Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Colombo, Sri Lanka - November 2013 I preface the following comments by saying that it is difficult for us to see clearly through the fog of war and get to the whole truth. That does not mean we are incapable of making informed assessments based in credible information. In this case, the following commentary has a most chilling conclusion, a conclusion that may well have an impact - an impact greater than any political pressure could ever achieve. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRELUDE - A ROYAL FISH OUT OF WATER Being CHOGM, it fell to jolly Prince Charles to represent The British Royals. With all respect, HM Queen Elizabeth II is not as young as she used to be and cannot be expected to trot the globe as she once did. HM also has an aging husband who, as we all know, has not been a well man in recent times. I am sure we all wish them well in their twilight years. At CHOGM, The Prince of Wales looked simply uncomfortable. I dont blame him. He read a few nice words from mummy, something about bringing healing to the world - all uttered in a country literally ripped limb from limb by one of the bloodiest civil wars since Bosnia and Herzegovina. The poor mans discomfort reached breaking point when, standing inconspicuously, and enjoying the relative anonymity of a quiet corner; the awkward royal was corralled into a game of hokey pokey (cokey for some) by a delightful group of local disabled kids. The children were just beautiful. Any normal person would have stayed, sat down and told them a story. But, it was all too much for The Prince of Wales, and retreat became the better part of valour. Ill leave the discretion bit to others. He just couldnt complete the task. Such a detached response is a classic symptom of people who live surreal existences, and of men who have never known the love of a mothers bosom. And, perhaps HRH, himself in his mellowing years, was pondering the fact that all this British Commonwealth nonsense would neither have seen the light of day, nor the darkness of repressive imperialism, had it not been for Britains insatiable demands to divide and conquer nation after nation with its own brand of war through rampant and often bloody colonialism. GETTING REALLY SERIOUS When political leaders of the same colour are suddenly in significant disagreement with each other, it is often a most interesting exercise to delve a little deeper than the daily news headlines and the 7 second TV sound-bite. THE PROTESTERS Due to the civil war in Sri Lanka and its unresolved aftermath - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh boycotted CHOGM 2013; Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper boycotted CHOGM 2013. Neither was prepared to endorse - even acknowledge the current Sri Lankan regime and President Mahinda Rajapaksa. YES, PRIME MINISTER Newly elected Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott not only attended the Commonwealth leaders love-in, he was there with bells and whistles, a corpus of platitudes, AND a bag of goodies to boot. In that bag of goodies, our military hardware - a gift of TWO Australian patrol boats. And just for good measure, well be chummy neighbours and spend a few million dollars of Australians hard-earned giving the boats a lick of paint and an upgrade. Must value-add at all costs. Why was this done? It was all in the name of STOP THE BOATS! Its a becoming a cliché likely to rival the aging and endearing Lance Corporal Jones in the inimitable British sitcom, Dads Army - DONT PANIC! DONT PANIC! Sadly, the reality is that, a large section of the Australian population is not only panicked by STOP THE BOATS! – it is in a constant state of paranoia. I must admit, our new PM clearly knows his domestic politics. No matter what, play the right tune to that significant section of the Australian electorate that relishes every chance to demonise those pesky boat people, illegals, unlawful entries, and those who threaten Australias sovereignty. Poppycock! THE STATESMAN British Prime Minister, David Cameron attended CHOGM 2013, but oh my, what a different bag of goodies he was carrying. Cameron went to Sri Lanka with guts bigger than Big Ben. In that intestinal fortitude was a message with a twist that would make a Shane Warne wrongun look like a game of beach volleyball. Landing on the troubled isle, The British PM went where some might say, angels fear to tread - straight to Tamil heartland in the north. But Cameron is no fool - thats the difference. We were shown pictures of Cameron being mobbed by weeping and wailing Tamil people pleading for help to find out what happened to up to 70,000+ (UN figures) of their loved ones during and since the bloodiest days Rajapaksa came to power in 2005. Was this a spontaneous response and factual representation of the current reality, or a well-staged piece of political grandstanding and propaganda? I doubt the latter. Please read on and make up your own mind. Soon after, PM Cameron told President Rajapaksa and the Sri Lankan regime to confront the allegations and evidence of war crimes and atrocities, transparently and candidly. Cameron bluntly told Sri Lanka that, if it failed to provide a thorough and satisfactory outcome by March 2014, Britain would initiate an independent, international investigation through human rights bodies of the United Nations. I cannot help but ask the question, How can the Sri Lankan regime investigate itself? Can someone accused of murder, investigate themselves? No – it’s not a facile question. PM Camerons intentions and actions were not so surprising, but his passion and resolve were matters for contemplation. I did a little digging and I found that in the days leading up to CHOGM 2013, the British PM had watched the following, 2013 Channel 4 investigative documentary, No Fire Zone - The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka. Cameron has been quoted as saying it is one of the most chilling pieces of investigative documentary making he has ever seen. Having watched it, I can totally appreciate Camerons reaction. The picture quality is poor, as much of it is real-time footage taken on mobile phones by Tamil civilians as well as Sri Lankan soldiers. This documentary is NOT a reconstruction or re-enactment of events. For those who choose to watch it and might be worried about the English narration and the accents of the participants, English captions are available. The documentary contains warnings about what you will see. I would like to emphasise those warnings. https://youtube/watch?v=3uTdG38ckWc
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 02:52:51 +0000
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