Asada M Erpini

Kumar Moses in his post on February 13^th, 2012 in Lankaweb has pointed out the origin of the figure of the 40,000 Tamil civilian deaths that apparently occurred in the Sri Lanka liberation war of 2009. The fabrication clearly has been conceived in February 2009, a few months before the armed forces of Sri Lanka annihilated the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”invincibleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ LTTE leadership and its top ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”commandersƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ who were bogged down in the Nandikadal marshes, their Western backers not coming soon enough to extricate them.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ One may also point out that the UN Office in Colombo at the time had said that 7000 civilians had got killed, but had added the important proviso that the figure could not be verified, and for that reason, it was not releasing the figure as official. Gordon Weiss who was the UN spokesman in Colombo mentioned a figure of 20,000 killed, obviously based on figures unverifiable to his parent institution, but ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” lo and behold ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” on arrival in his native Australia, with his book The Cage hatching in his mind, he obligingly escalated the figure to 40,000. And, for everyone except those who want facts, the 40,000 figure remains the Gospel truth as far as the number of ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”innocent TamilsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ killed by the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”maraudingƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ armed forces of Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Prof. Rohan Gunaratne, in his lecture, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Challenges of Post Conflict Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ given at the KDU Symposium 2011, emphasised the need for establishing a diaspora division to counter the propaganda of the LTTE international network against Sri Lanka. The government of Sri Lanka or the civilian groups that detest the anti-Sri Lanka venom that continues to be spewed by the LTTE rump and their backers should implement such a mechanism as a high priority measure: the release of the LTTE stamps that the authorities in Canada, Norway and France have been enticed to issue is ample evidence of the subtle, and apparently harmless, steps for which the LTTE can spend its US $300 million annual income.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There is no need to go finger pointing at various institutions or individuals in the government machinery for not doing what was needed. Suffice it to say that we, the Sri Lankan nation, lagged far behind the LTTE diaspora conglomerate in at least conditioning the outside world to have an open mind when it came to matters of crucial importance to the integrity and sovereignty of the country. The fact that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which wields enormous power in Sri Lanka and visibility in international circles, but can claim as representing less than 4% of the population, is ample testimony to the lethargy and the somnolence of the rest, especially those among the Sinhala majority that constitutes nearly three fourths of the inhabitants in the country.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The LTTE, of course, has its vast wealth and some of the best brains – educated in Sri Lanka at government expense ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” domiciled in the far corners of the world to present its case. These two factors helped it to transform the UNƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s unverifiable figure of 7000 dead in the final stages of the war to the 40,000 civilians massacred by the armed forces, khaki-clad unidentifiable humans shooting fair-skinned males in recordings full of technical inconsistencies to unmistakeable evidence of soldiers of the Sri Lankan army killing captured Tamil prisoners (in the UK Channel 4 ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Killing FieldsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚), and a report by the UN Secretary GeneralƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s handpicked three-member team – although the objectivity of the members as regards Sri Lanka was open to question – to a UN Report that had received credible evidence of the government soldiers deliberately targeting civilians and hospitals, killing tens of thousands.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka has ample resources of individuals who are competent and ready to contribute their skills to an institution that is genuinely interested in presenting the true picture of the country to the rest of world. The LTTE has had free rein so far, almost unchallenged, because of the absence of a coherent and coordinated mechanism, which most importantly, could be accepted as objective and unbiased by the readers and TV audiences. The head start that such a body would get is that it does not have to create myths or concoct history: presenting fact is more than adequate.