Osama bin Laden has been killed by the Americans in a foreign country, namely Pakistan, unlike Prabhakaran who was killed in Nandikadal by the Sri Lankan forces. Nandikadal is not in a foreign country and Sri Lankan forces were not engaged in any type of terrorist activities when they killed Prabhakaran. However can the Americans say the same with regard to bin Laden? I am not defending bin Laden but I am interested in finding out the role of Pakistan in this final episode in his life. Apparently the Pakistani government was not aware of the six Americans coming to Pakistan, without visas I suppose, and killing bin Laden and few others, all in the name of human rights democracy and other so called virtues.
However, there is the question of innocent people who died in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, as a result of the operations that were launched to capture bin Laden dead or alive during the last ten years after the so called September eleven terrorist attack. The problem about media and power play is that though we in Sri Lanka are aware of September eleven the Americans, I suppose including Chomsky the great fighter, are not aware of central bank, Arantalawa, Kebithigollawa etc. We have had so many September elevens though the “international media” have not given much publicity to those terrorist activities. It happened so due to two reasons. One is that Sri Lanka is an insignificant small country in the eyes of the Americans and the west. Two the atrocities by the LTTE had to be covered up as the west was behind them. Americans are enjoying and celebrating the killing of their most wanted man, though he was first trained by the same Americans against Russia. I am not sure of any American speaking against the killing of bin Laden, or of making statements on the thousands and thousands of innocent men, women and children killed by the Americans in the process. I am in particular interested in learning what Chomsky has to say on the killing of innocent people.
Would Ban Ki – moon appoint a committee to advise him on USA following the killing of Osama bin Laden? Will there be accusations of war crimes against Obama and the American armed forces? I do not think that innocent men and women were killed by the Sri Lankan armed forces during the final stages of the humanitarian operations. There are many Tamil politicians and civilians who have stated that during the last few days of the operations it was the LTTE who killed innocent people who wanted to leave the terrorists and proceed towards the Sri Lankan armed forces. However, it has been established beyond any doubt that innocent civilians in thousands have been killed by the Americans. Would any humanitarian organization, civil rights movement, human rights champions agitate for the appointment of a so called independent commission to look into the human rights violations by the American armed forces.
Obama claims justice has been done. It is not only the death of a single man called bin Laden that comes to our minds when Obama says justice has been done. What does he say on the death of innocent people some of whom probably did not know the difference between Obama and Osama? A cynic would even say that there was no difference between the two men and both commanded terrorist groups. The difference between Obama and Osama was mainly that the former supported Israel while the latter was fighting a war to liberate Palestine. Though very few people would condone the terrorist activities of bin Laden, I suppose many people would claim that in opposing Israel and fighting to liberate Palestine he had not committed a crime.
Compare bin Laden and Prabhakaran on one side and Obama and Mahinda Rajapakse on the other side. Both bin Laden and Prabhakaran have made innocent people die, but the innocent people killed by the LTTE are very much more than those killed by Al Qaeda. On the other hand Obama and Rajapakse have both defeated terrorist groups that were against their respective countries. However, the comparison ends there as political and other interests of western Christian colonialism take over. The western forces were behind the LTTE but I do not think any country supplied arms to Al Qaeda. There were no Solheims in the case of Al Qaeda who wanted peace talks with bin Laden. Incidentally Solheim who was a peace dove has apparently become a war monger wanting some action against Sri Lankan government. In any event no peace talks were held between the American government and Al Qaeda anywhere in the world. There were no Jehan Pereras, Saravanamuttus, Rayappu Josephs, Chikeras nor Sunanda Deshapriyas, so called journalists san borders or nationalities to agitate for peace talks between Obama and Osama.
The westerners are adamant that Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse and Sri Lankan armed forces should be punished for so called war crimes, and Robert Blake is coming to Sri Lanka with the intention of appointing a war crime tribunal against the President, the Defense Secretary and the armed forces in general. The background to all these war crimes was the so called white flag incident which we knew even then was the beginning of a process that would lead to a so called international war crime tribunal. Whatever may be the response of Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse to the visit of Blake, a war crime tribunal and/or worst an attack on Sri Lanka by the NATO is on the cards. Americans may even bombard Sri Lanka with missiles as in Libya targeting the Rajapakses and we have to be prepared for any eventuality. We will have to fight unconditionally against western Christian colonialism to safeguard “Budunge Deshaya” in this year of Sambuddhathva Jayanthi”.
However there would be no tribunals against Obama or the American armed forces and Obama has all of a sudden become a hero in the brand of Washington, Lincoln to the Americans. We may compare Mahinda Rajapakse with Parakrambahu the sixth and others, but then who in the west have heard of these kings to the east of Suez. This blatant asymmetry with respect to information is due to the education system propagated by western Christian modernity. The Sinhala people, like the Palestinians who defend their motherland against an artificial Israel, are about to be punished for defending their territory successfully against western inspired and aided LTTE. If by any means the Palestinians are able to defend their land and defeat Israel there would be charges of war crimes and USA and NATO would have a field day in western Asia.
I am not blaming the Americans and the rest of the west of hypocrisy or double standards. As I have maintained throughout they have only one standard. It is we who interpret it as double standards. The west may be accused of many things, but not of double standards. The west is only safeguarding their interests and their hegemony in world politics. It is the western Christian modernity, the Judaic Christian culture and the Greek Judaic Chinthanaya that they want to protect. The so called R2Ps stemmed from the desire to protect and maintain the western hegemony and all the rest can be deduced from these simple observations. Israel was established in west Asia to weaken if not destroy the Muslim culture and protect the west from any challenges from the Muslims. Though on a smaller scale Tamil racism acts in the interests of western hegemony against Sinhala Buddhist culture. The human rights, fundamental rights, democratic forces, war crimes are not so called objective entities but sentiments decided relative to the interests of western hegemony. Would Chomsky ask for war a commission of inquiry not to mention a war crime tribunal against Obama and the American armed forces?
Copyright Prof. Nalin De Silva
