By Garvin Karunaratne, Ph.D.Former Government Agent, Matara District

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A bomb blast in a Norway office block gutted it with fire. A few minutes later a gun man opened fire on a youth congregation and this left 94 dead. Many are yet missing.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Retribution does come- sometimes in driblets and at times delayed and that is what the Superpowers do have to understand when they plan and implement forays into sovereign countries and become terrorists themselves in actual practice, though they function under the pretext of being peacenicks.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ As F.Rovick of the Norwegians Against Terrorism has said, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…- the time is long overdue (for Norway) to issue a complete apology to the people of Sri lanka and other nations wherever Norwegian funds have been used to prolong or create conflictsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Let us look at what Norway did to Sri Lanka.

It all began with the Red Baana Settlements done during the reign of President Jayawardena, when Norway without the knowledge of the Government brought Tamil youths from the Hill Country and settled them in the Vanni, to colonise the Vanni with a Tamil population. This was stopped by the Government when it was brought to its notice but the settlements created stood firm and Colonel Anil Amerasekera reported that he found that many of the Tamils taken as a human shield by Prabhakaran in his last days were Red Baana Tamils. This was a secret attempt of Norway to change the demography of the Vanni. . This area was very sparsely populated by a few Sinhala and Tamil settlements and the Red Baana was a clear attempt to make the Vanni into a Tamil area. I know of the Vanni because I have traversed on many a Vanni track for my irrigation development tasks. What a cool and calculated attempt- all done without the knowledge of the host Government!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ During the time when Prabhakaran ruled with an iron fist, threatening every Tamil in the North with the gun, stealing their young ones to make suicide bombers of them, Norway played a very dubious role in supporting the LTTE. Its lieutenants like Solheim pretended to support the Government but in actuality supported the terrorist LTTE.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Norway should know that the first Tamil that voted in an election had his arm cut off. That was PrabhakaranƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s idea of democracy.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Norway played a dubious role in the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. That was an instance where the LTTE was given the upper hand by Ranil Wickremasinghe the Prime Minister who with the support of Norway did get this Ceasefire Agreement even without the approval of the President. It is well known that the CFA was written by Norway and foisted on Ranil Wickremasinghe. President Kumaranatunge was also an accomplice for accepting it. Her silence and approval in complicity smacks of her being bought over.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka has had its massacres all done by Prabhakaran and the LTTE. I lived in Sri Lanka from 1955 to 2000 and am aware of the massacres that took place. Sinhala parents never traveled together. Their plan was that if one gets blasted, at least the other will be left to care for the children. That was the real state of affairs. Living in Nugegoda, I went to the capital only if it was essential. I parked my car behind the Regal Theatre and first, had a friendly chats with the Ticketing Parking Attendants for what they had heard during the day. I rushed into the car and sped home if they had to speak of any attacks that day. If they gave the green light I would walk like a rabbit with both ears tuned in and my eyes piercing all over to snatch the first sign of danger. I would pass by the temple at the round about where a LTTE gunman had murdered the chief monk, with a shiver in every bone. . We were living amidst death.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Lest you forget Norway, let me tell you of a few instances where hundreds were gunned down by the LTTE in Sri Lanka. Your death toll in this instance was only a fragment of what the LTTE did to Sri Lanka with your support.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What of the hundreds of pilgrims and Buddhist monks who were murdered when they were pilgrims at the Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura. An Assistant Superintendent of Police told me that the figures of casualties was officially kept low at two hundred when actually over five hundred were killed, some three hundred at the Sri Maha Bodhi and later in every village till the LTTE cadres reached Wilpattu where they murdered Wild life officials that accosted them.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What of the attack on the Temple of the Tooth at Kandy where innocent pilgrims were killed.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I can go on endless. At Arantalawa it was Buddhist monks that were murdered and the worst of it all was the murder of some six hundred and sixty police personnel. The surrender was agreed by the LTTE leaders at PeaceTalks held under President Premadasa when an assurance was given by Balasingham one of the leading LTTE figures to the effect that the policemen would be delivered safe and sound. They were marched to their death like lambs to the slaughter house.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What of the assassinations of Rajiv Gandhi former Prime Minister of India and President Premadasa of Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The LTTE did not spare Tamil intellectuals. It started with Duraiappah, the Mayor of Jaffna. They killed Members of Parliament and even Luckshman Kadiragamar, the Foreign Minister.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The LTTE was actually trying to establish a separate state in Sri Lanka and it began its plan in the Eighties. Till the Seventies my work in the administrative posts I held involved travel island wide and I have been almost on every major road- a frequent traveler on circuit to ensure that the development plans of the Government were implemented fairly in all parts of the island. I can vouch for the fact that there was no discrimination whatsoever in language or any other aspect like education or health. I can assure of this because I have handled loans to cooperatives and all Agrarian Services development programmes and there was no question of any discrimination. When I covered the Southern Province my chief clerk was A.C.Rajasingham, a person who was perfect and held in high esteem by every Sinhalese and that was when I had my office at Ambalantota. The charge of discrimination flies out of the window when one considers the fact that Tamil gentlemen have held the posts of Inspector General of Police, the Attorney General and Supreme Court Judges. The Head of the Public Service of Sri Lanka, my boss for around half a decade was Mr. Baku Mahadeva.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Even today if any Tamil person has to face a problem in the North and the East he can be assured that there are many Sinhala people in the other Districts facing the same problem. The District kachcheries in every district are full of people who have problems and these get attended to. Since 1978 when the IMF took control of the economy of Sri Lanka, the poor everywhere have to face hardships which can never be solved. The IMF Mantra is for the rich to become richer and for the poor to become yet poor. It is the Superpowers that decide on the IMF recipe for the Third World to be subjugated economically. Norway is one of the Superpowers in control.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Superpowers it is time you did come to your senses and stop forays into sovereign lands.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Living in a terrorist hounded Sri Lanka in 2000, I never believed that we will have a personage who will defeat the LTTE and bring peace to our Motherland. I was proved wrong. Unfortunately the Superpowers today are arranged against President Rajapaksa and his chief lieutenants who dared to bring the monster Prabhakaran under control, and defeat the LTTE from our shores, risking their very lives in the process.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Today it is sad that the Superpowers are trying to take the liberators of this country- the people who looked after the human rights of twenty million people to the guillotine- the International Courts for War Crimes!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There is always a time to learn a Lesson.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Garvin Karunaratne
Former Government Agent, Matara District

July 23, 2011