CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

UN bullying Sri Lanka-OPEN LETTER to all UN personnel and UN Union leaders who are hell bent to denigrate Sri Lanka.

Asoka Weerasinghe Gloucester, Canada

Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario. K1J 6G1 . Canada

December 23, 2007

OPEN LETTER to all UN personnel and UN Union leaders who are hell bent to denigrate Sri Lanka.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Permit me to set the tone of my address to you with a preamble to challenge your skills as Sri Lanka Watchers with three riddles. Let me help you along, they are all about finger wagging UN personnel.

KNOCK, KNOCK
“Who is there?”
“Rock”
“Rock who?”
“The Rock-a-Bye-Radhika’s pet baby
who swings from the tree tops”;

KNOCK, KNOCK
“Who is there?”
“Matsuura”
“Mutt who?”
“The Surah made into a Mutt
that barks at Sri Lanka
when its tail is pinched by the UN”;

‘What is a howling pack of five each walking on two legs, that huffs and puffs wanting to blow puny Sri Lanka down, and have the initials UN stamped all over?’

I hope you got this one right!

It is Louise Arbour, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Alan Rock, Koichiro Matsuura and John Holmes.

They also happen to be UN’s paid hit-men and –women hired to throw a life-line at the Tamil Tiger terrorists by trying to cripple the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to eradicate terrorism, by complaining at International palavers about human rights violations by the Government in their theatre of war.

The question that has to be addressed by the global community is as to why Sri Lanka, that puny democratic island nation has being isolated by the United Nations to be their learning module to try and fathom whether anti-terrorism and human rights could be effectively harmonized, or whether terrorism can be used to destabilize a legitimate state.

The question is, can the global society fight terrorism while maintaining a humanistic approach when the terrorists fight with claymore mines, RPGs, Kalashnikovs, SAMs, suicide human bombs, mortars and small arms, et cetera, which are what the Tamil Tiger terrorists have been using to fight the Sri Lankan armed forces to claim one-third of Sri Lanka’s real estate for 3.9% (World Watch stats 2007) Tamils from a population of 21 million people.

It is disingenuous for these UN personnel not to acknowledge that it is difficult to protect human rights while fighting terrorism. It is not rocket science. It is common sense.

It is not only Sri Lanka, there are other democratic nations firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of human rights that find that commitment sorely tested when their nation’s security is challenged.

If killing the innocent, unarmed civilians to make a political statement is the foremost strategy of the terrorists, then the government that is being attacked should have every legal right, not withstanding human rights violations, to safe guard the right to life of its subjects. That is exactly what the Sri Lankan government is doing. The UN should not penalize the Sri Lankan government for what it is rightfully doing for its peoples. Anything less, would be construed as an abdication of the government’s responsibility. Anything less, would give into the Tamil Tiger terrorists who will eventually rule the roost. That is the fervent business of the Sri Lankan Government and not the business of busy bodies of the United Nation.

There was a new world order that kicked into place after the 9/11 attack by terrorists as it targeted the US, the most powerful country in the world. But what had been ignored was that Sri Lanka had been hemorrhaging at the hands of the Tamil Tiger terrorists since 1975, and no one cared, not even the UN. Nor did anyone care about human rights violations with impunity by this Tamil Tiger terrorist group. And Sri Lanka wasn’t important enough to kick in a new world order by the UN to put a lid on terrorism which was also the provenance and the crucible of suicide bombers. I say, pox on all you UNs Sri Lanka watchers for now trying to bully Sri Lanka to stand at attention every time the UN orders this island to comply with their human rights norms like a shouting Sergeant Major. And making their Human Rights Commissioner, Louise Arbour, to wag her maternal finger at Sri Lanka, hoping that it would do the trick while refraining scrupulously from criticizing the human rights violations of the Tamil Tigers.

And it should be recognized that a war engaging terrorists is not like any other war between two states. So adaptations should be made, as terrorists, like the Tamil Tigers are not a legitimate state, and the UN Declarations exempt them from wagging fingers of the UN personnel. And that is where the rub is.

What is damning about the whole Sri Lanka bullying episode by the UN, is that they do not have the gumption or the honesty to take to task the countries that enable the Tamil Tigers to carry out their operations with impunity, a factor which has turned out to be an oxygen-drip to extend the life expectancy of Tamil Tiger terrorism. So the UN goes after the puny Sri Lanka with spiked gum-boots and all, but not at India that trained these Tamil Tigers to become terrorists; but not Canada that let them collect millions of dollars to buy weapons for their armoury; but not Norway that has funded the Tamil Tigers with millions of kronor and provided sophisticated communication equipment; but not England that let them collect funds to stuff their war-chest and provide a home for a Tamil Tiger leading terrorist, the late Anton Balasingham; but not the Scandinavian Monitoring Mission for tipping off a Tamil Tiger ship loaded with weapons to get away because the Sri Lankan navy was coming after it. Why? What is your problem UN? Is that you are afraid that you will be admonished and humiliated by these international power houses to “Keep your noses out of our business!” Or is that you support their involvement as it feeds into your objective of wanting to destabilize that island nation?

So the UN zero in on the weakest link, the puny island of Sri Lanka and try to walk over it with their heavily spiked gum-boots. I do wonder, quite seriously, whether Sri Lanka has been chosen by the UN as the test case to see whether it could use terrorism to destabilize a sovereign state. In other words, when internal terrorism is shown structurally to be destined to failure, terrorism supported by external forces like the UN will reach its objective to destabilize a nation. So what better testing laboratory could they find other than Sri Lanka, an island anchored in a remote part of the Indian Ocean?

To that end the UN and its satellite organizations have some explaining to do to Sri Lanka and its peoples at home and abroad as to why while claiming by Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of human rights violations and wanting a UN Human Rights Monitoring station planted in Sri Lanka, yet let the Tamil Tigers off the hook of child abductions and recruitment as child soldiers, to be sent out as front line fighters only to be mowed down like poppies with spilling red blood from their chests from bullet wounds;

why UNICEF had spent US$12,375 (voucher No. PN/2006/1250090/000,000,0490) to fit six bullet proof shields onto vehicles and only vehicle, a Land Cruiser, Reg.No.WPHN-9401, has been used by the field staff while the others are not accounted for, perhaps given away as alleged to Tamil Tigers jeopardizing national security;
why UNICEF handed over more than Rs.100 million to Tamil Tiger terrorists through TRO within a period of one year;
why bring in a large stock of ‘Combat Rations’ into the country by Jennifer Taylor of UNICEF, when it is known that such Ready-to-Eat meals are normally used by combatants of Guerrilla warfare;
why did the UNICEF Country Representative Philippe Duamelle conduct a sneaky visit to Kilinochchi to meet with LTTE leaders without approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is laid down in simple English as guidelines?;
why did the Action Plan in April 2003 after a meeting held in Kilinochchi to address the needs of children affected by the war, exclude Sinhalese and Muslim children, as reported by Mrs. Carol Bellemy, UNs Childrens’Fund, UNICEF, UN, New York ?;
why did UNESCO’s Director General, Koichiro Matsuura condemn the Sri Lankan Government for bombing the Tamil Tiger’s unlicensed and clandestine radio station Voice of Tigers (VoT) that was used for terrorist propaganda, when he did not have the mandate to do so? What indeed was UNESCO’s agenda other than to provide a life line to the terrorists Tamil Tigers as had been the case with the other UN satellite organizations stationed in Sri Lanka?;
why did Alan Rock, the UNICEF fact finder was too hasty to go on the international air waves to tarnish the good name of Sri Lanka as a human rights violator before he could assess whether he was another foreign foolish do-gooder that was bamboozled, caught in the cunning woven web of deceitful Tamil Tiger propaganda, where the planted Tamil people created non-existent grievances on situations that never existed, like the Government armed forces helping a para-military group to recruit child soldiers which they have denied?

And then he was gung-ho telling the whole world like a Sunday TV evangelist acting like a son-of-God, saying ‘Halleluiah ! I got assurance from Tamil Tiger leaders that they will release all child soldiers by December 31 that year’, but only to find out in the New Year that child soldiers were fighting along the front line and were shot to death before they could even pull the trigger of their Kalashnikovs?

What was the reason why Rock purposely lied to the world to tarnish Sri Lanka which is under the pressures of a terrorist war and trying to safeguard its territory from being dissected and the right to life of its innocent citizens?

Whopee-do! So we are now told that the 13,000 strong UN staff Union has told its staff that given the option, they should avoid serving Sri Lanka because it is among the world’s most dangerous for aid workers. I don’t believe that this is the real reason. Own up you guys! You are not used to seeing a strong willed President of a developing nation, a puny one at that, showing his reluctance to be bullied to dance a jig to the tune of your novice policy-fiddlers, and have told you all quite bluntly that he would only dance to the adaptation of the lyrics of – Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way” :

“For what is a leader. What has he got.
If not himself –Then he is naught.
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels,
The record shows, I took the blows
And I did it my way…
Yes, and I will go on doing it my way.”

As for those UN personnel who do not wish to continue their assigned tasks in Sri Lanka, I will certainly volunteer to accompany you all to the accompaniment of the royal Kandyan drum-beats and the jingle of ankle-bells in case you miss the turn to the airport. And along the way point out to you all the road and garden signs which says – UN STAFF, PLEASE KEEP OFF SRI LANKA’ KABOOK EARTH AND GRASS.

The bottom line is what Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to Geneva Dayan Jayathilleka expressed so eloquently during the 6^th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, … that his country did not want to be ‘preached’ by states whose human rights record was ‘far from perfect’. Bravo! I say.

Asoka Weerasinghe
Gloucester, Canada

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