Letter to Editor: 'Cuba's Contradictory Stance on Tamil Struggle'

North African and Arab countries do not have the luxury of conducting an unwitnessed war the way Sri Lankans did.

Mr. Ron Ridenour's 'Cuba's Contradictory Stance on Tamil Struggle' (Havana Times, November 25, 2011) is a strong message that needs to be spread widely around the countries which have two set of different standards for themselves.

Not only does this apply to the Cubans, it also applies to many of the 'pretended champions of the Palestinian cause' who voted in favour of Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council in 2009 and helped Sri Lanka to continue to detain over 300,000 Tamils behind barbed wire fences. Some of the staunch supporters of the Sri Lankan regime who praised the 'mass massacre of Tamil civilians' as 'humanitarian operation', are now going through the Arab Spring, thus making it difficult for the Sri Lankan president to take a public stance or political statement.

Just about two years ago, the pro-Sri Lankan media trumpeted with pride about President Rajapase's achievement of sitting next to Colonol Gadhafi during Libya's 40th Revolution Day celebrations. In january 2011, just prior to the Libyan Spring, President Rajapakse dispatched his eldest son Namal -, being groomed to be his heir and in an apparent bid to preserve the Rajapakse Dynasty- to Tripoli to establish strong relationship with Saif Al Islam, Gadhafi's heir at that time.

It was also reported, Sri Lankan President, with few other leaders, offered help with sanctuary during the final days of Colonol Gadhafi. The main reason for the help was the extent of the conspiracy which targets sovereignty, stability and national unity of the Libyan people.

Sri Lanka, like all these regimes, is another 'make believe' champion of the Palestinian cause. It is a sad fact of life for the Palestinians to know who provided direct support, the modern military equipment, lethal fighter jets and specialized intelligence to Sri Lanka's genocidal anti-Tamil killings and who continues to supply Sri Lanka with arms and military training even after the United States and Britain cutt off military supplies to Sri Lanka.

Fidel Castro of Cuba once said in the UN General assembly to put an end to the genocide against the Palestinian people that is taking place while the world stares in amazement. Sri Lankan President Rajapakse has gone one step ahead saying Jerusalem will be the capital for Palestine while shedding crocodile tears for the thousands killed in the Gaza strike.

Despite the rogue regimes helping defeat the UNHRC vote in 2009, last year, the three-member panel from the United Nations submitted a 216-page report on Sri Lanka detailing the inhuman behaviour of the Sri Lanka's mono-ethnic military and the awful scenes of brutality from starvation of civilians, repeated shelling of hospitals to herding civilians to a narrow strip of 'No Fire Zone' before killing upto 40,000 Tamils en masse.

There is video footage recorded by Sri Lankan soldiers that shows the corpses of women being thrown into the back of a truck for disposal, as if they were logs, by the smiling soldiers.

Barbara O'Brien, a Buddhist spiritual author, wrote that Sri Lanka has been attempting to establish a Buddhist military kingdom for a long time and quoted Sri Lankan leaders as "a demographic majority with a dangerous minority complex of persecution."

As far as back in early 80's, after one of the major ethnic riots occurred in Sri Lanka, the International Commission of Jurists Review stated “The impact of the communal violence on the Tamils was shattering. More than 100,000 people sought refuge in 27 temporary camps set up across the country. The evidence points clearly to the conclusion that the violence of the rioters from the majority population on the Tamils amounted to acts of genocide” Leo Kuper, in his book ' Prevention of Genocide (1985)', said in commenting on the failure of the UN Sub Commission on Human Rights to condemn the genocide attack (July 1983) on the Tamils, thus, "It is unfortunate that the United Nations did not take a firm stand at this stage'.

North African and Arab countries are not surrounded by heavily populated geopolitics vying for dominance in the Indian Ocean. The regimes there do not have the luxury of conducting an unwitnessed war like what Sri Lankans did. There is no barbaric frenzy of ethnic fanaticism like what we witnessed in Sri Lanka during several ethnic riots for the past 63 years since independence. There is nothing that can to stop an Arab Spring or liberation of oppressed people.

As Mr. Ridenour rightly said "Cuba and ALBA cannot continue to play a dual role in crying out for a 'Palestinian genocide' on one hand and facilitating genocide in supporting the Sinhalese chauvinist, neo-liberal, pro-imperialist, racist government of Sri Lanka."