Cooking up Tiger tales

By Gongalegodaya

“Anyone will say anything under torture” — George Galloway

(September 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sri Lanka Army consists of professionals who always respect human rights and ethics. Sri Lanka Army maintains the quality of a professional army. We have seen hundreds of incidents where human rights were violated by foreign forces in the world... As the Sri Lanka Army maintains such high qualities, foreign countries have been asking Sri Lanka to train their own army in accordance with the way the Sri Lanka Army is trained... Many parties continuously tried to safeguard the LTTE by stopping the humanitarian action of the Army against the LTTE. When they failed to do so they have come on the other way round that our Army is brutal.” — Media and Information Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, August 28, 2009.

“Siddiqui (an LTTE spy) was cooking in the army chalet since 2002 when I was the security forces commander in Jaffna. In 2004, my ADC brought him to my official residence in Colombo. In the month of December the same year, I became Army Chief. His handler and the female suicide cadre came to the hospital four-five times in the guise of being his relatives. They did a complete reconnaissance of the Army Headquarters and also kept track of my movements... (Siddiqui continued to work at the armoured corp headquarters till three weeks ago when he was arrested.) Two weeks ago, he hung (sic) himself in a police cell. He used his own shirt.” — Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka in an interview with the Hindustan Times.

According to General Fonseka, Siddiqui’s name was mentioned by another arrested LTTE cadre who was part of the operation. The cadre also revealed that General Fonseka had been marked as a target by the LTTE way back in 1991.

Plot to assassinate leaders

We’ve defeated the LTTE fair and square (with a little collateral damage of course), but yet they seem to be cropping up at regular (weekly) intervals all over the place. Local mass media agencies have reported newly uncovered plots to assassinate our political and military leaders. Weapons, suicide jackets and ammunition keep appearing with disturbingly predictable regularity, and in huge quantities.

Thus, we have no alternative but to continue with “the humanitarian action of the army (and police) against the LTTE,” to quote our fine Minister on a subject he knows so well. The problem seems to be that the more humanitarian we are (and heaven knows we are so humanitarian it hurts to think about it), the more terrorist they become, even if almost all of them are underground in the literal sense.

We entertain these remnant LTTE cadres and their supporters at state expense and they quite understandably repay our hospitality by singing like salalihiniyas about the nasty plots they continue to hatch to target our humanitarian leaders. Though we can seek solace in the fact that between their singing and spilling, we have been able to cook up a heady broth of ongoing intrigue and threat, sufficient to justify increased vigilance and hence increased budgets and resources etc., it is still sad to see that our humanitarianism is met only with recalcitrance and ingratitude.

It is an unfair world we live in, and virtue, dear readers, must remain its own reward. On the positive side, moreover, progress is clearly being made, though the weak at heart may wonder whether, like the screening of IDPs for lurking LTTE cadres, we are doomed to plumb the depths of a bottomless pit. These squeamish lackeys of the LTTE are true national enemies (members of this country’s new and only minority according to Presidential diktat), and they must surely be dealt with in the next round of humanitarian action.

Kingpins spill the beans

Meanwhile, a report in the Ceylon Daily News of August 24, titled “LTTE kingpins spill the beans” has heralded key breakthroughs in investigations of plots to assassinate VIPs. According to journalist Ranil Wijayapala, “The Criminal Investigations Department, the Terrorist Investigation Division and intelligence sleuths investigating suicide blasts by the LTTE targeting politicians and other VIPs, which remained a mystery for years, are in the process of completing the investigations with revelations by Tiger cadres arrested after the defeat of the LTTE three months back.” Well done, boys!

But, I must hasten to add, there is still a gap in our intelligence on these matters as revealed under the reciprocity nurtured by our generous doses of military/police hospitality, since the “naming” of terrorists is as yet incomplete. I am referring, of course, to the incriminating evidence that must be uncovered about the civil society leaders, academics and intellectuals whom we all know have been actively supporting terrorism for years.

We, the public, wait in anticipation and hope for the inevitable breakthroughs that will expose this lot for their traitorous ways. To achieve this noble end, we should, nay cannot, be reticent about using the moral pressure of increased humanitarian engagement.

Dick Cheney’s recent claim that torture works is worth considering here. In fact, rather than rejecting the West entirely for its perfidy, we should think about identifying allies in Western countries to add to our list of friendly like-minded despots. Cheney certainly fits the bill, and, of course, his former boss, George W. Bush. Don’t forget that Bush was the first to articulate the concept so dear to our hearts now, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”

Enhanced interrogation methods

Referring to the CIA’s torture documents, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell supports Cheney et al by concluding that “there is evidence that these enhanced interrogation methods may have saved American lives…” See, all is not yet lost for the US and for the US media. We do have some potential allies to work with who will support our version of the war on terror. Enhanced interrogation methods is a brilliant phrase.

Our own media-wallahs and debater-secretaries must be kicking themselves for not thinking of it first. It has such a lovely ring to it, and suggests improvement, development, even benefit to the recipient. But, it is still too explicit, and contains that ugly word interrogation, when often what goes on is pure and simple hospitality.

Ted Koppel, boring old liberal does not seem to understand the point when he says, “To call something an ‘enhanced interrogation technique’ doesn’t alter the fact that we thought it was torture when the Japanese used it on American prisoners, we thought it was torture when the North Koreans used it, we thought it was torture when the Soviets used it. You know, it’s almost the moral equivalent of saying that rape is an enhanced seduction technique.”

Ok, maybe he has a point after all – the description says too much to allow wiggle-room.

Thus having examined both options, I believe that humanitarian techniques is much more globally marketable, morally acceptable. Sri Lanka may even be able to add the best rhetoric to our proud and growing list of firsts. And, more importantly, in terms of results we’re clearly superior to the rest. Now, that’s something we can teach foreign armies when we’re training them in the near future, as indicated by Minister Yapa. Who knows, humanitarian techniques could well be a key value-added export to boost our flagging economy.

For the skeptics among you, here’s something to chew on. If not for our excellent technical skills how would the CID/TID and others involved be able to catch the c(r)ook after so many years, and have him see the error of his ways so quickly? Galloway must be crazy to think that people will say anything under torture, and besides we have never tortured anyone here. What if any cook has ample opportunity to give those who eat his food their just desserts?

The LTTE, we all know, are (were?) creatures of habit, and the addictive nature of suicide bombings is commonly acknowledged in psychological circles since it can often be a deadly embrace. Besides, we have the incontrovertible evidence of a confession from an LTTE cadre who was under our hospitality. Who can ask for anything more, Siddiqui?

( The writer can be reached at gongalegodaya@hotmail.com)
-Sri Lanka Guardian