Britain is at it again: after announcing ‘grave concern’ about the situation in Sri Lanka, they are sending an ‘envoy’, in fact the prime minister’s ‘special’ envoy who goes by the name Des Browne, to New York for urgent talks with the UN. This is because that genius David Miliband is ‘concerned’ about the conflict in northern Sri Lanka ‘threatening many thousands of civilian lives’.
As many observers have noted, this obviously bogus concern about civilian deaths arises partly from the cynical placating the pro-Tiger Tamils in Britain for party political reasons: but as Britain has always been renowned for, there are other clandestine and sinister objectives behind all their moves. In this case they are nothing to do with the Tamils, or the Tigers, for that matter.
The real reason behind Des Browne’s disingenuous ‘mercy mission’ to the UN is to divert the attention of the honest members of the UN Security Council, that is Russia and China, away from the callous and disgraceful killings of innocent women, children and the elderly they are carrying out on a daily basis under the NATO flag in Afghanistan.
The latest of these occurred on April 13 when they killed six civilians, including a young girl, in Helmand province in eastern Afghanistan. Fourteen other civilians were wounded. A relative of some of the victims said warplanes began bombing about 3 am, killing four members of one family including an eight year old boy and two in other families including a three year old girl.
After the initial denials, instead claiming eight ‘militants’ had been killed, they were forced to admit that they killed six civilians in an air strike. Just a few days before, they apologised for a similar incident that killed five.
Less than a week before that particular incident, the US military admitted killing five civilians including an infant in Khost province. The governor of Kunar province complained that five houses were damaged and one was demolished in the NATO air strike in Sangar village.
These reckless, callous and cowardly killings have angered even their own ‘puppet President’ Hamid Karzai, prompting him to call the NATO general responsible, the American David McKiernan, for the second time in three days for an explanation.
Soaring civilian death tolls from the British, U.S. and NATO night time air strikes over the past six years, and their total lack of concern about civilian deaths have created the perception that they consider themselves to be above the international humanitarian and war crimes laws. But the British as well as the Americans and their other NATO partners-in-war crimes know that the right thinking people in the world, not to mention the general (non-Taliban) populace of Afghanistan, deplore these war crimes.
Within Afghanistan they are adopting a new tactic: saying sorry fast and offering compensation (of course, based on their valuation of an Afghan life). But with civilian casualties still mounting, the new approach will not blunt the fury of an Afghan public wary of the invasion.
The attempts to divert attention to Sri Lanka is founded on the need to keep the abhorrence of the wider, real ‘international community’ (not theirs; UK, US and Norway) about these killings at bay, without doing anything to prevent civilian deaths, or leaving Afghanistan.
The question that arises is as to what ‘talks’ this other Brown(e) is going to be engaged in at the UN? Say Hi to Mr Heller? What special right has he got to rush to the UN on a matter he has nothing to do with?
If the British have any concerns about human life, Human Rights or Democracy, they would not have invaded Afghanistan or Iraq (not to mention their dirty colonial past). If they did, they would have left these countries to their own devices. But Britain has proved throughout history that their ruling upper class twits are a sick community that cares only about their own sick and pompous egos, and resources in the developing world.
What is most repulsive about the British position is their apprent refusal to accept the repeated assurances of the Sri Lankan government including the President and the Defence establishment that civilian safety is utmost in their minds during the planning of operations.
This arrogant refusal is despite the proof on the ground of the Sri Lankan Army that the operations are slowed to help civilians escape from the Tigers. They should compare the Sri Lankan army’s record against own disgraceful record in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This conspiracy is concerning. But China and Russia will be fully awake to the motives behind this typically British scam.
Ajit Randeniya