Cop killings, terror and duplicity

Tuesday 12th January, 2021

The US is mourning the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick. He died after assault during the 06 Jan. riot. Four pro-Trump troublemakers also perished in clashes with the police. The White House has come under heavy fire for taking four days to lower the Stars and Stripes to half-staff in honour of the fallen police officer.

Democrats’ consternation knows no bounds; they have gone into overdrive to impeach President Donald Trump, who is leaving office on 20 January, for having allegedly incited the Washington riot, which desecrated the Capitol, resulted in five deaths, disrupted a congressional joint session engaged in counting electoral votes, and, above all, tarnished the image of the US internationally. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for President Donald Trump to be removed from office forthwith; she has called him “a very dangerous person who should not continue in office.” Whether the Democrats will succeed in their endeavour is doubtful, but their impeachment bid can be seen as an attempt to disgrace Trump further.

The western media have called the mobsters who ran amok on Wednesday a bunch of domestic terrorists and called for stringent action against them. Some of them have already been arrested and prosecuted. They must be made to face the full force of the law for what they did.

The protesters surely had a problem although the way they sought to have it addressed was uncivilised. They said they believed there had been election malpractices and wanted their allegations probed. The US police have not been flayed for causing the deaths of four mobsters; no call has been made for negotiations with the rioters. Neither the US media nor the international human rights groups nor the EU nor the UNHRC nor any other organisation has advocated a dialogue with the pro-Trump troublemakers, who are being arrested and hauled up before courts. In fact, there must be no negotiations with such aggressive elements who take the law into their own hands in a bid to achieve their political goals. The US police cannot be blamed for having used force to bring the situation under control; hadn’t they done so, the mob would perhaps have set the Capitol ablaze.

But how do US politicians, the western media, the EU, human rights groups and others respond when democracy comes under attack in the developing countries, where even heads of state, senior politicians and thousands of civilians become victims of violent elements who claim to have political goals?

In this country, terrorists assassinated a head of state; President Ranasinghe Premadasa died in a terrorist bomb blast in 1993. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga narrowly escaped death in a terror attack in 1999. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was killed by a terrorist sniper in 2005. Terrorism also snuffed out many other lives. Terrorists lined up and shot dead about 600 policemen, who had surrendered to them in 1990. But the US took the lead in pressuring Sri Lanka to keep negotiating with the LTTE despite all those heinous crimes, in comparison to which the Capitol siege pales into insignificance.

The US has arrested some suspects responsible for the Easter Sunday carnage and instituted legal action against them. It deserves praise for getting tough with those terror suspects. But what would have been the situation if Sri Lanka had succumbed to US pressure and spared the military muscle of the LTTE in 2009? The war would have dragged on, and there would have been scores of bomb blasts and massacres far worse than the Easter attacks and thousands of civilians would have perished in them, during the last eleven years or so; political assassinations and child conscription also would have continued, and the youth who are engaged in pro-LTTE protests in the North at present would have been in the Tiger bunkers toting guns instead of smartphones. The same goes for the southern terrorists, who carried out numerous political assassinations, destroyed public property worth billions of rupees, paralyzed the entire education system, and ran a parallel government to all intents and purposes. If the JVP had not been militarily neutralised, its present-day leaders who are pontificating on the virtues of democracy would have been signing death warrants for their political rivals and public officials. It is the failure on the part of the state to remove the NTJ scourge before 21 April 2019 that led to the destruction of as many as 268 lives. The elimination of terrorism helps save lives and restore law and order.

One can only hope that the Biden administration to be installed next week will not be swayed by terror fronts in various guises, and the US will realise the need to shed double standards and fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

Terrorism is like coronavirus; it spares none, and a truly global effort is required to eliminate it.