UN BAN’S CHALLENGE- DELHI ‘S CONSPIRACY TO KILL OFF SRI LANKA WAR CRIMES INITIATIVES
The Inner City Press reports (24th February and 3rd March) on the proceedings in the meetings that UN Ban had with Sri Lankan officials with war crimes record that the Ban’s ‘expert panel’ was to address distresses Eelam Tamils, the victims of the SL genocide crimes. More distressing is the involvement of Ban’s deputy, Nambiar who according to reports contributed to the massacres of the white flag waving Eelam Tamil resistance leaders obeying the orders to surrender. Nambiar who has a vested interest in neutralizing the work of Ban’s ‘expert panel’ being involved in its work endangers UN’s war crimes initiatives. Addressing this conflict of interest issue is a challenge at the very least to the moral authority of the UN, specifically the offices of UN Secretary General and UNHRC, the duly authorized bodies entrusted to deliver justice to the victims of the heinous genocide crimes that shocked humanity. The Secretary General’s office meeting with officials of the crime tainted SL regime that challenges Ban’s authority to appoint the panel and with SL officials like Palitha Kohona an accused in a case filed with ICC, and General Shavendre Silva involved in the Mullivaykkal (M’kal) massacres is morally most unacceptable. These are bound to compromise the standards of justice eventually delivered by the UN mandated courts. Analysts have discussed at length Nambiar’s role as Delhi’s South Block agent colluding with the ‘in the loop’ M’kal Narayanan and Shiva Shankar Menon who names also surface in SL’s crimes once Gothabhaya Rajapakse holds on to his ‘in the loop’ defense in any international court proceedings on SL massacres.
The reports of the Inner City Press, a vibrant champion striving to bring war criminals to account for their crimes highlight the elusive and unbecoming conduct of some of the participants during those meetings with Ban. That the sectarian Delhi South Block Nambiar continues to be guided by the unacceptable Delhi South Block intrigue norms in discharging his role as an official of the UN, an august body explains the lack of progress by Ban’s‘expert panel’. There is the possibility that Nambiar is covertly advising SL on how to abort Ban’s expert panel. In true Delhi South Block style the Inner City Press pictures show Nambiar hiding behind a curtain to avoid being seen in the picture of the meeting Ban had with the SL officials specifically Kohona Palitha. Nambiar has good reasons to avoid being seen huddled with the SL group in Ban’s office. This behavior gives rise to suspicion that the Delhi South Block Nambiar is still covertly calling the shots in UN’s SL war crimes initiatives. The Inner City Press makes reference to Nambiar’s inappropriate conduct in the context of events that led to the massacre of white flag waving resistance leaders. This implies that the implicated SL and Delhi have infiltrated Ban’s UN office using Nambiar as agent to save those described as Gothabhaya’s ‘in the loop’ accomplices.
The group that included Nambiar, M’kal Narayanan and Gothabhaya are suspects who covertly acted in Colombo in May 2009 ‘in the loop’ group sessions that led to the massacres that Ban is working on. What role the ‘in the loop’ group played in the tragedy that befell Eelam Tamils will only be fully unraveled in the proceedings of the ICC?
That Ban’s ‘expert panel’ has not made any progress does cause serious misgivings when officials connected to the offending parties are able to delay and or frustrate the work of a panel working for the UN. Eelam Tamils still living in SL desperately hold to the belief that the deterrence of UN action through international courts will stop the continuing genocide excesses in SL forever. The reports on the covert role that Nambiar still plays in Ban’s office shatters the trust that Eelam Tamils reposed on the UN and Ban.
For SL’s deputy High Commissioner Shavendra Silva to defiantly state that ‘his government would only hold talks with Ban’s advisors (Nambiar?), not with the ‘expert panel investigating war crimes’ indicates SL’s defiance of the UN as an institution , yet nominates whom in the UN it will deal with. SL is satisfied with Nambiar capacity to influence the direction of Ban’s ‘expert panel’ in SL’s favour. Nambiar’s coziness with the Rajapakses resulted in his May 2009 involvement in the plot that led to the massacre of the ‘white flag’ waving resistance leaders – a war crime. The Rajapakses expectation that Nambiar’s membership in the Delhi South Block partnership in SL crimes will give them the leverage to extricate him and his partners from those crimes working from within the UN establishment. SL sees merits in dragging Delhi in, to share culpability for those crimes committed in SL. The Rajapakses expect overt assistance from Nambiar here.
M’kal Narayanan was similarly entrapped by the Rajapakses in the M’kal massacres with Gothabhaya Rajapakse making explicit his ‘in the loop’ involvement charge. This explains Delhi over appeasing Colombo, post resistance. M’kal Narayanan was acting on the specific orders of his Delhi bosses (Sonia faction in the ruling Congress) for which he used his frequent visits to Colombo in early 2009 for the ‘in the loop’ sessions with the Rajapakses. It is not just coincidence that Nambiar joined M’kal Narayanan for the May 2009 ‘in the loop’ sessions that resulted not only in the white flag massacres but the equally severe Mullivaykkal massacres. By these acts M’kal Naraynan and Nambiar became hostages to the Rajapakse blackmail. Narayanan’s actions were however sanctioned by Delhi; but Nambiar’s actions were outside Ban’s UN office mandate. M’kal Narayanan had direction from his political masters to pressure SL to bring forward the final assault to May in view of the Indian Lok Sabha 2009 elections. SL complied with this pressure from Delhi embroiling Delhi in the war crime investigation that UN plans to cover.
To maintain and improve the moral authority of Ban’s office any influence that Nambiar has over the SL war crimes issue has to be ended. Under Delhi norms those with a vested interest in the outcome of the ‘expert panel’ continuing in a position to produce the outcome that absolves him and his co-conspirators from guilt is quite normal. Nambiar to replicate such a Delhi norm in the UN offices is unhealthy and is bound to undermine the moral authority of the UN by weakening its effectiveness in protecting victims of genocide. Had Ban acted boldly on this point, the cloud that hangs over Ban’s office will disappear. Ban’s office needs to disassociate itself from Nambiar’s covert actions. The fumbles of spokesmen of Ban’s office are avoided for the trust of victims in UN body’s commitment to delivering redress to the victims remains intact.
Ban delegated Nambiar to undertake an overt mission dispatching him to Colombo as his emissary to stop ’the predictable blood bath..(but he) met with his brother Satish, the SL government’s military consultant..and the Rajapakses, Narayanans and Menons (who were) directing the Tamil Genocide…The fate of those unfortunate civilians in M’kal and environments were decided and sealed. Having failed in his mission (to avoid the blood bath)…Nambiar returned to his boss in New York and personally apprised him of the ‘success’ of his mission’. Nambiar’s covert conduct in Colombo high jacked Ban’s noble intentions in collusion with his Delhi South Block accomplices. Ban could not have totally believed Nambiar’s story as details of Nambiar’s covert role in some of the massacres began to unravel soon after, that Ban proceeded to appoint, though belatedly his ‘expert group’. However for Ban to continue to maintain silence on Nambiar covert role is unfortunate though Delhi’s silence on M’kal Narayanan covert role in the SL massacres confirm that it had Delhi’s blessings. Unlike Delhi, Ban’s UN office was not a partner in the massacres that occurred. Ban has to officially express his displeasure or disapproval of Nambiar’s conduct in May 2009. Removing Nambiar from positions from which he is able to influence the eventual outcome of the Ban’s ‘expert panel’ is appropriate. For Ban to leave behind a legacy of silence when a key member in his office is accused/implicated in some of the massacres in SL and continues to act covertly using the UN office is certainly not a pleasant Ban record.
Delhi’s style of managing the aftermath of the M’kkal massacres in SL as unraveled deserves public censure. M’kal Narayanan ‘in the loop’ role had the tacit approval of Delhi (Sonia faction). Though Delhi’s story to the TN government and Tamilians is that M’kal Narayanan’s visit was to ensure that civilians trapped in Mullivaykkal are spared, Delhi’s support to SL was to fight the Eelam resistance (LTTE or terrorism) not the Eelam Tamils, sufficient details are out in the open now that Delhi knowingly partnered in the SL genocide and the massacres the UN is interested in pursuing. The ‘in the loop’ role of M’kal Narayanan gave Colombo the leverage to blackmail Delhi at great cost to UPA the ruling coalition in Delhi. M’kal Narayanan besides supplying firepower and men to the front lines, also had RAW’s continuous surveillance of the battle front to pinpoint targets for the final assault in the narrow coastal belt packed with civilians. Though Sonia Congress paid lip service for ‘a political solution’ to the Eelam Tamils, RAW’s battle front intelligence boosted the lethality of SL’s military assault to cause the massive M’kal massacres. RAW that claimed that its high tech over flight could spot even persons moving from a height of 40 000 feet had the required information on civilian concentrations there, RAW failed to use it to act to minimize the scale of the massacre. Thus the M’kal assault and massacres was a joint Delhi-Colombo partnership both in their planning, the timing and lethality of the assault.
Under these circumstances how much of the Delhi ‘talk’ on striving to minimize civilian casualties is to be believed can be gauged from how the details on the 2G scam is being dished out to the public. PM Manmohan pleaded inability to control the misdemeanors of ministers/officials due to the constraints of coalition politics though in ‘reality (he) accommodate(d)s political expediency highlight(ing) ethical and governance deficit’. For public consumption PM Singh lent his public face (to please the Tamilians in TN) but whether it was a Raja in the 2G scam or a Narayanan in the Mullivaykal massacres it was Sonia who was calling the shots to satisfy her personal caprice. The level of deception practiced by Delhi on the Tamilians in TN is legendary. Sonia’s caprice was to deliver on Rajiv’s contractual commitment to SL Jayawardene (JR) after a one-to-one tête-à-tête in 1987 to defeat the Tamil resistance by killing its leader Prabhaharan. According to General Harikirat, Rajiv ordered him to kill off Prabhaharan in 1987, Harikirat’s invitee. The general disobeyed that order viewing that killing an invitee (with white flag) was unacceptable under universal military codes. According to Brahma Chellanny, Sonia personal caprice was more than avenging Rajiv’s assassination. It was to deliver on Rajiv’s commitment to eliminate the Tamil resistance (LTTE) including its leadership.
On coming to power in 2004 Delhi’s support for SL was essentially covert; the DMK support being critical for the survival of the UPA. As the 2G factor emerged in 2007 Delhi used it to blackmail the DMK into toeing its line on SL relations. Delhi’s support for SL from now on became more overt than covert. Sonia was reacting to the advice of the sectarian South Block and TN Congress stalwarts (Chidambaram) highlighting DMK’s desperate predicament over the 2G scam to go forward with its overt support for SL pointing out that DMK would not provoke the fall of the UPA rule in Delhi for this. Pranab Mukerjee, a Sonia faithful acted as the messenger to deliver the TN CM a warning that DMK act to quieten TN Tamilian protests in reaction to the atrocities against Eelam Tamils and Delhi’s support for Colombo that was snowballing from August 2008. Sonia was emboldened to act also to damage the credentials of DMK as a party with established Dravidian credentials especially for acting decisively when the interests of the Tamils are threatened anywhere. The thinking in the Congress that the DMK is a spent force became more pronounced after DMK was caught up in the 2 G scam following which it vacillated and its reaction to the Mullivaykal massacres and Narayanan’s Menik Farm detention of hundreds of thousands of Tamils in 2009 was totally subdued.
Thus TN Congress stalwarts like Chidambaram used the post 2G scam timidity of the DMK to seriously erode DMK’s electoral standing. The Congress TN stalwarts instigated the selective leaks of the telephone taps targeted to damage DMK’s electoral credentials. These were the back-stabbing moves of Sonia to support Rahul’s PM ambitions using a revived TN Congress as the spring board to power. The victim of the Congress back-stabbing was DMK its loyal coalition partner.
Thus the TN protests that gathered momentum in 2008 quietened. M’kal Narayanan also visited Chennai frequently to make clear to TN CM that Delhi’s pro SL stance even after the Mullivaykal massacres required the TN CM to keep Tamil sentiments calm even though Delhi diplomatically worked to stall the international UNHRC war crimes initiatives in May 2009. M’kal Narayanan and other South Block accomplices have a vested interest in stalling all war crimes initiatives.
These explain why the Eelam Tamils do not look up to any support from Delhi under UPA for redress from the SL genocide. Hence Eelam Tamils’ total reliance on the international community, Ban and the UN courts to ensure that SL criminals are held accountable to save lives and end the SL genocide. SL that even accused Ban of exceeding (South Block Nambiar’s advice?) his authority in appointing the panel is now concerned that the panel report about to be produced soon will recommend establishing a Commission of inquiry, a first step before an international prosecution. Eelam Tamils, the victims, for their salvation have valid reasons to repose their trust in Ban’s office and its panel to take this next step towards holding SL accountable for its crimes instead of the UPA regime in Delhi post Indraji that has totally betrayed the Tamilians. The TN DMK in opting to survive politically at the expense of the Eelam Tamil cause, caved in to the Sonia Congress schemes, losing its credibility as the champion of the Tamils.