Dangerous Ideas and Strategies that hoodwinked Sri Lanka
Posted on December 3rd, 2013

by Shenali D. Waduge

 At some stage or the other the people of Sri Lanka would need to sit down and carefully deliberate over exactly what and who contributed and continues to contribute towards steadily reversing the great victory of the Ranaviru in defeating terrorism in Sri Lanka in May 2009.  Some agreements that had either been authored or agreed to sign on behalf of Sri Lanka have virtually sealed Sri Lanka’s fate. Before we accuse external sources of attempting to destabilize the country we need to look inward, without bias and identify objectively from a country-centric point of view the persons who had been responsible for the troubles that Sri Lanka now faces. It is in identifying who these architects were and their dangerous prescriptions that we might be able to avert future disasters flowing from these or similar ideas. 

 1.    INDO-LANKA ACCORD

 Who were those privy to the clauses of this Accord signed under duress with Sri Lanka’s cabinet having been forced to give undated letters of resignation – why would such lengths need to be taken wherein even the media was debarred?

 Where were the objections to India giving LTTE Rs. 50 million? Where were Sri Lanka’s objections to India’s breach of the Accord when India as undertaken did not disarm LTTE in 120 hrs? When Sri Lanka’s obligation to adhere to the Accord was conditional on India’s performance and implementation of 5 key steps why did Sri Lanka not repudiate the Accord or raise diplomatic objections when India failed to perform its part of its obligations under the Accord? Why did no official point out provisions of the Accord India had explicitly violated? The demand to pull back Sri Lanka’s military from the Northern Province started with the Indo-Lanka Accord – it is because Sri Lanka did not make its stand clear then that this same call is being repeated now. 

 On what grounds did Sri Lanka’s representatives privy to the clauses of the Accord before it was signed not object to the merger of the North and East, why did they not question the assertion and false claim of a Tamil Homeland instead of accepting everything India had written? There is no such “areas of historical habitation of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking people, who have at all times hitherto lived together in this territory”.   Why was there no one to question how a Provincial Council system could solve problems? and why did no one object to Sri Lanka’s problem being defined ‘ethnic’ – when people are having arms to kill and assassinate people how can they be defined anything other than terrorists? Not a single effort is being taken to erase reference to Sri Lanka having an ‘ethnic problem’ – Sri Lanka had a terrorist problem. There is no legitimate reasons that can claim Sri Lanka’s problem is ‘ethnic’.

 Why did Sri Lanka’s leaders not insist on India’s compliance with the hallowed and oldest International Law principle ‘pacta sunt servanda’ (i.e. agreements must be kept) and that both parties must execute their mutually agreed obligations in good faith – we can confidently say that India was in full breach of its obligations under the Accord without protest without challenge from Sri Lanka – it is still not late to raise this cry loud and clear. Timidity, meekness and moral cowardice closely associated with those who conduct our international affairs under the cloak of ‘ statesmanship’ carries this country nowhere.  

What or who is stopping this defunct Indo-Lanka Accord been nullified even now?

 2.    1995 Draft Constitution

This draft constitution was known as the Neelan-GL draft. The same draft was amended by Chandrika in 2000. The devolution package idea being promoted was federalism as their solution. It was designed, worded and crafted by the duo and this forms the basis of another dangerous idea that has materialized and come to be accepted as another solution concocted by our very own. Not many of our own can fiddle around with words and come up with terminology and the very same man emerges before every catastrophic document drafted thus e.g. the unitary state of Sri Lanka being broken up into a collection of territorial pieces under a new nomenclature of a UNION OF REGIONS instead of a straight forward federal state it was coined to fool the populace into accepting the new theory as solution.   

 “The new constitution that is in the process of being drafted will contain an elaborate chapter on devolution. We are convinced that a substantial degree of devolution represents the key to the most vexed problem confronting the Sri Lankan nation at this time”….. “Devolution is a good thing, a democratic thing,”  

  ”” Prof. G.L. Peiris

3.    Cease Fire Agreement 2002

Who advocated the theory of ‘unwinnable war’ and championed publicly the policy of appeasement whatever provocations from terrorists?

Who knowingly advised a democratic country to enter into an Agreement with terrorists and sign on a piece of paper that gave an internationally proscribed terrorist organization a status on par with a sovereign state?

 Who supported the removal of checkpoints that gave terrorists freedom of movement without considering the repercussions of such?

 Who requested a lifting of the ban on the LTTE that Foreign Minister Kadirgamar worked so hard to achieve and shamelessly addressed Anton Balasingham in servile fashion as ‘Your Excellency” 

 Who declared the 2002 Agreement was a ‘roadmap to peace’? – incidentally Madam Maria Carriilho, EU member of parliament declared that the CFA will invariably lead to a new autonomous State, a flag and new anthem and no one in the UNF even protested over this outrageous declaration. 

 The architects were those who contributed to drafting the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) which even Dr. Subramaniam Swamy declared was the outcome of a ‘surrender mentality’ of the UNF Government which was prepared to hand over large chunks of vital Sri Lankan territory to terrorists in return for the money of a few billion of dollars being dangled as carrot by the western powers including Norway, USA, and Japan among others.  

 What was the quid pro quo that allowed the ‘architects’ to betray the nation under the CFA?

 Who did not mind the LTTE committing more than 10,000 ceasefire violations?

Who cared not to take action against the LTTE for killing 174 security forces personnel, 388 civilians, 117 attempted murders, 620 abductions, 46 attempted abductions, 106 cases of extortion, 2199 conscriptions, 875 injuries to persons, 22 instances of torture, 128 cases of intimidations and recruitment of 1200 children?

 Who did not care to equate a terrorist organization to be on par with a legally established armed forces that protects the nation?

 What type of people agrees to sign an agreement that grants LTTE official recognition through the CFA as ‘equal stakeholders” 

 Who were the Architects and people involved with the 2002 CFA?

  • Government Chief Negotiator – GL Peiris
  • Defence Minister – Tilak Marapana “I have no intention at all in waging war with the LTTE at the moment. We have embarked on a peace mission and our target today, and my role as Defence Minister, is not to plan strategy to attack but merely to ready ourselves to defend”
  • Secretary Defense (Dec 2001) – Austin Fernandohttp://groundviews.org/2008/11/02/interview-with-austin-fernando-a-peacetime-secretary-of-defence-in-sri-lanka/
  • Chief Spokesman/Secretary for the UNF – Bradman Weerakoon later to be the Secretary to the PM and thereon to ICES NGO
  • Head of S L Peace Secretariat – Bernard Goonetilake and Jayantha Dhanapala
  • Deputy Director General, Peace Secretariat in Colombo, Dr. John Gunaratne
  • Head, LTTE Peace Secretariat, S. Puleedevan
  • Head, SLMM, Tryggve Tellefssen
  • Army Commander – Gen. Balagalle (25 Aug 2000 – 30 Jun 2004)
  • SL Legal – Lakshman Marasinghe

 Did these architects not have an iota of love for their country and respect for its armed forces that it forced our armed forces to give guard of honour to terrorists, shake hands with killers and thereby humiliated the armed forces in front of these terrorists while restricting our army to the barracks while giving free access and freedom of movement to LTTE that led to the assassination of Sri Lanka’s intelligence members, Police Officers and even Sri Lanka’s intensely popular Foreign Minister Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar.

 Do these architects not have a word of praise and gratitude to Maj. Muthalif, Lt. Col. Rizvi Meedin and their teams who were gunned down in cold blood in broad daylight one after the other in Colombo? 

 Do these architects not have a sense of self-guilt for knowing that the agreement they endorsed perhaps even wrote allowed the LTTE to smuggle shipments of arms, sophisticated telecommunications through Sri Lanka’s own customs and these officials allowed them to be brought into the country and transported to the LTTE through Govt.  controlled roads and highways? 

 Have these architects not sealed Sri Lanka’s inability to defend itself by committing the nation and its people to a horrid future in a highly truncated small island with a view to serve their own ends? If these were the architects that gave LTTE 95% of their Eelam on a silver platter with the rest planned to be secured through the ISGA and PTOMS how should we treat the architects of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement – have they done a favor to Sri Lanka as some people were foolish enough to think and thank these architects for their betrayal?  

 4.    Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA)

If the 2002 cease fire agreement placed a terrorist organization on par with a legitimate government and its armed forces the next fatal attraction became the ISGA submitted by the LTTE attempting to legalize what was provisionally established through the CFA. The fatal attraction here became USD5billion and the race between who would secure this carrot irrespective of whether the ISGA was to seal Sri Lanka’s fate.

 It must be reiterated with special mention and due acknowledgement that it was the JVP, JHU and the patriotic forces that brought to light to Sri Lanka’s public the dangers of signing the ISGA with the LTTE alongside Lakshman Kadirgamar (reference speech at Brookings Institute Washington) – had it not been for them it would have been signed thus sealing another nail to the country’s coffin. 

 These examples are shown to make the readers ponder over whether they are going to give these very people another mandate for them to establish various mechanisms e.g. Commissions of Inquiry that will prescribe solutions to reverse the gains of the Ranaviru and create the conditions in the country for another LTTE type terrorist movement to rise. 

 When 32 countries had banned the LTTE and knowing LTTE’s modus operandi why would Sri Lanka’s leaders agree to a proposal by the LTTE that accepted Tamil armed struggle was in ‘self-defense’, was there no one privy to the clauses on the Sri Lankan Government side to ask how LTTE can claim self-defense for killing Lakshman Kadirgamar, Alfred Duraiappah and over 250 other Tamil learned people? Were Sri Lanka’s representatives blind to agree to giving LTTE appointees absolute majority over Sinhala and Muslim communities through the ISGA? Why did not a single GOSL representative object to the ISGA being composed of LTTE, Muslim and GOSL which purposely excluded mention of Sinhalese that comprised 74% of the populace? 

 Did Sri Lanka’s representatives become so mesmerized by USD5million that they completely chose to ignore to question what would arise if LTTE were to make all appointments to the ISGA District Committees and it would administer all State land, financial affairs, judicial affairs, development, economic.

The people who represented Sri Lanka at these discussions and agreed or silently stood by and watched these agreements take place none of them should be allowed anywhere near current policy making decisions of Sri Lanka.

If we are having calls for land and police to be given to the provinces did these not stem from some of these dangerous advice and opinions that were allowed over time to take shape and pose dangerous challenges to the preservation of national unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka? 

 Who are these supposed leaders who agreed to a proposal by the LTTE that would give LTTE rule of law, ability to collect taxes, run the administration, deal with external players, conduct trade and in lieu of all this LTTE agrees to drop calls for an independent Tamil Eelam? Has the LTTE not hoodwinked our leaders because in agreeing to all these ISGA demands our people would have given Eelam (similar to the manner in which the Indian Parliament in 1947 voted and agreed to the partition of India, creating a new nation i.e. Pakistan,) and there would be no reason for LTTE to demand an independent Eelam. Can our people have been so stupid?

 5.    Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure (P-TOMS)

 From Indo-Lanka Accord, the CFA, the ISGA we now come to another dangerous agreement agreed by our so called leaders.  We again mention the JVP, JHU and the patriotic forces for bringing to the attention of the public the hidden dangers of this P – TOMS structure disregarding the silence of the mainstream media.

Leaders and their advisors need to first clearly realize that in being elected to represent Sri Lanka they are not voted to barter the country, divide it into pieces simply because some party or group is dangling something that catches their fancy. They can do whatever they like with their own private property but when it comes to the country and a population of 20million people they need to act with integrity, morals and ethics and keeping in mind they are only custodians for an elected term, and not owners of the land for an indefinite period of time.  We must remember that the country cannot function to suit individual whims and fancies and certainly not to meet personal agendas and ideologies that public officials believe in. They certainly have no right to change legal and constitutional provisions interpreting them to their fancy and shoving down our throats by crafty legislation influencing leaders who have no practical legal background or knowledge to accept their version as the only path to safety.

 The PTOM carrot this time was USD3billion and the Chandrika Government signed the PTOMs on 24 Jun 2005. Yet, why was the South excluded from this package for did the South not fall victim to the tsunami as well? For the third time GOSL and LTTE were placed on par with each other. The same mistake was again repeated with the PTOMS committee comprising of 1 nominee from LTTE, 1 nominee for Muslims and 1 nominee for GOSL – again no mention of Sinhalese. The Regional Committee of the PTOMS was structured as such again to make LTTE the majority on the Committee.

The issue we need to raise is that these leaders and public officials have agreed to or simply ignored gross violations of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, territorial integrity been torn to shreds by agreements that some of them had even authored. These are the dangerous ideas that have taken Sri Lanka to face a plethora of issues currently faced. If US and Japan refused to supply funds to the PTOMS in view of LTTE being proscribed why did our own leaders ignore this all important fact? But people who claimed PTOMS was ‘the only way out’ (Kumar Rupesinghe) now says something totally opposite as a Government advisor – but how many of him are there in Government whose views are dangerous for we don’t know when they will change them. 

Thankfully the Supreme Court decision of a bench of judges led by Sarath Silva C.J. on 15th July 2005 on the backdrop of excellent submissions made by H L De Silva, SL Gunasekera, Gomin Dayasri, Minoli Jinadasa and Manohara de Silva resulted in the staying of the MOU.

What the people of Sri Lanka need to now realize is that the same handful of people have been gradually legitimizing the LTTE behind our backs. The CFA and all the architects that endorsed it placed a democratically elected government on par with a terrorist organization. Ranil-Chandrika went on to committing similar blunders but they did so not alone. There were a group of people around them who were advising them and it is these people who now need to be exposed in the best and long term interest of the country. Some of these main players are leading the present leaders down the wrong garden path.

 Similarly, Sri Lanka has committed itself to numerous economic agreements that are proving dangerous to Sri Lanka’s strategic interests as a sovereign nation. Who in his right mind gives Sri Lanka’s strategic assets and locations to the very country that clandestinely trained Sri Lankan militants on its soil and allowed their state to be initially used as a terrorist logistic base? Knowing that LTTE remnants are around and continuing to give this same country whose operatives are known to be functioning in Sri Lanka makes one to ask what dangers are we knowingly walking towards and taking the populace to another episode of terror.

These dangerous ideas combined with the fatal attractions of these people have taken the country from one calamity to another.

 People need to know who these architects were for the same people continue to brainwash our national leaders with more dangerous ideas and advice inducing our national leaders to accept the former’s fancy notions by bringing in foreign parties and institutions that claim to save our leaders from war crimes and promising them that their scalp can be saved if they agree to make a commitment to establishing Commissions of Inquiry that will subtly condemn and insinuate those that defend the nation – both armed and unarmed (armed forces and the patriotic citizens). The Commissions are a subtle way to legitimize their objectives while poisoning the minds of the leaders into submission by putting the fear of Moses into them that their lives are at risk if war crimes charges are brought. This is nothing else but bribing the minds of our leaders into submission – we would like to know who these guilty parties are. 

 Such a quick fix was the LLRC which is continuing to boomerang on Sri Lanka for we seem to be asked to implement solutions to problems we are unaware of. Who plugged the LLRC and used that to project that Sri Lanka could escape trial in Geneva? Who is now plugging another Commission on the pretext of saving the heads of Sri Lanka’s leaders? Who is committing our leaders to endorsing another Commission titled this time as Truth and Reconciliation when we defeated a terrorist movement and our story is different? The public could not stop LLRC becoming a suicidal effort but the public can put a full stop to another bogus Commission being introduced – whatever goes without saying is that it is now time that we expose the handful of people who are abusing their office to push agendas because their feet are not in Sri Lanka, their allegiance is not to Sri Lanka and certainly no loyalty to the country’s leaders – it is a good time for the leaders themselves to seriously wonder who they can actually trust.

 It is also good for the leaders to realize that none of the patriotic forces have ever advised leaders wrongly or given advice to usurp them from power or place the nation and its people in difficulty. Here lies the difference in the architects of the dangerous ideas who surround leaders and the patriotism of people who are often kept marginalized.

 

 


 

8 Responses to “Dangerous Ideas and Strategies that hoodwinked Sri Lanka”

  1. Ananda-USA Says:

    Bravo ! Sri Lanka Armed forces planning to stay in the North for anoother Hundred Years!

    Too bad … if there is a Hundred Year Limit … that should be Lifted … Permanently.

    What is WRONG with the National Military settling in to PROTECT & DEFEND the country … PERMANENTLY?

    Even if it were civilian land, they are NOT STEALING the land without COMPENSATION; it is being PAID FOR in HARD COIN! This is NOT ETHNIC Cleansing by the Force of Violence and Killing that Velupillai Prabhakaran practiced while the TNA applauded enthusiastically! This is Ethnic Integration to create ONE Indivisible NATION, of ONE Inseparable PEOPLE, sharing ONE National DESTINY to bind together and usher in an ERA of PERMANENT Peace, Security and Prosperity in our Motherland!

    It is WRONG only to those Anti-National people … like Wigneswaran … who have things to HIDE, insurgencies to REVIVE, illegal immigrants to IMPORT, terrorist cemeteries to RECONSTRUCT, weapons to SMUGGLE, banks to ROB, terrorists to TRAIN, registrations to FALSIFY, and separatist causes to SUPPORT!

    Let the Sri Lanka Army lead the way to help settle Sinhala people in the North free from threats and intimidation by the Eelamist Tamils … just as Northern Tamils flooded in and settled the Greater Colombo area during the last 30 years … to escape the tender mercies of their vicious Tamil Savior …. the late unlamented Thalaivar …. Velupillai Prabhakaran!

    ……………………
    Sri Lanka military acquiring civilian lands, Northern Province CM informs UN envoy

    ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

    Dec 03, Colombo: Chief Minister of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province C.V. Vigneswaran has informed UN Special Rapporteur for Internally Displaced Persons Dr. Chaloka Beyani that military is acquiring civilian lands in the North.

    Wigneswaran has held a discussion with the UN Rapporteur during his visit to the North.

    The local media reports from the North said the CM informed the UN Rapporteur that more than 6000 acres of land had been appropriated by the military in Valikamam North.

    The Chief Minister has also given details of land and the acreage acquired by the military in the Kilinochchi District as well.

    “On the basis of their present activities, they plan to stay in the North for a further hundred years, which really means that they plan to bring in people from the South and resettle them along with the army families,” Wigneswaran has been quoted as saying.

    The government earlier said it has decided to acquire 6,381 hectares of the land in Jaffna that is now being used as High Security Zones permanently and the owners of the land will be paid compensation.

    The acquisition is to be done under the Land Acquisition Act and the government has allocated Rs. 400 million as compensation for the owners.

    The Chief Minister alleged that the military was trying to colonize the North like the Eastern Province.

    The Army has denied that it plans to acquire civilians’ lands to establish military camps in Jaffna. Army has said that it has already earmarked government lands for that purpose.

    Wigneswaran also told the UN envoy that the livelihood of residents in the North has been seriously affected since the military has taken over all avenues of employment available to the people and the people have to take loans for their day to day living.

  2. Lorenzo Says:

    Lets see the traitors behind these.

    GLP – 3/5 instances above.
    Dayan J – 3/5
    Chandrika – 3/5
    Run-NIL – 3/5
    Tamils – 4/5
    UNP – 2/5
    SLFP – 3/5
    UNP + SLFP = 5/5

  3. Lorenzo Says:

    “Wigneswaran also told the UN envoy that the livelihood of residents in the North has been seriously affected since the military has taken over all avenues of employment available to the people and the people have to take loans for their day to day living.”

    I’m not surprised at all by this TWISTING of facts. A typical Tamil!

  4. Marco Says:

    The same edited (heavy) version appeared in the Daily News.
    Noticeably the DN version excluded the name GL Peiris!

    Couple of factual inaccuracies and omission but then it is the norm!
    The SL main team included Milinda Moragoda, Rauf Hakeem and Bernard Goonetilleke.
    The LTTE main team included Karuna for some strange reason Shenali has omitted that name.

    another factual inaccuracy- Jayantha Dhanapala was not part of the CFA 2002 team. He was made head of the S L Peace Secretariat in 2004 after the agreement was signed.

    Gomin has a better grasp of the current status in his article in the Daily Mirror reproduced in Lankaweb

  5. Christie Says:

    What we need is unity among the Sinhalese first. Then unity among Sinhalese, Muslims, Malays and Burghers. Then Tamils who are the last to arrive in the island under the cover of British guns will listen and India will shut up.

  6. Susantha Wijesinghe Says:

    Why is the Bearded Rascal, who said ”racist Sinhalese Buddhist scoundrels” always reporting to International persons about Internal Affairs of Sri Lanka. This AH is enjoying all the Hospitality that Sri Lanka is affording him, including his food on the table. He is a despicable hypocrite to mother Lanka. The government should stop PC members, Politicians, and all and sundry from interacting with International AH Hypocrites about Internal Affairs.

    What is the Alpa dayanna in the External Ministry doing about it ? Another educated vegetable.

  7. Ananda-USA Says:

    India IGNORES Sri Lanka’s request for Joint Oversight on the Sethu Samudram Project.

    So, why does Sri Lanka HEED India’s requests on ANYTHING, including implementation of the 13th Amendment?

    Stop this SLAVISH behavior; IGNORE EVERYTHING India wants … NOW!

    …………………………
    Lanka Seeks Joint Mechanism to Assess and Monitor Sethu Samudram Project

    By PK Balachandran | ENS – COLOMBO
    NewIndianExpress.com
    December 4, 2013

    Sri Lanka has sought a joint Indo-Lankan mechanism to assess the Sethu Samudram Canal Project (SSCP) and continuously monitor its implementation and operation.

    On November 25, Colombo announced that it had shared with India a Lankan expert committee’s report which had pointed out several flaws in the project and suggested a joint mechanism to assess it, monitor its execution, and continually keep an eye on the operation of the canal.

    The committee headed by Ariyaratne Hewage, then Secretary to the Ministry of Education, and Prof.Shantha Hennayake, geologist at the Peradeniya University, pointed out that India had shared only “a little information” with Lanka and that “repeated requests” by Lanka to set up a joint mechanism for the assessment and monitoring of the SSCP had got “no positive response.”

    The committee said that dredging for the canal, and continuous dredging to keep it open, would have an impact on the Lankan side as the canal was only one kilometer away from the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). Indian environmental impact studies had “not identified and evaluated the full impact” of the project and the impact on the Lankan side had not been considered at all, it said.

    Continuous dredging would disturb marine life in the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar, adversely affecting fishermen on both sides of the IMBL. There was no clarity on the quantification of maintenance dredging. The question as to who would compensate for damages caused by dredging, was not addressed.

    “Insufficient attention” was paid to problems posed by oil spills, leakages, discharge of sewage, bilge and ballast water. The committee said that Lanka should be involved in the preparation of oil spill contingency plans in keeping with the International Convention on Control of Pollution from Ships (the MARPOL Convention of 1973).

    The modeling used by India was not backed by adequate field data and had “under-estimated the nature and types of impact of the SSCP,” the panel said. The “water exchange” across Adam’s Bridge had not been studied using Advection Dispersion Modelling. The committee proposed “collaborative mathematical modeling.”

    Work on SSCP is currently on hold as there is a case against it in the Indian Supreme Court.

  8. Lorenzo Says:

    Endia will hold talks with the NPC on SSCP!!

    That will be the “COMPROMISE”.

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