CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Tell those INGO lackeys where to get off! - Island Editorial

A Leading national English daily in SL, the Island in its today's editorial talks about an interesting development that has been taking place in the country specially after the liberation of the Eastern province from the LTTE terrorists. Intriguing behaviours can be observed from certain political elements, NGOs and even from the LTTE itself showing signs of panic that something that they never want to happen may happen to the LTTE soon.

Before going through the well written editorial of the Island , defence.lk like to remind its viewers that SL citizens could have been living happy lives without fear of being killed or discriminated if we had been able to wipe out the scourge of terrorism from our motherland.

Unfortunately, we have failed to achieve this during the last two and half decades of war due to myriad of reasons. Among those reasons, a very few have recognized the existence of certain vicious forces that want the bloodbath to continue and there would be no lasting peace achieved. Perhaps, the main reason for our failure to defeat terrorism may be that we have been pandering to these viscous forces without our knowledge.

The following is the full text of the Island's editorial on 1st August 2007:

Tell those INGO lackeys where to get off!

President of the International Crisis Group (ICG) and former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans is of the considered opinion that a military thrust into the LTTE-held areas in the North, owing to its devastating consequences, will have the potential to create conditions for an international intervention on the grounds of ‘Right to protect’ or ‘R2P’.

Addressing the eighth Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam memorial lecture, The limits of state sovereignty: The responsibility to protect in the 21st Century—published in this paper today—in Colombo on Monday, Mr. Evans has said, "The government’s sovereign responsibility is not to put its own citizens at undue risk. For, this reason, the government must resist the temptation to continue its military campaign into the areas of the Northern Province held by the LTTE…"

This is an interesting development. Sovereignty of small states has become a big problem for the world powers and their NGO lackeys that are apparently in the process of evolving into sovereign entities of sorts. They are all out to interfere with the affairs of other states under some pretext or another. They use various Trojan horses—WMDs and human rights being their favourites.

Mr. Evans, in justification of R2P, quotes former UN Sectary General Kofi Annan, who, he says, once argued that ‘national sovereignty has to be weighed and balanced against individual sovereignty, as recognised in the international human rights instruments.’ True, states mustn’t be allowed to hide under the cloak of sovereignty to perpetrate crimes against their citizens and there has to be some mechanism to deal with such situations for the good of mankind. This concern may have prompted Mr. Annan to ask, "If humanitarian intervention is indeed an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Sebrenica, to gross and systematic violations of human rights?"National sovereignty must be no barrier when it comes to crimes against humanity such as genocide and ethnic cleansing.

But, precautions must be taken to ensure that R2P doesn’t become an instrument of oppression at the hands of world powers to coerce others to toe their line. If R2P is allowed to be used at the whims and fancies of foreign powers and their NGO storm troopers, who have made it something like a razor in the hands of a mad monkey, it has the danger of being abused by terrorist outfits and their supporters against the states they are trying to destroy. That, we are afraid, is happening in the case of Sri Lanka.

Of the situation here, Mr. Evans has this to say: "All this makes it hard to argue that Sri Lanka is anything but an R2P situation. It may not be one where large scale atrocity crimes—Cambodia-style, Rwanda-style, Srebrenica-style, Kosovo-style—are occurring right now, or immediately about to occur, but it is certainly a situation which is capable of deteriorating to that extent."

He doesn’t sound any different from an LTTE apologist making a desperate attempt to prevent the government moving into the North, where Prabhakaran is trapped as never before. "The probability remains, on all available historical and analytical evidence," he goes on, "that it is highly unlikely that the Tigers can be defeated militarily." He has obviously been reading the wrong historical records. Isn’t he aware that the LTTE would have been crushed in 1987 but for the Indian intervention on the basis of R2P of sorts? Does he know that at present for the first time, the LTTE has lost the East and Jaffna at the same time thus rendering itself extremely vulnerable? Yes, battles in the Wanni will be more fiercely fought than the ones in the East. But, if the state uses all its military might without foreign powers intervening on behalf of the LTTE, the chances that the Tigers have of survival are the same as cats in hell:

We are not making a case for military offensives in the Wanni. War is hell and it must be avoided. But, the international community and its NGO bogeys are trying to stop it for different reasons. They are all out to let the LTTE off the hook.

Mr. Evans fears a humanitarian tragedy in case of war being taken to the heartland of the Tigers. Does he think the situation that prevails in those parts of the country under the jackboot of the LTTE is not tragic? According to a recent Reuter report quoting civilians trapped there, the LTTE has ordered that one member from each family join its fighting units. INGOs operating in the Wanni have been compelled to keep their local staff indoors for fear of LTTE abductions. The youngest member within the LTTE ranks is only nine years old according to the report in question quoting UNICEF records. Why isn’t ICG advocating R2P as regards those hapless people?

Will Mr. Evans and others of his ilk be happy and content if the status quo is allowed to remain in those areas without the military moving in? And who will deliver those people from the clutches of the LTTE?

Strangely, Mr. Evans, who opposes offensive operations in the North tooth and nail for fear of devastating consequences, says, "At the very least, then, until the government comes up with a constitutional offer that at least non separatist Tamil leaders can take seriously, there should be no international support for offensive operations in the North." We are simply intrigued! Is he saying that the international community should discard R2P and help the government launch offensives in the North after a political solution acceptable to the moderates is offered? Doesn’t the ICG mind people perishing in their numbers after a constitutional offer is made?

Is Mr. Evans aware that the EU has pointed out the LTTE has rejected devolution at the District level (District Development Councils), at the Provincial level (Provincial Councils), at the Regional level (President Kumaratunga’s Regional Councils) and at the national level (the Oslo declaration envisaging a federal solution). So, what else can a government offer to the LTTE? And does Mr. Evans know that the late Dr. Tiruchelvam was enamoured of President Kumaratunga’s devolution package and that was the main reason why the LTTE assassinated him?

It is unfortunate that Mr. Evans and others don’t realise that the moderate Tamil leaders have no way of agreeing to any solution for fear of LTTE violence, which has already accounted for dozens of democratic Tamil politicians.

Mr. Evans, like all other experts who want to have a finger in Sri Lanka’s pie, is all at sea when it comes to how to resolve the conflict. He only says ‘some means must be found to force the Tigers to start negotiating in a serious way, after repeated refusals to do so over the years’. This is a classic example of begging the question! Does he want the state to go on throwing lambs to the Tigers one after the other till the cows come home in the hope that they will eventually turn out to be herbivores?

R2P is vested with the so-called international community, which is led by the US. And we have a question, which the ICG should answer. Al Quaeda is said to be active in the tribal areas of Pakistan and it is feared that if the Pakistani army moves in there, there will be a bloodbath. But, Pakistan is under tremendous US pressure to make forays into tribal terrain in search of the enemies of America. Else, the US is threatening to move in on its own! Will R2P advocates stand up to the US and tell it to desist from doing so? Or, is it that R2P is silent when the interests of the world powers are threatened?

Finally, the government must act with utmost restraint as regards its war effort without acting like a bull in a china shop. It has to put its house in order and prevent the vested interests in the garb of Good Samaritans from meddling with the country’s sovereignty which has come under attack from various directions. Most of all, it is imperative that the various INGOs that are trying to meddle with the internal affairs of this country be told where to get off. It will be well advised to consider Mr. Evanspeech a trial balloon.

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