The latest 'horror drama'
(By: Dinesh Weerawansa)
One year has elapsed after Sri Lanka's Security Forces
crushed LTTE terrorism and became the first country to eradicate
terrorism. During Sri Lanka's relentless battle against terror, many
international organisations and a few countries made desperate attempts
to disrupt the operations of the Security Forces.
Some countries, which profess to be the Godfathers in
the international battle against terror, made many an attempt to
resurrect the LTTE when the world's most ruthless terrorist organistion
was on the verge of being vanquished.
Even when the Security Forces were about to trounce
the LTTE leadership in the final battle at the Nandikadal lagoon, some
countries, at the eleventh hour attempted to pump in the last drop of
oxygen to the moribund terrorist organisation which had killed a
countless number of innocent people and inflicted untold hardships on
millions of people of all ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.
Although these countries and organizations, including
some INGOs, who could not directly support a terror outfit which was
violating all accepted norms and international conventions, they
buttressed moral support for the LTTE and attempted to discredit the
country's Security Forces which rendered a magnanimous and invaluable
service.
Certain countries and some international organisations
shamefully used human rights as an effective tool to exert pressure on
the Government, in an insidious attempt to bring about a premature end
to the operations of the Security Forces.
Fortunately for us, we had the invincible political
leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who did not yield to mounting
pressure from all quarters, including a handful of local opportunistic
Opposition politicians who attempted to gain petty political mileage.
Had it not been for the indomitable and determined
effort of President Rajapaksa and unfailing support extended by Sri
Lanka's friendly countries, we would perhaps never have eliminated
terrorism and liberated the country.
Ironically, the same extremist elements which had made
numerous attempts to protect Tiger terrorists and disrupt Sri Lanka's
battle against terror, have again surfaced at a time the entire nation
is celebrating the first anniversary of the country's liberation from
terrorism.
Controversial Louise Arbour, the then UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, a high-ranking international official,
was one whose conduct was questionable. The International Crisis Group (ICG),
headed by Arbour, which has now made the latest attempt to discredit Sri
Lanka's Security Forces.
As exclusively reported in our lead story last Sunday,
the ICG has made an ignominious attempt to level war crimes against the
Security Forces which liberated over a half a million people who had
been forcibly held by the LTTE terrorists as a human shield. Arbour's
move from the UN to the ICG has not changed her moral responsibility one
wee bit.
The ICG report, released last Monday to coincide with
the first anniversary of the LTTE's defeat, not only puts the scale of
civilian casualties far higher than previous UN estimates, but also
declares that the ICG has "credible evidence" to suggest that the
Security Forces shelled civilian targets and hospitals during the battle
against terrorism.
This is no doubt a shameless and unethical attempt to
distort the truth and fabricate stories to deny the credit of the
Security Forces which had maintained a near zero civilian casualty rate
at all times.
The ICG said that its report was based on eyewitness
statements, photographs, video satellite images, electronic
communications and documents from a "wide range of sources". One has a
reason to wonder how the ICG had based its facts or was influenced by
the tampered video footings such as the infamous Channel 4 incident
which championed concocted stories.
The ICG report could well be the first in the latest
series of conspiracies that are likely to emerge in the international
arena against Sri Lanka. The few remaining international leaders of the
now defunct LTTE, along with a section of the Tamil diaspora and a
handful of LTTE sympathisers are behind the latest conspiracy of which
Arbour's ICG, perhaps, is only a partner.
In these circumstances, the credibility of the ICG
report is at stake as ICG personnel have made hostile expressions on Sri
Lanka's conduct of the conflict and the public perception is that their
report will be unfairly hostile and cannot be relied upon.
In a subtle attempt to give credibility to itself, the
ICG has faulted the extinct LTTE too, as a part of balancing act,
knowing only too well that in the absence of personnel or an
organisation, no action can be taken against the LTTE. It seems that the
sole aim of the ICG report is to frame war charges against the
Government and its Security Forces.
To hound a democratically elected government, which
has every right to defend its sovereignty and protect its people against
the most ruthless terrorists in the world which had bled our nation for
30 years with the support of certain countries in the West to restore
the right to life to its subjects to say the least is certainly mind
boggling.
Why is the ICG keen on holding an inquiry into the
alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka? Are the backroom boys at the ICG
playing the role of scripting the ghost report to discredit the Defence
Forces of Sri Lanka. The prime objective of the report is to bring Sri
Lanka into disrepute in the eyes of the international community. Unlike
the non-existent, Sri Lanka is a nation state that can be subjected to
international sanctions. Certain Western powers and its allied INGOs
tried their best to concoct stories to discredit Sri Lanka in its effort
to defeat terrorism.
It is patently clear that certain countries in the
West and their shadow INGOs are staging their latest 'horror drama'
against Sri Lanka. These extremist elements, who fought tooth and nail
to protect the LTTE and failed, now need a busybody such as the ICG to
unearth material to sully Sri Lanka's reputation.
Why are these organisations conspiring only against
Sri Lanka? Having woefully failed in their attempt for a regime change
by using a traitor such as Sarath Fonseka who was only too willing to
favour war crimes' allegations, they are now resorting to everything
under the Sun in an attempt to tame the leadership which had never been
a Western puppet. | 
