'Sri Lanka's War' - A Reply to The Economist
(By: Dr. P.A.Samaraweera- Australia)
An article titled, "Sri
Lanka's War - Dark Victory" in The Economist of 23 April paints a gloomy
picture undermining the success of the Sri Lankan government and the
army in the ongoing hostage rescue operation.
According to the article,
"...In a rush to exterminate the tigers, the army has shown a cruel
disregard for Tamil civilians crowding the battle field..." If
the army had not shown any consideration to the civilians the war would
have ended long ago. It had been dragging to avoid civilian casualties.
The writer has ignored pictures splashed in local and foreign newspapers
and the clips from the Youtube where they portray the army providing
food and water to the civilians, carrying children, supporting the sick,
the disabled and so on.
It adds, "...Since the
breach of the earthbund hundreds more had been killed or wounded..."
UAV footages show how civilians escaping to the government controlled
areas are fired by the terrorists killing or wounding them. If as the
writer says, that the army had been cruel there wouldn't be such an
exodus of civilians running away from the terrorist occupied No Fire
Zone. Both the Indian Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister have said,
"...The LTTE should stop its barbaric acts to hold civilians from the
rebel held territory..."
Human Rights Watches and
other pro-LTTE research Agencies who are now shedding crocodile tears
were passive on lookers when LTTE were driving 200,000 or more civilians
from pillar to post as the terrorists were fleeing from the army after
the downfall of Kilinochchi. So under present conditions it is the
legitimate duty of any government to rescue hostages from terrorists.
With regard to his reference
to NGO's it is an open secret that their sympathies are with the
terrorists. A VVIP who visited Kilinochchi during the traditional New
Year to be with the combating forces was surprised to see no massive
infrastructure development projects undertaken despite NGO's and INGO's
operating in the Vanni for so many years. It is now common knowledge
that there are heavily secured luxury underground concrete apartments
built as safe houses for the LTTE hierarchy. The question is how did the
LTTE get all the raw materials for these structures?
He comments that, "...
Some members of the Rajapaksa regime and General Fonseka are Sinhala
Chauvinists..." 'Sinhala chauvinists' is a common term used by
the LTTE to get support from third parties. If anti-terrorist is being
chauvinist, then except pro-LTTE supporters everyone should be branded
with the same label.
The writer had been critical
of former senior LTTE commander and now Minister Karuna, Minister
Chandrakanthan, who was a former LTTE child soldier and Minister Douglas
Devananda for joining the government. Obviously the LTTE as well would
have the same apathy towards them for giving up terrorism and toeing the
democratic line. What is wrong in rewarding them for streamlining along
the democratic process?
The US Secretary, Hilary
Clinton's controversial statement about 'untold suffering caused by Sri
Lanka in this conflict' had been highlighted by the author. With regard
to her comment, The Washington Times of 26th April editorialised (Tigers
at Bay) that, "...Hilary Clinton and European styled peace-makers are
getting in the way of Sri Lanka's victory. The meddlers should let
Colombo finish off this menace...The Tamil tigers deserve no amnesty nor
mercy... The Sri Lankan's are winning ; we should let them finish the
job...We can only imagine American satisfaction if we had Al Qaeda in
this position..."
During the last 26 years, the
government had been spending more that US $850 million a year to crush
the world's most brutal terrorists. Now it is the end of the game with
the tigers in the jaws of defeat. The terrorists and the pro-LTTE
lobbyists who were desperately turning the No Fire Zone into a
powder-keg and threatening of an impending blood bath and a humanitarian
catastrophe had been boldly diffused by the government and the army.
Learning from past experiences, the governments current strategy is to
defeat the terrorists militarily while simultaneously pursuing a
constitutional settlement for Sri Lanka. So it is not for a reputed
international Journal like The Economist to reverse government gains and
demoralise the army and the people in favour of the world's number one
ruthless terrorists.
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