DELHI MORE ALARMED THAN COLOMBO OVER THE MULLIVAYKAL MASSACRES AND SRI LANKA (SL) WAR CRIMES
In a subtle master stroke Gothabhaya Rajapakse more than anyone else was the principal architect of the defeat of the Tamils in Sri Lanka in May 2009. A greater achievement was his diplomatic coup that bought Delhi’s ‘stilled silence’ on SL war crimes that included the locking away of incriminating RAW evidence on the Mullivaykkal war crimes.
Though details relating to the South Block Delhi’s involvement in theMullivaykkal massacres is in the open now, the ‘personal caprice (Bellamy) of the Sonia Delhi’s ‘in the loop’ proxies that stalled the international community’s war crimes initiatives against SL began to collapse when other (non RAW) incriminating evidence began to unravel. These pointed to SL acting as South Block Delhi’s proxy in the killings of Tamils in Mullivaykkal.
Gothabhaya had reasons to be angry over Delhi’s subtle blackmail using RAW aerial pictures of the massacres when in fact SL acted in good faith on ‘in the loop’ Narayanan-Menon’s instructions during that stage of the war. Though RAW pinpointed the presence of the core LTTE leadership in the midst of heavy civilian concentrations in Mullivaykkal, Narayanan-Menon gave Gothabhaya the go-ahead to launch the massive final assault in the ‘no fire zone’ in Mullivaykkal. The ‘no fire zone’ itself isolated and away from prying witnesses is the brain child of Narayanan.. The final assault according to Fonseka was originally planned for August to avoid heavy civilian casualties but the revengeful Narayanan-Menon (Sonia-proxies) keen on eliminating the LTTE leadership totally acted recklessly to abort the US rescue plans to save the lives of the LTTE leadership and civilians. The result was the massacres that was a precedent setting Delhi-Colombo trade off model for wiping off the entire Tamil militancy/resistance and treating the massive civilians casualties as acceptable ‘collateral’ damage. Accordingly, morally the blame for the massacre was not Gothabhaya’s alone. He acted indirectly as the Sonia Delhi’s proxy then.
Except for the‘tom-toming’ Raman, details on the massacres began to unravel fast (within days) once Delhi unfairly attempted to blame SL for the excessive civilian lives lost brandishing its RAW aerial surveillance pictures. The response of the impetuous SL was swift and smart enough to rattle Delhi that instantly caved in to comply with SL’s key demand that it observes ‘a stilled silence’ on all SL’s war crimes details. This was a diplomatic master-stroke.
The South Block mandarins had committed RAW to covertly provide critical battle front aerial intelligence for the combined Sri Lankan and covert Indian armed forces offensives that delivered SL its victory over the Tamil rebels. RAW was in the most vantage position to capture authentic aerial pictures of the heavy battle field casualties. While RAW’s aerial pictures were far too incriminating for SL’s comfort, RAW and Delhi viewed them as invaluable leverage tools to pressure SL into a more compliant stance post Tamil militancy. Colombo’s stance instead turned out to be exactly the opposite.
A Delhi stunned by an angry Gothabhaya Rajapakse took his ‘loop’ signals as lethal enough to implicate Delhi’s South Block in the war crimes should SL ever be forced to face such charges. A harried and alarmed Delhi reacted speedily to appease Colombo launching a swift diplomatic offensive to save the murderous SL regime by killing off the international community’s war crimes initiatives in the UN specifically supporting the infamous May 2009 UNHRC resolution. Colombo was now in possession of a dreaded leverage that Delhi has to live with for the longer term.
The South Block despite widespread anger in Tamil Nadu had locked Delhi into this ‘deafening silence’ predicament for SL to continue vigorously its ethnic cleansing and genocide policies further alienating TN Tamils. Delhi had no qualms in recklessly brow beating TN government (its UPA partner) into supporting its anti-Tamil SL policies, damaging the DMK’s savior of the Tamils credentials. Delhi even flaunted the CBI Spectrum scandal weapon most damaging to DMK’s image. For details on the Delhi-Chennai double crossing politics readers are referred to ‘Tamil Nadu being forced to go the Eelam way –NateriAdhigal (a revisit) in Groundreport.com Oct 27 2010.
SL’s powerful ‘loop’ leverage weapon ensures Delhi’s silence when SL vigorously pursues a more monstrous and multi faceted genocide and Delhi funding in post LTTE, SL’s intense militarization of the North displacing more Tamils again from their homes, demographically marginalizing the Tamil homelands and facing harsher oppression. How would Tamilians and Hindus react when SL even prohibits the ringing of bells in temples in the North and East, effectively blessed by secular Sonia-Delhi in charge of a Hindu India?
Delhi partnering in the SL genocide, a horrendous crime is unlikely to improve Delhi’s moral credentials internationally when the world is seriously pursuing SL to account for its crimes. Any permanent Security Council seat aspirant will desist associating/supporting a notorious regime tainted with serious crimes and furthermore withhold crucial incriminating aerial evidence relevant for crime investigation by international tribunals. This borders on criminality. Delhi’s behavior is no different from that of other world renowned human rights offenders. Delhi’s ‘deafening silence’provoked an enlightened Obama to politely urge Delhi to be more vocal in its criticism of human rights abuses.
Sri Lanka’s latest open declaration of a fresh war on the Tamil diaspore living in the Western world poses fresh challenges to the security agencies of those countries. SL has planted intelligence agents in several countries who run parallel intelligence outfits undertaking intelligence work on the diaspora citizens of those countries. Visiting diaspora and their kin in SL are targeted based on intelligence transmitted back by these agents and there are plenty of reports of visiting diaspora going missing presumed dead, arbitrary arrests for funds and information extortion. State sponsored white van outfits commit these crimes with impunity. The activist diaspora not cowed by these risks are exposing such crimes and seeking legal redress for the genocide victims. The growing support for the diaspora’s war crimes campaign is now unstoppable in the enlightened world, the benefit for the world is arresting the growing horrific trend of state terrorists oppressing minorities by strengthening international mechanisms to enforce accountability on genocide regimes.
The Delhi led human rights abusers stalled the UNHRC crimes proceedings in May 2009 but it is heartening that there are legal regimes that permit the victims to seek redress for these crimes in the courts of countries that have extended jurisdiction to punish offenders even if the crime was committed elsewhere. President Rajapakse Oxford Union address had to be aborted and a senior army officer (Gallage) took a chartered a flight out to escape war crimes courts in London; evidence of a growing fugitive complex amongst leaders with crime records. These are products of the noble activism of the diaspora. The diaspora activism only seeks legal redress for the victims of SL crimes using mechanisms that offer some protection for minorities at least in genocide situations.
The discomfort the SL genociders face during visits overseas shows the potency of the diaspora activism in their search for justice. Before the ink dried on a pedestrian reporter’s piece ‘Will there be a violent resurgence of the LTTE soon’ 5 Nov 2010 dbsjeyaraj.com reputable media reported over 50 000 diaspora in icy cold conditions demonstrating to bring the genociders before the jurisdictions of the courts of enlightened nations belying this reporter’s claim ‘gone are the days when the LTTE could mobilize thousands of flag waving demonstrators in important Western cities’. The theme and contents of his piece and that of the SL Ambassador to Brussels Ravinath Aryasingha ‘Countering LTTE propaganda’ 23 Nov, Daily News have much in common.They come out of the SL Intelligence production line.
Both these pieces earned derisive comments they richly deserved. Dr Victoria Sentas’ scholarly and well documented ‘Truth and Justice within and beyond,the continued repression of the Tamil diaspora’ exposes the class difference in journalistic standards. Readers benefit from pieces by journalists observing high professional standards not those authored by very pedestrian reporters. Equally professional is the piece by Lee Yu Kyung ‘Sri Lanka: Resettlement, reconciliation in limbo’ Nov 7 2010 that debunks the rosy ‘real peace’ conditions for Tamils in the North portrayed in dbsjeyaraj.com piece and Shanika Shriyanada’s ‘President’s initiative for reconciliation, unity’ Sunday Observer 14 Nov.
On the Indian side some promising developments emerged from an Indian Intelligence think-tank proceedings in Chennai, 17 November 2010. Though not pro-Eelam the shallow quality of the debate on Indo-SL relations and the Eelam Tamil issues still persists. Some soul searching has led apologists to acknowledge that India’s foreign policy is ‘largely dominated by one or two social (sectarians) groups of Tamil Nadu and Kerala….The(ir) biased approach was largely responsible for the rift between Eelam Tamils and the Indian Establishment..; (they) masked the right perspectives reaching the masses.(and) . contributed to the genocide of Eelam Tamils..and paved the way for the China syndrome knocking the doors of South India. Now they want to discuss what to do about it and perhaps how to pawn some more Tamil interests for their mistakes….India will not like UN involvement.., (for the loop factor)…. India will oppose war crimes accusations against Rajapakse ..India faces similar accusations in Kashmir’
Is it sound logic that Delhi supports SL genocide ‘..because India faces similar accusations in Kashmir ‘ and does Delhi admit that it also committed massacres in tens of thousands as SL did in Mullivaykkal. The think tank’s logic goes awry. Most of the think tank participants are renowned tribal sectarians the exception being Brahma Chellaney whose piece ‘Behind Sri Lanka Bloodbath’ in Mainstream Weekly Oct 24 is exceptional. His ‘But India, too, contributed to the Sri Lankan bloodbath through its military aid, except that it has ended up, strangely with its leverage undermined..since 1987 Indian foreign policy is driven not by resolute long term goals but by a meandering approach influenced by the personal caprice of those in power..Another personality driven shift in India’s Sri Lanka policy came after the 2004 change of government in New Delhi, when the desire to avenge Gandhi’s assassination trumped strategic considerations with the (faked) hands-off approach being abandoned.
The message from the recent Bihar elections beacons hope for all Tamils exposing the fragility of the Sonia-Rahul hype and that their personal caprice is bound to disappear sooner than later and Delhi returns to its pre -2004 foreign policies bringing salvation for the Tamils.