Blinken without blinking says “Collateral damage” is to be expected in Israeli-Hamas standoff – Sri Lanka says “Oh really”!
The Israeli-Hamas standoff strangely has many bedfellows suddenly entering the scene & we cannot but highlight the hypocrisies at play on how the UN/UNHRC & international community reacted to Sri Lanka’s efforts against terrorism and the reaction of these entities on the unfolding Gaza crisis.
Though the standoff is between Israel & Hamas, the US is taking a prominent role. No, the Israeli’s are not American and the crisis has nothing to do with the US either.
The statements by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken are poignant
“First, we all recognize the right and indeed the imperative states to defend themselves against terrorism. That’s why we must unequivocally condemn Hamas and its barbaric terrorist attack against Israel,”
(at UNHRC on Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 against Israel)
Go back to 2006-2009 in Sri Lanka when Sri Lanka launched the military offensive against the LTTE (equivalent to Hamas) US shied from referring to LTTE as “terrorists”, US & Western Allies were not bothered about LTTE executions, or taking people hostage and the only outrage & revulsion shown was against the GoSL & its national army for attempting to free close to 300,000 civilians and eliminate a terrorist movement. In fact, after an initial resolution praising Sri Lanka, successive resolutions headed by US attempted to reprimand Sri Lanka for defeating a terrorist movement.
Blinken goes on to say UNHRC members states “must affirm the right of any nation to defend itself and to prevent such from repeating itself & every member of the UN has a responsibility to denounce the member states that arm, fund & train Hamas or any other terrorist group that carries out such horrific acts”.
Interesting indeed – then why was US drafting resolutions forcing its Allies to vote against Sri Lanka, reprimanding Sri Lanka, even presenting notion that the national army committed war crimes in simply defending Sri Lanka’s right to defend itself… Do we also need to mention the nations that funded & trained LTTE – it’s an open secret!
Blinken goes on to say “Hamas must cease using them as human shields”.
What did the US say when LTTE were using people as human shields and hostages? The US & Allies simply pointed fingers at the Sri Lankan army.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby echoed Blinken’s sentiments “We have and will continue to talk to our Israeli counterparts about the importance of avoiding and minimizing civilian casualties and respecting innocent life and trying to prevent collateral damage as they go after legitimate Hamas targets,”
When Sri Lanka declared same, it was still regarded as war crimes!
Remember the much ado about the LTTE occupied Pudukudurippu hospital – fast forward to Gaza and the US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watsaon says the Gaza hospital airstrike was not by Israel but caused by an errant rocket or missile launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Former Israeli PM Lapid says “This (Israel’s response) is going to be long and painful… we are going to attack Gaza because Hamas is in Gaza. We are going to do our best to avoid killing bystanders and collateral damage, but there will be (collateral damage) because this war is in a very densely populated area”
Interestingly, Biden, Blinken & West’s allies are all openly supporting Israel including the Western mainstream media.
Wiki cable by US Ambassador to Geneva Clint Williamson on July 15, 2009 after meeting with Jacque de Maio, ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia on 9 July 2009.
“On the LTTE, de Maio said that it had tried to keep civilians in the middle of a permanent state of violence. It (LTTE) saw the civilian population as a ‘protective asset’ and kept its fighters embedded amongst them. De Maio said that the LTTE commanders, objective was to keep the distinction between civilian and military assets blurred. They would often respond positively when ICRC complained to the LTTE about stationing weapons at a hospital, for example. The LTTE would move the assets away, but as they were constantly shifting these assets, they might just show up in another unacceptable place shortly thereafter.”
While Americans are suffering severe economic hardships back home, US is funneling funds for wars in Ukraine & Israel, that have no benefit to the American ordinary people but secure lucrative gains for US elite.
We hope the UNHRC is sensible not to present any more resolutions against Sri Lanka & cease to interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, if UN/UNHRC does not have the guts to apply the same bullying tactics used against Sri Lanka, against Israel too.
The people of the world are now realizing the hypocrisies at play by the so-called international community who made such a fuss when Sri Lanka was eliminating terrorists, but keeping mum to the inhumane attacks on innocent civilians simply because a bunch of terrorists are keeping hostages. Sri Lanka’s armed forces sacrificed their soldiers in the last phase of the conflict to bring to safety close to 300,000 civilians (some of whom were even terrorists dressed in civilians). The ICRC is on record to say that the conflict could have ended sooner, if the armed forces intensified usage of heavy weapons, but considering the civilians that were kept by the LTTE, the armed forces took a longer time to eliminate the LTTE while bring Tamil civilians to safety.
We hope that the Tamil community, in watching what is unfolding in Gaza, finally appreciate the efforts the Sri Lanka armed forces took to end LTTE while saving close to 300,000 Tamils.
Kindly drop all false allegations of war crimes & genocide against Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces by the hypocritical international community partnering with the LTTE fronts to advance their insidious agendas.
Shenali D Waduge
