Sri Lanka yet to get ‘congratulatory message’ from U.S. leadership: War crimes charges against Sri Lanka under review says Blake

Daya Gamage – US Bureau Asian Tribune Political Note

Washington, D.C. 21 May (Asiantribune.com): While foreign US Ambassador Robert O. Blakeministers and leaders of many nations extended congratulatory messages to the Government of Sri Lanka for its historic military victory over the most ruthless terrorist outfit LTTE the United States which was entangled for many decades in a mixture of fact and fiction about the political scenario in Sri Lanka has so far failed to sent a positive congratulatory note from the highest level.

The congratulatory messages have been reduced to the level of an assistant secretary of the U.S. Defense Department telephoning Sri Lanka envoy in Washington and U.S. envoy to Sri Lanka Blake on his final call on President Rajapaksa before he departs for Washington to assume another position in the State Department.

Robert Blake in his final audience with the Sri Lanka media gave two hints: The charges brought by pro-LTTE lobby led by former U.S. assistant attorney general Bruce Fein against the Government of Sri Lanka of war crimes is under review. And, Blake indicated to the Sri Lanka media that it is not an easy task for the Rajapaksa administration to obtain the $1.9 Billion credit facility from the IMF.

Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who led the military campaign against the LTTE and General Sarath Fonseka who effectively spearheaded the onslaught have been targeted by the pro-LTTE lobby in the United States because of their civil status in U.S. Rajapaksa is a citizen of the U.S. and Fonseka is a Green Card Holder or has the status of Resident Alien.

The Tiger lobby has been tying its 'war crime' allegation to a U.S. Federal Legislation that has provisions for the U.S. to bring its own citizen living abroad for war crime tribunals.

Ambassador Blake was aware of this when he briefly said that it is under review.

The United States strongly believed in the late eighties and onto the new millennium that Tamil Tigers are invincible and that any solution to Sri Lanka’s national issue cannot be fruitful without the participation of the rebel group. The Foreign Service Officers of the State Department who served in Colombo during this period were directly and indirectly canvassing the successive Sri Lankan governments to evolve a national agenda that reflect the sentiments of the Tamil Tigers. The FSO strongly believed that there is compatibility between the goals and aims of the LTTE and the aspirations of the 12% minority Tamil community.

Buried in fact and fiction the United States Department of State, to some extent, was of the opinion that the total annihilation of the LTTE amounts to the silencing of the minority Tamil voice in Sri Lanka, in the belief of the U.S., will further consolidate the hegemony of the majority Sinhalese in the governance of the nation.

It is this scenario that the United States (and Ambassador Blake) does not want to absolve Sri Lanka of the war crimes allegation and does not want to commit itself tothe IMF loan. The U.S. has 16.9% stakes in the IMF to influence the governing board to suspend the loan.

And this development has led to the devaluing of the congratulatory message to low level USG officials.

As recently as 2007 the State Department officials believed that the 12% minority Tamils could win a ‘homeland’ short of a separate state. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher expressed this sentiment to the Sri Lanka media in one of his visits to Colombo. He said that any solution to Sri Lanka’s national issue needs to revolve round the 'Homeland Concept'.

The mindset of Washington State Department officials closely reflecting the sentiments of the LTTE can be attributed to the political advice and position reports forwarded by the Foreign Service Officers stationed in Colombo during the eighties to the new millennium. They were greatly influenced by a group of Tamil politicians and activists who believed in the message disseminated by Tiger leader Pirapaharan and his London-based ideologue Dr. Balasingham.

During U.S. ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead’s tenure in Colombo (2002-05) the United States was seen encouraging Sri Lanka to adopt a federal system, a system majority Sri Lankans believed would establish a stepping stone for Pirapaharan’s separate Eelam state.

Engulfed in this scenario the Foreign Service Officers in Colombo were largely responsible for the Washington State Department to get lost in a combination of fact and fiction hardly knowing to separate the two to the delight of the pro-Tiger lobby among the Tamil Diaspora in the West which was strategically successful in further consolidating the ‘mindset’ for the U.S. to dictate and lecture the Government of Sri Lanka what course it should take completely ignoring the this South Asian nation was engaged in a serious battle with a ruthless terrorist outfit that even the FBI likened it to al Qaeda.

If Ambassador Blake could not rule out the war crime charge against Sri Lanka and was vacillating on the IMF loan this South Asian nation needs to seriously assess and scrutinize her relations with the United States.

In fact, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing in February this year to discuss the situation in Sri Lanka. Those hearings help the USG, State Department and the Congress to formulate policy plans on Sri Lanka. The time has come for Sri Lanka to closely scrutinize her bilateral relations with the United States to develop a better footing, understanding and an open relationship with that country. The relationship between the two countries needs to be in a spirit of openness, transparency and accountability.

Sri Lanka’s leader Mahinda Rajapaksa was knowledgeable and erudite enough to tell this writer in August 2007 in Los Angeles that the West especially the United States has no affinity toward him because the U.S. bet on Ranil Wickremasinghe at the November 2005 presidential election. He was bitter at that time that the U.S. policies toward Sri Lanka were developed based on pro-Tiger lobby of misinterpretations, misrepresentations, half truths and diabolical falsehood.

The United States economic assistance to Sri Lanka had a steep decline since 2006. Sri Lanka was removed from the 16-nation list of the State Department for the Millennium Account Grant. At the behest of Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, U.S. military aid to Sri Lanka was suspended. And, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opposed the IMF loan declaring that "this is not the appropriate time for it to be considered."

And, the defeat and total annihilation of the ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists after 25 years is a side story for the United States.

Following is a quote from a Sri Lankan newspaper that carried Ambassador Robert Blake’s replies to the most current and vital issues:

"Asked whether the US subscribed to the charges of so-called war crimes against Sri Lanka Blake said the matter was under review. He avoided elaborating on the issue.

"Asked whether at least now the US would stop blocking the IMF loan facility to Sri Lanka, he answered evasively: He said that the US had already provided US$ 21 million for the welfare of the IDPs and more funds for resettlement and rebuilding would be forthcoming from the US.

"Asked when the US$ 4.5 billion pledged by the Tokyo co-chairs for rebuilding and resettlement would be released, the Ambassador resorted to prevarication again. He said US had already provided US$ 21 million and each of the co-chairs would also assist in this endeavor."

- Asian Tribune -