STEPHANIE NOLEN
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Stephanie Nolen is a Globe and Mail correspondent based in New Delhi.
January 23, 2009 at 10:49 PM EST
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090123.wsrilanka0123/BNStory/VideoLineup
United Nations officials say privately that the Sri Lankan military has indeed taken thousands of casualties. And while the government insists that no more than 1,000 or perhaps 2,000 Tiger fighters remain, senior staff with aid agencies and diplomatic missions (not permitted to speak on the record) say that the real figure may be as high as 40,000 of the most seasoned rebels and that the Tigers have brought their weaponry from across the northern territory with them into Mullaitivu.
VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka — Every day, the women get up in the cool of early morning and walk a few kilometres north to the heavily fortified checkpoint that stands between them and their families. And every day a kindly staffer from the International Committee of the Red Cross tells them that they still cannot cross.
So they turn away from the barbed wire and stacks of sandbags and camouflage and walk back into town, where they squat in the shade of the main government office, waiting for the road home to open — and knowing it won't, until home has changed so much that they will scarcely recognize it.
These women (along with their children and a few old men) come from a war zone — a region of Sri Lanka called Vanni, where until a few weeks ago the vicious Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) maintained a de facto independent state Now, a punishing air, sea and land campaign by the Sri Lankan military has driven the Tigers into a tiny corner of the north, their backs against the bright blue sea.
In their retreat, the rebels have taken with them most of the civilians who lived under their control — an estimated 300,000 people.
Special Task Force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bicycle at the scene of a blast in Batticaloa, east of Colombo, January 21, 2009. The blast, which authorities blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, killed two people and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in eastern Sri Lanka, police said. REUTERS/Stringer (SRI LANKA)
Special Task Force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bicycle at the scene of a blast in Batticaloa, east of Colombo, Jan. 21. The blast, which authorities blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, killed two people and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in eastern Sri Lanka, police said. (Reuters)
Tamils take refuge at Mandapam camp
Canadian photographer Sami Siva documents the lives of Tamils who have fled the strife in Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu, India
* 250,000 Tamil civilians urged to flee to safety
* Testimony links ex-diplomat to ecoterrorism scheme
From the archives
* Sri Lankan forces gain full control of Jaffna
* Army controls Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka says
* Sri Lanka's military: Soldiers seize rebel camps
* Sri Lanka claims capture of key rebel base
* Gunmen kill anti-government editor in Sri Lanka
* Gunmen destroy Sri Lankan broadcast studios
* Sri Lanka's military captures key rebel town
The Globe and Mail
One of the world's longest-running conflicts, the 25-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka, seems to be entering its final phase of conventional warfare.
The Red Cross says an unknown number of civilians have been killed and injured since President Mahinda Rajapaksa set out in 2006 to crush the LTTE — which most Western countries, including Canada, consider a terrorist organization, best known internationally for carrying out grisly suicide attacks on civilians.
The rebels now hold an area no bigger than 30-by-30-kilometres, around the northern city of Mullaitivu. They have been pinned down before and fought their way back to power, but most observers think this is probably their end as a controlling force.
However, this war, which has already cost the lives of at least 70,000 people, seems certain to get much bloodier before it ends, as the cornered Tigers dig in and prepare to unleash their considerable arsenal.
The United Nations has issued repeated calls for the Tigers to release civilians and for the government to treat them well. The assumption is that all the civilians in the north would flee if they could.
A few have managed to get out, and these people stand on one side of the checkpoint, awaiting a long and unpleasant "security screening" by government soldiers hunting for any sign they have links with the Tigers. Those who pass muster — and most men 14 to 45 years old don't even bother to try — are waved through and taken to a refugee camp, where they will live behind thick coils of razor wire, forbidden to leave.
But no one here is talking about the other line in Vavuniya, the one five times as long — the line of people desperate to go back the other way. No one admits what it says about the chances for real peace in Sri Lanka that so many people see more hope for their families in a war zone than in the calm of the government-held side.
But the Tamil women here have no trouble explaining it. Each has come across in the past few days or weeks to seek medical treatment or write exams, as part of a system of exchanges between LTTE and government territory that, surprisingly, kept functioning through the worst of the war until now.
"I'd rather go back and die with my family than be here alone," says Kala, a 29-year-old schoolteacher (like many others here, she is afraid to be quoted with her full name). Kala's family has been displaced at least three times so far in the fighting; in the five days since she left to bring an aunt to the hospital here, their village has been shelled and her family is on the run again.
Continued on Page 2…
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"I had a phone call from my three-year-old daughter screaming, 'Mommy, come home,'" Kala says, tears on her cheeks. "We are trapped between the government forces and the LTTE. We are trapped between both sides with no idea what to do."
The LTTE won't allow whole families to flee south, but even if it did, Kala says she would be petrified that her husband would disappear after the crossing. Young Tamil men are frequently detained on suspicion by the armed forces — by law, they can hold a person 18 months without charge; in practice, confinement can last much longer.
"If I am there, I can guard him," she says. "When they come with their questions — 'Who are you?' 'What are you doing?' — I can say, 'This is my husband. This is my daughter's father, leave him.'"
COLONIAL LEGACY
Special Task Force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bicycle at the scene of a blast in Batticaloa, east of Colombo, January 21, 2009. The blast, which authorities blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, killed two people and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in eastern Sri Lanka, police said. REUTERS/Stringer (SRI LANKA)
Enlarge Image
Special Task Force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bicycle at the scene of a blast in Batticaloa, east of Colombo, Jan. 21. The blast, which authorities blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, killed two people and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in eastern Sri Lanka, police said. (Reuters)
Tamils take refuge at Mandapam camp
Canadian photographer Sami Siva documents the lives of Tamils who have fled the strife in Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu, India
* 250,000 Tamil civilians urged to flee to safety
* Testimony links ex-diplomat to ecoterrorism scheme
From the archives
* Sri Lankan forces gain full control of Jaffna
* Army controls Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka says
* Sri Lanka's military: Soldiers seize rebel camps
* Sri Lanka claims capture of key rebel base
* Gunmen kill anti-government editor in Sri Lanka
* Gunmen destroy Sri Lankan broadcast studios
* Sri Lanka's military captures key rebel town
The Globe and Mail
Sri Lanka's conflict has its roots in historic tensions between the majority Sinhalese population, who are mainly Buddhists, and the minority Tamils, who are mostly Hindu — tensions deliberately exacerbated by the British colonial administration in a divide-and-rule strategy that lasted until independence in 1948.
In the 1950s, to cement its power, the Sinhalese-dominated government began a series of overtly chauvinistic actions such as making Sinhala the only official language, giving special status to Buddhism and passing a law that said Tamil students required higher marks to enter university than Sinhalese students did.
There were communal riots — which international organizations, including Human Rights Watch, describe as state-sponsored — in which tens of thousands of Tamils were killed or lost property. The then-president called the killers "heroes of the Sinhalese people."
There was a corresponding rise in Tamil nationalism, and in the 1970s the LTTE, having killed off Tamil leaders who favoured a non-violent push for federalism, emerged as the dominant force demanding an independent Tamil nation in the north and east of the country.
The ensuing conflict was largely ignored by the outside world until the 1980s, when the Tigers unleashed fleets of suicide attackers, whose most famous victim was Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi — killed by a young female LTTE fighter who bent to touch his feet in a gesture of veneration before triggering the explosives beneath her sari.
The LTTE did not limit itself to political or military targets: It blew up buses full of poor rural people and slaughtered worshippers at one of the holiest shrines of Buddhism.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of the 70,000-plus casualties of the war have been Tamil civilians, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Nearly half the Tamil population has fled, the bulk of them to Canada, which has the largest population of Sri Lankans outside the country — at least 300,000, two-thirds of them in the Toronto area.
Periodic peace efforts, spearheaded by Norway, have yielded little. Most observers agree that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was never serious about negotiations. Both sides violated ceasefires. The last one broke down with the launch of this military campaign.
The government has promised that after its military victory, it will begin intense reconstruction and development efforts in the north to demonstrate to Tamils that they will be equal citizens. "The President has promised a just and honourable peace," says Lakshman Hulugalle, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence.
Earlier this month, however, the government "proscribed" the LTTE, making it illegal to talk to the organization and closing the door on any negotiated settlement.
BATTLING ACCOUNTS
It is impossible to obtain precise information about what is happening in the north, which the government has completely sealed to both Sri Lankan and foreign journalists. Both sides blatantly manipulate the information they release.
"We have zero damage to civilians and the minimum to our forces," says Mr. Hulugalle. "The downfall of LTTE terrorism is very near." Official reports say the Tigers are now pinned by the army on three sides and blockaded by the navy from an exit by sea.
Continued on Page 3…
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On their websites, though, the Tigers insist they have not lost territory but rather strategically withdrawn to position themselves better for a fight; that they have killed thousands of government troops; and that the armed forces' air and artillery strikes have left hundreds of Tamil civilians dead.
United Nations officials say privately that the Sri Lankan military has indeed taken thousands of casualties. And while the government insists that no more than 1,000 or perhaps 2,000 Tiger fighters remain, senior staff with aid agencies and diplomatic missions (not permitted to speak on the record) say that the real figure may be as high as 40,000 of the most seasoned rebels and that the Tigers have brought their weaponry from across the northern territory with them into Mullaitivu.
There is feverish speculation on the whereabouts of Mr. Prabhakaran, the shadowy Tiger leader. Some say he has left the country, after sending out his family — his sister, for example, lives in Toronto. But most people here believe that he is still on the island and that he will fight to the end with his much-vaunted cyanide capsule worn around his neck to make sure he is not taken alive.
"He says he will fight to his last breath for us," says one older man in Vavuniya who is in his fifth day of waiting for the border to open. Then he adds, with a sardonic smile: "Whether we like it or not."
Special Task Force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bicycle at the scene of a blast in Batticaloa, east of Colombo, January 21, 2009. The blast, which authorities blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, killed two people and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in eastern Sri Lanka, police said. REUTERS/Stringer (SRI LANKA)
Enlarge Image
Special Task Force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bicycle at the scene of a blast in Batticaloa, east of Colombo, Jan. 21. The blast, which authorities blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, killed two people and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in eastern Sri Lanka, police said. (Reuters)
Tamils take refuge at Mandapam camp
Canadian photographer Sami Siva documents the lives of Tamils who have fled the strife in Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu, India
* 250,000 Tamil civilians urged to flee to safety
* Testimony links ex-diplomat to ecoterrorism scheme
From the archives
* Sri Lankan forces gain full control of Jaffna
* Army controls Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka says
* Sri Lanka's military: Soldiers seize rebel camps
* Sri Lanka claims capture of key rebel base
* Gunmen kill anti-government editor in Sri Lanka
* Gunmen destroy Sri Lankan broadcast studios
* Sri Lanka's military captures key rebel town
The Globe and Mail
Meanwhile, an unknown number of people is stuck in the middle of the increasingly fierce fighting. How many, again, depends on whom you ask: The government says 100,000 at most. The Red Cross says perhaps 200,000. But it's at least 300,000, according to United Nations staff working on the ground in the north with the few agencies that are sporadically bringing in humanitarian supplies.
"We have been able to get basic supplies to them, but they don't have what they need," says Neil Buhne, a Canadian who is the top UN official in Sri Lanka.
"Many have moved 10 times, sometimes more, and they're very scared, scared of everything, as any population in this situation would be. It's important that every effort be made to protect them — that they be allowed to come out if they want to, or stay if they want to stay."
The government says the Tigers are holding the civilians in the north, using them as human shields and not letting them flee. The LTTE uses a cold, calculated system of "bail" for any Tamil who wants to leave its area — the person must "post" a relative or close friend, who will be taken for manual labour or to fight if the person does not return in a specified time.
The practice has been widely condemned by human-rights organizations, but the people waiting in Vavuniya simply see it as part of life.
Kala's brother-in-law offered to be her bail; she does not know where he has been since their village was bombed, but she has no doubt the Tigers will find him if she doesn't come back.
Yet bail is not the only explanation for why, even in the thick of war, she and many others still wait and want to go home.
"We want to die together," says Nandini, 27 and in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy that brought her over the line of control for tests.
She has chafed against the restrictions of LTTE rule most of her adult life, but she is desperate to get home — even though bombers have come low over her village, 10 kilometres from Mullaitivu, for weeks. "Either we live together or die together."
INSURGENCY IN WAITING
Army commanders say it is a matter of days or weeks at most until they control the whole north; diplomatic and aid workers say it could take several months.
But there is agreement that the all-out military strategy embraced by Mr. Rajapaksa and his brother, Secretary of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (a former software engineer in California's Silicon Valley), has been a military success.
Continued from Page 3…
The forces have reclaimed an area called Elephant Pass, which links the peninsula of Jaffna in the north to the main island. But their most conspicuous success was the capture on Jan. 2 of Kilinochchi, which the Tigers for years called the capital of their independent homeland, with a parallel civil administration including customs and taxation offices and banks.
The news was greeted with jubilation in the streets of Colombo, the national capital. But the noise of celebratory firecrackers was, within hours, dwarfed by the explosions of two Tiger suicide attacks that left several military officers dead.
There is a sense here that any declaration of victory by the government would be hollow, as the Tigers will switch to a different sort of war, using the shelter of the dense jungles of the north and a community still hungry for freedom to wage an Iraqi-style insurgency.
"There will be for the next couple of years bombs coming up — they will be able to do it, but they won't control areas," says Mr. Hulugalle, the defence spokesman. "It's very difficult to crush it 100 per cent, we accept that. The war will be over, but terrorism will be there."
Special Task Force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bicycle at the scene of a blast in Batticaloa, east of Colombo, January 21, 2009. The blast, which authorities blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, killed two people and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in eastern Sri Lanka, police said. REUTERS/Stringer (SRI LANKA)
Special Task Force soldiers inspect the wreckage of a bicycle at the scene of a blast in Batticaloa, east of Colombo, Jan. 21. The blast, which authorities blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels, killed two people and wounded 11 others on Wednesday in eastern Sri Lanka, police said. (Reuters)
Tamils take refuge at Mandapam camp
Canadian photographer Sami Siva documents the lives of Tamils who have fled the strife in Sri Lanka in Tamil Nadu, India
* 250,000 Tamil civilians urged to flee to safety
* Testimony links ex-diplomat to ecoterrorism scheme
From the archives
* Sri Lankan forces gain full control of Jaffna
* Army controls Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka says
* Sri Lanka's military: Soldiers seize rebel camps
* Sri Lanka claims capture of key rebel base
* Gunmen kill anti-government editor in Sri Lanka
* Gunmen destroy Sri Lankan broadcast studios
* Sri Lanka's military captures key rebel town
The Globe and Mail
As a result, he says, the government will be obliged to maintain its vast network of checkpoints and other "security measures" loathed by the Tamil population, which include sealing off prime land, restricting civilian movement and barring fishermen from going to sea.
The new phase of the conflict could be just as grim as the last, in its effects on the civilian population and on the prospects for development in Sri Lanka.
"As the government congratulates itself on its glorious military victories, the old proverb applies: They have won the battle, but they haven't won the war," says one Western diplomat.
CORRUPTION AND IMPUNITY
Tamils and other opponents of the government who look around the country today will probably take little comfort in the promise of a just peace.
The east — which came under government control in 2006, after the No. 2 Tiger leader split off with several thousand fighters and allied with Colombo — remains heavily militarized and is actively being "Sinhalized," with areas losing their Tamil names and Hindu shrines being converted to Buddhist worship sites.
Meanwhile, two weeks ago in the capital, the country's leading anti-corruption journalist was assassinated by gunmen on motorbikes, a crime the government limply condemned. International observers put the blame squarely on state intelligence agencies.
"They whacked the most influential editor of a newspaper in the country in broad daylight, with real military precision," the Western diplomat says. "It's the work of armed groups funded by the intelligence agencies and reporting to the Secretary of Defence — that's the prevailing point of view.
"There is a complete culture of impunity here. There is a perception that the government can do whatever they want — and they can."
That leaves the civilians of the north facing two equally odious choices.
"Helpless Tamils are pressured by both sides," says a weary government employee in Vavuniya who is charged with looking after the civilians who cross from the north. He is Tamil himself.
"People find it very difficult to live in a war zone with bombing and shelling, and they would leave if they could. Then the government says it wants to safeguard them and then puts them in a jail.
"People only want freedom. But we don't have that anywhere," he says, then adds ironically: "I blame Tamils for being born Tamils — that's who I blame in the end."
Stephanie Nolen is a Globe and Mail correspondent based in New Delhi.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Defeating terrorism must not be at cost of civilian killings - MIA
Defeating terrorism must not be at cost of civilian killings - MIA
by Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/01/defeating_terrorism_must_not_b.html#more
While there is no room in the world for terrorist organizations, their defeat cannot come at the expense of thousands of innocent civilian lives.
The greatest failing of the Bush administration’s “war on terror” is not its inability to meet its prime objectives (e.g. capturing Osama Bin Laden, eradicating the threat of WMDS in Iraq, and removing Al Qaeda from Afghanistan). Rather, it is that America has given credibility to the act and the notion of pursuing terrorists at all costs.
MIATC0122.jpg
[M.I.A. at the Siren Music Festival in July 2007]
The Bush administration has decided to ignore the very tenets of democracy (the U.S. constitution, Geneva convention, among others) in pursuit of winning the “war on terror.” In doing so, it sent a very clear message to the rest of the world: all bets are off where terrorism is involved.
Today, we can clearly see the ripple effect. In Sri Lanka, my home country, the Colombo government has massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians in order to eliminate the threat posed by a small yet defiant group widely known as the Tamil Tigers (also known as the LTTE or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). Make no mistake, the LTTE have engaged in reprehensible terrorist activities that have needlessly taken the lives of both civilians and heads of state. The LTTE’s use of child soldiers and suicide bombers is unconscionable, and has rightly been condemned by the international community. But now the eyeglass must turn to the Colombo government as the conflict enters its 25th year. The war has resulted in what many humanitarian groups are now calling genocide. And sadly, for the Tamil people, time is running out.
Just last month, the New York-based Genocide Prevention Project released a report that listed Sri Lanka among the top eight “red alert” countries currently experiencing genocide conflicts. And Human Rights Watch estimates that between 230,000 to 300,000 Tamil people have been trapped in the Vanni conflict zone by the government, denied food and basic living essentials.
Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that no one knows how severe the crisis is because the Sri Lankan government has barred foreign media from reporting on the subject and severely limited the presence of humanitarian organizations. And worse, as demonstrated by the recent murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga, a Sri Lankan journalist critical of the war against the LTTE, those that question the government are putting their lives in jeopardy.
Yet other than the UN’s slap-on-the-wrist gesture of stripping Sri Lanka of its seat on the Human Rights Council in May of 2008, the World has remained silent about this emerging humanitarian crisis. What is even more disconcerting is that the global mainstream media has largely ignored the Tamil civilian causalities, and has actually praised the Sri Lankan government for “running an effective military campaign.” Additionally, somewhere along the way the media has managed to portray every Tamil as a Tamil Tiger, including myself.
Fortunately, this month brings a close to the Bush administration and its war on terror at all costs. President Barack Obama announced that he will issue an executive order on his first week in office to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility – which has long become a symbol of the administration’s indifference to how it wins this war. But for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, there is little hope that the Colombo government will change its policies.
We must be clear: acts of terrorism are deplorable and cannot be tolerated by any government, but to actively seek out the killing of innocent civilians, under the guise of fighting terror is absolutely indefensible. Governments must hold themselves to a higher standard.
Editor’s Note: Maya Arulpragasam (known as M.I.A.) is a music artist whose song “Paper Planes” received a 2009 Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. She was born in England to Tamil parents and fled the war in Sri Lanka after living there for ten years. She currently lives in the United States. [courtesy: CNN-AC 360]
Posted by transCurrents on January
by Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2009/01/defeating_terrorism_must_not_b.html#more
While there is no room in the world for terrorist organizations, their defeat cannot come at the expense of thousands of innocent civilian lives.
The greatest failing of the Bush administration’s “war on terror” is not its inability to meet its prime objectives (e.g. capturing Osama Bin Laden, eradicating the threat of WMDS in Iraq, and removing Al Qaeda from Afghanistan). Rather, it is that America has given credibility to the act and the notion of pursuing terrorists at all costs.
MIATC0122.jpg
[M.I.A. at the Siren Music Festival in July 2007]
The Bush administration has decided to ignore the very tenets of democracy (the U.S. constitution, Geneva convention, among others) in pursuit of winning the “war on terror.” In doing so, it sent a very clear message to the rest of the world: all bets are off where terrorism is involved.
Today, we can clearly see the ripple effect. In Sri Lanka, my home country, the Colombo government has massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians in order to eliminate the threat posed by a small yet defiant group widely known as the Tamil Tigers (also known as the LTTE or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). Make no mistake, the LTTE have engaged in reprehensible terrorist activities that have needlessly taken the lives of both civilians and heads of state. The LTTE’s use of child soldiers and suicide bombers is unconscionable, and has rightly been condemned by the international community. But now the eyeglass must turn to the Colombo government as the conflict enters its 25th year. The war has resulted in what many humanitarian groups are now calling genocide. And sadly, for the Tamil people, time is running out.
Just last month, the New York-based Genocide Prevention Project released a report that listed Sri Lanka among the top eight “red alert” countries currently experiencing genocide conflicts. And Human Rights Watch estimates that between 230,000 to 300,000 Tamil people have been trapped in the Vanni conflict zone by the government, denied food and basic living essentials.
Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that no one knows how severe the crisis is because the Sri Lankan government has barred foreign media from reporting on the subject and severely limited the presence of humanitarian organizations. And worse, as demonstrated by the recent murder of Lasantha Wickramatunga, a Sri Lankan journalist critical of the war against the LTTE, those that question the government are putting their lives in jeopardy.
Yet other than the UN’s slap-on-the-wrist gesture of stripping Sri Lanka of its seat on the Human Rights Council in May of 2008, the World has remained silent about this emerging humanitarian crisis. What is even more disconcerting is that the global mainstream media has largely ignored the Tamil civilian causalities, and has actually praised the Sri Lankan government for “running an effective military campaign.” Additionally, somewhere along the way the media has managed to portray every Tamil as a Tamil Tiger, including myself.
Fortunately, this month brings a close to the Bush administration and its war on terror at all costs. President Barack Obama announced that he will issue an executive order on his first week in office to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility – which has long become a symbol of the administration’s indifference to how it wins this war. But for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, there is little hope that the Colombo government will change its policies.
We must be clear: acts of terrorism are deplorable and cannot be tolerated by any government, but to actively seek out the killing of innocent civilians, under the guise of fighting terror is absolutely indefensible. Governments must hold themselves to a higher standard.
Editor’s Note: Maya Arulpragasam (known as M.I.A.) is a music artist whose song “Paper Planes” received a 2009 Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. She was born in England to Tamil parents and fled the war in Sri Lanka after living there for ten years. She currently lives in the United States. [courtesy: CNN-AC 360]
Posted by transCurrents on January
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Six former US ambassadors write to President on Lasantha’s killing
Six former US ambassadors write to President on Lasantha’s killing
Six former US Ambassadors to Sri Lanka have expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in the country following the murder of The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge.
The ambassadors, Marion Creekmore (1989-92), Teresita Schaffer (1992-95), A. Peter Burleigh (1995-97), Shaun Donnelly (1997-2000), Ashley Wills (2000-03) and Jeffrey Lunstead (2003-06), while accepting that the government was engaged in a necessary fight against terrorism, in a stinging letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse in their personal capacities have said that the foundations of democracy had come under assault following the killing of Wickrematunge.
Following is the full letter:
"We are all former United States Ambassadors to Sri Lanka, but we are writing in our personal capacities. Our service in Sri Lanka stretches for over 15 years, and we have seen good times and hard times in the country. We all have great respect and affection for Sri Lanka and its people. We have known you at different points in your career, and we all acknowledge your love for your country and your desire to see it at peace.
"We have all, at different times and in different ways, made it clear that we believed the goals and tactics of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were unacceptable, and that the Government of Sri Lanka was engaged in a difficult but necessary fight against terrorism. We have all supported and argued for United States assistance to Sri Lanka in that struggle.
"It is for all of these reasons that we are now so upset by developments in Sri Lanka, the most recent of which was the murder of The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. We fear that, even as Sri Lanka is enjoying military progress against the LTTE, the foundations of democracy in the country are under assault.
"The killing of Wickrematunge has prompted this letter, but there have been many previous incidents in which the rights of individuals and the media have been violated.
"Mr. President, we speak frankly because in our dealings with you we have always found you to have an open mind and to respect the truth. Some have suggested that these events have been carried out not by elements of the government, but by other forces hoping to embarrass the government.
"We do not find such arguments credible. We are familiar with your history as a defender of those whose rights were threatened by the government. We assume, therefore, that if government forces are carrying out these acts, they are acting without your permission and knowledge. We believe it is imperative that these actions stop, and that those who have carried them out be prosecuted.
"Fighting an unconventional war against a terrorist enemy is a difficult task, and the sad truth is that it almost always results in some brutal and illegal acts. This is as true of our country as it is of Sri Lanka. The important thing is that the country’s leadership not condone these acts, and that an atmosphere is set from the top that they will not be accepted, and that those who commit them will be held to account.
"We urge you to take steps to reestablish accountability and the rule of law in Sri Lanka. Investigations have been promised before but have been futile. At times government officials have not appeared diligent, as happened in the investigation of the killing of NGO workers assisted by the International Eminent Persons Group.
‘It is crucial that an investigation now not follow that same fruitless path. It must also be made clear to members of the security forces that discipline will be enforced and violators will be brought to justice. Only you can provide the leadership and clear direction that will make this happen. We have seen before the positive results that such leadership can have, for example, when the decision to issue receipts for all detained persons dramatically reduced the number of disappearances.
"Sri Lanka has gone through difficult times, but its democratic system has always persevered. Neither the LTTE nor assaults by other radical forces have been able to destroy it. It would be a tragedy if it were destroyed now, not from without, but from within.
"We intend to make this letter public after you have received it."
Six former US Ambassadors to Sri Lanka have expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in the country following the murder of The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge.
The ambassadors, Marion Creekmore (1989-92), Teresita Schaffer (1992-95), A. Peter Burleigh (1995-97), Shaun Donnelly (1997-2000), Ashley Wills (2000-03) and Jeffrey Lunstead (2003-06), while accepting that the government was engaged in a necessary fight against terrorism, in a stinging letter to President Mahinda Rajapakse in their personal capacities have said that the foundations of democracy had come under assault following the killing of Wickrematunge.
Following is the full letter:
"We are all former United States Ambassadors to Sri Lanka, but we are writing in our personal capacities. Our service in Sri Lanka stretches for over 15 years, and we have seen good times and hard times in the country. We all have great respect and affection for Sri Lanka and its people. We have known you at different points in your career, and we all acknowledge your love for your country and your desire to see it at peace.
"We have all, at different times and in different ways, made it clear that we believed the goals and tactics of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were unacceptable, and that the Government of Sri Lanka was engaged in a difficult but necessary fight against terrorism. We have all supported and argued for United States assistance to Sri Lanka in that struggle.
"It is for all of these reasons that we are now so upset by developments in Sri Lanka, the most recent of which was the murder of The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. We fear that, even as Sri Lanka is enjoying military progress against the LTTE, the foundations of democracy in the country are under assault.
"The killing of Wickrematunge has prompted this letter, but there have been many previous incidents in which the rights of individuals and the media have been violated.
"Mr. President, we speak frankly because in our dealings with you we have always found you to have an open mind and to respect the truth. Some have suggested that these events have been carried out not by elements of the government, but by other forces hoping to embarrass the government.
"We do not find such arguments credible. We are familiar with your history as a defender of those whose rights were threatened by the government. We assume, therefore, that if government forces are carrying out these acts, they are acting without your permission and knowledge. We believe it is imperative that these actions stop, and that those who have carried them out be prosecuted.
"Fighting an unconventional war against a terrorist enemy is a difficult task, and the sad truth is that it almost always results in some brutal and illegal acts. This is as true of our country as it is of Sri Lanka. The important thing is that the country’s leadership not condone these acts, and that an atmosphere is set from the top that they will not be accepted, and that those who commit them will be held to account.
"We urge you to take steps to reestablish accountability and the rule of law in Sri Lanka. Investigations have been promised before but have been futile. At times government officials have not appeared diligent, as happened in the investigation of the killing of NGO workers assisted by the International Eminent Persons Group.
‘It is crucial that an investigation now not follow that same fruitless path. It must also be made clear to members of the security forces that discipline will be enforced and violators will be brought to justice. Only you can provide the leadership and clear direction that will make this happen. We have seen before the positive results that such leadership can have, for example, when the decision to issue receipts for all detained persons dramatically reduced the number of disappearances.
"Sri Lanka has gone through difficult times, but its democratic system has always persevered. Neither the LTTE nor assaults by other radical forces have been able to destroy it. It would be a tragedy if it were destroyed now, not from without, but from within.
"We intend to make this letter public after you have received it."
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Justifying the installation of Rajapakse brothers revisited :
On Ranil Wickremasinghe & the UNP
8 June 2007
V.Thangavelu, Canada
http://www.tamilnation.org/forum/thangavelu/070608ranil.htm
"...There are a few Tamils who seem to have an insatiable love for Ranil Wickremesinghe and who accuse the LTTE/LTTE advisors for not allowing Thamil voters to caste their votes for Ranil Wickremesinghe. They conveniently forget what the Thamil people suffered under UNP governments. The attacks of 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983 took place under the UNP. The colonization of the Northeast is the brainchild of DS Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake and Gamini Dissanayake. (In January 2002)... Prime Minister (Ranil Wikremasinghe) responded (to a Buddhist Bhikkhu delegation) saying "We have never accepted the homeland concept... the homeland concept will never be accepted...We have always clearly expressed our stand on this issue.”... I reiterate what I have been saying many years. It is slow death or death in instalments for Thamils under the UNP. The SLFP is an open enemy. Mahinda Rajapakse as president is unwittingly helping the division of the country as today's expulsion of hundreds of Thamils from Colombo to North and East shows."
Comment by tamilnation.org
1. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in Sri Lanka Parliament defending his government's approach on 5 December 1993 quoted in Sri Lanka's Unwinnable War, December 1993 - ''... I happened to be reading the book written by General Thompson who handled the ground operations (in Malaysia). For the benefit of the House, I will read some extracts regarding the different facets of an overall plan:
'This plan must cover not just security measures and military operations. It must include all political, social, economic, administrative, police and other measures which have a bearing on insurgencies. ... It is essential that there should be a proper balance between the military and the civil efforts with complete coordination in all field. Otherwise a situation will arise in which military operations produce no lasting results, because they are unsupported by civil follow up action. Similarly civilian measures, particularly in areas disputed with the insurgents are a waste of time and money if they are unsupported by military operations to provide the necessary protection.'
This is what the Government is doing - an overall objective and an overall plan...''
2. Barry Gardiner, UK Member of Parliament in Anton Balasingham: Chief negotiator for the Tamil Tigers, 2 January 2007 - "I recall telling Bala (Anton Balasingham) a year before of (Ranil) Wickremasinghe's boast to me: 'They (LTTE) want government? I'll bog them down with government.'
[see also Sinhala Sri Lanka Opposition competes with Sinhala Sri Lanka President Rajapakse & makes its own naked appeal to Sinhala chauvinism ]
There are a few Tamils who seem to have an insatiable love for Ranil Wickremesinghe and who accuse the LTTE/LTTE advisors for not allowing Thamil voters to caste their votes for Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Presidential Elections in 2005.
They conveniently forget what the Thamil people suffered under UNP governments. The attacks of 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983 took place under the UNP. The colonization of the Northeast is the brainchild of DS Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake and Gamini Dissanayake.
The state sponsored Sinhala colonization of Allai, Kantalai, Morawewa, Padaviya in Trincomalee district and Gal Oya and Maduru Oya were carried out under the UNP regimes. These colonization schemes drastically altered the demography of Northeast.
In the Eastern province the Thamils were reduced to a hopeless minority. The exception is Batticaloa district.
Let me elaborate on the Manal Aru Sinhala colonization that took place under the very nose of the IPKF.
It was Gamini Dissanayake who named Manal Aru as Weli Oya and ethnically cleansed the Thamils from Manal Aru. By an extraordinary gazette notification dated 16th April, 1988, Manal Aru area in the Mullaitivu and Vavunia Districts was proclaimed the 26th District of Sri Lanka and for administrative purpose brought under the jurisdiction of the Government Agent, Anuradhapura. For election purpose it was included in the Vavuniya Electoral District.
A total of 13,288 Tamil families living in 42 villages for generations including Kokkulai Grama Sevakar Division (1516 Tamil families), Kokku –Thoduvai Grama Sevakar Division (3306 Tamil families), Vavunia North Grama Sevakar Division (1342 Tamil families), Other Divisions of Mullaitivu District including Naiyaru and Kumulamunai ( 2011 Tamil families) were asked to vacate their homes and farmlands within 48 hours on pain of eviction by force in case of default. This threat was issued by the army over the public address system.
Simultaneously land given to 14 Tamil entrepreneurs, including Kent Farm and Dollar Farm, on 99 years lease was also cancelled and taken over by the government. Settlements in the Weli Oya began in 1984 as a dry zone farmer colony under the land Commission, but it was later acquired by the Mahaweli Economic Agency in 1988 and declared as the Mahaweli ‘L’ zone.
The Mahaweli ‘L’ zone was established specially for coconut cultivation and each Sinhalese family was given 5 acres of land consisting of ½ acre for residence, one-acre of irrigated land and 3 ½ acres for coconut.
The Mahaweli Economic Agency (MEA) financed all development projects while Mahaweli Engineering and Construction Agency (MECA) handled all the construction works such as roads, electricity, houses etc. In 1998 alone Rs. 72 million was allocated for construction of roads.
The Sinhalese army did translate its threat and used force as promised. Thousands of Tamil villagers, some of them Hill country Tamil refugees victims of earlier Sinhalese violence in 1983, were driven out or they on their own fled in terror. Some were murdered by the army. One night alone 29 Tamil villagers were killed at Othiyamalai, a hamlet situated north of the Weli Oya colony.
The evil-minds and the driving force behind the Weli Oya Sinhalese colonization were Messrs. Gamini Dissanayake, Minister for Mahaweli Development, Lalith Athulathmudali, Minister of National Security, Cyril Mathew, Minister of Industries and Scientific Affairs and N.G.P. Panditaratne, Chairman Mahaweli Development Board.
The ‘gang of four’ openly advocated the colonization of the North and East in general and Weli Oya in particular by Sinhalese settlers after driving the Tamils out by using the Sinhalese army.
Industries Minister Cyril Mathew diverted millions of rupees allocated to various Corporations under his Ministry to finance Weli Oya colonization scheme. In addition institutions like All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, Bhikku Peramuna etc. helped in providing financial and other material aid to the Sinhalese settlers.
From 1988-89 Sinhala colonization of Weli Oya was put on a war-footing. A total of 3364 families, most of them ex-convicts brought straight from prisons, were settled in Weli Oya. A further 35,000 persons comprising 5, 925 families were also settled under the same scheme. It is in recognition of the ‘yeoman services’ rendered by the top elite of the Sinhala army, especially that of Major General Janaka Perera, the Tamil village of Thannimurippu was re-named Janakapura in his honour.
This is the same Janaka Perera, Ranil Wickremesinghe wants to be appointed the Defence Secretary.
Today, as mentioned earlier, the Thamils have been reduced to a hopless minority in the East. Batticaloa is the only district that still has Thamil majority. In addition under Ranil Wickremesinghe's dispensation -
1) UNP MPs engineered the break up of the LTTE.
2) After the LTTE agreed for autonomy to Northeast under the principle of internal self-determination Ranil did not come with any proposals anytime that will satisfy the aspirations of the Thamil people.
3) It was Ranil Wickremesinghe who attended the Washington conference that by passed the LTTE.
4) It was Ranil Wickremesisnghe or still better his handpicked deputy Milinda Moragoda who negotiated with USA to buy a war ship.
5) It was Ranil Wickremesinghe who spoke of international safety net to contain to the LTTE.
6) It was the UNP under Ranil Wickremesinghe which burnt the constitutional proposals submitted by Chandrika Kumaratunga in parliament.
7) Ranil Wickremesinghe never accepted the concept of Thamil Homeland. He always spoke of additional devolution under 13th Amendment and no more. This means the current unitary constitution to remain intact.
8) The UNP reformists group that jumped ship are behaving worse than the SLFP parliamentarians and Ministers. Keheliya Rambukwella is worse than the Nazi propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels! Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollogama is outperforming Rambukwella.
Today, 7 June 2007, in Parliament he said
“Among them, 260 people including 63 women were found to be staying in Colombo even after attending to their businesses here. They volunteered to go back to their homes. We are now facilitating their departure.”.
UNP reformist-turned-government Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne accepted in Parliament and said human rights violations were inevitable in war.
8) It was Ranil Wickremesinghe who initiated the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) agreement with U.S. that allowed Sri Lanka to transfer and exchange logistics supplies, support, and re-fuelling services during peacekeeping missions, humanitarian operations and joint exercises.
9) When Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister, a delegation of hard-line Buddhist Bhikkhus led by Most Ven. Agga Maha Pandita Madihe Pannasiha Mahanayake Thera of the Amarapura Sri Dhammarakshita Maha Nikaya at the Siri Vajiragnana Dharmayatanaya, Maharagama urged him to continue the colonization of Thamil areas in the north and east. Ven. Pannasiha requested the Prime Minister to create settlements in selected jungle land in the North-East and settle people in them according to the communal ratio. He also told the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that the homeland concept is a historical misconception.
The Prime Minister responded saying "We have never accepted the homeland concept. Our stand is that Sinhalese, Thamils and Muslims are living in the North and East. This stand has been included even in the Indo-Lanka accord. Therefore the homeland concept will never be accepted. No request pertaining to the homeland concept has been made to us so far either. We have always clearly expressed our stand on this issue.” (The Daily News – January 20, 2002).
I reiterate what I have been saying for many years. It is slow death or death in instalments for Thamils under the UNP. The SLFP is an open enemy. Mahinda Rajapakse as President is unwittingly helping the division of the country as today's expulsion of hundreds of Thamils from Colombo to North and East shows.
Those Tamils who persist in their folly of singing hosannas for Ranil Wickremesinghe should drop any pretence of donning the Thamil nationalist garb and join the UNP.
8 June 2007
V.Thangavelu, Canada
http://www.tamilnation.org/forum/thangavelu/070608ranil.htm
"...There are a few Tamils who seem to have an insatiable love for Ranil Wickremesinghe and who accuse the LTTE/LTTE advisors for not allowing Thamil voters to caste their votes for Ranil Wickremesinghe. They conveniently forget what the Thamil people suffered under UNP governments. The attacks of 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983 took place under the UNP. The colonization of the Northeast is the brainchild of DS Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake and Gamini Dissanayake. (In January 2002)... Prime Minister (Ranil Wikremasinghe) responded (to a Buddhist Bhikkhu delegation) saying "We have never accepted the homeland concept... the homeland concept will never be accepted...We have always clearly expressed our stand on this issue.”... I reiterate what I have been saying many years. It is slow death or death in instalments for Thamils under the UNP. The SLFP is an open enemy. Mahinda Rajapakse as president is unwittingly helping the division of the country as today's expulsion of hundreds of Thamils from Colombo to North and East shows."
Comment by tamilnation.org
1. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in Sri Lanka Parliament defending his government's approach on 5 December 1993 quoted in Sri Lanka's Unwinnable War, December 1993 - ''... I happened to be reading the book written by General Thompson who handled the ground operations (in Malaysia). For the benefit of the House, I will read some extracts regarding the different facets of an overall plan:
'This plan must cover not just security measures and military operations. It must include all political, social, economic, administrative, police and other measures which have a bearing on insurgencies. ... It is essential that there should be a proper balance between the military and the civil efforts with complete coordination in all field. Otherwise a situation will arise in which military operations produce no lasting results, because they are unsupported by civil follow up action. Similarly civilian measures, particularly in areas disputed with the insurgents are a waste of time and money if they are unsupported by military operations to provide the necessary protection.'
This is what the Government is doing - an overall objective and an overall plan...''
2. Barry Gardiner, UK Member of Parliament in Anton Balasingham: Chief negotiator for the Tamil Tigers, 2 January 2007 - "I recall telling Bala (Anton Balasingham) a year before of (Ranil) Wickremasinghe's boast to me: 'They (LTTE) want government? I'll bog them down with government.'
[see also Sinhala Sri Lanka Opposition competes with Sinhala Sri Lanka President Rajapakse & makes its own naked appeal to Sinhala chauvinism ]
There are a few Tamils who seem to have an insatiable love for Ranil Wickremesinghe and who accuse the LTTE/LTTE advisors for not allowing Thamil voters to caste their votes for Ranil Wickremesinghe at the Presidential Elections in 2005.
They conveniently forget what the Thamil people suffered under UNP governments. The attacks of 1977, 1979, 1981 and 1983 took place under the UNP. The colonization of the Northeast is the brainchild of DS Senanayake, Dudley Senanayake and Gamini Dissanayake.
The state sponsored Sinhala colonization of Allai, Kantalai, Morawewa, Padaviya in Trincomalee district and Gal Oya and Maduru Oya were carried out under the UNP regimes. These colonization schemes drastically altered the demography of Northeast.
In the Eastern province the Thamils were reduced to a hopeless minority. The exception is Batticaloa district.
Let me elaborate on the Manal Aru Sinhala colonization that took place under the very nose of the IPKF.
It was Gamini Dissanayake who named Manal Aru as Weli Oya and ethnically cleansed the Thamils from Manal Aru. By an extraordinary gazette notification dated 16th April, 1988, Manal Aru area in the Mullaitivu and Vavunia Districts was proclaimed the 26th District of Sri Lanka and for administrative purpose brought under the jurisdiction of the Government Agent, Anuradhapura. For election purpose it was included in the Vavuniya Electoral District.
A total of 13,288 Tamil families living in 42 villages for generations including Kokkulai Grama Sevakar Division (1516 Tamil families), Kokku –Thoduvai Grama Sevakar Division (3306 Tamil families), Vavunia North Grama Sevakar Division (1342 Tamil families), Other Divisions of Mullaitivu District including Naiyaru and Kumulamunai ( 2011 Tamil families) were asked to vacate their homes and farmlands within 48 hours on pain of eviction by force in case of default. This threat was issued by the army over the public address system.
Simultaneously land given to 14 Tamil entrepreneurs, including Kent Farm and Dollar Farm, on 99 years lease was also cancelled and taken over by the government. Settlements in the Weli Oya began in 1984 as a dry zone farmer colony under the land Commission, but it was later acquired by the Mahaweli Economic Agency in 1988 and declared as the Mahaweli ‘L’ zone.
The Mahaweli ‘L’ zone was established specially for coconut cultivation and each Sinhalese family was given 5 acres of land consisting of ½ acre for residence, one-acre of irrigated land and 3 ½ acres for coconut.
The Mahaweli Economic Agency (MEA) financed all development projects while Mahaweli Engineering and Construction Agency (MECA) handled all the construction works such as roads, electricity, houses etc. In 1998 alone Rs. 72 million was allocated for construction of roads.
The Sinhalese army did translate its threat and used force as promised. Thousands of Tamil villagers, some of them Hill country Tamil refugees victims of earlier Sinhalese violence in 1983, were driven out or they on their own fled in terror. Some were murdered by the army. One night alone 29 Tamil villagers were killed at Othiyamalai, a hamlet situated north of the Weli Oya colony.
The evil-minds and the driving force behind the Weli Oya Sinhalese colonization were Messrs. Gamini Dissanayake, Minister for Mahaweli Development, Lalith Athulathmudali, Minister of National Security, Cyril Mathew, Minister of Industries and Scientific Affairs and N.G.P. Panditaratne, Chairman Mahaweli Development Board.
The ‘gang of four’ openly advocated the colonization of the North and East in general and Weli Oya in particular by Sinhalese settlers after driving the Tamils out by using the Sinhalese army.
Industries Minister Cyril Mathew diverted millions of rupees allocated to various Corporations under his Ministry to finance Weli Oya colonization scheme. In addition institutions like All Ceylon Buddhist Congress, Bhikku Peramuna etc. helped in providing financial and other material aid to the Sinhalese settlers.
From 1988-89 Sinhala colonization of Weli Oya was put on a war-footing. A total of 3364 families, most of them ex-convicts brought straight from prisons, were settled in Weli Oya. A further 35,000 persons comprising 5, 925 families were also settled under the same scheme. It is in recognition of the ‘yeoman services’ rendered by the top elite of the Sinhala army, especially that of Major General Janaka Perera, the Tamil village of Thannimurippu was re-named Janakapura in his honour.
This is the same Janaka Perera, Ranil Wickremesinghe wants to be appointed the Defence Secretary.
Today, as mentioned earlier, the Thamils have been reduced to a hopless minority in the East. Batticaloa is the only district that still has Thamil majority. In addition under Ranil Wickremesinghe's dispensation -
1) UNP MPs engineered the break up of the LTTE.
2) After the LTTE agreed for autonomy to Northeast under the principle of internal self-determination Ranil did not come with any proposals anytime that will satisfy the aspirations of the Thamil people.
3) It was Ranil Wickremesinghe who attended the Washington conference that by passed the LTTE.
4) It was Ranil Wickremesisnghe or still better his handpicked deputy Milinda Moragoda who negotiated with USA to buy a war ship.
5) It was Ranil Wickremesinghe who spoke of international safety net to contain to the LTTE.
6) It was the UNP under Ranil Wickremesinghe which burnt the constitutional proposals submitted by Chandrika Kumaratunga in parliament.
7) Ranil Wickremesinghe never accepted the concept of Thamil Homeland. He always spoke of additional devolution under 13th Amendment and no more. This means the current unitary constitution to remain intact.
8) The UNP reformists group that jumped ship are behaving worse than the SLFP parliamentarians and Ministers. Keheliya Rambukwella is worse than the Nazi propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels! Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollogama is outperforming Rambukwella.
Today, 7 June 2007, in Parliament he said
“Among them, 260 people including 63 women were found to be staying in Colombo even after attending to their businesses here. They volunteered to go back to their homes. We are now facilitating their departure.”.
UNP reformist-turned-government Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne accepted in Parliament and said human rights violations were inevitable in war.
8) It was Ranil Wickremesinghe who initiated the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) agreement with U.S. that allowed Sri Lanka to transfer and exchange logistics supplies, support, and re-fuelling services during peacekeeping missions, humanitarian operations and joint exercises.
9) When Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Prime Minister, a delegation of hard-line Buddhist Bhikkhus led by Most Ven. Agga Maha Pandita Madihe Pannasiha Mahanayake Thera of the Amarapura Sri Dhammarakshita Maha Nikaya at the Siri Vajiragnana Dharmayatanaya, Maharagama urged him to continue the colonization of Thamil areas in the north and east. Ven. Pannasiha requested the Prime Minister to create settlements in selected jungle land in the North-East and settle people in them according to the communal ratio. He also told the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that the homeland concept is a historical misconception.
The Prime Minister responded saying "We have never accepted the homeland concept. Our stand is that Sinhalese, Thamils and Muslims are living in the North and East. This stand has been included even in the Indo-Lanka accord. Therefore the homeland concept will never be accepted. No request pertaining to the homeland concept has been made to us so far either. We have always clearly expressed our stand on this issue.” (The Daily News – January 20, 2002).
I reiterate what I have been saying for many years. It is slow death or death in instalments for Thamils under the UNP. The SLFP is an open enemy. Mahinda Rajapakse as President is unwittingly helping the division of the country as today's expulsion of hundreds of Thamils from Colombo to North and East shows.
Those Tamils who persist in their folly of singing hosannas for Ranil Wickremesinghe should drop any pretence of donning the Thamil nationalist garb and join the UNP.
Boycott Sri Lanka Products and Services & Save Tamil Lives
Boycott Sri Lanka Products and Services & Save Tamil Lives
Tamil Nation :
http://www.tamilnation.org/tamileelam/boycott/index.htm
CONTENTS
OF THIS SECTION
Last updated
18/07/08
We Send Them the Money: So don’t Complain - R. Cholan
Video Presentation -
Part 1 & Part 2
Boycott Sri Lanka Groceries"The next time you buy a bottle of MD Brand Seeni-Sambol or Katta-Sambol, think about it. Every dollar you give them buys Sri Lanka at least one bullet!.. I would like ideas ... on how we can move forwards. We really need your help and we can, and should, work together on this. Here is my email address: rcholan@hotmail.com" We Send Them the Money: So don’t Complain, R. Cholan, November 2007
Boycott Sri Lankan Airlines
British Tamils Forum Boycott Campaign against Travel by Sri Lankan Airlines, 15 January 2008 "...We appeal to our fellow Tamils, be they prospective passengers or travel agents, to understand that travelling with Sri Lankan airlines is tantamount to paying the government of Sri Lanka to buy the weaponry with which to kill our own people in their homeland in Sri Lanka...We also extend this appeal to our other British compatriots who travel on holiday to Sri Lanka to think of the deaths and destruction that their money paid will eventually cause among the Tamils of Sri Lanka and to kindly avoid such travel."
Boycott Sri Lankan Airlines - Video Presentation
Boycott Sri Lanka Products
Boycott Sri Lanka Government also in PDF
Boycott Sri Lanka Products
Nagalingam Ethirveerasinghan writes from USA on Boycott - "I commend Cholan's effort to get Tamil individuals and families to boycott products from Sri Lanka.It gives a chance for Tamils and non-Tamils to show solidarity with the suffering of our people." more
On the debate on the boycott of Sri Lankan goods and services – a presentation of views and concerns.... Usha S Sri Skanda Rajah, Canada, 29 September 2006 " The Tamil Diaspora should know that in its hands it has the means to stop a terrorist state from having the means to harm the NorthEast people.."
தேவை - சிறிலங்கா மீது பொருளாதாரத் தடை [together with Embargo on Sri Lanka - English Translation] - Sanmugam Sabesan, 17 October 2006 "..Whether Ghandi’s actions were successful or not, Gandhi was successful in creating a mass movement of Indians, to create a huge wave of protest against the British Raj."
Call for Economic Embargo on Sri Lanka - Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), 6 September 2006 "... knowingly or unknowingly - part of Sri Lankan military expenditure is bolstered by the Tamil diaspora..."
TAMIL EELAM STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
Boycott Sri Lanka
Bocott Sri Lanka Products & Services
Products and Services & Save Tamil Lives
Hey, Hey, Sri Lanka! How many Tamils did you kill today?...
Killinochchi Hey, Hey, Sri Lanka! How many Tamils did you kill today?...
Vallipunam Hey, Hey, Sri Lanka! How many Tamils did you kill today?...
Vaharai 2
Trinco
Punguduthivu
Vaharai 1
Vankalai
Muthur 1
Muthur 2
Pessalai
croc.gif (30929 bytes)
Sri Lanka! Sinhala 'Buddhist' Sri Lanka! How many Tamils did you kill today?...
...Soosaippillai Anton (54) , Arulvaasagam Rosani (31), Charles Joseph Rosanraj(24), Masanat Gilbert Dharsan (22). Antony Thadcruze Christine (26), Mary Angela (47), Mohamed Ali Nanthakumar (26), Kandasamy Manoharan (28), Lawrence Mariyaselvam (32), Jeyachandran Prathap (29), Maiyoor Chandramohan (27), Devadas Christy Prasanna (26), Balasingham Surendran (25), Jesuthasan Jeyasuthan (25), Paramsamy Visaharan (25), Marimuththu Kumutharaj (28), Amirthalingam Alaheswaran (29), Pon Ganeshamoorthy, Manaval Claramma Leela (75), Jesuthasan Jude Nixon (23), Cyrilappar St.Jude (22) Turairaja Vijekumar (39), Kodalingham Linganathan (20), Abdul Raheem Latheep (28) Mary Medaline (27), Moorthy Martin (35), Ann Nilxon (7), Ann Luxica(9), Ketheeswaran Yathursan (4 months), Ketheeswaran Thanushkanth (4), Palachamy Ketheeswaran (25), Ketheeswaran Anex Ester (23), Abraham Robinson (28), Sellathurai Amalathas (28), Kanesh Navaratnam (50) , Joseph Anthonymuttu ,(64) Sinnathurai Sivanesan (46, Murugesu Shanmugalingam(72), S Kantharoopan (29), Shanmugalingam Parameswari (65), Ratnam Senthuran (38), Somasuntharam Maheswary (60), Vanniasingham Vigneswaran, Thanuskodi Premini, Kasinather Ganesalingam, Thangarasa, Shanmuganathan Sujendram, Thambiraja Vasantharajan, Kailayapillai Ravindran, Arunesarasa , Satheesharan, Ramanathan Ratheeskumar, Thanuskodi Premini, Kasinather Ganesalingam, Thangarasa, Shanmuganathan Sujendram,Thambiraja Vasantharajan, Kailayapillai Ravindran, Arunesarasa Satheesharan, Thambiah Jeyarajah, Major Kapilan, Thambipillai Selvarajah, Ramalingam Suntheralingam, Kandasamy Vaikunthan, Anthonippillai Soosainather, Thevasahayampillai Jeyakumar Soosainather, Subramaniam Sugirtharajan, Chandrakanthan Vijayatharson. Chandragajan Krishnagobi, Illayathamby Ramakrishnan, Thurairajah Ravichandran, Kanapathy Murugesu, Mariyanayagam Maruthanayagam, Suppiah Murugan, Sithambari Ganesaratnam, Visuvar Krishnan, Bojan Renuka, Bojan Shanuka, Bojan Arthanageswary, Tharmarasan Tharmaseelan, N Kandeepan, T Tharmasri, Soosaithas K Marinthiran, Sebastiampillai P Ruban, Selvarajah Uthayarajah, S. Thanabalasingham, Balakrishnan Rajeevmohan, Parimalarajah Robinson, Iyathurai Baskaran, Thangathurai Sivanantha, Logithasan Rohanth, Shanmugarajah Sajeenthiran, Manoharan Rajeehar, Yogarajah Hemachandran, Thambirajah Arulajanthan, Joseph Pararajasingham, Jude Sugathy (Theresa) Croos , Jude Arokiyathass Fernando, Emmani Croos, Emmani Anthonikkam Croos, Nadararajah Sivakadadcham , Dharmaretnam Sivaram, Aiyathurai Nadesan, Kumaravel Thambaiah and, over the years, thousands more....
இனம் ஒன்று அழிவதா, இதை நாம் பொறுப்பதா...
Boycott Sri Lanka Groceries
ஒரு இனத்தின் விடுதலையை தனியே ஓர் விடுதலை இயக்கத்தினால் மட்டும் அடைந்துவிடமுடியாது. போராட்டமானது ஒவ்வொருவராலும் ஒவ்வொரு வீட்டிலும் ஆரம்பிக்கப்படவேண்டும். இதனால் எம் இனத்தின் விடுதலை விரைவாக்கப்படும். எமது வீடுகளில் முதலில் ஸ்ரீலங்கா பொருட்களை தடைசெய்து எமது போராட்த்தை ஆரம்பிப்போம். தமிழ் பொங்கும் தைப்பொங்கலில் இது ஒரு விதியாகட்டும். ஒன்றுபட்டால் உண்டு விடுதலை. [also in PDF]
சிங்கள தேசத்துப் பொருட்களை புறக்கணிப்போம்!
Boycott Sri Lankan Products & Services!
தமிழ் உயிர்களை காப்போம்!
Save Tamil Lives!
Tamil Nation :
http://www.tamilnation.org/tamileelam/boycott/index.htm
CONTENTS
OF THIS SECTION
Last updated
18/07/08
We Send Them the Money: So don’t Complain - R. Cholan
Video Presentation -
Part 1 & Part 2
Boycott Sri Lanka Groceries"The next time you buy a bottle of MD Brand Seeni-Sambol or Katta-Sambol, think about it. Every dollar you give them buys Sri Lanka at least one bullet!.. I would like ideas ... on how we can move forwards. We really need your help and we can, and should, work together on this. Here is my email address: rcholan@hotmail.com" We Send Them the Money: So don’t Complain, R. Cholan, November 2007
Boycott Sri Lankan Airlines
British Tamils Forum Boycott Campaign against Travel by Sri Lankan Airlines, 15 January 2008 "...We appeal to our fellow Tamils, be they prospective passengers or travel agents, to understand that travelling with Sri Lankan airlines is tantamount to paying the government of Sri Lanka to buy the weaponry with which to kill our own people in their homeland in Sri Lanka...We also extend this appeal to our other British compatriots who travel on holiday to Sri Lanka to think of the deaths and destruction that their money paid will eventually cause among the Tamils of Sri Lanka and to kindly avoid such travel."
Boycott Sri Lankan Airlines - Video Presentation
Boycott Sri Lanka Products
Boycott Sri Lanka Government also in PDF
Boycott Sri Lanka Products
Nagalingam Ethirveerasinghan writes from USA on Boycott - "I commend Cholan's effort to get Tamil individuals and families to boycott products from Sri Lanka.It gives a chance for Tamils and non-Tamils to show solidarity with the suffering of our people." more
On the debate on the boycott of Sri Lankan goods and services – a presentation of views and concerns.... Usha S Sri Skanda Rajah, Canada, 29 September 2006 " The Tamil Diaspora should know that in its hands it has the means to stop a terrorist state from having the means to harm the NorthEast people.."
தேவை - சிறிலங்கா மீது பொருளாதாரத் தடை [together with Embargo on Sri Lanka - English Translation] - Sanmugam Sabesan, 17 October 2006 "..Whether Ghandi’s actions were successful or not, Gandhi was successful in creating a mass movement of Indians, to create a huge wave of protest against the British Raj."
Call for Economic Embargo on Sri Lanka - Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR), 6 September 2006 "... knowingly or unknowingly - part of Sri Lankan military expenditure is bolstered by the Tamil diaspora..."
TAMIL EELAM STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
Boycott Sri Lanka
Bocott Sri Lanka Products & Services
Products and Services & Save Tamil Lives
Hey, Hey, Sri Lanka! How many Tamils did you kill today?...
Killinochchi Hey, Hey, Sri Lanka! How many Tamils did you kill today?...
Vallipunam Hey, Hey, Sri Lanka! How many Tamils did you kill today?...
Vaharai 2
Trinco
Punguduthivu
Vaharai 1
Vankalai
Muthur 1
Muthur 2
Pessalai
croc.gif (30929 bytes)
Sri Lanka! Sinhala 'Buddhist' Sri Lanka! How many Tamils did you kill today?...
...Soosaippillai Anton (54) , Arulvaasagam Rosani (31), Charles Joseph Rosanraj(24), Masanat Gilbert Dharsan (22). Antony Thadcruze Christine (26), Mary Angela (47), Mohamed Ali Nanthakumar (26), Kandasamy Manoharan (28), Lawrence Mariyaselvam (32), Jeyachandran Prathap (29), Maiyoor Chandramohan (27), Devadas Christy Prasanna (26), Balasingham Surendran (25), Jesuthasan Jeyasuthan (25), Paramsamy Visaharan (25), Marimuththu Kumutharaj (28), Amirthalingam Alaheswaran (29), Pon Ganeshamoorthy, Manaval Claramma Leela (75), Jesuthasan Jude Nixon (23), Cyrilappar St.Jude (22) Turairaja Vijekumar (39), Kodalingham Linganathan (20), Abdul Raheem Latheep (28) Mary Medaline (27), Moorthy Martin (35), Ann Nilxon (7), Ann Luxica(9), Ketheeswaran Yathursan (4 months), Ketheeswaran Thanushkanth (4), Palachamy Ketheeswaran (25), Ketheeswaran Anex Ester (23), Abraham Robinson (28), Sellathurai Amalathas (28), Kanesh Navaratnam (50) , Joseph Anthonymuttu ,(64) Sinnathurai Sivanesan (46, Murugesu Shanmugalingam(72), S Kantharoopan (29), Shanmugalingam Parameswari (65), Ratnam Senthuran (38), Somasuntharam Maheswary (60), Vanniasingham Vigneswaran, Thanuskodi Premini, Kasinather Ganesalingam, Thangarasa, Shanmuganathan Sujendram, Thambiraja Vasantharajan, Kailayapillai Ravindran, Arunesarasa , Satheesharan, Ramanathan Ratheeskumar, Thanuskodi Premini, Kasinather Ganesalingam, Thangarasa, Shanmuganathan Sujendram,Thambiraja Vasantharajan, Kailayapillai Ravindran, Arunesarasa Satheesharan, Thambiah Jeyarajah, Major Kapilan, Thambipillai Selvarajah, Ramalingam Suntheralingam, Kandasamy Vaikunthan, Anthonippillai Soosainather, Thevasahayampillai Jeyakumar Soosainather, Subramaniam Sugirtharajan, Chandrakanthan Vijayatharson. Chandragajan Krishnagobi, Illayathamby Ramakrishnan, Thurairajah Ravichandran, Kanapathy Murugesu, Mariyanayagam Maruthanayagam, Suppiah Murugan, Sithambari Ganesaratnam, Visuvar Krishnan, Bojan Renuka, Bojan Shanuka, Bojan Arthanageswary, Tharmarasan Tharmaseelan, N Kandeepan, T Tharmasri, Soosaithas K Marinthiran, Sebastiampillai P Ruban, Selvarajah Uthayarajah, S. Thanabalasingham, Balakrishnan Rajeevmohan, Parimalarajah Robinson, Iyathurai Baskaran, Thangathurai Sivanantha, Logithasan Rohanth, Shanmugarajah Sajeenthiran, Manoharan Rajeehar, Yogarajah Hemachandran, Thambirajah Arulajanthan, Joseph Pararajasingham, Jude Sugathy (Theresa) Croos , Jude Arokiyathass Fernando, Emmani Croos, Emmani Anthonikkam Croos, Nadararajah Sivakadadcham , Dharmaretnam Sivaram, Aiyathurai Nadesan, Kumaravel Thambaiah and, over the years, thousands more....
இனம் ஒன்று அழிவதா, இதை நாம் பொறுப்பதா...
Boycott Sri Lanka Groceries
ஒரு இனத்தின் விடுதலையை தனியே ஓர் விடுதலை இயக்கத்தினால் மட்டும் அடைந்துவிடமுடியாது. போராட்டமானது ஒவ்வொருவராலும் ஒவ்வொரு வீட்டிலும் ஆரம்பிக்கப்படவேண்டும். இதனால் எம் இனத்தின் விடுதலை விரைவாக்கப்படும். எமது வீடுகளில் முதலில் ஸ்ரீலங்கா பொருட்களை தடைசெய்து எமது போராட்த்தை ஆரம்பிப்போம். தமிழ் பொங்கும் தைப்பொங்கலில் இது ஒரு விதியாகட்டும். ஒன்றுபட்டால் உண்டு விடுதலை. [also in PDF]
சிங்கள தேசத்துப் பொருட்களை புறக்கணிப்போம்!
Boycott Sri Lankan Products & Services!
தமிழ் உயிர்களை காப்போம்!
Save Tamil Lives!
The Siege Within -By Nilantha Ilangmauwa
The Siege Within
"Now in Sri Lanka brutal acts against opposition and independent people in the South have been justified or unjustified by the War in the North rather than by the rule of law. This is a new scenario and this is very unfortunate for the future of the country as all political power is increasingly centralized in one family."
__________________
By Nilantha Ilangmauwa
"With equal or even inferior power of destruction he will win who has the resolution to advance, who by his formations and maneuvers can continually threaten his adversary with a new phase of material action, who, in a word has the moral ascendancy. Moral effect inspires fear. Fear must be changed to terror in order to vanquish."
- Battle Studies: Ancient and Modern Battle – Colonel Ardant du Picq, (1921)
(January 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)An expert on War, Clausewitz said "The first task… in planning for war is to identify the enemy's centers of gravity, and if possible, trace them back to a single one." (On War)
The cause of the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka will never be resolved permanently through military victories without attention to the core issues of the problem that affect ordinary people from all the ethnic groups of the nation including the Sinhalese. In the present situation, seemingly, our leaders only see decentralisation from among the core issues while celebrating victories of the military operations.Even the President and other key players of the government are waiting for the head of the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), informally known as the Tamils Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakran. Even in India too we discern greed for the head or live body of Prabhakaran, the man who took the life of India’s young and friendly leader on their own soil in 1991. However, the present military approach against the Tamil Tigers is going on in a highly energetic and moralistic way and it will soon be total defeat for the Tamil Tigers’ military power. There seems to be no alternative given to the Tigers for staying on in power and the Sri Lankan regime too seems to have no alternative to staying on in power save through defeating the Tigers. Indeed there is no evidence that the Sri Lankan regime has a plan to evict the roots of terrorism in Sri Lanka.
We can see too many crackles and whispering in the field over Prabhakaran's dead body or capture alive. Some false propaganda machine vows that he has fled the country. However his wife and two of three children indeed fled the country when the Sri Lankan Government marked what it termed the liberation of the Eastern Province many months ago. But the capture of the Big Tiger alive is impossible in our opinion, and it will also be hard to find his dead body. Going by the history of the Tamil Tigers, probably in the event of his being about to be captured alive, Prabhakaran will issue an order to his colleagues to shoot him and burn his body. The Tigers will thereupon be scattered in different directions as small groups over the entire island and India. Many analysts believe that the same things as happened in the Iraq in 2003 when American Forces captured the former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein in an underground bunker in Tikrit, will happen here. After the US government declared financial rewards for the informers who provide any details of Saddam's hideout, information did flow and that could be repeated here. But capturing Saddam and punishing him with the death penalty has not been a solution for Iraq as we can now see. Iraq is still burning after a badly conducted US intervention. There has been no freedom or relaxation for the people in Iraq since then – until an unstable peace as in the present. It is never totally acceptable to compare the situation in Sri Lanka with that in Iraq because they are not similar. The problem in Sri Lanka is different from that in Iraq. This is an internal conflict in our island nation which has been internationalized, and it is more than thirty years old.
Is it Magic?
In Sri Lanka, there is no doubt that Prabahakaran's dead body, if it is ever to be obtained, would be icing on the government’s cake of victory because then, with that under their belt, they can pick any time for the forthcoming elections for erasing the opposition's power while taking more and more votes from Sinhalese dominant areas. The dead head of the Big Tiger will be like magic for the society. The hysterical mood is such that is possible that every part of Prabhakaran's body can soon be selling among the people in the country as well as in India and may be the USA too. That is why the government and its friends are waiting for that. It will be the main tactic of the government and its rallies for sweeping the polls in the post-war period because there are no friendly relations with ordinary Tamils.
Four mistakes are highlighted here on the part of the Government side over their mode of governance in the ongoing war situation. Those are really harmful to the country’s future. These are:
One: The government thinks the end of Prabhakaran and the LTTE is the end of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka
Two: Military victories of the armed forces are enjoyed by the state through its own Media and ruling party supporters as the Sinhalese defeat the Tamils. (But there is in his speech delivered by the President of Sri Lanka upon the fall of the Kilinchchi to the SLA, a section where he exhorts people not to think of or categorize the military victory as the North being defeated by the South. However we note that his ideas are not implemented by his own media).
Three: Government is planning to silence and stop (both physically and mentally) all opponent media using the war as a pretext. There are many reported claims by key players of the regime showing great arrogance in their comments on the media and its right to free and unbridled expression.
Four: All key players of the Regime have open doors for their personal interests to be advanced using the war. If anybody attacks the Government he/she is termed a traitor. Also anybody supporting the ideas of the Government is a patriot, according to the Government's policy.
One family politics
Now in Sri Lanka brutal acts against opposition and independent people in the South have been justified or unjustified by the War in the North rather than by the rule of law. This is a new scenario and this is very unfortunate for the future of the country as all political power is increasingly centralized in one family. The situation will remind us of monarchical rule as in ancient countries, where there is no recognition for democracy or the opposition or the concept of the balance of power. In this context anyone in opposition to the government will likely meet with an accident with or without true reason. But the more often those people who are seeking a balance of power in the Country state that fact, the more satisfied everyone at the capital is, agreeing that we must come on together as a people.
It is unfortunate that the opposition party and the leader in the country will never understand the real needs of the people. Also the opposition do not seem to have the brain to use for bargaining with the ruling party. In this situation the UNP will face heavy losses again in the forthcoming election that will be held on the upcoming Valentine’s Day (14 February). One can soon see how the President's son Namal Rajapaksha becomes President as successor to President Mahinda if this situation continues in the country.
Power that Preys
Of course the Tamil Tigers have polluted the Tamils’ freedom struggle while committing self -destruction and killings and evicting the intelligentsia of the Tamil Community. Even in the South President Rajapaksha’s regime seems to be doing the same things, while the Tamil Tigers are dominate the Tamil Community’s rowdiness. At the same time, President Rajapksha's acting seems the same way like Velupillai Prabhakstan's mentality. These regimes, Tiger and the Rajapakse, are based on preying using the power flowing from the war. “My brain is carrying too much just now; I cannot be confused by side issues. Everything must wait until my invention is completed," noted Natalie Sumner Lincoln in her book “I Spy” (1916) on espionage. It describes our President's mentality. Time will tell us more. - Sri Lanka Guardian
"Now in Sri Lanka brutal acts against opposition and independent people in the South have been justified or unjustified by the War in the North rather than by the rule of law. This is a new scenario and this is very unfortunate for the future of the country as all political power is increasingly centralized in one family."
__________________
By Nilantha Ilangmauwa
"With equal or even inferior power of destruction he will win who has the resolution to advance, who by his formations and maneuvers can continually threaten his adversary with a new phase of material action, who, in a word has the moral ascendancy. Moral effect inspires fear. Fear must be changed to terror in order to vanquish."
- Battle Studies: Ancient and Modern Battle – Colonel Ardant du Picq, (1921)
(January 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)An expert on War, Clausewitz said "The first task… in planning for war is to identify the enemy's centers of gravity, and if possible, trace them back to a single one." (On War)
The cause of the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka will never be resolved permanently through military victories without attention to the core issues of the problem that affect ordinary people from all the ethnic groups of the nation including the Sinhalese. In the present situation, seemingly, our leaders only see decentralisation from among the core issues while celebrating victories of the military operations.Even the President and other key players of the government are waiting for the head of the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), informally known as the Tamils Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakran. Even in India too we discern greed for the head or live body of Prabhakaran, the man who took the life of India’s young and friendly leader on their own soil in 1991. However, the present military approach against the Tamil Tigers is going on in a highly energetic and moralistic way and it will soon be total defeat for the Tamil Tigers’ military power. There seems to be no alternative given to the Tigers for staying on in power and the Sri Lankan regime too seems to have no alternative to staying on in power save through defeating the Tigers. Indeed there is no evidence that the Sri Lankan regime has a plan to evict the roots of terrorism in Sri Lanka.
We can see too many crackles and whispering in the field over Prabhakaran's dead body or capture alive. Some false propaganda machine vows that he has fled the country. However his wife and two of three children indeed fled the country when the Sri Lankan Government marked what it termed the liberation of the Eastern Province many months ago. But the capture of the Big Tiger alive is impossible in our opinion, and it will also be hard to find his dead body. Going by the history of the Tamil Tigers, probably in the event of his being about to be captured alive, Prabhakaran will issue an order to his colleagues to shoot him and burn his body. The Tigers will thereupon be scattered in different directions as small groups over the entire island and India. Many analysts believe that the same things as happened in the Iraq in 2003 when American Forces captured the former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein in an underground bunker in Tikrit, will happen here. After the US government declared financial rewards for the informers who provide any details of Saddam's hideout, information did flow and that could be repeated here. But capturing Saddam and punishing him with the death penalty has not been a solution for Iraq as we can now see. Iraq is still burning after a badly conducted US intervention. There has been no freedom or relaxation for the people in Iraq since then – until an unstable peace as in the present. It is never totally acceptable to compare the situation in Sri Lanka with that in Iraq because they are not similar. The problem in Sri Lanka is different from that in Iraq. This is an internal conflict in our island nation which has been internationalized, and it is more than thirty years old.
Is it Magic?
In Sri Lanka, there is no doubt that Prabahakaran's dead body, if it is ever to be obtained, would be icing on the government’s cake of victory because then, with that under their belt, they can pick any time for the forthcoming elections for erasing the opposition's power while taking more and more votes from Sinhalese dominant areas. The dead head of the Big Tiger will be like magic for the society. The hysterical mood is such that is possible that every part of Prabhakaran's body can soon be selling among the people in the country as well as in India and may be the USA too. That is why the government and its friends are waiting for that. It will be the main tactic of the government and its rallies for sweeping the polls in the post-war period because there are no friendly relations with ordinary Tamils.
Four mistakes are highlighted here on the part of the Government side over their mode of governance in the ongoing war situation. Those are really harmful to the country’s future. These are:
One: The government thinks the end of Prabhakaran and the LTTE is the end of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka
Two: Military victories of the armed forces are enjoyed by the state through its own Media and ruling party supporters as the Sinhalese defeat the Tamils. (But there is in his speech delivered by the President of Sri Lanka upon the fall of the Kilinchchi to the SLA, a section where he exhorts people not to think of or categorize the military victory as the North being defeated by the South. However we note that his ideas are not implemented by his own media).
Three: Government is planning to silence and stop (both physically and mentally) all opponent media using the war as a pretext. There are many reported claims by key players of the regime showing great arrogance in their comments on the media and its right to free and unbridled expression.
Four: All key players of the Regime have open doors for their personal interests to be advanced using the war. If anybody attacks the Government he/she is termed a traitor. Also anybody supporting the ideas of the Government is a patriot, according to the Government's policy.
One family politics
Now in Sri Lanka brutal acts against opposition and independent people in the South have been justified or unjustified by the War in the North rather than by the rule of law. This is a new scenario and this is very unfortunate for the future of the country as all political power is increasingly centralized in one family. The situation will remind us of monarchical rule as in ancient countries, where there is no recognition for democracy or the opposition or the concept of the balance of power. In this context anyone in opposition to the government will likely meet with an accident with or without true reason. But the more often those people who are seeking a balance of power in the Country state that fact, the more satisfied everyone at the capital is, agreeing that we must come on together as a people.
It is unfortunate that the opposition party and the leader in the country will never understand the real needs of the people. Also the opposition do not seem to have the brain to use for bargaining with the ruling party. In this situation the UNP will face heavy losses again in the forthcoming election that will be held on the upcoming Valentine’s Day (14 February). One can soon see how the President's son Namal Rajapaksha becomes President as successor to President Mahinda if this situation continues in the country.
Power that Preys
Of course the Tamil Tigers have polluted the Tamils’ freedom struggle while committing self -destruction and killings and evicting the intelligentsia of the Tamil Community. Even in the South President Rajapaksha’s regime seems to be doing the same things, while the Tamil Tigers are dominate the Tamil Community’s rowdiness. At the same time, President Rajapksha's acting seems the same way like Velupillai Prabhakstan's mentality. These regimes, Tiger and the Rajapakse, are based on preying using the power flowing from the war. “My brain is carrying too much just now; I cannot be confused by side issues. Everything must wait until my invention is completed," noted Natalie Sumner Lincoln in her book “I Spy” (1916) on espionage. It describes our President's mentality. Time will tell us more. - Sri Lanka Guardian
Monday, January 19, 2009
NY TIMES EDITORIAL/OPINION ON THE MURDER OF LASANTHA BY SINGHALA "STATE TERRORIST".
Editorial
A Letter From the Grave
Published: January 19, 2009
Lasantha Wickramatunga, an extraordinarily courageous journalist, wrote his own obituary. After he was murdered on Jan. 8, his letter from the grave appeared in papers all over the world including his own, The Sunday Leader in Sri Lanka.
Times Topics: Sri Lanka
His farewell piece is not only a painful explanation of why another brave journalist would die while trying to publish truths that most people are afraid to whisper. It is also a powerful indictment of the increasingly brutal Sri Lankan government, which runs one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism,” he wrote in his last editorial, to be published on his death.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which has reported eight journalists killed in Sri Lanka in the last two years, has called for a nonpartisan investigation and diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to investigate this latest killing. Instead of pursuing those who killed Mr. Wickramatunga, some in the Sri Lankan government have cynically begun suggesting the journalist’s death has benefited the Tamil rebels and others who oppose the Rajapaksa-run state.
Mr. Wickramatunga’s final essay catalogs the troubles journalists have suffered in his country — bombings, killings and coercion — all while trying to tell about corruption in government and civil rights abuses during an extended civil war. But in a larger sense, his farewell helps explain why some people are willing to give up easier lives to pursue the business of truth-telling.
“Why then do we do it?” Mr. Wickramatunga’s farewell letter asked. “I often wonder that. After all, I, too, am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not.” He then explained why he and so many other journalists take on these jobs around the world, even though more than 700 of their colleagues have been killed since 1992 while trying to film, record or write honestly about what was going on around them.
“There is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security,” Mr. Wickramatunga wrote before he died for his principles. “It is the call of conscience.”
A Letter From the Grave
Published: January 19, 2009
Lasantha Wickramatunga, an extraordinarily courageous journalist, wrote his own obituary. After he was murdered on Jan. 8, his letter from the grave appeared in papers all over the world including his own, The Sunday Leader in Sri Lanka.
Times Topics: Sri Lanka
His farewell piece is not only a painful explanation of why another brave journalist would die while trying to publish truths that most people are afraid to whisper. It is also a powerful indictment of the increasingly brutal Sri Lankan government, which runs one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist.
“No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism,” he wrote in his last editorial, to be published on his death.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which has reported eight journalists killed in Sri Lanka in the last two years, has called for a nonpartisan investigation and diplomatic pressure on Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to investigate this latest killing. Instead of pursuing those who killed Mr. Wickramatunga, some in the Sri Lankan government have cynically begun suggesting the journalist’s death has benefited the Tamil rebels and others who oppose the Rajapaksa-run state.
Mr. Wickramatunga’s final essay catalogs the troubles journalists have suffered in his country — bombings, killings and coercion — all while trying to tell about corruption in government and civil rights abuses during an extended civil war. But in a larger sense, his farewell helps explain why some people are willing to give up easier lives to pursue the business of truth-telling.
“Why then do we do it?” Mr. Wickramatunga’s farewell letter asked. “I often wonder that. After all, I, too, am a husband, and the father of three wonderful children. Is it worth the risk? Many people tell me it is not.” He then explained why he and so many other journalists take on these jobs around the world, even though more than 700 of their colleagues have been killed since 1992 while trying to film, record or write honestly about what was going on around them.
“There is a calling that is yet above high office, fame, lucre and security,” Mr. Wickramatunga wrote before he died for his principles. “It is the call of conscience.”
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