Accountability

The term ‘Accountability’ is one which we have heard often, indeed too often from interfering foreigners and NGOs, particularly during and after the latter part of the armed conflict with the LTTE.  This is a term which we are going to hear with increasing frequency in the days to come when the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is held and a number of interfering foreigners will be in our Country telling us what is wrong with us and how we should run our affairs.  

There is in fact nothing offensive about the word ‘Accountability’.  That which is offensive is only the dishonest twist given to that term by the foreigners.  

‘Accountability’ does not connote a ‘one-way street’ wherein the Government and its Agencies and in particular our Armed Forces are taken to task for their alleged misdeeds but never complimented for the good that they have done.  ‘Accountability’ is by no means a one-way street.  It is a broad highway with multiple lanes going in both directions and connotes simply each person being held responsible and hence accountable for his own acts.  Thus, ‘Accountability’ means that a person or institution must be lauded and/or rewarded for his/its good deeds and censured and/or punished for his/its bad deeds.  That which makes the term loathsome is the manner in which it is used by the interfering foreigners to whom ‘Accountability’ only means harassing or castigating the small, the weak and the poor for alleged wrongs alleged to have been committed by them and/or not uttering a word against the wrongs of the powerful, the rich, and those supported by them. According to their perverted purported perception/use of that term it is not necessary to praise and/or give credit to a small, poor and weak Country for the good deeds it has done or indeed to recognize them at all – for all that ‘Accountability’ means to them is cornering the small, the weak and the powerless and castigating it/them to their hearts content.  



That ‘Accountability’ is a necessary principle is beyond question; that it should have been but is not practised in our country is another fact which is undeniable.  However, that does not mean that interfering foreigners can, or are entitled to, or that we are bound to bow our heads and accept unjust criticism from them when all the good deeds done by the Government and by our Armed Forces are wholly ignored?    Thus, while castigating our country for the violence inflicted on the people of the North during the last days of the armed conflict [referred to herein as the ‘war’ for convenience], they have ignored ‘in toto’ the good deeds done by the Government and by our Armed Forces during that period.  

The last days of the ‘war’ was a time when Tamil civilians were herded together and kept captive as ‘human shields’  by the LTTE in wrongful confinement on a small sliver of land in the Northern part of Mullaitivu.  This was a time when little Tamil children were being kidnapped on a daily basis by the LTTE for slave labour in their terrorist cadres.  This was a time when Tamil adults were being murdered ‘willy nilly’ at the whims and fancies of the LTTE and when money was being extorted from them by the same terrorists.  Those Tamil civilians would have been in the same position today, suffering the loss of their children, their lives, limbs and money but for the self-sacrifice and the efforts of our Armed Forces to free them from  bondage under the LTTE.   Was this then not a matter in respect of which our Armed Forces should have been praised? Yet the ‘Accountability’ as seen by the perverted foreigners meant only censuring/castigating  the poor and the weak and not praising them  for or even recognizing any good that they had done.

Most of the LTTE leaders are now dead.  Some others are Ministers and/or in the lap of the Government.  It clearly does not follow therefrom that they can avoid punishment or at least censure. It is time the Government took action against them.  Secondly there are those who supported the Tigers in their traitorous conduct.  Chief amongst them is the Tamil National Alliance and its members of Parliament who told the Tamil People that the LTTE are their sole representatives and that they should recognize them as such.  Thus, the chief or most ‘popular’ among the Tamil racist parties supported the LTTE to the hilt.  Are they not ‘Accountable’ for the loss of lives, damage to the persons and the loss of property suffered by the Tamils. Who will make them pay for it; and how?

Upon their liberation from the clutches of the LTTE in Mullaitivu, those once helpless and friendless Tamils flocked to Government-controlled areas clutching millions of rupees in cash and jewellery wrapped in paper.  There was not one complaint about even one rupee or one piece of jewellery being robbed by any member of the Armed Forces. Was this then not a matter in respect of which our Armed Forces should have been praised? Yet the ‘Accountability’ as seen by the perverted foreigners meant only censuring/castigating the poor and the weak and not praising them for or even recognizing any good that they had done.  

Throughout the conflict the Government of Sri Lanka of whatever political colouration, ensured the supply of food and drugs to the areas of this country which were under the jack boot of the LTTE.  Much of those supplies meant for the people was stolen by the LTTE and terrorists injured in battle were treated in hospitals run by the Government, by medical officers paid by the Government with drugs and equipment supplied by the Government (namely the people of this Country). Thus the LTTE, was placed by the Republic (to destroy which the LTTE was striving ) in the enviable position of having the needs of the people over whom they exercised usurped power for food, education, healthcare etc. looked after by the Republic, leaving them free to concentrate all their efforts on murder, mischief and other means of ‘winning’ the ‘war’. These however are matters that the foreigner has ignored and ignored completely, it being contrary to their brief say anything good about the Government and/or its Armed Forces which they  had set out to castigate and destroy if possible.

This is not all.  ‘Accountability’ is not only with regard to the misdeeds of the smaller countries.  The misdeeds of the rich and the powerful are also very much a part of ‘Accountability’.  Yet does one find the purported ‘do gooders,’ who keep telling us how we should run our affairs and keep on accusing us of the lack of ‘Accountability’   castigating in a like fashion, the United States of America and the formerly ‘Great’ Britain for their absolute perfidy and fraud regarding Iraq and the consequent mayhem  created by them there.  These members of the so called ‘International Community’ are quick to accuse Sri Lanka of things it has done and things it has not done but avoid with the greatest of care saying or doing anything detrimental to their patron the United States of America and its lapdog the formerly ‘Great’ Britain. One does not find any of these interfering foreigners breathe a word about how the United States of America and the formerly ‘Great’ Britain invaded Iraq on the false and fraudulent pretext that that country possessed  weapons of mass destruction whereas in fact that country didn’t, while both the USA and the formerly ‘Great’ Britain did and do.  None of these purported ‘do gooders’ voiced protest against the mass murders continuing in Iraq and the lynching of its President Saddam Hussain whom they hunted as the so called ‘British gentlemen’ hunt Foxes.  They are eerily silent about how the United States of America keeps human beings it has abducted from their own countries in a so-called ‘detention facility’- in fact a’ torture facility’ at Guantanamo Bay and how it has refused to try or release several persons kept there in wrongful confinement.  Had Sri Lanka done any of these things one can well imagine the barrage of criticism it would have received from these self proclaimed ‘ champions’ of  ‘Accountability’

Enough of talking about our foreign antagonists.  Much more could be written about them but time and space does not permit. It is time now to turn the search light inwards.  What of Sri Lanka how do we practice ‘Accountability’.  

As regards the conflict with the LTTE one thing is certain and that is that when there was any complaint of criminal conduct against any personnel of the Armed Forces,  they were charged whether the evidence against them was admissible or not; and whether it was reliable or not, or bad.  This I know from personal experience. On the other hand what has any Government, whatever its political colouration may be, done with regard to ‘Accountability’ in other cases.  

The fall of Elephant Pass was indeed a disaster of the highest magnitude where officers and men died, not of bullet wounds suffered in combat, but for the lack of water. Who was responsible? Where was ‘Accountability’ ?  As far as I am aware, nobody was held ‘Accountable’ and no proper inquiry was held.  This is not all.  We had three consignments in fairly rapid succession of imported fuel which were way below the required standards.  One was a consignment of petrol, the second a consignment of diesel and the third of kerosene.  Yet Susil Premajayantha remained Minister in charge of Petroleum Industries throughout those debacles and even thereafter.  He neither resigned nor was deprived his portfolio.  With the cabinet reshuffle however, he was given another portfolio and not held accountable for those disasters nor even surcharged for even a fraction the colossal loss caused to the country namely you and me by his ineptitude.  The concept of the buck stopping with the Minister or the person in charge evidently does not operate in Sri Lanka.  This is not all.  Examination papers keep leaking but the Minister of Education remains in his seat, how then can the Country go forward if avoidable disasters happen and the persons responsible are not held ‘Accountable’.

Finally, skipping over the number of disasters, let us look at the recent OUTRAGE UPON JUSTICE.  13 members of the Police Force, 12 from the Special Task Force, were charged with the murder of 5 youth and the attempted murder of two youth in Trincomalee on 02.01.2006.  On April 17, 2006 about three months and 15 days after the tragedy the then Attorney General [who later headed the LLRC] ordered their discharge from detention on the ground that there was no evidence to warrant the filing of charges against them.  No evidence had been disclosed against them and the only reason for their being incarcerated  was that they happened to be the first members of any Security Force to arrive on the scene of the offence. Although the evidence at the Udalagama Commission of  Inquiry disclosed the fact that they came to the scene AFTER hearing the explosion of the bomb and the gun shots – i.e. after the event,  these 13 youth were incarcerated on Detention Orders from the February 12 to April 17, 2006 when they were released pursuant to the Attorney General’s order.  Thereafter all 13 of them went back to the normal duties, some of them received promotions, one to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police, one to the rank of Inspector of Police, two to the rank of Sub-Inspector and one to the rank of Sergeant while one of them made a sacrifice for the country that no one baying for the blood of these gallant youth had made - he sacrificed a limb for the country - for after being wounded in battle with the LTTE, his leg was amputated.  Suddenly on the July 04, 2013 they were arrested once more on the orders of the Attorney General despite the fact that NO EVIDENCE AGAINST ANY OF THEM TRANSPIRED in the period between April 17, 2006 and July 04, 2013; and they were remanded.  This meant not only the loss of their liberty but also that they were placed on compulsory leave and received only their basic salaries and no allowances or perquisites.  Now, fortunately a part of the injustice done to them has been remedied by a judicial order being made for their release on bail.  However, the injustice done to them by the Executive does not end there.  With their release, according to my information they may well be interdicted and therefore their families will get NO INCOME of whatever nature until at least the Non-Summary Inquiry is over, and that inquiry could go on without end with  the State leading evidence, whether of any use or not, purely in  order to keep  matter ‘going’.  

The question at issue is who ‘Accountable’ is for the plight of these loyal citizens?  Who recommended in the first instance that they be charged and why? When the bail application was taken for hearing the Attorney General voiced no objections to bail. This, however was AFTER they had been INCARCERATED FOR OVER THREE MONTHS. Their incarceration followed on their being charged. There having been NO EVIDENCE against any of them, why were they charged at all?  The liberty of the citizen is not a mere slogan or statistic in a file. One has got to consider the havoc and misery caused to these patriots and their families by the Executive bending over backwards to please and get a pat on the back from Pillai and other foreign foes of Sri Lanka including some foreign and indigenous NGOs.

The outrage on justice committed by the Executive on these humble patriots moved Pillai and our other foes not one bit. The concern of these self appointed ‘do gooders’ is only for terrorists and their sympathisers. However, there is not a semblance of a reason why we should follow their malodorous ‘example’.

The manifest injustice done to these patriots and their families cries out for redress. They are patriots who, together with many like minded and circumstanced citizens risked their lives and limbs and suffered indescribable hardships to defeat the LTTE and make this Country a safe place in which to live for those such as us. The whole Nation is in debt to them. That is a debt that must be repaid. Let the start of this process be the holding of those responsible for charging these gallant 13 youth WITHOUT EVIDENCE ‘Accountable’ for the sufferings undergone by their families and them, and causing those smug officials to compensate monetarily as fully as possible, these 13 patriots for the loss and damage caused to them by the Executive, amending the law if necessary for the purpose.