Courtesy DNA

The software engineer suspected by authorities in Sri Lanka of providing technical and logistical support to the suicide bombers of April 21, 2019 attack, was also a suspected handler of two IS operatives arrested by Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) two years back. 

Reportedly, Sri Lankan software engineer identified as Aadhil Ameez, a 24-year-old, was link between groups that attacked churches and hotels in Sri Lanka and killed more than 250 people. He was taken into custody on April 25, four days after the attacks. 

According to ATS officials, two suspects, identified as Mohamad Kasim Stimberwala, a laboratory technician with a hospital in Ankleshwar and Ubed Ahmed Mirza, a practising lawyer in Surat were arrested on October 25, 2017. The duo followed the ideology of Islamic State and was planning to carry out a lone wolf attack on a synagogue in Khadia area of Ahmedabad.

Both the suspected operatives of the IS were under the influence of Abdullah-el-Faisal, a radical preacher based in Jamaica and for many years, they were planning to cause terrorist acts. ATS officials said they recovered several WhatsApp chats, telephonic call records of suspects during the investigation. Ubed Miraz had spoken about Aadhil Ameez based in Sri Lanka. In the chat, Aadhil was identified as an ISIS handler and a person who could take up the cause of jihad. 

A senior ATS official said, We have recovered one of the recordings of Ubed, in which he had taken the name of Aadhil Ameez. They were also bragging about assassinating the PM in Tamil Naidu and had also talked about carrying out an attack in Sri Lanka.” 

ATS officials informed central agencies about the matter and had also alerted Sri Lankan intelligence agencies and authorities. We suspected that Aadhil was the handler of two IS operatives who were arrested in 2017. There were threads and links, where his name was taken by operatives, but there was no connection or involvement of him in the planning of the synagogue attack,” added the official.

Both Stimberwala and Mirza were booked under IPC section 120-A (criminal conspiracy), 121-A (waging or attempt to wage war against Government of India) and 125 (waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance with Government of India) of the IPC and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

ISIS HAND

• On October 25, 2017, two suspected ISIS operatives identified as Mohammad Kasim Stimberwala and Ubed Ahmed Mirza were arrested by Gujarat ATS from Surat   
• Operatives were planning to attack a synagogue in Khadia area of Ahmedabad

RUWAN LAKNATH JAYAKODY Courtesy Ceylon Today

Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith yesterday (14) called on all Muslims in the country to personally minimise and shed their cultural differences and integrate with the rest of society and the common culture, as one people and citizens of the country.

Muslim politicians, should be authentic in their faith and the core values of Islam instead of using religion as a label or for selfish purposes, he added.

The Cardinal along with several Buddhist religious leaders, also claimed that regional level leadership of various political parties and politically aligned groups and agents at the base and grassroots level were the lynch mobs (fuelled and motivated by the provision and consumption of alcohol) behind the spate of tense and riotous situations and violent attacks, in the past couple of days, targeting Muslim properties, including shops and mosques, in certain areas which led to the imposition of curfew and arrests. They thus called on all leaders of political parties to rein in and control their Party members and henchmen.

Advocating on behalf of the private nature of religion and worship, and the separation of religion from politics and vice versa, the religious leaders also reiterated their call to ban all national level political parties which contained references to race, ethnicity or religion in the names of their Parties as it only served to cause further divisions. They emphasised that, political candidates representing minorities should be able to contest from national level Parties for even the Presidency and Premiership, and should respect diversity.

It was also the view of the Cardinal and other religious leaders that all affairs pertaining to religion should be brought under the purview of one Government Ministry as was previously the case as opposed to having separate Ministries per religion.        

These views were expressed by Archbishop Ranjith and Chief Prelate of the Kotte Chapter of the Siam Sect, Ven. Ittepane Dhammalankara Thera at a Media conference convened yesterday at the Archbishop’s house in Colombo to make a special appeal for the public to refrain from giving vent to their emotions and causing chaos, taking the law into their own hands owing to a misguided sense of faux heroism and thereby disturbing the peace and unity, and instead act intelligently and patriotically, keeping emotions in check, maintaining calm, exercising compassion, love and patience, respecting dignity and individual liberty and freedom, and allow and assist the law enforcement authorities to carry out their duties, including search operations and obey their orders as that would constitute the highest tribute to be paid to those whose lives were sacrificed in the 21 April Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks on churches, hotels and elsewhere.

Archbishop Ranjith urged all to allow for Buddhists and Muslims to celebrate their forthcoming festivals, Vesak and Ramadan, respectively. 

When queried as to when the Catholic schools would commence their term, Archbishop Ranjith explained that permission had been granted to the schools chief authorities to decide on opening for the term after heeding the voices of parents and the advice of the law enforcement agencies. Whilst acknowledging that parents feared to send children to school, yet they did not fear to send their children to attend tuition classes, Dhammalankara Thera observed that the prevalent fear could be done away with if Parliamentarians including Ministers stood in front of countrywide schools for a couple of hours for a couple of days.

When questioned as to Tamil National Alliance MP, President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran’s recent statement that the Easter Sunday carnage was partially the result of the grievances of the minorities not being addressed by the Government, Archbishop Ranjith whilst acknowledging that minorities had legitimate problems which should be separately discussed and resolved. He pointed out that there was no evidence to indicate a direct link between the Easter Sunday attacks and unaddressed issues facing the minorities, and that therefore Sumanthiran’s claim was a case of overreach.

The Archbishop also took the security forces personnel to task over the recent incidents which revealed that areas and places previously searched and swept by law enforcement during search ops had revealed more weapons. We told them to do a thorough search area by area, house by house, irrespective of religion, yet this went unheeded, he noted. The searches have not been done properly, he further added.

He also bemoaned that their call to appoint a commission to probe the assets of politicians had fallen on deaf ears.

On Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s recent claim that Sri Lanka is not a Buddhist country, the two religious leaders said that such a view was one bereft of even the most rudimentary understanding of the country, its history and culture. He also cited examples of how well Christians and Catholics were treated in Sri Lanka when compared to the treatment afforded them in other Christian and Catholic countries (example – separate seats for clergy in public transportation).

Courtesy Adaderana

Kebithigollewa  Magistrate’s Court today granted permission for police to detain for 72 hours and question the two suspects arrested in Horowpathana over their alleged links to terrorist leader Zaharan Hashim.

Noor Mohammadu Abdul Rasool and Kana Mohamed Mijam, identified as a Principal and an Acting Principal of two Muslim schools in the area, were arrested last night by the Police Special Task Force (STF) at Paththewa, Horowpathana.

They are believed to have maintained close links with the leader of National Thowheed Jamaath (NTJ) Zahran Hashim, the ringleader of the series of attacks on Easter Sunday.

Police said information has been received that the two suspects are well versed in the future plans of the NTJ.

Zahran Hashim and Mohamed Ibrahim Ansar have allegedly established NTJ mosques in the area and entrusted them with Abdul Rasool and Mohamed Mijam.

The arrested suspects were produced before the Kebithigollewa Dis/Magistrate Court today (17) by police who sought permission to detain and interrogate them for 72 hours.

KAMALIKA PIERIS

This essay looks at the main element in Muslim expansion in Sri Lanka, the takeover of land. This is a systematic, calculated take over, and it has been going on for a long time. The money comes from Saudi Arabia. This land grab is part of the silent process of taking over Sri Lanka for Islam.

In the mid 1970s, I had a conversation with a fellow passenger on a train. He told me ‘Some one must look at what is going in the villages.  A Muslim comes in, starts a shop, gives items on credit and when the villager cannot pay, takes his land. This is happening all over,’ he concluded.

Ratanapala’ writing in 2017 confirms this. He says, ‘Even 30 years ago in some areas it was only the village temple that was left after Muslim encroachment.   Today I believe after the demise of the temple priest the temple land too is in their hands, he said.

In the urban sector, Muslim brokers openly accost house owners and offer to buy their houses at prices which are way above the local selling price. A relative told me that, ten years ago, she had received an unsolicited offer of Rs   60 million, for a modest house which she had no intention of selling. We have all had the experience, in Colombo, of Muslims driving in and offering to buy the very house we are living in. They offer exorbitant prices and they are very persistent.  Two days after the Easter Sunday bomb blasts, a friend who lives close by was asked whether she would sell her house. 

There is a brazen takeover of public land as well. In the area in which I live, a Muslim travel company cordoned off the area in front of it’s newly built office. They took in the whole pavement, which was 14 feet wide and a CEB transformer as well. No one challenged this, until the UDA came to re-pave the pavement. They kicked aside the cordon and returned the pavement to the public. In Nugegoda, Muslims tried to take over a whole chunk of the town. Residents found that Enderamulla had become a part of adjoining ‘Akbar Town’. 

There is blatant abuse of the   law. The owner of a piece of land in the suburbs of Colombo sold it because urban laws said he could not go up three storeys in that area.  He later found that under the new owner, a Muslim, a three storey building was coming up. 

In Kandy, I was shown a house newly built by a   Muslim, where the area marked off as road reservation was also built on.  In Colombo, storm water drains are built over by Muslim house owners, regardless of protests by the neighbours. Muslim officers in the municipality give the approval.

Some of the anti Muslim scuffles going on today are definitely related to land. There was a clash recently at Pothupitiya, a coastal village, near Negombo.  This was linked to two unauthorized structures, a beach restaurant and a mini mart, owned by Muslims. These had been built illegally on Coast Conservation Department land with the support of a local Muslim politician. The minimart was owned by his nephew. (Sunday Times 12.5.19 p 10)

Muslims are taking over in the Eastern Province too, particularly in the Batticaloa district.  Muslims are pushing Tamils out of the Eastern Province by taking over the lands owned by them. Researchers declared that Muslims in the east are engaging in questionable land acquisition”. They are buying paddy land from absentee Tamil owners. They are buying up Tamil owned businesses.  There is also the ‘creeping spread of Muslim villages into Tamil villages’, they added.

Muslims have created exclusive Muslim settlements in the Eastern province. These are set in strategic locations, by the sea. Kattankudy is the best example.  Some settlements   encroach into conservation areas such as the forests, estuaries, and waterways flowing to the sea. The bogus deeds were prepared by Muslims working in the kachcheri or District office administering the area, said critics. 

Derana television news of 4.1.2018 featured a settlement in Thillaiyadi, Puttalam, for 1000 houses. It had been established by Rishard Badiurdeen with funds from UAE.  The settlement was named after a member of UAE’s Supreme Council. There is   ‘Ashraf Nagar’ in Ampara close to Deegavapi temple. 500 houses were built with funding from the Middle East, to house 89 Moslem families who had been displaced by the 2004 tsunami, said observers.

A very comprehensive account of the Muslim land grab has been given by “Ratanapala” (pseud) writing to Lankaweb in May 2017. Here it is.

Ratanapala says that Col Gaddafi, who came here to attend the1976 Non Aligned Nations Conference in Colombo, gave a radio interview to the local Muslims. (See Radio Ceylon Transcripts of 1976) In the course to the interview Kaddafi had asked them about their population strength. He gave them the following advice and guide lines: To increase their population from what was around 7% at that time. To buy land alongside major roads – Economic arteries that emanate from major economic centres. To construct mosques so that the call to prayer ( Azan) can be heard from the next mosque.

It is in this background and context we have to understand how far the Muslims have come since 1976. Population has increased from around 5% to now near 10%.  This increase is facilitated by funding for such practices from the Middle East.  Increase in numbers has also brought about a new militancy in challenging the indigenous Buddhist Culture, Buddhism and the Sinhalese, observed Ratanapala.

As for the purchase of land, they have over achieved what Col Gaddafi wanted them to realize. One only has to go along the major road arteries that emanate from Colombo or other major cities to understand this creepy crawly encroachment – on either side of these roads to find out who owns these trading establishments.

One has to look at what is happening to the suburbs of Colombo – all prime land is being bought over by Muslims to make a clean sweep of Colombo and her environs. Then it goes to other areas down the southern coast line – Wadduwa, Kalutara, Beruwala Aluthgama. In Colombo and its environs, as it is in a multiplicity of other major cities towns and suburbs, Sinhalese are replaced at an ever increasing pace as more and more land – real estate is passing hands from Sinhalese to Muslim for rupees which only has a transient value,  continued Ratanapala.

Now that Muslims have cornered the inner-city, gradually they are moving onto city outskirts in a deliberate and methodical way displacing Sinhalese street by street by street! They follow the law of the land where it is convenient and find all the loop holes to creep through to buy land quite legally – that is under the current laws which are quite unfavorable to the Sinhalese.

Currently areas around Dehiwala, Galkissa – Mt Lavinia, Kalubowila are under intense attack; other areas around Colombo too are similarly attacked the difference is only in the degree.  A friend of mine who recently returned from Sri Lanka having visited his wife’s house in Waidya Road, Mt Lavinia mentioned to me that this street is unrecognizable from what it was 20 years before and now almost entirely Muslim, said Ratanapala.

Large contingents of Maldivian Muslims seem to prefer this area.  People have reported seeing foreigners in Islamic attire being ‘very busy’ at all time of the day in these areas – purchase of land and building of mosques are going a pace.

Another friend of mine who is living abroad and has his parental house in Dickmans Road, is having a court case with a Muslim man in the adjoining land, who claims a half of his parapet wall as belonging to him. This is a classic case of a Bedum Naduwa where the weaker party gets overwhelmed, as  owners of this – property  living abroad cannot participate in lengthy court proceedings. Eventually frustrated owners will sell the land to the Muslim who will go on to ‘offer’ a ‘good’ price for the land and property, said Ratanapala.

 Elsewhere in the country they are buying up land in all economic centers as well as cornering all businesses under their control. Today they control most of wholesale economy and what the Sinhala trader does is just the drip of what they can get out of retail trade – outcome of which is very much determined at a higher level by the wholesaler.

 Movement of Muslim enterprises to purchase prime land in economic zones is going a pace. Many a little shop in Colombo as well as in other major cities and towns with Sinhala sounding name boards in front are in fact owned and operated by Muslim enterprises.

In Kandy, Muslims have ‘ring circled’ the Temple of the Tooth – Dalada Maligawa with clever purchasing of land from unpatriotic Buddhist Priests and other landowners.  A mosque built on land leased out by the Temple is now getting ready to rival the very pinnacle of Buddhist faith in Sri Lanka.  Ring circling of Buddhist places of worship is now happening all over Sri Lanka. Kuragala, Dambulla, Kekirawa, Matale, Polonnaruwa, Mawanella –  to name only a few.  At Kuragala they are extending the territory by burying their dead in the adjoining government lands – another ploy they use to capture land, observed Ratanapala.

All this is happening in a majority Buddhist country where the minorities are making inroads to erase our history and our relationship to our past in the North and East. Already in the East, Buddhist places of worship are being desecrated and Buddhist land occupied while a hapless government is looking askance. Mosques are mushrooming all over the island, apparently there is a mosque for every 50 Muslim families in the island. In total they now outnumber all the Buddhist Temples and Hindu Kovils.

In the West, Wilpattu wild life sanctuary is already being bulldozed, making land for Muslims settlements. How many of these are illegal immigrants, the government has no clue,  concluded  Ratanapala.

Environmentalist are concerned about the  Muslim encroachment at Wilpattu National Park. Wilpattu is a valuable pristine forest within the villu eco-system . Environmentalists firmly oppose any human settlements within Wilpattu. Wilpattu was thick forest from 1984-2011. There was not a single settlement. Satellite pictures   and Survey Department maps  indicate    this.   In 2010, human settlements   started in Wilpattu.  The activity was  re-started in 2013. Aerial photos taken in 2006 and 2015 show the increase in settlements. They show that around 2500 acres have been cleared in the last 9 years.

Environmental  organizations such as Wilpattu Surakimu and National Sangha Council compiled a report on Wilpattu in 2015.  The report says settlement started in 2010, it took place in Wilpattu North and Kallaru forest reserve. About 50 acres of Wilpattu North sanctuary and 2500 acres of Kallaru forest reserve have been destroyed and people settled there.  

In 2015 Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ)  filed  petition saying that 2000 hectares of  the forest complex adjoining Wilpattu national part northern sanctuary and Marichhukkaddi/karaddikkuli reserved forest  west ward of Wilpattu block UU and IV, has been cleared, divided into plots, paved road and unauthorized settlements established, making irreparable damage to the environment.

 Approximately  1000 hectares of forest in Madu, Periyamadu and Sannara  area which is part of the forest complex . Madu road sanctuary  and Madu road reserve forest has similarly been destroyed to make way for settlement. 1500 families have been illegally settled  in these areas. Approximate 50 acres in the northern sanctuary of Wilpattu, have also been cleared.  Permanent and temporary houses and other structures have been erected,  and roads constructed, said the petition.

 The petition alleged that Minister Bathiudeen was behind the venture. The petitioner  has information that the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishard Bathiudeen had been involved in mobilizing the deforestation of these forest reserves and establishing settlements under the pretext of the resettlement of Internally Displaced People (IDPs),   CEJ said.

There was also a News 1^st” expose on television on 28.6.15 showing that deforestation was taking place. The destruction caused, could be seen by air. The carnage that has befallen on this reserve took a new turn in 2013 with the intervention of Minister Bathiudeen,  said News First.  1080 acres in the Mannar District belonging to the Department of Wildlife had been released on  February 14, 2013  to resettle  displaced persons. The  President of Sri Lanka , when informed, had  ordered  the deforestation stopped. But when News First” went there, in 2015, they  found that deforestation of Kallaru forest area was continuing.  News First” correspondent was accosted by  an organized group.

In 2017, Rukshan Jayawardene   publicly drew attention to the fact that the Wilpattu forest is being pushed back using bulldozers, backhoes, chain saws and other heavy machinery. In many areas you can see the remaining forest as a wall where the clearing ends containing trees perhaps a century or more in age. Thousands of hectares have been cleared of forest cover. These forests contain valuable hardwoods such as Ceylon ebony, calamander, satin wood and last but not least red and white sandalwood. Where is that timber now, Rukshan asked.

A new road  travels like an arrow through the heart of Wilpattu, five kms from the park, said Rukshan. New houses, new towns, road networks, power and communication towers are all being established. There is creeping expansion into the wilderness of the park. The Park boundary is quietly shifted. These lands, formerly forest reserves, have been fraudulently obtained .  Meanwhile, some of the old settlements such as Mullikulum are deliberately neglected and allowed to remain overgrown, concluded Rukshan.

In 2018, Derana television featured a protest led by Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda on the encroachment at Wilpattu. Ven Ananda accused the officials of the Department of Wildlife Conservation of doing nothing to stop the matter. Environmentalists charge that Minister Rishard Bathiudeen is the person  responsible for  settling Muslims in Wilpattu.  More than 2500 acres of land in the buffer zone of Wilpattu had been destroyed and  Minister Bathiudeen was settling Muslims there, said  environmentalists.

Minister Rishard Bathiudeen has cleared a large stretch of thick forest land between Marichikaddi and Kallaru River, to create new Muslim settlements, they said. A vast area approximately 2,000 hectares in the forest adjoining the Wilpattu National Park , at the Northern sanctuary of the Wilpattu National Park and Maraichukkaddi / Karadikkuli Reserved Forest,  west ward of Wilpattu blocks II and IV,  had been cleared, divided into plots, provided with  paved roads and an unauthorized settlement established .

Approximately 1,000 hectares of forest land in Madu, Periyamadu and Sannara area which is part of the forest (Madu Road Sanctuary and Madu Road Reserved Forests) has  been destroyed for settlements. Around 1,500 families have been illegally settled in the cleared area belonging to the Maraichukkaddi /Karadikkuli forest reserve and in the forest complex of Madu Road Reserve and Madu Road Sanctuary ,  said environmentalists.  Bathiudeen  has also cleared 50 acres belonging to Forest Conservation Department in Wilpattu north. 2500 acres in Kallaru have   been cleared  and a further area around  800 acres is being cleared  . Kallaru forest  though not considered a part of Wilpattu, comes under the Forest Conservation Ordinance of the Forest Department. And, therefore, any encroachment in this forest is illegal and  a punishable offence, said environmentalists.

Environmentalists are definite that these settlements at Wilpattu are recent ones. They were totally new settlements and not resettlements, they said. Bathiudeen’s statement that Muslims have come back to a settlement which was there in 1990, has been firmly rejected. . There were no villages before this in the now- cleared Kallaru area.  Kallaru is an illegal housing project  ,on encroached crown land in a conservation area.

Rishard’s strategy  is to first build some concrete or cemented houses in unauthorized state or private land, and hurriedly resettle people of his choice. These illegal settlements are thereafter made legal.

 At Kallaru, Bathiudeen has   used another strategy. From Marichikaddi to Kallaru, on either side of the nearly five kilometer main road, he has built hundreds of houses with very long spaces between them, only for Muslims, said observers.  There are paved roads and permanent houses already in place, with  further road extension and house construction underway.

One settlement has been named Hunais Farook City, after his  one-time political ally,  Hunais Farook. Another settlement of 179 houses has been named  Jassim City’. There is a board saying  funds were provided by Sheikh Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani Charitable Foundation  of Qatar.  Most of the houses in these  settlements are unoccupied.  Muslims living elsewhere appear at Wilpattu when necessary.  

Rishard’s land-grabbing campaigns  are going on unchecked  in Mannar and Vanni, too,  said critics. Some of  his illegal settlements are located between Silawathurai and Nanattan in Musali, and between Tharapuram and Thalvupadu in Mannar. Many new colonies have also mushroomed in state lands between Murunkan and Silawathurai. An illegal resettlement scheme is built opposite  the Doric Fort between Silawathurai and Arippu. A lot of state land along Mannar- Talaimannar road, is encroached and illegally owned by his relatives and party supporters, they said..

On   24 March 2017 President Maithripala Sirisena signed a gazette notification declaring 100,000 acres of lands adjacent to Wilpattu National Park  as conservation forest” , with immediate effect,  thereby stopping people with political backing clearing more areas in the forest. The gazette notification gives wide powers to the Forest Department’s five forest reserves – Mavillu, Wepal, Karadikkuli/Marichchakatti, Wilaththikulam and Periyamurippu . These have now been gazetted as ‘Mavillu Conservation forests’ and have the highest protection under the Act. National Environment Act, probably.  Hereafter, Presidential and Parliamentary approval will be needed to acquire or clear  the  land.  Entry will be restricted and entrance would only allowed for educational or research purposes. There is no information as to what will happen to the illegal  Bathiudeen settlements. (Continued)

Sudath Gunasekara

25. 5.2019

1 Why did the PM directed police to use ICCPR (2Why Two different Laws are invoked, one for Muslims and  another  for Sinhala youths, that has resulted in quicker and more serious punishment. Isn’t it a gross discrimination against the majority community ?

2 Why did he took the law in to his hand when there was an acting Minister in charge of the Subject of Defense  Ruwan Wijewardhana legally appointed by the President?

3 why did he made an extraordinary quick visit to the areas affected?

4 How far his orders, obviously self assumed, given at a rather unconventional Cabinet meeting held in the absence of the President perhaps without his consent,  are legally valid in the absence of proper delegation of power an authority.?

5 Doesn’t this incident  highlights another serious incident of absence of Government in this country?

6 Who is actually responsible for this state of gross anarchy?

7 Does’nt this means a case of the PM to light his Suruttuwa when the nations beard is on fire?

8 Who will take the responsibility for all chaos  resulting from this dangerous decision?

Mahinda Gunasekera  Tambrook Drive, Agincourt, Toronto, Ontario M1W 3L9 Canada

15 May 2019

Honourable Premier Doug Ford, Honourable Cabinet Ministers, Honourable Leaders of the NDP and Liberal Party and  Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature,

OBJECTION TO BILL 104: DO NOT PASS: REFER TO COMMITTEE

    I am writing as a Canadian of Sri Lankan Sinhalese origin who has lived in this province for the past 44 years to express our community’s strongest objection to your even considering the subject Bill 104 presented by Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam, MPP for Scarborough – Rouge Park on account of the following reasons:

1.      It promotes false information. There is no genocide involved;

2.      It promotes division among the Sri Lankan community in Canada. This country being a multi-cultural nation with diverse communities should not promote legislation which creates strife within communities.

3.      This legislation has been initiated by a Tamil MPP from the Conservative Party who along with other Tamil expats  that provided material support and funding to the internationally designated terrorist group called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) banned by 32 countries including Canada, USA, UK, EU, India, Malaysia, etc., seeking to break up Sri Lanka and set up a separate state in the north and east of the island. The LTTE launched its so called final war of liberation in mid-2006, but was militarily defeated by Sri Lanka’s armed forces on May 19, 2009. Now the pro-LTTE supporters in Canada have launched a campaign ten years after the military conflict ended fabricating charges of genocide against Sri Lanka to bring international pressure to bear against that country, to achieve their aim of breaking up the unitary state and realizing their objective of a separate state for Tamils whose homeland proper is the State of Tamilnadu in Southern India where over 75 million Tamils live.

4.      According to Article VIII of the Genocide Convention, the only authority that is able to make a finding of genocide is the United Nations, whilst disputes if any between the contracting parties shall be decided by the International Court of Justice.

5.      The Tamil civilians were compelled to move with the retreating LTTE forces from the west coast to their strongholds in the northeast coast around Mullaitivu to be exploited for their labour, conscripted as fighters and form a human shield.

6.      The total number Tamil civilians bandied about by the pro-LTTE groups as having been killed between January 1 and May 19, 2009 ranges from 70,000 to 140,000, whereas the UN Resident Representative’s office in Colombo reported 7,721 civilian deaths between August 2008 and May 13, 2009. The Government of Sri Lanka conducted a census using Tamil teachers and public servants as enumerators and arrived at a figure of 7,432 excluding those who had died of natural causes, whilst the Tamilnet, a key propaganda arm of the LTTE reported monthly deaths from January 1 to May 19, 2009, which added up to 7,398. Lord Naseby of the British House of Lords obtained heavily redacted copies of confidential reports sent by Col. Gash, the Military Attache at the British High Commission in Colombo to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, where he reported a total of around 8,000 civilian deaths with 2,000 of that number being killed by the LTTE to prevent these civilians hat formed a human shield from fleeing their area of control. Contrary to what is claimed as genocidal attacks by the Sri Lankan forces, the number of genuine civilians killed is unknown as none of the published figures distinguishes between combatants, LTTE Auxiliary Forces Personnel, and genuine non-combatant civilians. In fact, the UNSG’s panel on Sri Lanka reported that a large number of LTTE fighters battled in civilian attire blurring the distinction between fighting cadres and civilians.

The pro-LTTE groups are relying on unsubstantiated numbers estimated by the UNSG’s three member Panel on Accountability in Sri Lanka which included Marzuki Darussman, Steven Ratner and the South African Tamil and propagandist for the LTTE Yasmin Sooka, appointed for his personal guidance, that arrived at a number of 40,000 civilian deaths based on one sided information provided by expat Tamils which they locked away for 20 years till 2031. They carried out their investigations from New York and never visited Sri Lanka.  The other is the internal review conducted by Charles Petrie who reviewed the UNSG’s Panel report and reports furnished by IGOS and INGOS who were not in the war theatre after September 2008 arriving at a figure of 70,000 civilian deaths.  Neither of these reports had been sanctioned by the UNSC or the UNGA, and were conducted from outside Sri Lanka.

Amnesty and HRW commissioned a report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to determine the number killed after analysis of the high resolution satellite imagery of the final battleground, as the latter were only able to come up with a total of 1,346 burial spots in three burial sites within the Civilian Safety Zone (CSW), which detailed report is carried in their website under the title ‘Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project – High Resolution Satellite Imagery and the Conflict in Sri Lanka. As this report did not support the bogus numbers swirled around by LTTE propagandists, Amnesty and HRW did not proceed with their planned report to press for action against Sri Lanka. The AAAS report was also able to identify some 65 or so craters which they determined had been made by Mortar Shells (not artillery) along the perimeter of the CSZ close to the Nandikadal Lagoon where the LTTE fighters were concentrated and close to the coast where the Sea Tigers operated. Even the buildings without roofs initially thought to have been targeted with artillery fire turned out to have been dismantled by the LTTE to cover their bunkers or hide their long range weapons, while the building walls remained undamaged.

Another interesting statistic is the total number of injured persons among the Tamil IDPs according to the ICRC responsible for ferrying them by land and sea for medical attention was 18,439 which is lower than the 40,000 supposedly killed during the last stages. Normally, the world’s average ratio injured (WIA) to the number killed (KIA) is between 2-3 times the number killed, which means that the number injured should have been 80,000 – 120,000. Can someone explain this discrepancy other than determining that the high civilian death numbers being quoted are bogus guesstimates.

7.      The Justice Maxwell Paranagama Commission on Missing Persons in Sri Lanka was assisted by a team of international legal and military experts in matters relating to International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and War Crimes issues in respect of the military operations against the LTTE, where they concluded that the Sri Lankan forces had not violated IHL or committed war crimes. These experts were internationally recognized authorities, many of whom had served as legal advisers or prosecutors in the International Criminal Courts.  The team of experts was led by Right Honourable Sir Desmond de Silva, QC. (UK) who was Chairman of the Legal Advisory Council, together with Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. (UK), Professor David M. Crane (USA), Mr. Rodney Dixon, QC. (UK/ South Africa), Professor Michael Newton (USA) Vanderbilt University, William Fenrick (Canada), Professor Nina Jorgensen of Harvard University, Mr. Paul K. Mylvaganam (UK) and Major General Sir John Holmes, DSO, OBE, MC (UK) former head of the British SAS.

8.      The LTTE launched attacks on the other Tamil militant groups to gain ascendancy and later became the leading terrorist group employing suicide terrorism becoming the self-declared ‘Sole Representative’ of the Tamil community, even recognized as such by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) elected to represent Tamils in the National Parliament. In order to establish their authority, the LTTE first carried out attacks on leading members of the Tamil community including political leaders, academics, intellectuals, police officers, and others deemed dissidents. Thereafter, the LTTE began to attack the apparatus of the state responsible for internal security, isolated military camps, assassination of political leaders including Ranasinghe Premadasa, President of Sri Lanka, Gamini Dissanayake, Presidential candidate, cabinet ministers, namely, Lalith Athulathmudali, C.V. Gooneratne, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, T.Maheswaran, and attempted assassination of Chandrika Kumaratunge, President of Sri Lanka, Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse. The LTTE dispatched a woman suicide bomber to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, and also killed Sri Lanka’s distinguished Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar.  They attacked remote rural villages in the north and east to ethnically cleanse the region and drive out the resident Sinhala population from areas claimed for their separate state. The LTTE also attacked economic targets such as the Central Bank, Petroleum Storage facilities, the International Airport at Katunayake destroying six commercial aircraft belonging to Sri Lankan Airlines, and regularly planted bombs in public transit, shopping malls, bus terminals, rail stations, killing large numbers of civilians making the population fearful of going about their normal business.

They even attacked the holy shrine of Buddhists at the Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura killing about 140 including monks and lay devotees who were engaged in meditation and other devotional activities. They attacked a bus carrying 33 Buddhist monks who were proceeding on pilgrimage at Aranthalawa using machine guns and machetes, and also bombed the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy which houses the Tooth Relic of the Buddha causing extensive damage to this World Heritage Site recognized by UNESCO. They attacked Muslims at prayer in Kattankudy killing nearly 180 worshippers inside their mosques.

9.       The LTTE started their so called final war of liberation in earnest by shutting off the sluice gates at Mavil Aru in August 2006 during the CFA by stopping the flow of drinking and irrigation water to 30,000 farmers living downstream. The state responded militarily after a lapse of nearly 12 days to restore the water supply and thereafter took action to clear the eastern province of LTTE forces followed by similar action along the northwest coast regaining the territory usurped by the terror forces. Before long, the LTTE was compelled to retreat into a narrow strip on the northeast coast at Puthumathalan near the town of Mullaivu. The LTTE forces were completely surrounded by the security forces which soon established a civilian safety zone (CSW) within this strip to prevent any harm to the displaced civilians. The LTTE moved their heavy artillery guns within the CSW and fired at the surrounding state military. The army would check on the LTTE’s artillery position and resort to  retaliatory fire after  making sure that the civilians were at a safe distance to minimize civilian casualties.

10.  The military successfully carried out a maneuver to split the CSW into two helping nearly 120,000 civilians to escape to safety.     The LTTE was offered several chances to surrender but they did not pay any heed as they expected the international community led by the USA to intervene in the ongoing battles and rescue them and obtain asylum for them in an African country such as Eritrea from where they could continue their separatist struggle in Sri Lanka. In fact, two 48 hour ceasefires were put into effect by the Sri Lanka military in February and April 2009 to enable the  civilians to get out of harms way and move into areas controlled by the army where they would be safe.  However, regrettably the LTTE did not allow any of the civilians to move out and even fired on those who attempted to flee killing them, effectively blocking the safe removal of the civilians who were being used as a human shield. Despite the attempts of the LTTE to put the lives of the Tamil civilians in danger, the Sri Lankan Security Forces succeeded in eliminating the Tamil Tiger leaders and remaining fighters and rescuing 295,873 Tamils among whom were 11,800 former Tiger fighters in civilian attire that abandoned the LTTE. They were housed in Welfare Camps, provided all meals, medical/ psychological care, education, vocational training, and resettled in their former places of residence after clearing the land of 1.5 million landmines laid by the LTTE to hamper the advance of the country’s armed forces. The former Tiger cadres were enrolled in a rehabilitation program, given new life skills that would enable them to lead independent lives and released to society. ARE THESE ACTS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TAMILS? 

Please consider the above factual data and take action to reject Bill 104 which attempts to insert a

series of falsehoods into the Canadian legal system thereby seriously affecting the integrity of our laws.

Yours sincerely,

Mahinda Gunasekera

By Siri Hewawitharana

I like to put few details re. SL state security apparatus within the war period and also major work that started after the war to create better defense for the SL state.Siri Hewawitharana

There were so many engineering talents was helping SL military with signal, satellite and other cyber warfare work since Gotabaya was instrumental in getting the single command structure for all 3 services and the police and he also asked me to help with the Army Research and Development group with command structure and product development.

First meeting was organized by Kapila Hendawitharana with about 12- 15 senior generals and other staffs including Melbourne educated IT director with the Phd . We had so many legal constrains due to Army was funded and also the Army act since we need to get smart people to the organization if we need to develop high level security group that can function parallel to defense but attached to the army. I have provided to the army that explain US defense structure and how they interact and also cyber command structure and line of authority. On top of that I also provided US security NIST Cyber Security document standards that should be followed within SL defense and also govt. departments to avoid fraud and also unauthorized access.

Gotabaya asked me to design the Cyber command structure and room which I was given access to Panagoda camp which I found not suitable and after that Gotabaya told me to find a suitable place and also design the room and its facilities.

All these facilities were done under Gotabaya including the surveillance network suppose to start with Colombo at major arteries so in case of emergencies we could gather real time data via those cameras. Unfortunately, once UNP govt. came to power in 2015, all these works were stopped and finance was taken away.

Intelligence network after the war that was build down to village level was disbanded and head of intelligence, Kapila was pushed out and left the country at the mercy of Wahhabi’s and their money that was used effectively bribing Muslim ministers and UNP hierarchy. If there is a commission probing this heinous terrorist attack should incudes, how Wahhabi’s got foot hold in SL and who their pay masters are and put these traitors under lock and also confiscate their properties.

There is a clear link between massive drugs that coming to SL and foreign Islam terror groups and also SL should ban all Madrassas since this is how Wahhabis getting foothold in countries that create terror. Wahhabis are a death cult and nothing to do with the islam.

Finally Ranil as a PM should take responsibilities for these since he started to dismantle the Intelligence command and also encourage Wahhabism in SL for votes and funding his party.

We need to redefine all 3 forces under new Defense act that can be used any time with out State of emergency so that police can request help from defense forces services since with modern terror tactics, SL state cannot rely on old fashion British law that hinder SL defense needs. Also we need to stop giving visas to foreign islam workers and preachers.

Finally during the war, ground level intelligence gathering and LRRP operators mostly came from local Muslim community and country owe so much for this group and hope local Muslim communities gather and help the country prosper under one nation.

We need to create smart communities that help our defense forces and the govt. with smart people and hope govt. and the president have a plan to attract all SL patriots that are in the global arena with so much expertise to come to SL and hope govt. help with these people to settle in SL with out red tape.

Siri Hewawitharana,Executive Director, Sydney, Australia.

– Asian Tribune –

Dr Sarath Obeysekera 

Today Americans have blacklisted Chinese Telephone Products from Huawei.

Americans claim that Chinese Equipment can spy on them

In Sinhala we say Ape Arraku apitagma Gahanawa” Means our own liquor given to others are turning against us

Americans can also spy on people all over the world using their iPhones .Many parts of I ,phones are made in China and they also clone I phones

At least one Asian Nation is fighting against the giant American Imperialism

In Sri Lanka Americans and Europens are trying to creep in pretext of helping us in the fight against Muslims 

That may one of the main reason for our President rushed to China For conference on Asian culture which otherwise could have been avoided considering the crisis in his own country .Chinese are calling all the leaders to convince them about the power of Silk Route which Americans do not like.

All of a sudden Chinese President offered much military assistance to President.

Irony is that the port Chinese have taken control is called Hamb -an -thota where Muslim traders  ( Sinhalese call them Hambaya) is now the landing point for Chinese so called Silk Route operations.

I am afraid that Chinese jaugernut will not stop.

Americans may have to  develop another planet to migrate like what they did from Europe to America’s

We should stick to our Asian neighbour rather than seeking help from US 

We will be safer

Quote

When it comes to cloning an iPhone, you can do so remotely by entering the target iPhone’s iCloud credentials. However, if you want to clone an Android phone, physically accessing the phone is a MUST. You have to physically access the phone, and then install the Cocospy app into it.

Laksiri Warnakula

When the disaster struck on that fateful Easter Sunday, he was away. When the sporadic incidents of communal unrest broke out on the 13^th, he was already away or on his way to China. The exact details are irrelevant though. The crux of the matter however is that the skipper by accident or by design doesn’t more often than not happen to be where he should be, which is at the helm to steer his ship towards safety, when it gets into really rough seas.

And I, for one, am amazed at his ability in finding out excuses and/or plucking out an array of examples from or drawing parallels with the past to justify his absence or inaction. Whether those excuses are taken seriously by the public is another matter, though.

Then I am sure that those foreign invitees wouldn’t be highly offended if he tells them about his inability to attend whatever it is since he has more important and urgent matters to deal with, at home. For all I know, most of those invitations are often sent based on diplomatic protocol and courtesy and one Mr Sirisena’s absence is not going to matter to them much, if not at all. Even though every time he and/or some of his troops accept those invitations with gleeful smiles no doubt, our near empty coffers get another direct hit too. By the way, this applies to our equally enthusiastic prime minister as well.

And then it looks like the elections looming on the horizon are on the minds belonging to all parties and even the present crisis is seemingly considered by many of them as something that can be best used to further their political ambitions.

The present government’s inexplicable inertia and lethargy to act promptly and launch operations to nip all those poisonous weeds of extremism in the bud (even though by now they all are quite possibly past that budding stage, thanks to both former and present governments that were busy looking the other way, as they were growing up, whilst being nurtured and watered by politicians belonging to both) is inconceivable, but not incomprehensible if one were to go by their track records replete with deceit.

So we have a president, who seems to be incapable of handling complex political issues of national importance and instead is quite happy and willing to be away from action and go on his globetrotting, whenever there is an opportunity. And the country in turn has already paid too high a price for his adventures. 

මාධ්‍ය ඒකකය  නිදහස් හා සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් සඳහා වූ ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය 

නිදහස් හා සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් සඳහා වූ ජනතා ව්‍යපාරය හෙවත් කැෆේ සංවිධානයේ නව අධ්‍යක්ෂ මණ්ඩලය ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පෙරමුණ හමුවෙයි. එම පෙරමුණේ සභාපති  ජී. එල් පීරිස් මහතා සහ බැසිල් රාජපක්ෂ යන මහත්වරු මෙන්ම එහි ලේකම් නීතිඥ සාගර කාරියවසම් මහතා ඇතුළු ක්‍රියාකාරිකයින් රැසක් මෙම හමුවට එක්ව සිටියහ. කැෆේ සංවිධානය වෙනුවෙන් එහි වැඩබලන විධායක අධ්‍යක්ෂ අහමඩ් මනාස් මහතා සහ අධ්‍යක්ෂිකා සුරංගී ආරියවංශ මහත්මිය මෙන්ම  එහි අධ්‍යක්ෂවරුන් වන අරවින්ද ඉන්ද්‍රජිත්, නිරෝෂන පීරිස් හා ශෂික මාදිවල යන මහත්වරු  මේ සඳහා සහභාගි වී සිටියහ. 

වත්මන් රජය සහ අනිකුත් පාර්ශව මැතිවරණ පැවැත්වීම ප්‍රමාද කිරීම පිළිබදව මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡාවට ලක්වූ අතර ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍රවාදී ජන සමාජයක මැතිවරණ පැවැත්වීමේ අවශ්‍යතාව මෙහිදී අවධාරණය කෙරිණ. එමෙන්ම ඡන්ද හිමි නාම ලේඛන සංශෝධන ක්‍රියාවලිය වර්තමානයේ මුහුණ දී ඇති අභියෝග පිලිබඳවද මෙහිදී සාකච්ඡා කෙරුණු අතර නිදහස් හා සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක අවශ්‍යතාව අවධාරණය කෙරිණ.

නිදහස් හා සාධාරණ මැතිවරණයක් සඳහා වූ ජනතා ව්‍යාපාරය මේ ආකාරයට ඉදිරියේදී මෙරට අනිකුත් ප්‍රමුඛ දේශපාලන පක්ෂ නායකයින් ද හමුවීමට සැලසුම් කර තිබේ.

Sri Lanka News

All,

We do not know why the BBC has put this article with videos in today’s news. It has 5 short stories which try to make Sri Lanka look bad. Viz. They talk about mass graves without saying that the tests showed the bodies were over 4-500 years old. We should have as many people as possible write into BBC as to what is the truth of matters. It appears to be an effort to make Sri Lanka look bad to the international community at a time when all the attention is on the country. Please write in if you can individually or as a group to BBC and condemn their activities.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-48270851/civilians-trapped-between-sri-lanka-s-army-and-the-tamil-tigers

National joint committee. srilanka 231, Kirula Road, Colombo 5, Sri Lanka. 

16^th May 2019

Dear Mayors John Tory and Mayor Patrick Brown,

Re: Proclamation of May 18, 2019 as “Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day”

National Joint Committee on behalf of  all peace loving citizen of Sri Lanka wish to strongly protest against your intention to proclaim 18^th of May 2019 as the Tamil Genocide Remembrance day” because genocide was not committed by the government of Sri Lanka when it defeated the LTTE on 19^th of May 2009.

The second mandate of the Paranagama Presidential Commission of Inquiry in which Right Honourable Sir Desmond de Silva, QC. (UK) who was Chairman of the legal Advisory Council together with Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. (UK), Professor David M. Crane (USA), all of whom contributed specific legal opinions that collectively became a legal bedrock of this Report.  The final distillation of the law was that of the Chairman of the Advisory Council working together with the members of the Commission.  The Advisory Council was ably supported by Mr. Rodney Dixon, QC. (UK/ South Africa), Professor Michael Newton (USA) Vanderbilt University who formerly served as the Senior Advisor to the United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Commander William Fenrick (Canada), Professor Nina Jorgensen of Harvard and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Major General John Holmes, DSO, OBE, MC (UK) former Commanding Officer of the Special Air Service (SAS).

Second Mandate of the Paranagama Commission of Inquiry is quoted below with regard to genocide. https://parliament.lk/uploads/documents/paperspresented/report-of-paranagama.pdf

The Commission rejects the suggestion that civilians were either targeted directly or indiscriminately by the SLA as a part of an alleged genocidal plan. The term ‘genocide’ is often used in a political context but it is a legal concept with a very precise and definite meaning and scope of application. Genocide involves a specific intent on the part of the perpetrator to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such. In a recent judgment, the International Court of Justice rejected claims of genocide by both Croatia and Serbia making it plain that the crime is only made out if it is proved that the perpetrators acted with specific intent to destroy physically the group concerned – ‘specific intent to destroy in whole or in part’. The evidential bar has been set deliberately high for this most serious of international crimes.”

This Commission refers in its report to a US diplomatic cable dated 15 July 2009, by Ambassador Clint Williamson that cleared the SLA of crimes against humanity during the Wanni offensive. Not only was the SLA cleared of crimes against humanity according to Ambassador Williamson during the Wanni offensive, Jacques de Maio, head of ICRC operations in South Asia, stated that any serious violations of IHL that may have been committed by Sri Lankan forces did not amount to genocide. The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) have similarly found that there is no evidence of genocide in the final stage of the war by the SLA.

While there may have been long-standing practices of religious, ethnic and racial discrimination carried out by various governments towards minorities, targeting that group, even if for discriminatory reasons, is not sufficient to constitute genocide. On all the evidence available, this Commission rejects the suggestion that the crime of genocide was or may have been committed during the final phase of the war.”

Paul Joseph Goebbels a onetime Minister of Propaganda is well known for leading the German nation astray for the establishment of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. He believed that a lie repeated many times over would ultimately be accepted as the truth. This theory of Goebbels has been effectively put into practice by the Tamil Diaspora to mislead the world with greater success than what was achieved even by Goebbels himself. They have succeeded in making the Canadian politicians to believe that the war against LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka was nothing less than a genocidal war against the Tamil population.

 Wars between nations or even a civil war within a nation causes much destruction to life and property. While the vanquished is found fault with the victor is rarely questioned when the war comes to an end. However the war against terrorism in Sri Lanka where the government was victorious is perhaps one of those exceptions. The reason for this could be attributed to the involvement of vested interests that have tried over the years to destabilize this country for their own advantage. India was first responsible for training and equipping terrorists for a separatist war in Sri Lanka. Though there were many separatist terrorist organizations at the initial stages trained by India, the LTTE finally took the lead role and designated themselves as the sole representatives of the Tamil people. When the Sri Lanka Army was poised to defeat the LTTE in the Jaffna Peninsula it was India that intervened to save the LTTE from defeat by bringing pressure on the J.R. Jayawardena government with the introduction of the Indo Lanka Peace Accord. 

However the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) that arrived to implement the Indo Lanka Peace Accord was soon opposed by the LTTE and in the fighting that followed many IPKF soldiers were killed. The IPKF was withdrawn from Sri Lanka after the R. Premadasa government took office. The R. Premadasa government commenced peace talks with the LTTE after taking office but these peace talks failed and the LTTE resumed its Eelam war. The funding needed to continue with this war was now received by the LTTE from the Tamil Diaspora and certain vested interests in western countries including from many NGO’s. After President Premadasa was killed by the LTTE, the D.B. Wijetunga government that took office was able to clear the east of LTTE terrorism. The strength of the LTTE was greatly depleted by the time the next general election was held. It was therefore necessary for the LTTE to build up their strength and reequip if they were to continue with the Eelam war. Therefore the LTTE agreed to have peace talks with the newly elected Chandrika Kumaranatunga Government in order to find the necessary time to build up their strength and reequip. When the LTTE was ready to resume the Eelam war an attack was staged on the naval vessels in the Trincomalee dockyard. The peace was broken and war recommenced once more.

The Norwegians who arrived in the scene became the next negotiator to initiate a peace accord between the LTTE and the Ranil Wickremasinghe government. It was during this period of peace that the LTTE was able to kill many government informers as well as intelligence officers in the Sri Lanka Army. However it was also during this period that the LTTE leader in the east Karuna Amman broke away from the LTTE. Despite this setback the LTTE under the leadership of Prabakaran that had specialized in guerrilla warfare in the past had by now gathered enough cadres and equipment which included suicide boats and aircraft to fight against the Security Forces of Sri Lanka.

The confidence that Prabakaran had in his ability to fight a conventional warfare with his newly acquired strength led him to close the Mavil Aru sluice gates challenging the Mahinda Rajapakse government to reopen these sluice gates if possible. The government took up this challenge and named it the humanitarian operation to provide irrigation water to over 30000 cultivators whose fields had gone dry due to the closer of the sluice gates. This humanitarian operation that commenced at Mavil Aru first succeeded in defeating the LTTE in the east and was next extended to the north and finally ended at Nanthikadal with the total defeat of the LTTE.

The final stage of the war against the LTTE was designated as a humanitarian operation. It would however be more appropriate to call thirty year old war against LTTE terrorism perhaps the most humanitarian war fought in the history of world warfare.  There are at least four very good reasons if not more for arriving at such a conclusion.

1.     Never in the history of world warfare has a government of any country provided food for thirty long years to people living in a territory that was controlled by the enemy.

2.     Never in the history of world warfare has a government of any country provided the necessary funds to maintain the local government administration for thirty long years in an area that was controlled by the enemy.

3.     Never in the history of world warfare has a government of any country provided the necessary funds during thirty long years for health services, which included maintenance of hospitals, providing these hospitals with the necessary drugs and payments to doctors and staff in an area that was controlled by the enemy.

4.      Never in the history of world warfare has a government of any country provided the necessary funds during thirty long years for school education which included not only providing books and school uniforms to children but also the payment of salaries to all school teachers in an area that was controlled by the enemy.

The government of Sri Lanka did all this and more during their war against LTTE terrorism. The LTTE that was fighting against the government was not burdened with finding food for the population under their control or in maintaining the local government administration in the area under their control. The food aid provided by the government was even used to feed the LTTE cadres fighting against government Security Forces. The government hospitals providing health services were available for the treatment of LTTE carders who were injured during battle against the Security Forces. The LTTE did not have to worry about the education of children in the area they controlled and would only visit schools to recruit child soldiers when the need arose. For thirty long years Prabakaran had all these privileges in his Eelam war against the Sri Lanka government. Are these reasons not adequate to identify the war against terrorism in Sri Lanka as the most humanitarian war fought in the world history of warfare? 

It was America that brought resolution 30/1 against Sri Lanka at the last UNHRC sessions in Geneva. Let us consider the American civil war from 1861 to 1865. The total number of deaths in four years of the American civil war amounted to approximately 625000, which work out to about 599 deaths per day. The civil war in Sri Lanka from about 1979 to 2009 resulted in a total of approximately 100000 deaths in thirty years of conflict, which amounts to approximately nine deaths per day. It is indeed unfortunate that America failed to compare the death count in its own civil war with that of the Sri Lanka civil war. Could a country like America have been misled based on Goebbels theory of lies churned out by the Tamil Diaspora?

America should have also looked at the ground realities before pointing a finger at Sri Lanka. There were 300,000 internally displaced people when the war ended. The government had to initially find food and lodging for these internally displaced people in welfare centers. Within the resources available the government has done a very commendable job in resettling these internally displaced people. Only a very few now remain to be resettled and they are either those who do not want to leave the welfare centers or are those who reside in areas that have not been cleared of land mines. The government has spent 25% of the national reconstruction and development budget for a national population of just 5% living in the affected areas. America should have compared this with rehabilitation effort they have implemented for the victims of the Katrina hurricane.

Demands have also been made by certain NGO’s for the complete removal of the military presence from the north and the east. It is a well-known fact that no development can take place sans security. The presence of allied forces for a long time after the Second World War in Germany and Japan is perhaps the best example for the need of military presence for development activity. Is the demand for the removal of military presence another effort to recommence separatist activities in the north and east for the division of Sri Lanka?

There are arbitrary figures being mentioned with regard to the amount of deaths that occurred during the last months of the war against LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka. The government of Sri Lanka conducted a very through census using Tamil enumerators in the former conflict area and has arrived at a figure of approximately 7000 deaths during the last few months of the war. These civilians killed during the last few months of the confrontation also include the LTTE cadres killed as well as the civilians killed by the LTTE.  The security forces in the final stages of the confrontation refrained from using heavy weapons as much as possible to avoid civilian deaths and did so only to neutralize LTTE gun positions. This endeavour in trying to save civilian lives resulted in the death of 9000 security forces personnel.

The LTTE on the other hand formed a human shield using the civilian population to protect their cadres from the advancing formations of the Security Forces. Any civilian trying to escape from this human shield to the government held territory was shot dead by the LTTE. All opportunities given by the government for civilians to move out of the conflict area was effectively blocked by the LTTE. Even bags of food such as rice sent by the government to feed the civilian population were used by the LTTE to strengthen their bunkers.

The BBC Channel 4 produced several documentary films on the subject of killing fields in Sri Lanka. These documentary films totally distorted the truth and were largely responsible for misleading the international community with regard to the war on terror in Sri Lanka. Though it cannot be established with certainty that Channel 4 has been funded by the Tamil Diaspora to produce these films, the Channel 4 TV’s Director of Diversity the well-known British journalist Stuart Cosgrove is married to a Sri Lankan born Tamil Shirani Sabaratnam from Vaddukoddi, Jaffna. In 2010 Stuart Cosgrove as a qualifying spouse voted for the creation of Eelam at a referendum organized by expatriate Tamils.  

There is a school of thought fuelled by probably NGO’s and vested interests who are supporting the division of this country that victory celebrations in the month of May to commemorate the defeat of LTTE terrorism is counterproductive to reconciliation. The defeat of LTTE terrorism was long awaited by the citizen be they Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher and when it finally happened on the 19^th of May 2009 people rejoiced like never before. It was not very different to the rejoicing of the American people when the death of Bin Laden was announced. Therefore the 19^th of May 2009 that saw the end of LTTE terrorism which brought so much death and destruction to Sri Lanka for three decades must never be forgotten. It is also a special day on which the whole country should pay tribute to the war heroes who sacrificed their life and limb to protect and preserve the unity and territorial integrity of our nation for posterity.

Taking all the facts mentioned above into consideration please note that the truth is stranger than fiction. Therefore since no genocide was committed against the Tamil population in Sri Lanka refrain from proclaiming 18^th of May 2019 as the Tamil Genocide Remembrance day”.

Yours Faithfully,

Anil Amarasekera/-

Lt Col. A.S.Amarasekera (Retd)

Co-President National Joint Committee,

Hiru TV

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

OUR MEMORY IS SHORT LIKE THE MOMORY OF A FISH ……..

It is republish again with few additions

OUR MEMORY IS SHORT LIKE THE MOMORY OF A FISH ……..
Posted on March 15th, 2016 Lankaweb

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

They say that fish keep going around the tank wall because he forgets where he was  >>>>> >

We Sri Lankans are also like fish

January 2015 people were fed with information about nepotism and corruption –Now forgotten

Millions in Dubai –now forgotten

Sunday leader’s murder –Forgotten

Kollonnawa garbage problem during heavy rains –Now forgotten

Fan of a foreign singer throwing a bra and creates chaos. And president promised to use tail of the  fish  -Now forgotten

Mega deals by a yahaplanaya minster   leasing our harbours –         Now forgotten

ETCA –           Almost forgotten

GMOA and SAITEM –    Forgotten

Noise pollution by Pann Chuun Three wheelers       -Forgotten

Sajin and Basil locked up –Forgotten

Good looking female MP’s upper hand in law enforcement -Forgotten

Seya;s muder –forgotten

Thajudeen muder still making ripples but almost forgotten

Tusks destroyed in Galle Face spending colossal amount  money…      -Forgotten

Danno Budunge song sung by a soprano in Galle Face…  Forgotten

TV presenter calling her  a Howling Cat    …               Forgotten

Extended Power Cuts  –Will be forgotten when rain comes

We live with anxiety and continue to live with hopes because of our media

Media can manipulate the whole nation   We keep looking for new episodes to keep our memory live

I listen to a renown Buddhist monk who recited a sermon and said that the  Last bit of Memory Coming to your Mind before you die ( your good and bad deeds) decides where you are reborn irrespective of good Karma ( good deeds) you have committed

If it is about some evil act your neighbour did to you and you had a hatred towards him  and it is the last thing  coming to your mind before you die ,you may be re-borne  as an animal in his garden  like a porcupine and destroy all his crops !!or  urban monkey eating all the bananas ( like what is happening to me now though I am still NOT DEAD !)

I told my wife that old people get dementia because they have done many good deeds ,,, what ever  bad karma they would have committed will not come to your mind before you die as you have Cronic Dimentia”

In our country I think we have some sort of Dimentia and I am happy about it as I can forget and forego !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Add

Today I visited Waters Edge to have a meeting with someone for business.After much checking at the entrance,I sat in the lobby  witnessing the preparations for a grand wedding .What I saw was disgusting .Well-to-do people conned by Wedding Planners overspending for decorations of and around a Marquee installed in the green of the Waters Edge .It is an Air conditioned Marquee with loud music and sumptuous food may be .

I was wondering why the people have forgotten the tragedy which took place three weeks back and few incidents of violent nature in this island in such a short time to wine and dance  like this ?

There are Buddhist and also Christians in the crowd who behave like fish circling around the tank forgetting the suffering of the innocent church goers and foreigners and also some innocent muslims .

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

3 Responses to OUR MEMORY IS SHORT LIKE THE MEMORY OF A FISH ……..”

1. Ancient Sinhalaya Says: 
   March 16th, 2016 at 4:39 am

Forgot to mention BHEESHANA SAMAYA? Started by Adarmista thambi mudiyanselage alugosu jr, carried on by lk porisada and pol pot ponil. Not surprisingly Sinhalese conveniently
forgotten it.

Even jaathiya vinashakari party (jvp) itself has conveniently forgotten it
and going to be bed with pol pot ponil. Shame on them for sending 60,000+ Sinhalese
Buddhists as canon fodder to catholic-run UNPatirotic party torture chambers.

• Ancient Sinhalaya Says: 
  March 16th, 2016 at 4:44 am

Two very useful links to short-memoried Sinhalese fish:

‘National Hero’, the ‘Father of the Nation’ (to red elephants) pol pot ponil at work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV6_o9txURc

• Christie Says: 
  March 16th, 2016 at 5:16 am

ජා වි පෙ යනු අනිත් සින්හලයේ සමාජවාදීන් (සමජවඩයන්) මෙන් ඉන්දියානු පරපෝසිතයන් හා ඉන්දියානු අදිරදයන්ගේ මොල කෑමෙන් හා මුදලින් පෝසිතවූවන්ය.

වෙනස වූයේ මුන් සින්හලයින් මරාදැමීමත් සින්හල මුන් මරනයට පත්වීමත්ය.

අදත් උන් කරන්නේ එයමය. හෙටත් එසේමද?

By KRISHAN FRANCIS | Associated Press | Courtesy Stars and Stripes

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka  — Sri Lanka’s army chief said Thursday that other groups of Islamic militants could be operating in the country independent of the one that carried out Easter Sunday bomb attacks.

“There could be other groups, definitely,” Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake said.

“To what extent are they offensive, what is the equipment they carry, what is the time frame, who are their handlers, these are all matters under discussion,” he said.

More than 250 people were killed in coordinated suicide bomb attacks at three churches and three tourist hotels on Easter Sunday that were claimed by the Islamic State group and carried out by a local radicalized Muslim group.

Seven suicide bombers blew themselves up at their targets and another killed himself and two guests at a motel after his device failed to explode at a fourth tourist hotel. A ninth suicide bomber killed herself and her children as police surrounded her home.

Senanayake said the military is developing a two-year plan to eliminate the new terrorist threat.

The attacks took place a month before the 10th anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war between government forces and separatist ethnic Tamil rebels.

Senanayake said the army has organized a series of events to mark the anniversary. People have been asked to light an oil lamp in their homes and offices in honor the fallen soldiers.

Senanayake said the military will not interfere with Tamil civilians remembering their dead relatives in areas where the final battle took place in 2009.

Sri Lanka’s military has been accused of deliberately targeting civilians and using disproportionate force that killed thousands of civilians in the final months of fighting.

Courtesy Reuters

COLOMBO (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it was holding its forecast for Sri Lanka’s 2019 economic growth at 3.5% in spite of devastating Easter bombings, saying it was too early to assess financial damage.FILE PHOTO: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington, U.S., as IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde meets with Argentine Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

The April 21 bombings, which killed more than 250 people in churches and hotels and were claimed by Islamic State, have scared tourists away and soured business sentiment on the island.

Sri Lanka’s economy, which depends on tourism, garment manufacturing, tea exports and remittances, was already at a low point before the bombings.

The economy grew 3.2% last year, the weakest in 17 years, as a weeks-long political crisis and monetary policy tightening sapped business confidence and cooled investment.

A Reuters poll of 10 analysts predicted last week that growth could slide to just 2.5% this year following the attacks.

But the IMF said it was maintaining its growth projection due a lack of new official data and clear information to assess the impact on growth of the Easter bombings.

It will be speculative for us to revise our growth projection at this juncture,” Manuela Goretti, the IMF’s mission chief for Sri Lanka, said in a teleconference with journalists in the capital Colombo.

So we maintain our growth projection for 2019 at 3.5% with the gradual improvement in the medium term at 5%.”

Still, the fund said Sri Lanka’s budget and current account deficits could widen more than expected because of the bombings.

Previously, the IMF said it expected that this year’s fiscal deficit would fall to 4.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from last year’s 5.3%, and the current account deficit to 2.8% from 3.2% in 2018.

The lender did not provide fresh estimates, but said normalcy had largely returned to the island, thanks to government measures including the implementation of an emergency law.

Authorities expect to get through this incident expeditiously, putting the country back on track to benefit from improving economic fundamentals,” the IMF said in a report earlier on Thursday.

In March, the Fund agreed to extend a $1.5 billion (£1.2 billion) loan facility to Sri Lanka for an extra year, following the country’s seven-week political crisis last year.

On Tuesday, the lender approved disbursal of a $164 million tranche, bringing the total disbursed to more than $1.16 billion.

The loan is crucial for Sri Lanka to secure more attractive borrowing terms.

Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Frances KerryOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Courtesy fox business

In this Friday, May 10, 2019, photo, the 17th century built Dutch fort, which was a popular tourist site, stands empty in Galle, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was the Lonely Planet guide’s top travel destination for 2019, but since the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and luxury hotels, foreign tourists have fled. More than 250 people, including 45 foreigners mainly from China, India, the U.S. and the U.K., died in the Islamic State group-claimed blasts. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/sri-lankas-hotels-beaches-eateries-now-empty-of-tourists

Sipping fresh coconut water while sunbathing on deserted Hikkaduwa beach, Alexi Konchayenko, a sports trainer from Ukraine, struck a stoical note.

Bomb blasts can happen “anywhere, anytime,” he said, adding that he was not afraid. “Sri Lanka is an amazing country. This is my first visit and I will tell my friends also to come.”

His is a lone voice — and a lone presence. Sri Lanka was the Lonely Planet guide’s top travel destination for 2019, but since the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and luxury hotels, foreign tourists have fled.

Many of those booked to come in the next few months have canceled. Hotel occupancy across the island has plummeted by 85% to 90%. The tropical beaches, restaurants and shops are empty.

The coordinated suicide bombings on April 21 not only destroyed lives but also wiped out the livelihoods of Sri Lankans who depend on tourism.

More than 250 people, including 45 foreigners mainly from China, India, the U.S. and the U.K., died in the Islamic State group-claimed blasts.

Tourists normally come to Hikkaduwa, in the southwest, for the strong waves that are perfect for surfing and sparkling clear waters made for snorkeling. Today, of the 27 hotels, very few are open. Most, along with the eateries that line the 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) stretch of palm-fringed beach, are closed.

Among the few hotels still open is Hikkaduwa Beach Hotel. On April 21, all 50 rooms were occupied; today, only a handful. “It’s a real disaster. We don’t know what to do right now,” said Sanjeewani Yogarajah, an executive with the hotel. She said the attack has cost the hotel 5.5 million Sri Lankan rupees ($31,000), forcing the hotel’s management to send half the staff home.

Some tourism officials say the damage to the industry after the bombings is worse than during the 26-year civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the government which ended a decade ago. At least then, the violence was mostly contained to the north of Sri Lanka, they said. This time, no part of the island has remained untouched by the blasts.

Lankesha Ponnamperuma, general manager of hotel chain Hikka Tranz, is one of the luckier ones. While most hotels report wholesale cancellations, he is surviving thanks to business from local residents. Last Friday, two-thirds of the 150 rooms were booked, mostly by domestic tourists.

“I haven’t sacked anyone yet. Instead, we are training our people to adjust their expenditure and helping them restructure their bank loans,” Ponnamperuma said.

The president of Sri Lanka’s Hotels Association, Sanath Ukwatta, said hotels have offered 30-50% discounts to entice local residents.

Such a strategy won’t solve the problem, he said, but will “help at least to keep the hotels going.”

The manager of a clothing shop said the owner had shut the group’s other two shops and the factory too. “Business collapsed after April 21,” said Kumari, who declined to give her surname.

According to government figures, there has been an 80% drop in arrivals since the attack. Tourism accounts for 4.9% of Sri Lanka’s GDP. Last year, 2.3 million tourists visited the island, generating $4.4 billion in revenues, a nearly 12% jump from 2017. Around half a million Sri Lankans directly depend on tourism while 2 million depend on it indirectly.

One of them is Mohomed Musflick, the owner of a souvenir shop in Galle which is full of wood carvings, local paintings and postcards. “I have not sold one item. There are no tourists and we are in a huge crisis,” he said.

While life is gradually returning to normal on the island with offices and schools re-opening, the tourism industry is in a somber mood over the slump in foreign tourists. Tour operators from Russia, Norway and Britain have canceled bookings going right up to April 2020.

A travel ban issued by nearly a dozen countries is the greatest cause for concern. “The ban is our main worry. Until it is removed or softened, we can’t start our marketing to attract tourists. If it is lifted soon, we are hopeful we can bounce back this year or otherwise definitely next year for sure,” said Yogarajah.

In the meantime, Sri Lanka’s government should target “people and countries resilient to this kind of attacks and situations, such as Russia, Israel and India,” said Anusha Frydman, managing director of the Lavanga Resort and Spa.

The industry is clear about what else it wants from the authorities: Ensure that stringent security measures are in place to reassure potential visitors; persuade politicians to put their differences aside and adopt a bipartisan approach on national security; and work fast to get the travel ban lifted.

To help the industry cope, the government has put together a relief package comprising easy loans at special rates and reduced taxes. The government also plans to formulate a $100 million insurance fund for compensation to any tourist injured or killed while visiting the island.

“In the past we have had many serious crises and we have recovered. I am quite positive we can do it again,” said Jan van Twest, general manager of the Fortress Resort and Spa near Galle, where 750 room nights have been canceled from May to October.

“But we need to recover, recover very fast,” he said.

By Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha Courtesy Ceylon Today

It is not surprising that security scarcely figures in Maithripala Sirisena’s manifesto. He talks about food security and energy security, which are of course both most desirable, but their promotion by government must come after the provision of physical security, which is its first and foremost obligation. But we had obtained this, irreversibly it seemed, with the destruction in 2009 of the LTTE and the lifting of the terror that had shrouded us in darkness for a quarter of a century.

So when Sirisena talked of the total breakdown of the rule of law” he could dwell on fraud and corruption, not the threat of sudden death that the LTTE had held over us for so long. And one cannot blame him, for we were all complacent. But whereas a high proportion of citizens continued grateful to President Rajapaksa for what he had achieved, others forgot that. Sadly amongst these was Sirisena, even though in time he tried to take some credit for the achievement in recalling his role as Acting Minister of Defence when the war was almost over.

I need not have to say that I was amongst those who did not forget, even though I felt in 2014 that we needed a change. But this was not because of anything wrong Mahinda Rajapaksa and the country he led had done during his first term as President, which sadly became the theme song of many of those who supported Sirisena. My worries were the indulgence the President showed to many who were more interested in themselves than the country, as also the total neglect by those he had put in charge of international relations – principally the Peiris twins in their different fashions – of the post-terrorism threat hanging over us and the need to deal with that firmly. And it was because I did not feel he should be held personally responsible for what had gone wrong, that I kept arguing in 2015 for restorative justice, not retributive, which had also been the theme I stressed in the Reconciliation Policy I had drafted a couple of years previously, only to have it ignored by the President even though I was supposed to be his Adviser on Reconciliation.

Early in 2014, I tried to draw the President’s attention to the need to do more for Reconciliation and to get over the international criticism we were facing, with the support of the more civilized members of his government. The letter I drafted, signed by half a dozen government party Ministers and MPs, was delivered to him early in 2014 by Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Vasantha Senanayake. They had not wanted me to come because they thought the President had been filled with reasons to resent me by those around him I was critical about, and they were a bit nervous that he would react angrily. But in fact, he proved most understanding, and agreed that something needed to be done. Unfortunately, he then gave priority instead to electoral triumphs and, even though it became clear that year that the old magic was fading, he still went ahead with a premature Presidential Election.

Vasantha Senanayake

I was sad that only Vasantha and I of those who had identified the problems he was creating for himself supported Maithripala Sirisena initially, but in retrospect I can understand why the old left, which had deplored the chauvinist approach Mahinda Rajapaksa had adopted – which had early on been identified with Champika Ranawaka – stuck with him. They knew Maithripala Sirisena better than I did, and that he would prove weak, allowing himself to be dominated by Ranil.

So it proved. And though I had not worried too much about that, not for a moment thinking that Sirisena would continue for a few months with the obsequious attitude to Ranil that he had manifested on the day he declared his candidacy, it soon enough became clear to me that Ranil was infinitely worse in terms of corruption than Mahinda had been. That was why I welcomed Sirisena’s decision to accept Mahinda Rajapaksa’s candidacy at the General Election of August 2015. I had no doubt that Mahinda, working together with Sirisena as President would be much better for the country than Ranil and Sirisena, and I am only sorry that Sirisena took three long years more to recognize this – and I am also sorry that many of those around Mahinda did not accept Sirisena as the President, and issued threats on platforms which allowed those around Sirisena to put him into a panic, so that he virtually sabotaged the UPFA election campaign.

And in turn the extremists in the SLFP, now running the SLPP, sabotaged Sirisena’s plan to make amends last October, by turning away Muslim members of Parliament who had been willing to be sworn in as Ministers. The argument it seemed was that they were not enough in number – even though their swearing in ensured a majority – and they should come back with their leader, principally Rishad Bathiudeen, who had been pampered during Rajapaksa’s second term, but then crossed over to Sirisena, on condition that he was given the Ministry he had enjoyed previously.

Very modern Muslim lady

Interestingly, when I was congratulated on behalf of her community by a very modern Muslim lady after I had appeared with Sirisena when he declared his candidacy, and told her I hoped the Muslim political leaders would join us, she said forcefully that she hoped we would not accept those crooks. But they did join us, after what seemed the statutory trip abroad to seal the deal (and in Rauff Hakeem’s case a meeting after Christmas lunch with Ranil, who told me he was going to discuss the amount that was required).

Even more interestingly, Sirisena’s strategy last year was conclusively defeated when all the Muslim MPs went off to Saudi Arabia, and came back with what seemed a unified determination to support Ranil. What incentives they received, either abroad or here, I was not informed of this time, but we can guess at one, a significant pound of flesh. For we saw last month that Ranil, having importuned Sirisena to make Rishad Minister of Vocational Training and Skills Development, finally got his way albeit after some brief initial resistance.

Did Sirisena know what he was doing? There is some evidence in his manifesto that he was not entirely ignorant of what was going on. In the section on cultural and religious freedom and reconciliation, he notes that Religious disturbances are developing in the country due to the activities of extremist religious sects. In this situation, the extremist groups mutually nourish one another and are expanding their activities.” Though his primary intention here may have been to win over Muslims worried about the activities of the Bodu Bala Sena, he shows here that he understood there were also extremist Muslim sects.

He pledged then in his manifesto that: In order to control this situation, I will establish regional and national councils comprising religious leaders who will boldly work for religious coexistence and against extremism, without giving room for extreme elements of all religions. These Councils will be empowered to investigate into all problems associated with places of religious worship and arrive at final conclusions. Issues unresolved at regional level will be referred to the National Council.”

But far from doing anything of the sort, he seems to have exacerbated the situation, with unthinking promotion of his own favourite Muslim politician, Hizbullah, who was recently appointed Governor of the Eastern Province. The evidence that has now emerged about the connections of Hizbullah’s associates with extremism suggests the President really should remove him from that position, but it seems that nothing of the sort will happen.

Both Hizbullah and Rishad were given carte blanche by the last government, with virtual control of development activities in the various Divisions that were under their control. In those days of course there was less understanding of the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. Even though our capable intelligence agencies were doubtless aware of the content of the schools patronized by this pretty pair, they would not have thought it politic to raise too many objections.

‘University’

That will explain how what now is claimed to be a university was set up through an agreement with the then Minister of Vocational Training. Hizbullah seems to have been in charge then, and again seems to have been given a free hand, for I cannot recall the Ministry knowing anything about this when I chaired the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission. Whether it has now passed from Hizbullah to Rishad is yet to be clarified, or whether indeed as a university it has been passed on to Rauff Hakeem. He one can hope will not be as indulgent to extreme perspectives, but one also must recognise that he too will be under pressure to conform.

Meanwhile, Sirisena has done nothing too about the pledge in his manifesto about secondary education, that international schools will come under full supervision of the Government. International schools will be included in the national education policy. Their curricula will have to conform to the national educational policy. Aesthetic education, Laws of Nature, principles of duties and obligations, general personal ethics etc. should be included in all subject streams.”

Though he may have meant this to apply to secular English medium schools, he must realise now the need to regulate religious schools of all denominations, and also to check carefully on the training and the perspectives of the staff they employ – and to disallow foreign teachers completely.

By Sumanasiri Liyanage Courtesy Ceylon Today

Political parties often times come to power making promises. As one of the TV advertisements says, politicians can avoid the blame by saying that they give promises” but not guarantees”. The so-called Yahapalana Government came to power on 8 January 2015. Parliamentary democracies seem to believe that a four or a five-year term is an adequate time to draw a balance sheet and to give once again a chance to the voters to revalidate their decision. A couple of weeks ago, the Annual Report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka giving a portrait of the Sri Lankan economy in the year 2018 was out. Anyone who wishes to write a balance sheet has to depend to a great extent on the data and figures given in the report. However, the economy is not the sole factor measuring the success or the failure of the Government. In my opinion, what is key to evaluate the performance of a Government is how people, especially the lower rung of society think about the Government that they elected four or five years ago. So I thought my point of departure would be different.

A Small Survey

I conducted a small survey posing two simple questions. The first question is: (1) If, you prefer to disclose, could you tell me to whom did you vote in the last presidential election held in January 2015? The second question was posed only to the people who disclosed their decision and the question read like this: (2) Assume, you live in January 2015 and are given a second chance to vote once again. In that case, would you make the same decision? I posed this question to very small sample of 25 women and men. Hence, I do not claim that the results are generalisable. Out of the 25, seven were tuk tuk drivers, 10 were daily train commuters, two were pensioners, four were school teachers and two were university lecturers.

Seven people refused to give an answer to the first question so were dropped out from the survey. Among the 18 persons who disclosed their decision in 2015 were seven tuk tuk drivers, seven train commuters, three school teachers and one university lecturer. Out of these 18 women and men, 15 stated that they would not vote like they did in 2015. Although a generalisable claim is not warranted from this small sample, one can reach a tentative conclusion that the voter consciousness has gradually changed in the last four years and people believe the responsibility lies with the Government itself.

The Economy

The Yahapalana coalition envisioned a faster economic growth and to make Sri Lanka a Singapore. According to Vision 2025, Sri Lanka will be included in a rich country category in year 2025. However, since 2015, Sri Lanka has experienced a sluggish growth record with only a marginal increase in per capita income. The following Table from the Annual Report 2018 shows the downturn of economic growth after 2015.

Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Dr. W A Wijewardena has the following to say about the pathetic situation of the Sri Lankan economy under Yahapalana government. However, an important line graph which has depicted the sad story of Sri Lanka’s economic performance during the last four-year period. Showing the annual real economic growth rate during the reign of the present Government, it has drawn a downward spiralling staircase with a growth of 5% in 2015 but falling continuously since then to reach the lowest stair of 3.2% in 2018. On average, the annual growth during this period has been at 4% and when it is adjusted for an annual population growth of about 1%, the real income per person, known as the Per Capita Income, has increased only by 3%, a rate much below the planned growth rate of 8% needed to become a rich country within a generation”. It was in this context he called the Yahapalana years of governance four wasted years which cannot be recovered by Sri Lanka now.”

The interesting point is that the growth record also demonstrates the bankruptcy of the IMF and World Bank Mullahs and their neoliberal fundamentalism. Future seems too bleak and the sluggish growth pattern will continue. As I have pointed out in my writings prior to the presidential election in 2015, the Yahapalana coalition did not have a plan based on proper analysis as far as economic development is concerned. It simply believed that saving money from eliminating corruption would pave the way for economic growth and development.

Waste and Corruption

The Government that came to power promising that it would eliminate corruption continued on the same path at increasing speed. It appears that the high priests of the Government were directly involved in the Bonds scam. The United National Party had shown in the past that it had a better record in economic management. However, the present Government may be named as the worst Government so far as economic management is concerned.

Defence and Security

Even a minimal State should provide defence and security to its citizens as its principal and key function. The event on Easter Sunday has proved that the present Government is incapable of performing this basic function. Terror attacks may come at unexpected times and places. However, in this instance it was a bolt from the blue for ordinary men and women but the same was not true for the high ranks of the Government. The clear lapse in the sphere of defence and security is part of the social ontology of the country.

Back to Survey Results

Let me go back to the survey results. The answer given by all seven tuk tuk drivers is interesting. They buy a three-wheeler on lease and so have to save some money to pay the finance. They all thought the decision they had made in 2015 was wrong. What led them to come to such a simple conclusion? My regular tuk tuk driver has informed me that business has become very bad after the Easter Sunday terror attack. He questioned the double standard of the Government. While it offers a concession package to tourist hotels and operators (he thought it was justified), the so-called price formula for petrol and diesel continues to be operative for three-wheeler drivers.

(The writer is a retired teacher of political economy.E-mail: sumane_l@yahoo.com)

NIRANJALA ARIYAWANSHA Courtesy Ceylon Today

Many top ranking Police officials have raised concerns over granting bail to nine suspects linked to the Easter Sunday bombings by Colombo Additional Magistrate, Priyantha Liyanage against opposition raised by the Wellampitiya Police and blaming the Officer-In-Charge of the Wellampitiya Police, Gamini Hewavithana for giving bail to suspects who were working at a copper factory belonging to one of the suicide bombers.

They claim that at a crucial juncture such as this, where the armed forces are striving to eliminate terrorism in the country, it is not correct for the Judiciary to act in a manner which would tarnish the image of the Police Department.

They further claim that the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) should conduct an investigation and release Hewavithana from false allegations made against him.

Hewavithana also lodged a complaint with the JSC in this regard.

According to sources, Hewavithana has requested the Court to remand the suspects according to Section 14 of the Bail Act, No. 30 of 1997. However, the request had been removed from Court reports, sources claim.

Two top Police officials told Ceylon Today that the Court has released nine suspects of the copper factory to fulfill somebody else’s agenda.

We don’t know what the objective is. It could be political or otherwise. However, we cannot allow other parties to level allegations at Police officers who have given their heart and soul to eliminate terrorism in the country, especially  after the Easter Sunday attack,” officials said.

When we contacted Hewavithana, he claimed that he has been accused for no wrong doing on his part.

I fear that I will suffer injustice and People look at me as if I am a traitor. But I have always abide by the law. I believe I will be released from this accusation,” he said.

He further said he had sent a file containing reports of the investigations carried out by the Police on the 10 suspects of the copper factory in Wellampitiya to Acting Inspector General of Police, Chandana Wickremeratna.

The owner Insaf Ahmed was the suicide bomber who blew himself up at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel on Easter Sunday.

After the incident, ten workers from the copper factory were arrested by Police on 22 April.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Liyanage granted bail to nine of them on 6 May. The 10^th suspect was remanded.

An extensive investigation was carried out by the Special Investigations Unit against Hewavithana and some other Police officers following the protest of the public against the granting of bail to terrorist suspects.

Courtesy Adaderana

President’s Counsel Ali Sabry says that the number of members in terrorist leader Zahran Hashim’s group grew significantly following the ethnic clashes in March last year and that this goes to show extremism feeds extremism.

He said Zahran’s terrorist group had only 20-25 members in the past, but after last year’s unfortunate clashes in Digana a large number of youths had joined them and this has been confirmed through statements.

What does this show? Extremism feeds extremism. Terrorism feeds terrorism,” he said.

He made these comments during a press conference held today (16) by representatives of the Muslim civil society of Sri Lanka. Minister Kabir Hashim, former Minister Ferial Ashraff, former Minister and attorney-at-law Imthiaz Bakeer Markar also attended the event.

Ali Sabry said that the people of this country should not be deceived by this hidden agenda every day. We have to identify this hidden agenda.” 

We have to strengthen the bonds between the people of the country,” he said.

He says as Muslims they have a big responsibility to fulfill and that some things need to be done within the Muslim community itself such as regulating Madrasas and reflecting on their culture.

He also said that there are some decisions which need to be taken with the entire Sri Lankan society coming together for a common purpose. 

The prominent civil lawyer also voiced his objection to the segregation of schools based on religions  

Mr Sabry said he believes that by dividing schools as Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Hindu and Catholic we are dividing the country’s children from the tender age of five. 

And once they start to live separately after the age of 18, we ask them to join together for national unity,” he said. 

He stated that the national anthem says we are all the children of one mother and that if so the children of one mother should not go to separate schools. 

This is a very important juncture in the history of this country,” he said, adding that everyone has an important role to play to bring longstanding peace and prosperity to the country.

Courtesy Adaderana

Courtesy Adaderana

Police curfew will not be imposed on any part of the country today (16) over the prevailing peaceful situation in the country, said Police Media Spokesperson.

Police Media Spokesperson SP Ruwan Gunasekera made mentioned this at a media briefing held today.

He further stated that no violent incidents have been reported in North Western Province and Gampaha police divisions as of yet.

The Police do expect to impose a curfew tonight as the security forces have consolidated the security in the island through security mission and no violent incidents have been reported yet, he said.

However, over the past few days, police curfews were imposed throughout the country, especially in the Gampaha Police Division and North Western Province.

Courtesy Adaderana

The Commander of Sri Lanka Army, Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, states that Minister Rishad Bathiudeen had called him three times over an arrest of a suspect linked to the Dehiwala bombings on Easter Sunday.

The Army Commander revealed this today (16) at a press conference, answering a question raised by a journalist regarding a point in the non-confidence motion against Bathiudeen.

Referring to a statement made to a newspaper on May 5th that the Minister attempted to influence the Army Commander into releasing a suspect arrested over the Dehiwala bombing, the Commander that he would describe it as a request from the Minister rather than influencing.

Senanayake said that Minister Bathiudeen called him following the arrest of a certain suspect and that he gave the minister two answers.

According to the Commander, on the first two calls from Bathiudeen, he had told the Minister that he would inform him after checking on the suspect.

On the third call, he had informed the Minister that there is such a suspect among the arrested and asked Bathiudeen to make the same call in one and a half years, said the Army Commander.

When journalists queried the Commander on the relevant suspect, he responded saying that he cannot reveal anything about them except that they were arrested from Dehiwala.

The persons responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks had been running 17 safe houses and 07 training centers for the suicide bombers, Ruwan Gunasekera, the Police Media Spokesman, said on Wednesday.

Accordingly, training workshops for terrorist activities have been conducted in camps discovered in Wanathavilluwa, Hambantota, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Aruppola, Kattankudy, and Valaichenai areas.

The safety houses of the terrorists were located in Negombo, Katuwapitiya, Panadura, Sarkikamulla, St. Anthony’s Road in Kollupitiya, Tropos Road in Mount Lavinia, Wanathawilluwa, Wattala Enderamulla, Mayura Place in Wellawatte, Sainthamarudhu 09, Malwana, Thihariya, Kalagedihena, Kochchikade Daluwakotuwa, Valachchenai-Ridiyatenna, Sabarathipura in Kuliyapitiya, Hettipola , Katupotha, Ninthavur, and Samanthurai areas.

Information on these locations has been uncovered by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Courtesy Adaderana

The No-Confidence motion against Minister Rishad Bathiudeen has been handed over to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya a short while ago, stated MP Udaya Gammanpila.

The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) Leader stated that the motion has been signed by nearly sixty-six parliamentarians including the MPs of the Opposition.

MP Shehan Semasinghe stated that they will request the Speaker to immediately fix a date for the debate of the relevant motion.

The no-confidence motion against the Minister of Industry & Commerce, Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons, Co-operative Development and Vocational Training & Skills Development Rishad Bathiudeen is brought by the parliamentarians of the Opposition including MP Athuraliye Rathana Thero.

Is there proof beyond reasonable doubt that the attacks on 13/14 May 2019 in various parts of North Central/Western province was by Sinhalese? Were the attacks a form of collective guilt that Germans suffered after end of World War 2 when Allies treated all Germans as guilty as Hitler? But then why did ‘attackers’ come in bikes & busloads with SWORDS if they are supposed to be from the area? Who sent these bikes & buses of attackers? The narrative is usually written by the usual culprits whose paymasters expect them to tow the usual majority-minority slogan and occasions like this are super chances for them to beat the drums. However, if no revenge attack took place immediately after Easter Sunday, if no revenge attacks took place even after hundreds of swords, arms & ammunition began surfacing, how did an attack take place 3 weeks after Easter Sunday and after the Government stopped media showing what the police & armed forces were apprehending from homes & mosques?

21 April 2019 was Easter Sunday and Catholics prepared to go to church and hotels had arranged special meals for the occasion. 6 successive bombs exploded in 3 churches and 3 hotels killing over 250 worshippers and guests at the hotels along with hotel staff.

There was no bigger shock than this to a nation that bid goodbye to LTTE suicide bombings, assassinations in May 2009. The nation had just 10 years of peace and on 21 April 2019 what LTTE could never do in 30 years 9 rich educated Muslims indoctrinated by militant Islam did to end the lives of innocent people. As the number of dead got counted and shock turned to anger this would have been the best occasion for a revenge attack. But it did not happen not only because the army & police were on guard or because curfew was placed but because the people knew the culprits were not ordinary Muslims but militant Islam adhering Muslims. It was to everyone’s credit that people were quick to identify the root causes of this radicalization and the call to ban burka/nikab was even welcomed by the Muslim Council.

The 2^nd shock came when the people came to know that not only did the Government receive specific intel information from overseas since April 4^th April (4^th, 11^th, 16^th & 2hours before Easter Attacks) no one in the government had taken action except not to attend church themselves. The intel information not only had the venues of the suicide missions but even the names of the suicide bombers and specifically mentioned Easter Sunday as the chosen date of attack. The PM jumped to say he did not know but had to reverse that statement soon afterwards. A Minister unashamedly claimed his father told him not to go to church specifically mentioning St. Anthony’s Church would be attacked. This digital minister never informed the Cardinal or even thought of sending a twitter note to general public either. This was nothing but criminal negligence on the part of the government to which the President & Prime Minister must be held accountable. No country would have allowed deaths to happen after such precise intel information sent 17 days before an attack. The people were angry & the government needed to devise a plan to divert people’s anger away from them.

What are the options for a Government who was at the receiving end of wrath by all the communities in Sri Lanka including its own party supporters? This is a thought, readers must continuously keep in mind throughout this discussion.

The next shock came when police and army began rounding up suspects within 24hours of the attack. How could authorities round up suspects connected to the attacks so quickly? It later came to be known that the authorities had intel information since 2011. So we return to why the Government did not use the intel agencies to round up the suspects before Easter Sunday after the foreign intel was clear that a radical Islamic group was going to carry out the attack? Government was guilty by inaction for 2^nd time.

It became known later that there are 6 Thawheed groups operating in Sri Lanka with the National Thawheed Jamaat set up in 2011 aggressively promoting Shariah law. The then government had set up 2 intel units in Giritale & Kurunegala camps with 5000 intel officers proficient even in Arabic language to keep track of these extremist Muslims. In 2012, some 161 foreign Islamic missionaries were deported. The Directorate of Military Intelligence knew that locals were fighting in Syria in 2013. One Mohamed Muhsin Nilam left for Mecca in 2013 and died in 2015. Never have we seen entire families taking part in radical militant Islam. Nilam’s brother, Nilam’s wife, 6 children, wife’s parents, two of wife’s brothers including 36 from 3 families went to Syria and this was the 3 families that Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse referred to in 2016 while adding that foreign extremist teachers were teaching at Muslim International schools in Beruwela, Kalmunai, Kala Eliya, Kurunegala. A H M Azeer denied this as did Rauff Hakeem. It was the refusal to accept radical Islam spreading or being indirect beneficiaries of the handouts given by these well-monied groups that resulted in not only NTJ but the setting up of Jamiyathul Millana Ibrahim Fi Sellani (JMI) in 2015 by one Umair from Colombo 10 – the DMI was aware of this too. The state intelligence even in 2015 knew of Aadhil Ameez from Aluthgama, a computer wizard who used various alias on social media to draw people to support ISIS. Aadhil was recently arrested in India. When we know ISIS is a ‘made in USA’ just as Al Qaeda we seriously have to wonder if radical Islam was planned to facilitate the pivot to Sri Lanka by West?

So we return to ask, was the Government complicit in allowing radical Islam to evolve to facilitate the pivot to Sri Lanka plan?

Even Muslims opposed the radicalism being nurtured among the Muslim community. They called for action by the government we fear that these activities if left unchecked by the authorities would create a situation in which the majority of Muslims in Sri Lanka may have to face the wrath of other religions”.

It was aspects of this extremism that was left undealt with that resulted in what took place in Aluthgama given a political twist, months before a crucial regime change election. People have to be wiser to realize that the radicalism was a factor that was a grievance to non-Muslims of the area coupled with the manner authorities were getting influenced to do nothing and this was a super time to plan a riot that would result in denying a bloc vote to the then government. It worked superbly because during that period the narrative was written in such away that there was no radical Islam in Sri Lanka and everyone speaking against burka, halal, proliferation of mosques etc were simply Buddhist extremists and the media went to town tagging them all sorts of names while nicely camouflaged the festering extremism taking place. Media has much to answer in equal measure as the Government for giving space/columns to only one side to always vilifying the majority of Sri Lanka.

The next shock to the people came when police & army began search operations across the country.

What did they find & where?

• Mannar – Digital tape to launch laser attack & an unregistered drone
• Pulmoddai – 89 detonators, water gels in a house
• Hingurana Sugar factory stores – 300 large knives gone missing
• Mosque near PM’s residence – 20 camouflage military uniforms,
• Inside house of the President & Treasurer of mosque in Moragoda, Galle – 797 cds of scenes inciting violence
• Kadil Jumma mosque near Defense College in Slave Island – suicide vest and 300 unused swords
• Under bed of Moulavi of Kadil Jumma mosque – 46 swords,
• Maskeliya Jumma mosque – unused swords
• Mannar coast – large stocks of explosives smuggled. Several influential persons in Mannar ensured police did not make arrests! (hint hint hint)
• War Items – detonators and explosives,   gelignite , petrol bombs, safety fuses (each about 12.5ft in length) grenades and weapons such as axes, daggers, guns,  swords, knives, pistols and  ammunition. Suicide vests, walkie–talkies, hi-tech equipment, army uniforms, camouflage uniforms, bogus degree certificates,  bogus IDs, bogus passports,  savings books of Bank of Ceylon. CDs and DVDs containing extremist propaganda.

Radical Islamic cells

Central Province (10)

Kandy district – Udunuwara, Akurana, Gampola, Daulagala, Katugastota, Nawalapitiya, Peradeniya,

Nuwara Eliya district – Maskeliya

Matale district – Matale, Ukuwela

Western Province (24)

Colombo district – Battaramulla, Koswatte, Dehiwela, Dematagoda, Slave Island, Wellawatte, Ratmalana, Moratuwa, Raddolugama

Kalutara district – Kalutara, Aluthgama, Bandaragama, Beruwela, Welipenna

Gampaha district – Ja-Ela, Kadawata, Mabole, Negombo, Nittambuwa, Ragama, Tihariya, Veyangoda, Welisara, Enderamulla,  (where Faizer Mustapher was trying to rename ‘Akhbar Town’)

North Central Province (7)

Anuradhapura district – Anuradhapura, Galkiriyagama, Kahatagasdiliya, Kebethigollewa, Kekirawa, Nacchaduwa

Polonnaruwa district – Welikanda

North Western Province (12)

Kurunegala district – Kurunegala, Dummalasuriya, Kuliyapitiya, Moragollagama, Nikaveratiya, Telwatte

Puttalam district – Puttalam, Kalpitiya, Madampe, Mandalkuda, Marawila, Mundalama

Uva Province (7)

Badulla District – Badulla, Bandarawela, Ettampitiya, Welimada

Moneragala district – Moneragala, Bibile, Wellawaya

Southern Province (9)

Matara District – Matara, Dickwella, Hakmana, Weligama

Galle district – Galle, Balapitiya, Poddala

Hambantota district – Hambantota, Tangalle

Sabaragamauwa Province (6)

Kegalle district – Kegalle, Bulathkohupitiya, Kotiyakumbura, Mawanella, Yatiyantota

Ratnapura district – Kiriella

Eastern Province (12)

Trincomalee district – Trincomalee, Erakkandi, Kantale, Kinniya, Pulmoddai, Serunuwara

Ampara District – Kalmunai, Nintavur, Pothuvil, Samanthurai

Batticoloa district – Eravur, Panama

Northern Province (2)

Mannar District – Mannar

Vavuniya

Let us completely negate the efforts to claim 13/14 May 2019 attack as being retaliatory because revenge attacks are spontaneous attacks. Any attack happening 3 weeks after has to be a well- coordinated and planned attack often aligned to a political agenda.

Why did police arrest only youth of the area? Why did PM insist the police charge these Sinhala youth with ICCPR when all Muslims arrested with swords are released after being handed over by the army?

The Chilaw incident was a precursor – a Muslim facebook post which was taken to the police to file complaint was not entertained by police that led to attack on that shop. Again we return to question why the Chilaw police did not entertain the complaint and take action against the Muslim which would have averted any chaos that ensued in Chilaw?

If Muslims in the areas affected, say police and army just watched – the only reason why police & army would ‘just watch’ is if they were given orders to do so! Isn’t that why some army personnel are also in hospital with injuries!

When PM and Bathurdeen with his personal TV channel crew run to the scene and take photos of the mayhem isn’t this part of the political plan to stoke communal tensions. A tactic used by ISIS in Middle East was to project images of Western forces harassing Muslim women to anger them into joining their ‘cause’ – probably this is why there is frequent reference by Muslim Ministers to ‘innocent women’! Flogging discrimination against Muslims is one of the best methods to get chunks from the $87billion Wahhabi kitty.

The incident brought to mind 1983 when attackers had voter lists in hand and knew exactly which houses were Tamil. We do not need to be reminded of the role UNP played in the 1983 riots! Sinhalese were blamed completely ignoring that they sheltered families in their homes. The same Sinhalese families kept the Muslim staff & owners of the shops under attack in May 2019 in their homes too. But this is not sensational enough and media prefer to only vilify the Sinhalese and only that gets relayed across international media.

NOT ONLY MUSLIM SHOPS – SINHALA SHOPS WERE ALSO DESTROYED

Why has there been no media attention to the fact that Sinhala shops were also attacked. EKKO the largest textile shop in Minuwangoda town was also attacked damaging stocks. Another Sinhalese glass shop owner in Burulapitiya was also attacked by people arriving in 20 motorcycles. If he shouted ‘I am Sinhalese’ and still the shop was attacked are we to presume the attackers were not Sinhalese?

Let’s not forget that the UNP goons that attacked in 1983 comprised thugs that were Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils they cared little about being Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Islamic or Christians – so long as they were given some payment for their arson and the ability to loot!

Let’s also not forget the recent Digana attacks were also led by busload of mobs and many believe UNP had a hand in this too.

This is what the then UNP President JR Jayawardena said two weeks before 1983 riots

…I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people now …if I starve the Tamils, Sinhala people will be happy…”

It took 35 years for the PM to admit UNP role in the burning of Jaffna Library in 1981.

Hypocrisies and government bias stand out

People putting facebook posts are arrested and denied bail while the 9 suspects (paid Rs.30,000 each, using multiple SIM cards, names not included in attendance registry) working at the Wellampitiya copper factory owned by one of the suicide bombers are released immediately after arrest.

Are we going to allow the narrative to dictate to us? 250 plus lives sadly became a silver lining for the entire country to realize that a jihad war was being planned with cells, arms, swords and safehouses being set up in mosques and homes. No amount of vilification against the majority Sinhala Buddhists can hide this fact.

If it was a retaliation attack – it should be Catholics attacking the Muslims. Why place blame on Sinhala Buddhists?

Are we to forget all of these terrorist acts, terror preparations & a jihad war against Buddhists, Hindus & Catholics/Christians by carrying out a vilification campaign against Sinhala Buddhist to hide the bigger danger?   

  

Shenali D Waduge

In a disillusioned world where false flags and fake news gains momentum daily, it’s not surprising that distortions are taking place. Iraq was destroyed based on a false weapons of mass destruction propaganda, Libya, from the most developed country in North Africa, is in ruins today after promising ‘liberation’ from a dictator but not getting it, hired mercenaries and trained rebels have ruined Syria and we can give enough & more examples of how lies have been promoted and accepted and it is in this same context we must highlight the newest lie to claim Sri Lanka is not a Buddhist country. For 514 years now a systematic, well-coordinated and well-funded attempts are taking place to remove the 2600 year Buddhist civilizational history.

Firstly, let us put to right that Sri Lanka is an island nation where its populace comprises Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers in terms of ethnicity while in terms of religions Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Catholic, Islam constitute the main faiths.

While, undeniably Sri Lanka belongs to all citizens belonging to the above mentioned ethnic groups, the island civilization developed by a Sinhala Buddhist-Cultural heritage aligned on the dasa raja dhamma (10 principles of Buddhist governance) which even the South Indian invader rulers adhered to including King Elara.

The Sinhala Buddhist kings that ruled Sri Lanka on the basis of the Laws of Manu and customary Buddhist laws upheld the Buddhist precepts that all living beings are to be protected with reverence for life. The governing rules of law were clearly articulated. The place of Buddhism in the country’s landscape was inviolable and that place was also guaranteed in the Kandyan Convention of 1815 the religion of the Buddha professed by the chief and inhabitants of these provinces is declared inviolable and its rites, ministers (monks), and places of worship are to be maintained and protected”. This is why any government after independence are bound to maintain the sacred place held by Buddhism for over 2500 years. Later day arrived people or faiths cannot seek to have on par status except to have the rights to practice their faiths without discrimination and have the country law applied equally to all. So long as the law is equal to all – no one is a second class citizen.

So undeniably, the island nation’s civilization was built upon the tenets of Buddhist philosophy and principles which the King and all in the kingdom island followed.

While there is no doubt that man originated in Africa and spread to all corners of the world from where mixed groups of people emerged, Sinhalese people remain the only group of people who evolved in Sri Lanka with its own language & culture. Sinhalese are not found in any part of the world whereas Tamils & Muslims are.

Though Tamils claim a separate land, they are yet to prove that they are not linked to Tamils in Tamil Nadu because the Tamil language and cultures originated in Tamil Nadu. This is why 72m Tamils live in Tamil Nadu as against just 2m Tamils in Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu & Sri Lanka was never linked at any point of time and after the arrival of the 3 colonial invaders they transported scores of Tamils to Sri Lanka to work on their plantations and these Tamil Nadu Tamils continued to stay on though some returned after the Srima-Shastri Pact. Statistics by the colonials prove that there were more Tamils in Sri Lanka brought after 1505 then there were before which nullifies claims that Tamils ran a kingdom of their own because to date they have not produced names of kings who are not linked to India/South India and colonial records are clear that there were no independent or separate kingdoms except kinglets that are no different to the present semi-autonomous provincial council system we have.

The artificial ethnic group ‘Ceylon Tamils’ entered census in 1911 by a Tamil.

Queyroz book ‘Conquest of Ceylon’ records 15 ‘kinglets’ in Sinhale in 1505 when Portuguese arrived and the head of the kinglets was the emperor’ and there was only one Emperor in Sinhale. Queyroz’s book:

‘As long as Rajapure (Anuradhapura) was the capital of Ceylon, the whole island was subject to one King”

The writings of Queroyz, Baldeuz and many other historians clearly establish this while at all times the Eastern Province had remained under the Kandyan kingdom/King.

It was the Kandyan King Senarath who dispatched his trusted commander Mudaliyar Attapattu with some 10,000 Sinhala army to save the Tamils from Portuguese attack in 1619. Now shouldn’t we ask why the Sinhala Buddhist king Senarath would dispatch an army to save Tamils in North Sri Lanka from Portuguese if the area did not belong to him? Just as the Sinhala king sent his troops in 1619, the Senadhinayake 387 years later, dispatched his army to save close to 300,000 Tamils, held hostage by LTTE and eliminated LTTE ground force in May 2009.

The defeat of King Senarath’s troops in 1619 led to a Portuguese inquisition that resulted in death and conversions of Tamil Hindus in contrast the Buddhist Sinhalese looked after the minority Tamils in areas where Buddhist Sinhales were in majority with full respect for the religious rights of the Tamil Hindus.

Tamils did not originate in Sri Lanka and neither did the Tamil language but both Sinhalese people & language originated in Sri Lanka (how mixed that was is irrelevant because a new people with new language and culture originated and evolved in Sri Lanka). Tamils never evolved in Sri Lanka. They came as migrants and after invasions first with the Chola invasions during the 13th century till the Aryacakravarti rule.

Can migrants seek homelands in countries they migrate to?

If Tamils were the original inhabitants in Sri Lanka how can there be millions more Tamils in South India? The same ethnic group cannot evolve from 2 different countries? Let’s not forget that Tamil Nadu has been claiming the self-determination rights before the Tamils in Sri Lanka. There cannot be 2 homelands for the same ethnic people.

Up until 1505 there were only Sinhala Buddhists and a small number of Tamils. All Tamils were Hindus and all Sinhalese were Buddhists. It was after mass conversions by Catholic/Christian colonial invaders that Sinhala Christians/Catholics and Tamil Christian/Catholics and Burgher Christian/Catholics emerged.

Jaffna peninsula and Nagadipa is mentioned when Buddha first visited Sri Lanka. Yapane derives from Sinhalese Yapapatuna. Nagas who were related to the ruling royal family in Kelaniya who were the ancient inhabitants of Jaffna. Paul E Pieris claims that Nagadipa was the name given to entire Jaffna peninsula and its islands.

King Devanampiyatissa’s envoys set off to India from Jambukola port the same port that Sanghamitta theraniya came with the sacred Bodhi tree. Here too a temple was built and a sapling planted by King Devanampiyatissa.

We must also not fall prey to Sinhalese originating from Prince Vijaya. This is another myth fed into our system. There were 4 tribes known as Sivu-hela and this in time came to be Sinhale and they were living in the island far before Vijaya and his men landed.

Sinhale denoted the Island and the Sinhalese with people living in Sinhale as Sinhale Tamils etc – though this was replaced with Sri Lankan in 1972 so the Sri Lankan identity is only 47 years old whereas Sinhale identity is thousands of years old. It was with the Sinhale nation that the British signed the Kandyan Convention.

The same king Senarath and his son saved scores of Muslims from being killed by Portuguese/Dutch too and gave them refuge in his kingdom to live and work on his lands but Muslims were not given land ownership.

It is also to be reminded that the Muslims had no land rights in Sri Lanka until 1832 (Muslims have enjoyed land rights for only 187 years).

Robert Knox writes

there are Moors, who are like Strangers and hold no land, but live by carrying goods to the sea-ports”.

It was the Sinhalese patriots and the Buddhist kings who protected the nation from enemies (except for Don Juan Dharmapala who betrayed the nation, the Sinhalese and Buddhism). Anyone who disagrees please produce evidence.

That minorities enjoy more than enough religious freedoms can be proved by the increasing mosques, churches, kovils, madrassas, prayer/faith healing centres mushrooming throughout the island. If Sinhala Buddhists were marginalizing minorities how can Muslims have a parallel quasi-law, religious food labeling, religious banking system, Muslim daycare/international schools/ Arabic schools etc??? With existence of such all others are secondary citizens in reality because the State has given into the rights of only this minority unfairly.

Politicians & NGOs funded by external parties are striving to change the history of Sri Lanka, many are openly floating false notions and trying to dilute the Buddhist influence in Sri Lanka completely ignoring that there is 1000 year’s difference in Buddhism and birth of Abrahamic religions! Much has happened between this period before Christianity/Islam was even birthed. The architectural marvels, manmade irrigational marvels of Anuradhapura were built long before Islam originated.

It was Arabs who came to Sri Lanka first as traders and not Muslims. Arabs were not originally Muslims nor did they follow Islam. Arabs and Persians converted to Islam only after Islamic conquests using the sword. All Arabs were not Muslim – there were Christian Arabs too. The Islamized Arabs that went to South India began learning Tamil and since they were only males they married South Indian women & travelled later to Sri Lanka which explains the dark-colour of their skin. Majority Muslims speak Tamil and even the Koran was in Tamil.

Most Muslims refer to Yonas during King Pandukabaya’s time but these Yonas were not Muslim because there was no Islam during that period. Islam came 350 after Christ. Christianity as a religion emerged in 4^th century 200 years after birth of Christ.

Reverence given to Buddhism was such that all Kings prohibited animal slaughter and everyone had to adjust to the prevailing Buddhist ethos & Governing law. King Kirti Sri Nissankamalla prohibited killing of all living beings. King Elara punished his own son with death for running over a calf. No Muslim living even as aliens indulged in ritual animal slaughter under Sinhala Buddhist rule. John Doyly also notes that the Sinhala law prohibited hunting but British killed thousands of elephants as a sport.

Recently, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith declared that this is a Sinhala Buddhist nation and foremost place must be given to Buddhism, he went on to say that even Catholics can follow the teachings of Buddha while being Catholic as it has nothing but good. Buddhism does not define non-Buddhists, nor defines how to treat non-Buddhists. Non-Buddhists are not called non-believers, kafirs, infidels or zimmis. Nowhere in Buddhas teachings tell its followers that it is not a sin to deceive non Buddhists, to lie to them in the name of Buddhism or to show two faces to others. There is no ‘out of context’ arguments either.

There are no inducements in Buddhism other than to gather good merit or karma. Buddhists do not have rich lobby groups or spend on promoting to convert. Buddhism spread from Persia to Indonesia without a sword or forced conversion whereas others spread brutally & with much bloodshed and explains why their numbers have increased.

For 514 years systematic, well-coordinated and well-funded attempts are taking place to remove the 2600 year Buddhist civilizational history and it is being craftily done through politicians who have no morals, no value for Sri Lanka’s historical past, who will barter Sri Lanka for any personal or political gain and have no qualms about the injustices they are doing. For cheap publicity they will say anything stupid like the former foreign and present finance minister is doing claiming Sri Lanka is not a Buddhist country.

Sadly, since history Sinhala Buddhists have shed blood protecting the nation & minorities against enemies that set foot in Sri Lanka. We did so throughout colonial rule, we did so during LTTE terrorism (helped by a handful of patriotic minorities) and now we are doing so again in the light of another radical element surfacing. Again it is the DNA of the traitors who are responsible for the present peril.

Sadly, majority in the minorities greatly influenced by external forces are shy to openly shower gratitude to the Sinhala Buddhist majority though a minority amongst the minorities do so & against much pressures by their own.

While many may try to gain cheap publicity by claiming Sri Lanka is not a Buddhist country the Catholics know that they are safe amongst the Sinhala Buddhists, the Tamils know they too are safe amongst the Sinhala Buddhists. Muslims lived following their faith & respecting the Sinhala culture until radical Islam got the better of some of them and before long they too will realize living among Sinhala Buddhists is better than falling prey to radical Islam.

Shenali D Waduge

Something is not right. While 57 of the 68 foreign terrorist groups banned by US are Islamic and all having some link or the other to each other as well as an underlying link to Western governments & their intelligence. According to the Global Terrorism Index 2018 compiled by the Institute for Economics & Peace the majority of the 169 terrorist groups are Islamic. Of the 68 foreign terrorist organizations banned by US – 57 are Islamic. Ironically or coincidentally, the West declares ‘war on terror’ in every country these Islamic terrorists wage terror in. However, the terrorists are never negated, territory is captured by terrorists eventually the West, civilians end up dead & the West’s soldiers end up fighting the very terrorists its governments & intel agencies have created & West stays grounded claiming it is yet to finish off the ‘terrorists’. Is there something bigger than we are not been told?

None of the Islamic terrorist groups come from countries that manufacture arms. So where do they buy arms – legally or illegally or who gives them arms covertly?

Terrorism today is undoubtedly a business. It is not just an ordinary business it is a very lucrative business. If there was no terror, arms manufacturers will not be making the profits it does. Its lucrative to many other players too including the human rights, NGO circles.

Arms manufacturers can sell to both parties (govts & terrorists both purchase arms to attack & defend, then there is the counter terrorism equipment which is also a lucrative business – cameras, scanners, all sort of sophisticated equipment) Quite a lot of money laundering activities are also taking place plugged to this is the illegal narcotic business.

Cost of terrorism in 2017 was said to be $52billion (Institute for Economics & Peace)

Terrorism is part of foreign policy – Islamic terrorists in Africa / US troops in Africa

American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, but they foment it as a weapon of foreign policy. Is this the reason why wherever countries wish to politically pivot or politically pressurize governments or cause destability, suddenly some form of rebel group emerges with a ‘cause’  or ‘terror’ that almost always demands ‘territory’ – geopolitical expansionism that the countries that wish to pivot are eyeing.

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was originally Al Qaeda in Iraq which rebranded when US pivoted from Iraq to Syria. Syria is today a theatre for 3 wars – Syrian govt & western government backed-rebels, Iran & Saudi Arabia & US vs Russia.

US uses ISIS not merely as an instrument of terror to topple the Syrian government; it is also used to put pressure on Iran.

Just to put things in proper perspective. Last time Iran invaded another nation was in 1738 but the US has been engaged in over 53 illegal military invasions since 1776.

US uses ISIS in 3 ways – to attack West’s enemies in Middle East, to justify US military interventions abroad & create fear psychosis at home of a manufactured threat to its soil to require unprecedented domestic surveillance & need for US taxpayers to fund US military interventions overseas.

US interventions are very lucrative opportunities for US companies. More than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $27 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan. The West bomb countries and awards its companies contracts to rebuild the countries & who foots the bill?

The US is not at war with any country in Africa but there are 7500 US military personnel, 1000 contractors deployed in Africa an increase of 1500 from 2017. US has 100 missions in 20 African countries conducting 3500 military exercise operations (Strategic Cultural Foundation)

There are 200,000 US troops stationed in 177 countries!

In the African continent alone US is in 53 countries – that virtually means US is in every country in the African continent! In the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti – US has 4000 troops, a critical strategic base because of its port and its proximity to the Middle East. This camp controls drone attacks to target ‘insurgents’ in Yemen, Nigeria, and Somalia.

There are at least 33 Islamic terrorist groups operating in African continent.

Ethiopia an ally of the US, a majority-Christian nation, invaded Somalia in December 2006. It was a ‘made in Washington’ invasion. It resulted in 20,000 deaths and left up to 2 million Somalis homeless.

U.S. conducted 45 air strikes in Somalia against al Shabab and Islamic State targets in 2018. Just to kill one Somali warlord – Moh Farrah Aidid the US Special Forces ended up killing more than 1000 Somalis.

Who are these terrorists?

CIA gave birth to Al Qaeda & Osama bin Laden & Saudi funded it in 1980s. When Osama was no longer needed he was removed and Al Qaeda was rebranded under several names. Al Qaeda is said to operate in 17 countries & having 30,000 fighters

Boku Haram started operations in Nigeria in 2002 & operates in Chad, Cameroon & Niger too. It is famous for hostage taking & extensive use of children & women as suicide bombers copying LTTE.

Al Shabaab began in 2006 and strikes terror in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya & Uganda

Daesh, ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State are the other oft quoted names.

Creating the terrorists is one thing but how in control of these monsters are the countries that created them?

Fulani in Nigeria killed 321 people and carried out 72 attacks in 2017.

Al Nusra previously known as Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham were responsible for 176 deaths in 2017.

In Pakistan, Lahkar-e-Jhangvi & the Khorasan Chapter of the Islamic State is active across the border in Afghanistan.

In Jammu Kashmir at least 5 different groups operate – Lashkar-e-Taliba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen who were responsible for 102 deaths.

Yemen crisis surrounds Houthi rebels Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Adan-Abyan Province of Islamic State while Abu Sayyaf, Maute Group operate in Philippines.

According to Watson Institute 228,942 Muslims have died engaged with US-NATO forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan from 2001 to 2018 – how many of them are civilians or West-trained militants, we will never know.

But the figure 114,471 Opposition fighters is a good indication of the Islamic terrorists that the West created & eventually killed.

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2018/Human%20Costs%2C%20Nov%208%202018%20CoW.pdf

Islamic terrorists & arms

All these Islamic groups have sophisticated arms – where are they getting them from. Are they gifted from arms manufacturing countries? Do they buy them from arms manufacturing countries (legally or illegally) if so how are they raising funds? Since 99% terrorists are Islamic and no Islamic country manufactures arms how are they sourcing these arms?

US is the world’s largest arms exporter – 36% of worlds arms exports is by US of which 28% goes to Saudi Arabia & UAE. Saudi is America’s largest customer. The 2016 and 2017 shipments from the United States include: 142 helicopters, eight anti-submarine aircraft, 153 tanks, and over 20,000 guided missiles. These weapons provide air support for the war in Yemen (SIPRI). More than 17,000 Yemeni civilians have died since Saudi began bombing Yemen with arms bought from US. (why are Muslims buying arms to kill fellow Muslims?)

US arms exports are 75% higher than Russia’s.

Islamic terrorists & funding

According to a February 2018 CNN investigation money given by UN ended up with Al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab also follows the LTTE model of taxing people using the Islamic ‘zaqat’ (tax)

ISIL is the world’s wealthiest terrorist group with an annual revenue of US$2billion in 2015 (Global Terrorism Index) half of its funds were sourced from oil smuggling generating revenues of US$1.3 million per day.

According to UN data out of the 43 Foreign Terror Organizations 60% are linked to drug trafficking business. Trajan Evans of the University of Utah calls the link with Terror groups & drug trafficking a ‘marriage of convenience’. Terrorists receive cash, drug traffickers benefit from military skills, weapons supply & access to other clandestine organizations. Some terrorists are drug traffickers themselves like LTTE and most Islamic terror groups. https://www.law.utah.edu/the-link-between-terrorism-and-drug-trafficking/

Who are arming & training the terrorists?

Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told the House of Commons that Al Qaeda was unquestionably a product of Western intelligence agencies.

Pentagon spent $500 million training Syrian rebels (Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United President Barack Obama secretly authorized the CIA to begin arming Syria’s embattled rebels in 2013)

According to General Valery Gerasimov, Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, US has trained over 1000 ISIS in Syria.

US openly supported Sarekat Islam against Sukarno in Indonesia

US supported the Jamaat-e-Islami terror group against Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan

American policy in Iraq was to flog sectarian divisions and create a fertile breeding ground for Sunni discontent & lure radicalized Sunni’s against Shiiates.

ISIS thugs, are openly brandishing American-made M16 Assault rifles.

So the question is why are Muslims willing cannon-fodder for West’s geopolitical expansionisms?

The presence of American forces in the Middle East, for example, has motivated many to join terrorist groups in order to fight the American invasion.” Little do these Muslims realize that the organizations they join are very much in Western control.

West has mastered the art of using political Islam not only to recruit volunteer terrorists but inspire historical Islamic expansionist goals to transfer into West’s neocolonial expansionist goals. So political Islam via hired, trained terrorists are made to believe they are expanding the territory of Islam, safeguarding Islam while West enters with their military equipment, drones etc & says ‘thank you for giving us this territory’ and permanently kills the men they trained. 

According to CFR/UN/CTC as of August 2018, over 45,000 Al Qaeda affiliate fighters have died. These are the very men created, armed & financed by West for their various geopolitical pivots and foreign policy agendas.

This conflicts with the figure 114,471 ‘Opposition fighters’ killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan from 2001 to October 2018.

So exactly how many Islamic terrorists have been killed since the war on terror was launched in 2001? Obviously no one seems to even be able to give an estimate. The irony is that the West is happily recruiting Muslims and the Muslims are killing fellow Muslims as well as non-Muslims and West is thereafter killing these Muslims while incurring losses themselves. 4523 US troops have been killed since 2003 by the very men their governments birthed.

So our questions are:

• Who controls the arms trade?
• Who buys arms
• Where are the conflicts round the world & why?
• Who are these terrorists & how are they linked to Western Govts
• How are they getting trained?
• How many civilians have terrorists killed
• How many terrorists have died
• What is the net worth of these terrorists & where do the income they generate eventually go to & who really controls them?

Shenali D Waduge

CARTOONS ARE BEST TO CAPTURE PEOPLE’S SENTIMENTS

By Rohana R. Wasala

(Please bear with me, Readers. In the following sentence from Part I: Most of the observations these reputed intellectuals make through this statement about the failures of governance that facilitated the recent attacks on some mosques and hotels (in Negambo, Colombo and Baticaloa) are generally correct;….”, the word ‘mosques’ is a slip of the pen. The word I intended was ‘churches’. Readers are sure to have understood this from the context. I sincerely regret the error. Thank you)

Apparently pious, but really insincere proposal

FF’s apparently pious, but really insincere, proposal that We ourselves must resolve that this experience should not justify harassment of any community, or erosion of peoples’ rights on grounds of national security. We must, for the peace and stability of our country, reject ethnic and religious extremism in all our diverse communities” implies an uncritical, unpatriotic acceptance of the false picture that obtains in the world at large due to false propaganda regarding communal relations in Sri Lanka. It has now become clear that anti-Buddhist NGOs,  misguided young ‘radicals’, promoters of the separatist ideology, and the prostituted media are doing what they can do to propagate the lie that Sinhalese Buddhist extremists  are behind the violence. They do not talk about the hundreds of young men and women, obviously the vast majority of them Sinhalese Buddhists, who queued up near hospitals soon after the blasts to donate blood without being asked. Many of them were turned away later because no more blood was needed. Body organ donation is a meritorious act in Buddhism; there is no religious taboo on it. The very nature of the Buddhist teaching does not allow any extremist ideology to develop that inflicts violence of any form on the followers of other religious persuasions. Violence on a targeted religious community for a religious reason is unknown among Sinhalalese Buddhists. In the recent past, certain incidents were reported where some Buddhists including young monk activists were allegedly involved in violent acts. But those stories were mostly fabrications or exaggerations of some minor incidents involving a few impatient young activists reacting to acts of provocation from non-Buddhist religious zealots. The root cause of occasional communal unrest like that has always been the failure of opportunistic Sinhalese politicians in power in the past as well as now to grasp the nettle when aggrieved Sinhalese peacefully present their genuine grievances for redress. These politicians avoid taking action for fear of displeasing the minorities and losing their support at elections. Some racist minority politicians alternately align themselves with the winning party at every election and manage to remain kingmakers. The problem caused by this unaddressed anomaly further compounded by destabilizing outside forces could lead to a worsening of trouble that will be extremely damaging to the Sinhalese themselves this time unless they are extra patient and help the security forces to deal with the terrorists by desisting from taking the law into their own hands under provocation.

FF’s delusions about  what the country needs at this critical hour

These individuals of the FF living in cloud-cuckoo-land seem to harbor delusions about what the country needs at this critical hour:  We must also understand the lessons of history, especially Hitler’s rise to power, and reject absolutely the idea that the need of the hour is a strong, authoritarian and dictatorial leader. Leaders of the former government are arguing that they handed over to the new government a secure and peaceful country so that there would be no threats to national security. They must be reminded that they created the nightmare of disappearances, abductions and killings that left people in fear of their personal security. No political party should be permitted to exploit this horrific experience to promote a divisive and authoritarian political agenda. Our nation’s commitment to parliamentary democracy must be strengthened and not undermined, recognizing that some important and positive changes have been made in the last few years.”

We all know who they are alluding to, here. They identify  Gotabhaya Rajapaksa with Hitler the Nazi leader who figured in World War II (1939-45). Gotabaya Rajapaksa was not a politician until recently. He was only a former army colonel, a decorated soldier, turned government functionary under his brother the then president. Equipped with his previous experience and discipline as a military man, he proved himself to be an efficient administrator. The firmness that he exhibited in that capacity should not be interpreted as authoritarianism. A well meaning Buddhist monk, perhaps a bit overzealous, appealed to him, during a sermon at an almsgiving in his house, to assume the role of a Hitler if necessary, to lead the country at these desperate times back to normal. He made this metaphorical reference to Hitler because Gotabaya’s name had by then been mentioned as a likely candidate at the next presidential election. Those in fear of a return of the popular Rajapaksas exploited the monk’s ingenuous use of the word ‘Hitler’ in that context to sling mud at them. A little research into Gota’s past would have helped the FF worthies to become more worthy of the subject of their criticism. As retired academics  they ought to have looked for more firm factual evidence than mere social media gossip before condemning him and the pre-2015 government by implication. Why can’t these defenders of democracy see  the powerful Hitler clones  much in evidence to the casual observer these days, some with military credentials?

Contrast between the 2009-15 and 1986-90 periods

It is wrong to say that in the period 2009-2015 the people of the country were left ‘in fear of their personal security’ because of alleged ‘nightmare disappearances, abductions and killings’. The truth is that, during those few years, the law abiding general public enjoyed the safest, most terror free, most peaceful period they had experienced over the previous quarter century. It was probably the case that although the separatist terrorism that had ravaged the country was eliminated, the underworld that had flourished in parallel with it had yet to be dealt with; and destabilizing agents, in the pay of vested interests, had not stopped their activities. A responsible government could not look the other way while these elements carried on as usual. There could have been isolated lapses in the performance of their difficult tasks due to stress or personality disorders that had afflicted certain law enforcement officers. The ones detected did not go unpunished. Unauthorized ‘disappearances, abductions and killings’ were not part of the government policy. But that kind of thing was the order of the day during the second JVP uprising in the UNP-ruled 1986-1990 period where some 60,000 patriotic young men and women of the south, who, true to their internalized Buddhist cultural values, were  ideally free from racism or religious extremism, were slaughtered by the security forces.

The country that was handed to Yahapalanaya in January 2015 had established a strong national security system and had laid a sound foundation for rapid economic growth

These forgetful retired academics of the FF must be reminded that  the former government did  hand over ‘to the new government a secure and peaceful country so that there would be no threats to national security’. What was more, it was an economically rapidly developing Sri Lanka, where the average growth rate was between 6-7%, that raised it from a low income to a middle income country, and foreign investments flowed in, and tourism increased three-fold. They cannot be unaware of the abysmally poor performance of the current regime in both of these domains (national security and economy).

No one would dispute their observation that ‘Our nation’s commitment to parliamentary democracy must be strengthened and not undermined….’, but not everyone will be able to agree without reservations ‘that some important and positive changes have been made in the last few years’. Be that as it may, their argument that the alleged weaknesses of the presidential system that, according to them, have come out in the context of the recent terrorist attacks, strengthens the longstanding demand for its dismantling, is spurious, to say the least. They blame the presidential system for creating two centres of power, the president and the prime minister, without accountability to each other or to the people, a defect that jeopardizes public security and can cause the kind of destruction of life and property that we witnessed recently, with its attendant impact on individual livelihoods and the overall economy. But are these negative points inherent weaknesses of the presidential system? No, they are not. The drawbacks touched on are actually not those of the presidential system itself, but the natural consequences of the malfunctioning of the system caused by the faulty alliance as much as the equally faulty subsequent discord between the two incompatible personalities that are currently occupying the positions of president and prime minister. The FF statement rhetorically asks: ‘What hope is there for a country that is trapped in the personal ambitions of its leaders?’ No hope. True. But, who  set  that trap and how? The dishonest Yahapalana champions whom the likes of these FF worthies promoted did so through the aberrant 19^th amendment.

The situation has been worsened by an element of external interference allowed or solicited by one Yahapalana partner with the thoughtless acquiescence of the other. There can hardly any conflict of opinion when the president and the prime minister are from the same political party.  In the past, when they were from two rival parties, it was natural for disagreements  to arise between the legislative and the executive branches, but harmfully prolonged disagreements were not possible, because the president had the prerogative of dissolving parliament after the lapse of one year following the swearing in of a government. The prime minister could rule without consulting the president, but he or she could not do this for an  indefinitely long period of time because of the above presidential power. On the other hand the president would not interfere with a well performing government, for fear of public opprobrium.  So, the present sort of disastrous impasse between the president and the prime minister was not possible before 19A was promulgated. Thus it is not the presidential system itself that is to blame for allowing the Islamic terror strike to happen despite prior warnings from local and foreign intelligence sources, but the whittling away of the presidential powers through 19A assisted by the specific behavior of the squabbling duo at the helm, while the country is burning. The existential truth is that what is still saving the day for the nation at this most critical moment is this much maligned executive presidential system.

Non-elitist common people’s opinion about FF intellectuals’ credibility

One could determine how much credibility to attach to FF’s purported love for justice for their own beleaguered fellow citizens, if one cares to recall the general trend of their previous statements or press releases. Let’s go back two years, for an example: The Friday Forum article/statement/public appeal published in the Colombo Telegraph of August 23, 2017 under the title ‘New Constitution A Must: Friday Forum’, jointly written by one Priyantha Gamage and Bishop Duleep de Chickera, embodied a similarly insistent demand for a new constitution, which is synonymous with the abolition of the presidential system of government. It drew the following comment from a reader who signed ‘Pandu’, among many other negative ones:

Who in, all heaven’s name, is ‘Priyantha Gamage’?? Never heard of the chap.

Are anonymous characters also linking themselves to the FF? Seems to be a ‘has beens’ group which appears to do nothing else but go around issuing statements in the vain belief that someone listening to them!”

Another much nastier remark on the FF in the same context was by a person writing under the penname ‘Estate Labourer’: You have about as much brains as an African Dung Beetle!”

I felt sorry for the distinguished signatories of that 2017 August write-up, though I did not find anything in the contents of the article that would justify a rejection of those sentiments (expressed in the two reader comments quoted).

The central argument of FF’s 2017 public ‘petition’ as I saw it then was that the ‘verdict’ given at the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2015 was a mandate for a new constitution designed to remedy the alleged undemocratic trends that had set in with the promulgation of the existing presidential constitution in 1978. The article charged that 

In the meantime some political parties and prominent Buddhist clergy have publicly taken the position that a new constitution is unnecessary. It is extremely disheartening  that these groups seek to override the will of the people.”

(Who represents the ‘will of the people’ more authentically, the FF pundits or the Buddhist monks?) The political parties of the Joint Opposition, and those members of the ‘prominent Buddhist clergy’ are not seeking to ‘override the will of the people’; they represent the true will of the people. Their activism has taken some of them to jail. Aliens in their own motherland like FF members will not understand the true situation; they are willfully blind to the truth. No one can cure that kind of blindness.

The writers, on behalf of the FF, urged the prime minister and members of the Steering Committee

to ensure that the draft constitutional proposals are put before the Constitutional Assembly within the next three months at least, and are also made available to the public.”

Fortunately, nothing that the FF demanded has been done. The Joint Opposition has seen to that. They succeeded in getting the ill conceived constitution making process postponed indefinitely. The Yahapalanaya regime has no clear legitimacy to bring in such changes at the end of its ruinous rule. Few ordinary Sri Lankans believe today that the regime change of 2015 was what it was purported to be (the democratic ouster of an alleged kleptocracy and the ushering in of good governance). The corruption allegations they raised against the previous rulers have been revealed to be false. At the same time, the UNP itself is facing serious allegations of corruption including the repeated Central Bank robberies of 2015 and 2016.

I am sorry for Professor Fonseka for having unnecessarily recanted his earlier position regarding 18A as allegedly ‘an unpardonable act of political immorality’, and for adding his ‘failing voice to the Friday Forum’s demand for dismantling the presidential system of governance forthwith’.  Actually, FF’s call for the abolition of the presidential system at this hour of national crisis and potential national calamity could be counted an act of political immorality. The plain truth is that it is the presidential system that enables beleaguered Sri Lankans to maintain their hold on undisputed and undivided sovereignty over the whole of their island homeland. The due exercise of the sovereign power of the people has enabled the government to meet the  Islamic terror that recently struck the country out of the blue, as it were, with might and main. This is despite the fact that the powers of the president have already been substantially weakened by the 19A, in addition to having been undermined in other ways as well. Imagine how chaotic, and ungovernable the situation today would be if there were no executive president at the centre to mobilize the security forces across the country without having to coordinate with nine provincial governments following different or even conflicting agendas (which will definitely result from the intended passage of the proposed new federalist constitution).

FF’s apparent mission

It has long been clear to people who genuinely care for Sri Lanka that the Friday Forum members are trying to promote the 2015 regime change agenda, which has completely reversed the hard won achievements of the 2009 victory over Tamil separatist terrorism. Their statements are addressed to the coterie behind that agenda, perhaps for the sake of moral support, not to the ordinary people of the country that they are visiting frustration on in the process unbeknown to them, who hardly have heard about them or their ‘activism’ on their behalf. One gets the impression that they always look askance at those who stand up for the tolerant accommodating Sinhalese Buddhist cultural foundation of the country, that has made it possible for diverse minorities to live in peace and harmony with the majority over the centuries.

An ad hoc proposal to be considered for a way out of the current crisis and national emergency, which is marking a turning point in our 2500 year history

Even if the executive presidential system must be abolished for reasons still to be defined, it should not be abolished by the incumbent parliament because it has neither the lawfulness nor the moral right to do so.) The best way to put a decisive end to the prevailing dangerous state of anarchy is to dissolve parliament and go for elections. A less desirable alternative would be to form a temporary caretaker government  strictly without foreign involvement on a non-party basis, as an emergency measure, with representatives from the opposition necessarily included in it, for as short a specified period of time as possible for restoring national security, containing Islamic terrorism at least temporarily (until it is addressed in the future with the active participation of the two million strong traditional Sri Lankan Muslim community), and bringing back normalcy to the routine life of the civilian population. These will be ancillary to the express purpose for which such a caretaker government will be needed: the  holding of free and fair elections. It will be absolutely necessary to make sure that it will not be an interim government set up with the involvement of foreign meddlers designed to drive the country into deeper crisis. The pending controversial legislations must be put on hold for now, which might be reviewed, revised or altogether abandoned by the incoming administration after a future election. It will give the people some respite before fresh presidential and parliamentary elections are held when they are due according to the existing constitution; the elections could even be advanced in view of the urgency of the situation.

Concluded