Dilrook Kannangara

Obviously Sri Lankan security forces didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t commit any war crimes. It is a well known fact. But some opt to keep it a secret. They are the losers of the 34 year old war that ended in May 2009. These elements allege that Sri Lankan security forces committed war crimes. To substantiate this claim, neo LTTE groups bring in totally irrelevant and fabricated nonsense. But the most convincing evidence of their dishonesty comes from themselves.

LTTE, when functioning, collected US$300 million a year from the Tamil Diaspora. ItƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s a mammoth collection by any standard. US, Canada, EU members and few other developed nations banned the LTTE and its front organizations. Money that was freely flowing to the LTTE reduced drastically.

However, their willingness to donate actually increased although fear held them back. There never was any ban on donating to Tamil organizations not connected to the LTTE. It is safe to assume that these organisations with no connection to military matters are getting the US$300 million or part thereof. Simply put it, the neo-LTTE comprising of GTF, TGTE, TAG (Tamils Against Genocide), etc. is as rich as the LTTE was.

With such a massive amount of money they can hire the best lawyers and legal experts on the subject. They approached almost all the top international law experts. But alas, they only ended up with a set of comedians. Prof Francis Boyle and Bruce Fein are the topmost legal professionals hired by the neo-LTTE. Their resumes include what can be termed as comics.

Prof Francis Boyle is the legal consultant to a number of arms of the neo-LTTE. He has a colourful resume. His comedies started within the USA and continued beyond the US boundary.

In 1993, he called for Hawaiian independence from the United States. It is on record that Boyle requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor obtain International Arrest Warrants for George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales.

He urged Iran to sue the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague in order to discourage a military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities and prevent the imposition of new sanctions by the U.N. Security Council. In May 2008, Boyle offered to “represent Iran in an international tribunal for trying the Zionist regime on charges of genocide of Palestinians”, and reportedly demanded that his proposal be submitted to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Boyle)

No doubt none has taken him seriously! This is the type of legal experts neo-LTTE had to settle for, despite having millions, if not billions of collected dollars in its coffers.

Bruce Fein is the other legal giant in the TAG payroll. He served as the associate deputy attorney general from 1981 to 1982; for just one year. He proposed to censure or even impeach President George W Bush over the successful terrorist surveillance program that saved thousands of US citizens from terrorist attacks. He also advocated for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. In April 2009 Fein criticized President Barack Obama for declining to prosecute Bush administration officials.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Fein)

Neo-LTTE groups are acting up based on these individualsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ legal advice. Unfortunately, neo-LTTE groups have taken their advice seriously in the absence of any other serious lawyers and legal experts.

Why do serious legal experts donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t join in? ThatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s because no cause of action has arisen against Sri Lanka. Simply, there is no case. Only hilarious elements exploit such lies to make fun of the whole thing while earning good money.

Sarath Fonseka is the third clown hired by neo-LTTE groups and LTTEƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s proxies in the TNA to popularise the theory of war crimes allegedly committed by security forces. One day he says there were war crimes, illegal orders and instructions to kill surrendered terrorists; another day he says there were no such things. He tells foreign media that he knows war crimes ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”storiesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ which he will tell them in due course, but tells local media that there never were war crimes committed by security forces.

In this context, the government should not give in to these jokes and jokers. Government should stand firm and expel these allegations without entertaining them. The idea of bringing war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka is not necessarily to implicate anyone in war crimes but to put pressure on the nation to soft paddle the separatism issue. Tigers are again looking for a place to grow up and breed further, safely and whatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s more than Sri Lankan resolve to wipe out terrorism that stands in the way. They want these obstacles to Tamil Elam removed. ThatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s why they put pressure on Sri Lanka. If the government fall into this Tamil aspirations cesspit of endless demands, there is no coming up. As how limitless Tamil communalist grievances graduated to unceasing waves of Tamil racist aspirations, this third round of demands will continue forever. Best response is to disregard them totally. No one should be given anything more than equal individual rights.