“Keenie Meenie” author has swallowed Tamil Eelam propaganda hook, line and sinker

by Albert J. Fernando, Canada

Phil Miller, author of “Keenie Meenie,” a book about the activities of British ex-SAS private security firm KMS (KM refers to “Keenie Meenie”) seems to have completely got carried away by the propaganda of Tamil Eelam terrorists that he feels utterly disappointed that LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) could not win the war to establish their own country taking out the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. The subtitle of the book is “The British Mercenaries Who Got Away with War Crimes.”

One popular explanation of “Keenie Meenie” is that it refers to ‘snakes moving under grass’ in Swahili. In other words, covert operations.

The book narrates the activities of this British mercenary company in several countries such as Oman, Yemen, Lebanon, Nicaragua (remember Col. Oliver North?) and of course, Sri Lanka in the eighties.

Miller’s extreme bias can be explained in several ways:

1.       Why so much about Sri Lanka? He writes extensively about Sri Lanka reproducing eyewitness accounts of torture and killing of Tamils by Sri Lanka Army with the help of KMS pilots in the North. As far as the Eastern Province is concerned, especially in Batticaloa, such killings of Tamils were carried out by the Special Task Force, trained by KMS. However, Phil Miller does not give any detailed accounts but merely narrates what KMS did in the other countries. So why provide so many details about the war situation in Sri Lanka? Tamil propaganda is well-known for exaggerating what goes on Sri Lanka, but Miller reproduces that as if all such horror stories are genuine. The readers will be shocked by such horror accounts about the plight of Tamils. This is not to say that some of these incidents did not happen. In any war, there are casualties on both sides including civilians.

2.       Attacks on Sinhalese villages and Buddhist places of worship ignored. As a reputed investigative reporter, Miller has failed miserably to point out the attacks carried out by Tamil Eelam terrorists on innocent Sinhalese civilians in villages and places of Buddhist worship. For example, why is he so silent about the cold-blooded massacre of Sinhalese in Dollar Farm (total deaths: 33) and Kent Farm (deaths: 29) on November 30, 1984? Both farms were located in the Northern Province. Has he forgotten the LTTE attack on the Sinhalese fishing villages Nayaru and Kokilai in the Northeast (11 killed) on December 1, 1984?  Also, no one told him (of course, LTTE propaganda outfits will never tell him) or he simply did not bother to find out (which is worse) the two LTTE attacks on Buddhist places of worship: The attack on the sacred city of Anuradhapura including the sacred Bo-tree on May 14, 1985 (146 killed) and the attack on the Buddhist Temple of the Tooth in central province city of Kandy with a truck bomb on January 24, 1998 (eight killed and dozens injured, part of the temple destroyed).

3.       LTTE killing of Tamils ignored. Third, the reputed investigative reporter did not bother to find out that Tamil Eelamists killed hundreds of Tamils in Sri Lanka, mainly in Northern and Eastern provinces for not supporting their cause. Just a rumor is good enough for them to arrest them, tie them to a lamp post and shoot them dead. Probably Miller had never heard of them. Tamil Tigers also murdered a Tamil academic and human rights activist Dr. Rajani Rajasingham Thiranagama, in Jaffna on September 21, 1989. At the time of her death, she was Head, Department of Anatomy, University of Jaffna. They also assassinated another academic, Harvard- and Yale-educated human rights activist Neelan Tiruchelvam on July 29, 1999. Among the Tamil politicians assassinated by Tamil Tigers are A. Amirthalingam M.P. and Leader of the Opposition and V. Yogeswaran M.P. killed together on July 13, 1989, and Lakshman Kadirgamar, M.P. and Minister of Foreign Affairs, shot dead on August 12, 2005.

4.      Extortion of money from Tamil diaspora. Phil Miller has conveniently forgotten that LTTE amassed a lot of wealth by harassing and extortion of Tamil refugees in Britain, USA, Canada and European countries. In this connection details can be found in the 2006 Human Rights Watch Report. To quote one of the recommendations: “To the LTTE and organizations linked to LTTE: Immediately stop all use of violence, threats, intimidation and harassment to solicit funds from the Tamil community, including among the diaspora and from members of diaspora communities making return visits to Sri Lanka.” HRW also quotes an inspector with the London Metropolitan Police: “We know that extortion is going on, but this is not a priority for the British government. When we look at what we need to concentrate our resources on, in terms of terrorist groups, we are focusing on Islamic groups.” Tamil Tigers also raised funds through various illegal activities. TIME magazine says in issue dated January 04, 2009, “Through their history, the Tigers have financed their operations with bank robberies and drug smuggling, among other illegal acts. They are also believed to get much of their support from ethnic Tamils living in Western Europe and Canada. Some estimates say the LTTE raises more than $200 million a year.”

5.       LTTE recruitment of child soldiers.  Another important matter that Phil Miller has ignored is the LTTE’s recruitment of children to fight the Sri Lanka Army. Some were as young as 11-years. These children did not join LTTE willingly but were taken by force from their parents. At least one child from each family was the LTTE’s directive. UNICEF has criticized this inhuman activity on several occasions; but thanked the LTTE whenever child soldiers were released.

6.      Author’s Tamil Eelam bias. Author Miller exposes his bias when at least in three occasions he shows his anger and frustration because he feels that if the KMS mercenaries did not help the Government of Sri Lanka, LTTE would have won the war. On page 222 he writes referring to the battles fought in May, June and July 1986, “Without air cover and fast casualty evacuations, it seems likely that the army would have been routed that summer.” On page 229 he writes, “Again, without the KMS pilots, it is highly likely the Sri Lankan army have had to abandon the north, effectively giving the Tamils a de facto state of their own.”  Miller is still not satisfied, because he repeats the same claim on page 262. He is so angry with KMS that yet again on page 276, he still maintains, “From my research, it seems likely that had KMS not supported the Sri Lanka government from 1984 to 1988, then the Tamil liberation movement may have achieved its military objectives as early as 1986…” It is, therefore, abundantly clear that Miller has been fully supportive of LTTE victory. Further, he has even gone to the extent of helping a Tamil youth who had been tortured by STF and had fled to UK in 2014 to get asylum there.  Says Miller, “although it took another four years and considerable evidence from me and my colleagues about STF activities, before an immigration judge finally overruled the Home Office and said he could stay in the UK.” (page 279).

7.       Author’s tie-up with Tamil Information and their help.  Here is the coup de grace: Miller has dedicated the book, “In memory of Vairamuttu Varadakumar. 1949-2019.” Perhaps one may ask why Miller dedicated the book to him? Answer is simple: It is Varadakumar who helped the author to write the book! In an appreciation published in the socialist publication called The Morning Star about Varadakumar, the founder of the Tamil Information Centre in London, Miller states, ” We began collaborating in March 2015, after I published a report outlining the British complicity in Sri Lanka’s assaults on the Tamil struggle…Although most Tamil groups were focused on lobbying the UN, he approached me quietly after the launch and said the British state had to be held to account for its actions in Sri Lanka….He offered his help to expand my research and over the last four years he stayed true to his word, guiding me to sources and contacts.” In short, Tamil Eelamists fed him with truck loads of misinformation and half truths justifying their campaign to set up a separate Tamil state. No wonder he hates the Keenie Meenie company of British mercenaries.