This country is famous the world over for producing the best 'tea leaves'. But, of late it has become known more for fig leaves from its conflict zone, which are in high demand in some powerful countries where political leaders are desperate to cover their nakedness.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner are expected to brief the UN Security Council today at an informal session. The contents of their presentations are highly predictable. Their recent visit to Sri Lanka came a cropper and they returned home piqued and red-faced. So, full of loathing and bile, they will vent their spleen on Sri Lanka today and try to persuade the Security Council to intervene to bail out the LTTE.

Miliband and Kouchner are using a Sri Lankan fig leaf to cover their nakedness vis-à-vis the humanitarian disasters in Afghanistan and Pakistan caused by the US-led war. Miliband's political boss Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes no bones about his unstinted support for war in Afghanistan so that the streets of London would be safe. President Nicolas Sarkozy exudes racist arrogance from every pore in dealing with the economic refugees in France from the former French colonies in Africa. The EU just looked the other way while Israel was unleashing hell on Gaza recently. There were no calls for humanitarian pauses or ceasefires.

Tamil Nadu is beset with many a burning problem. It is in the throes of an ever worsening power crisis. The government is groping in the dark, unable to evolve a solution. The economy has been badly hit by power cuts and many small industries have gone out of business. Nearly eight million people are languishing in abject poverty in rural areas and in the urban areas the number stands at seven million.

The DMK is mired in a crisis as regards Karunanidhi's successor. The AIADMK is without anything attractive to offer to the masses to secure their votes. Therefore, Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha have made a fig leaf of Sri Lanka's conflict to cover their politico-economic nakedness. Having failed to look after their own people, they are now weeping buckets for the civilians of the Vanni!

President Barack Obama is beginning to act like a typical US president. He may have exposed the torture memos of the Bush administration and earned plaudits from human rights activists but he has had to lead a war which is churning out death and devastation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It looks as if articulacy were the only difference between President Obama and his predecessor. President Bush's war was confined to Afghanistan but President Obama is in an unenviable position having to fight a war which has spilled over into Pakistan.

It was only the other day that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threatened Pakistan with stern action unless it effectively engaged the marauding Taliban pouring out of the Swat valley. No sooner had Clinton and Miliband censured Sri Lanka for civilian casualties in war than the US led air strikes killed over one hundred civilians in Afghanistan! But, they are still using Sri Lanka's conflict as a fig leaf, ably assisted by the western media with a soft corner for the LTTE, to cover their nakedness.

Pakistan has come under fire from the US over the Swat valley pact with Taliban but, as a writer points out in an article carried in this newspaper today, never did we hear any US criticism against the CFA of 2002 (between Sri Lanka and the LTTE), which also gave rise to a terrorist regime committing heinous crimes such as ethnic cleansing, child recruitment, murder, robbery, kidnapping and extortion. The so-called Tokyo Co-Chairs of which the US is a member went all out to keep that CFA on track at every turn regardless of the detrimental impact it had on Sri Lanka's national security until it was abrogated by the present government at long last.

The US is pouring military aid on Pakistan to curb the terrorists. Pakistan deserves support to protect her democracy. After all, it is paying for America's sins, isn't it? But, when the LTTE attempted to march on Jaffna in 2000 the world powers watched the situation as if it had been a baseball match.

Only Pakistan and a few other countries rose in Sri Lanka's defence. Even India offered ships to evacuate the troops trapped in Jaffna instead of military assistance to halt the terrorists. Ironically, when the army is trying to march on the last pocket of LTTE resistance, there is a howl of protest from the US and other prominent members of the international community on a flimsy pretext to save Prabhakaran and his fellow criminals. And those countries call themselves democratic nations!

While trying to throw a lifeline to the LTTE regardless of the price Sri Lankan people will have to pay, in case of the outfit making a comeback, the Obama administration is even chary of doing anything at home that may evoke people's memories of 9/11 attacks let alone giving oxygen to America's terrorists. When a low-flying photo opportunity by a backup Air Force One over Lower Manhattan triggered panic among the public, who mistook it for another terror strike, on April 27, the White House profusely apologised for 'any distress that flight caused'.

If those who are trying to use Sri Lanka's conflict to cover up their failure think they have succeeded in their endeavour, they are sadly mistaken.