{"id":112592,"date":"2021-03-13T16:12:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T23:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=112592"},"modified":"2021-03-13T16:12:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T23:12:38","slug":"embracing-the-ltte-strategy-in-2008-09-norway-usa-uk-france-and-the-human-rights-conglomerate-as-complicit-tiger-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/03\/13\/embracing-the-ltte-strategy-in-2008-09-norway-usa-uk-france-and-the-human-rights-conglomerate-as-complicit-tiger-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"Embracing the LTTE Strategy in 2008\/09: Norway, USA, UK, France and the Human Rights Conglomerate as Complicit Tiger Allies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Roberts Courtesy thuppahi.wordpress.com<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In\nhis wide-ranging autobiographical tale of his\nnumerous engagements in Sri Lanka<\/a>\nand for Sri Lanka Michael Lord Naseby has condemned the LTTE for its\ndeployment of so many Tamil civilians as a human shield\u201d and bargaining\ncounter\u201d during the last stages of Eelam War IV in 2008\/09. Let me, here, endorse\nthe criticism and encompass the Western nations of Norway, USA, Britain and\nFrance as well as the Secretariat of the UN under Ban Ki-Moon for becoming de\nfacto partners in this Tiger programme<\/strong>; while noting that several human\nrights agencies in the West and a few in Sri Lanka became accessories in this\nhigh level hostage enterprise.[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early\n2008 the LTTE state of Thamil\u012blam <\/em>faced a crunch situation because they\nhad lost their logistical warehouse ships in the course of 2007 and they were\nnow hemmed in from north and south by a rejuvenated body of Sri Lankan forces\nequipped and motivated to whittle down the Tigers\u2019 fighting strength. As the SL\nArmy expanded its hold on the western coast in early 2008, the LTTE induced its people to move eastwards with lock,\nstock and goods. This process was sustained right through that year and into\n2009 when they were locked into an ever-declining pocket of land. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concurrently, the Tigers ratcheted\nup their propaganda picture of an impending humanitarian catastrophe.\u201d The strategic\nlogic was simple:  as the LTTE political\ncommissar Puleedevan informed some friends in Europe — just as in Kosovo\nif enough civilians died \u2026 the world would be forced to step in<\/strong>\u201d (a cat\nlet out of the bag by Frances Harrison 2012: 63). This programme was then\nplaced in the hands of Pirap\u0101haran\u2019s former colleague and master mind, KP\nPathmanathan, who came out of retirement at the end of 2008 to take control of\nthe Tiger international set-up from his locations in Thailand and Malaysia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

KP\u2019s\ninvolvement has been lucidly set out by DBS Jeyaraj in a subsequent pamphlet KP\u2019 Speaks Out (2011)<\/em>. This\ndocument and Mark Salter\u2019s aggressive book indicate that a Western-and-Tiger\ncabal assembled in Kuala Lumpur in February 2009<\/strong> to work up plans that\nwould enable them to engineer the rescue (i.e. the escape) of the LTTE leadership\nto either Eritrea, South Africa or East Timor in the course of a (so-called)\nhumanitarian operation directed to the rescue of the Tamil civilian \u2018hostages\u2019.\nThis cabal consisted of two Norwegian diplomats from Oslo, Tore Hattrem (the Norwegian\nambassador in Colombo) and two leaders of the Global Tamil Forum, V.\nRudrakumaran from New York and Jay Maheswaran from Sydney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA was\nclearly party to this project because a Pacific Air Command recce team landed\nin Katunayake airport in February on what was clearly a recce mission to work\non the logistics of an active US intervention.** Salter is quite arch in not\nindicating precisely when this recce team visited Sri Lanka, while my inquiries\nin Sri Lankan have yielded limited information. Bryson Hull, the Reuters man in\nColombo and an American, got a whiff of this event and was immediately summoned\nto the Embassy,[2]<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>where he discovered that the recce team had\nconcluded that the military situation was a non-permissive environment\u201d for\nforceful intervention \u2013 military jargon summarizing a dangerous task and a\nperspective clearly guided by the memory of the debacle associated with Black\nHawk down\u201d in Somalia in October 1993.[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\ncaution did not prevent Robert Blake, the US ambassador in Colombo, from verbally\nand politely brow-beating both Foreign Minister Bogollagama and Defence\nSecretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa at different points of time in March and April\n2009 (normally secret events but now known to us courtesy of Wikileaks).[4]<\/strong><\/a>\nHe demanded a stoppage of any military advances and indicated that war crimes\ncharges\u201d would be the consequence arising from any failure to abide by this\ncommand. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That line\nor pressure was supported by other parties. In early March Pakiasothy\nSaravanamuttu of the CPA had asked the Sri Lankan government not to direct\nartillery fire at the territories held by the LTTE; while a whole line of UN\nofficials turned up in Sri Lanka in the period February to April to exert\npressure: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

John\nHolmes (Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator for the UN) visited\nSri Lanka on the 19-20th<\/sup> February 2009<\/a>; Tamrat Samuel[5]<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>a little later (date???) and Vijay Nambiar on the\n17th April 2009 (with the latter visit probably timed to underline Robert\nBlake\u2019s veiled threat to Defence Minister Gotabaya a few days previously).\nNambiar\u2019s visit was then backed up by the high-powered entry of the British and\nFrench Foreign Ministers, Miliband and Kouchner on 29\/31st<\/sup> April\n2009.[6]<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no\nbetter illustration of this 21st<\/sup> century version of gunboat\ndiplomacy than the stern face of David Miliband throughout his visit. But he was\nrebuked and rejected by President Rajapaksa[7]<\/strong><\/a>\n…. and the combined forces of the Sri Lankan Army, Navy and Air Force went on\nwith their jobs and overwhelmed the LTTE in a series of operations in the first\nhalf of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nsuccess should not blind us to the intent and machinations of the Western consortium.\nFortunately.  Daya Gamage has unearthed\nthe thoughts of an American Under-Secretary of State, one Michael Owens, to\nguide us in comprehending the reasoning behind the desire to rescue the LTTE\nleadership. At a special\nmedia briefing 06 May 2009\u201d in Washington<\/a>,\nOwens indicated that USA was attempting to secure a surrender of arms by the\nLTTE in return for a limited amnesty;\u201d while grappling with the knotty\nquestion of what to do with the Tiger leadership.[8]<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\ndisclosure has to be set alongside the evidence unfolded so clearly by KP: the\nTiger leaders were seeking a safe haven for themselves; while Pulidevan\u2019s assertion\nindicates that the Tamil people were manipulated towards that end \u2013 with the\nhumanitarian impulse of the West as one target of appeal. The degree to which\nEelam stalwarts in the Catholic Church such as Bishop Rayappu Joseph and so\nmany members of the Tamil intelligentsia spread across the globe \u2013 guided by\nfervent Tamil Eelamist thinking — supported this callous project from 2008\nright through to the climax is a tragic tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\ndrafting this short essay I chanced upon a fuller account of KP Pathmanathan\u2019s\nefforts to salvage the LTTE enterprise made public by the efforts of the\nredoubtable journalist DBS Jeyaraj. This account is pure dynamite that lays\nbare the 21st<\/sup> century version of nineteenth century gunboat\ndiplomacy with the snow-white Norwegians working in tandem with Imperial USA to\nimpose their military might on Sri Lanka \u2013 ostensibly to save the Tamil civilians\ndeployed as hostages by the LTTE; but directed principally towards extracting\nthe LTTE leadership and placing them in their pockets within Eritrea, South\nAfrica or East Timor \u2013 no doubt as instruments in their larger plans for their\ndesigns in and over Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most\nstriking dimensions of this recounting by KP and DBS in their Q and A Session\nare as follows<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A = The\nfact that the secret meeting took place in the last week of February 2009.[9]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B = The\nNorwegian Ambassador Hattrem\u2019s incisive and lucid summary of the battlefield\nsituation and his conclusion that the LTTE was in the process of being\noverwhelmed. Mark this: <\/strong>He told us\nclearly that the Sri Lankan army was right on top of the military situation.<\/strong>………….Speaking to the point the Norwegian envoy said that\nthe LTTE was being boxed into a small piece of territory and that it was only a\nmatter of time before the Army advanced further and annihilated the Tigers. He\npointed out that there was absolutely no need for Colombo to agree to a\nceasefire at a time when they were sure to defeat the LTTE.<\/strong> He\nalso told us straight that the LTTE was also responsible for the civilian\nplight. He accused the LTTE of keeping the people as human shields and hostages\nthrough force<\/strong>. Hattrem then said that the LTTE could not\nexpect a ceasefire without agreeing to a compromise.\u201d<\/strong>[10]<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

C = The\ncontinued determination of the Western conglomerate to intervene …. a\ndetermination pursued even after a body of some 400-500 Tiger troops and key\ncommanders were annihilated at Aanandapuram in early April 2009.[11]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

D  = KP\u2019s ingenuity in coming up subsequently<\/strong>\nwith a plan for the LTTE to lock-out their artillery and weaponry under the eye\nof Western forces who would shepherd the civilians, sequester the Tiger\nsoldiers, and whisk the LTTE leaders away \u2013 with, apparently, the Sri Lankan\nArmy, its Navy and its Air Force rendered mute and armless by the superior\nmight and the elevated morality of the West. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind-boggling\nthis. Can humanitarian imperialism\u201d be so blind to its own duplicity and\npower-games? We know that the West and its interests are not purely directed by\na warm heart. The rambling bumbling media briefing served up on the 6th<\/sup>\nof May 2009 by US Under Secretary of State Michael Owens provides us with a\nglimpse of the American desire to impose a scheme of political devolution on\nSri Lanka on the lines envisaged by its local embassy personnel in the 1980s.[12]<\/strong><\/a>\nSuch aspirations simply ignored subsequent developments and the altered\ncharacter of Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism in its worldwide form under the\ncommanding genius of Pirap\u0101haran and his aides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strategic\ninterests in the Indian Ocean must surely have guided these ambitious, incoherent\nand bumbling American-Norwegian-Western endeavours to save the LTTE leadership.\nWe require American equivalents of Michael Lord Naseby to penetrate the portals\nof the US civilian and military establishments and disclose their arcane\nthinking as well as their machinations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

KEY TEXTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamage, Daya<\/strong> 2014 <\/a>The\nAmerican Agenda for Sri Lanka\u2019s National Issues, 1970s-2014<\/a>,\u201d 5\nJuly 2014, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/07\/05\/the-american-agenda-for-sri-lankas-national-issues-1970s-2014\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gamage,\nDaya <\/strong>2016 Clinton E-Mail Scandal: Never wanted\nSri Lanka LTTE defeated,\u201d Asian Tribune, <\/em>27\nMay 2016, http:\/\/www.asiantribune.com\/node\/89009<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeyaraj, D. B. S.<\/strong><\/a> 2009a Theepan of the LTTE:\nHeroic Saga of a Northern Warrior,\u201d 4 April 2009, http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/archives\/5381<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeyaraj,\nD. B. S.<\/strong> 2009b Anatomy of the LTTE Military Debacle at\nAananthapuram,\u201d Sunday Leader<\/em>, 8 April 2012, http:\/\/www.thesundayleader.lk\/2012\/04\/08\/anatomy-of-the-ltte-military-debacle-at-aananthapuram\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeyaraj,\nD. B. S.<\/strong> 2011 KP\u2019 Speaks Out. An Interview\nwith Former Tiger Chief<\/em>, Vavuniya: NERDO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeyaraj, D. B. S<\/strong> 2012 An Interview with Ex-LTTE Chief KP\u201d – Part 2,\u201d http:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/23730\/tech<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeyaraj, D. B. S<\/strong> 2020 Rescuing the\nTigers in 2009: KP, Norway, and the West,\u201d 8 April 2020, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2020\/04\/08\/rescuing-the-tigers-in-2009-kp-norway-and-the-west\/#more-41599<\/a>\n…. Originally presented in 2012(?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2014 Generating Calamity, 2008-2014: An Overview of Tamil Nationalist\nOperations and Their Marvels,\u201d<\/strong> 10 April 2014,  http:\/\/groundviews.org\/2014\/04\/10\/generating-calamity-2008-2014-an-overview-of-tamil-nationalist-operations-and-their-marvels\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts,\nMichael<\/strong><\/a> 2016 Saving Talaivar Pirap\u00e4haran,\u201d 6 April 2016, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2016\/04\/06\/saving-talaivar-pirapaharan\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts,\nMichael<\/strong>\n2016 David Miliband\u2019s Imperious\nIntervention in Lanka left in Tatters<\/a>,\u201d\n5 July 2016, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/05\/david-milibands-imperious-intervention-in-lanka-left-in-tatters\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts,\nMichael<\/strong>\n2017 The LTTE Debacle at Aandandapuram, April 2009,\u201d 5 November 2017,  https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2017\/11\/05\/the-ltte-debacle-at-aanandapuram-april-2009\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salter,\nMark<\/strong> <\/strong>2015 To End a Civil War. Norway\u2019s\nPeace Engagement in Sri Lanka,<\/em> <\/em>London: Hurst & Company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saravanamuttu, P. <\/strong>2009 Unending End Game,\u201d 9\nMarch 2009, http:\/\/www.thesundayleader.lk\/archive\/20090308\/issues.htm<\/a>\n[no longer extant]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OTHER TEXTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowden, Mark 2019 The Legacy of Black Hawk Down,\u201d Smithsonian\nMagazine, <\/strong>https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/legacy-black-hawk-down-180971000\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Silva-Ranasinghe, Sergei<\/strong> 2009b The Battle for the Vanni Pocket,\u201d Asia-Pacific Defence\nReporter<\/em>, March 2009, Vol. 35\/2, pp. 17-19 \u2014 http:\/\/www.dtic.mil\/dtic\/aulimp\/citations\/gsa\/2009_157395\/<\/a>\n156554.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harrison, Frances <\/strong>2012 Still Counting the Dead. Survivors of Sri Lanka\u2019s Hidden\nWar,<\/em>London: Portobello Books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hull, C. Bryson<\/strong> 2009 Sri Lanka opens eye in the\nsky on war zone,\u201d 20 April 2009, http:\/\/mobile.reuters.com\/article\/idUSCOL450259<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hull, C. Bryson\n& Ranga<\/strong> Sirilal\n2009 <\/strong>Sri Lankan War in Endgame, 100,000 escape rebel zone,\u201d 23 April\n2009, http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-srilanka-war-idUSTRE53J0IZ20090422<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marga <\/strong>2011 Truth\nand Accountability. The Last Stages of the War in Sri Lanka<\/em>, http:\/\/www.margasrilanka.org\/Truth-Accountability.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mango 2011 <\/strong>Jim\nMacdonald of AI boxed into corner by Mango in 2009,\u201d 10 August 2011, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2011\/08\/10\/3133\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2011\nAmnesty International reveals its Flawed Tunnel-Vision in Sri Lanka\nin 2009,\u201d 10 Aug. 2011, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2011\/08\/10\/amnesty-international-reveals-its-flawed-tunnel-vision-on-sri-lanka-in-2009\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014 Generating Calamity, 2008-2014: An Overview of Tamil Nationalist\nOperations and Their Marvels,\u201d 10 April 2014, http:\/\/groundviews.org\/2014\/04\/10\/generating-calamity-2008-2014-an-overview-of-tamil-nationalist-operations-and-their-marvels\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014 Tamil Person and State. Essays<\/em>,\nColombo: Vijitha Yapa Publishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014 Tamil Person and State. Pictorial<\/em>,\nColombo: Vijitha Yapa Publishers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014 Ball-by-Ball through Wikileaks: US Embassy Despatches from\nColombo, 2009: ONE<\/a>,\u201d<\/strong> 27\nAugust 2014, <\/strong>https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/27\/ball-by-ball-through-wikileaks-us-embassy-despatches-from-colombo-2009-one\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong> 2014 <\/strong>Truth Journalism? Marie Colvin hoist on her own Petard<\/a>,\u201d<\/strong> 5 November 2014, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/11\/05\/triuth-journalism-marie-colvin-hoist-on-her-own-petard\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2018\nReflections: Interpreting the Gash Files, IV,\u201d 29 August 2018, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2018\/04\/29\/reflections-interpreting-the-gash-files-iv\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts,\nMichael <\/strong>2018 The Western World\u2019s Cumulous Clouds of Deception: Blanketing\nthe Sharp Realities of Eelam War IV<\/a>,\u201d 16 October 2018, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2018\/10\/16\/the-western-worlds-cumulous-clouds-of-deception-blanketing-the-sharp-realities-of-eelam-war-iv\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong>\n2019  Ludicrous\nVerdicts in Powerful Quarters Still Asserted TODAY: Death Toll in Eelam War IV\nMagnified Manifold<\/a>,\u201d  2 December 2019, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2019\/12\/02\/ludicrous-verdicts-in-powerful-quarters-still-asserted-today-death-toll-in-eelam-war-iv-magnified-manifold\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

END NOTES<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> This short article\nwas sent to some editorial personnel in the print and e-media in Sri Lanka on\nthe 3\/4th<\/sup> April. They apparently have other fish to fry and are\n\u2018corona-vided\u2019 — unlike Colombo Telegraph<\/em> which accepted the article in\nits \u2018nude\u2019 form [without Endnotes and Bibliography].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> When I contacted Bryson Hull (in\nretirement in New York) in 2018, I was under the impression that this set of\nevents was in April. I now realise that it was in February 2009. We can safely\nassume that Hull met the Military Attache (presumably Col Lawrence Smith). In\nwhat is pure guesswork, I suppose that that the PAC team in Katunayake had met\nsenior SL military men and received a briefing which underlined the\ndifficulties of forceful foreign intervention. For the US Ambassador Blake to\nthreaten the Minister of Defence with \u2018war crime charges\u201d in April 2009 and for a senior hand in the Washington secretariat\n(Owens) to envisage a military intervention in May 2009<\/a> that could pluck out the Tiger leaders and\n\u2018save\u2019 the remaining civilian mass are instances of brazen bravado combined\nwith mind-boggling idiocy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> The US\nspecial forces team that attempted to give the Somali war lords a bloody nose\nin October 1993 received a brutal lesson. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot\nsown by rocket-propelled grenades and an 18-hour\nurban firefight, later known as the Battle of Mogadishu, left 18 Americans and\nhundreds of Somalis dead. News outlets broadcast searing images of jubilant\nmobs dragging the bodies of dead Army special operators and helicopter crewmen\nthrough the streets of Mogadishu. The newly elected U.S. president, Bill\nClinton, halted the mission and ordered the Special Forces out by March 31,\n1994\u201d (Bowden 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

[4] See Roberts, Saving Talaivar Pirapaharan,\u201d 2016 and Roberts Ball-by-Ball through Wikileaks: US Embassy Despatches from Colombo,\n2009: ONE<\/a>,\u201d 2014.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> Tamrat Samuel was South Asian Affairs\nOfficer at the UN and happens to be of Eritrean background. The LTTE had\nsecured some of its arms in the past from Eritrea \u2013 indeed, If memory serves me\nright, KP\u2019s ability to secure a shipment from Eritrea andit land it on the\nshores of Tamilnadu in the mid-1980s provided the LTTE with an edge in its\ncompetition with TELO. EPRLF and other militant organisations who were\ndependent on Indian arms <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> See http:\/\/www.srilankaguardian.org\/2009\/04\/miliband-kouchner-arrive-in-lanka.html<\/a>, Note that the Foreign Minister of Sweden\nwas also planning to be part of this team; but his participation was rejected\nby Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a> Roberts,\nDavid\nMiliband\u2019s Imperious Intervention in Lanka left in Tatters<\/a>,\u201d 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a> See Roberts, Saving\nTalaivar Pirapaharan,\u201d 2016 and Gamage 2014 & 2016. Note some details in\nSalter 2015: 0000.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a> Mark Salter does not provide the date of\nthe meeting \u2013 surely a deliberate omission (one that is in keeping with his\nchutzpah and brazen bravado).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10]<\/a> Jeyaraj 2020 [2012].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11]<\/a> See Jeyaraj 2009a and 2009b; and Roberts\n2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12]<\/a> See Gamage 2014 for this briefing. Gamage\nserved in the US Embassy from the 1970s to 1990s and brings this experience\ninto his disclosures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Roberts Courtesy thuppahi.wordpress.com In his wide-ranging autobiographical tale of his numerous engagements in Sri Lanka and for Sri Lanka Michael Lord Naseby has condemned the LTTE for its deployment of so many Tamil civilians as a human shield\u201d and bargaining counter\u201d during the last stages of Eelam War IV in 2008\/09. Let me, here, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}