Bimal Ferdinando Athurugiriya Courtesy The Island

Dear Mr. John Rankine, British High Commissioner

Please do not waste your not very valuable time making comments on the militarisation of Northern Sri Lanka. Just visit your own country and observe how it is faring in organising the Olympic Games which is all to do with peace. Your defence ministry, not ours, has already deployed 18, 000 soldiers to defend the games! (More than SL has in the whole of the North for post 30 year conflict garrison duties). Some 3,500 Brit troops are to do commercial and industrial security duties in addition too. Please let us know if this is a peace time requirement in the UK?

QueenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s regulation does not permit troops to be deployed for security duties without weapons. So what are they going to do when there is a breach of security? Shoot? Have you got the laws in place or will it be martial law like that which Britain, once called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”GreatƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢(!) used in 1818 and 1915 in SL? Will there be another Brazilian there for your police to practise shooting 18 bullets in the head for attempting to go in the tube train? Please donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t let them shoot our Sri Lankan team. OK? Shall we issue them with body armour?

I am sure you will win this new Battle of Britain what with fighter aircraft, hand held and low level anti-aircraft defence, battle ships scouring the Channel , armoured reconnaissance on the streets and battle ready troops and armed police sharp shooters. Go for it! Hang the games, peace, Olympic hopefuls, your own people and ours.

Do you want any help from us? We can relieve Channel four from their GTF/LTTE imposed surveillance duties over SL to cover the sure to be atrocities at the Olympic Games. Any idea of what figure to invent as casualties 7,000 or 40,000 and why not 100,000 if you feel like it. DonƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t feel shy to ask. We are always there to help you like 40,000 SL citizens did in two WWs.

You had your British Army (Corps ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…”over 2 divisions- strength) on the Rhine in Germany for nearly 50, years after WW2 so you can tell us a lot about militarization canƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t you? Please.

Best of British for the Battle of Britain (2), sorry Olympic Games. Give everyone hell. We remember Amritsar too. Do you?

Also remember ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”silence is goldenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ next time you jump up to tell us how to mind our business.

Bimal Ferdinando

Athurugiriya