Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage on 'consistency and forthrightness'

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on
'consistency and forthrightness' - and truth?

19 November 2004

"President Kumaratunga has been consistent and forthright in her commitment to settling outstanding issues in the peace process in the framework of a united Sri Lanka." US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage

"தூங்கிறவனை எழுப்பலாம், தூங்கிறவன் போல் நடிக்கிறவனை எழுப்பவது கடினம்" தமிழ் தேசிய தலைவர், வே.பிரபாகரன்

US State Department Press Statement on the Peace Process in Sri Lanka,
Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman, Washington, DC, November 19, 2004

Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage spoke this morning with Sri Lankan President Kumaratunga and opposition leader Wickremesinghe to express the United States’ continued support for the peace process and to urge all parties to work together to return to negotiations. He welcomed President Kumaratunga’s November 17 call for a return to negotiations as soon as possible. President Kumaratunga has been consistent and forthright in her commitment to settling outstanding issues in the peace process in the framework of a united Sri Lanka.

Comment: "Consistent and forthright in her commitment!"
An year is a long time in Politics? : "U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli expressed concern that President Kumaratunga’s decision to sack three government ministers, suspend parliament, and deploy troops around the capital “could have a negative effect on the peace process and talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.” Speaking at a November 4 State Department briefing, Ereli urged President Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is currently on a visit to Washington, to work together to bolster the peace process with the LTTE and to protect the Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions." (US State Department Press Release, 5 November 2003 )
"In our view, resolution of the Sinhalese political party struggle is the top priority. This (Sinhala party) conflict—whatever the merits of the arguments—is selfish in the short-term and self defeating in the long-term. The country is ready for peace. The LTTE is ready to continue negotiations. The world cannot understand why Sri Lanka does not move ahead to peace. All parties need to seize this moment, honor their constituents’ faith in them, and settle their dispute immediately. The critical next steps we explore in this report will go unaddressed if this issue is not resolved immediately."... Securing Peace: An Action Strategy for Sri Lanka - A Report Prepared by Princeton University for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), June 2004
"...The international community was perhaps shocked at the decision of the President the Hon. Chandrika Kumaratunga to dismiss key ministers and dissolve the Parliament just at the very time when the peace process with the Tamil LTTE was achieving results. These moves and the subsequent elections virtually destroyed the peace process while at the same time the LTTE or Tamil Tigers were showing a considerable openness to seek a resolution to the conflict..." Intervention by Charles Graves, Interfaith International (Non Governmental Organisation with Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC under Agenda Item 2:Question of the Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 28 July 2004

"..It was the late Sathasivam Krishnakumar, the charismatic intellectual and man of action of the LTTE, who would quote the words of his leader with a smile: ''You know, you can wake up someone who is asleep, but it is much more difficult to wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep. "தூங்கிறவனை எழுப்பலாம், தூங்கிறவன் போல் நடிக்கிறவனை எழுப்பவது கடினம்" The Tamil people, by their untiring efforts, by their strength born from their suffering, and by their steadfast determination, can (and will) make it more and more difficult, for those who pretend not to see, to persist in their pretence with any degree of credibility. And there will come a time when the same real politik that renders some 'blind' today, will press upon them the need to 'wake up' to the justice of the Tamil cause" The cynicism of real politick, - Nadesan Satyendra, March 1994

Deputy Secretary Armitage praised the efforts of Norway to facilitate these talks. The Deputy Secretary strongly condemned recent terrorist actions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that fly in the face of efforts by all other Sri Lankans and the international community to bring peace to this war-torn country.

Comment: "the efforts by all other Sri Lankans to bring peace?.."

''The SLMM has strongly urged the government to take meaningful and effective action to curb the activities of paramilitary groups including that of Karuna faction and the EPDP'', Major General (retd) Trond Furuhovde, Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission told LTTE Head of Political Wing, S.P.Thamilchelvan Curb activities of paramilitaries, SLMM urges SL Government, 22 July 2004
"...The plan is to destabilize the Tigers, bait the group into confrontation and ultimately launch an offensive aimed at destroying the fractured Tamil movement once and for all," the analysts at Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) said quoting unnamed sources inside the Sri Lankan government....Colombo probably hopes a renewed guerrilla war will be tempered by internal struggles and that, once weakened, the Tigers can be destroyed, the US analysts said....According to the US analysts, in the event of a renewed war “the Tigers will likely end up weaker - perhaps no longer in a position to make the demands for autonomy that helped cause the internal strife in the first place.” “On the other hand, baiting a wounded tiger could be a dangerous game," they cautioned. Colombo promoting Karuna to destroy LTTE with tacit approval of US says US based think tank Stratfor, 14 July 2004

The murder yesterday of an army officer, clearly carried out by the LTTE, is only the most recent assault on the peace process.

Comment: "not so recent assaults and therefore do not merit mention?"
'Aiyathurai Nadesan, was Vice-President of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and recipient of the Best Journalist of 2000 Prize awarded by the Sri Lanka Editors’ Guild. He was shot dead on 31 May 2004.... States that want to oppress a people do so by breaking their political will to resist injustice. To do this, oppressing states kill a societies intellectuals and journalists who speak for the rights of their people. Aiyathurai Nadesan, Vice-President of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance shot dead , 31 May 2004
"..(In Sri Lanka) "Disappearance" appeared to be used for two purposes: it facilitated torture without accountability and it concealed the killing of prisoners. In the overwhelming majority of these cases, there have been virtually no reported prosecutions or convictions. Impunity for these crimes continues. Amnesty is calling on the Sri Lankan government to investigate all the cases of "disappearances," to compensate the victims or their families and to bring to justice those found responsible for the "disappearances." Amnesty International Calls on the Sri Lankan Government to Prosecute Security Forces Responsible for Disappearances in Sri Lanka - 7 October 2004

The United States calls on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to abandon terrorism in word and deed and return to the peace table.

Comment: "It is a cruel extension of the terrorist scourge to taunt the struggles against terrorism with the label "terrorism"
"...The peoples of the world are engaged in a fundamental series of struggles for a just and peaceful world based on fundamental rights now acknowledged as sacred in a series of widely endorsed international legal conventions. These struggles are opposed in a variety of cruel and brutal ways by the political, economic and ideological forces associated with the main structures of domination present in the world that spread terrorism in a manner unknown in prior international experience... The terrorism of modern state power and its high technology weaponry exceeds qualitatively by many orders of magnitude the political violence relied upon by groups aspiring to undo oppression and achieve liberation. Let us also be clear, we favour non-violent resistance wherever possible... We condemn all those tactics and methods of struggle that inflict violence directly upon innocent civilians as such...but we must insist that terrorism originates with nuclearism, criminal regimes, crimes of state, high-technology attacks on Third World peoples, and systematic denials of human rights. It is a cruel extension of the terrorist scourge to taunt the struggles against terrorism with the label "terrorism". We support these struggles and call for the liberation of political language along with the liberation of peoples. Terrorism originates from the statist system of structural violence and domination that denies the right of self-determination to peoples..." The Geneva Declaration on the Question of Terrorism, 1987
"...a confederal system is the only constitutional basis for a final and lasting settlement within a united Sri Lanka that ensures the national rights of Tamils. However, despite their rhetoric about "peace", Kumaratunga and her international backers are opposed to a confederal system. They view Tamils as a "minority" and therefore not entitled to collective, national rights. Almost all foreign governments that are sponsoring Kumaratunga are themselves busy manipulating and controlling their own so-called "minorities". Politicians in those governments come by and large from the respective majority nation in each country. Their national interest is to defend the international system of States. They are committed to defeating any internal military challenge to any State anywhere (except of course liberation movements they support for geopolitical advantage). In Sri Lanka they naturally collude with the Sinhala politicians and support the Sinhala government to crush LTTE's military power..." Kumaratunga Prepares to Unleash the Sinhala Army warns Dr.S.Sathananthan, Action Group of Tamils., 15 June 2004
"...Let us accept the fact that states have lifecycles similar to those of human beings who created them... hardly any Member State of the United Nations has existed within its present borders for longer than five generations.... Restrictions on self-determination threaten not only democracy itself but the state which seeks its legitimation in democracy..." Self Determination & the Future of Democracy - Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, 2001

Norwegian Peace Initiative