Ref; article titled “Will Sri Lanka end up in a Sierra Leone type Situation? Darussaman Panelists Feed the Conspiracy Theory”:
Posted on March 8th, 2014
Mr. Bernard Wijeyasingha Says;
The situation of the Sri Lankan war against Tamil terrorism and the civil war in Sierra Leone not compatible. As stated the war in Sri Lanka was never a civil war. During the 28 year long war Colombo had a population whose ethnic makeup was 30% Sinhalese, 30% Tamil and 30% Muslim with the remainder being of Christian and other faiths such as the Parsees. In addition across Sri Lanka Sinhalese and Tamils coexisted peacefully except for the Northern and Eastern provinces where the Tamil Tigers had control.
Unlike Sierra Leone the people of Sri Lanka did not want to overthrow any government, but the terrorist outfit the Tamil Tigers did. A more applicable similarity would be India’s war against the Khalistan movement for independence of the Punjab. Like Sri Lanka it was led by a terrorist outfit against New Delhi and led by a man named Brindanwale, and like Sri Lanka the movement was crushed through operation blue star where the Indian military encroached into the sacred grounds of the Golden Temple thereby violating the Sikh belief of the promised safety of anyone who takes refuge in the Golden Temple or the Sikh faith’s Vatican. In the process many innocent lives were killed.
Even here there is a difference. The innocent lives killed in Operation Blue star were “collateral damage” while those killed in the end of the Sri Lankan war against Tamil terrorism was a military decision to break through the “human shield” created by LITE. India’s act should not have taken place as it is estimated around five thousand innocent lives were killed by the Indian air force. In the case of Sri Lanka the innocent people were part of the war as they were used to fend off the military.
Unlike Sierra Leone Sri Lanka has the full support of two members of the Security Council (Russia and China) and even though the article states the UNHRC is assuming powers normally reserved for the Security Council they have not had the same clout as the SC. To date the UNHRC has failed twice in the human rights resolutions against Sri Lanka and the recent news is that the third human rights resolution is watered down to the dissatisfaction of the Tamil Diaspora, Tamil Nadu and the Tamil National Alliance.
In summation there is more differences between what happened in Sri Lanka than any commonalities with the civil war in Sierra Leone.
If Sri Lanka ever achieves the goal of hosting military bases for both China and Russia, Colombo will be in the negotiating position to request to become a formal member of Russia’s CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) and China’s SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) in exchange. If that were to ever happen Sri Lanka would emerge as one of the most important and strategic members of either organization since she would be the only member nation who gives Russia and China full access to the Indian ocean.
By a single stroke Sri Lanka will emerge as a power center that would rival even India since being a member nation of the CSTO and/or the SCO will also mean sharing the power with two Security Council members and transferring the weapons technology to Sri Lanka. It will also mean Sri Lanka’s air force will be part of the combined air force of the CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) and by being a member the problems emanating from the Tamil Diaspora including human rights violations, the rise of TESO and TELO to the belligerence of the US and UK will be summarily dismissed. I would go as far to state that of all the member nations of either the CSTO and the SCO Sri Lanka would be the most relevant nation to Russia and China. This will also shield Sri Lanka from the NATO power, the US and the UK.
March 8th, 2014 at 4:48 pm
Sri Lanka’s major problem is being defensive and being on the back foot, just responding to allegations made by enemies of the nation, which allows the enemy time and space to fabricate false allegations like in the CH4 movie. This inaction by the Government could be because Sri Lanka is heavily involved in development work trying to catch up the losses during 30 years of LTTE violence. However, the way forward got to be to be proactive in matters relating to the country’s reputation which is being tarnished by these enemy forces, and therefore, to go on the offensive against them like India is with regard especially to internal affairs. This calls for strong and immediate action by applying the law of the country to those individuals like Sampanthan and Ryappu Joseph, the US and UK Ambassadors, and organisations like the TNA and some NGOs, who are violating the Sri Lankan constitution to promote a separate state or carve out a road to such a state. The Government should also ban the use of the newly invented name “Tamil-Elam” to refer to a part of Sri Lanka on any printed documents or speeches they make. A quicker way to act against them could be to investigate the 30+ years of the conflict, which might prove them to be war criminals due to secret activities with the LTTE.
Of course the West would try to sabotage such action by the Sri Lankan Government by demandin freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and witness protection laws to protect the slanderes. This could be overcome to a great extent by copying the laws in the US, India and UK, applied to deal with terrorism, unethical conversions and other disruptive activities. The way things are I can see Sri Lanka getting pushed to a corner before a knock out blow and anti-Sri Lankan elements like the TNA and Ryappu Joseph’s catholic flock now getting bolder by the day and also re-inventing themselves as human rights activists.