SUSANTHA  WIJESINGHE

by Lt Col.(Retd.) Anil Amarasekera

Considering the history of warfare be it a war between two nations, or an internal civil war within a nation, ninety percent of all such wars have been fought for the acquisition of land. Here in Sri Lanka too the separatist war that ended on 19^th of May 2009 with the annihilation of the military leadership of the LTTE at the Nandhikadal lagoon, centered on the acquisition of land to establish a mythical homeland for the Tamils called Eelam, in the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka.

Origin of this conflict could be traced to events that took place in India in the Nineteen Sixties. The Tamil population in the world today exceeds 118 million people settled in many countries of the world. The majority of this Tamil population amounting to approximately 65 million lives in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. However Tamil Nadu is only another state in the Indian configuration and not a sovereign and independent nation. Therefore an active separatist movement in the nineteen sixties gained popular political support for Tamil Nadu to secede from India and to establish a separate sovereign and independent nation. The Indian political leadership in New Delhi knowing very well that this would usher in the beginning of the breakup of the Indian configuration, enacted legislation to make any separatist movement in India illegal and the central government of India took drastic action against the separatist movement in Tamil Nadu, not only to bring to an end all such activity but also to totally eradicate any possibility of such effort in the future in that state.

The political developments in Tamil Nadu that espoused separatism were also an encouragement for power hungry Tamil politicians to commence such activity in Sri Lanka too. Unable to establish a separate sovereign and independent nation for the Tamils in cradle of its civilization and in an area that the majority of the Tamils live in the world, due to stringent action by the Indian central government in preventing any such a move, the Tamil political leadership in Tamil Nadu as well as in Sri Lanka focused attention on efforts to establish a separate sovereign and independent nation called Eelam in Sri Lanka. The Vadukoddai Resolution of 14^th May 1976 clearly indicates these intentions of establishing a separate and independent Tamil homeland called Eelam in the northern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka through separatist activity.

In this context the word ILAM (Eelam), today, comes into much prominence. It is, apparently, being used to connote the impression of “a land of the Tamils”. Indeed, the Tamil word ILAM was never before used in that sense. On the contrary, this Tamil word ILAM did not refer to Tamil land but to the “Land of the Sinhala people”. None other establishes this than the Tamil lexicon published under the authority of the highest seat of Tamil learning- the University of Madras. Page 328 of this Tamil lexicon has the following entry: ILAM, n< Pali, Sinhala, 1. Ceylon. What it says is that ILAM means the land of the Sinhala people. The Tamil word given as the meaning of ILAM reads “SINHALUM”. The term ILA in Tamil means “SINHALA”, having its origin in the word HELA, by which term the ancient people of LANKA were known. Thus ILAKKACHU in Tamil means “Sinhala Coins”- ILA means Sinhala, Kachchu means Coins. Similarly, since NADU means LAND, ILANADU means the Sinhala land. According to the said lexicon the word ILANADU was derived from ILAM. The foregoing establishes the fact that the word ILAM (Eelam) never referred to any Tamil land but always signified the Sinhala land. Therefore if one were to ask for ILAM (Eelam), what is being asked for is the traditional homeland of the Sinhala people.        

Being a retired Army Officer I must confess that I have little or no information regarding the strategy of the present government in its implementation of the Uturu Vasanthaya. However the accelerated pace at which the two hundred and eighty thousand internally displaced Tamil people are being resettled though commendable leaves many questions unanswered.  I have been informed by a very reliable source that of the very recent internally displaced Tamil families resettled in the Mullaittivu district one hundred and fifty families are not citizen of this country.

When I visited the Manik Farm on two occasions last year, I was very surprised to meet several people of Indian Tamil origin from the older generation who spoke good Sinhalese. When questioned with regard to their ability to converse so fluently in Sinhalese, they informed me that they were estate Tamils who had lived at one point of time in the hill country among the Sinhalese. Many of them may be those that were identified to be repatriated to India under the Sirima Shastri agreement. They were subsequently resettled in the Mullaittivu and Kilinotchchi districts after communal riots by International Non Governmental Organizations such as the Redd Barna in an effort to link the Northern Province to the Eastern Province to create a land mass exclusively inhabited by Tamils. This was a surreptitious effort to establish a Tamil homeland in the Northern and Eastern Provinces better known as Eelam and thereby to divide and destabilize our country.

Before LTTE took control of the Northern Province, illicit immigration from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka was prevented by the Army through a Task Force for Illicit Immigrants. For thirty years after the government lost control of the Northern Province the said task force did not function and the possibility of many illicit immigrants migrating from Tamil Nadu to the Northern Province during this period cannot be over ruled. How then is the government going to establish who is a citizen and who is not when resettling internally displaced people in the Northern Province? I am made to understand that the accepted procedure for those who have lost their National Identity Cards is to obtain an affidavit from the Grama Niladari confirming residency in his division.  On the strength of such an affidavit a new identity card is issued. This may be the only country in the world where citizenship can be thus established on an affidavit from a single government servant.

For over thirty years the LTTE controlled most of the Northern Province and accordingly it was the LTTE that alienated land to the people and not the government of Sri Lanka. Most of these lands were alienated by the LTTE to Maha Weera families. Therefore if resettlement is to be implemented with people moving back to lands alienated by the LTTE, the government would only be implementing LTTE strategy of establishing a Tamil Eelam that the Security Forces fought so hard to destroy with so much blood, sweat, tears and toil and sometimes by sacrificing even their life and limb.

The Tamil people who lived in the Northern Province be they citizen or not did suffer untold misery during the last thirty years under the Jackboot of the LTTE. Tamil people living in Jaffna district were first driven down to the Kilinotchchi district like a herd of cattle when the Security Forces took control of the Jaffna district. When the Security Forces commenced operations in the Mannar district the Tamil people living in that district too were driven like a herd of cattle to the Kilinochchi district. When the Security Forces advanced into the Kilinochchi district the Tamil people that were driven from Jaffna and Mannar districts to Kilinochchi district were next herded like cattle to the Mullaittivu district by the LTTE. The so called humanitarian organizations, the International Non Governmental Organization and the western nations that now express much concern with regard to the conditions in the government run welfare centers for the internally displaced Tamils were totally silent when the LTTE was driving these innocent Tamil people from one district to another like cattle, to use them as a human shield. These Tamil people be they citizen or not finally broke away from the LTTE cordon and moved into government controlled areas, seeking protection from the government, risking their very life and limb.

It was the LTTE and not the Security Forces that established mine fields round the areas where these innocent Tamil People were forced to live, to prevent them escaping into government controlled areas. Clearing such mine fields around villages in the Jaffna, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu districts has become a daunting task for the Army, though they have succeeded in doing so in double quick time, to make these villages available for human habitation once more.  However since the Tamil people left the areas under LTTE control and arrived in government controlled areas voluntarily, the government was granted a golden opportunity to resettle these people in villages with proper infrastructure facilities where electricity, water and communication etc could have been provided. Has the government squandered away this opportunity due to pressure from some powerful western countries? If people are resettled in small pockets where they were originally settled by the LTTE, it may become a nightmare for the Security Forces to provide security to such resettled areas in the future. It is important to understand clearly that there can be no development through the Uturu Vasanthaya sans proper security.

Screening of 280000 internally displaced people to identify LTTE carders also has to be implemented very carefully to prevent ex LTTE carders from being released to live in resettled villages. If they are not identified and rehabilitated they will regroup once released and commence sporadic guerilla attacks on resettled villages. No amount of pressure from western countries can be a good enough reason for speeding up resettlement compromising on proper screening. It must also be remembered that the 280000 internally displaced Tamils are those who moved into government controlled areas during the final stages of the war against LTTE terrorists.

There was an exodus of many more internally displaced people from the Northern and Eastern Provinces to the South, perhaps approximately 300000 during the thirty year period that the LTTE destabilized the country. While most of these people were Muslims there were also some Sinhalese who were displaced from the Northern and Eastern Provinces. These people have suffered as internally displaced people for much longer with little or no help from humanitarian organizations than the recently internally displaced Tamils in the welfare centers. It is the duty of the government to resettle these people in their original habitats with the necessary infrastructure, if the government is to give serious consideration to national integration as opposed to segregation. Resettling Tamils be they citizen or not in strategic areas that link the northern province to the eastern province will result in the creation of a land mass exclusively inhabited by one ethnic community namely the Tamils. The human conflict in Sri Lanka with relation to land acquisition for the establishment of a homeland for the Tamils has to be understood in this context.

There is much evidence to prove that the Tamil Diaspora together with many international and local nongovernmental organizations backed by several western nations have been working surreptitiously to destabilize and divide this country. Even certain United Nations agencies such as UNHCR where majority of its local staff are Tamils sympathetic to the Eelam cause have been guilty of such activity. A good example to prove this fact is the UNHCR Draft for Discussion on proposals to the parties, for comprehensively addressing land, housing and property rights in the context of refugee and IDP return within and to Sri Lanka, prepared and presented by UNHCR to the government of Sri Lanka in 2003.

 The Draft for Discussion is based to a great extent on extensive experiences gained by UNHCR in the area of refugee and IDP housing, land and property rights, in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Croatia, Guatemala, Georgia, Tajikistan and many other countries undergoing post–conflict reconstruction. Though such experiences maybe helpful, it would be inexpedient to rely entirely on such experiences, without giving due consideration to the cause of the conflict in this country. For conflict resolution to be successful in the long-term, just and fair solutions accepted internationally have to be found and implemented, without which post conflict reconstruction would be similar to building sand castles on the beach, since they get washed out to sea at high tide. As in most countries, here too the cause of the conflict is territorial ambition. It is therefore necessary for the international community that includes the UN agencies such as the UNHCR, to evaluate the claim for the disputed territory by both parties in a just and fair manner, giving due consideration to all relevant facts.

 Without giving due consideration to relevant facts, if opinions are expressed by UNHCR in a Draft for Discussion, this could not only mislead the international community, but would also be counterproductive for conflict resolution in the long-term.  Such an incorrect opinion is expressed in the UNHCR Draft for Discussion under Obstacle 6, in the last paragraph of page 13 and the first paragraph of page 14, which is quoted below.

 “settlements were implemented in the Eastern Province under the Allai, Kanthalai and Mahaweli irrigation schemes. With the escalation of the conflict, strategic settlements were also established by the central Government with the support of the military in various locations. One such scheme is the Weli Oya scheme, as part of the Mahaweli L System. This area which engulfs various districts- Trincomalee, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya and Anuradhapura- is now exclusively administered by the Anuradhapura District authorities, Tamils have perceived these Sinhalese settlements as a strategic military move to disrupt the settlement pattern from North to East and the establishment of a militarized Sinhalese settlement corridor. These settlements could very easily undermine the return process. In other cases unseen forces with the help of the Army and Police are unofficially settling persons from outside the district along the main road from Habarana to Trincomalee and in the fish market area in Trincomalee. This has caused concern among the Tamil community as they are seen as calculated attempts to disturb the ethnic ratio or demography in the region. There are also reports that agencies, such as the Mahaweli Authority, have given land in the Eastern Province to people with no reference to previous ownership/occupancy.”

 The Allai and Kanthalai scheme were commenced over sixty years ago, when there was no ethnic conflict and it is a fact that land was alienated without any ethnic bias. In the early eighties, there was an effort by the Gandhian Movement, to settle Indian Tamils repatriated from the plantations, in the Yan Oya basin. This Movement was a front organization formed to support the separatist effort in this country. Their intention was to link up the Northern Province to the Eastern Province, through a corridor of exclusive Tamil settlements. In this endeavour LTTE was later successful in driving away twenty-three ancient Sinhalese villages from the Gomarankadawala Divisional Secretariat Area, in the Trincomalee District. Efforts were also being made by the LTTE to destabilize the Padaviya settlement, in the Anuradhapura District that was established in the early fifties, in an exclusive Sinhalese area. These are two areas in the Yan Oya basin with many ancient Sinhalese villages that have existed for thousands of years. The aim of the LTTE was to terrorize and drive away the Sinhalese population from the Yan Oya basin, a landmass needed for their future Eelam, in order to link the Northern and Eastern provinces. The government therefore had no option but to establish the Weli Oya settlement, to give defence in depth to both Padaviya and Gomarankadawala. Terrorists used to operate in small groups at night, in uninhabited areas along the Habarana Trincomalee main road, blasting electric pylons and burying land mines. Therefore families were settled along the main road, in such uninhabited areas for security reasons. These families were from the vicinity and not brought from outside, as mentioned in the Draft for Discussion. The ethnic ratio in the Trincomalee district does not become problematic, if the ratio that existed according to 1981 census is accepted, and the land policy formulated on that basis.

 The Government of Sri Lanka represents all citizens, namely the Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslims and all other communities. It cannot therefore be expected to represent only the Sinhalese people. The LTTE however have claimed that they are the representatives of the Tamil people. Therefore when Tribunals are formed for conflict resolution, it is not only the Tamil and Muslim point of view that needs to be considered but also the Sinhalese point of view, more so as they are the majority population. In page 36 of the Draft for Discussion, where Step 3 to appoint a Tribunal on land, housing and property rights are dealt with, the majority Sinhalese population is entirely ignored, as observed below.

 “When the Commission and district-level Boards are unable to resolve land, housing or property disputes, other problems or are otherwise unable to give satisfaction to returnees seeking to repossess their habitual residences and lands, claimants should then have access to an independent and impartial Tribunal to provide judicial solutions to outstanding issues. The Tribunal on land, Housing and Property should be comprised of five members, including two international judges nominated by the United Nations, and one judge each nominated by the Government, the LTTE and the Muslim Community.”

Here the parties to the conflict are the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE. Therefore nominating a judge from the Government and another from the LTTE is not disputed. However what is the rationale behind the nomination of a judge from the Muslim Community? It is not only the Tamil and Muslim communities that have been internally displaced. Many families from the Sinhalese population too have been displaced from the Northern and Eastern Provinces of their country. Why is it not proposed to nominate a judge from the majority Sinhala population? Is it a deliberate effort not to redress the grievances of the internally displaced Sinhalese people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces?

Finally in the last paragraph in page 39 of the UNHCR Draft for Discussion, which deals with Land Allocation. The paragraph concerned states as follows.

“The problem of landlessness and essential homelessness will also need to be addressed by the parties within the context of refugee and IDP return. Although by their very nature incapable of submitting restitution claims, the CLHPR is designed to also provide assistance to the landless, and these processes require the support of the parties. As a first step to solving the problem of the landless, State lands in each of the nine districts where the Boards on Land, Housing and Property Rights will operate should be identified for distribution to the landless. These reserve lands will be of use both in solving long-term landlessness and for providing a pool of land for distribution to current secondary occupants who will need a land or housing solution once they move from refugee or IDP lands or homes.”

Most Provinces other than the Northern and Eastern Provinces in the country are over populated and there is an acute shortage of land for development projects. It is also a fact that most of the land that could be developed is available in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. If the envisaged Interim Council is established for the merged North and East with full administrative powers over alienation of land, in such an event land will be inevitably reserved for the future generations of Tamils and Muslims. The Sinhalese majority, presently living in over populated provinces in the rest of the country, will thus be deprived of land for development in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, of their own country.  Every citizen, living in this country should have the right to purchase land and live in any part of the country, without harassment. This basic human right of a citizen is practiced without any discrimination, in the Government administrated areas, while it was not so in areas which were under LTTE control. What UN agencies such as the UNHCR should endeavour to achieve is to extend the right for any citizen of this country, to develop land in any part of his country, without any ethnic bias. The quoted suggestion in the UNHCR Draft for Discussion contravenes this basic human right, encouraging land to be reserved for the landless descendants of Tamils and Muslims. It completely ignores the needs and Sinhalese majority.

The latest news with regard to surreptitious efforts by western countries to destabilize and divide this country is that USAID is taking thirteen government officials from the central and provincial ministries on a seven day study tour to Timor-Leste (East Timor) to learn how land ownership issues are resolved in that US and Australian colony. East Timor became the first new sovereign state of the 21^st century on 20^th May 2002. It is a tiny state completely dependent politically, economically and militarily on major powers. Is this what USAID is planning for Sri Lanka by surreptitiously helping to divide the country to accommodate a tiny Eelam?

I am placing these thoughts on record for those who are formulating policy to act upon without further delay. If the concerns expressed in this article are not addressed by those who are now formulating policy, it would not be long before we revert back to square one on land acquisition for the establishment of a separate state of Eelam, through the division of our country as envisaged by vested interests and then all the effort of the Security Forces in defeating the LTTE to protect and preserve the unity and territorial integrity of our nation for posterity would have been of little use.

Vajeera Warnakulasuriya, Melbourne, Australia

International Monetary Fund,
700 19th Street, N.W.,
Washington, D.C.
20431, USA

The Director,
 
Dear Sir,
 Post Sri Lanka with the Eradication of World’s most brutal Terrorist movement! 

 Sri Lanka, which should be an insignificant tiny country for the powerful Western countries, has been interfered in their internal matters, just to satisfy a disgruntled block merely to grab the vote to be in power.

This country has purged the most brutal Terrorist group as defined even by the FBI. It was a task that, the very same powerful nations who professed an impossible task to achieve. Obviously they knew better than Sri Lankan administration because they provided the most destructive weaponry and training to the Terrorists.  Norwegians under CFA and others abusing the diplomatic immunity dispatched these items to “Good” terrorists on their own definition!

Anyway, that’s the past, now the same lot is preaching “democracy”, “freedom” and good governance! Why all this? Just because the Democratically elected Presidents administration has arrested the retired General Sarath Fonseka for publicly  divulging sensitive military matters? 

If all those countries who cry foul on this action, for a moment if they wear the hat, Sri Lankan administration has worn, no a sensible head of a country would react any different to what took place in Sri Lanka. This man publicly uttered things only a “traitor’ would do, for which many countries would execute him on the spot barred any interrogations, but out of decency Sri Lanka exercised a “Democratic” approach, and took him to custody, and gave his democratic rights to prove why he should not be court-martialled. It’s up to those countries that indulge in hypocrisy to pinch their consciences and be ashamed of them!

 Retired Gen. Sarath Fonseka may have been a good soldier, but, assessing on what he uttered during the Presidential elections, a statement that would not draw a single vote for him, makes one wonder, how on earth he lead the Army to a victory. My assessment is his subordinates overrode his commands and did what seemed sensible according to the situations. Something for those who shed crocodile tears to ponder about!

 Presently the country is rapidly progressing in development projects, mainly improving the much needed infrastructure right throughout the Island, if one tours the North and East once war tone areas, it gladdens the heart to see the Governments contribution towards ushering a bright future for innocent Tamils in those areas. When one observe these magnanimous efforts of the Government, it also saddens to see that the expatriate Tamil Diaspora’s futile efforts to gang up with the opportunistic disgruntled Western countries to punish the innocent people of Sri Lanka by depriving the financial aid that would have propelled the country to an accelerated progress. The Government has invited the Tamil Diaspora to invest in the North and East to assist their kith and kin to improve and brighten their future, in addition to the Governments efforts. It is indeed sad to note, that help is not forth coming, they are only after the pound of Flesh in their destructive imagination!   

Unfortunately, the defeated retired Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s supporters who cannot accept defeat gracefully have started to canvass anti Sri Lankan accusations, leading to exert pressure on the Western Nations to impose harsh punitive actions on the country. I believe the thinking people of the present World leaders will exercise sanity at this time in deed! 

In conclusion may I humbly request those Nations who can make a difference in my Motherland to appreciate the lone effort by Sri Lanka in defeating a brutal terrorist movement and who have embarked to improve the living standards right across the country, to ignore unfounded whatever accusations levelled at the current administration and lend a helping hand without engaging furthermore in complicating issues. Sri Lanka has enough talent and expertise to solve their issues amicably, mark my words within two years, the entire country will enjoy the ever lasting PEACE, in the meantime, the Western nations can devote their invaluable time in looking for solutions with those complicated issues at hand to grapple with. They certainly have to be contended or heave a sigh of relief for one less problem!

Yours Sincerely,

Vajeera Warnakulasuriya,

Melbourne, Australia

By Gamini Gunawardne Retd. Snr. DIG Courtesy The Island 

 This is in connection with the article by Dr. Dayan Jayatillke in ” The Island” of 15th Feb, titled “The Fonseka affair: A perfect blunder?”The purpose of my exercise here is not really to contradict or confirm the views expressed therein by Dr. Jayatilleke, but with a view to provide some, may be relevant or may be even considered irrelevant, different dimensions to look at some of his contentions. Not being a political scientist by any means, I would look at some of the issues from the point of view of a onetime enforcement officer/ investigator.

Dr. Jayatillake, inter alia, has stated as follows: “Surely, lessons could have been drawn from the conduct of Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Felix Dias Bandaranaike in the face of the 1962 coup attempt? Those leaders smashed the coup attempt, but did not seek to try those involved under the military regulations despite the fact those regulations existed and the accused were serving officers of high rank.”

Now let us look at the reality. This incident took place 48 years ago, may be just around the time that both the present Secy. Defence, the Army Commander and the Commander of the Military Police were just born or were mere toddlers. True, one need not necessarily live through history to draw from this experience. But the fact is that the subject of ‘learning from history’ though taught in American Universities nowadays, I do not know, subject to correction, if this particular case is taught or discussed as a learning experience in the SL Military Staff College, Batalanda or at the Military Academies of Kandawela or Diyatalawa or elsewhere, or even at the Police Higher Training Institute. Usually, the personalities who figured in such events, if living, are invited to the course, to discuss the pros and cons of their experience and answer the questions of the students. I know that a copy of the court case record and several volumes of investigation files of this case are lying in the shelves of the CID Library. But I do not think to date anyone including my humble self have ever peeped into these volumes, nor has any academic researcher or any other professional. So much for our professionalism and academic research in this country. Hence, it is no surprise that no lessons were drawn from the 1962 experience, in the present case.

Another factor that was an advantage for Mrs. Bandaranaike was that, the ’62 Coup investigation was done under the able direction and supervision of that brilliant, though eccentric and arrogant young Minister of Justice, Felix Dias Bandaranaike, the nephew of SWRD and son of Justice R.F. Dias. (So much for nepotism and family bandyism).The investigation itself was handled by a brilliant team of investigators of the CID which included Inspector Tyrrel Gunatilleke who later recounted all this to me. It is very unlikely that the Rajapaksa government had such an advantage to direct the present case which appears to me to be far more complicated, both politically and otherwise. Neither can one expect such standards of investigations in the present situation where all relevant organizations have been emasculated of all power and authority through progressive politizsation since 1972 by successive governments, to such an extent that Vice Chancellors of universities found it necessary to exhort us on whom to vote for! The final effect of this process was seen within 10 years, in the parliament bomb case in 1987 where the President of the Country, Prime Minister and the Minister of Internal Security, were targeted among other top Parliamentarians within the Parliament building itself. An MP and a Parliament employee died in the attack while the Minister of Internal Security was critically injured. Though the suspect was traced and arrested, the case failed in courts due to sheer incompetence of the CID. It was perhaps the culmination of the effect of politicization following the ‘cleansing’ of that organization after the ’77 elections. In fact, during the run up to the ’77 election an angry JRJ had threatened to bring the Fourth Floor down to the ground floor when he was elected! I think he accomplished it though not literally, as shown by the Parliament bomb case.

Another point of contrast between the ’62 case and the present case is that almost all the Military and police officers were not high profile characters except perhaps Col. F. C. de Saram who was a well known cricketer. They were in no way comparable with the Retd. Gen. Fonseka, who was fresh from an outstanding military victory who was admired as the greatest of war heroes who received world wide publicity, hyped also by the government too, for political reasons. He was also the popular defeated presidential candidate, where his supporters were peeved and shocked that he lost soundly. He was highly controversial in that he had threatened to expose his colleagues and the government leaders on alleged war crimes, to the International community. Naturally, the international community had his interest at heart. There was also his alleged concession to the TNA demands, in the run up to the election. To add to the confusion, he was suspected of corruption in the matter of purchase of some military equipment. There was further, his controversial visit to the US. Furthermore, there was the allegation that the government had suspected his motives and ill treated him during the last days of his military career. Hence, his case was highly politicized. Thus, touching him was indeed highly explosive! On the other hand, in the ’62 case the public sympathy was for Mrs. B, the poor widow who had just assumed power and the country itself was shocked at this unheard of attempt to overthrow the government. The people were bewildered. Unlike in the present case the wives of these officers did not appear before cameras to garner sympathy for their husbands.

Even in the 1966 Coup case there was no real ballyhoo about the arrest of Ven. Henpitgedera Gnanaseeha Thero who was a respected Buddhist monk and even the then Army Commander, Richard Udugama who were both thrown into remand prison.. No awkward questions were asked of the government whether that was way to treat a respected monk and a popular army commander etc., though it was believed that there was much more media freedom then that now!

Information revolution had not taken place by 1962. There were no TV cameras, hand ‘phone cameras, television, internet, twitters or blogs and websites to report news round the world over instantly. Today, whoever got on the TV screens and electronic media first, had the day. The arrests in 1962 were done in different places, most of them past midnight. Most of them, were not violent, being members of a ceremonial army, navy and air force, not battle tested. So till morning, no body really knew what really was happening.

Thus, situation- wise the ’62 case was ‘child’s play compared to the present case. True, nevertheless the given circumstances were cleverly managed. But as could be seen from the facts given above, this case was far too complicated and dicy by any standards. It was certainly a difficult situation to manage. I do not envy those officers. They could not afford to fail. It is not always that one is pitted into such situations.

Yet, the court case of ’62 coup case was reversed by the Privy Council on the grounds that the suspects had been charged and convicted of offences that did not exist in the law books, at time of the commission of the said offences, i.e. cannot operate with retrospective effect. This was again the result, of the over smart thinking of the over confident and adventurous ‘bright spark’ FDB, the Justice Minister, who had his way at that time.

Then the statement that the suspects in the coup case were not arrested under the military law though they were of high rank. Again, the two cases are not similar in that, in the 62 case there were senior police officers as well as civilians such as Douglas Liyanage, Civil Servant, who turned out to be the first accused. So obviously, military law could not apply in the ’62 case.

That apart, I do not know whether a suspect in a case had the discretion of deciding as to, what law under which he would submit to his arrest and under what law he wouldn’t. May be this point would be thrashed out in courts when the legality of his arrest would be gone into. The only case that I know of is the ‘Main Case’ against the 1971 JVP insurrection where, as far as I could recall, Rohana Wijeweera refused to plead before the CJC because he held the view that this was a court set up by the government which did not have legitimacy. I believe, his position was that the government was illegitimate, against which he took up arms to overthrow. Hence, had no legitimate right to try him. He was nevertheless tried, convicted sentenced and duly jailed.

The question of which law to apply in such situations is a very interesting challenge to enforcement officers, particularly in a high profile case with political implications which we normally refer to as ‘a tricky case’. In such situations the enforcement officers usually address the question as to, under what law to conduct their investigation. In the instant case they would have had a choice of deciding among three kinds of legal provisions. Viz., (a) Criminal Law (Penal Code) (b) Emergency Regulations and (c) Military law. Usually the criterion is, which law will yield the highest advantage or leeway, in addition to being fair in the circumstances. They appear to have opted to act under the military law because it gave them the best investigative and detention advantage.

When the CID was called upon to investigate an allegation of misappropriation of a large stock of smuggled wristwatches by Negombo Police H.Q. station where the suspects included the entire chain of command including the ASP himself in 1972, the top brass of the CID sat in session to determine the best investigational strategy. The CID then was unpopular among the uniformed police as much as among the society at large as this organization came down hard on all offenders both in uniform and other and was no respecter of persons. It also had behind them Dodampe Mudalali and an accused in the CWE case who jumped to their death from a Fourth Floor window, which brought in notoriety. How the arrests could be done with minimal addition to this unpopularity was also a major issue. The CID had several options; namely, to act under, a) Penal code, b) Customs Ordinance or c) under the Police Disciplinary Code. After a lengthy discussion, it was decided to act on neither. The decision was to request the DIG (Mr. A.C. Dep) to issue an administrative order to the relevant officers to report to Director CID on Special Duty to assist him in an investigation into the allegation of misappropriation of smuggled wristwatches, which was being conducted by the CID for the DIG. The police officers were required to take orders from Director CID regarding their movements thereafter. That eliminated the question of their detention. The SP Kelaniya was asked to look after the interests of his officers under investigation, by being present at the interrogations. This was despite our having the information that he too was given one wrist watch by the ASP as a souvenir. One could imagine the embarrassment of the SP when the ASP was under interrogation! The investigation was smooth sailing after this decision. All accused were finally convicted under the Police Disciplinary Code, where Snr. State Attorney Sarath N. Silva was the prosecuting officer.

We had to face similar challenge when in 1976 I had to arrest late Mr. Lalith Athulathmudli in connection with a case of conspiracy and attempted murder. Here was a formidable suspect, A Harvard LLM and a former lecturer in law at the University of Singapore who was threatening to become the next Minister of Justice. The SLFP government was sure to loose at the hustings in ’77. I timed his arrest for a Sunday morning when his chambers would be closed and when the man could expected be alone at home, so there was least room for a political fuss. Athulathmudali was an arrogant man thoroughly conversant in the law. He threw the book at us we threw the same book back at him, as we had done a lot of home work, with the Director Prosecution, Ranjith Abeysuriya. For some time it was like a game of chess. Finally he submitted himself to arrest as he ‘knew the law’ and his limits.

In both these cases as well as in many other, we then had the luxury of a lot of time to do our home work and map out our strategy in consultation with the AG’s Department. There were the luminaries like Noel Tittawella and later Ranjith Abeysuriya, Kenneth Seneviratne and down the line, the likes of Sunil de Silva, D.S. Wijesinghe and then Snr. State Attorney Sarath N Silva himself, readily available to consult. Tyrrel Gunathilake told me that Noel Tittawella had told him that when tricky matters as these were discussed with his guru, L.B.T. Premaratne A.G., he would say after considering all the options: “That is what the law says. Now let us see what prudence would say”. In the present case we do not know whether the enforcement officers had the luxury of consulting mature legal opinion before proceeding to effect the arrest within the time frame available, it being such a ‘tricky case’ with so much implications.

Then comes the much asked question, “is this the way to treat a national hero?”. A difficult question to answer. Also, a highly politically charged question. A counter question. Could there have been another way of doing it in the given circumstances? We do not know how rushed the enforcement officers were to effect the arrest. Could they have delayed this action? We do not have adequate inside information of the circumstances. Assuming that the facts revealed up to that time was compulsive, they probably had to decide how much more opportunity was the subject to be allowed to do further damage.

They would have had to decide on the timing, place of arrest and the manner of arrest. The suspect officer was the former commander of the army and the Chief of Defence Staff, an aggressive personality whose reaction to an attempt to arrest would be unpredictable. He could react violently, knowing his personality and he could even resist arrest. Hence a possible strategy was, to take him by surprise leaving him little opportunity to fall back on any counter plan that he had in mind. Any softness could be interpreted to be a weakness he could exploit. The arrest also had to be accomplished quickly to avoid complications, hand ‘phone photographing or video cameras etc. Thus, they may have had to rush through the process. The total drama may have looked shoddy or in Dr. Jayatillake’s words ‘clumsy’, judged from the highest standards. However, I wouldn’t envy the plight of the arresting officers in the given circumstances. Thus, a certain degree of collateral political damage was probably inevitable in the circumstances. The risk had to be taken if the arrest was a must, at that point of time.

John MacKinnon

Your story ‘Republican Mattie Fein makes run aganst Harman official’ is nice but need a bit of depth.

 As you all know, the Tamil Tiger terrorist are great at setting up front organizations here in America. These orgs are directly paying Bruce Fein of the Lichfield Group and Fein & Fein, LLC. Now they are funding Mattie Fein’s campaign. That is why Mattie Fein said she intends to raise $2 million to $3 million for the campaign – enough to mount a credible challenge. We need to remind Mattie and Bruce Fein that it’s illegal and immoral to take money from the world’s most ruthless terrorists and speak on their behalf. These Tamil terrorists are on our State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Where Does US LTTE Operative Elias Jeyarajah get funds to lobby State Department against Sri Lanka

 http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2009/09/11/where-does-us-ltte-operative-elias-jeyarajah-get-funds-lobby-state-department-agains   

The Star said, “In Washington, Tamil expats have formed lobby groups such as Americans for Peace in Sri Lanka and Tamils for Justice, whose efforts to curry favor with the U.S. government is led by Bruce Fein, a former lawyer in the Reagan administration.” “This is how the Tigers are going to go forward,” Gunaratna said. “They will be lobbying and investing in human-rights organizations, trying to convince foreign governments to pressure Sri Lanka to accept change.” 

 FBI’s Research: TAMING THE TAMIL TIGERS, From Here in the U.S.

 http://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan08/tamil_tigers011008.html

  Terror in America: Connect the Dots

 http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2007/04/terror_in_ameri.html  

  LTTE heavily lobbied U.S.
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/1733    

  Tigers at bay: helping terrorists with our tax dollars http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/26/tigers-at-bay/    

 

Best  

 Jmack    

 

 

 

 

Anura Seneviratna, Dr MB Ranatunga, Sumith de Silva, Asanka Haradasa, Sapumal Watteaarachchige, Ira Mediwake, Ranjith Wijetunge, Dhanapala Godagangdeni, Sam Samararatne (for expat Hela team). 

Graceless reduction to egotistical psyche from wholesome and potent national cohesion is indeed a tragedy. But we cannot be blamed for it if causality is thoroughly examined, which is mainly the sinister impact of systematic de-nationalization campaign in the past, conspired by the pretenders to our national politics in pseudo-national garb.

 The impact is: as a nation of people, we were transformed into destructive  individuals, unaware of the meaning of national sovereignty and the inviolable rights enshrined within it, in defence of our today and posterity. In this confusion, nation and race were misconstrued; instead of nationhood we have a majority and ethnic complex similar to non indigenous minorities, a reference normally to settlers in a robbed land or ownerless land. Although, we uphold our sole ownership and leadership to our home – we are made to behave in our national motherland without national aspiration and confidence to say this island country belongs to our Nation.

 This attitude and outlook encouraged the minorities to strive towards  separate national entities, which stemmed from the excessive and illegal rights dished out to them by most of the past pseudo-national rulers since 1948. This paved the way to an attempted minority Tamil invasive terror to turn Heladiva (SL) into a second Tamil Nadu and the extinction of the Hela nation. With the liberation of the island achieved – we are now facing a general election but the invasive threat to our national sovereignty is continuing globally by the Tamil entity led by Tamil Nadu’s Tamil national leadership. Add to the bargain, the traitorous opposition political party and their minority racist, alien-national illegal political parties are in cahoots, continually threatening the country’s national sovereignty. 

 Most of us may now have forgotten the liberation of the country promised by the current leadership having achieved at the cost of thousands of lives. While indulging in the current freedom of safety – the party political and egotistical ambitions are high in the agenda. Narrow self interests can take priority over the big picture which is out of focus at our peril. Elephant does not see its mighty size covered by the big ears and we have underestimated our Island Country and Nation for its physical smallness. Yet, the endless global Tamil and international thrust on us signals that we must be quality not quantity. To take our place as a nation and country on earth – it is the most appropriate time to rise up in defence of our National Sovereignty as our fundamental inviolable human right as a nation of people within our Island Country. As this exercise is justifiable and noble, which is common to every nation ONLY in their national motherland – we must be wise, firm and strong consistently against vultures.

 Undoubtedly, we as a nation are not united due to party political and selfish divisiveness, which is amply exploited by the minorities to their undue separatist advantage to de-stabilize the nation and country.   Instead of narrow egotistical party political mindset, we should look ahead to elevate ourselves towards Sovereign National politics where Country and Nation as our priority.

 Our ancient kings requested that every citizen should be alert to the national politics on a daily basis, as it directly affects from the rice grain to the defence of the country. But since we embraced foreign divisive party politics – politics has become a bad word now, while allowing the party politicos to play merry hell at the cost of the nation and country.

 Anura Seneviratna, Dr MB Ranatunga, Sumith de Silva, Asanka Haradasa, Sapumal Watteaarachchige, Ira Mediwake, Ranjith Wijetunge, Dhanapala Godagangdeni, Sam Samararatne (for expat Hela team).  

By Dr. Levins T.C.Rajaratnam

WAR & PEACE

The war has produced deep divisions of opinion in our country. The Cold War is now a memory.

WHO ARE TERRORISTS? THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

Sri Lanka may continue to face a threat: of disorder and chaos born either of brutal activities of terror by the terrorists. Who are the Terrorists ? Terrorists are those who impute fear into the lives and minds of civilians by their chaotic acts and this qualifies not only the LTTE but all other armed militant Tamil groups who are carrying arms like the underworld mafia in Sri Lanka. Both hate our way of life, our freedom, our democracy.

 FEAR OF CIVILIANS

The fear of every citizen, deeply held, based in part on the intelligence that each one of sees, is that these threats come together and deliver catastrophe to our country. These tyrannical movements or militants do not care for the sanctity of human life. The terrorists delight in destroying it.

TARGETS OF MILITANCY

Some say if we act, we become a target. The truth is, we are all targets. Should terrorists obtain these weapons now being manufactured and traded round the world, the carnage they could inflict to our economies, our security, to world peace, would be beyond our most vivid imagination. Now that the war is over do we need militants carrying arms cloaked with democratic political parties and at random attacking the very roots of democracy ?This threat is real, growing and of an entirely different nature to any conventional threat to our security that Sri Lanka has faced before.

DESTRUCTION OF LTTE OR TERRORISM?

So our choice was clear: back down and leave LTTE hugely strengthened; or proceed to destroy them by force. Retreat may have given us a moment of respite but years of repentance at our weakness would have followed. People in the North even persons like me in Colombo continue to be threatened by Tamil militants in the garb of democratic forces. It is true the LTTE was not the only threat. But it is true also that the best way to deal with future threats peacefully, is to deal with present threats with resolve. But these challenges and others that confront us – poverty, the environment, the ravages of disease – require a world of order and stability.

 NATIONAL LIST NOMINEES – A Card Pack including Jokers
A proper representation is necessary even on the appointment of Members of Parliament on the National List. It is vital that all political parties selected or nominated people who could speak and contribute in Parliament and  with words defend and submit articulate arguments. But to our dismay we find that some of them most all Tamil nominees have either blood in their hands or those who play with numbers who can never make a impromptu speech in Parliament to reflect to the world the contentment of the Tamil people and the Nation as a whole. Their records of treachery and unpatriotic deeds have been rewarded by nomination. The courage and determination of Sri Lankan men and women, serving our country, the fate of the nation rests.

 EXTORTION & EXPLOITATION FOR NATIONAL LIST

One notable incident is where Mr.Palani Thigambaram (UNP nominee for Nuwara Eliya) was summoned by an infamous Tamil couple living in Colombo-07 who have been  convincing people from time immemorial that they have been close to  successive Leaders stated that the VVIP was angry with him for getting large amount of votes for his rival in Nuwara Eliya at a recent election and wanted millions of rupees to settle the matter. Mr.Thigambaram related this story to me and stated that he fears danger to his life. Couple of days later Mr.Thigambaram called me and stated that this very person’s spouse an ex-banker was on the national list. Mr.Thigambaram was shocked and dismayed that the VVIP’s name was exploited for monetary gain. One wanders what the future Parliament has in hold if people such as these are nominated as Members of Parliament. Have they contributed anything towards the Party or the Leader ?

Civilized people around the world denounce the evildoers who devised and executed terror attacks. Justice demands that those who helped or harboured the terrorists be punished — and punished severely. The enormity of their evil demands it. We should use all the resources of Sri Lanka pursue those responsible for this evil, until justice is done. Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka having been a terrorist has become an inalienable right for political recognition, whilst the Western Countries are shocked and dismayed by the callous interlude of mixed convictions.

INNOCENCE LOST

We mourn with those who have suffered great and disastrous loss. All our hearts have been seared by the sudden and sense-less taking of innocent lives. We pray for healing and for the strength to serve and encourage one another in hope and faith. 

The Bible says: “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”  we will find healing and recovery; and, in the face of all this evil, we remain strong and united, “one Nation under God.” 

A jewish liturgy book ”Gates of Repentance” states in a passage from the Yom Kippur liturgy:
”Now is the time for turning. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red to orange. The birds are beginning to turn and are heading once more toward the south. The animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the winter. For leaves, birds and animals, turning comes instinctively. But for us, turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong, and this is never easy. It means losing face. It means starting all over again. And this is always painful. It means saying I am sorry. It means recognizing that we have the ability to change. These things are terribly hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday’s ways. Lord help us to turn, from callousness to sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose, from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to faith. Turn us around, O Lord, and bring us back toward you. Revive our lives as at the beginning, and turn us toward each other, Lord, for in isolation there is no life.”

It is said that soon after his enlightenment the Buddha passed a man on the road who was struck by the Buddha’s extraordinary radiance and peaceful presence. The man stopped and asked, “My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god?” “No,” said the Buddha. “Well, then, are you some kind of magician or wizard? “Again the Buddha answered, “No.”

“Are you a man?”

“No.”

“Well, my friend, then what are you?”

The Buddha replied,

“I am awake.”

Politicians must be awake!

The Buddhist Teachings further states:

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind, and trouble will follow you, as the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. We are what we think.  All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind, and Happiness will follow you, as your shadow, unshakable.How can a troubled mind understand the way? Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, no one can help you as much, not even your father or your mother.”

It further states-

Do not pursue the past.
Do not lose yourself in the future.
The past no longer is.
The future has not yet come.

Looking deeply at life as it is in the very here and now,
the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.

We must be diligent today.
To wait until tomorrow is too late.

LOVE THINE NEIGHBOUR

We must be able to love our neighbour – all our neighbours – as our selves, to be an instrument of God’s peace; to let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart and, in the end, the work of our hands, be pleasing.

HUMAN DISASTER

Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
`

SRI LANKAN REALITY

As Sri Lankans we must produce the Sri Lankan reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.

 Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal. The national mood changes as the seasons change. We are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when the grass turns green and the flowers bloom. That spiritual and physical oneness we all share with this common homeland explains the depth of the pain we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples of the world, precisely because it has become the universal base of the pernicious ideology.

OUR CONDUCT & THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

We trust that the international community will continue to stand by us as we tackle the challenges of building peace, prosperity, non-sexism, non-racialism and democracy. But we cannot act regardless. We must observe human dignity and a code of etiquette required of us as a Nation.

We deeply appreciate the role that the masses of our people and their political mass democratic, religious, women, youth, business, traditional and other leaders have played to bring about this conclusion.
We must therefore act together as a united people, for national reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth of a new world. Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all.

peace and national security,

We must have a strong defense budget which reflects the judgment of the best understanding of the experts and specialists about what we and our allies must do to protect our people in the years ahead. That budget is much more than a long list of numbers, for behind all the numbers lies Sri Lanka’s ability to prevent the greatest of human tragedies and preserve our free way of life in a sometimes dangerous world. It is part of a careful, long-term plan to make Sri Lanka strong again after too many years of neglect and mistakes.

STRENGTH OF OUR DEFENSE

Our efforts to rebuild Sri Lanka’s defences and strengthening  must go on. When we requested a major increase in the defence program.

We start by considering what must be done to maintain peace and review all the possible threats against our security. Then a strategy for strengthening peace and defending against those threats must be agreed upon. And, finally, our defence establishment must be evaluated to see what is necessary to protect against any or all of the potential threats. The cost of achieving these ends is totalled up, and the result is the budget for national defence.

There is no logical way that you can say, let’s spend x rupees less. You can only say, which part of our defence measures do we believe we can do without and still have security against all contingencies? Anyone in the Parliament who advocates a percentage or a specific rupee cut in defence spending should be made to say what part of our defences he would eliminate, and he should be candid enough to acknowledge that his cuts mean cutting our commitments to allies or inviting greater risk or both.

The defence policy of Sri Lanka like most other democratic countries is based on a simple premise: We will never be an aggressor. We maintain our strength in order to deter and defend against aggression – to preserve freedom and peace.

We maintain the peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression. This strategy of deterrence has not changed. It still works. But what it takes to maintain deterrence has changed.

There was a real question then about how well we could meet a crisis. And it was obvious that we had to begin a major modernization program to ensure we could deter aggression and preserve the peace in the years ahead.

We had to move immediately to improve the basic readiness and staying power of our conventional forces, so they could meet – and therefore help deter-a crisis. We had to make up for lost years of investment by moving forward with a long- term plan to prepare our forces to counter the military capabilities our adversaries were developing for the future.

FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY
Are we not capable of demonstrating our peaceful intentions by applying all our abilities and our ingenuity to achieving a truly lasting stability? I think we are. Indeed, we must.

Sri Lankans must strive hard to go ahead. There will be failures and setbacks, just as there will be successes and breakthroughs. And as we proceed, we must remain constant in preserving the dignity of a nation. Whether it will be done or not only time will tell.

Vajiragnana Warnakulasuriya,Melbourne, Australia

To the Attention of Damien Carrick,
Law Report,
ABC Australia

This is to correct an erroneous presentation of a Bodhisattva story by you during the discussion you had with Charles DiSalvo, under the topic “Mahatma Gandhi: from lawyer to national liberator” on the 9^th of March, ABC

Excerpt from the discussion

 Damien Carrick*: Charles, I know that Gandhi was a Hindu and not a Buddhist, but Ahimsa is a philosophy with deep roots in both traditions, *and there’s an ancient Buddhist story of a bodhisattva, and that’s a person or a saint who has attained enlightenment but they stick around on earth to help less evolved mortals like us attain enlightenment. And I understand the story goes that there’s a bodhisattva, he’s traveling on a ship which is carrying 500 people, and he knows that someone is trying to kill everyone on board, so he thinks about the best course of action and he goes ahead and he kills the guy, and he saves 500 lives.* And the moral of the story is that sometimes violence is consistent with non-violence. What would Gandhi have made of that? Because that’s a difficult issue.

 Damien, I don’t know from where you got this story, there’s nothing like this in Buddhist Philosophy, unless somebody has distorted a “Jataka” story and written somewhere or a weird video is made which you may have read or seen.

 A “bodhisattva” is not a “Saint” who has attained enlightenment, he is someone like you and me, the difference being he aspires to be enlightened in a future life to free the deluded people from suffering!!  Over a period of enumerable life cycles such a person even has to sacrifice his life for the sake of others. He does not take the life of an “Ant” let alone a “human” being no matter what! This is how one prepares to become an enlightened one, an arduous task, to becomes the “Buddha”

 So, Damien it is wrong to narrate a story like this over the air, which is a distortion of the Profound Teachings of the Incomparable Buddha!

Your ill informed notion was just to prove even the “nonviolent” believers at times deviate from what they preach to avoid an intending catastrophe.

Damien, now that I have enlightened you of the unmitigated error during your presentation, would you correct this error in your next Law report program please. Err is to Human!

 Yours sincerely

 Vajiragnana Warnakulasuriya,

 Melbourne, Australia

Herold Leelawardena

It’s been more than nine months since LTTE, Piripaharan and all its key leaders have been wiped out. But Tamils do not sound or look as if they have forsaken any of LTTE ideals. One could see that trend from their fall to TNA, the LTTE proxy. If not, why did they vote for Fonseka? Did they not expect to accomplish their aspirations through him?

Everyone knew that UNP, JVP and TNA policies are poles apart. Needless to mention Fonseka had his own vicious plan. How could a bunch like that work together for the benefit of the people in this country? Truth is; they had their separate plans for their own gain.

Make no mistake; today, JVP motive is the same thing of the yesteryear. JVP knew they will soon be reduced to nothing if Rajapakse remain in power. TNA knew Fonseka will neither transfer power to parliament nor abolish Presidency. TNA knows that Fonseka would bring about instability and confusion. Until then, the wily TNA is lurking in the shadows of Fonseka for the right time to call upon the International Community to demarcate the boundaries for Eelam. A fox like Ranil cannot; but knows this danger. But his hunger for power supersedes the good for the country. Intelligent as they are or with some extra terrestrial compelling Sinhala Buddhists had understood all this and had voted Rajapakse to power en masse.

President Rajapakse need not fear for votes. Right now 70% of Sinhala Buddhists favour him and are firmly against RanilW. And a good number of Intelligent and realistic Tamils and Muslims are also with him for they know that peace dividends could roll down to them as well. And soon that number would swell up to 50%, soon.

For all that to materialise, President Rajapakse should not drop our guard and allow LTTE rumps to regroup. They should not be allowed to bring back their suicide bombers to bomb our buses, trains and public places. We should go after all those LTTE rumps wherever they lurk. And to do that effectively, we should get even the devil’s help to train our intelligence sleuth.

Let’s not fool ourselves. Almost all Tamils want Eelam. Just like Shylock wanted an exact pound of flesh. Some of them wanted a shortcut route (war and violence) to it and others want to take long road (13A, federal, con-federal and etc) to it. But in the end they all want to get to the same. So much so, the Diaspora Tamils are looking for new Piripaharans to revive their fight for Eelam.

There is a greater danger though: the so-called international community (IC), their NGOs and Christian evangelists continue their endeavour to divide Sri Lanka. They are not averse to LTTE ideals. The way they go about supporting well known former LTTE agents prove this point. LTTE were the pioneers and the masters in the art of suicide bombings. Yet, for the last thirty years this clique had been propagating that LTTE were a special kind of terrorists – freedom fighter terrorists.

In such circumstances should expect anyone to protect us? No. We have to protect ourselves from those that supported and helped LTTE for the last thirty years. And we should not forget that those that helped LTTE include IC, NGOs and Christian Evangelists. They wanted to revive LTTE rump and ignite another war to destabilise this country.

 Needless to mention, we have to protect ourselves from countries like Norway that had provided logistical and moral support for LTTE.  

India should understand that however much devolution we offer, Tamils will not be satisfied. So, India should leave us to solve our problem our way. India should not forget that it had lost one of its greatest sons for LTTE scum. And, it is we that rid those scum at Nandikadal. Let India make no mistake; help Sri Lanka government in every possible way to suppress LTTE rumps. Otherwise another great son of India might be lost forever. 

Ananda w. P. Guruge

BUDDHISM TODAY AND AESTHETIC CREATIVITY – A MISCELLANY OF RECENT ARTICLES, ESSAYS AND SPEECHES covers many areas of my personal interests in the field of Buddhist studies and action. I have shared these views, opinions, observations and concerns with many audiences in all parts of the world over the last decade. The decision to compile them into a single volume is in response to many requests I receive for copies.

These articles, essays and speeches portray a range of subjects on which most Buddhists and friends of Buddhism seek information, clarification, explanation and solution. I have done my best to share my knowledge and understanding. The treatment of each subject was determined by the nature of the invitation, the kind of targeted audience or readership or the requirements of the organizer or publisher. As such they are not exhaustive or complete. Time and space had necessitated brevity and precision. Some of the subjects dealt with here would require individual treatises if they are to be treated in adequate detail. In many instances, I have indicated where further research is required.

I have been fortunate that a large group of international friends, colleagues and acquaintances have circulated my writings through periodicals, felicitation volumes and Internet forums and that enabled me to limit what I needed to include in this volume. For example I have left out the articles contributed to Venerable Hammalawa Saddhatissa, Venerable Dhammavihari, Venerable Kakkapalliye Anuruddha, Saddhamangala Karunaratne and N. H. Samtani Felicitation Volumes and the Jagajjyoti Centennial Volume.

During the decade under review my output had been many times more despite intermittent health problems. It is my intention to bring out a compilation of Sinhala writings separately. I have also not included what is available through other media such as YouTube and www.closertotruth.com . This website is due to make available several hours of intense interviews I have had with Dr. Robert L. Kuhn on many philosophical and metaphysical issues from the Buddhist point of view.

The motivation for this publication came from a letter to the editor of Island Newspaper of Sri Lanka in response to an appreciation which Dr. Laksiri Jaysuriya of Perth, Australia and I from Los Angeles, USA wrote jointly on late Mr. Padmal de Silva of the University of London. We made reference to the vast array of articles which Padmal had published through Western periodicals on Buddhist approach to psychotherapy and ranked him as an outstanding contributor to the advancement of knowledge in this field. The writer complained that these articles were not accessible to readers in Sri Lanka and mentioned also that a similar situation existed with regard to my writings as well as the erudite contributions on a variety of subjects by Professor Laksiri Jayasuriya. As a remedial measure, I have agreed to a generous proposal of Mr. Sirisumana Godage of the Godage International Publishers of Maradana, Colombo to bring out in a series my complete works in Sinhala and English, commencing with articles published from the age of seventeen as a school boy of Dharmaraja College, Kandy.

My major works are in Sri Lankan editions. ASOKA THE RIGHTEOUS: A DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY has been translated into Sinhala by Jinasoma Weerasooriya and published by Sirisumana Godage following an initiative taken by His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse as Prime Minister. Professor Tissa Kariyawasam translated my MAHAVAMSA into Sinhala and once again it was published by Godage International Publishers who also issued a second edition of the original in English.

Already Sri Lankan editions have been published of my novels SERENDITPITY OF ANDREW GEORGE and PEACE AT LAST IN PARADISE. It is proposed to bring out a Sri Lankan Edition of the first volume of this Trilogy FREE AT LAST IN PARADISE so that my complete Sri Lankan Trilogy on Freedom to Peace will be available to Sri Lankan readers at a reasonable price. In addition, I have donated all my archival material to the National Archives Department of Sri Lanka, where the Director Dr. Saroja Wettasinghe has already put them on display for the use of researchers.

Teaching, speaking and writing on various aspects of Buddhism have occupied a fair amount of my time and energy from my younger days as when the first ever Buddhist journal of the University of Ceylon was edited and produced by me as PATIPADA in 1948 at the age of nineteen years. Traveling to all corners of the world to meet diverse audiences to deliver speeches or moderate seminars or organize conferences has been a visible reward. But the real reward of sheer joy comes from meeting persons who recall what they have heard or read and tell how much the sharing of my views had contributed to their pursuit of the study of Buddhism. I expect no less from this volume.

Neither the intellectual preparation and the actual writing nor the travel around the world to deliver these speeches would have been possible without the generous support and encouragement of my family to whom I can never be too grateful. Once again, I express my indebtedness to my wife Darshanika, the children Anura, Mardhavi Sakuntala and Nisala Abhimana and my grandchildren Danielle, Matthew, Devanee and Tieschan. It is with justifiable pride that I include as a frontispiece a poem written by my grandson Matthew, age 17, who no doubt is inspired to carry on to the third generation the family tradition of a father and a grandfather who have many books and articles to their credit.

Sabbe satta bhavantu sukhittatta:
May all beings be happy and well.

Ananda w. P. Guruge,
8351 Snowbird Drive,
Huntington Beach, CA 92646

By James Jayalath from Melbourne

http://cjpcbrisbane.wordpress.com

Dear Mr. Arndt,

I have read your article published in Catholic Justice and Peace Commission website on 02/03/10 and the Catholic Leader on 07/03/10.

As a Catholic I am ashamed to read articles like this because you attract an audience on the Internet to read utter rubbish, and you want people to believe you and take against our Government. Looks like your wish to see our country fail miserably in economic front but I can tell you one thing, people like you are absolute disgrace to the Catholic community because you are trying to create divisions in our society not only in Sri Lanka but in Australia too, and I am not sure how you go to Church and worship the Lord every week.

According you article you have asked the federal government to take strong actions against human right violations in Sri Lanka. Mr. Arndt where were you when LTTE thugs were ruining our country and killing unarmed civilians for the past 30 years. Were you in a Coma? Do not try to promote hatred using religion when you know whole heartedly how some citizens treat Aboriginal people in Australia. Some Western Governments violate human rights in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. Why don’t you have guts to write any articles about those issues? Our Sri Lankan President took firm action to destroy terrorism and that was an action against ruthless Tiger movement not against Tamil people. People who migrated to Western countries as refugees (especially LTTE sympathisers) did not want this war to end, but fortunately due to a strong leadership and our war hero’s, they were able to crushed our enemies(LTTE thugs). Some Western Governments tried their best to stop the war at any cost, but sadly they failed and still try to intervene with baseless allegations. Our country needs support to develop not harassment from individuals like you.

 Mr. Arndt if you have nothing to do during your leisure time I have a small suggestion for you. Buy an Air ticket and fly to Sri Lanka and enjoy our Sri Lankan hospitality, and visit a place called Galle Face where you can fly kites (A light framework covered with cloth, plastic, or paper, designed to be flown in the wind at the end of a long string) for leisure. Please keep your hands off from our beautiful country and let people who suffered for 30 years enjoy the freedom with support from our Government and other parts of the world to develop the Nation for every race to live in peace and harmony.

Yours sincerely,

James Jayalath

By Dr.Levins T.C.Rajaratnam

The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law (jurisprudence) are often studied separately, but they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community and jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals. Many religious theists believe that both law and politics should be based on a religious foundation, and in particular on the commands of some alleged god. Without that foundation, they argue, both law and politics will be illegitimate uses of force.

 Why Should Atheists Care About Political and Legal Philosophy?:

Most atheists recognize that the separation of church and state are important to their ability to be free of having religion imposed upon them. Not all realize that separation is based upon a more fundamental political and legal philosophy which theocrats on the Christian Right don’t accept. Debates over church/state separation are thus debates over political and legal philosophy and one reason why such debates often don’t go anywhere is because, in not realizing all this, people fail to address the more fundamental disagreements that are really at issue — like the legitimate authority of government, for example.

 What is Political Philosophy?:

Political Philosophy is primarily constrained to the workings of governments and nations — how they developed, why they developed, which systems are better than others, what the purpose of government should be, etc. All of this is closely related to Ethics, because so much is dependent upon what actions are right; but there is the added element of what actions can and should be constrained by outside human forces. There is much debate in America over how much separation there can or should be between politics and people’s religious beliefs. Can people, for example, base public policy on private religious revelation?

 What is Legal Philosophy or the Philosophy of Law?:

Legal Philosophy focuses on laws and legal systems: how laws came to be, what laws are better than others, what the purpose of law should be, whether or not laws should be obeyed, etc. Because political systems are dependent upon the law, legal philosophy is at the heart of political philosophy. Legal Philosophy is often studied in an effort to elucidate the way in which human nature and social nature need to be expressed and controlled through the law. There is significant effort from some Christians, especially Christian Reconstructionists, to re-make American law along the lines of Old Testament religious law.

 Exploitation of principles of Philosophy & Law

What is Law ? Law is the command of the sovereign state. It can be a just law or an unjust law. Law is exploited to the extent it could be allowed when the Judiciary turns a blind eye.

Reflections by comrade Fidel

It is not an ideological issue related to the definitive hope that a better world is, and should be, possible.

It is a known fact that the homo sapiens has existed for about 200 thousand years, which is no more than a tiny span of the time passed since the emergence of the first basic forms of life on our planet approximately three billion years ago.

The answers to the unfathomable mysteries of life and nature have fundamentally been religious. It would be senseless to pretend otherwise and I am convinced that it will forever be this way. The deeper science delves into the explanation of universe, space, time, matter and energy; the infinite galaxies and the theories of the origin of the constellations and the stars; the atoms and the fractions of them that made possible life and its briefness; the more questions man will have in search of ever more complex and difficult rationalizations.

The more involved human beings are in the quest for answers to such deep and complex endeavors related to reason, the more significant the efforts will be to release them from their enormous ignorance on the true possibilities of what our intelligent species has created and can still create. Living and ignoring it is tantamount to a complete denial of our human condition.

However, something is absolutely certain: very few even imagine how close we might be to the extinction of our species. Nearly twenty years back, at a World Summit on the environment held in Rio de Janeiro, I brought up this danger before a selective audience of Heads of State and Government who listened with respect and interest albeit unconcerned for a risk they perceived to be centuries or perhaps millenniums away. They certainly felt that science and technology plus a basic sense of responsibility would suffice to tackle the problem. That important summit happily concluded with a great photo-op of distinguished characters, including the most powerful and influential. There was no danger whatsoever.

Hardly anyone talked about climate change then. George Bush senior and other dazzling leaders of the North Atlantic Alliance enjoyed victory over the European socialist camp. The Soviet Union was dismembered and in ruins. A huge amount of Russian money ended up in the Western banks, its economy broke up and their defensive shield vis-à-vis NATO military base was dismantled.

The former superpower that had contributed the lives of over 25 million of its people to World War II was left with only the nuclear power capability for a strategic response, something it had been forced to create after the United States secretly developed the nuclear bomb that it dropped on two Japanese cities when the adversary, already defeated by the irrepressible advance of the allied forces, was unable to fight.

Such was the beginning of the Cold War and the production of thousands of increasingly destructive and accurate thermonuclear weapons capable of annihilating the population of the planet several times over. Nevertheless, the nuclear confrontation continued while the weapons grew more accurate and destructive. Russia does not resign itself to the unipolar world that Washington intends to impose. Other nations such as China, India and Brazil are emerging with unexpected economic strength.

For the first time, in a globalized world full of contradictions the human species has created the capacity for self destruction. This in addition to unprecedented cruel arms such as chemical and bacteriological weapons: like napalm and white phosphorous used with total impunity against the civilian populations, the electromagnetic weapons and other forms of extermination.

No place on earth or in the sea, no matter how deep, is beyond reach of the current means of war.

It is known that tens of thousands of nuclear devices have been produced, even portable ones.

The greatest risk stems from the judgment of leaders with such decision-making power that mistakes or madness, so common in human nature, could lead to unspeakable catastrophes.

Almost 65 years have passed since the explosion of the first two nuclear artifacts due to the decision of a mediocre individual who was left in command of the rich and mighty American power after Roosevelt’s death.

Today, eight countries are in possession of such weapons

The military industry is the most prosperous of all and the United States of America the largest exporter of weapons.

If our species can escape the abovementioned risks, there is still a greater one or at least less unavoidable: climate change.

The population of the world today is seven billion, and soon, within 40 years, it will be nine billion. This figure is nine times what it was barely 200 years ago. I dare assume that in the days of ancient Greece the figure was about 40 times lower all over the planet.

What’s amazing in our times is the contradiction between the imperialist bourgeois ideology and the survival of the species. The need for justice among human beings is no longer the issue; this is not only possible but unwavering. The issue now is the right and the possibility of survival of the human species.

The farthest the horizon of knowledge expands to previously unknown limits, the closer humanity is brought to the abyss. All sufferings known so far are hardly a pale reflection of what could lie ahead of humanity.

Three events occurred in only 71 days that humanity cannot overlook.

On December 18, 2009, the international community sustained the most important setback in history as it tried to find a solution to the most serious problem threatening the world at the moment: the necessity to urgently put an end to the emission of greenhouse gases which are causing the gravest problem that mankind has faced until today.

All hopes had converged on the Copenhagen Summit after years of preparation following the Kyoto Protocol that the government of the United States, the most contaminating country in the world, had lightly decided to ignore. The rest of the world community, 192 countries, –this time even the United States included– had committed to promote a new agreement. The American attempt at imposing its hegemonic interest was so shameful that in violation of the most basic democratic principles it tried to force unacceptable conditions on the rest of the world anti-democratically resorting to bilateral arrangements with a group of the most influential United Nations member countries.

The States that make up the international organization were invited to sign a document that is no more than a travesty, a document that relates purely theoretical future contributions to curb climate change.

Barely three weeks had passed when at sunset on January 12, Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere and the first to put an end to the horrible slavery system, was hit by the greatest natural catastrophe in the history of this part of the world: a 7.3 degrees in the Richter scale earthquake only 6.25 miles deep and very close to its coastline struck the capital of the country where most of the dead or missing people lived in fragile houses built with clay. A mountainous and soil-degraded country of 16, 875 square miles where wood is practically the only source of domestic fuel for nine million people.

If there is a place on Earth where a natural catastrophe has become an enormous tragedy that place is Haiti, a symbol of poverty and underdevelopment, where the descendants of Africans live who were brought by the colonialists to work as slaves for white masters.

The event came as a shock to the entire world; people in every corner of the planet were shaken by the filmed images that seemed almost incredible. The injured, bleeding and moribund, crawled among the dead asking for help while the lifeless bodies of their loved ones lay under the debris. According to official estimates, the number of lethal victims exceeded the figure of 200,000.

The country was already occupied by the MINUSTAH forces sent by the United Nations to restore the order subverted by Haitian mercenary forces that instigated by the Bush administration had undertaken actions against the government elected by the Haitian people. Several buildings that sheltered soldiers and commanders of the peacekeeping forces collapsed, too, adding to the painful toll in human lives.

The official reports estimate that, aside from the dead, about 400 thousand Haitian were wounded and several million, almost half the total population were affected. It was a real test for the world community that after the shameful Danish Summit had the duty to show that the rich and developed countries could be capable of tackling the threats of climate change to life on our planet. Haiti must be an example of what the wealthy nations should do for the Third World countries in light of climate change.

You can believe it or not, challenging the data

It is absolutely unthinkable that nine billion human beings who will inhabit the world by 2050 could survive such a catastrophe. There is still the hope that science may find a solution to the energy problem that today forces to consume in 100 more years the remaining gas, liquid and solid fuel that it took nature 400 million years to create. Perhaps science can find a solution to the energy required. The crux of the matter would be to know how long it would be, and how costly, before human beings can cope with the problem, which is not the only one since many other non-renewable minerals and grave problems demand a solution, too. There is one thing we can be sure of based on everything known until today: the closest star is four light-years away from our Sun, at a speed of 187,500 miles per second; maybe, a spaceship could cover that distance in thousands of years. The human beings have no other choice but to live on this planet.

It might seem unnecessary to deal with the subject if only 54 days after the disaster in Haiti, another incredible earthquake, 8.8 degrees in the Richter scale, with its epicenter 93.7 miles northwest of the city of Concepcion and

29.6 miles deep, had not caused another human catastrophe: this time in Chile. It was not the most severe in the history of that sister nation, for it is said that another one in the past reached 9 degrees, but this time is was not only a seismic event.

But, while in Haiti they waited for hours the occurrence of a tidal wave that never happened, the earthquake in Chile was followed by a huge tsunami, which showed up in its coasts almost thirty minutes or an hour later, depending on the distance and the data that are still not accurately known, one whose waves made it as far as Japan. If it had not been for the Chilean experience in facing earthquakes, its sounder constructions and larger resources, the natural phenomenon would have taken the lives of tens of thousands or perhaps hundreds of thousands of people. Yet, it did cause about one thousand fatal victims, according to official reports, thousand of wounded and maybe more than two million people sustained material damages.

Almost the entire population of 17, 094,275 people suffered terribly and still endure the consequences of the earthquake that lasted more than two minutes, its repeated aftershocks and the moving scenes and suffering left behind by the tsunami along its thousands of miles of coastline.

Our Homeland fully sympathizes with and morally supports the material effort that it is the international community’s duty to make in favor of Chile. The Cuban people would not hesitate to do for the fraternal Chilean people anything within the extent of its capabilities from the humane point of view.

I think it is the duty of the international community to objectively report the tragedy sustained by both peoples. It would be cruel, unfair and irresponsible to fail to educate the peoples of the world about the threatening dangers.

Let truth prevail above selfishness and the lies used by imperialism to deceive and confound the peoples!

Fidel Castro Ruz

March 7, 2010

By Malinda Seneviratne

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu has advocated, alternatively, and how! This was in a piece published in a daily newspaper (‘Rajapaksa regime in grip of “missing enemy” syndrome’). He has for a long time operated like an authority of international relations, advocating an alarmist don’t-upset-the-West line (in June, 2009 he wrote: ‘Sri Lanka’s foreign policy: missing the wood for the trees’, in www.groundviews.org).

Punditry on foreign policy

Now the piece in the daily newspaper is basically an old script which goes like this: Sara and Co quote some dubious and unverified (deliberately) source and howl; the howl is echoed by the likes of Phillip Alston, Susan Rice, Navi Pillai, HRW and AI; then Sara and Co echo back, in solemn tone. If this is the ‘alternative’ policy to what we already have (with all its weaknesses), then there is only one thing to say, ‘thank you, no’. The point is that, Sara is not innocent. Sara is the quintessential agent provocateur; no following as such, compromised by his own contradictions, mischief-making and shady political games with equally shady characters, Sara is the ideal ‘local operator’ for any foreign meddler.

All this is known so I shall not repeat. What was fascinating about his Wednesday howl was his punditry on foreign policy which warrants full quotation:

‘Foreign policy cannot be conducted through allegation and counter allegation, shrill incoherence and what increasingly looks like incomprehension and incompetence. Most importantly governance cannot be served or sustained by conflict and conspiracy, fear, paranoia and insecurity.

If someone had sent this quotation to me sans the rest of the article and without mentioning the author I would have immediately thought, ‘damn, what a great piece on US foreign policy!’

So I thought I’d flesh it out for Sara. I mean ‘allegation’ and ‘counter-allegation’ isn’t that the preserve of Uncle Sam? Remember ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq, and how Iran is supposed to be making nuclear weapons? Remember how the situation in Grenada in 1983 was seen as a ‘threat to US national security’ and prompted that Reagan administration to send in the marines, taking the luster off the New Jewel Movement and the assassination of that country’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop? A total of 10,000 US troops landed in that tiny island in the Caribbean Sea with a population of less than 100,000 people. It was called ‘Operation Urgent Fury’. Smiling now, Sara? How about you, Ms. Patricia Butenis?

How about ‘shrill incoherence’? How about comparing, Barack Obama’s ‘concerns’ about Tamil civilians and his relative nonchalance, the victims in Gaza? How about his administrations noises about IDPs in Sri Lanka but his determination to stick with a policy in Afghanistan that is designed to churn out hundreds of thousands of IDPs? How about concerns raised by his minions regarding a doctored tape mischievously aired by Channel 4 news while he sits on incriminating photographs depicting torture perpetrated by US troops? How about championing democracy in unfriendly regimes while being good buddies with military juntas, dictatorships, totalitarian regimes and monarchies? Coherence?

Is it ‘incomprehension’ and ‘incompetence’ on the part of Uncle Sam that hundreds of thousands of civilians are regularly killed or maimed or displaced year in and year out courtesy US foreign policy or a deliberate and coldly calculated strategy which devalues people who are not white or Christian in the rush to secure access to and monopoly of resources and markets?

‘Conflict and conspiracy’: aren’t these two words that stand out as the defining signature of US foreign policy (ref innumerable interventions in dozens of countries all over the world, orchestrating coups, assassinating heads of states etc)?

The fear

There are other ‘key words’ here: fear, paranoia and insecurity. Remember what happened to non-white people and especially those who had names such as Mohammed in the US in the immediate aftermath of 9/11? Remember what the USA did to Japanese American citizens during World War II? I can understand the fear, the paranoia and insecurity that drives US foreign policy because Uncle Sam has been quite the bully for over a century and bullies are the most insecure and paranoid people around. They know that the good times won’t last and spend their hours looking over their shoulders.

I urge Sara to read what the new US Ambassador told us was the US take on human rights: “Promoting human rights is one of our most important global concerns. No country, including the United States, has a perfect record in safeguarding human rights. We too have been criticized. We believe it to be our responsibility, however, to advocate for the rights and freedoms of people worldwide, even while we work to address our own shortcomings.”

Sara may very well believe that he is a champion of human rights in Sri Lanka. I think that’s a load of nonsense because that championing is compromised by crass and petty politicking on his part. Still, if he believes it, fine. He should not go the whole hog so that he can recover some morality in the business. He must show Sri Lanka that he is serious about these things and he has to start by calling out the US of A. We want a quick take; it won’t take much time, Sara. We want a series of articles on the subject (you have the vocabulary, this we know). And we want a treatise on the subject. This side of such an exercise you will not be able to brush off the ‘malice’ tag, trust me on this.

L Peiris

Sri Lanka does not care damn if India does or does not welcome the restrictions that had been imposed on the displaced Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka. Certain restrictions had to be imposed on Sri Lankans of Tamil origin as they were rescued from LTTE terrorist lairs and until circumstances are conducive to resettle them in their original places of habitation.

Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is not a new kid on the block when it comes to Sri lanka. She can convey her sentiments to President Mahinda Rajapaksa however he should take it with a pinch of sugar as her ideas are always bitter. A historic opportunity to initiate a process of reconciliation where all communities can live in peace and harmony is available but what Nirupama Rao should understand, is that it is for the Tamils to decide if they are for integration or separatism. Sri lanka from North to South, East to West belongs to all Sri Lankans. Why not promote Indian consulates in Galle, Trinco, Batticaloa etc! [Create more Indian soils within Sri Lanka]  

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna must tell the Rajya Sabha not about the war in Sri Lanka and the search for a political settlement but what he is doing to stop dozens of terrorist groups carrying out terrorist activities in his own back-yard and what political settlement he is going to give them. Our President and government can sort out the internal affairs of Sri Lanka. The biggest humanitarian act., S.M. Krishna can do is to grant citizenship to Tamils in their motherland Tamil Nadu in India, to Tamils who do not want to live and work in Sri Lanka  as Sri Lankans with allegiance to Sri Lanka. This will be the political settlement of the century.

Lanka peiris

India wants to set up a Consul-General’s office in Jaffna to create further mischief for the Sri  Lanbkan people and restore connectivity of separatist ideology and Indian Foreign Secretary, Nirupama Rao is not a babe in the woods in these activities.

Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata are  the capitals of separate states and each of these states are  larger in area an population than Sri Lanka.  All the other countries have one Office in Sri Lanka and it should be the same for India.

 Why should there be a special objective to cater to the needs of the people of the Jaffna peninsula? Why should the Indian government strengthen the cultural links between the Northern Province in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu, the birth place of Tiger terrorists? If India wants they should develop their visa office in Colombo so that any Sri Lankan can obtain visas without standing in mile long ques.

They say once bitten twice shy but unfortunately Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and others never learn. Agreeing to this  proposal they have given the Indians premises with diplomatic immunity to pry into the internal affairs of the area and the repercussions of this foolish gesture will come to roost in the years to come.

Nava Thakuria

The military ruled Burma (Myanmar) emerges as an important actor on the projected peace talks between the Union government of India and the banned militant group, United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). An active and influential underground outfit of Northeast India, the ULFA is fighting New Delhi for its core demand of sovereignty for Assam (out of India). The three decades old armed outfit is understood to be responsible for the killing of thousands of people in the State.

The militant outfit reportedly runs few training camps inside the jungles of northern Burma. The cadres of ULFA are using those hideouts, mostly in Sagaing division and Kachin province of Burma, for many years. New Delhi is worried about the hideouts, which have been used by many Northeast militants, and pursuing the military government in Rangoon (now Nay Pie Taw) to take actions against those militants.

However the Burmese junta is yet to initiate for an affective approach to the problem, though they had not hesitated to play tricks with the Indian government for their selfish interest time to time.

New Delhi still believes that ULFA’s military chief Paresh Barua is hiding some where in Burma-China border. The notorious militant leader, as the Indian security agency claims, had recently left Bangladesh for hiding in Burma. Barua might had come to know about the change of Dhaka’s heart towards New Delhi that finally resulted in deporting some top ULFA leaders to India (from Bangladesh) recently.

Meanwhile, in response to the voices of local people, the Assam government is tying to create a peaceful ambience. Recently Dispur played an important role in the release of two top ULFA leaders.

Following the government’s submissions at the designated TADA court in Guwahati on February 16 that Dispur had no objection if ULFA vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi and publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary were given bail, both were granted the same on February 23 last. The court only directed them not to leave Guwahati without prior information and asked them to report to local police stations if they had to leave for their home towns.

Though received bails together, Pradip Gogoi could not complete few follow-up procedures that delayed his release. Of course, Mithinga Daimary came out from the Guwahati jail on February 25. Daimary, 43, served jail terms since he was arrested (and subsequently handed over to Indian authority) during the Bhutan operation in December 2003.

Talking to media persons in Guwahati soon after his release, Daimary, whose real name is Dipak Das expressed his gratitude to the government for his release. Commenting it was a ‘positive response from the governments’, Daimary however maintained that other senior ULFA leaders should also be released for the proposed talks.

Daimary, also a poet with the nick name of Megan Kachari, went to his residence in Barama of Nalbari district. The ULFA leader was emotional while saying that he was ‘returning with an empty hand to an empty home’. Mentionable that Daimary’s mother, elder brother, pregnant sister-in-law, younger sister were killed by unidentified gunmen a decade back.

Pradip Gogoi was finally released from the same jail on March 4. One of the founder-members of ULFA, Gogoi was arrested in 1992 from Kolkata and he had since been behind bars. Talking to media persons at his home in Baksu Mauthgaon of Sibsagar district, Gogoi demanded for the release of all jailed leaders to pursue the peace process.

He even claimed that ULFA’s commander-in-chief Paresh Barua would ‘come for talks if the government creates the right atmosphere for the exercise’. Elaborating about the right atmosphere, Gogoi argued that the government should initiate for the release of all jailed ULFA leaders and also lobby for bringing back ULFA’s general secretary Anup Chetia, who is serving jail term in the Bangladesh capital city Dhaka for many years.

Amazingly, the Guwahati Jail is now home to almost all top leaders except self-syled commander-in-chief Paresh Barua and general secretary Anup Chetia. Those in Guwahati jail include ULFA political adviser Bhimakanta Buragohain (recently shifted from Tezpur to Guwahati), chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, foreign secretary Shasha Choudhury, finance secretary Chitraban Hazarika, cultural secretary Pranati Deka and deputy commander-in-chief Raju Barua.

During a recent media conversation, while on way to his routine health check up, the ULFA chief Rajkhowa acknowledged his interest for dialogue with the government. He reiterated that the ULFA was keen to solve the long standing conflict situation in Assam. Answering to queries of media persons, Rajkhowa also assured that the outfit would keep the people of Assam into confidence and let them know about any developments in the process.

The local media remains speculative but positive about the talks.

Similarly, various socio-political and advocacy groups of the State came out with their official statements that they want the peace as early as possible. They are unanimous that the common people can not afford the insurgency turned terrorism for decades. Rather they want development and prosperity in a peaceful ambience.

During his recent visit to Northeast, the Indian Union home secretary GK Pillai expressed hope that ULFA leaders would attend the talks. He even clarified that New Delhi would not insist on a formal letter from the outfit expressing its eagerness for discussion.

Mentionable that, the issue of a formal letter from the ULFA leaders remained a major hurdle for the talks between the government and the underground outfit. The Indian Union home minister P Chidambaram had earlier asked for such a letter and the Assam chief minister supported him.

Talking about Paresh Barua, the home secretary Pillai disclosed that he was plying somewhere along the Kachin-China border. He also confirmed that New Delhi had reiterated its request to the Burmese junta to flush out the Northeastern militants from their soil. He expected that Burma would soon launch the operation against the militants.

But the Indian government made it clear that it would go for talks with the militant outfit even without the presence of hard-liner Paresh Barua.

New Delhi maintains that it would continue its effort to bring all the left out ULFA leaders to the negotiation table, who want to talk to the government under the parameters of Indian constitution, in the coming days.

by DEMOS, Courtesy The Island 

Navaneetham Pillay, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, has started her all too familiar, ‘War Crimes Investigation’ refrain once again, to coincide this time, quite ‘accidentally’, with the upcoming parliamentary election. She has been going for Sri Lanka’s jagular ever since the Government crushed her fond band of LTTE terrorists.It has almost become a blood feud that can be satiated only by arraigning Sri Lanka before the UN for ‘war crimes’ aka the crushing of LTTE terrorism! She is of course egged on by notoriously pathological LTTE sympathizers like Miliband (religiously committed mouthpiece of the Tamil Diaspora) and the Vikings et al, in this relentless endeavour. Not that NP needs any encouragement by the West to pursue this vendetta as she apparently seems to have deep, impelling, Tamilian atavistic urges in her own right, to do so.Not at all happy with the round rebuff they received at the hands of the UN when they first yelled for blood,this vengeful cohort is back once again trying to intimidate and demoralize the government of Sri Lanka, on the eve of a crucial parliamentary election. To give the proposed investigation the appearance of a level playing field, NP ventures to name three countries Iran, Sri Lanka and somewhat ‘boldly’, the US (where some Guantanamo prison abuses are thrown in), in regard to alleged human rights violations and war crimes.Why is there complete silence,one may quite righteously and legitimately ask,on the unspeakable atrocities committed in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why such abhorrent selectivity on the basis of differentially applied multiple standards?

by Kath Noble , Courtesy The Island 

The Government invariably responds to such pressure by declaring that those applying it must have ulterior motives. If they are lucky, they are only accused of grubbing for votes. Or they are said to have sour grapes about some petty incident or other. Their advice wasn’t heeded, perhaps. The range of implausible explanations has become quite vast over time. Most are claimed to be actively working towards the resurrection of the LTTE. Fascinatingly complex reasons for this are then suggested.

It is sometimes true. But the actions of Ban Ki-moon should alert people to the fact that there is something more going on here. We need to understand why an official of his standing feels compelled to look into the situation in Sri Lanka, despite the country finally being at peace.

This is what prompted me to request an interview with Professor Francois Houtart, chair of the largely-ignored Dublin Tribunal. His team found the Government guilty of war crimes at a three day session held at Trinity College in January this year.

There are plenty of reasons to question their conclusions.

The report is almost completely lacking in details, and the supporting evidence that the authors say can be found on their website has not been uploaded yet, two months after proceedings closed. Professor Houtart explained that they could produce only a summary of their findings for publication because the documentation submitted was so vast and the organisation responsible for compiling it had limited resources and worked on a purely voluntary basis. The information was available in Rome for anybody to consult, he told me over the phone from his office in Belgium. This may be fair enough, but it makes assessing the validity of the document rather tricky.

Worse, there are some glaring errors.

The document opens with a particularly bad one. It says, ‘From the time the war began in July 2006 through April 2009, according to United Nations internal documents, air raids and the use of heavy weaponry resulted in the death of 116 people per day.’ This implies that about 120,000 people were killed under the watch of Mahinda Rajapaksa, not counting victims of the LTTE and those who succumbed to small arms, mines and due to sickness or the lack of proper food and water, which Professor Houtart acknowledged on questioning was ridiculous. It is more like the total number of dead in 30 years.

Everybody in Sri Lanka knows that the United Nations estimate refers to the final stages of the war and that an extrapolation of this was the basis for the claim made by The Times and then repeated by other media groups that 20,000 people died. That the authors didn’t spot this very obvious discrepancy in their complaint against the Government doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in their ability to carefully review information and reach sensible conclusions.

Nevertheless, there is no getting away from the fact that a group of eminent intellectuals have come to believe that the Government was responsible for war crimes.

Professor Houtart is totally convinced, and his opinion should be respected. He is an internationally recognised figure, having been involved in social work all his life. His links, particularly with progressive leaders in Latin America, are formidable. Last year, he won the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence.

He is also no stranger to Sri Lanka. I met him in Colombo some five years ago, but he has been visiting at regular intervals from the 1960s. He did his PhD thesis on Buddhism here.

The Dublin Tribunal is one of many in which he has participated. His involvement in such work dates back several decades, to the effort organised by Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre to question American foreign policy and military intervention in Vietnam. Professor Houtart has chaired a number of sessions, including one on the Iraq War that condemned the United States in the harshest of terms.

He isn’t biased. Nor is he a fool.

Whether or not he is right about why the Ceasefire Agreement broke down and what was subsequently done to beat the LTTE can’t be cleared up in the space of this column. But in the course of discussing his interpretation of the facts, he made an important point.

The primary concern in Sri Lanka must now be reconciliation.

This is what motivated Professor Houtart to accept the invitation to chair the Dublin Tribunal. As he told me, experience shows that if the truth is not recognised, it is impossible for a country to move forward. The repercussions may not be felt at once, he said, but they will come. A genuine process of reconciliation will emerge only if people can reach a common understanding of what happened during the war.

It is blindingly obvious that there is no such consensus to date. The vast majority of Sinhalese believe something quite different to most Tamils.

The same is true in the diaspora, I might add, or actually to a far greater extent. How those who supported the LTTE are to be persuaded to give up their struggle for Eelam if no efforts are made to bring them into a serious dialogue, I am really not sure. They present the most imminent danger to the country as things stand, considering the funds and networks to which they have access.

My suggestion to Professor Houtart was that to insist on an approach that might lead to prosecutions was to close off all possibility of debate in Sri Lanka. The sense of relief and gratitude towards the Security Forces for finishing off such an old and all-consuming problem is just too widespread and strong for that to be allowed. The more people in Colombo and other parts of the country that were insulated from the full impact of the conflict feel they are being pushed towards legal action, the less willing they will be to consider whether the narrative they have come to accept regarding the final stages of the war is the whole truth. We then remain stuck in talk of a humanitarian rescue mission, surgical strikes and a zero casualty policy, phrases that can only anger those who lost relatives in the Vanni.

The Government clearly isn’t going to be forced into doing anything other than settling scores with Sarath Fonseka in any case.

Professor Houtart disagreed, saying that the law couldn’t be ignored. He said that to do so would jeopardise what he called the ‘whole social fabric’, adding that pardons could still be issued afterwards.

This is worth further consideration.

It seems to me to be the key to dealing with allegations of war crimes. Indeed, the interview as a whole reinforced my feeling that Sri Lanka must now look back at the last three decades and try to understand where mistakes were made and why, in order to ensure that they can never be repeated. Enough time has passed. The country is secure.

Mahinda Rajapaksa is about to consolidate his success in the presidential election with another poll victory. Once the UPFA returns him a majority in Parliament, he will have run out of excuses to act on reconciliation and all the other issues he has been avoiding in the past ten months.

Ban Ki-moon probably doesn’t want anything more than such a process of reflection, assuming it is sincerely undertaken. Getting started would therefore be an excellent way of shoring up relationships with the international community. We should remember that it was never only Western nations who were concerned about human rights violations and a political solution for minorities.

Nobody should mistake this as a call to bow down and capitulate to the demands of Navi Pillay or whoever else. It is just a happy coincidence that doing what is best for Sri Lanka will also help in dealing with institutions like the UN.

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada

March 7, 2010

Mr. Ban Ki-Moon  
 Secretary General  of the United Nations
 New York, US

Dear Secretary General:

The word that has hit the print media the past 48 hours is that you had announced your intention to appoint a panel of experts to advice the UN chief (you) on accountability issues related to Sri Lanka.

Umm…….You know what Ban?  The pressures from the western nations to bring Sri Lanka, that puny little island stuck somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean that defied calls from the US, Britain, Norway, France and the European Union  to declare a “Ceasefire” at the latter stages of the Eelam war so that they could rescue the Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran and his Tamil Tiger leaders and whisk them to safety, is what has smacked them like their parents pulling their pants down and smacking their bare bums for playing stupid until their bottoms turn red.  That is what the problem is Ban, didn’t you figure that one out?  I am surprised. I thought you were smart!

It looks like your blood sugar count gets pretty low often with such Western nations pressures and that you need a shot of insulin to clear your mind so that you could think properly.   Having wiped out the Tamil Tiger terrorist menace after 30 years, President Rajapaksa doesn’t need to be taught a regressive Moon-walk by you that goes backwards.  He is pushing the island progressively forward without the help of the west and that is the direction that he will be walking.

Let’s get this one right Ban.  If the President is accountable to anyone, it is to his masses who had voted him in to office to look after their business and them, and not to a man who calls himself the Secretary General of the United Nations who is pulling puppet strings sitting in a air-conditioned office somewhere in a high rise tower  in New York.  And it was absolutely right for the President to tell you in a simple understandable language that such a stupid move by you were “totally uncalled for and unwarranted.”

Ban I was in stitches when I read that you want to “appoint a panel of experts to advice you”.  What experts Ban?  Did you know that there is a conspiracy within the UN to make you look a rooky on the job when you are advised to appoint certain questionable “experts” to deal with Sri Lanka?

Here is a couple from your galaxy of “experts”.  Navinathen Pillay, a South African Tamil, who is your United Nations  High Commissioner for Human Rights, has acted like a woman scorned by her lover.  She has refused to accept the decision by 29 nations of the UN Human Rights Council which represented 4 billion people against hauling the Sri Lankan Government in front of the International War Crimes Court for the alleged Human Rights violations during the last phase of the Tamil separatist war, while only 12 western nations representing 0.5 billion people voted for it.  She obviously acts like a “white man’s darling” still stalking Sri Lanka to bring her to the International War Crime Court.  Such arrogance is debilitating your command of the UN and showing you up as a weak CEO.  This is not good Ban.  Be ruthless and kick her out.

Then you got this strange Professor Philip Alston, the Australian who is the UN’s Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings.   He has performed like an absurd minded, and an illogical Professorial academic, who has difficulty to comprehend between good analytical research and bad analytical research when it came to dealing with the Channel  4  video clip.  He has embarrassed all of us.  Kick out this ‘expert’ Ban.  He is part of the conspiracy to make you look like a weak CEO.

The bottom line is you are locking horns with Sri Lanka to satisfy the western nations and Sri Lanka will take you on.  This is a proud nation with a proud and honest people, and what you do not want to do is interfere investigating her internal affairs, which will compel the President to tell you to go home and jump into River Nakdong.

These are the people, who when the world  was sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger terrorists, including your people were crying out  loud  last March, April and May saying that the Sri Lankan Government was committing “genocide” against the Tamils, the Sri Lankan Government was preparing one million meals a day to feed 300,0000 Tamils  thrice a day, whom they rescued from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers who held them as a human shield.  By then they had been herded  like cattle for almost two years bringing them from the west in Mannar to the East into Mullaitivu. That is a reality check for you Ban.  That is how caring these proud Sri Lankans are.  It didn’t matter to them that these rescued 300,000 were Tamils. They were all Sri Lankan brothers and sisters to the Sinhalese majority.  Feeding 300,000 Tamils three meals a day with a million meals was not easy, but they did it, when in places like Canada thousands of poor kids go to school with an empty stomach without breakfast.  That is a reality check for you Ban and stop trying to penalize this good and caring people for what comes naturally to them.

When Great Britain took almost 15 years to re-settle their people in repaired and new houses who went homeless after World War II which lasted six years, it was asinine for them and you to expect Sri Lanka that came through a devastating 27 year war to resettle 300,000 Tamils they rescued within two months. Yet, Sri Lanka has produced humanitarian miracles to resettle 220,000 Tamils within nine months in their own homes, having cleared the terrain of millions of landmines which was pocked like fields of mushrooms.    So stop being so uppity Ban trying to undermine this little island which is recovering well without the help from the west after a devastating separatist war with the most ruthless Tamil terrorists in the world.

So why all this silliness Ban?  Why this nonsense wanting to appoint a panel of “experts” to advice you on accountability related to Sri Lanka?  President Mahinda Rajapaksa, doesn’t have to be accountable to you Ban, and you know it.

Just a note of caution Ban.  Be careful not push your luck as President Mahinda Rajajapaksa might tell you to go and fly a kite from the window of your high towered office unless you  learn to respect the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of his sovereign country.  He is in no mood to entertain such arrogance from you or anyone else from the west – the Milibands, the Browns, the Clintons, the Blakes, the Kouchners, the Pillays, you name it.

Sincerely

Asoka Weerasinghe

Dilrook Kannangara

The UN spirit of the 1940s is long dead. UN was born out of respect for all member states, big or small. However, since then mighty nations have dominated the UN and even bypassed the UN. Smaller nations can only lament over gross unfairness and rampant hypocrisy. Today there is a dangerous tussle between the superpowers within and outside the UN. It is inevitable the UN’s relevance is diminishing by the year as a result. Exploiting this weakness, certain breakaway groups of banned terrorist groups, have assumed a pseudo UN presence which they could not achieve through violence. Remnants of the banned terrorist organisation – LTTE (Tamil Tigers) scattered around the West use the power of their hosts to destabilise India, Sri Lanka, China and other nations fighting terrorism.

UN’s Degeneration

It is important to understand the degree of degeneration the UN has suffered in order to prescribe a remedy. The UN is being exploited in a number of ways by its powerful members to cause havoc in other member states.

1. Selective recognition of states. At times showing ridiculous disregard of consistency.
2. Manipulating UN agencies to get one’s own private dirty jobs done.
3. Hypocrisy and unequal treatment of like situations.
4. Unwarranted interference in member states.
5. Using UN staff who are countrymen to obtain favours using their position.

Selectively recognising states has been around for a long time. Fuelled by this trend territories are turned to nations using military power knowing well that with time UN can be persuaded to recognise them. Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are recent events. All these are forcibly severed territories from UN member states. Manipulating UN agencies to do the work of a powerful nation is another “use” of the UN for the mighty. Getting UN agencies to cast doubt on the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq is one example. Pressing Iran to declare its nuclear facilities after putting together a case against Iran alleging the development of a nuclear explosive is another example. Iraq is yet another example of buck-passing to the UN. Coalition troops safely escaped the mess they created in Iraq by handing over the mess to the UN and Iraqi troops. This relieves the invaders their manpower and finances. Ultimately it becomes UN’s problem.

There is widespread inequality in the UN. From nuclear proliferation to war crimes, inequality is obvious. While the UN was silent when millions were killed in Iraq for no reason, it shows extraordinary interest in alleged war crimes in Israel and Sri Lanka which are minute compared to Iraq and Afghanistan. Torture in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere have different levels of significance.

UN staff has been blamed in a number of instances trying to meddle in national affairs. There were other instances where UN staff members claiming firsthand information about conflicts in UN member states and making exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims. These claims are in turn used by their governments to pressurise independent nations.

How to remedy it

Instigated by the US, UK and EU, the UN General Secretary stated that he is going to look into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka even after the UN decided on the contrary. UN has no power whatsoever to look into these allegations without the consent of Sri Lanka and without the sanctioning of it by the UN or its five permanent members (and Germany).

In this context Sri Lanka, as a UN member, must insist that UN staff respects the sovereignty of member states. This must be put forward by way of a resolution. The resolution should disallow the UN and its agencies from interfering in member states in any way without consent from the state unless it is sanctioned by the UN or its five (plus Germany) permanent members. It should totally disallow any act to be taken without those formalities.

Given the overwhelming support in the UN for a non-interference approach, the majority of the 192 member states are likely to support it. Only about 30 nations would oppose it since it takes away extraordinary powers they enjoy now. Most Asian, African and Latin American countries will support such a resolution overwhelmingly. This will give protection to less powerful countries and put an end to misusing the UN by powerful countries to achieve own objectives. A number of totally unnecessary conflicts and millions of deaths could be avoided in the future by following such a non-interference approach. It will bring the UN back to its senses and stop its rapid degeneration.

UN should remain a collection of independent and sovereign member states, not states and their satellite states within a sham subservient organisation used by some states as a cat’s paw.

Gamini Godakanda

In the case of political representation in Sri Lanka, we cannot even refer to a ‘glass-ceiling’ – as women have been kept in the ‘basement’ of politics. This was one of the opinions stated by Leader of the Sri Lanka National Congress, Milinda Moragoda at a meeting held on Saturday in Maradana, which included grassroots women activists.  He added that while Sri Lanka has an excellent record on women’s health, education, and life expectancy, it is worst in the region when it comes to participation of women in politics.

Sarath W

Malin Abeyatunge

LTTE apologists and activists of the Tamil Diaspora have still not given up the Eelam Cry. The newest entity formed called “Global Tamil Forum” (GTF) branching off from now banned British Tamil Association(BTA) has now started their campaign for a “Provisional Trans-national Government of Tamil Eelam” (PTG of TE)’ by getting the LTTE apologist countries like UK, USA, Norway and some EU countries to lobby for their cause for Eelam. This in other words another  attempt and strategy for a separate Tamil State in Sri Lanka. Latest lobbying  in UK was the addressing of  GTF by none other than the British FM David Miliband (DM), Conservative Shadow FC William Hague and Liberal shadow FC Ed Livey.

Let these Tamil groups, the western politicians and British FM (DM) et al who ardently support the Tamil cause for a separate State  in Sri Lanka know that the present leadership under President Rajapaksa  cannot be pressurized or influenced by any means or by any western politicians. British FM (DM) and his French counterpart Kuchner  still unable to digest the humiliating response they got from President Rajapaksa when both were trying their utmost best to stop the last stages of the war operation in Mulaithivu to save Prabhakran and LTTE and advise him how to run the country.

 It is appalling to see that the Conservative  and Liberal Shadow Foreign Secretaries have joined the DM’s band wagon. It is obvious that being General Election is nearing and all these stooges are eyeing  300,000 strong Tamil votes for their survival.  

Whatever DM’s and other shadow ministers’ utterances at the GTF whether in support of it or against it is not the question. Having attended a meeting propagating ‘Separatism” whilst LTTE being a  banned terrorist outfit in UK alone is unacceptable and appalling and an attempt to give currency to a banned terrorist outfit on their soil. Even though David Miliband et al are willing to join hands with  the LTTE fronts like GTF, wine and dine with them and ready even to sleep with them, Sri Lanka will not bend down to satisfy the remnants of the blood thirsty group LTTE terrorists and its western political and media lobby. Let the GTF form a “Provisional  Trans-national Government for Tamil Eelam”  or any form of government in exile, SL will not bow down for any external pressures to undermine the sovereignty of the country. 

The Tamil Diaspora has been contributing to the LTTE war machine over the past twenty seven years but achieved nothing but a  humiliating defeat at the hands of our Sri Lankan forces. Now the GTF and other affiliated LTTE fronts world wide may be collecting funds for their next strategy to form a “Trans-National Tamil State”. Yet again, mind my words the Tamil Diaspora who will support this new strategy financially will be another disastrous investment except the custodians of such funds will have a carnival with those funds collected.

The leadership under President Rajapaksa has committed to bring sustainable peace by uniting all ethnic groups under Sri Lankan Label and it’s time that the moderate Tamil Diaspora re think and act pragmatically without getting trapped to this “PTG of TE “ like the Eelam. The pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora and its supporters have misled the ordinary Tamils living in Sri Lanka for 27 years and they still want to mislead them  with this newest strategy PTGof TE for another couple of decades.

“The International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent non-governmental organization based in Brussels – with a branch in Colombo – in its latest report has strongly urged the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora to jettison once and for all the failed Tamil Eelam agenda of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and instead put their energies into the quest for a sustainable and just peace in a united Sri Lanka “(The Hindu reported). I hope the 29 page report of the ICS will open the eyes of the still misled Tamil Diaspora.

 It is believed that there are around one million Sri Lankan Tamils spread around world wide. In  family terms, there will be around 250,000 families (say a family of four) who live in affluent countries in luxury with their children being educated in best of schools. No qualms for that. But let them think of the poor Tamil children who needs help after going thro a miserable 27 years under the jackboots of LTTE without a proper education or basic living conditions.

The Tamil Diaspora should not forget that they are also totally responsible for the plight of the poor Tamils. Suffice to mention here that whatever the facilities, food and health provided by the successive governments have been robbed by LTTE to feed their own fighting carders leaving the poor Tamils in the once LTTE controlled areas starving. At least they are now enjoying three meals a day, education, health  and other basic facilities.  There are hundreds of Tamil children in Sri Lanka not only in the North & East but other areas as well who need extra support for their education. There are hundreds of children who needs sponsorship from the rich Tamils living overseas.

I am personally aware that Sinhala Diaspora world wide are sponsoring around three to four thousand children of the soldiers who lost their lives, crippled, disabled in the war. Achieving Eelam thro a so called Provisional Transnational Government” is a day dream. The Tamil Diaspora should stop this nonsense of financing the” Transnational Government” and utilize those donations and contributions  to sponsor deserving Tamil children; help them in their education and give them a dignity of life. Tamil Diaspora should follow the Sinhala Diaspora  to help these deserving poor Tamil children.

ALI SUKHANVER-The writer is a Pakistan based bilingual analyst on national and international strategic and defense affairs.

According to all dictionaries of English language, ‘raw ‘means crude and coarse, unprocessed and untreated ; these meanings  seem very much close to reality  when we look at the working of the world famous  intelligence agency RAW. The name coined for it very truly matches the accurate meanings of the word. Raw has very surprisingly succeeded in getting the record of the telephonic conversation between the ISI chief General Ahmed Shuja Pasha and President Karzai of Afghanistan. During this telephonic conversation, General Pasha tried to convince the Afghan president to curtail the Indian involvement in Afghanistan. General Pasha promised to smooth the way for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government if Karzai co-operates in this context.

  RAW’s claim to trace the conversation between Karzai and General Pasha is the best example of RAW’s ‘unbelievable and astonishing’ working. However this ‘Breaking News’ could have been more credible and fascinating if it were supported by authentic proofs which are yet awaited. RAW high-ups must speed up the process of proof finding in this respect other wise this ‘research’ of Raw would be taken as much non-serious and childish as that of the Mumbai blasts. The question arises why did RAW spend a lot of its precious resources and valuable time on tracing the conversation details of the telephonic talks between General Pasha and president Karzai if it ever happened as reported by RAW.   Whatever General Pasha said to Mr. Karzai must not be a hidden reality. If there were any conversation of this type, he might have simply conveyed the policy and demand of the government of Pakistan.

 Every one knows that Pakistan has its own reservations regarding the increasing influence of India in Afghanistan. Since the very first day of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan is of the opinion that the situation would never be bettered if India is given a free hand in Afghanistan because a long lasting peace in Afghanistan is not in favour of India. In the name of different development projects India is sending agents of its different intelligence agencies in Afghanistan. Even the staff of the Indian consulates in Afghanistan   constitutes of the Raw agents. With the help of these consulates India is providing monetary as well as military support to the terrorist groups working in the tribal areas of Pakistan. During the operations against the miscreants in Swat and other afflicted areas Pakistan army has recovered a lot of weapons with Indian mark on them. Same is the case with the diaries which were found in the possession of different arrested miscreants. The pages of these diaries indicated a very clear cut involvement of Raw Agents in worsening the law and order situation in these areas. These are the reasons for which Pakistan is always worried about the increasing involvement of India in Afghanistan. If General Pasha has ever talked to Mr. Karzai on this issue, he has committed no crime. Being the chief of ISI, what else one can expect of him. He heads a department whose sole responsibility is to take care of the interests of Pakistan on every front.

 As far as General Pasha’s proposal regarding the negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban is concerned, it also indicates the peace-loving approach of Pakistan. Since very after its creation, Pakistan has always been a very staunch supporter and promoter of the world peace. Pakistan has always fully supported each and every effort done for the peace and prosperity everywhere in the world. The Taliban are no doubt the Muslims and they have a natural inclination towards all Islamic countries. They take this war against USA and other Allied forces not as a war but as Jihad. As a result of a planned conspiracy, different foreign elements have very successfully hijacked some groups of Taliban and defamed them as terrorists and extremists .However still there are so many groups which do not own terrorist activities going on in the name of Taliban. Such groups are in majority and they simply want the liberation of their motherland from the cruel clutches of the foreign invaders. The government of Pakistan knows very well that such Taliban groups can be very useful in the maintenance of peace in Afghanistan. If Pakistan has offered its services for the existence of peace in Afghanistan, again it is neither a sin nor a crime.

 Since after the revelation of Obama’s intention of leaving Afghanistan by 2011, India has been trying   its best to be the future care-taker of Afghanistan. It knows very well that the local Afghan people would never be ready to accept Indian hegemony in their motherland. They would have a natural leaning towards Pakistan after they succeed in getting rid of the USA and the Allied forces. That is the reason that India is trying to create misunderstandings between   Afghan Taliban and Pakistan. A picture is being portrayed as if Pakistan is manipulating the situation in Afghanistan by playing under hand game against Taliban whereas at the same time India is trying to introduce itself as a very passionate well-wisher and sympathizer of the Afghan people.

 On 5^th March,2010, National Security Adviser of India Shivshankar Menon arrived Kabul  on a two-day visit .He had a meeting with the  Afghan President Hamid Karzai and discussed the issue of security of about 4,000 Indians who, according to him , are untiringly engaged in working at different rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Menon also met his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta. In both of these meetings he seemed very much worried about the investigations into the February 26 Kabul attacks that targeted guest houses frequently visited by Indians. These attacks took the lives of seven Indians, including three major-rank Indian Army officers. The National Security Adviser conveyed the apprehensions of the Indian government regarding the safety of its nationals in Afghanistan. He suggested some proposals including setting up of protected venues where the Indians working on projects could be housed. He also suggested deployment of more security personnel at places where Indians work. In short the basic purpose behind this visit was to pave a way for the deployment of more security personnel which would be surely coming from India. In the light of Menon’s visit and proposals, it can be very easily estimated that the Kabul Attacks were the artistic work of no one else but of RAW and the only motive behind was to push more RAW agents into the Afghan soil.

 It is very unfair and unjust to drag the hi-ups of the ISI into such nonsense type of affairs. ISI is a part of Pakistan army and its only objective is to safeguard the interest of Pakistan. The words spoken by the ISI chief represent the feelings and thoughts of the whole of Pakistani nation. There must be nothing secret if General Ahmed Shuja Pasha has ever talked to the Afghan president but even then RAW will have to provide proofs for its artistic and adventurous ‘research’.

 The writer is a Pakistan based bilingual analyst on national and international strategic and defense affairs.

Sri Lanka news

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka yesterday announced further relaxation of foreign exchange transactions with the following measures to be implemented with effect from March 11 in relation to foreign exchange transactions.

A Sri Lankan resident who is earning foreign exchange from investments abroad as approved by the Central Bank, engaged in providing international professional services in Sri Lanka or abroad, engaged in any occupation abroad or who have proceeded outside Sri Lanka for education and/or for medical treatment and exporters of goods will be permitted to open and maintain bank accounts abroad, the bank said.

The bank said that forward contracts in foreign currency to cover foreign exchange transactions related to trade in goods and services, remittances and approved foreign lending and borrowings, will also be permitted.

Under these measures the present 100 percent margin deposit requirement against advanced payments on the invoice value of selected items to be imported, will be removed.

The suspension on the pre-payment of import bills will be lifted.

Under this the existing different investment accounts, namely Share Investment External Rupee Accounts (SIERA), Treasury Bond Investment External Rupee Accounts (TIERA), Treasury Bill Investment External Rupee Accounts (TIERA-2), and Treasury Bill/Bond Investment External Rupee Accounts Deshabhimani (TIERA -D) maintained by non-residents in commercial banks will be permitted to be unified.

The unified account will be renamed as Securities Investment Account (SIA), the bank said.

The Central Bank states that the relaxation of these specific exchange controls would contribute to further improve investor confidence and stabilize the foreign exchange market, thereby paving the way to further integrate the Sri Lankan economy with the global economy.

Forex Capital Markets are foreign exchange markets where the currencies are been bought and sold continuously for profits. The capital markets of forex are present globally and transactions are non-stop in this forex cash market. Whether its Sydney or Tokyo, one would find aggressive forex dealers and brokers peering into their computer screens and on the telephone for minor changes that might affect this currency trade.

The forex trade is carried out for profits that can be gained by buying and selling of the currencies. Currencies are always bought and sold in pairs. Let us take an example to clarify the forex dealA trader trades in Euros/ Us Dollars. (All figures are samples only) He purchases 10,000 Euros on Jan 1 when the EUR/USD rate is .9600. Then he sells these Euros at the market rate of 1.1800. On August 1. Therefore he gets 11,800 USD. Thereby making a cool forex transaction profit of USD 2200.

Nadira Gunatilleke -Daily News Sri Lanka

The United Nations (UN) will not be able to cause any impact on Sri Lanka, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said.

No resolution will be passed against Sri Lanka in the Security Council or in the Human Rights Commission, he said.

“Only two or three Western and European countries and two or three foreign `politicians’ work against Sri Lanka. All other countries, especially newly empowered countries are with Sri Lanka,” Minister Ranawaka said.

Addressing the weekly UPFA press briefing at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo yesterday, Minister Ranawaka said Sri Lanka is very proud to have President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the leader because he shows again and again that he is capable, strong and brave to face any type of challenge on behalf of the country.

The President showed the country that he is ready to make whatever sacrifice on behalf of the nation. “I am sure that any other leader would have welcomed the UN with a red carpet betraying the country, war heroes and the 30,000 who lost their lives,” he said.

According to Minister Ranawaka the UN Charter very clearly states that it cannot interfere in the internal affairs of countries.

Sri Lanka receive continuous support of all the other countries, especially newly economically empowered countries such as China, India, Russia and South Africa. “I request our people to respond to this latest conspiracy with a good reply on April 8 by giving a two-thirds majority to the Government led by President Rajapaksa,” he said.

When Sri Lanka is ready to elect a legal and democratic Government through the Parliamentary Election, the foreign representation of the LTTE is trying to declare a `dream state of Tamil Eelam’. Evil foreign elements follow two strategies, he said. They are forcing countries to act against Sri Lanka using their own internal laws and forcing the UN to act against Sri Lanka.

General Sarath Fonseka opened the door for them while the Opposition Leader, Leader of SLFP (M) and the JVP supported this move. Today a large number of people travel from and to the North and these evil forces are trying to stop this progress and the development of Sri Lanka aimed at economic independence, the Minister said.

The UN is not interested in the deaths of 650,000 innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are two million permanently displaced persons in those countries. The world needs a new UN which is in tune with the new developments in the world and newly joined countries.

It was Asia which recorded the significant economic growth during world economic crisis and the growth rate of US and UK was minus. All these newly economically empowered Asian countries are with Sri Lanka, the Minister added.

Ajit Randeniya

The intensification of subterranean activities of the US embassy in Colombo and USAID in the north and east of Sri Lanka, especially following the defeat of their ‘trump card’, Sarath Fonseka, is such that the Sri Lankan government needs to declare it a spectator sport and collect some additional taxes!

 The latest news of a speech given by a woman by the name Valerie Fowler from the US embassy at the graduation day of the ‘College of Journalism’ is particularly revealing in terms of the extent to which they are engaging in undermining the stability and future prosperity of Sri Lanka.

 The US strategy in Sri Lanka is clearly based on systematically targeting the ‘weak spots’ of the fabric of Sri Lankan society, and on devising methods of brain washing the people involved to create chaos: the media sector has been targeted due to its obvious usefulness for spreading subversive propaganda, like they did before the presidential election, together with ‘making friends’ among the minorities with lingering dissatisfaction being the other am.

 Looking at the structure that has ‘given birth’ to this so-called School of Journalism, its financing and the close involvement of US agents who work in Colombo under diplomatic and aid worker cover reveals a disturbing level of intensification of US activities in Sri Lanka.

 The ‘College’ is part of a triumvirate they have created, together with a ‘parent’ body named the Sri Lanka ‘Press Institute’, touted as Sri Lanka’s premier institution for ‘supporting the media throughout the country’, and a ‘Press Complaints Commission’ purportedly designed for ‘effective and fair’ arbitration of disputes.

 The ‘College’ and the ‘Complaints Commission’ are the business end of the classic ‘Trojan horse’ approach the US is adopting in Sri Lanka; so much has been revealed by the US embassy when they announced that “The Sri Lanka College of Journalism endeavors to change the media from within”. Funding for it comes from the usual sources of the governments of Norway, Sweden and Denmark while curriculum a University in Sweden. The shady and corrupt “Free Media Movemen” of Sunanda Deshapriya and Frederica Jansz is also involved: had to be!

 The ‘College’ is touted as the body that is designed to provide journalists with the skills, ‘while imparting the values and ethics that are essential elements for responsible journalism’. The ‘complaints commission’ has been clearly devised, again, to bypass the country’s legal system. The conspirators are fully aware that the character assassinations likely to be carried out by the gullible, brain washed sections of the ‘journalists’ trained here will attract legal action ‘as night follows day’. They are planting a structure designed to give a ‘slap on the wrist’ to offending ‘journalists’, rather than subjecting them to multi billion rupee defamation claims.

But the key question here is as to what, and whose, values and ethics are they teaching at the’ College’? If they pass on the values and ethics of total dedication by Sri Lanka’s budding journalists to national development in the same manner Reuters, AP, AFP, BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera journalists are serving Zionism, Sri Lanka has nothing to worry about!

 However, they will only plant the seeds of social destruction by teaching young Sri Lankans to act against their own interests by ‘waging war’ against the government, without reasonable grounds as the charges during the presidential election campaign revealed.

 During her speech, Valerie Fowler, probably overexcited by the ‘excellent’ opportunity the media training offers, has clearly overstepped the boundary of appropriate diplomatic behaviour: in saying that SLPI is a beacon of light in an environment where ‘media unfortunately remains under great pressure and intimidation’, she has cast aspersions on the Sri Lankan people and their government. She deserves a call from the Department of Foreign Affairs for a reminder that she can ‘butt out’ of any local debate on media freedoms.

 Then we need to tear her cover off! Valerie Fowler is the archetypical American ‘career woman’ who will not hesitate to do ‘anything’ for the right money and ‘advancement’ within the bureaucracy; even if it involves working in ‘hellholes’ under constant threat to life. The ‘work’ people like Ms Fowler are engaged in all corners of the world is sold to the US tax payer as activities that bring great benefits to them, and they pay dearly for it, like they did on 11 September 2001.

 Prior to her current assignment in Colombo, Ms. Fowler was Counselor, Sub-National Governance Office at the US Embassy in Kabul from 2008-2009. Previous to that, from 2005-2008, she was the Public Affairs Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Singapore. Obviously a trusted operator, she has also served in the Department of State’s ‘Operations Center’ as a Senior Watch Officer and as Director of ‘Crisis Management’ (2002-2004). If you need more convincing that Ms Fowler is a serious spy, she earned her spurs by proving her worth in China, in key centres such as Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang in the early nineties.

 But that is not all! They are ‘a family’ dedicated to this kind of work: Ms Fowler’s husband, Charles ‘Chip’ Fowler held the rank of Captain in the US Navy ‘Office of Naval Research’ –the body that collects technical information through contacts with scientists and naval officers of other countries- until he retired in January 2010.

 There is something intriguing about Captain Chip Fowler’s real work however: he takes a special interest in ‘mountain climbing’. There surely wouldn’t be much naval traffic up in the clouds!

 State Department sources inform that back in July 2009, Capt Fowler was in an ‘expedition’ of the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan, the ranges bordering Kabul and Parwan Provinces to be exact, around the time three American ‘hikers’ were arrested while secretly entering Iran through its border with Iraq.

 The three, Shane M. Bauer, 27, Joshua F. Fattal, 27 and Sarah E. Shourd (noted the surnames?) claimed they were ‘freelance journalists conducting research on sustainable-living’ trekking through the Kurdistan region of Iraq and simply ‘strayed’ in to Iranian territory. The Iranian authorities thought otherwise and charged the three with spying. The reader is free to draw own conclusions.

 But let us dwell for a few moments on the self-righteous sounding filth this woman has dumped on this young and impressionable group of Sri Lankans. Even before we pay attention to her preachings, it needs to be noted that an American establishment agent teaching a developing country journalist how to promote democracy is equivalent to a bank robber advising banks on security arrangements!

 Fowler has pontificated that it is their shared responsibility to be purveyors of the truth, watchdog of the public interest, and defenders of democratic rights and principles. She has also reminded the graduates that as journalists, they are duty bound to be defenders, a fourth branch of democratic rights and values: of the American type, of the nominally separated legislative, judicial, and executive arms of government.

 Fowler has clearly failed to mention that the so-called ‘separation of powers’ only exist theoretically in her own country, and all the branches of government she mentioned have been, since their very inception, under the control of the global Zionist movement.

 She has failed to mention that the two party ‘democracy’ in her country does not offer real alternatives to US citizens, and the presidential election process from the ‘unearthing’ of candidates to their progress through the so-called ‘primaries’ is a process corrupted to its core by Zionist money.

 Fowler has forgotten to mention that US citizens are kept in the dark by their political masters about the atrocious criminal activities they carry out overseas, all in their name, and the US and western corporate media owned by the same money bags who control their governments do precious little to expose such crimes: their control of the journalistic profession including recruitment, training, placements and promotions see to it that different opinions or interpretations are not presented or published.

 One can go on: what is crucial however is to inform our young minds that we in Sri Lanka don’t need foreign money or advice, especially from America, on how to nurture good journalists with commitment to national advancement and sensibility to public needs.

 Sri Lankan journalists of the calibre of Tarzi Vittachchi, D.B.Dhanapala, David Karunaratne, H.A. J. Hulugalle, Denzil Peiris, Mervyn de Silva and Ajith Samaranayake were not ‘trained’ by these thieves, though some of them fell in to their traps later in their careers. We alo acknowledge that we also have had exceptions to this tradition, such as Frederica Jansz and Lasantha Wickrematunga!

 But ,warts and all, we have a sound tradition of quality, fearless journalism that is continuing in Sri Lanka. That should not be compromised by the self-serving ‘advice’ of these thieves.

 Valerie Fowler, go home!

By Darmitha

On January 26^th 2010 gave President Mahinda Rajapakse another term of office as The Executive President of Sri Lanka. It is envisaged, that all economic and social ills which were sidelined during the previous term which had a major objective of eliminating the country of terrorism which he did, much to the consternation & dismay of worldwide pro-LTTE supporters but the military but humanitarian victory brought the much needed psychological relief to all those who live in the North and East (who suffered silently for 30 years for fear of death and torture) as well as the rest of the country. Today, citizens whether they like it or not, have to admit that the impossible has been achieved by sheer focus and determination.

 Having achieved this military victory over terrorism & also having won a resounding victory at the recent Presidential Elections held in January this year, our President has now promised to pave the way for a decent and righteous society during the forthcoming years of his extended tenure of office. With this very much harped on, the election trail for the forthcoming General Elections has taken off the ground after nominations closed on the 26^th of February 2010. Already, we can see walls, bill boards and even brand new unregistered vehicles all getting covered over layer over layer with the “faces” of candidates from all political parties who all promise and wish to project their image “to serve Sri Lanka!” In this process, publishing/printing establishments will either make money or go bankrupt due to their enthusiasm to make hay while the sun shines. Most often, election candidates or their supporters who place orders for cut-outs, stickers, posters and pamphlets end up slipping into oblivion once the election is over, leaving the print-shops with huge un-recovered bills! Let us say, that it is their own seeking because the choice is their.

 Voters in Sri Lanka today, are much wiser than those of yesteryear. We saw this quite well during the recently held Presidential Elections. No amount of promises given by the opposition alliance duped the voters who knew exactly who their President was going to be. However, we are not quite sure whether the General Elections will have such a clear path given the fact, that there is much accusation against the GOSL for bribery & corruption, thuggery, mismanagement, family bandysm, wastage- you name it, they have it all listed. Since 1977, all governments have been hurled with such accusations for valid reasons ofcourse. In the current context we must admit that even though our President has some vision for the country, not all his Ministers and MPs have been doing a glorious job with their duties and responsibilities in the social, economic, health & education sectors much to the dismay as well as disgust of the citizens of this country. They have by their own actions, proved that they fall far short of the high expectations that President had of them. These General Elections will show us whether the President is truly concerned about making amends even if he has to earn the wrath of some of those “time servers.”

 Simple things can prove whether our politicians are law abiding or not & election time is best to judge them. Our Elections Commissioner has been stressing time and time again, that cut-outs, posters and banners of candidates must be removed forthwith- how many humble politicians have obeyed the orders of the Election Commissioner? More posters keep coming up and decorating any and every wall with a few square metres of space. Some candidates and their supporters consider it heroic, to paste their posters over the faces of other candidates to shut them out wholesale from public view! Those with the worst negative public opinion are the ones whose posters give a message of their honesty, simplicity and service to the country! The normal practise for all forthcoming candidates is for them to declare their assets no sooner nominations are accepted by the Elections Commissioner- of the 7000 odd candidates around the country who are hoping to contest at the April General Elections- how many have already declared their assets? Only a handful isn’t it? The Election Commissioner has also declared how candidates should set out their political offices but who or which candidate respects the order? What does this expose to us, the public? That most politicians in this country do not care a damn for law and order! Once in power, the “sky is the limit” for such obnoxious & arrogant politicians while the poor voter is left to tolerate all their insolence and eat humble pie. Gone are the days when politicians gave of their wealth to serve the country- today, it is a case of getting rich at the expense of the public once they enter The August House of Parliament! It does not matter whether a politician is with the government or the opposition, what matters is how honest are they?

 The amount of money spent in lakhs and millions of Sri Lankan Rupees for posters, cut-outs, banners, organizing political meetings and the massive paid advertisements placed in the newspapers of all three languages just go to show how lucrative our political arena is. How many of these political candidates ever thought of foregoing all the publicity stunts to boost their own egos and instead, pool all that money which would count out to be a phenomenal amount by any standards & spend it to help the deserving citizens of this country no matter whether they be Ranavirus, the homeless or the jobless? Pro-government as well as opposition candidates could have truly proved their commitment to helping the citizens of this country-is it not so?

 Instead of the above, what we see are the politicians with the worst reputation, advertising themselves with “ Api Gena Hithane”, “ Wedak Karana”, “Mahinda Chinthana Jathika Punarjeewana Wedapiliwalate Ayoma Shakthiyak”, “Ayukthiyate Hisa Nonamane Obe Sevayate Kepawu”, “Gampaha Asiyawe Hondame Distrikkaya Bawate Pathkaranawa”, “Rate Dawena Prashnawalate Visadum Thiyenne Api Langai”, the Island newspaper(3^rd March 2010) carried on the front page “Muthuhettigama Wants Mental Patients Given Franchise and Sanity Test on All MPs” in which he states that he was the only politician who had been declared mentally sound by doctors…………” These are the statements and slogans that we see everyday while getting about our daily businesses. What we all know, is that once elected most of these politicians will only be serving themselves and their families; abusing government assets and land to suit their own fancies, furnish themselves with security staff who are their mafia to attack opponents; fly around blocking traffic and inconveniencing the public in their “Duty-Free” Monteros and other luxury vehicles at State Expense; abuse the usage of water, electricity and telephones+ accommodation costs to bring massive bill payments at government expense; organize Tamashas to boost their own egos; amassing commissions from government purchases; harassing investors who come to Sri Lanka to engage in constructive projects by interfering in project work and demanding that their men and their supplies must be accepted instead of giving the investor or contractor the prerogative to decide what is best for the work needed to be done; within the government services, it is well known that government servants known to be supporters of the Opposition being harassed and transferred from pillar to post; appointing their own spouses as their Coordinating Secretaries, Personal Secretaries; use government vehicles not only for their own personal use but that of their immediate as well as “extended families” etc- “Mahinda Chinthanaya” will fly out of the window in next to no time! The same will apply to Opposition politicians as well no matter what they say about “Rate Dawena Prashnawalate Visadum Thiyenne Api Langai-Ravi Karunanayake(Lakbima-28th Feb 2010) ” little understanding or realizing that the burning problems of the country were created by none other than their own Mentors the late JR Jayawardane with his horrendous Constitution of 1978 which introduced internal party bickerings and enmity due to preferential votes, furnishing personal fire-arms to politicians to eliminate their opponents and build up the underground mafia which destabilized the Police Stations and Officials who were conducting honest duties and the late R. Premadasa when they openly permitted looting, thuggery and misappropriations and uneducated politicians into entering politics!

 Let us think that “Mahinda Chinthanaya” may come out victorious at the forthcoming General Elections but, President Rajapakse has a gargantuan task ahead of him to streamline all the riff-raff within the government and bring proper discipline within the government ranks! The public has had enough of all the tomfoolery and promises. What the public needs is not film star or cricketing popularity or “punky” youth with their “Tharunyate Hetak” but seasoned, educated serious minded & above all, honest politicians to be in his Cabinet of Ministers who are committed to serve the country and the public in a constructive and beneficial manner. We have witnessed how the health sector has gone down the drain where neither the government hospitals or pharmacies lack essential drugs, the education system being destroyed by bungling the school admissions and the trade bunglings with rhetoric suitable for cheap entertainment but with cost of living rising by the day! It is also pertinent to state that the President needs to understand that it was the majority Sinhala Buddhist voter who brought him a second term & that he must show his gratitude by giving priority to their grievances without much delay- this is the least he can do to keep things in their proper perspective. Those whom he attempted to pamper and go overboard with his overtures did not vote for him and he must know and acknowledge it for the country to know the truth!

චන්ද්‍රසිරි විජයවික්‍රම

යූ.එන්.ඕ. මහලේකම් බෑන් ඔහුගේ තනි මොළයට කරගත නොහැකි නිසා ඊට තව මොළ කීපයක් ඈඳා

ගැනීමට ලංකාව ගැන උපදේශක මන්ඩලයක් පත් කර ගන්නට තිරණය කලාලු.  යුනෙස්කෝ, ලෝක සවුක්‍ය සංවිධානය,

ලෝක කම්කරු සංවිධානය වැනි කීපයකින් කල සේවාවට අමතරව මේ යූ.එන්.ඕ. කියන්නේ බටහිර රටවල් තවදුරටත්

පරන යටත් විජිත පාලනය කරගෙන් යෑමට අටවා ගත් උපක්‍රමයයි.

    මෙම ආයතනය කෙතරම් සවුත්තු තැනක් ද යත් එය ඈතුලේ සිට ටෙලිෆෝන් කෝල් එකක් වත් ගන්නේ

නැත. ඊට හේතුව එය බග් කර තිබීමය. මේ ආයාතනයේ මහ ලේකම් කියන්නේ ක්‍රිස්තියානි ආගම අදහන සුදු

ගැත්තෙකුට දෙන රක්‍ෂාවටය. තායිලන්තයෙන් යූ තාන්ට් හා ඊජිප්තුවෙන් බුට්‍රොස් බුට්‍රොස් ඝාලි ද මේ තනතුරට ආ

බව ඈත්තය. නමුත් අරාබි ජාතිකයා තනතුරින් එලවා ගැනීම තමාගේ හිසරදය බව යුදෙව් ජාතික ඈමෙරිකන් විදේශ

ලේකම් වූ මැඩලින් අල්බ්‍රයිට් නිතර නිතර කිව්වේය.

    නාසි යුද්ධ නිලයක් දැරූ අවුස්ත්‍රියාවෙන් ආ කර්ට් වෝල්ඩ් හෙයිම්ට ඒ ගැන බොරු කීම නිසා

තනතුරෙන් ඉල්ලා අස්වන්නට සිදු විය. ඩැග් හැමර් ෂල් ව මැරුවාද නැත්නම් ගුවන් අනතුරක් නිසා මිය ගියාද යන්න

තවමත් අභිරහසකි. ඔහූ හොඳ කරුනාවන්ත කොන්ගෝවේ ලුමුම්බා බේරා ගැනීමට ගිය  මිනිහෙක්ද නැත්නම් සී.අයි.ඒ.

ඒජන්ත කෙනෙක්ද කියා ප්‍රශ්න ඈත. ෆින්ලන්ත සුදු කාන්තාවක් කසාද බැන්ද ක්‍රිස්තියානි ජාතික කෝෆි අනන් ආවේ කෙන්

යා වෙනි. ඔහුගේ පුතා ගැනත්, සදාම් හුසේන් සමඟ එකතුව තෙල්-ආහාර හුවමාරුවේ දී යු.එන්. ඕ නිලධාරින් කල්

මුදල් වංචා ගැනත් කොමිසන් පවා පත් කරන ලදී. මේ අනුව ජගත් මහ ලේකම් තනතුර කියන්නේ බල්ලෝ බත් වත්

නොකන තරමේ තනතුරකි. රෝහිත බෝගොල්ලාගම ද ඔහුගේ පුතාට රක්‍ෂාවක් ගන්නට හදන්නේ මෙතැනය!

    බෑන් නමැති කොරියන් ක්‍රිස්තියානි මිනිහෙක් ලංකාව පස්සේ එලවමින් එන්නේ ඈයි? මීට හේතුව  මේ

ජගත් සංවිධානය කියන්නේ හොර සංවිධානයක් නිසාය. බෑන් ට රක්‍ෂාව බේරා ගැනීමේ උවමනාවක් ඈත. යුක්තිය,

සත්ත්‍යය බෑන් ට වැදගත් නැත. තම මුලු ජීවිත කාලයම ලෝක සාමය වෙනුවෙන් කැපකල නෝර්වීජියන් ජාතික

ජොහාන් ගල්ටන්ග් කියන්නේ මේ වෙනුවට වෙනත් සංවිධානයක් ලෝකයට අවශ්‍යව ඈති බවය.  මේ ආයාතනය

චීනයට තැනක් දුන්නේ චීනය ජලකර බෝම්බය ද නිපද වූ පසුය. දැනටත් මෙහි ස්ථිර සාමාජිකයින් පස් දෙනා ගෙන්

හතර දෙනෙක් පරන යටත් විජිත කාරයින් වේ. ඉන්දියාව ලෝකයේ බිලියන් 1 කට වඩා සිටින රටක් වුනත් තාමත්

තැනක් නැත. බ්‍රසීලයට ද එසේය. ජපානයට ද තැනක් නැත.
   
    මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මේ වාරයේ බෑන්ට ලංකාවේ හීන් සැරය පෙන්වා දී ඈත. බෑන් මේ මෝඩ වැඩේ

කලොත් ඊට විරුද්ධව ක්‍රියා කරන බව මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ බෑන්ට දන්වා ඈත. එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ ප්‍රඥප්තියේ වත් නැති

දෙයක් බෑන් කරන්න හදන්නේ මේ සේරම නීති රීති බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන් තමන්ගේ වාසියට හදා ගත් ඒවා නිසාය.

ඔවුන් කන්න හිතුනහම කබර ගොයා තල ගොයා කර ගනී.

    1500 ගනන්වල පටන් ගත් ලෝකයේ අනිත් රටවල් අල්ල ගෙන ඒවා ශිෂ්ටාචාර කිරීමේ ව්‍යාපාරය

අනුව යටත් විජිතවල වැසියන්ගේ මනසට හීන මානයක් ක්‍රමයෙන් ඈතුලු කිරීම මූලිකම උපාය මාර්ගයක් විය.

අවුරුදු 500 කට පසුව මෙම හීන මාන පැලෑන ආපසු බටහිර සුදු අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන්ට හරවා යැවීම සිදුවුනේ 2009

අප්‍රියෙල් මාසයේ දී ලංකාවේ දීය. යුදෙව් කොල්ලෙක් වන මිලිබෑන්ඩ් ටත්, ප්‍රංශ විදේශ ඈමතිටත්, ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ

කණේ පාරක් ගැසුවේ ඔවුන් ප්‍රභාකරන් හමුවීමට ඉල්ලා සිටි විටය. ප්‍රභාකරන්ගේ ප්‍රාන ඈපක්‍ර‌ැවන් වීමට වුනොත් එය

ප්‍රශ්නයක් නොවේ යැයි මේ දෙන්නා මහ උජාරුවෙන් කිව්වේය. ගෝඨාභය කිව්වේ, “ප්‍රභාකරන් ඔබලාට මොනවා කලත්

මට ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැත, මගේ ප්‍රශ්නය එතකොට මට යුද්ධය අවසාන කිරීම ප්‍රමාද කිර්රිමට වෙන එක ගැනය” කියාය. මින්

මුහුනු පිලිටු කර ගත් මේ දෙන්නා වෙඩි කෑ ඌරන් මෙන් කෙලින්ම ගියේ නිවෙ යෝර්ක් නුවර යූ.එන්.ඕ.  එක ඉස්සරහ

පිට පදික වේදිකාවටය

    මෙසේ බෑන්, චූන් වීමේ  රහස කුමක්ද? ලංකාව දෙකඩ කිරීම බටහිර සුදු පාලකයින්ගේ ආශාවය. ඊට

හේතුව ඉන්දියන් සාගරය පාලනය කිරීමට ලංකාව සාමකාමි නොවන රටක් වුනොත් හොඳ නිසාය. එසේ නැත්නම් අඩු

තරමින් උතුර නැඟෙනහිර 13-ඒ ක්‍රමයක් වත් තිබෙනවා නම් තිරිකුණාමළේ වරාය අල්ලා ගැනීමට ලංකාවේ දෙමළ

පලාත් මහ ඈමතිට ලොකු පගාවක් දී ඉන්දියාවේ ටැමිල් නාඩ් වල ත්‍රස්තවාදී ඉන්දියාව කැඩීමේ ව්‍යාපාරයක් දියත්

කරවිය හැකිය.  මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ තිරිකුනාමලේ වරාය ගැන ජේ.ආර් ඉන්දියාව සමඟ කරගත් ගිවිසුම නිසා

හම්බන්තොට වරාය චීනයේ ආධාර සමග ආරම්භ කලේය.

    මෙය ඉතාමත් වටිනා දෙයක් වුවත් ඈමෙරිකාවත්, බටහිර පාලකයෝත් මේ ගැන ඉතාමත් කේන්තියෙන්

පසුවෙයි. චීනය ඉන්දියන් සාගරය පුරාම වරායවල් හදා දෙමින් සිටී. පකිස්තානය, බුරුමය හා  අයිරානයේද මෙසේ

වරායවල් ඉදිවෙමින් පවතී. ලංකාවේ හම්බන්තොට මේ අතරින් වටිනාම වරාය වේ. මානසික රෝගියෙකු විය හැකි

සරත් ෆොන්සේකා රවටා කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් කලේ ද මේ ගැන මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ ගැන ඔවුන්ගේ ඈති ඊර්ෂ්‍යාව හා ක්‍රෝධය

නිසාය.

    උතුරේ හා නැගෙනහිර දෙමළ ජනයා තවදුරටත් වංචාකාර, බොරුකාර දෙමළ බෙදුම් වාදී

දේශපාලකයින්ට නොරැවටෙන බව ලංකාවේ ඈති සී.අයි.ඒ. ඔත්තුකාරයින් දනී. මේ නිසා ඔවුන්ට අවශ්‍ය දෙමළ

ජනතාවට වෙනම රටක් ලබා ගැනීමේ සිහිනය අත හරින්නට නොදී ගෙන්‍යාමට මොකක් හෝ ඈමක් දීමය. මෙසේ

ඈමක් දුන් විට කර්නල් කරුනාට හෝ ඩග්ලස් දේවානන්දට හෝ දෙමළ නිජ භූමි මිත්ථ්‍යාව ට පටහැනිව දෙමළ

ජනයා ඉදිරියට යාම අපහසු වේ. මිනිස් ගතිය නම් තමන්ට වෙනම රටක් ලබා ගත හැකි නම් එය ලබා ගැනීමය. එය

සාධාරනද, එය දිගටම පවතීද (පකිස්තානයෙන් බංන්ග්ලා දේශය කැඩීයාම වැනි) යන් කාරණා ගැන මිනිසුන්

නොසිතයි.

    සරත් ෆොන්සේකා රවටා ගෙන, රනිල් හා සම්භන්ධන් කලේ මෙසේ යම් සිහිනයක් දෙමළ ජනතාවට

දීමය. මෙය බටහිර සල්ලි යොදා කල බව දැන් එලිවී ඈත. මේ නිසා දෙමළ ජනයා අතරමං විය, අන්ද මන්ද විය. මේ

ව්‍යාපාරය ඔවුන් හිතූ ආකාරයට සිදු නොවුන නිසා දැන් රටින් පිට ඉන්නා දෙමළ බෙදුම් වාදීන් පිම්බීමට මිලිබෑන්ඩ්,

රොබට් බ්ලේක් හා ගෝඩන් බ්‍රවුන් ඉදිරිපත්වී ඈත. උතුරේ හා නැගෙනහිර සමහර දෙමළ ජනයා මේ ලනුව කෑමට

හොඳටම ඉඩ ඈත. බෑන් ඉදිරිපත්ව ඉන්නේ මේ ලනුවට තව හයියක් දීමටය. “අපේ සම්භන්ධන් කියන අන්දමට අපිට

අනාගතයේදී අපේම කියා රටක් ලංකාවේ ම සදා ගන්නට බෑන් හා බ්ලේක්ලා ඉන්නව නේද? ඒනිසා අපි සම්භන්ධන් ට

චන්දය දිය යුතු නේද? කියා නොසිතන දෙමළ අය විරල විය හැකිය.

    හැම ගෙදරකටම කාර් එකක් හා ගෙදර වැඩට සුරංගනාවියක් බැගින් දුන්නත් මේ මූලික මිනිස්

පුරුතග්ජන ගතිය වෙනස් කල නොහැකිය. බෑන් හරහ බ්ලේක් ගන්නේ මේ පාරය. අවුරුදු තිහක් පමණ නොයෙක් දුක්

වින්ඳත්, දෙමළ නායකයෝ ගවයින් රැළක් ලෙස අහිංසක දෙමළ ජනතාව දක්කන්නට සැදීම ඛේදජනකය. මෙය හරියට

ප්‍රථම දරු ප්‍රසූතියේදී කෙතරම් වේදනාව ආවත් ගැහැනු දෙවන තුන්වන  දරුවන් ලබා ගැනීමට ද ආශාකරනවා

වගේය. මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ රජය සෙසූ ලෝකයේ රටවල් ද සමඟ එකතුව බෑන් විරුද්ධව විශ්වාශ බංග යෝජනාවක්

ගෙන ඒ යැයි මම සිතමි. කවුරුන් හෝ ජගත් සංවිධානය නමැති හොර බලලා ගේ බෙල්ලේ සීනුවක් බැන්ඳ යුතු කාලය

එළඹව ඈත.