Eric Solheim in his somewhat sleazy autobiography makes reference to another dubious Norwegian Arne Fjortoft, as reported in the Asian Tribune of 01 Aug 07; Fjortoft has access to Norwegian government funds. It has been alleged that much money had to be given to local politicians to get the Norwegians on board as mediators in the Sri Lankan conflict; at least this was Fjortoft’s response when called upon to answer charges of fraud and misappropriation.

Many investigators believe that Fjortoft could help in the investigations of the slayings of Gamini Dissanayake and Lucky Algama. A request by the widow of Dissanayake to get the assistance of crack Indian investigators, who were standing by to help, was refused by the horrible twin, Kumaranatunge. When Kumaranatunge came into power in an election, the terrorists celebrated the event with the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire.

Fjortoft was a key player in the horrible twin’s strategy of internationalizing Sri Lanka’s internal problem and her willingness to sacrifice Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the process.

Fjortoft was always a shadowy figure who ‘moled’ his way into Sri Lanka in 1967 with the fishy Cey-Nor project in the North; this connection gave him leverage to establish strong links with the terrorists.

This multi faceted Norwegian is a close friend of ‘Red Barna’ Westborg, the alleged gun runner turned Norwegian diplomat; interestingly, it was in 2002, with the approval of Bradman Weerakoon, this dubious ambassador, contravening the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, sent container loads of a diplomatic consignment of high powered radio transmitters and a VSAT military communication earth station to the terrorists. One of Fjortoft’s areas of expertise is ‘communication’ systems and ‘networking’. His name reportedly has come up in dispatches relating to anti government movements in Myanmar and Nepal.

Terrorist truce

Kumaranatunge, many insiders say, had a plan to bring in the Norwegians from day one when she assumed office in 1994; contact had already been established with Fjortoft.

Eric Solheim

Kumaranatunge had been approached by the Norwegians, to arrange a truce with the terrorists, with the Norwegians in the saddle as facilitators; her reward allegedly was to be a million US dollars which is the cash component given personally to a Nobel Prize winner.

Most political observers agree that Norway played a dishonest role during Sri Lanka’s long drawn out campaign against terrorism; these same observers claim they see a similarity in today’s situation where much money is being thrown around to lubricate the circus of crossovers to the opposition.

Norway is a member of NATO – the US global military arm, the activities of which confounds the rationale for its establishment – and has been involved with the US in other suspicious ‘Conflict Resolution’ manipulations. Kumaranatunge, the horrible twin, reportedly flush with foreign funds, is credited with destroying the will of the people to fight terrorism in the country by staging ‘Sudu Nelum’ street dramas, throughout the country; she instilled fear in the people that the deadly terrorists were unbeatable.

Brainwashed by Kumaranatunge, the people of this country discouraged their children into joining the military; those whose children had already joined the service were deceived by Kumaranatunge’s duplicity and parents made no attempt to stop their children deserting the ranks. There were times when the military could hardly sign ten persons into their ranks during recruitment drives at the height of terrorism.

The depleted military units – exhausted, overburdened and with many wounded in the ranks – doggedly fought on despite the odds; many brave sons and daughters of Sri Lanka were needlessly killed and maimed due to, critics say, the contemptible leadership of Kumaranatunge; some describe it as downright treacherous.

The funds for the mind manipulating ‘street Kolamas’ were provided by Norway. Kumaranatunge, as is often her style, spoke from both sides of her mouth; paying lip service to fighting terrorism while putting the larger part of her energies to weakening the military and creating the necessary ground conditions to justify negotiations and the surrender of land, sea and political control to the terrorists; she paid scant regard to the brave lives that were being senselessly sacrificed due to her duplicitous conduct.

Critics contend that a demoralized military was important for Kumaranatunge; a dispirited military only strengthened her hand to call for a truce with the terrorists and that was a step closer to her dreams of pocketing the alleged one million US dollars for herself and a badge from Nobel which Norway had reportedly pledged.

With the Norwegians standing by in the wings, Kumaranatunge dispatched a delegation to Delhi. With an Indian General Election around the corner – and an Indian sensitivity to Western intrusion into the region – a firm NO from Delhi in 1999, in response to a request from the ‘Chandrananda De Silva’ delegation to bring Norway in as a mediator in the hitherto internal problem of SL, saw Kumaranatunge’s dream of a million US bucks evaporate into thin air. In 2000 however, with Fjortoft’s ‘persuasive’ powers, for the first time in the history of the then 17 year war, Kumaranatunge internationalized Sri Lanka’s internal problem, bringing in Norway as a ‘mediator’.

This was the beginning of the fraying away of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. Sri Lanka was now fair game for the US led Western International community.

In February 2002, Terrible, the other Evil twin, made his move; Wickramasinghe -Kumaranatunge’s Prime Minister – signed the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between Sri Lanka and the terrorists, on behalf of the government of Sri Lanka. The deal was brokered by Norway.

Norway with four other Nordic states (SLMM) were the ‘referees’, commissioned to monitor and make judgment on Sri Lanka’s conduct in the sovereign state of Sri Lanka.

Between the two, Horrible and Terrible ceded to the terrorists, nearly half the land mass of the island, 2/3 of the island’s coastline, virtual control of the island’s territorial sea and ensured the withdrawal of Sri Lanka’s military from locations vital for Sri Lanka’s defence.

Evil twins

Amongst other things, the CFA gave the terrorists international recognition, international respectability and an equal status as the Sri Lankan state.

If that were not bad enough, the evil twins permitted a US initiated donor group – the co chairs comprising US, EU, Japan and Norway – to be in charge of the economic development in the North and the East.

Said a historian, It is a toss up whether Don Juan Dharmapala signing a deed, gifting his kingdom to the Portuguese was more disgraceful than the evil combo of Kumaranatunge and Wickramasinghe signing off half the country to the terrorists”.

Came the tsunami in 2004 and Kumaranatunge used the disaster to drive further jeopardise Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

Delaying to return to the island immediately after the tsunami, reportedly to seek advice from the co-chairs, Kumaranatunge, on her return initiated talks with the terrorists to work out the modalities of the PTOM. The PTOM agreement reconfirmed the validity of the CFA document and further, consolidated it.

When tsunami funds were committed to Sri Lanka from abroad, it would be the Co- Chairs who would decide who should receive these Sri Lankan funds, the terrorists or Sri Lanka!

Humiliating measure

The CFA and the PTOM clearly established NATO partner, Norway, as the Governor of the North and the East.

The effective army in this ceded area where the Sri Lankan military were humiliatingly confined to barracks was the US backed LTTE terrorists.

By 1983 the LTTE movement had been hijacked by the US forcing India in that year, to expel Prabhakaran, Balasingham, Satyendra and Chandrahasan from India and for the IPKF in 1987 to issue orders to hunt, hound and eliminate the LTTE.

In the meantime the US and its allies enabled the LTTE terrorists with military equipment, training, funds, safe havens, propaganda outlets and lobbies to fight Sri Lanka while placing an arms embargo on Sri Lanka.

The financial control of the North and the East of Sri Lanka was in the hands of the US and their co – chair partners. The planning and the economic development of the North and the East was once again in the hands of the US and of course their co – chair partners.

Surreptitiously, the US had been successful in dividing the country into two (or nearly so). And what went mostly unnoticed was how US imperialism had established a bridgehead on the island by creating an imperial niche in the North and the East of the country.

It is pertinent that the Atlantic Charter of August 1942 heralded the birth of the US Empire, the dismantling of the British Empire and the beginning of the end of the Imperial ambitions of Germany.

Geo political analysts say that US Imperial doctrine, loosely defined as globalization, is advanced by its strategy of ‘Creating or Fuelling New or Existing Conflict’. The tactics employed to execute that strategy as evidenced in the majority of affected countries show the US intent, to conceal their footprints that may give the lie to their direct involvement in the target country, to distract attention to US objectives in that country by raising diversionary issues that US believe are locally appealing, to inveigle their (or their proxy) way in as Conflict Managers to the very conflicts created and in that Management process (Conflict Resolution) achieve their objective in the targeted land.

The US were successful in muddling the Sri Lankan minds by distracting Sri Lankan attention to US’s strategic objective; they did so by creating the right conditions for the Sri Lankans to fight each other. The US strategic objectives in Sri Lanka are clearly outlined in the John Kerry report of 2009. Two important pawns in US imperialism’s near successful execution of its plan to break up Sri Lanka and add to its empire a part of Sri Lanka, the North and the East, were Kumaranatunge and Wickramasinghe.

A third plank of US imperialism in Sri Lanka was a small coterie of Vellaly Tamils who continue to socially subjugate and ostracize the non Vellaly Tamils, considered by these Vellalys as dispensable objects; the Vellalys manipulated the non Vellaly Tamils to fight the war. An interesting observation made by a political analyst was that the Vellalys were conspicuously absent from the battle lines during the conflict.

By 2005, the evil twins, Kumaranatunge and Wickramasinghe with that small coterie of Vellaly Tamils had done US imperialism proud in Sri Lanka; they continue to do yeomen service for them. This was the legacy Rajapaksa inherited in 2005. When Rajapaksa saw through the US plan he had the rare will, courage, and strength to battle US imperialism in Sri Lanka.

Rajapaksa exhorted the people and the people rallied around him; fathers and mothers sent their children in their thousands to join the army to save this country; the numbers that rallied around his clarion call helped the army to evolve their brilliant military strategy that finally decimated the US proxy force in Nandikadal.

When the US and their western allies saw the writing on the wall in the final stages of the conflict they hurriedly dispatched their emissaries Miliband, Kouchner, and Holmes to browbeat Rajapaksa and halt the operation to save their proxy fighters; they stepped up their arms embargo on Sri lanka; they brought in a motion at the UN Security Council to compel Sri Lanka to stop ‘The Rescue Operation’; they delayed a vital 2.5 billion USD loan from the IMF to Sri Lanka.

In the final days Obama intervened; Kerry in his report says, quote: Just days before the war ended, President Obama delivered a statement from the Rose Gardens urging Sri Lanka to seek a peace that is secure and lasting”. Unquote. Kerry admits that the defeat of terrorism in Sri Lanka was a major foreign policy setback for the US in recent times; ‘it affected not only Sri Lanka but the entire South Asian region’.

Horrible twin

Working with extreme Right wing Western international organisations, Kumaranatunge continued to do dirty by Sri Lanka and the military. Coming on an Indian NDTV programme moderated by Burkha Dutt on 26 Feb 09, following a book launch by her close and obnoxious friend Mani Shankar Aiyar, Kumaranatunge, Sri Lanka’s public servant No: 1 of yesteryear (and today a paid servant of the US government that doles out ‘National Endowment for Democracy’ (NED) funds to some of the extreme US right wing Foundations to which she belongs) all but implored the Delhi government to militarily intervene in Sri Lanka and stop the war on the terrorists. Interestingly the NED does work that was formerly done covertly by the CIA.

At the time the horrible twin went on Indian air, the Sri Lankan Army was inching its way forward towards the decisive battle at Nandikadal losing more lives than would have been lost in normal battle considering the care that was being taken to protect the civilians taken hostage by the terrorists.

All of Sri Lanka’s friends stood firmly behind her against US imperialism and against terrorism. And the Emperor now stood naked. In his analysis Kerry attributes the popularity of Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan Constitution and the military to be the three major planks of Sri Lanka’s victory against terrorism.

To dent Rajapaksa’s popularity observers say that the US and their allies are pumping in millions of US dollars like into Ortega’s Nicaragua or Chavez’s Venezuela in a campaign of buy overs and disinformation; in those countries the subversive funds were pumped in through excessive newspaper and television advertising, through evangelical organisations, trusts, NGOs and the like.

Constitutional experts say that a popular and strong Executive who has the rare will to stand up to any foreign power now or in the future can only be undone if the Constitution is changed and the Executive egg is placed inside the Legislative basket alongside the legislative egg; if the legislative basket were dropped, the Executive egg too would break.

If Sri Lanka had the Whitehall Constitution and the Prime Minister were the Chief Executive operating out of parliament during the time of the terrorist conflict, the ‘buyovers’ that are presently taking place would have brought down the Executive and Sri Lanka would never ever have defeated the US backed terrorists.

The only armour little Sri Lanka has, to protect any strong and popular President who has the will to stand up to the US who have averred their intent to ‘initiate a regime change’ and against US’s unmatched flood of money pumped in covertly, is the present Constitution.

Many political analysts are shocked that anyone should even suggest changing the present Constitution with its Executive Presidency at this moment of time; for the country to do so at this juncture, they say, is like committing hara- kiri. These analysts point out that only those who wish to invite American Imperialism – decisively defeated in May 2009 – into this country would encourage a change of the present Constitution..

What Bay of Pigs is to Cuba, Nandikadal is to Sri Lanka. When US proxy fighters were decimated at Nandikadal, the US lost completely their capability to pursue their ‘proxy style’ armed conflict in Sri Lanka!

In the tradition of Clausewitz, the US quickly switched their battle plans to pursue the same war with the same objective, but in a different arena of war, the diplomatic arena.

The Presidential Election on 08 Jan 15 is the site for the new battle of Nandikadal; the battle lines have been drawn between Sri Lanka and the US.

The people have to decide

‘Is it your decision to break up the country like it was in 2005, surrender power to the Tamil extremists who were decisively defeated with your sons an daughters blood and to bring back the CFA and PTOM?’

The US are adopting their familiar tactical plan in the diplomatic battle too; they are covering their tracks of their presence in the fray; the US are distracting the attention of the Sri Lankans from the US ulterior objective, blurring it with other issues they believe are attractive to the Sri Lankans.

For the battle the emperor has slipped into new clothes, Kumaratunga’s clothes with calico patches of Wickremesinghe, Sirisena and the motley crowd. Critics aver that Kumaratunga stands naked and exposed. Kumaranatunge, has as reported, descended on the country armed with US backing and money. Said Somawathi a disappointed villager “Her face tells it all; she is unable to look people in the eye.”

Horrible has openly declared her intention of rolling back history and taking Sri Lanka to the Nov 2005 boundaries when the country was ‘de facto’ separated, with land, sea and political power surrendered to a small coterie of the comprador class of Vellaly Tamils who were to govern on behalf of the US. Sadly, observers say, the JVP this time round is on the side of PTOM and US imperialism.

In the Western Capitals the word is open on the street that Kumaranatunge and Wickramasinghe have pledged to the Western International community, in return for their support, that the North and the East of Sri Lanka will be conceded to the LTTE; that they will set up war crime tribunals in Sri Lanka, with foreign judges to try Sri Lanka’s soldiers who fought in the war against terrorism; that they will haul Rajapakse to The Hague to be tried by the ICC.

Commenting on the Kumaratunga – Wickremesinghe agreement with the West, Mendis, a comrade of the old left brigade said, “Sri Lanka is under attack; we must prevent at any cost our sons and daughters who saved our country being tried like common criminals.

Everyone must cast aside their differences and fight the common enemy.”. “Take an example from Comrade Mao; he was fighting Chiang Kai Shek when the Japanese invaded China. He immediately closed ranks with Chiang and together they drove out the invader. The invader driven out they resumed their fight”

Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe have pitched their tents in the US camp. Says Wickramasinghe in the Kerry Report, “”The United States was on the right track in publishing the ‘Incidents Report’ and should ‘keep the pressure on the government.’ Sri Lankans do not want to lose their relationship with the United States and the Government’s criticism of recent US remarks was ‘complete nonsense.'”