Letter to: Bishop Savundranayagam - Bishop of Jaffna Usha Sri-Skanda-Rajah‏

Letter to: Bishop Savundranayagam - Bishop of Jaffna‏

Your Lordship Bishop Savundranayagam

Bishop of Jaffna

Your Lordship’s plea to India is pretty worrying. What we need is a “safe haven” for the people caught up in the ongoing military assault carried out by the Sri Lankan forces. Your Lordship’s statement is going to give India the much needed justification to work hand in glove with Sri Lanka to pursue Sri Lanka’s aim to “finish” the Tamil people and see their historical habitats in the island of Sri Lanka disintegrated and destroyed. Your Lordship should have sent a message to India asking India to help the LTTE defeat Sri Lanka to save Tamil Eelam and Its People from Sri Lanka’s genocidal war, broker a new CFA and negotiate a peace deal that restores sovereignty and autonomy for the Tamils and to do it now. That’s the need of the hour!!!
We trust the LTTE to bring permanent security, democracy and true prosperity (not necessarily in that order) to Tamil Eelam and its people and we do not trust Sri Lanka to do anything but impose Sinhala Buddhist hegemony on the Tamil people.

We hope Your Lordship would reflect on what we have said.

Yours truly,

Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah

She is a founder member of Justice For Thamils in Toronto.

Bishop's Email Address: bisjaf@sltnet.lk
We encourage that more letters are sent to this bishop....spns

The Caththolic Bishop of Jaffna, Rev Thomas Savundaranayagam, wants India to pressurise the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to release the lakhs of Tamil civilians who are held captive in the north Sri Lankan war zones of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.

Rev Savundaranayagam, whose diocese extends to areas in the current war zone in the Wanni region, told Express here, that he had asked Members of Parliament belonging to the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to ask the Indian government to put pressure on the LTTE to release the civilians it had been holding captive for military purposes.

Rev Savundaranayagam said that in the districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, apart from the local population, there are 250,000 refugees from the western parts of the Wanni who had been driven out of their homes and hearths by the government’s military operations since 2006.

‘The people are anxious to flee the war zone for their own survival. But they are unable to do so for two reasons. One is that the LTTE is not allowing them to go. The second reason is the fear that the government and the security forces may suspect them of being LTTE cadre or LTTE sympathisers, and detain or imprison them.

“Many of the Wanni people have had something to do with the LTTE. Many have worked for the LTTE either as volunteers or as conscripts. Many have given their children to the LTTE either voluntarily or otherwise,” the Bishop explained.

The massive earth bund defences erected by the LTTE were products of forced labour, he said.

“The church and I are very concerned about the sufferings of the people. The people have no shelter and no security what so ever. The current torrential rains have made life unbearable. Many of the displaced persons had moved several times in the past few months,” he said.

PEOPLE DEMONSTRATE AGAINST LTTE:
According to the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry, 80 persons belonging to Maaveerar (Martyrs’) and Poraali (Fighters’) families demonstrated against the LTTE at the Oddusuddan junction at 11 am on Monday, demanding permission to leave for the government- held areas in Vavuniya.

“Maaveerar” families are families of dead fighting cadre, and “Poraali” families are those that had contributed sons or daughters to the fighting units of the LTTE.

The demonstrators shouted slogans condemning the LTTE for breaking its promise to let them go, the Ministry said on Tuesday.

Comments from Readers

The Bishop is a betrayer and a coward ---He is a Sucker to the Chauvinistic singhala govt, He is a disgrace to the Tamil people. He must keep shut ---if he does not want to speak about the suffering and the rights of the Tamil people
By joe pathinathan
12/4/2008 8:30:00 AM

some of the commentators here are idiots. Why didn't the civilans moved into government controlled areas. Of course thats what normal people wnat to do. But tamil peelam is a police state, where people had been ordered to do what the fat pig wants. Taking their children forcibly to their fighting cadres, for suicide bombers, and ofr forced labour to build earth bunds, bunkers and dig massive trenches. You thin these are what normal people want to do. And if you think yes, then why the f..k that you go and do them yourself. The answer is, i hope you got it, because that murderer called prabhakaran is getting peopel to do what he wants under gun point. They, the poeple, are just canon fodder for him, and a human shield to save his bloody neck. I just hope that his neck will strech under a rope, not put their by GOSL but by his own disaffected people. Tamil people, take law into your own hands, and despatch this murderer according to natural justice.
By Shankar Das
12/4/2008 3:18:00 AM

People will suffer. This Bishop was in cahoots with the Tigers for a reason. Those days the SL Army did not know how to behave either. But looks like Velupillai's days are numbered. So the Bishop wants to save face now by appearing to be neutral. Luckily Indians will have to stop interfering now after their inept performance dealing with terrorists in Mumbai. Karunanidhi is an idiot. Yes people are afraid of an Army that cannot speak their language and trust the LTTE more because of that and also because they support Eelam and have swallowed Tiger racist propaganda.
By QuantumOfSilence
12/4/2008 3:02:00 AM

The Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, Rev. Thomas Savundaranayagam who himself a onetime sympathizer of the so called “Tamil Cause” is now appealing the LTTE to let free the civilian population forcibly held by the terrorists. Now, he is also begging of the government of India to get involved in convincing the terrorists to release innocent people who being held hostage of the LTTE. Analyzing the situation, it merely proves that the bishop has a thorough knowledge of the remaining capabilities of the LTTE; that are to be far negative than what “son goat” claimed to have made in his recent speech. This situation should be a damn eye-opener to those pundits of Tamil Nadu to act with honesty and integrity; rather than being greedy, thereby taking advantage to gain political mileage out of a politically charged climate in India.
By Christopher Kay
12/4/2008 2:37:00 AM

Quote: ...It sounds like people do not trsut the military. They moved with LTTE.

I don't think people have perfect trust on either party. When the front lines encircle a big area it makes more sense to avoid having to cross the battle zone and move in to LTTE controlled area. As the area shrinks as the government forces zero in and LTTE cannot put up enough resistance, it makes more sense to move out to government controlled area rather than stay in the battle zone.
By Baduge
12/4/2008 1:49:00 AM

yes, The people will be anxious to flee the war zone for their own survival. But why, in the first place these people from west vanni moved into the areas under the LTTE control? Why did they not move to the Government controlled areas! Something is not quite right. It sounds like people do not trust the military. They moved with LTTE. May be the bishop is forced to do propaganda work for the military.
By Ananth B.