Closing The Barn After The Horses Had Bolted

United States & the struggle for Tamil Eelam

Closing The Barn After The Horses Had Bolted

Professor Aaron Rajah, 15 April 2007

Comment by tamilnation.org: Professor Aaron Rajah is right to ask the question: "So why does Mr. Boucher came out of the wood work and insist on an international team investigation of the human rights abuse while playing ball with Sri Lanka for almost a year? ". There are those who may wonder whether the answer may have to be found in something that Dharmeratnam Sivaram attributed to a CIA regional analyst in July 2001 "containing the LTTE while stepping up pressure on the civilian population under its control by stepping up ‘terror’ bombing might create conditions for unseating Prabaharan."

The United States Foreign policies in Sri Lanka have always been a revolving door in which even the policymakers of the state department lose sight of the obvious, accountability, and deliver lip services. Earlier today Mr. Boucher once again came out of his annual hibernation and made some much needed seasonal noise, such as

“I think we have two things. We have first the basic problem which is that a democratic government with democratic institutions is fighting against a terrorist group. We are very concerned about the continuing reports of what is going on in the Tamil Tiger areas about forced recruitment. Frankly the bus bombings, bombing buses full of innocent civilians, these things are all serious human rights problems. But we are also concerned about reports of abuses and killings in government controlled areas and we strongly encourage the government to take those seriously, to investigate seriously, to ensure that the law enforcement officials follow careful codes of conduct and act in a transparent manner,"

Indeed, he had taken action against the first allegation that “democratic government with democratic institutions is fighting against a terrorist group” by banning Liberation Tigers and providing military hardware to Sri Lanka; yet he was quite shy doing the right thing for the second allegation about “abuses and killings in government controlled areas”. While the US taxpayers demand answers to the double standard, Mr. Boucher stated that the United States has "helped support the commission of inquiry and supported an international commission to help make sure those investigations do get carried out more thoroughly." Mr. Boucher continued rambling:

"I’d say we are very concerned about the whole human rights situation and put a lot of emphasis on it as we’ve seen often it is a difficult thing for other things to proceed if there are widespread concerns about the human rights situation,"

Mr. Boucher is no stranger to the current Sri Lankan ethnic cleansing of Tamils in Sri Lanka. Mr. Boucher, head of the US State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, has been involved in Sri Lanka’s peace process and has participated in several discussions among the so-called Co-Chairs of the peace process.

It has been almost more than a year since the government’s latest wave of killing of innocent Tamils began, it was unopposed by the US and other foreign governments except for occasional lip services by the US; as a result, the slaughter of more than 4000 innocent Tamil civilians was made possible. And the death tally keeps climbing as we write this article.

Vaharai	Vankalai	Pessalai	Trinco
Vallipunam	Padahuthurai	Punguduthivu	State Terror
Muthur	Killinochchi	Muthur	N.Raviraj

It was a slap in the face for the so-called international community when Sri Lanka opposed any international inquiries on the human rights violations in Sri Lanka. So why does Mr. Boucher came out of the wood work and insist on an international team investigation of the human rights abuse while playing ball with Sri Lanka for almost a year? Why try to close the barn when the horses have already bolted so long ago?

In this case the killing continued while the US policymakers did nothing except reward the same governments who were involved in human rights violations. It’s about time that Mr. Boucher say the following on behalf of the unbiased, moral and peace-loving American people: the failure of the Sri Lankan government to stop the human rights abuses and the opposition of the Sri Lankan government to let an international team investigate can only conclude that the violators are the same individuals who are opposing the investigations by a third party.

So how come Mr. Boucher makes the same lip service over and over again without any binding to his words? Shouldn’t Mr. Boucher be held responsible by the American people for the claims that he makes?

Shouldn’t the American people fire these officials who represent them and meanwhile continuously deliver lip service while the human rights violations continue unabated by foreign governments?

In conclusion, Mr. Boucher and Ambassador Blake have no credibility with the international community as well as the American people. They have failed to reveal the consequences of continuous silence by the Sri Lankan government on the issue of state human rights abuses. After all, how long can one make lip services up? Until the last Tamil civilian is killed in Sri Lanka? We, the American people, demand answers. In the picture alongside, the US ambassador and his wife, Mrs. Blake, as she judges Miss Sri Lanka 2007 pageant in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Unable to judge the human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, Mr. Blake takes the easy way out. “If you cannot win them, might as well join them”, in this case join the SL government in the killings of Tamils one at a time.