Genocide, war criminals, devolution and diaspora

By Nalin de Silva

(March 25, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) There is lot of discussion these days on genocide, war criminals and of course devolution. Interestingly the discussion is among the usual crowd, namely the diaspora, the human rights people in the NGOs INGOs as well as united nations organisations and western diplomats. Some countries naturally backed by USA and UK and some other western countries are trying hard to bring the human rights situation in Sri Lanka before the security council of the United nations.

If not for Russia and China this would have been already taken up at the Security Council and strictures would have been passed against Sri Lanka. If one thinks that the Tamil diaspora have been able to convince some not so well known country that it should move this resolution at the security council then one is mistaken. Some delegation of the Tamil diaspora may have met the leaders of the countries concerned but the council would not go against the wish of Russia and China that have veto powers. In any event it is doubtful that the former countries would have agreed to bring the Sri Lanka human rights situation for discussion if they did not have the backing of the USA. Those countries would not have done anything simply because an unknown delegation of the Tamil diaspora had met them. Here again as has been the case right throughout it is the western powerful countries that move less known countries against Sri Lanka and not the Tamil diaspora. The Tamil diaspora is neither that efficient nor recognized and if not for the powerful western countries their voice would not have been heard.

Genocide means extermination of a race and even if the hundred thousand or so people trapped by the LTTE were killed that would not have exterminated the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The interesting fact is that about fifty thousand of these people have already left the area and gone to the so called exterminators voluntarily. Has anybody heard anything similar to that even vaguely? Did the Jews go to Hitler voluntarily and ask him to look after them? The delegations of the west that went to Vavunia and other places know how these people who have fled the "Tamil Eelam" and come to the "Sinhala Army" and the way the "Sinhala Government" has treated them. Apparently even the secretary of the united nations is satisfied with the way that these people have been treated by the armed forces and the government. At present there cannot be more than fifty thousand people "trapped" and very soon they will also find peace with the Sri Lankan armed forces. However the Tamil diaspora and officials of the united nations bodies that have been established to give employment to few thousands of highly paid officers from the poor countries of the world as a way of satisfying the middle class of these countries are busy collecting data of people who have been killed by the armed forces in the "war free" areas declared by the government. If these officials are interested in "facts" then they would know that more than fifty thousand Tamils have already left the LTTE for the armed forces, and can save some money that have been allocated to "collect" data.

These officials including notorious Ms. Pillay "collect" data with quite a few objectives. They assume that Prabhakaran is trapped in Mulativu by the armed forces and they are more concerned of this trapped man than in the thousands of other "trapped people". If possible they want to give publicity to the so called war crimes of killing innocent people in order to send united nations forces with the expressed objective of liberating the so called trapped people. However what they are interested is in the life of Prabhakaran whom they assume is in Mulativu. While officials such as Pillay are collecting "data" (they are only constructing data) the secretary general expresses other views perhaps due to the objections raised by India and other countries against sending united nations forces to Sri Lanka and/or because he does not think that Prabhakaran is in Mulativu.

Whatever may be the thinking of the secretary general, the officials and the secretary general himself and the Presidents and the Prime Ministers in the western countries have another objective in constructing data. They may be thinking of framing charges against the President, the Secretary to the ministry of defence and other officials in Sri Lanka as war criminals. Whatever may be the legal definition of a war crime, in the last analysis those who are tried for war crimes are the Presidents and others who go against the western (mainly American) policy. Who are the worst war criminals in the past seventy years or so? Who took the decision to drop atomic bombs to Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Who were the so called leaders who brought misery to Vietnam? Who took the decision to bomb indiscriminately in Afghanistan, Iraq and other such countries? Has anybody framed charges of war crimes against any of the American Presidents? Is Winston Churchill a war criminal or a hero? Why no Israeli Prime Minister is charged for war crimes? The legal definitions are there only for the students of law. The interpretation of law is for the others.

The Tamil diaspora will go to town with charges of war crimes and genocide that will help the western powers. If the westerners do not send UN or some other forces due to Prabhakaran’s absence in Mulativu or because of opposition from countries such as India, China and Russia, then they will attempt to use the "data" constructed by Pillay and others to frame charges against the President, Defence Secretary and commanders of the armed forces, and if possible convict them. It should be remembered that some Tamils living abroad are already shouting of concentration camps. Tamil racism, separatism and terrorism are based on lies and nothing but lies and the concentration camp is the latest addition to the list of lies. However, if somebody asks the people who have left Prabhakaran’s camp whether concentration or not, and come to the armed forces they will have a different story to tell.

In any event the diaspora will try their best to propagate more and more myths on genocide, war crimes, concentration camps and the rest as they are only interested in a Tamil Eelam. They are not prepared to integrate with the Sinhala people and work towards the development of the nation, as from the beginning the English speaking Tamils were nurtured by the British to think of themselves as the leaders and the rulers of the country. It is this idea of supremacy that has made them to interpret any loss of privileges that they enjoyed under the British as injustices to the Tamil community. The devolution is only the beginning of separatism and the diaspora with its supremacy thinking will not "lie down arms" until a separate state is won. If Prabhakaran has already escaped or would escape the Tamil diaspora will establish an Eelam in exile under the sponsorship of the western powers. However, those "trapped people" are not interested in the Eelam of the diaspora or even devolution of power and all that they want is some kind of development without Prabhakaran, the LTTE and Tamil supremacy.

-Sri Lanka Guardian