Of “War Heroes” And War Crimes
Emil van der Poorten
Even the fact that it is our totally discredited President who continues to mouth a litany of unbelievable nonsense doesn’t seem to discredit it.
I speak here of his consistently defending Sri Lanka’s security forces against any allegation of so much as “unacceptable conduct” by them during the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil In fact, if he had anything other than total amnesia, he should remember the brutality displayed, particularly by the Sri Lanka police who were given carte blanche by Mrs. Bandaranaike to quell that very rebellion, with bodies floating down rivers, being burned above Trinity College’s Asgiriya playing field, and hotel beaches near where the Maha Oya enters the sea being cleared of dead bodies first thing in the morning so that tourists wouldn’t see the “decorations.” He was part of that insurrection and it was his fellow-combatants who were massacred.
That there are in any grouping of people anti-social elements is something beyond argument. To swear up and down that nothing untoward happens within those groups is absolute piffle. Also, very important, this blanket benediction that our President seeks to give everyone in uniform does a very serious disservice to those who discharged their duties within the Geneva Convention and were, in fact, genuine heroes.
In our own neighbourhood, three of the most reprehensible “colonists” that no one would allow in their compounds, leave alone into their homes, enlisted, were given training in the use of sophisticated combat weapons and proceeded to desert, were arrested and proceeded to repeat the same pattern of behaviour. One of these individuals is currently confined to an institution reserved for the mentally ill, prior to which he regularly assaulted the mother who supported him so severely and regularly that she is incapable of maintaining anything resembling a stable relationship with her friends or family.
Some of the others in that same community have a reputation of being the biggest thieves and parasites around.
To rank people like those I’ve just described with others who served honourably and bravely is nothing less than criminal when, in the court of world opinion there is a general tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater once serious flaws are found in any statement, particularly from a head of state.
(LTTE/Tamil Tigers).
So much as a mention of anything resembling less than pristine conduct by a security force of half a million (the same as the Russian army in numbers, as I shall never tire of repeating) brings forth a platitudinous torrent from this man whose experience of combat was his participation in the abortive 1971 “Che Guevara” insurrection for which he was incarcerated until his father “pulled the strings” that enabled his release.
