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Archbishop Desmond Tutu - Your statement on Sri Lanka published in the Daily Guardian on May 15, 2008SRI LANKA UNITED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA Box 55292, 300 Borough Drive, Toronto, Ontario M1P 4Z7 CanadaWebsite: www.sluna.org E-mail: sluna@idirect.com Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Reverend Sir, Your statement on Sri Lanka published in the Daily Guardian on May 15, 2008
We refer to your statement on Sri Lanka published in the Daily Guardian of May 15, 2008 wherein you have joined the horde of pretentious bleeding hearts who have either been misled by the well funded and well organized armed Tamil separatist lobby, or deliberately attempting to lend support by repeating the propaganda based on rumours and hearsay aimed at propping up the internationally designated terrorist group known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose long drawn out armed warfare to break up Sri Lanka is faltering and fast retreating into oblivion.
We note that you have joined the bandwagon of INGOs, foreign funded NGOs and foreign governments who want to impose their solutions which would lead to the division of the island nation state of Sri Lanka, in the same manner that they intervened in other places such as Yugoslavia, engineered the break up of Kosovo from Serbia despite recognizing Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia per UN Resolution 1244 of 1999 thereby departing from the basics of international law. You are merely repeating the tell-tale rumours without determining the truth of the statements, in your haste to join the double-tongued critics who want to discredit Sri Lanka and push their unholy agenda of intervention under the guise of human rights saviours.
Your statement contains several unfounded comments devoid of specifics which are damaging, some of which we quote here; i.e. “It would seem self-evident that a country which tortures and kidnaps its own people has no place on the world's leading human rights body. Sri Lanka has failed to honour its pledges of upholding human rights standards and cooperating with the UN since joining the council two years ago”. Sri Lanka has enshrined freedom from torture, and outlined procedures for arrest and detention of her citizens for offences committed under the Criminal Code or in the interest of public security in her constitution, and furthermore, provided remedies for citizens to seek justice through the Courts as in all other states. On the other hand, torture, extortion and deprivation of fundamental and democratic rights has been the norm in areas usurped by the LTTE, which maintains an iron grip over the civilian population compelled to live as human shields for these terrorists under their illegal regime.
We are aware that you are associated with International Alert which claims to be an independent peace building organization, which has been accused by Tejjan Kabbah the elected leader of Sierra Leone who was overthrown in a coup by the infamous RUF of the covert role of IA in a letter to Kofi Annan on April 3, 1997, and again in an interview carried over American Broadcasting Corporation on October 5, 1997. The same IA and its Sri Lanka branch headed by Kumar Rupesinghe sought military intervention to prevent Sri Lankan forces from re-taking her sovereign territory in the Jaffna peninsula in 1995 from the LTTE terrorists in BBC’s Sandesaya program of November 28, 1995. As such, we find your bona fides are questionable.
We would like to focus our attention on yet another so called human rights champion, namely Gareth Evans, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, and current President and CEO of the International Crisis Group who threatened Sri Lanka with dire consequences, speaking on the ‘ Limits of State Sovereignty, and the International Community’s authority to impose all measures under the Responsibility to Protect ‘ program, based on unsubstantiated utterances made by ICES and like minded NGOs funded by foreign sources and INGOs who were on a campaign to confront the Government of Sri Lanka, and compel it to change course from her intention to militarily regain the usurped territory from the Tamil Tiger Terrorists, and extend the writ of the state to all parts of the country. The real motives of these HR champions could be understood by looking into their declarations and actions in situations where their respective countries stood to benefit by overlooking serious human rights catastrophes in areas where potential economic gains were to be had for themselves. The following piece by the well known journalist John Pilger titled ‘Australia’s Hidden Empire’ published by Random International on March 5, 2008, clearly reveals his zero commitment to uphold human rights, which are akin to policies adopted by Britain and the US to similarly profit from the untapped wealth in the East Timorese region:
“In 1979, following Australia's acceptance of the Indonesian occupation,
negotiations had begun on the question of closing the Timor Gap. Under
the Hawke government, Sri Lanka has had the arduous task of combating the world’s most brutal terrorist group known as the LTTE as determined by the FBI, and at the same time look into the health, educational and welfare needs of her people from all ethnic and religious backgrounds including those residing in regions usurped by the terrorists who are waging war against the state in certain parts of the north and east of the island. Efforts to reach a negotiated resolution has been an impossible task despite six separate attempts by the governments in power during the last 25 years both through direct talks and international mediation, as the LTTE has used these talks to buy time to rearm and rebuild their forces only to unilaterally break off negotiations and resume hostilities including suicide terrorism to pursue their goal of a mono-ethnic, mono-political, Tamil racist separate state encompassing 1/3rd of the land and 2/3rd of the coastal belt and adjacent ocean for resident Tamils numbering less than 4 percent of the island’s population.
The difficulties in maintaining a strict human rights environment in regions where the Tamil Tiger Terrorists were free to move in terms of the Ceasefire Accord (CFA) of February 2002 has been fairly well described by Amnesty International in their report dated February 1, 2006, where they blamed the LTTE and their breakaway faction known as the Karuna Group for the climate of fear and escalation of human rights violations in the eastern province following the split in 2004, with the LTTE hunting down Karuna’s supporters in order to wipe out any dissent within the Tamil community. The LTTE used the concession granted under the CFA permitting unarmed cadres to enter government controlled areas for political activity with the intent of drawing them into the democratic process, to instead crush any semblance of dissent and emerge as the ‘sole representative’ of the Tamil community. Policing the region split between the government controlled townships and the countryside being illegally dominated by the LTTE with no clear cut boundaries and the terrorist controlled areas being no go zones for the government’s law enforcement officers, it was a near impossibility to effectively monitor the situation with the limited resources available to the government authorities. Furthermore, the LTTE was attempting to re-recruit the 1800 child soldiers who had been released by Colonel Karuna after he split from the LTTE, bringing with it further violence and instability to the region as confirmed by the Scandinavian Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and UNICEF.
The stoppage of water from the Mavil Aru by the LTTE to 30,000 farming families in mid-2006 compelled the government to respond militarily to save the lives of the affected civilians, and remove the threat to the Naval Base in Trincomalee resulting in the ultimate eviction of the terrorist cadres of the LTTE from the entirety of the eastern province, bringing with it an atmosphere that is free of fear and the near elimination of human rights abuses, enabling the authorities to empower the people by holding elections with 65 percent voter participation, thus setting the stage for normalcy and peaceful development of this region.
The allegations of human rights violations linking the Government of Sri Lanka have obviously been orchestrated by the LTTE and given publicity through repeat announcements made by various non-government organizations that need to create a scenario for their presence, along with funding from foreign governments and foundations with deep pockets, to maintain their upscale lifestyle in the sun and sand of the balmy island of Sri Lanka. Their reports are mostly based on rumour and hearsay as stated earlier, and intended to name and shame Sri Lanka in the confrontational approach adopted by them towards attracting funding for their work. In some instances, they and certain foreign diplomats have produced lists of names of persons said to have been abducted or disappeared which lack necessary details for follow up. Despite the lack of adequate details, the authorities have managed to locate some of the persons listed in their own homes whilst some have been detected as having left the country on valid passports. The task of tracing their movements is difficult as some could be those manufactured by the LTTE to discredit the government, who may well be handling an AK47 sub-machine gun or laying mines and booby traps in territory usurped by the terrorists, or could well have left the country on forged passports and travel documents seeking greener pastures in the developed western countries. Due to the unending terror and violence by the LTTE, foul play is another possibility. Sri Lanka’s Attorney General stated on May 13, 2008 that; “A special agency of the Police Department named the Disappearances Investigation Unit (DIU), has been investigating complaints into alleged disappearances. We are determined to ensure that all complaints are comprehensively and impartially investigated into, perpetrators identified, and evidence against them collected, so that such persons can be prosecuted. I might in this regard mention that, during the past decade, I as well as my predecessors as Attorneys General have instituted criminal proceedings against 599 members of the security forces and the police with regard to their alleged involvement in abducting persons, detaining them unlawfully and extra-judicially eliminating persons in custody. The latest of these prosecutions is against a former member of the Sri Lanka Air Force, two police officers and two civilians, with regard to their alleged involvement in causing the abduction and disappearance of a person in 2006. The process of investigation and prosecution may not be as expeditious as one would like it to be. This is associated with general resource constraints faced by the enforcement agencies and the judicial system of Sri Lanka. However, what is important is that, the due process of the law and justice has been set in motion and is moving in the correct direction”.
Your Eminence, we Sri Lankans have supported the freedom struggle of the indigenous people of South Africa without any reservations, and have condemned the policy of apartheid where a minority of European invader settlers attempted to exploit the land, labour and wealth of the native people to hold the reins of power whilst confining the African people into separate reserves or Bantustans, just as the native people of North America were deprived of their territory and dignity and held in reserves by European colonialists who later arrived in the new world. You have helped to heal the wounds of South Africa through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which you headed for which we respect you.
We ask you not to be misled by propaganda of the Tamil Tiger Terrorists and their strong lobby group in South Africa, but to only arrive at conclusions on Sri Lanka’s case based on fact and truth. Just as the native people of South Africa have had to contend with a minority of white settlers who sought to dominate you for all time, the indigenous Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka (ancient land of Sinhale) have had to contend with the minority Tamils who first arrived as settlers from Tamilnadu, South India, in the 11th century, with the bulk of them coming much later during the Dutch and British colonial periods as indentured labour for work on tobacco, tea, coffee, and cocoa plantations established on lands confiscated from the native Sinhalese people without a penny in compensation, who benefited greatly from the largesse extended to them by the British colonial ruler under their divide and rule policy. Prior to grant of independence by Britain, the 11 percent Tamil minority which dominated the civil service and the nascent economy sought balanced representation with the 78 percent Sinhalese majority in the new parliament, which the Soulbury Commission rejected as an insidious move to make a minority of a majority. With the decline in the degree of dominance by the Tamil minority in the period after independence, they sought the violent route including suicide terrorism to tear this country asunder, using falsehood and repetition of a string of lies to further their cause of a mono-ethnic, mono-political, Tamil racist separate state, with a future aim of grabbing the rest of the island with the help of the 80 million Tamils of whom 61 million live in Tamilnadu, South India, separated by just 20 miles of the waters of the Indian ocean, including others who have made South Africa their home. Sri Lanka has granted equal rights to all of her citizens from whatever background, and furthermore, elevated the status of the Tamil language in incremental stages, and within a short space of time made Tamil an official language, bringing it on a par with Sinhalese spoken by over 78 percent of the people. Sri Lanka is today seeking to evolve a plan to share power with the minority Tamil and Muslim communities whilst retaining the framework of a single nation.
Human Rights Watch published a report in March 2006 drawing attention to the ongoing extortion of the members of the Tamil Diaspora for procurement of weapons by the LTTE for continuing their terrorist warfare, and launching of the ‘final war of liberation’ which they set in motion sometime in December 2005. HRW was aware that Tamils who had migrated to western countries including Europe and North America, despite their being almost 10000 miles away from the feared LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the ‘Sun God’, wanted by INTERPOL, who lived in a hole in the jungles of Mullaitivu, were extremely afraid to voice their opinions as they risked harming themselves and their relatives still in Sri Lanka by murderous Tamil Tiger goons who watched their every move. Any dissenting voice was immediately struck down, children as young as 8-10 years abducted to be brainwashed and groomed as storm troopers or suicide bombers, some tortured in dungeons located deep inside the jungle, or mercilessly killed, but strangely, there were no human rights champions to speak on their behalf as the HR advocates benefited from the ill-gotten gains of the Tamil Tiger Terrorists and were in bed with the tiger inside his den, blowing hot and cold against the Sri Lankan authorities that dared to rid the menace that was the underlying cause for the ugly human rights situation prevailing in the country. The LTTE has killed over 60 elected Tamil representatives in addition to several leaders from other communities and two heads of state of India and Sri Lanka. The LTTE has put to death more Tamil civilians than any other in their quest to be the self-declared sole representative of the Tamils, on their journey to establish the grand empire of ‘Tamil Eelam’, the future haven of human rights.(Cont./5)
Your Eminence, you may be joyful and jubilant that your words were heeded by certain members of the international community that voted to keep Sri Lanka from winning one of the four places reserved for Asian Countries in the UN Human Rights Council. Sri Lanka has confidence in the four Asian nations that emerged as the winning members, and will continue to uphold the highest standards in the field of human rights despite the prevailing terrorist menace in the country. We are aware that certain countries which claim to be leaders in human rights have pillaged and plundered other nations that they colonized, they have exploited human beings as slaves and indentured labour to toil for a pittance to enrich themselves, who even today don a different cloak when they intervene both economically and militarily to covet valuable resources in other lands. When we look back on tragedies such as the conflicts in Rwanda, Zaire (Congo), East Timor, Zimbabwe, etc., we find much more than what has been told by world leaders or reported by the media, as information hitherto hidden is springing up in websites that give new perspectives, i.e. http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq25.html; http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041708D.shtml. Notwithstanding your last minute appeal to keep Sri Lanka out of the council, Sri Lanka’s report for the two year period under the Universal Review Process was adopted on May 19, 2008. We now see that the purpose of your unsubstantiated damaging remarks was to indirectly lend support to the LTTE terrorists who violated the CFA over 7000 occasions, and later launched unprovoked attacks to break up the country, only to falter and find the boundaries of the usurped territories of their terror regime fast receding, in spite of the innumerable landmines and explosives laden booby traps that they planted.
We Sri Lankans have an ancient civilization, recorded history, and a rich heritage nurtured by the Teachings of the compassionate Buddha for a period extending to around two-and-a-half millennia, where human rights have been ingrained in the psyche of the nation. Non-harming of living beings and setting apart of nearly 1/16th of the land by our forefathers as game reserves where animals may roam free is part and parcel of our culture. Today, we have many Sri Lankans who are adherents of the other great religions of Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, who are strict practitioners of their faith, respecting each other and living in harmony in mixed communities within the island. Whilst Sri Lankans give the highest regard for human rights, they are weary of unending war and the deceit and double tongued conduct of the Tamil Tiger Terrorists which has gone on for over three decades with endless negotiations going no where, the vast majority of the people belonging to all communities are supportive of the government’s current policy to neutralize the military capability of the LTTE and bring an end to their brutal terrorism that has cost the nation over 70000 lives and untold damage to valuable property. Just as the defeat of the LTTE and eviction of its terrorist forces from the eastern province brought about freedom from fear, democratic rights, normalcy and a huge improvement in the human rights environment, similar results will soon follow with the dismantling of LTTE’s terror network that is operating on its weakened legs in parts of the northern districts of Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu. The NGOs that provided cover, direct and indirect support to the terror machine of the LTTE to keep the fires burning in order to fill their coffers from their funding sources for spewing forth reams and reams of useless research material, will unfortunately have to direct their focus to some other region of the globe and add their special expertise to generate new conflicts that would once again attract research dollars to keep them in business and their lavish lifestyles going, in the interest of human rights or other human ideal.
Yours very truly,
Mahinda Gunasekera
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