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Washington, D.C. 01 September (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lanka’s Minister of Media and Information Anura Priyadharshana Yapa told a press briefing in Colombo yesterday that he would ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to probe into the United States Senate foreign relations committee documentation that the Government of Eritrea is giving assistance to his country’s separatist Tamil Tiger rebels saying “no sovereign government would assist a known terrorist organization.”
The Senate foreign relations committee’s findings that the Eritrean government is assisting Tamil Tiger rebels was revealed by the ‘Asian Tribune’ quoting part of the document that mentioned Sri Lanka. The document, dated 15 December 2006, was authored by the then chairman of the foreign relations committee Richard Lugar, now the ranking member of the same committee, for the perusal of the U.S. Departments of State and Defense. The ‘Asian Tribune’ report said "Unless the committee is satisfied with the data collected by its staff that traveled to four continents covering approximately twenty countries the final report wouldn’t have authoritatively mention that the "Government of Eritrea" is providing "direct military assistance" to the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka." At a press briefing in Washington on August 17 State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Africa revealed that the Bush Administration is seriously contemplating declaring Eritrea as country that assist terrorism that will follow with imposing embargos on this country in the African Horn. The ‘Asian Tribune’ contends that the Government of Sri Lanka needs to get through to the six members of the Lugar staff who completed the investigative report for the Senate foreign relations committee to get into the details of the Eritrean-Tamil Tiger connection that the final report did not carry. Breaking the Eritrean-Tamil Tiger rapport the ‘Asian Tribune’ said that those staff members and the Senators who form the Foreign Relations Committee could shed additional light for the Government of Sri Lanka to get to the bottom of the issue. Once armed with hard evidence the Government of Sri Lanka will be in a better position to take up the matter with the United Nations as both Sri Lanka and Eritrea are sovereign members of the World Body. Eritrea’s neighbor Ethiopia, which once formed a single nation, is an important ally of the United States in her war against ‘Global Terrorism’. The U.S. has already accused and collected data that the Government of Eritrea, an authoritarian regime, is aiding and abetting rebels within the borders of Ethiopia. In the light of the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee revelation that the authoritarian regime of Eritrea is having a close rapport with Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers who are in an armed struggle to destabilize the democratic government of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan regime should be extra cautious at a time when reports emanate from Ethiopia that Sri Lanka’s ‘peace facilitator’ Norway is being impeached in that country for meddling in its internal affairs. In her investigation to find out the truth about Eritrea-Tamil Tiger rapport it is in the interest of Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and the democratic system, and most importantly in her struggle to defeat Tamil Tiger terrorism, to find out if there is a covert alliance between Norway and the Government of Eritrea to destabilize Ethiopia, a country the United States consider an important ally in the war against global terrorism. Norway, the current facilitator of the peace arrangement between Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers and the underwriter of the now almost defunct 2002 Ceasefire Agreement, is being accused by the Rajapaksa administration and other anti-Tiger Tamil political movements as partial to the separatist Tigers. Despite the international community, including the United States, consider Norway as the legitimate facilitator of peace between the two warring factions, the Scandinavian country has been viewed with suspicion in this South Asian nation. As much as Norway has lost her credibility in Ethiopia it has lost all confidence and credibility in Sri Lanka who are opposed to Tamil Tiger terrorism. The scenario that has emerged due to the U.S. Senate foreign relations committee authoritatively mentioning the Government of Eritrea assisting Tamil Tiger rebels in one of its Congressional documents, it is in the interest of Sri Lanka to fix this jig-saw-puzzle of this triumvirate Norway-Eritrea-LTTE in her own national interest at least invigorating its sagging and ineffective overseas public diplomacy. In fact, ‘direct assistant’ from the Government of Eritrea to the Tamil Tigers obviously do not consist of canned food and other groceries. |
