Mark Salter reveals the immoral mind-set of the Norwegian Intervention in Sri Lanka.
Posted on August 21st, 2016
Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada.
In replying to a column by the veteran journalist Shamindar Ferdinando, Mark Salter has revealed the mind-set of the Western co-chairs who attempted to bring piece to Sri Lanka” during the military offensive of the LTTE against its elected government. The gist of what Ferdinando stated (Island, 16th August) was that a cable that has come to light through Wikileaks revealed that the co-chairs understood that Kadirgamar was assassinated under the initiative of Prabhakaran, and that this would have remained a secret if not for Wikileaks.
Mr. Salter, responding to Ferdinando, and writing in the Island issue of August 20th, says that:
From a peace perspective, the crisis provoked by Kadirgamar’s assassination clearly necessitated redoubled efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. And this is exactly what the Norwegians did, including via the ‘secret’ letter to LTTE leader Prabakharan that Ferdinando cites. Second, it is hardly surprising – and certainly not unusual – that the content of such a communication was kept confidential”.
Imagine a likely but hypothetical situation where the British or Canadian government’s foreign secretary (i.e., the equivalent of Kadirgamar) is shot dead by a terrorist organization with which it is holding peace talks, with a special US envoy in charge of the negotiations. Can we imagine the US envoy, knowing who the assassins were, continuing to urge talks with the assassins as if nothing had happened, with redoubled efforts to bring the two sides to the negotiating table”? Would the strong public condemnation of the heinous act be throttled down because of the need to redouble efforts”? Such a patently morally repugnant course of action would never be voiced in the world where Mark Salter lives, when the matters affect THEIR OWN citizens. Instead, the need for accountability, and the need to eliminate the terrorist would have been expressed in no uncertain terms. But no! When it comes to a minor nation like Sri Lanka, where the LTTE was the ISIS which hijacked the Tamil Nationalist movement, let us (i.e., the co-chairs) instead give a minor private reprimand of Prabhakaran, and then get on with kissing his hand in the name of peace. Is this the peace that the Norwegians hoped to bring to Sri Lanka? Is it this kind of moral bankruptcy and duplicity that Mark Salter and his ilk are standing up for and defending?
Mark Salter knows very well that the LTTE decapitated people on stage in front of TV sets, and ruthlessly eliminated all discussion or political dissent among the Tamils. Salter knows that the rightful Tamil leaders were assassinated by the LTTE high command, and killed more Tamils than all the government offensives put together. Mark Salter knows that the LTTE recruited children by force to its ranks, and ran orphanages to train black tigers (suicide cadre). Salter knows how the LTTE cut off the hands of people who participated in elections that the LTTE had attempted to enforce a boycott. Salter knows how the LTTE carried out virtually daily suicide bombings in Sri Lankan public places, targeting civilians. Salter knows that the LTTE got rid of its own wounded soldiers by burning them after packing them into shell-shattered buses. The wounded were possibly alive, but the LTTE considered that wounded soldiers are a liability to them retreating to Nandhikadal. The Norwegians and the co-chairs also knew all this quite well.
The ISIS is to the Middlle East what the LTTE was to Sri Lanka, and to the many silent Tamils who lived under them, unlike Sampanthan, Sumanthiran, Wigneswaran and others who lived in Colombo, and did not have the moral courage to denounce the Tigers, even though they enjoyed the protection of the Colombo government. It is a shame that there are journalists like Mark Salter who come forward to write in defence of the indefensibly immoral position of the Norweigians. Fortunately, by his writings, we begin to see the mind-set of people like Mark Salter. It is only then that we can understand the recent pronouncement of the Canadian lawyer Paul Copeland in regard to Ravishankar Kanagarajah (known under other names as well). The recent question has been how he was granted Canadian citizenship while also being wanted by the Interpol for engaging in terrorist activities for the LTTE (http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/man-accused-of-terrorist-activities-lives-just-outside-gta-as-canadian-citizen-1.3034499). The case of Ravishankar is NOT an isolated one. There are many thousands of such people from Sri Lanka with a terrorist past, with their names and identities changed, and adding false statistics to the missing persons” list in Sri Lanka.
Norway, Britain, Canada, Germany and others countries have become havens of such individuals who worked for the LTTE. Their power, and the wealth of the LTTE organizations in many swing-electorates in these western countries have given them a handle on these governments. Their envoys follow policies that are not based on the principles of justice, but on the need to get votes. The role of the Tamil vote in the UK too was confirmed by a Wikileaks cable in regard to the British politician Milibrand who came to Sri Lanka at the last stages of Eelam-IV to save Prabhakaran by twisting Rajapaksa’s arm.
Can you imagine a Miliband or a Kouchner going to save Bin Laden or Pol Pot? And can you imagine a Mark Salter coming forward, throwing all moral qualms asunder, to defend such actions by saying that redoubled efforts to bring the two sides to the negotiating table” were the needs of the hour?
Bodhi Dhanapala, Quebec, Canada.
August 20th, 2016 at 7:27 pm
Norway has a very close relationship with the Indian Union and the Indian Empire going back to the days when India started building up its Military after the dissolution of the British-Indian Empire. India bought a lot of Military hardware mainly communication equipment from Norway. There was no North Sea Oil those days.
August 21st, 2016 at 2:02 pm
NORWAY is also a NATO country – the ONLY NATO country in Scandinavia. It was CREATED by splitting SWEDEN.
Norway was KICKED OUT of Israel for supporting separatism.
After the debacle in SL, Norway has lost its MEDIATOR role. NO COUNTRY wants it near them!!
August 21st, 2016 at 3:39 pm
Bravo Bodi Dhanapala!
Well said! But unfortunately, the Norwegians are back in Sri Lanka helping the Eelamists of the NPC at the behest of the Yamapalanaya govt and, of course, the arch traitors Wigneswaran, Sampanthan and Sumanthiran!
Our Motherland is now again being overrun by these hypocritical busybodies and NGOS of every ilk .. and our idiotic and treacherous Yamapalana government is aiding and abetting them!
Wither Sinhale?
August 22nd, 2016 at 2:33 am
This Is How The Office Of The Missing Persons (Which Will Become A Bogus ‘Evidence’ Manufacturing Machine) Manufacture Bogus ‘Evidence’ Of 40,000 Missing Persons To Try Our Brave Armed Forces For So Called War Crimes They Never, Ever Committed
In the Missing Persons Act, a relative or a friend can make an official inquiry (but a totally bogus inquiry) from the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) by email inquiring as to the whereabouts of their relative or friend.
There are over 8 lakhs to 10 lakhs Tamil diaspora asylum seekers (actually economic migrants), a vast majority of who support the separatist terrorist LTTE and its aim of a separate state. If even 40,000 of these Tamil diaspora who support the separatist terrorist LTTE write bogus emails to the OMP inquiring the whereabouts of their friend or relative (but this friend or relative is actually living alongside them in these countries i.e. the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) these inquiries will officially be accepted by the OMP as 40,000 missing persons.
According to the provisions of the OMP Act, even if the OMP inquires after these let us say 40,000 and finds out that these are all bogus inquiries and that all these 40,000 persons are actually living alongside the inquirer i.e. their relative or friend and these complaints about these persons being missing are all bogus, the missing persons, now found by the OMP, can request that their whereabouts not be revealed to their relative or friend or be made public. So officially these 40,000 persons will still be missing!!!
Then the OMP will use these bogus 40,000 missing persons (who are actually living comfortably in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) as manufactured ‘evidence’ that war crimes happened in Sri Lanka (and all these bogus inquirers will state that these persons went missing during the 2006-2009 period) and our Sri Lankan Armed Forces will be persecuted for committing war crimes that they never, ever committed by a judicial process using these bogus email inquiries.
The Missing Persons Act states specifically that if the missing person who is now found requests that the fact that they are now found not be revealed to the public that person will remain as missing as far as the OMP is concerned. That is how the OMP will manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ of 40,000 missing persons so that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces can be persecuted for committing bogus war crimes.
The OMP emails cannot be checked by any outside body as stated in the Act since all evidence (almost all bogus) gathered by the OMP remains confidential. The OMP cannot be taken to the Supreme Court on this issue. However the OMP should absolutely and immediately be taken to the Supreme Court regarding what has been written above which is what would happen when this OMP is set up.
The OMP will become a bogus ‘evidence’ manufacturing machine which will gather such bogus inquiries via email from those members of the Tamil diaspora who are supportive of the LTTE terrorists and who will send bogus email inquiries by their thousands. All these bogus inquiries (of people who are actually living in the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India etc.) will then be misused as missing person inquiries.
I did not realize that the Sinhalese were this stupid as to allow such a process within the Missing Persons Act which can be blatantly misused in order to manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ like this. The OMP process is not transparent, it will happen in total secrecy, no one in Sri Lanka will be able to question it, not our police, not our courts, not our Sri Lankan citizens, nobody. All the OMP will do is gather bogus email ‘evidence’ such as described above which will then be misused as missing person inquiries to try the Sri Lankan Armed Forces for bogus war crimes that they never, ever committed.
The OMP process as described above must be stopped immediately. If a relative or a friend really and genuinely wants to find out about their genuinely missing relative or friend (i.e. perished LTTE terrorist), they can make a complaint to the OMP in person in public. This is the only way that Sri Lanka and the world will know that their inquiry is genuine. This was the methodology followed by the earlier Paranagama Commission which then received 23,000 complaints from relatives or friends of the missing person (i.e. perished LTTE terrorist or our perished Sri Lankan Forces soldiers) but they made their complaint in public in person to the commission. This is the only way to ensure authenticity and make the process transparent since this happens in the public arena. However, even with such safeguards, even some of those complaints may have been bogus.
The OMP should be stopped immediately since it is not a transparent process at all as described above but a totally secretive process where no one and nobody can request to be provided an opportunity to even peruse, investigate or look at the email inquiries received by the OMP. If the UNHRC, the US, UK, EU, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, India, the TNA and the separatist terrorists genuinely want to find out about perished LTTE terrorists, this Yahapalanaya Government could expand and extend the scope of the already set up Paranagama Commission in order to make such inquiries. This process should be totally following Sri Lankan Law, within Sri Lankan jurisdiction, paid for totally by the Sri Lankan Government only and with only Sri Lankan citizens appointed as commission members and investigators. In fact the entire staff should be composed of Sri Lankan citizens only. The process should be a totally domestic process with no interference or input whatsoever from foreign countries. Most importantly, all complaints should be made in person by relatives and friends in public if their complaint is genuine.
The Missing Persons Act is totally dangerous as pointed out above and should be dismissed totally as it is highly dangerous and a totally secretive process as described above designed and set up to manufacture bogus ‘evidence’ against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.
August 22nd, 2016 at 2:34 am
Apart from highly commending those who are taking legal action against the treacherous CBK (Chaura Rejina) regarding the defamatory and utter lies she keeps repeating to defame her rivals, legal action should be taken against her for stating that she will definitely devolve more powers to provincial Councils within the new constitution. Does this evil woman CBK think she owns Sri Lanka and that she is the one who is going to draw up the new constitution of Sri Lanka (according to the wishes of the imperialistic US, UK, EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the racist TNA and the separatist terrorists)? The constitution of Sri Lanka should satisfy first and foremost the majority of people of this island i.e. the Sinhala people and the Sinhala people firstly do not want to draw up a new constitution nor do they want any more powers whatsoever be provided to the provincial councils.
Someone has to go to the supreme court and take action against treacherous CBK for suggesting that she will definitely devolve more powers to provincial councils within the yet to be drawn up constitution since this means the treacherous Ranil, Sirisena, CBK and Mangala have already drawn up a constitution to satisfy the imperialistic US, UK, EU, Canada, Norway, Sweden, India, the racist TNA and the separatist terrorists which is illegal.