Editorial / State Daily News, 19 March 2014
All sanctimonious humbugs in the non governmental ‘humanitarian’ organizations are furiously tapping their desktop and ipad keyboards sending off self righteous tracts to the media about what they refer to as the arrests of human rights defenders at a time the UN HRC is in session in Geneva.
The sleight of hand here reeks of unconscionable sharp practice. The idea behind these press release tracts seems to be to tie the arrests of two persons determined to have had links with a known Tamil Tiger terrorist who recently shot at a police constable in Kilinochchi, with what is taking place in Geneva now.
That’s nothing short of diabolical. The two persons working for the so called National Peace Council NGO were obviously taken into Terrorist Investigative Division (TID) custody as there were established links between them and a known terrorist who not only escaped from an IDP camp, but attacked a law enforcement officer by discharging a firearm in broad daylight recently.
These propagandists who sound shocked about the arrest of two members of the NPC governing hierarchy are claiming legal immunity then, for so called activists taking up the position that they are human rights defenders?
What human rights defense is being done one might ask, in collaboration with a known ex LTTE cadre? Though a terrorist too would have some human rights, human rights defenders doing their work on behalf of terrorists while also living in their midst — is that serious human rights related work?
That’s not rights activism that falls within the reasonable definition by any stretch, when ostensibly these human rights defenders in the NGO circuit claim incessantly that there are ongoing violations of the rights of ordinary people in the Northern province.
If that is the case, why are these so called human rights defenders not with those ordinary people but rather in cahoots with a known terrorist who still seeks to terrorize the people of the North, and recently shot at an inspector of the police who is keeping the peace in the town of Kilinochchi?
But, as if that was not enough, the government should not touch such ‘rights defenders’ who are in cahoots with terrorists claims the NGO propaganda machine being so generous as to suggest whom the government should arrest or apprehend instead!
Claims one of these tracts that certain members of a religious group are not called into question for claiming that they want to organize themselves as an army ‘if their demands are not met.’
These are the persons that should be apprehended suggest the authors of theses furiously churned out NGO press advisories.
In other words then, it is expected that the government will allow people to be in cahoots with known terrorists who go on the rampage, but crack down meanwhile on persons who have committed no crime?
How is it that these NGO pundits have become so cynical as to believe they can bamboozle people into thinking that apprehending a former terrorist and arresting persons who had contacts with him in a former theatre of terrorist activity for investigative purposes, falls under the rubric of a human rights violation?
It’s barely five years since a virulent terrorist group was brought to heel in a former theatre of war — and if a government cannot apprehend known contacts of a terrorist for security purposes would that constitute a government, or a showpiece administration carrying out a regular potemkin charade?
The facts of this case are known. There is a notorious and dangerous armed ex LTTEer on the loose. There are people who appear to have aided and abetted him and by their association probably know his whereabouts.
There is an ongoing investigation and it cannot be carried out without interrogating suspect collaborators who cannot be heard to say they were doing human rights defending among terrorists. That would be admission of culpability in its own right, but imagine this fact being adduced as a criteria arising from which the government committed a human rights violation in itself! The optimism among this NGO cabal that they be given complete impunity for sabotage, subversion and the aiding and abetting of terrorists is amazing to the point of the surreal — but then again this is the Sri Lankan civil society sector that’s used to such regular and egregious nonsense!
CDN