by JAWED NAQVI
Channel 4’s new exposé of the Sinhalese army’s unspeakable atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamils should put the focus not only on that country’s scant respect for the Geneva Conventions, it must shine the light on Colombo’s partners in a crime which was no less in its enormity than a near-successful attempt at ethnic cleansing.
The culprits most outstandingly include Pakistan and China chiefly because they armed and advised the government of President Rajapakse to carry out the war that ended in a gut-wrenching climax.
The world’s civilised men and women should call to account the role played by the United States and India among those that looked away when women and children were being slaughtered or raped and victory trophies videographed by jubilant soldiers.
One such memento has fortunately found its way into the safe hands of the British broadcaster and has set off a delayed debate in the Indian parliament. Tamil MPs are questioning New Delhi’s aloofness from a UN move to nail the Sri Lankan government.
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Did we hear a bleat out of Pakistan against the aerial murder of innocents as it occasionally protests about its own? The reason for me to mention Pakistan on Palestine is linked to the Sri Lankan perfidy.
Remember that Gen Musharraf was on his way back from Colombo after handing over a hefty cheque and promise of arms to the Sri Lankan government when he hit the ground running to stage the coup. I asked Gen Musharraf at a news conference in Islamabad soon after he took power why he had two sets of principles about freedom struggles. He supported the Kashmiris but opposed the Tamils. He said it was not Pakistan’s policy to interfere in another country’s affairs.
That was rubbish. He had just come home after interfering in another country’s domestic stand-off by arming one side against the other. Recent reports suggest Islamabad is willing to live with the back-burner treatment the Kashmir dispute is now getting. Once a staunch supporter of Palestinians it now looks to the Saudis to show the way.
True, times have changed; the Cold War has ended; the Soviet Union has collapsed; the market called the shots (till it shot itself in the foot) and unequal wars became the beacons of hope for a global middle-class utopia. True, there is growing compulsion for every vulnerable Third World country to line up behind the remaining superpower.
Dawn for more
(Thanks to Harsh Kapoor of SACW)