https://youtu.be/uPYdZU3vAdY

https://youtu.be/JrP5tAuttIU

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent. Gloucester, Ontario,  Canada

14 June 2016

Hon. Maithripala Siresena
President
Republic of Sri Lanka
Colombo, Sri Lanka

CC;Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka

Dear President Sirisena:

ColomboPage of June 8, 2016 told us that Sri Lanka President vows to eradicate LTTE ideology which is still present locally and globally to ensure long term peace in Sri Lanka.”

It continued, He said, since being elected, he had been able to cultivate friendships with all world leaders.  He would rely on their assistance to achieve reconciliation.”

While you have every right to Dream On”, Mr. President, I would hate to rain on your parade when you come to deal with Canada and its leader.  You obviously didn’t read Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement, Canada’s Prime Minister willing to assist Sri Lanka address serious violations of International law during the war,” and my response to him of May 19, 2016, which could be found, posted in Lankaweb on May 24^th, 2016.

If your research staff hadn’t been diligent to pick them up and place them in your daily Briefing File, then let’s forget that lot.   But, please ask your son or daughter to find them by Googling Lankaweb, read them and brief you.  That certainly will shake you out of your naive Dream On” world.  The chances that the Canadian government will help you to eradicate LTTE ideology in Canada, has a Snow ball chance in Hell.

President Sirisena, here is the rub.  As you are aware, parliamentarians around the world are all cookie-cutter-produced characters who would do any shenanigan, whether legal constitutionally or illegal to sit their butts on a carved wooden bench in their parliament’s chamber.  Sri Lankans have always been good at that, bribing their constituents and promising heaven and earth to seek their votes, or even get the President and the Prime Minister to act as twin Gods to get themselves through the back door of Parliament after having been rejected by the masses by a democratic vote, and still manage to seat themselves in parliament and some even at the Cabinet table.    This incident will go down in history as a classic example of how your Yahapalanaya Good Governance worked.

Not only that Mr. President, the perks that come being a parliamentarian has a handsome monetary value to  give enough reasons to try any shenanigan to become a member of parliament, whether it is in Sri Lanka or Canada.

For example, Mr. President, your Yahapalanaya Good Governance shocked every ordinary citizen, when you let your caucus members milk the country, not withstanding the rural poor wracking their brains how to put cents from their salli-malla together to buy a coconut to cook a decent meal for their family, and your parliamentarians were going after their perks of getting luxury vehicles worth billions of rupees.  This was decadence of the first order, this is sick, Mr. President.  While a 6 and an 8 year old brother and sister in a white shirt and blue shorts and a white dress with school ties, started to walk to school and 6 in the morning to get to school by 7:30 in the morning down Kandalama way, and your parliamentarians are after luxury cars to travel in.    These two kids needed bicycles and no luxury car riding parliamentarian cared. What’s going on, Mr. President?  The airport car driver who drove me home said that he was still missing a couple of thousand rupees to buy his young son the top sprinter at school, a pair of good sprinter’s track shoes which he had promised that he would buy him,  and we have parliamentarians  grovelling for their luxury cars costing the tax payer billions of rupees.  This is the airport car driver working on commissions. That is his Karma and the luck of the draw.

Little wonder why when I asked 23 rural folk across Sri Lanka in February, Kohomada may aluth arnduwa?”   Everyone snickered and told, almost in pirith-unison, Oya okkoma hora yakku, Mahaththaya.”  That is the pulse of your rural folk, Mr. President in Kosgoda, Galle, Nuwara Eliya, Rattota, Gatambe, Ibbagamuwa, Galewella, Melsiripura Hakgala, Dambulla, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Colombo’s Kanatta grave diggers. And this is the holy truth, and nothing but the truth.

But here’s what was extraordinary about these 23 rural persons.  I am not kidding, everyone placed their palms together, stretched their arms to the sky looked up and blessed Ranasinghe Premadasa Mathithuma.  Not Mahinda Rajapaksa nor Maithripala Sirisena or Ranil Wickremasinghe.   Are you out of touch with these rural people, Mr. President?  Go figure that one out!

Mr. President, coming back to your wanting to eradicate LTTE ideology,  of wanting their mythical mono-ethnic, racist, Tamil state Eelam, which is still present locally and globally to ensure long term peace, I wonder from where on earth did you get the idea that you can achieve that among the separatist Tamil-Canadians?  I told you earlier, Dream On”, Mr. President.  Who said they wanted reconciliation sans an Eelam?

Do you honestly believe that your new found friendship with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will help you along for you to achieve your Dream”?

What nonsense!  These Canadian political parties, Liberal, Conservative and NDP are as hungry as the My3-Ranil Combo who wanted power, and wanted to get elected by hook or by crook as you lot did.

Are you aware that nine ridings in the Greater Toronto Area depend on the Bloc-Tamil-Canadian votes?  I doubt the Canadian politicians have rocks in their heads wanting to let go of these Tamil votes and lose power to govern the country so that you could achieve your dream’.  That is not going to happen.   But, what might very likely happen is that Canada’s political leaders might tell you:

President Sirisena, why don’t you have a good shot of Mendis Special  and a healthy plate of rice with kukul muss curry for lunch, and fly a kite at Galle Face Green, as we are not going to antagonize the Tamil community as they want nothing but their piece of real estate up North and East  of your island for their Eelam and we are leaning towards supporting them.”

Mr. President, but here are some brain-teasers for you to give some thought.

1. Do you know why the Liberal parliamentarians, Jim Karygiannis, Roy Cullen, Tony Ianno, John McKay Tom Wappel, Byron Wilfert and Joe Volpe followed their two senior Cabinet Ministers Paul Martin (Finance) and Maria Minna (CIDA) to patronize a $60-a-plate fund raising dinner organized by FACT in Toronto on 6 May 2000 for the Tamil Tigers?  They were grovelling for the Tamil votes in the Greater Toronto Area.  Do you honestly feel that they would give up their political power, lucrative perks and building up their pensions to accommodate your Dream.  The chances are zilch!

2. Do you know why the Liberal parliamentarian Derek Lee (retired from politics) from the Greater Toronto Area eulogized the Tamil Tiger Anton Balasingham at his funeral service in Toronto? He was grovelling for the Tamil votes for him and his colleagues in the Greater Toronto Area.  Do you honestly feel that they would give up their political power, lucrative perks and build up on their pensions, to accommodate your Dream”.  The chances are Zip!

3. Do you know why Liberal parliamentarians Jim Karygiannis, Maria Minna, Derek Lee, Borys Wrzesnewsky, John Cannis. John McKay, Mark Holland, Yasmin Ratansi and Lui Tenmelkovaski stood outdoors in vigil with 10,000 of their Tamil constituents at the Markham Recreation Ground in Ontario, on that rain-spitting cold shivering day on  6th November 2007,   for S.P. Thamil Chelvam who was killed by a bomb dropped by the Air Force on a Killinochchi building where  Tamil Chelvam was attending a palaver?   And why the Tamil Tiger terrorists, the most ruthless in the world, were christened in public that evening by these Liberal parliamentarians as Doves of Peace”?  The Liberals were grovelling for the Tamil votes.  Do you honestly feel that they would give up their political power, lucrative perks and building up their pensions being MPs to accommodate your Dream”?  The chances are Zero?

4. Do you know why the Conservative Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon put out a pathetic Press Release with no congratulatory pat on Sri Lanka’s back when Sri Lanka’s armed forces wiped out the Tamil Tigers, the most ruthless terrorist group in the world, on 18 May 2009, the last one dying on the sandy banks of the Nandikadal lagoon, while all other western countries said Good for you Sri Lanka!” and patted Sri Lanka’s back. The Conservatives knew that they couldn’t handle 20,000 Tamils, men, women and children and their grandparents storming Sussex Drive in protest the following morning under a sky of 20,000 red Tamil Tiger terrorist flags.  And along the way lose every single Tamil vote and lose nine ridings in the Greater Toronto Area at the next Federal election.  So honestly do you feel that they will give up their Tamil votes, their bread and butter, and their monthly handsome pension cheque to accommodate your Dream”?  I say Diddly-squat!

5. Do you know why Jack Layton, the NDP leader compared Velupillai Prabakaran to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela in front of 10,000 Tamils celebrating Pongu Thamil at Queen’s Park in Toronto? It was because he wanted to garner every one of the 10,000 separatist Tamil votes in that crowd for the NDP.  Surely, Mr. President,  you are not that naive  are you to believe that the NDP will support your ‘Dream’ of eradicating the LTTE ideology  among the separatist Tamil-Canadians do you?   The chances are pretty slim, and you are skating on thin ice on that one.

6. Do you know why Deepak Obhrai, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs who represented Canada at the Commonwealth Summit Meeting in Colombo took off  to the North with a photographer in tow,  to record his laying a wreath at Elephant Pass for the Tamil soldiers who died at war                                                                                                      and not the Sinhalese soldiers who got killed and when asked not to do it by a Sri Lankan official?  (read Deepak Obhrai: His defence in laying a wreath at Elephant Pass by Asoka Weerasinghe posted in Lankaweb, December 7, 2013)  Obhrai was brave and acted like a thug.  He was the hit man for the Tamil Diaspora doing this thuggish act.  When this cunning, disingenuous politician was challenged he said that Elephant Pass was a neutral location to lay the wreath.  I had to educate this fool in a letter on December 6, 2013, that there was nothing neutral about Elephant Pass where three historical battles were fought by Tamil Tigers killing hundreds of Sri Lankan, mainly Sinhalese soldiers.

This thuggish act was exposed as a deliberate Tamil vote begging act.  He returned to Canada and immediately goes to Toronto to proudly tell the Tamil community what he had done for them to promote their racist separatist cause.  So you see Mr. President, you will be treading on some difficult slippery rocky terrain if you think that you can convince Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to help you eradicate  the LTTE ideology among the Tamil Diaspora in Canada.  And I could  go on with many more examples to reason out that your wish  is just a ‘Dream’ and will not happen.  Prove me wrong, Mr. President, and may be I will start to believe in your Yahapalanaya Good Governance which has eluded me pretty badly.

However, I hope you will read this letter in the spirit of being cautioned by a Sinhalese-Canadian not to get embarrassed personally with your venture in Canada and embarrass your country you represent.  You no doubt, are being honest with what you want to achieve, but also being naive at the same time.

This information for my reasoning you will not get from the Canada desk at the Foreign Ministry in Colombo nor will you from the Sri Lanka Mission in Ottawa.  That is a realty check for you, Mr. President.

All what I can say to you Mr. President is, I wish you Good Luck in all my heart!”

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)
(formerly from Colombo 9 and
an old boy of Nalanda College)

Dr Sudath Gunasekara (SLAS) 12.6.2016

I am addressing this note to you as a concerned citizen of this country as I have a birth right to bring these serious matters concerning the State to the Head of the State who is responsible for the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of this country and the wellbeing of its subjects.

I am also sending this to media as your office want even acknowledge letters sent by people like us on extremely important national issues that delve with Sinhala Buddhists

I request you to read the following address made by ‘your leader of the Opposition’ first.

Tamils have right to self-determination – Sampanthan

👤  1280 readers have read this article !

Published by : CT Web2016-06-08 15:20:22

Opposition and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Leader Rajavarothayam Sampanthan recently said, the Tamils were a unique race and had historically been living in the country’s North and East.

Sampanthan was speaking at the ITAK office premises, in front of the Athiyadi Pillaiyar Temple, in Vaddukottai, at a meeting organized by TNA parliamentarian E. Saravanabhavan.

He said, We (Tamils) are a unique race. We have been living in this country, historically, in the North- East and have the right to self-determination. Those need to be recognized.”

He added that it has been the policy of S.J.V. Chelvanayagam, of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), to have a reasonable political solution with the drafting of a Constitution. It is well-known and based on this the people voted for the TNA.”

Currently, there are 18 Tamil representatives, from the North and East, in the Parliament. Of them, 16 belong to the TNA, which is an alliance of four major parties, including the ITAK (also called the Federal Party). Most of these MPs, belong to ITAK,” he said.

We are currently demanding a political solution, which includes, shared sovereignty with assured security for our people, lands and arrangements to fulfil the reasonable aspirations of our people, in the areas such as Economy, Education, Culture and Politics, with the required authority to use our power,” he said.

Sampanthan added, There should be a reasonable and permanent political solution for the problems and protests of people. Otherwise it cannot be an appropriate solution. Today there is a change in the government. This has happened in this country without any major revolution, but peacefully and in a democratic way. We are satisfied with it. But, there are so many problems that existed during previous governments and they continue now.”

I deem his outburst is a blatant and extremely serious violation of the 6^th Amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of Sri Lanka which reads as follows?  If this is not high treason I do not know by what name you should call it?

1 No person shall, directly or indirectly, in or outside Sri Lanka, support, promote,  espouse, finance, encourage or advocate the establishment of a separate State within the territory of Sri Lanka

2 No political part or other association shall have as one of its aims or objects the establishment of a separate State within the territory of Sri Lanka

Any person who acts in contravention of this shall

1. Be subject to civic disability
2. forfeit his movable and immovable property
3. not be entitled to civic rights and
4. if he is a member of Parliament cease to be such member or a person holding such office referred to in Article 165 cease to be such member or to be in such service or to hold such office

Mr President this attitude of not only Sambandan but also of all other minority Communal elements has to be arrested and curbed immediately before it goes completely out of control like that of the LTTE, lest Sambandan and his team and even the Eastern Provincial Chief Minister will try to enter the next Army camp in the North or East demanding their removal from the so-called traditional Tamil and Muslim Home lands” demeaning and humiliating your authority as the Head of State in this country.

Therefore I request you to take immediate action on these matters as the guardian of the Constitution of the Republic and its people. As the olden dictum goes ‘prevention is     better than cure”.  If you fail to act now what happened to the tiger in the proverbial story of the ‘Kankota gona and the tiger’ will happen not only to you but to the whole nation. By the time you realize your folly the match will be over.

First, I urge you to remove Sambandan immediately from the post of the leader of Opposition for violating the 6^th Amendment because you are the one who unduly and illegally appointed him to this post and gave him horns completely forgetting the lessons learnt by appointing Appapille Amirthalingam some time back by a previous Government. Then appoint someone who really commands the majority in the opposition in Parliament as it is the correct and constitutional procedure all sane people have to follow. Then he will acts and behave as the leader of opposition and not as a leader of one community (Tamils).  Thereafter you may take other appropriate action you deem fit against him.  As we ordinary people understand it you have no option in that matter other than giving it to a leader of the Joint Opposition who still have 52 MPP in spite of your unconstitutional manipulations and drawing a large number from it by offering them political bribes and appointing even defeated candidates to the Cabinet from the back door little realizing that one day when you are not in power you will also have to pay back it with compound interest the same way as your friend MR is doing now. It is your prerogative as the President that is, mandatory and sacrosanct and your unassailable duty by the people of this country as the Head of the State. If you know the penalty per day for sitting and voting  in Parliament under the Soulbury Constitution for people who are disqualified to sit there, let them remember that one day either they have to sell all what they have earned in life time or be in jail for life at least. Definitely whoever comes to power the next Government will enact laws to trap these culprits.

Secondly

I would like to draw your immediate attention to the following cunning and communal strategy of Vignesvaran and his other recent actions and behavior like the call for removing all army camps from the north as if the Northern Province is already EELAM and take action against him as well before things get too late, First, by removing him from Office as Chief Minister and thereafter  immediately abolishing the Provincial Councils before the whole country is divided and destroyed beyond recognition

I hated ‘Sinhala Only Act’: CV

2016-06-09 09:44:390209

I boycotted Sinhala language as I hated the Sinhala Only Act, NPC Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran said.

“I stopped learning Sinhala as I disliked the implementation of the Sinhala Only Act. Hence, I explain our political shortcoming to the Sinhala media in my own broken Sinhala. If I had learnt Sinhala language properly, I could have responded to any politician in fluent Sinhala,” he said after declaring open the Kalaimagal statue in Kokkuvil Hindu Primary School in Jaffna yesterday morning built at a cost of Rs.700,000.

He said if meaningful reconciliation was to take place one had to learn the other’s language.

“Our people who go to Norway learn their language. Similarly, those who go to France learn French butsadly we ignore the Sinhala language. I started to learn Sinhala in 1955 and stopped learning when the Sinhala Only Act was implemented in 1956. Now I am talking to the Sinhala media about our shortcoming in broken Sinhala,” he said.

“Our Sinhala brethren have started to learn Tamil as a compulsory language. Sinhala officers fluent in Tamil will be sent to the North and East very soon. Hence, we have to be cautious. Those who are not fluent in Sinhala language will be sidelined. Therefore forget politics and nurture your knowledge in Sinhala, NPC Chief Minister C.V Wigneswaran said.

If you continue to remain deaf, blind and dumb to this most dangerous situation emerging, as you have aptly demonstrated right through your tenure as President, on the top of other blunders like,

1. encroachment by Ricshard Badurdeen in Wilpattuwa and Bogahaweva and trying to create new Muslim settlements in this land of the Sinhalese
2. Stupid behavior of the Chief Minister of the eastern Province against a naval officer who comes directly under you
3. Interference by India and other western countries and their Diplomats, in the country’s internal matters’ illegally and arrogantly as if we are their vassals and underdogs.

Now look at the latest provocative and uncalled for action by the British High Commissioner

June 14 (FT) British High Commissioner to SL James Dauris visited the north and east last week. He heard about progress and challenges facing communities in these areas. He met a range of politicians, Government officials, religious leaders, civil society organisations, business leaders, resettled communities and journalists. During his visit to the east he met with Governor of the Eastern Province Austin Fernando and discussed challenges in the area and the way forward for more.”.

My question is what business this man has to dabble with our internal matters that lie entirely within the purview of the Sri Lankan Government. This is not the job of an Ambassador. He is collecting Tamil votes in UK for his Government and here in Sri Lanka continuing the usual divide and rule policy of the British Imperialist to destabilize governance in this country. Why the hell the government allows this type of dirty conspiracies to continue. If the Government cannot put an end to this nonsense it must also resign and go home. Either these diplomats should be told what they are expected to do within their credentials and what they should not. If they don’t comply then they must be packed up and the offices closed.  But this weak and stupid  government which is deadly scared of the West and India does not take any action and keep deaf, dumb and blind. This is why most people in this country ask the question

Is there a Government at all in this country since Jan 8^th 2015”?

1. Continuation of the Ministry of Upcountry New Tamil Villages Development leading to Tamilization of the Central Hill country, despite strong protest by the Kandyan people
2. Failure to take any tangible and meaningful steps to rehabilitate the Kandyan areas envisaged in the Kandyan Peasantry Commission

(In respect of both d and e above I am thoroughly disgusted and concerned to mention here that you have not even acknowledged my letters and e-mail I have been sending to you starting from 20^th Dec 2015

1. Allowing Tamil (like Vigneswaran and Sambandan) and Muslim( like Hakeem) politicians to clamour for the removal of the Army camps in the North and East as if EELAM has already been established there and the Authority of the Sri Lanka government has already ceased in that part of the country,

Your failure to take action on these matters will definitely tantamount to your violating the sacrosanct duty vested on you by the Constitution and the blame of the nation will fall upon your crest.

Meanwhile I also see a lot of underground work done by the UNP to make you unpopular as the President so that you will not get a majority sufficient to form a SLFP government in 2020 as you and your supporters have declared. The UNP is trying to kill two birds with one stone, that is you as well as the SLFP. I THINK THEY HAVE ALREADY DONE IT.

For instance take one glaring example, the case of Luxury vehicles for 30 Ministers costing some billion rupees. The amount, timing and the rejection by three prominent potential young future leaders of the UNP close to Ranil, the open statement by UNP members that they will not ask for new luxury vehicles till the end of the year  and the final decision made by Ranil to withdraw it pretending to be a hero before the people. All these things hang together and I see it as a master coup well calculated, well crafted and planned to discredit your image in the country and that of the SLFP as its mandatory leader. At the same time I have noted that the entire government media machinery has kept you in a dark room with regard to the Aranayaka Nathakanda disaster and more particularly to the Salava catastrophe as the Minister in charge of Security and Environment

If I were the President under these circumstances I would have been the first man to cry foul, the moment they talk about this notorious and ridiculous supplementary estimate to purchase luxury vehicles for your Ministers was mooted. That would have exonerated you of most of the blunders made since Jan 8^th and certainly would have made a mark as a people’s man. You may not like this statement of mine. But this is the stark truth, you believe me. I am fully convinced they have converted you completely to the role of the King with New Clothes. So in that backdrop I am only playing the role of the tiny tot by the way side who cried Look Amma Oh the King is naked” when all purohitas and even the King’s Prime Minister did not see the Kings nakedness who was made to believe that he was wearing the Setambara Patasaluwa” the most expensive and beautiful clothe in the world.

It is a pity that neither you nor the SLFP MPP who have betrayed the voters for sweeter grapes” and defected from the UPA and joined you will realize this folly until you are out of power. You mark my word you will realize this only in 2020 elections when the UNP will again lead the elections results as a party with the support of Tamils and Muslims, The SLFP electorate will get split in to two with Mahinda Rajapaksa Camp coming close second and your so-called SLFP will end up as a useless third or even fourth faction, left with the only option of just supplying props again for a UNP government dominated and commanded by the minorities. The UNP will again form an Achcharu government unless Mahinda or some new leader forms a new party with the support of Buddhist monks and patriotic Sinhala Buddhists and gets the support of radical anti communal minority sections,. You and you alone will have to take the responsibility for that sin and tragedy in 2020. Please remember none of you present day friends including the cunning Tamils, Muslims, the Indians and the entire white world lead by Queen the Elizabeth and Obama want be there then, to rescue you  from the abyss in to which you have fallen

Your forming a SLFP government in 2020 is only a day dream. Because, firstly, there want be any SLFP the way you are handling it now. Secondly no UNP man will vote for your candidates. Thirdly you will also not get a single Tamil or Muslim vote as your political validity date for them will be fully expired by that time. Fourthly almost all SLFP defectors will lose their seats as they will not get the Sinhala Buddhist votes. Thereafter you will be deserted and rejected not only by the UNP, Tamils and Muslims but also by all those mango friends hanging around you today to pick up few crumbs falling from your Presidential table. Finally you yourself want be able to bring in defeated candidates to Parliament to maintain the majority in this Monkey Cage” like what you do today (rather disgracefully) as you will be out of power by that time. Mr President nothing is permanent as Buddha had said it 25oo years ago. What Mervin, Kolannawa Duminda, Sarana Gunawardhana Mutuhettigama and  Sajin Vass did to MR will be done by men like Rajita, Anuradhapura Duminda Vijitamuni and the like to you as well, may be in a better way and in double quick time. So at least now think wisely on that.

If you fail to take immediate action against these two extremists groups and the issues I have outlined you will be miserably failing in your duty as the President of this country.

The whole country knows that you have to be grateful for Tamils and Muslims more than the UNP for bringing you to power as UNP votes alone would never have made you the President of this country. That was only a part of their diabolical strategy and conspiracy to defeat the Sinhala people and get their own aspirations fulfilled. They voted you not because they like you but they knew it very well that if you become the President Ranil will do the rest. Because, as past experience has proved us time and again all UNP leaders other than DS and Sir John have given in to Tamils and Muslims and betrayed the Sinhala Buddhists. That is part of history no one can refute. Among them Ranil will be even worse than JR. Definitely he will end up a Don Juwan Dharmapala given that he remains in power for another six months.

Also I would like to advise you to free yourself from the vicious and cunning influence of Chandrika, Ranil, Rajita and people like Duminda, who have personal grudges and axes to grind with Mahinda as much as you yourself have against him and sycophants like SB and Wijitamunni Zoza and act as an exemplary Statesman, lest you get the whole blame for destroying the SLFP and ruining the country by acting on the advice of political rejects and outcasts. I also think it is high time that you stop casting aspersions against Rajapaksa, which you have been doing ever since Jan 8 at least now. Your latest attack on MR I read in today’s Maubima where you have said ”Man me  anduwe innaturu sammajjatika Rajapaksa waru anduwata wedda ganne ne” This type of public aspersions on anybody, especially on an ex Head of State who had liberated the country from a 30 year deadly war by a President of a country, I don’t think will be appreciated by any other than those who take cover under your umbrella. I must also say very clearly that this type of statements do not befit a person holding the highest position in the country and moreover whose name start with Maitreepala” ( protector of loving kindness)

Future author of Mahavamsa will have nothing else to write about you other than saying that poor Sirisena the President (Jan 2016-?) was only a feeble cat’s-paw in the hands of Chandrika the vicious and Ranil the cunning who conspired and intrigued against Mahinda Rajapaksa, (the man who defeated the most dangerous terrorist outfit in the world called LTTE, in four years), and more specifically the Sinhala Buddhists in this country and betrayed the Sinhala Buddhists of Sri Lanka after Don Juan Dharmapala of Kotte.

Here ends the…… chapter called Account of the Greatest betrayal of the Sinhala nation and the Buddha Sasana  in its entire history by a Troika called Chandrika-Ranil-Sirisena, in the Mahawamsa, compiled for the deep sorrow and emotion of the bereaved.

I wish you get freed from this trap and take immediate action against these enemies of the nation and thereafter rescind the Rajeev–JR Pact, abolish the cancerous Provincial Councils and re-establish the Tunhele of the Past and put an end to the present deceptive, repressive, exploitive and corrupt political system so that the author of Mahavamsa  will write something like this.

Here ends the….Chapter called Sirisena the liberator, having realized the Augean mess he has been put to by wolves in sheep cloths in the political cesspit in Sri Lanka, got freed from the vicious  trap he was caught in with the help of worthy counseling from the Mahasangha and erudite purohitas, where President Sirisena from Pulatisipura, the land of Parakramabahu the Great, dismantled the Indian trap of Provincial Councils and the JR-Rajeeve Pact, liberated the country from neo-anti-Sinhala and anti-Buddhist colonial Western enemies and Indian expansionists and restored the ancient Tunhele and ushered in a New era of law and order, excellent Governance, peace and prosperity for all people of Sri Lanka that will last until the Sun and the Moon shall last, and liberated the Sinhaladveepa from centuries of uncertainty, confusion and rudderless state craft” in the Mahawamsa, compiled for the serene joy and emotion of the pious.

H. L. D. Mahindapala

One of the main obstacles standing in the way reconciliation, based on a reasonable and lasting solution, is the refusal of the Jaffna Tamils to face the realities of their history. By and large, the average Tamil knows  only two kinds of history : 1. a distorted view of the Mahavamsa – the main target of the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist propaganda campaign launched by G. G. Ponnambalam in the thirties and 2. glorified tales of a Tamil kingdom and Tamil culture, which they claim preceded that of  the Sinhala-Buddhists, and, therefore, entitled to a homeland consisting of the  north and  the east. Tamils know more about  the demonised Mahavamsa than their own  history. Hardly any of  them had even  heard of Yalapana Vaipava Malai, written  by poet Mylvaganam. They are also surprised that there was a Vellahla betel seller called Moddeley Tambi, the Father of Vellahlas, who led a revolt against the Dutch.  They believe in the Tesawalamai only because it is the Jaffna-centric Bible that protects the casteist rights  of  the Vellahlas.

They are also very sensitive about their history. It  is partly because they don’t have a respectable history which can bring glory to them, despite their claim to antiquity. When  the Jaffna Tamils boast of the Tamil culture they don’t mean a home-grown  culture produced creatively by the migrant settlers who came from S. India in and around the 13th century. No. They mean the rich culture of S. India – the only historical homeland of the Tamils.  Culturally, Jaffna is as dry as its land. Nor did they create a humane political culture. From Sankilli who killed 600 innocent Catholics in 1544 to Velupillai Prabhakaran their historical icons have been the worst killers and oppressors  of Tamils. They hate to be  reminded of their history that denied the basic human rights to their fellow-Tamils. After all, at the end of their so-called great Tamil history they are left with only one great hero : Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tamil Pol Pot who killed more Tamils than all the others put  together. He inherited and  executed with ruthless commitment  the  fascist culture  of Vellahlas, his political  fathers, who never hesitated to kill their disobedient slaves. His DNA runs way back into the blood stream  of Sankilli, the first mass killer of dissident Tamils. Hopefully, he will be the last Tamil to kill Tamils on a mass scale.

They are also sensitive about their history because they have mounted their claim for a separate state based on a fictitious geography and concocted history. They detest any counter-narratives as they tend to tear apart  their political claims for a separate state. For instance, during the 33 years of the Vadukoddai War they put the lid on the war crimes and crimes against the Tamils by the Tamils claiming that it would undermine the war effort. They would kill (Mrs. Ragini Thiranagama) or beat within an  inch of the last breath (D.B.S. Jeyaraj) anyone who dared to challenge their version of events. Now they rush to censor counter-narratives saying that it would hinder the current political process in which they are hoping to go beyond of 13A to a federal state, or  to the nearest point  of a separate state. However, in the  post-Prabhakaran period new winds are blowing, opening up vistas for counter-narratives challenging the conventional and populist version of blaming the Sinhala-Buddhists.

If the current political process of  the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government  is to go anywhere near peace then it has to go beyond the history manufactured by G. G. Ponnambalam and S. J. V. Chelvanayakam in the latter’s Vadukoddai Resolution. The hidden history of  Jaffna must be revealed to the Tamils, warts and all. So far the Tamils have been taught a Talibanised history, sanitised to glorify its fascist past and demonise the Sinhala-Buddhists. That is a recipe for hate, not reconciliation. The latest chapter was written by Chief Minister, C. V. Wigneswaran who condemned all the Sinhala leaders, from the day of Independence, as genocidal killers of Tamils. When such hysteria is spewed out by a former Supreme Court judge it is difficult to understand how he managed to the balance the evidence before him and delivered an objective  judgement. This is  hate politics designed to take the Tamils down the road  to Nandikadal.

This reflects the thinking of the Tamils at the apex. It is also aimed at bringing out of the poisonous venom that warps the narrow minds of bigoted Tamils. How has  Wigneswaran’s distortion helped  the understanding history? How has it helped  reconciliation and peace? Wigneswaran is  carrying  on the hate politics promoted by Ponnambalams and Chelvanayakams.It is this pattern of distorting history for immediate political gain that contributed significantly to exacerbate the North – of South relations. Future reconciliation depends on revisiting the Tamil past and evaluating the pros and cons more  rationally, objectively, based on historical evidence rather than mono-ethnic extremism that can  lead to another bloody crawl to Nandikadal. .

They live in perpetual fear of their known/mythical universe crumbling under the scrutiny of testable evidence. Knowing the fallacies on which their politics is based, they give as much gas as they could to convince the world that they have been the victims  of Sinhala-Buddhist majority. Simultaneously, they use every far-fetched strand of history to push their mono-ethnic political agenda. As stated by the brothers, Ratnajeevan and Rajan Hoole, the Vellahla intellectuals who dominate the Tamil ideology would not open up space for a counter-narrative. It is quite  plain now that they would  go to extreme lengths to cover-up their past like the way the cats claw the ground to cover-up their smelly stuff. They would come charging in, baring their claws, if anyone  dared to put out a counter-narrative to the conventional one which blames only the Sinhala-Buddhists. They would exert maximum pressure to silence those presenting a counter-narrative.

Right now their political mythology is  facing  a  challenge from the narrative  of Mrs. Subramanium Sivagami, alias ‘Colonel’ Thamilini’s. Her book Oru Koorvaalin Nizhalil  is exposing the lies propagated by the Prabhakaranists. Ben Bavinck’s diaries too are a severe blow to the sanitised account  of the Tamil Pol Potist  history. The pioneers in this field like the Hoole brothers, Rajan and Ratnajeevan,  had to pay a heavy price for their beliefs. Others like Prof. K. Indrapala, who began his career in historiography by presenting the known facts, recanted under intense pressure, and went back to rewrite his own history to suit the Vadukoddai political agenda. So did Prof. A. J. Wilson, the son-in-law of the father of Tamil separatism. His first explanation for the success of democracy in Sri Lanka, despite all its infirmities, was the impact of Buddhism. Later, as he drew closer to his father-in-law’s separatist  ideology, he veered to the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist ideology. Politicising history and sociology to serve the Tamil separatist agenda has been one  of the primary causes that worsened the inter-ethnic relations.

Whenever these re-writers  of  history reach a point beyond which they can’t go to cook the books, they withdraw into a conspiracy of  silence, particularly when it comes to hiding the seamy side of their  past. However, a new trend is emerging to expose this cover-up. A more convincing counter-narrative is gaining momentum questioning the mono-causal theory of blaming the Sinhala-Buddhist. Bit by  bit the one-sided Ponnambalam-Chelvanayakam  narrative  is coming apart at the seams. The political advantages they gained by maintaining  a silence about  their  crimes against their  own people are being  demolished under the weight of the new evidence. Having washed their hands off any guilt by passing the buck to the Sinhala-Buddhists, the Tamil elite was sitting pretty as if they had noting to do with the events that dragged  their people  all the way to Nandikadal. But those who took refuge behind  their calculated silence, knowing what happened in history, can no  longer wash their  hands off their guilt. There is no piety in silence any more. Their role  is no longer  tenable. Foreign-funded research centres which never dared to peep over  the cadjan curtain into the dark recesses of Jaffna  society will have to invest more  money to dig  up new excuses to cover-up the  brutal crimes of the  Tamil leadership and their political failures. Blaming  the Sinhala south for  the historical failures of the Tamil leadership has run out of steam. No one is buying Wigneswaran’s resolution passed  in the Northern Provincial Council like the way they bought the Vadukoddai Resolution.

International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) and Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) headed by Tamil political activists will have to revisit the  past and revise the distortions of  history they deliberately manufactured to promote the Tamil political agenda as defined in the Vadukoddai Resolution. Though they claimed to be human rights activists they did not actively pursue programmes to combat the fascist tyranny of the one-man regime run by Tamil Pol Pot. Their agenda was aimed at appeasing mono-ethnic Tamil extremism  disguised as minority rights. They manufactured a political vocabulary, ideology and a doxology to praise and justify the evil Genie that came out of the Vadukoddai bottle. A remarkable coincidence is that the political agendas of ICES, CPA, National Peace Council etc., each scratching each other’s back except when  they were fighting for the donor’s foreign funds, did not deviate one millimetre from the prescribed agenda in the Vadukoddai Resolution. On the contrary, they engaged in research to rewrite history in accordance with the claims of  the Vadukoddai Resolution.

For instance, pundits like Pakia” Saravanamuttu (PS) who boasts of running a leading research center for good governance has never dared to look at the evil staring in his face. His labours have been to demonise the elected governments of the south ( a variation of the theme of Wigneswaran blaming all Sinhala leaders) and not the fascist regime / culture of the north.. He is the one-eyed jack who  claims to hold a Ph.D from a Western university. He seems to be acting on the assumption that he is a latter day Moses who has gone up the mountain in the American embassy and brought down the commandments dictated to him by his Yankee Yahweh for the good of the natives. Besides, licking Western boots has made him act like the proverbial monkeys who never see any evil, hear no evil, or speak no evil about the thing  happening  on the other side of the cadjan curtain. After such knowledge, what forgiveness”? Turning a blind eye to the side he favours politically and focusing  sharply on the side he demonises  is not  the best  route to find the truth. His partisan politics is demonstrated amply and shamefully in legal suits. He  has repeatedly sued the Government of Sri Lanka and boasts of his successes. (Good on him!). But he never took Prabhakaran to court, not even to the kangaroo courts in the Vanni. Why?

Taking on the elected government is another way of accusing them publicly in the eyes of the international court of public opinion. But Prabhakaran was allowed to go scot  free. Why? Was it because he considered Prabhakaran to be a  milk-white baby that had to be protected from public scrutiny? Or was it because it was politically disadvantageous to expose the crimes of the Tamil Pol Pot in the Vannni? Of course, he could not plead ignorance of what was happening behind the cadjan curtain because the intrepid University Teachers for  Human Rights (Jaffna) was in the forefront exposing the grim realities on the ground. So what excuse was there for PS and his  hired gangs to be silent? Their vociferous anger was directed only at the elected state and not at the unelected fascist regime of the Tamil Tigers. The total effect of their silence was to be the unacknowledged partners of Prabhakaran’s one-man  regime pursuing inhuman rights. Their sham courage was in challenging the democratic state. But where was their courage in challenging Prabhakaran, committing war  crimes  and crimes  against  humanity?

Tamils massacring Tamils in the name of Tamils is the equivalent of Hitlerism, Stalinism and Pol Potism rolled into one. PS and  his gang maintained a grim silence. They did not  shed even crocodile  tears for the victims  of  the Tamil tyranny. According  to Shamindra Ferdinando, Deputy Editor of The Island. the Pakias” in NGOs had collected 28 million  dollars over the years. They were paid by their foreign masters to be the watchdogs of political morality. With $28 million all the Pakias” could  have monitored  even the quality of the water in Velupillai’s swimming pool in the Vanni? They had the resources, they had the right, they had the ability. But they did nothing. Are they not guilt of Goebbelsian crimes when they  fabricated excuses /  arguments which amounted to justifying the violence of the Tamil Pol Pot? What was their morality worth if  it could  not identify the evil that was destroying  the Tamils?

The hired human  rights activists, serving the interests of the American Embassy more  than the victims of the Tamil tyranny, knew the agony and the misery of the Tamils under the Tamil Pol Pot. The following snippet from Bavinck’s diary recorded on December 12, 1990 reveals the plight of the Tamils under Tamil fascism: ”In a long conversation with my friend Daya (Somasunderam), he remarked that there was increasing thought control by the Tigers. All news, which the people hear or read, is totally biased: for example, that it was the government which started the fighting in June, or that the attack on the mosque in Kattankudi was carried out by the army…..

On October 5, 1990, Bavinck wrote : The attitude of the Tigers to people with different points of view is implacable. The whole of society is being watched by a network, composed of confidential committees in the villages, called sittooravai. These committees report on anyone who expresses himself carelessly or acts suspiciously. Complete families have been arrested. The Tigers’ torture practice, reportedly, is terrible. Many detainees have been killed. I heard a story where a Tiger cadre read out a list of 200 victims, after which, he himself burst into tears.”

The depressing picture drawn by Bavinck reveals that the chances of peace were remote because the necessary conditions for peace were not pursued by the Pol Potist state. The NGOs were holding seminars in the  south to change the  opinion of the Sinhala-Buddhist. But what programmes were they running to inform the Tamil electorate to change their mono-ethnic extremism? Blaming the Sinhala government” or the Sinhala-Buddhist culture was the standard excuse of intellectual humbugs from H. L. Seneviratne in USA or Paki” Saravanumuttus in Sri Lanka and it is their clapping with one hand that helped Prabhakaran  to shoot his way through with both hands.

What shines through Bavinck’s account is his moral clarity, his ability to cut out the theoretical cant and assess events as objectively as possible to  reflect the grim realities faced by the Tamil people caught  in the cross-fire. It  is the Tamils of Jaffna who had to face the brunt of the exploding violence. On top of the violence the people of Jaffna also had live under the most trying conditions imposed b by the one-man regime of Prabhakaran. They even  siphoned off the food  and  medicine sent by the Sri Lankan government – the only government that supplied  essentials to a rebel-held territory, according  to David Feng of UN – to the Tamil civilians. Their lack of honesty and integrity make them the intellectual scums bags thriving on the misery of the Tamil people.  Bavinck, on the contrary, displays consistently a genuine concern for the victims of a needless war. He  doesn’t hide behind hypocritical morality of saving peace by saving Prabhakaran. That was totally unrealistic.

Peace was unattainable as long as Prabhakaran was allowed to hold the kalashnikov in one hand and a hand grenade in the other.  Prabhakaran was committed to fight until death to achieve his Eelam. He has told his lieutenants to kill him if he settles for anything less. So how was PS going to establish peace with a megalomaniac like Prabhakaran who  was using violence as a bargaining chip at the negotiating table? PS knew that the final outcome of stopping the war would result only in saving Prabhakaran to fight another day. Besides, Prabhakaran had killed all the peace-makers – Rajiv Gandhi, President Ranasinghe Premadasa, Neelan Tiruchelvam, and nearly got Chandrika Kumaratunga. He had also shot to pieces all peace formulas, from Indo-Lanka Agreement, Norway brokered international agreement  signed  in 2002, the subsequent P-TOMS, etc.

As stated by Bavinck,  Prabhakaran  had missed all the opportunities that came his way. So how was  PS going to  get a solution that would usher in lasting peace through talks? For all practical purpose,  there was only one morality available for peace-lovers : get rid of Prabhakaran. It was immoral to stop the war in the last stage when Prabhakaran was on his last legs. Would the Allies have stopped the World War II when they were at the gates of Berlin? Where is the morality in that? It was when the Vadukoddai War had reached the last stage that PS staged a comic  drama of trying  to stop the war. He was jumping from one Western capital to another hoping  to stop the war. What was PS hoping to save by stopping the war? It couldn’t have been peace because Prabhakaran had killed all the peace-makers. PS’s argument of saving lives by stopping the war was a figment of  his sick imagination. He knew that Prabhakaran used all ceasefire deals to recoup, recruit, rearm, and renew his fire-power to kill more and more.

Besides, PS never ran around to stop the war and the killing when Prabhakaran was winning in the early stages – a military exercise achieved at the cost of thousands of lives. He discovered the morality of saving  lives by stopping  the war only when Prabhakaran was losing. In any case, common sense would have dictated to him that the  only beneficiary of  the stopping  the war would be Prabhakaran and if PS did not know  that he should not be in the business of peace-making.

Drafted by Lt. Col. (retd) Jayantha de Silva

MAHAJANA VIYAWASTAWA II

(The People’s Constitution)

Preamble

WE, the PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA, convinced that the Constitution of 1978, as amended from time to time, has departed from the high ideals of Nationhood and of TRUE DEMOCRACY, resulting in eroding the people’s aspirations for the country, decree that the Constitution of 1978 (as amended) is hereby REPEALED and have replaced that Constitution and all Acts of Parliament, Bills and Statues thereof, with this Constitution titled the Mahajana Viyawastawa II (the People’s Constitution II), hereinafter to be known as ‘The Constitution’, to be the supreme law of the country, to be followed explicitly and without deviation by those elected by us, the PEOPLE to administer OUR country on OUR behalf, and, having determined by referendum that the vast majority of the people, exercising their free will, have determined to adopt this Constitution as the new Republican Constitution designed by us to achieve the goals of a SECULAR, DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC, while ratifying the immutable republican principles of DEMOCRACY and EQUALITY FOR ALL, and guaranteeing to all peoples FREEDOM, EQUALITY, JUSTICE, FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS and the INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY as a heritage that ensures the dignity and well-being of the present and succeeding generations of the PEOPLE of SRI LANKA and of all the people of the World, who come to share with us and future generations the effort of working for the creation and preservation of a JUST AND FREE SOCIETY, and to this end WE, the PEOPLE, charge our appointed administrators and representatives to work towards the development of the country and its economy; and our elected representatives to vote on legislative matters as WE the PEOPLE require them to vote and not as any political party or other organisation would have them vote, as they represent US the PEOPLE and NOT any political party or other organisation; in order to provide a safe and secure environment to bring up our future generations; to which end they are required to follow the directions in this Constitution without any deviation: and therefore, in pursuance of this wish, we DECLARE that on this day, the …… day of the waxing moon in the month of …………. in the year two thousand five hundred and ……….. of the Buddhist Era (being …………. the ……….. day of the month of ……. in the year two thousand and fifteen): do hereby adopt, enact and promulgate this CONSTITUTION, THE MAHAJANA VIYAWASTAWA II as the SUPREME LAW of the DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA to be effective from this day.

For Full Text follow the link below

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items16/Mahajana%20Viyawastawa%20II.pdf

KAMALIKA PIERIS

The public wanted to know why the government took so long to defeat the LTTE.  Why had they not won the war when the LTTE was much weaker? If the LTTE had been defeated earlier, then many lives could have been saved. The armed forces knew the strategies needed to defeat them. They wanted an eastern strategy. The east was the real centre of Eelam and the war must be fought there, they said. ‘LTTE would have collapsed long ago if the north- eastern waters had been patrolled.’  LTTE ‘successes’ were due to our ‘failures’ and those failures were due to government blunders. The war would not have lasted three decades if the government had taken the war seriously.

The Tamil separatist war was anticipated by N.Q. Dias, when he was Permanent Secretary for Defence and External affairs in the SLFP government of 1960-1965. Neville Jayaweera recalls that ‘NQ’ was the most powerful public servant of the time. He was feared and respected even by cabinet ministers. Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike listened to him.  In 1963, NQ had told Jayaweera, then GA, Jaffna that within the next twenty years the Tamil protest would develop into an armed rebellion and the government must prepare for that now.   N.Q. Dias had been in Jaffna as AGA in the 1940s.

NQ wanted to set up a chain of military camps to encircle the Northern Province. They were to be set up at Arippu, Maricchikatti, Pallai and Thalvapadu in the Mannar District, Pooneryn, Karainagar, Palaly, Point Pedro and Elephant Pass in the Jaffna District, Mullaitivu in the Vavuniya District and Trincomalee in the East. He said that there were already two military camps of platoon strength in Pallai in Mannar and in Palaly in Jaffna and a rudimentary naval presence in Karainagar, but that he wanted to upgrade them.

To avoid an outcry from the Tamils, he intended to say that these camps were for controlling illicit immigration from India to Sri Lanka and smuggling from Sri Lanka to India.    Work started immediately and within a year, the infrastructure for setting up the military camps was nearly complete. When Jayaweera left Jaffna in 1966 all of the camps were up and running.  This network of military camps helped to mount counter strikes against the LTTE later.

NQ also set up a Task Force for Anti Illicit Immigration (TAFFI) under the command of Lt. Col. Sepala Attygalle,  to encircle the North militarily and wanted to know whether the Gal Oya Board could turn out boats to use for ‘anti smuggling’ work. He raised new infantry regiments, starting with the Sinha Regiment. He wished to get rid of the ‘unpatriotic persons’ in the military top command  and planned to strengthen Sri Lanka’s relations with Beijing to neutralize India’s influence in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.

Jayaweera notes that N.Q’s vision of Tamil uprising, and gun running from Tamilnadu began to unravel exactly as he had foreseen. ‘He was a political prophet as well as a military strategist. His grand design for strangling a future Tamil revolt by girdling the north with a chain of military encirclement was as audacious as it was brilliant.’ Jayaweera says NQ Dias was an outstanding strategist.  It was NQ’s duty to plan well ahead for the suppression of any anticipated armed rebellion and he fulfilled that obligation as no one else had done before him. Sri Lanka is much in his debt,  said Jayaweera. ‘NQ’s vision of a future armed Tamil uprising and of India’s intervention on the side of the rebel cause has not been properly chronicled.’

If these military camps had been nurtured and developed in the 1970s, the armed forces would have been better prepared for the Eelam wars. They would have studied the northern landscape from the military angle, prepared military maps and got ready for a future separatist war. Instead, when the Eelam wars began, the LTTE had the advantage. They knew the landscape of the north intimately; the soldiers did not know it at all. Vadamarachchi was selected in 1987 using data obtained at great risk by the intelligence units.   In 1990, a seaborne rescue mission was launched to save an army detachment at Mullaitivu. The forces first had a mock landing north of Mullativu as they had never done this before.

The  war dragged on for so long because our Presidents did not give a clear order to the armed forces to go ahead and win.   President Wijetunge, alone, said LTTE were merely terrorists and ordered the armed forces to clear the east of the LTTE within two months. The other three Presidents wanted to avoid war.  They wished to negotiate a deal with the LTTE at any cost.

Because of this, the authorities neglected the military. Recruitment and training were stopped whenever there was a lull in the war. The government refused to provide the multiple rocket launchers   and Bushmaster cannon the army and navy urgently needed. But they bought a hovercraft at a staggering cost of Rs 250 million. It was never used for war. The government   wanted to know why the army needed need a large stock of ammunition when there were only 2000 LTTE fighters. Troops died because substandard arms and equipment were purchased.

Officers were promoted, on seniority not competence. They were not vetted, there was no security classification  and sensitive information was easily obtained.  ‘Our battle plans were known to the media before operations began’.  The Eelam war was not over, but in 2004, Sri Lanka sent troops to the UN peace keeping forces in Haiti. The service commanders had no say in the matter. Earlier, the government set up a Defence Review Committee (2002) which was asked   to examine the size of the security forces and see whether such a large army was necessary. Observers are now asking did the authorities want the LTTE to win?

Politics took precedence over war. The heads of the three forces were selected on loyalty to the government. Commanders who stood up to the government were dismissed and replaced by persons with less experience. In-fighting between senior officers of the army was encouraged. The media said that superior officers opposed strategies planned by subordinates  and that    subordinate officers wanted to kill their superiors. There was political interference in the military campaigns.  But when things went wrong the army was blamed.  The government said that the army had allowed LTTE to win the Oya Alaigal” operation.  The army furiously denied the allegation.

Officers capable of defeating the LTTE such as Janaka Perera and Sarath Fonseka were brought in, moved out and brought in again. Janaka Perera angrily complained that he had never been allowed to command the army though he had the knowledge and expertise needed to defeat the LTTE. Officers who opposed the LTTE were removed. Vajira Wijegoonawardene, then Overall Operation commander called for firm military action against the LTTE. He was transferred. Eastern Naval Commander, Rear admiral Sarath Weerasekera was moved out of Trincomalee when he objected to the LTTE flexing its muscles.  Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda reported that LTTE had positioned guns pointing towards the Trincomalee navy base. Instead of taking action the government attacked me. State television ran a programme defamatory of me and I decided to take legal action.”

President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s period of office (1994-2005) is notable for a series of battlefield defeats. LTTE took Mullativu (1996) Kilinochchi (1998), Elephant Pass (2000) and nearly took Jaffna peninsula. At Elephant Pass, the most important military base in the north, with access to the Jaffna peninsula, the army withdrew leaving behind massive stock of arms, ammunition and equipment including artillery pieces.  In Kilinochchi, 500 soldiers were   killed, 3,000 wounded and 500 missing.  LTTE burnt alive the 1300  Sri Lankan soldiers at Mullaitivu and removed the entire arsenal including artillery pieces, mortars, and machine guns. Those who survived the Mullaitivu attack  had revealed the pathetic state of Mullaitivu defenses at the time.  Experts  say the  Mullaitivu debacle could have been avoided. The government wanted to regain Mullaitivu, but the military opposed this and refused to deploy any more men.  They were against maintaining isolated bases.

The government engaged in a series of highly publicized, knee jerk military operations which kept the focus on Jaffna, and off the Eastern province. These seriously weakened the army and helped LTTE further entrench itself.  These operations were given names that screamed success even before the operations had started,   ‘Thrivida pahara’,    ‘Sath jaya, ‘Jayasikurui, ‘Edibala,   ‘Rivi bala’ and ‘Ranagosa’. They suffered from a shortage of weapons and the lack of holding strength at crucial moments. They all failed. ‘Thrivida pahara,’   was called off within hours, leaving a group of soldiers stranded on the beach. They were eventually killed by the Tigers.   ‘Ranagosa’ spread three divisions thinly on the ground. LTTE crushed them. Jayasikurui seemed a lunatic venture even to the public. It was trying to regain the highly exposed Jaffna-Kandy road, with the LTTE lined up on both sides of the route,  using just two fighting divisions. These two divisions were soundly defeated by the LTTE.

These ill planned military operations resulted in a huge number of deaths. Operation Riviresa (1995) took Jaffna, but with a loss of 600 men.    The government did not care. The lives of the armed forces and police didn’t matter.  Security issues and long term implications were not important.  Governments simply wanted to show territorial gains. When the campaigns failed, the government imposed censorship .The press could not report on the bloody fighting and the number of lives lost.   The statement issue by LTTE when they took Elephant Pass was completely censored.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=112823

අනුර සෙනවිරත්න

මෙම ඇත්ත අපට එලියෙන් තේරුනබව ඇගෙඋවට උත්සන්න රෝග මමත්වය නිසා ඇත්ත හරියට නොතේරී ජාතියම අසරනවි ඇත.

එය අප වරදකින් නොව දසකයන්තුල අපේ ජාතිකත්වය පාගා එක රටක එක ජාතියක් යන ලෝක පාලන සිද්දාන්තය උල්ලංගනය කරන බහු බූත බහු ජාතික අපරාදෙ ලොව එකම සින්හෙල ජාතික රටේ වැපිරිය.

තමාගෙ සොබාදම් ජාතිය යටපත් කලවිට මිනිසා අන්ත මමත් වයට ගොදුරු වේ. නිවටවේ – තමාගෙ රටේ අයිතියවත් කියන්ට බැරිව ගොලුවේ.

අපේ ජාතික සෛරිත්වය යන සිහසුනෙ අප ඉන්දගන්නෙ නැති නිසා පදින්චිකාර ජන වරිගයන් ලහියෙ එහි ඉන්දගන්ට තටමයි.

පදිංචි කාර ජන වරිගයන් ට ලොව කුඩා එකම සින්හෙල රටේද ඔවුන්ගේ විජාතික රටවල ඇති විජාතික අයිති වාසිකම් දිම නිසා රට ආක්රමනයට ගොදුරුවි ඇත.

රටේ නොනවතින ගැටලුව සින්හෙල ජාතික ගැටලුව – වෙනම ජාතීන් එක රටක නැත. ගැටලුව සින්හෙල ජාතික සෛරිත්වය උල්ලංගනය කිරීම – එකම විසදුම සින්හෙල ජාතිකත්වය රජ කරවා සියළුම පදිංචි කාර ජන වරියන් ද සින්හෙල ජාතික පුරවැසියන් කිරීමටය.

එක රටක එකීය ජාතිකත්වය පමණය. එම රටේ සමානත්වය එකම ජාතික අයිතිවාසිකම් පමනය. මෙය ලොව හැම ජාතික රටක ගෙන යන පාලන සිද්දාන්තය. ලංකා නමින් යන රට සින්හෙල රට එහි අද ඇත්තේ නීති එරෙහිව අන්තවාදී ජඩ අපරාද අපාලනයකි.

කොපමන කල් ගියත් ජාතිකත්වය යන මූලික මිනිස් අයිතිය සින්හෙල ජාතික මව්බිම වන ලන්කාවෙ හෝ සින්හෙල දූපත් රටේ පමණක් අපට ඇති අයිතිය සදා අහිමිකල නොහැකි අයිතියක්. මෙම යුක්තිය ලබා ගැනීමට අපට සින්හෙල ජාතික පාලනයක් මගින් නීතියානුකූලව ලෝක උසාවියක් තුළින් උවද ඉල්ලිය හැක.

අද අපේ විසිරුනු අසරණ තත්වය නිසා ඇත්ත විසදුමට ජන බලය ඕනැ. තනි කුඩා කල්ලි ලෙස එක් නොවී මෙම උතුම් වියපුරුව කල නොහැක.

රට නොරැකුනොත් කිසි දෙයක් හෝ කිසිවෙකු නොරැකේ. බඩගින්න උවද මදකට ඉවසා අප වෙනුවෙන් අපමය හිතා අත් වැල් බැදගන්නෙමු.

අද මූලික රටකරුවන්ගෙ එකම අරමුණ සින්හෙල ජාතිය සුන්කර ලීමය. අපේ දියාරුව හතුරෝ දන්න නිසා  ඔවුන් බය නැතුව අපව පාගා ගෙන යයි. සීලාචාරව හා සාම කාමීව අප එක්වෙමු. එතකොට ඔවුන් ඇත්තට බියවී අපරාදය නවතයි. අපේ මූලික ආයුදය සින්හෙල ජාතික සෛරීත්වයබව නිතර මෙනෙහි කිරීමෙන් හා නිතරම ලොවටම ඇහෙන ලෙසට ලංකාව එකම සින්හෙල ජාතික රට බවත් මෙහි පදින්චිකාර සියලු ජන වරිගද  සින්හෙල ජාතික පුරවැසියන් බවට නිවැරදි කරන ඇත්ත පිලියම බවට එළිදරවුකිරීම. එයින්  සියලු හතුරෝ නිහඬ කලහැකි.

ජරා මමත්වය ඉවතලා අප අප අතර නිහතමනීව සුහාදරය දක්වමු – අපට යුක්තිය ලබා ගතහැක!

https://youtu.be/M2Z0gG21asU

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

2005 වසරේ මම ශ්‍රී ලංකා යුද හමුදාවේ වෛද්‍ය බළකායේ සාජන්වරයෙකු සමග මම හමුදා ඩබල් කැබ් රථයකින් යාපනයේ ගමන් කරමින් සිටියෙමි.

“සර් මෙන්න මෙතනදී තමයි  2000 දී අපේ කොල්ලෝ එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ එකේ ඇටෑක් එක රිවස් කලේ . එදා එල්.ටී.ටී.ඊ එකේ ඇටෑක් එක සාර්ථක උනා නම් යාපනේ වැටෙනවා හමුදාවේ 40,000 කගේ ජීවිත අණතුරේ  ”

සරසාලේ එක් ප්‍රදේශයක් පෙන්වා සාජන්ට්වරයා මට කීවේය​.

සරසාලේ මහා සටන සිදුවූ ස්ථානය දෙස මම බැලුවෙමි. මෙම සටන ඊලාම් යුද්දයේ තීරණාත්මක වූ සටනකි.මට මොස්කව් නගරය ආසන්නයේ තිබෙන ජර්මන් හමුදාවේ යුද ටැංකි නවත්වන ලද ස්ථානය සිහිපත් විය​. එම ස්ථානය පසු කොට ජර්මන් හමුදාවට මොස්කව් නගරයට ඒමට රතු හමුදා භටයෝ ඉඩ දුන්නේ නැත​.

සරසාලේ  යුද්දයේදී හමුදාවේ සොල්දාදුවන් ජීවිත පුදා සටන් කලහ​. හමුදා සොල්දාදුවන් වැටුපට සේවය කරන්නන් කියන පුද්ගලයන් මට හමුවී තිබේ. එහෙත් ඔවුන් සරසාලේ සටන දුටුවේ නම් මේ අදහස වෙනස් කර ගනු නියතය​.

සරසාලේ සටන පරාජය වූවානම් හමුදාවන්ට සිදුවනුයේ යාපන අර්ධද්වීපයේ හමුදා ඉවත් කිරීම යටතේ පැමිණෙන ඉන්දියානු නැව් වලට නගින්නය.  නැතහොත්  කොටි අතින් මැරුම් කෑමටය.

අලිමංකඩ කඳවුර වැටීමෙන් පසු  ප්‍රභාකරන් යාපනයට මහා ප්‍රහාරයක් එල්ල කලේය​. ඒ වන විට ජනධිපතිනී චන්ද්‍රිකා යාපනයෙන් හමුදාව ඉවත් කර ගැනීම සඳහා ඉන්දියාවට කතා කර තිබුනි. මෙම අවස්ථාවේදී කොපමණ වැරදි සහ චෝදනා තිබුනද ජෙනරාල් අනුරුද්ධ රත්වත්තේ එයට විරුද්ධව වී හෙලිකොප්ටරයකින් යාපනයට ගොස් හමුදාවට කතා කොට ඉදිරියේ එන කොටින් ගේ ප්‍රහාරයට මුහුණ දීමට ඔවුන්ව සූදානම් කලේය​.  ඊට ජෙනරාල් ජානක පෙරේරා සහ ජෙනරාල් සරත් ෆොන්සේකා හමුදාවට නායකත්වය දුන්හ​. එසේම ජෙනරාල් සීවලී වනිගසේකරගේ සේනාංකයන්ද ප්‍රභාකරන් ගේ නොනවතින රැල්ල යාපනය දෙසට ඇදී ඒම ප්‍රමාද කලේය​.

මේ කාලයේදී පලාලි රෝහලේ තත්වය දරුණු විය . දිනපතා තුවාලකරුවන් රෝහලට ගෙන එනු ලැබීය​. පලාලි රෝහලේ සේවය කරමින් සිටි වෛද්‍ය කර්නල් රන්ජන සෙනෙවිරත්න මහතා  තමා පලාලි රෝහලේ ශල්‍යකර්මයක් කරමින් සිටියදී කොටින් ගේ අර්ටිලරි වැටුණු ශබ්ද ඇසුනු බවත් ඒ මහා අර්ටිලරි හඞ නිසා එක් හෙදියක් ශල්‍යකර්මය අවස්ථාවේදී සිහි නැතිව ඇද වැටුනු අයුරුත් පසුව මා සමග කීවේය​.

මලිත් ජයතිලක ලියූ ‘අලිමංකඩ පරාජයෙන් පසු ශ්‍රී ලංකාව සහ ඉන්දියාව‘ නමැති කෘතියේ මෙම අවස්ථා ගැන වඩාත් හොඳින් විස්තර කරයි. මේ අවස්ථාවේදී හිටපු හමුදාපති ජෙරී ද සිල්වා මහතා පකිස්ථානයෙන් මල්ටි බැරල් යන්ත්‍රයක් ගෙන්වීමට උපකාරී විය​. එය යාපනයේ ටයර් හංදියේ තබා ක්‍රියාත්මක කරනු ලැබීය​. එමගින් හමුදාවේ මොරාල් එක ඉහල ගියේය​. අවසානයේදී සෙබළුන් ගේ ධෛර්‍යය සහ චෙක්‌ රාජ්‍යයේ මල්ටි බැරල් රොකට්‌ යන්ත්‍ර මගින් ප්‍රභාකරන් ගේ නොනවතින රැල්ල පරාජය කරනු ලැබීය​.

සරසාලේ මහා සටන ගන්නෝරුව සටන මුල්ලේරියාව සටන මෙන් ඉතිහාසයට එක් විය යුතු මහා සටනකි.

 By NJ Thakuria

Guwahati: Asian Development Bank (ADB) appreciates the ‘successful political transition’ in Myanmar’s development in the recent past and assures all possible supports in promoting education, quality jobs and enhance infrastructures in the southeast Asian country.

The ADB president Takehiko Nakao recently met with Myanmar’s President U Htin Kyaw and the Burmese foreign minister Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the country’s development prospects, macroeconomic and structural priorities. Nakao also extended ADB’s support to the new Burmese regime in NayPyiTaw.

Nakao also exchanged views on how the ADB can help Myanmar accelerate infrastructure investment with the planning & finance minister U Kyaw Win along with his deputy U Maung Maung Win, construction minister U Win Khaing, electricity & energy minister U Pe Zin Tun, transport & communication minister U Thant Sin Maung during his visit to the country.

In a statement issued on 14 June 2016, the ADB declared that it would expand annual sovereign concessional lending for projects from about

$150 million to $350 million from 2017, with a strong focus on infrastructure and job creation. The manila based financial institution also announced to expand its lending, equity investment and guarantees to the Myanmar’s private infrastructure and finance sector.

The successful political transition is a landmark in Myanmar’s development and an encouraging sign for further socioeconomic progress,” commented the ADB president adding, I am impressed by the government’s commitment to ensuring all citizens benefit from growth.”

It may be mentioned that Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia backed by the infrastructure development, foreign direct investment, manufacturing, and a robust service sector including tourism.

The ADB expects Myanmar’s economy will grow at 8.4% in FY2016 (ending

31 March 2017) and 8.3% in FY2017, after slowing to 7.2% in FY2015 due to devastating floods & landslides. The inflation is forecast to moderate this year but remains high at 9.5%. The current account deficit is seen narrowing to 8.3% of gross domestic product, down from 8.9% in FY2015.

Nakao  welcomed the Burmese government initiatives to increase infrastructure investment through public-private partnerships (PPPs) in telecommunications and power generation. The time needed to register a business has been reduced from more than 2 months to less than 3 days. Further improvement of the business environment is essential to attract foreign direct investment, which would boost financial resources as well as transfer of knowledge and technology, asserted the ADB chief.

The ADB statement highlighted that the progress is being made in Burmese social development such as improvements in the enrolment in and quality of primary school education. To help address the scarcity of skilled workers in the country, the ADB has been supporting curriculum reform in secondary education and technical and vocational education and training.

Myanmar joined the ADB in 1973 and the financial institution resumed operations in the country in 2012 and has since approved six sovereign loans totaling $892 million—including $512 million used for a special program loan in 2013 to support macroeconomic reform and restructure arrears—and five grant projects under the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction for $39 million.

The ADB also approved four non-sovereign projects, through loans, equity investments and guarantees, since 2014, totaling $932 million including co-financing of $440 million by commercial banks, in telecommunications, logistics, urban development and power generation.

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando Courtesy Ceylon Today

Various institutions within a society, be it the government, political or any other group, have the power to shape media material to a particular viewpoint. The other side of the coin would be that the media is quite capable of inspiring society as much as the institutions, simply because if media material did not have an impact on a society and its organizations, then those institutions would have no interest in shaping the media in return.

Looking at the continuous bombardments and salvos media have to face from time to time from government sources, religious sections, political and other organised groups it goes to prove to what extent media have an impact on public and private life.

Government & Media

 In such a backdrop, universal State control can be regarded as the most vital factor in influencing any media. Reasons for this are three fold.

Firstly, only a government has the power and the muscle to control any media legitimately to guarantee its amenability to official requests. If any other commercial or professional institution falls out of line on a policy decision, according to what the State sees as breaking the law, then its senior management or any employee who breaks the law of the organisation will have to pay a fine or the offending party might end of up in jail!

Secondly, government is quite capable of exerting pressure and control not only on the media but other institutions as well that may indirectly reflect back into media regulations, its policies, parameters and guidelines.

Thirdly, when governments tend to substitute market forces under regulatory pressures radical modifications can take place progressively where the official State controlling of the media is superseded by off-the record strategies such as capitalism.

To understand these phenomena it is important to develop a relationship between the State and the media by adopting a mutual ‘your resource is my need’ or ‘give and take policy’.

Advantages

The main advantage of the media is its ability to focus on a particular issue, topic or on a personality and thereby draw public attention towards it. Therefore, what the government needs doing is to ensure that government officials execute their functions dedicatedly and properly with a view to approaching the public and draw attention to whatever problems and issues and explain the issues to woo the public support on current policies and actions taken by the government.

This procedure becomes crystal clear during election campaigns by taking Sri Lanka as a typical example where a prospective candidate craves for media exposure to ensure a chance of winning. In the past the Sri Lankan public has witnessed how some of the hierarchy used their power muscle and controlled and took over newspaper groups, while in certain cases succeeded in closing down completely the newspaper establishment, as much as burning down of some of the media institutions.

Undisputedly politicians and their buddies attached to government circles are starved of publicity, particularly in favourable terms which is known as spin control where politicians and governmental officials always endeavour to influence what they utter and how it is said, by trying to control media access towards them and their activities.

Correlation with other Institutions

Media evidently share significant interactions with other organisations. Their resource dependency is marked by what they seek in the form of advertising, marketing and publicity to earn money, which any media are made up of.

Media and education is predominantly common, but convoluted when the relationship between the two is taken into account. Education concentrates on textbooks and other educational material costing billions annually, globally, on books. If media are to be concerned with education the reverse is true as well.

At any level media may be used candidly for education with mentors involved in planning and producing media such as children’s television workshops. Media is able to function as an educational outlet, as well as one that is able to absorb knowledge much about the world beyond one’s immediate experience.

Outsourcing and the Internet

Outsourcing plays a bigger role in education at present as many educational courses are available on line via the internet throughout the world, thus the conventional term, ‘The University’ is gradually becoming confined to architectural buildings with bricks and mortar only, while the elitists and educationalists lead a new thrust in a business development procedure by adopting the latest method of teaching and learning via the Internet, throughout the world.

Where does media fit into in the world’s social life equation as far as health care and medicine are concerned? Today there are specially qualified medical journalists working for large networks as much as prominent newspapers and magazines that accept classified advertising under Health and Nutrition, Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing and others. Although the vast majority of magazines carry specialised segments within those, the most interesting aspect perhaps would be to consider the relationship between media and medicine in television entertainment.

As far as the media is concerned it does not exist “out there”, instead individuals make the methods in a fundamental perspective. In other words, media entail rules, roles, and routines to accomplish their purpose. In addition, organizations exist within industries that shape or constrain them. But most importantly sharing resources foster such a liaison with other media organisations and institutions.

Sensitivity

Media can become public sensitive too at times. For example, in 1956 when Elvis Presley appeared on CBS television for the first time, strict instructions had been given to the camera operators not to focus on his gyrating hips, but to shoot waist-high, as it was considered by the organisers that his rotating and spinning of hips could offend the audience.

In 1971, during the notorious Pentagon Papers Cases, the then USA President Richard Nixon’s attorney general wanted to keep the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe from printing excerpts of a multi-volume State Department document on the origins and history of the Vietnam War. When the photocopies were made available to the three papers, the Supreme Court ruled out by stating that ‘prior restraints on the press were unconstitutional unless an extremely strong case could be made that such a publication would damage national security!’ The government had not been able to demonstrate so.

tilakfernando@gmail.com

Dr Sarath Obeysekera -Ex Chairman SLLRDC 

It is high time that authorities get some advice from experts regarding canal bank relocation to avoid floods .

BY 1995 over  10,000 unauthorized  families were evicted from canal banks and since then same people or new people have again settled .along the banks ,then cry foul when they get inundated .

4 billion rupees was spent not only for relocation but alos for rehabilitation of canals

I have seen Water Board and CEB have given connections to these squatters on a letter issued by the local Gramsevaka ( presumably after palming his greasy hands ) .

Then the local authorities have also issued local authority rate letters and they claim they their presence is authorized .

I remember when a family was to be relocated near Kirillapona Canal Mr Hudson Samarasinghe who was an ardent supporter of President at that time  ,came from a hospital bed and pressurized  me not to evict a family   .I showed him the relocation sites and explained them that they will be have a permanent    home

He had to retreat.

Another occasion near Haveelock Canal ,an old woman threatened  to set fire to herself. And I had to personally go there  and talked her out .

I sent an engineer to dig the canal behind a temple near current Russian embassy and the Buddhist priest has complained to the president and I was called by the President to go to the temple and get the blessings” of the priest. President asked me  Sarath You are accused of demolishing temple!s ?”’

I had to rush under heavy rain and meet the priest and undertook to build a new wall along the temple and got  his blessings” !

In another occasion a prominent priest accused me of sending a Non Buddhist Engineer to the canal encroachment by the temple .

One known thug came to my office beating his chest like a gorilla ,claiming that he is the one who shot  a customs officer once and protested against removal of a lime shop near Havelock Bridge .

I talked him out and gave him a alternative location.

In Panchikawatta a ,notorious for thugs of Choppe fame was obstructing me near St Sebastain Canal threatening me ,

I did not budge

Today when he sees me now he bends three fold and respects me

If you see a three story building near RMV ,where a big photo copy business ,where the encroacher refused to move and we had to push him back along the reservation and now he is a millionaire .

These are the plethora of protests, objections you will encounter and we were given full powers and authority to our duty .

I suggest that the state  distributes  the 21 billon among all the politicians who have supporters along canal banks and tell them to  find alternative locations and resettle them like one politician in Kelaniya did  ( He was in the news recently.)

Unless government strengthen the powers of local authorities and CMC and enforces the law ,to prohibit unauthorized structures ,21 billion will Drain away into the sea”

Another support they could extend is to assign few honest army officers or Navy officers to the corporation like Gota did and execute the task of relocation ruthlessly

Dr Sarath Obeysekera -Ex Chairman SLLRDC

MEN & EVENTS BY Sugeeswara Senadhira Courtesy Ceylon Today

One of the definitions of democracy is that it is a form of government usually corresponding to a top-down approach to democracy as seen from the ruler’s point of view. In this view the so-called ordinary people or citizens are considered as politically incompetent and it is argued that under modern conditions direct democracy is not only impossible but also unwise.

Most of the democratic leaders follow this view, especially after they are voted to power. Under that theory, democracy must be limited to the rule of an elected elite which alone has the capacities needed for making reasoned political decisions guided by the common good. In this approach voting for representatives is the most important instrument for citizen participation. However, citizens are excluded from direct participation in decision-making and governance.
However, in a meaningful democracy, the people’s views must prevail at all times. One thing is certain. The consensual government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is well aware of taking heed of the feelings of the masses is essential to ensure its continuity beyond the initial elected period of five years.
Import of vehicles
The recent example of this is the decision taken to revoke the Cabinet decision given for the importation of vehicles for ministers. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe gave instructions to the Treasury “not to grant even a cent for the importation of vehicles for ministers and MPs until funds were allocated to build houses to replace those destroyed by the floods and the blast at Kosgama, and to renovate the partly destroyed houses.”
Accordingly, the supplementary estimate to purchase vehicles will be suspended until the requisite funds are allocated to provide assistance to construct houses to replace the destroyed ones and to repair the damaged ones.
This came in the backdrop of heavy criticism over the Cabinet decision to allocate Rs 1,175 million for the acquisition of super luxury vehicles for seven ministers. Many impartial analysts were critical of the Cabinet decision which was taken in the backdrop of multiple calamities of floods, landslides and the explosion of the Army ammunition dump destroying many houses and properties.
Good governance
Some of the leading figures of the last Presidential Election campaign of the Common Candidate pointed out that those who had exercised their franchise at the January 2015 presidential polls and the subsequent parliamentary elections in August never expected the government of good governance to squander money on its members at a time the national economy was in crisis.
Even the critics of the government acknowledge the requirement of vehicles for ministers to function efficiently. However, the argument that ministers require super luxury vehicles to serve the masses will not hold water. As Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri pointed out recently one could clearly see the absurdity in masses being repeatedly told to tighten their belts and pay taxes whereas ministers brazenly wasted taxpayers’ money on vehicles.
Dewasiri as well as the Convenor of the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) Prof. Sarath Wijesooriya, who said he felt ashamed of himself for backing the incumbent adminis-tration now brazenly acting contrary to the much touted good governance, will no doubt heave a sigh of relief over the decision to revoke the car importation for the time being.
The government, having accused the Rajapaksas and the previous government of squandering public funds for their benefit, has no moral right to import luxury vehicles for ministers, especially at a time of such calamities that require the fullest attention as well as Treasury funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction of houses.
The Prime Minister’s announcement on revoking the car importation order is a step in the right direction. It will help to establish the fact that this is a government that listens to the public opinion. This is very important when you consider the fact that one of the main reasons for the downfall of the last regime was its leaders’ inability to reverse unpopular decisions. Its acts of commission and omission to heed to the public criticism ensured its defeat.
In contrast to the former regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa, the consensual government of President Sirisena is adhering to democratic principles and it has allowed airing of different views within the government. Social Empowerment and Welfare Minister S.B. Dissanayake said in Parliament that the President and Prime Minister should not give a service extension to Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran.
Participating in the debate on the no-confidence motion against Finance Minister Ravi Karunanyake, he recalled that President Sirisena had stated in public that the Governor of Central Bank should be removed.”When a president says so, usually the official responsible tenders his or her resignation. That can be expected from officials who are decent and serious about what they do. We hope that Mahendran will not be given a service extension,” he said.
Central Bank Governor
The service contract of Arjuna Mahendran is due to expire at the end of this month. UPFA General Secretary and Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera also emphasized the need for action against Central Bank Governor Mahendran. Earlier Minister Amaraweera made a complaint to the Bribery Commission against Mahendran.
The above trend of democracy within the government augurs well for the country and the people. Democracy as a way of life is such a vision, which is based on other assumptions about the nature of human beings, state and society than the still powerful hierarchical and elitist concept of democracy.
In this view, democracy is more than a form of government, more than a political ideal, it goes beyond institutional politics, and it is also something personal and internal, a social ideal rooted in everyday life and work which make people willing to engage in democratic decision-making and to acquire the skills needed for participation.

By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan Courtesy Ceylon Today

Former Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, speaks his heart out about his commitment towards the war heroes and stated they need to be protected from being investigated by the international community on alleged war crimes.
Gotabaya, who is anticipating that Donald Trump will win the US presidential election later this year said, it has been suggested to him by many Sri Lankans to contest the next presidential election.
Following are excerpts:
?: You recently inaugurated the national campaign for protecting the forces, (Ranaviru Surakeeme Jaathika Vyaparaya) held at Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Centre Auditorium on 6 June. What made you take part in that?
A: I was invited to attend the function. It is an organization that started in the 1980s. I attended for the first time as an invitee.

?: In your speech there, you had said that you can be the No. 1 if you wanted to. What does that imply?
A: Prior to my speech, everybody was asking me whether I was going to be the second-in-command in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) after hearing some media reports. Then I said, if I wanted to, I could be the No.1. What I meant was, not the number one position or number two position, but I am concerned about certain policies I believe in; unitary state, security and upholding the sovereignty of this country; not to ruin the victory after 30 years of war and protecting the soldiers. I said I would support anyone who would protect those policies.

?: Should that protection come through a political setup?
A: I will put my weight behind those who endorse those principles. But, when people heard the news that I am going to enter politics, many people asked me and it was discussed at the group meetings.

?: Your statement that you could be the No.1 could also be interpreted as you can be the next President of this country. Is that the thinking you have?
A: No. But people living here and outside the country always say come forward.

?: What does it mean, come forward?
A: Suggesting me to run for presidency.

?: Are you contemplating on that?
A: No. Not decided as yet.

?: Given a chance, and looking at the current situation about which you are not happy, why won’t you?
A: I have not decided yet, but it will depend on the situation and the circumstances. I just cannot plan now. I am not a politician.

?: Are you being groomed for it?
A: People are suggesting to me about taking up the leadership next time. That’s all.

?: In what context are they suggesting this?
A: Because there is no leadership in this country. That’s what many believe. This is not my idea, but their idea. They say there is no one today to lead the people. They say they don’t know what is happening to this country.

?: Taking up the leadership means you have to wait another four years or more. You have plenty of time to work on it, isn’t it?
A: May be, but this is what I was suggested.

?: Some have suggested that you should take over the second position of the SLFP. Will you take it up if offered?
A: No. That was only a suggestion. It was said by someone else. It should come from the Chairman of the Party. It has not gone to that level.

?: What are the challenges the armed forces are facing? You have been vocal about them.
A: As far as I see, the biggest challenge is that the war crimes investigation on them. In my point of view, it is very unfair to do any type of investigations, because today the people are enjoying this freedom irrespective of their ethnicity. This is because of the military, who were able to end terrorism. They sacrificed so much. It is misunderstood now. The war started in the late 70s. The first soldier was killed in 1980. The war went on under many leaderships of this country and the military served all of them. But, the LTTE was defeated under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s leadership. All those leaders of the past were also blamed for human rights violations from various sections of the international community. But the blame came only on the Rajapaksas.

?: All that information is known. But now the point is a few military personnel were identified to have committed war crimes and not the entire Sri Lankan military is blamed. Why do you talk about the entire military?
A: This is misunderstood. Look at the discrimination going on. When there are scholarships coming from the USA for military training programmes for the Forces, they don’t give it to a specific regiment. They name the regiment and the commandos. They name the Army Division. If you have served in the 58 division, you are not offered the scholarships. These things were not known to the people.

?: But the UNHRC is supposed to have named a couple of alleged perpetrators, hasn’t it?
A: No, you are wrong. For a few people, the entire Army has been punished.

?: Then what about the list of names that were to be revealed by the UNHRC and later removed at the request of the President, as he claims to have done?
A: That is the UN war crimes claims and they are going through the whole military regiment. That is the mistake. Who gave these evidences? It was the LTTE members. If you know what happened in Afghanistan, what happened in Sri Lanka is comparatively nothing. But where are the war crimes allegations against them? In Afghanistan, the US bombed a wedding ceremony where 58 people died. Where are the investigations for those crimes?

?: Did the US deny that incident ever took place?
A: No they did not deny.

?: But here the government denied alleged bombings on civilians, systematic killings and abductions?
A: Denials and accepting of crimes are two different issues. This incident in Afghanistan is a factual incident. However, the blame on the Sri Lankan Army comes from the LTTE cadres.

?: Don’t you think victims’ families have given evidence of alleged human rights violations?
A: Whom do you call victims? They are terrorists who gave such evidence against the army.

?: How can you call those victims terrorists?
A: So you don’t accept there were terrorists in Sri Lanka?

?: I accept that. But how can you call those people who gave evidences as terrorists?
A: Tell me how can you believe they were victims’ families? On what basis you believe they were ordinary people? Read the book by Thamilini. She was the head of the education of the LTTE. If she had been killed, do you think it was wrong? Many said it was wrong to kill Thamilsevlam, who was the LTTE’s chief of the political wing. They were combatants, but to the world Thamilini and Thamiselvam were not LTTE cadres, but political education wing leaders.

 
?: But, how can you say all of them who gave evidences were LTTEers?
A: How can you say those are credible evidences, is my question.

?: To ascertain whether they were human rights violators or those providing credible evidence, one needs to conduct an investigation?
A: Why no one is probing what is happening in Afghanistan? Why are they after Sri Lanka only?

?: The matter is on the agenda of the UNHRC and there is an ongoing review.
A: It is true and the government will have to face it, but I am personally against it.

?: So what you say is that no solider should be investigated?
A: No. Why should he? Can you tell me any of the presidents we had before could go to Jaffna and address the people there? We paved the way for that.

?: All that is true, but this is just an allegation and it has been taken up seriously. What should Sri Lanka do about it?
A: If they are allegations, why should the soldiers who fought the war go through such a process?
?: The UNHRC earlier wanted to reveal the names of those who were identified as alleged perpetrators, but President Sirisena said he got those names removed from the resolution and saved the country. Do you know who was mentioned in the UNHRC list?
A: I don’t know. Most of them in Geneva don’t know what was going on in the battlefield. They are sitting in air-conditioned offices and they don’t know what a solider goes through in the battlefield. Anywhere in the world for that matter it’s the same. Without knowing the situation they are blaming these soldiers for crimes.

?: But now they have found evidence of some crimes committed against the civilians that is now asked to be probed locally?
A: What sort of evidence is that? If someone says my son is missing, is that evidence to be probed?

?: But, if someone lodges a complaint with the police that her son is missing, the police begin an investigation, won’t they? Similarly, it has to be investigated to see if that is true or false, isn’t it?
A: Then why do you need the international community to handle it?

?: Then what is the alternative if there is a complaint lodged about someone being abducted and killed and they don’t trust the local legal process?
A: These claims were made during the war. Then what about the LTTE’s atrocities?

?: Does not the resolution say to probe the LTTE crimes too?
A: The LTTE is spread the world over. Then they should be named and probed too.

?: So you mean that not one civilian has given evidence to the United Nations Human Rights Office?
A: No. All of them are LTTEers. Take it from me. That is my view, and you may have a different view. I don’t accept any of these allegations coming from people and the international community.

?: You are not in power now, but still you talk like the Secretary to the MoD. How do you make out this difference?
A: The main difference is that during my period I managed to win the war.

?: Are you going to hold on to that war winning claim always?
A: Yes, it made a huge difference.

?: So are you powerful still?
A: No, but I am proud.

?: Is this why you want to do politics after being a public servant?
A: My whole family produced politicians but as far as I am concerned, I have not given a thought to it now.

?: With all the glorious status you have, still your family is alleged to be corrupt. What is your comment?
A: My family entered politics in 1936. Continuously we did politics for 80 years. Our ancestral homes were mortgaged to help the people of Hambantota. This is how we served the country. That is why people elected us for three generations and today there are nine family members in politics. But, for the purpose of defeating Mahinda Rajapaksa they called him a rogue (hora). Ousting him was definitely planned with the international body along with the then opposition party.

?: Do you mean gathering evidence against your family by the government is a joke?
A: I am summoned for inquiries all the time, but I am unaware why they do so.

?: They say they are probing corruption charges against you?
A: Those probes are leading to nothing, I must state.

?: Are you sure you will not be found guilty?
A: If I had earned money, do I eat dollars for breakfast and dinner? Do you mean I eat dollars every day? Then where are those dollar notes which they claim I earned illegally? I still live in my mother-in-law’s house. Of course, I served in the military and also worked in the US and earned a living.

?: Do you have a huge house in the US?
A: I don’t have any houses. I was a Secretary to the Ministry of Defence since 2005. I have not added wealth after I became the Secretary Defence. During this period, I did not gather money; I did not buy properties nor had company shares. I did not even have a foreign bank account.

Q Then why were you summoned to the FCID?
A: It’s political harassment and nothing else.

?: Were you not shown documents detailing your accounts etc, to prove that you have done backdoor dealings?
A: Anyone can show documents, but if I have not done anything wrong, what can I do? I don’t have any proof. If I own a hotel or too many houses or properties then one may suspect I had money. In that case, I should have eaten all the dollars I earned illegally. Don’t you think?

?: If you become the President of this country, what is the first thing you would do?
A: Of course there are lots of things to do. It’s not simple. But, I will put this whole mess on the right track. We are going reverse. Look at the economy and the development. Everything is at a standstill.

?: During your regime there was no freedom to do what people wanted to do. But now, you are allowed to hold meetings anywhere you want, talk about the ruling party. Aren’t you enjoying doing politics in this manner?
A: How come? There is a difference between Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. The UNP, then the main opposition, held so many protests. Do you know during our time, there were 35 protests held in a day? This was reported to us.

?: There are widespread allegations that the Prime Minister has cut a deal with you and is protecting you from being arrested on various charges. What do you have to say about it?
A: No. I have got a Supreme Court order not to arrest me. So, no one is protecting me. Anyway, why should I be arrested?

?: There are allegations against you, aren’t there?
A: You mean if there are allegations one should be arrested?

?: Isn’t the FCID summoning you to question you on these allegations?
A: So why am I being daily questioned by the FCID and by the Bribery Commission? I was called by the CID too.

?: Isn’t it because someone has complained against you?
A: So, does it mean I should be arrested over someone’s complaints against me? I have served this country. I am responsible for bringing peace to the country. The international community may not believe it because they are full of agendas.

?: Will you challenge the international community if you have the power?
A: Why should I challenge? India is the only country which could have stopped the military campaign. But, we had a good relationship with India. Also, many Muslim countries in the world voted for us. China too favoured us while Japan, which abstained from voting, invested in Sri Lanka. Pakistan helped us to fight against terrorism. We managed to destroy LTTE ships with the US support. This is how we got assistance from the countries. Just shaking hands with leaders around the world posing with them for photos does not mean we are maintaining a good relationship with other countries. What you get for the country in terms of development, fighting terrorism etc is what is called a good relationship. However, we had some issues later on.

?: The ‘issues’ that came later on have now turned out to be a big issue, hasn’t it?
A: Yes. We had different perspectives on many issues the international community applied to us. We did not agree to their calls.

?: Do you think the US has let you down?
A: No. That is their policy. We did not believe in their policy, that’s all.

?: But that issue has tarnished your family name?
A: Yes. That is a different issue, however. But what is important is, we serve the country.

?: What should the government do with the LTTE suspects who are in prison without any charges?
A: Who released the most of the prisoners? It was us. Who released 13,000 LTTE cadres after rehabilitating them? It was us. There were 5,000 detainees in the detention camps. They were arrested before Rajapaksa’s time. When we retired from the leadership, there were only 74 persons. Who released Thamilini? It was us. There are 206 LTTE suspects in prison. These ones should be tried in courts. That is what we wanted to do.

?: But why didn’t you do that?
A: There were delays in the court hearing. You know how court hearings are. There must be evidences and the process delayed.

?: What about Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), the LTTE weapons dealer? He was not tried nor in the prison with the rest of the suspects?
A: Why don’t you talk about the 13,000 persons who were rehabilitated?

?: Why wasn’t KP rehabilitated or put in prison?
A: KP was rehabilitated.

?: For how many years?
A: About three to four years.

?: Why is he not allowed to move about freely?
A: He wanted to do something of his own and he is reintegrated into the society.

?: That is not true. We met him in Kilinochchi running his school but he is under army custody. They did not let us talk to him or take a photograph. He was warned over the phone not to entertain journalists. Why such protection for him?
A: He is a special case. May be you were there during the time he was being rehabilitated.

?: No. We met him at the school he runs even now. He was surrounded by military personnel. You know that for sure.
A: Other allegations may have popped up after he was released. These are military strategies I cannot divulge now. Why don’t you talk about the 13,000 rehabilitated ones?

?: We have interviewed many of those who were rehabilitated. But, we were curious to know why KP was given special treatment?
A: Why didn’t you contact me before meeting KP?
?: You just said he was rehabilitated and reintegrated to the society. Then we don’t need permission, do we?
A: Who stopped you? I don’t know but anyone is free to meet him.

?: But I was not allowed to talk to him. He could not speak as the military was watching him. Why was that?
A: Many had interviewed him. I have allowed many to interview him. I am not sure why they did not allow you.

?: That means he is under custody. Shouldn’t KP be tried like the rest of the prisoners?
A: He is rehabilitated.

?: There were nearly 35 bodyguards around him and he was taken to school and picked up from school by the military, I was told. What is the secret there?
A: That you must ask the army. Not me.

?: The JVP leader also wanted KP to be tried. The matter is with the Attorney General, isn’t it?
A: I don’t know. Ask the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI).

?: The rumour is that KP has the LTTE funds and the government took it and gave him a lease of life. Is that true?
A: I don’t know. In that case this government can probe that too.

?: Many say the government destroyed the culture of the North and made them dependent and a weak community. What is your response?
A: It was Prabhakaran who destroyed the culture. Who created child soldiers? Who put cyanide capsule around their necks? What about the suicide cadres? Who changed that horrible culture? It was Mahinda Rajapaksa who defeated him and today these child soldiers are going to school. He created the peaceful environment.

?: What is your solution to the burning Tamil problem?
A: I don’t think there is a burning question. It’s the Tamil politicians who claim so. We brought peace, gave security and freedom to the people. During the 30 years of war, people in the North were brainwashed. It will take some time to get those LTTE doctrines off their minds. What should be done is to create an environment for everyone to live as citizens of Sri Lanka with dignity. That is what is required. That is what is necessary for the North and East. Because of the politicians, countries are divided all over the world. With politicians who want to divide the country there will be no normalcy prevailing. Can you bring reconciliation by bringing various divisions among people of one country?

?: The Tamils were having an issue for the last 60 years and you say they don’t have an issue?
A: That is why we had a war. We should create an environment for all to live as Sri Lankans and not divide the country and that is the political solution.

?: Local media reports about military intimidation in the North creating fear psychosis. Even the UN experts who came here had said the same thing. International human rights activists also confirm it. Don’t you think everybody in the country should also change their mindset? Even the government claimed that the peace and reconciliation should come from the South?
A: There are politicians to take care of those small issues. The Chief Minister is there in the North who fights for such cases. They are always alert there. When there is a threat, the military and the police have to do certain duties. When that factor is still prevailing, they should take precautions with minimum disturbance to the population. You cannot just accept that everything is normal there. So we must create that environment and that is the political solution without dividing the country.

?: They say the South too needs to come forward for reconciliation. Don’t you see the importance of the South to be on the same line?
A: How many Tamil surgeons we have in this country? They have the freedom to enter the medical college and become a doctor. Similarly, how many government servants working in the Sinhala areas and how many working in the Tamil areas? We have accepted all those.

?: So there is no problem in Sri Lanka whatsoever?
A: We don’t have a problem.

?: What do you think about a federal solution that is now being put forward by the Northerners?
A: I am dead against that. Why do you need that? That will lead to a separate state. Federal state will lead to a separate state. This is a small country and must live as one country is my opinion. We have a system and we have a Constitution. Prabhakaran wanted the provincial council and he was happy with a PC system. They wanted the 13 A. Now they want federalism and the next they will ask for a separate state.

?: Anyhow, are you of the opinion that there is no issue between the Tamils and the Sinhalese?
A: There will be no end to these claims. At the end of the day, the Tamils keep asking for more and more. Even if you create a separate state there will be no end to it. We may have to fight over the borders similar to the ongoing battle between India and Pakistan.

?: There is militarization in the North. They say why do we need a huge number of military personnel when peace is prevailing?
A; The most number of military camps is in the Anuradhapura District and not in the North. Most of the people are ignorant of this.

?: The government is now ready to issue certificates of absence to the families of missing persons. Is that a good move?
A: Yes. We were also planning to issue such certificates. Who appointed the committee for the disappearance? It was us.

?: What about the issuance of a death certificate for Prabhakaran? Should that be issued too, as requested by India?
A: I don’t know. I don’t want to respond to that.

?: Some say he did not die but escaped?
A: Those are useless argument. I don’t want to answer anymore if you are going to dig into those old topics.

?: What happened to Pottu Amman, did he die? A widespread view is that his body was not found.
A: We believe he died. We did not find the bodies of most of the LTTEers.

?: Do you assume Pottu Amman was killed?
A: Yes, we assume that he was killed.

?: Now they are trying to appoint a new office for the missing persons. We don’t know how far the Paranagma report will be used. Do you know anything about it?
A: Paranagama mission was to find out about the missing persons. The report is not meant to be re done. His report does not have the power to do anything beyond that, but to report on the number of missing.

?: Mr. Paranagama told us there are some names in the list that need to be probed. These names were mentioned by the victims’ families. So there is legality involved in ascertaining the truth. He said a legal team needs to work on that list of names who will be asked to testify. Is that right?
A: This process is useless. I told
Mr. Paranagama it’s wrong to give names and suggest anything to be done with the names. If someone says this person committed a crime, you cannot believe it. It’s a one-sided story. What about the other side whether that incident actually occurred or not.
Mr. Paranagama accepted it was wrong. He said he had no time to investigate the claims of the people.

?: That means the report is null and void?
A: You may ask him. He told me he could not do a proper investigation on the claims by the victims. He took the one-sided story and made a report.

?: But, this report is accepted by the President and it was revealed to the UNHRC that the report is being done on the missing persons. So what now?
A: Yes. But he could not complete the findings accurately. I gave evidence there. I explained it’s useless to take down someone’s complaints and give a report based on that. That is wrong. It must be investigated whether it really happened or not.

?: In that case, nothing can be probed in Sri Lanka. No report can be made. All attempts are futile?
A: Exactly. That is why I said under the war situation, these reports are unnecessary. It’s a useless exercise. There was terrorism. It has ended now. If you keep going on digging the past you will never bring reconciliation. You will create more vengeance and nothing else.
?: But without seeing a solution to the past issues, how can we move forward? It’s about human lives?
A: In that case, why probe atrocities only in Sri Lanka? Why there is no resolution against the US for their war crimes? There were issues while JRJ, CBK were in power. There were killings too at that time. Why is it only Mahinda Rajapaksa? He is held responsible because he won the war and they are taking revenge. A few countries want to brand him. That is because of the LTTE Tamil diaspora. They are pushing for it. Diaspora can politically influence those countries. Now it’s the time to forget about the past. The LTTE killed and massacred so many Sinhalese. In that case, all that is needed to be probed and there will be no end to this topic.
?: The war crime issues are highly criticized by the Sinhalese too. They too claim violation against humanity has been committed.
A: The media is making them talk like that. What about the Kebithigollewa killings? Find who did that.

?: You were in power when that occurred. Why did you not find out who did that? Karuna Amman was one of the top politicians in your government. He could have answered that question?
A: It’s unnecessary to keep harping on this. Under the war situation all these happened. Sinhalese will agitate if the soldiers are tested. This government is not going to be in power always. The next government will take revenge. Trying to investigate all those alleged atrocities is a waste of time. Let’s put a stop to that era and move forward, is my view. You remember, we released 13,000 LTTEers.

?: No one thinks that the entire army should be blamed. Do you fear at the end, it will point at you? Is that what you fear?
A: Not only me, but a whole lot of people. That will happen and that will create unnecessary problems. They fought a war and then taking them for inquiries is not fair.

?: So the military should not be investigated at all?
A: No. it’s unnecessary. Think of the military’s mindset. We should not treat the war heroes like that.

?: Is this your message to all?
A: This is the view of the Sinhala people.

lanka C news

ජපානයේ ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයින්ගේ ආරාධනයට හිටපු ජනපති ජපානයේ සංචාරයක.

Dr Hector Perera     London

Cooking is not difficult at all, it’s a matter of getting used to it then it becomes quite easy. We have to eat so some people get some people employed for cooking than they get involved in cooking. Back in Sri Lanka some poor women become Kussi Ammas” or servant women in some houses. I am not going into the details of the conditions and environment of those kitchens. Let me point out some difficulties and try and give my ways of solutions how to overcome some difficulties.

Firewood stove kitchen difficulties

Briefly I can say in the past they had nothing but firewood kitchens and generally the kitchens are fairly hot inside due to radiated energy. Most of the time they cooked in clay pots that means they are poor conductors of heat so most of the heat is lost or radiated. Imagine to stay for few hours very close to the firewood stoves in such kitchens. The servants usually stay fairly close to firewood stoves as they have to control the fire. Sometimes the firewood do not catch fire easily so they need to do many things to get the fire get going. While they attempt to get the fire to cook the food, they had to face so many difficulties. All the time, it gives out smoke, some ash, dust then heat due to radiated energy. As the servants had to stay close to the firewood stoves, the radiated heat makes them sweat, feels very hot the whole body especially the face and the hands.

Cooking rice and curries

Then the pot of rice might over flow, dribbles all the way to the firewood then she has to open the lid or nebiliya” to stop over flowing as it wet the firewood then she has to blow several times to get it back. To blow on the firewood sometimes they get very close to the firewood stove or used a metal pipe. Just imagine the heat felt on their heads and the faces, perhaps the others do not want to know as long as the food is served in time on the table. Then she has to open the boiling chicken or fish curry then she keeps on stirring them and taste them several times using a long handled Polkatu handa”. That means she has to look after three things at the same times by standing very close to the smoky dusty firewood stoves. She cannot expect the fire to keep going and sometimes, she has to blow on them as to keep the fire going. Apart from cooking curries, she sometimes fry some papadams and dry red chillies”. Already there is enough heat in the kitchen and with that kind of frying, it makes worse. The chillies give out a strong smell that irritates the eyes to drop tears then the smell makes them cough several times then they get a drooling nose as well. Sometimes they get shouted by the lady of the house for not getting the food on the table.

Quite often they fry dry fish such as sprats that give a very strong smell. If the fire was too much sometimes the frying pan catches fire as well. The smell is so much it fills up the kitchen then some of it enters the main house as well. Have I got to mention that some of these smell get deposited on the person who fry these things? Due to these difficulties some houses always employ servants for cooking. I think now most of those servants have left the country for foreign employment for better paid jobs. Now there are so called visiting servants who try to work at least in two places per day to get good living. They are in a hurry so they try and cook as quickly as possible as they have to rush to the next job, in doing so they might waste more energy in cooking. Sometimes the gas flame even burns off the handles of the cooking vessels as they put too much fire while cooking. Unlike in the past now they have gas and electricity to cook but they are not quite making the best of the facilities.

Some solutions to avoid difficulties in cooking

One must have gas or electricity for cooking than firewood kitchens. That way one can regulate the energy used in the kitchen. The bad conducting or poor conducting materials such as clay pots must be replaced with stainless steel cooking pots and pans for better conductivity of heat. Once it attains the thermodynamic equilibrium condition the temperature must be properly reduced then there will be no excess heat to warm the kitchen. By experience one must understand how long it takes to cook a pot of rice, may be around half an hour. No point of constantly opening the chicken or fish curry as the convection currents created by the heat carries the heat so that it cooks the food. As the convection current comes up, the things in the cooking pots try to absorb some of the heat and that is repeated until it properly cooks. Again by experience one knows how long a chicken curry or a fish curry to cook, may be again half an hour as the maximum. No point of constantly opening and checking to see if they are cooked, by doing that one disturbs the convection currents and the pressure inside the pot. If one keeps on opening the boiling curries, some of the chemicals in the cooking ingredients escape into the air and some are likely to get deposited on the person who cooks. Try and keep them in an enclosed environment so that some get recycled. There is more to be explained again this has to be done with a cooking demonstration. If properly followed the method of cooking one could save a reasonable amount of energy. There are many types of cooking where energy cannot be saved for example baking, grilling, frying and barbequing and a few more methods of cooking. In case of direct heat cooking, my method of cooking can save a reasonable amount of energy if followed properly. I am able to demonstrate how to cook rice and curries by saving around 60% energy wasted in cooking. In the case of cooking curries, the smell depositing on the person who cooks can be avoided in addition to saving energy. These methods have been properly demonstrated in some Sri Lanka TVs and the one done in Sirasa TV gives a long demonstration. If necessary for video demonstration try by typing my name to Google then search under my name Dr Hector Perera Sirasa cooking. Your comments are welcomed perera6@hotmail.co.uk

A Sri Lankan Citizen Courtesy The Island

June 13, 2016, 7:43 pm

As very correctly highlighted in the editorial of The Island of 9 June 2016, when thousands of people of Sri Lanka are desperate, because of the recent floods, landslides and explosions, and crying out for relief, it is a shame that the government has proposed to spend a Rs. 1,175 million for purchasing luxury cars for some MPs. The action taken by the Prime Minister to stop this expenditure is very much appreciated, but it is disturbing to find that some ministers are defending this proposal to spend so much money to import luxury vehicles saying they need these vehicles to serve the people?

Members of the general public are collecting money to feed, clothe and shelter their fellow citizens in distress due to the recent floods, landslides and fire. A large number of foreigners are sending assistance to the people affected. The Maharagama Cancer Hospital is in urgent need of a scanner which costs around 20 million, and the public are collecting the necessary funds to purchase this equipment. Around 40,000 people and their families are affected by the Chronic Kidney Disease reported to occur in 10 districts of the country. A large number of those affected need to travel to hospitals for dialysis. But this facility is not available in most of the hospitals in the 10 districts. Those who need to go to hospitals for dialysis find it very difficult to travel by bus, and needs to be provided with transport. This is the reality; but, some ministers of the government are more interested to purchasing luxury cars spending billions of rupees. These ministers need to realize there is trade deficit of around Rs. 1200 billion, and the foreign exchange utilized to import these vehicles were earned by our people working mainly in the Middle East, toiling day and night.

A Sri Lankan Citizen

Shenali D Waduge

This is alarming news. Can a UN Secretary General be ‘coerced’ by a country? Can the coercion be of monetary nature that leaves the UNSG no choice but to succumb? Can the UN & its Secretary General be bought over for money? Has money being so powerful that the UN even removes a country from a blacklist compiled by the UN? Does money dictate to the UN and does it mean that UN listens only to nations that hold the money carrot? If the UNSG removes the Saudi Kingdom from UN’s own list of countries that killed children for money, what is the UN & UNSG not capable of doing? After being blackmailed all that the UNSG can meekly say is that the decision was ‘one of the most painful and difficult decisions I have had to make” We are now wondering and we have every right to ponder whether the LTTE fronts have bought over the UN/UNHRC too and explains why UN is taking painstaking efforts to even change laws and press war crimes charges against a national army that was only doing its job to save the nation from terrorists. These actions are seriously undermining the credibility of the UN.

This is Ban Ki Moon’s official excuse

“The report describes horrors no child should have to face. At the same time, I also had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would defund many U.N. programs. Children already at risk in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and so many other places would fall further into despair. It is unacceptable for member states to exert undue pressure.”

Just google and see the hilarious comments associated with the removal of Saudi by the UNSG

UN allegations against Saudi Kingdom

• Saudi is declared guilty of killing over 1000 children during the Saudi-led attack on Yemen in 2015 http://www.mintpressnews.com/controversy-swells-un-removes-saudi-arabia-human-rights-blacklist/217150/
• In April a UN report found the Saudi coalition responsible for 60% of the 2000 children killed in conflict on attacks on schools and hospitals. Other UN reports suggests that the bombings have left over 500,000 children facing starvation as a result of Saudi coalition devastating Yemen’s infrastructure.

What is Ban Ki Moon’s excuse for removing Saudi from its list?

• No other reason other than Saudi Kingdom’s threat to cut funds to crucial UN programs and even issue a Fatwa against the UN
• The lame excuse is that without Saudi funding the children in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and other places were at risk! So exactly how much does Saudi give to the UN? According to Global Humanitarian Assistance, Saudi had given a total assistance of $5.7billion in 2013, $754million humanitarian assistance in 2013, contributions to peacekeeping $161million in 2012. http://www.globalhumanitarianassistance.org/countryprofile/saudi-arabia
• If the UN removes Saudi because Saudi is threatening to stop funding it gives all other nations in the UN lists to demand removal too. Obviously they remain on these lists because they haven’t offered money to the UN to be removed. What a state of affairs this is!
• The entire Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) ganged up to up the ante with Islamic nations flooding Ban Ki Moon’s office with phone calls. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/08/saudi-arabia-united-nations-blacklist-yemen-ban-ki-moon

Now let’s move on to Sri Lanka

Our doubts about the UN compromising itself has now virtually been proven with the incident of Saudi removal from blacklist. This is the perfect time to review the UN’s malicious conduct against Sri Lanka

For 30 years the UN watched LTTE kill scores of civilians and unarmed/injured armed personnel. The victims were not only Tamils but Sinhalese & Muslims. Yet take all of UN’s reports the disproportionate emphasis is to showcase that only Tamils were the victims and pains taken to highlight only crimes of armed forces with just a brushing mention of the LTTE.

At no time throughout these 30 years did UN or its Secretary General see fit to appraise the UNGA or the UNSC about the LTTE crimes given that this terrorist organization has been internationally proscribed since 1997 and appeal to the international community to stop avenues where LTTE are able to raise funds to purchase arms and ammunition. London was openly LTTE’s international head office. LTTE theoretician and his foreign wife who trained women LTTE cadres were moving very freely in and out of London. But no sooner the Sri Lankan Army decided to militarily defeat the LTTE, that too after none of the foreign sponsored talks, negotiations and cease fires reaped results, the UNSG enters the scene and appoints a 3 member controversial panel whose report uses pro-LTTE sources and declares LTTE was one of the ‘the most disciplined and most nationalist of the Tamil militant groups’. Yes, very disciplined at killing and recruiting child soldiers.

Within months of writing this report the same 3 panelists co-authors an article virtually laying all blame to the Sri Lankan Army and turning credible allegations to credible evidence. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/opinion/revisiting-sri-lankas-bloody-war.html?_r=0… an excellent selection of an impartial panel! Yasmin Sooka is welcomed on pro-LTTE podiums as a ‘comrade’ and guest speaker, she is an EU employee compiling reports against a UN member country, she signs petitions against SL with pro-LTTE groups and now she has returned to the limelight to say ‘witnesses’ will confess only to international judges! So with the Saudi money carrot – we now have every right to question who is dangling the money carrot for war crimes against Sri Lanka’s war heroes?

No wonder none of the calls to question the legality of the UNSG’s personally commissioned report being used to draft resolutions against a UN member country without even tabling the UNHRC findings even after 2 investigations have been held with nothing to establish war crimes, the money factor is inducing these UN officials and others on payroll to somehow push to bring even false allegations and charges against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces because it is all about a vendetta and revenge and nothing else.

They tried everything – first it was the 40,000 dead figure but now they are slowly trying to distance from that, then what started out as crimes committed during the last 3 months went on to feature non-conflict related issues that could have easily been taken up at the Universal Periodic Reviews. If there is any unbiased person working in the UN not swayed by the money carrot, he/she would have by now stood up and brought out this farce into the open. Obviously the UN is a compromised entity.

If the UN Secretary General can be swayed by money to overturn decisions and entries into UN hall of shame, it also means that others are also able to dangle the money carrot. The US recently announced that the LTTE was continuing its fund raising and that its international networks and contacts were well in place. It doesn’t take an idiot to round up all foreign individuals, organizations and others wagging the LTTE slogans of late across Canada, US, UK, EU, South Africa, India and elsewhere to deduce that MONEY is playing a key role in their talk. Therefore we do not need to be the least surprised when these entities have been going on an tangent calling for war crimes trials, international judges, international hybrid courts and what not probably because all these scripts are written and paid for by the LTTE fronts. If we had any doubt earlier, the action by the UNSG and the UN has all but proved our doubts beyond doubts!

It is simply shocking to accept that not only has the UN removed the Saudi from its list but the UNSG makes a statement crying about why he did it. Oh please save the tears, the incident just goes to show that the UN and its highest officials can be bought for money. Our next question is how much and who has been compromised to take our war heroes to the gallows? We demand answers, the UNSG and the UN and the heads of the other entities that continue to carry out a malicious campaign against Sri Lanka’s national army has much to answer for.

By the way where are all these rights activists? The transparency, and Clean folk always ranting about rights and wrongs?

Shenali D Waduge

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/08/11/credibility-of-yasmin-sooka-report-on-sri-lanka-she-is-an-eu-employee-report-is-funded-by-george-soros/

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2013/03/19/the-illegality-of-un-secretary-general-ban-ki-moons-approach-to-sri-lanka/

https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/06/12/us-says-ltte-collecting-funds-while-sri-lanka-is-deproscribing-these-ltte-fronts/

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

I watch TV and read daily papers ,regarding many statements and promises issued by the Prime Minister ,obviously in good faith and he places the trust in executing the tasks given in  his promises on  the state officials .

It is regrettable to note that all chairmen of corporations or Accounting officers have any guts to implement the promises.

I went to see a chairman today to get his approval to kick start a development project which has been approved by the cabinet after going thru a tedious process of various other reviews by other relevant agencies.

I explained that we are ready to invest 25 Million US $  in the project which will provide employment to the youth in the south and generate much needed foreign currency for the country .

I was told by the chairman that Prime Minister has ordered to cancel all the approvals granted earlier and requested them to call fresh RFP’s ( Request for Proposals) and obtain new proposals from new investors .

I explained to him that this particular project will augment whatever RFP they intend to call for but he was not ready to listen

He says that if he tries to defy the PM’s orders he will get the Guillotine or if he survives he will be called to the other slaughter house called FCID.

Yahapalanaya was such a musical word to all of us about 1 ½ years back and now it has become joke of the day .

Few professional who somewhat support previous regime despite various allegations ask me with a sarcastic tone Hei How is Yahapalanaya?”

It was musical to me and now I despise to hear that word

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි

මේ වනවිට මෙරට තුල සිංහල මුස්ලිම් ජන අරගලයකට සියල්ල සූදානම්ව පවතී. පවතින රජය හමුදාවන් සතු ආයුධ ප්රමාණය විකුණා දමා හෝ විනාශ කිරීමෙන් පසු හමුදාව දුබල තත්වයකට පත්කල විගස මේ මුස්ලිම් ගැටුම ආරම්භ වීමට ප්රමාණාට්මකව පසුබිමක් සකස්ව ඇත. සිංහල මුස්ලිම් ජනතා ගැටුමක අවශ්යතාවය තේරුම් ගත් බටහිර ප්රජාව ඒ සම්බන්ධව සූදානම්වීම ආරම්භ කලේ, කොටි සංවිධානය විනාශ කිරීමත් සමගමය. බටහිර ජාතීන් විසින් රහසිගතව සැලසුම් කොට, මුස්ලිම් තරුණයින්ට මුදල් ආධාර සපයා නිකරුණේ බුදු දහමට නිගාකරමින් වීඩියෝ පට නිශ්පාදනය කර, අන්තර්ජාලයට මුදාහරිමින් ආරම්භකල මේ කටයුත්තට, එරෙහිව සිංහල බලවේගයන්ටද මුදල්හා ප්රතිපාදන සපයමින් ප්රති විරුද්ධ බලවේග දෙකක් නිර්මාණය කරන ලදී. මේ සෙල්ලම බටහිර ජාතීන් දෙමළ ප්රජාවට සිදුකල අතර, එම කටයුත්තම මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ට සිදුකිරීමටද, බටහිර ජාතීන්ට හැකියාව ලැබිණි. ලංකාව තුල තමන්ගේ මුදලින් ගොඩනැංවෙන ප්රති විරුද්ධ බලවේග දෙකක් නිර්මාණය කල මේ නිර්ලජ්ජිත බටහිර තානාපති බලගනය. එංගලන්තයේ මුස්ලිම් ප්රජාව පාවිච්චි කරමින්, ලංකාවේ මුස්ලිම් වරු සමූහ ඝාතනයකට ලක්කර ඇති බව අගවමින් විරෝධතාවයන් දක්වමින් කටයුතු කරන ලදී. මේ දැක්වෙන්නේ එවැනි එක් විරෝධතායක පෙල ගැස්මයි. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTXRo0f_EiM

කිසිදා ලංකාවට ඇවිත් නැති ලංකාව ගැන කිසිත් නොදන්නා මුස්ලිම්වරු ලන්ඩනයේදී මුස්ලිම්වරුන් සමූල ඝාතනය වන බව ලොවට හඩ නගා කියන විට, ජාත්යන‌්තර ම‌ුස්ලිම් ප්රජාව හා රාජ්යන් සෘජුවම ශ්රී ලංකා රජයට එරෙහිව මුස්ලිම් සංවිධාන වලට ආධාර කරන්නට විය  එහි පලයක් වශයෙන් මේ වන විට මුස්ලිම් සිංහල ගැටුමකට සියලුම පදනම සකසා අවසන්ය. දැන් උවමනා වන්නේ ගැටුම ආරම්භ කිරීමට සංඥාව පමණි. මේ සටනේ ආරම්භය සිංහල අන්තවාදීන්ගේ පැත්තෙන් ආරම්භ කරනවාද, නැත්නම් මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදීන්ගේ පැත්තෙන් ආරම්භ කරනවාද යන්න තීරණය කරනු ලබන්නේ මෙරට බටහිර තානාපති බලමුළුවයි. මේ වන විට දෙපැත්තේම කුපිත කිරීම් එකිනෙකා වෙත සිදු කරන අතර, තවම සිංහල අන්තවාදීන්  බලවත්ව, ගැටුමකට යන්න මැලිකමක් දැක්වීම මේ ගැටුම පමාවීමට එක් හේතුවක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. එමෙන්ම මේ ගැටුම ඇවිලවීමට හා පවත්වාගෙන යාමට ඇවැසි මුදල් හිගකමකටද බටහිර ප්රජාව මුහුණදී සිටීමද මේ ගැටුම පමාවීමට විශාල හේතුවක් බවට පත්ව ඇත. බටහිර ප්රජාව කොතරම් බංකොලොත්ව සිටීද යන්න මෙරට ජනතාවට පෙන‌්නුම් කරන ලද්දේ, පසුගිය ගංවතුරත් සමගය. ලෝකයේ බලවත්ම හා ධනවත්ම රාජ්ය යයි විරුධාවලියෙන් පිදුම් ලැබූ ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදය තමන්ගේ ඉතාම මිතුරු යහපාලන රජයට ඩොලර් 50,000 මුදලක් දෙන විට ලෝකයේ දුප්පත්ම රටක්වූ නේපාලය ඩොලර් 100,000 මුදලක් දීමත් සමග ඇමරිකාව නේපාලයට වඩා හරි අඩකින්ම පහත් තලයක පසුවෙන රාජ්යක් බව මෙරට ජනතාවට පැහැදිලිව පෙන්නුම් කරදුන්හ. තවද චීනය අප රටට දුන් ඩොලර් මිලියන 1.5ක  ආධාර කන්දරාව ඉදිරියේ ඇමරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදය කුරුමිට්ටෙක් බවට පත්ව සිටින බවක්ද පෙන්නුම් කලහ. තවද ඒ චීනය ලබාදුන් ගංවතුර ආධාර අතරවූ ටෙන්ට් 1000 යෙන් කොටසක් අද සාලාව හමුදා කදවුරෙහි පිපිරීමෙන් අවතැන් වූවන්ට ලබාදීමට කටයුතු කිරීම මගින‌් අපි දකින්නේ චීනය මේ අවස්ථාවේදීත් අපේ මිනිසුන් වෙනුවෙන් සැබෑ ලෙසම පෙනී සිටින වගයි

අප මේ සියලුම කරුණු ග‌ෙනහැර දක්වන්නේ, මෙරට මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදයට උරුමව ඇති තත්වය සම්බන්ධව පැහැදිලි පින්තූරයක් ගෙනහැර දැක්වීමටයි. දෙමළ අන්තවාදය හා මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදය පෝෂණය කල ඇමරිකාව අද ජාත්යන්තරව  වැහැරෙමින් පවතින අසාර්තක රාජ්යක් බවට පත් ව ඇති අතර, එය විසින් පවත්වාගෙන ගිය සියලුම ත්රස්තවාදී කණ්ඩායම් ජාත්යන්තරව විශාල අර්බූද ගනනාවකට පත්ව ඇති මේ මොහොතේ, අප රට තුල ඇති මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදය, කොටි සංවීධානය ලද ආකාරයට එහා ගිය විනාශයකට පත්වෙන එක නවතාලිය හැකි ජගතෙක් මෙලොව නැත. මේ තත්වයන් මනාව අවබෝධ කරගනිමින් සිංහල ජනතාව හා මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව තම තමන්ගේ කදවුර තුල පවතින අන්තවාදී තත්වයන් මැඩපවත්වා ගත යුතුමය.

මෙරට ඉතිහාසය පුරාම මුස්ලිම්-සිංහල, මුස්ලිම්-දෙමළ මුස්ලිම්-පෘතුගීසි, මුස්ලිම්-ඕලන්ද හා මුස්ලිම් -ඉංග්රීසි ගැටුම් සිදුව තිබේ. සිංහල රජවරුන් පාලනය කල වරායවල් අල්ලා ගැනීම සදහා මහා සටන් දියත් කර ඒවා අල්ලාගෙන රජවර‌ුන්සේ මුහ‌ුදු බඩ පලාත්වල වාසය කල මුස්ලිම් වරුන්ට බටහිර ජාතීන් එලව එලවා පහර දෙන විට මෙරට පන්සල් වල හාමුදුරුවරු හා රජවරු රැකවරනය ලබාදී රට තුලට ගත්හ. මන්නාරමේ මුතු කිමිදීම දෙමළ ප්රජාව සිදුකරන විට එහි දෙමළ පරජාව ඝාතනය කර රාමේස්වරන් කෝවිල බිමට සමතලා කර මුලු මන්නාරමම ජන ශුන්ය පලාතක් බවට පත්කොට තමන්ට සිදුකරගෙන යා හැකිව තිබූ මුතු වෙළදාම පවා අහිමි කරගත්තේ මුස්ලිම් ප්රජාව විසිනි.

ජාත්යන්තරවත් එෙතිහාසිකවත් කුරුස යුද්ධ විසින් බටහිර ප්රජාව හා මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ව පැහැදිලිව දෙකඩ කර ඇත යම් කට ය ුත්තකට මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ට බ‌ටහිර ප්රජාව උදව් කරන්නේ නම් එත තමන්ගේ බිලී පිත්තට අමුනන පනුවෙකුට උරුම තුන මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ට ලබාදෙන බව මරට මුස්ලිම් ජාතිකයින් අවබෝධ කර ගත යුතුමය.

ඇමරිකාව තුල දැඩි ලෙස මුස්ලිම්වරුන්ව පෙලන තත්වයක් තුල ඇමරිකාව මෙරට මුස්ලිම්වරුන් වෙනුවෙන් ඉදිරිපත් වෙන්නේම නැත. ම හා බ්රිතාන්යද එම තත්වයම අනුගමනය කරන අතර, අද ඔවුන් ගොඩනංවන ලද අල් කයිඩා හා ISIS මුස්ලිම් කැරලි කරුවන් ව‌ෙත රුසියන් පොස්පරස් බෝම්බ පතිත වෙන්නේ  පොකුරු වශයෙන්යයි හඩතලන්නේද ඇමරිකාව හා මහා බ්රිතාන්යය ඔවුන්තමන් ගොඩනැංව ූ ත්රස ්තවාදීන් වෙනුවෙන් කිසිදු ක‌ටයුත්තක් කොකරමින් තමනුත් තමන් ගොඩනැංවූ ත්රස්තවාදීන්ට පහර දෙමින් සිටින බවක් අගවයි

මුස්ලිම් ප්රජාව හැකි තරම් මේ මර උගුලේ ස්වරූපය තේරුම්ගෙන තමන්ගේ ප්රජාව සිංහලයින්කුපිත කිරීමේ කටයුතු වලින් වලකී සිටිය යුතුය විශේෂයෙන්දළදා මාළිගාව අසල සිදිකරන ප්රකෝප කිරීම් සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම නවතාලිය යුතුය. මේ වන විටත් දළදා මාලිගාවට අයත් බොහෝමයක් ස්ථානවල වෙළදාම්කරන්නේද තමන්ම බව වටහා ගත යුතුය. දළදා පෙරහැර මංගල්ලයක් වන්නේ මහනුවර සිටින මුස්ලිම් වෙළද ප්රජාවට බවද තේරුම් ගත යුතුය. මෙය නිසි ලෙස අවබෝධ කර නොගෙන තමනට කිසිදු වරදක් නොකරන ජාතියකට එරෙහිව නැගී සිටීමට කටයුතු කිරීම තමන්ට යලි කිසිදා ගොඩට ඇදගත නොහැකි ප්රති විපාකයක් ලගා කරන බව තේරුම් ගැනීමට අවුරුදු 30ක යුද්ධය හොදටම ප්රමාණවත්ය.

මේ වන විට ලෝකයේ ඉහලම මුස්ලිම් රාජ්යවූ සව්දි අරාබියට හා තුර්කියට උරුමව ඇති ආර්තික පීඩනය හේතුවෙන් මෙරට මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදයට පැවත්මක් නැති බව පැහැදිලිව පෙනි පෙනී මේ රටතුල ලේ විලක් නිර්මාණය කිරීමට ඇති සදිතුවිලි වලින් බැහැර වෙන ලෙස අප ඉල්ලා සිටින්නෙමු. බුද්ධිමත්ව සිතන්න.

ශ්රී ලංකා මාතාව දිනේවා!

KAMALIKA  PIERIS

The LTTE  knew that it could not face the Sri Lanka army in regular conflict.  They were not a trained army. On the two occasions when the state army was allowed to fight them properly, they were soundly defeated.( Vadamarachchi,1987 and  Eelam war IV 2009). Clashes with the LTTE had shown the Sri Lanka army  that the LTTE did not know how to fight. At Muhamalai, LTTE had come in a large group, attacking not tactically but from where they could . At Vakarai, a strong LTTE base, they had fled in disarray.  Even the volunteer forces have been able to defeat the LTTE. When LTTE attacked Weli Oya , volunteers under the direction of Brigadier Janaka Perera returned fire. LTTE dropped their weapons and ran.  LTTE lost almost 300 cadres. The army only lost two.  LTTE had not known how to oppose the large scale assault at Puthumathalan in 2009. The army later found Tamil translations of English language books on war strategy among the documents buried by the LTTE. They were still learning  how to fight.

The media had however, drilled into the minds of the public  the notion that the LTTE was invincible and the Sri Lanka army could not beat the LTTE. ‘Taraki’ said LTTE was the most ferocious and resilient fighting force in the world. Sri Lanka army cannot hope to match it. D.B.S. Jeyaraj said LTTE would deal a knockout blow to the army. This was contested by skeptics who said that the LTTE ‘invincibility’ was an invention of pro-Eelamists. LTTE was only a paper tiger   hyped up by the western media as ‘ferocious and unbeatable’.

LTTE fighting power came from its powerful weapons, sent regularly from overseas.  When ‘Diyakawa’ intercepted a LTTE vessel in 1984, the LTTE were carrying 303 rifles, Diyakawa only had semi automatic weapons.  The LTTE was never short of ammunition for its big guns whereas the military was always short of ammunition and spares.

LTTE knew that they could not defeat the Sri Lanka army in straight battle. So they tried other tactics. Their favorite method was to get the war stopped if the Sri Lanka army was winning and they were losing. They succeeded in this at Vadamarachchi in 1987and hoped for this in Eelam War IV as well. LTTE   also wanted the army kept as far away from the north as possible. When the Saliyapura army base in Anuradhapura was set up LTTE frantically agitated for its removal.

They also agitated to get the army units in the north to leave.  They succeeded in getting the army to vacate two strategic bases, Valvettiturai and Point Pedro. Further, they said that the sight of airplanes fitted with guns upset the Tamils living in the north and got the guns removed from Air Force planes.  Each time the Air Force went into battle, it had   first to get permission to mount the guns.

The LTTE fought a cowardly, contemptible war. They blasted Kalmadulukulam tank to drown advancing troops from Vishvamadu. The troops consisted of almost 50 battalions of Sri Lanka Light Infantry, Sinha, Gemunu watch, Gajaba, and Vijayabahu.  They blew up Nethali Aru Bridge. At Dharmapuram, they tried to blow up a bridge near Pulathi aru.   At the end of Eelam War IV, LTTE cadres disguised as civilians had approached troops at Karayamullivaikkal on the banks of Nanthikadal lagoon on May 18, 2009. They were not allowed in and when the army fired in the air about 200 LTTE including the ones in civilian attire opened fire. A heavily armed LTTE group had been hiding in a nearby islet.

LTTE used human shields,  suicide bombers, and religious places to prevent the army from attacking them and also trap the army into committing war crimes. Machinery for making claymore mines was located close to orphanages. Air Force couldn’t bomb without harming civilians.  When Air Force attacked Sencholai LTTE alleged that they had hit an orphanage. Sencholai was a training camp containing child soldiers. LTTE fired from places close to hospitals.  The army could not fire back. It is prohibited to direct an attack at an area which shelters the sick and wounded.

LTTE    targeted the armed forces when they were off duty. This was despicable. A truck laden with explosives went into the army base in Nelliady, Jaffna, killing over 50 soldiers who were watching television.  A group of off duty navy personnel were attacked at a transit point, Digampathana, killing 103   and wounding over 150. The navy vowed to hit back.    ‘Pride of South’, a private vessel taking 1300 military personnel to base was attacked. . LTTE killed one soldier and injured two other soldiers in the no fire zone in a 12 hour humanitarian pause.  Buses transporting army personnel were bombed in Colombo on two occasions   suicide bombers hit Sri Lanka Army Headquarters, killing 16.  LTTE killed police as well. A truck carrying Sri Lanka Police Special Task Force personnel were bombed in Ratmalana. A suicide bomber rammed into a bus in Colombo, carrying a police riot squad, killing 11 police officers.

LTTE did not want to meet the army in battle, so they erected barriers to keep them out. LTTE knew their territory well and used this to construct fortifications that created difficulties for the army. As the terrain and scenario changed so did their fortifications. In May 2009, LTTE hid behind defenses consisting of deep ditches and strong bunds. One complex of fortifications was 800 meters deep and 8 kilometers wide. As they retreated, LTTE cut the ditches, so that lagoon water would flow in. These bunds and ditches posed a massive challenge to the army and hindered operations.  The soldiers had not anticipated them and had to struggle to demolish them. . There was an earth bund from Jaffna lagoon to Kilinochchi and another built across a 12 kilometer stretch from Kilaly to Nagarkovil via Muhamalai. Army took four attempts to clear it, with the loss of about 500 officers and men and hundreds injured.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=108209

Shenali D Waduge

A gay nightclub became the latest attack in Orlando, USA resulting in the deaths of 50 people and injuring scores of others. President Obama called it ‘an act of terror and an act of hate’. The gunman was a Muslim and ISIL has claimed responsibility. Not many seem to question the roots of Islamic terrorism and instead have opted to attack mosques and Muslims. The scale of these attacks and the silence by the Christian West can be compared to the manner they reacted in Sri Lanka’s case related to Dambulla and Aluthgama where even the UNHRC head quoted these and chagrined only the Sinhala Buddhists which is hardly comparable to the types of attacks taking place in Christian countries. Are people aware the scale of anti-Islamic sentiments in US, EU, UK and elsewhere? At what other place of worship would this be tolerated? If people with assault rifles stood outside of a Christian church or Jewish synagogue, Americans would explode in fury. Those with the assault rifles might be arrested for threatening worshipers; they might even be shot. When it is Muslims that are threatened, dare I say terrorized, by heavily armed Islamophobes, on the other hand, suddenly the problem is framed as a First Amendment issue.” Says Ben Norton

If Islamic jihadists are in receipt of training and support of Western states these ‘Islamic’ attacks become a real farce and it questions the unfairness of these Western governments that allow innocent Muslims to be attacked. Hundreds of mosques and Muslims have been attacked but there is no international body that comes out to point fingers against the perpetrators because the perpetrators are in the driving seat of virtually all decision making across the world. Russia and China are the only others to comment. That is one end of the argument.

The other factor is that Muslims themselves have to accept that they too have to account for much. In non-Muslim majority countries they are imposing their will using the strength of the money that comes from oil-rich nations ready to fork out any amounts to promote Wahhabi faith. It is from these oil-rich countries that the West is plucking out men to turn into terrorists. Muslims cannot object to the allegation that they are intruding into sacred places of others and thereafter demanding their will prevails. This is certainly does not showcase as a gesture of peace or goodwill and Sri Lanka can present many examples of how Muslim-will had been covertly attempted to prevail in Sri Lanka – halal, Muslim new dress code, Muslim-only areas, mosques galore most of which are empty, mosques in sacred Buddhist cities and thereafter use of loudspeakers for mosque calling becoming a disturbance but turned into a racial-religious victim factor…all these examples showcase an ulterior objective on the part of the Muslims also.

Attacks against Muslims in US

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7s1Js_9cgI Muslim Mosques In America Are Being Burned
• an average of 12.6 suspected hate crimes against Muslims in the United States a month, based on F.B.I. data
• two mosques in Hawthorne, California vandalized with ‘Jesus is the way’ scrolled on the walls – Anti-Muslim attacks occurring in record numbers across US https://www.rt.com/usa/325922-hate-crimes-muslims-mosques/
• In Pittsburgh, a passenger in a cab shot the driver, who was Muslim, in the back after the passenger angrily asked him about ISIS and mocked the Prophet Muhammad
• Anaheim, Calif., a bullet-riddled copy of the Quran was left outside an Islamic clothing store
• a man reportedly pulled a knife on a Muslim woman at a carwash and threatened her. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/us/politics/crimes-against-muslim-americans-and-mosques-rise-sharply.html?_r=0
• 53 incidents against Muslims reported in 2010 when Muslims attempted to build a mosque near the site of 9/11
• a man in Pittsburgh shot a taxi driver in his own cab with a rifle for being Muslim.
• A mosque was vandalized in Phoenix
• In a Brooklyn restaurant, a customer shouted Muslim motherfu**er!” and assaulted a Muslim woman
• Two Muslim women were attacked in Tampa. One was shot at as she drove away from a mosque. The other was nearly driven off the road.
• A Muslim judge in Brooklyn judge was sworn in on the Koran, and she received numerous threats. Anonymous callers said You are not an American” and You are a terrorist,” warning We know where to find you” and Watch out because we are going to get you.” This is a judge they are threatening. http://www.salon.com/2015/12/17/a_shame_on_america_hate_attacks_on_u_s_muslims_are_spiking_and_wheres_the_outrage/
• Attack on mosques skyrocketCouncil on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR identified 63 individual incidents of attacks on mosques in the U.S. so far in 2015. http://reverbpress.com/news/us/attacks-on-mosques-skyrocket-us/

Attacks against Muslims in UK & Europe & Australia

• Attacks on British Muslims have gone up 300% since Paris http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/attacks-on-british-muslims-have-gone-up-300-since-paris–ZyMe0b1MhFx
• Research reveals HALF of all Britain’s mosques have been attacked since 9/11 as anti-Islam violence spreads
  read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2351470/Research-reveals-HALF-Britains-mosques-attacked-9-11-anti-Islam-violence-spreads.html#ixzz4BQk3IwQC
  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/04/attacks-against-london-muslims-triple-in-wake-of-paris-attacks
• Firebombs and pigs heads thrown into mosques as anti-Muslim attacks increase after Paris shootings http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/firebombs-and-pigs-heads-thrown-into-mosques-as-anti-muslim-attacks-increase-after-paris-shootings-9977423.html France’s National Observatory Against Islamophobia reports that since last Wednesday a total of 60 Islamophobic incidents have been recorded. France’s National Observatory Against Islamophobia reports that since last Wednesday a total of 60 Islamophobic incidents have been recorded
• Political climate in Europe: ‘Worst level of anti-Muslim bigotry ever’ https://www.rt.com/op-edge/336929-brussels-muslims-hysteria-attacks/
• Mosque ransacked and copies of Quran burned in Corsica http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/mosque-ransacked-copies-quran-burnt-corsica-151226050610696.html
• fire destroys Geelong mosque http://www.news.com.au/national/suspicious-fire-destroys-geelong-mosque/news-story/14114024f03a1ae698f7aaad42e8f340
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4nn6-Z-Qw4 9 Muslim refugee centres burnt in Sweden
• Italian mosque vandalized, quran burnt http://www.islamophobiawatch.co.uk/italian-mosque-vandalised-quran-burnt/
• Extremists threaten to burn all mosques in Norway – http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/kenya-nairobi-westgate-siege-norway-islam-muslim-508570

The news headlines against Muslims

• Belgian Interior Minister says there is a ‘cancer’ of extremism running through Belgian societyhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brussels-attacks-belgian-interior-minister-jan-jambon-says-muslims-dance-in-the-street-following-a6988196.html
• In Europe, Muslim extremists turn to Sexual Terrorism – http://thefederalist.com/2016/01/11/in-europe-muslim-extremists-turn-to-sexual-terrorism/
• Europe’s angry Muslims – http://www.cfr.org/religion/europes-angry-muslims/p8218 Radical Islam is spreading across Europe among descendants of Muslim immigrants. Disenfranchised and disillusioned by the failure of integration, some European Muslims have taken up jihad against the West. They are dangerous and committed — and can enter the United States without a visa. (Council of Foreign Relations – a premier US think tank)
• Europe’s Muslims hate the West http://www.politico.eu/article/brussels-attacks-terrorism-europe-muslims-brussels-attacks-airport-metro/ The first reaction to the Brussels massacres among postmodern European intellectuals was predictable: What did we, Europeans, do to them, our Muslims? How could followers of a religion that is proudly called the religion of peace” commit these kinds of atrocities?
• Belgian Muslims held street parties celebrating Brussels attackshttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/210384#.V15EO49OLcc
• New Jersey police officers say Muslims DID celebrate 9/11 and eyewitness remembers cheers of ‘Allahu Akbar!’
  Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3369705/Was-Trump-Police-officer-says-pockets-Muslims-celebrated-9-11-shouted-Allahu-Akbar.html

Prof. Choussodovsky writing to the Global Research states that Washington is behind the ISIS as well as moderate Al Qaeda terrorists. He says the ISIS was until 2014 known as Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). He also says Al Nusra is an Al Qaeda affiliate which the Obama administration supports to go after ISIS aka AQI. He says ISIS and Al Nusra are protected by Western military alliance and being used to destroy Syria and Iraq. He also says Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al Shabab in Somalia, the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (supported by NATO in 2011), AL Qaeda in Islamic Maghred, the Jemaah Islamiah in Indonesia all affiliates of Al Qaeda are covertly supported by Western intelligence. US is also supporting Al Qaeda affiliates in Xianjiang Uighur autonomous region of China.

Prof. Choussodovsky says that US/NATO air bombings do not target ISIS and instead targets Syrian & Iraqi schools, hospitals, factories, residential areas, government buildings, roads, bridges etc. This means that the Western governments are using Al Qaeda and affiliates to destroy Iraq and Syria and the foot soldiers are these terrorists supplied by Western allied Muslim states. He goes on to say that the US is ‘Number One ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’.

Origins of Al Qaeda dates to Soviet-Afghan War with CIA training camps during Reagan administration set up in Pakistan that trained 35,000 jihadists from 43 Islamic countries during 1982-1992. Terrorists became known as ‘freedom fighters’.

The US even funded jihadi textbooks (published by University of Nebraska) to brainwash Afghan children. The US recruited Osama bin Laden in 1979 to lead the Al Qaeda just like Prabakaran was selected by India to lead the LTTE. 9/11 was not a job done by Al Qaeda but it was good enough reason to invade Afghanistan. ISIL – The Islamic State is also an AL Qaeda affiliate created by US intelligence and supported by British MI6 and Mossad, Pakistan’s ISI, Saudi Arabia’s GIP and these were the ‘rebels’ that supported the ouster of Syria’s Assad. Prof. Choussodovsky says NATO and Turkey recruited ISIL and Al Nusrah mercenaries for the Syrian insurgency. He says that Western Special Forces and Western Intelligence operatives are working within the ranks of ISIL (shocking). These western military specialists contracted by Pentagon have even trained terrorists in use of chemical weapons. Prof. Choussodovsky says that the ISIL’s practice of beheadings are part of the US sponsored terrorist training! The ISL mercenaries are said to be death row criminals released from Saudi prisons! Prof. Choussodovsky concludes that the Islamic terror is a project of the US foreign policy agenda to carve up Iraq & Syria into separate territories – Sunni Islamist Caliphate, an Arab Shia Republic and a Republic of Kurdistan.

Prof Choussodovsky that the homegrown terrorist threat is a lie being promoted by Western governments helped by media in order to remove civil liberties and create a police state. He says terror attacks are staged and created to instil fear so that America can strengthen its law enforcement apparatus and control the minds of millions of Americans that their government is protecting them when in reality their government is creating the mayhem. He says that counter-terrorism campaigns have demonized Muslims and anybody questioning anti-terror law are slapped with anti-terror laws. He says the objective of ‘Global War on Terror’ is to subdue the citizens and prevent them from finding out or questioning the truth.

However, while this is all true, the Muslims themselves have much to account for. Using the hat of ‘victim’ they have been penetrating into non-Muslim lands and setting up mosques, prayer centres, madrassas and using the power of their money to bribe their will. The recent attempt to build a minaret above the sacred Dalada Maligawa in Kandy, Sri Lanka speaks volumes of the manner of incursions taking place while pretending to be wanting to live in peaceful co-existence. These incursive attempts on the strength of the money that is being sent through the Saudi-oil and the long term objective of spreading Wahhabi faith does not help the Muslims who on the one hand are being unfairly attacked by Christian West who have created these Islamic terrorists.

Our concern in Sri Lanka is simple. Given that these Islamic terrorists are virtually missionaries using and abusing the Islamic faith though they have been provided by Islamic nations, we too are conscience that our sacred places of worship can be ordered for attack any day. In reading Prof. Choussodovsky’s research Buddhists of Sri Lanka have every right to fear and the GOSL is bounden to address these fears. \

Shenali D Waduge

http://www.globalresearch.ca/twenty-six-things-about-the-islamic-state-isil-that-obama-does-not-want-you-to-know-about/5414735

V.Anandasangaree Secretary General- TULF

Your Excellency,

War victims need Financial Assistance Urgently

On behalf of the Tamil United Liberation Front  I express  my  deepest sympathies to the victims of the Kosgama Salawa Army camp incident, who virtually  lost all their possessions unexpectedly in a short while. Immense damage had been caused to their houses and other properties.  It is not that easy to reimburse all what they had lost. It is not fair on my part to make favorable or adverse comments about the rehabilitation works undertaken, because it is only those who are on the spot will understand the situation. But I appreciate the decision taken by the government to pay the families of the victims a sum of Rs.50,000 each for a specified period.

Since I am from Killinochchi I understand well the type of problems the victim of such incidents face. It may not be irrelevant if I quote a paragraph from a lengthy letter dated 17 -10- 2009  running to seven pages, sent to the former President Mahinda Rajapakse, wherein I had stated as follows.

Your Excellency, you have committed to protect their property as well. I hardly met a beggar in the past in any of the two districts of Killinochchi and Mullaitivu. Most of them had been living comfortably. Some owned big mansions, tractors with trailers, Lorries, cars, vans, two wheel tractors and thousands of Motorcycles. Some were engaged in extensive cultivation, dairy farming and poultry farming. They left behind everything including their lifetime savings invested on articles of gold. When they get back to their homes hardly anything will remain there. If you allow them to go and take possession of their movables and preserve them in a common place, it will be a great boon for them.”

Things had happened as I anticipated. Nothing was found in their homes when they returned after the war was over. Even the fittings, windows, doors were all removed. The scene that we now see in Salawa and in the neighboring villages was almost similar to what appeared soon after the war and regrettably even  now, in many parts of  Vanni, seven years after the end of the war. The only difference could be that small huts now appear in places where their houses big and small once stood and the debris of all houses now removed. The lives of many are miserable in their small huts, not suitable for human habitation with no sufficient food and regular income.  I appeal to you, your Excellency, to adopt a short term scheme to last one year or so and provide the disserving with free ration or subsidized food items and a monthly allowance of about atleast 25,000 rupees as minimum with which they will take care of their uncompleted houses, which could not be completed due to lack of funds.

Merely because there is no one to bring to your notice, the grave problems most of them face, it does not mean that they are living in comfort. The assistance coming from the Diaspora is not reaching those who deserve help. I very strongly urge you, your Excellency, to reintroduce the old ration scheme that existed till 1975, on an Island wide scale for those whose income is not sufficient to maintain their families, so that no one will go starving for want of means. My request for financial assistance to the war victims in Vanni and other places should not be ignored and a favorable decision taken immediately. To grant relief for them, if sufficient funds are not available the gold seized in Vanni could be made use of for this purpose.

Thanking you,

Yours Sincerely,

V.Anandasangaree
Secretary General- TULF

Copies to :     Hon. Ranil Wickramasinghe , Prime Minister
Hon. Ravi Karunanayake , Minister of  Finance.

The British High Commission in Colombo is looking for a Tamil speaking political officer

By Dr. Tilak S Fernando 2016-06-13  Ceylon Today

Gayathri lives in Dehiwala at her sister’s house, occupying the upper floor, since her husband deserted her. Her own personal story is long and tragic, but she has been leading an independent life ever since by sharing her sister’s accommodative house with her brother Prasanna.

Prasanna suffered from polio for a considerable period of time but not seriously as he was supposed to have been infected with a type of polio known as Poliovirus – a ‘post-polio syndrome’, which affected one of his limbs making his knee joint weak and painful. Gayathri was very fond of his disabled brother and looked after his welfare affectionately. Prasanna in return reciprocated his love and fondness to his sister without any reservation.

To overcome his disability and help him walk comfortably, health authorities recommended a specially designed pair of shoes that enabled him to cycle at times. His only possession in life was his bicycle that he owned for some time and treasured much.

Due to degeneration of his knee joint and not wearing the shoes as advised, he had to live on crutches for the rest of his life. Seemingly his health deteriorated and his sojourn in this world came to an end recently.

Unfamiliar noises

Less than three months of his demise Gayathri was disturbed by various odd sounds here and there in her house, while the barking of the dog continued nonstop. Gradually things became worse where Gayathri was wondering whether it was due to a supernatural force inside her home. The television was switched on automatically out of the blue, and a rocking type chair in front of the TV where Prasanna used to sit started to undulate automatically. With the passage of time Gayathri was convinced completely of a spirit’s presence inside the house but she became helpless and could not do much about it.

The spirit did not like her sister-in-law for some reason. This became evident by the violent behaviour of the spirit whenever she visited Gayathri. The spirit appeared very angry and exhibited hostile behaviour. When she stayed with Gayathri for about a month, the spirit became extremely violent showing signs of disapproval by removing the TV aerial and throwing it out into the sitting room. Chairs in the sitting area were thrown about violently. Once her sister-in-law was pulled out of the bed from her legs and thrown on to the floor. Poor thing became so petrified that she pulled out the Rosary (being a Catholic) and started saying prayers nonstop while shivering.

Physical appearance

One evening when Gayathri was on her own Prasanna appeared before her inside the house face to face. It was life like and his figure was standing on the stairway. She ran away out of fear due to reflex action but Prasanna kept on appearing thrice that day while the dog continued to bark nonstop. She was petrified being alone in the house and could not sleep till 3 a.m., despite having all the lights in the house switched on. Finally when she fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, Prasanna appeared again in her dream. Gayathri had asked him why he was in the house and pleaded with him to leave her in peace and go. His reply had been: “I am here only to protect you Akki, don’t worry I won’t harm you.”

Following that incident Gayathri could hear him moving about in the house quite often with the help of the crutches, and she could distinctly recognse the sound of the crutches hitting against the floor tiles while he kept limping while walking.

Proof of protection

It happened to be a rainy and miserable day when Gayathri had to leave the house for some important task, so she locked all the doors and windows and even her bedroom door before she embarked on her journey. Unexpectedly due to heavy rain and problems with public transport she delayed her return until it was completely dark.

She became unduly worried about the house being in complete darkness and ran home from the bus halt. As she approached the main gate Gayathri had her heart in her mouth when she saw her house fully illuminated with all the lights switched on, and even the ceiling fans were rotating. Her immediate reaction was shock thinking whether it was due to an intrusion by a gang of robbers. However, the moment she turned the front door key she was convinced that no outsider had entered the house and it took a while for the penny to drop that it could have been Prasanna, his dead brother’s spirit in the house who had taken the precautionary action.

Just prior to Prasanna’s three months’ alms giving, one of his ‘drinking friends’ named Nande approached Gayathri and took Prasanna’s bicycle by force. It had been a heartbroken incident, but Gayathri being a woman and living alone in the house could not do much to stop Nande’s mindless and thuggish act.

Neighbour

Nande being a neighbour rented a room on the first floor in a house not far away from her. Days after the “stealing of the bicycle” Nande was about to come down the stairs to see Prasanna standing on the staircase staring daggers at him. He had apparently shouted saying: “Ado Nande.” Nande would certainly have had brown underpants at that moment when he fell down and came rolling down the stairway and damaged his ankle. Prasanna had disappeared.

Gayathri is so accustomed having to live with the spirit of her beloved brother and says she has no qualms about it as she thinks Prasanna is acting as her guardian. She explains that suddenly her brother switches the TV on and his favourite chair, which he used to sit and watch TV, undulates to a certain rhythm; living with Prasanna’s spirit has become a part and parcel of her life now.

Despite Gayathri conferring a lot of merit to Prasanna in an endeavour to release his spirit from his ‘suffering’ she seems to think that there is only one reason why Prasanna is still hanging on to her house. A soothsayer has revealed to her about a family property where others are trying to play her out. She says things are turning in her favour after all this time and the moment Prasanna’s share is written in her name he may leave the house.

tilakfernando@gmail.com

KAMALIKA  PIERIS

The first three Presidents of Sri Lanka made no effort to win the war, though victory was possible.  J.R. Jayewardene halted the Vadamarachchi operation (1987) which would have permanently ended the LTTE offensive. .Premadasa handed over arms, ammunition, cement and cash to the LTTE. The LTTE used the ammunition and arms to kill 600 policemen in 1990. In Kumaratunga’s time, the army was almost wiped out at Mullaitivu (1996). A weeping soldier said the men had nothing to resist the LTTE with except a pistol and few grenades. .   Four years later, soldiers   died of dehydration at Elephant Pass.

These Presidents helped to strengthen the LTTE and weaken the army. LTTE was able to bring in large shipments of arms, ammunition and equipment since coastal defence was neglected.   Unsatisfactory military equipment caused chaos in the battlefield. Sia Marchetti and Pucara planes bought   in 1993 were soon grounded.  By 2005, around 26,000 soldiers had died.

The person primarily responsible for Sri Lanka ‘s victory over the LTTE in  May 2009  is Mahinda Rajapakse,  the current President of Sri Lanka and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Rajapakse did not get on an elephant and go to war, but he was the force behind the war. He withstood enormous international pressure   and pursued the war with determination. .He monitored its progress and took necessary decisions.

He managed   international relations skillfully. He strengthened diplomatic ties and persuaded several countries to sell arms to Sri Lanka .Israel replaced two UAVs shot down by LTTE without any charge. When India refused to sell arms, Sri Lanka turned to China.  A bilateral body was set up to maintain continuous dialogue with India and keep it supportive. India was kept briefed at all times    Sri Lanka could have won the war three weeks before May 19th. But this would have affected the election prospects of India’s Congress Party in Tamilnadu.  Rajapakse therefore held back the troops. Once Tamilnadu went to polls, he ordered the army to finish the job before the next government was installed in New Delhi.

The next person responsible for the victory was Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, brother to the President. Lalith Weeratunga said that he had never seen such a tech-savvy, resolute, no-nonsense Defence Secretary as Gotabhaya. Gotabhaya had been a career officer in the Sri Lanka army. He had received training in India, Pakistan and USA and had won two awards for bravery in action. .He had been a commander at    Vadamarachhi and   Operation Thrividabalaya

Gotabhaya was the mastermind behind the war .As early as 2006 he had submitted a long list of expensive war equipment he wanted purchased because he wished to be well prepared.  He said I knew that if we had a committed team, right planning, required numbers and the weaponry we could achieve our goal .I was not ready to give in to anything or anybody.”  He sued a newspaper that made defamatory allegations regarding the purchase of MiG 27s and refused a settlement out of court.

He had unreserved access to the President and was the link between the President and the armed forces. He was a good tactician and personally handled intelligence.  Wiratunge observed that Gotabhaya cared about the lower ranks of the armed forces… He said most Defense Secretaries did not know the plight of the soldiers and did not bother about things like houses for them but Gotabhaya did. He knew their problems and looked into them.

Gotabhaya selected the Service commanders including Fonseka and ensured that the three armed forces worked closely together.    He was in close contact with the ground commanders at all stages of the battle. He sorted out their logistical problems and at times directly intervened to facilitate coordination between the different forces. Details were looked into and requests processed quickly. His leadership style included supporting as well as directing.

For the first time, the government followed a carefully planned strategy against the LTTE .War operations, from 1976 to 2002 were studied to find what had gone wrong. .They found nothing wrong with the armed forces and concluded that they could win. The armed forces were increased    to 450,000 with 300,00 for the army..   A dozen new fighting formations were created    ”LTTE thought that we didn’t have sufficient troops to hold the east and we lulled everyone into believing this” said Gotabhaya. When Mavil Aru was blocked, we were ready”

The government somehow managed to purchase the necessary military supplies despite cash flow problems and the need to keep the economy afloat. It set up a company, Lanka Logistics and Technologies for arms purchases. The directors were Secretary to Treasury, Secretary for Defense, chief of defense staff, the three service commanders and IGP. Local agents of foreign arms dealers were excluded. The company dealt directly with   foreign governments.  Purchasing procedures were trimmed and purchase approvals speeded up.   This had needed some heavy handed measures by Gotabhaya. . Arms purchases were based on recommendations of the military with Gotabhaya making the final decision. Fighter aircraft were purchased. Also, different bombs for different targets.. Earlier there was only one type of bomb for all targets. Sri Lanka could have saved a lot of money if it had set up this organization decades earlier.

Defying accepted military strategy the army attacked the enemy at their strongest points, not the weakest. This took LTTE by surprise. . The army fought on several fronts simultaneously.  Nearly all assaults were made in heavily mined areas. The momentum was never allowed to slacken. Instead of the large formations used in the past, the army was trained to fight in small teams of four and eight. These teams were trained to go forward on their own. They succeeded in advancing 8 to 12 kilometers per day.

Initially they did not go for territory but went for the LTTE itself, killing and injuring as many as possible.   LTTE were harried in all directions  and eventually lost their most experienced fighters and also their morale.    The army then started taking territory. In ten months, it reached Pooneryn in the north west and neared Mullaitivu on the east. The air force and navy were sent to hold this  territory  leaving the army free to go forward. Air force was sent into the jungles, the navy to the coastal belt along Trincomalee.

Modern wars are not won solely on the ground. Navy and air support are essential. LTTE had eight merchant ships that were bringing in ammunition. They were floating warehouses carrying an arsenal which would have sustained the war for years.  These ships were destroyed in 2006 and 2007. This task, which took years to plan, was executed to perfection by the aging Sri Lanka fleet.  LTTE could not land a single shipment of arms thereafter and started retreating on all fronts.

The air force took on several LTTE targets from the air. .They destroyed strategic locations and artillery positions.  They went at bunkers,   camps, munitions dumps and     fuel dumps. Some dumps had two or three hundred thousand liters of fuel.  They attacked Sea Tiger bases, hit concealed vessels and boat building yards.  They forced the LTTE to shift their daytime training to night.  LTTE leaders also had to go underground.  Planes provided air support for the ground attacks, clearing the way for advancing troops. At Puthukudirippu the helicopter squadron flew many sorties, day and night. It was like 31st night”.

The Air force never gave in. When LTTE attacked Anuradhapura air base in Oct 2007, they went after Tamil Selvam and killed him. This stunned the LTTE and damaged its morale. The LTTE acquired air capability, with light fixed wing aircraft.  This was the first ever air threat to a conventional air force by a terrorist organization. Air force countered it with an air defense network, put together within the record time of one year. It usually took 5 to 8 years to set up such a network.

After every LTTE attack in Colombo the facilitators and supporters who provided intelligence, finance and housing for the attack team were arrested.  The government set up checkpoints and roadblocks, raided lodges, conducted cordon and search operations.   These measures were unpopular at the start, but they helped break the rich LTTE support network in Colombo and elsewhere. Collaboration between the military, police, and intelligence service led to the strangling of the LTTE in the south, reducing their ability to operate effectively specially in Colombo.

Sri Lanka took 2 years and ten months   to eliminate the LTTE. Paranthan, Oddusuddan, Elephant Pass, the administrative centre, Kilinochchi and the naval headquarters, Mullaitivu    fell in succession in 2009. The LTTE leaders were not allowed to get away. They were cornered and killed.   There was a naval blockade at Mullaitivu and planes at China Bay to prevent them escaping.  On May 18 Army Commander, Fonseka had told President that the end could not be achieved within the day. This was contradicted by the field commanders and victory was declared on May 19 2009.

http://www.island.lk/2010/06/13/features6.html

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න

 අවුරුදු  එක ලක්ෂ විසිපන්දාහක් තරම්  ඈතට  මගේ ජීවිත කතාව කියන්න තරම් දැන් නම් මට මතකයක් නැහැ මගෙම  දරුවෝ පරයන් එක්ක එකතුවෙලාමට දුන්නු වැඩ වේදනා නිසා හුඟක් දේවල් අමතකව ගිහින් උන් කැමතිවුනේ නැහැ මගේ අතීත විභූතිය සාඩම්බරකම  විදහා පෙන්වනවාට. ඉතින් උනේ අතීතය වල දැම්මා. ඒවා මගේ දරුවන්ටවත් කියාදෙන එකට තහංචි දැම්මා.  අතීතයේ හිටිය මගේ දරුවෝ ඒ කියන්නේ උඹලාගේ සොයුරු  සොයුරියෝ  මිනීකන යක්කු කියල ඉගැන්වීම පට ගත්තේ දැන් වසර 2000 ක පමණ කාලයක සිට ..

ඊට පස්සේ ඉංගිරිස් මංකොල්ල කාරයෝ හිතා මතාම  වාගේම නොදන්නා කමටත් අතීතය  වසා බොරු ඉගැන්නුවා. එකත් නැවැත්තුව ඉගැන්වීම් බාර මුස්ලිම්  නායකයෙක් 1970 ගණන් වල. මගේ ඉතිහාසය මගේ දරුවන්ට ඉගැන්වීම සඳහා  මට ඇති අයිතිය පිටින් ආපු  මුස්ලිම් කාරයෙකුට බාරදෙන්න  තරම් මගේම දරුවෝ   දීන වුනා. ඊටපස්සේ තම්බි මුදියන්සේලාගෙන් පැවතෙන තව මිනිහෙකුට රට බාර දුන්න. අපේමය  මේ මිනිහාත් අපේ උරුමය දරුවන්ට ඉගැන්වීම  නැවැත්තුව. මේ කලබගෑනි නිසා මගේ  සිහියත් දැන් ටිකක් අඩු ඒ වුනත්  තාමත් මට මතකය්  අඩුම ගන්නේ වසර 12500 ක් තරම් මගේ ජීවිතයේ  යම් යම් අවදි.  හැබය් සේරම නොවෙය.

                                                          හුඟ දෙනෙක්  දන්නවා වසර 2500 ක අතීතය නං . එහෙත් ඒ සේරම ඇත්ත නොවෙය ..මගේ දරුවෝ   දැන් ඉන්දියාව කියනරටෙන් ආව උන් ගෙන් ගෙන් පැවතෙනවා  කියල කීම ඉන්දියානු ගැ ත්තොම හදාපු  කතාවක් නොයෙක් ය මාව බලන්න ආවතමය් සමහරු මෙහෙම නැවතුනා උනුත් මම හදාගත්ත එත් මතක තියාගනිල්ලා දරුවනේ  මගේ බලන්ගොඩ  දරු පිරිසම තමය වසර 12500 ක ඉඳලම වෙනස් වෙවී ඉදිරියට ආවේ.  ඒ යට ඉන්දියාවෙන් ආපු අයත් එකතුවෙලා එකට හිටිය . එහෙම නැතුව බලන්ගොඩ දරුවෝ  අන්තර්ධානවෙලා  ඉන්දියානු පිරිස්  විතරක් ඉතුරු වුනේ නැහැ  අහන්න ඇතිනේ මේ ඊයේ පෙරේදා ඒ කියන්නේ 2015 දී බලන්ගොඩ  ඉලුක්කුඹුර ලුනුගල්ගේ තිබිල හම්බවුන   ධාන්‍ය අට වර්ග,  හිස් ගණනක්  ගැන වාගේම    වළඳ සහල්   කුඩුමිරිස්ස  වල අබ වාගේ බෙහෙත් වර්ග ගැනත්.  මේවා අඩුම ගන්නේ වසර 6300ක් පැරණි බව  මගේ හොඳ දරුවෝ උඹලට දැන්නුව . එහෙත් කීදෙනාද මේවා  ඉගෙන ගන්නේ  උරුමය ඉගැන්නුවේ නැති නිසා මම උඹලාටම  දොස්කියන්නේ නැහැ මගේ මතකයෙනුත් බොහෝ දේ ගිලිහිලා ගිහිල්ලා   අය්  ඉතින් කියවන්න වත්  ඉස්සර දේවල් ඉතිරි කරලා නැහැනේ

                                                                 කුරගල දැන්  මුස්ලිම් කාරයෝ අල්ලාගෙන. දන්නවද එතන තියෙන සෙල්ලිපියේ  ””’යගෂ  ”’ කියල කියන වචනයේ තේරුම ඒ කියන්නේ යක්ෂ වර්ගය ගැන .  මට දුක මගේ කුසින් බිහිවී මහනවුන  හාමුදුරුවරුත්  මගේ ජීවිත කතාව වෙනස් කරන එක ගැන.  මහානාම කියන මගේ දරු  හාමුදුරු කෙනෙකුත් තරමක් මේකට වග කියන්න.  ඕනේ බුධ්ධගොෂ හාමුදුරුවොනම් ඉතින් පිටින් ආපු කෙනෙක්නෙ. මම හිතුවා මාව වර්ණනා කරන කොට අනේ හරි හොඳ කෙනෙක් කියල.  එයා මගේ දින සටහන් සේරම පුච්චලා දැම්ම.  දරුවනේ  මට නොපෙනෙන්න .දරුවනේ දැන් නම් එනපොට හුඟක්ම නරකය්. තම්බි මුදියන්සේගේ බෑනෙක්  දැන් රට අල්ලාගෙන.  මගේ සමස්ත ජීවන ක්‍රමයම  පදනම්වෙච්ච ධර්මය   රටේ නීතියෙනුත් අයින් කරලා පරයන්ට ඕනේ විදිහට නීති හදන්න පටන් අරගෙන. උඹලා ඉතින් තවම නිදි දරුවනේ.  රට බාර දෙන්න ඕනේ අපේ උරුමය රකින උන්ට.

 ලජ්ජය් කියන්න සමහර මගේ දුවල පිටරටින් එන උන්ට තන පටයත් ගල වල දෙනවනේ ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ .

වනන්තර අල්ලාගෙන මුස්ලිම් කාරයෝ ගෙවල් හදනවා.  නාගදීපේ හිටිය එක සිංහල දරුවෙක්  වත් දැන් නැහැ. දළදා මාලිගාවටත් උඩින්  පෙනෙන්න උන් පල්ලි හද නවා. මගේ එක පුතෙක් නායක හාමුදුරු කෙනෙක්  එත් එයා කිව්වේ මෙහෙමය්. ””මිනිස්සු ඕවට කැමති වෙන්නේ නැහැ  අපි වාගේ නොවෙය එක එක ජාතියේ අයනේ ඉන්නේ  …. ඉස්සර එක පාරටම ඕක ඔහොම හදා ගත්තනම් ඉවරනේ කලබල ඇතිවෙන්නේ නැහැනේ  ..”’    

                                                                සම්පුර්ණයෙන්ම විරුද්ධ වෙනවා මිසක් මොනවාද මේ කන්කෙන්දිරිලි. උජුපටි පන්න බවක් වත් නැද්ද  .මුන්ගේ කෙරුවාවල් දන්නේ නැතුවද . මේක කාගේ රටද කියල නොදන්නා හාමුදුරුවරු මොකටද පන්සල් ඉඩම්වල තියෙන පල්ලි සේරම  ඉවත් කරන්න දැන්වත් බැරිද .  දුන්නේ සුද්දගේ කාලෙනේ. දෙමළුන්ට දුන්න තෙසවලමෙය්  නීතිය අවලම් නීතියක්. පාසැල් වල උගන්වන්නේ අපට නොගැලපෙන දේ . අපේ කම නැතිකරනදේ . සොබාදහමත් ප්‍රකොපවෙලා.  මේ”””’ සංවර්ධනය ””’  නිසා  දැන් ඉන්දියාව හනුමන් පාලම හදනවා අපේඋන් සමග.  එතකොට අපේ දරුවෝ සේරම ඉවරය් 125000 ක්තියා  12500 ක් තියා  6300ක් තියා 2500  වත් ආයෙත් ඉතුරුවෙන් නේ නැහැ

උතු රෙත් නැගෙන හිරත් දැන් මගේ දරුවෝ  විනාශ වෙලා කන්දුදරටත්  එහෙම වෙන්න යනවා . …….. අනේ දරුවනී මගේ පපුව හිරවෙන්න යනවා  වාගේ . දුක උහුලන්න බහ .. පන තිබුනොත් පස්සේ ඉතුරු ටික කියන්නම් ….

Shenali D Waduge

Prabakaran may have been leader of the LTTE but he was not the man collecting funds abroad to procure arms/ammunition, carry out propaganda and induce foreign players to promote Eelam ideology. That job was done by the LTTE fronts who were named, shamed and banned incorporating the UN Security Council Resolution 1373 in April 2014. 16 organizations all of whom were operating from outside Sri Lanka and over 400 individuals linked to them were declared banned under this Resolution. While commending the US State Department for informing the world what people already knew, what is puzzling is why the GOSL has deproscribed a select handful of them when the US State Department in its annual counter terrorism report says that LTTE fronts are still continuing fund raising. At the same time what is equally puzzling is why US and other foreign governments are joining the TNA and the Northern Province Chief Minister in calling for demilitarization, removal of military camps and soldiers from the North when even in Tamil Nadu the calls for the creation of Eelam is increasing? Do they want us to return to the 1980s and then take Sri Lanka backwards to decades more of bloodshed and mayhem? The Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister & the President has some explaining to do.

The US State Department Report says that LTTE’s financial network of support continued operations in 2015 which implies from the time the Ranil-Maithri government came to power and questions why in September 2015 selected LTTE fronts were de-proscribed as the US would have certainly shared their findings with the GOSL. Moreover, the specific mention of the Tamil diaspora in North Americca, Europe and Asia automatically deduces the involvement of the very entities that the Rajapakse Government banned in 2014 of procuring weapons, communications, funds and other supplies. What we should seriously worry now is how much have they procured since 2015 and where are these now? The other worrying factor is the report’s mention of these LTTE fronts being employed charities as fronts to collect and divert funds for its activities.” Now have we not been saying this all along? At least now the US State Department has put it on record.

US State Dept – LTTE remains on US List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2015/257523.htm

• LTTE’s financial network of support still operating – US –

• http://www.adaderana.lk/news/35534/lttes-financial-network-of-support-still-operating-us
• October 2015 – LTTE openly fundraising in Paris – http://nation.lk/online/2015/10/03/ltte-openly-fundraising-in-paris.html Yet LTTE is banned in the EU too.

The LTTE fronts banned in 2014 April by the Rajapakse Government (marked in red are the ones the Ranil-Maithri on the recommendations of Foreign Minister have deproscribed the day prior to Samantha Power’s (US Permanent Representative in UN) visit to Sri Lanka as advisor to US President Obama.

1. TRO – the TAMIL REHABILITATION ORGANIZATION,
2. TCC – the TAMIL COORDINATING COMMITTEE,
3. BTF – the BRITISH TAMIL FORUM ,
4. WTM – the WORLD TAMIL MOVEMENT,
5. CTC – the CANADIAN TAMIL CONGRESS,
6. ATC – the AUSTRALIAN TAMIL CONGRESS,
7. GTF – the GLOBAL TAMIL FORUM,
8. NCCT – the NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CANADIAN TAMILS,
9. TNC – the TAMIL NATIONAL COUNCIL,
10. TYO – the TAMIL YOUTH ORGANIZATION,
11. WTCC – the WORLD TAMIL COORDINATING COMMITTEE,
12. TGTE – the TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM,
13. TEPA – the TAMIL EELAM PEOPLES ASSEMBLY,
14. WTRF – the WORLD TAMIL RELIEF FUND and
15. HQ Group – the HEADQARTERS GROUP.
16. LTTE

They are the organization/s under-

1. Perinbanayagam Sivaparan, alias Nediyavan”;
2. Rev.Fr. SJ Emmanuel
3. Visuvanathan Ruthirakumaran
4. Sekarampillai Vinayakamoorthy, alias Vinayagam

The Ranil-Maithri Government has deproscribed the following LTTE fronts

1. Global Tamil Forum (GTF);
2. British Tamil Forum (BTF);
3. National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT);
4. Tamil Youth Organization (TYO);
5. World Tamil Coordinating Committee (WTCC);
6. Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC);
7. Australian Tamil Congress (ATC);
8. Tamil National Council (TNC).

Of the individuals list: 22 are in Canada, 17 in Denmark, 14 in Sri Lanka, 12 in UK & Netherlands, 11 in Franc, 8 in Germany, 7 in India, 4 in Italy, 3 in Malaysia, 2 in Norway, 1 in US and Thailand. Interpol red notices are against 26 of whom 2 are Sinhalese.  

The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister says initial proscription by the Rajapaksa government was done in haste, and was not subject to a rigorous process of assessment”. He goes on to say that the Rajapakse Government banned these fronts to build up hysteria about LTTE regrouping. There was hardly any tangible evidence to link them to the LTTE. Some of those sought had died,” however with the release of the US State Dept. Report, Rajapakse Government appears to have done the correct thing now undone by the yahapalana government.

Let us take a look at the websites of the entities that have been deproscribed.

The Global Tamil Forum

http://www.globaltamilforum.org/

The GTF’s website has revolving images of Father Emmanuel its head and Suren Surendiran with pictures of the following : TNA leaders Sambanthan, the British PM, Eric Solheim, Suresh Premachandran, Sumanthiran, Miliband brothers, South African leaders,

The British Tamil Forum

http://tamilsforum.co.uk/

National Council of Canadian Tamils

http://www.ncctcanada.ca/

Tamil Youth Organization

http://www.tyouk.org/

World Tamil Coordinating Committee

http://www.tccuk.org/

Canadian Tamil Congress

http://www.canadiantamilcongress.ca/

Australian Tamil Congress

http://www.australiantamilcongress.com/ (website is temporarily out of order)

Tamil National Council

https://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2012/10/VKR_report.pdf

• Navi Pillay who claimed to be unbiased goes to Canada to deliver the 2^nd N Sivalingam Memorial lecture (April 2016) which was co-sponsored by Amnesty International among others. Nagaratnam Sivalingam founded the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada (TESOC). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Woj27Hz6yVk some photos from the lecture http://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/photo-gallery-2016-n-sivalingam-memorial-lecture-with-navi-pillay/
• UK to take up diaspora groups’ concerns with UNHRC before June sessions (May 2016) http://www.globaltamilforum.org/media/news/uk-to-take-up-diaspora-groups%E2%80%99-concerns-with-unhrc-before-june-sessions.aspx
• Tamil Diaspora, TNA MPs to meet Zeid (June 5) http://www.globaltamilforum.org/media/news/tamil-diaspora,-tna-mps-to-meet-zeid.aspx
• Tamil Nadu assembly passes resolution Tamil Nadu assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution seeking India to use its diplomatic efforts and prevent the US from taking a possible pro-Lanka stand (Sept 2015) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/War-crimes-in-Sri-Lanka-Tamil-Nadu-assembly-passes-resolution/articleshow/48985278.cms
• Jayalalitha assures Tamil Eelam – http://www.india.com/news/india/aiadmk-chief-jayalalithaa-promises-creation-of-separate-tamil-eelam-for-sri-lankan-tamils-1132095/ (April 2016)
• Ex-LTTE cadre held, cyanide capsules seized (July 2015) http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/exltte-cadre-held-cyanide-capsules-seized/article7444746.ece
• Another stock of arms found in Sri Lanka’s North http://www.colombopage.com/archive_16A/Mar31_1459398625CH.php (Mar 2016)

Money works wonders

Francis A Boyle (Prf. Of International Law at University of Illinois and a renowned expert on human rights, war crimes, genocide and the Right to Self-Determination) joins the Tamil People’s Council to provide legal assistance.

Bruce Fein has been retained in similar role previously as per Asian Tribune the retainer fee is $100,000 per month http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/11421

The question is when the US State Department clearly says that LTTE fronts are continuing the international fund raising and these findings the US would have shared with the Sri Lankan government

• Why did the GOSL deproscribe 8 of the original list of 16 LTTE fronts? If a mistake has occurred shouldn’t these fronts be re-proscribed and the countries where these fronts are headquartered be asked to investigate their accounts to prove the US State Dept report as being correct.
• Why did the US Secretary of State ask the GOSL to release LTTE cadres whom he mistakenly described as ‘political prisoners’ in a Non-International Armed Conflict. LTTE are not entitled to use of term enemy combatants. LTTE cannot be referred to as combatants or prisoners of war. http://www.sinhalanet.net/ltte-cadres-are-not-prisoners-of-war-file-charges-against-them-for-war-crimes-in-sri-lanka
• When LTTE fronts are raising money abroad and using their contacts why are foreign governments asking Sri Lanka’s military to scale down its troops, disarm, remove military camps in the North and give up strategic positions where free flow of arms and LTTE cadres were entering and leaving the country previously?
• When the links to TNA-LTTE and the LTTE fronts are clear why is there no calls to investigate them. If the US State Department spends time to compile reports we believe these reports are not meant for the library shelf and governments and the US are expected to do something about them. We would like to know what is the US intention now that they themselves have said LTTE fronts are collecting funds and campaigning. This together with LTTE cadres being found with catchments of arms and suicide vests are a worrying sign to all. The US must remember that a lot of investors have put their money into various projects in Sri Lanka and none of them like to have their investments jeopardized because of a bunch of maniacs with guns. We saw the damage done throughout the past 3 decades and none of us want this to be repeated.

Therefore the onus is on the US now that it has released its report to show by example and not only investigate all of the LTTE fronts that were proscribed in 2014 but also take action against the entities, individuals linked to them for providing material support. The laws are all in place, its just a matter of will of foreign governments that has been lacking.

Over to all those proponents of ‘War on Terror’ to prove their sincerity in roping in on entities providing material support to terror. US are reminded that Al Qaeda & ISIS or any other Islamic terror group did not have the air, sea, ground capabilities that the LTTE had making LTTE a far more dangerous entity and these air, sea capabilities were not the brainwave of Prabakaran but were introduced by those fronts operating from abroad who collected funds and the experts to create these showing them to be no less dangerous than Prabakaran himself.

Shenali D Waduge

L.K.N.PERERA  ( LL,B  Cey ) Advocate,  Labour  Consultant, Ex Judicial  Officer. Ex President- Lanka  Academic  Association. Vice  President- Seruwila   Chaityawardena  Samithiya

New  Constitution  and  the myth of  Eelam.

                  Opposition  leader  Mr Sambandan’s  recent   justification  of  LTTE’s   struggle  to  form   an  Elam  State  and  the    unanimously passed  resolution  in the  Northern Provincial   Council  to  form   an autonomous  state in  North and East  Provinces ,  need  immediate   attention  of    peace  loving  members  of  all  communities.  At the same  time it Is reported that  terrorist  leaders  such as  Nagulan who are responsible  for  mass  murders  and  who  were   believed   to be  killed  in  the  last  war,  are  now surfacing  one by  one.      Also   it is reported that the  Labour  Party  in  England  has already  given assurance to  Tamil Diaspora  that  they  will  support  for self determination  for a separate  state.

                  It is  unfortunate that none of  our academics  in  our Universities  who are paid by public  funds  and  who are more qualified to answer  this  baseless  Eelam  theory   have failed to respond Mr Sambandan and  Wigneswaran    up to  date. Also  the  learned members of  Sri Lanka  Branch   of Royal  Asiatic  Society  have   paid  no attention  to  this  important  issue .  The more  unfortunate  factor  is  that   leaders  of   Hela Urumaya  or National  Freedom  Front  who undertook  to  protect  the interests of  Sinhalese  have  failed to expose   the  bogus  nature  of  the Eelamist’s claim   for a separate  state  and the  International  Community  is  made unaware  of the  actual  history  of  this country.                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

                           On a careful  examination  of  Mr   Sambandan ’s   justification  and approval  of  LTTE  activities,  it is quite  clear  that  it  is an approval  of  Prabakaran’s  inhuman   terror campaign that  existed  for  the  last  thirty years . The  irony  is  that  he  has forgotten the misery  of  his own  people during the war. 

                            Undoubtedly  by such irrational  statements   Mr Sambandan

 approves ,     

1. a) the killing  of  thousands  innocent  civilians  by  bomb attacks . 
2. b) the attack on the sacred temple of  tooth relic at  Kandy 

C )the attack  on  innocent Buddhist  Pilgrims and killing  of 200  pilgrims   at the  sacred   Jayasirimaha Bo  tree at  Anuradapura.

1. D) the keeping of camps in which  thousands of  Tamils who opposed to Prabakaran’s  tyranny were inhumanly treated and killed.

E )Killing of  600  Police Officers  who  surrendered during  Premadasa Regime. 

1. F) Not only that by his above justification he  approves  the brutal  killing of  his   own  leader  late  Mr  Amirthalingam and  the killing of Indian PM Rajive Gandi and  Sri Lankan President  Premadasa .

1. G) Killing of Politicians like  Dureiappah  and   civilians   like  Dr Rajini Thiranagama  who was  gun  down  by   her own  pupils . Those  murderers   must  be  having  luxury  livings  as members of the noble medical  Profession  by  now  .

              At a time the  present  government  is   probing into  activities of Intelligence   Units  in  Army  who brought peace  to  all the communities  in  Sri Lanka , surely  it is  the  government’s  duty to probe  into   atrocities  of   LTTE  too and  bring   all those  who  are  responsible  for  those  mass  inhuman  murders,  in order to  bring   peace  to  Sri Lanka.  So that  extremists  of  both  sides   will not  be able  to  set  fire  to  Sri Lanka .  Also  it  is  the duty to  probe  into the  killings  of   brutal  murders  of   important  figures  like  Mr Amirthalingam,  and  Dr. Rajini   Senior Lecturer  of Medical Faculty  of  Jaffna  as one of the  first  steps  in bringing  peace  to  Sri Lanka . 

                 When  one  peruse  the  role of  Mr Sambandan  in  Seventies  as elicited in   Sansoni  Commission  Report ,  Mr  Sambandan’s  justification  of terrorists activities  is  nothing  new  to  him.  He  is one of  the  leaders  who  advocated  violence to Tamil  youth in seventies  as  revealed   in  Sansoni  Commission Inquiry Report.   Leaders  like  him  were always  behind  the  atrocities committed by  LTTE.  They tacitly  approved   the bomb blasts. They  tacitly approved  mass  murders. They  never condemned   such activities in those days. 

                          However before dealing with the question whether Eelam is a myth or not,   I would like  to  pose  the  under mentioned questions  to be  answered by   Mr Sambandan or Mr Wigneswaran  or Higher Ranks  of  TNA  or TULF  to  any  educated member   of  the  Tamil  Diaspora  or  even  Jayalalitha   or  Karunanidi   to  and  justify their  Tamil Eelam Theory.

                      1)   If  Tamils   had  their  own kingdoms  in  North  and  East  please explain  as to why  Robert Knox   who was arrested in    Kottiar ( near Trincomalee ) ,  was   handed  over  to  Kandiyan King  instead  of  taking him  to  Jaffna the  so  called  Capital of  Eelam.

                      2)   What  have you  got  to say  about  Wallipuram Gold Plaque which  categorically  confirms  that  Sinhalese King  named Wasaba  was   ruling  Jaffan  too  even  before  2^nd Century   BC.  

                      3)  What  have  you got to say  about  three  Buddhists Pagodas  in Delft  Island and   Buddah Foot  Prints  and  caskets  found  in  Jaffna Peninsula  and  kept at Jaffna Museum   for  exhibition.

                       4)  What have you  to got to say  about  Kantharodaya Buddhist Temple at   Chunnakam. In Mahawamsa it is    described as  Kaduruboda Temple at Hunugama. .

                       5)   What  have you  got  to say about  historical  records   in  British  Museums  which  confirm  that most  of  the  Tamils  in North and East were  brought  to  Sri Lanka  by Dutch and  British for the purpose of  cultivation  of  Tobacco. Firstly  It is  the  Dutch  who  got down  Tamil workers  from  India  for  Tobacco  cultivation.  It is  the duty of the Government  to  publish  these  documents  even at this  later  stage.

                      6)     What  have you  got  to  say  about  King  Gajaba’s  wars  in  South India which   are  described  not only  in   Mahawamsa  but  in  South Indian Stone  Inscriptions  too. 

                      7)     What  have  you got to say  that when  Dutch captured  Jaffna, from Portuguese,   they went  to  Kandiyan King  for  legal title  and  entered into  a Treaty  called  Tennekumbura  Treaty in  the year 1766.

                       8)   What  have  you got say  about  ancientness  of    Sinhala  language  compared  to  Tamil  language   which  is said to  of  recent  origin as stated by Professor  Neelakanta Sastri. 

                       9)   What  have  you  got  to say  for  non  selection  of  Tamil  language   by  Americans  as  an  ancient  language  and the selection of  Sinhala Language  as one of  the oldest languages.  It is  appropriate to mention  here  that   Sinhala language   was selected  by them after critical examination   as  one  of   the  few  oldest  languages  in this world  and was  exhibited  in   moon.

                      10)  What have you got to  say  about ‘ Mahawamsa’ which is recognized  by  eminent  historians  all over the world  as the only book that describes a    continuous history of  a country   for  a  period of well over 2000 years.  One has to bear in mind  that  Mahawamsa  stories  are corroborated  by      Stone  Inscriptions  not only  in  Sri Lanka but in  South India too.

                       11)   What  have  you got to say  about  the book  on  ‘South Indian  History’ by  Professor  Neelakanta Sastri   who describes  the  history  of  South India with no reference whatsoever  to  a  Tamil  Homeland in  Sri Lanka.         

                     Origin of  Sinhala language   goes back  to Anglo Saxon  age.  Sinhala is an Indo Aryan Language  unlike  Tamil.  History  of    Sinhala  language   is divided  to  several  eras,  such as  present  day  Sinhala, Mediaeval   Sinhala and   Ancient  Sinhala  etc.  From that  it  goes  to  Prakrit,  Sanskrit  and to   Indo  Aryan  and  finally  to  Anglo  Saxon  family .   It  was  German Professor  Wilheldem  Gaiger  who  found  similarities  in   Sinhala and  German  languages.  Therefore  Sinhalese  have  an inborn   right  to  seek  assistance  from  UK and  Germany  to   protect  and save  their brethren  Sinhalese  from the  grip  of   Eelamist  Tamils who  have become a headache  to them also.                                        

                   Eelamist  claim  for  an   independent  state  or  province   is  based    on a  never  existed  Eelam  State.  The so called  Eelam  State  does not  have  any  historical  or archaeological evidence  in Sri Lanka or  in India.  It is  the  Tamil politicians  who  propagate  this  myth .   Stone  Inscriptions  found  in  the  North  and  East  are crystal clear  evidence that  it  was  Singhalese  kings  who  ruled  North and  East  areas in  our history . Portuguese  came  to  Sri Lanka  in  the  15^th Century . Before   Portuguese  conquered  Jaffna,  It was  the  representatives  of   Kotte  Kings  who  ruled  Jaffna. Prince Sapumal  was the last  in  line  In the  year  1412 AD  became  the  last  Sinhalese  ruler in  Jaffna.     

                 If there were  Tamil  kingdoms  in North and  East  in  Sri Lanka  as claimed by  Mr. Sambandan,  surely  there  should  be  evidence   such as   Tamil  stone  inscriptions   to that effect. Not only  that  there should be  archaeological   evidence.  One has to bear in  mind  that there  is  not  a  single  piece  of  an  archaeological  evidence    regarding  the so  called  Tamil  kingdoms in North  and  East.   Whereas  the  very existence  of  Three Dagobas  in Delft Island  is a clear proof that  there existed  Singhalese  kingdoms   even beyond  Jaffna   from immemorial  time. 

                  The  most  unreasonable  factor  in  this  Eelam theory  is  that  Tamils  should have a  separate homeland  in  north and east  provinces  just  because  they  are  the present day  majority .  At the same  time ,  under this theory  they also  have the sacred  right to  live  any  part of  Sri Lanka.  But   the  Sinhalese  have no  such  right  to  live  in  North and  East. The  end result is  that  Sinhalese  should  live  in South   only.  That  too  along with  Tamils and  Muslims.   The other obnoxious  factor  in  this  theory  is   that  Eelamists   do not  speak about  a  homeland  for  Sinhalese  who  are   the original inhabitants in this Island.  The fact that  Sinhalese    have  a  well established  continued  history  for  a  period  well  over  Two  Thousand  Five Hundred  ( 2500) years  has been completely  ignored  by the  founders   of this so called  Eelamist  theory. 

                     Primarily  It was  late Mr S.J.V Chelvanayakam  who  propagated this  myth  among  the  Tamils  while  ignoring  historical  rights  of  Singhalese   to  the  North  and  East. He paid  no  attention  what so ever  to  archaeological  evidence  manifestly available in those  two provinces.  His only consideration  was  the  majority  number of  Tamils  living  in  those  two provinces.  Moderates  like Dureiappa   Mayor of  Jaffna  were  gunned  down  at the very beginning   with the blessings of  TULF leaders. Other  leaders of Tamil Community   such  as  Amirtalingamm  Sivasubraminum and  Sambandan  followed  Chelvanayakam   while  knowing  very well  that  their    claim  for  an independent  state  in  North and  East  has  no  justifiable historical  basis.  They  based their  Eelamist   theory  mainly  on  the   majority number of   Tamils  living in  North and  East. Present day  Population was  the only  criteria  that mattered  . It is unfortunate  none of    Sinhala  leaders,   have challenged   these  Tamil  leaders for   them  to  justify  their   claim.  Instead  of  that,  all  leaders   in  successive  governments  have  granted  their  demands  one by one   and   JR Government  went  into  the extent   by accepting  that  North  and  East  as  their  traditional  homelands  while  ignoring  rights  of  Sinhalese  in those two  provinces.    

                The  following  passage  of  an  article  written by Mr  Sivasidambaram  one time  President  of TULF shows  as  to  how  they  justified  Tamil  Eealm  State in North and  East  Provinces.  His position  is  that  by becoming  majority   in  an  area, such area   could  be named  as  a  homeland.

                      In Sunday Observer 0n 26^th September 1993  Late  Mr  Sivasidamparam  President TULF  said  ‘’   It is also  significant  to  note People in Jaffna, Vavunia, Mannar   Batticoloa  and Trincomalee  voted for  the candidates  of  Tamil Parties.  Ie the  Tamil Congrees, The Federal Party and TULF.  In the face of all  these  a  person  with even the   meanest  intelligence will  accept  that  North and East  are   the  Traditional Homelands of  the  Tamils and  Muslims

                    The irony  is  that  during  his  lifetime  Muslims  were  chased  out  from  North by Prbakaran  for which   Mr Sivasidambaram  or Mr Sambandan or  any  other leader  in TULF   had   no comments .  

                           Needless to  say  that  the so  called this Eelamist  theory is  a  draconian   theory .  It ignores  the  rights  of  other communities . For instance  under Eelamist   theory, surely   Muslims  in  Kashmir  Province  have  the right  demand   a  separate homeland in that  Province because  they  are  the  present  day  majority.  Sometime  later   in this  century  Tamils   in UK or  Canada  too  will   claim   that  they  have  a  right  to self determination  regarding    areas  they  predominantly  reside .   At this  rate In the next  few  decades  they  will   assert  their  rights  to  the  Towns  like  London or  Bermingham  of  UK   and   some  areas  in   Canada   as their  homelands, once  they  become  the  majority living in those  areas.

                     It is  unfortunate    that  both  the present  as well as former Government  machinery  have  failed to counter  these bogus  claims.   Professor G.L.Peiris  the  former  Foreign  Minister  is directly  responsible  for the  present  situation. He  failed  miserably    to   counter    this  false  propaganda  work  of    Tamil Diaspora at that time.    Instead of  countering  this  false  propaganda, he  was   having  only  pedagogue  talks during  his  period.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

                    As a result  of  removing  the subject of  History  form  school syllabus  in Seventies    by  former  Prime  Minister   Mrs   Bandaranayake  on  the advise of  Mr Bardudeen Mohomed, the Minister of Education at that time,  today the  younger  generation  of   Sinhalese and Tamils  are   denied  of  learning  the  true  history . It is sad to say  that many of  Sri Lankans   irrespective of   their  community  are     unaware  of  the  true  history  of  this  country.    

                    The  myth  of  a  never existed  Eelam   State  propagated by  the  Tamil  Politicians  who   live in  luxury  in Colombo made the youth in  North to join  a  war.  Mr Sambandan, Amirthalingam, Senadirajah  were  in  the  fore front  of  their  hatred campaign  in seventies as reported   In  Sansoni  Commission Report.  However  one has to bear in  mind  that  not even  a single  child of  these  leaders   joined the war  and  died  in battle.  It is  the  ordinary  Tamil  youths  who  sacrificed  their  lives    at the  instigation  of  these  politicians . Sinhalese  politicians  as well as  Tamil  Politicians  almost  forced   the  Poor  to  have their  education  in  Sinhala  or  Tamil  languages  while  they  sent  their  children  to   Sorbonne ,Oxford  and other Universities abroad .  Now the same  politicians  are  again  adopting  the  same  method   to  drag  the  innocent  youth from both sides  to a new war,  not  for  any  other reason   but   for their  own survival or  existence.  Readers  are  advised  to  examine  the  Sansoni  Inquiry  report  for  better  understanding as it  explains  hypocrisy  of  several  politicians who  dragged   the  Tamil  Youth  to  the  last  war.

                         Dragging   the  Sri Lankan  Army to  the  30 year old  War,  was  a stupid  decision  taken  by  late Mr Premadasa.   JR government   handed over  the  war to Indian Army and was  able  to  keep the   Sri Lanka Army  out of war  which was a blessings in disguise .   During  the  stay  of the  Indian Army   in  Sri Lanka,    not  a single  death of  Army  was  reported .  However   when Mr  Premadasa   came into  power he  was ill  advised  by his  battalion of  advisers  and  without  considering  the consequences,  he   gave  definite  dead line to  Indian  army  to  leave  Sri Lanka . Not only  that  he  boasted that  the   conflict  is  an  internal  matter    and  India  should  leave  the  Problem   to  Sri Lankan Government and   LTTE  to solve   by  themselves.  Not only  that  he is  said to have given assistance  to  LTTE in various  forms  to  fight with   Indian  Army and  ultimately  he  lost  his  life too.  If JR policy was  continued,  surely  our Army  would  not  have  to  face  such a  number of  casualties in the last war.   

                               The role  played by JVP in  sending   Indian  Army back  is also   questionable . The leaders of  JVP  surely  cannot  escape  from  the  responsibility  of  dragging  our  Army  to  this  war  bringing  30 thousand  deaths  in  the  three  forces  unnecessarily .   Their poster campaign to  chase  Indian Army  labeling  the   Indian as a Monkey  Army  too may  have  been  a supportive  reason  for  Mr  Premadasa  to  make  that  stupid  decision . JVP  in  addition  to  the Poster Campaign   as I  remember   got  involved  in killing  one or two members of  Indian Army by sporadic attacks  as  reported in  those days.    Needless to  say  that  It was an indirect  support  given to  President  Premadasa to  hand over  the  war  to  Sri Lankan Army.   In those  days it was reported in papers  that  when dead bodies  of  Indian  Soldiers  reached  their  homes, general  public in India   went  against  LTTE  and the support give to  them  greatly  diminished.  If the Indian Army  was to  continue  the  war, surely people in Tamilnadu   would have  openly   opposed  LTTE by now  instead  of   supporting  them. 

What  we  learn  in  our  school  days  regarding  both Portuguese  and  Dutch  periods ,  was that  when  Kotte Kingdom  became  weak,  the rulers  in   distant  parts,    become independent  and   Jaffna  was  no  exception.  In the year 1519   the  ruler who  had  close  links  with  Kotte  Kingdom was  deposed  from power    by  his  son in law   named  Sangili.  Thereafter  the deposed Ruler  requested  assistance  from  Kotte  and  a   Portuguese  army  was  sent .  But Sangili was  shrewd   enough  to  have  separate dealings  with  Portugese    and  managed  to  retain  his  power  for a  considerable  number of  years.   However  when  Sangili  started  harassing  Catholics,   Jaffna residents     sent  some  representatives   to  Goa,   Head quarters  of  Portuguese Empire  for redress.   They  requested   the  assistance  of  Portuguese  to  bring  down  a   Royal  Prince  from  Kotte kingdom  for  them  to live in peace.   Their  request did not  materialize  but  the  Portuguese  some time  later   captured    Sangili   and   sent  to  Goa  and  he  was later  beheaded.  The interesting  factor  is that  those rulers  in Jaffna  had  given their  daughters  in  Marriage  to  Kotte Princes  which  shows  that  there  was no such  animosity  between  the rulers in Jaffna  and  Kotte  or  Kandy.

                           Thereafter  there  were  few  rulers in Jaffna  such  as     Puvirajapandaram, Kasinayanar, Sekarajasekaram  and  Pararasasekaram,     etc  like   Prabakarn who  ruled   part of  Sri Lanka  in the recent  past.   This  must  be  the  so called  Jaffna kingdoms  Mr  Sambandan  speaks  about.      

                                   Sinhalese  were  never  treated  as  enemies  of  Tamils  in  those  days. By the time  Portuguese  came  to  Sri Lanka  in  the  15^th Century   Tamils community  had  a greater power  in   Administration  in  Kotte  Kingdom.  They were holding  powerful  front  posts. Minister  Alagakkonara  is  said  to  be  a  Tamil  who  had  much  influence  on   Kotte  King.

                      In  this  connection  it  is  worthwhile  to  note  that  in the year  1617   Portuguese  entered  into  a  Treaty   with   Kotte  King  regarding  Jaffna  Mannar  and  Trincomalee  to  have  a   legal  title to those  areas.   In the same  way  Dutch too  entered  into  a  Treaty  with  Kandyan King  in the year  1766    and  got  the legal  title  to Jaffna etc  which was  under  their  occupation  at  that  time.

                      Going  back  to  the  early part of   history of  this  Country, there is  clear  historical and  archeological  evidence  that  Sinhalese   had  their    kingdom  in Anuradapura    before  2500  years . King  Pandukabaya  established   Anuradapura Kingom in the year  437 BC.   It was Sena and  Guttika  two  merchants    who  invaded  Sri Lanka for the  first  time.  This  happened  in the year 247 BC  and  this  is  recorded  in Mahawamsa   as the first  ever  invasion .  Thereafter   Elara   invaded Sri Lanka   in the  year  205  BC by  defeating   Sinhalese King  Asela  and   became  the  King. He was a chola  and  he  ruled  the country  for  a period  well  over 40 years.  In the year 161BC  King Dutugamunu  was  able  to  defeat  him and   bring the whole  country under  hid  sway. Kalinga Marga  too  was  another invader. Arya  Chakrawarthy  was  the  last  to invade.   Remarkable  factor  is  that none of them  were  Tamils  and  people  who  remained  in  Sri Lanka  after their  defeats  could  not be  regarded  as  Tamils under  any   circumstances.  Apart form  those invasions  some   Sinhala  kings  have  got  down  armies   from  India  to safeguard  their  interests  from  internal rebellions.   King  Mugalan  got down  Pandyan  army   against   his  brother  King  Kasyapa  who  constructed   Seegiriya   which is  a world  heritage  now.

                         Anuradapura  Kingdom  was   close  to  India  and  guarding the  Capital  from Indian  invaders was  found difficult . Thereafter   Sinhalese  Kings  were in search  of    more  secured  places.    They  shifted  Kingdom  to   Polonnaruwa  which  is  said to  be the  second  Kingdom  in  our  history.  From there too   they  had to shift  the  kingdom   to further south   and  later Sinhala Kings   established  their kingdoms  in  Gampola, Yapahuwa, Panduwasnuwara ,Raigama  Kotte, Setawaka  and  finally  in  Kandy. 

                     These   are  well known  facts .  Anybody  can  read Mahawamsa  which  is  recognized  by the whole  word  as  the oldest Record   in  any  country . Also any body can  check  aforesaid   treaties  in Goa  and   Dutch   museums  if  they  are  really  interested  in  knowing  the  true  history  of this  country  rather  than  accepting  the  Tamil  politicians words  as  gospel  truth . Also  it is worthwhile to mention  here   that  distorting  history  and  instigating  youth   has  become  a  method of  earning  easy   money   for  Tamil  Diaspora.  They are  employing  professors  in Western Countries  to give  a distorted  history to  Tamil Expatriates  and  Political  leaders in those  countries. For instance King  Kasyapa  who   constructed  Seegiriya  which has  now  become a  World  Heritage  has been labeled by  Tamil Diaspora as a Tamil King . A  hired  professor  has delivered a  lecture  and  King   Kasyapa  was  labeled as a Tamil king.  His  name  was   distorted  and  he was  identified  by  a   Tamil name  Kassappaah’   When  this  Professor  put  forward  the  said theory  before  a  seminar  in  UK  a  member of  Seruwila Chaityawardena  Committe   Professor  Wijayaratne  an  authority on   Archeology  had  asked    speaker  the name, the speaker   would   give  to   Arahat  Kasyapa and   the  bogus theory was  exposed.   It is interesting to note   that  this Professor who was  funded by Tamil Diaspora,  thereafter  did not deliver such  public  speeches.    

                     How ever  if  Mr Sambandan   did not  know  the above  historical  events,  really  he should be  ashamed  of  his  ignorance  of   the history  of  this  country.  By propagating   myths   of   a homeland   and spoiling  the  minds  of  Tamil youth  he  and  his   party  has   dragged  Tamil  youths   to  an  unnecessary  war during the last  three  decades.  However  I  believe  that  Mr  Sambandan  and  Vigeswaran  like  my self  had  school  education  with  history  as  a subject.  Therefore   Mr Sambandan  or Mr Wigneswaran   cannot  escape  from  the  responsibility  of dragging  Tamil  youths  to a new  war again   by  spoiling their minds  like in the past.   In the given circumstances  I  leave it  to  the readers  whether  these  leaders  could be  regarded   as  genuine  leaders or  not.

                    When Indian Peace Keeping Army was in Sri Lanka, Brigadier  Haturusinghe was  the chief commander in Trancomalee area.  One day he come to my chambers  for  some  matter  and  I found that  he was having  a half a dozen of  Books  on Robert Knox,  purchased from Lake House Book Shop. When I asked  the reason  for him to purchase those  books, his reply was that  Indian Generals were asking  him as to  why  Sinhalese  do not leave  Trincamalee  which they  have  no  right  to  live.    Brigadier Haturusinghe has  informed them  that Sinhalese were the original  inhabitants   of  this  area  and   promised them to bring  independent evidence  to establish  their   rights  to  North and  East  Provinces. That is the reason for him to purchase  those books .  Later I came to know that Indian Generals were shocked  by reading  those  books.                       

                              Role  played by  NGOs  too  should  be  exposed  as  they too  are  responsible for  setting the  two  communities  at  War. While their  mother countries  were  actively  engaged  in  selling  arms  to  both  side  those NGO intervened in Sri Lanka  to  settle  the war in  Sri Lanka.  Some occasions they  secretly  assisted  Prabakaran  in numerous  ways.   For instance   Redbarana  a  Norvegian  Organization   has  funded  Gandhi  Movement   to  settle   down  upcountry  Tamils  in  Wanni  District  in violation  of their own  rules and regulations  which  restrict  them  to  fund only for projects  for  children.             Danger of   this  Gandhi Movement  funded by  Red Barna was  brought  to  the notice of then  JR Government by  Mr A.T. Fonseka  Superintendent of Police by  a  special report. But it was ignored.     

                                Not only  that  JR  Jayawardena did away  with  Army  patrolling in  Velvateture  beach  to satisfy   late Mr Amirthalingam, which  foolish decision  made  Prabakaran  and his clique  to have  easy  access  to  India.  This  fact  was  revealed to me  by  late  Brigadier Donald  Hewagama  Judge Advocate . Any body  can  verify  the  truth  of this  statement  from  Army  records. 

                            Records  in  Army  will  further show  that  JR government  gave  strict  instructions  to  deploy  two  army  members,  one to have  the rifle and  the other to have ammunition in patrolling  beach.  This  ridiculous  procedure  was  of no  use  and  made  the  Army  to  abandon  patrolling  the Velvatiture  beach  allowing  Kuttimani   and  others  to  smuggle  arms  ammunitions  easily  from India. In addition  to all  these facts JR government  made a historical error by  accepting  that North  and East are the traditional homelands  of Tamils            

                         One of  the   reasons  for   the  Western  powers  to   ignore  the  rights of  Sinhalese   to   North and  East ,   is  the Government’s   failure  to  convince  Western  powers   of   historical   rights  of Sinhalese  to  these  areas.    Norwegians  too are not  aware of the true  history  of  Sri Lanka.   So  we have to blame our selves and  not  others.   

                        There  are several   reasons  for  the  Western  powers  to  divide  this  small country. One    is   the   possibility  of  having  oil.  Other  reason  is  the  trade and military  value  of  Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. 

                         Today many  foreign  NGO s  are  operating  in  Sri  Lanka  with  hidden  agendas   and   their  main   aim is  to   destabilize  our  government.  The  present  provocative  statements  made by  Tamil Politicians   may  be  the  result of those  NGO activities  because these  NGOs  cannot  survive  without  conflicts.

                           Norwegian  Peoples  Aid   was  such  an  organization   that openly  as well as  secretly,  assisted  the   separatist  movement.   Prabakaran’s   Satellite Antenna  was  a hot topic  on  those days.  Another  hot  topic  was  sending  bullet proof  jackets     to   Kilinochchi  but  detected   in  Vavunia by  Army.

                            Defence  Ministry was well   aware  that  it  was  ‘Norwegian  Peoples  Aid’   who  took  Prabakaran’s  Satellite  to  Vavunia  and  thereafter  it was taken  to Kilinochhi  from Vavunia   by   a  very  senior officer   of  UNO but  no  attempts  were  made to expose these  activities even during the  period of  Mahinda Rajapaksa.

                          It is  the duty of  the  Government  machinery  to  convince  the International  Community,  the bogus   nature  of  this homeland  claim  of  Eelamists. Eelamist  should be  exposed under any cost. Their  should be counter propaganda in countries  where  Tamil Diaspora is  formidable.

                           Deterioration  of  Public  Service  is   one  of  the  reasons  for the unrest of   minorities.   Granting  political rights to  government  employees  by S.W.R.D Bandaranayake Government   in 1956  and  abolition  of  the superior  civil service called  CCS  are the two  main  reasons  for this chaotic  situation.  Those days politicians had no say in administration.   They  had  only  the right  to complain  regarding the conduct of an officer to the Minister in charge of the subject. People  sought  relief form  Government Officers  and  not  from  Politicians.  The rule  that  every complaint  should be replied within  seven days  was strictly  followed by those  officers who too were supervised by eminent  civil servants  unlike  today. 

                                When  grievances  of  public  are   not  met,   unrest  arise. They start  thinking  that  because they  are  from  a  different community,  they  are  ignored by government.  Today  no  replies  are  sent  to  public  and  people  are  compelled to  go  after  politicians  for  redress .   This  becomes   the harvesting  field of  politicians  like  Sambandan.   To Counter   this  baseless propaganda of  a homeland theory,  time has arisen  for the Government  to   arrange  eminent scholars   from both  sides  to  have  a  TV debate  on the subject .

                              I  believe that this letter will  be  an  eye opener to both Sinhalese and Tamils   who like to  live in peace .  It is the duty of the government  to  refuse  demands  for   separate  provinces for Tamils  under  the new constitution.  However if their demands are granted , to some extent even   in the  name  of   non existing   Tamil cause,  surely it affects  India too.   For  instance     Kashmir  Problem  too  is  somewhat  similar  to  Eelam  Problem.  Muslim community  has  now  become  the  majority in that  State during  the  last  few  decades.  They  are  now  at war  for  a  separate  state  like  Tamils  in  Sri Lanka  who  have  become  the  majority during  the  British  period as many  of  them  were  brought to  Jaffna  for  tobacco  cultivation.     Please see the records  available  in   British Museums  . It is  the Dutch who  started in  bringing   workers from  Kerala for Tobacco  cultivation.      

                           At the same time  one  has to bear  in  mind  that  there were  few number of  Cholas   who  remained in  North  after defeat  of  King  Elara  a  Chola  Invader  who  is  recognized  by  Sinhalese  even to day  as  one of the most  humane  kings  in  our  history. He was given a  royal  funeral  and  the public was  prohibited in   travelling  by  Horse or  by  dola when  passing  the Tomb of King  Elara.    Out of  the defeated Army  of  King  Elara  a few  remained  in  Sri lanka without  going  back to their motherland  India .  Sometimes  the off springs  of  them   could  be  identified  by  their   ancestral  names.  Harijans  are also  said  to be  Sinhalese who  got  defeated  in  various  battles. Also  there  is evidence  that  King  Gajaba  brought  a  large  number  of  Cholas  as  prisoners  to  Sri lanka .  Also  there  is  a  large  number of Tamils, Malayalams, Pandiyans  who  got  settled  down  in various  parts of  Sri  Lanka and  mixed  up  with  either sinhalese  or  tamils.  Therefore  purity of  the  Tamils as  well as  Sinhalese  is  only  a  myth and  to fight for  a  separate  country  for   Tamils  is  meaningless .     

              Also   it is necessary  for the  Indian  Government  to realize  that    granting  an  autonomous  state  by dividing  this  Country  will be  the first  step  to  divide  India  too.  

                        Unlike  in  the  past,   present day    Politicians  in  the  Western C

ountries too are  corrupted as  same  as  politician  in  Asian Countries. Recent  Panama  Scandal  show  British Prime  Minister Camaron’s  Father too  has  deposited   huge sum  of    money in those  accounts.    I am made to  understand  that  his  father  is  not  a multi millionaire   businessman  who  can  invest  money  in  Panama.  Therefore    one can assume  that  this   ill gotten money  should  be  Tamil Diaspora  money.  As we all know  they  are  spending  millions and  millions on Politicians.   Otherwise   how  can  the British   PM   have  such  a sympathy   on  Tamil  Community  in  Sri Lanka  which  he  does  not  have   to  his own  people .   

                   In the  given  circumstances ,   I  believe  that  all  Sri Lankans  should  unite and  oppose  TNA  efforts  to  divide  Sri  Lanka  which  is  now  surfacing  as  a  non  violent  movement .  In Seventies Tamil Politicians  started  a  similar  campaign  in  the same fashion  as  reported in  Sansoni    Report.  Their  next  step   will  be  the  sporadic killing  of   Police Officers.   Third  step  will   be to have ad hoc hartals  here and there.  This  method  happened  in  Seventies. Therefore  we  have  to  nip  the bud  by taking  meaningful  steps unlike  President J R Jayawardena  who  tolerated  all  these  activities  in  the  initial  stages.   Nobody  wants  a  second  Elam  war.  Lack  of  statesman  like late   D.S.Senanayake  and Mr Kadiragamar  is severely  felt  in  these  days .   

                  Mr D.S.D.Senayake was  instrumental  in  establishing   settlement  in   North  and  East.  He had the vision  to have one nation. For this purpose,  he  distributed  lands  in  south  to  Tamils.  Ratmalana  is one of  such areas

 where  Hindu vidyalaya  was  established.  If his mission  succeeded  surely   the  next  generation  of  these  colonies  would  be  a mixed  one  who  would  speak  both   Sinhala and Tamil  languages   and  there would  be  no  room  for the  Racists  like  Sambandan  and Wigneswaran .

                     At a time  when  all  communities  are living  in harmony,   I am  at  a dilemma  as to why  the Government  is not taking  legal  action  against  all those,   for   repeated  provocative  statements  and acts  based on  an unfounded bogus  history  created  to suit  their  false claims  for  a  separate state  called  Eelam.  In India  laws  are very strict and if somebody  speaks for  separation  he will be kept in  custody  for  months and months. There fore  It is the duty of this  government  to adopt such laws  in the new  constitution.     

                       Mr Wigneswaran  has already  failed in  his administration. He has proved that he is unable to solve  drinking water  problem in Jaffna even.  Lorry loads  coming from  South  with  drinking water bottles  show  hisr poor administration. If he was   really  interested  in  uplifting the living standards of the people in his areas  surely  he should have  used  hisr office  to  call financial assistance from    members of  Tamil  Diaspora who live in luxury   in foreign countries . At the same time  he should have  called them to  give  little  assistance  to  Sinhalese too. That  is  coexistence  we expect from  Mr Wigneswaran. Public cannot be cheated  always by slogans .   Poor attendance  to the so called  recent memorial  meetings show  that  Jaffna  youth  are  not that foolish  unlike the youth in  Seventies who were misguided  by  his  predecessors.

                      Also  it  is  bounden  duty  of  the   Government  to  probe   the  activities  of  all  foreign   NGOs  who  may   create unrest   in  Sri  Lanka  again  like in  Arab  countries  of  which  Siriya  is  the  newest  example. 

L.K.N.Perera.

Advocate

Ex President Lanka Academic Association.

 lknperera@gmail.com

Annexed Document- Sunday  Observer  Article  21.09.1997 about Dr.Rajini Tiranagama. 

Copies  – Hon  President                            Hon  Prime Minister

                Hon   Speaker                              Hon  Chairman  Constitutional Committee

               High Commissioner  India           High Commissioner,  United Kingdom  

               High Commissioner,  Canada      Ambassador  of  USA.    

               Secretary  Ministry of   Foreign  Affairs .   Secretary,  Ministry  of  Defence

              Opposition Leader  Mr Sambandan 

              Chief Minister Northern  Province Mr C. Wigneswaran