By Darmitha

It is not a new thing for us to hear untruths being uttered by the above evangelical ministry or their affiliates in the assumption that listeners are all fools. An advertisement or Announcement which appeared in the Sunday Leader (which is also known for their allegiance to AOG) of 25^th October 2009 is one such example. It is titled “A Special Stamp Issueing Ceremony in Honour of Evan.Prof. S. Rajedram on his 6^th Thanksgiving Memorial Service on 28^th October 09 at 10.00a.m.” The advertisement notice has been placed by his wife who goes as Rev.Prof. M.R. Rajendram, children and workers of the Ministry.

 Pastor Rajendram who during his lifetime professed that Jesus Lives Ministry could help cure illnesses through prayers used to bring bus loads of ignorant gullible people to Mattakkuliya for his prayer sessions. What is truly perplexing, is that neither he nor his wife(who is also a Female Pastor) with all their prayers could not save the life of Pastor Rajendram when he fell ill 6 years and had to succumb to his illness! However, they still use monetary allurements, to get people to come and profess how such people were cured through prayers in front of crowds. No wonder these groups attract mostly the uneducated and the ignorant.

 The advertisement/ notice in the Sunday Leader is very long and winded in its message to the readers. It states that the 6^th Memorial Thanksgiving Service will be held on 28^th October at 10.00 am and that on this day a special Commemorative Stamp will be issued by the Sri Lanka Government Postal Department. To (quote): ”From 1978 Brother committed his entire life to the True Divine God who delivered him from the darkness of death, and he had offered himself completely to God’s service……………………Therefore to Honor this Divine Man of God the Sri Lankan Government Postal Department is issueing this Commemorative Stamp and this is the first time in the history of Sri Lankan Christians an Evangelist is Honoured by Issueing a Commemorative Special Stamp. This is an honour given to the entire Christian society…………………………….”(end quote)

 The truth of the matter is quite contrary to what this message concocted by Pastor Mrs M.R.Rajendram makes it out to be which is totally misleading and a mischievous endeavour to give a wrong impression about the Sri Lanka Government Postal Department!

 We are aware that 2-3 years ago, Mrs.Rajendram attempted to get a Commemorative Stamp issued for her late husband but the attempt failed miserably and was shoved under the carpet. The attempts both in the past and present, is to legitimize Evangelical Christian movements in Sri Lanka and to portray the service done to the country which is anything but complementary! The uneducated ignorant poor people living in and around Colombo are being cheated by professing to be able to cure illnesses through prayer-these innocent people will never dare to question but will go along with the singing and dancing and the loud prayers. The Pastors of these Evangelical Ministries never have the honesty or the guts to reveal to the world at large how many unsuspecting patients have been killed with this tom foolery of singing and shouting accompanied by dancing without seeking the advise of a medical doctor!

 Commemorative Stamps in this country are issued by Sri Lanka Postal Department after taking into consideration a strict list of qualifications to deserve the honour of  such a stamp- it is not issued to honour personalities who have been living out of the misery of uneducated ignorant and innocent people. Unfortunately, Pastor S.Rajendram did not and does not fit into the criteria for which Commemorative Stamps are being issued by our Government. But ofcourse, Pastor Mrs. M.R.Rajendram cannot honestly and openly state this to her congregation and others who are out there whom the Jesus Lives Ministry is hoping to attract into their fold! She is desperately attempting to legitimize Evangelical cult movements in Sri Lanka by stating falsehoods in the newspaper notice/advertisement. Most of us, are not at all surprised by this devious or dubious methods.

 To enlighten readers the writer will explain what this so called “Commemorative Stamp” is all about so that you yourself will be able to decide for yourself the truth of the matter and also decide on how the Jesus Lives Ministry must be hoodwinking their congregations through their prayers! 

• It is not a postal stamp. In the professional arena of stamps this stamp that is being issued, is what is called “A Label” or a “Personalized Stamp” and there is no monetary value printed on it. Therefore, this cannot be used as a postal stamp;
• This kind of “ Personalized Stamp” or “Label” has been introduced by the Postal Department during the “Deyate Kirula” programme very recently;
• No “First Day Covers” are issued on behalf these “Labels” or “Personalized Stamps” & therefore, it cannot be considered a “Commemorative Stamp” as is made out by Mrs. Rajendram;
• One sheet of stamps will have any denomination of  09 postal stamps printed  together with  09 of these “Labels” or “Personalized Stamps” (depicting Pastor Rajendram)  and this sheet will be issued only to the Applicant at the rate of Rs.500/= per sheet;
• The Postal Department considers this as an additional source of income for the Department;
• Anyone who wishes to print such “Labels” or “Specialized Stamps” can do so by making a request to the Director of the Philatelic Bureau. The Director has the final authority to accept or reject such a request;

 The above “Labels” are seen quite often in most countries and it is of no commercial value whatsoever except that it is merely treated like scraps that we used when we were schooling in the good old days.

 Therefore, when Mrs. Rajendram’s advertisement / notice states in bold font “..Therefore, to Honor this Divine man of God the Sri Lankan Postal Department is issueing this Commemorative Stamp, and this is the First time in the history of Sri Lankan Christians an Evangelist is Honoured by issueing a Commemorative Special Stamp” there is a grave and strong attempt at even insulting the good offices of the Postal Department without their knowledge by making the readers believe that this is a postage stamp which it is not! It is merely a “Label” with absolutely no commercial value to it and which cannot be used to post even a Post Card.

 We do not need to go into other details of how the followers of Jesus Lives Ministry are being deceived all the time, when Mrs. Rajendram does not mind using her late husband’s name as “a dishonest commercial ploy “- what more can we expect from such people or such religious cults which is what they are known as in other western countries.

 It is sad that Orthodox Christian Church groups  in Sri Lanka are also being vilified and insulted with this kind of dishonesty and tom foolery –ALL IN THE NAME OF GOD!

By Darmitha

Interesting developments are taking place around the world in western & Christian circles in the name of humanitarianism in relation post-LTTE war in Sri Lanka which reveals how much they are still licking the wounds of defeat at the hands of Sri Lankan Combined Armed Forces. Now the biggest issue that all of them are fighting for is the release of all held in the IDP camps in Sri Lanka, it is not too difficult to see the “double-tongued” slogans that are being doled out to justify their agitations.

 For thirty years Sri Lanka as a country and Sri Lankans living in this country have been subject to the most brutal and inhumane treatment at the hands of LTTE terrorists; Tamil civilians living in the North and East never for a moment had an opportunity to live a normal life; children were not permitted to lead normal lives by gaining an uninterrupted education; university education in the North and East were constantly disrupted due to the brutality of these terrorists against students and the academia; Tamil parents were living in constant fear not knowing whether their children who left for school in the mornings would ever return home or end up as members of the Children’s Brigade of the LTTE; civilians who traveled by public transport never knew whether they would reach their destinations or end up as fragmented pieces of flesh due to land mines or bombs-which ever the terrorists opted to use to terrorize the citizens of this country- during all this, not one western country or humanitarian organization or Christian Church ever thought it fit to demand from the LTTE that all atrocities must stop for people to return to normalcy! The UNICEF, The UN, UNDP, Pastors of Evangelical Christian Cults, Reverend Fathers of the Catholic Church even went to the extent of aiding and abetting with the terrorists by transporting landmines, suicide kits, turned a blind eye while terrorists buried the entire backyards of the Church of Our Lady of Madhu with landmines and sane minded people in this country wonder whether this was done in the name of sanity and humanitarianism for the welfare of Sri Lanka?

 Thanks to the excellent coordination of our Combined Forces this brutal outfit was annihilated & people would expect the entire world to rejoice at this unparalleled victory. However, we now see these most humanitarian organizations and religious organizations making a frantic effort to stand in the way of the Government of Sri Lanka by coming out with various demands on the speed with which inmates of IDP camps must be released (with the hope ofcourse, that hidden LTTE terrorists would also escape) and are hoping against hope, that the systematic programme being implemented to scrutinize the inmates while releasing the innocent could be toppled to reach their own agendas of pampering the remaining LTTE sympathizers around the world.

 According to Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of The Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict stating  “It has been a terrible year for children living in situations of armed conflict around the world. Ferocious conflicts in Gaza, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan have led to high casualty rates and the displacement of a large number of people especially children.” How true? Has Radhika Coomaraswamy in her desperate concern for the victims of armed conflict ever deemed it fit to question the arms manufacturing countries in the western world why they manufacture weapons of mass destructions to cause such suffering in the countries she herself has mentioned above? If not for these weapons, there would be no conflict- isn’t it so? Has she ever raised the question with UN Secretary-General as to why he is still procrastinating without uniting the two Koreas      (North and South) and enabling families which are divided for over 40 years over one land mass to be united with their blood relations? One race of Koreans are separated by a barrier some families have not seen their brethren or communicated with them for 3-4 decades & may we ask whether this is humanitarian? Who is keeping them apart? For what earthly reason, are they prevented from uniting? It is hilarious to read the concluding statement of Radhika Coomaraswamy when she states “The nature of conflict is changing and civilians are increasingly on the frontline. The toll on children is more brutal than ever. All parties to conflict should make every effort to better protect children and to make protection of civilians an integral part of military planning” – how wonderfully philosophical! We do wish that she could have had the guts to ask this from Velupillai Prabhakaran before he met his waterloo because that would certainly have helped the children who are now in refugee camps thanks to him. The Sri Lankan Armed Forces never used children to sandwich them in between armed conflict but Prabhakaran thought it fit to deprive children of their childhood by forcing them to join Children’s Brigades while his own children enjoyed grand living in safer havens to complete their education.

 As reported by Reuters on 15^th September 2009(reported by Patrick Worsnip and edited by Philip Barbara) where it is stated “Lynn Pascoe, head of the UN political affairs department, told reporters he would set off on Tuesday, at the request of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who himself visited Sri Lanka in May, days after the separatist rebels (more appropriate would be to call them “terrorists”) were crushed.” According to Pascoe “ a whole range of human rights issues need to be discussed.”

 No international organization or country can be more concerned than Sri Lanka about the welfare of her own citizens and there is no country in the world that would not want to lead a normal life with peace for all but this is not possible due to the interference of vested interests of various western governments who fell that it is their God given right to throttle poorer countries with various demands until the conflicts built into ravaging wars. There is no mighty hurry for the Sri Lankan Government to listen to the dictates of other countries- countries who never helped to stop the war or made any attempt to dictate to the LTTE to stop their brutalities. Our problem must be solved by us, in a manner which is suitable to our country and all citizens living here. So it might be more decent for the UN to listen to our Government and help as and when help is sought, if the intention is truly to help our citizens.

 The Catholic Press weekly tabloid “ Messenger” of 13^th September 2009 carries on the front page a picture and short caption “ President receives an honorary degree from Emeritus Archbishop Oswild Gomis” in which it states “ The university of Colombo conferred honorary degrees on President Mahinda Rajapakse and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse at the postgraduate convocation held this week at the BMICH. The recipients received their honorary degrees, Doctor of Laws and Doctor of Letters respectively from Emeritus Archbishop Most Rev.Dr. Oswild Gomis who is Chancellor o the University of Colombo(courtesy of Daily Mirror).” A scanned picture of the ceremony is attached.

 The hypocrisy and timing is interesting indeed. This same Archbishop published page long advertisement messages together with Lalith Kothelawela “Christians Awake!” warning Christians against voting for Mahinda Rajapakse at the Presidential Elections of 2005 and now he is conferring honorary degrees on that very same man now that he is President of Sri Lanka!  In the same breath as it were there is a media release titled “Sri Lanka: Bishops Say All Must Be Allowed Home” in which two Catholic Bishops John Rawsthorne of Sheffield and John Arnold of Westminister having returned from Sri Lanka are together with CAFOD making a demand of the Sri Lankan Government to release all refugees held in IDP camps to return to their homes! The above Bishops do not understand that thanks to the LTTE terrorists, these people do not have homes to return to and it is the duty of the Sri Lankan Government first and foremost, to build these homes before people can return home. Without making the homes, what is the big rush to release people to the elements after having suffered untold misery for nearly three decades at the hands of terrorists!

 Sri Lanka is capable of looking after the inmates at the camps irrespective of monsoons as Bishop John Rawsthorne seems to be so humanly concerned about. Let Sri Lanka handle her own affairs without Church Fathers attempting to put pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka. Families who come forward as well as the inmates who will be released, is up to us to decide & not for some foreigners to dictate-we hope they will understand where their limits lie.

By Darmitha

An article which appeared in the front page of the “Daily Mirror” of 12^th September 2009 titled “Speaker Hits Out at Foreign Missions” in which is stated that Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara is recorded as having stated that “there is serious harassment in the form of fingerprinting. Our Prime Minister had also been put through a difficult process by a certain country. We have to rise against it. It is the duty of this Parliament. Just questioning about it is not enough,” he said.

 This issue had come up for discussion in the Sri Lankan Parliament in relation to UK refusing a visa for Dr.Palitha Kohona to enter the United Kingdom, and subsequently the manner in which our Prime Minister Mr. Rathnasiri Wickramanayake had been treated by the Airport Immigration Authorities of Japan when he arrived in Japan to attend a Buddhist ceremony on the invitation of Chief Priest of a Buddhist Temple in Japan. The rejection of Dr. Kohona’s visa application is to all those who remember the recent past, a tit-for-tat by the British Government for having refused a Visit Visa to one of their Parliamentarians who wanted to visit Sri Lanka during the tail end of the war against the LTTE when this British MP thought he needed to appease the thousands of terrorist supporters who have been domiciled in UK on false pretexts. The incident relating to our Prime Minister being subjected to finger printing at the Japanese airport seems to have other mess ups in our Sri Lankan Mission in their coordination work which should never have happened in the first place. The Prime Minister of any country is a VIP and needs to be treated in an appropriate manner & given the meticulous precision with which Japanese authorities work, it is difficult to say this was an oversight!

 Ordinary Sri Lankans whether they apply for Visit Visas to UK, USA, Australia or the EU from Sri Lanka or any other country have been subjected to humiliation of being treated like criminals and treated with the utmost contempt, without any explanations applications have been rejected while finger printing has become mandatory when applying for Visit Visas to UK and a few other foreign countries during the last decade. Our salute to Speaker WJM Lokubandara for taking up cudgels with foreign missions on this count when he stated that no person should be harassed in the visa process merely because he or she was a Sinhalese or a Buddhist.  

At this juncture we need to question what the UNP government under Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe did when it was during his tenure as Prime Minister (2001-2004) during which period the late Mr. Tyronne Fernando was Foreign Minister that they both accepted with open arms, the decision by the British Government to finger print Sri Lankans applying for Visas to visit UK? At that point we never heard a murmur from these servile politicians to whom the west was the panacea for all ills within our own country irrespective of the fact that western powers were openly supporting LTTE terrorists to destabilize Sri Lanka. Did he ever reciprocate by stating that British citizens visiting Sri Lanka too will need to be finger printed either on arrival at The Katunayake International Airport or at our High Commission in UK when they applied to visit our country? It is because the then UNP Government permitted foreign countries to treat us Sri Lankans like criminals, that now we note with utter disgust other foreign countries also deeming it prudent to insult our citizens.

 It is time that our Foreign Ministry sent officials to do an investigation to buildings where the Visa Offices of the British High Commission, The US Embassy, The Swiss Embassy, The Canadian High Commission as well as The Australian High Commission accept Visa Applications from Sri Lankans living here. Most of these Missions do not even offer seating facilities to our citizens who are expected to weather the hot sun or rain and stand outside these offices for hours, at times we can see the old and the feeble who wish to visit their kith and kin living in these foreign havens are seated on steps or culverts by the road side! A Sri Lankan is not worthy enough to enter the High Commissions or The Embassies of these countries but the money we take to spend in those countries is welcome. Sri Lankan students who apply to study overseas are lured with extremely fancy advertisements in every Sunday newspaper because for a period of 4-5 years in the minimum, these students will be draining the much needed foreign exchange in Sri Lanka into these western countries to help their economy! One only needs to check the Sunday Times & Sunday Observer “Education Supplements” to understand how serious the issue is.  Does this not smell of the utmost hypocrisy and discrimination by “Holier than Thou” western powers? Humaneness & humanitarianism- where are they, that they preach to us all the time? What has the Canadian High Commission done to solve the situation where one of it’s local employees at the Visa Office demanded a highly respected Buddhist Monk to delete the words “Reverend” and “Thero” from his name and process a new passport before re-applying for a Visit Visa? Who gave that officer such high-handed authority? Will our Sri Lankan High Commissions/Embassies also have the same authority to request The Pope or The Archbishop of Cantebury to remove their religious titles of honour when they apply to visit Sri Lanka? If we did so, we Sri Lankans would be called “extremist chauvinists”- is it not so?

 If our Sri Lankan Government permit foreigners & Foreign Missions to insult our citizens within our own territory, can we expect decency fair treatment when we enter their countries? The time has come for Sri Lankan authorities to demand from these western powers, that they learn to treat our citizens with the due respect that they deserve- we do not ask for too much by doing that. Treat human beings as human beings and terrorists as terrorists but not mix the two together and put everyone in one basket!

 A few years ago, much publicity was given to a statement made by the Rt.Rev.Duleep De Chickera, Bishop of the Anglican Church in Colombo for having gone on record to say that he refused to visit UK because of the requirement to be finger printed. Nevertheless, he did make a visit to UK subsequently, and it would be interesting to know whether or not he was finger printed when applying & what happened to his principles?

 Against all odds the Sri Lankan Government and the Armed Forces were successful in defeating terrorism from this country and now it is time for the GOSL to start putting all other issues which need priority in their proper perspective and ensure that we as a nation are treated with due respect (not red carpet treatment) with the simple gentlemanly behaviour that is expected from one human being to another.

By Darmitha-Kotte

During the past 26 years when Sri Lanka faced many adversities in the efforts to eliminate terrorism we saw many “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who came to help our country but in reality what they did was fatten their own coffers & revel in the misery they created for our citizens in the name of humanitarian, socio-economic development programmes and also through sale of weaponry to the terrorist movement in a bid to divide this country. Since 1978 onwards, Sri Lanka became a very lucrative breeding ground for INGOs & NGOs who all professed to know the panacea for all Sri Lankan ills.

Most of the aid organisations including the UN and UNDP doled out their highly biased agendas and twisted all subsequent governments round their little fingers interfering into all internal matters of this country. Those who had absolutely no knowledge of our national heritage or culture deemed it their “right” to issue recipes for us to cook. Fortunately, during the last three and a half years, this scenario has changed gradually & we have begun to raise our heads with pride and dignity. Countries like Britain, USA, Australia, EU-all treated us with contempt and arrogance-their biggest weapon against Sri Lanka was threatening to bring about economic sanctions against us, if we did not heed their warnings on how to handle the terrorist problem “their way.” Regrettably, we also need to state that so called Orthodox Churches in Sri Lanka have also worked hand-in-glove with these international organisations and countries against our sovereignty & national interests.

Now that terrorism has been wiped out in Sri Lanka and all its leaders have been eliminated, we will face new road blocks in our development programmes & the Sri Lankan government will need to be extremely cautious when dealing with offers of help and friendship to help in the rehabilitation process in the North.

For 26 years the unfortunate Tamil civilians in the North and East have had to undergo untold miseries at the hands of LTTE brutalism & have even been deprived of following their Hindu religious practises without fear. Today the North and East are free and people are free to move around and it is our foremost duty, to help them return to their homes and return to the normalcy of their religious customs and practises. Majority of Tamils in the North are Hindus & any attempts by other religious denominations to use the situation of the IDPs and attempt to “harvest souls” using unethical methods must never be permitted. There is no necessity for these innocent civilians to fall from the frying pan to the fire!

In the rehabilitation programmes it is necessary for the Armed Forces and government to be in the forefront because it is they who know the ground situation in the North and not some foreigner or NGO representative. No INGOs or NGOs should be permitted to interfere in the government programmes or to conduct their own individual programmes without government approval or monitoring. We do not need anymore foreign interference in either the rehabilitation process or the resettlement programmes since they need to be done according to our local situation in the best interests of the helpless Tamil civilians. This cannot and must not have foreign flavours mixed in to disrupt the social fabric of our society.

How International Humanitarian Aid Organisations Helped Fund TRO During 2005:

An article which appeared in the “Lanka”(Sinhala Weekly) of 30^th November 2008 explains in detail how so called INGOs and NGOs as well as Norway channelled funding to the TRO in 2005 amounting to a massiveRs.1,276,937,272.02.00.The breakdown is given herewith:

 Norway Government=Rs.249,785,167.50; NECORD=Rs.236,705,360.15;Danish Refugee Council

=Rs.173,991,233.00; FORUT=Rs.78,583,776.60; Emergency-Italy=Rs.50,531,268.70; Operation USA= Rs.49,849,500.00; Action AID= Rs.32,559,380.59; Maltezer Germany= Rs.32,003,788.75; Save the Children’s Fund= Rs.29,607,948.00; OXFAM =Rs.27,381,940.00 ; Asian-German Exchange Programme = Rs.26,109,375.00; CARE International = Rs.20,112,978.00 ; ADB = Rs.16,013,663.90 ;                

HOMSA-UK = Rs.14,559,372.60 ; GTZ-Germany = Rs.12,998,044.25 ; ABC Foundation-Italy =

Rs.4,420,523.79 ; UNICEF = Rs.6,617,146.10 ; SJMO-Italy=Rs.4,420,523.79 ; CISS-Italy

=Rs. 4,268, 840.05 ; CHA=Rs.3,346,000.00 ; UNDP=2,221,532.20 ; ZOA = Rs.2,000,000.00 ;

Room to Read-USA = Rs.1,600,979.00 ; GEORJ BECK= Rs.1,276,278.00 ; Norwegian Refugee Council= Rs.1,200,000.00; Christian World Service = Rs.1,110,978.00 ; BAJ-Japan = Rs.720,000.00 ;

NEIAP = Rs.680,800.00; Sarvodaya = Rs.489,050.00 ; Sondraberg DK = Rs.249,500.00. Sub-total from NGOs= Rs.1,094,789,687.78; Other organisations, individuals and expatriate Tamils=

Rs.182,149,554.24 ; TOTAL DURING 2005= Rs.1,276,937,272.02

From the above, we can see quite clearly how these organisations have been involved whether directly or indirectly with the LTTE terrorist movement while working within Sri Lanka which, in other words can be said to be involved in destabilizing our country. These are the types of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” that we Sri Lankans need to be cautious about in future. During the last phase of war against the terrorists our Armed Forces have also unearthed from bunkers and hide-outs bullet proof vehicles, and Duty Free items that only the diplomatic services are permitted to bring into the country. Here again, we have serious doubts about the sincerity of these organisations and missions towards the Sri Lankan State.

Free access to the North and refugee camps of IDPs should not be permitted without government officials being present as these humanitarian organisations have broken the trust that our country placed in them and their work. Christian organisations must not be permitted to go and deal with these hapless civilians in order to prevent their agendas of unethical conversions of Hindus to Christianity. Charity without getting something back, is not their slogan & it is absolutely horrendous to hear of the activities of such organisations which use the misery of civilians for their hidden agendas.

If any country or organisations are genuine in their concerns for the IDPs, they are most welcome to work together with the government authorities and prove their sincerity. However, in the words of UN Secretary-General who stated that Sri Lanka was in dire need of international assistance, our country needs to judge what these “dire needs” are?

People like the US Ambassador Robert O’Blake or Ban Ki-Moon do not need to worry about reconciliation because we Sri Lankans can handle that aspect without foreign interference. Even during the last 26 years when terrorists were murdering en-mass Sinhala civilians, Tamils and Sinhalese together with Muslims lived very harmoniously in the South and conducted normal businesses without the famous “ethnic conflict” that the west is all too fond of talking about.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon who is visiting Sri Lanka right now has made some comments which need to be looked into. On the plane to Sri Lanka, the UN chief said his first priority would be “unimpeded access to the sites of the displaced by international, humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations.”

Mr Ban said he would also appeal to Mr Rajapaksa to open political reconciliation talks between the majority Sinhalese and the Tamil minority. “It’s time for Sri Lankans to heal the wounds and unite without regards for religious and ethnic identity,” he added.

The Secretary-General must know that it is the responsibility of the Sri Lankan government to ensure the welfare of her civilian population and there is no need for him to request for “unimpeded access to the sites of the displaced by international, humanitarian organisations, including the United Nations.” This has already proved to be fatal to the interests of our country and our government has every right to monitor and restrict any movements of foreign individuals or organisations if it is deemed to be working contrary to national interests of our country.

What Sri Lanka needs at this point, is genuine & sincere friendship and it is upto the foreign organisations and government to extend their hands if they wish to help Sri Lanka, offering assistance to the Sri Lankan government instead of threatening us with investigations against war crimes and economic sanctions as Hillary Clinton has gone on record as stating that IMF help is not timely at this juncture.

We would appreciate if all foreign governments and individual organisations kindly remember to respect the wishes of an independent and sovereign country & offer the help they talk so much about without strings being attached. That is what we Sri Lankans call true friendship.

Some View Points- By Darmitha-Kotte

From the moment news reached the people of Sri Lanka that our victorious and jubilant Combined Armed Forces had performed their duty by their Motherland in the most impeccable manner & freed us from the clutches of LTTE terrorism, the spontaneous outburst of happiness and relief in the hearts and minds of Sri Lankans was seen every where at street corners, road sides, parks-you name it, people were there congratulating the valiant soldiers and the Sri Lankan President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse. This was a very natural expression of the true feelings of our people. We as a nation have suffered untold miseries at the hands of a brutal terrorist outfit for 3 decades.

When the writer states “we” it does not implicate only the Sinhalese and the Muslims, Burgher, Malay communities but with an emphatic stress that the Tamil community in this country suffered most at the hands of the LTTE which supposedly was representing them as their “sole representative.” If we are not deaf or blind we would have seen the relief in the faces of the ordinary Tamil civilians who dared to flee from the clutches of terrorism during the last weeks and months! Some of them were heard to cry out       “ Aney Rajune(King-appealing to President Rajapakse to save them) Apiwe Beraganne” – that was the honest appeal they made to the Government while running away from brutality towards the protection of our soldiers! Does this not speak volumes of what these innocent people have endured?

At this point those who wish to understand and know what Sri Lanka has gone through, know very well all the atrocities committed by Prabhakaran and the LTTE-there is no need to repeat them over again.

True patriots of Sri Lanka whether they live here in Sri Lanka or abroad have unanimously and wholeheartedly congratulated our President, Commanders of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and Civil Security for the dramatic & excellent precision and coordination with which they networked together in one of the most dramatic of battles to bring the war against terrorism to a climax and grand finale! Battles cannot be fought without loss of life or damage to property & for this we bow our heads in sympathy for those who sacrificed everything to defend the country so that we, may have a better tomorrow and a harmonious & brighter future. Absolute commitment and discipline on the part of our Combined Forces was the reason for this success story & well done!

Those Who Are On The Fence At This Moment of Jubilation:

It is no secret to those who have been following the progress of events related to the battle against LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka that we Sri Lankans have had to battle on 2 fronts- LTTE terrorists on the one hand & pro-LTTE unpatriotic elements in our society who have worked tirelessly tooth and nail together with international affluent powers with vested interests on the other, the amazing thing is that we have managed to survive both until now.

It is with deep regret that it needs to be stated here that the Catholic Church, the Rev.Archbishop & the Bishops of Mannar and the North fall into a category that we could call “on the fence” & their actions have spoken larger than words on how they have continued to work in unison with the LTTE terrorists not to save and protect our country but to divide it! These sons of Mother Lanka have been sending out press statements through Tamil Net website-the mouthpiece of the LTTE appealing time and time again for foreign intervention in our internal conflict which is most regrettable. Numerous are the times they have appealed to the Catholic Bishop of Australia and The Pope in The Vatican. When they face a crime in this country do they request The Vatican or Australia to arrest the culprit? Many are the letters we have seen written by Sri Lankan Christian expatriates criticising the attitudes of these Church Fathers in relation to the LTTE terrorism but we guess that those people never received any response to their appeals? Today, in the face of absolute defeat for the terrorists at the hands of our Armed Forces they have reluctantly come out with half hearted messages of congratulations towards our President & Commanders of the Combined Forces.

In his press release Rt.Rev.Archbishop Oswild Gomis states:(quote) “…………………In a sense, we could say that we have won the battle but the war is not ended. The war would end only on the day that we grow in nationhood realizing that we are all one people in one country with equal rights. We have to realize the fact that we are a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural community. As such we are now left with the great task of nation-building forgetting our ethnic, political and religious differences.………We have to leave the sad and bitter memories of the past three decades and look positively and optimistically towards the future in hope. All of us have to share the blame for our division and forgive each other. We should have the humility and wisdom to learn from the sad experiences of that past……………” (end quote).

It is prudent to request the Rt.Rev.Archbishop to kindly go back through memory lane and see for himself where he and the Catholic Church has faulted in their effort to divide this country which was once harmonious? Who transgressed? Whose plan was it to harm our Motherland? How many historical photos have been taken with Catholic Fathers participating in LTTE meetings? Was this to unite Sri Lanka or not? Who permitted LTTE to plant landmines within the Madhu Church premises spanning a couple of acres & for what specific agenda? Why was the Holy statue of Our Lady of Madhu taken further into LTTE terrorist held area without conducting it out of the terrorist clutches & for what purpose may we ask? The answers are only too clear without wasting too much time to think! Could it be that the Bishop of Mannar was in deep slumber until the LTTE terrorists planted all the landmines in the backyards of the Madhu Church?

The agenda of attempting to convert Sri Lanka into a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious country is also all too obvious in his message without being “humble and wise” in understanding the true historical facts related to Sri Lanka. This is where the “war” still has to be fought is it not so? In this endeavour the Rt.Rev.Archbishop is working together with other Christian Church Fathers & it is no secret anymore.

Apart from the above sector of our society, we also have other unpatriotic forces who have been contributing towards the attempted break up of this country. Those will include the likes of late J.R.Jayawardane, the late R.Premadasa who even magnanimously handed over arms to LTTE from our own State armoury during his Presidency, Chandrika Kumaratunga together with Mangala Samaraweera and his active role in the Sudu Nelum Movement as well as with her P-Toms and Ranil Wickramasinghe with his CFA and open ticket freedom given to the LTTE  for them to claim their mythical “Home Land” systematically while doling out slogans of freedom and democracy and undermining the sentiments of the majority of Sri Lanka. Where is Ranil Wickramasinghe today? 2-3 days ago he left for Norway & for what purpose we may ask? Was it to bring about peace in this country or to attempt further, to check the possibilities of re-creating terrorism with the help of Norway whose credentials have proved to be very much in question?

“We Have Won The Battle, But The War is Not Ended”

Rt.Rev.Archbishop Oswald Gomis’s words are true in every sense when considering the fact that enemy forces both local and international working overtime & tirelessly to harass the Sri Lankan Government which they must never forget is a democratically elected Government committed to safeguarding & protecting the sovereignty of our country. This war is by no means to be overlooked or forgotten because their efforts will multiply now in the guise of “humanitarian aid” to resettle the IDPs or as reported by Constant Brand the Associated Press writer has reported on 18^th May 2009 writes that the European Union has called for an independent war crimes investigation into the killing of civilians in Sri Lanka! Why has the EU been deaf, dumb and blind to all the atrocities committed by Prabhakaran and LTTE against Tamil civilians?

Before the EU targets Sri Lanka, in the true sense of justice to the world, they must first bring charges against USA,UK, Japan, Israel and all other western powers which have declared war without any rhyme or reason on other countries and committed so called “war crimes” within the territories of other countries against the citizens of those countries. Is this asking too much from the EU? There is ample evidence against both UK and the USA for their wonderful records in Afghanistan & Iraq just to name two countries who are not even neighbouring countries even to have overstepped territorial boundaries! Japan & Vietnam too have been at the butt end of American atrocities which should be investigated first to show the world how dedicated the EU is towards humanity before they can even think about Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan government has not committed any crime whatsoever against the nation but have acted in the best interests of the sovereignty of Sri Lanka and fought a three year war against the worst terrorist outfit in the world called “LTTE” and proved that terrorism can be wiped out of any country if there is true commitment to the cause. Is it a crime for the Sri Lankan Government to unify our country? Can the EU show us with evidence any country that has gone to war, winning a way without civilian casualties? If that be the case prove those facts of Sri Lanka first before burning your fingers by attempting to insult and belittle an independent and sovereign country like Sri Lanka.

“The war” that Sri Lanka now has to fight is against international enemy forces who wish to enter Sri Lanka in the guise & name of engaging in humanitarian programmes but with an ulterior motive of again “injecting poisonous weeds” of dissention within our soil. This must never be permitted. Just as our Armed Forces were capable of eliminating terrorism from our country, our government and our Armed Forces are fully capable of planning out the resettlement of IDPs and offering solace to the innocent civilians who have suffered for so long. It will only be our own people who can understand and solve our problems within our country.

Anuj Chopra writing for The Christian Science Monitor(US) on 18^th May 2009 reports on statements made by more individuals who are engaged in the anti-Sri Lankan war such as Parkyasothy  Saravanamuttu, Executive Director of Centre for Policy Studies and Jayadeva Uyangoda of the Political Science Department at Colombo University who have right along been great LTTE sympathizers and doing more harm to the harmony of our society.

We can certainly see the truth of Archbishop Oswild Gomis’ statement that “…the war is not ended” and therefore it more important now than ever before, to check the activities of all organisations who come as “wolves in sheep’s clothing. The Government of Sri Lanka needs to be doubly careful about sweet sounding NGOs and INGOs who will all attempt to enter our country again for them to gain financially through bogus projects with foreign agendas. Our solutions must be from our country, for our country and with the absolute welfare of our country at heart. We do not need foreign “theories” which have not even solved problems within their own countries let alone solve problems of others.