Fibs and crimes of London Times

In a desperate bid to push propaganda touted by the agents of Tamil Tigers the London Times is hiding behind the cheapest and commonest trick of quoting anonymous sources. Why didn’t Blakeley cross-check with the doctors who would have been the most authoritative source to confirm or deny his story?
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By H. L. D. Mahindapala

(July 15, Melborne, Sri Lanka Guardian) The hostile attitude of the ruling Labour Party in England towards Sri Lanka, ever since Prime Minister George Brown and his sidekick, David Miliband, the Foreign Minister of Britain, were told to mind their business without meddling in our domestic affairs, has now spilled over, not surprisingly, to the London Times. It seems as if Miliband and the Editor of The Times have ganged up to run anti-Sri Lankan campaigns. It is not uncommon for Western media to toe the line of their foreign offices. Noam Chomsky called it manufacturing consensus.

That apart, there is a rather disturbing aspect to the anti-Sri Lankan stance of The Times:. it stems from the lack of balance and credibility in the news and views published by The Times. In fact, the unsubstantiated and outrageous news stories and the leader of the Editor of The Times seem to indicate that he has shifted his office from wherever it was to the nearest pub. His vision of the world seems to be coloured by the number of beer bottles lined up in front of him. This explains why he is running around as a typical British bell boy doing his master’s bidding to manufacture an anti-Sri Lankan backlash for not obeying Miliband.

It all began when Miliband rushed to Sri Lanka with Bernard Kouchner, his counterpart in France, towards the end of April to stop the offensive of the Sri Lankan forces advancing decisively to end the 33-year-old reign of Tamil Tiger terror. Miliband “called on the Sri Lankan government to declare an immediate ceasefire” (London Guardian - April 29, 2009). Of course, his excuse was that a ceasefire would help the Tamil civilians trapped in Prabhakaran’s grip to escape. But two previous “humanitarian pauses” only helped Prabhakaran to tighten the grip on Tamils held hostage.

Besides, Miliband’s intervention was only to put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to stop the war without having any hope of pressuring Prabhakaran to do the same. Prabhakaran, however, throughout his brutal career had resisted and rejected all pressures of the international interventionists to lay down arms and negotiate a meaningful peace settlement. Knowing that Tamil Tigers were in danger of extinction Miliband focused on pressuring Sri Lanka to stop the war which was the only way of saving Prabhakaran.

So it is not surprising to find that in his latest leader the Editor of The Times has joined hands with Miliband and the pro-Tiger mobs to demand that Sri Lanka should be punished for disobeying the orders of his master. He has passed a severe sentence on Sri Lanka and demands: “Other world bodies — the Commonwealth, the United Nations and even world cricketing organisations — should boycott Colombo until reconciliation begins. A nation cannot run concentration camps and expect the world to look away.”

The Editor of The Times should be mature enough to know that the days when it called the shots are over. It is also time for him to remove the row of beer bottles lined in front of him and drink some coffee to clear his befuddled head. He might then realize that instead of the world boycotting Sri Lanka the Human Rights Council in Geneva it rallied to defend Sri Lankan only the other day, forcing Britain and its gang of diplomatic Neanderthals to retreat into the caves from which they came. The dismal failure of the Editor of the Time to grasp the global realities is demonstrated in his call for the cricketing world to boycott Sri Lanka. Which nation is going to mix the ugly politics of the Editor of The Times with the lovely game of cricket? The readers of The Times will be spared these inanities if the Editor takes a running jump into the deep end of the Thames. And I don’t think that any higher purpose will be served if the Sri Lankan High Commission runs to throw a life line to him either.

His editing and his call to take punitive action against Sri Lanka expose him as an asinine shaman chanting primitive mantras that are irrelevant to the emerging new forces shaping global events. Apart from the visible shift of power from the West to the East, creating new alignments and contours of global politics, somebody should tell the pompous Editor of The Times that he has no clout to win over the world with his concocted news stories and perverted views which suit the political agenda of his masters and not the war-weary people of Sri Lanka. What is more, he is cutting a pathetic figure in the eyes of the world when he is echoing the identical political agenda of the Tamil Tigers – a bunch of terrorists whose reign of terror was wiped out on May 18, 2009.

The Editor winds up its latest leader complaining about the “concentration camps” in which the IDPs are housed. He should know a lot about “concentration camps” because it was his ancestors who first established them to persecute the Boers in Africa. That apart, since he makes this accusation of “concentration camps” can he inform his readers whether his imperial ancestors in Africa or the Nazis – the specialists in running concentration camps – ever (1) set up welfare camps (however inadequate they may be) for nearly 300,000 victims running away from a one-man fascist regime? (2) invited a neigbouring country to establish hospitals for the welfare of IDPs? (3) opened up banks, shops, meat, fish, vegetable markets, and post offices inside the camp?, (4) provided food, medicine, education and recreation – all free – to the inmates of the camp ? (5) allowed friends and relatives to visit them ? (6) released the elderly and the orphans etc. (More of this later.)

If the Editor of The Times wants to know the truth he should take some time off from his pub and sit at the feet of a more mature, knowledgeable and respected editor like N. Ram, Editor of The Hindu. Like all good journalists he studied the ground situation before he wrote his reports. Consequently, Ram’s reports and comments contradict the news and views of the Editor of the Times and his myopic reporters hanging their stories on anonymous zombies and ghostly aerial pictures.

With his first hand knowledge of the situation in Manik Farm I am sure that Ram would have unhesitatingly thrown the stories in The Times into the wastepaper basket. Consider, for instance, the following two stories. Catherine Philips filed a story (May 29) saying: “More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most as a result of government shelling, an investigation by The Times has revealed.

Second, according to Rhys Blakeley, reporting from Mumbai, (11, July) “1400 IDPs are dying at the giant Manik Farm” – i.e. 200 a day.

Take the Blakeley’s story first which says that “most of the deaths are the result of water-borne diseases, particularly diarrhoea, a senior relief worker said on condition of anonymity.” He wants us to believe 200 IDPs die daily of diarrhoea under the watchful eye of over hundred doctors who are working in two field hospitals in Manik Farm. Consider the facts as stated by India’s Foreign Minister, S. M. Krishna. He told the Indian Parliament (July 10): “India has also been operating a full-fledged 60-member field hospital in Sri Lanka since March 2009. Since moving to its new location near Vavuniya after the end of military operations, more than 14,000 patients have been treated by the facility which is equipped with modern equipment and amenities and they have done commendable work. Further, two consignments of medicines have also been gifted to Sri Lanka in view of the urgent requirement for civilians and IDPs”.

Blakeley, however, wants us to believe that despite the 60-member medical team with state of the art medical equipment 200 IDPs are dying of a common and easily curable disease of diarhoea? His report is an insult to the dedicated and excellent team of Indian specialists – from cardiologists to nephrologists – who are working in the field hospital in Manik Farm. In publishing this report is the London Times saying that unlike the white doctors from England Third World doctors can’t manage a curable and common illness like diarrhea. If these doctors cannot manage a simple illness like diarrhea then they should not be there. Like Ram I’ve been there and seen the services of this hospital. As stated by Foreign Minister Krishna it is “equipped with modern equipment and amenities and they have done commendable work.” They have ample stocks of medicine distributed free to patients. To them treating diarrhoea is a piece of cake.

I even saw an IDP recovering from a minor operation to remove a bullet in his thigh. So what’s the difficulty in dealing with diarrhea? The Editor of the London Times must get his head screwed properly, in the right place, before he sits in his chair next time to maintain some degree of balance and credibility in what goes into his tabloid. It is the prestige and the credibility of his tabloid that is at stake and not the capabilities of Indian doctors to manage simple diseases with readily available immodium or flagyl.

In a desperate bid to push propaganda touted by the agents of Tamil Tigers the London Times is hiding behind the cheapest and commonest trick of quoting anonymous sources. Why didn’t Blakeley cross-check with the doctors who would have been the most authoritative source to confirm or deny his story? He didn’t do so because his fictions would have been shot down in flames. So he conveniently takes cover under anonymous sources.

Apart from the Indian doctors there are 55 Sri Lankan doctors running another field hospital. A mobile ambulance is going round the camps to pick up emergency cases. If there are serious cases they are transferred to Vavuniya and Anuradhapura hospital. So is it credible that 110 doctors Indian and Sri Lankan doctors in Manik Farm are under instructions from the Sri Lankan government to let 200 people to die every day of a curable illness like diarrhea and other water-borne diseases? Only an editor working from the nearest pub would allow such a concocted story to appear in his daily. If the Times story is true then the doctors should be tried for criminal neglect of their duties. If this story is not true then the Editor of London times should be sacked for acting as Miliband’s bell boy.

A critical analysis of Blakely’s story will establish that the opening line of 1400 dying a week was a sensational gambit to peg his anti-Sri Lankan propaganda. It is no better than Catherine Philip’s allegation of “20,000 killed” in the final throes of the war in Sri Lanka. A close scrutiny of the figures bandied about by The Times adds up to nothing more than “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The UN puts the figure at 7,000. The doctors who provided the initial figures when they were under Prabhakaran now deny those figures, which, incidentally, do not fit into the “statistics” of The Times. An Australian pro-Tamil pediatrician puts the figure at 100,000.

Everybody is free to pick their preferred “statistic”. In the case of Philip she relies heavily on aerial pictures, some UN documents (UN was not there in the field), and one Catholic priest – all of which are questionable sources. She should know that it is much easier to count the chickens before they are hatched than counting the dead from aerial photos. The contradictory figures indicate that there is no substantial reason to accept Phlip’s figure simply because it is published in The Times.

There is, no doubt, that an “X” number of civilians died. But why should we believe the figure given by the Times which is openly running an anti-Sri Lankan campaign? Of course, there is the question of deciding whether the doctors were telling the truth now or before under Prabhakaran’s regime. The Times have opted to believe statements made under Prabhakaran’s one-man fascist regime rather than the statements made now at a press conference where they are open to public scrutiny.

Blakeley’s story is clearly blown up out of proportion. One of his biggest worries is that people have to wait in long queues for food and water. He is worried that women, children and the elderly “were shoved aside in the scramble for supplies.”

I think the government of Sri Lanka must apologize to the Editor of The Times for not giving food to all the Tamil IDPs (nearly 300,000) at the same time. President Mahinda Rajapakse should also hire Blakeley to hire all the waiters of Mumbai (from where he is reporting) and rush them to the Manik Farm to serve the food to all the IDPs simultaneously, without making them wait in a queue. The Editor of the Time also should be given a free ticket to come and supervise the delivery of food.

Blakeley also accuses the government of not providing water. In fact, President Mahinda Rajapaksa should ask the Editor of The Times to name the amount of compensation that the government should pay for these IDPs for not providing water on the same scale as water-boarding in Guantanamo Bay. When I was there Water Mission and Water Vision – two INGOs – were purifying and chlorinating the water pumped from Malvatu Oya before it is distributed in the camps. Blakeley wouldn’t know this because his anonymous sources plug an anti-Sri Lankan political line. The Times is merrily quoting Mangala Samaraweera, the failed dress designer, and Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, another humbug preaching morality to suit his anti-Sinhala-Buddhist agenda. These are two derelict politicians sulking in their corners after the defeat of Prabhakaran, not knowing whether to hang on to the underwear of the all male Kollus (in the case of Mangala Samaraweera) or the Horagolla sari pota (in the case of Paki).

When The Times relies on these bankrupt and partisan characters what truth can it defend to serve the people of Sri Lanka?

-Sri Lanka Guardian