By Charles.S.Perera

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There is money in the business of accusing Sri Lanka government for elimination of terrorism from its soil. It looks the money in the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-gameƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ is much greater than we can imagine. It is a gold mine for those who take the trouble to adventure into being a human rights activist to investigate into the military operations against the terrorists in Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In a recent interview, such a human rights activist – Nimalka Fernando admitted that she gets lots of fund from NGOs, but unable to spend them to help the people in the North and East as the Government has not allowed her access into these areas.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The source from where the NGOƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s themselves get these money to spend is unknown. The terrorists left behind an enormous amount of money in the hands of the pro-terrorist expatriate Tamils manning the terrorists front organisations. It is there to be taken by those who venture into the business of accusing Sri Lanka Government and its Armed Forces.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The conclusion we can come to, under the circumstances is that Louise Arbour has also stepped into ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…- the businessƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ bringing in wither her the ICG which has an annual budget of over 15 million Dollars. One may argue that it is impossible that a Western Judicial personage of respect would step into such a business however lucrative it may be.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ But the human nature is such, there is no limit to oneƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s greed, and station of life is no bar to one who would like to make a ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-buckƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, when the going is good. Interfering ( that is what they are doing when they have no official status) into crisis situations else where had apparently not been lucrative, but doing so in Sri Lanka is hitting the jackpot.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ She may see nothing illegal in making accusations, as long as it is the accused that has to disprove the accusations. She can of course be accused for making false accusations, but the accusations are so fluid and vague, and there is no mention of the source of evidence . It is evident the attempt is to discredit the government as required by those who are behind the probe, the pro-terrorist financiers-the moneymen.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ An intelligent person may wonder why the Government of Sri Lanka has to be accused for ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-war crimesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ for eliminating a group of terrorists that sowed terror for thirty long years, without any help from the countries in the West who are primarily concerned with terrorism. What other reason could one give for this woman Louise Arbour to have come forward to accuse Sri Lanka other than for some benefit she gets from it ?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Where was she, and her likes in the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International etc; during the thirty years the terrorists were terrorising the people in Sri Lanka murdering the young and old, men women and children, assassinating Presidents, Ministers, Parliamentarians and intellectuals.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Did any one of them come forward to dissuade the terrorists from their ruthless activities ? No, they were never heard of, but now that terrorism has been eliminated for good , these humanitarians appear in great numbers accusing Sri Lanka for elimination of terrorism.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The reason is that even though the terrorism has been eliminated from the soil of Sri Lanka , the supporters of terrorism in the West- the expatriate Tamils with billions of dollars of accumulated money collected for the terrorists have taken over from the terrorist their war of separatism, to divide Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ They are willing to make the funds available to continue their war against Sri Lanka, by roping in every personage from different sectors and classes of people by paying considerable sums of money to do their ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-dirty jobƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ of carrying out the intention of the terrorists to discredit the government of Sri Lanka for violating the rights of the Tamil minority, and thus force the establishment of a separate Eelam State for the Tamils.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Louise Arbour and her ICG are their latest recruits . International Crisis Group has to, as the nomenclature indicates, look into any existing cases of unstable situations of extreme danger but there is no such situation of an extreme danger in Sri Lanka for the ICS to consider their intervention necessary. ICS has no official status therefore it cannot interfere into the affairs of a Sovereign State let alone accuse it. But only thing ICS could do is to destabilise a government, bring discredit to it, and make an adverse world opinion against it.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ICG has failed to look into cases more appropriate to its term of reference ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-International Crisis ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-. There is a greater Crisis in Mexican seas to day with the spill of oil harming the environment causing danger to number of species of birds, fish etc. ICG should be there to see how the situation could be changed and see whether the American Government is taking appropriate actions to stop the spill, and whether there is a danger of more such possibilities of spills, and what actions the responsible companies have taken to avoid similar incidents in future.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There is also a crisis in Palestine with Israel bombardments. It is a situation of extreme danger. The International Crisis Group is not heard of being concerned with it.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In Afghanistan, Pakistan many civilians have been killed in unmanned drone attacks. The ICG should be there , as it is a dangerous situation where the drones instead of bombarding the talibans are killing civilian men women and children.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Legal Adviser of the American Sate Department had said it is not unlawful to target dangerous areas in self defence. That means it takes no responsibility for the death of the civilians in such defensive air attacks. How can under such circumstance the ICG accuse Sri Lanka for war crimes, when Sri Lanka did not bombard the civilian targets.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Is it a question of people from non-Western countries whose word of honour cannot be trusted, and therefore the International Community does not take the word of the Government of Sri Lanka that it had not targeted civilians through out its military operations against the terrorists ?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In a war specially when it is military operations against ruthless terrorists who have no respect for human life in any form, even if the Sri Lanka Armed forces had not targeted the civilians the artillery attacks of the terrorists could have killed many civilians. If the International Community would not accept the word of honour of the Government of Sri Lanka, they could accuse the Government Armed forces for those deaths caused by wanton artillery fire of the terrorists. That was exactly what happened

International Crisis Group under normal circumstances should investigates ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-crisis ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-situations . They should investigate unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty to the environment and living persons. So that they could intervene to get the persons or governments responsible to take appropriate action to avoid ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-extreme dangerƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Therefore, it is not their responsibility to investigate into past crisis situation where the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-unstable situation of extreme danger or difficultyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ does not exist any more, and there is , therefore, no ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚crisis situationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ as such. Therefore, International Crisis Group interfering in Sri Lanka to investigate into what happened at the close of the military operations against terrorism, is not their business. Because, the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-crisis situationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ if it existed then is now over. Such an investigation may best left for other ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-meddlingƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ groups such as perhaps the Human Rights Watch or the Amnesty International, but ICG has no business to make a report on what happened in the past.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Therefore, the Government should Asked Louise Arbour and her ICG to lay off, or in other words ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-get out of our wayƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. So that the Government of Sri Lanka that has eliminated terrorism without any aid from the Western Countries, can go ahead with its plans for development of the terrorist affected areas, and let the people in the North, East, West and the South live normal lives.