Dude paid his dues
The US seems to be trying to get General Sarath Fonseka to testify against Gotabaya or something. I think this is wrong, and they’re doing it in a bumbling and incompetent fashion. These guys are assholes, but they’re our assholes. Any investigation needs to come from Sri Lanka. The US should investigate Dick Cheney if their conscience pricks them so.
Of course, Sarath Fonseka is a US Green Card holder and Gotabaya Rajapakse is a US Citizen. As such, the US can question them or generally do whatever. In exchange for the rights they get there are annoying responsibilities. On a personal level.
However, on a diplomatic level I don’t see how this really furthers US interests or improves the situation in Sri Lanka. From what I hear, the US actions are both bumbling and counterproductive. According to reports, when this Tarantino fellow called, he asked Sarath to talk about the Minister of Defence. What he meant was the Secretary of Defence. Mahinda holds the ministry and appointed his brother Secretary. This may seem like a little thing, but if you’re trying to investigate you might start by looking the stuff up on Wikipedia.
Furthermore, the US can’t actually do anything on a geopolitical level. They can basically kick Gota and Sarath out as individuals but that’s about it. They’re exposing themselves to diplomatic flak for no real pay-off. I don’t think that this really furthers US interests which should, ultimately, be the point.
Basically, I think the US should stop meddling like this. They can’t change things from there, and these foreign actions just make it harder for the local opposition. I’m no big fan of Gota and Sarath, but I still respect them and think that defeating the LTTE was a pretty big thing. I think there could have been a much more humane way to do it, but they did make some hard decisions and I do respect that. I don’t agree, but I do respect. As a Sri Lankan I would personally like to vote in more moderate people, but foreign interference gets us no closer to this or any other positive situation.
At some point the US needs to think what they want from Sri Lanka and how to get it. I’ve talked to Embassy chaps and I think they really don’t know. If they want to generally do good and be liked, this isn’t the way to go about it. I think this sorta thing unites most Sri Lankans in opposition to foreign interference.
They may want to take a page from their own hands-off policy during the fraudulent Iran elections. There Obama sat back because he didn’t want the opposition to be tarred as ‘foreign’. In Sri Lanka they don’t seem to care and random dudes are making phone calls without too much oversight. Which is, like, whatever – except I live here. If you can’t fix stuff you can at least not fuck it up even more.
I should note, however, that all this Sarath shit is a teledrama and I don’t know if these are tactical leaks or what. Maybe Gota is trying to make Sarath look bad or someone is trying to make it look like Gota is trying to make Sarath look bad. I really don’t know. At this point I understand the Sarath Saga about as much as Maha Gedera. The war was so much simpler.
I think Malinda has a reasoned column on this in the Daily News
“Any investigation needs to come from Sri Lanka.”
What are the odds of that happening?
This is likely a not so subtle message to the SL political elite: ‘we know economic sanctions won’t hurt you personally, but we can still make your lives unpleasant’. I doubt that the US is concerned about diplomatic flak from Sri Lanka. Certain elements of the GoSL have made a practice of dismissing and belittling Western governments lately, these actions might serve as a reality check.
I think this article sheds some light.
Great Power Confrontation in the Indian Ocean: The Geo-Politics of the Sri Lankan Civil War by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
The commitments and swing eastward is by Rajapakse Inc. The East most likely sees Rajapakse Inc being a good bet, given that many of extended family are in key Govt positions.
Then when you think of West’s charges of “Human Rights Violations” (if it was really even handed, Cheney, Rumsfeld would also stand accused) you wonder if these are attempts at “Regime Change” by other means.
Linky for
Great Power Confrontation in the Indian Ocean: The Geo-Politics of the Sri Lankan Civil War by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15667
Great Power Confrontation in the Indian Ocean: The Geo-Politics of the Sri Lankan Civil War by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
The US are a bunch of crapholes. Frankly, indi, could u possibly clarify as to what they plan to achieve from making this report?
The EU has a fair-enough reason to make the report as they can revoke the garment subsidies, but what can the US do? If the US stop giving aid, I suppose the GoSL will go to Iran and China and the likes to get some aid.
I hate to side with the extremists, but the US really do think they own us or something….GET OFF, PPL!
Would love to know if Gota has dual citizenship? If one has a SL passport also despite US or Euro passport most countries will ask you to apply for visa on SL passport. Honest!
What were the lessons of 1945? What was the spirit of the UN charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
That the world should no longer contend itself to be a bystander?
Does anyone find it really strange that a US citizen holds a government position of another country? And a US permanent resident is in the GoSL? I am amazed that the reporters of this news story have not picked up on this salient point.
I was wondering how long it would take before this question came up in the blogs. It’s been more than a year since people first brought up the fact that that Fonseka and Gota had American connections.
Don’t you think that if the US had any real problem with the way the war and its aftermath was being conducted, they would have revoked green cards, citizenships, and other privileges?
Hardly. It would have been supremely stupid and counter-productive if they did. A state can’t simply revoke a citizen’s citizenship. But even if they could, why would they? The US legal system now has nationality jurisdiction over GR for any actions done during the course of the war. Why would the executive arm not have wanted that? Even if GR makes a visit to the embassy and revokes his US citizenship, the US still get to punish him for what he did while he was a US citizen if they want to. As for SF, the green card is what they will use as leverage.
It was pretty stupid of those two to do what they did while having ties to another country that could have them tried there for war crimes/ crimes against humanity.
Interesting times.
Technically the US is within its rights to revoke their citizenships as serving as a officer or holding a policy level position in a foreign government is grounds for involuntarily losing your citizenship.
I’ve heard this a couple of times and it doesn’t make much sense. Why would you get dual citizenship to travel on your Sri Lankan passport? The whole point of getting citizenship of another country is to travel on that passport and have your Sri Lankan citizenship certificate/endorsement so you can live/own property in SL without any issues.
Luckily some of us can actually see over our law text books :D
“see beyond our law text books” and suggest that if the US had a problem with the way the war was conducted they would have voluntarily given up the bargaining chip of war crimes jurisdiction over GR by revoking citizenship – haha. what faith in the absolute morality of US foreign policy. classic! :-D
I’m no lawyer so this maybe a naive question…but if the law says citizenship loss is ‘involuntary’ wouldn’t that mean Gota could just say he hasn’t been a citizen since he took up the defence secretary post and tell the US to bugger off with their (hypothetical) war crimes investigation?
I actually looked up the law you referred to just for curiosity’s sake, and it basically says that you lose citizenship if you do any of the enumerated acts, “with the intention of relinquishing US nationality”, and that the burden of proof is on the person claiming the loss.
I recall one of the newspapers reporting that some of the dual nationals in the regime were sent letters by the US embassy asking them whether they wished to remain US citizens. At the time it made no sense why these letters were sent – makes sense now, if the reports were accurate. They presumably didn’t take the opportunity and revoke citizenship at that stage – a very definite indicia of intention not to revoke. Also read somewhere that Gota entered the US on a US passport – which means he can’t now claim he intended to revoke citizenship.
Even if he wanted to make the argument, he would have to make it front of a US judge or the judge of another state where he would be detained pending an extradition request. My sense is that he is going to be very careful about the countries that he chooses to travel to now – make a list of the hundred odd countries with whom the US has an extradition treaty – and avoid them like the plague.
Aadhavan, if you can manage to scroll up and actually comprehend the original question discussed, I was referring to prevention, not punishment. Maybe you can get bifocals. Or a safety catch on your half-cocked argumentation.