BODHI DHANAPALA

(This article was also submitted to the Island and published there as well on 2-12-2019)

I wish to congratulate the Editor of the Island for his editorial of 2nd December, which articulated exactly what many of us were thinking of, but didn’t quite know how to put in words.When I read those reports of the terrorist pinned down to the ground on the London bridge by several people, and of his being shot by London Police, I asked myself why he was not handcuffed and taken to jail for due process, as well as cross examination to ferret out more details of his terrorist actions? 

May be some journalist will point out that since the terrorist did not have a white flag in his hand, he could be legitimately shot! What has happened to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other highly concerned NGOs? Perhaps Sri Lanka’s Friday Forum itself will be writing Epistles to the British High Commissioner for this violation of Human Rights.  Is it likely that Good People like Ms. Nimalka Fernando and others would gather some of the Colombo Ladies and go on a whirl-wind tour of England to sensitize the natives on human rights, while stopping on the way to check on the health of Mr. Nishantha Silva who had to flee his country when faced with  a terminator!

Will the good folks of the Centre for Policy Alternatives present an alternative interpretation of the London Bridge events, taking the UK off the hook? The wrath of Dr. Deepika Udugama has already descended on the CID, while being very diplomatic with the Swiss Embassy, which wants the CID to cooperate with them without divulging names or showing the person involved. The good Doctor knows that the Swiss are merely doing all this because they are always “neutral” – neutral during Hitler’s Time, and neutral with respect to the LTTE, and neutral with respect to allowing gangsters to deposit  money in Swiss banks, because it is “not Swiss” to ask awkward questions. So, even the shooting of the alleged terrorist on London bridge is not something that concerns anyone who takes a “neutral policy”.Is it likely that the UK, in its own shame, withdraw its sponsorship of the human rights investigation that Ms. Samantha Powers and Mr. Mangala Samaraweera took  so much trouble to craft out? Will the latter  now grant that terrorists can be shot, because that was how it was done even within earshot of the Mother of Parliaments?

If the Australian “Aunti” who taught young Tamil girls how to use Cyanide Kuppi can live with impunity within the shadow of the British House of Parliament, it is clear that in the UK there are two classes of Terrorists, namely Bad Terrorists who should be shot as soon as they are captured, and  “Good Terrorists” that the British keep under their Sarong. Britain will one day regret the LTTE terrorists that it has harboured.