The Despicable State Of International Solidarity:
Bolivia Decorates And Cuba Hails Genocidal Sri Lanka
By Athithan Jayapalan
25 June, 2014
Countercurrents.org
The Latin American bloc's deplorable endorsement of genocidal Sri Lanka has once again been illustrated with the arrival of President Rajapakasa on the 13 th of June 2014 in Bolivia to attend the summit of head of states and governments of the Group 77 (G77). The two day summit was held in Santa Cruz which is also home to the capitalist and industrialist elites of Bolivia , which until recently remained an adversary to the radical Bolivian regime run by Eva Morales. Besides attending the summit the president also met several head of states including President Morales to engage in bilateral talks (1).
Upon arrival the genocidal president was received with full military honors and was greeted by the president of the Bolivian Senate Eugenio Rojas Apaza and the Sri Lankan ambassador to Cuba Sarath Dissanayake. Rajapaksa was accompanied by Minister of External affairs G.L. Peiris, Presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunga and Secretary to External Affairs, Kshenuka Seneviratne (2).
The summit which brought together several heads of states from the developing world was ironically termed, with Rajapakse as a chief guest, ‘For a New World Order to Living Well'. In this regard the official site of G77 announced the decision by the Bolivian government to decorate Rajapaksa with an honorary award. In the announcement the following was stated regarding the chief executive of the Sri Lankan state “ President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has an extensive political career that includes a recognized militant for human rights in his country, which has earned him the honor of Parliamentary Order Merit Democratic Rep. Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, granted by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly of Bolivia.” (3 ). In addition to the hearty welcome, on the concluding days the president of Cuba Raul Castro has also reportedly expressed his willingness to work with ‘leaders' such as Rajapaksa. He also added that Fidel Castro regarded the Sri Lankan state as ‘one of our friends' (4 ).
Such brazen legitimization of a president who presided over the massacres of tens of thousands of Tamils in 2009 is aggravating and raises serious questions about the capacity of the established socialist countries in providing alternative platforms for the oppressed nations let alone solidarity.
Camouflaging genocide with pseudo anti-imperialism
The G77 was founded in 1967 in which 77 countries were signatories including Ceylon ; the intent was to establish a south to south economic integration within the U.N. framework among developing countries and is today the biggest inter-state body in the U.N. As much as south to south integration is warranted in order to break the colonial structures which ensure dependency on the west, unconditional promotion of such an alliance can be detrimental to the interests of oppressed nations. This is pertinent considering the jubilant courting of genocide accused Sri Lanka within such ‘progressive' international forums.
During the 23 rd , 24 th and 25 th UNHRC sessions the Cuba – Venezuela – Bolivia bloc not only voted in favor of Sri Lanka, they also advocated the Sri Lankan state which in effect legitimized its genocidal actions against the Eelam Tamil nation in 2009 in a war that caused the death of over 140 000 Tamils. In this respect they also praised the success of the Sri Lankan state in defeating terrorism, in restoring peace and democracy and also for withstanding imperialist pressure. Incidentally it was strikingly similar to the approach the western establishments displayed in the immediate aftermath of the war in which the brutal annihilation of the Eelam Tamil resistance movement and the people was callously termed as the successful defeat of terrorism. Consequently the enforced military occupation of the Tamil homeland which followed was deemed as a path towards democracy, development and peace.
It is in such a reprehensible spirit of solidarity with the oppressor, that the Bolivian government decorated the Sri Lankan president by awarding him for his commitment to democracy and human rights and his achievements in establishing peace. Furthermore effectively desecrating the Eelam Tamil national struggle for self-determination, the official G77 site further stated that “ Sri Lanka is a sovereign island country in Asia , located in the Bay of Bengal . In 2009, the Government launched an offensive against guerillas called The Tigers, this to ensure peace in the Asian country .”
Shedding the solidarity with the oppressed which is supposed to be the defining character of international solidarity and anti-imperialism, the ruling elite of these socialist states have actively endorsed pro-imperialist and genocidal Sri Lanka , whose only socialist credentials remain inscribed in its official title: The socialist democratic republic of Sri Lanka .
What is most appalling is that under the pretext of south to south integration and anti-imperialism the Sri Lankan state is facilitated in camouflaging its defining characteristics and in actively participating and enjoying courtesy in a reputed international forum which orients towards reducing U.S. hegemony. More disturbing is the active role taken by certain elements in these Latin American countries in actively advocating the anti-imperialist and democratic credentials of the Sri Lankan state in a distorted and oppressive manner. In 2010 Eva Golinger, a presidential advisor to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez praised Sri Lanka for defeating terrorism and elucidated that “ Venezuela should be strengthening the hand of an ally that is also suffering imperialist aggression” (5).
In 2013 December, the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) convened in the German town of Bremen to hold the Peoples' Tribunal on Sri Lanka . An expert panel of academics, former U.N. officials and human rights activists found the Sri Lankan state guilty of genocide and in continuing structural genocide on the Eelam Tamil nation after a thorough evaluation of documentations, eye witnesses' accounts and other facts. Significant for the Latin American people to grasp is that the tribunal also found the U.S. and U.K. complicit in the genocide on the Eelam Tamils due to the active support and assistance given to the Sri Lankan state in its genocidal war against the Tamils.
There is overwhelming evidence pertaining to the fact that the Sri Lankan state displays the chief characteristics of a comprador state. It has also proven to be an enduring political entity which facilitates western imperialism. Thus it is rather a peculiar feat for socialist countries to endorse the Sri Lankan president and rationalize him and his state as an anti-imperialist, human rights advocate and ally.
Revisionism and the CPIM
Such an endorsement of Sri Lanka is also vividly exemplified in India through the revisionist Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM). The CPIM which has governed the Indian states of West Bengal and Kerala and is recognised for facilitating major state capitalist processes, have actively denied the Eelam Tamils as well as numerous oppressed nations in India their inalienable right to self determination. The CPIM leadership consisting of an upper strata brahmanical constellation deliberately forsakes a central Marxist-Leninist principle and fails to uphold commitment to the equality of nations due to their own class and caste interests. Moreover they have also actively embraced western imperialist economic forces in the name of development which have proven detrimental to local populations. They have presided over the foreign industrial and capitalistic exploitation of local lands through the large scale issuing of special economic zones (SEZs). A prime example was the allotment in Nandigram of over 25 000 acres as SEZ to the Indonesia Salem group, which is run by the family of General Suharto who executed a genocidal persecution of the Indonesian communists during the 1960's (6). In 2007 the CPIM government ordered its paramilitary thugs and the police to crack down on the agitation organized by the locals to oppose the deals, which resulted in the death of 13 villagers. Furthermore in West Bengal the CPIM has been implicated for decades in the violent suppression of the Maoist revolution and people struggles, especially through the use of the state police force and paramilitary organizations who execute their orders.
The revisionism and pink leftism of the CPIM has consistently opposed and delegitimized the Eelam Tamil national liberation and its movements. They were also known until very recently to invite the ultra-nationalist JVP of Sri Lanka to their international conferences. The JVP despite waging a war against the Sri Lankan state in the 1970s and in the later 1980s has consistently been against Tamil national rights and been involved in the propagation of Sinhala chauvinism legitimizing violence against Tamils. Since the 1990s the JVP with its tight liaison with the bourgeoisie state has been directly participating in the structural and national oppression of Tamils.
The Latin American socialist states following such a trend is dismaying and raises serious questions about their adherence to principles of international solidarity and opposition to national oppression, chauvinism and genocide.
While the intense Cuba based diplomatic lobby orchestrated by Sri Lanka in Latin America plays it part in enthralling the decision making circles in these countries, what remains to be scrutinized is the resilience of the concerned advocacy. The courting of Colombo by the Latin American bloc has been practiced over the years and displays the persistence of such a relationship despite the mounting evidence of genocide and atrocities committed by the very president and state they espouse.
Furthermore the question arises of how these socialist countries can absolve the Sri Lankan state from its excessive intermeshing with Western imperialism and neo liberal economic policies. Incidentally, besides the state perpetuating a multifaceted structural genocide and policies in a heavily occupied Tamil homeland is also increasingly involved throughout the island in stifling people's protests against neo liberal policies and western corporative exploitation. Mere ignorance of the situation on the island or the efficiency of the Sri Lankan lobby cannot explain such a penchant approach towards Colombo .
Such persistent embrace by the socialist Latin American countries have disillusioned and enraged Tamils who once looked upon these socialist states with admiration and solidarity . To make matters worse the Sri Lankan president is garlanded for his achievements towards democracy and peace and regarded an ally. This is crucial for peoples' movements and socialist forces within these states to display their discontent with the awarding of Rajapaksa and also their condemnation of its continued national oppression and structural annihilation of the Eelam Tamils.
Conclusion
The political injustice towards Tamils attains many faces in the geo-political landscape of the globe, but what is nefarious is that the socialist and imperialist alike are courting the genocidal Sri Lankan government through acts which deny the Tamil national question and which legitimize the structural genocide in Eelam. Such an unholy alliance of international establishment is enhancing the Sri Lankan state's capacities to execute genocide and to legitimize it as democracy, anti-imperialism, reconciliation and development alike.
The Latin American states' active ratification of Sri Lanka in the recent past displays their inability to propagate or facilitate the prospectus towards a genuine pro-oppressed and anti-imperialist international politics of solidarity. The invitation and decoration of Rajapaksa will prove to be a defining historical event which displays the moral corruption and the political bankruptcy of the Latin American socialist states in the international forum. If the course remains unaltered and Colombo not denounced, then these countries prove to be as destructive as the west in denying the oppressed justice and in legitimizing genocide. In such a context it is the tighter integration between the various oppressed nations and peoples of the world which is necessitated. Such a culpable alliance of world powers assisting the oppressor of the Eelam Tamils is also identifiable in the national liberation struggles of the Kurdish and Baloch nations. If the world turns a blind eye or actively accentuates the national oppression and genocide inflicted upon the oppressed, it is the transnational integration between the oppressed which can challenge such hypocrisy, paradox and the moral corruption in contemporary world politics. In these times south to south integration becomes a farce to whitewash genocide and national oppression under the pretext of pseudo anti-imperialism, an art apparently mastered by the Sri Lankan state.
Athithan Jayapalan is a student of social Anthropology and belongs to the Tamil Diaspora and lives in Norway.
References
1• http://www.g77bolivia.com/en/president-sri-lanka-already-bolivia-take-part-g-77-summit
2• http://www.ft.lk/2014/06/14/president-rajapaksa-arrives-in-bolivia/
3• http://www.g77bolivia.com/en/president-sri-lanka-known-his-defense-human-rights
4• http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/48482-we-love-to-work-with-president-rajapaksa-castro.html
5• http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/sri_lanka_venezuela_a_debate.htm#golinger_original
6• http://www.isreview.org/issues/57/rep-nandigram.shtml
Comments are moderated