Death of the Tiger - Ilankai Tamil Sangam

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Mullaittivu leaked out, the Rajapaksagovernment has fought a second campaignto define the massacre as a gloriousvictory. Sri Lanka has found friendswho are willing to agree, or at least notto care; these include China and otherEastern nations, as well as military expertsfrom around the world who are impressedby the effectiveness of its tactics.The government has largely ostracizedthose who disagree; within its borders, ithas silenced them by force.A week after the war’s end, the U.N.Human Rights Council in Geneva wasthe scene of a political standoff betweena bloc of Western nations that calledfor an investigation and another—ledby Sri Lanka and including Brazil,Cuba, India, and Pakistan—that calledfor a resolution praising Sri Lanka forthe “promotion and protection of allhuman rights.” The latter resolutionwon, with twenty-nine votes in favor,twelve against, and six abstentions.In the following months, lawyers inthe U.S. Justice Department began exploringthe possibility of war-crimesprosecution of Gotabaya Rajapaksa—who lived in the United States for a timeand acquired citizenship—as well as theformer Army commander Sarath Fonseka,a green-card holder. On a visit tothe U.S. in the fall of 2009, Fonsekadodged an interview request from HomelandSecurity and flew back to Sri Lanka.For the most part, though, the ObamaAdministration has maintained a policyof circumspection.One senior Administration officialtold me, “With regard to Sri Lanka, I canassure you that war crimes and crimesagainst humanity are a big part of our bilateraldiscussions.” But the Administration’sonly public acts have been to sendStephen Rapp, the State Departmentemissary on war crimes, to Sri Lanka, aswell as its two senior human-rightsofficials on the national-security council,Samantha Power and David Pressman.Rapp filed two fact-finding reports withCongress, while Power and Pressmanurged the Rajapaksa government to showgreater accountability for its actions duringthe war.Rajapaksa, meanwhile, has said thathis government was “looking east,” andhe signed a number of economic dealswith China, including one for the constructionof a large port in his home dis-SKETCHBOOK BY ZACHARY KANIN
“And of course Allen continues his work with super-sized hamsters.”trict of Hambantota. In August, he presidedover a lavish ceremony to mark theopening of the port’s first phase, which athousand Chinese laborers and engineers,along with Sri Lankans, had completedin a year of around-the-clockshifts. Before an audience of hundreds ofdignitaries, Rajapaksa stood at the helmof a giant model ship, turned the wheel,and watched the seawater enter themuddy basin carved out by the Chinese.In the not too distant future, SriLanka may be seen as an early skirmishin a new “Great Game” of influencebetween China and the United Statesand their proxies. “Sri Lanka has readthe situation and seen that the West’sinfluence is diminishing,” Harim Peiris,a Sri Lankan political analyst, said.“So this government has made somestrange friends: Iran, Pakistan, Myanmar,Russia, and Japan. China is probablyour biggest single investor. Theseare ‘softies’—soft loans without pressure.So who’s putting the pressure?Oh—Sweden and the E.U.!” Peiris• •laughed derisively, and said, “There isno serious international pressure.”A Western diplomat in Colombosaid, “We don’t have a lot of influencehere. We’re not a big fish. China is. It’spouring in billions of dollars that aredescribed as soft loans, but somedaythey will have to be paid back. Andthey don’t ask about human rights.”Jaliya Wickramasuriya, another relativeof President Rajapaksa’s, is Sri Lanka’sAmbassador in Washington. Hesuggested to me that the U.S. was missingout. With the war over, Sri Lanka wasgoing to boom economically. “We wantthe U.S. to come in,” he said. “America,hurry up!” Laughing, he added, “Butthere are a lot of suitors, and if the suitortakes a lot of time . . . however goodlooking,there are always others!”The Sri Lankan government doeshave supporters in the U.S., particularlyin military circles. Senior officialstold me that their government owedmuch to a Pentagon official named JamesClad, “a great friend of Sri Lanka.” Cladwas the Bush Administration’s DeputyAssistant Secretary of Defense for Southand Southeast Asia, in charge of the Pentagon’sdealings with India and Sri Lanka,until he was replaced by the Obama Administrationin January, 2009.I telephoned Clad, and he invited meto his home, in suburban Washington,D.C. Clad is an articulate man in his latefifties, with a ready sense of humor. Citingofficial oaths of secrecy, he demurredwhen it came to questions about U.S. aidto the Sri Lankan military, but he madeit clear that he had been supportive of theSri Lankan government’s war effort, andthat he felt that the criticisms expressedby the West had been counterproductiveto Western interests.“The self-imposed marginalizationby the U.S. and other Western countriesin Sri Lanka has led directly to increasedinfluence by China, Pakistan, and Iran,none of which share the Western humanitarianagenda, to put it mildly,” hesaid. As evidence, he mentioned a Chinesearms dealer that had advanced ammunitionto the Sri Lankan governmentthroughout the military campaign; thedebt was later satisfied by arrangementsthat gave China commercial advantagesin Sri Lanka.Clad has known the Rajapaksas formany years. He referred to the President’sbrother Gotabaya, the defenseminister, as “Gota.” A fierce critic ofthe Tigers, Clad said that the organizationhad assassinated several Sri Lankanswhom he regarded as personalfriends. “The L.T.T.E. was the mostdeliberately ruthless terrorist group, barnone, certainly in Asia,” he said.In order to reform Sri Lanka’s publicimage, Clad, who recently retiredfrom the Pentagon’s National DefenseUniversity, recommended to GotabayaRajapaksa that he host a meeting onmaritime-security concerns in the IndianOcean. It would help Sri Lanka“get out of its box as a ‘single-issuecountry’ and reconnect it with an earliermaritime heritage,” he said. In August,Clad invited me to the Galle Dialogue,a two-day conference attended by seniornaval officers from more than adozen countries. The conclave was heldat a luxurious seaside hotel outside theold colonial fortress city of Galle, inthe south.52 THE NEW YORKER, JANUARY 17, 2011
Page 3 and 4: organization that had controlled mu
Page 5 and 6: A billboard of Mahinda Rajapaksa, S
Page 7 and 8: wicker chairs had been placed in a
Page 10: Rajapaksa governments never went on
Page 15 and 16: BBC reporter that he should hang if

Death of the Tiger - Ilankai Tamil Sangam

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?