These are my comments about the New York Times article by Somini Sengupta on December 06, 2008 at following web page.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/world/asia/06lanka.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3
In a nut shell, the article is nothing but more of a hidden task to damage SL governmemt’s and Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksha’s image. Here are some strong evidences. If the writer wanted to be impartial, she could have given the true facts (given below) and provide readers a true picture. Instead she has taken a more biased path towards LTTE Tamil Terrorists.
Article Says Following : “Having fled as many as seven times over the last year, according to aid workers, some of the displaced are huddling in lean-tos in perilous, open paddy fields and, when they can, taking shelter from shelling in rebel-built bunkers.”
………… His office vets the movement of all humanitarian aid agencies. In September, he ordered them all to leave rebel-controlled areas in the northeast.
Aid Groups and Humanitarian Agencies: They are NOT aid workers or humanitarian agencies. They are terrorist supporters in the guise of aid workers. For example, The Norwegian Aid Company gave 38 vehicles, satellite telecom sets and other equipment to LTTE Tamil Terrorists. They are ONLY the recent figures (during 2008). Corresponding figures for what they did before that are not known yet. Some of such companies (again in the guise of aid workers) took thousands of cement bags for LTTE to construct underground bunkers. They told the government that such building materials are to construct houses for civilians. Another aid group granted LTTE with heavy vehicles and equipment, which are even currently used by the terrorists construct strong under-ground bunkers and huge earth bunds. These were smuggled to LTTE controlled areas in the guise of humanitarian aid. According to the definition of these agencies, providing terrorists with what they want to carry out the terrorist acts, is called “Humanitarian Supplies”. They even advertised vacancies for various positions for their organizations in LTTE terrorists’ news papers (http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20081107_03). Everything was revealed one by one only when the SL army started to capture terrorists’ held areas. As an example, rather than building houses for civilians, not even a single toilet had been built in Mallavi, which was called a “Mini-Geneva” because of high concentration of NGOs. Then these agencies could do nothing but to admit they did not build houses for civilians. Almost all NGOs do the same, may be because they will lose their jobs if the conflict is resolved (I don’t know). Also LTTE front organizations that raise funds for mono-ethnic homeland terrorist struggle use such aid groups to tunnel what they have collected for terrorists. It is very clear for any ordinary person to understand who these organizations are and what they are trying to do. But for Somini Senguptha who wrote the above article in NY Time, they are aid groups and humanitarian agencies.
Huddling in lean-tos in perilous: When SL forces capture LTTE held territory town by town, village by village, who takes the civilians forcefully deep into LTTE held territory making them vulnerable to attacks? Who doesn’t allow civilians to come to government areas? Who doesn't allow civilians to move freely? Who kills civilians who try to escape from terror clutches and come to government areas? Who forcefully conscript such innocent civilians and their underage children for the futile struggle? It is none other than so called “Tamils’ sole representative – LTTE”. What are the evidences to prove this claim? That is none other than the same Tamil civilians who however have been fortunate enough to escape and come to government controlled areas after a death-threatening struggle. Also see the story of LTTE cadre captured by SL Army here : http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20081112_05
See following for more details.
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20081121_01
How come the writer of the NY Times column forgot all these true facts, and try to make the true picture up side down?
Article Says: Privately, Mr. Rajapaksa’s friends and associates say that his resolve is deeply personal: The Tamil Tigers tried to kill him two years ago.
Who are these associates? Why the writer doesn’t disclose who they are? What is the credibility that these associates know exactly how Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa thinks? How do they know this is “a” reason, or this is the “only” reason why he fights against LTTE terrorists? Didn’t these associates and the writer know that it was the same Gotabaya Rajapaksha who was dead against LTTE terrorists even before the terrorists tried to kill him? Didn’t theses associates and the writer know that it was the same Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fought with the same group of terrorists as a SL Army colonel some time ago? In fact, he received medal of honors from 3 consecutive presidents for his military achievements against LTTE in the past. Most importantly, all these presidents are of the opposition party to what Mr. Rajapaksha's family represented. This proves that he has to be a remarkably great military leader against LTTE tamil terrorists to receive awards from rival prasidents. All these happened decades before LTTE attempted to kill Gotabaya Rajapaksha. How come the NY Times columnist ignored all these facts and points out he is against LTTE because LTTE tried to kill him. I think the above statement in the article is nothing but an attempt to damage the respected image of Mr. Rajapaksha. The writer has lost her credibility in trying with baseless personal attacks.
The Article Says: This month, the army announced the capture of a strategic crossing, about 19 miles north of here, called Pooneryn, which connects the island to Jaffna peninsula to the north and robs the guerrillas of a crucial smuggling corridor. But no one knows for sure, since Mr. Rajapaksa does not allow journalists, aid workers or other independent monitors into the conflict area.
Again the only objective is to fire a baseless attack on Mr. Rajapaksha. The Defense Ministry has published photos and videos of liberated Poonaryn town with the current day SL army heroes. One of the videos showed how the commander of 58th Army Division, Brigadier Shavindra De Silva was celebrating the victory with his mates in front of LTTE monument in Poonaryn junction. All these were available in the Defense Ministy website for anyone who has internet connection. It is very clear what the hidden agenda of the writer. The writer seems to be very disappointed for Mr. Rajapaksha’s decision to remove terrorist agents (who were in the guise of aid workers) from the north, which made LTTE helpless. She desperately tries to attack this decision number of times in her article rather than pointing why Mr. Rajapaksha “had” to make the decision.
The Article says: While Mr. Rajapaksa makes no apologies for his hard-line approach
Why should he apologize for his hard-line approach, especially when all the soft approaches taken by all previous governments achieved nothing but further strengthening LTTE terrorists? He and the majority of Sri Lankans now believe in the hard-line approach when dealing with such a ruthless terrorist group. And that approach has already proven with great results with respect to war against terrorism in SL. Does anyone suggest a soft approach with a ruthless terrorist group? Does anyone suggest a soft approach with Al-Quida?
The Article Says: Perhaps the military’s biggest obstacle is the civilians still holed up in rebel territory, alongside the rebels. Artillery fire and aerial attacks would inevitably yield heavy civilian casualties, something the government has repeatedly said it wants to avoid.
It would have given a more accurate picture to the reader if the Article said the LTTE terrorists forcefully keep the civilians inside their territory, despite number of government appeals asking them come and settle in liberated areas. Even the Jaffna Catholic Bishop Rev Thomas Savundaranayagam in December 2008 asked India to pressurize LTTE to release civilians from being forcefully kept in their territory.
The writer is careful enough not to disclose the fact that Mr. Rajapaksha was a former Sri Lankan army colonel who fought fierce battles with LTTE terrorists and earned presidential medals for his achievements. Instead, she repeated her mud-slinging comments saying he was a Unix administrator, making the reader to think that Sri Lanka has picked a Unix administrator for the position of Defense Secretary.
The writer has not said or not seen anything wrong with LTTE terrorists. If there is any blame in the article, it is against the government only. How can this be a good un-biased article?
The last few chapters of the article carry exactly the same lamentation of Indian Tamil Nadu politicians who are in a desperate attempt to salvage LTTE terrorists by throwing a life-line of a cease fire agreement. Similar vicious act was orchestrated by India about 20 years ago when LTTE was in a similar situation. This move later caused LTTE to assassinate the same Indian prime minister (Rajiv Gandhi) who threw the life-line to the LTTE. In addition, it made Sri Lanka and its people (the main victim of the war) to suffer for 20 more years. If India keeps on pressurizing SL to go for a cease fire agreement with this deadly Tamil terrorist group again, it is time for SL to ask India to show a good example by signing a similar agreement with the terrorists who were behind the Mumbai attack.
Finally remember that LTTE is a Tamil Terrorist group banned in 26 countries int the world including USA, UK, Canada, India and European Union. If you want to know more about them, visit USA's FBI web site here : http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan08/tamil_tigers011008.html
Also it is timely required to take necessary steps to prevent such biased columnists from writing extremely biased articles towards terrorists, which will ultimately tarnish the good will and reputation of leading media institutions such as New York Times.
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