Comparing Hitler's 'final solution' and Rajapaksa's 'final war' on LTTE

Groups urge opposition to heinous attempts to do business on the dead bodies of the Tamil martyrs.

(COLOMBO, Sri Lanka) - The Report of the United Nations "on accountability in Sri Lanka" is finally out, having nothing to add but for a further brandishing of the liberation struggle for separate Tamil Eelam as 'violent ethnic conflict'.

It is a follow-up on the joint statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the Government of Sri Lanka made on 23^rd May 2009. They spoke of the importance of an 'accountability process for addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law violation'.

The UN secretary-general made his visit to Sri Lanka just after the official announcement of the end of the bloody "Final war" on 19^th May 2009.

Furnished on the line of Hitler's 'final solution', Rajapaksa's 'final war' on LTTE tried to terminate the decades long genuine demand for separate Tamil Eelam. The 'solution' was simple-to silence the voice of resistance and liberation by murdering, dismembering and assassinating lakhs of Tamils in Northern-eastern Sri Lanka. It was one of the biggest acts of state-terrorism, targeting no-fire zone, hospitals, orphanage and international bodies, using chemical weapons, cluster bombs on civilian targets.

The report, while reiterating that the Sri Lankan state has indeed indulged in war crimes violating all forms of human rights and humanitarian laws, does so only in the context of condemning the violence unleashed by LTTE. The report clearly states that its mandate does not include fact-finding or investigation; it is rather a report made on the basis of allegations collected from different sources having some factual validity and admissibility with respect to international laws.

Tamils in Eelam are not mere victims of a genocidal war. They were and still are aspirants for an independent and free Tamil Eelam. The report obviously chose to exclude this political aspiration of the Tamils and reduced them to mere helpless victims caught up between the Sri Lankan government and the 'terrorists' LTTE. This war was also not just violation of human rights and international laws as the UN claims, but a planned genocide, that too not the first of its kind on the Eelam Tamils.

The discrimination against the Tamils started with the independence of Sri Lanka in 1948. It was not mere Sinhalese domination in government as the UN report puts it that led to the 'conflict', but the oppression of Tamils at every level that led to the fight for the independent Eelam nation. Parroting Rajapaksa, the report reduces LTTE's decades long struggle and setting up of a parallel government for the Tamils in Eelam, as a 'successful outcome of the effect of intimidation, mass extermination and threat'.

In a world where international relations are forged on the principle of 'war on terror', the story seems to be very convincingly marketable. Such branding has always been a potent tool for any ruling classes in today's world to delegitimize people's movements and repress their struggle in the most ruthless manner possible. The report also adopts the same formula-that of silencing the people's struggle for just political demand to mere 'human rights violation'. It glosses over the repression and oppression in the context of global 'war on terror'.

Further it recommends the secretary-general to suggest that the Sri Lankan government adopt necessary measures to carry out proper investigation with full accountability. To put it simply, the report declares the Sri Lankan government allegedly guilty of war-crimes, and then requests the same government to supply proof of it, being fully accountable!

It calls for accountability and transparency from the same government that it found guilty of blatant distortion of truth and justice by severely repressing and silencing democratic voices, mass media or restricting movement of international organizations at the time of war! So the report seeks justice for the victims of the Sri Lankan government's terrorism from their perpetrators! The report speaks of "common homeland" for Sinhalese and Tamils, thereby completely rejecting the existence of separate geographical territory for the Tamils and Sinhalese.

In north and east of Sri Lanka the Tamils have historically been a dominant force since the 13^th century. While it had alleged the Sri Lankan government, the UN has cleverly tried to mask the dubious role of Vijay Nambiar, the personal advisor of Ban Ki Moon.

One cannot forget that the LTTE commanders including Nadesan, who were shot dead in cold blood, came to surrender to the Sri Lankan Army with white flags only after the assurance from Vijay Nambiar. It is no secret that Vijay Nambiar's brother was an advisor of the Sri Lankan army. In fact the UN, as always in the past, has colluded with the perpetrators of crime and then cried hoarse about human rights violation.

With the end of war, the Sri Lankan government has colonized lands, resources and infrastructure which rightfully belong to Tamils. Today in the name of 'reconstruction of the north and east', Sri Lanka has been completely militarized. Visitors' accounts state that the only concrete structures in many areas in the north are that of army barracks.

Sri Lanka has become the newfound 'land of opportunities' for imperialist plunder by the US and its competitors like Russia and China. In a mad rush when US imperialism is working through Indian expansionism, China and Russia are also trying their best to win over Rajapaksa. Already, heavy investment in terms of infrastructure, road and rail construction and service industry has been made by India in the recently ravaged Tamil Eelam.

Sea beaches of this part of Sri Lanka has been rented out to Chinese companies. While Obama issued occasional statements asking Rajapaksa to stop the war, Israel-US have extended their full cooperation to Rajapaksa's genocide through intelligence support and military equipments. The UN report must be read in this context of competition among imperialist and expansionist forces.

After the publication of the report, Rajapaksa sought support from Russia and China, two Security Council members of UN with veto power. Russia came to his immediate rescue extending their solidarity opposing UN's report alleging him of war-crimes.

UN has never been an international organization with neutral position. It is the nexus of imperialism which controls the interest of UN too. It is merely the 'human face' of US-imperialism, masking impoverishment caused by imperialist invasions and devastating economic reforms imposed by IMF and World Bank. Nothing proves the link better than UN role's in Iraq invasion.

Even before US military invasion, it was UN's sanction on Iraq that pushed the country to the brink of destitution and caused millions of deaths. Despite prominent international intellectuals and politicians pointing out that the sanction is eventually detrimental for Iraqis, the UN persisted with it.

And it did so under the guidance of the US. It is crystal clear to the world that the sanction was neither against Saddam for genocide nor for alleged possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction. It was particularly targeted to weaken Saddam's resistance to US efforts to monopolize the oil resources through privatization of oil mines. The inevitable result was US invasion and innumerable war crimes which the UN would do nothing about.

Except mere token cautions to US and its junior partners, the UN has done nothing to restrict imperialist aggression in Africa, Middle East, Afghanistan where imperialism has nurtured, funded and aided local war-lords and feudal elements to subvert governments in order to meet their own interests.

The bombing of Serbia by NATO in 1999 or the recent involvement of the French Government and NATO and subsequent invasion into Libya are other glaring examples. Despite violations of boundaries of nations and delegitimization of sovereignty of countries, the UN did nothing but pay lip service in the name of 'human rights'. The hollowness and subsequent political agenda of the human rights discourse is visible for us to see.

While the UN speaks of 'accountability' of the Sri Lankan state, the latter forced people to take shelter in 'welfare camps' that are nothing but modern day Auschwitz or Dachau.

This is what the Sri Lankan government perpetuates under the guise of rehabilitation and resettlement. The Forcefully Detained People (FDP) face physical and mental torture and humiliation as a part of the official policies in such camps. If one is suspected of having any LTTE links or sympathy, (s)he is taken away, never to be returned again. Besides these, women are targeted specifically.

Estimates show that there are over 89,000 war widows in Eelam. Women are molested, sexually harassed and raped as a part of their torture strategy, ensuring that the surviving Tamil population never recover from the horrors of this war.

Deplorable conditions of food, water and other basic amenities have already led to several epidemics in the camps and steady rise in death toll. Last estimate suggests almost three lakh Tamils in these modern day concentration camps, even after two years of war and millions pumped into Sri Lanka in the name of 'rehabilitation'.

Some of these camps were 'let open' last year, but there is no information or evidences of resettlement; no one knows what happened to those 2 lakh people. However nobody can confirm the number too as no credible information about these camps can be obtained under the dictatorship of Rajapaksa. Only status-quoist pro government media is manufacturing relentless lies to manoeuvre the national and international opinion.

Not just in camps but every Tamil in Sri Lanka and particularly in Eelam are living under threat, including the MPs and members of opposition party Tamil National Alliance. It is quite clear by now the situation is going to continue in the similar fashion as long as Rajapaksa is able to satisfy his imperialist masters and successfully play the cunning game to balance the international expansionist forces' economic interests in the region. No UN report is even going to create a single ripple.

The Eelam war was not just between two parties - the Sri Lankan state and the LTTE, but a brutal assault on the people of Eelam who were fighting an uncompromising struggle for their national liberation. India is not just complicit, but was actively aiding the Sri Lankan state in its genocide and did all it could to crush the liberation movement just as it is trying in Kashmir and north-east.

The recommendation of the report to 'find a political solution that recognises Sri Lanka's ethnic diversity and the full and inclusive citizenship of all its people' only comes as a cruel joke when even civilian jobs are today filled by military personnel in the north and east, facilitating the colonisation of Eelam by Sinhalese. Hence only a resolute struggle by the Tamils for a free Tamil Eelam and our unconditional support to their struggle is the answer to the fascist dictats of the Rajapaksa regime. No politics of opportunism or NGO-isation of politics can deliver justice to the Tamils. Tamils not only fought or is still fighting for a separate Tamil Eelam, but they are also fighting against inequality, oppression and marginalisation.

Their fight is for justice, for a democratic progressive society which the oppressed masses all over the world now aspire for. At this crucial juncture the UN report strives to show the world that the fight is over. As if the time has come for 're-building and reconstitution'.

Thus, to celebrate the UN report for merely alleging Sri Lankan state of war-crime is nothing but doing business on the dead bodies of the revolutionaries who fought for national liberation. UN report must be seen in the context of facilitating and strengthening the interests of imperialist and comprador capital, and their incessant war on people in south Asia in the name of 'war on terror' or 'internal security threat'.

It therefore must be rejected and resisted in-toto, while standing in full solidarity with the people fighting such repression. A section of civil society and some 'left' political parties however are now betraying the peoples' movements and fuelling up 'emotions' to sell off movements as a commodity for their own opportunist politics. We must resist these brokers of peoples' aspirations and struggles. We must carry on the mantle of the glorious legacy of Eelam Tamil's liberation struggle. We must join the struggles of the oppressed masses of Eelam, Kashmir, North East and India in their onwards march for national liberation and for the victory of revolution!