Amnesia

The unusual noise raised by certain quarters over the imminent victory by the S.Lanka armed forces in its fight against their local terror group suggests that there is some feeling of envy as well as a general desire to be hypocritical. There is also a clear hint or indication that the rest of the world is experiencing a bout of amnesia. S.Lanka is about to bring a clear-cut conclusion to a conflict that has seen acts of violence against civilians on both sides but the same cannot be said in the case of others eleswhere. Iraq which was invaded by the West on false premises, now has to grapple with daily acts of savagely mindless attacks against civilians but nobody ever says anything nowadays. Civilians in Afghanistan and the border areas near Pakistan are frequent victims of air strikes and bomb attacks but again there is much silence. It is perplexing that nobody is mentioning the need for a ceasefire there. Perhaps the civilians in Afghanistan are regarded as targets that have military value. Or perhaps it's because S.Lanka is not a place where the Western military has had the chance to get involved. Since there is no presence of Western forces on the island, it is only right to make a lot of noise. Where there is Western military involvement, innocent civilians can be killed and it is alright for it to happen. A lot of civilians were killed in Vietnan, Laos, Yugoslavia and eleswhere. But few people made any noises. And fewer still can remember all of it. Perhaps its Western induced amnesia. In 1999, the Western forces attacked Yugoslavia in a way that was reminiscent of Operation Rolling Thunder conducted in Vietnam in the sixties. By the way, Rolling Thunder killed a lot of innocent civilians. The attacks against Yugoslavia in 1999, called Operation Allied Force caused very heavy damage as well as killing many innocent civilians. Allied Force was carried out by thousands of sorties dumping advanced munitions on their victims. Perhaps they were being used to see how effective Western weapons were at the time. The Western forces used cruise missles, cluster bombs, air-toground missilies, delayed action bombs against helpless civilian factories, bridges, power stations, hospitals, refugee convoys, town buildings, telecommunications assets and even TV stations. Such lustful and wanton acts of violence were in contravention of international laws but few people said anything as Western forces were involved. Even when the Chinese embassy was bombed and burned, nobody said anything, because it was 'caused' by an 'outdated map' error. Perhaps that was what Hitler thought of when he invaded Poland in 1939. The attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999 were never approved by the UN

Security Council just as in the case of Iraq in 2003, but it did not prevent the Western forces from using civilians as cannon fodder. But now, as S.Lanka is about to bring its conflict to a close, the foreigners have started yelping loudly. The attacks on Yugoslavia included killing innocent civilians who were travelling or fleeing on foot, trains and buses. Even those who stayed put inside their houses were attacked by Nato bombers. Cluster bombs were used against civilians in hospitals and local markets and even power stations were hit. Old folks homes were not spared either. Did the civilians owed the West money and refused to pay them back ? Yugoslavia filed a complaint 0n 29 April 1999 with the ICJ but it was thrown out due to a technicality. Yet, the ICJ could do something for the Darfur rebels in 2009. Perhaps it's due to amnesia. Or perhaps it's just plain old Western hypocrisy. Yelping and biting is totally permissible if Western forces are not involved. However, if the West is involved, do keep quiet. S.Lanka must be determined to put an end to the conflict that has killed nearly 80,000 lives so far. There is no need to pay heed to the voices shouting and yelling because these voices are either suffering from amnesia or from the disease called hypocrisy. These voices have no right to tell S.Lanka what to do. In fact, they should be learning from S.Lanka.