The recent covert attempt overseas to exploit a perceived rift between Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka and the government will be the subject of speculation on many counts, for days to come. Some of the questions arise simply from a "whodunit?" point of view.
It appears that those who approached Gen. Fonseka to 'rat' on the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, saw him to be vulnerable owing to his pending application for US citizenship, on the one hand, and current speculation that he may be prevailed upon to contest Mahinda Rajapaksa as a presidential candidate, on the other. On this basis, the overseas parties out to 'fix' the Defence Secretary saw him as an ideal target to work on. One of the issues that would seem to demand the government's attention now is the question as to the origins of this move. Its covert nature emerges from various pieces of information. According to media reports:
1) The person purporting to be from the US Dept. of Homeland Security who called Gen. Fonseka made the blunder of referring to the Defence Secretary as the "Defence Minister." Surely a responsible US government official would have done enough homework to avoid a mistake on an elementary point such as the designation of the person his department sought to investigate?
2) According to the Washington Post, the department's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement division would normally have authority only to probe a matter related to Fonseka's prospective U.S. citizenship as a green card holder and not any possible human rights violations.
3) US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert O' Blake, when contacted by Sri Lanka's Ambassador Jaliya Wickremasuriya on the matter had reportedly denied any knowledge of an investigation conducted by the Dept. of Homeland Security, and said that the US State Dept. had nothing to do with such an inquiry.
4) The US Ambassador in Sri Lanka, Patricia Butenis, responding to a query from Basil Rajapaksa is reported to have said she was unaware of a US move to interview Gen. Fonseka.
Feigned or not, this apparent ignorance of high ranking US officials of an issue that relates to matters under their purview, comes across as puzzling.
There is other information that also merits scrutiny. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, in his remarks in parliament about Gen. Fonseka's 'safe' return home, and the Foreign Ministry's role therein, reportedly mentioned that "there is an organisation called "Tamils against Genocide" (TAG) operating in the US which is trying to trap various Sri Lankan officials." He did not elaborate on the implied connection between TAG and the episode in question. But they can be traced by anyone who cares to join the dots.
"Tamils against Genocide" is a US based group knon to be an LTTE front organisation seeking to persuade the US government to take Sri Lanka to task on charges of "genocide." It reportedly pays mega bucks to a lobbyist by the name of Bruce Fein, a former US Deputy Attorney General, to canvass its 'cause' in the US' corridors of power.
It was reported as far back as in June that one of the politicians targeted by Fein was US Senator Patrick J. Leahy, current chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on the State Department and foreign operations. Is it a coincidence that it is Senator Leahy who authorized the call for what is being referred to as a "war crimes" report on Sri Lanka, recently submitted to the US Congress?
And that the attempt to question Gen. Fonseka came in the wake of this report? The question arises as to whether there is an attempt now by pro-LTTE elements overseas to achieve by other means, what they could not achieve in Geneva earlier this year, where a bid to launch a "war crimes" investigation in Sri Lanka through a resolution of the UN Human Rights Council was shot down by a majority vote in the Council.
It is relevant at this point to quote the June 2009 article written by Stephen Long, a California-based writer who has repeatedly sought to warn Sri Lanka about the potentially damaging fallout of LTTE lobbying in North America:
Quote:
"For the past year I have written about Bruce Fein in many articles that have been widely published and circulated. He is reportedly paid $100,000 per month to tell lies in Washington about the government of Sri Lanka, and to take it to the International Courts - along with its Defence Secretary, Army Commander and Chief Presidential Advisor - with charges of genocide and other war crimes supposedly committed against the Tamils in Sri Lanka. During the past year Mr. Fein has worked for three LTTE front organizations; his current client is a US based orgniasation called "Tamils against Genocide."
"………. Recent actions and policy decisions made by the US government indicate that Mr. Fein has gotten the ear of Hillary Clinton, Senator Patrick Leahy (current chairman of the Judiciary Committee) and Senator Robert Casey (Chairman of the Foreign Relations Subcommittee)."
End quote. (The Island, 11.06.09)
The strange ordeal of Sri Lanka's Chief of Defence Staff during his US visit seems to show that Mr. Long's warnings have fallen on deaf ears. This entire episode gives rise to concerns that will engage both observers and political stake-holders for some time. Not least among them would be the question as to how those holding high office in the US government end up saying and doing things that seem to give credence to the propaganda of a known, proscribed terrorist organisation.
(The writer is a senior
freelance journalist) |
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