To Howard Berman, Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki Moon, UK Channel 4, and others seeking to accuse Sri Lanka armed Forces for War Crimes.

“………..It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  ( from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address )

In 1861 there was no terrorism.  Any revolt against the government became an armed conflict-a civil war. In 1862 the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery in America was opposed by the Southern States which had large numbers of  agricultural  Farms and depended on slave labour. Eleven of these States formed in to a Confederation and rose in   rebellion, as a war goal the  abolition of slavery proclaimed by the US Government.. 

Twenty Northern States  that had already abolished slavery along with five border states formed into a Union . The army of the Unionists confronted the Confederates in a war to end the rebellion demanding  separation from the United States.  The civil war that followed between the  Unionist Armies and the Confederate Armies in which an estimated 700,000 had died was  the most bloodiest of the civil wars.

In reality in” modern terms” it was  a military operation by the US Government represented by the Union of 25 Northern States,  against the  Confederate terrorists demanding separation,  from the United States, like the military operations of  Sri Lanka Armed Forces against the LTTE terrorists demanding a separate State.  Only difference was that the terrorists of Sri Lanka came from the Tamil Community, where as the Sothern and Northern Sates of America were Americans though the Union Army had black soldiers.

The climax of the American  civil war- in  its last phase in the “ killing field of America”  which lasted from 1 to 3 of July,1863 at Gettysburg  was a “blood bath”  in which  there were 57,225 casualties- both  killed and wounded.

Four months after the war on the 19 November, 1863 “ the killing field of Gettysburg”  was dedicated to the dead soldiers, the President Abraham Lincoln  made his famous speech an extract of which is  quoted above. It is now the “most revered” historical landmark.

Though statistics are available for the death of the Union and confederate Soldiers  there are  strangely no statistics of civilian casualties.  It is regrettable that the death of civilians  as collateral to the war  had been neglected as unimportant.  That is the price paid in the separatist war in America.

A commentator says,  “There is no way to know at this point without further research what the true effects of the war were on civilians and what kind of price they truly paid.   So the question in my mind, how do we determine collateral damage during the Civil War? Does the starvation of civilians or their murder by bushwhackers count as “casualties”? I would argue it does. »

While another says,  that Fellman’s “Inside War” roughly estimates 10,000 Missouri civilians were killed during the war, but IIRC offers no methodology or documentation. »

In June of 1862 Gen. Curtis,  had  described the situation in eastern Arkansas,  saying « I leave nothing for man or brute in the country passed over by my army,…… »except a little saving to feed the poor, which will hardly save them from suffering.”

« Confederate bushwhackers and guerrillas brutally targeted suspected Union sympathizers and burned cotton wherever they found it, causing civilian morale to “plummet” throughout the state. The combined effect, according to one historian, was economic “collapse, social upheaval,” and the general “collapse of social institutions,” according to William L. Shea. »

These investigations are no concern of UK Channel 4, the  State Department of the USA which is  on a witch hunt to take to a  Tribunal  the Sri Lanka Armed Forces for war crimes in the elimination of a group of terrorists, murderers , assassins,  who massacred , tortured , and blew up innocent civilians  during a thirty year of terrorism., which were perhaps more than the terrorism of the Confederate Armed terrorists.

What is also  relevant in what has been quoted  above is what  General Curtis had said in June of 1862 that,  “ I leave nothing for man or brute in the country passed over by my army,……”

Because the same cannot be said of the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka, who during the last phase of the  military operations against the terrorists, had while eliminating the terrorists rescued from the clutches of terrorists 300,000 civilians kept by the terrorists as human shields. 

It  is on record that the Soldiers of the Sri Lanka army who some times fought without having a meal, when they had a packet of food, handed it over to the emaciated civilian Tamils rescued from the clutches of the terrorists. The soldiers helped the old and weary civilians escaping from terrorists some times carrying  the old in their arms.  

That was the humanitarian aspect of the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Armed forces the Channel 4 had conveniently left out from showing or acknowledging in their “doctored” document, and  taken seriously by persons like Howard Berman , Hillary Clinton and the rest of them.

It is easy for the US State Secretary, and her friend  Jayalalitha, UK, and French Governments  to accuse the Sri Lanka  Government Forces  without understanding the mentality of the terrorists who were cornered and  saw no escape rout,  and the soldiers of the Government  Armed Forces who were facing ruthless brutes of terrorists who had not respect for life, and were yet trying to save as many Civilians as possible  running away from the grip of the terrorists in that “Gettysburg of the no fire Zone” .

No amount of films, documentaries or interviews presented by the Channel 4 can explain the extreme condition that prevailed in that “ Gettysburg of no-fire Zone “ in Mullaitivu.  Those images of the suffering of the people caught into cameras and faked as atrocities committed by the Government Armed Forces  are a fiction which does not represent the truth of that last phase of the military operation against the terrorists.  

The last phase of any war is the most outrages, as much as it was at Gettysburg at the end of the American civil war , or Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the second world war, Hanoi at the end of the Vietnam War, or Mulaitivu at the end of terrorism in Sri Lanka.  Those are the  catastrophes to end  other  catastrophes.

Any intelligent persons,  other than those who have “some reason” to fall for  the “ dirty tricks” of the UK Channel 4  such as Howard Berman, Hillary Clinton, Navi Pillai, Jayalalitha, Human Rights Activists of all sorts, an objective and an intelligent viewer will use his mental capacity even if it is the size of a” pea nut” to question why the Government Armed Forces torture , kill and massacre  some of the  civilians  while taking all risks to rescue 300,000 others escaping from the clutches of  the terrorists.

The Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces knew that they were there to end terrorism and not to  eliminate the civilians, for which there were other methods they could have used such  as drowning the 300,000 Tamil civilians escaping from the terrorists in the Nai Aru Lagoon instead of rescuing them.

In Gettysburg it was the American Government Forces-the Union Army , against American Confederate terrorists. It was killing of  Americans by Americans in the Gettysburg blood bath.  But in Sri Lanka the Armed Forces were fighting against a ruthless  terrorists, who were deliberately killing and torturing the civilians , kidnapping children, handicapped or from low cast families to be trained as “suicide bombs”.

And these terrorists came from the Tamil Community, that was the difference and that is the reason for this  accusations  being leveled against the soldiers of  the Sri Lanka Armed Forces who were from the Sinhala Community.  If it was like in Gettysburg – a Sinhala Armed Force against Sinhala terrorists then no body would have bothered.

Everything said and done, with Channel  4 inventing all possible gimmicks, and atrocious falsehood to accuse the Sri Lanka government forces for war crimes, as far as the Sri Lankans living in Sri Lanka, the Tamil, Sinhala, Muslim, Burgers and the rest are very happy that terrorism has at last  been wiped out.  They have already sacrificed their kith and kin in the massacres, bomb blasts and to the pistol gangs of the ruthless terrorists.  It is only now all the Communities of Sri Lanka have begun to live normal lives free from fear, peaceful and happy.

To all those who   want to accuse the Sri Lanka Armed Forces for war crimes-UK Channel 4, Ban Ki Moon of UN, Navi Pillai of UNHRC, Hillary Clinton of US State Department, David Cameron of UK, Bernard Kouchner, David Miliband,  Howard Berman, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International or any one else:

We would like to tell them,  that we the Sri Lankans who  elected Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse as the President of Sri Lanka, or  we others  by action and word supported and continue to support  the President and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse and acclaim our soldiers who died , and all others who risked their lives in the elimination of the terrorists, as our National Heroes, are equally responsible as much as the Sri Lanka Armed Forces for what ever happened in the last phase of the military operations to eliminate the terrorists, and we are all prepared to face any tribunal  for any crimes hand in hand with our Armed Forces, the President and the Defense Secretary.

We tell them go ahead and accuse us we are ready to face any tribunal, for we have done what is right in the protection of innocent lives and to keep our motherland as a whole without handing over any part of it to terrorists, and separating the Communities, and end a thirty years of suffering that no Nation has so faced.

UK Channel 4 and all anti Sri Lanka elements are not interested in our coloured ethnic brothers, what they want is to take revenge,  Channel 4 for not allowing them to film the IDP camps to make  documents distorting  with falsehood the real  situation in camps, and the International Community for not allowing their representatives to enter the no-fire zone to rescue the terrorist leaders.

Numerous are the innocent men women and children who had died in the hands of the terrorists, numerous are our political leaders, Ministers, Government officers who have been killed by the terrorists, and numerous are the  Military, Naval and Air Force Officers, and Army Soldiers and sailors,  who had given their lives to remove a cancer of terrorism from the soil of our motherland. 

In the name of all those who had died in the course and until the end of terrorism in Sri Lanka, we dedicate  ourselves for the course for which they died  to reconcile the communities  to make this motherland of ours a happy place for every one to live together,  and say as Abraham Lincoln said at Gettysburg after another terrorist war,

“ It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Barrack Obama promised Hope and Change….. with his audacious Yes We can, but has he Changed any thing ?

From Sri Lanka’s point of view  American State Department  interfered in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs interposing its boring insipid Ambassador  Robert O’Blake parroting ad nauseam  to find  a political and not  a military solution to terrorism , even in the face of Sri Lanka gaining victory over  terrorism through its military solution.
Robert Blake even rounded up anti-Sri Lanka Foreign Ministers from the International Community, along with Hillary Clinton with her harangue about “you cannot put all terrorists in to the same basket”, to save the terrorist leaders from being eliminated. Had we listened to Robert O’Blake or his powerful coteries Sri Lanka would have by now been territorially divided or completely devastated along with our mothers, fathers and children with out distinction of their communal appurtenance massacred  in  the “ tsunami of terrorism”.
But thanks to  a President with foresight the people had through their wisdom elected to  take control of the  affairs of Sri Lanka already in pangs of “destruction”, that eventual ruin and misfortune was averted just in time, with of course  high cost of life and material which unfortunately was the sad price to pay to step over irreversible calamity.
But now from the President Barack Obama’s promised land for  Change and Hope for the world, suffering from war, terrorism, poverty, and hunger comes a man called Howard Berman  a top member of President Barack Obama’s Panel of the US Congressional Committee who sponsored  in the House Foreign Affairs Committee  measure to ban all US Government Funding to Sri Lanka, except for humanitarian aid , demining activities to promote DEMOCRACY and governance in a voice vote.
The proposed ban  is with the specification to  “..only allow aid once the administration certifies progress by Sri Lanka on Key Concerns-i.e., "accountability for those involved in violations of human rights and war crimes at the end of Sri Lanka's civil war, (and more) …… including members of the defeated rebel Tamil Tigers.” 
The latter is by way of an explanation why such strict measures to a Sovereign State that suffered under terrorism for thirty years and having eliminated it, has moved on to  a post terrorist reconciliation and development process. 
But Howard Berman in his proposal failed to state , “….including members of the defeated rebel Tamil Tigers, and their proxies and Agents who have inherited the “blood money” collected from the Tamil expatriates and still support the cause of the Tamil Tigers brandishing the LTTE Terrorist Flag.”
Howard Berman’s proposals is the result of watching a “doctored” document by the UK Channe 4 which had in turn been sponsored by the LTTE Terrorist front Organisation  in UK and USA. Incidentally the Forensic experts who had  certified the document  as depicting true events are dishonest and with questionable technical expertise legally condemned in  a court of Law.
But the importance of this “sanctions” proposed by the President Barack Obama’s top man in the Panel, has to be read in the light of the hope and Change promised by the President and what he said on that historic day  in his acceptance speech before a large crowd of  supporters in Grant Park in Chicago,
"It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,….new dawn of American leadership is at hand…. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face."
But have the changes really taken place, or is America still what it was before the President Barack Obama was elected, and when he said  on that historic day the 5^th November, 2008 to an estimated crowd of 240,000 :
“ To those — to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. …… »
As far as “those who would tear ”our” world” (in Sri Lanka),  Barack Obama’s Howard Brandon has seen it fit to punish  us with “sanctions” just  for “defeating those who were tearing Sri Lanka”.

Now  let us see how far the changes promised by the President Barack Obama in 2008 and  being  implemented  by his Administration, differ from what it had been before.

The Sanctions Howard Brandon sponsored for Sri Lanka are  just a repetition of inhuman arrogant part of the history of  American administration. Let us see what others have to say of American desire for empire building, and whether the policies being implemented  “to-day” by the President Barrack Obama with  Hillary Clinton at the helm of his foreign policy have any difference to those age old  American policies.

*****

Scott Harding writing in Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, as far back as June,2004 says,

 “ For more than 12 years, the use of economic sanctions against Iraq, often enforced at the behest of the United States, produced a range of devastating consequences for the health and well-being of much of Iraq's civilian population. The sanctions were criticized as a violation of international human rights (Kozal, 2000); as a weapon of mass destruction that prevented Iraq "from satisfying its most basic humanitarian needs" (Gordon, 2002, p. 43); and as being responsible for "the deaths of more people in Iraq than have been slain by all so-called weapons of mass destruction throughout history" (Mueller & Mueller, 1999, p. 51).”  B.net.

Then another Vinod Anand, a Senior fellow  of the IDSA  on a research paper on Iraq Under Siege: Human Cost of Economic Warfare-Sanction Syndrome,  writes:
“America has a pronounced proclivity to impose sanctions on other nations, whether justified or not, to pursue its strategic, political and economic objectives. The policy of imposing sanctions on other countries was bestowed by President Woodrow Wilson who first mooted the idea that sanctions were a "peaceful, silent and deadly remedy".

Vinod Anand goes on to say that the  large proportion of these sanctions  had been imposed by the Clinton Administration.  The American Democracy is said to have  considered imposing sanctions  on 26 countries such as :  China, Russia, Vietnam, Croatia, Mexico, Nigeria, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Syria, India and Pakistan. This behaviour of imposing sanction Vinod Anand says is its notion of being  superior due to its uncontested role of being the only super power.

He adds very significantly  that, “America has used the sanctions as an instrument of coercion to compel other sovereign nations to acquiesce to the American will. Thus, whatever is not according to the American thought process is not rational and whatever is good for the Americans is good for the world. And if they want to bomb Iraq or Kosovo or impose economic sanctions resulting in large numbers of civilian casualties, it is justifiable because the Americans say so even when international opinion is against such an action and is without any mandate from the UN.”

The after math of these economic sanctions in  Iraq he says  are  unbelievable and makes one wander why no one brings criminal charges for crimes again humanity against the perpetrators.  Vinod Anand  further describes his research as  follows:
“…In August 1999, a US Congressional group visited Iraq to see at first hand the living conditions of Iraqi people, especially the children. They visited Ammara, Nasirya and Basra—the three cities in the southern part of Iraq which have been at the receiving end since the Gulf War of 1991 and the ten-year-old UN trade sanctions since then. The Iraqi doctors informed them that two in ten babies born in southern Iraq were deformed. According to official statistics the number of babies with defects had increased threefold in the south, the main battlefield of Iraq's wars. The number of Iraqi children with cancer rose to 130,000 in 1997 from 32 in 1990.4 This phenomenon was largely due to the use of depleted Uranium used in US and British anti-tank armour piercing shells during the war. It is believed that over 700 tons of such ammunition was used. According to a research document prepared by former US Attorney General Ramsay Clerk, the effect of the depleted Uranium will last for eight million years.5 Other than cancer, many cases of genetic disorders, water and weather pollution have been found in southern Iraq.” ( http://www.idsa-india.org/an-may-06.html)
Then there is the more infamous  sanctions more commonly known as Trade embargo against Cuba, another Sovereign State. Salim Lamrani of the  Sorbonne University, writing in thirdworldtraveller.com states :
 «  As far back as the middle of the 19th century, U.S. expansionist Willia m Gilpin announced: "The destiny of the American people is to subdue the continent." The primary goal of the United States is to make sure that the resources of the countries of the South remain at hand of the capital of the masters of the universe. The case of Cuba is exceptional because it is the only country that has dared to refuse to follow the orders set by their northern neighbor, designing its political, economic and social system, at once sovereign and independent, despite the unilateral constraints imposed by Washington. »

Further details with regard to the  embargo on Cuba are as follows:

“Titled the Cuban Democracy Act, the embargo was codified into law in 1992 with the stated purpose of maintaining sanctions on Cuba so long as the Cuban government continues to refuse to move toward "democratization and greater respect for human rights.”  In 1996, Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act, which further restricted United States citizens from doing business in or with Cuba, and mandated restrictions on giving public or private assistance to any successor government in Havana unless and until certain claims against the Cuban government are met. In 1999, U.S. President Bill Clinton expanded the trade embargo even further by ending the practice of foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies trading with Cuba. In 2000, Clinton authorized the sale of certain "humanitarian" US products to Cuba. “(Wikipedia)

Then the United States of America  imposed Sanctions against Iran in 1984.  The sanctions to Iran prohibits weapons sales and all U.S. assistance to Iran. The United States also opposed all loans to Iran from international financial institutions. In 1987, the United States further prohibited the importation and exportation of any goods or services from Iran.

Nevertheless, these sanctions have not been productive.  “ The U.S. policy of imposing unilateral trade and investment sanctions against Burma has proven to be a failure on all fronts. By forcing U.S. firms to disengage from Burma, that policy has harmed American economic interests and done nothing to improve the living conditions or human rights of the people of Burma. “

Then the USA’s more concerned Asian  political regime  North Korea backed up with it’s  nuclear arsenal has been imposed with Sanctions  which are incidentally considered  a violation of  a state backed  right to health . 

On 12 June,2009, UNO at the behest of USA, is supposed to have made the  strictest economic sanctions to North Korea for detonating a nuclear device, which USA, and France had been doing innumerable times.  

 Now USA is considering further sanctions to North Korea. And these  proposed  “…. economic sanctions with virtually no public discussion of their potential effects on the North Korean people…..”
(http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/policy/091023shinchoinovotnysanctions.html)

Howard Brenan, the President Barack Obama’s top member of the  panel, does not seem to be helping the President Barak Obama with is promises for hope and change, but fishing out the dead carcasses of past American irrelevancies, dressed up as “new hope’ for the world “ to impose its imagined Superiority over all nations “, making President Barack Obama whiter than the previous white Presidents and no messiah of change.

With regard to US Intervention in Latin America with its well known Monroe Doctrine , it has been said, “..The United States has always prided itself as the “Great Bastion of Democracy”. However, the history of the US in Latin America is much more ambiguous than the vision of a great nation freeing Latin Americans from dictatorship and sowing the seeds of liberty and democracy; instead, the US has all too often acted in its own interests…..”

That piece of legislation ………… which established the United States as the sole police power for the Western Hemisphere and called for an end to European interference in American affairs. At the time, the United States was too weak to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. However, this document would set an important precedent for future US intervention.”

We saw the effect of that in Salvador Allende’s murder in a CIA initiated manifestation of the “people”, which today reminds us of   the “rebels” in Bengazi that started off the NATO bombardments in Libya.

The Heritage Foundation, reporting on the  wisdom of imposing Sanction by the USA states, “
During his first term, President Bill Clinton imposed new unilateral economic sanctions on 35 countries that make up 42 percent of the world's population and consume 19 percent of its exports. This trend raises important questions for U.S. policymakers: (1) Are economic sanctions an effective way to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives? (2) What do economic sanctions cost the U.S. economy, and how do they harm American workers? (3) Do unilateral state and local economic sanctions undermine the coherence of U.S. foreign policy, reduce policy flexibility, and violate the U.S. Constitution? (4) What strategic doctrine should govern the use of economic sanctions to ensure that they actually advance U.S. interests?

Had House Representative Howard Brandon considered these implications before recommending imposition of sanctions against Sri Lanka ?   Well to round up the quotes to point out that sanctions that have been proposed against Sri Lanka  is not any part of President Barrack Obama’s old visions when he was eyeing to be the President of USA. He is not fulfilling the hopes the people of America and the World placed on him that November, 2008 listening to his acceptance of his speech of hope and change.

Finally let me propose a short excerpt from a report on  “hubpage.com”

President Obama campaigned on the promise of change and the audacity of hope, and yet his newly inducted administration is a blatant continuation of the politics of old. The vast majority of his appointments and promises are sadly just regurgitations of past administrations; repeats of the last 45 years plus of political figures running around behind the scenes. Now before anyone starts parroting the talking heads of the media, saying, “President Obama is wise to surround himself with more experienced people,” remember that this country has cried out for change, and Obama won his election by promising as much. President Barack 

Obama has already failed to keep his promise to the American people and here are just a few reasons why.
It ends,  “…… If you are one of the millions who voted for Obama with the hope that he would bring real change. Well, that was a very audacious thing to do.” (http://hubpages.com/hub/Barack-Obama-Does-Not-Bring-Change)



It is best that the President Obama looks into what is going around him and specially what Hillary Clinton and Howard Brandon are up to, and review whether his vision of hope and change for American people and the world as a “world leader” requires a revamping before his nomination for the Presidential election of 2012.

The terrorists have attacked the Centre of Oslo. What has Eric Solheim got to say ?

The Global Tamil Forum of the Pro LTTE terrorist Catholic Father Emmanuel Joseph may have in his Global Tamil Forum,  experienced terrorists who may have one time or another participated in terrorism in Sri Lanka alongside Prabhakaran or his son Charles, and perhaps there are among its members experts in explosives and suicide bombers.  Many of them may be Catholics or just Christians , who knows there may even be fundamentalist Christians among them.

Father Emmanuel Joseph is in Germany where there are as many as 60 thousand Sri Lanka Tamils.

Norway has over 13, 000 Sri Lanka Tamils and over 7000 of them in Oslo.  Amoung them too there may be many Sri Lanka Tamils who were terrorists who left Sri Lanka after the elimination of terrorists in Sri Lanka.  It has been said that the Norway Embassy in Sri Lanka had provided facilities for many of them to leave Sri Lanka  to Norway. Eric Solheim is a well known Sri Lanka Terrorist supporter. 

It is said that the man who placed the bombs and masterminded the attack in Oslo is a fundamentalist Christian.  It is strange from whom a fundamentalist Christian living in Norway learnt to make bombs and place them effectively in important buildings. The Norwegians are very peaceful people, as the world know of them. It cannot be ruled out that Anders Behring Brieivike the presumed killer had contact with some one who has expertise in explosives and placing bombs in strategic places.

Among the Sri Lanka Tamils in Norway who display the Sri Lanka terrorist flag at their meetings and manifestations, there may be a large number of Catholics, Christians and even fundamentalist Christians.  This is not to suggest any thing but to warn the Norwegians nevertheless to be careful with the influx of Sri Lanka Tamils after the elimination of the terrorists in Sri Lanka.

However, Hillary Clinton the US State Secretary, very wise and an honest person; once said speaking about terrorism in Sri Lanka,   that there are terrorists of all sorts and they cannot all be put into the same basket.

What she meant was that as far as America and the West is concerned those who cause terror in their own countries are “ freedom fighters” ( that is why they are helping the “rebels” in Bengazi in Libya), it is only those like the Al Qaida who have caused terror inside USA and Western Countries , and the Talibans are supposed to be hiding Al Qaida terrorists, are real terrorist who should be eliminated.

In the light of this,  one does not know how, Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration will interpret the “terrorism’ caused by a fundamentalist Norwegian Christian.  Perhaps they may interpret it as caused by a rebel group, being an inside affair.

Sri Lanka terrorism was also an inside affair and elimination of it caused Obama Administration and  UK, France and Norway to call for  an International Investigation and bring the President of Sri Lanka and the Armed Forces before a Tribunal accused for “war crimes”.  Ban Ki Moon and Navi Pillai the HC of UNHRC called the last phase of the military operation to eliminate the Sri Lanka terrorists was a violation of human rights.

UK got the UK Channel 4 to fake a documentary putting together images from the Sri Lanka terrorist  Websites and show it  in a prime time Television program under the title “ Killing Fields of Sri Lanka” It was very popular among those who were against Sri Lanka and was sympathetic towards terrorists in Sri Lanka , that Included Norway, Australia,USA etc.

In fact on the 21 July, 2011, it was reported that in USA  « ….. In a voice vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a measure that would ban all US government funding to Sri Lanka except for humanitarian aid, demining and activities to promote democracy and governance.
The measure -- sponsored by Representative Howard Berman, the top member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party on the panel -- would only allow aid once the administration certifies progress by Sri Lanka on key concerns. »

Now perhaps Norway “public” will understand what it is to have “ internal terrorist”.   The world out side –that is USA, UK, France  at al will not consider it terrorism. 

Therefore, if Norway now tries to capture the miscreants  and  deactivate them,. USA,UK, France (from Sri Lanka’s experience) may call it a violation of human rights.  Navi Pillai  may bring it up at the next  Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.  Even Ban Ki Moon may re-appoint Darusman Panel to investigate whether there had been any violation of human rights in deactivating the Fundamentalist Christian Group that caused the “terror” in Oslo.

Sri Lanka tried to make the US and the West (that include Norway represented by Eric Solheim) understand that the ruthless terrorists Group in Sri Lanka were not freedom fighters but real terrorists worse than the Al Qaida and even the Talibans. 

They then banned the group which called themselves the LTTE in 36 Western countries, but helped them nevertheless. The large numbers of expatriate Tamils living in Western countries (including Norway) contributed considerable  sums of money to LTTE Front Organisations set up in these countries. 

These expatriate Tamils with the large sums of money in their possession,  helped different Ministers in these Western Governments and promised the vote of the Tamil expatriates in the elections. Therefore, despite the Sri Lanka terrorists killing , maiming massacring innocent Sri Lankans and theirs politicians, Ministers and even Prime Ministers and Presidents, the Ministers of Western Governments, such as David Miliband, Bernard Kouchner, Eric Solheim  defended theSri Lanka  terrorists, and even wanted to save them from being eliminated by the Government Forces of Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka Government did not allow the UK, and French Foreign Secretaries to enter into fighting areas to contacts the terrorists to find a way to save them.  Finally when the terrorists in Sri Lanka were eliminated, these Western Counties led by David Miliband, Bernard Kouchner, Hillary Clinton, and Eric Solheim were so angry that they decided to teach a lesson to the President  and the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka for not listening them to spare the terrorist. They  now harass the President, the Government and the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka and threatening to take them before a tribunal accused for “war crimes”

The latest now you see is the USA  led by the Representative Howard Berman deciding  to, « …  ban all US government funding to Sri Lanka except for humanitarian aid, demining and activities to promote democracy and governance.”
That is how one of the world’s famous democracies, now led by President Barrack  Obama’s Democratic  Party which promised hope to the world, is treating a country (Sri Lanka) which got rid of its terrorists.
Therefore, Norway has to be careful dealing with internal terrorists.  But Norway being a “white Country” it has a chance not to be treated as Sri Lanka is being treated for getting rid of its internal but ruthless group terrorists.

Hillary Clinton should not have discussed Sri Lanka’s internal affairs with a Chief Minister of an Indian State harbouring supporters of Sri Lanka Terrorists banned in USA.

League of Nation was set up immediately after the second world war to stop  military confrontation  of Nations against nations, and instead to provide a world forum where differences between nations could be  resolved in dialogue. 

Later on as more and more countries became Independent from colonial rule, the League of Nations was replaced by the UNO, still with the same noble intention to allow Nations to settle their  differences in dialogue in the forum of Nations where all  Nations met as equal members of the UNO.

But to-day despite the good intention of the “fathers” of the League of Nations, the rich and powerful Nations have bloated their  status of equality  in the UNO, taking over the responsibility to decide for   smaller and weaker Sovereign States as to how they should conduct their internal affairs, and determine their  continued existence as independent Sovereign Sates, stepping over the UNO and its Security Council as a forum of dialogue between Nations. 

The President of the USA George Bush waged war against  Iraq, President Barrack Obama let the USA Armed Forces  enter the Sovereign State of Pakistan to murder a terrorist leader without consulting the Government of Pakistan. 

President Nicolas Sarkozy, unilaterally recognized a group of  Libyans as the Provisional Government of Libya and waged war against the Sovereign State of Libya abusing the sanction of the UN Security Council  to control the air space of Libya, in s despicable “war” into which USA and UK joined in  using NATO forces to continue bombardments killing  unaccounted numbers of Civilians.

USA,UK,and France harass the Government of Sri Lanka  for having  rid itself of a ruthless terrorists that for thirty years hampered its development, murdered , and massacred  its people, gunned downed or blasted using suicide bombers its Ministers and Intellectuals. UNO has been taken over by these powerful Nations to stamp with authority their unilateral decisions to interfere, accuse and wage war against the poor  and defenseless Member States of the UNO, such as Sri Lanka.

In the mean time several Human Rights Organisations- Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group issue directives directly to Sovereign State without consulting the governments of their countries or even taking prior sanction from the UNSC.  India, USA,UK, France send their Foreign Ministers, interfering into the activities of these governments , and give uncalled for instructions as to what a Government should do and not do. 

In this situation it is pertinent to pose the question as who is in control?  Does the UNO exist any more for the purpose for which it was initially established ?

It is understandable that Nations establish relations with one another to discuss there own problems and how they could act in coordination to settle their differences and discuss Trade, Culture , Security Measures and their own Political Secrets among themselves. 

But such meetings  should not be made an occasion to discuss matters relating to a third Nation in its absence, and issue directives or make uncalled for comments and observations other than by direct contact with that third Nation.  Such interference is an offence against the third Nation. 

If there are differences of opinion about the “ affairs” of the third Nation, they should be referred to the Security Council of the UNO through its Secretary General, if they do not wish to have direct contacts themselves with that third Nation.

In this regard Hillary Clinton the Secretary of State of USA, who visited India had made it the occasion to discuss internal matters relating to Sri Lanka not with the Central Government of India but with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu who is a known supporter of  terrorism in Sri Lanka and harbours within the State, Politicians who openly assisted the terrorists of Sri Lanka, and continue to promote terrorism in Sri Lanka with the Tamil terrorist  supportive Sri Lanka expatriates. The Sri Lanka Terrorists were banned in USA and 36 other Western Nations.

The Government of Sri Lanka carried out a military operations against the terrorists  who had  taken control of territories in the North and East of the country, and eliminated them rescuing at the same time over 300,000 thousand Tamil Civilians, forced by the terrorists to leave their villages to serve them-the terrorists  as a human shield in their artillery fire against Sri Lanka Armed Forces. 

These 300,000 Tamil civilians were made IDPs by the terrorists by using force against them.  The Sri Lanka Government single handed without the help of any other Nation not only rescued the poor Tamil IDPs from the clutches of the terrorists but settled them temporarily in camps until the terrorists were wiped out and personal mines buried in the areas  where they were living before their “forced displacement” were removed to re-settle them in those areas.

Hillary Clinton US Sate Secretary speaking to Jayaram Jayalalitha the Chief Minister  had  said it was reported, “…..voiced concern over the plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Sri Lanka and said United States was looking at some innovative and creative ideas to break the impasse over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.  She had further said   that, «  ….US was looking at enabling Sri Lankan Tamils in camps get back to their own homes. »

Reading that statement  any one who knows the ground situation in Sri Lanka would know that the US State Secretary had been talking through “her hat”.   If she was  really keen to know the situation she should have consulted the US Ambassador  Patricia Butenis in Sri Lanka. 

Because, on the same day (Wednesday, 20 July) that  Hillary Clinton displayed her ignorance to please Jayaram Jayalalitha by making that wild statement,  the US Ambassador in Sri Lanka Patricia Butenis issued to News Now.lk the following Statement, “… thanks to the efforts of the Sri Lankan army and Sri Lankan and international demining organizations, large swaths of the north and east of the country are now cleared of mines…….The Ambassador said that once the remaining areas are also cleared of mines then the civilians who are yet to return home, two years after the war in Sri Lanka came to an end, can finally be resettled. »

It shows the arrogance, and  lack of  diplomacy of the US State Secretary not to have consulted the US Ambassador in Sri Lanka before meeting  Jayaram Jayalalitha to display her ignorance  to please Jayalalitha a terrorist loving  anti Sri Lanka Chief Minister .

Jayalalitha  in her turn boasted to Hillary Clinton  of her  bogus generosity to Sri Lanka Tamils  « While discussing the issue of Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha told Hillary they have been provided all facilities that were available to local citizens. »

But with regard to the Tamil in Sri Lanka and the  IDPs, from what I know Tamil Nadu State has not spent a « dime » for the welfare of the Tamil people of North and East of Sri Lanka, nor had it provided any assistance to the IDPs  during the most  difficult period  immediately after the elimination of terrorists.

On the contrary Tamil Nadu was helping and giving moral support to  the terrorists of Sri Lanka,  and Vaiko and Nadumaran Member of the Tamil Nadu  State government  said they would  even enter Sri Lanka to help the terrorists.

But Hillary Clinton does not know, that it was the Sinhala people in the South of Sri Lanka who sent food packets , clothes, soap, tooth brushes, medicine etc.to IDPs, when they were in need.

Sri Lanka since Mr.Mahinda Rajapaksa  was elected President,  undertook many vast projects and planned and carried out them on its own.  The most daring  of the projects was the elimination of terrorism that had lasted 30 years and no one  believed that terrorism could be eliminated from Sri Lanka.

The Second  greatest project was the settlement of 300,000 IDPs displaced by the ruthless terrorists, first settling them in temporary camps and the demining of the areas held by the terrorists and resettling the IDPs in their original homes. 

The Government is taking measures to resettle 7,156 IDPs at the Kadirgamar relief village and 9,132 IDPs at the Ananda Kumaraswamy relief village in Vavuniya, by the end of the year.  It has already re settled 243,787 displaced persons in their respective villages.

The delay is due to the demining of the areas where the IDPs are to be resettled. “ The Sri Lanka Army has  said,  it has now entered a difficult stage in its demining program as troops begin to enter terrain with constrains.

Army spokesman Major General Ubaya Medawala said that the government has so far cleared 358,588 mines from a 3971 square kilometer area in the north.

The army spokesman said that only around 300 square kilometers of land remains to be cleared of mines and once that is complete the remaining war displaced can be resettled. ”

            
That is the position with regard to the   re-settlement of the remaining IDPs which seem to irk Obama Administration as voiced by the US State Secretary. 

             
The Government of Sri Lanka is well equipped “ with innovative ideas”. As it had eliminated the terrorists with out the help of US State Department and despite the difficulties caused by the US lead anti Sri Lanka lobby of Western Countries to stop the Government of Sri Lanka from eliminating the terrorists, the  Sri Lanka Government and the Armed Forces will also   bring the Tamil people of the North and East into the main  political stream of Sri Lanka and settle any existing ethnic problems.

Therefore the Sri Lanka Government  needs no “ innovative and creative ideas  to reconcile the communities and get Sri Lankan Tamils in IDP camps  back to their own homes. ” , from the State Department of USA

The best thing the Obama Administration could do to Sri Lanka is to leave Sri Lanka alone and refuse to listen to the pro terrorist Tamils of the diaspora living in America, because they contribute to President Obama’s presidential campaign. These pro-terrorist expatriate Tamils in America  know nothing of what is going on in Sri Lanka.

The Obama Administration should stop  accusing the President of Sri Lanka and its Armed Forces on the false information given to it by the pro terrorist expatriate Tamils living in America ,  and faked  Video clips  of UK Channel 4 presented  at their initiative.

Hillary Clinton the USA State Secretary  instead of speaking without having substantial information, could have made  a visit to Sri Lanka to see for herself the ground situation with regard to the IDPs, and the great development projects under taken by the government in the areas in the North and East where the IDPs have been resettled. 

With regard to accountability, the Obama administration should in the first instance  consider the terrible deaths and torture committed by its own Armed Forces, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, torture and prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib,  the torture Camps of Guantanamore , and the killing Civilians “for fun” by  the American Killer Team in Afghanistan.

Then having considered its own unaccounted “war crimes”, stop accusing the  Sri Lanka Armed Forces for war crimes calling for  accountability,  and allow Sri Lanka develop into a happy healthy multi-ethnic Nation, for which the Obama Administration should  assist in kind and not by leveling accusations.

Importance of the 23 July, Local Government Elections in the North and East

The elections in the North and the East set for the 23rd July would be a deciding factor for  Sri Lanka’s future development, progress and un-interfered existence as a unitary Nation.   

For 30 years the North and East of Sri Lanka had remained in a state of paralysis  while the world around advanced forward. Now that the terrorism that had put the people of the North and East  into a mental stagnation for 30 years has been eliminated, the Tamil people of these  two Provinces  have   to be awakened to actively participate in  the present post terrorist development process. 

The claim of a political devolution to the people of North and East, and that they should be  given their rights to develop separately, is to keep them imprisoned in the mental set up  forced upon them by  the  terrorists. 

Terrorist wanted a separate Tamil Homeland, separated from the rest of the country. Now with the elimination of terrorism the Tamil people of the North and East have to be emancipate from this  mental stalemate, and brought into a process of development along side the rest of the country.

This process of emancipation requires a new way of thinking. The Tamil People of the North and East have to be made to think differently from a strictly ethnic stand point, and taught to appreciate the fact that there is “no majority or minority” distinction as the President of Sri Lanka announced clear and loud immediately after the elimination of terrorism.  

The future of the Tamil people of North and East is now along side the other communities –the Sinhalese, the Muslim, Burghers , Malays and the rest in the whole of Sri Lanka.  The development of North and East is along with the South, and not separated from the South. 

The resettlement of the IDPs in their former villages does not mean that they  should be allowed to continue to  live the way they lived  before they were displaced, with their age old we  Tamil mindset  of the North and East.  But they have now to be taught to think differently as Sri Lankans, a part of  a Nation of Sri Lankans.

That is a new concept, freed from the concept of a Tamilness  they had been made to accept for the last thirty years by the terrorists.   This huge task of taking people from the old  to the new way of thinking cannot be done by the Tamil political parties.  The TNA and Ananadasangarees are living  with their thirty year old political concepts, and they cannot  help the people of North and East to break away from the old political shackles,  and fall head long  into a different development processes that is going on, along with the rest of the Communities.

The  anti Sri Lankan Western Countries lead by  UK,USA, France, the  pro-terrorist Tamil expatriates, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International ,  UNO’s Ban Ki Moon, UNCHR Navineetham Pillai and the rest of the crowd have not thought of this need to bring  the  Tamil people  of the North and East into the  new   remarkable progressive development programs undertaken by the Government under the President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Their continued demand  to  give the Tamil people of the North and East a separate development program is not to help these people but to separate them from the main political stream  isolating them in the process, and in doing so handicap the development projects that have been started.

The President of Sri Lanka Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse, is a man  who has very progressive ideas  claiming himself  to be the  President of the whole Nation of People .  He is a determined man, who eliminated terrorism when every one  including the powerful nations  said that terrorism cannot be eliminated militarily. 

He had thought out with wisdom, that giving the Tamil people, language rights is a step towards separating them from the rest of the communities.  Therefore, he promoted the idea of developing English education , at the same time requesting the public servants to learn both the Tamil and  the Sinhala languages.  He built close relations with different religions  to stop cultural segregation.  He developed the transport system to bring the people of the South and the North closer.

Despite all these progressive undertakings of the President Mahinda Rajapakse, ever since he was elected he had been continuously criticized , accused and barriers put before him to dampen his enthusiasm, and make failures of his courageous undertakings.  Nevertheless, in the face of  all that opposition he has been  able to trace a path of hope for the people as a whole without communal, religious, or cultural bias.

Unfortunately in spite of these progressive activities,  in the  previous elections, the Tamil people of the North and East mislead by the  Tamil politicians of the TNA, did not show their support for  the progressive policies of  the President Mahinda Rajapaksa by voting for the candidates of  the UPFA.

That refusal of the Tamil people of the North and East  to vote for  candidates put forward by the  political party  which represent the President,  despite their having suffered under terrorism, was taken by those Western Countries opposed to the President and his government as a proof of  the Tamil peoples’ rejection of the Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Everyone comes out with different sorts of accusations against the government, and makes proposals that are out dated and outmode.  They are  not to help the Tamil people but to distance them from the Government and  keep the Tamil people out of the development process of the country. 

There are those who want the implementation of the 13 Amendment to the Constitution as if that would be the end of all problems of the Tamil people.  The 13 Amendment was proposed in 1987, but Sri Lanka has evolved since then.  The terrorism which was the reason for the proposal of the 13 Amendment, is now non existent and therefore  the 13^th Amendment , which was proposed to solved the problems that existed then , is not useful to solve the present day problems of the Tamil people.

Those age old proposals of Chelvanayagam , Ponnambalam , Sundaralingam at al  to solve ethnic problems are out dated now.  therefore those solutions proposed by the ancient politicians should be replaced with new proposals not with an eye to keep the Tamil people separated, but to bring them in to the main political stream, where they should  bury their ethnic difference, to join hands with all communities for  a common goal of making Sri Lanka a Unitary Sovereign State.

JVP,TNA or even UNP have not come out with political solutions to a country which is fast developing .  The Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse has done commendable effort to develop the infrastructure of the country from Dondra to Point Pedro. The North and East are being developed to bring them in line with the South.  The garment exports which the opponents of the government claimed would be lost after  the EU withdrew G+ trade concessions have regained the lost  markets and are showing increased sales.

These have been made possible by the policies planned according to the Mahinda Chinthana of the Government.  The Tamil people of the North and East to profit from these surging development of financial, economic, and social activities of the country should join hands with the government , by placing their complete confidence on the President Mahinda Rajapakse and his Government. 

That confidence of the Tamil people of the North and  East has become imperative to keep away the anti Sri Lanka Governments of the West from interfering into Sri Lanka’s affairs.

The Tamil diaspora which is spending billions of Dollars  paying foreign Senators, Attorneys, Media etc., to keep alive the Terrorist LTTE , has not so far spent a “cent” for the welfare of the Tamil people of the North and East. 

All the allegations against the Sri Lanka Government Armed Forces, and threat to take them before a tribunal for war crimes being made by the Ban Ki Moon with his Darusman Report, UNHCHR Navi Pillai with the Channel 4 video footages, Hillary Clinton with her uncalled for advice as to how Sri Lanka should look after its IDPs, are the result of the failure of the Tamil people of the North and East to place their confidence in the government of the President Mahinda  Rajapakse.

Therefore it is important that the Tamil people of the North and East take these facts into consideration and vote on the 23 July,2011 for the candidates of the UPFA to show their  solidarity with the Government of the President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Kumar Sangakkara a greak cricketer, and his Collin Cowdrey Lecture..

The media lost no time to praise Kumar Sangakkara’s Collin Cowdrey Lecture at Lords hoping the government of Sri Lanka to react against Sangakkara so that they could  make an issue of it to draw  the anger  of the people towards the government and bring another wave of  disapproval of the government by the International Community.   But it ended  in no-event disappointing miserably the  anti government media, and others who were  hoping to profit from the situation.

Kumara Sangakkara delivered a commendable lecture in exemplary lucidity and a display of  un-affected sincerity.   He was able to keep the listener enraptured without a moment of  distraction  keeping strictly within the topic he  chose,  the Spirit of Sri Lankan Cricket.  He steered well away from politics keeping  close to his subject mentioning  appropriately the people who mattered in Sri Lankan Cricket.  His anecdotes and humour went completely with  the theme of  his speech.

One who had read the media  and not listened to  Sangakkara’s speech would think  that Kumar Sangakkara had made his lecture an occasion to criticise the  Government  of Sri Lanka.  If any one who  listened to Kumar Sangakkara’s cleverly worded speech thinks it contained any political innuendos, then  one would have to be a listener biased against the government of Sri Lanka desiring  to hear criticism of the Government.

On the contrary to that expectation, Sangakkara kept himself wisely and cleverly away from politics in keeping every important issue he touched in the course of his lecture within the context of the subject the “spirit of Sri Lankan Cricket”

He drew the attention of the raptly attentive audience from the beginning of his lecture  with  light humour ,  and recounting the history of Sri Lankan Cricket when it was introduced to Sri Lanka by the British Missionaries,  and then how  from its elitist beginning it became a popular national game played by all.  He did not fail to give credit to his “rotund” senior who brought the game out of Colombo into a popular base outside. 

He mentioned  the   Honourable  late Mr.Gamini Dissanyake, for his efforts to get the ICC grant Sri Lanka official Test status, for his preparing the  Asgiriya  cricket pitch to a world standard. Thereafter,  Cricket become a popular pastime of a nation, with the one-day matches.

There were many awaiting to make Kumar Sangakkara’s Cowdre Lecture  a means to “slam” (a popular media word in Sri Lanka) the government.  But they miserably failed as Sangakkara neither praised the Government or lashed out at it but made a lecture on Sri Lankan Cricked which even the late  Cowdrey would have been proud of.

He recounted his frightful experience of the Lahore attack  in detail with “  dark humour “ which drew the laughter of the audience.

He touched on the terrible news he had of the tsunami, and how  for  a moment when they did not know what to do the inspiration came from  Muralitharan, «  While we were thinking as to how we could help, Murali was quick to provide the inspiration. Murali is a guy who has been pulled from all sides during his career, but he always stood only alongside his team-mates and countrymen. Without any hesitation »,

In the whole of Sangakkara’s speech he did not use any moment to be boastful of his achievements and seek credit for himself but he gave readily with  great generosity praise to  others, standing modestly  in the shade of their appreciable qualities.   He  spoke of how a great tragedy in Sri Lanka brought the sworn enemies together. “We visited shelter camps run by the Army and the LTTE and even some administered in partnership between them. Two bitter warring factions brought together to help people in a time of need.”

About the criticism of the Sri Lanka Cricket Board, there is nothing secret about it every one in Sri Lanka is aware of the scandals surrounding it , and if  Sangakkara had left it out, the topic he selected to speak,  the Spirit of Sri Lanka Cricket would have been incomplete . 

Sangakkara spoke about it without   rancour , just made the audience understand  how any “administration” could affect those who are really concerned, in this case  the   Sri Lankan Cricketers who  play the game they love,  which has become the passion of a Nation.  There are scandals every where about the administration of sports.  In France there are no end of it with the football clubs, so are they in UK and Italy.

Most important passage of his Cowdrey Lecture was about the terrorism in Sri Lanka.  Speaking to an audience of important personalities in London  the den  of the terrorist “rump” who had been carrying the terrorist flag even at the Lords stadium (7 July,2009) to protest against the Sri Lankan cricket team, Sangakkara’s lecture would have been a shockwave. 

The UK Channel 4 would have also had  an unexpected shock, as its attempt to  discredit Sri Lanka with their doctored documentary ‘The Sri Lanka Killing Fields.” may have been a washout among the London viewers after the Sangakkara’s portrayal of terrorism .

But Sangakkara  spoke  neither of the  nefarious scheming of the ruthless terrorists, and the  activities of  the terrorist “rump”  or the anti –Sri Lanka movements to bring dishonour and discredit to Sri Lanka. He  spoke  of terrorism as he saw it, and as it affected  Sri Lankan Cricket and the suffering caused to the people. 

He spoke of the horrors of the 1983 race riots and how the Sinhala people sheltered their Tamil friends and Tamil neighbours, so that no harm would come to them from rioting goons.

He did not leave the period of terror  of the JVP and related how a wonderful man like D.H.de Silva was miraculously saved when the gun held to his head by a JVP terrorist jammed.

He gave a lesson to the Tamil diaspora in explaining what it  is for him to be a Sri Lankan.  He put it so well as nobody has done so far, except perhaps the  late Mr. Laksman Kadirgamar.  What he said in his own words is, “….With me are all my people. I am Tamil, Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher. I am a Buddhist, a Hindu, a follower of Islam and Christianity. I am today, and always, proudly Sri Lankan”.

He cleverly took away the limelight from him to focus it on the Sri Lanka Soldiers, when he so movingly recounted his meeting with a Soldier at a check point.

“A week after our arrival in Colombo from Pakistan I was driving about town and was stopped at a checkpoint. A soldier politely inquired as to my health after the attack. I said I was fine and added that what they as soldiers experience every day we only experienced for a few minutes…….. That soldier looked me in the eye and replied: “It is OK if I die because it is my job and I am ready for it. But you are a hero and if you were to die it would be a great loss for our country.”

Listening to that as he put it, you could not have  helped feeling tears welling into  your eyes for the heroism of our Soldiers who are  ever prepared to give their lives selflessly,  for the cause of their beloved land.

Thank you Kumar Sangakkara.

How clean are the hands of USA, UK, France to threatening to take Sri Lanka Armed Forces before a tribunal for war crimes ?

 UK Channel 4, with the blessing of the Navi Pillai UNHCHR , Tamil LTTE diaspora, the Human rights activists,  the Anti Sri Lanka Western Countries, Milliband, Kouchner, Ban  Ki Moon and his panel, have presented  to  the viewers in UK and  sold their infamous  doctored document « Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields » to  naive governments of the world to convert them to the side of those who claim Sri Lanka Armed Force has committed war crimes in the elimination of terrorism.

 

Do they the International Community  led by USA, UK and France  really know what it is to, « live with » terrorism ? 

No they do not .   For them it  had not  been  a case of almost weekly   claymore bombs, suicide bombs  in buses and trains, in market places, shooting of personalities by snipers, or massacring, hacking to death   innocent villagers and busload of monks or shooting point blank surrendered 600 police officers , and living in fear of terrorists attacks, as it happened in Sri Lanka, with ”Sri Lankan” terrorists during 30  long years.

For USA-terrorism was the massacre of the  3000 or more people by ramming air planes in to buildings, for UK terrorism is the  bombs set by Al Queda in the under ground and a  bus  in the heart of London killing 37 and wounding over 300 in July, 2005,  for Germany  terrorism is the Black September  when the Israel Olympic team was taken as hostages and eventually killed by the Palestenian terrorists,  and for Spain  terrorism is the train bomb that killed 190 people.  That terrorism  happened once in each one of their countries, and not almost weekly as it was in Sri Lanka, and that made them run after the terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It was since then that the USA and the west have accepted their terrorists as real terrorists and other terrorists elsewhere as a misnomer for “rebels”.  It is only “ their terrorists”  that matter and in the war against “their terrorists” it is  the real war to eliminate terrorism and for which every “evil” is permitted , all deaths of civilians are considered  collateral, and all principles of war  and Geneva Convention  are flouted.

In their view Sovereign State among  the developing countries have to put up with their “terrorists” who the International Community calls  “the rebels” . With such “rebels” the Sovereign states have to negotiate for peace, if not the International Community  led by USA, UK and France sets in motion the NATO forces to help the “rebels” against the governments in place as it is happening in Libya.

UNO which was initially set up to settle disputes between member states to solve the problems and establish peace, is now just an organization at the beck and call of the International Community.  It is the NATO, EU, USA Congress, the Human Rights  Watch, Amnesty International and UNHCHR which is the real power, which overrides the authority of the UNO.

UNO  has been reduced  to be  a mere tool to give the International Community led by USA, UK and France a “ farcical sanction” to fool the world in order to exercise their right of control over the Sovereign States of the developing countries which do not toe their line, and  permit their existence as Sovereign States. 

The International Community led by USA, UK and France is the supreme power over developing countries. It decides for them what is a good government, and what is a bad government, and moves quickly to remove what they consider is a bad government by pretending to support any rebellious group within that country.

Any voice raised against a country is good enough ,  as long as it serves them to put  the erring Sovereign States of the developing country to  order by threat or a warning.  It happened in the case of a report issued by a  Panel of investigation that the Secretary General of the UN setup to advise him personally on what happened in Sri Lanka during the last phase of the “war” against terrorism. 

The report was immediately seized by the USA, UK, and France as a valid report to issue stern warnings to Sri Lanka to carry out a valid investigation of the Sri Lanka Armed forces  military operations  in the last phase of  its war against “its terrorists”, validity of which will of course be decided by them.  Failing that they may set up a provisional Government as Sarkozy the President of France did for Libya, and send the NATO forces to bring the elected government of the Sovereign State to its knees by “abusing”  the  sanctions of the Security Council of the UN.

USA, UK and France have waged wars, and they know what  wars are, they fought the worst of wars in which the enemies were killed in the most brutal manner.  They also know that it is at the end of a war that most of the brutalities take place.
It was only at the end of the Second World War that the Allied Armies dropped atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was  at the end of the Vietnam  war USA Army’s  Operation Rolling Thunder was backed up by the phosphorous and napalm bombs. It caused a great deal of suffering in Vietnam giving many innocent civilians dreadful burns. It was at the end of the war in Algeria that the French Armies committed brutalities against the Algerian people.
That was how all wars are ended.  But in the elimination of the « terrorists » in Sri Lanka its armed forces were not brutal as the allied armies in the second world war or the USA  and French Armies in Vietnam, yet Sri Lanka Armed Force is now  constantly under attack, threatened  and warned to be taken before a tribunal for war crimes,  by the very same West that perpetrated worst crimes in the second world war and in Vietnam, not to mention Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

The  Terrorists as terrorists are  perpetrators of terror. The  Channel 4 document , which the West upholds as acceptable like the UN Secretary General’s Panel report, did not explain what went before in Sri Lanka that  culminated into  that horrific end. The persons interviewed were known anti Sri Lanka terrorist sympathisers . No independent witness or commentator from the Sri Lanka Armed Forces was interviewed to defend or explain the “faked “scenes of terror, and the truth or the falsity of the “saga” invented by the Channel4.   

Taking that end phase of war against terrorism out of context, to put the blame on the Government Armed Forces  without explaining what went before that “end” in the document of the Channel 4 “ Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”,  was to mislead uninformed British viewers to make them believe that the Sri Lanka Army was composed of  savage criminals, and facilitate interested parties who sponsored C4, to accuse the Sri Lanka Armed Forces for war crimes. 

Surprisingly  Channel 4 document did not show the humanitarian side of the Armed Forces  rescuing 300,000 or more  Tamil Civilians from the clutches of terrorists, who desperate at the end killed fleeing people without ascertaining who they were. That was the culmination of a 30 years of terrorism where there were eye witnesses to the terror spread by the terrorists massacring innocent men women and children, using claymore bombs, suicide bombers , grenade lobbers and snipers.

Therefore the document was one sided and deliberately taken out of context making evident editing of  images  collected mostly from images  of terrorists ' own  massacres, should not have been allowed to be presented in the UK Channel 4, by democratic British authorities so far accepted for their justice and fair play.  But that document as “untruthful” as it was, was good enough for the International Community  led by  USA,UK and France ,to use it as another “piece of evidence” to accuse Sri Lanka for violation of human rights and war crime.

It is in this situation that latest information has come with regard to the USA,UK,France led war in Libya. Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya of the Voltaire Network reporting on 5 July,2011, says,  “……..War crimes and crimes against humanity have been and continue to be committed in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya by NATO. Amongst these crimes, the Atlantic Alliance has been using depleted uranium against Libya, specifically civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Bombed sites in Libya have been visited by professional scientists working in the Surveying and Collecting Specimens and Laboratory Measuring Group. The scientists and trained experts have conducted field surveys looking for radioactive isotopes (radioisotopes) at bombed sites. The samples from these sites were then scientifically analyzed at the laboratories of the Nuclear Energy Institution of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

© Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya / Voltaire Network

Analysis in Libya through inductively coupled plasma has shown that several sites contain even higher than expected doses of uranium. Holes caused by NATO missiles also have high radioactive measurements, as do the fragments of NATO ordnance. Sites analyzed by the teams of scientists include Bab Al-Azizia and Souk Al-Ahad.
The U.S. and NATO are using “dirty bombs” in Libya. These are the countries that claim that Iran and Syria are attempting to make nuclear weapons. So far, however, it is these very same countries that are the ones that use weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and use nuclear technology in an irresponsible and criminal manner. An international war crimes tribunal is in order. The Obama Administration, Nicolas Sarkozy, David Cameron, and NATO cannot be allowed to stand with impunity.”
Torture and brutal killing by the USA Soldiers had been publicized despite these atrocities committed by the American  Army, it is strange that  USA had thought it suitable ,  “to urge Sri Lanka to move quickly to address allegations of war crimes, warning of rising pressure for international action if it does not. »
In this respect it would be  pertinent to point out that  the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka in its military operations in its own country in the defense of all its own people against a ruthless terrorism, had  directed its military operations against the terrorists  and had not at any  time deliberately harmed the  civilians held as hostages by the terrorists, but on the contrary evacuated the Tamil  civilian  population of 300,000 or more into safety away from the terrorists.
Contrary to the assertions of  the Channel 4, the Sri Lanka Government Armed Forces had not shot any of the terrorists as shown in the “faked documentary”. It is clearly seen in the « original » video (found by the government and published in a website), which was used by the Channel 4 to edit it to make it look that the army soldiers were shooting at blind folded hands bound Tamil terrorists, the men shown being shot have a fair skin quite different from the dark skin colour of the Tamil terrorists. It shows that the actual prisoners shot were perhaps Sinhala soldiers. On the question of rape for which there was no evidence, the body of a dead woman supposed to have been raped, loaded onto a truck along with other dead bodies was also of  fair skin. It may have been a dead body of a Sinhala woman raped by the terrorists.
The Sinhala Soldiers of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces were mainly Buddhists, though they had to kill their enemies the terrorists, they have a certain respect for the dead, and they would never kill for pleasure and pose with the dead body for a photo to keep it as a memento which the American Soldiers the “Killer team” did in Afghanistan as it was reported in Spiegel Online International of the 22 March,2011
 
The photographs are a shocking revelation as to what extent the minds of American youth become  tainted with cruelty by being forced into wars in foreign countries  with foreign people , fighting a war which is not theirs. It happened to the American soldiers in  Vietnam and now in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Apart from the atrocities committed and being committed by the US Army, UK and France too have a long history of war time atrocities committed against people in other countries outside their own.
The following extracts  are taken from an article by Dr. Ruwan. M.Jayatunga in Lankaweb((http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/05/26/the-atrocities-committed-against-humanity/)
Atrocities committed by the British Army
« The British Army committed a number of atrocities in Africa, India, and Sri Lanka. The Sepoy rebellion in 1857 which was an outcry against the repression was crushed in a ruthless manner. On the 13 April 1919 General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer of the British Army ordered his men to open fire at an unarmed group of people which mostly consisted of women and children at Amritsar which later came to known as Jallianvala Baga massacre. Over 300 killed and thousands wounded. Although children were among the victims no action was taken against the General Dyer by the British Army.
 A few years after the Kandyan Convention in 1818 natives stood against the British colonial rulers. Martial Law was declared and the revolt was suppressed in a vigorous manner. Major MacDonald of the British Army set fire to the houses, burnt the grain and killed the cattle as an act of retaliation. Many collaborators were shot and some were exiled. Even the family members were taken prisoners. Keppetipola Disawe- the prominent leader of the Uva rebellion of 1918 was executed and his family was deported. Keppetipola Disawe ’s  son died under the captivity.
 The British Army used a cruel force to defeat the 1848 revolt led by Gongalegoda Bada and Puran Appu . Inhuman and sadistic punishments were inflicted on the villagers and the Army destroyed the fertile social fabric. Many people became the victims of hostile actions and starvation. »
French in Algeria and Indochina
« The French occupied Algeria for 132 years and worst atrocities were committed between 1830 and 1962. In 1840 Thomas Bugeaud, the Governor General of Algeria launched an attack on Algerian civilians killing and deporting masses. According to some reports hundreds of people were burned alive or asphyxiated in caves where they sought refuge from the advancing French troops. The French troops set fire to Algerian villages killing civilians and raping women. They destroyed property, food, and animal stocks which led to starvation among the indigenous population.   During France’s occupation of Algeria a  large numbers of Algerians were forced into “tent cities” and concentration camps.  . It has been estimated that from 1830 to 1900, between 15 and 25% of the Algerian population died in such camps.
 In 1957 the International Red Cross disclosed the widespread use of torture by the French army and police against thousands of Algerians The torture techniques used by the French included electricity applied to the most sensitive parts of the body, near drowning in water, sodomy with glass and wood objects, hanging by the feet and hands, and burning with cigarettes. (Maran, Rita (1989). Torture: The Role of Ideology in the French-Algerian War. New York: Praeger). The most outrages act was the Massacres of May 1945 in which 45,000 Algerians were killed within a few days by the French occupied forces.
 French Indo-China comprised the French protectorates of Cambodia, Laos, Annam, Tongkin, and the French colony of Cochin-China.  In May 1945 1400 former French POWs released by the British from Japanese internment camps in South Vietnam entered Saigon and went on a deadly rampage attacking civilians even killing innocent children.  French forces violated the laws or customs of war in the Indochina conflict which lasted from 1946 – 1954.  The French Foreign Legions last stand in Indo China in 1950 and they were defeated in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu . »
This is to explain that the International Community led by USA,UK and France is calling for an investigation into the Sri Lanka Armed Forces military operations during the last phase of  the elimination of terrorism,  with a view to take it before a tribunal accused for war crimes  based on false evidence.
The false evidence the International Community,   depends on to accuse Sri Lanka Armed Forces are  a faked documentary film presented by Channel 4, and an unofficial report concocted on information collected from Tamil Terrorists Websites by a panel  appointed by the Secretary General of UNO to advise him on the last phase of the war against terrorism in Sri Lanka.  But in reality the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka have not committed a modicum of the atrocities committed by the armed forces of  USA, UK and France.
The people of USA,UK and France have suffered much less from terrorism than Sri Lanka had suffered for 30 years from terrorism.  Deaths and massacres of any people caused by terrorists any where in the world are condemnable, but USA,UK and France turning to accuse Sri Lanka as if they have nothing to be blamed for the atrocities they have committed  and are committing in  fighting wars in foreign countries against foreign people, is unpardonable.  It is a “criminal injustice “ towards a developing country which just eliminated on its own, a terrorism which made it undergo untold suffering  for thirty long years. 
Of course the terrorists in Sri Lanka did not massacre Americans, the British or the French, but should they have massacred them for those countries to have accepted the terrorists of Sri Lanka as terrorists ?  How can they as intelligent people escape from treating the massacring of innocent people of Sri Lanka by a group of terrorists as no concern of theirs ?
It is therefore just and reasonable that the International Community understand  at least now that they should exercise their human dignity to accept the reality of  a poor nations vast effort to have eliminated terrorism to come out of a long suffering to  turn  towards the development  of the  country and bring  peace and happiness to its people.
For that effort Sri Lanka needs the help of developed nations like USA, UK and France to  reconcile the communities still under shock from the terrorism which has just been eliminated, and  bring harmony amongst its people.  There is a number of Sri Lanka Terrorist Front Organizations among the  Tamil expatriates living in USA,UK and France who have large funds they had collected for the Sri Lanka Terrorists with which they “ buy” influential people such as politicians in these countries.
USA,UK and France should  help Sri Lanka by stopping the activities of these terrorist activists brandishing the Sri Lanka Terrorist Flag, and stop directly or indirectly supporting their  activities against the Sovereign State of Sri Lanka.