UN 'suspends' Sri Lankan Peacekeepers, again...

"UN suspends Sri Lankan troops from peacekeeping over army chief appointment" said in big bold letters as reported by Reuters .

This so called "suspension" is nothing but a PR gimmick and it really reminds me of the time when the UN "pulled-out" its Regional office from Colombo in protest of Wimal Weerawansa's 'farce unto death' in front of UNDP's SL office at Bauddhaloka mawatha several years ago.

Later the UN was caught pants down when it was revealed that the withdrawal of the UNDP Regional Office was anyway slated due to budget cuts and was in the process well before Wimal's antic! nevertheless, opposition and the so called 'civil society' had a field day screaming the UN was leaving because of Wimal's actions against the UN !

If you read Farhan Haq's statement, he added "In light of this appointment, the U.N. Department of Peace Operations is therefore suspending future Sri Lankan army deployments except where suspension would expose U.N. operations to serious operational risk." 

Well, the last time I checked, there were no Sri Lankan troops raising the flags in UN in Geneva nor patrolling the ceasefire lines in Cyprus.

They are all deployed in deepest of war torn Africa and worst of violent Middle East or in Haiti, where criminality controls most of the territory (where even US forces venture not far out from its Embassy!).

So, in other words, SL peacekeepers are deployed in locations where the UN faces extreme risks.

Hence, in reality there will be no withdrawals nor suspensions. issue lies elsewhere, in Colombo where our own governments ( including the last Rajapaksha administration) have no balls to stand up to international (read pro-Eelam lobby) machinations and play diplomacy with diplomacy.

On the shorter term , instead paying lip service or issuing halfhearted statements , the Government should review Sri Lanaka's role in UN peacekeeping vis a vie the so called allegations against its military and decide in principle to participate in UNPKOs based on principle or just pull out altogether.

On the longer term , our govt should engage with the International community to address these allegations once in for all but then again, that's all a pipe dream. under Gota, who many of assume (or hope) will stake a more 'strong' stand, things will get even worse.

Gunning for Gota...

The former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is sued in a US court over alleged extrajudicial killing and torture in Sri Lanka .The Centre for Justice and Accountability on behalf of Ahimsa Wickrematunge, Lasantha Wickrematunge's daughter is said to be the US based group which had filed this suit.

Its worthwhile to look into what this Center for Justice and Accountability is. A quick look at the list of staff and there is Ms.Jennifer Rasmussen who is said to be the director for transitional justice and quite possibly the person working on the said suit against Mr.Rajapaksha.

I would not be surprised if her time at the UN cross paths with Ms.Samantha Power. And if so, the Cat is out of the bag.... we know who sleeps with who here. Gota, it seems, present a very clear and present danger to the US and its extended interests via the Eelamist project in Sri Lanka to have him firmly in their cross-hairs. And so, they have started their campaign to deny Gota the candidacy that everyone in Sri Lanka is waiting for.

I've added a screenshot of CJA's main page here.. it says "We identify&prosecute worlds worst human rights criminals " yeah, right...How selective they are... just the day before United States revoked the visa of the International Criminal Court's ( ICC ) chief prosecutor because of her attempts to investigate allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan, including any that may have been committed by US force occupying Afghanistan.

This is US duplicity at its best here and irony of all this is CJA is said to be the same lawyers who said to have 'successfully' brought a civil suit against the Syrian government for the killing of the Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin.

And we do remember late Ms.Colvin, the journalist for few things including getting caught in an LTTE attack against what appeared to be a military target and losing an eye after getting injured (and always claimed she was caught in the cross-fire between Sri Lankan military and the LTTE although she knew well it was indeed an LTTE instigated attack-there was no 'cross-fire' ) and for witnessing LTTE recruiting or use of child soldiers and never wrote a thing about it though she, in private, mentioned this a few times to close confidants or over drunken loose talk but then again Matthew Heineman, the director of  the film 'A Private War' conveniently dropped this from the script.

The LTTE in Sri Lanka may be dead and gone, but LTTE Inc and the Eelam lobby that lives off its scarps is alive and well and this civil suit in the US signifies a big shift.

In one way a desperate attempt by the US (and its henchmen in Sri Lanka, in the likes of UNP leadership and the TNA ) to prevent Gotabhaya Rajapaksha from being conferred the candidacy of the common opposition for the up-coming presidential elections in Sri Lanka and then in another way signifies move from a more traditional rhetoric based Anti-Sri Lanka movement to a more venomous and destructive path with incisive strikes.

This battle, I'm afraid we are not ready nor equipped enough even to offer meek resistance.

දෛවයක තරම...

කොටියාගේ බලය විනාශකර අවසානයි. රීළාම් සංකල්පය ද බිදදමා හමාරයි. ඒත් කොටියාව පොෂණය කළ, රීළාම් මිත්‍යා ව්‍යපෘතියෙන් යැපුන දේශද්‍රෝහියන්ට නැවත රටේ බලය දීපු අපේ මොඩයන් දැන් කිසිවක් නූනා සේ බලාසිටින කාලයක් ⁣මේක...

දැන් නැවත රීළමට විරෝධි ,ශිු ලාංකීය ජාතියකට ලැදී අපට සටනට පිවිසෙන්නට කාලය ඇවිදින්.

එ් සටනකට අවශ්‍ය දැක්මත් අධිෂ්ඨානයෙන් අප සතුව ඇත.

The Reconciliation Mantra...

I had enough with all this forced reconciliation moves that's being forced by some Western countries all because they have few minority lobby groups , mainly pro-LTTE and Eelam Inc groups putting pressure on them in return. its necessary to answer to this myth that is campaigned by those who oppose the real reconciliation in Sri Lanka and the people who still want to pursue a separatist agenda,that reconciliation is impossible without retribution..they call it accountability but what they want for real is a witch hunt.

The latest comments and statments made to that effect my Ms.Vai Pillay says a lot about this and Govt.i think, sadly is failing to adress the real issues ,the sinister moves behind these so called calls for accountability.

Matale - Bringing Up The Bodies And Politics Of JVP

I was reading Malinda Seneviratnes Blog post on the politics of excavating this so called mass grave in Matale. some say they were from a the turn of last century of victims of a epidemic and some say (this is more the JVP) its a mass grave containing bodies of persons killed during the 1988/1989 JVP reign of terror.

Either way, its being said that the Police and JMOs are doing a good job in conducting a through investigation and they have even called not only Forensic Scientists but also Archaeologists too!
good! bring up the bodies! parents of those who are buried need closure as Malinda has aptly said but what justice?

JVP member who survived the Eliyakandha Prison Camp in Matara during 88/89 told me few years ago, that the only parties to the atrocities who never changed sides were the Security Forces..the rest he said, were shamelessly cajoling each other for power so much so ,he added when he decided to write to the police whereabouts of a certain cache of illegally (and forcibly) collected documents and ID cards (and then forgotten) by the JVP ,to his horror ,realized that then area leader of the JVP (later on a local Councillor for the same party ) had decided to join the UNP against the ruling party while a key District level politician at the time of 88/89 who led vigilante group is now a leading ruling party member!

We lost so many young people during the 88/89 period, many to the JVP's killer gangs and then many more to Security Forces who were given a free reign and then, some more to private vigilante groups some say consisting members of Tamil armed groups but led by UNP regional leadership, who was then in power.It was a painful past and the families who lost their children and loved once need closer but more importantly they need justice...victims need justice.

And Justice is not whats on offer...we all know what JVP has turned out to be today... they are nothing different from the rest of the morally bankrupted Political parties...just that i wish the JVP keep quite about the bodies in Matale and let the course of justice take its own pace and not rather attempt to make political mileage out of it.

UN Committee reports US Forces Killed Hundreds of Afghan Children and International Double-Speak

'categorically unfounded.' is all US had to say to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child when its report cited US forces had killed hundreds of Afghan children in the last four years...may be 'categorically unfounded.' could be a pretty good term Syria's President Al-Assad can keep repeating to mainly US press over accusations of killings in Syria too.

Just forget Afghanistan for a second...is this not the same country who is stonewalling UN critique over its conduct , grave conduct in war in an occupied country who keeps telling Sri Lanka that it should account of Sri Lanka's own conduct in waging a war against a vicious terrorist group that wielded a war of terror against the Sri Lankan State and the people of Sri Lanka?

This term 'categorically unfounded.' can be used aptly to describe Western Worlds double speak, especially of United States..consider this..if this report was on Pakistan or Iran, then the US (and their Western cahoots) would have jumped up and start calling for International action, citing the report as a reason to intervene.. but now that this is all about the conduct of US (and NATO) Force, its all  "Equally unsubstantiated is their assertion that US forces use indiscriminate force during their operations. Finally, the committee's assertion that US troops do not exercise precautionary measures is entirely false." as a NATO Spokesmen put it.

I wish if someone representing the Sri Lankan delegation in the upcoming UNHRC in Geneva could state "categorically unfounded" to the allegations of so called war crimes against Sri Lankan Government , in the last stages of war against the LTTE Terror and goes on to say " Equally unsubstantiated is their assertion that Sri Lankan forces use indiscriminate force during their operations. Finally, the committee's assertion that SL troops do not exercise precautionary measures is entirely false." what will be the reaction of the so called crusaders for Democracy and Human Rights ,namely US and Western Countries?

Obama's License To Kill At Will White Paper

Here is Obama's license to kill at will,white paper..minus the heavy NBC watermark..can you imagine the international flack and criticism had this been a GoSL document?

Try to replace US with SL and ALQ with LTTE.. can you imagine the flack and the criticism from the so called international community,if this were to be a similar GoSL Doc.? well, thank goodness, GoSL don't have such clear cut policies nor we'd pen them.. .. we just go by the day..abduct whoever is on that days 'bad-list' and then....[That's why CPA's so called 'assassination list' from 2007 (?) turned out to be a mega flop and a big turd.. because even the Western Embassies (and CPAs main donors) know well for once GoSL is not so competent enough to make lists and act by them and also because it was in English, for god sake!!! plus a mind-blowing rating system too!- and mind you ,the only person who could explain this system was CPA's Sanjana Hattotuwa- not because he was super intelligent but because Sanjana later bragged to Uwindu Kurukulasooriya of FMM that he was the creator of this list and Uvindu being a A class snitch ,mentioned this to Minister Keheliaya Rambukwella for a minor favor!]

Still, the Obama paper is interesting read..may be some one high up the echelons of power here in Sri Lanka should think about something similar, back date it (and leak it to Sunday Leader)  in order to cover all 'collateral damage' that we're being accused of!