War Crimes - A creamy pie (for some)!!!
The Glory of Freedom
The menace of terror is finally over. The self proclaimed 'liberator' who was responsible for the massacres of over 65,000 innocents across Sri Lanka for 3 decades is no more, for he and his empire now lies in ashes, buried somewhere in the soils of/off Sri Lanka.
The terrorists were defeated in their own battlefield by men - ordinary men who have shown the world how to do the most extra-ordinary of feats ever accomplished in the modern world - defeating the most ruthless, mono-ethnic, fascist terrorist outfit in the world - the LTTE. The victors are none other than the legitimate military forces of Sri Lanka, the Army, Navy and the Air Force, who were guided and blessed throughout their battle against terrorism by the Secretary of Defense and the overall Commander, HE the President.
These men (and women) have today, kept their sacred promise to safeguard the territorial integrity of our nation against separatists and terrorists. They have given back to us the National Pride that has been dead for well over 504 years or more!!! Perhaps this generation would take better care of it and pass it down to the many generations yet to be born.
Indeed, Mother Lanka is proud that she bore mighty sons as thee!
A Magnificent Victory - Unsurpassed
At a time when the entire world is fighting various terrorist organizations, a small circle of nations such as the US, UK, France and a few Nordic nations who have self proclaimed themselves as "the International community" have yet failed to uproot the evils of terrorism. In contrast, Sri Lanka showed the world how a terrorist outfit perceived to be 'invincible' was totally defeated, whilst ensuring the safety of civilians in the process.
This 'self proclaimed International community' by conduct has little respect for all other nations across the world, and have always resorted to selfish acts disregarding the majority consensus. They often boast of the best military training for their cadres, the use of high-tech weaponry with pin-point accuracy and devastating results. But sadly, even after over 6 years of 'combating' terrorists who seem to be armed only with guns, mortars and the likes, (obviously less sophisticated weapons compared to what these nations are using now), they are still far from seeing an end to their wars in both their own soil and abroad!
In contrast, Sri Lanka, with one of the smallest military units in the world took on the most sophisticated terrorist outfit the LTTE and won. Unlike other terrorists that are battled by the self proclaimed International Community for nearly a decade, the Sri Lankan military fought the LTTE which had the arsenal to invade an entire nation, for they had heavy artillery, 'submarines' and airplanes. Further, the LTTE had the international media eating out of their hands and the services of several diplomats and NGOs across the world. What is more important to note was that the Sri Lankan military forces were fighting within our own soil, to safeguard Sri Lanka's sovereignty, whilst the self proclaimed International Community was fighting on soils of another nation, in different parts of the world!
The three forces of Sri Lanka showed the world, that the fight lies not in the weapons, but in the hearts of men! The Sri Lankan forces have taught these nations that it is not the weapons or the sophistication or the bragging that ultimately wins wars, but brains and brawn combined and flavored with true guts of steel and meticulous military planning, spiced with true leadership and motivation! Whilst showing how terrorists should be dealt with, the three forces took additional pains to show the world the true meaning of compassion for life, which is a far greater virtue than destruction alone - for they rescued over 200,000 civilians held hostage by the LTTE - a feat that took its toll with supreme sacrifices of many soldiers. This feat is indeed remarkable for not a single military outfit in the World has done what Sri Lankan did during the last 02 years and 10 months.
Sour Losers and Childish Antics
The last couple of months, were hectic of times for several foreign politicians (of the self proclaimed International Community), who have tried hard to black mark Sri Lanka's victory and halt the war on terrorism, carried out within our own soil. These people have put away more pressing needs of their own country and people to appease the LTTE and its worshippers. But amidst all this 'interference' by these seedy politicians, especially into an internal matter (as the battle was fought well within Sri Lanka's territorial rights), the Battle was won.
Naturally, we have learnt over the years that there are some people who despise the achievements of others, especially, if the achievements were by people from nations that were termed as 'developing nations' or 'backward', or in certain instances termed as 'failed nations'. After all, civilization, as some Britishers explain, is what they taught the savages in the rest of the world!!! Perhaps, it is this petty jealousy and bruised egos that has aroused some nations and personalities to cry out for "War Crime investigations" against the victorious Sri Lanka, especially at a time when they should actually be congratulating one member nation (of the UN) on their victory over a barbaric terrorist outfit.
It is immaterial whether the world recognizes it or not, for the scourge of terror is finally over for Sri Lanka, and the military objectives of territorial sovereignty and security achieved within the stipulated time period. But as a moral duty, we Sri Lankans should not allow any organization or person to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka for petty politics and personal biases!
War Crimes and Identifying the Real Perpetrators
The IV Geneva Convention describes war crimes as the willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment; unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person; compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power; or willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial; taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
According to so called informed sources, the UN had estimated that nearly 7000 civilians held as hostages and used as a human shield by the LTTE have been killed during Sri Lanka's battle with the terrorists. But a glimpse into the last 3 decades and later in 2005, 2006 and 2007 show us the real perpetrators of war crimes. But astonishingly, the so called advocates and bodies of human rights and the self proclaimed International Community seem to be totally and irresponsibly dumb and numb to the facts that should be considered before barging out strings of gibberish!
The LTTE who have blatantly massacred so many civilians in cold blood from remote villages to places of worship and who resorted to drive out Sinhalese and Muslims domiciled in Jaffna, giving them only 24 hours to vacate and allowing only 12 kg per person to carry on evacuation are Crimes against Humanity according to the prevailing International Laws. There use of arms and violence to carve out a mono-ethnic state is under the same principles, Crime against Peace. Both crimes are well recognized by the Geneva Convention. The latter acts of the LTTE by using human shields, recruitment of child soldiers, forcibly conscripting men and women to fight under a hostile regime against their will are considered as grave War Crimes. No one could argue otherwise against the pile of facts that the self proclaimed International community has deliberately sidelined, without sounding like na‹ve hypocrites in the wake of such appalling atrocities.
Furthermore, the LTTE seems to have a knack for self proclaimed leaders, since after the demise of their previous warlord, the infamous gun running 'KP', has now self proclaimed himself to be the able leader of the LTTE. Perhaps it would be wise for the Human Right watch dogs, including UNHRC to look into the offences above and call on the new LTTE ruler to answer for the atrocities committed against humanity and peace and for the Carnage and War Crimes committed on Sri Lankan soil. Though it can be argued that he was not 'personally involved' in the fighting, the very fact that he advocates a banned terrorist organization and had been the procurement dealer for arms for the LTTE is sufficient grounds for ordinary laymen.
The Art of 'War Crimes'
The Geneva Conventions are a treaty that represents a legal basis for International Law with regard to the conduct of warfare. Not all nations are signatories, and therefore these nations have resorted to retain different codes and values with regard to wartime conduct. On 1st July, 2002, the International Criminal Court, a treaty-based court located in The Hague, came into being for the prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. However, several nations, most notably the United States, an active member of the 'international community', have criticized the court and refused to participate in it or to permit the court to have jurisdiction over their citizens. Ironically, these nations are today shouting for UNHRC to investigate war crimes in Sri Lanka!
Further, it is said that a citizen of one of the 'objector nations' would only be brought on trial if he/she were accused of committing war crimes in a country that was a signatory. Therefore the validity of the UNHRC's claim should be established under the terms of signatory nation and the geographical location of the "alleged" war crimes. It also raises the question why the US, which is not a signatory, is hell bent on indicting Sri Lanka for war crimes unless it has some invisible benefit politically of economically. Could it be because of certain affiliations of politicians to pro-LTTE groups as rumoured through several media reports? Or could it be that the rumoured LTTE funds frozen in safe deposit boxes are appealing to some economies in times of economic downturn?
Further, why has the UNHRC overlooked the background and the rescue of over 200,000 civilians by the SL military (who were used by the LTTE as a human shield)? In contrast, the UNHRC is yet to even voice its intentions and action with regard to the war crimes committed by the US and coalition forces on Iraqi and Afghan civilians. The civilian deaths in Iraq alone during their long drawn out 'war on terror' claimed over 100,000 lives according to informed sources. In addition the US, despite their sophisticated weaponry and pinpoint accuracy, bombed unarmed innocent civilians, (women and children included) when the US drones attacked several Afghan villages. Where were the UNHRC and the other HR watch dogs then? Were they even aware that the attack by these drones in several locations around the world left many children half burnt and dismembered?
David Miliband, who is now in a soup for neglecting his duties towards his own electors, was also shouting the implication of war crimes against Sri Lanka. Perhaps, despite being the British Foreign Minister, he may not have heard of the atrocities the British, committed during WW I and II. Is this ignorance or impunity?
In fact, some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions using the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the protocols established. The definition of a state of "war" may be debated, and hence the term "war crime" itself has seen different usages under different systems of international and military law. The legalities of war have sometimes been accused of containing favoritism toward the winners who have actually drafted these legislations, ("Victor's justice"), as certain controversies have not been ruled as war crimes.
Some examples include the destruction of civilian targets in nations termed as the Axis of Power during World War I and World War II - the firebombing of the German city of Dresden is one such example. The use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US in World War II; the use of Agent Orange against civilian targets in the Vietnam war by the US; are only a few examples to start off with.
Miliband's own nation, the UK re-designated the German 'POWs' (POWs fall under the protection of the Geneva conventions) into 'Disarmed Enemy Forces' (allegedly unprotected by the Geneva convention) and who were then used for forced labor such as clearing minefields. By December 1945 it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were being killed or maimed each month in mine-clearing accidents. So where is the justice for these atrocities? Remember, we Sri Lankans, have not resorted to using the captured LTTE terrorist for mine clearing operations - they are being rehabilitated in several centers - That is the difference!
The UNHRC should acknowledge that spotting a war crime is not easy, for example, is it a war crime for the air force of one country to bomb an enemy's television station or identified target? Under the Geneva Conventions, this is not a war crime. Just about all aspects of a state's infrastructure - roads, bridges, power stations, factories - become legitimate targets if they might be put to military use. Further the displacement of civilians from their homes by an army is not necessarily a war crime because it can be argued that the displacement is being carried out for the protection of the civilians, which is indeed the case here in Sri Lanka, as the actions have shown very clearly.
However, one must not forget that the LTTE's conduct a few years back when they drove out the Sinhala and Muslim residents from Jaffna and Mannar are war crimes, since under the Geneva Convention these expulsions are proven to be part of campaign of ethnic cleansing or designed as a mass punishment of civilians and forming of a mono-ethnic state.
End-piece...
In the context of the above, it is quite clear that the Human Right Watch dogs and the UNHRC have not quite got their facts right, and have displayed reputation of unfairness and inequality in their treatment of nations. Whilst, the powerful nations proclaiming themselves to be the sole representatives of the International Community are allowed to get away scot free (for various reasons under the stars), the less developed nations are taken to task and their developments are further hampered by embargoes, baseless accusations and invisible political and economic barriers.
The accusations these organizations and several diplomats shout are more in the nature of tarnishing the image of a nation rather than acknowledging the achievement. But we stand firm, in the face of the world, as a nation that did the right thing in vanquishing terrorism from our own soil and giving freedom to its citizens.
The UNHRC should also note that it is the people who have elected the leaders of this country, and hence the people have impliedly given a mandate to vanquish terrorism from Sri Lankan soil. In such an event, the elected are bound to ensure that their duty towards the people they represent are carried out - and it was (unlike the notoriously failed foreign ministers and secretary of state of some of the nations). Therefore if UNHRC is to shout accusations, it should well consider that it will have to take to task all the citizens of Sri Lanka that abhor terrorism in any form in our own country. It should also consider the repercussions of such a task - in the global context. Sri Lanka looked after its own interest with regard to an internal matter - and that is the way it should be!
"Why have you invited me to speak here? Because terrorism is a threat to all states and to all peoples, which can strike anytime, anywhere. It is a direct attack on the core values the United Nations stands for: the rule of law; the protection of civilians; mutual respect between people of different faiths and cultures; and peaceful resolution of conflict. So of course the United Nations must be at the forefront in fighting against it, and first of all in proclaiming, loud and clear, that terrorism can never be accepted or justified, in any cause whatsoever." - Kofi Annan (2005).
Sri Lanka fought it and won!!! ----*----
References and further reading...
For those of who are inquisitive to further read about the war crimes committed by some of these so called self proclaimed international communities we append a few examples below:
* The US has its own war legislature, and a few of its provisions under common article 3 violations are given below:
(1) Prohibited conduct.- In subsection (c)(3), the term "grave breach of common Article 3" means any conduct (such conduct constituting a grave breach of common Article 3 of the international conventions done at Geneva August 12, 1949), as follows:
(A) Torture.- The act of a person who commits, or conspires or attempts to commit, an act specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession, punishment, intimidation, coercion, or any reason based on discrimination of any kind. Wonder what the UNHRC and HR watchdogs would do with all those tortured inmates of Abu Ghraib and Guant namo.
(B) Cruel or inhuman treatment.- The act of a person who commits, or conspires or attempts to commit, an act intended to inflict severe or serious physical or mental pain or suffering including serious physical abuse, upon another within his custody or control.... brings to mind the 'appalling' images shown across the international media, where inmates of the above prisons were traumatized by US military - guess the UNHRC was in deep slumber. Perhaps the foreign ministers of the responsible nations should recollect those unsavoury moments!
(C) Performing biological experiments
(D) Murder.- The act of a person who intentionally kills, or conspires or attempts to kill... the best examples were the innocent civilians who were bombed by US drones - again the HR watch dogs seem to be blind.
(E) Mutilation or maiming.- Nothing more than the 'appalling' and pathetic scenes of children burnt and maimed in the US drone attacks.
(F) Intentionally causing serious bodily injury.- Why repeat...?!
(G) Rape.- The act of a person who forcibly or with coercion or threat of force wrongfully invades, or conspires or attempts to invade, the body of a person by penetrating, however slightly, the anal or genital opening of the victim with any part of the body of the accused, or with any foreign object. The UNHRC perhaps sanctions the rape of two innocent Japanese girls in Okinawa, Japan, at the hands of US military...?
(H) Sexual assault or abuse.- Same as above...
(I) Taking hostages - The act of a person who, having knowingly seized or detained one or more persons, threatens to kill, injure, or continue to detain such person or persons with the intent of compelling any nation, person other than the hostage, or group of persons to act or refrain from acting as an explicit or implicit condition for the safety or release of such person or persons. Perhaps, the HR watch dogs have no 'informed sources' to account for the numbers held hostages during the various exercises carried out across the world.
* A glimpse of the War crimes of the British
After Germany surrendered in May 1945, it was divided into sectors, with Russians in the east, Americans in the south, French in the west and the British occupying the northwest, from Bonn to Hamburg. Britain inherited the most heavily populated zone. Hamburg, the second biggest city after Berlin, lay in ruins because of five RAF raids from July 24 to 29, 1943 created a firestorm which rose two and a half miles above the city. In those five nights, most of Hamburg was destroyed. Some 750,000 people were made homeless, and up to 150,000 killed -- many more than died from air raids in Britain in the whole of World War II.
When the occupying forces arrived in Hamburg, they discovered a land of cave-dwellers. Thousands of people were living in windowless concrete air-raid shelters; thousands more crammed into cellars under the rubble or else climbed a ladder into rooms suspended in some teetering ruin, amid falling masonry. (Source: A STRANGE Enemy People: Germans Under The British 1945-50, by Patricia Meehan) A pity that the US and UNOSAT did not have satellite imagery to confirm the craters created by the bombings and the devastations so that the HR watch dogs could have some work! What is worse than committing the act is whitewashing the act!
* A snippet of the War Crimes committed by France
The war crimes were wounds opened by the memoirs of an aging general, 83-year-old Paul Aussaresses, who admits taking part in torture and summary executions during France's long, losing battle to keep Algeria, during the Algerian war for independence from 1954 to 1962. He describes the summary execution as well as tortures France committed on captured 'revels'. For more read France Faces Its Demons For Algerian War Brutality, by Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post, Thursday 10 May 2001; Page A26. (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/61/118.html)
It seems that the very nations who are shouting alleged war crimes on Sri Lanka for fighting a group of terrorists, have also one time or the other committed some of the most heinous war crimes and crimes against humanity and peace against citizens of other nations - not even on their own soil!!!
The above excludes the atrocities committed by these nations during their colonial rule.
(Source : http://defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090526_07 ; By: Manisha Fernando)
