C. Wijeyawikcrema, LL.B., Ph.D.
Introduction
Lemkin who lost 49 family members to
the Holocaust coined the term Genocide in 1943/4. Applying his definition to
past events, the first genocide took place in USA when, white man distributed
blankets soaked with smallpox germs to native Americans (Red Indians). Perhaps,
even before that in 1818 and 1848 genocide took place in the British colony,
Ceylon. Genocide is primarily a European-Christian affair. It is also a growing
organic idea in the hands of ex-colonial masters. However, what Vigneswaran is
trying to do in Sri Lanka is to turn this idea upside down deploying five SIVA
LINGAs brought to the island during prehistoric times. Apparently, the blessings
by the LINGAs did not work. Therefore, his delusional mind jumps to 1948, and
list all kinds of genocidal acts done by a Colombo government which was full of
Tamil MPs, politicians, and Tamil officers of all kind, including himself. Surprising
also is the fact that, SJVChelva then, or Abraham Sumanthiran and Rasamanikkam
grandson from Batticaloa, now in 2021, all Christians, missed both the genocide
and Siva LINGA stories of Vigneshwaran. Who will bell this cat?
Scenario-1
If we have a black as our chief
justice, how can we say there is genocide against blacks?”; If Hitler had Jews
in his war cabinet how can Jews complain?” or where are the British, they
created this mess [in Sri Lanka] by their divide and rule policy?”
(Hearings
before the subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs of the committee on
foreign affairs, House of Representatives, 100 Congress, First session, August
6, 1987, page 1).
Note: In
July 1983, when JRJ allowed UNP hooligans to loot mainly the Tamil businesses
in Colombo, the chief justice was a Tamil; the IGP and his four DIGs were
Tamils; the Attorney General was a Tamil, and the Leader of the Opposition was
a Tamil. It was this factual truth that puzzled two impartial American congressmen.
Scenario-2
Would
Hitler rescue 300,000 Jews (Tamils) used as a human shield by his enemy
(Prabakaran) at the cost of lives of his German (Sinhala) soldiers, instead of
firing multi-barrel guns to annihilate the enemy? The enemy was shooting at the hostages trying
to escape to the German (Sinhala) side to deter such revolt!
Scenario-3
If TNA
asked Tamils to vote for Sarath Fonseka, the commander of the army accused of genocide
to become their president in 2004, then what should be the new meaning of the
term genocide in 2021?”
Scenario-4
If before
his death SJV Chelvanayagam handed over his Gandhian struggle to Prabakaran to handle,
if Amrithalingam’s ‘our boys’ who first killed Jaffna mayor Duraiyappa, later
killed Amrithalingam plus Rajiv Gandhi, then how could one say the elimination
of P and his war machinery with child soldiers wearing cyanide capsules given
ceremoniously by Adele Balasingham who is now living in London, was genocide?”
Scenario-5
If Vigneswaran
lived and thrived amongst the Sinhalese in the south for 75 years, tolerated his
two sons bringing him two Sinhala daughters-in-law, benefitted having a cute
little granddaughter who speaks to him and his old Marxist buddy Vasu in
English, as if she is a symbol of unity in the island, how can he say there is
genocide against Tamils after he becomes a Tamil politician at age 76?”
Scenario-6
If yahapalana thieves made Sambandan
the Leader of the Opposition, violating every rule of decency and democracy,
made him a member of the joke called the constitutional council, made him a
selector of victims for political prosecution, and Sumanthiran and former
terrorist D. Siddhartahn was able to prepare an Ormitthanadu thing, which was
bombed last minute by a disgruntled president Sirisena, if Sumanthiran was so
powerful enough to silence Kiriella – the any buffalo can win wars with money
fame- shouting at him in front of Ranil in the parliament, then how is it
possible for Vignesh, Ponnambalam and Sumanthiran to talk of genocide after
2015?”
Note: The factual examples above, demonstrate
that in the case of Sri Lanka, either the application of the term genocide is a
joke or those who talk about it are jokers, because genocide is not a water tap
that one can turn on and off depending on local and foreign corrupt politics.
This is message I wish to convey in this essay.
Genocide is mainly a Christian-European affair
When Hitler was killing Jews, Winston Churchill,
another Jew, delivered a speech on BBC in
August 1941 saying that the Nazi armies were advancing exterminating whole
districts in Europe. He said, “We are in the presence of a crime without a
name.” He forgot that in his colony called Ceylon it had happened twice in
1818 and 1848, and several mini ones in between. Then Raphael Lemkin, a Polish
Jew and an international lawyer who lost all his relatives during the Nazi war
decided to find a name for the crime and he coined term “genocide.”
Lemkin would not have expected what was in store for his invention. It became a
new tool and a new weapon in propagating
‘Eurocentric Developmentalism’ or the western hegemony in the ex-colonies using
local black-white agents. In this remote-controlled colonialism, white global
corporate politicians and corrupt NGO/INGO agents exploited the word as a cover
for selfish purposes. Even private individuals joined in the game. For example,
the American lawyer Bruce Fein used the word genocide frequently because
allegedly, he got $30,000 per month from the owners of the Tamils against
genocide website. Arundhati Roy feared of an impending genocide in the No Fire
Zone in Sri Lanka. She has had a journalist’s crush on her hero Prabhakaran
(ref. The Island, 4/28/2009, essay by Kalana Senaratne).
This use and abuse of an ‘innocent’
objective term, subsequently, for subjective separatist purposes was exposed by
me in a short essay printed in the Island newspaper on May 18, 2009, just one
day before, Prabakaran officially/militarily went to his cyanide heaven. That
essay is copied below, and an improved Sinhala version appeared later in the
Lankaweb is also linked at the end of part II. What provoked me to write a new
essay now in 2021, is the sad and good developments I see in the Sri Lankan
scene. How two Jaffna toddy tappers’ grandson, Arulanandan (Arun) Siddharthan, forced
the Vigneswaran-GG Ponnablam-Sumanthiran-TNA clique to hide inside the
Diyawanna hotel to talk about genocide is the good news. The bad news is the
failure and inability of the Sinhala politicians inside the hotel to give a
theoretical/ideological answer to the Tamil genocide myth. It would have been
historic, if the solitary Tamil Buddhist in the hotel, the
list MP, Suren Raghavan with his Buddhism doctorate from Oxford came forward to
demolish this myth. When self-educated Arun employs Buddhist approach to
silence genocide jokers, how long a Buddhist Raghavan could sit on the fence on
this genocide game? For that matter, Sinhala panchakanda (souls) who
believe that there was/is Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka must come out and use their
freedom of speech now because the Geneva HR hot pan is on. I am not sure
whether Michael Roberts in Australia or Wickramabahu K or Nirmal Ranjith
Devasiri, the Eelam supporters in Sri Lanka, could say with a straight face that
there was/is Tamil genocide in the island. So many other double game cats are
there such as Jehan Perera, Pakiyasothy, DBS Jeyaraj in Canada, Rajan Philips,
Kumar David, Victor Ivan, JVP lot led by Anura Kumara, Peratugaamis, French
citizen Gamini Viyangoda and ex-president Sirisena’s advisor Shreelal
Lakthilaka.
Genocide
Tamil jokers and Buddhist Middle Path
When all the others talked and submitted
documents against the Sinhala Buddhists (including even the Sri Lankan embassy)
at an American Congressional Committee hearing, two congressmen silenced them
by asking the questions copied above (scenario 1). But when Vigneswaran passed
his genocide resolution on February 10, 2015 at the NPC, about Sinhala
governments exterminating Tamils in Sri Lanka nobody was there to take this
delusional bull by the horns, because Sinhala black-white politicians are selfish,
timid, and self-destructive. Now on February 12, 2021 (Colombo Telegraph),
Vigneswaran comes to defend Gajendra Ponnambalam (GGP) for raising the genocide
joke inside the Diyawanna hotel (a.k.a.
parliament) a few days ago, one or two MP panchaskandas tried to answer
him giving the dictionary meaning of the word. GGP then gave his legal meaning
stating he is a lawyer. Outside this ‘august’ body with ‘honorable souls’ as
they themselves call each other in between filthy attacks, Arunalandan (Arun) Siddharthan
(convenor, Jaffna civil organizations’ collective) in Jaffna identify GGP as an
intruder from London coming to save the Tamil race. If Arun were an MP in the
Diaywanna motel, he would have silenced GGP, Sumanthiran, and TNA agents all by
a short speech, the way he exposes these bogus Tamil saviors on his Jaffna
public meeting platforms!
Vigneswaran’s new genocide list
By
allowing these Tamil Eelamist to make genocide talks in the parliament
liberally, Sinhala politicians are only feeding a cancer to cure it. This Tamil
genocide myth must be defeated using Buddhist principles. BBS leader Ven. Gnanasara
could have done it if he were in the parliament. Vigneswaran’s genocide list given
in the Colombo Telegraph is like a bottomless well. Just to give a simple
example, he lists the Indian citizenship law (1949) as genocidal, forgetting
that GGPonnambalam supported it! SJV Chemvalanagam invented the Tamil homeland
myth and then complained against Sinhalization of the homeland. Now in 2021
Vigneswaran turns this myth upside down imagining that the entire island was a
Tamil land invaded by the Sinhalese, and this is genocide! With this new
interpretation, archeological ruins are Tamil ruins disrupted by Sinhala agents.
Thus, it is a waste of time to go
through his genocide list.
If
a Sinhalaya like him says that the stone rock in Mecca is on top of an ancient
Buddhist shrine based on Buddhist literature and the Bamian Buddhas, and it is
genocide which turned the tables, what would be the reaction of the western HR
crowd? But there are other cases. When Babri
Masjid-Rama Temple issue in Ayodya required digging to find out the truth, what
came out was the ruins of an ancient Buddhist temple. In Pollonnaruwa, the
Shiva Devalas were erected on top of Buddhist temples. How would Vignesh
reconcile such conflicts? According to his new 2021 definitions who did
genocide to whom?
To
be in competition with the stories of Lord Buddha visiting the island three
times, Vignesh recently wrote a canard that in prehistoric times five
Shivalingams were brought to bless Sri Lanka. Apparently, it did not work that
way. Instead, today we have Buddhist temples, with 10-20 percent of their
sacred space devoted to Hindu gods and goddesses. Hindus and Buddhists did not
have a conflict. It was Christian Tamils living in Colombo, who created a
Tamil-Sinhala language problem. Tamil who went to foreign countries on
political asylum, who do mostly unskilled jobs, learned the new languages of
host countries in no time. In Sri Lanka, Tamil politicians in Colombo gave
Sinhala tuition to their kids but prevented poor Jaffna Tamil learning Sinhala in
state schools.
Tamil homeland myth
If
one were to believe that successive Sinhala governments done genocide as
Vignesh and GGPonnambalam now say, it was SWRD Bandaranayake in 1958 and Dudley
Senanayake in 1966 who gave a legal backing to the Tamil homeland myth. Then in
1987 JRJ made it constitutional law with his 13th Amendment. Then came
1995-2000 Neelan-GL-Chandrika package deals, Ranil’s infamous CFA, Chandrika’s
Ptoms, ISGA, Tissa Vitharana’s APRC majority report, and finally
Ranil-Sumanthiran-JayampathyW’s Orumitthanadu thing. Would Hitler allow such
attempts aimed at balkanization of Vignesh’s Shivalinga-blessed land?
Was
it as part of genocide that both Rpremadasa and Mrs. Chandrika offered NP repeatedly
to Prabakaran on a 15-year lease? After
his Oslo meeting GL Peiris was so elated because Balasingham agreed to a
federal formula, he even called B as His Excellency for making a paradigm shift
from Eelam demand. Premadasa made a generous genocide decision to make Tamil an
Official language in NP and EP, the Sinhalese living there now must hire Tamil
interpreters to communicate with government offices, GSNs, police and courts of
law.
Part
– II
Wigneswaran
and TNA in trouble losing Tamil voter base and facing Tamil anger- Two fronts: Arulanandan
Siddharthan and Tamara Kunanayakam
=========================
Island
newspaper, 2009/5/18
When is genocide not genocide?
by
C. Wijeyawickrema
“The
question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different
things.”
“The
question is, said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
A crime without a name
In
August 1941, Winston Churchill delivered a speech on the BBC saying that the
Nazi armies were advancing exterminating whole districts in Europe. He
thundered, as quoted in the book, A Problem from hell: America and the age
of genocide by Samantha Power (2003), “We are in the presence of a
crime without a name.” Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew, and international
lawyer who lost all his relatives during the Nazi war decided to find a name
for the crime and coined term “genocide.” Lemkin would not have
expected what was in store for his labour. Recently, white politicians and
corrupt NGO agents exploited the word as a cover for selfish purposes. Even
private individuals joined in the game. For example, the American lawyer Bruce
Fein uses the word genocide frequently because allegedly, he gets $30,000 per
month from the owners of the Tamils against genocide website. Arundhati Roy
fears of an impending genocide in the No Fire Zone in Sri Lanka. She has had a
journalist’s crush on her hero Prabhakaran (ref. The Island, 4/28/2009,
essay by Kalana Senaratne).
White
political cats
Samantha
Power, another Jew, in her extremely popular book, discussed Cambodia, Iraq,
Rwanda, Srebrenica and Kosovo cases of genocide in which western white
politicians gave all kinds of excuses to avoid talking and acting about
genocide.
These
white politicians banned Prabhakaran’s terrorist outfit, in law, in their
jurisdictions but allowed it to have a free hand in collecting funds and
delivering weapons to Kilinochchi. Because Tamil votes were important in
elections in London, Toronto, or Paris. Therefore, white politicians had no
alternative but to play politics. They knew that Prabhakaran and company were
guilty of genocide, but they pretended that they did not know that he practiced
it.
Genocide program of Prabhakaran
The
intention to eliminate or harm another human being because of the birth and
existence of that human being is genocide. This meaning is hidden because, race
or religion (or both) separates the perpetrator and victim. Also, in previous
cases there were large numbers of victims involved.
Intention
1.birth and religion
Prabhakaran
intended and did ethnic cleansing by removing Muslims giving them 2-hour notice
to leave Jaffna. The number was 100,000. This notice was not required for the Sinhalese
as he killed them if they remained in Jaffna. Muslims and Sinhalese were
victimized because they were not Tamils. The only case we know otherwise is the
Sinhala Buddhist monk who lived in Kilinochchi for 25 years!
Prabhakaran’s
massacres at Arantalawa, Sri Maha Bodhi, Mosques and other places were not attacking
the military but civilians. These were not isolated incidents, but there was a
pattern running over his 33-year ‘rule’.
2. Acquired differences.
Power’s
case study on Cambodia shows that genocide is applicable to differences in what
human beings acquire after their birth. Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot killed people
of their own race and religion. They were killed because after their birth they
had an education, did not support communism, liked western habits, lived in
suburban areas etc. This means, when Prabhakaran killed Neelan Thiruchelvam,
Lakshman Kadiragamar, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle or Amirthalingam, he committed
genocide because killing people of his own race (Tamil) or religion even in
smaller numbers makes him guilty of genocide.
3.
Human shield as a weapon
Taking
Tamils as a human shield is an intentional act of destroying them for
Prabhakaran’s benefit. Therefore, the name genocide should include this act of
Prabhakaran at least for the past 3 months. Even if this human shield business
is considered by the white politicians an act of self defence (which is allowed
under the western jurisprudence) then the killing of those who wanted to escape
from him must be a crime of genocide. Daya Master has revealed that about 300
people had been killed on two occasions. It may be possible to unearth mass
burial sites inside CFA 2002-donated area with the help of surrendering cadres.
