UN 'suspends' Sri Lankan Peacekeepers, again...

"UN suspends Sri Lankan troops from peacekeeping over army chief appointment" said in big bold letters as reported by Reuters .

This so called "suspension" is nothing but a PR gimmick and it really reminds me of the time when the UN "pulled-out" its Regional office from Colombo in protest of Wimal Weerawansa's 'farce unto death' in front of UNDP's SL office at Bauddhaloka mawatha several years ago.

Later the UN was caught pants down when it was revealed that the withdrawal of the UNDP Regional Office was anyway slated due to budget cuts and was in the process well before Wimal's antic! nevertheless, opposition and the so called 'civil society' had a field day screaming the UN was leaving because of Wimal's actions against the UN !

If you read Farhan Haq's statement, he added "In light of this appointment, the U.N. Department of Peace Operations is therefore suspending future Sri Lankan army deployments except where suspension would expose U.N. operations to serious operational risk." 

Well, the last time I checked, there were no Sri Lankan troops raising the flags in UN in Geneva nor patrolling the ceasefire lines in Cyprus.

They are all deployed in deepest of war torn Africa and worst of violent Middle East or in Haiti, where criminality controls most of the territory (where even US forces venture not far out from its Embassy!).

So, in other words, SL peacekeepers are deployed in locations where the UN faces extreme risks.

Hence, in reality there will be no withdrawals nor suspensions. issue lies elsewhere, in Colombo where our own governments ( including the last Rajapaksha administration) have no balls to stand up to international (read pro-Eelam lobby) machinations and play diplomacy with diplomacy.

On the shorter term , instead paying lip service or issuing halfhearted statements , the Government should review Sri Lanaka's role in UN peacekeeping vis a vie the so called allegations against its military and decide in principle to participate in UNPKOs based on principle or just pull out altogether.

On the longer term , our govt should engage with the International community to address these allegations once in for all but then again, that's all a pipe dream. under Gota, who many of assume (or hope) will stake a more 'strong' stand, things will get even worse.

Gunning for Gota...

The former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is sued in a US court over alleged extrajudicial killing and torture in Sri Lanka .The Centre for Justice and Accountability on behalf of Ahimsa Wickrematunge, Lasantha Wickrematunge's daughter is said to be the US based group which had filed this suit.

Its worthwhile to look into what this Center for Justice and Accountability is. A quick look at the list of staff and there is Ms.Jennifer Rasmussen who is said to be the director for transitional justice and quite possibly the person working on the said suit against Mr.Rajapaksha.

I would not be surprised if her time at the UN cross paths with Ms.Samantha Power. And if so, the Cat is out of the bag.... we know who sleeps with who here. Gota, it seems, present a very clear and present danger to the US and its extended interests via the Eelamist project in Sri Lanka to have him firmly in their cross-hairs. And so, they have started their campaign to deny Gota the candidacy that everyone in Sri Lanka is waiting for.

I've added a screenshot of CJA's main page here.. it says "We identify&prosecute worlds worst human rights criminals " yeah, right...How selective they are... just the day before United States revoked the visa of the International Criminal Court's ( ICC ) chief prosecutor because of her attempts to investigate allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan, including any that may have been committed by US force occupying Afghanistan.

This is US duplicity at its best here and irony of all this is CJA is said to be the same lawyers who said to have 'successfully' brought a civil suit against the Syrian government for the killing of the Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin.

And we do remember late Ms.Colvin, the journalist for few things including getting caught in an LTTE attack against what appeared to be a military target and losing an eye after getting injured (and always claimed she was caught in the cross-fire between Sri Lankan military and the LTTE although she knew well it was indeed an LTTE instigated attack-there was no 'cross-fire' ) and for witnessing LTTE recruiting or use of child soldiers and never wrote a thing about it though she, in private, mentioned this a few times to close confidants or over drunken loose talk but then again Matthew Heineman, the director of  the film 'A Private War' conveniently dropped this from the script.

The LTTE in Sri Lanka may be dead and gone, but LTTE Inc and the Eelam lobby that lives off its scarps is alive and well and this civil suit in the US signifies a big shift.

In one way a desperate attempt by the US (and its henchmen in Sri Lanka, in the likes of UNP leadership and the TNA ) to prevent Gotabhaya Rajapaksha from being conferred the candidacy of the common opposition for the up-coming presidential elections in Sri Lanka and then in another way signifies move from a more traditional rhetoric based Anti-Sri Lanka movement to a more venomous and destructive path with incisive strikes.

This battle, I'm afraid we are not ready nor equipped enough even to offer meek resistance.