WikiLeaks and Sri Lanka: Who are the real criminals?

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WikiLeaks and Sri Lanka: Who are the real criminals?
9 December 2010

Among the hundreds of secret diplomatic cables so far released by WikiLeaks, one
sent from the US embassy in Sri Lanka has confirmed that the Obama
administration was well aware of the war crimes committed by President Mahinda
Rajapakse and his associates during the final stages of the war against
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in early 2009. The document highlights
the fact that who is deemed a criminal, or not, is determined entirely by the US
and its allies according to the requirements of their economic and strategic
interests.

The cable, transmitted by the US Ambassador to Colombo, Patricia A. Butenis in
January this year, stated the prospect of any investigation into war crimes in
Sri Lanka had been “complicated by the fact that responsibility for many of the
alleged crimes rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership,
including President Rajapakse and his brothers and opposition candidate General
Fonseka.”

The Obama administration and its allies are relentlessly hounding WikiLeaks and
seeking to criminalise its founder Julian Assange, whose only “crime” has been
to help expose to the world the dirty intrigues and crimes carried out by US
imperialism. WikiLeaks has performed a decisive service in allowing ordinary
people internationally to gain a glimpse of the secret diplomacy of Washington
and its partners, including throughout the Indian sub-continent, from
Afghanistan and Pakistan to Sri Lanka.

As a result of US pressure, Assange is now behind bars in Britain, fighting
extradition to Sweden on trumped-up charges. By contrast, President Mahinda
Rajapakse, who is directly responsible for war crimes, is free to roam the
world, and was last week welcomed in London by the British government.
Washington has never publicly named Rajapakse, his brothers or former Army
Commander Fonseka as being responsible for the atrocities in Sri Lanka, despite
a mountain of evidence in the public domain.

The UN has estimated that at least 7,000 Tamil civilians were killed between
January and May 2009 as the security forces repeatedly attacked civilians
trapped in the government’s own “no-fire zone”. The International Crisis Group
compiled evidence of the killing of an estimated 30,000 to 75,000 civilians,
with hospitals deliberately targeted for bombardment. Across Sri Lanka, hundreds
more people, including journalists and politicians, are known to have
disappeared at the hands of pro-government death squads that operated with impunity.

The US was complicit in these crimes and helped cover up who was responsible for
them. In 2006, the US and other major powers effectively backed the Rajapakse
government when it restarted the war against the LTTE, even though Rajapakse
brazenly violated a 2002 ceasefire. Only once it became clear that the LTTE
would be defeated did Washington voice reservations about “human rights
violations”, but only as a means to pressure on Rajapakse to fall into line with
Washington.

In the post-war positioning for influence over the strategically-located island,
the Obama administration’s prime concern was that China had used the war to
build close relations with Colombo. Beijing had provided the Rajapakse regime
with weapons and funds to fight the war, in return for economic and strategic
concessions, including naval access to a major new southern port being
constructed at Hambantota.

The State Department issued a vague call last year for an international probe
into “human right violations”—as if they were committed by individual soldiers
or middle-ranking military officers—while also blaming the LTTE for atrocities.
It is now documented that Washington was fully aware that the major crimes were
committed under Rajapakse, who is not only president, but also the defence
minister and commander in chief of the armed forces.

The US dropped the “human rights” pretence when it became clear that it was not
assisting in the effort to woo or coerce Rajapakse, but instead was proving
counter-productive. Butenis’s cable took the same approach as last December’s US
Senate Foreign Relations Committee report, which highlighted the danger to US
strategic interests of China’s growing influence in Colombo. The report declared
that the US could not afford to “lose Sri Lanka”. A preoccupation with “human
rights” would “shortchange US geostrategic interests in the region,” it stated.

Since then, the Obama administration has publicly backed a sham inquiry
established by Rajapakse himself, called the Commission on Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation. Its purpose, like previous inquiries appointed by Rajapakse into
military atrocities and pro-government death squads, is to cover the crimes,
whitewash the role of the government and justify the war itself. In June, US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared in Washington that Rajapakse’s
commission “holds promise”.

Because the Obama administration is mending its relations with him, Rajapakse,
unlike Assange, remains free to strut the world stage. Last week he visited
London with a large entourage. While Tamil protests eventually forced the Oxford
Union Debating Society to cancel a planned address, Rajapakse was afforded a
meeting with UK Defence Minister Liam Fox. According to media reports, the pair
discussed British assistance to Sri Lanka, especially in infrastructure projects
in the former LTTE-held North, and opportunities for British investment in the
country.

By contrast, the British government moved to have Assange arrested as soon as
possible. As the British police prepared to detain Assange, Prime Minister David
Cameron’s spokesman declared: “We unequivocally condemn the unauthorised release
of classified information. The leaks and their publication are damaging to
national security in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.”

This “national security” has nothing to do with the security or safety of
ordinary people, but consists of hiding from them the killings, assassinations,
coups and other imperialist conspiracies perpetrated by the US and its allies in
pursuit of their strategic and corporate interests. Alongside the US, Britain is
the second biggest military contributor to Obama’s escalating offensive underway
in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In their attempts to crush resistance to the
neo-colonial occupation of Afghanistan, both governments are responsible for war
crimes, including drone assassinations, aerial bombings and military death squads,

The Obama administration has been stung by the WikiLeaks exposures because they
place the spotlight on the real criminals. They are part of a ruling elite that
is responsible for decades of illegal acts carried out behind the backs of the
American working class—from wars of aggression to renditions, torture and other
acts of international terror. The Sri Lankan revelations point to the necessity
for the international working class to overturn the entire socio-economic order
that has produced these filthy imperialist intrigues and wars.

K. Ratnayake

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/pers-d09.shtml

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