Dr. Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS) President Senior Citizens Movement .Mahanuwara

2.10.2009.

Obscurity generates fear; darkness crushes the very inside of us; nights could be pleasing but for a very short chunk of time. This, I think, is exactly what has happened to our communal minority politicians in Sri Lanka who refuse to accept the stark reality, that this country on earth is the non-negotiable Homeland of the Sinhala Nation, where other communities have mingled, assimilated and lived harmoniously for thousands of years as equals, while recognizing the logical place of Sinhala people on this Island. It had been so at least for the past 2500 years of recorded history. Whether someone likes it or not that is the fact. Every grain of sand on this Blessed Land will vouch for it. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Obscurity and darkness in the minds of minority politicians, partly implanted and infused by foreign elements and partly by themselves as an instrument gaining political power in a competitive social set up, are the two evils that has shattered the harmony that was there in the past.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Apropos the so-called joint communiquƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚© by four Tamil and one Muslim political destitute issued on 1^st .Oct. 2009 in transCurrents Home, under the caption ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Let Our People FreeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ Tamil and Muslim Political Parties, I thought it appropriate and timely too to make few comments, lest it creates a wrong picture in the minds of the general public both at home and abroad.

Going by the signatories and the heading of the statement, I presume these learned men mean both Tamil and Muslim by the term ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Our PeopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ and therefore it includes all the Tamils and Muslims living in as well as outside, Sri Lanka. With due respect to at least the few non-communal minded Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims, who are ever prepared to live with the Sinhala people,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  as they have done for generations in the past, I must clearly state here that it is impossible to be so. Because firstly, these disgrunted six men do not represent the entire Tamil and Muslim population or all the Tamil and Muslim political parties in Sri Lanka as they pretend to impress the world by using a heading like ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Tamil and Muslim Political PartiesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ for this statement. They are only a few politically rejected communal swallows, with broken wings who are trying to make capital out of an existing unfortunate socio-political situation in the country, in a futile attempt to resurrect their bleak and uncertain political future. Even though they are trying to point the accusing finger at the Sinhala community and blame the government for the current situation they appear to have entirely forgotten that it was none other but they themselves and their ilk were the culprits who have been sowing the vicious seeds of ethnic and communal politics in this country and therefore they are the very people who are directly responsible for this problem.

First and foremost these six men could never be treated as a homogeneous ethnic or political group who could represent the entire Sri Lankan Tamil and Muslim population. Because they are only solitary individuals with diametrically opposed political and personal agendas, who do not in fact represent anybody in the country other than themselves. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Having said that now I would like to deal with point by point of their argument stated in the communiquƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚© issued by them.

Issue 1

The Tamil speaking peoples of Sri Lanka have suffered great hardships for many decades since Independence.

In the first place who are these Tamil speaking people they are talking about? I presume it includes both Tamil and Muslims together who constitutes nearly 25 % of the total population (T18+M 7) of the Island according to demographic data available. This also implies that they speak only Tamil and therefore 25 % of the countyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s population is being discriminated and ill-treated by the Sinhalese and their government. This is the central argument on which their communiquƒÆ’†’ƒ”š‚© is based. This is the first myth invented by these communal politicians, first, to drive a communal wedge between the Sinhalese majority and minorities of Sri Lanka and second, to tell the hungry world to whom the words ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Sinhala and BuddhistƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ are anathema for some reason or the other, accusing that 25 % of the population in this Island is being discriminated by the majority who speak Sinhala.

I have refuted this argument under an article ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-The myth of 25% Tamil speaking minority in Sri Lanka: the bedrock of demand for an independent and separate stateƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ that appeared in the Lankaweb of 10.7.2009. It has shown the actual position with regard to this issue as given in the following table.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚	Sinhala speaking %	Tamil speaking %	Tamil only speaking %
Sinhala	75	15	0
Muslim	ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 7	7	0
Estate Tamils	5	6	1
Tamils in the south	6.5	6.5	0
Tamils N&E	2.5	5.5	3
Total	96	40	4

This data clearly shows that only 4% of the Tamils in Sri Lanka are speaking Tamil only. Therefore even if one concedes to their argument then only 4% of the total population could be considered as discriminated, which itself is a diabolical lie.

Further when one finds that 65% of the Sri Lankan Tamils and all estate Tamil (100%) and also all the Muslims are living among the Sinhala people and speak Sinhala, the above allegation is shattered.

The second question is, what is, the discrimination and the hardship that they are talking about? These people just go on calling ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”discrimination, discriminationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ like parrots without any concrete evidence or example of any such discrimination. This is just like Hillary Clinton or Robert Blake crying ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Rape used as weapon of war in Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ from Washington without an iota of evidence of a single incidence of such rape.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ If you look back in to the past, I am sure you would recall how Jaffna Tamils in the early days even monopolized the seats in the train beyond Vavunia without allowing a Sinhala man who traveled beyond to sit down. Did you people ever made any attempt to treat the Sinhala people as your brothers and sisters and thought to live together. First you wanted to dominate. Then you wanted 50-50 and thereafter you wanted to separate with the future plan of capturing the whole Island. Now you see who the cause of this conflict. But even today you people point the accusing finger to the Sinhala people. You live here physically but mentally in India and even today you consider India as your motherland for all intent and purposes. You people must be grateful to the Sinhala people for tolerating you in spite of all these attitudes and ill-treatments.

It is true that the rights of the Sinhala people who comprised over 75 % of the countryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s population which have been subdued and discriminated by the Colonial powers from 1815 up to 1948 had to be restored since Independence. There is no denying that in the process the disproportionate privileges enjoyed by the Jaffna Tamils were marginally reduced after independence. But even then the ratio of employment held and privileges enjoyed by them continued to be much higher than what they should have actually held going by the population. The Tamils enjoyed all democratic rights like freedom movement, education, employment, acquisition of property in any area they like to live and getting their members elected to Parliament. One of their main grievances is the making of Sinhala the official language in 1956. But they never ask the question as to where the hell Sinhala could be and should be made the official language, if you donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t do it in Sri Lanka, where it had been the official language from the 6^th century BC at least up to 1815. It was only after 1815 that was denied by the British. Even during the colonial period although the Official language of the British government that existed here was English the Sinhala people comprising over 75% of the population did their day to day business in their language. So one can just imagine what injustice was done to them for centuries of colonial rule. So if they donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t get the right to use their language at least, then what does independence means to them?

As everyone knows, in 1987 under the 13^th Amendment Tamil was also accepted as an official language. I challenge these critics to show me any single country in the whole world where you have two official languages. Even in India where there are over 75 million Tamils live, Tamil is not recognized as an official language. But no one talks of discrimination against Tamils in India. On the other hand unlike in India, majority of Tamils here live among the Sinhalese in the south. Only about 2.5 % (Tamils) of a total population of 20 million lives in dispersed pockets in the North and the East. Even then none of these areas are mono-Tamil as it is in India. Furthermore unlike in South India where Tamilnadu forms the original Homeland of the Tamils race, here in Sri Lanka they are only remnants of invaders or intruders who had come from time to time in the countryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s long history.

What none of these communal politicians is prepared to accept is that everyone here has undergone hardships and discrimination due to colonial rule and the Sinhala people who founded and developed their great civilization for 2500 years on this Island were the worst affected and most discriminated? As a nation they lost everything to the British. Their independence, all their lands, the language, culture, religion and everything else, a rich legacy of 2500 years, they lost. Even today look at the plight of the Kandyan people. All their lands including the nationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Heartland- the central hills that guaranteed the survival of the entire life system on this Island, was forcibly acquired by the British for their plantations. It was raped and forest cover removed and nearly one million South Indian coolies were implanted on it as slaves to fill the coffers of the British Empire. Consequently the landless, pauperized Kandyan Sinhala peasants- the sons of the soil- even today after 60 years of so-called independence, buried in neck deep abject poverty, are living in tiny isolated valley bottoms wedged between flourishing tea plantation that once happened to be their own land, gazing at them and sighing, as there is nothing else they could do. These people who comprise over 1/3 rd the countryƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s population have no road access to their hide outs and no water to cultivate their land (thanks to the criminal destruction of the central forest cover by the British), have no school to send their children, no hospital to take a little medicine for a dying patient. Most of them donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t have even a proper burial yard to bury their dead. Today they have almost become aliens on their own Home land.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Who talk about their hardships? Who talk about discrimination against them? Not even a single Member of Parliament out of some 80 odd supposed to be representing them and thousands of local politicians at provincial and local levels who enjoy luxuries of political office, thanks to their votes, speak a single word on their plight.

What I am trying to say here is that hardships are common to everybody. There is no special hardship deliberately cast upon or pressed upon discriminately on any particular ethnic group by the government. Hardships are common to everybody and the truth is, it is more repressive and serious with regard to the Sinhalese, particularly the Kandyan peasants. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

2. They had to face ethnic riots, pogroms and ethnic cleansing in the pogroms of 1983 sections of the state were involved. In the last thirty four years Sri Lanka was consumed by an ethnic civil war in which the Tamil and Muslim people and others in the north and the East and elsewhere were victims. The Tamils in particular bore the brunt of suffering. During the last stages of the war the people of the Vanni suffered traumatic pain which, despite the conclusive end of the war, has still not abated.

Is it only the Tamils who had faced ethnic riots? ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Is it only the people of North and East who had to suffer? What about the thousands of Sinhala and Muslim men and women killed by the LTTE in Busses, trains banks hotels and other places with suicide bombing and other explosions?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ After all who really started the ethnic riots in this country? Was it not the northern Tamil politicians? Who started ethnic politics? Was it not the Tamils who started the Ceylon Tamil Congress it in 1921 after they broke away from the Ceylon National Congress? Who asked for 50 – 50, in 1930s? Who started The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi in 1947 and asked for a separate independent Tamil Kingdom for the north and the east? Who started the anti-Sinhala anti- Sri hartal in 1957? Who started the Tiger movement, calling the northern youths ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Our BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚? Who got hem trained in terrorist warfare and terrorist activities in south India with the help of South Indian communal politicians who are always dreaming to devourer this little Island and who got Indira Gandhi and Rajiv to conspire against the Sri Lankan state? Who passed the 1977 Vadukkodei Declaration swearing for separation? Who invented a mythical history of this Island saying that this has been the ancient EELAM of the Tamils from times immemorial, thereby rejecting accepted history of this Island? Who massacred 13 army men in 1983 on their way home on holiday? Who said that Tamils canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t sleep until they swim on rivers of blood of the Sinhalese? Who killed Sinhala national politicians like President Premadasa, Atulathmudali, Gamini Dissanayaka. Ranjan Wijeratna and Fernandu Pulle?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Who murdered invaluable human beings like Kobbekaduwa and Kadiragamar? Who destabilize the economy by attacking places like the Central Bank, the Katunayaka Air port and the nations National Carrier worth Billions, the Kolonnawa Oil complex and thousands of other strategic institutions crippling the very heart and soul of the nationƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s economy? Who attacked the Sri Maha Bodi and who blasted the Sacred Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, the palladium of the whole Buddhist world? Where were you brave men when all these things were happening in this country? Why are you people, deaf and dumb on these issues?

Talking about pogroms do you people at least know the meaning of the word Pogrom? And if you know it do you know that it was you own people who carried out it in large scales, not only inside LTTE hide outs but even in the open air. Who started genocide and against whom? For example who butchered devotees worshiping under the Sri Maha Bodhiya, Aramtalawa, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Kokilai Farm, Elephant pass and inside the Ampare jungle

Now you talk of ethnic cleansing. Who started ethnic cleansing. Who chased out the 30,000 Sinhalese and the entire Muslim population (who are still suffering in Puttalama camps) from Jaffna, Mannar and the East starting from 1983? Who butchered the children, the old, the sick and the pregnant mothers in the entire stretch of Sinhala villages extending from Puttlam to Kataragama? Were these things done by the Sinhalese Buddhists?

Who started the ethnic war? Was it not by you and by your Boys? It is true few unfortunate incidents have happened, which affected some Tamils in 1983 in the aftermath of your brutal Killings of the army massacre for which you people have avenged by million fold since then till 2009 May. But can you give a single instance where the government is responsible for killing at least one Muslim in the North or the east? (Hakeem! were you blind folded when you singed this statement as you were, when you singed a similar MOU with Pirapaharan in the Vanni jungle some time back) ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Again who killed all the Tamil leaders that stood against the LTTE or even who could be a threat to the LTTE? Who devastate the whole north and the East for the past 30 years and who obstructed all development by the government there?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Who herded over 300,000 innocent Tamils in to the Nadikadal area as hostages, killing thousands in the process and who installed all their heavy war machines among them and fired the Sri Lankan forces inviting them to retaliate putting the lives of the entire 300,000 civilians in serious danger, now under safe custody of the government?, The Tigers took all civilians they could horde as hostages into this area that is packed with terrorists and deadly terror hardware. They falsely claimed that these civilians wanted to die with them for a totally lost cause. Then they used the artillery setup right among the civilian population to fire at the military with absolutely no regard for human life. In such a brutal war, civilians die all the time, just as the Tiger Terrorists hoped, as we see in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When the civilian casualties are not high enough, the LTTE killed their hostages batch by batch and got their captive doctors to make outrageous statements. Armed with this information and some doctored photographs, the LTTE used their global propaganda machine to feed the international community of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-massiveƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ civilians casualties. Their agents in the West did the rest and got international appeals for a cease-fire in the guise of a humanitarian cause. With shrinking territory and a dwindling supply of cadres and weapons, the LTTE was desperate. Where were you ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”honourableƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ Sambandan, Hakeem and others then? ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Were you hiding under a bunker, or enjoying the luxuries of a five star hotel in Colombo or were you busy canvassing against the government of Sri Lanka in India or Europe?

You idiots your eyes can only see the traumatic pain of Tamils. Those big eyes are completely blind to the devastations and suffering done by your ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and yourself by propagating communal politics and false propaganda over the globe over the years. You were also blind for the suffering of an entire nation. I wonder why the all mighty God gave two eyes for each one of you and a thing called a brain to rot inside your skulls. Otherwise how can you conclude that the LTTE war is conclusive? Even a tiny tot on the street will tell you that only the LTTE local leadership is dead. It is only the tip that is gone, but the ice berg is yet to be floating underneath where people like you, the so-called diaspora, the grass root level carder, the Indian counterparts and the International Community headed by Norway are still alive. Fortunately the government knows it. I am sure you people also know it. That is why you issue this kind of double edged statements knowing very well that if it clicks once again you can get the LTTE to resurrect to fight the Sri Lankan government.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

3. ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-While we are deeply concerned about the human rights violations everywhere in our Island such as death threats, the killing of civilians and the disappearance of journalists and othersƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

You imbeciles are only deeply concerned about ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”the human rights violations, death threats, and killing of civilians and disappearances of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Your peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ -that is Tamils and Muslims. And that is also only now. But none of you have had even a pinch of a remote feeling for the thousands of Sinhala men and women and children sucking from their motherƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s breast who were butchered in broad day light and in their midnight sleep inside their wattle and daub huts. For the past 30 years by the LTTE.

Meanwhile you also shed crocodile tears for the unknown journalist just to get their attention for your so-called statement to get the publicity for your diabolical anti-Sinhala and anti Sri Lankan government propaganda. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Assuming yourself to be eminent lawyers you couch your so-called statement in most outdated and irrelevant legal jargon and say ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-we the undersigned affirm the following and call for an immediate end to these intolerable conditions which you most conveniently, perhaps joyfully tolerated for the past 30 years when they were rampant against the Sinhala people under the LTTE.

4 We state that the forcible detention of hundreds of thousands of Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka in camps for Internally Displaced persons is illegal, without basis in the constitution and in gross violation of international human right norms. Similar arrangement must be made to re-settle in their original homes all these in the east, who remain displaced and continued to suffer greatly.

My questions over to you on these matters are,

1 Under what law you dare to say, apart from affirming, that these people are illegally kept by the government in camps. Do you people at least know that they the hostages who were forcibly kept by your ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ for years under untold suffering and at last rescued by the very government and who are now being cared by the government, you people hate so much.

2. Do you people also know that they have no place to go just now, as all those places have been completely destroyed and devastated by your own ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ .Do you people also know that every inch of land where they lived has been filled with deadly land mines by you own ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ and no human being could step in their until those land minds are removed or is it that you want all these civilians to die as victims of land mines so that you proxies can appease the your Sun God in the hell.

3.I may also ask you as to under what constitution and what international and norms (may be Norwegian) they were kept by your ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ for 30 years before they were rescued by the Sri Lankan government.

4. Do you also know that all their homes have been destroyed by the LTTE or in the cross fire.

5. Finally we would like to know as to where you people learned your law. People know better, that it is the brief- less barristers who always take to politics. And the other thing is as a group of MPP who have continuously violated the Sri Lankan Constitution what right do you people have to talk about constitutional obligation of other people?

4. These people should be released immediately to return to their homes and permitted to resume without hindrance their traditional livelihood activities such as farming and fishing, or to take up residence with friends and relatives or to exercise their lawful right to abode elsewhere at their discretion. Those likely to face criminal charges should be produced in a court of law without further delay.

Where do you think they have a home to go (unless you are prepared to accommodate them in your own places). Do you know that their houses were also destroyed by your ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. Do you also know that what had been undone for 30 years by your ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ cannot be restore overnight, for any government on earth. Removing mines from a land that bore the brunt of war for nearly 30 years of armed conflict is no easy task. In Cambodia over two decades after the end of the war undetected mines were claiming the lives of civilians or maiming them. Five decades following the end of World War II, Allied bombs dropped from the air were still being discovered in Germany. Also do you know that even so called mighty USA is still struggling to resettle the few hundreds of families affected by affected by Hurricane Rita 2005 and H/cane Ike 2008.

Regarding re-settlement, do you also know that this is exactly what the government is doing right now? Do you also know the difficulties the government in undergoing in handling such a vast number of people?

Do you understand that for these reasons these people cannot be released ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”immediatelyƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ as you say and therefore the government cannot be blamed for the delay in getting back to their normal life? The friends and relatives you are talking of and the other places of their discretion? Where are those blessed places and where do they live (hope not in South India)?

Regarding those facing criminal charges, you donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t worry. The government will do its job as it has done in due course. However you should be thankful to them for not putting you behind bars for all theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  pro terrorist and communal activities you have been doing both here and abroad over the past so many years.

5. We strongly urge that the camps, for so long as they exist, should be open to relatives, religious functionaries, parliamentarians, provincial councilors, civil society, UN agencies, journalists and national and international aid and humanitarian organizations.

Yes it is already been done subjected to security precautions. But please remember that they will never be opened to any so-called relatives, religious functionary, parliamentarian, provincial councilors, civil society and UN agencies, and others in LTTEE clothes, you have mentioned in the list to bring discredit and embarrassment to the government or this country and who will send their cooked up reports and Channel 4 type doctored vicious propaganda to Hilary Clinton, Blake or BBC.

6. We urge that immediate arrangements be made to allow the Muslim people who were evicted from the North and have suffered acute hardships for nearly two decades to return to their homes and to resume their economic and social activities without hindrance.

This I think is the only clause that prompted Hakeem to sing this document. Anyway I do not know as to where the hell Hakeem was sleeping all these 30 years to blindly subscribe his signature now to this document. I wonder whether Hakeem knows that these are the innocent people who have been forcibly chased out by SampanthanƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s BoysƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ from the north and the East in 1983 and thereafter. Even if he does not know it, as he has pretended, the displacement of these people was not the fault of the government.

7. The restriction on moment in and out of the Northern Province and some locations in the East should be lifted and the need for permits to enter or leave should be rescinded forthwith. In particular, any form of quarantine of the Northern Province is a violation of basic rights and should be lifted.

Why donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t you people as Barak Obama also to lift his bans on Cuba as they are more serious violations than this. DonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t worry these things will be lifted and normalcy restored once the government is satisfied that there are no more threats to the security of the country.

8. The curfew and other restrictions on normality in many parts of the Northern Province and elsewhere are unjustified and we demand that normality be returned without delay. People in certain parts of the country live in fear, avoid even essential travel and are inhibited in employment related and social activities.

This is mere political humbug and cheap rhetoricƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s. This type of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”DemandsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ from a group like you who demanded the war against Pirapahan should be stopped forthwith is no surprise.

9. We call for an end to military administration and restrictions placed on civilians and we urge the restoration of full civilian administration to facilitate return to economic and social activities.

Why didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t you ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”DemandƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ Pirapaharan to do this for the past 30 years to do this? I know had you done that you would not have been even alive today lest getting a chance to issue irresponsible rubbish like this. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In any case you would not have done at all as you were only his proxies. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ If you could wait for 30 long years, in fear or patience, then why canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t you wait few more months until the government gets a breathing space to bring normalcy back.

Who says that there is military administration in any part of this country? Are you not aware that even in Vavunia there is a Government Agent (for that matter a charming Tamil Lady) who runs the district? The army is there only to assist the civil administration. Do you people know the government has already taken all possible action to do everything to facilitate return to the kind of economic and social normality, they never had for the past 30 years under your beloved ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Boys.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

Where were you ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”HonouraleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ signatories all these thirty years when the LTTE was carrying out its rampage of terror and destruction not only against the Sinhalese and Muslims and the whole nation butƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  also against their own Tamil leaders and backtracked the Sri Lankan Tamils community at least by 100 years? I only feel sorry for Anandasangaree who is generally regarded as a decent and moderate Tamil leader.

Finally I would like to ask you as to why you people did not address a letter like this to Pirapaharan, your ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”SunGodƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ during the past 30 years when actually he was running the show in the North and the East while keeping the entire Tamil community as his hostages. We know why you could not do so. It was partly because you were their proxies and partly you were scared of them. Had you dared to do so you would never have been alive today to show your bravery to the world like this and definite your bones would have been six feet below in case Pirapaharan had no time to ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ burn your dead bodies.

Why donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t you people at least now try to understand the reality of Sri Lanka and corporate with the Government to settle the IDP issue and restore normalcy without engaging in vituperative and narrow communal politics and be partners of a peaceful and prosperous future Sri Lanka where all of us can live as one family?

Signatories to the above mentioned document

V.Anandasangaree
Leader, TULF

ManoGanesan,M.P.
Leader, DPF

RauffHakeem,M.P.
Leader, SLMC

Dr.K.Vigneswaran
Leader, AITUF

R.Sampanthan,M.P
Leader, ITAK, Leader, TNA