Asada M Erpini

A report in the media on 18 October states that ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-the United States remains concerned about the rushed resettlement of the final IDPs to close the Menik Farm campƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ and ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-vulnerable families have been placed on land hastily cleared without adequate shelter, water and sanitationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

There will be many other countries in the West and organisations operating from these rich nations, whose raison d’ƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚ªtre is their professed and projected concern for the restoration of human rights and alleviating the suffering of the peoples in the so-called developing countries, who will be eager to join the US to sing in chorus. Incidentally, one of the main reasons that has contributed to the deprivations faced by many in the poor countries is that the vast resources that many of them once had had been systemically plundered by the Western colonisers during a period that spanned half a millennium. Conjuring up fashionable euphemisms such as resource-compromised, emerging economies, Third world nations, etc. by the West and its bankers may hoodwink the gullible but would not be sufficient to pull the wool over the eyes of the open-minded.

Sri Lanka has many sayings and characters to vividly depict absurd actions and hilarious situations. Yarns about King Kekille and Mahadenamutta are in the lead, but a popular story that the USƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s concern has beaten hands down is ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Maga hitiyoth tho nasee; gedara giyoth ambuva naseeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, which means, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-If you stay on on the road, you will die, and if you go home, wife will die.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s armed forces rescued nearly 300,000 thousand Tamil civilians who had been pushed by their Sun God ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”saviourƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ from the North and North West of Sri Lanka to the North Eastern coast in the latterƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s futile attempt to create a mono-ethnic Eelam. During the final days of the 2009 war, the rescue operation that was mounted by the armed forces was witnessed live by many. The world had never seen a humanitarian operation of such proportions in the past and is highly unlikely to see anything similar happening in the future: what many will remember instead, and will never forget, are the images from the atom bomb attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing a quarter of a million civilians in the final stages of World War II, the destruction of cities such as Dresden, and more recently, Agent Orange attacks and the mass murder of unarmed civilians by United States Army soldiers in the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam in 1968, and the nine-year old naked girl and other children running away from certain death, with smoke billowing in the background, all of which had been initiated or coordinated by the US. The US is thus culpable in the horrendous murders of civilians and the destruction of the infrastructure in many regions of the world. With no feeling of guilt, the superpower tells puny Sri Lanka how the latter should manage its human rights issues, although the mighty US continues with murder of civilians and execution of rulers, with scant respect for human rights, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

US and the other rich nations who are ever ready to pontificate to Sri Lanka did not care to utter a word of appreciation about the good work carried out by Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s armed forces at the final stages of the May 2009 Liberation War. All that they saw was a lack of facilities in the holding centres that the Sri Lanka government managed to put up in double quick time. The media and the LTTE supporters, based in the same West, were quick to dub these holding centres as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-concentration campsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ and their photographers, who survive on sensationalism, had images of destitute people clinging on to barbed wire fences, splashed across their newspaper pages and the websites.

The government of Sri Lanka provided food, basic sanitation and health and even educational facilities to those who had been rescued. However, it prevented the people from going back to their original villages because the land was strewn with millions of landmines laid by none other than the LTTE leaderƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s fighting cadres. It was natural, therefore, for the people to be kept away in safe locations until the mines could be cleared.

Clearing mines is a painstaking and extremely time consuming task, and the civilians could not be allowed to go back overnight to the regions from which they had been displaced. But what did the West do and say in the meantime? Except for a few countries giving some assistance in mine clearing, the majority, led by the US, found fault with Sri Lanka for not sending the IDPs to their original locations soon. When the reason for continuing with the IDP camps was the need for the mined areas to be declared as safe by the mine clearing teams, the accusers charged that the Sri Lanka government had ulterior motives such as plans for colonisation of Tamil areas by the Sinhalese and genocide of Tamils.

Whatever Sri Lanka does, the poor country is at fault: all this time, it was being blamed for not sending the civilians back to their villages, and now that the country had completed most of the resettlement, the charge is that there are not enough facilities for the IDPs who had been sent back. None of these do-gooders ever queried what facilities ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” food, water, sanitation, etc. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” the Tamil civilians had when they were being moved from pillar to post by the LTTE leader, as if they had attached toilets and running water of the type that the LTTE leader provided for him in his luxury hideouts! The outcomes of the sentiments of the US, as far as Sri Lanka is concerned, are clearly worse than those that the man in the story faced: risk death if you stay on the road or expose your wife to the same risk if you go home.

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