The Sisyphean meet
The country last week celebrated the victory over the three decade war. It would probably be better called Peace (Victory) Day rather than a war victory as the victims were both, sadly Sri Lankan youth and citizens.
The victory celebrations also starred a seminar titled ‘Defeating Terrorism, Sri Lanka Experience, Sri Lanka Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya encouraged countries facing terrorism challenges to them head on and he said them Sri Lanka experience could be used to counter them.
We saw a similar approach in Chechnya in the late 90s. And still Russia is facing Human Rights issues, that are faced by Russia since then. The world, perhaps, has seen many a such tragic events. The difference is Russia is now an “emerging market” (note the work market) while Sri Lanka is the only gateway to Central Asia as one US diplomat quite openly said in one of the seminars in Colombo some time ago.
And we do not have the economic prowess or resources prowess like China or Russia.
Many would still remember how the West propaganda machines repeatedly assaulted Russia and China over HR issue.
Now with trillions in business contracts the “Rights” have become well right, may be.
Meanwhile Indian newspaper Hindu reported the Army Commander as saying “Victory came with many sacrifices… [this is a] saga to be shared with the world. A saga of epic political resolve… National security is no longer confined to the borders as we see in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya”.
Defence Secretary also reminded how inappropriate regional foreign policies in 1987, stalled the military operation code named “Vadamarachchi Operation” which had pushed the LTTE to the brink of defeat.
But so far, sadly the media has not reported- or the seminar has not addressed the core issues of this “ism”-which makes people resort to terror as their voice. And more importantly why still there are armed terrorist groups like the Al qaeda.
There are more questions than answers, in fact. How are these groups getting these sophisticated arms? Black market? Try smuggling a pair of lingerie out of a garment factory in a remote village in Ampara!
And conveniently many countries avoided the confrontation chanting the HR mantra.
The fact is basically the civilians who are either getting caught or killed, it is just normal citizens who are caught in the global power plays too.
Generally our people are smartly stupid enough to bite the bait. And presto….the region goes on a downward spiral… sending enough free labour to the West. And it is the poor and the most vulnerable who get caught. That means more business for some.
Afghanistan has never seen peace in, perhaps, more than a century now. So are the oil rich- the middle eastern countries.
And we all know-some may not know-that Norway is the LARGEST PETROLEUM PRODUCER in the world! (A Jaffna born Norwegian Christian claiming to be a descendant of the Jaffna King is also in Norway! )
But we know how the West, its agents and many others tried hard to protect a psychologically affected terrorist.
Even sadder is that fact that other southern leaders too fall into the trap, and always conveniently forget the geopolitcal facts when formulating foreign policies. We’ve just completed JR’s experiment. We have to wait and see where MR’s experiment will take us. It has just begun with the arrival of three wisemen!
Unless something drastic happens Sri Lanka will find it difficult to find stability.
Meanwhile the Sri Lankan ‘experience’ is not a just a single incident; it is a marker in the change of global power balance and these groups and their actions have far more regional and global ramifications than just terrorizing. It is a global issue.
THAT…. is hard to win.
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