By Garvin Karunaratne Ph.D.(Michigan State University)
Formerly of the Administrative Service of Sri Lanka

Not a day passes by without a dictate from the InternationalƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Super-Warlords. They have now to be called Warlords because now they have become dubious, are contradicting themselves and no longer uphold either democracy or human rights. They only know to be dictatorial. The latest is a free for all between the two main Superpowers- Britain and the USA over the release of the Lockerbie bomber. The USA accuses Britain of helping terrorists. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Robert Blake the newly found Assistant Secretary in charge of Asian Affairs of the USA has even given Sri Lanka a firm warning that any Aid in the future will depend on progress made with regard to the people being released out of the IDP camps.=2 0The USA of all should know that the people in the IDP camps does consist of the hard core LTTE cadres as well as the innocent tamil people whom the LTTEƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  kept by force as human shields and the Sri Lankan authorities have to differentiate between the two categories. It was only a few weeks ago that the USA is reported to have offered an exchange system for the cadres. That was not to put them in a Guantanamo Bay incarceration, but instead to ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-rehabilitateƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ them. One can recall how Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India in the early Eighties called the LTTE cadres from the North of Sri Lanka and ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-rehabilitatedƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ them- fed them into specially established training camps in South India, provided them with weapons training, gave them weapons- more sophisticated weapons than what the Sri Lankan Army had, and dropped them back into Sri Lanka to destabilize the country. Robert Blake may have been a College student in those times. But this is history and history is what Robert Blake does not know. There were rumours of these training camps but none knew for certain till Denzil Peris, the Deputy Editor of South, an internationalƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  magazine published a paper with photos of these military training camps. Strangely, Denzil died in a restaurant a few weeks afterwards- perhaps that was an assassination!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  DenzilƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s brother in law, the late Cappie Kannangara was due to speak o n the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka at the University of Cambridge that afternoon in 1985 and had to haste back to London and I had to take his place and make an impromptu speechƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  at the debate.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  To get back to the clandestine ways adopted by no less a person than Robert Blake and he has been ably joined byƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Schwartz, Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees who has said that Sri Lanka is confining people against their will and they should be allowed to live freely.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Both Blake and Schwartz are siding the LTTE causeƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  for a homeland.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  As Palita Kohona the Foreign Secretary recently said even if the homeland concept is accepted it is impossible to locate the homeland because a full 55 % of the Tamil speaking people live amongst the Sinhala people, scattered all over Sri Lanka and the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka also called the Wanni is an area where no people lived. As a member of the Administrative Service of Sri Lanka I have worked years in the Wanni and it consists of a network of roadways within uninhabited jungle, leading to dilapidated tanks(reservoirs). Once the N orwegians attempted to settle Tamils from the upcountry to the Wanni and Lt. Col. Amerasekera in his visit to the IDP camps found that some of the people held in the camps were actually upcountry Tamils. If one were to backtrack historically the Wanni is full of Sinhala inscriptions- dating as far as the third century B.C. which proves beyond doubt that it was Sinhala people that occupied theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Wanni. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Robert Blake has also been chastised for discussing matters with the Tamil Diaspora. The USA of all countries to entertainƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  terrorism!. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The problem today is that the USA, Britain and the other Superpowers are taking revenge on Sri Lanka for not stopping the eradication of terrorism from our island in the last stages when Prabhakaran was pushed to a small section of the island. Was it right on the part of the USA and other Superpowers to tell Sri Lanka to stop the battle and give the LTTE a new lease of life?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  In the meantime there has been high drama in Scotland. The Lockerbie bomber- Al Megrahi, a Libyan was released on ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-compassionateƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ grounds of illness. This Al Megrahi was convicted in 2001 on the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. His release was done in a hush hush manner, but Al Megrahi was accorded a royal heroƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s welcome at Triploi, Libya. Gadaffi, the Libyan strongman said that now the set up is complete for trade and investment relations. In factƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The Times on August 15 ran headlines:KillerƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s release would free BP to join the rush for LibyaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Oil Riches.

The USA as well as the relatives of the victims have been thunderstruck with the British decision to release the terrorist. The Director of the FBI-Federal Bureau of Investigation has accused BritainƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  stating that the release has made a mockery of the rule of law. He accused Britain ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the WorldƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Now we have a situation where the Director of the FBI accuses Britain of helping terrorism, whileƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Robert Blake and Schwartz, Assistant Secretaries are persuading Sri LankaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  to release terrorists. It is now left to Sri lankans to tell both Blake and Schwartz that their action demanding that the people in the IDP camps- including the terrorists in them be released is action that gives comfort to terrorists around the World- ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ to quote no other than the Director of the FBI. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

There is another matter that both Blake and Schwartz need to be warned. The Wanni was heavily mined by the LTTE and to release people before the land is de-mined will cause genocide. So far Sri Lanka has avoided any occasion for genocide. If people are released before de-mining they will pay with their lives. So far the USA has not helped Sri Lanka to de-mine. Blake and Schwartz had better send help for de-mining. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Let us now look at how the Superpowers have been acting in respect of looking after the human rights of their own people.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  So farƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  the USA has failed to resettle the people who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Some of the people are yet living in temporary Trailer Parks. The USA is a peculiar country- the richest country in the world where the administration has so far failed to offer either a free health service or free education. In both these, the USA can look up to Sri Lanka ,because Sri Lanka can boast of a better State health service than the USA and there is free tertiary education. It is a fact that doctors, dentists and engineersƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  all educated under the free education systemƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  in Sri Lanka find their way to the USA, Britain and such countries.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Many US citizens known to me cannot find the money to finance their children at US Universities.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Their children have to linger in lower jobs because the USA has an education system for the rich. Their poor have to forego both health and education. There is a mass of 47 million- almost a sixth of the US population without health insurance and it is reported that President Obama has had to withdraw his plans for a State Health System!. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In an earlier paper of mine I highlighted the manner in which the USAƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  has deprived human rights to its Native Americans- the people from whom the Americas were taken by force of arms some 300 years ago. (Britain- all the Superpowers. You do have blood on your hands wherever you went, Lanka Web,29/7/2009ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Is it right for there to be a mass of human misery, with unemployment levels at 60% to 80% within the affluent and elitist richest country! These are the areas that Schwartz and Blake and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton should look intoƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  before they start preaching to other countries. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Can anyone stop the war waged by the USAƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  and Britain on Iraq and Afghanistan. Compare this to what the USA has done in Afghanistan. The USA thought that their own trainee- turned brigand-Osama Bin Laden was hiding in Afghanistan. They unleashed all the weapons of mass destruction on Afghanistan turning it into a mass of rubble and failed=2 0to find Osama. Now they think that Osama is hiding in the hinterland of Pakistan and the USA has ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-invadedƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ Pakistan to search for Osama. ManyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  do not yet realize that the USA has in fact invaded Pakistan- they first sent drones and remotely attacked and now they openly attack.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Zadari- PakistanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s new rulerƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  can easily handle the fortunes emassed by the late Benazio Bhutto, but has failed to govern Pakistan. The demise of Pakistan was created by the USA. When they wanted to attack Afghanistan they had to get President MushraffƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s approval and the USA is said to have made an offering that all the foreign debts of Pakistan would be written off- treated as paid if PakistanƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  wereƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  to allow the USAƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  to use their air space. First it was airspace and then the weaponry rolled through Pakistan highways And now there is mayhem with the USA hitting targets in Pakistan and the Pakistan militants wrecking damage wherever they can. If I remember right theyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  wreckedƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  over fifty military vehicles that were being security escorted. President Musharaff was tight lipped at first and recently spilled the beans by stating that he was ordered to open up and told in no uncertain terms that if he refused Pakistan would be reduced to rubble!. Now the World is seeing who are the real Warlords!. I too wrote papers in support of Obama for the Presidential Election.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  It is hoped that under his enlightened leadership it will be possible to make the USA stand up to be righteous.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

President Obama actually won the vote to become the President of the USA. George W. Bush never won the vote. In 2000 he walked inƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  through the cloaks of the Supreme Court, which decided that the votes that were being counted should be stopped and in amazement I wrote a book:The Administrative Bungling that Hijacked the 2000 US Presidential Election.(The University Press of America). There was a repeat performance in 2004, with the Voting Machinery malfunctioning to deliver the Presidency to Bush. This too wasƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  an amazing feat and I wrote The Electronic Stealing of the 2004 US Presidential Election.(Amazxon.Com) Comparatively, President Rajapaksa won the vote to become President.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Even Tony Blair did not have a mandate from his voters to engage his armed forces in either Iraq or Afghanistan. While his labour Members of Parliament revolted he had to seek votes from the opposition Torys to get parliamentary approval. You promise the voters one thing and do just the opposite. Labour supporters now vote with our feet at the polls! ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

So mush for democracy, human rights. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Let me close with the words of Robert Mueller, the Director of the FBI, to both Blake and Schwartz: Your action gives comfort to terrorists around the World ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D.(Michigan State University)
Formerly of the Administrative Service of Sri Lanka
23 rd August 2009