Ira de Silva London, Ontario, Canada

Mr. Kofi A. Anan
Past Secretary General of the United Nations
France.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Dear Sir:

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Reference your Opinion Editorial in the International Herald Tribune of June 17,2010, I was to say the least, surprised to read the following: “The Holocaust remains unique with the most ruthlessly vicious of ends but instances of genocide and large scale merciless brutality have continued to multiply – from Cambodia to the Congo, from Bosnia to Rwanda, from Sri Lanka to Sudan”.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I am curious as to why you mention Sri Lanka in this context. I recall that you visited Sri Lanka after the tsunami and while you were in the country, issued a statement of condolence on the death of a low level Tamil terrorist even though he had been killed by a rival Tamil. It made it clear to ordinary Sri Lankans that you had either been misinformed by prejudiced employees of the UN or, that you had sympathy for the Tamil terrorists even though they had been characterised as the foremost terrorist group in the world by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the U.S. or, that you simply had no knowledge of the conditions in the country that had, up to then, been plagued by terrorism for twenty five years. You made that statement on the death of a terrorist as the head of the UN which is supposed to represent peace. You were sad that a terrorist had been killed but had no sympathy for the innocent people who were being terrorised by them.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Now you use the word holocaust which revives memories of World War 11, and the killing of six million Jews by Nazi Germany and drag Sri Lanka into your list of countries implying that there was a holocaust in Sri Lanka which you know to be false, considering that while being the Secretary General you had, or should have had, first hand information of the atrocities committed by the Tamil terrorists on all communities in Sri Lanka. If your intention is to teach history, the least you can do is to get your facts correct. What is your excuse this time? Have you again been given a statement by your employees, do you still sympathize with the Tamil terrorists, or have you have joined the band of western countries who in a fit of pique have decided to badger Sri Lanka with false claims of war crimes because they were proved wrong?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Your statement uses the word “genocide” which is not relevant to Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka it was Tamils killing Tamils which is fratricide. They also killed anyone else who got in their way regardless of who they were. The Tamil terrorists used terrorism as a tool to intimidate the people and Government of Sri Lanka to reach their goal of dividing Sri Lanka. You talk of “large scale merciless brutality” which, in the Sri Lankan context, is an accurate description of the Tamil terrorist’s actions, NOT those of the Sri Lankan security forces. However, the implication you make is that it was the Government of Sri Lanka that was responsible for these acts which is blatantly false and not becoming of a supposedly well informed person. There were numerous massacres, suicide bombings and all forms of indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population of Sri Lanka by the Tamil terrorists during your tenure as Secretary General and if you recall you issued bland statements of regret. The fact is that the UN and other western powers, who like to call themselves the “international community”, were not concerned about these acts of brutality by the Tamil terrorists. Their only interest was to use the conflict to interfere in the internal matters of Sri Lanka, prolong the conflict and get for the Tamil terrorists what they wanted. Today, you seem to have forgotten these simple facts and yet are concerned about education and teaching students. Should students not be taught the truth?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Since you have tried to drag Sri Lanka into your musings on the holocaust and what should be taught to students I would like to point out to you that in the final phase of the war in 2009 the efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka was to release the Tamil civilians who had been driven from their homes for over two years by the Tamil terrorists. They were being held as hostages by the Tamil terrorists who forcibly used them as a human shield. It was the Sri Lankan forces that released them and 300,000 thousand of them rushed to get away from the Tamil terrorists at the first opportunity. If there had been a “holocaust” as you infer, would they have done so? Could you imagine the Jews rushing from the concentration camps to take refuge with the Nazi’s? The stalwarts of the “international community” who had been increasingly interfering in the internal matters of Sri Lanka were the same countries who made frenzied efforts to save the leadership of the Tamil terrorists in May 2009 led by none other than Robert Blake, the U.S. ambassador in Sri Lanka, E. Solheim of Norway, other European officials and of course the UN. They had no solution to release the Tamil civilians from the clutches of the terrorists other than to evacuate the leadership of the terrorists.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Over the years of Tamil terrorism these countries had made it their business to lecture Sri Lanka. They lectured Sri Lanka on solutions, alternate political systems, claims that the Tamil terrorists could never be defeated and therefore the only hope was for a negotiated settlement based on the terrorists terms which they supported. Believing that the terrorists could not be defeated, the west never considered a military solution in Sri Lanka although in Afghanistan and Iraq it is a massive military effort which has resulted in hundreds of thousand civilians being killed and displaced with no talk of negotiations, investigations and war crimes allegations even though there is mounting evidence to support investigations of war crimes. Though decades of negotiation sponsored by the west had failed in Sri Lanka, these western countries wanted a negotiated settlement to what was a terrorist problem. When the leadership of the Tamil terrorists were surrounded by the Sri Lankan forces, Mrs. Hillary Clinton of the U.S. issued a statement calling for a pause by the Sri Lankan military and negotiations while the U.S. was attempting to evacuate the terrorist leadership. The question is,would she do the same if the U.S. forces surround the leadership of the Taliban or Al Quaeda? Why does the U.S. not follow the advice they gave Sri Lanka and negotiate with the Taliban and Al Quaeda? This is the duplicity of the west ably supported by the INGOS who they fund. Today, these same countries are clutching at straws and attempting to make a case for war crimes in the final phase of the war in Sri Lanka and it appears that even though there is no evidence, you have joined them with your unsubstantiated insinuations. It is a disappointment.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I refer you to the statement made by the Japanese Peace Envoy Mr. Akashi who was a prominent member of the group who led the peace negotiations on Sri Lanka and therefore had a much more detailed knowledge on Sri Lanka than you seem to have, who this week said ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-it is not for other governments or international organizations to dictate to Sri Lanka as to what it should be doing in the highly complicated and sensitive area of post war reconciliation”. I suggest that you disassociate yourself from the INGO’s who are being well paid to discredit Sri Lanka and follow Mr. Akashi’s advice.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Yours truly,

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Ira de Silva
London, Ontario, Canada