Now That Terrorism Has Been Defeated, We Need To Check “Our Friends”

During the past 26 years when Sri Lanka faced many adversities in the efforts to eliminate terrorism we saw many “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who came to help our country but in reality what they did was fatten their own coffers & revel in the misery they created for our citizens in the name of humanitarian, socio-economic development programmes and also through sale of weaponry to the terrorist movement in a bid to divide this country. Since 1978 onwards, Sri Lanka became a very lucrative breeding ground for INGOs & NGOs who all professed to know the panacea for all Sri Lankan ills.

Most of the aid organisations including the UN and UNDP doled out their highly biased agendas and twisted all subsequent governments round their little fingers interfering into all internal matters of this country. Those who had absolutely no knowledge of our national heritage or culture deemed it their “right” to issue recipes for us to cook. Fortunately, during the last three and a half years, this scenario has changed gradually & we have begun to raise our heads with pride and dignity. Countries like Britain, USA, Australia, EU-all treated us with contempt and arrogance-their biggest weapon against Sri Lanka was threatening to bring about economic sanctions against us, if we did not heed their warnings on how to handle the terrorist problem “their way.” Regrettably, we also need to state that so called Orthodox Churches in Sri Lanka have also worked hand-in-glove with these international organisations and countries against our sovereignty & national interests.

Now that terrorism has been wiped out in Sri Lanka and all its leaders have been eliminated, we will face new road blocks in our development programmes & the Sri Lankan government will need to be extremely cautious when dealing with offers of help and friendship to help in the rehabilitation process in the North.

For 26 years the unfortunate Tamil civilians in the North and East have had to undergo untold miseries at the hands of LTTE brutalism & have even been deprived of following their Hindu religious practises without fear. Today the North and East are free and people are free to move around and it is our foremost duty, to help them return to their homes and return to the normalcy of their religious customs and practises. Majority of Tamils in the North are Hindus & any attempts by other religious denominations to use the situation of the IDPs and attempt to “harvest souls” using unethical methods must never be permitted. There is no necessity for these innocent civilians to fall from the frying pan to the fire!

In the rehabilitation programmes it is necessary for the Armed Forces and government to be in the forefront because it is they who know the ground situation in the North and not some foreigner or NGO representative. No INGOs or NGOs should be permitted to interfere in the government programmes or to conduct their own individual programmes without government approval or monitoring. We do not need anymore foreign interference in either the rehabilitation process or the resettlement programmes since they need to be done according to our local situation in the best interests of the helpless Tamil civilians. This cannot and must not have foreign flavours mixed in to disrupt the social fabric of our society.

How International Humanitarian Aid Organisations Helped Fund TRO During 2005:

An article which appeared in the “Lanka”(Sinhala Weekly) of 30th November 2008 explains in detail how so called INGOs and NGOs as well as Norway channelled funding to the TRO in 2005 amounting to a massiveRs.1,276,937,272.02.00.The breakdown is given herewith:

Norway Government=Rs.249,785,167.50; NECORD=Rs.236,705,360.15;Danish Refugee Council

=Rs.173,991,233.00; FORUT=Rs.78,583,776.60; Emergency-Italy=Rs.50,531,268.70; Operation USA= Rs.49,849,500.00; Action AID= Rs.32,559,380.59; Maltezer Germany= Rs.32,003,788.75; Save the Children’s Fund= Rs.29,607,948.00; OXFAM =Rs.27,381,940.00 ; Asian-German Exchange Programme = Rs.26,109,375.00; CARE International = Rs.20,112,978.00 ; ADB = Rs.16,013,663.90 ;

HOMSA-UK = Rs.14,559,372.60 ; GTZ-Germany = Rs.12,998,044.25 ; ABC Foundation-Italy =

Rs.4,420,523.79 ; UNICEF = Rs.6,617,146.10 ; SJMO-Italy=Rs.4,420,523.79 ; CISS-Italy

=Rs. 4,268, 840.05 ; CHA=Rs.3,346,000.00 ; UNDP=2,221,532.20 ; ZOA = Rs.2,000,000.00 ;

Room to Read-USA = Rs.1,600,979.00 ; GEORJ BECK= Rs.1,276,278.00 ; Norwegian Refugee Council= Rs.1,200,000.00; Christian World Service = Rs.1,110,978.00 ; BAJ-Japan = Rs.720,000.00 ;

NEIAP = Rs.680,800.00; Sarvodaya = Rs.489,050.00 ; Sondraberg DK = Rs.249,500.00. Sub-total from NGOs= Rs.1,094,789,687.78; Other organisations, individuals and expatriate Tamils=

Rs.182,149,554.24 ; TOTAL DURING 2005= Rs.1,276,937,272.02

From the above, we can see quite clearly how these organisations have been involved whether directly or indirectly with the LTTE terrorist movement while working within Sri Lanka which, in other words can be said to be involved in destabilizing our country. These are the types of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” that we Sri Lankans need to be cautious about in future. During the last phase of war against the terrorists our Armed Forces have also unearthed from bunkers and hide-outs bullet proof vehicles, and Duty Free items that only the diplomatic services are permitted to bring into the country. Here again, we have serious doubts about the sincerity of these organisations and missions towards the Sri Lankan State.

Free access to the North and refugee camps of IDPs should not be permitted without government officials being present as these humanitarian organisations have broken the trust that our country placed in them and their work. Christian organisations must not be permitted to go and deal with these hapless civilians in order to prevent their agendas of unethical conversions of Hindus to Christianity. Charity without getting something back, is not their slogan & it is absolutely horrendous to hear of the activities of such organisations which use the misery of civilians for their hidden agendas.

If any country or organisations are genuine in their concerns for the IDPs, they are most welcome to work together with the government authorities and prove their sincerity. However, in the words of UN Secretary-General who stated that Sri Lanka was in dire need of international assistance, our country needs to judge what these “dire needs” are?

People like the US Ambassador Robert O’Blake or Ban Ki-Moon do not need to worry about reconciliation because we Sri Lankans can handle that aspect without foreign interference. Even during the last 26 years when terrorists were murdering en-mass Sinhala civilians, Tamils and Sinhalese together with Muslims lived very harmoniously in the South and conducted normal businesses without the famous “ethnic conflict” that the west is all too fond of talking about.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon who is visiting Sri Lanka right now has made some comments which need to be looked into. On the plane to Sri Lanka, the UN chief said his first priority would be “unimpeded access to the sites of the displaced by international, humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations.”

Mr Ban said he would also appeal to Mr Rajapaksa to open political reconciliation talks between the majority Sinhalese and the Tamil minority. “It’s time for Sri Lankans to heal the wounds and unite without regards for religious and ethnic identity,” he added.

The Secretary-General must know that it is the responsibility of the Sri Lankan government to ensure the welfare of her civilian population and there is no need for him to request for “unimpeded access to the sites of the displaced by international, humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations.” This has already proved to be fatal to the interests of our country and our government has every right to monitor and restrict any movements of foreign individuals or organisations if it is deemed to be working contrary to national interests of our country.

What Sri Lanka needs at this point, is genuine & sincere friendship and it is upto the foreign organisations and government to extend their hands if they wish to help Sri Lanka, offering assistance to the Sri Lankan government instead of threatening us with investigations against war crimes and economic sanctions as Hillary Clinton has gone on record as stating that IMF help is not timely at this juncture.

We would appreciate if all foreign governments and individual organisations kindly remember to respect the wishes of an independent and sovereign country & offer the help they talk so much about without strings being attached. That is what we Sri Lankans call true friendship.

By Darmitha-Kotte
source: Lankaweb