30th March 2022 11:50:35 Hours
The Rt Hon the Lord Michael Naseby PC, the British Conservative Party politician who is also the Joint Chair of the All Party Group on Sri Lanka, currently in Sri Lanka released his newest book, " Sri Lanka: Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained " this evening (29) at BMICH in the presence of a distinguished gathering of invitees including Prof G. L Peiris, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Diplomats, Secretary Defence, General Kamal Gunarathna (retd), Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army, General Shavendra Silva scholars, patriots, and invitees.
The event saw the 333 page book of 19 Chapters along with 54 pages of appendices of letters and memoirs written by himself to different political hierarchy in Britain in defence of Sri Lanka’s firm stance against LTTE 's brutality and LTTE 's genocide allegations.
Lord Naseby begins his career in the British Parliament in 1974. He was Deputy Speaker from 1992 until 1997 when he became a member of the House of Lords.
In all his chapters Lord Naseby is trying his best to alleviate myths and refute charges levelled against the political and public administration and the Army of Sri Lanka.
He firmly believes that agencies like UNHCR, Amnesty International, Human Rights watch, and several other Western media agents have portrayed a grossly inaccurate picture of the island, its Sri Lankan Army and its leadership. The above agencies and even British politicos like Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Prime Minister Cameron, and Hilary Clinton of the USA have been misled with false information provided by the Tamil diaspora groups in those countries.
Lord Naseby based his arguments primarily on his personal observations, despatches sent by Colonel Gash, the Defence attaché of the British High Commission in Colombo, and International Red Cross officers based in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.
He clearly spells out reasons as to why several peace talks between the Tamil Tigers and the government of Sri Lanka failed. He has repeatedly pointed out that the on-going ethnic issues in Sri Lanka between the majority Sinhalese and the minorities could be resolved without resorting to violence which the Tamil Tigers used as their main instrument.
Some unnecessary influences of India and the US and inactive support rendered with restraining orders by European Union and the UN have extended the armed conflict for such a long duration of about 30 years. Such a prolonged internecine war within a small island like Sri Lanka resulted in an irreparable destruction of its economy, social structure, and day-to-day human relations.
It is not difficult to surmise that incessant failures to come to a long-lasting peace agreement mainly due to LTTE reluctance and over confidence of the LTTE leaders in winning the war, would have driven the Sri Lankan army to resort to a military ending of the armed conflict.
As an independent critic of the war situation in Sri Lanka, I began to wonder whether the Western power holders benefitted from the instability of the country which they in their public face admired as the pearl of the Indian Ocean.
Naseby in his analysis refers to specific incidents like the cold-blooded massacre of 600 policemen (June 11th, 1990) who surrendered to the LTTE in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. He treats this as “one of the greatest war crimes in the whole of the conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers” (P. 89). Tamil Tigers forcing 72,000 Muslims in Jaffna to leave within 24 hours and killing 300 Muslims who were attending a prayer session are considered ‘ethnic cleansing” by the truest sense of the word.
Lord Naseby had never met the LTTE Leader Prabhakaran but has done some homework regarding Anton Balasingham’s strategic thinking. Balasingham’s approach was probably flawed from the beginning. Norwegian efforts have not brought desired results in resolving the conflict. According to Naseby, the UN was more interested in prosecuting for alleged war crimes after the event rather than concentrating on preventing such disastrous events. The British Government has apparently turned a blind eye being frightened by the Tamil diaspora votes in the UK.
Lord Naseby regarding the deaths of people during the last days of the war asserts that: “At most as the Sri Lanka census undertaken by Tamil officials says between 6,000 and 7,000 but that also includes the deaths of Tamil Tigers. What is clear is that it was never, ever, anywhere near tens of thousands or the minimum of 40,000, as claimed by the UN in the Darusman Report. It is also clear that the UK Government knew by 19 May 2009 – the end of the war - that 40,000 was a hopeless exaggeration but never said so. I wonder why.” (pp189-190)
Lord Naseby further asserts that the report published in March 2015 with the title of ‘Office Investigation on Sri Lanka’ by the OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) contained many inaccuracies connected with shelling in the war, short supply of food, etc. (p. 189). As Lord Naseby indicates “this report ignores the self-evident fact that this was a war between the democratically elected and legitimate Government of Sri Lanka and a terrorist group, the LTTE Tamil Tigers”. To combat and battlefield situations, the European Convention on Human Rights is wholly inappropriate, says his analysis in the book.
