Who killed whom in Sri Lanka?
Posted on January 3rd, 2014

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Bruce Haig, former deputy High Commissioner of Australia to Sri Lanka, is back again doing what he normally does: demonizing Sri Lanka, his bªte noir. (Canberra Times – 2/1/2014) This time he is quoting the Second Session of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka which sat in Bremen in December 2013. He is a part of the lobby that regurgitates today what the Tamil propagandists had said yesterday.

According to Haig, the Peoples’ Tribunal report consists of ex-parte statements of thirty witnesses without being cross-checked for veracity.  This is not the first time that reports of this nature have come out against Sri Lanka. Even the notorious  report presented by the anti-Sri Lankan Darusman to the UN Secretary-General consisted of accusations based on ex-parte statements. Evidence to be credible must be verifiable. The easiest tactic to demonize anyone is to produce ex-parte reports.

The main charge is that the Government of Sri Lankan (GOSL) has been, and continues to be, engaged in “genocidal ” attacks on the Tamils, which Haig compares to Nazi elimination of Jews.  Though he is  high on rhetoric he is very low on substance. He has failed to substantiate his charge that the GOSL acted like the Nazis  in exterminating the Tamils. The facts deny his jaundiced view of Sri Lanka.

First, in May 2009 and a global audience witnessed the exodus on prime time global TV nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians fleeing the fascist grip of Tamil Tigers  and running into the arms of the Sri Lankan Security Forces.  The hapless Tamil civilians who were used as a human shield to protect Velupillai Prabhakaran, the internationally banned Tiger terrorist, without food, water, medicine or shelter in the last months of war in 2009, were rescued by the Sri Lankan forces and provided with the basic essentials for survival. Prabhakaran’s fascist terror led the New York Times  (May 25, 1995), to brand him as the  “the latest Pol Pot of Asia”.

Second, the entire Tamil leadership in the democratic mainstream were eliminated physically by “the Tamil Pol Pot” on the basis that there can’t be two tigers in the same mountain.

Third, even at the height of the war (from 1976 – 2009) the Sri Lankan government provided free education, health, medical and other basic essential for the survival of Tamil civilians who were lived under “the Tamil Pol Pot’s” regime. Mr. Haig was the deputy high commissioner in Sri Lanka in the nineties and he would have known this fact if he was doing his  job with due diligence.

Fourth, elections were held in September 2013 restoring to the Tamil civilians the right to elect their own administration for the first time in the  history of the northern region dominated by the Tamils.

Fifth, over 2,000 Tamil policemen and women have been appointed to protect the Tamil population.

Sixth, to meet the charge of “genocide” the Government held a census in the north and the east to assess the amount of human losses/disappearances. The census was conducted by Tamil teachers and public servants in the north and the east. And the figure, calculated under UN recommended rules for census, was around 8,000 – slightly higher than the original figure of 7,000 odd estimated by Gordon Weiss when he was the UN representative in Colombo. Without anybody having counted the figures Weiss jacked it up to 40,000 after he decided to write his book in Australia.

There is another census in progress right now to cross-check the figures of the first census and also to get a broader picture of the losses in the north and the east.

The accusation of “genocide” is based on a fictitious figure of 40,000 killed in the last five months of the war in 2009. But the verifiable statistics give the lie to the exaggerated figures touted by the likes of Haig and Weiss.

Besides, there were two parties to the war in the north. Can Weiss and Haig tell us whose bullet killed whom? If 40,000 died on their calculations can they tell us who counted the bodies for them? The Tiger  terrorists were shooting at point blank range even the Tamils who were fleeing into the arms of the Security forces. Their suicide bombers infiltrated the queues of Tamils waiting to be counted at the Army checkpoints and blasted the escapees.

So can Haig and Weiss tell us how many of the 40,000 were killed by the Tigers and how many were killed by the Security Forces? Also who is responsible for the killings when the “Tamil Pol Pot” refused to lay down arms and negotiate even after the Norwegian negotiators appealed to them to save lives by ending the war?

10 Responses to “Who killed whom in Sri Lanka?”

  1. Senevirath Says:

    we need a leader like Putin to teach them a lesson . thanks mahinda for all u have done, but now there are more things to be done

  2. Lorenzo Says:

    Putin is a former KGB agent. That is why he shows SOME backbone.

    SL will not have a leader like him UNLESS the military takes over and changes the constitution.

  3. Dr Romesh Senewiratne Says:

    The LTTE apologist Bruce Haigh has shared the stage with the Tamil Tiger propagandist Sam Pari (Sampavi Parimanathan) in Sydney and Canberra. This was back in 2008, and it is clear that he was intent of demonizing the government and people of Sri Lanka. The speech below is from an LTTE-front You Tube site (SilLankaStopGenocide):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyYJLf1z54I&list=FLvuGeHJhdPkJMDne2-n-wTw&index=9

    This is Sam Pari from the same website (giving a speech under a giant poster of Prabakaran)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H08ip17LU8g

    And this, from the same website, shows Haigh, Pari and two other Australian LTTE apologists (Dr John Whitehall and John Dowd) at a forum in Canberra’s parliament house:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6MDDxm1Nvg

    These people should be held accountable for their blatant support of terrorism.

  4. Mr. Bernard Wijeyasingha Says:

    Though one should not ignore a fool one should not give relevance to his biased mutterings. Unless he can produce hard evidence backing his claim of genocide he should be told to leave Sri Lanka. Reverse the situation. If a high ranking Sri Lankan politician went to Australia to accuse the Australian government of past genocidal acts on the native aboriginals and the dismal state they continue to live by claiming that the native aboriginals are treated no better than chattel or slaves which would be a gross exaggeration of the reality of their outcast position in mainstream Australian culture, that Sri Lankan high ranking politician would be rudely and summarily put on the next plane to leave Australia and future visits from that person would be banned. That would be my conjecture on how the Australian government would deal with foreign dignitaries hell bent on slandering the Australian government on Australian soil.

    The question is why allow these foreign Tamil mouth piece to even enter the country when their motive is known? No nation that respects its honor, dignity and sovereignty would allow such slanderous attacks against its government on their soil. It would be positively treasonous. More powerful countries would even go as far as severing ties with that particular nation for sending such a high ranking government official to bad mouth the targeted nation without even with any facts to back it up. Just look at the row that is brewing between India and her only major ally the US for the treatment of one of her high ranking officials.

    I am glad this article has appeared regarding the unprofessional and rude conduct of this Australian politician but as I have read in previous articles Sri Lanka has a laundry list of things to do including doing away with amendment 13, making the national anthem sung in Sinhalese as a law to all Sri Lankans, of dealing with the invasion of Tamil Nadu fishermen, of forging stronger ties with more pragmatic and far more powerful nations in the region, of dismantling the TNA, of making access all of Sri Lanka to the Sinhalese population as it has been made for the Tamil population, of dealing harshly with foreign Tamil LITE cells and their leaders including assassinating them and above all of making Buddhism a state religion and by that politicizing the faith to play a pivotal role in nation building which has proved to be an effective tool to keep the culture intact as seen in so many Muslim nations.

    There is so much that needs to be done as quickly as possible if for no other reason than to win the race against the sinister plans of the Tamil Diaspora, the TNA and TESO. Idiots like Bruce Haig should be given 24 hours to leave Sri Lanka or face criminal charges of defaming a nation on that nation’s grounds. Once the pro Tamil nations get the message of the fate that faces them if they try similar antics in Sri Lanka it will allow them to cool their heels in their own nations where they have the full freedom to bad mouth Sri Lanka to their hearts content or until Sri Lanka has had it and closes their Embassy in Colombo for actively being an antagonistic nation to Sri Lanka as the Sri Lankans do what they have to do to “fortify the fortress called Sri Lanka” against divisionist forces from outside and from within.”

  5. Lorenzo Says:

    Talk of a presidential election in 2015 is spreading. UNP, JVP and Chandrika are getting ready to contest it as ONE FRONT.

    According to information reaching us, pro-UNP Sobitha Thero plans to contest it as an independent candidate (or support an independent laymen where Sobitha will be the FACE of the campaign) AGAINST corruption, violence, indecency in society.

    This way Sobitha will be able to DIVIDE the nationalist camp allowing UNP-JVP-CBK-TNA camp easy victory.

    This is why I said this SYSTEM has to change. IF MR leaves office it will be MUCH WORSE. Keeping MR is also not an option because MR will be REPLACED by a traitor one way or the other.

  6. Christie Says:

    I am sure Canberra Times is a Fairfux news paper. Faurfux has been infiltrated by the Indian intelligence service the Third Eye almost for fifty years or more.

  7. Marco Says:

    Mr. Bernard Wijeyasingha
    ..er ..Mr Bruce Haig left the Sri Lankan shores over 20 years ago having served as the Deputy High Commissioner of Australia during the time when HLDM ( DN Editor and snoop) was the henchman of the Premadasa Govt.
    Rest is history….anyone for Pizza?

  8. Lorenzo Says:

    This bloody terrorist Sambandan is spreading racism.

    “Veteran Sri Lankan Tamil Leader R Sampanthan on Saturday held discussions with CPI(M) state unit leaders.

    The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader discussed the “situation after elections to Northern provincial council in September” in Sri Lanka, problems faced by ethnic minorities and TNA’s stand on solutions to those problems, a CPI(M) statement said.

    Senior leaders of the state unit, including its secretary G Ramakrishnan, were present, it added.

    Mr. Sampanthan had earlier met state BJP leaders in October, urging India to press for the 13th Amendment to empower Tamils in the island nation.

    – the hindu

  9. SA Kumar Says:

    anyone for Pizza? Yes Please & Black two spoon !like it.

  10. cassandra Says:

    Bruce Haig’s track record is only too well known for us to be surprised with his latest comments. His cavalier attitude is again evident in his latest statement in which he says that “a tribunal of 11 eminent judges has unanimously found the Sri Lankan government guilty of the crime of genocide against ethnic Tamil people”

    ‘Eminent’ is a word people use very freely, and these 11 persons may well be eminent persons (even if none of them seems to be known internationally) but they certainly cannot be described as “eminent judges” or even “judges’ for that matter. I cannot see that they have the required legal or forensic qualifications to deserve such a description.

    But what I think is a matter for greater concern than BH’s intemperate statements, is how Sri Lanka and other countries are being bullied by inconsequential groups like the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT). Who or what we may ask is the PPT? Where does the PPT derive its authority from? Who’s given it a mandate to do what it is doing? What skills and credentials do its members possess? Whom does the PPT represent and to whom is it accountable?

    The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal is neither permanent, nor representative of the people nor a tribunal. It is just another international busy-body, part of the contemporary phenomenon of self important persons banding themselves under some fine sounding name and arrogating to themselves the role of arbiter of international good conduct. It is not unlike the International Crisis Group (ICG).

    What these groups are doing is trying to usurp the role and functions of the United Nations. I see no reason why sovereign, independent states should have to even bother about them. I believe SL should say to BH and the PPT, ‘Get lost’.

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