Blake’s Sri Lanka fixation
By Sugeeswara Senadhira
Colombo, 01 March, (Asiantribune.com):
Not a week passes without some absurdly critical comment by Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake on Sri Lanka.
One could understand when Blake as Ambassador to Sri Lanka making a statement after statement on Sri Lankan issues, but there too, he has made more comments on local issues than any other Ambassador/High Commissioner including the envoy of India, a nation most of Sri Lankan consider as a relation, more than a friend as President Mahinda Rajapaksa said earlier this month.
Blake is no longer the US envoy to Sri Lanka. Now he is the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia. But his preoccupation on Sri Lankan affairs has not reduced a bit despite the fact that his domain of ‘Central and South Asia’ is much larger than this island nation of 65,000 square kilometers.
His domain now includes gigantic super power India, conflict ridden Iraq, devastated Afghanistan, difficult US ally Pakistan, Turkey, where the military and government are at loggerheads, Myanmar where the military leadership has kept US favorite Aung-San Suu Ky under house arrest and many other countries with problems and challenges.
However, if you take the number of statements made by Blake on all those countries is definitely less than his statements on Sri Lankan affairs. If his statements are a real reflection of Blake’s mindset, he definitely has a fixation on Sri Lanka. One could laugh it off if it is merely a love-hate relationship, as hate, though one could do without, is said to be another side of love.
But Blake’s fixation is almost like paranoia because his statements clearly reflect love and hate – hate for Mahinda Rajapaksa Government and love for UNP, Ranil Wickremasinghe, Sarath Fonseka and even Somawansa Amarasinghe-led JVP, at one time an enemy considered as a dreaded Marxist terrorist.
The latest from Robert Blake is that the US government is ‘not satisfied with the manner in which the Rajapaksa government had handled the issue of former Sri Lankan Army chief General Fonseka arrest and hoped that Colombo would follow the rules of the land in this case.
"So far I think it has been less than we might have hoped for, but we have certainly encouraged the government of Sri Lanka to ensure that he is charged promptly, as you said, and that everything is handled in accordance with Sri Lankan law as they move forward," Blake was quoted as telling the BBC.
"We have encouraged the government to make public as quickly as possible what those charges are," he said.
Blake stayed in Sri Lanka long enough to know about the judicial system in this country though the system is not based on the US model but the Dutch Roman law which is also followed by the United Kingdom.
Mrs. Anoma Fonseka, wife of Sarath Fonseka has filed a petition in the Supreme Court and a 3-member bench headed by the acting Chief Justice has ruled that the current detention of Fonseka is not a violation of law. Mrs. Fonseka and his lawyers have publicly accepted the Supreme Court verdict. Now, if Robert Blake, who expressed hope earlier that ‘everything is handled in accordance with Sri Lankan law,’ is still not satisfied, what is he expecting the government to do? Violate the Sri Lankan law and take arbitrary action?
Talking of arbitrary action, a citizen of a democratic country like Sri Lanka, though not a power to reckon with, could have a right to ask about the US law and the Guantanamo detainees.
Whether they were charged within a speculated time period and whether all the legal procedures were followed. Many detainees are yet to be charged and the charges against them have not been disclosed.
During the tail end of Sri Lanka’s fight against terrorists, Blake and several other US and European leaders made visits and issued statements calling for immediate cessation of military activities. What is Blake’s answer to many a call for immediate stop of US military action in Afghanistan? Or earlier calls on American military takeover of Iraq on the pretext of searching for hidden Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) and chemical weapons?
After failing to prevent the elimination of LTTE terrorism, the West started to change their slogan to ‘internment camps’. Simply ignoring the fact that the government was doing everything possible to feed nearly 300,000 displaced persons, while weeding out terrorists in the guise of civilians, the West wanted ‘human rights’ for everybody. Mr. Blake should know better about ‘human rights’ of women and children dying in Afghanistan.
Blake, now talks about the displaced persons. "In our view, I think, one of the highest priorities now is first, to complete the resettlement of the internally displaced people. About 180,000 have been sent back from the camps, but approximately 100,000 still remain. So I think it’s important for them to be allowed to return to their homes and villages in the north as quickly as possible," Blake said.
Responding to a question on Tamil minority in Sri Lanka, Blake said it is important for the government to pursue as quickly as possible this process of national reconciliation and power sharing, particularly in the north.
"Then as part of that national reconciliation process, to begin a process of accountability for many of the human rights abuses that may have occurred during that war. And third, to again talk about the larger issue of possible war crimes that may have occurred. Again, that will be an important part of the larger reconciliation piece," Blake said.
The US Assistant Secretary of State has simply forgotten that the government has restored the democratic rights of the people of the north and east after a lapse of 30 years. As President Rajapaksa said after the January 2010 Presidential Election, “it doesn’t matter who polled more votes in the north and east. What is of paramount importance is that these people got an opportunity to vote”.
This all important right to choose your government is not important for Robert Blake. He has refrained from even mentioning this great achievement. For Mr Blake, and several other compatriots of his, the comments and statements are exclusively for negative actions. If one goes by the statements of Mr Robert Blake there is nothing positive in Sri Lanka.
- Asian Tribune -
Comments
Paithyam Ambassador
Mr. Blake is ridiculing US administration putting his two cents worth on Sri Lanka without any evidence. We all knew that he was more or less a LTTE mouth piece during the final days of the war. If these countries knew what is right and wrong they should have stopped this mayhem long ago. Talking about human rights, I beg your pardon. What about the human rights taken away from all the 20 millions Sri Lankans who had to live in fear. Many families did travel separately to avoid bomb blast. The destruction of human life and property is enormous.
Talking about re-settlement of displaced persons Americans should be ashamed of what is going on in Louisiana. After five years 90% population still living in trying circumstance. Majority of the people are living with friends in other states. Mr. Blake is blaming Sri Lanka about resettlements within 6 months of the war. Some of these persons have no place to go, being uprooted by Ltte for long period of time. They prefer the government run camps because they have security and other amenities to survive including food, medical care and education of children.
If not for stupid agreement UNP+SF+JVP had with TNA, Tamils in the North and East were planning to vote in favour of the government in a big way. But this agreement created a doubt in the mind of innocent Tamils. They were scared that the defunct LTTE was still alive and they will come after people who support the government and harm them. The so called Diaspora never sends any resources to feed the people in the camps. They were talking about Ealam in exile to satisfy their ego, not the sufferings of Tamils at home.