Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada

URGENT

Mr. Scott Reid, Conservative MP for Frontenac-Lennox and Addington, Ontario
The Chair
House of Commons
41^st PARLIAMANT , 2^nd  SESSION
Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

 

Dear, Mr. Scott Reid:

Re:  Contents of Evidence of Thursday, November 21, 2013

During the last couple of days I have read the evidence that you had sought out mainly from accusers of Human Rights violations in Sri Lanka during the last phase of the 27-year long  bloody ‘Eelam’ war which ended militarily on 19 May 2009.

I note that you have cast your net wide over the salt-waters, to seek such evidence, and I read with concern and despair that the evidence sought were primarily from critics who base their arguments on unsubstantiated allegations.  Any one who has been following this issue, will quite rightly as I would, categorize, Mr. Callum McRae, Mr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, Prof. David Petrasak, Ms. Frances Harrison and Senator Hon. Hugh Segal, as dispassionate ‘one-sided critics’ of Sri Lanka for having won the Eelam War and stopped the killings of innocent civilians by the most ruthless terrorists in the world, the Tamil Tigers.

Now that you have cast your net far and wide to seek the truth on this issue, I hope you will be honest in your search for the truth and hear the other side of the story, for you and your committee to make a final judgment on this painful and sordid issue and write your report of your conclusions.

As such, I propose the following names, from whom I guarantee you will hear a honest opinion on this issue.

Ms. Shenali Waduge (Sri Lanka): who is a Sri Lankan civil society researcher and writer who is concerned about fair play in all matters concerning citizens of her country and the world and has written reams on this issue which have been published for public consumption.  She is a must.

Dr. (Ms.) Asoka Bandarage (US): Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute, Washington, DC., US, and author of The Separatist Conflict in Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political Economy. London Routledge, 2010.

Mr. Douglas Wickramaratne (UK): President of Sinhala Association, UK, and a political activist on Sri Lanka’s Tamil-Eelam War who has participated in several panel discussions at public meetings and on Television;

Mr. Gomin Dayasiri (Sri Lanka): Lawyer who has an excellent understanding of Sri Lanka’s Constitution, and its acts he has challenged in court.

Mr. H.L.Don Mahindapala (Australia): former Editor of the Sunday Observer of Sri Lanka, a honest and a respected journalist with a lot of experience on the subject who has written extensively on this issue; and finally

Mr. Malinda Seneviratne (Sri Lanka); the Editor-in-Chief of The Nation in Sri Lanka.  An honest journalist with a clinical eye and mind who has covered the war on the ground and has written extensively as he saw it.

Mr. Chair, the call is yours to prove to Canadians and the world that your concluding report to Parliament is a fool-proof and a honest one and not an act of impunity to satisfy the 300,000 Canadian-Tamils who have the votes as their pawns to get the story twisted like a pretzel and biased supporting their cause to divide Sri Lanka to establish their mono-ethnic, racist, separate Tamil state, Eelam.  If you need the e-mail addresses of the proposed names, I will be glad to provide them with their permission to contact them.

My hunch is that these sittings that you sought were to be used pointedly to browbeat Sri Lanka.  The evidence gathered by these Sri Lanka accusers, will no doubt, be used to build up support  for the UNHRC to have an international probe into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka during the last five months of the 27-year long war  which was surreptitiously aided and abetted by India, Norway and Canada, to name a few countries.

With this preamble permit me to share my observations on one of your presenters at the hearing.  It was a hard choice as all of them do call for comments from my observations, and since I have  very limited time to spare I have chosen to deal with the Executive Director of the   mainly Western  institutions funded Centre for Policy Alternatives in Sri Lanka, Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu’s testimony.

He had said much, and all had a negative impact on Sri Lanka.  He had nothing positive or good to say about Sri Lanka, and that makes his honesty suspect, as much, much good has happened in the North and East of Sri Lanka since the end of the war.  And I will take a statement by statement  of his on Sri Lanka where I see fit to make my observations known to you which  will conclude  with a definite bold Mail-box Red question mark.

1.       Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, displays his contempt and displeasure about Sri Lanka by saying – “When one looks at the situation in Sri Lanka with regard to human rights, one key feature comes to mind.  That’s the notion that Sri Lanka, as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and formally functioning democracy, albeit with flaws, is under serious threat at present.   The directions of the threat are institutionalized militarization, the near collapse of the rule of law, and the culture of impunity with respect to human rights violations and rising religious intolerance.”

 The “institutionalized Militarization” of the North is what Dr. Saravanamuttu seems to be concerned about.

Trying to support the cause of the Tamil dream, he is a Tamil, which goes back to the 1930s, to have their own mono-ethnic, separate, racist Tamil state, Eelam, he deliberately and conveniently left out the genuine concerns of Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa who has the prime responsibility to see that there won’t be another 30 year long war with the Tamil separatists.  As the President of the island nation he has the supreme responsibility to keep the sovereign unitary status of that island nation in tact.  That was his election mandate.  And as President of the island nation, to see that the Tamil separatist terrorists will not raise up their ugly heads again to hijack the right-to-life of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people, as they did for 30 years, when  likely  claymore mines and suicide bombs will go off willy-nilly at street corners during rush hours, under seats of transport buses and trains, killing scores of innocent civilians blowing them to smithereens as it happened before the world’s most ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists were eliminated on 19 May 2009.   That was the culture of the day then, and he is determined not to let that happen again.   And that humanitarian clause in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s determination to guard the sovereignty of the island nation and its peoples by having the presence of his army in the north shouldn’t be a cause for Dr. Saravanamuttu to penalize President Mahinda Rajapaksa by rubbishing him in front of you and your committee.  Dr. Saravanamuttu has a habit of plane-hopping to foreign countries as he came  to Canada last Novbember to complain to you all, rubbishing President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government. It is not kosher.  It is not cricket.

Let me be candid about his country-hopping  anti-Sri Lanka mission.   Dr. Saravanamuttu could only do this   because he is enjoying the luxury of living in a working democracy.  Or else he would have been picked up  on his return at the Colombo airport  long time ago and put behind bars for treason, or having his head chopped off for the very reason.  He is aware of it.  That is the point we all keep missing, that Sri Lanka is a working democracy with warts and all.   It is no different from Canada’s working democracy with entitlement scandals like that of the Harb-Wallin-Duffy-Brazeau affair which is badgering the Canadians.  Like the robocall cheats to elect parliamentarians.  What’s the difference, may I ask you, between Sri Lanka and Canada?    I don’t see any difference at all.  Do you?

What Dr. Saravanamuttu did not tell you all is that every morning before the Tamil Tiger terrorists were vanquished, when the working adults were getting on to buses and trains to get to work made the sign of the cross and placed their palms together in prayer wanting to come home after work to their loved ones in one piece and not in a wooden casket in a sewn up puzzle of arms and limbs, with a blood clotted heart pinned to the chest area and so forth.   Militarization of the North Dr. Saravanamuttu complained to you all.   And not to let the above happen again is why the military is present in the north and elsewhere in the island.  And I consider it a good enough reason.  Remember how Canada had its similar moments during the October crisis in 1970 when we met a soldier with an assault rifle on the ready to shoot at every street corner in Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City?  This is a reality when terrorists are on the prowl sneaking from behind to get you with a bomb, hand grenade or a bullet.

 Why worry as the war is over and not a single bomb have been detonated since 19 May 2009?  You may ask.

That is easy to answer. Although the war is over in Sri Lanka, the war had been continuing abroad, like in Canada by the Tamil Tiger rump collecting funds and busy sowing the seeds of separation and lobbying the parliamentarians like you. And you having these exploratory meetings with anti-Sri Lanka accusers how to get at Sri Lanka is one of the salvos  that will be shot from Canada  on their behalf to destroy the much earned peace in Sri Lanka.  That’s why.

Well, I doubt, President Rajapaksa can sleep on his laurels for eliminating the most ruthless Tamil Tiger terrorists in the world and drop his guard, when Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister, Jayalalitha has been   and still is threatening to invade the North of Sri Lanka.  When the Chief Minister, a Tamil,  of the North Provincial Council in Sri Lanka, the former Supreme Court Justice W.K.Vigneswaran during the Nallur Festival  held on September 2013 did not mince  his words when he said that the Tamils will have to take up arms again, if they did not get what they want.   And that was a serious   threatening war-cry that cannot be ignored by President Mahinda Rajapaksa.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Militarization Militaraization of North, Dr. Saravanamuttu complained to you all.  That is why.  This accuser obviously doesn’t understand why the North has soldiers.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot drop his guard against the unfriendly giant neighbour when he remembers well enough how India to intimidate Sri Lanka flew five  jet-screaming Mirage 2000s at a low altitude  across Sri Lanka’s northern sky escorting five Anatov  32 Transport planes  violating Sri Lanka’s airspace to drop 25 tonnes of parippu (red lentils) to feed 800,000 Tamils in the Jaffna Peninsula.  It was the Indian  Big Bully Boy way of an uncalled humanitarian gesture wanting to feed every Tamil  in the north with 20 grains of lentils not enough even to make even  a cup of lentil soup.  It happened on 4 June 1987 designated Operation Poomala and not a single western country, including Canada, protested this international violation of Sri Lanka’s skies by Bully India.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa is no fool, when he knows that India, Sri Lanka’s unfriendly neighbour, is the world’s largest importer of arms today.  These include fighter jet planes, missiles and radar systems for strategic partnerships and geo-political power in the Asian continent. And that the giant neighbour could try to intimidate Sri Lanka again with its jet planes flying over Sri Lanka’s sky and parking war ships outside Colombo’s international waters, as they did in June 1987 to scare the jeepers out of Sri Lanka’s then President in support of the Northern Tamils separatist cause.

A report from Stockholm’s International Peace Research Institute, March 14, 2011, revealed that India received 9% of the volume of International arms transfers during 2006 to 2010.  This International consultancy firm KPMG estimates that India will sign military contracts worth $112 billion by 2016.    With this military backdrop that is shadowing Sri Lanka, Dr. Saravamuttu is complaining to you all, that there is militarization of the North of Sri Lanka.      Now you all know why this is so courtesy of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.     Make sense, doesn’t it?

But militarization of a sovereign country shouldn’t be anyone’s business outside that particular nation.    And I sincerely hope that Sri Lanka will keep its nose out of Canada’s “Northern Strategy” and the militarization of the Arctic.   Why is it that Canada can do it but Sri Lanka shouldn’t?  Does it reflect on the size of the two nations?  Or is it because there are over 100,000 Tamil votes at stake in the Greater Toronto Area where nine ridings depend on these Tamil votes.  I don’t understand.  Do you?

Canada seems to be guarding the sovereignty of its Arctic North, and so is Sri Lanka guarding the sovereignty of Sri Lanka’s North.  And both countries are claiming their rights to militarize their North to protect their sovereignty.  So Canada should keep its nose out of Sri Lanka’s business in guarding its North which is vulnerable being just 24 salt-water miles away from the unfriendly military giant, India.

As you and I know, and perhaps Dr. Saravanamuttu does not know is that one of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s important goals on his recent visit to the Arctic was to promote Operation Nanook, an annual Arctic military operation since 2007, destined to reinforce Canada’s sovereignty in the North.   So why this irresponsible hypocrisy not wanting Sri Lankans to reinforce her sovereignty in her North by having its military at full force there.   Beats me!

And then, as I mentioned earlier, there is another troubling factor that has come to play  recently which cannot be ignored by Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  It was on 16^th September 2013 when the Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister, former Justice of the Supreme Court V.K.Vigneswaran, said, “Opportunities might arise to resort to arms again…”  That is a serious statement, and the Sri Lankan Army better be ready  with their assault rifles on the draw to take on that challenge in the North, whether Dr. Pakiasorthy Saravanamuttu doesn’t like it or not, and the Canadian Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development is unhappy about it.   It is a tough call for the President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  But then he cannot abdicate his vested responsibility by a  popular democratic vote to guard the sovereignty  and its 22 million peoples of that island nation, amidst the unnecessary and unfair interference into his business how to govern his country by outsiders like Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Foreign Minister John Baird and his Parliamentary Secretary Deepak Obhrai.  And that is the rub, Mr. Chair. And there is nothing nebulous about it. It is as clear as the red maple lying on the snow-white canvas of our national flag.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa also cannot ignore the fact that when the North and East coasts were not militarized during the Scandinavian sponsored Ceasefire Agreement Period between 2002 and 2006, the Tamil Tigers sneaked in 11 ship loads of sophisticated arms through the eastern Mullaitivu coast.   And that prolonged the war much longer.   President Rajapaksa will make sure that incident will not happen again.  So the North is militarized to save the lives of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people   And that includes this jet-setting, Sri Lanka dumping, Colombo residing elitist Dr. Pakiasorthy Saravanamuttu.   He should be thankful to President Mahinda Rajapaksa for that concern for him and his Tamil people.

You had now heard the Tamil Truth of the militarization of the North by Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu.   Now you should listen to the Sri Lankan FACT recited by the Sinhalese-Canadian Asoka Weerasinghe on the “Militarization of the North”.

 * The army’s presence in the North during the thick of the war in 2007 was 43,000 soldiers strong (And that is a FACT).  When Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe took over the Jaffna command in December 2009, the strength of the army in the North was reduced to 26,400 soldiers (And that is a FACT).   By September 2013, they brought it down to 13,100 soldiers (And that is a FACT).

 * The post-war role of the army in the North and East was to clear over 1.5 million land mines buried by the Tamil Tigers, build houses, schools, cleaning wells, building medical dispensaries, farms and even manicuring gardens. (And that is a FACT).

 * By September 2013, the army had built 1,883 houses for the displaced Tamils in the North (And that is a FACT).

 * By September 2013, the Army soldiers had donated about 300 pints of blood every month to the Jaffna hospital, which was about 80 per cent of the monthly requirement of the hospital. (And that is a FACT).

 * By September 2013, some houses in the Point Pedro in the Northern Province were being returned to the original Tamil owners.  More than 700 houses and 21,000 acres of land had been returned to the original Tamil owners.  These were previously occupied by the Army and the Tamil Tigers. (And that is a FACT).

 * By September 2013 towards the Army’s Hearts and Minds Operation, they had handed over 10,000 scholarships for the Tamil youth.  They have seminars for the GCE A & O level students.  And they have a crab-packing factory for the ex-combatants (And that is a FACT).

 It has been disingenuous of Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu not  to point the positive efforts by the Army to upgrade the quality of life of the Tamil community which was shattered by the Tamil Tigers for 30 years   So what is Dr Pakiasorthy Saravanamuttu’s problem, may I ask?

 You quite correctly may ask me, surely all this labour intensive work, building houses et cetera could be handled by the local Tamils, and why should the army get involved?  There is a very simple and an accurate reason for it.

After the July 1983 riots, when all the flood gates of western countries, like Canada were thrown wide open, scores of thousands of Tamils took flight from their Sri Lanka’s cuckoo’s nests by-passing their legitimate Mother country – Mother India, in search of greener pastures.  From a population of 12.6 % in 1983, the Tamil population dropped in a landslide to 3.9% by 2010 (Global Watch).  In that pack of Tamils, among the doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, gold jewellery merchants, were also roofers, masons, brick layers, gardeners,  Curry chefs, road sweepers, toddy tappers, green chilli farmers, credit card scammers, human smugglers, car collision insurance frauds,  passport forgers,  paranoid psychotic politicians and aspirants. And Canada got its  well deserved quota.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government had no time to waste to train these house builders, et cetera, as there was an urgent need to give back to the Tamils their  comfortable lives which their own people, the Tamil Tigers,  hijacked and deprived them   for 30 long years.  That’s why, and it has worked like a charm.   Why is Dr. Saravanamuttu so concerned about militarization of the North?    Let me repeat, they are there for the security of the country, and anything else is a bonus for the Tamils and the puny island nation. Questioning the military presence is disingenuous and silly.   I smell a rat here.

 He did not admit to you and your Committee that the Tamil Diaspora, other than sowing seeds of separation  wanting to divide the island nation into two, have done zip,  have done zero, have done nada, have done naught to improve the quality of life of their  people in the North of Sri Lanka.   Not even laid a brick or a tile to start building a house for the displaced Tamil. And that is shocking.  That is unacceptable in a civilized society.   Is it all what they can do?  Rubbish and complain about Sri Lanka that gave them an education from the kindergarten through  to University without having to pay a single cent or a rupee?

   And that is a reality check for you and your committee.  With these revelations of FACTS, I sincerely ask you all to dismiss his evidence, or at lease accept them with a pinch salt until you hear the evidence of the persons that I have suggested that you invite for a Subcommittee hearing.

 Since my response is becoming a lengthy thesis just to alert you all that this accuser of Sri Lanka has been taking you and your committee on a tour of  his “I Gotch Ya, Sri Lanka’s,  Fairy Tales Land”, permit me to respond, perhaps a couple  more accusations against Sri Lanka by Dr. Saravanamuttu and conclude my “partial response”.

•  Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu in his brief to you all complained about “….and formally functioning democracy, albeit with flaws, is under serious threat at present.”  I would dismiss that outrageous notion outright as piffle.

This good Doctor keeps hopping continents and in an act of treason rubbish President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his government and that island’s democracy.   Then he returns to his home in Sri Lanka being quite sure that he is living in a working democracy and not fearing that he would be handcuffed on the tarmac and put behind bars until he defends his reasons in front a judge for rubbishing the Sri Lanka’s President and his Government at international Human Rights palavers.

This Good  doctor returns home, gets off the plane knowing damn well that he is living in a working democracy and will  not be taken by the army or police, produced in front of a kangaroo court for legitimacy that he has been given a fair trial  before his head his chopped off for treason.   Mr. Chair, he knows alright that he is living in a working democracy.

This good Doctor says that Sri Lanka’s democracy is in serious threat.   That is a load of poppy-cock.  Was he not aware that the North had its first democratic election of their Provincial Councillors on September 21, 2013, after almost three decades when the Tamil Tigers would not allow the Tamil people to go to the ballot box and vote.  The one Tamil who defied their edict got his fingers chopped off.  (And all these are FACTS).

With such unhealthy, anti-Sri Lanka, disingenuous piffle, Dr. Pakiasorthy Saravanamuttu’s western influenced brief should be dismissed as suspect.

The good Doctor in his brief says “….The military is involved in the economy.  It is involved in the educational sphere, where school principals are inducted into the national cadet corps, where security on university campuses is in the hands of the military…”

Let me deal with his complaint about “…where principals are inducted into the national cadet corps.”  He gives the impression that the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is forcing (inducting) the school principals into the Cadet Corp. That is a bit sleazy which has a taste of anti-Sri Lanka bitterness.

I am not sure whether the good Doctor Saravanamuttu during his College days was a member of his College Cadet Corps.    I was in the early 1950s at a leading Buddhist College in Colombo.  I was a corporal in the Junior Cadet Corp and captained the rifle team at the Boosa camp   competing with other rifle teams from cadet corps of other colleges. I was  also a private in the Senior Cadet Corp and attended camp at Diyatalawa.  It was the Head Master of the Middle School at College who was in charge of the Junior Cadet Corps, and it is nothing unusual for a head of a school to be in charge of the cadet corps.

The School Cadet Corps in Sri Lanka, is a throw back from the British colonials schooling system which goes back to 1881, in the then Ceylon, and is attached to the National Cadet Corps.  The first Cadet Battalion was formed at Royal College, Colombo,  then which was attached to the  Ceylon Army’s, Ceylon Light Infantry.

This was a highly competitive extra-curricular activity among the leading Colleges from Colombo, Kandy and Galle, et cetra and we competed for a prestigious big championship trophy at annual Cadet camps.

If the Principal of a College is the best leader/trainer to produce the best cadet battalion to bring home that prestigious trophy, so be it, and he will train and lead the college cadet battalion as it fits his schedule.

So let’s not get too excited about a Principal being “inducted” to a College Cadet Corp just because Dr. Saravanamuttu tries to stick everything moving under Sri Lanka’s sun as a negative impacting on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka.   I think it was a bit mischievous of Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu to try that stunt.

I truly wish that I had sufficient time to spare to place my observations on paper, but unfortunately I don’t.

The continuation would have produced an exciting thesis – The Sad Voices of the Anti–Sri Lankan International Operatives: Their Fiction is not Truth.

 And my last appeal to you, Chair, is to be fair on Sri Lanka, and invite the persons that I had recommended to hear their side of the story on this issue.   It would be revealing.

And as a final note let me tell you truthfully that I don’t hold a candle to the Sri Lankan Government or to anyone who makes up that Government. I just do not know them at all.   But what I do know is that I am romancing with that beautiful island  nation and its peoples, which includes every Tamil sans the Tamil Tiger terrorists and Tamil separatists,  who decided to stay put in the island when all the troubles began in July 1983, and not fly out of their cuckoo’s nests searching for greener pastures.

I must admit that my Mission is to see that no one, and it does not matter who it is, will not hurt my Mother country unfairly, that nurtured me with love and kindness for the first 19-years of my life. And that is the bottom line.

I thank you for finding time to read my unsolicited  ‘partial’ brief of my observations, on Dr. Pakiasorthy Saravanamuttu’s  presentation to you all.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)

1. Nina Grewal MP,  David Sweet MP, Wayne Marston MP,  Rathika Sitsabaeisen MP, Irwin Cotler MP, Gary Schellenberger MP, Pierre Jacob MP, Senator Hugh Segal