Peter Splinter, Amnesty International’s representative to the United Nations, commenting on Sri Lanka, said that Sri Lanka’s position on issues of human rights is akin to someone who, having murdered his parents, is now demanding sympathy on account of being an orphan.
It is now clearly established that Amnesty International (AI) has received funds from LTTE front groups and that as such its position on Sri Lanka has been compromised beyond salvation. While AI’s unholy friendship with pro-LTTE groups and operatives has been well known for quite a long time, its assertions regarding Sri Lanka are, not surprisingly, informed by the wild claims made by terrorist proxies. To place value on the claims made by such unsavoury sources says a lot about AI’s integrity and professionalism. In this instance, the metaphors of parent, child, patricide and matricide, and orphaning, warrant lengthy comment.
Who pioneered suicide bombing? Who is the biggest culprit when it comes to abducting children and forcing them into combat operations? Who was responsible for lining up and summarily executing some 600 unarmed policemen? Who ethnically cleansed an entire peninsula (Jaffna) of Muslims? Who killed in cold blood some 400 Muslims while at prayer in two mosques? Who was engaged in human trafficking, drug running, arms smuggling, credit card fraud all over the world? Who has been found guilty of extortion and arms purchase for terrorist purposes?
The LTTE. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The parent organization of the Global Tamil Forum, British Tamil Forum, Canadian Tamil Congress, Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam and others. That’s the answer to the above set of question. Does Peter Splinter know? Does he care? What says Amnesty International?
So who is the parent-killer here? Who is demanding sympathy and redress? Sri Lanka was held to ransom by LTTE terrorism for over thirty years. The LTTE stymied all attempts at a negotiated settlement to end the blood-letting. The LTTE, in all its operations, were backed to the hilt by the very same organizations that are pointing fingers at Sri Lanka and egging on outfits such as AI. Had not the war ended in May 2009, it is reasonable to assume that hundreds of thousands of people would have died, some caught in crossfire but most from LTTE attacks deliberately targeting civilians by way of suicide attacks and bomb explosions.
The Sri Lankan security forces brought the war to an end, but more importantly rescued approximately 300,000 civilians held hostage by the LTTE. The primary aggressor here is the LTTE. Having effectively held a nation to hostage, caused untold damage to the economy, destroyed livelihoods, the LTTE (represented by its international rump) it is that is now painting itself as ‘orphan’. It is this ‘orphan’ that Splinter and his politically and morally corrupt outfit is shedding tears over.
What does Splinter and AI have to say about Afghanistan and Pakistan today, about Libya yesterday, about the yesterday, today and tomorrow of Iraq where there are true orphans who really don’t have a voice to talk about those who killed their parents, the US Government? If we talk ‘proportion’, then whereas Sri Lanka ended a war, secured the release of hostages and created conditions for normalcy, including but not limited to resettlement, reconstruction and rehabilitation of ex-combatants and their reintegration into society (with marketable skills), the United States and its European allies have bombed and continue to bomb civilian areas. This is not to rescue hostages. It is to kill people suspected of being terrorists.
Splinter knows well that the LTTE forcibly recruited children, snatching them from their parents and even murdering parents who refused to part with their children. These children were put in the line of fire. The LTTE sent children with explosives strapped to their person targeting civilians. That was the ‘childhood’ that Splinter’s funders supported with bucks, arms, whitewashing and such.
Only one thing remains to be asked: What does Splinter know about orphans and orphaning?
There’s a Sinhala saying: kata boru kiwwath diva boru kiyanne nehe. It means that even if the mouth tries to lie, the tongue does not. Peter Splinter’s tongue has stumped his mouth.