Western Governments & NGOs sided with Tamil Tigers

[MikeWB]

Western Governments & NGOs sided with Tamil Tigers

Friday, 8 May 2009

How the West lost Sri Lanka

Don Wijewardana

http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/05/08/fea01.asp

Ever since gaining independence in 1948, this island state in the Indian Ocean has been playing an active role in international affairs well beyond its size.  ...

It has signed up to all the key United Nations conventions ranging from the conventions on restrictions on the use of certain excessively injurious weapons, to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. ...

But historically, Sri Lanka has been identifying itself closely with the Western world following four centuries of colonial rule starting with the Portuguese and ending with the British.

It was a mutually beneficial relationship cemented by generous economic assistance provided to the country.  ...

The heavy reliance on aid allowed the donor community, initially, to impose conditions which were ostensibly to promote economic growth. ...

In time, donors realised the immense potential of this tool to extend their influence beyond the economy to political, social and other spheres. ...

Trying to capitalise on this concern were the INGOs scouring the globe for 'investment' opportunities. Sri Lanka's efforts to deal with a terrorist group which had ravaged the country for three decades turned out to be a fertile ground for them.

It was a soft touch compared with Iraq or Afghanistan or Darfur and a pleasant place to live. 'Human rights' was the issue. The only missing link, however, was information to back up a campaign. And that was provided by the LTTE through cooked up data and doctored photos broadcast to the world through their websites, television channels and print media.

LTTE trap

Not only the gullible Governments, but organisations such as the United Nations, the BBC and respected newspapers such as the New York Times fell into the LTTE trap. It also became a haven for INGOs feeding on each other.

... the persistence of Western Governments and INGOs on a ceasefire shows either a surprising lack of understanding of the ground situation or a deliberate decision to ignore it. During the past week Gordon Brown sent his Foreign Minister along with the French counterpart to press the Government and another delegation of British MPs followed immediately after. Canada has followed suit.

Demands

Hillary Clinton keeps on firing from a distance. Their mantra is ceasefire. It is not surprising that the Sri Lankan Government has not acceded to these demands. No sane Government on the verge of eliminating the terrorists would.

It may also come as a surprise to these do-gooders that the representatives from within the region, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee of India, a country which has a greater stake in the issue than any other, and Yasushi Akashi, Japan's Special Envoy to the island, who also visited the country around the same time did not make such demands. Akashi stressed at the end of his three-day visit that there was no link between the aid provided by Japan and progress in peace efforts.

An important factor Western countries have overlooked in their manipulations is that unlike in those days, when there was no alternative to Western aid, now there are other donors who are willing and able to step into the breach. As Jeremy Page of the Times noted China's aid to Sri Lanka jumped from a few million dollars in 2005 to almost $1 billion last year, replacing Japan as the biggest foreign donor. By comparison, the United States gave $7.4 million last year and Britain just œ1.25 million.

Beijing also appears to have increased arms sales significantly to Sri Lanka since 2007, when the US suspended military aid over the same human rights issues.

According to Jane's Defence Weekly in April 2007 Sri Lanka signed a classified $37.6 million deal to buy Chinese ammunition and ordnance for its army and navy. It is not China alone that helps Sri Lanka: there is Japan, Russia, Iran, Libya and Vietnam in addition to India and Pakistan.

There were rumours of Obama and Brown along with some INGOs urging the IMF not to provide the standby arrangement of $1.9 billion to Sri Lanka. What the West needs to realise is that the more they attempt to clamp down the more they push Sri Lanka into the fold of China and other friendly nations. ...

For the 70,000 deaths he was responsible for, the New York Times called Prabhakaran the Pol Pot of South Asia.

And now Prabhakaran and his top leaders are trapped in a five kilometre stretch of land surrounded by Sri Lankan Armed Forces. If it was Osama bin Laden who was cornered like this, will the US and UK still call for a ceasefire? It is this deceit in applying double standards that is a further factor in the West losing Sri Lanka.

Having come this far there is no doubt the Sri Lankan Government will soon complete the task of eliminating the terrorist group. Simultaneously the window of opportunity for the West to rethink its strategy is rapidly dwindling.