Shenali D Waduge

 Why should 32 nations including US, Canada, UK, India and EU ban the LTTE as a terrorist organization if Sri Lanka’s problem was ethnic? Did Sri Lanka’s Army carry out a military offensive against Tamil ethnic group or LTTE terrorists? Didn’t Sri Lanka’s Army prolong the offensive sacrificing their own soldier lives in order to bring to safety close to 300,000 Tamils during that offensive? How preposterous is it for the current Opposition Leader who hails from a party that was created by the LTTE and not investigated for its links to claim that the new constitution will be the solution to the ‘ethnic problem’. Giving benefit of the doubt can those who claim Sri Lanka suffers an ethnic problem please explain where Tamils lack equality before the law that which only Sinhalese are given?

• By 1928 there were 3 Tamil parties – Ceylon Tamil League (Sir P Arunachalam 1921), Tamil Mahajana Sabha and All Ceylon Tamil Conference. Showcasing no desire to assimilate and function as a nation. The desire for a separate Tamil state prevailed even during the time of British rule – there was no Sinhala discrimination then!

• What was the need to create a Tamil ethnic political party in 1944 under colonial British rule? All Ceylon Tamil Congress was created by GG Ponnambalam. It was the first ethnic-based political party separating people politically along ethnic lines. The only people to suffer discrimination under colonial British were the Sinhala Buddhists – the minorities were showered with English educated missionary school, jobs and better lifestyles creating sects of often Christian converted elite English speaking Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims in whose hands the British planned to leave governance.
• Why was Tamil Illankai Arasu Katchchi formed in 1949 by Anglican SJV Chelvanayagam. What was the need to create a Tamil party that had its aims and objectives to create a Tamil state?
• What kind of ethnic problem goes and plans the murder of a foreign leader –  LTTE assassinated the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on Indian soil?
• How can there be an ethnic problem when Tamils are killed by Tamils. We can put names and numbers to these deaths not like the unverified and unprovable numbers being promoted by LTTE diaspora and their lackeys in the NGO circle.
• These Tamils were killed by Tamils. We are only giving the names of people who had made a name for themselves in the public domain. The many other Tamils that were killed because they didn’t tow the line is unknown because their deaths have been credited to the Army through propaganda.  Where have you heard of an ethnic problem where Tamils are killing Tamils virtually every year as the below figures showcase!!!

• 2005 – Lakshman Kadiragamar – Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister shot dead in his own home. He was on his way to becoming the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Killed during the infamous ceasefire
• 2002 – Poopalapillai Alaguthurai, Porathivu Pradheshya Sabha member, member of EPRLF.
• 2003 – Marimuthtu Rajalingam Chairman of the Aalaiyadivembu Pradheshiya Sabha member of EPDP
• 2003 – Kandiah Subathiran member of EPRLF
• 2004 – S. Sunderampillai Member of UNP
• 2004 – Ponniah Yogendran member of EPDP
• 2004 – Rajan Sathiyamoorthy TNA candidate 
• 2004 – Velayutham Raveendran EPDP
• 2004 – Kandiah Yogarasa PLOTE
• 2005 – Joseph Pararajasingham, Member of Parliament
• 2006 – Kethesh Logananathan, Deputy Secretary-General of the Government’s SCOPP
• 2008 – Jeyaraj Fernandopulle Minister
• 2008 – T. Maheshwaran UNP Minister (husband of Wijayakala Maheswaran)
• 1999 – Nagalingam Manikkadasan military wing leader PLOTE
• 1999 – Neelan Tiruchelvan MP and TULF leader
• 1998 – Ponnuyhurai Sivapalan Jaffna Mayor
• 1998 – Ms. Sarojini Yogeswaran Jaffna Mayor
• 1990 – T. Ganeshalingam, Minister NE Provincial Council
• 1990 – K. Padmanabha – General Secretary EPRLF
• 1990 – Sam Tambimuttu and his wife – MP Batticoloa
• 1998 – Uma Maheswaran PLOTE leader
• 1989 – A. Amrithalingam General Secretary of TULF, killed inside his own home in Colombo. Ironically, he called the LTTE ‘our boys’.
• 1989 – V. Yogeswaran MP Jaffna
• 1986 – Sri Sabarathnam, TELO leader
• 1985 – K. Alalasunderam MP Kopay
• 1985 – V. Dharmalingam MP Manipay
• 1981 – A. Thiagarajah MP Vaddukoddai
• 1975 – Alfred Duraiyapah, Mayor Jaffna – first high profile victim of Tamils
• The first targets of LTTE were Tamil policemen on duty in the North. They were killed to scare them from joining the police service and afterwards Tamil politicians complain the state is not taking Tamils into the police force!

Tamils extorting Tamils

• Can those who claim Sri Lanka suffers an ethnic problem explain why Tamils were victims of extortion even those living overseas?

Quoting Human Rights Watch report “The Final War”: LTTE Fundraising and Extortion within the Tamil Diaspora in late 2005 and early 2006″

“Although many Tamils willingly contribute money to the LTTE, many others do so because they feel they have little choice. The same fear that silences critics of the LTTE prompts many members of the diaspora to provide financial support for the LTTE, regardless of whether they support the LTTE’s cause”

“In Canada, the U.K., and other parts of Europe, LTTE representatives went house to house and visited Tamil-owned businesses, requesting substantial sums of money, often using intimidation, coercion, and outright threats to secure pledges.”

“In Toronto, individual families typically were asked to pay between Cdn$2,500 and Cdn$5,000, although some families were reportedly asked for as much as Cdn$10,000. Business owners were asked for amounts ranging from Cdn$25,000 to Cdn$100,000.”

“In London, many individual families were asked for £2,000 and businesses approached for amounts ranging from £10,000 to £100,000” How ethnic is this?

https://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/ltte0306/5.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cstpE1-lhzk LTTE terrorising UK Tamils (Part 1 of 3)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z62Y0X2huEQ Extortion by LTTE in UK

More Tamils have been killed by LTTE – who can explain how killing of Tamils by LTTE can become an ‘ethnic’ problem????

The list of Tamils that the LTTE has targeted include – where does ‘ethnic problem’ fit into Tamils getting killed by Tamil LTTE?

• Tamil clergy
• Tamil policemen
• Tamil Mayors
• Tamil academics
• Tamil politicians
• Tamil Judges
• Tamil Justice of Peace
• Tamil Principals – most often because they did not release Tamil children to be forcibly taken from schools and turned into child soldiers
• Tamil teachers
• Tamil civil society members – people who were not on foreign payroll but were serving the People
• Tamil grama sevaka in public service – if false ID cards were not issued bullets became the answer
• Tamil public officials – over 30 such Tamils were slain
• Tamil Government Agents, Union Leaders, Engineers, Education officers, Agriculture officers, Managers,
• Tamil Secretaries who were working in top posts
• Tamil university lecturers – only those who agreed to tow the homeland line were spared
• Tamil media
• Tamil armed militant group leaders and their members

Those who have been drumming that Sri Lanka has an ‘ethnic problem’ may like to explain where they have heard of an ethnic problem where Tamils have been killing and torturing their own people.

LTTE the representative of the Tamil people according to the TNA violated Geneva Conventions in

• forcibly recruiting Tamils as ‘volunteers’.- in particular low caste and poor Tamils
• Abducting Tamil children as young as 10 and turning them into child combatants
• What was the fate of Tamil men, women and children who attempted to escape LTTE training camps? We do not know! Their deaths must also be passed off on the Sri Lanka Army
• Denial of rights to girls –UNSG Ban Ki Moon is on record for accusing LTTE of forcibly cutting hair of girls who attempted to flee LTTE during the last stages of the conflict http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ltte1208webwcover_1.pdf
• Ordering Tamil men, women and children to commit suicide when caught by biting into the cyanide capsule given to each.
• If suicide terrorism is a crime, it has no legitimacy under international or local laws  – LTTE and Adele Balasingham stand guilty for mass murder – coercion, destruction of life and intentional killing of Tamils. Suicide attacks fall into the category of murder with mens rea – willingness to kill and willingness to die. Can anyone put a number to the Tamils who bit that cyanide capsule and died? How many of these victims are still mourning their dead? Where was the ethnic problem in ordering Tamils to kill themselves by suicide? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aqbj8PHTtHY#!
• Tamils denied freedom of movement, Tamils issued passes, Tamils allowed out of LTTE held areas only for valid reasons and then too they had to leave their land deeds or other items as guarantee of returning. Delays in returning meant ugly consequences to the guarantor.
• Where was the ‘ethnic’ element when LTTE kept Tamils as human shields/hostages? TNA’s sole representative of the Tamils did not allow Tamil civilians to escape to safety, they kept their arms, ammunition and equipment among the Tamil civilians and fired which is a violation of international conventions. How does ‘ethnic’ element fit into LTTE shooting at fleeing Tamils and UNSG, foreign envoys and international organizations all appealing to the LTTE to release the Tamils.
• How ‘ethnic’ is it when LTTE forcibly used Tamil civilians as unpaid labor to dig trenches, construct LTTE bunkers? Forced labor is a violation of Geneva Conventions (Article 4 & 5 of UN Declaration of Human Rights)
• Where was the ‘ethnic problem’ when LTTE confiscated Tamil assets/property?
• How ‘ethnic’ was the problem when LTTE confiscated essential commodities sent by the Government to the Tamil people – these food, medicines etc were forcibly taken and distributed among LTTE and their families. They inflated civilian figures so that more commodities would be sent.
• There was no ethnic problem when LTTE denied Tamils the right to life, right to liberty, right to security, right to freedom of thought & expression, right to movement, right to education, right to live as children.
• Where was the ethnic problem when LTTE put injured LTTE cadres inside buses and blew them up because they were a burden to the fleeing LTTE leaders?
• Where was the ethnic problem when LTTE cadres indoctrinated Tamils, made them into killers, drugged them and forced them to strap themselves with suicide vests and cyanide capsules and commit suicide when caught.
• In the UK there are Tamil gangs operating and killing each other http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/9058654.Tamil_gangs_battle_for_control_of_West_Croydon/
• http://www.sinhalanet.net/crimes-by-jaffna-tamil-boys-in-uk

The best part comes when the present Opposition Leader’s Party the Tamil National Alliance in its 2001, 2004, 2010 & 2013 election manifestos officially endorse LTTE as the ‘sole representative of the Tamil people’. TNA is endorsing LTTE as the mouthpiece of the Tamils when LTTE has killed so many Tamils!!! Very interesting, indeed and they say Sri Lanka suffers an ‘ethnic problem’.

TNA 2001 election manifesto https://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2010/03/TNA_Election_Manifesto_2001.pdf

TNA 2004 election manifesto

https://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2010/03/TNA_Election_Manifesto_2004pdf.pdf

TNA 2010 election manifesto

http://transcurrents.com/tc/2010/03/full_text_general_election_201.html

TNA 2013 election manifesto

https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/full-text-tnas-northern-provincial-council-election-manifesto-2013/

What kind of political party openly aligns with an armed militant group banned by 32 countries and is bold enough to put forward LTTE demands on their election manifestos? These examples clearly negates the ‘ethnic’ element in Sri Lanka’s problem.

We now come to the mentality suffered by elite high caste Tamils which is where the real problem lies. The British having indoctrinated their minds into believing themselves to be superior than their own and all others as a result of which 20million people are suffering. It is their desire to rule their own in a serfdom where the lowcastes will all be slaves to them which is the crux of the problem at hand. How else can anyone explain the disposition of the Tamil elite who had been making calls for a Tamil state (pan-Tamil state including Tamil Nadu) that started during colonial British rule when Tamils were ruled by British and there was no grounds to claim discrimination by Sinhalese.

It should be very clear that Sri Lanka‘s problem is not ethnic. Sri Lanka‘s problem was terrorist since LTTE armed militants waged terror on all communities including the Tamils and the State of Sri Lanka carried out a military onslaught to end this terror. Therefore, we do not see any grounds to use the end of hostilities for any programs associated with reconciliation with Tamils because the enemy was not Tamils but the LTTE terrorists. There is no reason to reconcile with Tamils because the Sinhalese have no problems with Tamils, the Sinhalese have problems only with a handful of high caste elite Tamil politicians who are trying to divide all the communities for their own selfish ends. There is no reason to reconcile with LTTE terrorists though programs have been created to rehabilitate them and reintroduce them to society. However, there is no grounds to have any political solution based on demands made by terrorists and those linked to terrorists.

Everyone seems to have got the whole issue muddled and have messed up matters without identifying the root cause of the problem.

No constitutional proposals that are aligned to demands made by LTTE or its political front the TNA should be entertained and a good look at their manifestos will reveal that those proposing changes to the new constitutions are virtually copying the demands made by the TNA in their election manifestos of 2001, 2004, 2010 and 2013 compiled with the Singapore principles to which the present government had secretly agreed upon.

The international community will do grave injustice to the country and its people in peddling the demands of terror groups and those linked to terror groups and should desist from offering any more support.

Shenali D Waduge

§  Reference: http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/shrilanka/database/leaders_assassinated_byLTTE2.htm

§  http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/shrilanka/database/leaders_assassinated_byLTTE.htm

§  http://www.onlanka.com/news/tamil-politicians-priests-public-officials-and-academics-killed-by-the-ltte.html

§  http://www.onlanka.com/news/tamil-civilians-killed-by-ltte.html

§http://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/dbsjeyaraj-column/49301-birth-and-growth-of-nexus-between-the-tna-and-the-ltte.html#sthash.dUBw24J1.dpuf

§  https://tamiltigeractivities.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/the-un-investigative-panel-must-probe-tna-ltte-links/

§  http://www.onlanka.com/news/tamil-national-alliance-ltte-separatist-manifestos-2001-2004-2010-and-now-2013.html

§  http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/39348 Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam spoke of “Tamil Eelam” as a Mono Ethnic Pan Tamil Project in 1922.