My Dear Barack,
I thought I must write to you when I heard that the United States was sponsoring a resolution against our country at the Human Rights Council of the United Nations this week. To me, that seems rather silly-and I will tell you why-but I am told that is the way it is.
I suppose you are aware that we ended a war against the most ruthless terrorist group in the world two and a half years ago and did so with the greatest difficulty. I am not sure whether you know this, but that group, the Tigers, taught a thing or two about suicide bombings to al Qaeda and had their own Air Force!
While we were fighting them for thirty long years and bombs were exploding on our streets more often than not all your country-and some other countries such as Britain and France- could do was to lecture us on why we should not fight the Tigers but try to “negotiate” with them.
Of course we did that, not once but several times. Why, once we had an “Accord” with them brokered by India and then we had a “Ceasefire” with them brokered by Norway. On both occasions, they always went back to war, gaining ground and becoming more menacing with each truce.
And while all this was going on, our trains and buses were being bombed, our places of worship were attacked and even our airport and Central Bank were targeted. In all of those attacks, hundreds of innocent people died and that is why we needed to fight the Tigers to the end.
Now, you and your allies are trying to tell us that what we did was wrong or that the way we did it was wrong. You are saying that civilians were killed when the war ended and that our military and our political leadership should be punished for that.
Tell me, Barack, how should we have fought them? There is enough and more evidence that the Tigers were using civilians in the areas that they controlled as human shields. Our forces rescued some three hundred thousand of them who would have otherwise died. Such deeds go unmentioned but you and a few other nations seem to think what we did was wrong.
Of course, because you represent the most powerful country in the world, the United Nations and that man Moon is a puppet on your string. They do your bidding and ask no questions, even when there are blatant double standards about “war crimes”.
Tell me, Barack, how many civilians have died when your planes bombed Afghanistan? Even though that is not your country your forces are allowed to run amok and kill civilians and people like that man Moon or that woman Pillay say absolutely nothing!
Then, we all saw pictures of you and Hillary watching the mission to capture Bin Laden. He may have been the most wanted man in the world but still he was killed when he was unarmed. So, aren’t you and your troops guilty of violating international conventions about how captured suspects should be treated, Barack, to say nothing of the fact that you violated Pakistan’s airspace, while doing so?
Just to put things in perspective, had Prabhakaran been killed when he was unarmed, what would you have said? Surely it would have been called a war crime and the Pillays and the Moons, the Camerons and Sarkozys would have called for an ‘international investigation’. But when you do something similar, they see no evil and hear no evil!
Of course, the British and the French, the Camerons and the Sarkozys are no better. They engineer a so-called revolution in Libya, carry out air raids on that country killing hundreds of civilians and when Gaddafi is captured, he is killed while pleading for his life. And yet, these are not ‘war crimes’ and they do not need an ‘international investigation’!
And look at what you and your allies have done. In recent years you have intervened in Iraq, Egypt and Libya and happily orchestrated what you call “regime change”. But all these countries are still in turmoil, some years after their dictators have been deposed. You are of course laughing all the way to the White House, after gaining better access to the oil in these countries!
And oil is another matter that I need to write to you about. Just because you impose sanctions on Iran, you want us to follow suit. Iran has been a good friend of this country but we are not free to buy oil from them because you hate Ahmadinejad’s guts and as a result, millions of our people have to endure hardships-and you call yourself the leader of the Free World!
So, whatever happens with this resolution you are proposing against us, it is a bit of joke to us really, when you try to lecture us about ‘human rights’ and ‘war crimes’ while you go about violating everybody else’s rights and bombing civilians whenever you feel like it, detaining suspects at Guantanamo Bay without trial and burning the Quran in Afghanistan.
We would have thought that having lived through the pain of 9/11, you would know what it is like to be a victim of terrorism. Regardless of your resolutions at the UN, what we do know is that we can now walk on our roads knowing that a bomb would not explode at the next street corner. Our people leave for work in the morning safe in the knowledge that they will return home to their families in the evenings. We can travel the length and breadth of our country without any restrictions.
That, Barack, is peace and don’t be jealous just because people in your country don’t enjoy that degree of freedom anymore because they have to constantly worry about terrorist threats. We are grateful for that peace and no amount of resolutions can take that away from us!
Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS-I know you were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, after just eight months in office and before all your efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Judging by what has happened since then, I suppose they should either withdraw your prize or maybe we should nominate Prabhakaran for next year’s award!
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