Policy Research Group   - Strategic Insight: ‘Year-ender’ Disclosures Test Rajapaksa Nerves

‘Year-ender’ Disclosures Test Rajapaksa Nerves
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editor on 29 December, 2010 01:00:00
 
Yet another WikiLeaks cable has become a source of discomfort for the Rajapaksa
government as the Year 2010 is about to end. This cable was dated 18th of May
2007. It means it was sent long before the Eelam War IV had entered the final
phase and thus became the basis of Ambassador Butenis cable in January 2010,
which was on ‘the wires’ in the first week of December.
Though separated by two years, both cables convey more or less the same view
point that the responsibility for many of the alleged war crimes rests with the
country’s senior civilian and military leaders. The issue would remain wrapped
in Rajapaksa mystery with the prospect of investigations being dim. At least for
the present.
The significance of the ‘year-end’ WikiLeaks cable is that it speaks of
‘collusion’ between the Sri Lankan government, the Eelam People’s
Democratic Party (EPDP) and Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulihal (TMVP), during the
campaign against the Tamil Tigers. EPDP leader Kathiravelu Nithyananda Douglas
Devananda, commonly known as Douglas Devananda, had scores to settle with his
one time boss as he was subjected to as many as 13 assassination attempts since
he joined the national mainstream, and made it a point to proudly proclaim his
pro-government leanings irrespective of ‘who is in power in Colombo’.
Though in passing, Ambassador Blake’s cable states what every one believed to
be true in Colombo then and now- that successive governments had been
patronising anti-Tiger militia. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, who is better
known as Colonel Karuna Amman, on the other hand, owes his politicalgraph
entirely to the Rajapaksa brothers. Though EPDP and TMVP are rivals on the
Jaffna theatre, both have been the key components of President Rajapaksa’s
Jaffna strategy. It is pertinent to recall in this context that the President
had publicly declared once that it was he who had engineered a split in the LTTE
that resulted in the Karuna faction moving out of Pirabhakaran’s den. From
there to the corridors of power in Jaffna first and Colombo later was a short
hop for the TMVP.
The May 2007 cable, written by then US Ambassador to Sri   Lanka, Robert O.
Blake reports that the governments of both President Mahinda Rajapakse, and his
predecessor, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, aided and abetted the ‘death
squads’ of EPDP and TMVP. Blake was dismissive of government denials and
investigations, declaring, “Outside the capital, the incidence of human rights
abuses has continued, including extra-judicial killings, abductions, child
trafficking, extortion, and prostitution.” And he went on to say that a
growing number of trusted Embassy contacts, ‘often at personal risk’, had
described in detail the extent of the  Government of Sri Lanka’s involvement
with ‘paramilitary’ ( private militia) groups.
Blake’s cable to the State Department noted that the Colombo government saw
“several advantages in allowing paramilitary groups”, not only for
operations against LTTE, but to “enhance security in Colombo by kidnapping and
sometimes killing those suspected of working with the LTTE. Frequent abductions
by paramilitaries keep critics of the GSL fearful and quiet.” The militia also
gave Colombo “a measure of deniability”.
WHAT ALMOST HAS BECOME THE ‘NEMESIS’ OF PRESIDENT RAJAPAKSA WAS HIS
STRATEGY OF PLAYING DELHI AGAINST BEIJING AND ISLAMABAD AND WASHINGTON AGAINST
BEIJING AND TEHRAN.THIS WAS THE REASON WHY DEFENCE SECRETARY GOTABHAYA RAJAPAKSE
HAD ‘ORDERED’ JAFFNA MILITARY COMMANDERS TO ‘NOT INTERFERE
WITH THE PARAMILITARIES’ ON THE GROUNDS THAT THEY ARE DOING
‘WORK’ THAT ‘THE MILITARY CANNOT DO BECAUSE OF INTERNATIONAL
SCRUTINY’—IN OTHER WORDS EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS AND OTHER ILLEGAL
ACTIVITIES. THE DEFENCE MINISTRY ALSO INSTRUCTED TOP OFFICIALS “NOT TO
INTERFERE WITH OPERATIONS OF MILITARY INTELLIGENCE”, WHICH WORKED CLOSELY
THE PARAMILITARIES.
Though in passing, Ambassador Blake’s cable states what every one believed to
be true in Colombo then and now- that successive governments had been
patronising anti-Tiger militia. This is what ambassador Blake says while on the
subject. ‘The Rajapaksa government ‘strapped for cash, has cut direct
payments to paramilitaries initiated by former President Kumaratunga, and
instead turns a blind eye to extortion and kidnapping for ransom by EPDP and
Karuna’.  The defence secretary authorised the EPDP and Karuna to blackmail
Tamil businessmen as a ‘means of raising funds’. And both militia forced
‘war widows and young girls into prostitution’ and created ‘cadres of
child soldiers’.
Whatever be his other failing, Blake’s embassy had its eyes and ears close to
the ground. Take for instance, the great lengths to which his cable goes to
describe the modus operandi of killers. “When the EPDP intends to kill a
target, they first provide notice to the military... At an agreed time, all the
soldiers in the designated area take a five to ten minute ‘break’ at once
… At that point, armed and masked gunmen, often riding on motorcycles, race
down the street and assassinate the intended victim. Shortly after the killing,
the soldiers’ break over, they return to their posts to deal with the
aftermath”, the cable said quoting an informant.
Ambassador Blake’s ‘sources’ believed that Karuna had set up ‘the
assassination’ of Tamil MP Joseph Pararajasingham on Christmas Day 2005 with
‘the help of EPDP leader Devananda..’…. The source was also positive that
Karuna cadres were employed in the killing in Colombo of popular Tamil MP
Nadarajah Raviraj on November 10, 2006.
What is the inescapable conclusion from these WikiLeaks? One Ambassador Blake
and the Bush administration were aware of the ‘war crimes’ that were being
committed. Two Ambassador Butenis and the Obama administration are well aware of
the answer to the question as to who is the real criminal in the war crimes.
Third, Washington deliberately maintained a diplomatic silence as the Rajapaksa
brothers mounted their final offensive to eliminate the Prabhakaran scourge.
This ‘disclosure’ will undoubtedly bring smile to the London and New York
based HR campaigners but it will not take them anywhere near their goal of
hauling up Lankan President at the bar of International Court for Justice. The
reason is provided, rather unwittingly by the ‘leaked’ cables.
In a sense, the ‘year-ender’ brings home the bitter truth that HR has become
a potent weapon for the West in securing  its  plans and planks.In a sense, the
‘year-ender’ has exposed the limits to Washington’s HR concern. To put it
more bluntly, it brings home the bitter truth that HR has become a potent weapon
for the West in securing its 21st century geo-strategic and diplomatic plans and
planks.
What almost became the ‘nemesis’ of President Rajapaksa was his strategy of
playing Delhi against Beijing and Islamabad and Washington against Beijing and
Tehran. When he conceived the strategy, it had its novelty, and allowed him the
turf space he wanted as his interlocutors, particularly the West, needed time to
take a deep breath and to put their act together.
The UN Secretary General’s plan to set up an advisory (probe?) panel, and the
registering of a war crimes case shows that President Rajapaksa’s strategy has
run aground.  He will have to reinvent his diplomatic wheel nearer home in the
Indian Ocean, and beyond in the Pacific and the Atlantic.
During the Eelam War IV, his reliance on China was noticed but was not viewed
with alarm. His post-war opening up to China falls under a different heading.
China is an unabashedly aggressive player but it has miles to go before it can
rest on its achievements.
Till then, whatever be the shape and size of the greenback, and the rupee,
Colombo cannot join games that had appeared good at the time of cold war. This
is the price demanded by its location strategically at the heart of Sea lanes. 
Hambantota is not going to offer any brownie points; in fact, it is going to
hurt the Lanka economy in the short to medium term and end up as a political
football.
WHATEVER BE THE SHAPE AND SIZE OF THE GREENBACK, AND THE RUPEE, COLOMBO CANNOT
JOIN GAMES THAT HAD APPEARED GOOD AT THE TIME OF COLD WAR ANY BRAND HAS A
LIMITED SHELF-LIFE. IT NEEDS A REJIG REGULARLY FOR LONGEVITY. THIS MAXIM APPLIES
TO THE RAJAPAKSA BRAND AS WELL AS LONG AS NEW YORK IS VIEWED AS THE GREAT
EL’ DORADO FOR ECONOMIC NIRVANA AND, DELHI AS THE GAYA FOR SPIRITUAL
NIRVANA. IN THE MEANWHILE, IT MUST RECKON WITH A WASHINGTON REALITY - AMBASSADOR
ROBERT BLAKE, THE AUTHOR OF ‘YEAR-END’ WIKILEAKS CABLE, IS NOW THE
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SOUTH AND CENTRAL
ASIAN AFFAIRS.
Friendly journos at home can only help in spreading denials but no more.