the test to justify intervention. Yet the selected target is chosen for reasons which have little to do with Human Rights, laying bare the original objectives for intervention. Ordinarily there would be no interference where a nation is under the protective umbrella of a powerful nation State. Different considerations would arise in the case of other aspects of Human Rights, whether one called it genocide or ethnic cleansing or a denial of democracy or a quest for freedom.  But a vulnerable issue would be that of national security back home for the intruders.

Sri Lanka has enjoyed a proud record of having been in the vanguard of the Non-Aligned Movement. But after it ceased to be a force, the Country has had no patron saint in the community of nations. Its neighbour India has herself not wished to conclude a defence pact with Sri Lanka and even objects to Sri Lanka concluding a defence pact with another friendly country. Having isolated Sri Lanka, India, to serve her own interests, continues to have for herself a multiplicity of alliances with Western Powers which are mutually beneficial to serve their commercial or military interests.  India has assumed unilaterally for herself the role of guardian in the Indian Ocean and as the agent of the Western Powers in the containment of China, emerging as the industrial giant of Asia. In contrast, Sri Lanka is a solitary figure isolated, with no protective cover. In this vulnerable state Sri Lanka has to defend her vital national interests and honour with her own meager resources. It is a handful of patriotic persons who have fearlessly raised their protesting voices and has thus so far saved Sri Lanka from these predatory forces. The opinion makers have alerted the decision-makers mindful of the clamor that has reverberated through this vociferous group.

Unfortunately, Sri Lanka like a wounded animal fighting for its very survival, offers a tempting target to the Western Powers to achieve their predatory designs. It is situated strategically on the sea lanes that enable a safe transport of oil to the Far-East and it is clear that a blockade of the Island’s ports can impede supplies to China from the Middle-East, Africa and South America. The undetermined extent of petroleum and natural gas and other products beneath the territorial sea and the continental shelf are added incentives to the oil-thirsty international community. India herself would prefer a weak and defenceless Sri Lanka dependent on the goodwill of the Western Powers rather than one that has the friendly support of Asian Nations. India desires to hold the strings like the puppeteer, to make Sri Lanka gyrate as the Western Nations wave the cane. Thus it seems clear in these circumstances that Sri Lanka falls within the category of a threatened state. We are confident, however, that the patriotic people of Sri Lanka will not suffer their country to suffer the indignity of appearing as a craven state that cringes in pitiful fashion before such intimidatory tactics in abject fear.

The failed state concept
The standard technique of the neo-colonials is to make it appear quite insidiously that state authority and control have progressively collapsed and that the country is on the verge of being a failed state. This is an absurd idea. Sri Lanka as an independent state, with its vibrant democracy that has lasted for over sixty years, with structures that provide for political pluralism, the right of dissent, a free media, enjoying high rates of life expectancy, high rates of literacy, admirable standards of health care, a judicially protected and enforceable system of fundamental rights, actively concerned with and taking adequate steps for the protection of the environment, a vibrant private sector and an articulate civil society, can hardly be considered a candidate to be relegated to the category of a failed democracy. So new tactics are sought to be adopted, and a case is sought to be constructed on the alleged failure to conform to standards of good governance and the failure to curb and control violations of Human Rights. This is not an allegation that bears critical examination and does not on any account warrant intervention, more so as the inbuilt democratic framework and its operatives are active and ever watchful and ready to expose such infirmities and calls for immediate remedial action to prevent further deterioration. Such anomalies in governance as may exist are commonly found in many other countries, and are not so pronounced in Sri Lanka as in some of the client states of the West which have a dismal record. They are much worse by comparison. But the West turns a Nelsonian eye to all this. This is therefore not an area in which Sri Lanka would tolerate any interference. We have reason to feel wary of the motives of the West which we feel are clearly tainted. We have a proud record of achievements in many spheres which can be defended in any world forum, and we reject outright these mala fide allegations.

Selection of target countries

Invariably, interventionists concentrate on their selected target states such as Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Serbia, Sudan and Syria, ignoring  Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, India and Zaire where violations of Human Rights occur and principles of good governance are relatively in a much weaker condition. These States are immune from criticism by reason of their alignment to the Western Powers that seek intervention. Sadly, Sri Lanka notwithstanding the fact that it is a vibrant democracy in South Asia and has a system of well organized welfare facilities for its citizens, is sought to be made a victim of their foul designs. India and Pakistan, being patronized by the Western Powers for reasons of trade and commerce and as a staging ground for the assault on Afghanistan enjoy favoured treatment, notwithstanding serious breakdowns of law and order, sustained terrorist acts for over thirty years in places such as Kashmir and Baluchistan. Repressive governance and human rights violations against the Naxalites and Baluchis are notorious, while Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal where democracy is under greater threat escape criticism. India has declined to open its doors to foreign Human Rights intruders, unlike Sri Lanka as admitted by the U.N. Representative, Philip Alston. Sri Lanka has displayed transparency and made facilities available for inspection on request. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have peremptorily rejected such requests. The LTTE, the Tamil Diaspora, Western diplomats with their doubtful credentials, procured local academics basking in their new found affluence, foreign funded NGOs and their acolytes advertise Sri Lanka as a happy hunting ground for Human Rights vultures searching for prey.

Ironically, “the saffron belt of Asia” – Cambodia, Viet-Nam, Laos, North Korea, Burma – unfortunately suffered by being categorized as victims of the so-called “red-peril”, while Thailand being a client nation of the United States has been left alone. At present, the threat of malignant interventions looms large where Islam prevails, as in the Middle-East and Central Asia, sought to be justified by the supposed “clash of civilizations”. Africa, the largest beneficiary of aid and assistance from the West, is in a state of permanent deprivation and has a very dismal Human Rights record, yet has escaped notice as their colonial masters continue to derive benefits from states willing to compromise such as the French in Central African Republic or the United States with bases in Djibouti on the border of Ethiopia/Somalia. The venues for intervention are accordingly on a selective basis with the humanitarian aspect being more a convenient excuse rather than a genuine concern, where the real priorities are based on extraneous economic and political considerations with no semblance of any fairness or justice in assessment.  

The proliferation of NGOs and the Role of the UN

The foreign funded NGOs with their local agents including well funded “seminar-trained” activists, itinerant academics and representatives of the kept media, fabricated   the call for foreign intervention in the case of Sri Lanka.  It must be noted that some of the NGOs work alongside the United States military in humanitarian-military expeditions such as Operation Provide Comfort (to settle Kurds in Iraq) and Operation Restore Hope (Somalia)  

The former Defense Secretary Colin Powell treated NGOs as an arm of the military and described it as the fifth column of the USA. These NGOs compete with each other in the quest for funding, and their very existence is often dependent on timely financial transfusions. Their objectives are not well intentioned and seek to achieve hidden agendas.  The local sycophants hang around them to collect handouts for which they have to perform according to plan as directed.

The UN officials and bureaucrats have assumed a new role as protectors of human rights and their agents have been the INGOs and the NGOs with vested interests, and Western Nations who want to intervene in countries of interest to them. Instead of following its lawful and legitimate mandate to support Sri Lanka as a sovereign state and a member of the UN, they have joined the international community, the INGO and NGO mafia, to aid and abet in furthering the process for intervention which has the effect of protecting the notorious terrorist organization – the LTTE. Its record of stopping gross human rights violations in Sri Lanka – such as child recruitment by the LTTE, has been a pathetic failure. It is well known that the LTTE has shown complete disregard and treated with contempt the strictures and the adverse comments made by the UN on the child soldier issue. The UN agencies have been ineffective on the child soldier issue and there has been a failure to meaningfully monitor aspects of malpractice in Sri Lanka.  The UN is fully aware of this, but has complacently continued to accept the lack of commitment by the LTTE showing great leniency and laxity in curbing terrorism.

US $1 million was given by UNICEF to TRO which is globally known as a ‘Front Organization “of the LTTE. The TRO collects funds ostensibly for welfare in the conflict prone areas but there is no proper accounting to the authorities.. There are several complaints against UN agency employees of strategically and stealthily assisting the LTTE which brings no credit to the UN agencies. The killing of two UN workers from Killinochchi was kept hidden from the Government for several months to shield the LTTE, as it would have brought discredit to the LTTE. In recent times, several UN staffers took part in a pro LTTE human rights rally contravening their designated role and mandatory functions to respect the sovereignty of the country.

UNICEF was a signatory to the Action Plan for Children together with the Government and the LTTE. Nevertheless the LTTE/Karuna Group has continued with their child recruitments irrespective of the presence of UNICEF and the number of children released has been negligible. Some children so released have been forcibly re-taken and made to enter military service. UNICEF has been unsuccessful in making an impact on child recruitment and reliance could not be placed on the assurances given by the LTTE due to their callous disregard of such undertakings. This situation has arisen due to a desire to accommodate the LTTE and acquiesce in the obvious contraventions of the guidelines.  The UN agencies, we regret to observe, are not working on a genuine humanitarian agenda and in the best interests of Sri Lanka.


There are emerging NGO groups in Sri Lanka, which are financially heavily dependent on a few western powers to provide funds for their operations. Their programs are donor directed and do not necessarily serve national interests.   

The activist peace movements which in Western States opposed military interventions and contributed to the bringing of troops back home from Vietnam and fought for disarmament have been displaced by NGOs engaged in conflict resolution and are collaborating with the interventionists.  Military Intervention is supported by human rights oriented NGOs like Amnesty International, Humans Rights Watch and Medicine sans Frontiers. Some of the active NGOs, unlike the peace activists of former times, are dependent on state agencies and multinationals for financial support and compete among themselves for available financial resources.  

Sri Lanka has experienced foreign intervention in covert and overt forms during the last 25 years. In consequence of the Indian intervention in 1987, the Tamil people of the North and East suffered immensely due to the physical presence of the IPKF.  It led to strong agitation by the Tamils that the IPKF be removed forthwith.  The IPKF lost much territory that had been under the control of the Sri Lankan forces and it was recovered at great cost from the LTTE. They left behind a truncated portion of territory and a considerable area with the LTTE to the dismay of the forces. The terrorist activities continued unabated. The presence of the IPKF in Sri Lanka while it lasted led to much public unrest and a rigged election where a pro-Indian administration came to office in the North/East Provincial Council, which collapsed with the departure of the IPKF, and the Chief Minister Varadharaja Perumal sought sanctuary in India. There was virtual unanimity among all communities that the IPKF should be withdrawn and the Indian Government withdrew, realizing it was an unsuccessful venture.  It was during the period of intervention by India that relationships between the otherwise friendly countries became rather acrimonious.

 The arrival of the Scandinavian monitors under the arrangements of the CFA of February 2002 proved to be a dismal failure. Their monitoring exercise has become dysfunctional and irrelevant. It neither reduced terrorist activity nor diminished violence but their presence merely provided an opportunity for Norway to present itself as a prominent player on the international scene where Norwegian politicians could have their moment of glory as peacemakers having experienced failures elsewhere. The cry for the dismantling of the CFA that was dysfunctional was persistent, and the Government has now formally ended this charade.   


There are nascent NGO groups in Sri Lanka, which are financially heavily dependent on a few western powers to provide funds for their operations. Their programs are influenced by their donors, and do not serve national interests. In recent times, several UN staffers took part in a pro-LTTE human rights rally contravening their designated role and mandatory functions to respect the sovereignty of the country.

The Record of Achievement of So-Called Defenders of Human Rights

The sinister movement for intervention has gained momentum with the visit of Gareth Evans to preach a new heretical doctrine, namely, the Theory of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) which he has insinuated could become operative in Sri Lanka, if the war escalated leading to the displacement of people being extended to areas in the North by the government forces who recently resumed control over parts of the East, much of which had been lost during the IPKF intervention. Evans appears to be anxious that the limited territory in the North, now in the control of the LTTE, remains intact and unimpaired and allowed to remain in the hands of this internationally recognized terrorist organization with its record of brutalities. As is well known, the LTTE has a history of keeping people in subjection, denying them all democratic rights, without the right of dissent or free expression, or the benefits of political pluralism. It continues to employ children in military operations, does not observe the Rule of Law, and eliminates its political opponents at will, without fair trial. It assassinates any Tamil political leader who does not comply with their terrorist objectives. Despite all this, it is indeed ironic that the warning should be issued to the Government seeking to liberate Tamils, and not to their oppressors – the LTTE, which denies human rights to the Tamils in their claimed limited territory.

What is the record of Gareth Evans?  Gareth Evans, onetime Australian Foreign Minister, supported the Administration of President Suharto of Indonesia, which had a horrifying record of a million political killings, having invaded East Timor, co-operating in the ethnic cleansing of many areas in that Country, and exterminating 200,000 East Timorese.  It is strange that Evans in his book “Cooperating for Peace” makes hardly any reference to the genocide in East Timor, though written after the massacre of the East Timorese in Dili in 1991. What is the credibility that one can attach to the doctrine called R2P? Indeed Evans and Indonesian Foreign Minister Al Alatas signed the Timor Gap Treaty which allowed the Australian and international oil companies to exploit the seabed off East Timor yielding 7 billion barrels of oil. Within two months of the massacre, 11 contracts were awarded to Australian oil companies. Therefore his affinity to the Suharto administration and his silence on such massacres is understandable, as Australia was diverting to itself natural resources of East Timor with the collusion of the Suharto administration. Evans was in the administration that awarded the highest honor in Australia (Order of Australia) to Al Alatas who made the aforementioned gift to oil companies.  Evans, understanding of terrorism is such that notwithstanding the American embassy having issued a valid terror alert and the President of Indonesia having warned of a probable terrorist attack, Gareth Evans down played the effectiveness of the dreaded terrorist outfit Jemmah Islamiyah in a speech made in Australia. Three (3) days later in Bali, 23 Australian tourists were killed 125 were wounded by the explosion of 3 bombs by the same terrorist outfit in association with a splinter group.  It is the same Gareth Evans who now seeks to threaten Sri Lanka with an R2P humanitarian intervention if a military advance is initiated in the North against terrorists! Are these so-called champions of Human Rights in truth guardians of terrorist outfits denying human rights? It is reported that a foreign funded R2P research and advocacy centre is to be set up in Sri Lanka which is the only projected venue in South Asia, to be financed by Ralph Bunche Institute of USA.  

Parallel to this exercise, the traveling human rights missionaries from UN agencies instigated a campaign to condemn the human rights record of Sri Lanka unmindful of the fact that the State was confronting a brutal terrorist organization that was targeting civilians who required protection from murderous attacks and were not acting according to the rules of armed combat. Nor were such rules observed by their own patrons in supposedly fighting terrorism in such places as the horror chambers established outside their territorial jurisdiction in places like Guantanamo Bay and Egypt, and the flights of rendition transporting human cargo for torture. Louise Arbour called for the establishment of a human rights office in Colombo to overlook the country situation, reminiscent of the role of the Scandinavian monitors under the CFA and the Indian High Commissioner during the IPKF occupation, which provided those intervening a mechanism to interfere in the domestic affairs of the host nation.

 Prabhakaran, who is fast losing ground militarily and politically, in his recent address on Mahaveer Day blamed the international forces for not intervening and called for intervention, more in an effort to save the LTTE from the expected military operation to be launched by the armed forces. Significantly, it coincided with the call of Gareth Evans for foreign intervention in the event of the Northern Front being opened by the Sri Lankan forces. To provide a case for such intervention, Prabhakaran followed his address by launching a series of attacks on civilian life exploding bombs at Nugegoda, Slave Island and Buttala to make it appear that the State is incapable of providing security to the people.  It appears that a well orchestrated and coordinated operation is taking place to invite intervention where supporters of foreign intervention are acting in collusion with the LTTE, to save the terrorist organization from sliding into oblivion.

Relevant country situations
It seems worthwhile here to examine some relevant situations where foreign intervention has taken place and the resulting impact it has had on the affected Country and its People.

Bosnia:

After the intervention of Bosnia by NATO forces and the Dayton Agreement in 1995 international forces took control of the country; constantly expanding the role of a multitude of international organizations and restricted the authority of all ethnic groups consisting of Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs whose elected representatives merely have the right to discuss questions of policy with the Office of the High Representative (Foreign Holder) and make minor adjustments or delay the implementation of externally prepared rules and regulations. The holder of the Office of the High Representative has now reduced even these limited powers of the democratic bodies of the tripartite Presidency, Council of Ministers, and the State Parliament as being unnecessary delays in implementing international policy.

By the end of 1997, the international community went further and decided it was unnecessary to require the Bosnian representatives to assent to international edicts and removed all such powers, and the High Representative was empowered to dismiss the elected representatives who obstructed policy and to impose legislation directly.

In this manner, the international community has assumed complete legislative and executive power over a former independent state, in consequence of making Bosnia a human rights protectorate. It is western paternalism appearing in the guise of human rights colonialism.

The provisions of the Dayton Agreement promised decentralization of political power and the creation of a multi-ethnic administration to provide security to ethnic minorities and to safeguard their autonomy.

Minority protection has not been provided to the three constituent ethnic groups, notwithstanding the Dayton Agreement. Power has not been decentralized to give minorities security or a stake in the administration but such powers have been transferred and centralized in the High Representative. At State-entity, City and Municipal levels elected majorities have not been given any control over policy making and the international community regulates life down to the minutiae of local community service provision, employment practices, school admissions and sports.

The Muslims, Croats and Serbs have claimed that institutions of government in Bosnia are but hollow structures and have sought greater political autonomy in policy making and uphold the rights protected in the “letter” of the Dayton Agreement, while the international community is stressing on ad hoc interpretations based on the “spirit” of the Agreement. Furthermore, the international community has extended its stay indefinitely. The critics point out that there is a high degree of external regulation making, but no visible democracy and the mechanism to re-build a fragmented society. The structure has become corrupt and local politicians are open to corrupt deals to act on the whims of the international community.

The ramifications of intervention as revealed in Bosnia mean that the interventionist once inside the State, like the proverbial camel that enters the tent is reluctant to depart, and the prime objectives for arrival have become irrelevant, and they act according to their own agenda weakening the local mechanism and internationalizing the situation in a fragile state causing unforeseen conflict and discouraging cooperation between ethnic groups.

Kosovo.

US led NATO forces without a Security Council mandate bombed Serbia relentlessly to force Serbian troops out of Kosovo (which was a province of Serbia) on the basis of a humanitarian intervention to save the Albanian Muslims in Kosovo from alleged ethnic cleansing.  UN Security Council Resolution 1244 determined Kosovo as part of Serbia but placed it under UN administration and NATO with strength of 17,000 constituting the Kosovo Peace Keeping Force (KPA).

After 8 years of UN administration it is now the areas occupied by the Serbs and the Roma (gypsies), the ethnic minorities that are being ethnically cleansed by the majority Muslim Albanians in Kosovo. The establishment of a UN protectorate has created a state of “reverse ethnic cleansing” in Kosovo.

The recent proposals of UN Special Envoy Martii Athisaari may form the basis of a Security Council resolution that may lead Kosovo to independence.  President Bush after receiving a hero’s welcome in Albania declared he would issue a unilateral declaration of independence for Kosovo and that Washington will recognize it without waiting for the Security Council to decide on it. This is not surprising as the Americans funded the Muslim militia in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in their struggle against Serbia which contributed to the atrocities. The US was desirous from the beginning to bring about a fragmentation of Yugoslavia because Serbs at the helm were culturally and politically aligned to Russia; and place it within the ambit of the EU and NATO.

However, just as in Bosnia, restrictions will be placed setting up an international body to supervise it for an indefinite period. According to the Athisarri proposals, special powers are to be allocated to the International Civilian Representative (ICR) to represent the UN/EU with powers to impose/annul laws passed by the local parliament and to remove political leaders from office. Majority Muslim Albanians in Kosovo have expressed dissatisfaction with these proposals being aware of the events in Bosnia.

During the 8 years of UN administration, no attempt has been made to build a multi- ethnic society but instead they have watched the mass exodus of Serbs and Roma from Kosovo, helplessly. The legal system that existed is in tatters and the province is in a serious social and economic predicament with more than half the population unemployed. The angry locals call the UN officials the “white 4x4 gang” due to their pastime of driving around the province in their white Toyota Land cruisers without attending to the needs of the people.

 The possibility of the Serb enclaves seeking autonomy originating in the province with Serbian Government assistance, may lead to further fragmentation which will be resisted by the Albanian Muslims as they would not agree to a substantial portion of Kosovo being reduced. It is unlikely that Serbs will agree to be citizens of Kosovo. Therefore it is obvious that the intervention has merely aggravated existing problems and caused fresh tension among the ethnic groups.  It enables separatist groups to appeal to external forces whose arrival leads to unanticipated issues encouraging conflict rather than compromise.

The prevailing pattern of foreign intervention could give an impetus to dissatisfied groups in other entities to declare unilateral independence. A similar pattern may follow in Western Sahara (Morocco) Transnistria (Moldova) Kurdistan (Turkey) Basque Country and Catalonia (Spain/French) Chechnya (Russia) Abkhazia (Georgia) Nagarno Karabakh (Azerbaijan), to name a few.

Sri Lanka, after the Indian intervention, had to face a comparable situation when a unilateral Declaration of Independence was declared by the Chief Minister Perumal of the Northern/Eastern Provincial Council, a protege of India, before seeking sanctuary in India. The Chief Minister was supportive of the IPKF forces and it was well known that he came to power with the assistance of the IPKF under whose control the North-Eastern Provincial Council elections were held, which was considered to be a “disturbed” election.  In the circumstances, the UNP of President Premadasa had to dissolve the North East Provincial Council.

The Kosovo precedent is more likely to be in the trajectory of India’s learning curve, as foreign interventionists could plan to destabilize India with a long time presence in Sri Lanka, so as to create the vision of a Greater Tamil Nadu preparatory to the disintegration of India.
 
Intervention often provides a happy hunting ground for the stronger states but not for the residents of the Country who are the ultimate victims as experience has shown in history from time immemorial.

Somalia.

Situated in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is a country ethnically and linguistically homogenous with many entanglements with the super powers due to its geo-strategic position. Under Siad Barre it veered originally towards Russia and then sought to align with America for arms and patronage. It became the arms bazaar in Africa and was the most militarized state in the Gulf of Aden.

After the death of Siad Barre, Somali tribal warfare commenced and the country fell apart in an orgy of inter clan fighting. Continuous droughts and famine led to mass starvation amidst the fighting among the heavily armed war lords and a situation of anarchy prevailed. The Somalis in desperation began to flee to neighboring countries.

The humanitarian crisis that resulted called for the intervention of UN forces which was necessary to mobilize the distribution of food convoys and to facilitate the cessation of hostilities between the war lords. The Americans took over the leadership of the UN forces in consequence of the immense public pressure which arose due to news coverage in the media portraying the human tragedy being enacted in the capital Mogadishu. The UN forces met strong resistance from the militia of General Aidid. In a skirmish 18 US soldiers were killed and 75 injured. Then when the bodies of the US Rangers were gruesomely paraded along the streets, President Clinton immediately withdrew the American forces from Somalia forgetting the humanitarian exercise, to allay outraged American public opinion.

This shows that where genuine humanitarian conditions require presence, the western powers prefer to evade any responsibility, unlike in situations where political or economic factors are dominant such as in Iraq or Afghanistan or East Timor or Bosnia or Kosovo. It was the same in Rwanda (1994) where genocide on a gigantic scale was taking place; the Tutsi were being slaughtered by the Hutus- the Clinton administration not only refused to intervene, but even used its influence on the UN Security Council to mandate the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from Rwanda and blocked all efforts to redeploy them.  Clinton in 1998 formally apologized for the episode and rather lamely stated that ‘they did not fully appreciate” what was happening, despite the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis that had taken place.

After the American withdrawal, Somalia slid into anarchy and the feuding clan leaders controlled the country without any law and order and the people, being at the mercy of the clan chieftains, lived without any security in a society where the rule of the jungle prevailed. In this backdrop, the Mogadishu traders who no longer could tolerate the state of anarchy, funded men of the Union of Islamic Forces (movement created by businessmen in Somalia) to take over the seat of power and were successful in eliminating the warlords. Again there was law and order in Somalia after 15 years of chaos and the country gradually returned to normalcy without the aid of foreign intervention.



The US after 9/11 in its global war on terror showed sudden interest in Somalia once again, as Osama bin Laden was believed to have taken refuge in Somalia; the Taliban and the Mujahideen fleeing Afghanistan and Iraq took shelter in Mogadishu; US government ‘freezed’ the assets of the largest company in Somalia, Al-Barakat (blessed) in remittance trade from the Somalian Diaspora after the attack on the Twin Towers and called Somalia a frontline state fomenting terrorism.  Americans were supportive of the deposed warlords and opposed the new Administration of Union of the Islamic Court (UIC) and targeted it due to its close relationship with Islamic states, especially Iran. The US was not prepared to permit the UIC to remain in power.

With a mandate from Washington its proxy holder Ethiopia marched into Somalia with a blitzkrieg to effectively dispatch the UIC.  The US provided aerial reconnaissance and satellite surveillance support. This has now taken the form of Christian Ethiopian troops engaged in battle against Islamic forces in a holy war in the Horn of Africa.  Eritrea is on record providing supplies to the Islamic Forces demanding the withdrawal of its perennial enemy Ethiopia.  Meanwhile, the US has closed its eyes to the human rights violations which are rampant. In the light of the human rights violations, the US - led International Somalia Contact Group (ISCG) has called for a UN peace keeping force in view of the country sliding to anarchy. At present, 600,000 Somalis have sought refuge in neighboring countries due to the ongoing conflict.  However, this has not materialized with only Ethiopia and Uganda prepared to send troops.

This reveals that powerful states are not interested in genuine humanitarian exercises when it becomes imperative. They enter countries (for their own narrow self interest), and internationalize local conflicts giving rise to situations where violations of human rights takes place, and are only prepared to watch from the sidelines the ensuing human suffering from events for which they are responsible . US interest in Somalia is to combat international terrorism, and therefore it sanctioned a regime change which has caused the country to return to anarchy from which it had been gradually extricating itself.  It has radically changed the scene to an extent that it now requires a peace keeping force and an alien hostile nation, Ethiopia, to control the affairs of the country, while insurgent activity thrives with war lords in action and with the local population supporting the rebel Islamic forces.  Foreign interventionists who pretend to lend a hand to solve problems, arrive at the scene to create more problems, as was the case of the IPKF forces and the Norwegian facilitators in Sri Lanka. The Norwegians entered the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia as peacemakers but was found to be unduly biased towards Eritrea (which stands accused of providing arms to the LTTE), and were banished by Ethiopia. The Norwegians responded by cutting off the aid flow to Ethiopia.

Cambodia.

The treatment of the UN and the Western Powers of the Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea, with its well documented records of proven genocide reveal the true nature of humanitarian interventions when influenced by political factors and geo-strategic considerations.

The image of Pol Pot still lingers on as being the Field Marshal of the Killing Fields of Cambodia which accounted for the most grotesque forms of human rights violations in Asia, yet when his regime was finally ousted by the Vietnamese forces, he took sanctuary in the jungles of the ally of the U.S., Thailand.  It was the UN on the instigation of the western powers that decided to recognize Pol Pot wearing the butcher’s apron in the jungle rather than the Government with years in office in Phnom Penh which had eliminated a genocidal regime. What a travesty of Justice! This could well happen in other contexts as well.

 The UN’s recognition of Pol Pot in hiding in Thailand meant international aid could not flow to the Cambodian people by the UNDP and allied UN agencies and health facilities could not be provided by the WHO to a country where by Western estimates 600,000 had been killed previously by American carpet bombing of Cambodia, at a time when the US decided to destroy the Ho Chin Minh trail which ferried supplies to Vietnam across Cambodia.  It was this US bombing that enabled Pol Pot to come to power, which ultimately led to the slaughter of two million people. The Cambodians were reeling under a double blow from the Americans and Pol Pot, and thus Cambodia became the only country on the planet denied aid and assistance due to the UN continuing to recognize an ousted Pol Pot.

 To make it worse, the US government decided to supply arms and the UN supplied food and seed convoys to the ousted Pol Pot, the worst offender of human rights in Asia living in the jungles off Thailand while making preparations to re enter Cambodia.  In truth, the United States and Pol Pot are partners in crime - the Americans had killed a million Cambodians in a secret war, that was not known to the American people or to the Congress, and Pol Pot had eliminated 1/3 of the Cambodian population. The role of the Human Rights Commission (now headed by Louise Arbor) on Cambodia is even more bewildering as it refused to consider a report of 955 pages of testimony on mass violation of Human Rights in Cambodia.

 For ten long years the UN rejected all efforts by the Cambodian government to bring the Khmer Rouge leaders to justice, and from all official documentation at the Peace Talks at Paris where the Western Powers were participants, phrases such as ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘genocide’ were deliberately deleted from the script to allow Pol Pot to gain recognition and respectability. Such dishonest suppressions of the Truth are in reality a form of abetment of crimes against humanity and genocide – deserving of universal condemnation and expulsion from the community of civilized nations, for they are unforgivable crimes.

What was the reason for such soft-pedaling? The background was that the Western Powers were anxious to enter the expanding Chinese market at the relevant time; ASEAN nations were keen to pander to China which was supporting Pol Pot because a pro- Vietnamese government was in office in Phnom Penh; and the Americans were still smarting after being defeated by the Vietnamese who were clients of Russia during a period when the cold war was still in progress between America and Russia. It was 30 years later, conscious of their guilt and shame that the UN was prepared to appoint a tribunal to investigate human rights crimes in Cambodia, and the chief culprit Khieu Samphan, the political face of the Khmer Rouge was arrested by the Genocide Tribunal in November 2007 after having lived openly in Cambodia. Pol Pot was permitted to die peacefully in Thailand after having remarried. It was the pressure exerted by the western powers including the UN that saved the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot from any form of inquiry for 30 years and a just retribution for their crimes, which reveals the extent that the UN Human Rights Commission is manipulated by the agenda of the Western Powers, and that no credibility can be attached to this body.

The UN architects of the R2P dogma, in practice fashion their designs to suit their masters at the expense of weaker states. In combating terrorism which is universally abhorred, the UN and the powerful states maintain differing and variable standards dependent on their alignment to the terrorist outfit or the Victim State. The United States adopted a soft line on the IRA; the UN soft pedaled on the Khmer Rouge, and Western nations assisted the Talibans/Muslim militants fighting the Russians in Afghanistan, revealing varying standards dependent on alignments based on geopolitical considerations or placement or the location of natural resources or political/cultural affinity. This manifestly contradictory approach was neatly presented by the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee which stated:
        “However, there are other regimes which arguably have comparable human rights records and yet, for reasons which may be strategic or commercial, do not attract the opprobrium or condemnation of the international community, if at all.”

This is a frank and candid admission of the application of double standards by the international community and its blatant disregard of ethical values, and negates all pretensions to justice.

Conclusions
Neither the UN nor the Powerful Nations has made any impact on the LTTE’s policies and practices. The LTTE is uncompromising on the issue of recruitment of child soldiers, inflexible on its continuing violations of human rights,  unrepentant on inflicting violence against civilians, continuing its policy of selective political assassinations and obstinate and unyielding on negotiations.  Sri Lanka, a member of the community of nations has at all times afforded a hearing and calibrated its reactions according to its observations, has provided its facilities as transparently as security considerations deemed possible, has heeded advice provided it was not contrary to national interest, and has shown flexibility, unlike the LTTE which has remained intransigent.

In this background, intervention, interference, or intrusion is sought-whether under the abbreviated appellation of R2P or by the long title of humanitarian intervention, merely to check mate, obstruct and undermine Sri Lanka from an opportunity of eliminating terrorism, at a time that Sri Lankan forces are successfully pursuing their campaign against the forces of terror. It is bewildering to find that the same nations that are vociferous on this issue, as well as the UN, which hunt terrorists that endanger their national/international security and thereby violate human rights, take no steps to control the LTTE, while continuing to threaten and intimidate Sri Lanka that is the victim of such crimes. This is reminiscent of the weird judgments of that crazy figure King Kekille in the Island’s folk lore!!

Human rights must no doubt be respected while at the same time the war against terrorism has to be conducted relentlessly towards its final elimination. In these circumstances, it is plain to see that when confronted with high priests of terror who have no respect for life or law, the war cannot be carried on in the conventional manner, especially where civilians are being used as human shields.  In such a context, inadvertent, unpremeditated or involuntary consequences may well result; unwarranted or disproportionate outcomes may occur; and these must be strictly controlled by effective and efficient local mechanisms.  If such an apparatus is not placed in position, the State will have to bear responsibility.  Due regard must be given to these abnormal conditions that prevail.  We must bear in mind the maxim: salus populi suprema lex (Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law).

Sri Lanka possesses an activist and assertive judiciary on fundamental rights which has not been subject to interference in the performance of its functions. The Human Rights Commission (HRC) requires to be strengthened and sanitized against political interference and men of integrity, courage and independence must be appointed. It is in this area that the State appears to have been remiss sometimes, which has enabled foreign observers to make adverse comments. The noteworthy anomalies are the feebleness of the HRC, the inadequate investigative capacity of the enforcement authorities and the lackadaisical attitude of the political authorities to intervene and make necessary rectifications. These anomalies need immediate attention but not foreign intervention which would complicate, confuse and confound issues even more.  Sri Lanka has men of experience with independence, integrity and skill to overcome such infirmities. More power and authority and guaranteed independence should be conferred on the HRC provided personnel of the aforesaid quality and qualification are appointed.  HRC and such allied bodies should be made to provide results and not be mere holders of honorific titles. They should be trained and equipped for their assignments and given wide exposure in the field of human rights.

 The admitted flaws, omissions, defects and lapses on Human Rights recorded in Sri Lanka are due more to weakness in governance in a country which has relentlessly battled terrorism for 30 years. Such deficits in performance are more prominent in other States where western powers act as guardians. The issues highlighted locally are isolated and are not of a serious nature and are not of a continuing nature. Not so, are the acts of terrorism in other countries on which the critics of Sri Lanka maintain a thunderous silence.  Incomprehensible and wayward, are the double standards of the international community!

The threat of intervention becomes more likely with the abrogation of the CFA, as it has closed the front door which was open to the forces of intervention to make their presence through their resident Viking representatives to roam at will and destablize the country. The campaign to open other avenues we anticipate will now begin in earnest. So let us be on our guard and take appropriate action to block such ventures.

We place our trust, faith and responsibility on the Patriotic People of this Country to avert the tragedy of foreign intervention. We believe the People who have sacrificed overwhelmingly at times of crisis to save the nation will not fail the Country at this hour. It is the People, that need to guide the nation collectively and not the forces of partisan politics or foreign embassies or foreign funded NGOs. WE must beware of the deadly virus spread by hired academics and pontificating analysts of the media. In a democracy, with sovereignty vested in the People, the State is obliged to give heed to the views and desires of the People who should decide issues in a free and fair manner.  It is this right of sovereignty exercised by the People that the foreign interventionists have decided to destroy with their doctrine of R2P. The high priests of this canon can act as upper guardians by granting a hypothetical undocumented global citizenship which confers so called rights to the international community for a stake in any country, with no reciprocal rights to any citizen of that country. Are we prepared to be ruled again by those elected to office by voters of distant lands who may have no knowledge of Sri Lanka, or holding office in international organizations who have no obligation for the welfare of the people in Sri Lanka? After 60 years of independence, we seem to be confronted with a bizarre transformation of International Relations that will surely lead to anarchy.

Sovereignty in its essence implies on the one hand to freedom from subjection and immunity from constraints which are unfair and unreasonable impediments on liberty of action.  Such intervention is for obvious reasons considered detrimental and injurious to the principle of equality of status amongst states in the international system. From a juristic point of view, equality of states is an attribute of sovereignty, and the essential quality of a state’s membership in the community of states. Control over a state’s territory and the government of its people are concomitant rights. This basic norm was recognized right from the time of the birth of the concept of statehood after the Thirty
Years War and the Peace of Westphalia which recognized the principle cujus regio eius religio – (Whose the region, his the religion; those who live in a country should adopt the religion of its ruler), ending the internecine wars of religion that plagued Europe in the Seventeenth century

Corresponding to this essential attribute of statehood, was the co-relative duty and obligation on the part of other members of the international society to respect and refrain from acts and omissions which were injurious to the independence and hurtful to the dignity of its fellow members. This no doubt was the theory, but its observance amidst the harsh realities of politics and among members of the international society deviated from the required norms of this standard, giving rise to inter-state displeasure, friction and acrimony, sometimes leading to armed conflict.   Acceptable behaviour was judged by a State’s willingness to adhere and conform to the expected ethical and moral standards of respect for other States. Abstaining from interference in the internal affairs of other States, more often than not, depended on realistic considerations of whether or not it was conducive to a state’s own “national interest”. Political considerations were accordingly paramount and the arts of diplomacy were harnessed to that end and the niceties of its exercise often degenerated into the crudities of “gun-boat diplomacy” and other displays of military muscle.  Such acts of intervention were considered a prerogative of the Big Powers who thought that they were destined to rule the world. Such excrescences of arrogant and insolent behaviour have fortunately disappeared from the international arena, and interference appears in more subtle and sophisticated forms.

The obvious discrepancy in respect of economic and military strength and administrative efficiency in the arts of government of the new states freed from colonialism became evident in the post-decolonization era, and the appellation “the Third World” with its derogatory implications soon attached itself to a considerable number of former colonies, including Sri Lanka and India as well as many African, Asian and Latin American countries, lacking the capacity for effectively managing their new status.  They were often content as a first priority to protect the external indicia of their newly won freedoms. They were no doubt zealously concerned in seeking to safeguard their right to be protected against the numerous infringements of their right to non-interference through the exertion of devious pressures, diplomatic, economic, and military assistance, which inexorably devalued their new-found status.  But regrettably, more often than not, they lacked the manifold capacities required for this purpose. Political scientists like Robert Jackson have described this category of states as “quasi-states” which no doubt carried with it pejorative implications at variance with the sovereign equality of states that was proclaimed in the United Nations Charter.  But it was nevertheless a correct description as later events showed. Sri Lanka may be considered to be in this unfortunate position. But what was most obvious was the vulnerability of these states to the manoeuvers and manipulations of the hegemonic powers in their quest for world-dominance.  These were the grim realities they had to face in the post Colonial era.

Having regard to the debilitated state in the exercise of what Robert Jackson describes as, “positive sovereignty”, as in the case of the well established states, the Third World states came to realize that their most valued possession was the guaranteed immunity against unlawful and unwarranted intervention in their internal affairs, however tenuous and fragile a right it often turned out to be.  If one glances at our recent history, perhaps the deepest sense of disappointment and disillusionment among the vast majority of Sri Lankans was occasioned by the refusal of the Government of India to allow the Government of Sri Lanka as was its lawful right as a Sovereign State, to complete it’s counter offensive against the LTTE in the Vadamaratchy area in 1986-87 and bring the rebel area under its control. It was further exacerbated by the so-called “humanitarian aid” through an aerial drop of some items of food and medicine escorted by MIG fighters brazenly violating our air space to emphasize the futility of any resistance to Indian military might.  These preliminary gestures ominously indicative of Indian determination to impose its will on a friendly neighbour, preceded the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of July 1987 which provided for the induction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force.  Its dismal record when called upon to meet the challenge of the LTTE finally led to its withdrawal from Sri Lanka in 1990, and to India’s own sense of disillusionment at this unsuccessful venture. This must surely have made the high priests of the Indian Foreign establishment painfully aware of the perils of such ill-considered forays that were part and parcel of intervention.

The solemn guarantees found in Article 2(1) and Article 2(4) of the UN Charter proved to be of no avail.  Considerations of realpolitik and a realization of the impracticability of embarking on a path that would lead to further embitterment between the two states led to a prudent decision not to press the issue.  The events of the two intervening decades, and the painful lessons which the Governments and the people of these two countries have learned in the interim suggest that as with the so-called “ unwinnable war”, patience and resolute adherence to one’s own convictions bring their own rewards.  We sincerely hope that such ill-conceived ventures will not be repeated in the future in the relations between our two countries.

To win the so called “unwinnable” war, it is necessary that Sri Lanka acts in her own interest and the interests of her own People. Without winning the war against terrorism, there is no space for peace.  The LTTE has extended itself beyond the frontiers of returning to democracy and the Rule of Law. The practicality of engaging in talks and discussions to bring peace with the most brutal terrorist organization in the World, is a myth that exists in the minds of those who support foreign intervention and who are seeking a place for themselves for their own benefit in Sri Lanka, taking advantage of the ongoing terrorist activity.  If terrorism is eliminated in Sri Lanka they stand to lose, for they will cease to be able to exert the undue influence and coercion they have hitherto done against a State vulnerable to such pressures.

We appeal to the Government of Sri Lanka, and its President who has so far safely guided the destinies of the Nation against tremendous odds, to steadfastly oppose any foreign intervention and not to yield on this vital issue, as it will inexorably lead to the destruction of our Nation and the disintegration of our beloved Sri Lanka.

Footprints for direct intervention are visible on the floor of Sri Lanka.  Indeed this may well be the Year of Foreign Intervention. The early pilgrims, from Rock to Holmes from Arbor to Novak have left their indelible footsteps to gain a foothold to pave the way for prolific human rights tourism.

Intervention inevitably connotes the intrusion of a foreign element. Those who descended to Sri Lanka with the Bible and Bayonet in the 19th century, now in the 21 century is seeking an arrival visa with a script called Human Rights and a pill called Aid and Assistance. Human Rights are a cover for contemporary colonization.

Historically stronger nation have entered the forbidden territory of weaker nations. Often it has been to impose an ideology or to increase it power base or to gain control of valuable resources or to extract an advantage in a geo-strategic areas.

 In modern times to make the intervention palatable a moral and an ethical standard is set to establish good faith. Yet, the selected target is sighted for reasons beyond the realm of Human Rights refocusing back to the original criteria for intrusion. Primarily it will not touch base where a nation is under the umbrella of a powerful patronizing state. Thereon would  arise considerations of the aspects of human rights namely genocide or ethnic cleansing  together with the possible complaint of a denial of democracy or a quest for human freedom coupled with the issue of national security back home for the invading nations.

Sri Lanka due to its proud record having being in the vanguard of the non aligned movement has no patron saint in the community of nations. Its neighbor India does not entertain a defense pact with Sri Lanka or permit a defense pact with another friendly country. Having isolated Sri Lanka, India continues to have a multiplicity of alliances with Western Powers mutually beneficial to their commercial interest and acting as the guardian in the Indian Ocean to the western powers in the containment of China emerging as the powerhouse of Asia. Sri Lanka lies isolated with no protective cover against any foreign interference. From a stand alone position Sri Lanka has to defend its honor with its own sparse resources. It is the motivated patriotic people lending their voice that has so far saved the day for Sri Lanka. The opinion makers have molded the decision makers due to the sounds reverberated by a vociferous majority.

Unfortunately, Sri Lanka attracts the criteria of the western powers which attempt intervention. It is situated strategically on the prime oil route to the Far East and a blockade of the local ports can help to choke the supplies to China from Africa and South America. The undetermined extent of petroleum and natural gas products beneath the territorial sea bed is an added attraction to the oil thirsty international community. India would prefer a feeble Sri Lanka dependent on the goodwill of the Western Powers rather than of friendly Asian Nations. India desires to hold the strings of the puppeteer to make Sri Lanka gyrate allowing the western nations to wield the cane. Therefore Sri Lanka falls within the parameters of a Threatened State.

The standard prescription of neo colonialism is to convert a Threatened State into a Failed State. Sri Lanka with its vibrant democracy of over 50 years, political diversity, right of dissent, free media, high life expectancy, literacy and medical welfare, fertile fundamental rights environ inclusive of justice without frontiers, rule of law, low infant mortality, expanding private sector and a vocal civil society is an imperfect candidate for dismissal as a failed democracy. So the fallback is on lack of good governance which by itself does not warrant intervention; more so, as the inherent democratic framework itself surfaces maladministration to the public realm, fallibility being in the elimination and eradication of such practices-which is indeed lacking This universal evil, at the worst, is not so pronounced in Sri Lanka as in some of the client states which show obedience to the western powers or such other client nations with a dearth of democracy, plethora of maltreatment of its citizens, stupendous corrupt practices without controls.

Invariably potential interventionist concentrate on their designated targets states such as Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Syria rather than on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uzbekistan,  where democracy or violations of human rights or principals of good governance are under much greater threat, the saving grace is their alignment to the western powers that seek intervention.   Sadly Sri Lanka notwithstanding a vibrant democracy in South Asia and benevolent welfare facilities for its citizens is the victim. India and Pakistan being patronized by the Western Powers for reasons of commerce and trade and as a staging ground for the assault on Afghanistan escapes interference, intrusion and intervention notwithstanding festering terrorists attacks for over 30 years in Kashmir and Baluchistan, erratic governance and human rights violations whilst Maldives, Bangladesh and Nepal are untouched. Ironically in the Buddhist “saffron belt of Asia” -Cambodia, Viet Nam, Laos, North Korea, Burma, suffered being victims of the “red peril” while Thailand being a client nation of the United States has been left alone. Presently the threat of humanitarian interventions looms where Islam prevails in the Middle East and Central Asia. Africa the largest beneficiary of aid and assistance from the West which is in a perennial state of starvation with the most dismal human rights record has escaped unnoticed, as their colonial masters continue to derive benefits from their former colonies. The sites for intervention are on a selective basis with the humanitarian aspect being more a convenient excuse rather than the prime concern, where the priorities are on extraneous economic and political considerations with no semblance of any uniformity shown.  

The foreign funded NGO’s with their local agents including the well funded seminar oriented civil rights activists, traveling academics and sections of the kept media pioneered the call for foreign intervention. The Sri Lanka has experienced foreign intervention in covert and overt forms during the last 25 years. The Indian humanitarian intervention of parachuting cereal and medical provisions over the North violating the air space of Sri Lanka which culminated with arrival of the IPKF, was an lamented episode for both Sri Lankan or Indian governments and destabilized good relationships between the two countries with the Indian High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka acting more like a local Viceroy and finally and events finally led to the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE. The Tamil people of the North and East suffered due to the physical presence of the IPKF which led to agitation from the local Tamil population that that the IPKF be removed forthwith. The Sinhalese strenuously disapproved the arrival of a foreign force and Muslims from the commencement objected to the presence of an Indian Force in the East The UNP that invited the IPKF under J.R.Jayawardane changed its own stance under President Premadasa and the UNP   was alleged to have provided arms and funds to the LTTE illegally in their bid to rid the IPKF. To make matters worse IPKF lost much territory that had been regained by the Sri Lankan forces at great cost to the LTTE and left behind a truncated portion much to the dismay of the forces. The terrorist activities continued unabated with the IPKF being often the victims. The presence of the IPKF in Sri Lanka led to great public unrest and there was unanimity among the communities that the IPKF should be withdrawn and the Indian government willing withdrew on an implied request realizing it was a unsuccessful experience.  It was during the period of partial/ total intervention by India that relationships between the two otherwise friendly countries became most acrimonious.

 The presence of the Scandinavian monitors under the arrangements of the CFA is an intrusion which proved to be a dismal failure and their monitoring exercise has become virtually non-functional and irrelevant. It neither reduced terrorist activity nor diminished violence and their presence merely provided a platform for Norway to display itself on the international scene where Norwegian politicians could have their moment of glory as peacemakers having being perennial failures elsewhere. It was recently Ethiopia banished the Norwegian peacemakers in their conflict with Eritrea who are reported to have assisted the LTTE.

UN agencies have been present and participating in the domestic affairs but without showing any tangible results. LTTE has shown total disregard to any of the strictures and determinations made by the UN on child soldier issue. UNICEF was a signatory to the Action Plan for Children together with the Government and the LTTE. Nevertheless the LTTE/Karuna Group has continued with their child recruitments irrespective of the presence of UNICEF and the release of children from LTTE/Karuna custody has been negligible with the LTTE accusing the UNICEF for not making proper arrangements to handover the children to their lawful custodians. The UNICEF presence has not been a deterrent to the kidnapping of children instead individuals from these agencies have extended a hand to the terrorists in other areas due to their misplaced sympathies. The children released have been recaptured and made to enter military service. UNCIEF has been unsuccessful in making an impact on child recruitment under the Action Plan and reliance could not be placed on the assurances given by the LTTE due to non fulfillment of their own obligations. In the meantime there are several complaints made against that UN agency employees have been furtively and stealthily assisting the LTTE which brings no credit to UN agencies operating in Sri Lanka. Comprehensive picture is that these UN agencies have been ineffective and lethargic on the child soldier issue and a total failure in monitoring the abducted children in Sri Lanka. This is primarily due to a desire to accommodate the LTTE notwithstanding the obvious visible contraventions of the protocols by the LTTE and the UN agencies are not strictly working on a genuine humanitarian agenda to save children from falling into the hands of the terrorists. This is a clear indication that alien presence is hardly beneficial in curtailing terrorist activity and could amount to hindrance and supportive of terrorism.

The orchestration for intervention took off in earnest with the visit of Gareth Evans to preach on the virtues of the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) which, according to him, could become effective in Sri Lanka if the war is extended to the North by the government forces. Strangely the warning was issued which after East was recaptured much of it which was lost during the IPKF intervention and under the CFA. This is not a proviso included in the official R2P text but an Evans innovation. Obviously Evans was interested, in the limited territory presently in the control of the LTTE not to change hands, but unconcerned it remains in the hands of a internationally recognized terrorist organization with a inhuman case history which held people in captivity without a semblance of democracy, without the right of dissent or political plurality and kept children in custody as child soldiers to be used in combat; did not observe the rule of law and eliminated its political opponents without trial. Evans appears to be in the same pulpit as the terrorist supportive NGO clans in safeguarding the LTTE at any cost so that terrorism flourishes in Sri Lanka so that trade of conflict resolution can flourish which helps the inflow of funds to these organizations It is indeed ironic the ultimatum of intervention was issued to the government forces at a time it was winning the war with no restrictions/reservations placed on the LTTE and the speech was made on the occasion of the commemoration of a death of an intellectual Tamil leader who was killed by the LTTE as he did not comprehensively endorse the objectives of the LTTE and instead subscribed to forms of federalism. Such are the wiles of humanitarian interventionists arriving at the behest of the foreign funded NGO community to deliver sermons on the current situation.

 Records reveal that Gareth Evans sometime Australian Foreign Minister supported the administration of President Suharto of Indonesia which had an alarming human rights record of a million political killings and having invaded East Timor yielding to ethnic cleansing of and wiping out 200000 East Timorese(1/3 the population). It is strange that Evans in his book “Cooperating for Peace” makes hardly any reference to the genocide in East Timor though written after the massacre of the East Timorese in Dili 1991.Indeed Evans and Indonesian Foreign minister Al Altatas signed Timor Gap Treaty which allowed the Australian and international oil companies to exploit the seabed off East Timor yielding 7 billion barrels of oil to Australia. Within two months of the massacre 11 contracts were awarded to Australian oil companies. Therefore his affinity to Suharto administration and silence on such massacres is understandable; Evans was associated in awarding the highest honor in Australia (Order of Australia) was  to Al  Altatas. Evans insights to terrorism is such that notwithstanding the American embassy having issued a valid terror alert and the President of Indonesia having warned of a probable terrorist attack Gareth Evans down played the effectiveness of the dreaded terrorist outfit Jemmah Islamiyah at a speech made to an audience in Australia. Three 3 days later in Bali 23 Australian tourist were killed 125 wounded by the explosion of 3 bombs by same terrorist outfit in association with a splinter group.  It is the same Gareth Evans who threatens Sri Lanka with an R2P humanitarian intervention if a military undertaking is initiated in the North to bring freedom and liberty to a captive people, who at every available opportunity has escaped and reached areas otside LTTE control and not south a desire to go back to their homes

Parallel to this exercise the traveling human rights missionaries from UN agencies instigated a campaign to stricture the human rights record in Sri Lanka unmindful that the State was encountering a brutal terrorist organization that was targeting civilians who required protection during a war which the enemy was not conducting according to the rules of war and which were not observed by their own foreign patrons in fighting terrorism such as the horror chambers established outside their territorial jurisdiction in third countries like Guantanamo Bay and the flights of rendition transporting human cargo. It could be said in their defense that terrorism has to be fought at times employing methodology that requires unorthodoxy for the greater good of the community provided the rule of law is observed. Louise Arbour called for the establishment of a human rights office in Colombo to watch the country situation reminiscent of the Scandinavian observers under the CFA and the Indian High Commissioner during the IPKF occupation; which provided those interventionist an opportunity to interfere in domestic affairs of the host nation but with no beneficial flow to the country or its people or achieves the purpose of their presence and indeed brought no honor to their home country.

 Prabhakaran, losing ground militarily and politically, in his address on Mahavira day blamed the international forces for not intervening and called for intervention more in an effort to save the LTTE from a military operation to be launched by the armed forces. Ironically it coincided with the call of Gareth Evans for foreign intervention, not to open the northern theatre of war to oust the terrorist fromtheir terrorist bases. To present the required pre conditions for such intervention Prabahkaran followed his birthday speech by launching a series of attacks on civilian life with the bomb at Nugegoda to place on record that the State is incapable of providing security to the people. It appears that an orchestrated coordinated operation is taking place to invite intervention.

It is worthwhile to examine situations where foreign intervention has taken place  and the impact it had on the occupied state and its people

Bosnia:

After the intervention of Bosnia by NATO forces and the Drayton agreement in 1995 international forces took to rule the country; constantly expanding the role of the multitude of international organizations and restricted the authority of all the ethnic groups consisting of Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs whose elected representatives merely have the right to discuss international policy with the Office of the High Representative (Foreign Holder) and make minor adjustments or delay the implementation of externally prepared rules and regulations. The holder of the Office the High Representative has now diminished these powers of the democratic bodies of the tripartite Presidency, Council of Ministers, State Parliament as an unnecessary delay in imposing international policy.

By the end of 1997 the international community decided it was unnecessary to require the Bosnian representatives to assent to international edicts and removed all such powers and the High Representative was empowered to dismiss the elected representatives who obstructed policy and to impose legislation directly.

Thereby the international community assumed complete legislative and executive power over a former independent state in consequence of making Bosnia a human rights protectorate. It is western paternalism appearing in the guise of human rights colonialism.

The provisions of the Drayton Agreement assured decentralization of political power and the creation of multi ethnic administrations to provide security to ethnic minorities and safeguard their autonomy.

Minority protection has not being provided to the three constituent peoples under Drayton. Power has not been decentralized to give minorities security or stake in the administration but such powers have been transferred and recentralized in the High Representative. At State, Entity, City and Municipal levels elected majorities have not been given no control over policy making and the international community regulates life down to the minutiae of local community service provision, employment practices, school admissions and sports.

The Muslims, Croats and Serbs have asserted institutions of Bosnian government are hollow structures and have sought greater political autonomy in policy making and uphold the rights protected in the “letter” of the Drayton Agreement while the international community is stressing on ad hoc interpretations based on the “spirit” of the Agreement. Furthermore the international community has extended their stay indefinitely. The critics point out that there is a high degree of external regulation making but no visible democracy and the mechanism to build a fragmented society. The structure has become corrupt and local politicians are purchasable.
The ramifications of intervention as revealed in Bosnia is that the interventionists are reluctant to depart and the objectives for arrival become irrelevant and the intervenient has an agenda of its own and in the case of Bosnia is to weaken a Russian dominated Serbia and dismantle the former Yugoslavia with its leanings previously to Soviet Russia and to reach the natural resources in the Balkans.

Kosovo:

US led NATO forces without the Security Council mandate bombed Serbia relentlessly to force Serbian troops out of Kosovo (which was part of Serbia) on the basis of a humanitarian intervention to save the Albanian Kosovors from an ethnic cleansing operation. UN Security Council Resolution 1244 determined Kosovo as part of Serbia but placed it under UN administration and NATO units of 17000 constituting the Kosovo Peace Keeping Force(KPA).

After 8 years of UN administration it is the Serbians and the Roma(gypsies) the minorities in Kosova who are being ethnically cleansed in the UN protectorate by the majority Albanian Kosovors.

UN Special Envoy Martii Athisaari proposals may form the basis of a Security Council resolution that may lead Kosovo to independence. President Bush after receiving a heroes welcome in Albania declared he would issue a unilateral declaration of independence for Kosovo and Washington will recognize it without waiting for the Security Council to decide on it. This is not surprising as the Americans funded the Muslim militia in the Kosovian Liberation Army (KLA) in their struggle against Serbia.

However just as in Bosnia restrictions will be placed on its sovereignty setting a international body to supervise it for an indefinite period. According to Athisarri proposals special powers are to be allocated to the International Civilian Representative (ICR) to represent the UN/EU with powers to impose/annul laws passed by local parliament and to remove political leaders from office. Albanians have expressed dissatisfaction with these proposals being aware of the events in Bosnia.

During the 8 years of UN administration no attempt has been made to build a multi ethnic society but instead watched the excessive exodus of Serbs and Romas from Kosovo. The legal system that existed is in tatters and province is in a serous social and economic predicament with more than half the population unemployed. And the angry locals call the UN officials the “white 4x4 gang” due to their pastime of driving in the province in  white Toyota Landcruisers without attending to the needs of the people.


The foreign intervention to save the Albanian Kosovor majority has resulted in the ethnic cleansing of the other minorities in the province and the UN/EU officials have helplessly watched. The possibility of the Serb enclaves in the province with Serbian assistance seeking autonomy may lead to further fragmentation which will be resisted by Pristina as it would not agree to a substantial portion of Kosovo being reduced. It is not on the agenda that Serbs will agree to be citizens of Kosovo. Therefore it is obvious that the intervention has merely exaggerated existing problems without solving any and caused more bickering among the ethnic groups.

This exercise by the foreign interventionist could give impetus to other entities to declare unilateral independence such as Western Sahara (Morocco) Transnistria (Moldova)
Kurdistan (Turkey) Basque Country and Catalonia (Spain/French) Chechnya (Russia) Abkhazia (Georgia) Nagorny Karabakh (Azerbaiijan) to name a few.

Sri Lanka after the intervention had to face a similar situation when a unilateral declaration of independence was declared by the Chief Minister Perumal of the Northern/Eastern Provincial Council before seeking sanctuary in India.The chief Minister was supportive of the IPKF forces and it was alleged he came to power with the assistance of the IPKF under whose control the North-Eastern provincial council elections were held, which was reckoned to be a “disturbed” election. Kosovo is more in the trajectory of India’s learning curve as foreign interventionist could look ahead to destabilse India with a long time presence in Sri Lanka to place pressure on India with a vision of a Greater Tamil Nadu.
 
Intervention is a happy hunting ground for the interventionist but not for the local population who are the ultimate victims as experience has shown previously in Sri Lanka.

Somalia:

Situated in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is a county ethnically and linguistically homogenous and had entanglements with the super powers due to its geo strategic positioning. Under Siad Barre it veered originally to Russia and then to America for arms and patronage. It became the arms bazaar in Africa and was the most militarized state in the Gulf of Aden.

After the death of Siad Barre Somali tribal war fare commenced and the country fell apart in an orgy of inter clan fighting. Continuous droughts and famine led to mass starvation amidst the fighting among the heavily armed war lords and a situation of anarchy prevailed. The Somalis in desperation began to flee to neighboring countries.

Humanitarian requirements called for the intervention of UN forces which was necessary to mobilize for the distribution of food convoys and to facilitate the cessation of hostilities between the war lords. The Americans took over the leadership of the UN forces due to immense public pressure which arose due to news coverage in the media portraying the human tragedy being enacted in the capital Mogadhishu. The UN forces met strong resistance from militia of General Aidid. In a skirmish 18 US soldiers were killed and 75 injured. Bodies of the US Rangers were gruesomely paraded along the streets. President Clinton immediately withdrew the American forces from Somalia.

This shows where a genuine humanitarian conditions require presence the western powers do not display staying powers unlike situations where political or economic reasons prevail such as in Iraq or Afghanistan or East Timor or Bosnia or Kosovo. It was the same in Ruwanda (1994) where genocide was taking place; the Tutsi tribes were being slaughtered by the Hutus- the Clinton administration not only refused to intervene, but even used its influence on the UN Security Council to mandate the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from Ruwanda and blocked all efforts to redeploy them. Clinton in 1998 formally apologized for the episode and that ‘they did not fully appreciate” what was happening.

Thereupon Somalia slid into anarchy and the feuding clan leaders controlled the country without any law and order and people being at the mercy of the clan chieftains lived without a sense of security in a society where rule of the jungle prevailed. In this backdrop the Mogadhishu traders who no longer could tolerate the state of anarchy funded to bring the men of the Union of Islamic Forces (movement created by businessmen in Somalia) to the seat of power and were successful in eliminating the warlords. Again there was law and order in Somalia after 15 years of chaos.

The US was after 9/11 in its global war in terror showed interest as Osama bin Laden was believed to have lived in Somalia and the Taliban and the mujahideen fleeing Afghanistan and Iraq took refuge in Mogadhishu and President Bush freezed the assets of the largest company in Somalia Al-Barakat (blessed) in remittance trade from the Somalian Diaspora after the attack on the Twin Towers. Americans were supportive of the deposed warlords and opposed the new administration of Union of the Islamic Court (UIC).The US was not prepared to permit the UIC to remain in power

With a mandate from Washington its proxy holder Ethiopia marched into Somalia on a blitzkrieg to dispatch the UIC. US provided aerial reconnaissance and satellite surveillance support. This has now taken the form of a Christian Ethiopian troops engaged in battle against Islamic forces in a holy war in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea is on record providing supplies to the Islamic Forces demanding the withdrawal of its perennial enemy Ethiopia. US  closes its eyes to the human rights violations which are rampant. In the light of the human rights violations US led International Somalia contact group has called for UN peace keeping force in view of country sliding to anarchy again which has not materialized with only Ethiopia and Uganda prepared to send troops

This reveals that powerful states are not interested in genuine humanitarian exercises when it becomes imperative and in fact for its own narrow self interest enters third countries and internationalizes local conflicts giving rise to situations where violations of human rights which it is prepared to watch from the sidelines. US is interest in Somalia to combat international terrorism and therefore sanctions a regime change which has caused a country to return to anarchy from which it was cautiously extricating itself. It has changed the scenery to an extent that requires a peace keeping force and an alien hostile nation to control the affairs of the country while insurgent activity thrives with war lords in action and local population supporting the rebel Islamic forces.


Cambodia

The treatment of the UN  and the Western Powers of the  Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea with a well documented records of proved genocide reveals the true nature of humanitarian interventions, political factors and geo strategic considerations. The image of Pol Pot still lingers on as the Field Marshall of killing fields of Cambodia which accounted for the most grotesque forms of human rights violations in Asia but yet when his government was ousted by the Vietnamese forces and he took sanctuary in the jungles of Thailand; the UN on the instigation of the western powers decided to recognize Pol Pot wearing the butches apron in the jungle rather than the government in Phnom Penh with years in office having eliminated a genocidal regime The UN recognition for Pol Pot meant international aid could not flow to the Cambodian people by the UNDP and allied UN agencies and health facilities could not be provided by the WHO to a country where by Western estimates 600000 had been killed previously by American carpet bombing when the US decided to destroy the Ho Chin Mihn trail which ferried supplies to Vietnam across Cambodia .It was the US bombing that enabled Pol Pot to come to power and which ultimately led to the slaughter of two million people. The Cambodians were reeling under a double blow from the Americans and Pol Pot, became the only country on the planet denied aid and assistance due to UN continuing to recognize an ousted Pol Pot. To make it worse the US government decided to supply arms and the UN supplied food and seed convoys to the ousted Pol Pot the worst offender of human rights in Asia living in the jungles off Thailand while making preparations to re enter Cambodia. There was a common plank - Americans had killed a million Cambodians in a secret war that was not known to the American people or to the Congress and Pol Pot had eliminated 1/3 of the Cambodian population. The role of the Human Rights Commission (now headed by Louise Arbour) on Cambodia is more bewildering as it refused to consider a report of 955 pages of testimony on mass violation of Human Rights in Cambodia.

 For 10  more years UN rejected all efforts by the Cambodian government to bring Khmer Rouge  leaders to justice  and from all official documentation at the Peace Talks at Paris where the UN was a participant, phrases such as ‘crimes against ‘humanity’ and ‘genocide’ were deleted  from the script to allow Pol Pot to gain recognition and respectability.The background was that Western Powers were anxious to enter the Chinese market at the relevent time, ASEAN nations were keen to pander to China who was supporting Pol Pot because a pro Vietnamese government was in office in Phnom Penh; and the Americans were still smarting after been defeated by the Vietnamese who were clients of Russia in a period the cold war was still in progress between America and Russia. It was 30 years later in guilt and shame that UN were prepared to hold a tribunal to investigate human rights crimes in Cambodian, and the chief culprit Khieu Samphan the political face of the Khmer Rogue  was arrested  by the Genocide Tribunal 30 years later after having lived openly in Cambodia. Pol Pot was permitted to die peacefully in Thailand after having remarried. It was the pressure exerted by the western powers including that saved the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot from any form of inquiry for 30 years which reveals the extent the UN Human Rights Commission is manipulated by the desires of the Western Powers.

It is the sound of defeat…..a defeated man desperately appealing to the international community to salvage him from defeat and assist him to reach his objectives which remain unchanged. He blames the international community for failing to discharge its obligations which it had carried out in East Timor, Montenegro and Kosovo.
 
 This is a message not to his people but more to the international community to help him to change the course of the war. He now places confidence in the international community rather than on his own people for support which had not so far materialized for which he blames the international community and now pleads for assistance to achieve his goals.

A man who has realized that he cannot turn to his people to carry him to his objectives, a desperate man now cornered and isolated ventilating his anger against the whole world.

He states that the UNP is somersaulting and changing its stance and taking a contradictory position from its previous stand.

He admits Sri Lankan forces are strong and it is only when the LTTE display their military prowess that Sri Lankan government is prepared to take notice. The only victory he could claim is the operation Ellalan on the air field in Anuradhapura.

The most telling extract from the speech are found in the words ‘The Rajapakse regime, after unilaterally abrogating the ceasefire agreement….”.If the LTTE treats the CFA as admittedly abrogated it  grants the right for the State to treat the CFA as at an end.  The declaration of the abrogation of the agreement has been made unilaterally and voluntarily and the State should treat it accordingly and withdraw from any obligations under the CFA. It reveals that the LTTE does not treat the CFA as a valid agreement any more. If the State fails to make use of this opportunity it would have forfeited a valid right that has been conferred.

 Pirapahran has admitted the East is lost but states it is for tactical reasons they withdrew setting a trap for the forces to which they have fallen; in compelling the defense forces to spread and commit a large force which will spell their doom.

The LTTE has realized that they cannot confront the motivated armed forces or expect a triumph on the peace front without international intervention. This is an invitation to foreign players to intervene on behalf of the LTTE. This is the strategy for 2008. A demoralizing message to their local supporters and a call for rapid deployment of foreign mercenaries in varying forms.
 

The message has been transmitted loud and clear –the government cannot be dismantled provided the struggle against the LTTE is properly directed. The credit should go more to Brother Gothabhaya than to the President. It’s the war that saved the day for the PA government. Whatever the foreign funded NGO’s may say majority of the people support the war as reflected in the vote in Parliament. It is indeed a vote more to show loyalty to the Forces- an obvious patriotic phenomenon during an ongoing war.

The message comes out meaningfully due more to the stand of the JVP. It shows that the patriotic forces which stood together at the presidential election have coalesced again, in crisis time, to defeat the forces disloyal to the nation. In the case of the UNP it is not disloyalty simpliciter; in it is a desire to gain power rapidly, so national interest is thrown to wind and a ready willingness is shown to cohabit with the public enemy No 1. Naturally UNP is a serial loser. To the credit of the JVP they did not succumb; and does not seek any return unlike the rebels from the UNP to whom some carrot has to be offered. Indeed the JVP would have incurred the wrath if the war efforts were thwarted.

The JVP stand kills any further efforts to defeat the government; for 38 members by declining has delivered the message- though opposing the government on other fronts including major differences on political stances- it will not permit the UNP to emerge provided the war effort is relentlessly pursued successfully .Again UNP has always played Santa Claus to the LTTE and become a chimney sweep with plenty soot.

Unanswered question is did the JVP hold back the decision or send out conflicting messages to make members cross the divide to and fro to gain an undue advantage by weakening both the government and the opposition.  One cuckoo became a victim since he was seeking guidance from distant lands instead from his habitation.

 The temptation to defect is diminished in the governing party as the possibility of a near election recedes into the background as 38 votes reflect a bulk. CWC becomes in the circumstances, irrelevant.  The UNP failed to read the obvious road signs and suffered another set back in having over identified with the forces associated with the LTTE.  Ranil is the President best bet for his political longevity. It also means Presidents future is dependent on the successful early completion of the war.

The technique of the agents of the LTTE would be to drive a wedge between the government and the JVP to change the equation in Parliament. The losers title at the budget goes to Anura Bandaranaike who probably has a cupboard full of such trophies. To Ranil’s worth with experience he has learnt to take defeat gracefully and live to fight another day which deserves an honorable mention.

No baby face but a killer with a smile that never vanished; killed many friends and foes with the same permanent grin. A terrorist who walked to the negotiation table well groomed in coat and tie picked on the streets of Oslo; carrying a walking stick not for sartorial elegance but for a physical infirmity.

If Balasingham pretended to be Godfather and posed as  “London Bala”; the fake squire who spoke English fluently with a ‘white wife’ on display more to seek oneness with westerners- could never overcome the feeling of inferiority of having being a translator at the British High Commission-so imperial that he probably hummed “Rule Britannia’ in the bathroom; Tamilchelvam was the head boy among the boys, proud of his position in Killinochchi, always in the company of his contingent to drive them relentlessly, ate like the Jaffna man at table speaking in Tamil and obviously did not take strong drinks by himself in the bedroom like his predecessor. He appeared to be disciplined and dedicated to his cause, however evil.

Balasingham spoke crudely both for his organization and for himself. Tamilchelvan spoke politely only for his organization on a script prepared by his mentor in hiding. A communicator in the form of a reader. He was not searching to be a legend, so obviously he was the superior negotiator. He was a captain cool with out showmanship with an eye on the target. Saw him at his proper best with the young girls from human rights organizations-they could talk tall in having dined with a terrorist! To a human rights activist that is a ticket to their kind of ethical nirvana.

He is replaceable but not to a sparse organization of dwindling numbers, where loyalty carries the highest premium. A man of war now rests in peace. Many died in vain for a few to gain.

The difference between the SLFP and the UNP in time will be more in name than in policy or principle or spirit. The UNP’ers sit cozily in the SLFP benches more holy to the SLFP than its own lifelong members. The SLFP’ers who crossed the divide are catapulted to prime leadership within the UNP network which party stalwarts cannot aspire with a lifetime of dedicated service to the grand old party.  Many of the Cabinet members of the past two decades in the Chandrika-Ranil-Mahinda administrations have drifted between the parties and some have traveled the full circle revealing their flexibility and adaptability being at home in any home provided it was a comfort home.

To gain instant high office, to live with the cream of privileges and perquisites, aggregate the maximum points on air miles and for luxury visits to the capitals of the world it is necessary to hop to and from the major parties from time to time. Caravans do move between the sites making the thin fine line fast disappear. With heavy immigration and emigration, the two parties will look alike as twins dressed in blue and green.

The present difference between the SLFP and the UNP lies in the politics of President Mahinda Rajapakse and Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake the last of the frontier men with the spirit of ”56 in the SLFP. With their departure the original identity of the SLFP can fade away and the remnant would be comfortable on any mothers knee provided they hold the soup spoon. Otherwise the specter of ”56 was hijacked by the JVP  which still requires tinkering for modernization to the needs of 2007

The UNP with or without Ranil has an identity and a consistent value structure. Identifiably with the market forces, free trade, globalization and prioritizing of the West it has more lasting power with western backers and it still retains Ranil in the absence of a national leader with the correct  party antecedents and upbringing from the established brigade. UNP can survive in bad times. In good times it can gradually merge with the SLFP oscillators after the departure of Rajapakse and Wickremanayake.

SLFP vacillates on its policies to suit the leadership- it is the leader that determines the policies which undergoes seismic shifts with changes in the leadership In the absence of an astute leadership it will be orphaned without a navigator to chart a distinct winnable attractive policy. In its winning streaks of 1956,1970.1989,2001 and 2005 it was the friendly forces which fashioned the vote gathering policies and the inner strength of the allies gathered the  added vote to streak ahead of the UNP

 Mahinda Rajapakse Principles (most are in tatters) still stand solid and strong on the National Issue which has pride of place in the country priority list. It is a formidable position taken not only against the LTTE but also their international support groups  and his own Cabinet colleagues who were once the local agents of such forces Their lies his strength and the weakness of his opponents. The Leader of the Opposition and Chandrika Kumarantunga both relied on the forces that were in support of co existence with the LTTE and Norway to overcome the terrorist threat.

 The saving grace for the President is UNP’s desire to stupidly to over identify itself with the LTTE purely to display a stance in variance with the President. If not for Rajapakse or Wickremanayake the SLFP would be following the UNP path as did Chandrika Kumaranatunga in office on the National Question. Steady decline of the LTTE will be a plus for the President and a minus for the UNP – ironically a situation created more in the public mind by the UNP by their own action than by the President as a reaction.


The Rajapakse Presidency was compelled to take a patriotic stance in seeking a mandate against terrorism due to the numerical strength of the JVP and JHU in Parliament. Their support vote was a pre requisite to victory in the presidential election in the background of a possible backlash of the LTTE vote. With a hung Parliament the President cannot still afford to deviate from the Mahinda Chintanaya on the war front to antagonize the JVP. More so it carries the endorsement of a majority of the people who desire the LTTE to be crushed militarily before a political solution supporting the Gothabhaya Doctrine.  

Rajapakse –Wickremanayake has targeted on the bulls eye and stands tall against Ranil and Chandrika who are are/were shooting arrows at patriotic targets instead of the LTTE This has enabled, notwithstanding the attending stench of corruption mismanagement and ineffectiveness, for the Government to survive principally on the success on the war front.  If Chandrika had her nominee as the Presidential candidate the difference between the parties would have been superfluous and without the JVP-JHU support the UNP would have romped home comfortably. Unless there is a significant difference an inept government cannot re launch itself for an election amidst an economic crisis where everybody is a somebody in being a Minster for something.

The PA cannot face a General Election to win comfortably relying on the war front alone without the aggressive support of the JVP. The President is a bystander and not a  candidate at a General Election. Nor can the UNP win convincingly with its present candidate and his policies cronies and quoted misquotes. Both parties need an attractive candidate to lead which can make the impact between victory and defeat at a General Election. Is there such a candidate from outside the political realm from the educated elite emerging who could capture the hearts and minds of the electorate?  

It is the SLFP vote that can float more with years of sullied management of an electorate that has not tasted the UNP bitter pill for awhile. Ordinary the drift will be towards the UNP as the credible alternative but much of it is more likely to settle in the JVP column. As the PA -JVP voters have pooled their resources together at the last General and Presidential elections, a silent bondage has been forged between their support vote to make the float more in that direction than to a feeble UNP.

 The disgruntled intelligentsia in the SLFP would move to the JVP while the opportunists in the SLFP will opt for the UNP in search of office. JVP holds a trump with their commitment to principle and cleanliness but lacks depth in mature political experience and known talent. The solace for the major parties is that voters go for the winner or loser but not for those who also ran close to the election day.  The search for an attractive Prime Ministerial candidate is more a priority for the SLFP; to retain the float vote and win back the drift vote as Wickremanayake is past his prime to look attractive on the platform and poster. UNP has its eternal candidate stronger due to inept governance waiting for the minority parties to rally around him

 New faces, fresh concepts, novel initiatives are essential for both parties to survive independently. Otherwise with the crossing and the crisscrossing the UNP and PA will inevitably merge much to delight of the ruling and commercial elite after the departure of the present leadership of the two parties. It may well be a new face that might give leadership to a combine and to confer the leadership of the opposition to the JVP. After a while for a while we may have a stable government until the rot sets in to destroy the combine which could be the most corrupt government in history, knowing the antecedents of both.   

 Sri Lanka belongs to the youth of tomorrow from which ever party it comes from  Will it come from the elite Colombo set or from beyond?

Who are the friends of terrorism?

Colombo’s sophisticated society- the so called Jet Set. They serve the terrorists not because they care for the terrorists; because they selfishly love themselves so much – to filthily enrich and benefit themselves rapidly-they are prepared to forget the country and its people. The indirect beneficiaries are the terrorists, because these yuppies and grannies, youthful and aged, wittingly or unwittingly, yield to the agenda sought by the terrorists. Within the framework of the civil society the LTTE has platoons of such foot soldiers in disguise operating on behalf of the terrorists in a free and open society in which we live. Yet, they live in their own gulag away from the People- being serial losers at any election whenever People are consulted. Colombo and suburbs where they live in  
pseudo splendor is a make believe small world away from Sri Lanka.

These Colombo social climbers crave for peace-no doubt a noble aspiration- but at any cost- on terms beneficial to the terrorists. They care not for those innocent Tamils, who live in captivity in uncleared areas, without a semblance of democracy or the right of dissent or facilities of free movement or right of association within Sri Lanka. Peace they seek is an environment to further their personal schedules; Peace that would enable the terrorists to achieve their objectives. The Colombo Jet Set would rather cohabit with the terrorists if it is rewarding like the merchants in the arms bazaar. Peace we seek must not be peace to rest with terrorists and live with dollars. It must be peace that will safeguard the future generations and free the innocent Tamils living in LTTE dominated enclaves from the clutches of the terrorism and provide them facilities to exercise their fundamental rights which are presently denied. Peace that must safeguard our territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The Colombo mafia has no appreciation of the heroics of the armed forces which is primarily the work of the rural poor. Surely they would not be able to live and transact business or indulge in their professions or live in comfort with their families or travel to the airport to take flight or socialize at parties and functions-which are a part of the legitimate entitlements of an affluent society- if not for the security provided by the armed forces. Yet they continue to mock the forces and bring them to contempt in the public mind, endeavor to dismantle security barriers calling it an irritant, scorn those manning long hours at the barriers or make no contribution towards the elimination of the LTTE; yet frown on Al Qaeda or Hamas or Talibans, as these are not the friends of the western powers whom they venerate and continue to sustain those who covertly support the LTTE which is part of their misguided values in their trendy outlandish life styles. They think not of the country. They are the products of foreign funded NGO’s, commercial chambers, professional mafias and social climbers in the cocktail circuits or academics in search of an additional stipend or perquisites. Grant them an air ticket and a fistful of dollars-they will embark even to hell. These are the reincarnation of those traitors, who once upon a time, sold our rights to the white man to gain a few pence or a title.

They mind not - if the country is divided or portions ceded, end the war on any terms, allow secession to succeed or admit foreign forces to native soil. They will mouth the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in the seminar circuit being illiterate to be aware of its consequences, lend their name to circularized petitions to thwart attempts to dismantle terrorism merely to seek publicity or social recognition-  nobodies wanting to be  somebodies.
Who among your friends still dine and wine toasting the terrorists?

Treat them with the contempt which they richly deserve.