You had me at Hello, and then lost me!
by: Roy Ratnavel
Of the men who came, there are a few things demanding to be said in the face of the unending torrent of disinformational drivel unleashed by Sebastian Rasalingam. Apparently there is no absolute standard of free speech in any society. Anyone who read his article [http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/02/farm-hounds-and-moose-hunting-by.html] might as well ask himself into whose hands the great cause of free speech has fallen. At a glance, it seemed as if though it was written by a vulgar senile historian wannabe who uses ‘stage craft’ to convince others of the importance of his silly circular arguments.
Parts of the title for my rebuttal to this – ‘You had me at hello' is a memorable quote from 1996 Hollywood film Jerry Maguire, and one of the most quoted movies of all time. In my opinion seems apt for a rebuttal for Rasalingam’s incoherent morbid thoughts, which sadly sounded more like a visceral self-loathing of a lonely man of a delusional kind, than a comment – akin to the movie’s hero Jerry McGuire, who couldn’t exactly express what he really wanted to say, and made the audience painfully sit at the edge of their seats.
The absurd generalization, fake evidences, and offensive characterization seemed more indicative of a man who possessed unresolved personal neglect issues growing-up. Sadly the full measure of his guilt can never be fully balanced or atoned for. However, I'm grateful to him for refreshing all our memories about exactly how uncomfortable in his own “skin.” It seems that he has become tri-multaneously terrified, racked with guilt, and suspicious of everything and everyone and scared of his own shadow. As I suspected all along, and he now admits that he is a hound. But the question still remains; is he a mad porch pooch? Or, just a plain rabid dog?
In this cheap and childish rant he makes many conclusions about my origin and my intentions in order to shutdown the debate. Ironically, him deciding who is what and who is not, is like Colonel Sanders recommending the best meat for dinner. If Mr. Rasalingam can't bare the thought of his own misgivings in his life, he should consult a doctor. There has been tremendous advancement in the filed of psychiatry over the years. He should save his creatively woven self-righteous rant, moral consciousness and daily dosage of brain-occupying comfy thoughts to another group of people – not, the Tamils. Because we forget more about how to help Tamils in Vanni in one day than he will ever learn in his lifetime.
Having said that I must confess to one thing, I was wrong in my initial assessment of this uncritical ventriloquist; he is not a hound. I actually now believe that he is a beautiful green parrot of the “Genocide” agenda. He does not have beautiful plumage, nor is he able to fly. Yet, he squawks like one and in his heart and mind, he is a parrot.
The pathetic conduct of him is like nothing so much as that of a man who, having relieved himself in his own hat, makes haste to clamp the brimming chapeau on his head.
Oh..by the way, I got news for Mr. ‘Ira’salingam; I have been called worse by better people.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
I will hammer you people and teach a lesson to your people in Jaffna!’”-President Rajapakse to Vithyaharan.
HRW asks Lankan Govt to release or charge editor Vithyatharan
(New York) – The Sri Lankan government should either free a longtime newspaper editor arrested on February 27, 2009, or charge him with a credible offense, Human Rights Watch said today. N.Vithyatharan, editor of the Tamil daily newspapers Sudar Oli in Colombo and Uthayan in Jaffna, was arrested without a warrant and, family members said, severely beaten in custody.
[N. Vithyatharan, editor of the Tamil daily newspaper Sudar Oli, at his home in Colombo, February 2007.
pic courtesy of: Fred Abrahams/Human Rights Watch]
A Sri Lankan defense ministry spokesman told the media that Vithyatharan was being held in connection with the February 20 attack on Colombo by two Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) airplanes, which killed three people and wounded 43. The spokesman said that Vithyatharan was being investigated for two reports published in Sudar Oli, on February 6 and 11, but provided no further information.
“Once again the government has arrested a Tamil journalist on allegations that border on the absurd,” said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. “And, if the accounts of a beating are accurate, it shows the open contempt the government has for Sri Lanka’s independent media.”
Three uniformed police officers and three men in plain clothes arrested Vithyatharan at a family funeral in Colombo and bundled him away in a white van, family members said. No warrant was presented. A Colombo police spokesman, Ranjith Gunasekera, initially told the media that Vithyatharan had been abducted by an unidentified group in a white van. He later confirmed that the Colombo Crimes Division had arrested Vithyatharan under Sri Lanka’s emergency regulations, which are increasingly being used against government critics.
Vithyatharan is currently in detention at the Colombo Crimes Division headquarters. His brother-in-law, E.Sarwanapavan, told Human Rights Watch: “After he was taken away, Vithyatharan was blindfolded and beaten severely on the legs and head. [He was beaten] so much that the police had to take him to a hospital to get his head X-rayed. His wife and children have met him twice but have been very disturbed by his condition.”
Staff members of the popular Tamil dailies Uthayan and Sudar Oli, which have been critical of the government’s military offensive against the LTTE, have been repeatedly targeted. Six of the media group’s employees have been killed since 2005, and its offices in both Jaffna and Colombo have been attacked several times.
Vithyatharan’s arbitrary arrest and alleged mistreatment was just the latest in a series of attacks against journalists critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said.
Since 2006, the Sri Lankan government has increasingly tried to intimidate and silence the media, human rights groups, and others with dissenting views on government policies. According to the Sri Lankan media group, Free Media Movement, 12 journalists have been killed in Sri Lanka since August 2005, and 27 are currently in detention.
On January 8, unidentified armed men in close proximity to a security forces checkpoint killed Sunday Leader newspaper editor Lasantha Wickremetunga, a senior journalist acclaimed for his investigative reporting, during his morning drive to work. On January 6, a dozen heavily armed men badly damaged the studios of the private Maharaja Television station on the outskirts of Colombo by detonating an apparent Claymore landmine.
A prominent ethnic Tamil journalist, J.S. Tissainayagam and a Tamil publisher, N. Jasiharan, and his wife, V. Valamathy, were arbitrarily arrested in March 2008 and remain in jail. Their cases, currently before the criminal courts, have raised serious due process concerns.
“As the war in the north appears to be winding down, the government’s repression of the media has been increasing,” said Ross. “Sri Lanka’s reputation as an open and vibrant democracy is increasingly at risk.”
Vithyatharan has previously faced intimidation from government officials. After the Uthayan office in Jaffna was attacked in August 2006, the government provided Vithyatharan with two police guards at his Colombo home. On August 13, 2006, the security was unexpectedly withdrawn. Vithyatharan told Human Rights Watch in an interview in early 2007 that he raised the unexpected withdrawal with President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a breakfast meeting of 25 editors on August 16. Vithyatharan said that the president immediately lost his temper and started to shout. Vithyatharan told Human Rights Watch:
“President Rajapaksa suddenly started shouting at me in front of everybody. He said, ‘I have asked to withdraw your security! No one will come to your place to give you security! You go and ask [LTTE leader] Prabhakaran! You people are praising the law of the jungle! Policemen and security are scared to come to your place since you are LTTE!’
I told him that I am working under your umbrella – it is your duty to give me protection. He started shouting at me again. He said, ‘I am not like Chandrika [former President Chandrika Kumaratunga]! I am a different person! I will hammer you people and teach a lesson to your people in Jaffna!’”
Human Rights Watch reiterated its concerns about sweeping emergency regulations introduced in August 2006, after the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgama. The regulations give the security forces expansive powers of search, arrest, detention, and seizure of property, including the authority to make warrantless arrests and to hold individuals in unacknowledged detention for up to 12 months. Most of those detained under the emergency regulations are young Tamil men deemed by the security forces to have LTTE ties. Increasingly, however, the regulations are being used against Muslims and Sinhalese who challenge or criticize the state.
(New York) – The Sri Lankan government should either free a longtime newspaper editor arrested on February 27, 2009, or charge him with a credible offense, Human Rights Watch said today. N.Vithyatharan, editor of the Tamil daily newspapers Sudar Oli in Colombo and Uthayan in Jaffna, was arrested without a warrant and, family members said, severely beaten in custody.
[N. Vithyatharan, editor of the Tamil daily newspaper Sudar Oli, at his home in Colombo, February 2007.
pic courtesy of: Fred Abrahams/Human Rights Watch]
A Sri Lankan defense ministry spokesman told the media that Vithyatharan was being held in connection with the February 20 attack on Colombo by two Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) airplanes, which killed three people and wounded 43. The spokesman said that Vithyatharan was being investigated for two reports published in Sudar Oli, on February 6 and 11, but provided no further information.
“Once again the government has arrested a Tamil journalist on allegations that border on the absurd,” said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. “And, if the accounts of a beating are accurate, it shows the open contempt the government has for Sri Lanka’s independent media.”
Three uniformed police officers and three men in plain clothes arrested Vithyatharan at a family funeral in Colombo and bundled him away in a white van, family members said. No warrant was presented. A Colombo police spokesman, Ranjith Gunasekera, initially told the media that Vithyatharan had been abducted by an unidentified group in a white van. He later confirmed that the Colombo Crimes Division had arrested Vithyatharan under Sri Lanka’s emergency regulations, which are increasingly being used against government critics.
Vithyatharan is currently in detention at the Colombo Crimes Division headquarters. His brother-in-law, E.Sarwanapavan, told Human Rights Watch: “After he was taken away, Vithyatharan was blindfolded and beaten severely on the legs and head. [He was beaten] so much that the police had to take him to a hospital to get his head X-rayed. His wife and children have met him twice but have been very disturbed by his condition.”
Staff members of the popular Tamil dailies Uthayan and Sudar Oli, which have been critical of the government’s military offensive against the LTTE, have been repeatedly targeted. Six of the media group’s employees have been killed since 2005, and its offices in both Jaffna and Colombo have been attacked several times.
Vithyatharan’s arbitrary arrest and alleged mistreatment was just the latest in a series of attacks against journalists critical of the government, Human Rights Watch said.
Since 2006, the Sri Lankan government has increasingly tried to intimidate and silence the media, human rights groups, and others with dissenting views on government policies. According to the Sri Lankan media group, Free Media Movement, 12 journalists have been killed in Sri Lanka since August 2005, and 27 are currently in detention.
On January 8, unidentified armed men in close proximity to a security forces checkpoint killed Sunday Leader newspaper editor Lasantha Wickremetunga, a senior journalist acclaimed for his investigative reporting, during his morning drive to work. On January 6, a dozen heavily armed men badly damaged the studios of the private Maharaja Television station on the outskirts of Colombo by detonating an apparent Claymore landmine.
A prominent ethnic Tamil journalist, J.S. Tissainayagam and a Tamil publisher, N. Jasiharan, and his wife, V. Valamathy, were arbitrarily arrested in March 2008 and remain in jail. Their cases, currently before the criminal courts, have raised serious due process concerns.
“As the war in the north appears to be winding down, the government’s repression of the media has been increasing,” said Ross. “Sri Lanka’s reputation as an open and vibrant democracy is increasingly at risk.”
Vithyatharan has previously faced intimidation from government officials. After the Uthayan office in Jaffna was attacked in August 2006, the government provided Vithyatharan with two police guards at his Colombo home. On August 13, 2006, the security was unexpectedly withdrawn. Vithyatharan told Human Rights Watch in an interview in early 2007 that he raised the unexpected withdrawal with President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a breakfast meeting of 25 editors on August 16. Vithyatharan said that the president immediately lost his temper and started to shout. Vithyatharan told Human Rights Watch:
“President Rajapaksa suddenly started shouting at me in front of everybody. He said, ‘I have asked to withdraw your security! No one will come to your place to give you security! You go and ask [LTTE leader] Prabhakaran! You people are praising the law of the jungle! Policemen and security are scared to come to your place since you are LTTE!’
I told him that I am working under your umbrella – it is your duty to give me protection. He started shouting at me again. He said, ‘I am not like Chandrika [former President Chandrika Kumaratunga]! I am a different person! I will hammer you people and teach a lesson to your people in Jaffna!’”
Human Rights Watch reiterated its concerns about sweeping emergency regulations introduced in August 2006, after the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgama. The regulations give the security forces expansive powers of search, arrest, detention, and seizure of property, including the authority to make warrantless arrests and to hold individuals in unacknowledged detention for up to 12 months. Most of those detained under the emergency regulations are young Tamil men deemed by the security forces to have LTTE ties. Increasingly, however, the regulations are being used against Muslims and Sinhalese who challenge or criticize the state.
Artillery kills 10 Sri Lankan civilians
Artillery kills 10 Sri Lankan civilians
6:12a.m. 2nd March 2009
| By Krishan Francis
At least 10 Sri Lankan civilians were killed and dozens more wounded on Sunday when artillery shells fell inside a government-designated "safe zone" in the heart of Tamil Tiger rebel territory, a health official said.
Government forces have driven the rebels from most of their strongholds in recent months and have boxed them into a tiny coastal territory in the northeast. A 12-km-long "safe zone" serves as a haven for tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside rebel territory.
Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah said six people died at a makeshift hospital inside rebel territory, and he saw four more bodies scattered among the huts of displaced people.
He said 48 wounded civilians were also admitted to the hospital, which he runs out of a school. Many of the victims suffered burns from the exploding shells, Varatharajah said.
It was unclear who fired the shells. Varatharajah said they appeared to have come from an area where government forces are stationed.
The military and rebels did not comment. Government officials have repeatedly denied targeting civilians.
Humanitarian groups estimate 200,000 people are trapped in the fighting zone and face the risk of being caught in the crossfire.
Top UN humanitarian officials urged the rebels on Friday to allow civilians to flee the fighting, saying there are "credible reports" that some people trying to leave have been shot.
Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalisation by successive governments controlled by ethnic majority Sinhalese.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
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6:12a.m. 2nd March 2009
| By Krishan Francis
At least 10 Sri Lankan civilians were killed and dozens more wounded on Sunday when artillery shells fell inside a government-designated "safe zone" in the heart of Tamil Tiger rebel territory, a health official said.
Government forces have driven the rebels from most of their strongholds in recent months and have boxed them into a tiny coastal territory in the northeast. A 12-km-long "safe zone" serves as a haven for tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside rebel territory.
Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah said six people died at a makeshift hospital inside rebel territory, and he saw four more bodies scattered among the huts of displaced people.
He said 48 wounded civilians were also admitted to the hospital, which he runs out of a school. Many of the victims suffered burns from the exploding shells, Varatharajah said.
It was unclear who fired the shells. Varatharajah said they appeared to have come from an area where government forces are stationed.
The military and rebels did not comment. Government officials have repeatedly denied targeting civilians.
Humanitarian groups estimate 200,000 people are trapped in the fighting zone and face the risk of being caught in the crossfire.
Top UN humanitarian officials urged the rebels on Friday to allow civilians to flee the fighting, saying there are "credible reports" that some people trying to leave have been shot.
Tamil Tiger rebels have fought since 1983 to create an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalisation by successive governments controlled by ethnic majority Sinhalese.
More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence.
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UPA 'insensitive' to sufferings of SL Tamils: Venkaiah BJP Leader:
UPA 'insensitive' to sufferings of SL Tamils: Venkaiah
PTISunday, March 1, 2009 20:14 IST Email
Chennai: Charging the UPA with being insensitive to the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils, the BJP said on Sunday that the Congress-led government had not taken even 'a single meaningful step' to persuade the island government to ensure the safety of the Tamil civilians.
Prakash Parsekar / DNA
"The LTTE is not the issue now," BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said."The LTTE is not the issue now. The safety, security and welfare of Tamils is important and the Sri Lankan government should pay attention to this," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said.
He said India should prevail upon Colombo to halt the hostilities and that if the country failed to act now, it would be construed as remaining a "mute spectator."
He criticised the DMK "for not actively taking up" the issue despite being part of the ruling UPA. "Despite DMK's powerful presence in UPA, there are questions being raised as to why this issue has received such a lukewarm response," he said.
The BJP would highlight the "failure" of the UPA on this issue during its election campaign, he said.
On the party's poll preparedness, he said that the thrust was to ensure more contribution from southern states, which contributed about 130 seats. Senior BJP leader LK Advani is scheduled to visit Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu on March 7, he said.
While the BJP's final list of candidates would be out by mid March, the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry units have been asked to make recommendations on the matter by March 5, he said.
PTISunday, March 1, 2009 20:14 IST Email
Chennai: Charging the UPA with being insensitive to the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils, the BJP said on Sunday that the Congress-led government had not taken even 'a single meaningful step' to persuade the island government to ensure the safety of the Tamil civilians.
Prakash Parsekar / DNA
"The LTTE is not the issue now," BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said."The LTTE is not the issue now. The safety, security and welfare of Tamils is important and the Sri Lankan government should pay attention to this," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said.
He said India should prevail upon Colombo to halt the hostilities and that if the country failed to act now, it would be construed as remaining a "mute spectator."
He criticised the DMK "for not actively taking up" the issue despite being part of the ruling UPA. "Despite DMK's powerful presence in UPA, there are questions being raised as to why this issue has received such a lukewarm response," he said.
The BJP would highlight the "failure" of the UPA on this issue during its election campaign, he said.
On the party's poll preparedness, he said that the thrust was to ensure more contribution from southern states, which contributed about 130 seats. Senior BJP leader LK Advani is scheduled to visit Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu on March 7, he said.
While the BJP's final list of candidates would be out by mid March, the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry units have been asked to make recommendations on the matter by March 5, he said.
Britain trying to dodge obligations to prevent Genocide of Tamils - Prof. Boyle
Britain trying to dodge obligations to prevent Genocide of Tamils - Prof. Boyle
[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 04:05 GMT]
Commenting on British Foreign Secretary Hon. Miliband's statement in the British Parliament that "a failed [UN] resolution- one that faces a veto- is worse than no resolution at all," Prof Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at University of Illinois College of Law, said that "Uniting for Peace Resolution of 1950" allows a vetoed resolution to be turned over to United Nations General Assembly for action. "The General Assembly can and must do the same with respect to the genocidal plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka... Britain is simply trying to dodge its own obligation under Article I of the Genocide Convention "to prevent" the genocide against the Tamils by Sri Lanka," Prof Boyle added.
The British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was questioned in the British Parliament Wednesday by Liberal Democrat MP Edward Davey as to why Britain’s representative in UN earlier failed to support a briefing on Sri Lanka while ministers in London call for ceasefire.
Miliband replied: “I am sorry to hear the hon. Gentleman talk in that way, because he knows that a failed resolution—one that faces a veto—is worse than no resolution at all, and it would strengthen precisely the forces that he and I oppose. I can assure him that our diplomats, whether in New York or in the region, are all working off the same script, which is one that has been set by the Prime Minister and me.”
Professor Boyle said "[w]ith all due respect to the British Foreign Secretary, this statement is double-talk and he must know it. Under the terms of the U.N.'s Uniting for Peace Resolution of 1950, in the event one or more permanent members were to exercise a veto at the United Nations Security Council concerning a matter related to international peace and security, the matter can then be turned over to the United Nations General Assembly for action.
"Thereunder the General Assembly can take effective action by means of a two-thirds vote. The United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly acted under the Uniting for Peace Resolution with respect to the genocidal plight of the Palestinians.
"The General Assembly can and must do the same with respect to the genocidal plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Invoking the Uniting for Peace Resolution is the well-known way to overcome threatened vetoes by Russia and China. Britain is simply trying to dodge its own obligation under Article I of the Genocide Convention "to prevent" the genocide against the Tamils by Sri Lanka, Professor Boyle said in a note sent to TamilNet.
Chronology:
02.03.09 Britain trying to dodge obligations to prevent Gen..
26.02.09 Britain legally obliged to prevent Genocide in Sri..
25.02.09 Acts of genocide possible – British Foreign Secret..
[TamilNet, Monday, 02 March 2009, 04:05 GMT]
Commenting on British Foreign Secretary Hon. Miliband's statement in the British Parliament that "a failed [UN] resolution- one that faces a veto- is worse than no resolution at all," Prof Boyle, an expert in international law and a professor at University of Illinois College of Law, said that "Uniting for Peace Resolution of 1950" allows a vetoed resolution to be turned over to United Nations General Assembly for action. "The General Assembly can and must do the same with respect to the genocidal plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka... Britain is simply trying to dodge its own obligation under Article I of the Genocide Convention "to prevent" the genocide against the Tamils by Sri Lanka," Prof Boyle added.
The British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was questioned in the British Parliament Wednesday by Liberal Democrat MP Edward Davey as to why Britain’s representative in UN earlier failed to support a briefing on Sri Lanka while ministers in London call for ceasefire.
Miliband replied: “I am sorry to hear the hon. Gentleman talk in that way, because he knows that a failed resolution—one that faces a veto—is worse than no resolution at all, and it would strengthen precisely the forces that he and I oppose. I can assure him that our diplomats, whether in New York or in the region, are all working off the same script, which is one that has been set by the Prime Minister and me.”
Professor Boyle said "[w]ith all due respect to the British Foreign Secretary, this statement is double-talk and he must know it. Under the terms of the U.N.'s Uniting for Peace Resolution of 1950, in the event one or more permanent members were to exercise a veto at the United Nations Security Council concerning a matter related to international peace and security, the matter can then be turned over to the United Nations General Assembly for action.
"Thereunder the General Assembly can take effective action by means of a two-thirds vote. The United Nations General Assembly has repeatedly acted under the Uniting for Peace Resolution with respect to the genocidal plight of the Palestinians.
"The General Assembly can and must do the same with respect to the genocidal plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Invoking the Uniting for Peace Resolution is the well-known way to overcome threatened vetoes by Russia and China. Britain is simply trying to dodge its own obligation under Article I of the Genocide Convention "to prevent" the genocide against the Tamils by Sri Lanka, Professor Boyle said in a note sent to TamilNet.
Chronology:
02.03.09 Britain trying to dodge obligations to prevent Gen..
26.02.09 Britain legally obliged to prevent Genocide in Sri..
25.02.09 Acts of genocide possible – British Foreign Secret..
Letter to American Ambassador HE Jeffrey Lunstead dated January 2006 - Revisited:
A Tamil diaspora response to American Ambassador
HE Jeffrey Lunstead’s clarification.
By: Donald Jayantha Gnanakone
Courtesy: TamilCanadian - January 19, 2006
Your Excellency,
We the Tamil people, who are part of the Tamil Diaspora immaterial where we have a temporary residence, or what travel document we carry, are deeply gratified to your clarifications to the several critical responses expressed by Tamils who have been hurt by your comments. From the time American missionaries set foot on Tamil soil to establish churches and schools in the Northern and Eastern province we have had a very longstanding relationship and association with America, which has been based on mutual respect and affection extending a 200 year period.
All Tamils came from Tamil Nadu whether it was 250 or 2,550 years ago have one of the richest heritage, culture, and language in the world, with 100 million Tamils living in various corners of this earth. In Malaysia and Singapore Tamil is also an official language, and 60 million Tamils live and administer neighboring Tamil Nadu. Tamils are not just an ethnic group like people from East Timor, Eritrea, or Burkina Faso. Tamils are a rather a distinguished, hard working, well educated, cultured, and determined group of people. We respectfully want the 191 members of the world body to be aware of that fact, and given the opportunity would become a star in the Indian Ocean, emulating Singapore, or Dubai which were fishing villages 50 years ago.
We deeply respect your unequivocal clarification that the US does not believe there is a military solution to the ethnic problems of Sri Lanka. Your officials might have read some of the writings and innuendos created by Singhalese, other foreign funded websites and publishers wrongfully creating the impression that US marines are on it’s way to Sri Lanka as part of a huge package of military aid, to fight the Tamils, and defeat them under the lame excuse of global terrorism.
I have concurrence with you that your speech was deliberately distorted by the websites and news media. It was 4 days before the entire speech was quietly published, but the media kept repeating your speech and several aspects of it out of context. I would strongly recommend that your media officer release the full contents of your future speeches in a timely fashion to enable the websites and media, which monitor the Sri Lankan civil war, publish it in the correct manner. There was also another journalist, who had served the US embassy in Colombo for 25 years wrote in a foreign website insisting that your speech was a policy statement of the State Department, and this was a direct warning from the state department to the LTTE. Tamils worldwide would respectfully seek a clarification on the veracity of such claims, as we believe that if the State Department wishes to issue warnings and policy statements to the Tamils and the LTTE, it would have originated from senior officials in the administration in Washington and the forum would not be a luncheon of American and Sri Lankan businessman in Colombo, who have zero influence with the Tamils representatives, nor with the present GOSL administration because most of them supported the opponent of President Rajapakse, JHU and JVP in the November Presidential elections.
Since the US, due to the FTO do not talk to or have contact with one of the parties of the conflict in Sri Lanka, for US policies and warnings to receive the intended beneficiary should be directed using a reliable diplomatic channel such as the Norwegian facilitators or some of the senior diplomats who recently visited the LTTE in Vanni. In the interest of genuine peace in Sri Lanka, the British High commissioner earned everyone’s respect by visiting the LTTE in Killinochchi despite restrictions imposed by his government.
We Tamils also appreciate the fact that finally US has publicly admitted that Tamils have legitimate grievances, which needs to be addressed and any solution found, by way of devolution of power. It is true that the 2002-CFA and the unilateral ceasefire-declaration by the LTTE in December 2001 after PM Ranil Wickramasinghe’s election victory offered great hope. As a person involved in some way with that process for many years with both the Tamil and Singhala leadership, as well as with the present US ambassador’s predecessor HE Ashley Wills, the Tamils did not go for talks to Tokyo, mainly due to disagreements on financial issues, GOSL taxing most of the aid, with Customs duties, and other levies including defense levies, and GOSL refusal to any agreement on the mechanism of distribution of the aid, similar to the P-TOMS issue.
Subsequently LTTE was not invited to Washington where the international community was having a wedding party without the bride. The rest is history. Then we had the confession from the senior UNP minister who conducted the peace negotiations, Milinda Moragoda, days prior to the elections ridiculing the LTTE and boasting of the international safety net, sinking LTTE naval assets, creating conditions to cause the split, (Karuna issue), and undermining the LTTE itself. The deputy leader of the UNP’s son in law, chief organizer of the Nuwara-Eliya district, and MP, Navin Dissanayake made similar boast, in addition to claiming that UNP had arrangements for foreign troops to fight the Tamils in future wars. Unwisely, the UNP leader kept silent, although privately he distanced himself from the statements of both these influential.
This only confirmed the pre existing suspicions the LTTE had, which led to the boycott in the North, and a partial boycott in the East, providing the opportunity for the Singhala Buddhist in the South to decide who their next President would be, with the support of the religious extremist the Buddhist monks of the JHU, and the radical Marxist JVP. Some Tamils not having the opportunity to vote in the Presidential elections is not a loss of political right of the Tamils. Even those Tamils who exercised their political rights, and voted at the Presidential elections especially in the East, West, and upcountry have no political rights today, except being hounded, harassed, intimidated and threatened with cordon and search of their homes at the middle of the night by the armed forces. Over a thousand Tamils were arrested and dragged to the police stations in their night clothes, humiliated with degrading treatment, finger printed, videotaped and treated worst than drug dealers, pick pockets, pimps and prostitutes. What the Tamils desperately need is the restoration of civil, fundamental and human-rights and not essentially political rights.
All the Singhalese political parties voted to support the armed forces whose humanitarian record is no better than Sadaam Husseins. Unfortunately the UNP also regularly supports such emergency laws, which has not resulted in apprehending the Kadirgamar assassins or made the armed forces, and Singhalese safer in any part of the Island. The only region that people are safe and secure today, and not subject to threats of race riots, illegal searches, or massacres are surprisingly the LTTE controlled areas. The most disciplined region including the notorious drivers of Sri Lanka is also in that same region.
Personally, I would have preferred that there was no election boycott at all. I would not debate the merits and demerits of the LTTE election boycott any further, but I wanted the US State Department and your Excellency to comprehend the Tamil side for future benefit, as this ethnic problem need to be resolved politically at the negotiating table, without any further bloodshed, after GOSL is compelled to first adhere to the ceasefire agreement they originally signed. Only then can they can go crying to Uncle Sam, Tom, or Tony, or Aunties around the world whether in America, Italy, Europe, India or Chennai, complaining of the LTTE’s CFA violations.
My family was terrorized and distressed after the assassination of Lakshman Kadirgamar, with my 89-year-old father and American born children exposed to midnight raids. My brother who was an Australian was arrested 2 months later when the Singhala media and Sri Lanka Police falsely accused him, that he was part of the conspiracy between the LTTE and UNP, in the assassination plot. Charles Gnanakone was not only innocent, but had nothing to do with the LTTE, and little to do with the UNP politics. So were my friend Lakshman Thalayasingham and his brothers, in London, his servants, and gardener in Colombo, 2 mobile phone sellers, who were falsely accused of being LTTE members and involved in the plot to assassinate the late foreign minister. Since you have wrongfully accused the LTTE without any base, evidence or foundation, that LTTE assassinated him, I would respectfully challenge you to substantiate where you obtained such information and from whom, to facilitate you to arrive at such a conclusion. The Police investigators, the Attorney General's office, nor the criminal courts have any such information.
GOSL deliberately dragged the assassination investigations until and after the elections causing severe heart problems to Charles Gnanakone, which needed hospitalization and treatment. The international community including the US is ignoring the fact that such arrest were made to embarrass the Tamils, LTTE and the UNP, so that Singhala Buddhist and chauvinist voters, would believe the false allegations and vote for this President, which has only resulted in plunging this country into a near civil war situation. Is democracy about winning elections at any costs and under false pretenses and lies?
I would discuss the other false facts of the Kadirgamar assassination in a different forum, but would only respectfully suggest it is wrong for any diplomat or country to accuse a lawful organization in Sri Lanka who is also the equal partner in the peace process, of murder without proper and impartial investigations or judicial process. Both the Tamils and the LTTE are entitled to due process, but foreign diplomats based in Colombo, should not be permitted to make such serious allegations in chamber of commerce luncheons without proper facts or evidence, which is detrimental to the peace process.
Kadirgamar’s own brother in law, retired colonel Sarath Jayawardene was in full charge of his security, and his older brother Maj. Gen. Asoka Jayawardene was the defense secretary who received the foreign intelligence reports of the assassination attempt would be made in August just weeks before the murder, confessed the widow Mrs. Suganthy Kadirgamar, rather be lately. Thereafter, they all claimed that security was not increased but relaxed which adds to the aura of all the conspiracy theory, which went on after the assassination. May be the FBI who are arriving next week in Colombo could provide a helping hand to the Singhalese, and the Rajapakse administration to independently resolve the investigations since even after 6 months they are as confused as they were when the incident occurred, and investigations began.
No Christian diplomat have ever reprimanded the GOSL, JHU, or JVP for permitting the burning of Christian churches, persecuting Christian organizations, nor wish to discuss the secret assurances given by Lakshman Kadirgamar to the senior Christian clergy on the conversion bill. As you are fully aware the bill has been shelved and hidden under the carpet now. It is rather extraordinary that such incidents never occur in any LTTE controlled areas, where religious tolerances are fully practiced.
These are the undeniable facts, your Excellency.
With all due respect the ceasefire violations occurred before your Excellency stepped foot in our island in September 2003. The fundamental issues still remains the same since February 2002.
Vacating all buildings, private homes, schools and places of worship, including hotels.
Permitting unfettered access to fishing grounds to Tamil fisherman in the NE.
Permitting Tamil farmers cultivating their own land.
Disarming all present and future Para military groups.
I would add that sharing of all foreign aid, (including Tsunami Aid), and revenues from the regular budget was agreed. As to who would administer the distribution of funds was unfortunately unclear. There is a paramount difference between the LTTE and the GOSL when they signed the CFA, after LTTE being successful in defeating the army in Elephant pass and collecting hundreds of millions of dollars, worth of arms and equipment. The crippling military strike on the Katunayake military airport, and destroying 50 per cent of military and commercial aircrafts devastated the GOSL. LTTE was more interested in a final peace settlement, which would bring long-term benefits to the Tamils, whereas the GOSL was more interested in immediate foreign aid, grants, loans, FDI, Stock market, Real Estate, Tourism and Employment for the Singhalese. That is why the LTTE cannot be just enticed with money and foreign aid like other rebel groups in different parts of the world.
It is paramount that the GOSL immediately and unconditionally implement these clauses before any discussion on the CFA in Oslo or Burkina Faso. In fairness to President Rajapakse, The provocations, and challenges were made clear, prior to the elections by him, the JVP and JHU. They made it well known to the LTTE, Singhala Buddhist, and the international community, by way of some Chintanaya, that if Mahinda is elected the Tamils cannot expect any mercy, No Federal system, No P-Toms, No sharing of revenues, No self determination, No homeland, No Norway, New facilitators, and Unilateral changes to the CFA. In other words it is Mahinda’s way or the highway for the Tamils. The President has kept his promise to the Singhala Buddhist, unwilling to change, which is costing the country dearly. With that in his mind, he took an unprecedented delegation of 72 members, to Delhi to convince the Indians to support his views. Delhi diplomatically rejected most of his request, and while in India, his wife the first lady also has renounced her Catholic faith, and become a practicing Buddhist.
The President also sent the foreign minister (Mangala Samaraweera) to Washington to meet the Secretary of State and other state department officials to request different kinds of assistance, as well as undermine the GOSL's partner in peace and CFA negotiations the LTTE. While being in Washington he made an outlandish claim that LTTE is the Godfather of all terrorism including the Al Qaeda. He also demanded that the Tamil NGO supported directly by the Tamil Diasporas and INGO’s to be banned. How can the Tamils and their representatives trust or have faith in a Singhala administration, which relentlessly worked hard the past few weeks in India, Europe, and US to undermine the negotiating capacity, strength, dignity, and credibility of the Tamils? Does the international community expect the Tamils to have any good faith negotiations on any subject with such an administration which is held captive by two extremist groups, who are fundamentally racist, chauvinist, intolerant, and are Marxist, who virulently opposed the US, Europe and India in the past and even now?
The combinations of possibly having a Marxist-communist religious extremist, with inexperienced administrators, soon became irresistible for the LTTE, given the Moragoda-Dissanayake interviews thrown in. it was very clear to everyone, what LTTE and the Tamils would do if Rajapakse and his extremist got elected or installed by the LTTE. As soon as he became President, he threw the gauntlet to the LTTE with the appointment of hard-line armed forces commanders, Prime Minister and defense advisors. Ministers and Foreign minister ran around the world and in Colombo, undermining and ridiculing the LTTE and getting ready for a showdown.
On the ground the armed forces acted with brutality on civilian protest and killings took place all over the NE as well as Colombo. Midnight searches threats, harassment, and intimidation in Colombo and up country culminating in the cold blooded Christmas murder of a senior Parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham in church, and five university students in Trincomalee. Strangely the US ambassador remains silent on such cold-blooded murders by the GOSL or it’s forces, as well as to the multiple murders of journalist Sivaram, former MP Chandran Nehru Ariyanayagam, and LTTE leader Kaushalyan and several others including at least 100 Tamil civilians. The ambassador, who authoritatively accuses LTTE of the assassination of Kadirgamar, does not even utter a word about these murders, or the recent attack on the Scandinavian SLMM monitors, which has forced them to suspend operations in Trincomalee.
The President and Prime Minister are also accused of threatening and scheming the murder of Lasantha Wickramatunge the Sunday Leader editor, and Killi Rajamahendran the Chairman of several TV stations, and Maharajah organization. Your Excellency, your esteemed position demands that you are seen to be impartial, just and fair when you deal with such sensitive issues, and it is improper when you only accuse and threaten one party to the conflict. If the US wants to play a useful and dignified role which it should, in bringing about Peace and Prosperity to the island of Sri Lanka, firstly it needs to talk to both sides, and secondly it needs to be genuinely fair and impartial by both sides. Everyone should also bear in mind that the LTTE labored for 9 months and produced a highly detailed ISGA proposal document as an alternate to a separate state in 2003. Both the UNP and the President rejected this, and she took over 3 Ministries in November 2003 from the UNP, which led to the dissolution of the Parliament as well.
As for renouncing of violence, LTTE is never going to abandon the path that has been followed by our founding fathers like George Washington, or African independence leaders like Mandela, Kaunda, Nkrummah, Kenyatta, as well as Vietnamese and Chinese military leaders like Ho Chi Ming, Chou enLai, Mao Tse Ting and a few others. LTTE has already fought many wars with the GOSL and GOI in the past 2 decades. The Tamils only oppose the military occupation, repression, suppression, and oppression. They are living in an open prison in their own homeland, with parts of the land, sea, and homes occupied by the Singhalese, and denied for the use of the Tamils.
The Tamil leaders from the time of independence in 1948 tried non-violence Gandhian methods and failed miserably. The Tamils got disenfranchised for decades with the stroke of a Singhala pen, and brutalized with riots from 1956, 1958, 1961, 1971, 1977 and finally in 1983. Just give some thought to why should LTTE, which has fought a liberation struggle in Sri Lanka for 33 years, beginning as a small group of high school kids, suddenly change their course and methods, what has worked and brought respect with dignity to the Tamils in the past two decades? However much the West would like to dictate terms of how a peaceful conflict resolution has to be determined through a negotiated settlement, the Tamils cannot renounce violence at this stage now.
The Tamils organized an armed resistance and launched a liberation struggle as a result of years of continued State Terrorism and violence on unarmed Tamil civilians. The safety and security is in the hands of the Tamils and no foreign entity can guarantee the safety and protection of the Tamils from the Singhalese. LTTE and the Tamils has already burnt its fingers and nearly lost its hands when they trusted the Indian troops (IPKF) to play such a role in 1987.
The Colombo Tamils are safe today from the barbaric Singhala forces sponsored by the GOSL, is not due to the generosity of the Singhalese, the IPKF forces or the stationing of US marines. The government and JVP controlled Singhala Marxist mobs are mortally scared of the little boys and girls from the Tiger organizations. That is the ground reality and both the international community and the Singhala GOSL needs to realize it, and take genuine steps towards negotiating a permanent peace which will bring prosperity to the 17 million Singhalese and 3 million Tamils peaking people. We Tamils are fully supportive of such peace, immaterial of prosperity.
Many diplomats have praised the restraint and patience of President Rajapakse, the armed forces, and the GOSL. The truth is the GOSL has unleashed the armed forces and Para military on unarmed Tamil civilians in the North East, as well as the Tamils in Colombo, resulting in over one hundred deaths, including the murder of Tamil parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham. The GOSL is simply incompetent, impotent and unable to engage the armed enemy directly fearing the military ramifications and economic consequences of such actions island wide. It is a well-known fact that if GOSL declares war on the Tamils, the war is not going to be restricted only to the Tamil province, but would engulf the whole island. The army commander himself informed the President that he needed more equipment and training to enable the army to be ready to engage the LTTE in another 3 months, which would be in February. This is where the Singhalese are confused with the promised military aid that is forthcoming from the US, as per their interpretation of your speech.
Therefore if the GOSL is genuine to restore normalcy, prevent violence, they cannot bicker for months about the venue in Oslo, for the first meeting. They should also agree not to undermine the facilitator Norway, or the Scandinavian peace monitors, and agree to fully implement the CFA. There is no reason GOSL not to abide by the P-TOMS signed by the GOSL and LTTE a year ago, and also share the budget revenues passed by the parliament. The Parliament is supreme than the courts, where judges are appointed and also can be retired by the all-powerful President, parliament and the people. President Rajapakse also need to realize that he is the President of the whole country and not only of the Southern province and his hometown Hambantota, while diverting all Tsunami and other aid to the Southern and Western Province, refusing to share it with the North and the East where 70 per cent of the Tsunami damages occurred. Before all the homes, fishing boats, schools, coastal roads, (not highways) and medical clinics/hospitals are replaced; funds should not be allocated for other grandiose projects.
In conclusion the Tamils are grateful for all the assistance provided by the US government, it’s agencies, World Bank, IMF, the ADB, and request that the fundamental requirement of the fisherman, farmers, and the poor victims/survivors are first addressed. The American Red Cross alone collected more than 2.5 Billion dollars as of June 2005 for Tsunami aid, but has consistently refused to share a reasonable portion of the aid with the Tsunami survivors of the North and East nor account for the funds collected on behalf of the Tsunami survivors. You would know how much the ARC has spent and actually done in 1 year in the North East.
Respectfully Yours,
Donald Jayantha Gnanakone.
Los Angeles, California.
cc: Secretary of State Condoleeza Ricecc: Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Senate Chairman: Foreign Affairs Committee, US House of Representatives
HE Jeffrey Lunstead’s clarification.
By: Donald Jayantha Gnanakone
Courtesy: TamilCanadian - January 19, 2006
Your Excellency,
We the Tamil people, who are part of the Tamil Diaspora immaterial where we have a temporary residence, or what travel document we carry, are deeply gratified to your clarifications to the several critical responses expressed by Tamils who have been hurt by your comments. From the time American missionaries set foot on Tamil soil to establish churches and schools in the Northern and Eastern province we have had a very longstanding relationship and association with America, which has been based on mutual respect and affection extending a 200 year period.
All Tamils came from Tamil Nadu whether it was 250 or 2,550 years ago have one of the richest heritage, culture, and language in the world, with 100 million Tamils living in various corners of this earth. In Malaysia and Singapore Tamil is also an official language, and 60 million Tamils live and administer neighboring Tamil Nadu. Tamils are not just an ethnic group like people from East Timor, Eritrea, or Burkina Faso. Tamils are a rather a distinguished, hard working, well educated, cultured, and determined group of people. We respectfully want the 191 members of the world body to be aware of that fact, and given the opportunity would become a star in the Indian Ocean, emulating Singapore, or Dubai which were fishing villages 50 years ago.
We deeply respect your unequivocal clarification that the US does not believe there is a military solution to the ethnic problems of Sri Lanka. Your officials might have read some of the writings and innuendos created by Singhalese, other foreign funded websites and publishers wrongfully creating the impression that US marines are on it’s way to Sri Lanka as part of a huge package of military aid, to fight the Tamils, and defeat them under the lame excuse of global terrorism.
I have concurrence with you that your speech was deliberately distorted by the websites and news media. It was 4 days before the entire speech was quietly published, but the media kept repeating your speech and several aspects of it out of context. I would strongly recommend that your media officer release the full contents of your future speeches in a timely fashion to enable the websites and media, which monitor the Sri Lankan civil war, publish it in the correct manner. There was also another journalist, who had served the US embassy in Colombo for 25 years wrote in a foreign website insisting that your speech was a policy statement of the State Department, and this was a direct warning from the state department to the LTTE. Tamils worldwide would respectfully seek a clarification on the veracity of such claims, as we believe that if the State Department wishes to issue warnings and policy statements to the Tamils and the LTTE, it would have originated from senior officials in the administration in Washington and the forum would not be a luncheon of American and Sri Lankan businessman in Colombo, who have zero influence with the Tamils representatives, nor with the present GOSL administration because most of them supported the opponent of President Rajapakse, JHU and JVP in the November Presidential elections.
Since the US, due to the FTO do not talk to or have contact with one of the parties of the conflict in Sri Lanka, for US policies and warnings to receive the intended beneficiary should be directed using a reliable diplomatic channel such as the Norwegian facilitators or some of the senior diplomats who recently visited the LTTE in Vanni. In the interest of genuine peace in Sri Lanka, the British High commissioner earned everyone’s respect by visiting the LTTE in Killinochchi despite restrictions imposed by his government.
We Tamils also appreciate the fact that finally US has publicly admitted that Tamils have legitimate grievances, which needs to be addressed and any solution found, by way of devolution of power. It is true that the 2002-CFA and the unilateral ceasefire-declaration by the LTTE in December 2001 after PM Ranil Wickramasinghe’s election victory offered great hope. As a person involved in some way with that process for many years with both the Tamil and Singhala leadership, as well as with the present US ambassador’s predecessor HE Ashley Wills, the Tamils did not go for talks to Tokyo, mainly due to disagreements on financial issues, GOSL taxing most of the aid, with Customs duties, and other levies including defense levies, and GOSL refusal to any agreement on the mechanism of distribution of the aid, similar to the P-TOMS issue.
Subsequently LTTE was not invited to Washington where the international community was having a wedding party without the bride. The rest is history. Then we had the confession from the senior UNP minister who conducted the peace negotiations, Milinda Moragoda, days prior to the elections ridiculing the LTTE and boasting of the international safety net, sinking LTTE naval assets, creating conditions to cause the split, (Karuna issue), and undermining the LTTE itself. The deputy leader of the UNP’s son in law, chief organizer of the Nuwara-Eliya district, and MP, Navin Dissanayake made similar boast, in addition to claiming that UNP had arrangements for foreign troops to fight the Tamils in future wars. Unwisely, the UNP leader kept silent, although privately he distanced himself from the statements of both these influential.
This only confirmed the pre existing suspicions the LTTE had, which led to the boycott in the North, and a partial boycott in the East, providing the opportunity for the Singhala Buddhist in the South to decide who their next President would be, with the support of the religious extremist the Buddhist monks of the JHU, and the radical Marxist JVP. Some Tamils not having the opportunity to vote in the Presidential elections is not a loss of political right of the Tamils. Even those Tamils who exercised their political rights, and voted at the Presidential elections especially in the East, West, and upcountry have no political rights today, except being hounded, harassed, intimidated and threatened with cordon and search of their homes at the middle of the night by the armed forces. Over a thousand Tamils were arrested and dragged to the police stations in their night clothes, humiliated with degrading treatment, finger printed, videotaped and treated worst than drug dealers, pick pockets, pimps and prostitutes. What the Tamils desperately need is the restoration of civil, fundamental and human-rights and not essentially political rights.
All the Singhalese political parties voted to support the armed forces whose humanitarian record is no better than Sadaam Husseins. Unfortunately the UNP also regularly supports such emergency laws, which has not resulted in apprehending the Kadirgamar assassins or made the armed forces, and Singhalese safer in any part of the Island. The only region that people are safe and secure today, and not subject to threats of race riots, illegal searches, or massacres are surprisingly the LTTE controlled areas. The most disciplined region including the notorious drivers of Sri Lanka is also in that same region.
Personally, I would have preferred that there was no election boycott at all. I would not debate the merits and demerits of the LTTE election boycott any further, but I wanted the US State Department and your Excellency to comprehend the Tamil side for future benefit, as this ethnic problem need to be resolved politically at the negotiating table, without any further bloodshed, after GOSL is compelled to first adhere to the ceasefire agreement they originally signed. Only then can they can go crying to Uncle Sam, Tom, or Tony, or Aunties around the world whether in America, Italy, Europe, India or Chennai, complaining of the LTTE’s CFA violations.
My family was terrorized and distressed after the assassination of Lakshman Kadirgamar, with my 89-year-old father and American born children exposed to midnight raids. My brother who was an Australian was arrested 2 months later when the Singhala media and Sri Lanka Police falsely accused him, that he was part of the conspiracy between the LTTE and UNP, in the assassination plot. Charles Gnanakone was not only innocent, but had nothing to do with the LTTE, and little to do with the UNP politics. So were my friend Lakshman Thalayasingham and his brothers, in London, his servants, and gardener in Colombo, 2 mobile phone sellers, who were falsely accused of being LTTE members and involved in the plot to assassinate the late foreign minister. Since you have wrongfully accused the LTTE without any base, evidence or foundation, that LTTE assassinated him, I would respectfully challenge you to substantiate where you obtained such information and from whom, to facilitate you to arrive at such a conclusion. The Police investigators, the Attorney General's office, nor the criminal courts have any such information.
GOSL deliberately dragged the assassination investigations until and after the elections causing severe heart problems to Charles Gnanakone, which needed hospitalization and treatment. The international community including the US is ignoring the fact that such arrest were made to embarrass the Tamils, LTTE and the UNP, so that Singhala Buddhist and chauvinist voters, would believe the false allegations and vote for this President, which has only resulted in plunging this country into a near civil war situation. Is democracy about winning elections at any costs and under false pretenses and lies?
I would discuss the other false facts of the Kadirgamar assassination in a different forum, but would only respectfully suggest it is wrong for any diplomat or country to accuse a lawful organization in Sri Lanka who is also the equal partner in the peace process, of murder without proper and impartial investigations or judicial process. Both the Tamils and the LTTE are entitled to due process, but foreign diplomats based in Colombo, should not be permitted to make such serious allegations in chamber of commerce luncheons without proper facts or evidence, which is detrimental to the peace process.
Kadirgamar’s own brother in law, retired colonel Sarath Jayawardene was in full charge of his security, and his older brother Maj. Gen. Asoka Jayawardene was the defense secretary who received the foreign intelligence reports of the assassination attempt would be made in August just weeks before the murder, confessed the widow Mrs. Suganthy Kadirgamar, rather be lately. Thereafter, they all claimed that security was not increased but relaxed which adds to the aura of all the conspiracy theory, which went on after the assassination. May be the FBI who are arriving next week in Colombo could provide a helping hand to the Singhalese, and the Rajapakse administration to independently resolve the investigations since even after 6 months they are as confused as they were when the incident occurred, and investigations began.
No Christian diplomat have ever reprimanded the GOSL, JHU, or JVP for permitting the burning of Christian churches, persecuting Christian organizations, nor wish to discuss the secret assurances given by Lakshman Kadirgamar to the senior Christian clergy on the conversion bill. As you are fully aware the bill has been shelved and hidden under the carpet now. It is rather extraordinary that such incidents never occur in any LTTE controlled areas, where religious tolerances are fully practiced.
These are the undeniable facts, your Excellency.
With all due respect the ceasefire violations occurred before your Excellency stepped foot in our island in September 2003. The fundamental issues still remains the same since February 2002.
Vacating all buildings, private homes, schools and places of worship, including hotels.
Permitting unfettered access to fishing grounds to Tamil fisherman in the NE.
Permitting Tamil farmers cultivating their own land.
Disarming all present and future Para military groups.
I would add that sharing of all foreign aid, (including Tsunami Aid), and revenues from the regular budget was agreed. As to who would administer the distribution of funds was unfortunately unclear. There is a paramount difference between the LTTE and the GOSL when they signed the CFA, after LTTE being successful in defeating the army in Elephant pass and collecting hundreds of millions of dollars, worth of arms and equipment. The crippling military strike on the Katunayake military airport, and destroying 50 per cent of military and commercial aircrafts devastated the GOSL. LTTE was more interested in a final peace settlement, which would bring long-term benefits to the Tamils, whereas the GOSL was more interested in immediate foreign aid, grants, loans, FDI, Stock market, Real Estate, Tourism and Employment for the Singhalese. That is why the LTTE cannot be just enticed with money and foreign aid like other rebel groups in different parts of the world.
It is paramount that the GOSL immediately and unconditionally implement these clauses before any discussion on the CFA in Oslo or Burkina Faso. In fairness to President Rajapakse, The provocations, and challenges were made clear, prior to the elections by him, the JVP and JHU. They made it well known to the LTTE, Singhala Buddhist, and the international community, by way of some Chintanaya, that if Mahinda is elected the Tamils cannot expect any mercy, No Federal system, No P-Toms, No sharing of revenues, No self determination, No homeland, No Norway, New facilitators, and Unilateral changes to the CFA. In other words it is Mahinda’s way or the highway for the Tamils. The President has kept his promise to the Singhala Buddhist, unwilling to change, which is costing the country dearly. With that in his mind, he took an unprecedented delegation of 72 members, to Delhi to convince the Indians to support his views. Delhi diplomatically rejected most of his request, and while in India, his wife the first lady also has renounced her Catholic faith, and become a practicing Buddhist.
The President also sent the foreign minister (Mangala Samaraweera) to Washington to meet the Secretary of State and other state department officials to request different kinds of assistance, as well as undermine the GOSL's partner in peace and CFA negotiations the LTTE. While being in Washington he made an outlandish claim that LTTE is the Godfather of all terrorism including the Al Qaeda. He also demanded that the Tamil NGO supported directly by the Tamil Diasporas and INGO’s to be banned. How can the Tamils and their representatives trust or have faith in a Singhala administration, which relentlessly worked hard the past few weeks in India, Europe, and US to undermine the negotiating capacity, strength, dignity, and credibility of the Tamils? Does the international community expect the Tamils to have any good faith negotiations on any subject with such an administration which is held captive by two extremist groups, who are fundamentally racist, chauvinist, intolerant, and are Marxist, who virulently opposed the US, Europe and India in the past and even now?
The combinations of possibly having a Marxist-communist religious extremist, with inexperienced administrators, soon became irresistible for the LTTE, given the Moragoda-Dissanayake interviews thrown in. it was very clear to everyone, what LTTE and the Tamils would do if Rajapakse and his extremist got elected or installed by the LTTE. As soon as he became President, he threw the gauntlet to the LTTE with the appointment of hard-line armed forces commanders, Prime Minister and defense advisors. Ministers and Foreign minister ran around the world and in Colombo, undermining and ridiculing the LTTE and getting ready for a showdown.
On the ground the armed forces acted with brutality on civilian protest and killings took place all over the NE as well as Colombo. Midnight searches threats, harassment, and intimidation in Colombo and up country culminating in the cold blooded Christmas murder of a senior Parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham in church, and five university students in Trincomalee. Strangely the US ambassador remains silent on such cold-blooded murders by the GOSL or it’s forces, as well as to the multiple murders of journalist Sivaram, former MP Chandran Nehru Ariyanayagam, and LTTE leader Kaushalyan and several others including at least 100 Tamil civilians. The ambassador, who authoritatively accuses LTTE of the assassination of Kadirgamar, does not even utter a word about these murders, or the recent attack on the Scandinavian SLMM monitors, which has forced them to suspend operations in Trincomalee.
The President and Prime Minister are also accused of threatening and scheming the murder of Lasantha Wickramatunge the Sunday Leader editor, and Killi Rajamahendran the Chairman of several TV stations, and Maharajah organization. Your Excellency, your esteemed position demands that you are seen to be impartial, just and fair when you deal with such sensitive issues, and it is improper when you only accuse and threaten one party to the conflict. If the US wants to play a useful and dignified role which it should, in bringing about Peace and Prosperity to the island of Sri Lanka, firstly it needs to talk to both sides, and secondly it needs to be genuinely fair and impartial by both sides. Everyone should also bear in mind that the LTTE labored for 9 months and produced a highly detailed ISGA proposal document as an alternate to a separate state in 2003. Both the UNP and the President rejected this, and she took over 3 Ministries in November 2003 from the UNP, which led to the dissolution of the Parliament as well.
As for renouncing of violence, LTTE is never going to abandon the path that has been followed by our founding fathers like George Washington, or African independence leaders like Mandela, Kaunda, Nkrummah, Kenyatta, as well as Vietnamese and Chinese military leaders like Ho Chi Ming, Chou enLai, Mao Tse Ting and a few others. LTTE has already fought many wars with the GOSL and GOI in the past 2 decades. The Tamils only oppose the military occupation, repression, suppression, and oppression. They are living in an open prison in their own homeland, with parts of the land, sea, and homes occupied by the Singhalese, and denied for the use of the Tamils.
The Tamil leaders from the time of independence in 1948 tried non-violence Gandhian methods and failed miserably. The Tamils got disenfranchised for decades with the stroke of a Singhala pen, and brutalized with riots from 1956, 1958, 1961, 1971, 1977 and finally in 1983. Just give some thought to why should LTTE, which has fought a liberation struggle in Sri Lanka for 33 years, beginning as a small group of high school kids, suddenly change their course and methods, what has worked and brought respect with dignity to the Tamils in the past two decades? However much the West would like to dictate terms of how a peaceful conflict resolution has to be determined through a negotiated settlement, the Tamils cannot renounce violence at this stage now.
The Tamils organized an armed resistance and launched a liberation struggle as a result of years of continued State Terrorism and violence on unarmed Tamil civilians. The safety and security is in the hands of the Tamils and no foreign entity can guarantee the safety and protection of the Tamils from the Singhalese. LTTE and the Tamils has already burnt its fingers and nearly lost its hands when they trusted the Indian troops (IPKF) to play such a role in 1987.
The Colombo Tamils are safe today from the barbaric Singhala forces sponsored by the GOSL, is not due to the generosity of the Singhalese, the IPKF forces or the stationing of US marines. The government and JVP controlled Singhala Marxist mobs are mortally scared of the little boys and girls from the Tiger organizations. That is the ground reality and both the international community and the Singhala GOSL needs to realize it, and take genuine steps towards negotiating a permanent peace which will bring prosperity to the 17 million Singhalese and 3 million Tamils peaking people. We Tamils are fully supportive of such peace, immaterial of prosperity.
Many diplomats have praised the restraint and patience of President Rajapakse, the armed forces, and the GOSL. The truth is the GOSL has unleashed the armed forces and Para military on unarmed Tamil civilians in the North East, as well as the Tamils in Colombo, resulting in over one hundred deaths, including the murder of Tamil parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham. The GOSL is simply incompetent, impotent and unable to engage the armed enemy directly fearing the military ramifications and economic consequences of such actions island wide. It is a well-known fact that if GOSL declares war on the Tamils, the war is not going to be restricted only to the Tamil province, but would engulf the whole island. The army commander himself informed the President that he needed more equipment and training to enable the army to be ready to engage the LTTE in another 3 months, which would be in February. This is where the Singhalese are confused with the promised military aid that is forthcoming from the US, as per their interpretation of your speech.
Therefore if the GOSL is genuine to restore normalcy, prevent violence, they cannot bicker for months about the venue in Oslo, for the first meeting. They should also agree not to undermine the facilitator Norway, or the Scandinavian peace monitors, and agree to fully implement the CFA. There is no reason GOSL not to abide by the P-TOMS signed by the GOSL and LTTE a year ago, and also share the budget revenues passed by the parliament. The Parliament is supreme than the courts, where judges are appointed and also can be retired by the all-powerful President, parliament and the people. President Rajapakse also need to realize that he is the President of the whole country and not only of the Southern province and his hometown Hambantota, while diverting all Tsunami and other aid to the Southern and Western Province, refusing to share it with the North and the East where 70 per cent of the Tsunami damages occurred. Before all the homes, fishing boats, schools, coastal roads, (not highways) and medical clinics/hospitals are replaced; funds should not be allocated for other grandiose projects.
In conclusion the Tamils are grateful for all the assistance provided by the US government, it’s agencies, World Bank, IMF, the ADB, and request that the fundamental requirement of the fisherman, farmers, and the poor victims/survivors are first addressed. The American Red Cross alone collected more than 2.5 Billion dollars as of June 2005 for Tsunami aid, but has consistently refused to share a reasonable portion of the aid with the Tsunami survivors of the North and East nor account for the funds collected on behalf of the Tsunami survivors. You would know how much the ARC has spent and actually done in 1 year in the North East.
Respectfully Yours,
Donald Jayantha Gnanakone.
Los Angeles, California.
cc: Secretary of State Condoleeza Ricecc: Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Senate Chairman: Foreign Affairs Committee, US House of Representatives
'Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society' - Prof. Sivasegaram
'Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society' - Sivasegaram
[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 20:22 GMT]
The Indian establishment, pretending neutrality, backed overtly and covertly the Sri Lankan government, politically as well as militarily, using Chinese and Pakistani interests in Sri Lanka as a pretext, writes Professor S. Sivasegaram, a well-known academic and Marxist writer. “International concern on human rights violations, threat to the media, the state of lawlessness including killings and abductions, and other issues have been mere formalities and have never been translated into action.[…] Foreign governments and international organisations to demand that the LTTE should ‘release’ the people under its wings is wrong, without simultaneously insisting that the Sri Lankan government ends all attacks on civilians and ensures the safety of civilians wherever they are.”
Professor S. SivasegaramProfessor S. Sivasegaram has been extensively writing on Sri Lankan and International Politics for more than thirty years in Tamil and English, besides contributions to poetry, translation and literary criticism. Born in Jaffna and coming from Trincomalee, he is a former head of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Peradeniya. He also served in the Imperial College, London and has authored a large number of research papers in his field of profession.
Full text of the article published in Radical Notes (radicalnotes.com) follows:
Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society
S Sivasegaram
Sri Lanka is in deep crisis on many fronts, and its politics is almost a total mess. Yet, its President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, elected by a whisker in November 2005, thanks to the boycott of the election by the Tamils in the North-East, after a last-minute call by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is the only Sri Lankan head of government to have grown in popularity since election. He owes this immense popularity among the majority Sinhalese to his rejection of the peace process and the success of the armed forces in regaining, at a very high but unknown cost in men and material, all but 200 sq. km of the vast territory held by the LTTE.
Results of the provincial councils elections held during the past six months, show soaring support for the government; and if a general election is held now the government will secure with ease a two-thirds majority in Parliament. This apparent strength of the government and the preoccupation of the media, political parties and the public with military gains in the North conceal the crises faced by the country on several fronts.
This essay is intended to address the crisis gripping Sri Lanka on various fronts that do not receive adequate attention. Thus, despite the importance of the war and the consequent humanitarian crisis, it deals with them only briefly. The next section contains a short comment on the war and the humanitarian tragedy. It is followed by comments on the failing economy amid the growing global crisis and corruption in high places; violation of human and fundamental rights; the drift towards lawlessness; and foreign meddling. It concludes with comments on the impending threat to democracy and the tasks ahead in defending democracy.
The War and the Humanitarian Tragedy
The nominal interest of the ‘international community’, meaning imperialist countries, is in the humanitarian crisis. Their declared concerns have drifted with the course of the war, resumed in early 2006, with the Ceasefire Agreement in place until the government withdrew unilaterally from it in February 2007. Earlier calls for a negotiated settlement and end to hostilities became muted calls for a ceasefire last year; and are now reduced to concern for the safety of civilians entrapped in LTTE-controlled areas.
Indiscriminate bombing and shelling by the government armed forces have been the main cause of the human tragedy, aggravated by the deliberate blocking of essential supplies including food and medicine to LTTE-controlled areas. In the latter half of 2008, international and local news media and non-government organisations were ordered out of the conflict zone by the government so that now only the Internal Red Cross has limited access to the affected areas. Thus the true situation of the people even in areas regained by the government forces remains unknown.
The LTTE is now confined to less than 200 square kilometres of territory with an estimated 300 000 people, whom the government claims are held against their will as a human shield. People facing a dire shortage of essential goods and services and threatened by bombing and shelling will like to move to more secure areas. But it is uncertain whether they sufficiently trust the government or the armed forces to move into government-controlled areas. Reports of injury and deaths in government-designated security zones due to shelling by the armed forces are certainly no inducement to move into those areas. The living conditions of people who are further away from the conflict zone are equally pathetic: besides lack of attention to their urgent needs, they are treated as terrorist suspects by the security forces; and utterances by people in high places, later retracted, to the effect that ‘security villages’ will be set up to detain the displaced persons for up to three years are ominous.
The LTTE, with its emphasis on armed struggle at the expense of mass political work, failed to pay adequate attention to the safety and well being of the people in its territory. But for foreign governments and international organisations to demand that the LTTE should ‘release’ the people under its wings is wrong, without simultaneously insisting that the Sri Lankan government ends all attacks on civilians and ensures the safety of civilians wherever they are, and ensure that they are not harassed or victimised by the denial of essential goods and services. Strangely, no call has been made to deploy independent observers to find from the people on either side of the battle lines about their wishes and experiences.
Many who express deep concern about the humanitarian crisis now ignore the abject human rights record of the government, which they denounced strongly only months ago. Equally, pro-LTTE agitators fail to criticise it for its serious lapses, especially on matters of safety and well-being of the people, and with regard to respecting their wishes.
The Economy in Crisis
The Sri Lankan economy was propelled towards doom by the ‘open economic policy’ initiated in 1978, accompanied by unrestricted imports, reckless privatisation of state assets, and opening up the country to parasitic if not predatory foreign investors. As a result, the emergent national economy and well-functioning state enterprises were effectively destroyed or swallowed up by foreign predators.
The escalation of national oppression and conflict diverted public attention from the effects of the erroneous economic policy and repressive measures against political resistance to it. The resultant war, aided by foreign meddlers, some siding with the government and others fishing in troubled waters, added to the economic burdens of the country, which since 1978 has become increasingly dependent on the export of cheap labour, directly by employment abroad and indirectly through export processing zones where foreign ‘investors’ exploit the Sri Lankan export quota for apparel to the US and Europe. Besides the social implications of such employment, the diversion of close to 15% of the work force from useful production has made the economy susceptible to invasion by cheap imports and a rise in consumerism.
While the ‘open economic policy’ made the country vulnerable to the vagaries of the global economy, the need to finance the war and service foreign debts meant further privatisation, transfer of public assets to foreign interests, and weakening of the economy. When credit form foreign governments and lending agencies slowed down, the government in 2007 turned to private bankers by issuing bonds at high interest rates. In the wake of the declared ‘victory of the war against terrorism’, the government now appeals to the Sri Lankan émigré population to invest in government bonds.
The global economic crisis has begun to bite, although the government is putting on a brave face. The plantation sector, still a major part of the export sector, is affected by a fall in tea sales and in some regions the plantations are cutting down production and the number of working days of plantation workers. Apparel export to the US and Europe has shrunk, and a few hundred garment industries have already closed down. Recruitment to the Middle East has slowed down, as redundancies and wage reductions are on the horizon. Thus, besides the impending fall in overseas remittances, unemployment will be a major problem in the months to come.
However, a thriving employment sector may be the armed forces, with over 400,000, of a population of 20 million, serving in the police and the armed forces and a proposal to increase the number by 100,000 to ensure security in the North-East.
The economy has also been hurt by serious financial irregularities, bribery and corruption, and recently even unlawful speculation using state funds, as in the hedging deal on petroleum, which made the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation liable to US$ 7,000,000 to a group of banks involved in the deal. Several other corrupt deals, including the purchase of military equipment, have been exposed by sections of the media, but corrective action has been rare; and nobody has been held answerable, except for political expediency, while the mediapersons concerned have been intimidated or harassed.
Crises of Human and Fundamental Rights and Law and Order
Sri Lanka’s record on human rights was not bright 20 years ago: today it has hit rock bottom: Sri Lanka fell from a rank of 51 (among 139 countries considered) when Reporters sans frontiers (RSF) started ranking a few years ago to 165 (among 173, or the ninth worst) in 2008. Attacks on media personnel, including the gunning down in January 2009 of Lasantha Wickramatunge, Chief Editor of Sunday Leader, known for his views critical of the government and exposure of corruption in high places, and the killing of opposition politicians, fare importantly in such matters. Killing of other civilians does not, however, attract sustained attention of the international media, with exceptions such as the killing of 13 employees of a France-based NGO in 2006.
Threats, assaults, abductions and killings are commonplace. Very few cases are properly inquired into; and hardly a serious crime involving human rights has been solved. Yet, hundreds languish in prison without trial or inquiry under Emergency Regulations, even through the years of the ceasefire, as terrorist suspects; and the numbers have risen sharply in recent years to include Sinhalese left activists and opponents of the war.
While several political killings and attempts have been attributed to the LTTE, the main opposition party has charged that forces close to the government had been responsible for some of them; and many of the criminal acts against dissenting politicians and journalists as well as abduction for ransom are feared to have been carried out with the connivance of those responsible for preventing them.
The courts of law have on occasion ruled against mass expulsion of people and even refused bail to criminal suspects associated with the ruling party. There was a recent instance when the police were reprimanded for attempting to frame an opposition politician. These are, however, exceptions and not the rule. Judges including the Chief Justice have been threatened for their verdicts. But that is not new. The country has seen enough of it since 1978, when the new Constitution enabled the politicisation of the judiciary and the police. As a result, the 17th Amendment to the Constitution was unanimously adopted in 2000 that made a Constitutional Council (CC) responsible for appointments to key posts in the Supreme Court, the Police and the Elections Commission among others. But the CC has not been reconstituted since its term lapsed in 2005, allowing room for abuse, as under the JR Jayawardane regime (1978-989).
Foreign Concerns
The country changed status from a British colony to an imperialist neo-colony in 1948, but defended itself against blatant interference in its internal matters, but for siding with US imperialism by choice under the United National Party (UNP) governments (1948-56, 60-65, 77-94). The conflict of this policy with Indian hegemonic ambitions since 1977 made India side with Tamils to further its interests in Sri Lanka. With its aim achieved in 1987, the Indian establishment switched sides to its new client, the Sri Lankan state.
Rivalry continues between US imperialism and India for hegemony in South Asia and has played a major role in derailing the peace process initiated around 2000, with the backing of the US. India resented Norwegian mediation, and asserted its interests and undermined the peace process at every turn. The US and its allies, having banned the LTTE and being committed to a global war on terrorism, were on a sticky wicket to object to the resumption of war in 2006. Meanwhile, the Indian establishment, pretending neutrality, backed overtly and covertly the Sri Lankan government, politically as well as militarily, using Chinese and Pakistani interests in Sri Lanka as a pretext, although neither country posed a serious threat to Indian interests.
This is not the place to discuss the political theatre of Tamil Nadu and the games played by the Delhi mandarins. But the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka is again an important issue in India, despite New Delhi’s wishes otherwise. The ongoing agitation in Tamil Nadu for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka was triggered by news of the suffering in the North of Sri Lanka reaching the state, despite efforts by the mainstream media to play down the events since resumption of hostilities in 2006. Reports of deaths due to indiscriminate bombing and shelling by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the suffering due to obstruction of essential goods and services caused public shock and anger. Yet, it was only after the Communist Party of India, not a reputed champion of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause, organised state-wide protest rallies that the strength of feeling was realised and mass protests gathered momentum. Protests in Tamil Nadu will lose their impact on Delhi after the general elections in India this year, unless the movement takes new directions, free of manipulation by opportunistic political parties.
International concern on human rights violations, threat to the media, the state of lawlessness including killings and abductions, and other issues have been mere formalities and have never been translated into action. The general attitude seems to be to hope for an early end to the conflict by the elimination of the LTTE as a fighting force, so that the imperialist countries can get on with furthering their interests in this island of strategic interest. Irrespective of how the war ends and the conflict continues in other forms, the ‘international community’ has little to offer to the victims.
The Threat to Democracy and the Task Ahead
The threat to democracy transcends the killing of as many as five MPs in the past three years, and the intimidation, abduction and killing of leading members of opposition parties and journalists, and attacks on the media. The present government has surpassed previous governments in dividing and weakening every potential challenge to its authority. Initially, minority nationality MPs were tempted with posts so that they joined government en bloc, like the two Hill Country Tamil parties, or broke ranks with the leadership, as in the case of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. Then, dissenters and corrupt individuals among UNP MPs were tempted into government ranks; and nearly every government MP was made a minister, or a junior minister.
The JVP leadership, by then too closely identified with the government, realised that its partner was ready to marginalise it. But by the time the JVP decided to part company in 2008, a dissent group cultivated within it sided with the government and formed a splinter faction. The TMVP (Tamil People’s Liberation Tigers), the group that split from the LTTE, was made a partner of the government coalition in the Eastern Provincial Council, and then an existing split was deepened by preferential treatment of the weaker faction, rendering the TMVP powerless and dependent on government for its survival.
Thus what exist as parliamentary political parties are severely weakened bodies without political vision and pose no serious threat to the government, unless its fortunes suffer serious setbacks. But general elections may be held before that. Meanwhile, the political landscape is being encroached upon by the clan of the President, whose three brothers are entrenched in positions of power.
Sections of the media, not so much the mainstream media, have carried a fair share of the burden of exposing corruption, nepotism and abuse of power. Thus subduing the media and prevention of the development of a mass opposition movement are principal concerns of the government. The rising threat to the media, once confined to Tamil journalists and printers, has crossed the ethnic threshold and forced an unprecedented number of Sinhalese and Muslim journalists to leave the country during the past year. A newspaper establishment and a radio station were shut down in 2007, and editors have been abused or threatened by people in power. The wave of arrests, intimidation, attacks and killings need to be seen against this background. The mainstream media has, however, learnt to conform on matters relating to ‘national security’ and is muted in its criticism of the government. Meanwhile, the government has, as part of its ongoing agenda to muffle dissent, proposed legislation to curb the electronic media. The NGO establishment too, for reasons of personal gain and fear of clamp-down for ‘anti-state activities’, is muted in its criticism of the government.
The Sri Lankan armed forces numbered far fewer than a thousand when the JVP launched its insurrection in 1971 and today we count by the hundred thousand. There is, besides army deserters and former militants, a thriving underworld with a significant say in the outcome of any political process. Added to this is rabid religious fundamentalism, growing out of chauvinistic politics with a parasitic social group attached to it. These forces could make an explosive mix that can plunge the country into lawlessness. To add further fuel to this potentially explosive situation are frustrated Tamil politicians calling for the ban of Tamil political parties known to be supportive of the LTTE. Thus the threat to democracy is serious and could become real in the context of the impending economic failure and armed conflict that may go on beyond a military defeat of the LTTE. National security could be the pretext for a fascist take over of the country.
The challenge before the genuine left, progressive and democratic forces is, therefore, daunting. But the conduct of the organised left among the Sinhalese is not encouraging. The discredited old left is less worth than an overgrown toe nail to the government to which its ‘leaders’ are clinging on for survival. Two militant Trotskyist parties have, during the past, two years got addicted to NGO funding so that their agenda is dictated by their NGO sponsors. Recently, the two parties moved close to the UNP in a ‘broad-based front to defend democracy’.
Thus the revival of the peace movement and a campaign for democracy is central to the revival of the left movement in the South. It should be accompanied by an anti-imperialist programme and resistance to meddling by foreign powers in any form, especially in the armed conflict and in advancing their interests in the name of peace, progress and stability.
External Links:
Radical Notes: Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society
[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2009, 20:22 GMT]
The Indian establishment, pretending neutrality, backed overtly and covertly the Sri Lankan government, politically as well as militarily, using Chinese and Pakistani interests in Sri Lanka as a pretext, writes Professor S. Sivasegaram, a well-known academic and Marxist writer. “International concern on human rights violations, threat to the media, the state of lawlessness including killings and abductions, and other issues have been mere formalities and have never been translated into action.[…] Foreign governments and international organisations to demand that the LTTE should ‘release’ the people under its wings is wrong, without simultaneously insisting that the Sri Lankan government ends all attacks on civilians and ensures the safety of civilians wherever they are.”
Professor S. SivasegaramProfessor S. Sivasegaram has been extensively writing on Sri Lankan and International Politics for more than thirty years in Tamil and English, besides contributions to poetry, translation and literary criticism. Born in Jaffna and coming from Trincomalee, he is a former head of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Peradeniya. He also served in the Imperial College, London and has authored a large number of research papers in his field of profession.
Full text of the article published in Radical Notes (radicalnotes.com) follows:
Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society
S Sivasegaram
Sri Lanka is in deep crisis on many fronts, and its politics is almost a total mess. Yet, its President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, elected by a whisker in November 2005, thanks to the boycott of the election by the Tamils in the North-East, after a last-minute call by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is the only Sri Lankan head of government to have grown in popularity since election. He owes this immense popularity among the majority Sinhalese to his rejection of the peace process and the success of the armed forces in regaining, at a very high but unknown cost in men and material, all but 200 sq. km of the vast territory held by the LTTE.
Results of the provincial councils elections held during the past six months, show soaring support for the government; and if a general election is held now the government will secure with ease a two-thirds majority in Parliament. This apparent strength of the government and the preoccupation of the media, political parties and the public with military gains in the North conceal the crises faced by the country on several fronts.
This essay is intended to address the crisis gripping Sri Lanka on various fronts that do not receive adequate attention. Thus, despite the importance of the war and the consequent humanitarian crisis, it deals with them only briefly. The next section contains a short comment on the war and the humanitarian tragedy. It is followed by comments on the failing economy amid the growing global crisis and corruption in high places; violation of human and fundamental rights; the drift towards lawlessness; and foreign meddling. It concludes with comments on the impending threat to democracy and the tasks ahead in defending democracy.
The War and the Humanitarian Tragedy
The nominal interest of the ‘international community’, meaning imperialist countries, is in the humanitarian crisis. Their declared concerns have drifted with the course of the war, resumed in early 2006, with the Ceasefire Agreement in place until the government withdrew unilaterally from it in February 2007. Earlier calls for a negotiated settlement and end to hostilities became muted calls for a ceasefire last year; and are now reduced to concern for the safety of civilians entrapped in LTTE-controlled areas.
Indiscriminate bombing and shelling by the government armed forces have been the main cause of the human tragedy, aggravated by the deliberate blocking of essential supplies including food and medicine to LTTE-controlled areas. In the latter half of 2008, international and local news media and non-government organisations were ordered out of the conflict zone by the government so that now only the Internal Red Cross has limited access to the affected areas. Thus the true situation of the people even in areas regained by the government forces remains unknown.
The LTTE is now confined to less than 200 square kilometres of territory with an estimated 300 000 people, whom the government claims are held against their will as a human shield. People facing a dire shortage of essential goods and services and threatened by bombing and shelling will like to move to more secure areas. But it is uncertain whether they sufficiently trust the government or the armed forces to move into government-controlled areas. Reports of injury and deaths in government-designated security zones due to shelling by the armed forces are certainly no inducement to move into those areas. The living conditions of people who are further away from the conflict zone are equally pathetic: besides lack of attention to their urgent needs, they are treated as terrorist suspects by the security forces; and utterances by people in high places, later retracted, to the effect that ‘security villages’ will be set up to detain the displaced persons for up to three years are ominous.
The LTTE, with its emphasis on armed struggle at the expense of mass political work, failed to pay adequate attention to the safety and well being of the people in its territory. But for foreign governments and international organisations to demand that the LTTE should ‘release’ the people under its wings is wrong, without simultaneously insisting that the Sri Lankan government ends all attacks on civilians and ensures the safety of civilians wherever they are, and ensure that they are not harassed or victimised by the denial of essential goods and services. Strangely, no call has been made to deploy independent observers to find from the people on either side of the battle lines about their wishes and experiences.
Many who express deep concern about the humanitarian crisis now ignore the abject human rights record of the government, which they denounced strongly only months ago. Equally, pro-LTTE agitators fail to criticise it for its serious lapses, especially on matters of safety and well-being of the people, and with regard to respecting their wishes.
The Economy in Crisis
The Sri Lankan economy was propelled towards doom by the ‘open economic policy’ initiated in 1978, accompanied by unrestricted imports, reckless privatisation of state assets, and opening up the country to parasitic if not predatory foreign investors. As a result, the emergent national economy and well-functioning state enterprises were effectively destroyed or swallowed up by foreign predators.
The escalation of national oppression and conflict diverted public attention from the effects of the erroneous economic policy and repressive measures against political resistance to it. The resultant war, aided by foreign meddlers, some siding with the government and others fishing in troubled waters, added to the economic burdens of the country, which since 1978 has become increasingly dependent on the export of cheap labour, directly by employment abroad and indirectly through export processing zones where foreign ‘investors’ exploit the Sri Lankan export quota for apparel to the US and Europe. Besides the social implications of such employment, the diversion of close to 15% of the work force from useful production has made the economy susceptible to invasion by cheap imports and a rise in consumerism.
While the ‘open economic policy’ made the country vulnerable to the vagaries of the global economy, the need to finance the war and service foreign debts meant further privatisation, transfer of public assets to foreign interests, and weakening of the economy. When credit form foreign governments and lending agencies slowed down, the government in 2007 turned to private bankers by issuing bonds at high interest rates. In the wake of the declared ‘victory of the war against terrorism’, the government now appeals to the Sri Lankan émigré population to invest in government bonds.
The global economic crisis has begun to bite, although the government is putting on a brave face. The plantation sector, still a major part of the export sector, is affected by a fall in tea sales and in some regions the plantations are cutting down production and the number of working days of plantation workers. Apparel export to the US and Europe has shrunk, and a few hundred garment industries have already closed down. Recruitment to the Middle East has slowed down, as redundancies and wage reductions are on the horizon. Thus, besides the impending fall in overseas remittances, unemployment will be a major problem in the months to come.
However, a thriving employment sector may be the armed forces, with over 400,000, of a population of 20 million, serving in the police and the armed forces and a proposal to increase the number by 100,000 to ensure security in the North-East.
The economy has also been hurt by serious financial irregularities, bribery and corruption, and recently even unlawful speculation using state funds, as in the hedging deal on petroleum, which made the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation liable to US$ 7,000,000 to a group of banks involved in the deal. Several other corrupt deals, including the purchase of military equipment, have been exposed by sections of the media, but corrective action has been rare; and nobody has been held answerable, except for political expediency, while the mediapersons concerned have been intimidated or harassed.
Crises of Human and Fundamental Rights and Law and Order
Sri Lanka’s record on human rights was not bright 20 years ago: today it has hit rock bottom: Sri Lanka fell from a rank of 51 (among 139 countries considered) when Reporters sans frontiers (RSF) started ranking a few years ago to 165 (among 173, or the ninth worst) in 2008. Attacks on media personnel, including the gunning down in January 2009 of Lasantha Wickramatunge, Chief Editor of Sunday Leader, known for his views critical of the government and exposure of corruption in high places, and the killing of opposition politicians, fare importantly in such matters. Killing of other civilians does not, however, attract sustained attention of the international media, with exceptions such as the killing of 13 employees of a France-based NGO in 2006.
Threats, assaults, abductions and killings are commonplace. Very few cases are properly inquired into; and hardly a serious crime involving human rights has been solved. Yet, hundreds languish in prison without trial or inquiry under Emergency Regulations, even through the years of the ceasefire, as terrorist suspects; and the numbers have risen sharply in recent years to include Sinhalese left activists and opponents of the war.
While several political killings and attempts have been attributed to the LTTE, the main opposition party has charged that forces close to the government had been responsible for some of them; and many of the criminal acts against dissenting politicians and journalists as well as abduction for ransom are feared to have been carried out with the connivance of those responsible for preventing them.
The courts of law have on occasion ruled against mass expulsion of people and even refused bail to criminal suspects associated with the ruling party. There was a recent instance when the police were reprimanded for attempting to frame an opposition politician. These are, however, exceptions and not the rule. Judges including the Chief Justice have been threatened for their verdicts. But that is not new. The country has seen enough of it since 1978, when the new Constitution enabled the politicisation of the judiciary and the police. As a result, the 17th Amendment to the Constitution was unanimously adopted in 2000 that made a Constitutional Council (CC) responsible for appointments to key posts in the Supreme Court, the Police and the Elections Commission among others. But the CC has not been reconstituted since its term lapsed in 2005, allowing room for abuse, as under the JR Jayawardane regime (1978-989).
Foreign Concerns
The country changed status from a British colony to an imperialist neo-colony in 1948, but defended itself against blatant interference in its internal matters, but for siding with US imperialism by choice under the United National Party (UNP) governments (1948-56, 60-65, 77-94). The conflict of this policy with Indian hegemonic ambitions since 1977 made India side with Tamils to further its interests in Sri Lanka. With its aim achieved in 1987, the Indian establishment switched sides to its new client, the Sri Lankan state.
Rivalry continues between US imperialism and India for hegemony in South Asia and has played a major role in derailing the peace process initiated around 2000, with the backing of the US. India resented Norwegian mediation, and asserted its interests and undermined the peace process at every turn. The US and its allies, having banned the LTTE and being committed to a global war on terrorism, were on a sticky wicket to object to the resumption of war in 2006. Meanwhile, the Indian establishment, pretending neutrality, backed overtly and covertly the Sri Lankan government, politically as well as militarily, using Chinese and Pakistani interests in Sri Lanka as a pretext, although neither country posed a serious threat to Indian interests.
This is not the place to discuss the political theatre of Tamil Nadu and the games played by the Delhi mandarins. But the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka is again an important issue in India, despite New Delhi’s wishes otherwise. The ongoing agitation in Tamil Nadu for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka was triggered by news of the suffering in the North of Sri Lanka reaching the state, despite efforts by the mainstream media to play down the events since resumption of hostilities in 2006. Reports of deaths due to indiscriminate bombing and shelling by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the suffering due to obstruction of essential goods and services caused public shock and anger. Yet, it was only after the Communist Party of India, not a reputed champion of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause, organised state-wide protest rallies that the strength of feeling was realised and mass protests gathered momentum. Protests in Tamil Nadu will lose their impact on Delhi after the general elections in India this year, unless the movement takes new directions, free of manipulation by opportunistic political parties.
International concern on human rights violations, threat to the media, the state of lawlessness including killings and abductions, and other issues have been mere formalities and have never been translated into action. The general attitude seems to be to hope for an early end to the conflict by the elimination of the LTTE as a fighting force, so that the imperialist countries can get on with furthering their interests in this island of strategic interest. Irrespective of how the war ends and the conflict continues in other forms, the ‘international community’ has little to offer to the victims.
The Threat to Democracy and the Task Ahead
The threat to democracy transcends the killing of as many as five MPs in the past three years, and the intimidation, abduction and killing of leading members of opposition parties and journalists, and attacks on the media. The present government has surpassed previous governments in dividing and weakening every potential challenge to its authority. Initially, minority nationality MPs were tempted with posts so that they joined government en bloc, like the two Hill Country Tamil parties, or broke ranks with the leadership, as in the case of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress. Then, dissenters and corrupt individuals among UNP MPs were tempted into government ranks; and nearly every government MP was made a minister, or a junior minister.
The JVP leadership, by then too closely identified with the government, realised that its partner was ready to marginalise it. But by the time the JVP decided to part company in 2008, a dissent group cultivated within it sided with the government and formed a splinter faction. The TMVP (Tamil People’s Liberation Tigers), the group that split from the LTTE, was made a partner of the government coalition in the Eastern Provincial Council, and then an existing split was deepened by preferential treatment of the weaker faction, rendering the TMVP powerless and dependent on government for its survival.
Thus what exist as parliamentary political parties are severely weakened bodies without political vision and pose no serious threat to the government, unless its fortunes suffer serious setbacks. But general elections may be held before that. Meanwhile, the political landscape is being encroached upon by the clan of the President, whose three brothers are entrenched in positions of power.
Sections of the media, not so much the mainstream media, have carried a fair share of the burden of exposing corruption, nepotism and abuse of power. Thus subduing the media and prevention of the development of a mass opposition movement are principal concerns of the government. The rising threat to the media, once confined to Tamil journalists and printers, has crossed the ethnic threshold and forced an unprecedented number of Sinhalese and Muslim journalists to leave the country during the past year. A newspaper establishment and a radio station were shut down in 2007, and editors have been abused or threatened by people in power. The wave of arrests, intimidation, attacks and killings need to be seen against this background. The mainstream media has, however, learnt to conform on matters relating to ‘national security’ and is muted in its criticism of the government. Meanwhile, the government has, as part of its ongoing agenda to muffle dissent, proposed legislation to curb the electronic media. The NGO establishment too, for reasons of personal gain and fear of clamp-down for ‘anti-state activities’, is muted in its criticism of the government.
The Sri Lankan armed forces numbered far fewer than a thousand when the JVP launched its insurrection in 1971 and today we count by the hundred thousand. There is, besides army deserters and former militants, a thriving underworld with a significant say in the outcome of any political process. Added to this is rabid religious fundamentalism, growing out of chauvinistic politics with a parasitic social group attached to it. These forces could make an explosive mix that can plunge the country into lawlessness. To add further fuel to this potentially explosive situation are frustrated Tamil politicians calling for the ban of Tamil political parties known to be supportive of the LTTE. Thus the threat to democracy is serious and could become real in the context of the impending economic failure and armed conflict that may go on beyond a military defeat of the LTTE. National security could be the pretext for a fascist take over of the country.
The challenge before the genuine left, progressive and democratic forces is, therefore, daunting. But the conduct of the organised left among the Sinhalese is not encouraging. The discredited old left is less worth than an overgrown toe nail to the government to which its ‘leaders’ are clinging on for survival. Two militant Trotskyist parties have, during the past, two years got addicted to NGO funding so that their agenda is dictated by their NGO sponsors. Recently, the two parties moved close to the UNP in a ‘broad-based front to defend democracy’.
Thus the revival of the peace movement and a campaign for democracy is central to the revival of the left movement in the South. It should be accompanied by an anti-imperialist programme and resistance to meddling by foreign powers in any form, especially in the armed conflict and in advancing their interests in the name of peace, progress and stability.
External Links:
Radical Notes: Sri Lanka: A Besieged Society
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