A Trojan horse of British make

The government has acted wisely by rejecting Britain's call for an extension of the humanitarian pause declared in view of the traditional New Year on April 13 and 14. The kneejerk reaction of the LTTE to the government's gesture was to spurn the truce offer contemptuously out of hand and step up attacks on the troops, demanding a 'permanent' ceasefire with international mediation.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has evinced a keen interest in Sri Lanka's conflict. Britain is full of weretigers and Miliband lacks only a striped tail to go with his Tigerine voice. He and others of his ilk like Keith Vaz, MP in the LTTE's pocket are desperate to throw a lifeline to the sinking Tigers.

Miliband and his political bosses are also trying to distract the public attention from the plight of the marginalized sections at home as well as from Iraq and Afghanistan, where they are mired in a never ending war. For them Sri Lanka's conflict has come in handy. They are trying to use it as a fig leaf to cover their humanitarian nudity as regards their war on terror and to keep the LTTE terrorism afloat so that they could continue to have a strong presence in this region on the pretext of conflict resolution.

The Daily Telegraph has reported (see the World View section today) that one in five elderly people in Britain skip meals to save money on food, while two-fifths are struggling to afford essential items. Many of the aged are said to be ‘going to extreme measures to cope putting their health at risk’. This has been the dismal record of the Brown government which is trying to export humanitarian concerns to the rest of the world! Charity, they say, begins at home!

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