Balachandran’s killers (the long-list)

It is claimed that there is new footage about terrorist leader Prabhakaran’s younger son’s last days.  There’s nothing ‘new’ though.  A photograph of the 12 year old Balachandran ‘surfaced’ just before the UNHRC Sessions in Geneva in 2012 and now, just weeks before the 2013 Sessions, another picture has ‘surfaced’.  The ‘new’ photograph shows Balachandran alive in a bunker.  The jury is out on whether or not this was an Army bunker or an LTTE bunker.  There’s nothing to show that the man who pulled the trigger was a soldier or if the boy was captured and shot dead. 

We do know that the environs of the Nandikadaal Lagoon were certainly not a place where anyone would loiter around.  Only a fool would set up a holding-facility anywhere close to where bloodthirsty terrorists were holed up.  We do know that people died.  We know that there was a lot of gunfire.  We know that when the US targets a Taliban or Al Qaeda hideout, there is no consideration of whether there are non-combatants, children included, in the vicinity.  We know that the LTTE was holding hostage hundreds of thousands of civilians. We know that the LTTE fired at civilians who tried to flee.  We know that families get separated. We know how Balachandran died, but we don’t know where and under what exact circumstances except that this was the end-point of a 30 year struggle against a brutal, merciless terrorist outfit.

There is speculation though.  There is treatment of speculation as established fact. There is a politics of ‘revelation’, evidenced by the strange coincidence of surfacing and UNHRC sessions.  There is also the larger issue of the politics of proportionality and selectivity. The accusers (who would censure Sri Lanka in Geneva once again) are guilty of established (not speculated) crimes against humanity and in particular ‘targeted killing of children to the tune of 4000 plus!’ There is also the silence about context, especially the contribution of the LTTE to the circumstances, before ‘Nandikadaa’ and during ‘Nandikadaal’.

The following extract from a Facebook exchange would throw light on the relevant politics.  It is between Rasika Jayakody, well-known journalist, Kath Noble, a political commentator and Rifkha Roshanaara, a student of international politics.

Rasika: Clinically speaking, is there a way of substantiating that Balachandan, Prabhakaran's son, was in military custody when the leaked pictures were taken? The same picture could also have been taken at a tiger camp/bunker, prior to his death in a cross-fire during the final stage of the battle.

Rifkha: Simple logic, but some are blind, that they cannot see the 'other' side or they simply refuse to use their common sense. And my question is why do they come up with such pictures and videos only when UNHRC sessions are round the corner? Have they able to prove the credibility of the videos they have come up with on previous instances.

Kath: They say that on the basis of the claim that the two pictures were taken with the same camera.

Rasika: There are truths, half-truths and lies. In the same way, there are facts, factoids and fabrications. But any allegation should be proven beyond reasonable doubt before prosecution.

Rasika (to Kath): Claims who?  Is the person who took the pictures willing to give evidence?

Kath: Claim those journalists.

In the end, we are left without source (like the claims made by Channel 4, the International Crisis Group, the Darusman Committee and such, and regurgitated by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch regarding 40,000-80,000 having being killed in the last days of the battle). 

But a little boy did die.  A little boy was in fact shot dead.  Few would not be moved by the photograph of this chubby, cuddly, little boy with bullet holes in chest, dead.  Few fathers and mothers would not look at those eyes and that still body and not have their thoughts stray to their own children.    A little boy the photograph of whose dead body is bandied in international forums but the hundreds of little boys and girls his father kidnapped and turned into child-soldiers are un-remembered, just like the hundreds of little boys and girls slaughtered upon the same father’s directive.  Or the boy who was sent to an Army ‘Receiving Center’ loaded with explosives in order to dissuade the Army from ‘receiving’ and hostages from escaping.  That’s politics.  But that politics doesn’t make his death any less tragic.  He need not have died and need not have died in this manner.

Who killed Balachandran? 

First: The person who pulled the trigger, either directing gun at the boy or spraying a larger target (fleeing civilians or terrorist hideout).    AS YET UNIDENTIFIED, in terms of name and group.

Second: The person who have the order to shoot. AS YET UNIDENTIFIED, in terms of name and group.

Third: All those who by errors of omission and commission did not allow the terrorist menace to be eradicated by arguing that the LTTE was invincible, that ‘the economy cannot handle it’, that ‘the international community will not allow it’ and so on, and thereby sped things along to Nandikadaal by May 2009.  IDENTIFIED: India (from dropping Dhal and giving Prabharakan a lease of life in 1987 with the Indo-Lanka Accord), Norway (bending over backwards to give the LTTE parity of status vis-à-vis the Government of Sri Lanka, USA (doing their utmost to evacuate Prabhakaran even at the last minute), I/NGOs, ‘journalists’, ‘academics’, ‘priests’ and others who consistently gave the LTTE the benefit of the doubt and tried to undermine military efforts.

Fourth: All those who directly or indirectly helped the LTTE by way of providing funds, arms, training and legitimacy through comprehensive white-washing or downplaying of crimes against humanity.  IDENTIFIED:  India, first and foremost. IDENTIFIED: pro-LTTE sections of Sri Lankan Tamil expatriates, including current chest-beaters who pump ignorant/pernicious human rights outfits (AI and HRW) and unscrupulous media outfits (Channel 4) with tall stories. IDENTIFIED:  Successive Governments that believed the LTTE could be talked out of war, most significantly, the Ranil Wickremesinghe regime of 2001-2004.    

Fifth:  All those who failed to listen to Tamil leaders when they first articulated grievances and made claims regarding traditional homelands, those who could have said ‘prove what you can and we’ll redress’ but did not.  All those who did not have the heart, wisdom and guts to acknowledge that every citizen belongs to this land and vice versa.  All those who refused to treat query with respect that demands answer.  All those who responded to chauvinism with chauvinism and those who did not need chauvinism to be chauvinistic.  IDENTIFIED: That’s us, all of us, folks.  We couldn’t save Balachandran. We couldn’t save Mahinsa.  We failed.

Sixth.  This is long.

The man who deliberately dragged the boy along, when the wives and children of other terrorist leaders such as Thamilselvan and Soosai were allowed to flee into the safety of the Sri Lankan security forces.  The man who put every civilian, every man, woman and child not engaged in battle, at risk by holding them hostage as per the need for a ‘human shield’.  The man who on countless occasions refused to engage in dialogue for conflict-resolution, banking on military capability to deliver the impossible.  The man who killed so many Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims in cold blood that it would be a tall order for any soldier who has seen comrades die and children slaughtered to show any mercy if he was chanced upon (not to mention the fact the practical stupidity of taking the risk of believing him to be unarmed).  A man who made it impossible to see any Tamil child anywhere close to LTTE fighters in anyway other than a ‘child soldier’.  IDENTIFIED: VELUPILLAI PRABHAKARAN.

 

 

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Reconciliation cannot be a single-hand clap

Two statements from two high profile US officials caught my eye this week.  The first was by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, commenting on the brutal massacre of 16 Afghans by a US soldier.  Describing it as ‘awful’ and ‘terrible’, expressing ‘shock and sadness’, Clinton claimed, ‘this is not who we are!’

Astounding!  It can’t be that Clinton has been blind to what US Foreign Policy has been and is.  She knows that this particular crime against humanity is just one of thousands. She knows that if there was ‘randomness’ here and if it was about an errant soldier, for each such random act by each erring private, there are a thousand policy-driven, deliberate and horrendous crimes against humanity. War crimes, all. 

Staff Sgt Robet Bales, the man who perpetrated the butchery, is a highly decorated American soldier. ISAF Deputy Commander, Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw said, ‘I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized ISAF military activity’.  Bales is said to have ‘left Base without authorization’.  There’s a palpable downplaying and refuge-seeking in the doctrine of ‘errant soldiering’. 

The fact is that when US Drones ‘left base’ it was POLICY.  When they targetted ‘perceived terrorists’ and claimed that it was legitimate even when the said target was in the midst of a high-density civilian population, it was POLICY.  It was POLICY, also, when a million Iraqi children were MADE TO DIE courtesy sanctions on that country.  Torture in Guantanamo Bay is POLICY.  Two quotes will explain it all. 

Madeline Albright, one time US Secretary of State, commenting on US-led sanctions causing the death of so many children, said, ‘it was worth it’.  US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, commenting on the Afghan incident said, ‘War is hell, these things happen’.  

The truth is, for the USA, random acts of butchery and policy-driven crimes against humanity are both ‘part of the story’.  Obama famously said, after all, ‘we do what we have to do, let’s not talk about it’.  It is a criminal policy regime where perception is treated as fact and any amount of collateral is acceptable. 

The second quote comes from the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert O Blake.  He says, ‘unless Sri Lanka's government reconciles with minority Tamils and addresses allegations of war crimes it risks renewed conflict’.

This comes in the context of a US sponsored resolution in the UN Human Rights Council clearly seeking to open the door for direct interference in Sri Lanka by the USA, in complete violation of the spirit and regulations of that assembly.  It also coincided with a ‘new’ video released by Channel 4 on Sri Lanka. 

The Channel 4 ‘new’ footage is actually a re-hash of its earlier ‘production’ and mostly made up of material that has been in the public domain for several years, including in the Defence Ministry website.  Comment would be a waste of words at this point.   

Reconciliation, though, is our business.  Suggestions are welcome of course, but a fist in the pie usually takes away all and leaves just the crumbs.  Secondly, reconciliation is not a single-hand clap.  Even if one were to be out-of-mind democratic about it, then there are at least two parties here.  The LTTE committed horrendous crimes against humanity and its still-alive-proxies (TNA, GTF, BTF and people like Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu who is dining with the cassocked terrorist Fr (sic) Emmannuel in Geneva and getting character certificates to boot) know what the LTTE did.  All communities suffered at the hands of the LTTE.  If Eelam Tamils need ‘closure’ then other do too.  If you want accountability, it cannot be part accountability.  If you want to investigate, you cannot investigate just one part of the story. 

The evidence about ‘policy-led’ excesses by the Government forces makes a pretty thin portfolio.  Nothing like Obama and Clinton watching (live) the murder of an unarmed Osama bin Laden along with the point-blank shooting of a child in Pakistan where ‘chain of command’ is established beyond a shadow of doubt. 

Reconciliation is our business, let me reiterate.  The LLRC gives the road map and action has been taken immediately, via the AG’s Department and the Courts of Inquiry appointed by the Army and Navy.  How about something from the TNA, now?  They could submit a dossier of LTTE atrocities and a sober apology on account of complicity, perhaps.  

The ‘this side’ hand has shown far more willingness to clap, but the TNA hand is hidden.  You don’t get reconciliation that way, Mr. Blake.  All atrocities need to be investigated fully and the perpetrators brought to book.  Suresh Premachandra, for example, was in charge of a military arm of a militant group that recruited 2500 children and caused 700 of them to be murdered in cold blood by the LTTE, from whom R. Sampanthan took his orders (willingly and happily). 

There may very well be a renewal of conflict.  Everyone will suffer, the Tamils in the North and East the most.  It won’t even pinch the pro-Eelam sections of Tamils in other countries.  It will hurt only Sri Lankans.  And that, Bob, would not be because of anything this government does or does not do, because this government for all its faults has done a lot more than its predecessors to get this country back on track.  The TNA is not helping.  You are not, either.  It won’t cost you sleep, we know.  We know that sleep-loss is not possible for those who think nothing of perpetrating crimes against humanity, those war-is-war people. 

Reconciliation is our business.  It involves honesty.  By all parties.  The country is waiting on the TNA to get out of its LTTE shell.  Sampanthan and Sumanthiran are putting together a show. It is called, ironically, ‘no show’.  You don’t get reconciliation that way.  

[First published in The Nation, March 18, 2012]

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More garbage flowing down a sewer called Canal 4

Years ago, when I was an undergraduate, there was among us a highly talented boy.  He was extremely intelligent and although he hardly ever studied or visited the library always produced excellent results at examinations.  He was also a musician and one of the most accomplished I’ve heard on the Israj.  He was an actor and a sportsman too, his pet discipline being wrestling.  He was literally all over the university, engaging in numerous activities even though he spent his mornings teaching, having got an appointment on account of his qualifications in the field of music.

This boy, who always spoke sense, would on occasion come out with a monumental gaffe.  The running joke about him was that when he did slip, he slipped really badly, not least of all because he would add gaffe to gaffe in the process of trying to rectify things.  Channel 4 reminded me of him a few days ago. 

A few weeks ago, Channel 4 came up with a film on Sri Lanka, replete with a cast of shady characters all portrayed without mentioning their involvement in terrorist activities.  It always happens.  Hatred and ego are the parents of error.  It was a full-of-holes production and the holes have been pointed out and indeed, a full review would I believe show that the holes are larger than they actually seem. 

It looks like Channel 4 (henceforth Canal 4, conveyor of foul-matter in the manner of a sewer) has decided that the best way to plug a hole is to stuff it with garbage.  The piece of journalistic incompetence and investigative sloth forever marked by abysmal math skills and lack of integrity called ‘Killing Fields’ has been followed by an ‘interview’ of a couple of soldiers (or so Canal 4 claims) who claim to have been witness to what happened in the last days of the monumental hostage rescue operation carried by the Sri Lankan security forces. 

Canal 4 (maybe I should call it ‘Sewer 4’?) showcases a witness called Fernando.  Claims are made but are not backed by a shred of evidence. The only claim that can be corroborated is that of there being dead bodies.  It is strange that Sewer 4 has not thought of interviewing the hundreds of thousands of civilians who were rescued from the clutches of terrorists and who are now free to travel all over Sri Lanka and all over the world.  They, if any, could help make Fernando’s claims more believable.

Interestingly, none of the testimonies in the public arena mention any atrocities of the nature that Fernando claims took place.  It is strange too that it took Sewer 4 more than 14 months to find the much-trumpeted ‘First Eyewitness’. It is almost as if the only people around were the soldiers, that only ghosts came out of the un-cleared areas and that the soldiers had perpetrated these alleged atrocities on phantoms.  Someone must be hallucinating or intent on turning hallucination into fact. Garbage is the word that comes to mind right now, in this generous mood I am in. 

Another ‘witness’ claims he was privy to a conversation between the Defence Secretary and a field commander.  Sewer 4 tries to frill the story by bringing in a statement made by a former President of Sri Lanka endorsing the fact that her naïve son had been reduced to tears by the previous Sewer 4 film.  While all this raises a lot of questions regarding who is doing what in Sewer 4 productions.  Chandrika Kumaratunga, for the record, was tongue-tied during the last stages of the operation and had to swallow her malice down with the greatest difficulty in order to mutter a few words of congratulation).

In the end it’s all hearsay.  Channel 4 told a good story in ‘Killing Fields’.  These latest efforts are toilet wash.  Stuff for the sewer. 

As for accountability, Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans do not need a gutter television outfit or a highly discredited ex-president to lecture on the subject.  There is a process. There is keen interest in the process.    What this gutter station is doing will harm this process simply because the claims are so preposterous, mal-intentioned and busybody-like that the citizens of Sri Lanka could at some point turn around and say,  ‘enough is enough; the war is done, terrorism is out, life is in, all bets off, we start from scratch!’ 

That would indeed be a pity, all things considered, but that’s where these efforts that ought to go into a text book on how not to be a journalist are taking us. 

So yes, Channel 4 has a reputation, a name, but when one stands on brand name and pees, you don’t call it a shower from the heavens.  Pee is pee.  Even when employed to wash away poo-poo evicted with a lot of heave and puff earlier. 

[Courtesy 'The Nation', July 31, 2011]

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And some tears cannot go uncommented…

A few years ago, when I was associated with the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT), I helped put together a booklet about media representation of the conflict.  The title was ‘Some tears are not newsworthy’.  It spoke to inequality and privileging apparent in how the unfolding events were being portrayed in certain sections of the media, both local and foreign. 

The book focused on the shameless downplaying and even non-mention of atrocities perpetrated by the LTTE.  It was wryly observed that people generally misname terrorist as rebel if the theatre of operation is in any country other than one’s own.  The complicity of certain sections of the foreign media in the terrorist project was apparent even back then, i.e. long before Channel 4 became the post-war Voice of Tigers, so to speak. 

It was all about who was crying and over what.  Reading former President, Chandrika Kumaratunga’s recounting of a phone conversation with her son Vimukthi, brought it all back to me.  Vimukthi is reported to have wept after watching the Channel 4 production about the last days of the mission to rid the country of terrorism and to rescue an unprecedented number (close to 300,000) of people held hostage by the world’s most ruthless terrorist organization, the LTTE.  He has apparently said that he is ashamed to be a Sinhalese.  His tears and words were newsworthy because he’s an ex-President’s son and of course because these things can be used to frill the tall stories that the LTTE rump led by that terrorist in a cassock, S.J. Emmanuel is getting the likes of Channel 4 to tell the world. 

I felt sorry for Vimukthi.  Honestly.  And I felt sorry for his mother too.

As I said, ‘Killing Fields – Sri Lanka’ was a production.  A good one too.  There is clever juxtaposition of image, footage, commentary and music.  There is careful editing out of available footage.  For example, the fact that one of the ‘stars’ of the show, Issipriya, is portrayed as a heart-and-soul journalist cum musician, even though Channel 4 has previously aired footage where this ‘lady’ is described as one who glorifies suicide bombers and therefore clearly a recruiter of terrorists.  Channel 4 spouts numbers but is crafty enough to keep context out, making sure that the viewer is left without enough information to work out the relevant math.  There is use of clearly tainted witnesses who have been caught lying before and have several axes to grind.  There’s scandalous glossing over of the LTTE’s considerable curriculum vitae, not just in ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity but mock-up videos, use of military fatigues robbed from captured and killed members of the Sri Lankan security forces and other productions designed for the gullible and of course the complicit. 

Every story is a lie and a good liar can tell a good story. Channel 4 is an excellent story teller and I wouldn’t blame the average viewer for believing that Channel 4 had a true story to tell.  Vimukthi, though is not your average ill-informed viewer, absorbing image and claim about a foreign context he has no clue about.  And his mother, as an ex-President ought to know better than to play sucker to mal-intention. 

For all this, I believe Vimukthi’s tears are honest.  The boy is ignorant and probably good-hearted.  Forgivable.  Kumaratunga is no innocent abroad, though.  She’s smart enough to know about media spin.  She’s supposed to have a degree in the social sciences and even though it must be several decades since she last visited a university library or listened to a lecture on research methodologies, it is hard to believe that she knows zilch about things like reliability and verification.  She’s done enough spin in her day to give Muttiah Muralitharan a run for his money.  And she’s been either orchestrator of or happy witness to mass scale electoral fraud during her tenure to know that 1 plus 1 adds up to 2 and not 11, as Channel 4 might want us to believe. 

When I think of Kumaratunga, I remember the opening song of the musical Evita where Ernesto Che Guevara, mocking the pomp, pageantry and outpouring of grief at Eva Peron’s funeral claims, ‘She did nothing for years!’  That’s only part-memory of the ex-president, though. She did a lot too and much of it unforgettable in a forgettable kind of way if you know what I mean.  And I am not only talking about the Wayamba Provincial Council Election.  It was during her tenure after all that Eelam-speak was heard loudest. Indeed among her nearest and dearest were unapologetic champions of separatism.  Her commitment to peace was amply demonstrated by the amazing twinning of the occasionally visible military offensive and the round-the-clock vilification of the military and vociferous chorusing of the line ‘the LTTE cannot be militarily defeated’.  She invited Norway to broker an agreement with a terrorist who had vowed to divide the country.  Should I say more?

Vimukthi is a Sinhalese. So too his mother.  By name and mother tongue.  Did the Sinhalese, as a community, ever sanction atrocity?  By the same token, has either mother or son ever claimed to be proud to be a Sinhalese for some random act by some Sinhalese (verifiable and without a shadow of doubt hanging over it) such as sending food and medicine to the tsunami affected brethren among the Tamils or volunteering to help those who had been rescued by the Army in the first few months of the year 2009?  Vimukthi-style embarrassment would make every single person on this earth ashamed of his/her community for all communities contain despicable people doing shameless things.  Indeed, he need not have waited for Channel 4 to air its LTTE-spin to be ashamed of his race.  His own mother could have driven him to tear and embarrassment more than a decade ago. 

Vimukthi and his mother are Sinhalese. By name.  They don’t make me embarrassed to be a Sinhalese.  They only evoke pity.  Infinite pity.  May they both be blessed by the Noble Triple Gem and someday be endowed with the wisdom to navigate the regions of avidya (ignorance or delusion). 

[This article appeared in the Daily News of July 30, 2011]

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There are films Channel 4 will not make, questions they won’t ask

Dr. Noel Nadesan, a Tamil domiciled in Australia who edited the Tamil community newspaper ‘Uthayam’ for 14 years, has responded to the recently released Channel 4 film (yes, not ‘documentary’) on Sri Lanka.  He remarks, based on long experience with the Tamil community both in Australia and Sri Lanka, ‘about the callous way in which the media is exploiting the suffering of (his) Tamil people for self-serving ends’. He argues, cogently, that the Channel 4 film does not help the long suffering Tamil people but indeed only makes things worse.

He has pointed out example by example Channel 4’s malice and utter disregard for professional ethics.  He has stated some truths that would make the makers of that film uncomfortable but only if they are guilty of honest error.  That’s sadly not the case. Let’s hear what Dr. Nadesan says:

‘I travelled Sri Lanka seven times last two years widely in war zones in Vanni and talked to the victims who were trapped in the war zones. They knew that they were targeted both sides and they could not comprehend why the LTTE should expose to retaliatory fire in the NFZ. They could not understand why the LTTE turned the NFZ into a war zone.

‘The agents of LTTE in the Tamil diaspora also shed a lot of crocodile tears about the 300,000 IDPs. They described the IDPs camps as concentration camps. Knowing the general conditions under which Sri Lankans live I can assure you that the conditions of the Tamils, particularly in the in the IDP camps, were far superior to the slums of Colombo or even the conditions of the Sinhala villagers and hill country Tamils in remote areas.

‘Even the Tamil MPs of Tamil Nadu and Indian journalists who visited the camps were convinced that the Sri Lankan authorities had done a very good job under trying conditions. Besides a comparison with the manner in which the government treated the Sinhala JVP rebels who took up arms in 1971 will reveal that the LTTErs received far better treatment than the JVPers. Most of them were incarcerated for more than four years.’

Dr. Nadesan lists a number of documentaries that Channel 4 could have commissioned but did not and probably never will. Here is a selection from that list:

• LTTE decimating the entire Tamil leadership in the democratic stream
• LTTE going round Tamil houses, knocking on doors at midnight, to grab under aged children hidden by Tamils parents
• LTTE massacring Muslims worshippers at prayer in mosques in the East
• LTTE Ethnic cleansing of Muslims and the Sinhalese communities in the North and the East
• The slaughter of 600 policemen who surrendered to the LTTE in the hope of promoting peace talks
• The massacres of young Buddhist monks and pregnant Sinhala mothers in border (sic) village in remote Sri Lanka

Would Channel 4, given the obviously enormous resources it has access to, ever come up with a comprehensive documentary on the LTTE’s vast international racketeering, including credit card fraud, arms and human smuggling, drug trafficking and extortion?  It would be an eye-opener to all governments dealing with terrorist threats.

Channel 4 can do a documentary on Channel 4 itself; about selective emphasis, footage-doctoring and suppression of relevant information.  In fact Channel 4 can do a documentary on the making of ‘Killing Fields in Sri Lanka’, giving information to the world at large about why Ramesh’s story was half-narrated, why the complicity of an LTTE ‘TV presenter’ in suicide terrorism was not mentioned (they have the footage where she glorifies suicide terrorism, thereby actively engaging in mobilizing cadres for suicide missions which, Channel 4 knows, have taken the lives of thousands of civilians, including Tamils) and how it came to pass that it missed the obvious fact that much of footage shown was staged by the LTTE (as Dr. Nadesan damningly shows).

Channel 4 can also document why it did not include in its narrative the statements of UN and INGO officials who made observations about how the security forces treated the IDPs, the conditions in these facilities and how they treated detainees and those who surrendered in rehabilitation facilities.  Channel 4 can also make a film comparing how the security forces acted during and after the military operation with how other countries (especially the USA and UK) behave during military operations and after claimed war-end, especially the treatment of IDPs.

Would Channel 4 offer as ‘moving’ a film on US and UK atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, one wonders. Would Channel 4 interview Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka who were held hostage by the LTTE and saved by the Sri Lankan security forces at great cost? Would they ask the following questions and faithfully report the answers?

• ‘What did you eat in the last days in Vellimullivaikkal?’
• ‘Did the LTTE ever take food, medicine and other supplies sent by the Government, I/NGOs and UN agencies?’
• ‘Did the LTTE set up artillery positions among civilian populations?’
• ‘Did you lose any child to the LTTE’s aggressive recruitment and were you happy then or thereafter that your child was made to join the LTTE?’
• ‘Were the conditions you lived in from January to May 2009 better than those in the IDP camps?’
• ‘Have you heard of the security forces having ill-treated any of the LTTE cadres who were captured or had surrendered and thereafter rehabilitated and released?’
• ‘Would you rather go back to the situation that prevailed before May 19, 2009?’

I wonder if Channel 4 would ever take on any of the above projects. Sorry, I am pretty sure they would not. They cannot, given political leanings, absence of journalistic integrity and professional incompetence. That’s sad. I am sure Dr. Nadesan would agree.

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A postscript to journalistic quackery a la Channel 4

It was bound to happen. Channel 4 has suffered a serious case of egg-on-the-face, but it was almost inevitable. Channel 4 was motivated in the first instance by bitterness at having one of its correspondents deported for gross violation of expected professional ethics. Channel 4 has a considerable track record in dodgy and shoddy journalism. Channel 4 seems to have been intoxicated by the shrill self-righteous statements issued by British parliamentarians shamelessly pandering to the LTTE lobby hoping to secure electoral victory.  Channel 4 seems to have been outraged by the fact that all chances of preferred outcome materializing were buried on the shores of the Nandikadal Lagoon. 

‘Revenge’ was called for. Revenge was sought. And, as usually happens when delusion, hatred and greed inspire rather than deter, Channel 4 tripped. Over its own vomit, did I hear someone say?

A few days ago, in New York, there was a screening of the much advertised ‘documentary’ about what Channel 4 (and other interested parties including rabid chauvinistic elements among Sri Lankan Tamils overseas) want the world to believe happened in the last stages of the historic operation that rid Sri Lanka of the terrorist menace (interrupted by stoppages for snacks and chit-chat we are told). Major General Shavendra Silva who led the 58 Division at the time the 30 year war came to an end and now Sri Lanka’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, New York, in a matter of a few minutes stripped Channel 4 of all vestiges of respectability and trustworthiness.

This does not mean of course that Channel 4 will confess to media quackery, apologize profusely to all Sri Lankans, all viewers and especially to the Tamil people living in other parts of the world for preying on their fears, insecurities, communal pride and grief. It does not mean that Channel 4 will fold up operations or even stamp ‘Chapter Closed’ on the door of its malice-ridden operations pertaining to Sri Lanka. It does not mean that this will be the last such effort on the part of terrorist-backers such as the Global Tamil Forum and the British Tamil Forum nor their partners in crime in the British Parliament, the European Union, the US State Department, certain UN agencies etc.

Neither will see racketeers like Jehan Perera and Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu shut up; it’s their livelihood to vilify things Sri Lankan and bat for forces that are determined to divide the country. For all their bleeding-heart bawls about human rights violations, these ruffians have with full knowledge advocated strategies that make for blood-letting. The will do so in the future too, I am sure. It’s a profitable business, we know. The intellectually dishonest, such as R.M.B. Senanayake and Kumar David will continue to pander to Eelam interests. Guaranteed.

We do not live in a world where social and political processes necessarily move towards the consecration of truth and justice. Tyranny wins, nine times out of ten.  The end of tyranny is only comic relief for world history has shown that tyrannies are not necessarily succeeded by democracies, nor tyrants by the benevolent, but rather other tyrannies and tyrants respectively.

Still!

Channel 4 with all the resources available could only come up with a movie.  A cheap one at that. Sure, there was clever use of the age-old misleading and misrepresenting trick, juxtaposition, and the use of music to wrap the lie in tragic flavours. There was the expected deliberate misnaming of terrorists as artists and journalists. The characters were, as expected, developed with careful non-mention of key and extremely relevant facts about who they are and what they’ve done. Care was taken not to compromise the purported ‘independence’ and ‘respectability’ of those employed to vilify the Government of Sri Lanka.

Greed, hatred and delusion did their usual work. They produced a sloppiness that the frills of music, lie-narration and doctored imagery just could not hide.  As was the case with the report submitted by the panel appointed by Ban Ki-moon to advise him on Sri Lanka, over-enthusiasm was the undoing of the Channel 4 movie.

‘Killing fields’ was supposed to buttress efforts by various forces to get the UN to authorize an ‘independent’ investigation into the ‘last days’ of the war (i.e when the LTTE was wiped out, and not, as should be the case, the time period that makes sense, February 22, 2002 to May 19, 2009).  Some want the truth. Some want confirmation by hook or crook of a cooked up story. Some want closure. Some want to use threat and intervention to extract regime change from the political chaos they believe these moves would generate. Some want to make Mahinda Rajapaksa submit to the Chelvanayakam Option (A little now, more later) by fixing Eelam-boundaries via the 13th Amendment, thereby legitimizing Eelam mythology. Most know and most pretend they don’t know that these malicious moves will only give life to communal disharmony and postpone reconciliation, even resulting in a fresh round of blood-letting.


                     
Parts 1 - 3


                     

Parts 4 - 6 

Malinda Seneviratne, a journalist and political analyst based in Sri Lanka

debunking the claims made by the

Report of the Secretary General of the UN

on Accountability in Sri Lanka [Darusman Report]

        

Channel 4 need not worry. Darusman won’t lose any sleep and neither will Navi Pillai, Louise Arbour, Manfred Novak, David Miliband, Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, Bernard Kouchner, Robert Blake, Peter Hayes, Patricia Butenis etc.  Jehan Perera can take a lot of egg on his face.  So can Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu.  Kumar David might say it’s just facial cream.  R.M.B. Senanayake will offer a prayer and bat on in the sophomoric manner he has perfected.  Gordon Weiss might move to another exotic location where he can play ‘Conqueror and Subjugated’ and maybe write another book or two.

We must expect the above from these ‘ladies’ and ‘gentlemen’, ladies and gentlemen.  They are not fast asleep. They are not deaf or blind.  They were not born with twisted tongues.  They are pretending, most of them.  Therefore it will take a lot to wake them, make them hear and see, and make them speak the truth.

They don’t own Sri Lanka and they will not either. There are people who can say ‘I am Sri Lankan’ and ‘Sri Lanka is mine’, not because those words come easy but the civilization, heritage, culture, ways of being and becoming and the philosophies that nourished all this runs in their veins and make their sinews.  They and not the above mentioned individuals won the war for us, made this land free.  They alone will protect this earth in which the ashes of their ancestors are buried. They will be stopped, tripped, hurt and humiliated no doubt.  That’s in the short-term. History is long, ladies and gentlemen.

There will be tyrannies, no doubt.  Still, no tyranny is so efficient that it can obliterate a civilization. That takes multiple and consecutive tyrannies over many centuries.  We went through such a period. It lasted 500 years.  We survived.  A poorly made film by a set of crooks who are at best journalistic quacks just won’t do it.  Sorry. 

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