This is in response to a news item titled “US says Lashkar in Lanka” published in the Daily Mirror on 27 march 2010.
Citing a PTI report Admiral Robert Willard, Commander of the US Pacific Command in his testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, has said, in response to a question from Senator George Lemieux, that the Lashkar-e-Taiba group is expanding and specifically positioning itself in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He has also said that “we have certainly knowledge of their influence within the region beyond the countries that I just mentioned. The extent of that influence is what we’re taking under study”.
The Sri Lanka government rejected these reports saying there was no evidence to prove that the group was in the island. Therefore, it is extremely important that the US provide details about this alleged LeT influence in Sri Lanka in view of the serious Implications of this disclosure to Sri Lankan Muslims.
That is, assuming Admiral Willard is speaking the truth.
It is worthy to note that Muslims in Sri Lanka, as rightly pointed out by the island’s former Chief Justice Sarath N Silva, remain the only community which never took to arms to realize their grievances even at the peak of their sufferings during the ethnic war when they were evicted from their homes, their lands grabbed, their livelihoods deprived, kidnapped, tortured and indiscriminately killed. This alone would have been cause enough for any group to take to arms. However Muslims refrained from succumbing to violence. There were, however, a few Muslims who acquired weapons to defend themselves against the LTTE atrocities, but they disappeared even before LTTE disappeared. After the elimination of the LTTE the remaining few armed Muslims handed over their weapons to the authorities. The question is why the Muslims should take to arms now under LeT or any other banner?
I submit that Admiral Willard’s statement must be taken with a pinch of salt. For example, within days after the 9/11 events in New York in 2001, former US President George Bush together with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom accused Al Qaeda of destroying the World Trade Centre without any proper inquiry. Exploiting the mood in its wake Bush blackmailed a shocked and confused world, created a coalition and invaded within 27 days the war battered and impoverished Afghanistan where he slaughtered innocent and poverty stricken Afghans in one of the most barbarous military ventures of its kind in modern history.
More importantly, Admiral Willard’s submission must be viewed in the backdrop of the lies and disinformation that the US media leading up to the war on terror, kowtowing a government agenda and working to create a conducive environment for the senseless attack on Iraq and the slaughter of its unarmed civilians.
The US accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction that, Bush and Blair claimed, threatened the west and invaded Iraq in 2003, despite United Nations weapons inspectors repeatedly stating that Iraq did not possess such weapons. They turned this once almost developed country into a wasteland. Around 1.4 million innocent Iraqis killed so far, hundreds of thousands of innocent men and women were tortured, women indiscriminately raped, infrastructure destroyed and birth, marriage, death, land and vehicle registration offices burnt causing chaos in the society.
Around four million Iraqis who lived in peace were forced into refugee camps in neighboring countries to languish in sub human conditions. More than two million Iraqis were made refugees in their own country. Shiites and Sunnis were put against each other turning Iraq into a killing field where, with the help of a puppet government, western oil companies started looting the country’s oil wealth while the Iraqis starve. And now it turns out that since he stepped down as Prime Minister Tony Blair has pocketed more than $30 million in oil revenues from his secret dealings with a South Korean oil consortium.
There are liars in Admiral Willard’s camp. The so-called US led Western war against terrorism turned out to be a war against Islam and Muslims. Now after Afghanistan and Iraq they have turned their attention on Pakistan that is bleeding. The question is whether this statement is a pretext for US plan to expand its agenda to cover Muslim living as minorities in Sri Lanka and other countries in the region.
The frightening situation worldwide caused by the US led so called war on terrorism is such today that every Muslim with a beard and a head cap and every Muslim woman with a Hijab have been branded as terrorist and humiliated. Muslims have been attacked and killed all over under various pretexts. Muslim refugees walking in sheer desperation in search of shelter with their meager belongings have become frequent common sight worldwide.
Helpless Muslims worldwide are seething with anger at the west.
This is the reason why Sri Lankan Muslims take serious note of Admiral Robert Willard’s disclosures. Sri Lanka has its own share of anti-Muslim elements which could exploit this statement to suit their own agendas. If Admiral Wilfred was speaking the truth he must come up with hard evidence so that the authorities in the island can verify.