Isn’t liberation of three mn people from terrorism protection of human rights?

by Malinga H. Gunaratne

(August 01, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Paid lobbyists are performing overtime to paint the government of President Rajapaksa as the violator of all human rights. It is ironical that this cacophony is rising to a shrill crescendo just at the time that the LTTE is about to be militarily subdued. The EU and the US are leading from the front in this effort.

It is time the true position of Sri Lanka was presented to these detractors in the clearest possible manner and this whole issue of the so-called human rights violations viewed dispassionately and objectively.

To make it very clear right at the inception I hold the view that this government has done more for the human rights of her citizens than any previous administration and most governments in the world including the governments of the US and some countries of the European Union.

Today, the Eastern Province has been liberated from the clutches of the LTTE. It is the LTTE that violated not only the human rights but all other rights of the people of the East.

By gaining control of the East and having a democratically elected Provincial Council in place, the people of this troubled region are now enjoying their democratic rights. The LTTE did not allow cultivation of the land and prevented children from going to school. The LTTE extorted money from the citizens in the most brazen and cruel manner.

Children of Tamil families were forcibly conscripted as cannon fodder. Tamils opposing the LTTE were liquidated. Dissent was violently suppressed. The catalogue of killings is long. When the LTTE killed Tamils opposing them, the world was silent. The abuse of children in war and the use of suicide bombers were ignored.

Land was distributed only among LTTE loyalists. This has now ceased. The violation of the human rights of almost three million people of this country living in the East is no more. Kangaroo courts which had thousands of people put to death are no more. Shouldn’t the credit for this achievement go to the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa? How did he achieve this? The LTTE spies and militants were dealt with severely.

Is it the violation of the human rights of these criminals that the international lobby is talking about? If the government had not aggressively dealt with the LTTE, and heeded the bleatings of the of the human rights lobby, the terrorists would still have been walking freely, while the rights of three million people in the east were in complete peril.

Mahinda Rajapaksa chose to take the path of the lesser evil. A few terrorists were dealt with in the interests of the many. The lobbyists never made a hue and cry when the Tigers were calling the shots. They almost seem to say, "Let the Tigers do anything, you cannot liberate the people from their clutches!"

Indeed, Mahinda Rajapaksa must be considered seriously for the title of Peace Maker of the decade! ‘Blessed be the peace makers for they shall inherit the earth.’ He has liberated three million Tamil people from the LTTE.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa exploded the myth of an invincible LTTE through devoted and single-minded leadership. With General Sarath Fonseka and other service chiefs leading from the front this conflict may soon end. This is the fate that the European Union is doing their best to prevent. They want to bail the LTTE out! The Sri Lankan operations against the LTTE can well be described as the most effective anti-terrorism operations in the world.

George W. Bush, Pervez Musharaff, Manmohan Singh are still grappling with this problem with no end in sight. Prabhakaran is being hunted to his spider hole! The LTTE may unleash terrorism in other parts of the country, but nothing is going to prevent its annihilation!

"Money is being frittered away on the war", the Opposition claims. It reacts with undisguised glee when a bomb explodes in Colombo or the army suffers a temporary setback.

Thousands of acres of land in the legendary rice bowl of the country that was lying fallow in the East are now under the plough. Many irrigation, infrastructure, education, health projects are being carried out in that part of the country. Is this not development?

The European Union, the Western world and the hirelings of the Tigers are doomed to pay for promoting terrorism in this country. The day may not be far off when they find their creature coming home to roost. This has already happened to the US.
- Sri Lanka Guardian