Your faux pas in Sri Lanka
Asoka Weerasinghe
Kings Grove Crescent . Ottawa . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada
August 14, 2007
Sir John Holmes
Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Emergency
Relief Coordinator, United Nations United Nations Room S-3627A New York
US
Dear Sir John:
As you are aware your visit, like the ones previously by Gareth Evans
and Allan Rock has disturbed a hornets nest in all of Sri Lanka. There
is a certain commonality that can be recognized among all three of you
– you all have flown into Sri Lanka with uppity noses of neo-colonial
Whiteman’s meddlesome arrogance of, 'We know how to run your pithy
little remote God’s little acre better than you natives, as we
are high moralists when it comes to human rights affairs.’. I say
to all three of you, “Pleeese save me my breath!”
Ha! That arrogance is what made UN’s Allan Rock fall flat on his
face being so naive about Sri Lanka’s native affairs. He thought
he was the only international courier who won the respect and trust
of the Tamil Tigers, and as promised by them that they would keep their
word. So he blabbered to the world on the air waves saying that the
Tamil Tigers will release all their child soldiers by January 31, 2007,
and knocking the Sri Lankan government down at every opportunity with
a Henry Cooper punch. What baloney! The Tamil parents of the North and
the Wanni in Sri Lanka are screaming their heads off as they are forced
to give one child from each family to fight the Tamil Tiger’s separatist
war. And Rock is now hiding behind a desk somewhere having failed his
mission miserably and having let the cunning Tamil Tigers make him look
an international fool.
And then Gareth Evans, the Head of the International Crisis Group comes
along, who thought that he could dictate his moral righteousness to
these natives. These natives recognized him all right as a rogue courier
who as Australia’s Foreign Minister supported the cordoning of
the flow of food and medicine to Iraq which killed 600,000 Iraqi children,
and now coming to their little island waving his R2P wand, to tell them
not to go after the Tamil Tigers, the most ruthless group of terrorists
in the world, in their northern campus, or else there will be international
intervention. I thought we were let to believe that the world was trying
to eradicate terrorism from every nook and corner of the Earth. But
it does seem according to you three that this God’s little acre,
Sri Lanka, is not attached to the rest of the world and you all would
let the Tamil Tiger terrorists flourish by all means, and along the
way assassinate politicians, massacre innocent civilians and claymore
mine soldiers with impunity.
Rock and Evans had difficulty to acknowledge that the natives of this
God’s little acre are highly intelligent and proud people, who
are a product of a politically sophisticated elders, whose great- great-
great- great-grandfathers governed their land according to democratic
principles thousands of years ago, even before your countries became
civilized communities. This is where the arrogant “Whiteman”
keeps failing miserably.
And now you, Sir. John, come along putting your meddlesome tup’ns
worth.
I don’t have to repeat what Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry has
said in their press release, *‘Damaging* *Contradictions in UN
USG Holmes’
Statement’* (Aug 11, 2007); “*Holmes broke the* *Agreement
to restrict his statements to the Joint Press Conference and the Press*
*Release by Speaking to Reuter* *says Mahinda Samarasinghe”* (Sri
Lanka’s Human Rights Minister) reported Walter Jayewardhana in
Lankaweb (August 11, 2007); “*Sir. John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary
General, exposed as an unreliable and crafty double*-*dealer”*
said Asian Tribune (Aug.12, 2007); and *“Forked tongues of Gareth
Evans* *and John Holmes*” wrote H.L.D. Mahindapala for Asian Tribune
(August 12, 2007). Those reports say that you are – An unreliable
crafty UN courier with a forked-tongue.
Your attempt to discredit Sri Lanka hasn’t hurt Sri Lanka at all,
but it certainly has back-fired on you and hurt your reputation as a
respected UN politician.
When deciphering every word in those press statements, you obviously
do not come smelling like a bunch of lavender from an English country
garden, having portrayed yourself as a disingenuous person who is not
forthright. And my crystal ball says that you too will fall flat on
your face pretty soon.
And I still keep asking the same question, why the Dickens is the Sri
Lanka Government keep inviting these UN couriers to survey their land,
when these couriers are inherent with their own agenda’s and forked-tongues
to destroy Sri Lanka. You are now being considered as another rogue
from the UN’s House of Forked Tongues. And if I were you, I would
be cautious to take another assignment in Sri Lanka, as you have now
found out that these natives are smart as a button, who could read between
the lines of words that you speak in public as well as in private. And
now you are rendered suspect. So I say to you, just watch out, when
you dot your Is and cross your Ts in the Sri Lankan context and focus
on what is good that is happening in Sri Lanka in the theatre of Human
Rights as there is so much good that is happening, and the President
and his officials are striving hard to better themselves on this file
almost every day. You cannot penalize them for their honest effort.
That fact has to be acknowledged with all sincerity and dignity.
I see that you three gentlemen, with a colonial attitude to be three
perfect characters for a class screen play assignment titled –
*/UN, the House of Forked Tongues/*, even though Gareth Evans would
be a proxy from Brussels.
And I would love to try my hand at this as it would be easy to write
a script around you three.
As the introduction I can see the credits being rolled over the images
of you three bare bodied tied on to stakes in Sri Lanka’s east’s
Toppigala jungle where the Sri Lankan guests, the American Native ‘Red’
Indians with their bodies painted red with the Cochineal bug red dye,
who had befriended the Sri Lankans because they believed that Sri Lankans
were a weak lot allowing to be bullied by the white colonial man. The
Amero-Indians with tomahawks in hand circling you thumping their moccasined
feet onto the red kabook earth - Thud, Thud, Thud, Thud … singing
their warrior song , “Haiya…haiya…haiya…hai…
Haiya…haiya…haiya ...hai… You White Man speak in forked
tongue, don’t you ever bully our friends of Sri Lanka…Haiya…haiya
…haiya…hai, ...Haiya…haiya…haiya…hai…You
White Man speak in forked tongue…Haiya…haiya…haiya…hai”
And then the camera zooms onto you three showing your torsos turning
red like boiled lobsters with embarrassment and fear. A graphic of a
white cloth floats in and wraps around your bare bodies to hide your
shame, and on it is written the title of the screen play in bold letters
– */UN, the House of Forked Tongues. /*The final script may not
be the best for the stage at Old Vic, but it certainly would be good
for the large screen.
Yours sincerely,
Asoka Weerasinghe
Ottawa. Canada
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