A majority-Christian city in Sri Lanka known affectionately as “Little Rome” has been rocked by clashes between Christians and Muslims after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings claimed by ISIS that left 257 people dead.

The Catholic Church has called for calm after Christians attacked Muslim-owned shops, homes and vehicles in Negombo.

“I appeal to all Catholic and Christian brothers and sisters not to hurt even a single Muslim person because they are our brothers, because they are part of our religious culture,” said Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo.

“Therefore please avoid hurting them and try to create a better spirit of understanding and good relations between all the communities of Sri Lanka,” he said in a video message to the country.

The Negombo’s main church, St Sebastian’s, a building modelled on the cathedral in the French town of Reims, was targeted by a suicide bomber. He killed more than 100 people when he detonated during Easter Mass.

The place of worship, located some 40 kilometres north of the capital Colombo, was just one of three churches targeted alongside three luxury hotels on April 21. But it suffered the highest death toll of any site struck on that day by eight ISIS-inspired suicide bombers.

The mob attacks will add to fears that the suicide bombings would widen religious and ethnic divisions in the country that has lived in relative peace since the civil war between the government and the separatist Tamil Tigers ended in 2009.

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The cardinal visited Negombo, held talks with clerics at a mosque and appealed to the government to shut bars in the city, his spokesman Father Edmund Tilakaratne said.

“As a temporary measure, the cardinal asked the government to order the ban on liquor sales in Negombo area,” Father Tilakaratne said.

In another televised appeal, Cardinal Ranjith appealed to Christians, Buddhists and Muslims to show restraint.

A top police officer said two arrests were made after the latest clashes and more suspects had been identified through CCTV footage.

The officer said all will be prosecuted under emergency laws approved after the Easter attacks.

“At least three people were injured in the clashes,” the officer said. “Although we have arrested only two suspects at the moment, many more have been identified and we will go after them.”

The officer said an alcohol-fuelled dispute between two groups degenerated into the clashes.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the government will compensate those who lost property in the night-time clashes.

Unverified video circulating on social media showed mobs throwing stones at Muslim businesses, destroyed furniture inside homes, shattered windows and overturned vehicles.

A few hundred extra troops and police were deployed late Sunday as authorities imposed a night-time curfew in the town.

The government blocked access to WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms for several hours to prevent what it called the spread of rumours and videos aimed at instigating unrest.

The curfew was lifted on Monday morning and social media was working again by noon Monday.

Simon Shen Courtesy ejinsight.com

The recent carnage in Sri Lanka could be indicative of something even more profound and worrisome. 

As the threshold for launching terrorist attacks is getting lower and lower, they could become increasingly frequent around the world in the days to come.

In particular, the rapidly growing prevalence of drones has allowed terrorists to mount attacks against targets in a much more cost-effective” yet less risky way.

For example, all it takes for terrorists to launch a deadly attack is to fly a drone loaded with explosives over a specific target and then detonate it.

Suffice it to say that nowadays drones pose a very real and imminent global security threat.

It has become very easy and totally feasible for an average individual to plot a small-scale attack” against, say, one’s ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend by using a drone carrying toxic substances.

It would be equally feasible for a terrorist to escalate the scale and intensity of drone attacks” by using not one, but multiple drones, against any chosen target simultaneously.

Actually, this has been done already by Islamic State (IS) during its later stage: the group has successfully launched multiple air strikes” against enemy positions using a large number of drones.

The IS, of course, was doing this mainly because it didn’t have the necessary resources to build its own conventional air force.

Nevertheless, this unique form of remotely controlled” air strikes could also have been a set of experiments carried out by the IS to test its future mode of terrorist attacks.

Apart from terrorist strikes, drones have also proven an efficient tool for political assassinations.

For example, both Turkish President Recep Erdoğan and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro have almost fallen victim to drone assassinations” when attending public events.

Once people are getting more familiar with operating this new mode of assassination, it is very likely that the drone may be a tool in mounting such a potential attack in the future.

In order to stop that scary scenario from becoming a reality, governments around the world have already been devising measures to prevent drone attacks and developing the related technologies, but only with limited progress.

That’s because guarding against drone attacks has turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected even in the context of existing technologies, let alone the future artificial intelligence (AI) world.

In December last year, for example, Gatwick Airport in southeast England, Britain’s second busiest airport, had to ground all flights and shut down for 36 hours after a number of drones were seen repeatedly flying over its runways.

Luckily, as the British authorities later found out, these drones were actually flown by protesters, not terrorists.

In Japan, the government has conceded that up to 40 percent of the country’s military facilities aren’t drone-proof.

And it would definitely be harder to prevent drone attacks against soft” civilian targets such as hotels and churches in the metropolis.

Even though we might still be going through a transitional period of information gap” between attacks and defenses, it is indeed not difficult to form a picture in the mind that the next wave of Sri Lankan-style terrorist strikes might become completely mechanized and would no longer require any suicide attackers.

Just imagine this: the recent attacks in Sri Lanka could have resulted in a lot more casualties and created much more fear among the local public if they had been carried out using drones that could hit multiple targets at the same time.

This article appeared in the Hong Kong Economic Journal on April 24

Translation by Alan Lee

[Chinese version 中文版]

The Economic Times

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan security forces should avoid the incidents that caused some people face social stigma during the search operations after the Easter Sunday blasts carried out by a “cult” within the community, as it may lead to radicalisation of moderate Muslims in the country, a Minister has warned. 

Minister of City Planning, Water Management and Higher Education Rauff Hakeem said Muslims welcome and support the security forces and police to carry out search operations following the  .. 

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/69203796.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

JEDDAH — The Kingdom’s embassy in Colombo dismissed a report published in a Sri Lankan newspaper insinuating Saudi responsibility for last month’s terrorist attacks in the country.

“The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia to Sri Lanka closely followed the news item published in the local newspaper ‘Weekend Express’ on May 3, 2019, under the heading ‘Leaked document reveals Saudi responsibility for the attacks’, quoting the Lebanese news site Al-Ahed,” the embassy said in a press statement released in Colombo.

“The embassy expresses its displeasure and condemnation of the publication of false allegations against the Kingdom in a state-owned newspaper in Sri Lanka, which led other local media organs to reproduce the news item,” the statement read.

The embassy categorically denied any Saudi involvement in the incident and emphasized that the published news item was a baseless lie.

The embassy urged the Sri Lankan media institutions to ascertain the reliability of their sources before publishing any news about Saudi Arabia.

Courtesy The New Arab

Sri Lanka‘s Roman Catholic Church appealed for calm and an alcohol ban Monday after clashes between Christians and Muslims in a town scarred by Easter Day’s suicide attacks.

Hundreds of security forces entered Negombo to impose a curfew after dozens of Muslim-owned shops, homes and vehicles were attacked.

St. Sebastian’s church in the town 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of capital Colombo was one of three churches and three hotels hit by Islamic State group-linked suicide bombers on 21 April killing 257 people.

“I appeal to all Catholic and Christian brothers and sisters not to hurt even a single Muslim person because they are our brothers, because they are part of our religious culture,” said Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, archbishop of Colombo.

“Therefore please avoid hurting them and try to create a better spirit of understanding and good relations between all the communities of Sri Lanka,” he said in a video message to the country.

The cardinal visited Negombo, held talks with clerics at a mosque and appealed to the government to shut bars in the Catholic-dominated town known as “Little Rome”, said his spokesman Father Edmund Tilakaratne.

“As a temporary measure, the cardinal asked the government to order the ban on liquor sales in Negombo area,” Tilakaratne told AFP.

In another televised appeal, Ranjith appealed to Christians, Buddhists and Muslims to show restraint.

Negombo suffered the highest death toll in the Easter Sunday attacks that were claimed by the Islamic State group. The bomb at St. Sebastian’s killed more than 100 worshippers.

A top police officer said two arrests were made after the latest clashes and more suspects had been identified through CCTV footage. 

The officer said all will be prosecuted under emergency laws approved after the Easter attacks.

“At least three people were injured in the clashes,” the officer told AFP. “Although we have arrested only two suspects at the moment, many more have been identified and we will go after them.”

The officer said an alcohol-fuelled dispute between two groups degenerated into the clashes.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in a statement the government will compensate those who lost property in the night-time clashes.

Unverified video circulating on social media showed mobs throwing stones at Muslim businesses, destroyed furniture inside homes, shattered windows and overturned vehicles.

A few hundred extra troops and police were deployed late Sunday as authorities imposed a night-time curfew in the town.

The government blocked access to WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms for several hours to prevent what it called the spread of rumours and videos aimed at instigating unrest.

The curfew was lifted on Monday morning and social media was working again by noon the same day. 

Sri Lanka’s main international airport is located in the area, but police said there was no disruption. 

Muslims make up around 10 percent of Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka’s 21 million population and Christians about 7.6 percent.

The country has been under a state of emergency since the Easter bombings.

The government has blamed the Easter bombings on a local jihadist organisation which had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Courtesy Euronews  with Reuters

All suspected plotters and those directly linked to Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday bombings have either been arrested or are dead, the country’s acting police chief said on Monday.

In an audio statement circulated by the defence ministry, Chandana Wickramaratne, the acting Inspector General of Police, said security forces had also confiscated bomb-making material intended for future use by the militants involved in the attacks, which killed more than 250 people.

Sri Lankan authorities have said the bombings were believed to have been carried out by two little-known local Islamist groups, the National Tawheed Jamaath (NTJ) and Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI).

Islamic State claimed responsibility but produced no evidence to support this.

by Zachary Halaschak  Courtesy  Washington Examiner

Despite claiming responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka, the Islamic State did not directly organize the deadly terror attacks.

It was a locally led attack. It uses the ideology of ISIS to get the credit for ISIS so it has a success story,” Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake, commander of the Sri Lanka army, told the Wall Street Journal.

All nine of those who detonated bombs across the island nation on Easter have been identifiedand belong to two local terrorist groups. Those involved reportedly planned and executed the attacks by studying ISIS designs for explosives on the internet and by testing those designs out before the six suicide bombings that killed more than 250 people.

One of the bombers, the son of a wealthy Sri Lankan spice trader, appears to have used his means to independently finance and coordinate the attacks, which took a year to plan and execute. During the test runs for the explosives, one of the plotters blew off some of his fingers and lost his eye.

[ Related: Pence calls Sri Lanka bombings on Easter ‘an attack on Christianity’]

The conclusions, which are still tentative, are drawn from investigators poring over evidence gathered from the terrorists’ computers and possessions in addition to interrogations of arrested people associated with the bombers with knowledge of the plot. While some of those who participated in meetings about the bombings remain at large, Senanayake said about three-quarters of those involved are either dead or in federal custody.

Sri Lankan officials said the interrogations appeared to show that the timing of the attacks and the targets were aimed at boosting ISIS’ global image while territorial control of ISIS’ self-described caliphate continued to collapse.

A few of those involved did have some connections to ISIS, though. One of the eight men who bombed the hotels and churches was reportedly radicalized while studying in Australia and made ISIS contacts while there. Another one of the bombers claimed that ISIS had put him in charge of the group in Sri Lanka, but there is uncertainty of the veracity of that assertion, and authorities believe he falsely claimed to the others to be receiving instructions from ISIS in Syria.

As part of the attack, the bombers used washing-machine timers as mechanisms to set off explosives. They reportedly tested out the design on a motorcycle just days before Easter Sunday and planted one of the timed bombs in a car parked outside one of the churches that was attacked in an effort to kill survivors and authorities after the suicide bomb exploded. That timed charge did not detonate, though.

Following the attacks, ISIS leader Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared in the first video footage of him in over five years. In the clip, Baghdadi praised the attacks in Sri Lanka. In an audio portion of the video, Baghdadi said the attacks were revenge for the territorial losses it has suffered.

Sri Lanka is still under a state of emergency, and as public schools begin to reopen Monday, Catholic schools across the country remain closed.

RT

FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan soldiers deploy outside a church in Negombo, following a string of deadly bombings © Reuters / Danish Siddiqui

Sri Lanka’s acting police chief Chandana Wickramaratne has said that all of the suspects linked with the Easter Sunday bombings have been arrested or are dead.

The announcement follows a nationwide manhunt for the perpetrators and their associates, 30 of whom were believed to still be at large over the weekend. Nine previously arrested suspects were released on bail earlier on Monday.

The suicide bombing attacks, later claimed by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS or ISIL) terrorist group, targeted three Christian churches and three luxury hotels, killing more than 250 people.

Sri Lanka’s government has responded forcefully to the attacks, declaring a state of emergency, expelling Islamic preachers, and banning face coverings in public. Authorities remain on high alert, and warned last week of another wave of attacks,” possibly carried out by terrorists disguised as military personnel

Courtesy Swissinfo.ch

A 42-year-old Sri Lankan man died in a detention centre in Lucerne on Friday evening. He had to spend two days in custody because he was unable to pay a fine.  

The police noticed that the man was in physical distress via surveillance cameras. He died on the spot despite an attempt at immediate resuscitation, Lucerne’s public prosecutor’s office revealed on Mondayexternal link. The investigating authorities blame “acute” health problems for his death. 

Before being detained, the Sri Lankan was examined by a doctor. He was given the green light to serve his short prison sentence, according to the public prosecutor’s office. An autopsy was ordered to clarify the cause of death. 

“In its judgment, the court shall impose an alternative custodial sentence of at least one day and a maximum of three months for the event that the fine is wilfully not paid.” states Article 106 of the Swiss criminal codeexternal link.

CRIME STATISTICSWhy most of Switzerland’s prisoners are not Swiss

Almost three-quarters of all detainees in Swiss prisons are of foreign origin, a study shows. An analysis of the factors behind the numbers.By Patricia Islas

When LTTE was militarily defeated in May 2009 the mistake the then government made inspite of requests to do so, was not to denazify the LTTE & everything to do with Eelam ideology. As a result, LTTE political agents are continuing politically what LTTE strove with gun and some Ministers have the audacity to demand the return of the LTTE publicly. The same scenario cannot be repeated with Islamic terrorism based on a radical Islam that even Muslims do not wish to adhere to. Banning the burka for security reasons only is not enough. National interests must come first. People of all communities have to live together. No person has the right to claim individual rights or grievance if it undermines or infringes on the rights of another. If anyone’s ideologies don’t harmonize with that of the majority, then they must go & live in countries where those ideologies are legal & accepted. No one can kill people simply because they do not conform to their ideology. This is the simple principle on which people must learn to live. We must now take action to ensure no more lives are lost because of radical ideologies.

What are the ‘Denazification Directives” & Collective Guilt”?

The term was used by Pentagon in 1943 & applied following defeat of Hitler & the end of World War 2. The Western Allies comprising present day bullies as well as preachers of human rights, in 1945 declared not only Hitler & Nazi’s as guilty but denounced all Germans as guilty for both the war & Nazi atrocities.

A kangaroo court better known as the victor’s court or Nuremberg Military Tribunal was set up in November 1945.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844961-1,00.html

The Denazification Process – Collective Responsibility: Collective Guilt”

• Nazi party abolished
• Collective Responsibility: Collective Guilt” meant posters put up across Germany You are Guilty” – Germans were made to feel guilty.
• Germans had to fill questionnaires categorizing themselves (HR people call this racial profiling today)
• Anyone or any group associated with Nazi’s was declared guilty
• All physical symbols associated with Nazis removed including Swastika
• Nazi links to cultural, social, intellectual, economic & even politics were banned.
• Anyone who supported Hitler or Nazis were held accountable & charged with war crimes
• German media, newspapers, radio stations, theatres, magazines, book publishers, book dealers & printers were all taken over by US
• Over 30,000 books including textbooks related in any way to Nazism was banned.
• Germans were not allowed to deny holocaust which EU criminalized in 2001 (if applied to SL – Tamils would be held responsible for all of LTTE crimes, Muslims would be held responsible for all Islamic terror crimes)
• Eventually denazification process created Germany’s constitution on 8 May 1949 and ratified on 23 May 1949.

Germany is today a powerful nation because the ideology of Hitler & Nazism was annihilated.

Japan is where it is today because of the same.

Sri Lanka is where it is today because Sri Lanka failed to annihilate the Eelam ideology and now we are facing another ideology – radical Islam both of which has to now be eliminated!

What the US, UK & Allies did through denazification was to remove the ideology that inspired the terror. This was the reason to request Sri Lanka’s Government to remove every symbol and slogan associated with LTTE’s quest for Eelam. The separatist mentality needed to be legislatively & legally banned as a pre-requisite to reconciliation. The ideology of Eelam was the obstacle that needed to be removed.

Sri Lanka’s constitution is clear about anyone advocating separatism. Why have political parties not used the 6^th amendment against individuals/political parties pushing for this quest by different names? This is the role of a government & its Attorney General.

Denazification of LTTE/Eelam should be to ban separatist roots – nullify the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1972, any names with ‘Eelam’, Eelam emblems, slogans, monuments, flags and taking legal action against those that flout the rules.

On 21^st April 2019, 9 suicide bombers were radicalized into killing non-Muslims. They attacked 3 churches, 3 hotels and 2 other sites killing over 250 innocent people. What was shocking was that 2 brothers, husband & wife were also suicide bombers.

Radicalism amongst Muslims was seen rising undetected initially as the focus was on LTTE terror.

The clues were however obvious. Muslims began to change the lifestyle they were leading previously harmonizing with the Sinhala majority culture. The demand for azan via loudspeakers even resulted in a court case between two Muslim mosques. Proliferation of mosques where in some towns every 3 persons are having a mosque. A new type of dress in the form of burka began to be forced on women with Saudi influence. Even men started dressing differently. Then there was the demand for halal food labelling and insisting that a separate certificate of halal compliance is issued for a fee which was nothing but a business venture collecting money from non-Muslim businesses. Then came calls for Shariah laws and demand for Muslim laws over and above that of the country law.

Not only non-Muslims noticed these changes, even Muslims noticed and some were brave enough to alarm the authorities but vote bank politics and the concept false drilled into the minds of politicians that they needed minorities to win elections made the politicians favor the radicals against the moderates. Of course the politicians were swayed by money & other inducements which was play a major role in radical promotion & propagation. The amounts of money with people following search operations of late reveals the extent to which money plays a role in fostering radicalism.

What was visible was that a group of Muslims were getting heavily influenced by external forces promoting their version of Islam no different to the rising Christian cults using the power of money and manipulating Islam into a radical ideology.

What these groups are doing is indoctrinating youth and the gullible and misleading them. All of the suicide bombers were rich & educated people. Its baffling why they would take their lives and cut short the lives of others especially small children. Some of the bombers had children.

Muslims were indoctrinated to hate non-Muslims and that hate transcended to death on 21 April 2019 and is likely to lead to more deaths if left ignored.

Therein the collective guilt & responsibility is in Parliament for not taking action.

During LTTE terror a Peace Secretariat was set up manned by an excellent team that countered false media allegations with facts & figures. A similar state entity must be set up to counter falsehoods not only by the Eelam lobbyists but against the Radical Islam lobby as well.   

Sri Lanka should take a more pragmatic approach & a higher moral ground by desisting from adopting the Collective Responsibility-Collective Guilt applied by US, UK & Allies against Tamils or Muslims but ensure that the ideology that continues Eelam quest is removed & the ideology that inspires Islamic radicalism is also removed.

In terms of collective guilt: collective responsibility media (vastly controlled by the Western Christian), UN/HR and other organizations also heavily influenced by Christian West, politicians, think tanks that propose divisive and dangerous proposals to governments, foreign intel that seek to undermine national security of other countries to benefit theirs and the many other invisible players are the guilty lot.

As for Sri Lanka denazification of both Eelam ideology & Radical Islam is necessary if Sri Lanka wishes to progress. Majority of people want to live in peace. No one should be indoctrinated by a religion or ideology to kill others. If their ideology does not harmonize with the life Sri Lankans lead they can take themselves & their ideology to countries where that ideology is accepted & live there amongst those followers.

Eelam Separatists & Islamic radicals are not welcome in Sri Lanka.

Political parties should not give nominations or accept them through national list.

Voters of any political party should not vote for any political party giving extremist & Islamic terrorist-linked politicians nominations in future. If voters are firm on this pledge political parties will think twice. Voters must now make their demands clear. We have had enough bloodshed – we do not want any more innocent people being killed.  

Sri Lanka & Sri Lankans must have only ONE FLAG, ONE National Anthem in ONE LANGUAGE, ONE LAW Equal to ALL. No one’s rights are above that of the other. No one can demand any right if it infringes or denies the right of another.

If we can follow these basic and simple principles – Sri Lanka can prosper.

Shenali D Waduge

ගාල්ලේ දෙව්සිරි පී හේවාවිදාන ලංඩන් නුවර සිට ලියයි

පාස්කු ඉරිදා මිනිස් සංහාරයෙන් ලොවම හ~ද්දී මාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියේ ෙනදෙවන අපේ දේශපාලකයෝ ගාල්ලේ දෙව්සිරි පී¡ හේවාවිදාන ලංඩන් නුවර සිට ලියයි¡ පසුගිය මාර්තු 15 දා නවසීලන්තයේ ක‍යරසිඑජයමරජය නුවර පල්ලි දෙකකට කඩා වැදුණ ඕස්ටේ්‍රලියානු අන්තවාදියකු දේව මෙහෙයට සහභාගී වෙමින් සිටි අහිංසක මුස්ලිම් වන්දනාකරුවන් 49 දෙනෙකු බිහිසුණු ලෙස ඝාතනය කළේය¡ එයට සති පහකට පසු › ලංකාවේ පල්ලි හා හෝටල් අටකට කඩා වැදුණ මිනිස් බෝම්බකරුවන් අහිංසක බැතිමතුන් හා විදේශිකයන් 250කට අධික සංඛ්‍යාවක් අමු අමුවේ මරා දමමින් කළ අපරාධය ගැන මුළු ලොවම තවම කම්පා වෙමින් සිටී¡ නමුත් අද මහා තායෙ බොහෝ දෙනා කථා කරන්නේ නවසීලන්තයේ මිනිස් ඝාතනයෙන් පසු එරට අගමැතිනිය හා දෙAශපාලකයින් හැසිරුණ උදාර ආකාරයේත් පාස්කු ඉරිදා ලංකාවේ සිදු වූ මහා සංහාරයෙන් පසු අපේ රටේ රාජ්‍ය නායකයින් සමහර මැති ඇමතිවරු හා නිලධාරීන් හැසිරුණ නින්දිත අන්දමේත් ඇති විශාල වෙනස ගැනය¡ මෙවැනි බිහිසුණ ආපදා අවස්ථාවක මුළු ලොවම බලන් සිටිද්දී ජාතිය අමතන රාජ්‍ය නායකයා විපතේ බැරෑරුම් තත්වය හා තමන්ගේ ශෝකය තම ඇඳුමෙන්, එය ඇඳ සිටින විදියෙන්, තම ඉරියව් වලින්, වචන උච්චාරණ කරන විදියෙන්, හැඟීම් වලින් හා ඇස් වලින් පිට කළ යුතුයි¡ ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු නවසීලන්ත අගමැතිනී න‍්ජසබ් Aරාැබ ජාතිය අමතමින් කළ කථාව ලොව පුරා කෝටි 21ක ජනතාවක් සව අසාා සිටියේ ඉතා සංවේගයෙනි¡ එම ඉතා කනගාදායක අවස්ථාවට සුදුසු අන්දමට චාම් හා ීප්රඑ කළු ඇඳුමින් ඇද ද නැව සැරසුණ අගමැතිනිය ජාතිය අමතද්දී
2

ඇයගේ ඇසින් විහිදුණ ශෝකය මුළු ලොව පුරා පැතිර ගියේ නිමේෂයකිනි¡ (ඔබටත් ඇයගේ කථාව යූ ටියුබ් වලින් බැලිය හැකිය) රැස්වීම් ශාලාවේ සිටින සිය ගණනක් දේශිය හා විදේශ වාර්තාකරුවන්ට අමතරව ලොව වටා මිලියන හැට හැත්තෑවක ජනතාවක් තමා දෙස ඇසිපිය නොහෙළා බලා සිටින බව දන්නා න‍්ජසබ් Aරාැබ අගමැතිනී මුළු ලොවම නවසීලන්තය සමඟ හ~වන අන්දමේ ඉතා සංවේගජනක කථාවන් කළේය¡ ඉන්පසුව පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේදීත් එතුමිය කථා කළේ ඉතාමත්ම ශෝකභරිතවය¡ ඇය හෙළු කඳුළු මුලූ නවලත රටේ ජනතාවම මිය ගිය අහිංසකයන් වෙනුවෙන් හෙලු කඳුළුය¡ එA කිසිම අවස්ථාවක මේ විශිෂ්ඨ ජන නායිකාව තැනට සුදුසු නැති අන්දමට හිනා වෙනවාවත් විහිළු කරනවාවත් අප දුටුවේ නැත¡ මිය ගිය අහිංසකයන් බොහෝ දෙනෙකුගේ අවමඟ=ල් උළෙලට අගමැතිනිය සහභාගී වූයේ මුස්ලිම් ආගමට අනුකූලව හිස් ආවරණය කර ගැනීම, එෙස්මමිය ගිය අයගේ නෑ හිත මිතුරන්ගේ අත් අල්ලා ගෙන ඇය අව්‍යාජ ලෙස හැ~ුවේය¡ වැළපුණේය¡ පල්ලියේ දී ඔවුන් ආරඬා කිරීමට බැරි වීම ගැන සමාව ඉල්ලූවේය¡ බිහිසුණු ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු එදා නවසීලන්ත අගමැය හැසිරුණ ආකාරයත් පාස්කු ඉරිදා ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු › ලංකා වේ අගමැතිවරයා හැසිරුණු අන්දම කළ කී දේත් රූපවාහිනියෙන් දකින විට තායෙ අපට ඔ ගැන ඇති වූ කෝපයත් රට ගැන ඇතිවූ වේදනාවත් අති මහත්ය¡ ලංකා අගමැතිවරයා ජනමාධ්‍යවේදීන් අමතද්දී අප දුටුවේ ඔෙ වම් කොළරය දිග හැරී ඇති බවයි¡ ටයි පටියේ යට කළ යුතු කොටසත් මුළුමනින්ම ඉදිරියට පැමිණ ඇති බවයි¡ මුළු ලෝකයම ඇමතීම සඳහා රැස්වීම් ශාලාවට පැමිණීමට පෙර කණ්ණාඩිය ඉදිරියට ගොස් තම ීමසඑ එකේ අඩුපාඩු හදා ගැනීමටවත් එතුමාට උවමනාවක් නොවූ හැටි¡
3

මෑත ඉතිහාසයේ › ලංකාවේ සිදු වූ දරුණුතම මිනිස් සංහාරය ගැන › ලංකා අගමැතිවරයා කථා කළේ ඉතා සැහැල්ලූවෙනි¡ නවසීලන්ත අගමැතිනිය ජාතිය අමතද්දී පිළිබිඹු වූ සංවේගය, දුක අපේ අගමැතිවරයාගේ ඇස් දෙකෙන් අප දුටුවේ නැත¡ ඔහු විදෙස් වාර්තාකරුවන් ඇමතුවේ රැස්වීමක තම පාඬිකයන් අමතන ගාණටය¡ විදෙස් මාධ්‍ය හමුව තුළ දෙවරක්ම වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා දත් පෙන්නා හිනාවෙන අන්දම අපට අදහාගත නොහැකි විය¡ විනාඩි 25කට පසු මාධ්‍ය හමුව අවසන් කරමින් අගමැතිවරයා පිටත්ව ගියේ පොඩි විහිළුවක් කොට විදේශ වාර්තාකරුවන් හිනා ගස්සමිනි¡ › ලංකාවේ අතිමහත් ශෝකජනක සිද්ධියක් සිදුව තිඛෙද්දීත් අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා කිසිඳු දුකක් කනගාටුවක් නැතිව ජනමාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියේ විහිළු කරන්නට යෑම ලංඩන් වල සිට අප නැරඹුයේ ඉතා කො ්පයෙනි¡ එදා නවසීලන ් ත අගමැතිනියගේ මාධ්‍ය ඉදිරියේ පෙනී සිටි ශෝකභරිත දර්ශනයත් රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ අගමැතිවරයාගේ ජෝකර් පාට් එකත් දුටු ලඬ සංඛ්‍යාත ලෝක ජනතාව › ලංකාවේ දේශපාලකයින් ගැන මොනවා හිතන්නට ඇද්ද? › ලංකා අගමැතිතුමාගේ මේ තැනට නුසුදුසු හැසිරීම එතකින් නැවතුණේ නැත¡ 23 දා බි්‍රතාන්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විශේෂ රැස්වීමක් කැඳවා නායක ශ්ශතාවය පවවා පාස්කු ඉරිදා මිනිස් සංහාරය ගැන › ලංකාව වෙත හද පිරෙන ශෝකය ප්‍රකාශ කළෙAය එහිදී බි්‍රතාන්‍ය විදේශ ඇමති න‍ැරුපහ ්‍යමබඑ මහතා හා විපඬයේ ඡායා විදේශ ඇමතිනී › ලංකාවේ මියගිය අහිංසකයන් 250 දෙනා ගැන හදවත් සසල කරමින් කළ කථා මුළු පාර්ලිමේන්තුවම ශෝකයට පත් කළෙAය¡ › ලාංකීක සම්භවයක් ඇති රනිල් ජයවර්ධන මන්ත්‍රීවරයා ඇතුළු බි්‍රතාන්‍ය මැති ඇමතිවරු 42ක් සභා ගර්භයේ දී කතා පවව › ලංකාවට තම හෘදයාංගම ශෝකය පළ කළෙAය¡ මන්තී්‍රවරු කථා කරද්දී මුළු බි්‍රතාන්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තුවම මළගෙයක නිහ~තාවය ඉසිලූවේය¡ එකම මන්තී්‍රවරයෙකුවත් තම කථා වලදී මොහොතකටවත් සිනහ වූයේ නැත¡ විපඬයට විහිළු කළෙA නැත¡
4

ජාක ෙශක අවස්තාවක ෙලාව ඉෙ හැසිරෙන අන්දම ගැන බි්‍රතාන්‍ය පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ලෝකය පුරා මන්තී්‍රවරුන්ට හා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවලට එදා දුන්නේ උත්තරීතර ආදර්ශයකි¡ න ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයට පසුව ප්‍රථම වරට රැස් වූ › ලංකා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ එකම කාලගෝට්ටියක් විය¡ හැමෝටම ආදර්ශයක් දෙමින් ශෝකභරිත කථාවක් කළ යුතුව තිබූ අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා සුපුරුදු පරිදි ජෝකර් පාට් එක රඟ දක්වමින් ඩිස්නිලන්තයක් ගැන කථා කළේ අප පුදුමයට පත් කරවමිනි¡ මිය ගිය අහිංසකයින් ගැන ශෝකය ප්‍රකාශ කරනවා වෙනුවට ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයේ වගකීම එකිනෙකා වෙත පටවමින් අපේ මන්තී්‍රවරු එදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ හැසිරුණ අන්දම පඬ භේද වලින් තොරව හෙළා දැකිය යුතුය¡ එෙහ එම සතියේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ ඉතාම අපඬපාතී සාධාරණ හා නැනව කථාවක් කළේ හිටපු හමුදාපති සරත් ෆොන්සේකා මහතා පමන බව ප්‍රශංසා මුඛයෙන් සඳහන් කළ යුතුය¡ ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු පැවති පළමුවන පුවත්පත් සාකච්ඡාවේ දී රාජිත සේනාරත්න, ජෝන් අමරතුංග වැනි ඇමතිවරුන් ගණනාවක් කොක් හ~ ලමින් සිනා සෙන වීඩියෝ පටයක් මේ දිනවල ලොව පුරා අන්තර්ජාලයේ සැරිසරයි¡ ර්‍ණAපසා එයැ ාැ්එයි දෙ 250 සබබදජැබඑිල ීරස ඛ්බන්බ ඵසබසිඑැරි ය්ඩසබට ් ටදදා එසපැ” —අහිංසකයන් 250ක මළගම මැද්දේ › ලංකා ඇමතිවරු විනෝද වෙති˜ යන්න එහි විවේචනාත්මක සිරස්තලයයි¡ මුළු ලෝකයම තමන් දෙස බලා සිටින අවස්ථාවක › ලංකා ඇමතිවරුන්ට බොරුවටවත් ශෝකයක් මූණෙන් පෙන්වන්නට බැෙ ඇ¡ මැති ඇමතිවරුන්ට සුඛෝපභෝගී වාහන ගැනීමට රුපියල් කෝටි 1170ක් වියදම් කළ වත්මන් රජය මීගමු රෝහලට රුපියල් 50ල000ක ට්‍රොලි දෙක තුනක් ලබා දී තිබුණා නම් සුදේශ් කොළොන්න
5

මහතාගේ තුවාල ලැබූ ආදරණීය බිරිඳ මැණික් සූරියාරච්චි හා දියණිය ඇලෙක්සන්ඩ්‍රා රාගමට ෙගන යන අතරර මහ මඟ මිය යන්නේ නැත¡ කොළඹ රෝහලේ එදා වෛද්‍ය උපකරණ හිඟයක් නොතිබුණා නම් බි්‍රතාන්‍ය ජාතික ඛෙන් නිකොල්සන් මහතාගේ ආදරණීය බිරිඳ හා දරු දෙදෙනාගේ ජීවිත බේරා ගන්නට ඉඩ තිබුණා නොවේද? ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයෙන් තුවාල වී විලාප දෙමින් රෝහල් වල වේදනා විඳින අසරන දූ පුතුන් විශාල පිරිසකට අම්මලා තාත්තලා අහිමි වී ඇත¡ මොවුන්ට ඉදිරි අධ්‍යාපනයට හා මතු අනාගතය සඳහා වියදම් කිරීමට රජය ට තවම උවමනා නැත ර්‍ණමගේ කාර් පර්මිට් එක විකුණලා මම ලබා ගත් රුපියල් ලඬ 250 මේ අනාථ දරුවන්ගේ අරමුදල සඳහා පරිත්‍යාග කරනවාය”යි රංජන් රාමනායක ඇමතිතුමා හෝ වෙන ඇමතිවරයකු තවම ප්‍රකාශ කොට තිබේද? මොවුන් දැන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ හෙළන්නේ කිඹුල් කඳුළු බව කියන්නට වෙනත් අටුවා ටීකා අවශ්‍යද? බෝම්බ ප්‍රහාරයෙන් මිය ගිය මීගමුවේ අසරණයින් තමන්ගේ කියා බිම් අඟලක් නැතුව බලා සිටියවුන්ගේ විලාප මැද්දේ සමූහ වලවල් වල මිහිදන් වෙද්දී මේ රටේ මුදල් ඇමතිවරයා රූපවාහිනියෙන් රටට කීවේ මොකක්ද? ” මේ අනතුරෙන් අපිට සතුටුදායක ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලැබුණා¡ ඇමරිකාව අපිට ඩොලර් මිලියන 500ක ණයක් දෙන්න තීරණය කළා˜ අහිංසකයන්ගේ මළ සොහොන් මත සිට ගෙන ඊයා ර්‍ණස දායක ර්‍ණ ආර කාශ කරන මෙවැනි හිතක් පපුවක් නැති නරුම ඇමතිවරු ලැබීම › ලංකා ජනතාවගේ කරුමය නොවේද? රජය හා ඇමතිවරු මේ විශාල මිනිස් ජීවිත විනාශය සිල්ලර විදියට ගණන් ගන්නේ ඇයි ද යන්න ලංඩන් වල විදේශ මිතුරන් අපෙන් අසන ප්‍රශ්නයකි¡ මට කිවzවෙz නැහැ. මම දැනං හිටියේ නැහැ’ මම කමිටුවෙz නැහැ’ මම ලංකාවෙz හිටියේ නැහැ’ මට බලතල තිබුනේ නැහැ
6

කියා ඔවුන් දැන් ඇගZ ඛෙzරාගැනීමෙz කැත ප්‍රයත්නයක යෙදී සිටිති’ මිනිස් ජීවිත 300ක් විනාශ වීම ඔවුන් සලකන්නේ දීසුඵZ අතපසුවීමz¶ දීයමz යමz පුංචි වැරදි¶ හා මාද ෙදශ ලෙසය’ මෙය බෝමzබ ප්‍රහාරයෙන් මිය ගිය අසරණයන්ට කරන බලපතල අපහාසයකි’ ෙ ය යන බදදා මා ලංකා පවා ෙය දෑෙ මෙ පරන පාස යා රාත පරණ ර ංර ඇද බා හාරෙ වගම ෙගඨාභය රාජපෂ ෙවත පැටමට කරන උසාහය ග එෙස්ම වාද ය සටන හා රණය වැ වැඩ සටහ වලට සහභා ෙව ආ පශෙ හා පෂෙ මව තවම ෙබලය පාස් ම හා අත ෙසදා ගැෙ හා ල කා ගැෙ කායෙ ෙය ග ෙ වට ෙරහවල ලාප නගන අංසකය ගැන කතා මට උවමනාව නැම ගැන ජනතාව ල ඇෙ තදබල ෙකපය මේ ප්‍රහාරය වැළැක්වීමේ වගකීම පැහැර හැරූ එකම දේශපාලනඥයකු හෝ තවම ඉල්ලා අස්වුණේ නැත්තේ ඇයි දැයි බි්‍රතාන්‍යයේ පුවත්පත් ප්‍රශ්න කරති¡ මේවාට දෙන්නට උත්තර අප ළඟ නැත¡ මේ මහා ස්සංහාරයෙන් පසු ජාතික ශෝක දින ප්‍රකාශ කිරීම, ඉටිපන්දම් පත්තු කිරීම, සංවේගය දක්වමින් බැනර් එල්ලීම වැනි නිෂ්පල ප්‍රයන්ත වලට වඩා තුවාල වී සිටින අහිංසකයන් හා දෙමව්පියන් නැතුව අසරණ වී සිටින දරුවන්ගේ අනාගතය වෙනුවෙන් රජය යමක් කළ යුතුයි¡ මිය ගිය අයගේ පවුල් වලට ලබා දෙන රු¡ ලඬයෙන් තුන් මාසේ දානයක්වත් දිය හැකිද? ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු නවසීලන්ත රජය කළාක් මෙන් මොවුන්ගේ අනාගතය වෙනුවෙන් ක්‍රමවත් දීර්ඝ කාලීන වැඩපිළිවලක් ආරම්භ කරන ලෙස ජනාධිපතිතුමා ආපදා කළමණාකරණ දෙපාර්තුමේන්තුවට නියෝග කළ යුතුය¡ ප්‍රභාකරන් වරක් කීවේ සිංහලයාට හැම සිද්ධියක්ම මතක තියෙන්නේ සුමාන දෙකක් පමණි කියාය¡ ෙහට අදා එගලතෙය ෙලක
7

සලාන කට ඇරන ට මැ ඇමවට ෙමවැ ස්ත හරය රෙ වාද යාව මතක නැව ඇත මීතොටමුල්ලේ නාය යාෙම හා සාලාව ගින්නෙන් අනාථ වී තවමත් ඩාර වල අසරණ වී සිටින ජනතාව දෙස බලන විට පාස්කු ඉරිදා ප්‍රහාරයෙන් මිය ගිය අසකය 250කගේ ආදරවන්තයින්ටත් එම ඉරණමම අත් නොවේ යැයි කාට කිව හැකිද? අතෙය ලකාෙ ස්ෙ ජනතාවට ආදරය කරන මැ ඇමවයග 60 දශකයේ මා ආනන්දයේ ඉගෙන ගනිද්දී මගේ පංතියේ මිතුරකු වුයේ සාලියගේ පියා වුයේ කොළඹ පොලිස් අධිකාරී ස්ටැන්ලි සේනානායක මහතාය’ 1962 ජනවාරි 27දා එවකට අගමැතිනී සිරිමා බන්ඩාරනායක අගමැතිනිය හා ඇමතිවරු ගණනාවක් මරා දමා හෝ රටෙz බලය අල්ලා ගැනීමට විශා්‍රමලත් හමුදා නිලධාරීන් රැසක් කුමන්ත්‍රණය කරන බව ඊට කලින්දා රැආර සේනානායක මහතා තම බිරිඳ මායාට ඒ බව කීවෙzය’ මායා සේනානායක මහත්මිය ද දීඅනේ අපිට මොකද? ඔයාට ඔවුන් අනතුරක් කරන්නේ නැති නිසා ඔzන කුමන්ත්‍රණයක් වෙච්චාවෙz කියා අපි දා ග ¶ කියා සැමියාට කීවෙz නැත’ ඇය වහාම එවකට අමzබලංගොඩ මන්ත්‍රීවරයාව සිටි තම පියා වු ද ඇස් කුලරත්න මහතාට එය දැනුමz දුන්නේය’

කුමන්ත්‍රණකරුවන්ට තම වැ පෙපෙ මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් අත් අඩංගුවට ගැනීමට අදහසක් නැති බව ස්ටැන්ලි බෑනා ෙග දැනගත් කුලරත්න මහතාට උවමනා නමz අනිත් පැත්තට හැරී නිදා ගැනීමට ඉඩ තිබුනි’

නමුත් පසුදා රටෙz බලවත් ලේ වැගිරීමක් ඇතිවන බව අවබෝධ වු එතුමා එය වැලැක්වීම සඳහා මහ රෑම අමzබලංගොඩ සිට ය
8

පදවමින් අරලියගහ මන්දිරයට පැමිණියේය’ වහාම අගමැතිනිය අවදිකොට මෙම භයානක ආරංචිය එතුමියට දැන්වීමට කුලරත්ත මන්ත්‍රීතුමා කටයුතු කල නිසා පොලීසියලවා කුමන්ත්‍රණකරුවන් සිරභාරයට ගෙන රටෙz සිදවීමට ගිය මහා ෙඛzදවාචකයක් වලක්වා ගැනීමට අගමැතිනියට හැකි විය’ රටට ජාතියට හා තමන්ගේ සහෝදර ජනතාවගේ ජීවිතවලට ආදරය කළ මහජන මන්ත්‍රීවරු එදා තමන්ගේ හෘදය සාක්ෂියට අනුව කටයුතු කළේ එසේය’ නමුත් පසුගිය සති අන්තයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙz සමහර නිලධාරීන් හා මැති ඇමතිවරු එවැනිම අවස්ථාවක ක්‍රියා කල අන්දම අතිශයින්ම පිලිල් සහගතය’ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් විසින් සිදුකරන්නට යන මහා මිනිස් සංහාරය ගැන ආරක්ෂක ලේකමzට සමzපුරAණ තොරතුරු ලැබී තිබුනත් ඔහු එය තුටzටුවකට ගණන් ගත්තේ් නැත’ මෙz ආරංචිය මනෝ ගනේෂන් ඇමතිවරයාට ලැබී තිබුනත් දීහින්දු දෙමල අය කොචzචිකඩෙz පල්ලියට යන්නේ නැත¶ කියා ඔහුත් නිකං සිටියාද? ගොන් ආරක්ෂක ලේකමzzවරයා දීවිදේශිකයන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව සැපයීම අපේ වැඩක් නෙවි’ හෝටල් ඒවා බලා ගනීවි’ අපි ඉස්සර එයාල ආරක්ෂා කළේ නෑ’ මතුවට ආරක්ෂා කරන්නෙත් නෑ’ රට පුරා තියන පල්ලි රකින්නත් අපිට බැහැ¶ කියා උඩගZ= ්රරදට්බඑ කතාවක් පවාෙය කළේය’ එය ආරංචි වු වහාම බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය රජය ශ්‍රී ලංකාව බලගතු අවදානමz රටක් ලෙස ප්‍රකාශ කොට එහි නොයන ලෙස බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ජාතිකයන්ට අනතුරු ඇගZවිය’ දැනට ලංකාවෙz රැදෙී සිටින සංචාරකයින්ට වහාම බ්‍රිතාන්‍යට පැමිණෙන ලෙස අණ කොට තිඛෙz’ : එසේ නොපැමිණියහොත් ඔවුන්ගේ රක්ෂණ සහතික අවලංගු වෙයි’ – ආරක්ෂක ලේකමzවරයාගේ මොටzට කතාවෙන් පසුව ඉදිරි මාස කිහිපය තුල ලංකාවට පැමිණීමට සිටි යුරෝපා සංචාරකියන් විසි
9

තුන් දහසක් තම ගමන් අවලංගු කොට ඇති බව ලන්ඩන් ටයිමzස් පත්‍රය කියයි’ සංචාරක කරAමාන්තයේ යැපෙන අසරණයින් 137000කට ඉදිරි මාස කිහිපයේ තම රැකියා අහිමි වනු ඇත’ වාචාල කතාවක ද පාකය එය මෙz මහා මිනිස සංහාරය නැවැත්වීමට පුඵZවන්කම තිබුන අවසාන පුද්ගලයා වුයේ කතෝලිකයකු වු හරීන් ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතාය’ දීපුතේ කොචzචිකඩෙz පල්ලියට හෙට උදේ බෝමzබ ගහනවාලු’ පුතාලා මුනුපුරාලා ඒකට යන්න එපා¶ කියා පියා තමාට අනතුරු ඇගZ වු විගස ඔහු අගමැතිතුමාට ටෙලිෆොන් කලාද’ නැතිනමz පෙ ෙදවගමා ෙවත මහ දුව ගොස් දීස්වාමින්වහන්ස හෙට පල්ලිවලට බෝමzබ ගහනවා’ දේව මෙහෙයන් කැනසල් කොට ජීවිත ඛෙzරාගන්න කියා කීවාද¶ග නැතග නැත’ සමහර විට පාස්කු ඉරිදා උදේ පාන්දර ගෙදරදී ඊරු්නේිඑ එක ගන්න ගමන් දීඩාලිං තව පැයකින් විතර පල්ලියට බෝමzබ ගහනවා කියලා කථාවක් තාත්තා කිවzවා’ එනිසා අපි කවුරුත් අද ිැරඩසජැ එකට යන්න ඔzන නැහැ’ හැබැයි අද ඔතන මැරෙන මිනිස්සු ගැන පත්තරවලට නිකුත් කරන්න ලස්සන ශෝක ප්‍රකාශයක් මට ලියලා දෙන්න¶යි ඔහු තම බිරිඳට කියන්නට ඇත’ විජයදාස රාජපක්ෂ මහතා පසුගිය සතියේ කීවාක් මෙන් බෝමzබ ප්‍රහාරය ගැන හොදාකාරවම දැන සිටත් ඒ ගැන ජනාධිපතිවරයාට අගමැතිවරයාට හෝ අඩු ගණනේ පල්ලියේ දේවගැතිවරයාටවත් නොදන්වා ආත්මාරAථකාමී ලෙස තමන්ගේ හා පවුලේ පණ කෙන්දි පමණක් රැකගනිමින් අහිංසක ජීවිත විශාල ගණනක් විනාශවීමට ඉඩ හැරි හරීන් ප්‍රනාන්දු වැනිආමාතකා ඇමතිවරයකු තවදුරටත් රජය තුල තබා ගත යුතුද? මින්මතු හරීන් ප්‍රනාන්දු ඇමතිවරයා නින්දට යන සෑම රාත්‍රියකම ත්‍රස්තවාදී ප්‍රහාරයෙන් මියගිය අහිංසකයන් 250 දෙනාගේ විලාප
10

මැද්දේ ඔහුගේ හෘද සාක්ෂිය ඔහුට සාප කරනවා වැලැක්විය නොහැකිය’ නවසීලන්ත ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු එම රටේ තවත් කලබල කෝලාහල ඇතිවීම වළක්වාලමින් ආදර්ශමත් ලෙස කි්‍රයා කොට රට තුළ ආගමික හා ජාතික සහජීවනය ඇති කොට ලෝකයේම ප්‍රශංසා දිනුවේ එහි අගමැතිනිය නමුත් එම කාර්යය › ලංකාවේ දී ඉටු කිරීමට කිසිම දේශපාලනඥයකු අසම බව රටම ගනා කන ග ශී්‍ර ලංකාවේ පාස්කු ත්‍රස්ත ප්‍රහාරයෙන් පසු තවත් මහා ලේ වැගිරීමක් රට තුළ ඇතිවීම වළක්වාලමින් රට ජාතිය බේරාගත්තේ මැල්කම් රංජිත් අගරදගුරු හිමිපාණන් වහන්සේය¡ එතුමා පසුගිය සති දෙකේ රටේ සහජීවනය හා සාමය ඇති කිරීමට කළ උදාර මෙහෙවරට බි්‍රතාන්‍ය හා ලෝක පුවත්පත් තවමත් ප්‍රශංසා කරති¡ :අනිවාර්යයෙන්ම මීළඟ පාප්වහන්සේ විය යුත්තේ බෝධිසත්ව ගුණධර්ම වලින් පිරුණ එතුමා විය යුතුමය¡ – දැන් එතුමාගෙන් තවත් සිදුවිය යුතු ඉතා වැදගත් මෙහෙවරක් ඇත¡ රටේ අතිශය බරපතළ විනාශයක් සිදු වෙද්දී කථා කළ යුතු දේ රහසක් වශයෙන් තබා ගෙන කථා නොකළ යුතු දේ ගැන පුරසාරම් දො~මින් ජෝකර්ලා වෙන්නට දඟලන ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අගමැතිතුමා හා මැති ඇමතිවරුන්ට සදාචාරය ඉගැන්වීමේ අත්‍යවශ්‍ය කාර්යය ඉ කරන ෙලස මැල්කම් රංජිත් අගරදගුරුතුමාට බැගාපව ආයාචනය කරන ලෙස ගරු ජනාධිපතිතුමාගෙන් මා ඉතා ඕනෑක ඉල්ලා සිටිමි¡

ගාල්ලේ දෙව්සිරි පී¡ හේවාවිදාන ලංඩන් වර සිට ලියයි

S. Akurugoda

According to media reports, Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith flayed the government for its lackadaisical attitude and not doing enough to bring those responsible for the Easter Sunday bombings to justice. He has expressed his dissatisfaction with the security measures that have been taken since the attack and doubt whether anything meaningful will be done by the Committee appointed by the President.

The Cardinal has said: “I must appreciate the patience that the people have shown after Easter Sunday’s attacks. Even if parliamentarians and politicians were behind these attacks – directly or indirectly – people expect them to be arrested, questioned and punished if they have any connections.

As revealed by Minister Kabir Hashim, few weeks ago, the two key suspects who were captured with explosives in Wanathawilluwa, Puttalam in January this year had been released due to the intervention of a powerful politician and one of them had been involved in Sunday’s attacks. It is claimed by various sources that one of the governors appointed by the President in January this year, Azath Salley, was the one who intervened in this regard, although Salley denies his evolvement.

According to some other news item, Eastern Province Governor, M. L. A. M. Hizbullah’s driver and former cook were arrested, few days ago, following the detection of 48 rounds of ammunition in a building rented by the Governor at Kattankudy.

Further a blast reported to have been taken place, a week before the Easter Sunday massacre, in a vacant land at Kattankudy.  The land owner is said to be the said Governor.  Hizbullah was accused by a number of persons for having links to the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) who are behind the Easter Sunday attacks.   Mr. Hisbullah is another Governor appointed by the President.

On the other hand, there are various allegations leveled against government politicos like, Mujibur  Rahman, Rishad Bathiudeen regarding their involvement with extremist terror outfits. 

Minister of Muslim Religious Minister Abdul Haleem was accused of streamlining Madrassas and permitting the construction of hundreds of extremist’s Tawheed mosques.

Minister Haleem’s childish response to journalists’ queries as to why certain mosques had amassed weapons such as swords and other sharp objects appears as a clear evidence of his desire to appease terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists.   

We have come across videos showing how Mujibur  Rahman denying the establishment of ISIS, when revealed its existence by Wijedasa Rajapasa in the Parliament few years ago. 

All the powerful politicians and the ministers of the current administration are simply conducting media shows denying  the accusations level against them and nothing seems to be done to bring parliamentarians and politicians behind the Easter Sunday bombings, directly or indirectly, to justice.

 Considering the relationships that those politicians have established with the power hungry politicians ruling the country, it is very doubtful whether any action will be done against the alleged extremist elements. 

Mahinda Rajapaksa  Leader of the Opposition MEDIA RELEASE

One of the pledges given by the present government to their foreign masters through UN Human Rights Council Resolution No: 30/1 of October 2015 was to repeal and replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979. The draft counter terrorism law that has been presented to Parliament for this purpose has encountered opposition from political and media activists on the grounds that the way it defines the term ‘terrorism’ leaves room for legitimate political and trade union action as well as the dissemination of information and protection of sources by the media to be labelled as terrorist activity. In the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings, the government has been trying to sell their Counter Terrorism Bill to the public with the claim that it has provisions to prohibit Sri Lankan nationals from having links with foreign terrorist organisations.

While the government’s proposed law is tough on ordinary citizens by having provisions that can be used to stifle political dissent and the freedom of expression, it is designed to treat terrorists with the utmost leniency to the extent where its actual effect will be that of protecting and giving encouragement to terrorists – not countering terrorism. Our Penal Code prescribes the death penalty for killing just one person, but under the proposed counter terrorism law, a terrorist convicted of killing hundreds of or even thousands of people can only be given a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Furthermore while the Penal Code prescribes the death penalty for aiding and abetting in murder, the penalty for aiding and abetting in mass murder in the proposed law is just fifteen years imprisonment and a fine of up to Rs. one million. How is terrorism to be deterred by giving convicted terrorists lesser punishments than what the ordinary law of the land prescribes for the same offences? 

The proposed counter terrorism law also requires the police and the armed forces to treat terrorist suspects with the utmost solicitude. If a terrorist suspect is arrested by the armed forces, he has to be handed over to the OIC of the nearest police station within 24 hours. The latter has to examine him for injuries and present him before a JMO for treatment or a report. The Human Rights Commission has to be informed within 24 hours of the arrest so that they can determine whether the arrest has infringed the fundamental rights of the suspect. When a terrorist suspect is arrested, the arresting officer has to reveal his identity to the suspect and the suspect’s next of kin or associates despite a history in this country of terrorists having massacred entire families of armed forces personnel. The next of kin of terrorist suspects have to be provided ‘reasonable’ access to the suspect in a situation where today, the next of kin may well be the next suicide bomber coming to receive instructions. From the time of the arrest, the welfare of the terrorist suspect takes precedence over everything else.

All arrested suspects have to be produced before a Magistrate within 48 hours and the Magistrate is required by law to personally look into the well-being and welfare of the suspect. A suspect can be kept in detention only for two weeks and if this period can be extended only with the approval of a Magistrate. The total period of detention of a suspect cannot exceed eight weeks. Under the PTA in contrast, a suspect can be kept in detention for three months and this can be extended up to a total of eighteen months. A suspect arrested under the proposed counter terrorism law can be held in remand without instituting criminal proceedings for six months and this period may be extended for another six months on an order of the High Court. If criminal proceedings are not instituted within this extended period, the suspect will have to be granted bail. Under the PTA however, a suspect can be kept in remand until the conclusion of the trial. The proposed counter terrorism law requires the Human Rights Commission and the Magistrates to make unannounced visits to all places of detention and remand to look into the welfare of terrorist suspects and they have to ensure that the suspects are provided all the basic facilities. If the trial against a person remanded under this Act has not been concluded within one year, the High Court is mandatorily required to release the accused on bail.

Even at the trial stage, terrorist suspects are afforded special relief. The proposed law states that ‘if death or grievous bodily injury has not been caused’ or ‘if the security of the State has not been seriously affected’ by the suspect’s actions, and he displays contrition by among other things, publicly expressing remorse, providing reparations to victims and participating in a rehabilitation programme, the Attorney General may either suspend criminal proceedings or withdraw the indictment altogether. How can a person who has harmed no one and not endangered the security of the State end up being arrested and prosecuted under a counter terrorism law? In practice, it is very difficult to collect sufficient evidence against a terrorism suspect largely because of the unsettled conditions that would be prevailing in the country. If a terrorist suspect is arrested and charged in court but is still incongruously deemed to have ‘not caused any harm to anyone’ or ‘endangered the security of the country’ that would only be due to the lack of evidence and not because he has not committed the crime he is accused of.

The proposed counter terrorism law acknowledges this reality by requiring an accused person to express remorse for something he is not supposed to have done and even pay reparations to victims he is not supposed to have harmed, before the Attorney General suspends or withdraws the indictment against him. Such bizarre provisions in the draft counter terrorism law is an acknowledgement of the practical difficulties in prosecuting terrorism suspects under the ordinary law which requires a high evidentiary bar. Most often what can be achieved through anti-terrorist legislation is the suppression of terrorism rather than prosecution and punishment of terrorists, which is why such laws have to be tough enough to enable its primary purpose to be achieved. There is no argument about the fact that the Prevention of Terrorism Act introduced by the UNP government in 1979 is a tough law. But we have had to deal with the most ruthless terrorists the world has ever seen and that would not have been possible if not for such laws.     

Even in sentencing a terrorist after conviction under the proposed counter terrorism law, a reduced sentence can be handed down after considering mitigating factors such as a public denunciation of terrorism, provision of reparations to the victims and a public denouncement of violence etc. The government’s proposed counter terrorism law is in fact a comprehensive relief package for terrorists. If the proposed Counter Terrorism Bill is passed into law, it will seriously hamper ongoing efforts to suppress terrorism following the Easter Sunday bomb attacks. Since this country is once again confronted with terrorism, the government should be prevented from making any changes to the Public Security Ordinance of 1947 or the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979. Priority should be given to the people’s right to life over the rights of terrorists.

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Leader of the Opposition

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ විපක්‍ෂ නායක මාධ්‍ය නිවේදනය

වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුව 2015 ඔක්තෝබර් මාසයේදී අංක 30/1 දරණ එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයේ යෝජනාවෙන් තම විදේශීය හාම්පුතුන්ට දුන් එක් ප්‍රධාන ප්‍රතිඥාවක් වූයේ 1979 ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනත අහෝසි කොට ඒ වෙනුවට වෙනත් නීතියක් සම්මත කරන බවයි. මේ සඳහා ඔවුන් පාර්ලිමේන්තුවට ඉදිරිපත් කර තිබෙන ඊනියා ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනත් කෙටුම්පත දේශපාලන හා මාධ්‍ය ක්‍රියාකාරීන්ගේ දැඩි විවේචනයට ලක් වී ඇත. ඔවුන් පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ මේ පනත් කෙටුම්පතේ ‘ත්‍රස්තවාදය’ යන්න නිර්වචනය කර තිබෙන ආකාරය නිසා සාධාරන හා යුක්ති සහගත දේශපාලන හා වෘත්තීය සමිති ක්‍රියාකාරකම් මෙන්ම මාධ්‍ය විසින් තොරතුරු ප්‍රසිද්ධ කිරීමත් එම තොරතුරු වල මූලාශ්‍ර පිළිබඳ රහස්‍යභාවය රැකීමත් ත්‍රස්තවාදය හැටියට සැලකීමට ඉඩ ලැබෙන බවයි.

පාස්කු ඉරිදා බෝම්බ ප්‍රහාර වලින් පසු, එම ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනත් කෙටුම්පතේ විධිවිධාන වලට අනුව ශ්‍රී ලාංකීය පුරවැසියන් විදේශීය ත්‍රස්තවාදී සංවිධාන සමඟ සම්බන්ධකම් ඇතිකර ගැනීම තහනම් කළ හැකි බව කියමින් ආණ්ඩුව එයට ජනතාවගේ අනුමැතිය ලබා ගැනීමට උත්සාහ ගනිමින් සිටින ආකාරය අපට පෙනේ. නමුත් ආණ්ඩුවේ මෙම ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනත් කෙටුම්පත විරෝධකල්පික දේශපාලන ක්‍රියාකාරීත්වයට හා මාධ්‍ය නිදහසට අකුල් හෙළිම තුලින් සාමාන්‍ය පුරවැසියන් දඩුකඳේ ගසන අතරම, ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට සුවිශේෂ බුරුලක් ලබා දෙන ආකාරයට සකස්  කර ඇත. ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට ලබාදෙන බුරුල නිසා එමඟින් සැබවින්ම සිදුවන්නේ ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීම නොව ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට ආරක්‍ෂාව ලබාදී ත්‍රස්තවාදය තවත් දිරි ගැන්වීමය.

අපේ දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයට අනුව එක් පුද්ගලයෙක් ඝාතනය කළ අයෙකුටත් මරණ දණ්ඩනය හිමි වේ. නමුත් යෝජිත ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනතට අනුව පුද්ගලයන් සිය ගණනක් නැතිනම් දහස් ගණනක් වුවත් ඝාතනය කිරිමේ චෝදනාවකට වරදකරු වන ත්‍රස්තවාදියෙකුට දිය හැකි උපරිම දඩුවම වන්නේ ජීවිතාන්තය දක්වා සිර දඩුවමකි. දණ්ඩ නීති සංග්‍රහයට අනුව මිනී මැරීමට ආධාර හා අනුබල දීමටත් මරණ දණ්ඩනය හිමිවුවද යෝජිත නීතිය යටතේ මහා පරිමාණ ඝාතන වලට ආධාර හා අනුබල දීමට වුවත් හිමිවන උපරිම දඩුවම වන්නේ අවුරුදු 15ක උපරිම සිර දඩුවමක් හා රුපියල් දසලක්‍ෂයක උපරිම දඩයකි. යම් වරදකට රටේ සාමාන්‍ය පුරවැසියන්ට හිමිවෙන දඩුවම්වලටත් වඩා බෙහෙවින්ම ලිහිල් දඩුවම් ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට ලබා දීමෙන් ත්‍රස්තවාදය අධෛර්යමත් කළ හැකිද?  

යෝජිත ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනත යටතේ අත්අඩංගුවට ගනු ලබන ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවන්ට ඉතාමත්ම යහපත් ලෙස සැලකීමට පොලීසිය හා සන්නද්ධ හමුදා බැඳි සිටී. සන්නද්ධ හමුදා විසින් අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නා ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවන් පැය 24ක් ඇතුළත ළඟම තිබෙන පොලිස් ස්ථානයේ ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයාට බාරදිය යුතු වේ. එම ස්ථානාධිපතිවරයා අදාල සැකකරුගේ සිරුරේ තුවාල තිබේදැයි පරීක්‍ෂාකොට බලා ඔහුව අධිකරණ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරියෙකු වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතු වේ. එම අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම තුළින් සැකකරුගේ මූලික අයිතීන් උල්ලංඝනය වී තිබෙනවාද නැද්ද යන්න ගැන සොයා බැලීම සඳහා අත්අඩංගුවට ගැනීම සිදු වී පැය 24ක් ඇතුළත ඒ බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසම වෙතද වාර්තා කළ යුතු වේ.

යම්කිසි ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නා අවස්ථාවේදී අඳාල නිලධාරීන් තම අනන්‍යතාවය ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැක කරුවාට පමණක් නොව, එම අවස්ථාවේදී එතන සිටින ඔහුගේ පවුලේ අය නැතිනම් මිත්‍රයන්ටත් හෙළිකල යුතු වෙයි. එවැනි නීතියක් මොවුන් ගෙන එන්නේ මේ රටේ ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් විසින් ආරක්‍ෂක හමුදා සාමාජිකයන්ගේ පවුල් බුරුතු පිටින් ඝාතනය කළ ඉතාහාසයද නොතකාය. සිරභාරයට ගනු ලබන ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවන්ගේ පවුලේ සාමාජිකයන්ට හෝ වෙනත් අයට ඔහුව බැලීමට සාධාරණ අවකාශයක් යෝජිත පනත යටතේ ලබාදිය යුතු වේ. මේ ආකාරයට අත්අඩංගුවට පත් ත්‍රස්තවාදියෙකු බැලීමට එන පුද්ගලයා ඊළඟ මරාගෙන මැරෙන බෝම්බකරුවා වීමටත් ඉඩ තිබෙන වාතාවරණයක පවා මේ විධිවිධානය ක්‍රියාත්මක වේ.

යෝජිත පනත යටතේ ත්‍රස්තවාදියෙකු අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නා මොහොතේ සිට ඔහුගේ යහපැවැත්ම අන් සියල්ලටම වඩා මුල් තැන ගනී. අත්අඩංගුවට ගන්නා සියලු ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවන් පැය 48 ක් ඇතුළත මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයෙකු වෙත ඉදිරිපත් කළ යුතු වන අතර, එම සැකකරුවන්ගේ යහපැවැත්ම ගැන එම මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයා පුද්ගලිකවම කරුණු විමසා බැලිය යුතු වේ. සැකකරුවෙකු රැඳවුම් බාරයේ තබාගත හැක්කේ සති දෙකක කාලයකට පමණි. රැඳවුම් බාරයේ සිටින කාලය දීර්ඝ කළ හැක්කේ මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරයෙකුගේ අනුමැතියට යටත්ව පමණි.  ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවෙකු රැඳවුම් බාරයේ තබාගත හැකි උපරිම කාලය සති 8ක් වේ.  වර්තමානයේ බලපවත්වන ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීම පනත යටතේ නම් සැක කරුවෙකු මාස 03ක් රැඳවුම් බාරයේ තබාගත හැකි අතර එම කාලය මාස 18 ක් දක්වා දිර්ඝ කල හැක.

යෝජිත නීතිය යටතේ සැකකරුවකු නඩු පැවරීමකින් තොරව රිමාන්ඩ් බාරයේ තබාගත හැකි උපරිම කාලය මාස 06 ක් වේ. මහාධිකරණ නියෝගයක් මත පමණක් එම කාලය තවත් මාස 06ක් දක්වා දීර්ඝ කළ හැක. නමුත් එම කාලය තුලද නඩු පැවරීමක් සිදු නොවුනහොත් අදාල සැකකරුවාව අනිවාර්යෙන්ම ඇප මත නිදහස් කළ යුතුවේ. නමුත් වර්ථමානයේ බලපවත්වන ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනත යටතේ සැකකරුවෙකුට එරෙහිව නඩු පවරා අදාල සියලු කටයුතු ‍අවසන් වනතුරු ඔහුව දිගටම රිමාන්ඩ් බාරයේ තබාගත හැකි වේ. යොජිත නීතියට අනුව සැකකරුවන් රැඳවුම් බාරයේ හෝ රිමාන්ඩ් බාරයේ රඳවා තබා ඇති සියලුම ස්ථාන කලින් දැණුම් දීමකින් තොරව මානව හිමිකම් කොමිසම හා මහේස්ත්‍රාත්වරුන් විසින් පරීක්‍ෂණයට ලක්කොට ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවන්ගේ සුවදුක් සොයාබලා, ඔවුන්ගේ යහපැවැත්මට අවශ්‍ය සියලුම මූලික පහසුකම් අදාල ආයතන විසින් සපයා දෙන බවට වගබලාගත යුතු වේ. මෙම යෝජිත පනත යටතේ රක්‍ෂිත බන්ධනාගාර ගතකොට ඇති ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවෙකුට එරෙහිව ඇසෙන නඩුව අවුරුද්දක් තුළ අවසන් කිරීමට නොහැකි වුවහොත් ඔහුව ඇප මත නිදහස් කිරීමට මහාධිකරණය බැඳී සිටී.

නඩු පැවරීමෙන් පසුත් ත්‍රස්තවාදී චූදිතයන්ට විශේෂ සහන ලැබේ. යෝජිත ප්‍රති ත්‍රස්ත පනතට අනුව යම් කිසි ත්‍රස්තවාදියෙකුගේ ක්‍රියාකාරකම් නිසා ‘කිසිවෙකුට මරණය හෝ බරපතල ශාරීරික හානියක් සිදුවී නැත්නම්’ හා ‘රාජ්‍ය ආරක්‍ෂාවට එම පුද්ගලයාගේ ක්‍රියාකාරම් තුළින් බරපතල අගතියක් සිදුවී නැත්නම්’ හා අඳාල සැකකරුවා තමන් කළ දේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කණගාටුව ප්‍රකාශ කරන්නේ නම් හෝ වින්දිතයන්ට වන්දියක් ගෙවීමට එකඟ වන්නේ නම් හා  පුනරුත්තාපන වැඩසටහනකට සහභාගී වන්නේ නම්, නීතිපතිවරයාට එම සැකකරුට එරෙහිව තිබෙන නඩුව අත්හිටුවීමට නැත්නම් සම්පූර්ණයෙන්ම ඉවත් කිරීමට වුවද හැක.

‘කිසිවෙකුටත් හානියක් නොකළ’ එමෙන්ම ‘රාජ්‍ය ආරක්‍ෂාවටත් අගතියක් සිදු නොකළ’ අයකු ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත නීතියක් යටතේ අත්අඩංගුවට පත් වී  උසාවියක චූදිතයෙකු බවටත් පත්විය හැක්කේ කෙසේද යන ප්‍රශ්නය මෙහිදී පැනනගී. ප්‍රායෝගිකව ගත්කළ ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවෙකුට එරෙහිව රටේ සාමාන්‍ය නීතිය යටතේ නඩුවක් පවත්වාගෙන යාමට තරම් සාක්‍ෂි එකතු කිරීම දුෂ්කර කටයුත්තකි. බොහෝවිට සාක්‍ෂි එකතු කිරීමට බාධා වන්නේ එම ත්‍රස්තවාදය නිසාම රටේ පවතින තත්වයයි. යම්කිසි ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවෙකු අත් අඩංගුවට ගෙන ඉන්පසු උසාවියක චෝදනා ගොනු කරනු ලැබූ පසුත් ඔහු ‘කිසිවෙකුටත් හානියක් නොකළ’ එමෙන්ම ‘රටේ ආරක්‍ෂාවටත් අගතියක් නොකළ’ අයෙකු හැටියට සැලකෙන්නේ නම් එයට හේතුව ඔහුගේ ක්‍රියාකාරකම් ගැන උසාවියට පිළිගත හැකි සාක්‍ෂි සොයා ගැනීමේ අසීරුතාවය පමණි. ඔහු චෝදනා ලැබ සිටින අපරාධය ඔහු නොකලාය යන්න ඉන් හැඟෙන්නේ නැත. 

ආණ්ඩවේ යෝජිත ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනතින්ද ඒ යථාර්තය පිළිගෙන ඇත. යම්කිසි ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවකුට එරෙහිව ඇති චෝදනා පත්‍රය ඉල්ලා අස්කර ගැනීමට පෙර අදාල චූදිතයා නීතියෙන් තමන් නොකළ බවට සැලකෙන අපරාධයකට ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ සමාව ගතයුතු බවටත් තමන් විසින් හානියක් නොකළ වින්දිතයන්ට වන්දි පවා ගෙවිය යුතු යැයි මේ ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනතින්ම නියම කොට ඇත්තේ එම කාරණය නිසාය. යෝජිත ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනතේ ඇති එවන් ජුගුප්සාජනක විධිවිධාන වලින් වක්‍රව පිළිගෙන ඇත්තේ ත්‍රස්තවාදී සැකකරුවන් සාමාන්‍ය නීතිය යටතේ උසාවියක නඩු පවරා වරදකරු කිරීමට ඇති අසීරුතාවයයි. සාමාන්‍ය නිතිය යටතේ උසාවිය බලාපොරොත්තු වන සාක්‍ෂි භාරය ත්‍රස්තවාදයක් පවතින අවස්ථාවක ප්‍රායෝගික වන්නේ නැත.

මේ නිසා ත්‍රස්තවාදයට එරෙහිව ගෙන එනු ලබන නීති වලින් බොහෝ විට කළ හැක්කේ ත්‍රස්තවාදය මර්ධනය කිරීම මිස ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට නීතියෙන් දඩුවම් දීම නොවේ. ත්‍රස්තවාදයට එරෙහිව  යම් නීතියක් සම්මත කර ගන්නේ නම් එය අඩුම වශයෙන් ත්‍රස්තවාදය මර්ධනය කිරීමේ මූලික අවශ්‍යතාවයවත් ඉටුකරගත හැකි ආකාරයට දැඩි විය යුතුය. 1979 දී එජාප අණ්ඩුව විසින් සම්මත කරනු ලැබූ ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනත දැඩි නීතියක් බවට විවාදයක් නැත. නමුත් අපට මුහුරණ දීමට සිදුවූයේ ලෝකයේ කිසිම තැනක දක්නට නොලැබුණු තරමේ මිලේච්ඡ ත්‍රස්තවාදයකටය. එවන් දැඩි නීති නොමැතිව ඒ ආකාරයේ ත්‍රස්තවාදයක් පරාජය කිරීමට හැකි වන්නේ නැත.

යම්කිසි ත්‍රස්තවාදී චූදිතයෙකු උසාවියෙන් වරදකරු කළ පසුත් ත්‍රස්තවාදය ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ හෙළා දැකීම, වින්දිතයන්ට වන්දි ගෙවීම හා ප්‍රචන්ඩත්වය ප්‍රසිද්ධියේම ප්‍රතික්‍ෂේප කිරීම වැනි කාරණා සැලකිල්ලට ගෙන අදාල පුද්ගලයා කළ වරදට හිමි විය යුතු සිර දඩුවම අඩුකළ යුතු යැයි ආණ්ඩුවේ යෝජිත ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනතේ සඳහන් වේ. ඒ අනුව මේ යෝජිත ප්‍රති-ත්‍රස්ත පනත ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ට ලබාදෙන අංග සම්පූර්ණ සහන පැකේජයකි. මේ අවස්ථාවේදී මෙවන් පනතක් නීතියක් බවට පත්වුවහොත්, එය පාස්කු ඉරිදා බෝම්බ ප්‍රහාර වලින් පසු ත්‍රස්තවාදය මර්ධනය කිරීමට සිදුවෙමින් පවතින මෙහෙයුම් වලට මරු පහරක් වනු ඇත. අපේ රට නැවතත් ත්‍රස්තවාදී උවදුරකට ගොදුරුවී ඇති නිසා මේ අවස්ථාවේදී 1947 මහජන ආරක්‍ෂක ආඥාපනතටත්, 1979 ත්‍රස්තවාදය වැලැක්වීමේ පනතටත් කිසිඳු වෙනසක් සිදු නොවිය යුතුය. ත්‍රස්තවාදීන්ගේ අයිතීන් වලට වඩා මුල්තැන දිය යුතු වන්නේ ජනතාවගේ ජීවත් වීමේ අයිතිය සුරැකීමටය.

මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ

විපක්‍ෂ නායක

Dilrook Kannangara

Another election and another betrayal. Presidential and parliamentary elections are just months away. All parties are gearing up to it. And that means venerating minorities and their leaders. UNP has a captive minority vote base and it very keen to keep it that way. As a result UNP will never allow a crackdown of Muslim terrorism. Although only a small percentage of Muslims are terrorists, there is wide sympathy for them within the community.

Sirisena was heavily voted by Muslims. No less than 85% of Muslims voted for Sirisena in 2015. He is trying to salvage whatever he can from this base. His SLFP managed to win a few local government bodies with the help of some Muslim politicians. Therefore, he is also very unlikely to tackle the matter other than a few publicity stunts that will eventually end up with releasing most suspects. He will make sure no Muslim MP (current and former) is arrested.

SLPP only managed to win 5% of the Muslim vote in 2018 island-wide. A totally dismal performance. However, SLPP leaders are doing everything they can to win more. As a result they too will not support a crackdown on Muslim terrorism. They will make contradictory statements to win Muslim votes from one hand while retaining other votes on the other.

JVP is also after Muslim votes. JVP once produced the first Muslim female MP. JVP will be following a wait-and-see approach and an approach of pussyfooting the matter.

Muslim terrorists chose the perfect time to launch their attack.

Sri Lanka is in trouble again thanks to politicians fighting over minority votes.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Even before the Easter bomb blast I have been talking about possibility of connection of drug trade with increased tourism and other crimes.

When president started to wage the war against drug trade , remaining intelligent agents were concentrating on netting up Drug Masters  . I wrote an article about  Paolo Escobar who was a drug baron in Columbia, who managed to destabilize governments by exploding bombs and killing leaders and law enforcement agents .

Drugs helped him to find people to do such activities .Most of his ruthless killers were drug peddlers and drug abusers.

They were strong Catholics and yet they did not have mercy.

In Sri Lanka Catholics are more refined and disciplined under the guide of the  cardinal and other church leaders. Therefore such activities could could only be done by Muslims as Buddhist were somewhat more pious.

My question is whether Sri Lankan authorities ever checked blood of the suicide bombers and the suspects they have arrested to check substance abuse,means drug abuse.

The method of using canine / dogs to check explosives is fine, but the authorities should check whether drugs were also in use.

It may be that the suicide bombers all over the world need some brain twisting means to persuade them to such drastic action.

( in order to satisfy 72 virgins they intend to enjoy ,may also need drugs to make them believe that it is true !)

In Russia when red army went on charging the advancing German Invaders , Stalin gave  gallons of Vodka to the soldiers who were at the war front.

They forgot value of their life and went on suicidal attacks to beat the Germans.

It is essential to verify about fact that drugs  has been used by the youths who killed themselves.

If it so President’s theory  the war against drugs waged by him had accelerated the Terrorist Attack can be assumed factual.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Even before the Easter bomb blast I have been talking about possibility of connection of drug trade with increased tourism and other crimes.

When president started to wage the war against drug trade , remaining intelligent agents were concentrating on netting up Drug Masters  . I wrote an article about  Paolo Escobar who was a drug baron in Columbia, who managed to destabilize governments by exploding bombs and killing leaders and law enforcement agents .

Drugs helped him to find people to do such activities .Most of his ruthless killers were drug peddlers and drug abusers.

They were strong Catholics and yet they did not have mercy.

In Sri Lanka Catholics are more refined and disciplined under the guide of the  cardinal and other church leaders. Therefore such activities could could only be done by Muslims as Buddhist were somewhat more pious.

My question is whether Sri Lankan authorities ever checked blood of the suicide bombers and the suspects they have arrested to check substance abuse,means drug abuse.

The method of using canine / dogs to check explosives is fine, but the authorities should check whether drugs were also in use.

It may be that the suicide bombers all over the world need some brain twisting means to persuade them to such drastic action.

( in order to satisfy 72 virgins they intend to enjoy ,may also need drugs to make them believe that it is true !)

In Russia when red army went on charging the advancing German Invaders , Stalin gave  gallons of Vodka to the soldiers who were at the war front.

They forgot value of their life and went on suicidal attacks to beat the Germans.

It is essential to verify about fact that drugs  has been used by the youths who killed themselves.

If it so President’s theory  the war against drugs waged by him had accelerated the Terrorist Attack can be assumed factual.

Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Courtesy Adaderana

The Embassy of Turkey in Sri Lanka issuing a statement to clarify certain news items published by the media stated that Turkey has been cooperating with Sri Lanka in her fight against Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO).

The Embassy states that Turkey has provided the Sri Lankan authorities with the details of the FETO affiliated members, schools and businesses in Sri Lanka for the last four years.

The statement says that they have also requested the Sri Lankan Government to ban FETO affiliated schools and businesses and to deport their staff.

The complete statement issued by the Embassy of Turkey in Sri Lanka:

The Embassy would like to clarify some issues regarding the news which has been published in the Sri Lankan media since 30th April 2019.
 
The terrorist bomb attacks which targeted Sri Lanka on 21st April 2019 showed once again the need for cooperation and collective fight against all elements of international terrorism.

Turkey and Sri Lanka have stood in solidarity and cooperation in the international arena for many decades and supported each other in their fight against separatist terrorism.

In this framework, Turkey has also been cooperating with Sri Lanka in her fight against Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO).

FETO is the terrorist organization that perpetrated the coup attempt on 15th July 2016 in Turkey, which killed 251 civilians and wounded thousands in one day.

FETO disguised itself as a benign education and charity movement and carried out its activities under this guise in Turkey and in other various countries for many years.

Since 2013, the ultimate aim of this terrorist organization has been discovered by Turkey and their activities were completely banned within the country.

After the brutal coup attempt on 15th July 2016, a large number of foreign countries followed Turkey and banned or closed FETO affiliated schools and businesses and deported FETO members front their countries.

The Embassy of the Republic of Turkey provided the Sri Lankan authorities with the details of the FETO affiliated members, schools and businesses in Sri Lanka for the last four years and requested the Sri Lankan Government to ban FETO affiliated schools and businesses and to deport their staff.

As Turkey and Sri Lanka are still the targets of international terrorism today, as in the past, both countries will continue to stand in solidarity and cooperation.”

Courtesy Adaderana

Underworld figure Makandure Madush has been deported from Dubai this morning (05), stated the Police Media Spokesperson.

He was taken into the custody of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) upon his arrival at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

Drug kingpin Makandure Madush was under the custody of the Dubai authorities after being arrested at a drug-fuelled party thrown by him in a Dubai hotel, back in October.

Along with him, 31 Sri Lankans including underworld figures and celebrities such as singer Amal Perera and his son, actor Ryan Van Rooyen were also arrested in Dubai.

The Dubai authorities had deported the arrestees to Sri Lanka at several occasions and Sri Lankan authorities took them into custody for questioning upon their arrival. Some have been remanded as per court orders while others were released after recording statements.

The usual culprits are doing what they do best – stir the pot of trouble. They do not help in the least except point fingers that too at only targeted groups. So the immediate narrative even before investigations commenced was that ‘Sinhala Buddhists’ were responsible. Goebbells theory continues – tell a lie repeatedly & it is believed. Nonetheless, with Easter being a Christian/Catholic event and the bombers being Muslims the mainstream media were quick to denounce the Muslims and then immediately realizing the likely outcome of that the narrative quickly changed to Sri Lanka adopting an ‘anti-Muslim’ campaign because there was opportunity there as it entails media, NGOs, UN, foreign envoys to plug their two cents and make a noise further pressurizing a feeble and clueless Government. Let’s just call a spade a spade & take these issues head on.

All Tamils are not LTTE but all LTTE were Tamils

When LTTE extremisms were visible, majority of people continued to say All LTTE are Tamils but all Tamils are not LTTE. That belief continues to this day. Nevertheless, what is also true is that there were a small number of Tamils who disagreed with what LTTE was doing and were not only helping the armed forces as informants but preferred to live with the Sinhalese. These were however small in number. Sadly, they were hated by Tamils for doing so. No different to how defeated LTTE combatants are today treated by Tamils you losers” not because they lost the war but because as a result of the defeat the avenues that some Tamils were making comfy lives through came to a halt. This is why many LTTE combatants were seen crying at the departure of an army official because he gave them love and compassion that their own people did not.

How many Tamils openly opposed Jaffna University commemorating LTTE & its dead combatants?

How many Tamils took the side of the Tamils victimized by LTTE or the Tamil families whose children were kidnapped and turned into child soldiers?

At another level, though all Tamils were not LTTE some of these Tamils found opportunity in the LTTE. LTTE’s camouflage was that they were representing Tamils against Sinhala discrimination. So many Tamils used ‘Sinhala discrimination’ to apply as asylum seekers and went to live in the West. Many of these applicants were happily living with the Sinhalese but inspite of that the desire to live in the West did not stop them from using the tag line.

Sinhalese hold no grudge against this except feel sad that they have been used and even after 30 years not many wish to openly say that July 1983 riots was a UNP govt planned riot and that the Sinhalese gave them refuge and protected them in their homes!

At another level LTTE became what it was because it had plenty of non-Tamil supporters including Sinhalese, Muslims, foreigners, NGOs even UN. LTTE ground force was defeated but LTTE network that supplied the arms, carried out the propaganda and run illegal & legal businesses remain very much alive even today. The terror arm is missing but the political and economic arm of the LTTE still thrives and is connected to a plethora of networks that connect with narcotics, human smuggling, illegal arms smuggling and contract killing on targeted people.

So while tsome Tamils that supported LTTE are no longer supporting the fighting unit as it is now obsolete, they continue to support the other branches as they are indirectly connected to them – their relatives may be working with them, they may be holding portfolios in these foreign fronts, they get a lucrative income from the LTTE businesses etc… so we are talking about a very powerful group of people who do not wish to completely allow LTTE Inc to be terminated because it affects their livelihoods. These are the one’s running to Geneva, pumping money to the political wing and other campaigns to keep alive the original campaign for it affords many opportunities to them in many ways. And Sinhalese are the ready-made bait for tarnishing campaigns. Anything happens to a Tamil and the conclusion is, the perpetrator is Sinhalese.

Never brought to the table are the faults of the Tamils, their scheming, their unfair demands, the validity of their claims, the hypocrisies or their lies. A good example is the manner TNA politicians have gone round the world ridiculing our Armed Forces, funding bogus stories about them, hiring con artists to write reports, setting up bogus ‘witnesses’ and using a well -funded campaign in Geneva and among the diplomatic community to demand removal of the military since 2009 and now after the Easter Attacks the same TNA MPs are now saying to not only keep the military in the North but to increase their presence. What hypocrisy and these are what we have to digest every day because the media the key outlet that is supposed to place the facts before the readers for them to decide play games too by taking sides and quite openly too and again it is always the Sinhalese that are projected as the culprits for anything & everything.

All Muslims are not Islamic terrorists but all Islamic terrorists are Muslims

An oft-spread notion among minorities is that they must keep together whatever internal differences as that is the only way to consolidate their power. This is why extremist minority leaders have a field day during elections chanting all sorts of vituperative attacks against the majority and securing the minority vote thus becoming king-makers in parliament. Again, some Muslims have come to realize that these Muslim politicians are only using Muslims to come to power and enjoy personal perks for their families and friends. But being a close community, everyone is related to the other in the major towns and cities especially as Muslims are key players in the business community.

With the power of petro-dollars a global program to create an extremist political identity vis a vis cultural identity, business, social, legal came to be spread among countries that had their guard down or countries where politicians could easily be compromised. No doubt Sri Lanka was an easy choice. Hand over money & Sinhalese politicians would look the other way. Very little attention was paid to policy, laws or principles. Tragically incrementally incursions were subtly taking place throughout the island especially in Buddhist sacred site areas where the overall counter plan was to scream ‘racism’ ‘FR violation’ ‘anti-Muslim’ and silence those that were highlighting the unfair incursions. The tactic was to make illegal demands, create a scene of objection, pay both sides to stir racial trouble, highlight the issue across media, project the Sinhalese as the guilty party & then pretending to be fair, agree to reach a compromise whereby they legally achieve something more than what they legally did not have & should not achieve. This was the modus operandi that has won them much territory in the past and the framework is likely to continue. The legality of the issue, the validity of the claim is never put on the table – Muslims are made to believe that anything the Muslims demand is fair & legal. Only a handful of Muslims come forward to disagree but they too are ridiculed by their own people.

While a few Muslims came forward to inform authorities about Muslim extremisms, many Sinhalese highlighted the exact nature of these extremisms and warned that if these were not legally dealt with we would face repercussions in the future – it was suggested that the State declare that no minority cultural laws can be considered above the country law, the authorities were asked to ban halal food labeling – a new business model simply to create two forms of taxes for a food license issued by a private Muslim organization annually based on a minority religion which was unfair by all others, Islamic/Shariah banking – why should a minority have a banking system based on their religion only, how fair was it by the others? Daily azan played throughout the day which was becoming an increasing nuisance to residents as influence of municipalities allowed illegal mosques to emerge few feet apart from each other. The mushrooming madrassas where children were stopping school to attend these, the increasing number of women wearing burka which even the ISIS banned in 2016.

All these were highlighted to show these were anti-social, not contributing to peaceful coexistence, self-segregating and fostering seeds of animosity given that these were not religious rights but new political Islam trends purposely introduced to foster animosity & division by those promoting it because they had bigger plans in mind which even the Muslims were really not aware of. Easter Day attack was a good example of the extent of extremist ideology that had brainwashed even rich & educated Muslims, some family members to become suicide bombers and kill people in the name of their religion.

Extremism that entered via petro-dollars backed by powerful preachers, politicians, businessmen was nothing that ordinary Muslims could go against – the lobby was too powerful and the mosque every Friday had the last say in how Muslims behaved. Only a handful of Muslims who preferred to live like the majority community while practicing their faith for personal development and not political advantage were the real minority fostering peace. Unfortunately, they too are cornered by their own just like the handful of Tamils going against the trend.

The manner that the suicide bombers & their networks had Rs.5000 notes and the money found across the island showed how money can silence people – rich or poor. Today, principles are overtaken by the power of money.

Again immediately after the suicide bombings, the usual culprits that flog the Tamils are discriminated song began an anti-Muslim drive as the majority of media are Christian-owned and Christian influenced (the 1964 Press Commission Report amply provides evidence for this) The same players reversed their story to single out Sinhalese as being responsible for an anti-Muslim initiative and now that is taking global stage with the usual statements asking Sri Lanka’s majority to be sensitive to minority rights.

Completely forgotten is that Islamic terrorists attacked Catholic churches no doubt but they also attacked hotels that killed 42 foreigners and non-Catholics including Muslims too. Over 250 are dead. But the paid narrative is always – Sinhalese are responsible.

Sinhala Buddhists will forever be everyone’s scapegoats – it is fashionable to always point fingers at the Sinhalese. It is unlikely that this narrative will ever change. As Sinhalese Buddhist we can only say truth will come out one fine day and justice will prevail. Lies do not last forever. If lies sustains livelihoods – so be it. Earn a living telling lies. Your conscience will know the truth!

Shenali D Waduge

Gamini Gunawardane                

Vinod Munasinghe has in his letter of Monday 31 March to ‘The Island’ touched a raw nerve in all of us when he referred to  the eurocentrism of Cassandra who had shrugged it off saying So what?” according to him. It is quite understandable when it comes to the likes of Cassandra. It was the other day that we saw a worse display of Eurocentrism when a government Minister publicly groveled before the Commissioner of the UNHRC begging pardon for the conduct of the members of the Sri Lankan delegation. This shows slavish servility on his part to Eurocentrism. It is said that even after slavery was abolished in the West some slaves preferred to continue as slaves probably because they found comfort zones in slavery.

But the real problem is that most of us are afflicted with this problem in various degrees though are unaware of it. This is due to the fact that we are the product of Western education system. This is worsened by the fact that our knowledge base too is Western oriented, now more so with the internet and the whole system now becoming web based. We are all trapped in it and therefore see no need to develop our own ways of independent thinking, with different outlooks. It has now become fashionable to happily embrace this new knowledge and way of thinking.

I believe it was probably Anagarika Dharmapala thuma followed by Piyadasa Sirisena and prominently Munidasa Cumarnathunga who first realized the need to develop our own way of thinking. (Very probably Vinod is a distant descendent of the Anagarika? – may be it is the same DNA that is revolting in him). Late Eng. Alien de Silva tried independent thinking in his own field in later times. With the demise of the two great Pirivenas, Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara converted into Universities, the remnants of the traditional knowledge system too died a slow death, with the lesser Pirivenas having to adjust themselves to the Public Examination system for survival. Thus the oriental thinking system died ironically not at the hands of the colonials but owing to our own confused thinking after 1956. In the wake of all this, Eurocentrism has come to occupy the vacant space in our thinking. And all of us are engrossed in Eurocentrism. As a result, our creative and innovative thinking has become impaired. Consequently we can only engage in imitative thinking. This is seen in all our approaches to current problem solving.

When the medium of education was changed to Swabhasha in the mid Fifties it was anticipated that it would facilitate thinking in our own language and thereby usher independent thinking as a newly independent nation. But its effect was the reverse. In effect it resulted in an inferiority complex in the new generation who felt a compulsive need to re-orient into Eurocentric thinking.

However, it was some African intellectuals who came up with the assertion in the late Eighties that if post colonialized nations wanted to be truly Free, they need to ‘de-colonize’ their own minds, to be able to usher independent thinking.

I do not know whether it is a coincidence or not that some posters of the 1971 JVP uprising carried  slogans to the effect that we have nothing to lose but our chains that tied us; also that it is better to die standing on our feet than to live fallen on our knees. I do not know whether he was borrowing from Marxian thinking but it must have been very attractive to the young then. Wijeweera in his Five Classes preached that the tea estates should be uprooted and of Indiyaanu vyaapthawadaya (Indian expansion). At that time we scoffed at such ideas as sheer bunkum. But twenty five years later we had the 13^th amendment thrust down our throats by India. And now we are talking of denudation of the tea lands and also are staring at a dwindling tea market. In hindsight, I wonder whether Wijeweera was trying to think independently outside the Eurocentric frame though one cannot approve of his violent methodology.

Yet may be all is not lost. When our cricketers, three wheel drivers and housewives started to talk cricket in Sinhala, we became world beaters! When that wonder bowler Ajantha Mendis walked up to collect his international trophy, he could not converse in their lingua franca! The latest is that they have become the first Asian cricket side to beat the South Africans in a clean sweep in test cricket in their own country. Similarly, when young village girl Susanthika Jayasinghe stormed the Olympic scene to win a silver medal for this country, she referred to that Yak gathiya in me” that propelled her.

Not to be out done, Sri Lankan Armed Forces vanquished the LTTE, said to be the worst terrorist organization in the world, to become the only country to have overcome terrorism when the Western Powers told us that it was an ‘unwinnable war’ and that the only way out was negotiated settlement with the enemy. That was probably because our military machine changed to native thinking.

In the literary field, I think of the innovative thinking of Prof. Sarachchandra who revolutionized the modern Sinhala drama to give a new identity. Similarly Lester Peiris broke away from Eurocentrism through his films ‘Rekhava’ and ‘Gamperaliya’, to be recognized as a world class innovative film maker of the last century. Also the case of Sybil Wetthasinghe whose childrens’ stories with her unique illustrations have been translated into over 13 languages in the world. These are significant achievements for a small country with a limited population.

We have also seen some flashes of independent thinking in the present time too. I am thinking of the line of fresh thinking in editorial writing in The Island newspaper which may be the reason why they have earned much appreciation of the readers. There is Ayurvedic Dr. Danister Perera who is engaged in finding new depths in native medicine. We also have archeologists like Prof. Raj Somadeva who is conscious of the need for new thinking in his field of study. (Listen to his talk given at the Dambulu Kathikawa.)

These indications show signs that we are indeed moving towards independent thinking, away from the shackles of Eurocentrism. But I think what is important at the present moment is to realize that it is the eurocentrism and the lack of a de-colonized mindset that inhibits us from thinking freely and that is the cause of our Eurocentrism itself.  I believe it might take another generation for us to fully assert ourselves. But for the present we need self-confidence on ourselves.

For the present. we may be fumbling with that unfamiliar political instrument that is democracy, wallowing in corruption, indiscipline and unethical behavior. It was Mr. D.C. Wjwwardane who wrote his monumental work ‘Revolt in the Temple’ in an attempt to strike out a political philosophy for the newly emergent Sri Lanka. Copies of it were handed over to each Minister of the SLFP Government in 1956, when they took oaths at the Kelaniya Temple. But no one took it seriously, in their euphoria. Later copies of that book was sold in the Pettah pavements for 50 cents!   

Yet all indications are in our favour, after 500 years of foreign domination. One could hear mild distant thunder. This is now said to be the Asian Age. China which had been put into sleep by the West with opium, is now awake and is on the move. They have developed their own brand of Communism which is propelling them forward inexorably. The West seems to be panicking at the prospect of being overthrown from their position of prominence. So let us be awake ourselves and we have only to overcome our inferiority complex that holds us down. 

Gamini Gunawardane                

SPUR   (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka Inc) Australia

In the aftermath of the tragic Easter Sunday bombings, the prime Minister of Sri Lankan Ranil Wickremasinghe on 27/04/2019 announced that the Millennium Challenge Corporation agreement was signed and that this agreement has provided Sri Lanka USD 500 million which could be used for development work.  In two articles published on the internet in February and March 2019, alleged details of this agreement were leaked to the public.

Rise-up Sri Lanka Rise-up! Destroy the Enemy as It Pivots-to-Lanka to Build An Electrified Eelam ‘Border-Wall’ and Make the Island Its Military-Hub in the Indo-Pacific (Part 1)

Rise-up Sri Lanka Rise-up! Destroy the Enemy Utterly as It Pivots to Mother Lanka (Part 2)

The articles allege that the MCC agreement is nothing but a plan to splinter Sri Lanka and turn it into a US Military Base.

The Key points alleged in these articles are:

• The agreement was drafted after two years of secretive negotiations between Ranil Wickremasinghe and the Millennium Challenge Corporation and It was to be signed in November 2018
• Under cover of ‘Megapolis’ development, the Americans demanded from Sri Lanka an ‘Economic’ Corridor of 1.2 Million Acres of land from Trincomalee to Colombo for a lease period of 200 years and they insisted that US law must prevail within this corridor
• The US has offered USD 400 million for the corridor which works out to Rs.24 per acre per month.
• It appears that Sri Lanka has been offered 80 million USD more
• The area covered by the corridor contains Eppawela’ phosphates, ilmenite, thorium, monazite, and rare-earth metals Cerium and Lanthanum
• The US insisted that Sri Lanka should abrogate her land laws which had protected her Sovereignty and National Security and that Ranil Wickramasinghe has agreed to oblige by drafting to  two new Bills – the ‘State Land Bank’ Bill and the ‘Land (Special Provision)’ Bill
• The construction of an ‘Electrified’ Railway Line from Trincomalee to Colombo protected with electric fences on either side which will effectively physically split the country into two.
• Anuradhapura and Kurunegala will be in the north of the corridor

The allegations above if true, show that Ranil Wickremasinghe has signed an agreement that destroys the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.

Given the grave nature of the allegations it is imperative that the government immediately reveal the contents of the agreement without any redactions to the general public. We strongly request the government to do so immediately and all political and national leaders to recognize the dire implications of the agreement to the national sovereignty and take all steps to REJECT AND REPEAL ‘the agreement with MCC, USA. Dasarath Jayasuriya

In my opinion, the events that unfolded were the culmination of what began in Jan 2015 when President Mahinda Rajapaksa was overthrown and Maithripala Sirisena appointed. As we all know this was funded and helped by several countries, in the West and even India. The election was manipulated to appoint Ranil Wickremasinghe as PM even though we had a PM and a Cabinet already. 
It is high time the PM resigned to make way for a new and capable Govt. I found the this article in the Lankaweb which lists all the crimes committed by him over 40 years. See: https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2017/08/09/ranil-wicremasinghes-crimes-against-sri-lanka-and-its-people-for-forty-years/

We are well aware of the events that unfolded thereafter, but I would like to refresh the memories of our people since our people seem to have short memories. 

1. PM brought the Ministry of Finance under him, brought Arjun Mahendran who was an alien as the Governor of the Central Bank and stated in Parliament that he will take responsibility for his appointment. He also brought a person who many are aware of as being of a dubious reputation as head of the Treasury. At this time the UNP was bankrupt and was in debt to the tune of Rs. 3 Billion.
2. The now infamous Bond scam was perpetrated by this group. While there was an uproar in the country about it, nothing was done to investigate what happened and who was responsible.
3. When the General Election came along in August again though Mahinda’s party the UPFA was on the verge of winning the foreign powers manipulated the election by informing the people through the President that even if Mahinda wins he will not appoint Mahinda as PM. This threw the country into confusion and as a result, they voted for the UNP/TNA/JVP/Muslim alliance. The UPFA which had the largest number of seats in the Parliament were ignored by Karu Jayasuriya the Speaker and the TNA with only 16 seats was appointed as the Opposition leader. All parliamentary rules were broken and the UPFA went to the UN to complain about what was going on. No one took any notice as they were so busy making money. 
4. The UNP alliance started taking foreign loans and using that money for consumption. People were allowed to import luxury cars and the MPs were allowed to import luxury cars without tax. The MPs without any patriotism imported these luxury cars and sold them for a huge profit. It was a huge business for them. A lot of projects that had been started by Mahinda’s Govt such as the Port City, Power plants, Solar Energy Park, etc. were stopped by this UNP alliance. The bought Parliament went along with it. Even a very defective Constitutional amendment the 19A was passed since it was a bought Parliament. 

5. In 2016, a second Bond scam was perpetrated. Suddenly the UNP debt had disappeared. Maithripala realized things were not so rosy and appointed a Presidential Commission to look into the Bond scam. The perpetrators took off back to where they came from. The commission found various people guilty of the Bond scam but not the chief architect the PM. Why? 
6. To fulfill the promise made to the TNA for getting the UNP into power the UNP Alliance took great pains to trivialize what Mahinda Rajapaksa had achieved. Mahinda achieved what many superpowers had brain washed our people to believe was not possible. That is to defeat LTTE militarily. They wanted Sri Lanka Govt to just give in to their requests to give a separate state to the Tamils which would have been a precursor to breaking India. They denigrated the armed forces and co-sponsored a resolution which virtually admitted to the world that the Sri Lanka armed forces were guilty of war crimes. Intelligence people in forces were jailed on various excuses and kept in prison for years without trial. Most of the land the army had acquired in the N&E during the 30 years of fighting with the LTTE was given back to the people who claimed them. Mangala Samaraweera and Chandrika Bandaranaike became the champions of the Tamil “Cause”. Tamils who claimed ‘missing people’ were given hearings and it became popular to accept their word against that of the Sri Lanka armed forces. In several cases, so-called disappeared people reappeared in India and elsewhere. No thought was given to the fact that some of the disappearances could be due to the LTTE themselves killing civilians who did not comply, or to those who went missing in the Tsunami of Dec 2004, etc. Steps were taken to set up an Office of Missing Persons. No one bothered about soldiers who were missing and displacement of Sinhalese from the North and East. Highly inflated numbers such as 300,000 – 140,000 were used by the UN and UNHCR to create a case against Sri Lanka. It was only when Lord Naseby brought out the actual figures from the U.K. Gashe files which showed the numbers to be 7000-8000 which was same as what Maxwell Paranagama report gave that the vociferous voices of the diaspora Tamils subsided.
7. The value of the Rupee dropped from 130/$ to almost 200/$ by 2019. The debt went up from 75% to about 92%. No one seemed to care for the country except for the Joint Opposition consisting of Mahinda and Lanka loyalists. In this year’s budget, they set aside money to pay reparations to LTTE terrorists who had committed so many crimes against the country. India should pay us reparations for having trained and let loose the LTTE against us and the Superpowers of the West for prolonging the war for so long because they had a sizeable chunk of Tamils who had gone as refugees after 1983 trumped up riots, to supply money and votes for many of the politicians in those countries. For these people, facts did not seem to matter – only the immediate gain from their voting bloc mattered. The BBC virtually became the voice of the LTTE as they wielded power with the politicians. 
8. From the beginning of 2018, Maithripala began to realize that his alliance with Ranil was slowly destroying the country. It culminated with him trying to install Mahinda as PM along with his loyalists to the cabinet. This ‘coup’ was unfortunately squashed by the Supreme Court who interpreted the Presidents action was illegal even though the Attorney General had approved his action. The TNA and the JVP backed Ranil and the UNP when a vote was taken in the Parliament. 
9. I believe that if Mahinda was allowed to stay in power the unfortunate events that happened would not have happened. Mahinda always gave the highest priority to the security of the country, unlike the jokers we have now in office. As the information unfolds about the bombing, many facts are coming out which shows the utter lack of control our Govt has on the security of the country. One of the suicide bombers had a factory which was employing Bangladeshis. How did these people come to the country? Did they come as illegal immigrants or on work visas?
10. A large group of Pakistani and Afghan refugees was in a police station for safety due to fears for their life since they were Muslims. They said that they were there as UNHCR refugees. The question I have is: how many such refugees do we have in the country? Are we subsidizing their education, health, and even food? Do the govt authorities monitor these people? A priest speaking on the subject has said that Minister Rishad Bathiudeen has brought in almost 300,000 people who have been settled in Wilpattu. See https://www.facebook.com/hash.mars.9/videos/147728786278268/UzpfSTEwMDAwODU2MTk4MDkzNjoyMDIzODY4MDcxMjQxOTA2/ – අපේ හාමුදුරුවෝ පොල්ලෙන් ගැහුවා වගේ ඇත්ත කථා කලා They are being trained in Sharia law with funding from Saudi Arabia. Do we know how many illegals are there in the country? According to the talk by the priest, most of them throw away their passport and go to a Grama Sevaka and get an i.d card. 
11. Surely by now, we should have a better means of issuing i.d cards. In most countries to get a passport they have to undergo rigorous police checking of their backgrounds and also health testing to ensure they do not have HIV or AIDS or worse. India is using Biometric I.D cards. During the war apparently, almost a million Tamils went out of Sri Lanka to other countries. Yet when the census was done in 2012 the population was the same. This means almost a million illegal immigrants have come during this time from Tamil Nadu. Even among the people in the refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, we do not know how many are people who have crept into the camps there. 

12. Many UN agencies are using Sri Lanka to dump refugees in Sri Lanka from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and other countries. After getting Sri Lanka to co-sponsor the UNHCR resolution the superpowers have a hold on Sri Lanka. They are using this leverage to get Sri Lanka to accede to any requests they make. Mangala has set himself as the human rights champion and the agent for UNHCR. He is I believe eyeing a plush UN job when he loses his current job due to Govt change. 

14. All the terrorist groups in Sri Lanka were using poor kids to feed them some kind of ideology so that they would go and fight on their behalf and get killed while their leaders lived in luxury. The truth or the falsehood of the ideology did not matter only thing that matttered was that their rank and file believed it enough to sacrifice themselves for the “cause”. It was no different in Europe when the Church led crusades to kill many thousands of people, or the Muslims led hordes through Europe in the name of Allah, or the Muslims led the Moghuls through India destroying the Hindus. It is all a great insanity created in the human mind by various leaders for their own gain. Buddhists avoided this blood shed largely because they realized and taught the illusory nature of this existence. Unfortunately this very realization makes them vulnerable to the insane hordes who fanatically want to destroy all those who do not believe in what they believe. 
15. May be like the Dinosaurs the humans will also go out of existence. Right now we have the leader of the most powerful country denying climate crisis due to excess CO2 in the atmosphere and the sea even though all the scientists have provided ample proof of it. The UN has already designated Sri Lanka as one of the most vulnerable countries due to climate crisis. We have only 12 years to get it right as per the UN. After that the climate crisis will become irreversible. We need to set aside all these fighting for different ideologies and get our act together if we are to survive the coming years.

Let us hope sanity prevails and our people take control of their country and their lives instead of handing it over to foreign powers to do as they wish as some of our Colombians wish to do.

Asoka Weerasinghe 

Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1

3 May 2019

Mayor Patrick Brown, MPP
Office of the Mayor
City of Brampton
2 Wellington Street West
Brampton, Ontario
L6Y 4R2

Councillors: Rowena Santos, Paul Vicente,  Doug Whillans,  Michael Palleschi,  Jeff Bowman, Martin Medeiros,  Charmaine Williams, Pat Fotini, Harkirat Singh, Gurpreet

Dhillon

Dear Mayor Patrick Brown:

I read the gloating comment in the Tamil Guardian that the Canadian City of Brampton recognises May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day”.

I also notice that the day happens to be the day before when the the most ruthless terrorists in the world, the Tamil Tigers, were annihilated  when their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was shot dead on the sands of the Nandikadal lagoon in the east coast of my beautiful homeland, Sri Lanka, on 19 May, 2009.

Now I understand why it is said that a There’s a Sucker born every minute.

You must be wondering whether I am insinuating that you are such a Sucker’.   You know what, Mayor Bown? Your guess is convincing and right.  Yes, I do.  Not only, you, but every Councillor of  Brampton’s City Council who voted to pass this  Tamil genocide” motion unanimously.

Mayor Patrick Brown, your Brampton Council’s  statement said – Brampton Council passed unanimously the following motion in recognition of the 10 year anniversary of the Tamil genocide.  We will never forget the horror of Mullivaikkal”

Let me be frank with you Mayor Brown, my heart bleeds with anger, and my eyes are cartwheeling spitting dragon breath at all of you at Brampton City Council for

not recognizing and for never forgetting the horrors” that your Tamil Tiger pets

dished out to my Sinhalese people, Buddhists and Christians alike, back at home, in Sri Lanka.  They performed this horror for 27-blooding years by massacring them with exploding claymore mines, shooting with Kalashnikov bullets, by chopping them with machetes as if they were carcasses of cattle in a butcher’s shop, and truck bombing tall buildings in the heart of Colombo like the Central Bank Building which  they did on 31 January, 1996, killing 86 and injuring 1338; like the Kebitigollawa Bus massacre on 15 June 2006 by your pet Tamil Tigers, killing 64 unarmed  civilians

including children and Buddhist monks, and injuring 39 others;  like the Aranthalawa massacre of novice Buddhist monks, 33 of them together with their mentor at Aranthalawa on 2 June, 1987.  They were on a pilgrimage to an ancient Buddhist temple in Kelaniya in a bus which was ambushed by your pet Tamil Tigers, stormed the bus, some novice monks were shot dead at point blank range and others were hacked to death and chopped and mutilated with machetes; like shooting and killing 120 Buddhist devotees (I am a Sinhalese Buddhist) by your pet Tamil Tigers. The devotees were meditating under the sacred Bodhi tree in the sacred city of Anuradhapura and injuring 85 others on 14  May 1985, during the Buddhist Vesak celebrations,

I suppose I am too harsh on you lot at the Brampton City Council, as such  recognition of certain days of the calendar by the Council, could only be considered if there is an application requesting for the recognition of such a Remembrance Day by a particular Brampton community.   Since there are many reasons for such a solemn Remembrance Day wanting by Sinhalese-Canadians in Brampton, I hope that if and when the Sinhalese-Sri Lankan -Canadians in your fair City make such a request, I hope as a peace offering that you and your Councillors will pass such a motion proposed and seconded by two of your Councillors and voted to adopt it unanimously.  That is kosher and that is the way to go.  And remember that, they too have a vote like the Bramptonian-Tamils when Provincial elections come along.

My anger is visceral Mayor Brown for not recognizing the above massacres and killings of the Sinhalese by your  serial killer Tamil Tiger terrorist pets,  as if those killed and injured by them were not children of your same God as of those Tamils you have recognized who you say were killed by Sri Lankan Forces, and you all labeled it as Genocide.”?  I say Pox to you and your councillors for that callous, insensitive, hurtful aberration of my Sinhalese people.  Give me a break Mayor Brown and ask your Councillors to give a break too without being such insensitive fools.   You all had a  choice. You all could have rightfully rejected such a request as it borders on ‘political controversy’, and straining the harmony between the Tamils and Sinhalese communities in Brampton. You as the Mayor of Brampton and your Councillors are guilty of that collective political vote buying selfish mischief.

I am incensed that you have difficulty to recognize that, with the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of your Tamil Tiger pets and annihilating these ruthless terrorists by the Sri Lankan armed forces, that the Sri Lankan armed forces did an amazing International Human Rights prized justice and keeping Human Rights alive and well. They gave back to 21 million Sri Lankan peoples their right-to-life which was hijacked by Prabhakaran and his Tigers for 27-bloodying years, which takes precedence to everything else in the menu of Human Rights.  How come that you all were acting like a bunch of  bleeding-heart jerks? So, Mayor Brown, I see that you have joined the yellow belly-aching  Tamil separatists in your City. You are singing the harmony of their Chorus: We got one more Canadian Sucker in our net, a vote hungry clown, it’s Brampton’s Patrick Brown.” That is the rub Mayor and that is just too bad. And that is how the  Political Bleeding-heart Cookies crumble.

You know what Mayor Brown, with that Sri Lanka’s Tamil Genocide” proclamation, my crystal ball reading says, there will be a day in a fews years down the road the relentless supporter of the mythical Tamil Eelam carved out of Sri Lanka’s North, Mayor Patrick Brown of Brampton will christen that fair city as ‘Brampeelam’, when the majority of the pôpulation of the City of Brampton will be of Tamils of Sri Lanka. That will be the aggressive demand by your Tamil community.  Want to wage a bet on it, Mayor Brown!  Write my Crystal Ball prediction on a piece of paper and bury it in a time-capsule to be opened in 25 years, in the year 2045.  Bury the time-capsule under the Council Chamber Speaker’s Chair.  And the Speaker will declare every Council session welcoming the Councillors with the greeting Wannakkam.” You bet!

I know Mayor Brown that you have been going after the Sri Lankan Government relentlessly for their wanting to annihilate the Tamil Tiger terrorists that you had adopted as your pets and giving them cover in the Canadian parliament when you were the MP for Barrie.  And as you may remember I didn’t let you get away that easily by following your footsteps when you were trying to squish my Sinhalese clan under your Conservative jackboot, calling you a damn Big HUMBUG”.

Mayor Brown, on December 6th, 2012, I wrote you as a response to your ‘Press Release on Sri Lanka human rights violations’, when you were still the Conservative MP for Barrie, Ontario:

This was an amazing essay based on lies and misinformation.  You have right through your career as an MP have shot your poison darts at Sri Lanka supporting the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) Tamil Diaspora.  Fair enough Patrick, as I don’t expect anything different from you as you seem to have a lot of separatist-Tamils as friends in the GTA.  And also notice that you have twinned with the NDP Tamil MP for Scarborough-Rouge River, Rathika Sitsabaiesan, helping her to peddle the Channel 4, anti- Sri Lanka video Killing Fields”, with AI’s John Argue not far behind you two like a pathetic puppy, but  you never showed the video Lies Agreed Upon” that debunks the Channel 4’s Killing Fields”.  And that tells much about your dis-affection for Sri Lanka and hiding the truth.  And I don’t like it as I am originally from Sri Lanka, and a good Sinhalese to boot and who is passionate about my Motherland, Sri Lanka, and will not allow anyone, MP or no MP,  hurt my Motherland unfairly. Period.

It was reported that you said, Mr. Brown is also greatly concerned over reports of attacks, continued harassments and detention of Jaffna student leaders.  He calls upon the Sri Lankan authorities to exercise restraint, to respect peaceful demonstrations and release the students immediately.”

As a response on 6 December 2012, I wrote you, No you don’t release student leaders immediately” who are suspected to have thrown a petrol bomb into the office of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO) around 3:30 A.M. on November 29, which is situated near the University campus.  You cannot expect the Government let loose the students without interrogating to find out their motives and what they were expecting to do in the future.  That is normal practice before their actions get out of hand and force the Sri Lankan Government to take more drastic measures.

Patrick, just in case you missed in today’s (6 December) The Ottawa Citizen on page 2 has this news item. Quebec student protester sentenced, but says it’s not over.  A prominent figure in Quebec’s student protest movement has been sentenced to 120 hours of community service for a contempt of court conviction following the rowdy events of the so called Maple Spring”.  This guy didn’t even throw a petrol bomb like the Tamil student did in Jaffna.

Well , Patrick, that is how your Canada deals with students violent protests and not releasing them immediately”.  It is no different from Sri Lanka.  So let’s cut out your pretentious, I am Patrick Bown, the Conservative MP for Barrie, and I say, ‘We are Holier Than Thou’, so do what I say.”  That’s a lot of obnoxious poppycock, Patrick.

I wrote you on October 17, 2009  …..  Patrick, I just heard you on Youtube whining about the Sri Lankan Government refusing to give you and your Conservative colleague Paul Calandra (Oak Ridges-Markham) visas to visit IDP Camps in the North of Sri Lanka.  You were spitting Dragon breath all over the Sri Lankan Government. Nasty! Nasty!!

The question that I would ask you is, Who the heck do you think you are Patrick.  Why should the Sri Lankan Government issue you a visa anyway? After all you are not projecting a clout saying that you are a Cabinet Minister when the Canadian Government had already rejected visas for five Sri Lankan Ministers, like the Tamil Cabinet Minister Douglas Devananda from the North.  I hope you heard the diplomatic jargon, which is part of their working manual lexicon reciprocity”   The Government of Sri Lanka would be within their rights to say Touche” to you MP Patrick Brown and  MP Paul Calandra.”

On July 3rd, 2010, I wrote you with a heading  Patrick Brown: Tamils are law abiding” he says.  What nonsense!  (You were the Conservative MP for Barrie then).

Your Government of Canada’s message on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the Tamil community in Canada down right pissed off” this card carrying Conservative.  You may wonder why?………

That message not only insulted me, but also all other law abiding” Canadians and insulted and tarnished some good hard working Tamils whose main thrust is to be law abiding” citizens, living by the law of their adopted country, and bring up their young families contributing intellectually and financially to the wealth of our great nation that gave them a home…….

But Patrick, you are too young at 32 to suffer from Alzheimer’s which also brings memory loss.  The Tamils are ‘law abiding’ you said.  That’s a load of crap Patrick.  There are 10,000 hard core Tamil Tiger terrorists roaming our streets and some of them were from the Ocean Lady” that landed on the shores of Vancouver last October, and the Immigration Department let them loose…..

Remember how the 10-thousand gutless Tamils who were cowards to use kids on strollers, and seniors as shields to protest closing the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto which no other community in Canada had ever done.  That was no law-abiding” citizenry, are they now, Patrick.  That message was a load of codswallop insulting every other law-abiding citizen in this country, and you have a memory loss, haven’t you Patrick?”

So with all this poppycock that you are trying to convince us that there was Genocide of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.  Really!  Tell me Mayor Brown, were you hallucinating when you decided to recognize May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day” in Brampton.  What Genocide, may I ask you Mayor Brown?”

When the Lying Liberals  5 – Robert Oliphant, Jim Karygiannis, Derek Lee, Judy Sgro and Albina Guarnieri, announced that there was ‘Genocide’ in Sri Lanka during the last five months of the 360 month Eelam War, when challenged as I have just done with you, they had no answers and they choked.  This was during the famous Emergency Debate on Sri Lanka in the Parliament’s Chamber on February 4, 2009, which I christened as the  Canada Parliament’s Tamil Tiger Blarney Gong-Show.”  Every time a parliamentarian stood up and denounced the Sri Lankan Government, he or she would look up at the Gallery where Tamils were sardine packed to get a reaction.  More or less asking the Tamils, You saw me spitting at the Sri Lanka Government, now give me your vote.”

Let’s get this right once and for all Mayor Brown.  So the Canadian City of Brampton recognizes May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day”

you all, announced.

Tamil Genocide” you say.  I challenge you and your Councillors of the City of Brampton, to prove that there indeed was Genocide”.  What  Genocide”

I call you lot as a bunch of no good God damn Liars and Humbugs.  Show me the bodies 40,000 of them which is bandied around.  Show me the skeletons!

Here’s where you and your Councillors fall flat on your faces.  None of the 295,873 Tamil refugees who were marched from the west coast to the east coast for 30 harrowing months,  like unwashed cattle under a scorching Jaffna-Killinochchi sun, as a Human Shield by the Tamil Tigers,  complained that they were forced by the Sri Lankan Forces to fall on their knees and claw the kabook earth to dig deep trenches to bury the alleged 40,000 killed Tamil bodies;

*No one complained that there were 10 backhoes digging trenches feverishly day and night to to bury the 40,000 killed Tamil bodies;

*No one, not even Amnesty International,  Human Rights Watch nor Red Cross ,  complained that there were nasty, smelly black plumes of smoke snaking towards heaven, from burning tyres used to burn the dead Tamil bodies killed by the Sri Lankan Forces;

*No one along the east coast of Tamil Nadu reported that there were 100s and 100sl of Tamil dead bodies that were washed ashore presumably dumped mid-sea by the Sri Lankan Navy speed boats.

Then where the hell did you think they hid 40,000 dead bodies, Mayor Brown.  Let’s have an answer.  Let’s have the end product without parroting  the vindictive comments by Tamil separatists and sympathiszers.  Certainly not what the UN says, which we are told is a cesspool of political bias.”

Do you know what Mayor Brown, in every war statistics, the injured are twice the number of those who were killed.  My 2nd Grade simple arithmetic says, if that is the case, what the heck happened to the 80,000 Tamils who were injured.  Did the Red Cross find that the numbers were too large to handle,  and let the wounded die on either side of the war theatre.  Shame! Not being able to provide 160,000 crutches to the Injured to hobble away from harm’s way, the bleeding-hearts let them die in the open and rot away under the hot tropical sun.  Shame on you bleeding hearts!  Aren’t you and your Brampton Councillors, bleeding hearts not concerned about the 80,000 injured.  Don’t you want to find out what happened to the 80,000 wounded  Tamils.,  No one seems to be concerned about them.  Where were the voices of Ban Ki-Moon, Navi Pillay. Darusman, Ratne and Sooka.  Am I to accept that they are all a bunch of Sri Lanka hating bullies    No wonder, I have come to the conclusion that all these characters are a bunch of bullies and insensitive Humbugs.  Give me a break, Mayor Brown.  I want answers. I charge you and your Council of ethnic bias.

Getting back to Brampton City Council voting unanimously to declare May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance day,   I read the Thank You note by TGTE to Mayor Brown.

It said Recognize that these crimes against the Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka constitute a genocide”:

I (AW) differ in that provocative thought.  Tamils do not have a”Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka”  Tamils of Sri Lanka most certainly have their nation in Tamil Nadu, just 18  salt-sea miles away in Tamil Nadu, where 82,08 million of their kith and kin live.  Tamil Nadu is where they came from.

If there indeed is a Tamil nation, I wonder why 54% of the Tamil population live in the south of the island away from their mythical Tamil Nation.”

I wonder why their -lingams, Sothylingam, Suntharalingam, Rasalingam,  Arasalingam,  Jothilingam, Sivalingam and Dharmalingam, all want to live in Colombo.  I suppose their mythical ‘Tamil Nation’ up in the north doesn’t excite them  at all.  That is strange isn’t it.  

The motion says –    WHEREAS, The Tamil Genocide began with the arrest, exile, and murder of thousands of Tamil intellectuals, and political, religious leaders and…

I (AW) differ as all that was a crotch full of codswallop.  No Tamil was exiled.  That riot in July 1983, was a God’s send for the Tamils when all the floodgates of the west were opened for them.  Let us get this right Mayor Brown.

It was luck of the draw. Anyone who could afford to buy an airplane ticket took off to a western country, thumbing their noses at their Motherland, India.  They got into the plane with a legitimate passport and when they landed, it was a case of using the magic words A-B-R-A-C-A-D-A-B-R-A and  swaying the  magic wand over the passport and it disappeared and when they landed there were no official document and they applied for refugee status.  They were lucky as 85% of the Tamils who landed didn’t have a snowball chance in hell to get into Canada if they had applied to immigrate on the point system.

But, here is what is interesting Mayor Brown.  All these Tamil Convention refugees who by right shouldn’t be returning to the country  they ran away  from because  of persecution,  but all who saved enough Canadian dollars to buy a return ticket to Sri Lanka, by every October, November and December find that their parents were dying of cancer  and go to the Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa, with a telegram from home saying, Father or Mother dying of cancer, come home immediately” wanting a travel document to go home.  What is interesting is that it is only the Tamil parents die from Cancer during the holiday months of  October, November and December, and praise the Lord, the Sinhalese, Muslim and Burgher parents are lucky not to be victims to cancer in October, November  and December every year.

Paul Kaihla, Senior Writer for  Maclean’s (April 29, 1996) says, According to Consular Section of the Sri Lanka High Commission, more than 8,600 Sri Lankans with refugee claims pending in Canada applied for travel documents to visit Sri Lanka in 1992.  The following year was 5,865.   If those refugee claimants feared persecution in their homeland, why were they eager to return.”    Go figure that one out Mayor Brown.  Ha! Convention Refugees, my foot.  What a farce!

The motion says – WHEREAS, the regime in control of Sri Lanka planned and executed the unspeakable atrocities committed against the Tamil people from 1958 through 2009 which included the torture, starvation and murder of more than 100,000 Tamils;

I (AW) differ from all these charges and I tell the writer that it is all heinous crap.  If he/she is counting the Tamils who are missing from the North and East, you may find them in Canada, UK, US, Norway, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia.  And if you are good at counting  from 1 to 50,000, you could find them in those countries and others.  All gone as refugees.

At least half of 100,000 are the Sinhalese that your Tamil Tigers murdered,

massacred and chopped to death, like the Dollar and Kent Farm massacres (30 November 1984);  Sacred City of Anuradhapura massacres (14 May, 1985); bomb blast at Central Telegraph Office in Colombo (7 May 1986); Kithuluthua Bus attack (17 April 1987); Aranthalawa massacre (2 June 1987); Kattankudy Muslim Mosque massacre (3 August 1990); Dehiwala Train Massacre (24 July 1996);  Massacre of Irrigation Workers in Welikanda (29 May 2006); Seenigama Bus Blast (6 January 2007). 

I tell the writer to stop painting the Tamil Tigers lily white nor to tell the

World that they were innocent Babes in the Woods, and Paragons of Virtue,   Rubbish! We were told by the UN that your Tamil Tigers were the most ruthless terrorists in the World. Not al Qaeda, not Taliban, and it were the Tamil Tigers who won the trophy for the Best Killers in Terrorism –  the Blood Soaked Red Marble Cake.  So let’s stop spewing this crap, writer, whoever you are.

Mayor Brown, here is the incident  that will punch a deep hole and dissipate yours and your Councillors claim that there was indeed  ‘Genocide’ of  the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

One would have expected that the 295,873 Tamil refugees who were used as a Human Shield for 30 months by the Tamil Tigers and rescued from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers  by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces would have been easy fodder for an act of Genocide.

But, absolutely, nothing of such killings by the armed forces happened.  No doubt you and your Councillors may be surprised.

These 295,873 Tamil refugees were housed in temporary camps and were

sustained by three hearty meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and a million meals a day were prepared to feed them.  It was a laboratory performing  Human Rights.   And it were the Sinhalese and Government soldiers who were involved in preparing a million meals a day, did it with smiles on their faces.   Are you surprised?   You are lobster-pink with embarrassment, aren’t you?

City of Brampton recognises May 18 as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day” you say.  And I say,  Tamil Genocide, my foot!

Your story of ‘Genocide’ is tosh..is a lie… is Tamil Blarney…is not worth two prairie straws swaying in the wind, nor two dead capelin found  on the shores of Middle Cove in Newfoundland.

 Did I not tell you that There’s a Sucker born every minute.” 

All of you should go and look at yourselves in the Mirror.

THE CHALLENGE TO MAYOR OF BRAMPTON,  PATRICK BROWN

WHEREAS you as the Mayor of Brampton, Ontario, who with your Councillors voted unanimously to declare 18 May, 2019,  as the Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day”,  I, Asoka Weerasinghe of Ottawa,  challenge you for a debate, that your premise is a lie, as that Tamil Genocide in Sri Lanka never took place.

The venue to be at the Brampton City Hall Chamber, the day and time to be specified by you.  The  Moderator of the Debate to be mutually agreed upon by us.

WHEREAS, if Patrick Brown, Mayor of Brampton needs an incentive for this

debate, I, Asoka Weerasinghe of Ottawa is agreeable to provide 30 seconds after the debate for all the Brampton City Councillors to stand 20 feet in front of me to pelt me with rotten eggs and tomatoes, accompanied by a chorus of Boos” from your Bramptonian separatist Tamil friends.

 I will submit to this incentive only if I am allowed to wear a helmet as I will not trust any of your Councillors, who might want to replace a poultry egg with a lapidary egg of a rock.”

Let’s do it Mayor Patrick Brown.  I have followed your bitterness towards my beautiful Motherland, Sri Lanka, that nurtured me during the first 19- formative years of my life, and I am still romancing her.  I want to get it off my chest. The bottom line is, no one, absolutely no one is going to hurt my Motherland unfairly.  And that is  a No,No.  And that’s the bottom line.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

Buddhists of Bangladesh are descendants of the earliest Buddhists of the Indian subcontinent and inherit the illustrious Buddhist culture and civilization of ancient India. Buddhism thrived in the greater Bengal region of northeast India from the early 3^rd century BCE until the 12^th century CE, making the region the last stronghold of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent. In the 5^th century CE, or more than 1500 years ago, Fa Hsien the famous Chinese pilgrim visited this region (Tamralipti-West Bengal), and reported on the many well-established Buddhist monasteries in Bengal. In the 7th century CE, Huen-Tsang visited Bengal and reported on the several thousands of Buddhist monks and many hundreds of Buddhist monasteries, some being outstanding seats of learning.

THE PALA BUDDHIST DYNASTY

Between 750 CE and 1150 CE, Buddhist civilization reached the pinnacle in the history of Bengal under the guidance of Pala Kings who were devout Buddhists. The Pala Buddhist Empire ushered in a period of stability and prosperity in Bengal. This was the first independent Buddhist dynasty of Bengal. Many temples, monasteries and places of learning equal to universities were built during this time. The Pala Empire can be considered as the golden era of Bengal. Never had the Bengali people reached such heights of power and glory. It was during the Pala period that Bengal became the main centre of Buddhist as well as secular learning in Bengal with the establishment of some of the most ancient universities of the world – Universities such as Vikramshila, Jagadala, Somapura Mahavihara, Shalban, Paharpur, Vickrampuri Mahavihara, and Pandit Vihara, flourished under the patronage of the Pala kings. Palas were responsible for the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, Bhutan and Myanmar.

In 1125 CE, the Sena dynasty who were Hindus invaded and ousted the Pala dynasty which led to the decline of the former Buddhist supremacy in Bengal.  

Buddhists were harassed and killed by the armies of the Sena rulers. Some Sena rulers were instrumental in forcing Buddhists to convert to caste-based Hinduism. Buddhism was subject to serious decline during this period.  Buddhist shrines and places of learning including the universities were neglected.

MUSLIM INVASION AND ATROCITIES

In the 13^th century, Muslim invaders under the leadership of Ikhtiar Uddin Muhammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, defeated the Sena king Lakshman Sena and established Muslim rule in the entire Bengal region. Muslim rule led to widespread harassment and violence against Hindus and Buddhists, and extensive destruction of Buddhist shrines, monasteries and places of learning. Many Buddhist monks were killed and violent means were used to forcibly convert Buddhists and Hindus to Islam. Most Buddhists who survived this onslaught moved to the Chittagong Hill Tract areas in order to escape harassment and violence. This resulted in the general concentration of Buddhists in the Chittagong Hill Tract areas. 

BRITISH RULE AND DIVISION OF BENGAL

In the 17^th century and towards the latter half of the 18^th century, the British East India Company was encroaching Bengal and were in control of most of the Bengal region. In late 1760, the British East-India Company established their rule in Bangladesh. The Buddhists who were largely concentrated in the Chittagong Hill Tract areas were severely affected by the ‘Great famine in Bengal’ in the 1769-70 period which killed nearly 10 million people among whom were many Buddhists.

The Indian Mutiny of 1857 replaced rule by the British East India Company with the direct control of Bengal by the British government. Known as one of the most active provinces in freedom fighting”, Bengal was divided by the British in 1905, for administrative purposes. This resulted in an overwhelmingly Hindu west including present-day Bihar and Orissa and a predominantly Muslim east including Assam, which included the Buddhist occupied Chittagong Hill Tract region. Hindu Bengalese disagreed with the partition saying that it will divide Bengal which is united by language and history. But the Muslims supported partition. In 1912, owing to strong Hindu agitation, the British reunited East and West Bengal. However, Bengal was subject to partition again in 1947. Bengal split into the state of West Bengal of India and a Muslim region of East Bengal under Pakistan, renamed East Pakistan in 1958. East Pakistan later rebelled against Pakistani military rule to become in 1971, the independent Republic of Bangladesh.                                                                                            

BUDDHISTS OF BANGLADESH

Buddhists flourished during the Pala kingdom as the predominant Bengalese population with a highly advanced culture and civilization. The Chittagong Hill Tracts functioned as an independent region dominated by Buddhists until the British period. The Buddhists of the Chittagong region are popularly known as Jumma people or Jumma Buddhists. They form four small indigenous Buddhist communities: Chakma, Marma, Tanchyangya and Chak. Anthropologically they are all Mongolian origin and a peace-loving farming community. Their numbers dwindled substantially during the Sena and British periods of rule and thereafter with the establishment of East Pakistan and Bangladesh. In the present Bangladesh, Buddhists are confined to the south-east part of the country or the Chittagong Hill Tract which is also known as Jumma or Hill. The Chittagong Hill Tracts covers areas comprising the Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts of Bangladesh and is flanked by two international borders – on the southeast by Myanmar and on the north by India.

                                                                                                                  AGGRESSION AGAINST BUDDHISTS

Successive Muslim rulers of the former East Pakistan and later Bangladesh were instrumental in undermining and discriminating against the Jumma Buddhist community in the Chittagong Hill Tract. They imposed a tyrannical rule upon these people. Between 1957 and 1963, the then Pakistan government overlooking the opinions and objections of the Jumma Buddhists,  built a massive hydroelectric dam and reservoir in the Chittagong Hill Tract region. The dam and reservoir flooded 54,000 acres of productive farm lands of Jumma Buddhists and resulted in the loss of a further 40% of land belonging to Jumma Buddhist farmers. About 100,000 Jumma Buddhists were adversely affected by this so-called development project. About 40,000 of them had to be moved out of their traditional land as a result of this hydro dam project. Some of these people moved to India and are now living in Arunachal. 

VIOLENT ENCROACHMENT OF LAND OF BUDDHISTS

According to Jumma Buddhists, successive governments of Bangladesh were engaged in implementing a policy of ethnic cleansing to eradicate the indigenous Jumma Buddhists. Among the most horrendous acts against Jumma Buddhists in the Chittagong Hill Tract region, was the settling of more than 400,000 Muslims from other areas in ancestral lands of the Jumma Buddhist community. This encroachment of land owned and occupied by Buddhists is said to be continuing a rapid scale even in recent years. This has created a highly volatile situation resulting in constant clashes between the two groups of people. In addition, more than 100,000 military and paramilitary personnel have been stationed in the Chittagong Hill Tract making life insecure and miserable for the Jumma Buddhist community. The region today is crime prone, characterized by arson, killing, rape, land grabbing, and destruction of Buddhist temples, extra-judicial arrest and detentions. Between 1986 to1989 more than 70,000 Jumma Buddhists have fled Bangladesh and sought refuge in the Tripura state of India.

ARMED STRUGGLE AND PEACE ACCORD

Violence centering on land issues has been going on in this region since 1978, especially since the settling government, of Muslim people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts land traditionally owned by Buddhists. Many Buddhists were harassed and were forced to leave their traditional land.  Owing to continued harassment the Buddhists collectively protested and launched an armed struggle during the early 1980s, demanding full autonomy for the Chittagong Hill Tracts. This continued for two decades and an Accord was signed between the Jumma People’s political party of the Buddhists and Bangladesh government in December 1997, to withdraw the new settlers and the military from Chittagong Hill Tract. Expecting a peaceful situation following the Peace Accord, many indigenous people who had fled to refugee camps in India during times of violence, started returning home, only to find their land encroached upon by Muslims. The Buddhists allege that the Accord was not respected by the government.

                                                                                                                      BUDDHIST RIGHTS VIOLATED BY MUSLIMS

Thousands of Jumma Buddhist families who were displaced owing to violence have not been resettled, and the number of poverty-stricken Jumma refugees have increased substantially. Among them are thousands of children who are deprived of their education. Human Rights abuses continue to occur with the military resorting to violence against Buddhists. On 20th April 1999, the military and Muslim settlers attacked the Jumma Buddhists at Babuchara bazaar killing and wounding many Jumma Buddhists. In recent years Muslim extremism and violent tendencies have intensified. According to a Congressional Research Service Report of 2008,  authorities in Bangladesh have expressed concern about the use of madrasas or Islamic religious schools by a network of Islamic activists who were interrogated in connection with several attempted and successful bombing attacks across the country. Several madrasa students were detained in connection with such  investigations (CRS Report January 2008).

In the early part of 2010, the Chittagong Hill Tracts region was rocked by violence, flaring up decades old ethnic-religious tensions, as Muslim settlers set fire to hundreds of homes of indigenous Buddhists resulting in many deaths and many injuries. Thousands of Buddhists have been left homeless. These attacks were meant to forcibly grab land and properties of Buddhists. This violence was committed in the presence of law enforcement officers including soldiers who were Muslims. According to Jumma people, Muslim military personnel have been involved in gross human rights violations with impunity, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts for many years. Many indigenous Buddhist people of affected villages continue to live in hiding, in dense forests and some have abandoned their ancestral land and had moved to other villages and are leading desperate lives. Since 1980 there have been 14 major instances of massacre of thousands of Jumma people by the illegal Bengali Muslim settlers and in co-operation with the law enforce agencies of Bangladesh. Many Buddhists have experienced persecution because of their faith including unwarranted arrest, imprisonment, beating, torture, execution, and also including  confiscation or destruction of property, or the incitement of hatred towards Buddhists.

A Press Release on March 08, 2010, by the CHT-American Jumma People’s Association of the Indigenous Jumma People’s Network, USA, strongly condemns the continuous atrocities and arson to which the indigenous Jumma Buddhist people in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) have been subject to and the illegal Bengali Muslim settlers backed by Bangladesh army personnel who had burnt down houses and public buildings. 

More than 80,000 Jummas have fled across the border to India. Villages have been burnt down completely (www.jpnuk.org.uk, www.achrweb.org).  What these attacks on the indigenous Jumma people reveal is the fact that the government of Bangladesh has failed to change its policy of indiscriminate killings of indigenous Jumma people in order to occupy their lands and implant more illegal plain settlers instead of implementing the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord of 1997.

In September 2012, there was a series of attacks by Muslims, on Buddhists and Buddhist sites in Bangladesh. This was referred to as the Ramu Violence, which involved a series of attacks on Buddhists and destruction of many Buddhist shrines, monasteries, and houses of Buddhist inhabitants in the Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong Districts of Bangladesh by local Muslim mobs. An estimated 25,000 Muslims participated in the violence directed at Buddhists. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the anti-Buddhist violence.

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

මීගමුව රෝහලේ මා නාරි හා ප්‍රසව ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී ලෙස සේවය කල සමයේදී ගර්භිනී මුස්ලිම් මවක් පැමිනියේ කුස තුල සිටින දරුවා දැඟලීමක් නොකරන බව කියමිනි. ඇය පැවසූ අන්දමට පුරා දින තුනක් පමණ දැඟලීම සිදුවී නැත. අප  දරුවාගේ හෘධ ස්පන්ධනයට සවන් දීමට පිනාඩය මවගේ කුසට තබා බැළුවෙමු. නමුත් ශබ්දයක් නැත. දරුවාගේ හෘධ ස්පන්ධනය ඉලෙක්ට්‍රොනිකව සටහන් කරන සීටීජී යන්ත්‍රය මගින් කියවීමක් ලබා ගත්තෙමු. එය අනුවද දරුවාගේ හෘධ ස්පන්ධන නොමැත. මේ අනුව කුස තුල සිටින දරුවා මිය ගොසිනි. කළ යුත්තේ ස්වභාවික ගබ්සාවක් වන තුරු කාන්තාව වාට්ටුවේ තබාගැනීම හෝ ශ්‍යල්‍යකර්මයක් මගින් මළ දරුවා ඉවත් කිරීමය. 

මුස්ලිම් කාන්තාව වාට්ටුවට ඇතුලත් කිරීමෙන් පසු ඇයට ඇඳක් දෙන ලදි. ඇය විවේක ගත්තාය. කුස තුල සිටින දරුවා මිය ගොස් බව ඇය  තේරුම් ගත්තාය.  නමුත් දුක හා පශ්චාත්තාපය ඇය එලි පිට නොපෙන්නුවාය. නමුත් සන්තාපය ඇයගේ දෙනෙත් වලින්  දැකිය හැකි විය. 

කරන ලද මූලික පරීක්‍ෂන වලින් සහ සීටීජී පටියෙන් සෑහිමකට පත් නොවූ මා  භ්‍රෑණයාගේ හෘධ ස්පන්ධනයට සවන් දිය හැකි පිනාඩය  යළිත් වරක් ඇයගේ කුස මත තබා සවන් දුන්නෙමි. ගර්භණී කාන්තාවගේ කුසේ විවිධ පැති වලට පිනාඩය තැබුවද කිසිදු ශබ්දයක් නොමැත. උත්සහය අතහැර දැමීමට පෙර අවසන් වතාවට මගේ දකුණු කන දකුණු අතේ දබර ඇඟිල්ලෙන් වසාගෙන වම් කන පිනාඩයට තබා කුසට සවන් දුන්නෙමි. ඉතා දුර්වළ සහ රිද්මයකින් තොර භ්‍රෑණ හෘධ හඞක් මට ඇසුනි. 

වහාම කාන්තාව සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්මයකට සූදානම් කරන ලෙසට මම හෙද නිලධාරිනී ගුණපාල මියට පැවසුවෙමි. ඉන්පසු සීමාවාසික වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී චන්දන චඳ්‍රසේකරට රෝගියා වෙනුවෙන් ලේ සූදානම් කොට ඉතා ඉක්මනින් ඇය ශල්‍යගාරයට ගෙන එන ලෙස පවසා පවනට බඳු වේගයෙන් ශල්‍යගාරයට දිව ගියෙමි. 

ශල්‍යගාරයේ ශල්‍ය  ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී ලිලිත් ප්‍රසන්න ලියනගේ හර්නියා ශල්‍යකර්මයක් කරමින් සිටියේය. මාගේ අවශ්‍යතාවය තේරුම්ගත් ලිලිත් හැකි ඉක්මනින් ශල්‍යකර්මය අවසන් කොට මට ශල්‍යාගාරය නිදහස් කොට දුන්නේය. කාන්තාව ශල්‍යාගාරයට ගෙන ඒමෙන් පසු මම ඉක්මනට සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම ආරම්භ කලෙමි. මවට නිර්වින්දනය දෙනු ලැබුවේ වෛද්‍ය ගෝවින්ද රාජාය . සීමාවාසික වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී චන්දන චඳ්‍රසේකර මගේ සහයකයා විය. 

සීසර් ශල්‍යකර්ම කරන අතරතුර ළමා වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරියාට ඉක්මනට ශල්‍යාගාරයට එන ලෙසට පණිවිඩයක් යවන ලෙසට ශල්‍යාගාර හෙදි ඩිනාලිට කීවෙමි. ඩිනාලිගේ දුරකථන පණිවිඩයට ළමා වෛද්‍යවරියද පැමිණියාය

කාන්තාවගේ ගර්භාශය සැතෙන් කපා ළදරුවා මම එලියට ගත්තෙමි. ඔහු පිරිමි දරුවෙකි. මිකෝනියම් හෙවත් භ්‍රෑණ බහිස්‍රාවිය ද්‍රව්‍ය වලින් නැහැවී සිටි ළදරුවා අසීරුවෙන් හුස්ම ගත්තේය. ඔහුගේ ස්වාසනාලයට මිකෝනියම් ඇතුළු වී තිබුනේය.  ළමා වෛද්‍යවරිය ළදරුවාට ස්වසනය කිරීම පහසු කරනු වස් ළමා කූපිකාවක් ස්ථාපිත කළාය ඉන් පසු ළදරුවා ඉන්කුබේටරය වෙත ගෙන යන ලදි. මම සීසර්  ශල්‍යකර්මයේ අවසන් අදියරයට පැමිනෙමින් සිටියෙමි. 

ශල්‍යකර්මය අවසන් කිරීමෙන් පසුව ඇයව වාට්ටුවට ගෙන යන ලදි.  නමුත් ළදරුවාව ළමා වාට්ටුවේ සතියක් පමණ තබාගෙන ප්‍රතිකාර  කරන ලදි. අවසානයේදී මවත් ළදරුවාත් නීරෝගීව රෝහලෙන් පිටව ගියෝය.අපගේ ක්‍ෂනික ක්‍රියාමාර්ගය නිසා ළදරුවාගේ ජීවිතය බේරිණි.

දැන් මෙම සිද්ධිය වී වසර 18 පමණ ගතවී තිබේ.මා අද ලංකාවේ නැත.  නිර්වින්දන වෛද්‍ය ගෝවින්ද රාජා ගම්පහ රෝහලේ සේවය කරයි. එදා මගේ සහයකයාව සිටි සීමාවාසික වෛද්‍ය නිලධාරී චන්දන චඳ්‍රසේකර අද ජීවත් වන්නේ ඕස්ටෙ‍්‍රලියාවේය. මෙම මුස්ලිම් මාතාව සහ පුතා මීගමුව අවට ප්‍රදේශයක ජීවත් වනවා ඇත. සිංහල වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුත් ද්‍රවිඩ නිර්වින්දන වෛද්‍යවරයෙකුත් ඔහුගේ දිවි ගලවා දුන් බව මෙම මුස්ලිම් තරුණයා බොහෝ විට නොදන්නවා විය හැකිය. 

එදා සහජීවනයෙන් සිටි සිංහල සහ මුස්ලිම් ජනයා ආගමික අන්තවාදය නිසා ඈත් වෙමින් සිටිති. සැකය වෛරය ලියලමින් පවතී. මුහුණු පොත් වල වීරයන් එකිනෙකාට තර්ජනය කර ගනිති. අපහාස කරති. අප සිටින්නේ තවත් ආගමික සහ වර්ගවාදී ගැටුමක් ආසන්නයෙනි. ආගමික අන්තවාදයන් නිසා එකිනෙකා මරා දැමීමට කඩු මුවහත් කරන ලෝකයක මෙම සත්‍ය කතාව වසර 18 පසු මම පවසමි. 

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

BY JOHN HANNAH | MAY 3, 2019, 7:03 PM Courtesy foreignpolicy.com

Trump should not waste his opportunity to begin repairing Wahhabism’s trail of wreckage.

Here’s a sobering fact: Even after the destruction of the Islamic State’s territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria, there are today more jihadis fighting in more countries than there were on Sept. 11, 2001. The horrific Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka last month are simply exhibit A. The harsh reality is that despite the United States’ important successes in killing terrorists on the battlefield and preventing another 9/11-scale attack, the problem of radical Islamist terrorism is not shrinking. On the contrary, it has steadily morphed and metastasized. After nearly 18 years, and enormous expenditures and loss of life, the United States still has no proven strategy for reducing the number of young Muslims around the world susceptible to jihadism.

It’s been clear to U.S. policymakers for years that hard power alone—military action to kill terrorists and disrupt terrorist plots—is not by itself a winning formula. While necessary for long-term success, hard power on its own is simply insufficient. Also essential is a strategy for combating the extremist ideology that serves as the central building block of jihadism—the totalitarian, intolerant, ultraconservative interpretations of Islam that systematically dehumanize all those holding different beliefs, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Killing terrorists has proven a relatively straightforward task. Killing the state of mind—the idea that helps radicalize and then, in far too many instances, weaponize young Muslims to kill nonbelievers—has been a vastly more difficult undertaking.Trending Articles

Since 9/11, successive U.S. presidents have acknowledged the centrality of the ideological war. President George W. Bush spoke about the importance of the battle of ideas and the need to win hearts and minds among pious Muslims. President Barack Obama called it countering violent extremism. President Donald Trump (though too often guilty of incendiary and counterproductive language that impugned all Muslims) made the struggle against radical Islamism a signature of his presidential campaign. As president, he promised to combat the violent, extreme, and twisted ideologies that purport to justify the murder of innocent victims.” His first national security advisor, Michael Flynn, wrote extensively about the need to wag[e] an ideological war against radical Islam.” On his first foreign trip as president, Trump went to Saudi Arabia, the beating heart of Wahhabism—the harsh, absolutist religious creed that helped seed the worldviews of al Qaeda and the Islamic State—and publicly demanded that the Saudis and other leaders of Muslim-majority countries Drive [the extremists] out. Drive them out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities. Drive them out of your holy land, and drive them out of this earth.”

Important and necessary words, for sure. But by themselves, just words. Yes, each of the post-9/11 U.S. administrations made earnest attempts to establish policies and programs to weaken and undermine terrorist ideologies. But as the number of recruits signing up for jihadism’s global insurgency has steadily expanded, the inadequacy of these efforts is apparent. By nearly all accounts, the U.S. approach has been a jumble: disjointed, inconsistent, underfunded, and lacking leadership, coordination, and sustained high-level political support. Though accurate reporting is extremely hard to come by, there’s no doubt that U.S. spending to combat the ideology of Islamist extremism has made up but a tiny fraction of what’s been spent on the broader fight against terrorism—1 or 2 percent would be a generous estimate. In a speech in 2018, Lt. Gen. Michael Nagata, the senior official in charge of strategic planning at the National Counterterrorism Center, stressed that the resources devoted to fighting components of terrorism on and off the battlefield were badly out of balance. In a 2019 studycommissioned by the Department of Homeland Security, the Rand Corp. pointed to a conclusion about U.S. efforts to prevent domestic terrorism that applies equally well to its counterextremism efforts worldwide: more talk than action.”

One important example concerns what Trump discussed in Riyadh back in 2017: the need for America’s Muslim partners to take the lead in defeating the ideology of Islamist extremism. Or more importantly, the need for a handful of states, first and foremost Saudi Arabia, to get out of the business of exporting supremacist versions of the faith around the world. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find Trump ever speaking publicly about the issue again. Instead, his demands of the Saudis rapidly shifted to shorter-term, more transactional issues like buying ever-greater quantities of U.S. weapons, keeping oil prices low, and supporting what in all likelihood will be a stillborn plan for Middle East peace. Holding the kingdom’s feet to the fire when it comes to unraveling the catastrophic damage that Wahhabism’s export has systematically inflicted on Muslim communities globally for at least two generations—the ideological tinder, if you will, for the jihadi fire that the United States has been battling for 20 years—has largely fallen by the wayside as a U.S. priority.

That’s particularly unfortunate, because Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has himself claimed since late 2017 that Riyadh is now determined to destroy the extremist ideology that it did so much, for so long, to promote. To the crown prince’s credit, it hasn’t all been lip service. At home, he’s reeled in the kingdom’s once all-powerful religious police and locked up some extremist clerics. Abroad, the Muslim World League, once the tip of the Saudi spear for exporting Wahhabism, recently surrendered its lease to the Grand Mosque of Brussels after Belgian authorities charged it with propagating extremism. And the league’s head, Mohammed al-Issa, a cleric and former justice minister, has made a series of remarkable statements in what appears to be a sincere one-man campaign to promote moderation—including condemning Holocaust denial, promising to visit Auschwitz, and telling Muslim minority communities to embrace the nations they live in,” strictly obey national laws, and positively integrate into society. In direct contravention of decades of Wahhabi proselytizing, Issa recently wrote, It makes no sense to separate Muslim children and youth from the rest of society or to cloister them away in Islamic private schools.”

But Wahhabism’s trail of wreckage runs deep and wide. It will take much more than a few op-eds by a single Saudi cleric to make a dent in the damage that’s been done. Last month, two potent reminders were on vivid display. In the run-up to Indonesia’s national elections, several reports detailed the troubling expansion of Saudi-backed Wahhabism in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, which is shifting its politics rightward and dangerously degrading longstanding national traditions of pluralism and tolerance. And in the aftermath of the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, articleafter article described the inroads that Wahhabism had made over decades, generating serious fractures within Sri Lanka’s Muslim community and establishing a fertile breeding ground for the kind of violent extremists who perpetrated the bombings.

Importantly, over the past several months, a small band of U.S. officials within the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau and the National Security Council’s counterterrorism directorate have sought to refocus U.S. policy on combating extremist proselytization by foreign states—starting with the Saudis, but also including the troubling activities of countries including Qatar, Turkey, and Iran. As I learned in recent conversations, the issue has become a regular item on their agenda for discussions with counterterrorism colleagues from Europe and Canada that constitute a forum referred to as the like-minded group.” Greater information-sharing about the export of Islamic radicalism by the Saudis and others is being encouraged, as is the development of common diplomatic approaches to combat it. U.S. counterterrorism officials have also begun the process of directly engaging the Saudis on the issue—in particular by asking them to take action against a handful of individuals in countries outside the Middle East, mostly extremist preachers, who are believed to be operating with some degree of Saudi backing.

But relegating such a critical effort to narrow counterterrorism channels would be woefully inadequate to the scope of the challenge. The failure to prioritize the ideological war has been the perennial Achilles’ heel of U.S. strategy. A talking point on ending the export of extremism needs to be a standard feature, not simply of intermittent counterterrorism exchanges among midlevel officials, but of every U.S. diplomatic interaction with the Saudis, starting with the president and extending downward through his cabinet across the entire U.S. government. An even better mark of seriousness would be for Trump to put Mohammed bin Salman’s bona fides to the test by establishing a high-level U.S.-Saudi working group to put into practice the crown prince’s professed commitment to moderation. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, with his long-standing interest in issues surrounding religious freedom, could be designated to co-chair such an effort alongside Mohammed bin Salman—ensuring that both sides had the stature to mobilize all elements of their governments and hold them accountable for results.

Getting serious about stopping the export of extremism means making it an intelligence priority as well. Remarkably, if Trump were to ask the vast U.S. intelligence community to provide him with a comprehensive list of all Saudi-affiliated mosques, schools, madrassas, universities, and community centers around the world, he’d largely be met with blank stares. Ditto if he wanted a list of radical preachers worldwide who were on the Saudi payroll. Or a chart showing how many versions of the Quran containing hate-filled Wahhabi commentaries were still being exported around the world by Saudi publishing houses. Even more worrisome is that the same gap in granular knowledge almost certainly extends to Saudi-related proselytization within the United States as well. Nearly eighteen years after 15 of the kingdom’s nationals helped perpetrate the murder of nearly 3,000 people on U.S. soil, the lack of the kind of hard data that U.S. diplomats could use to confront the Saudis, hold them to account, and measure progress over time is almost inexcusable.Nearly eighteen years after 15 of the kingdom’s nationals helped perpetrate the murder of nearly 3,000 people on U.S. soil, the lack of this kind of hard data that U.S. diplomats could use to confront the Saudis, hold them to account, and measure progress over time is almost inexcusable. The same goes for the activities of other countries, especially Qatar, Turkey, and Iran.

Making the export of extremism a collection priority should also apply to the State Department. In every country with a significant Muslim population, there should be at least one political officer at the U.S. Embassy whose job responsibilities include regular reporting on foreign proselytization efforts and their impact on local communities.

By Dr. S. I. Keethaponcalan Courtesy eurasiareview.com

On April 24, 2019, three Catholic churches and three high-end hotels in Colombo were blown up leading to the death of hundreds of people including several foreign nationals. As of today, more than 250 people have been killed. The explosions also maimed hundreds more. It was later revealed that all of the attackers were suicide bombers and they were from the Sri Lankan Muslim community, the second largest minority group in the country.

The attacks inherently conveyed a number of messages. First, the terrorists wanted to kill as many people as possible. It was Easter Sunday. They knew that a large number of people attend mass on that day. The churches targeted were relatively small structures. For example, Saint Anthony’s Church was small in size compared to Saint Lucia’s Cathedral located in the same area. Presumably, they were looking for small structures with a large number of people to have a high impact.

Second, the targets were Western” in nature. According to even local perspectives, the Church and Christianity are Western inductions. They are not local.” The high-end hotels targeted, especially the Shangri-La Hotel and Kingsbury, are frequented mostly by Western visitors and tourists, although one can find Sri Lanka’s superrich in these spots. Hence, it was an attack on the West” undertaken in Sri Lanka. It is this factor that justifies the argument that it was an act of revenge for the Christchurch massacre of March 2019. Perhaps, Sri Lanka was considered a soft target.

Third, the local terrorists could not have done it without the assistance of international forces. The resources and manpower needed for an attack of this magnitude could be tremendous. Local organizations were not capable of independently mounting an attack like this. It was against this backdrop an ISIS connection was suggested. Within a couple of days, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack and celebrated the achievement.” In Sammanthurai, where many suicide bombers were located and killed, ISIS flags and other symbols were discovered. On April 29, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi himself acclaimed the Sri Lanka operation. Al-Baghdadi’s intervention put to rest any doubts about the ISIS connection to the Sri Lankan Easter Sunday massacre.

Shahran Hashim

Despite these apparent facts, many, who were directly and indirectly affected by the attack and its effects could not understand the nature of the targets and the brutality involved. Even some expert commentators claimed that they could not understand the whole tragedy. I cannot claim that I understood either. While discussing the Muslim issue” in my recent book entitled Post-war Dilemmas of Sri Lanka: Democracy and Reconciliation, I pointed out that,

The analysis indicated that tension and violence would escalate. I did not expect an attack of this magnitude. I wanted to understand more. I thought the best way to understand the barbarism demonstrated by attacking purely civilian targets was to understand the psyche and philosophy of Shahran Hashim, the alleged mastermind of the Easter Sunday massacre. I know he spoke Tamil, which he most likely treated as his home-language.” Since he was often described as a Youtuber,” I searched online for his videos. To my surprise, I could not find much. Either, social media companies have removed his videos or I was doing a wrong search.

Nevertheless, I located one video, which runs for 5.58 minutes. I was shaken by what I heard. First, I was puzzled by the question, how did we miss this? Then I was forced into a dilemma of whether to share the translation. I started to translate and transcribed intending to share with the readers. His sermon” was extraordinarily provocative and had the potential to invite violence. Hence, I decided not to publish the entire transcript. Only relevant excerpts are used for this analysis. The reason for sharing the excerpts is that the sermon contains enough warnings. Perhaps, it will help prevent future violence.

My Takeaway

I have a number of main takeaways from Shahran Hasim’s pronouncements.

1. He was right:

In his speech, Shahran promised that we would be busy picking up blown up bodies. He claimed, You will only have time to pick up your blown-up bodies. We will continue to send you to hell in large numbers.” That came true on Easter Sunday. He was not bluffing. Therefore, we should take his other assertions seriously and treat them as early warnings. This could prevent further attacks and bloodshed. We should research his other sermons and publications, if any, to develop our understanding of the philosophy and plan.

2. Civilian targets are fair game.

Some of my friends were at a loss to understand the reason why civilians were targeted. According to Shahran’s interpretation of Islam and Quran, there is no difference between civilian and military targets. He said, my brothers, do not distinguish between army, police or general kafir (infidel). They all are the same. In Islam, there are no separate laws for those who wear police uniform or military uniform. The only difference in Islam is between Muslims and kafir. You must know that the markkam (Islam) does not distinguish between military and civilians.” Therefore, from the perspective of the terrorists, non-Muslim civilian targets are entirely legitimate. If Shahran’s followers are still active, we should expect more attacks on non-Muslim civilian targets.

3. It was against the Buddhists.

Originally, Sharan’s fight was not against Christians. This is what he had to say about his jihad (holy war) against the Buddhists,

Meanwhile, we wish to say a few things to Allah’s enemies and infidels. Infidels and enemies of Allah, your destruction has started. We have counted every mosque you have destroyed, and we remember every shop you scorched. Blood of Muslims you have killed will not be wasted. Inshallah, we will avenge this. You will feel the pain of jihad, the scale of jihad, and the weight of jihad. You will see the agonizing cry of every Buddhist…We will certainly destroy those who destroyed our mosques. Even then, our knives will not be satisfied. Buddhist extremists, we will certainly come for you. We tell the Buddhist kafir who destroyed our temples and who torched our properties that we will come for you. Your police, your military and your intelligence (services) will be useless in front of Imani strength of the mujahideen.”

Perhaps, this video was made before he became a member of ISIS. Becoming a member of ISIS forced him to turn his guns against Christians and Westerners. However, there is no reason to believe that Buddhism in Sri Lanka is not a target any more. Some of the media reports connected to discoveries from terrorist hideout could also confirm this possibility. Buddhist locations, especially Buddhist places of worship should be monitored and protected, in addition to Christian churches and Hindu temples.

4. The promise of jihad.

Shahran promised to wage war in Sri Lanka. He thundered, Inshallah, soon, we will open the market of jihad in this country. You will not only hear but see the sights of thousands of our suicide bombers destroying you with a smile on their faces. Because it is the path our liberator promised….” Perhaps, it is already here, and thousands of suicide bombers are waiting with a smile on their faces. We do not know. I do not see why this cannot be the case. His promise of suicide massacre came true.

5. Anti-Muslim violence.

It is clear that the anti-Muslim riots unleashed after the end of the civil war have contributed immensely to Shahran’s anger and mobilization. He said, if they damage your mosques, destroy their vihara. If you are killed in this journey, you will definitely be a shaheed (martyr). Based on the evidence provided by the markkam, I am telling you that this is your duty. According to (Muslim) legal scholars, there is no bigger vagib (duty) than stopping the kafir…” The recent anti-Muslim violence could have also helped radicalize and mobilize other Muslims as well. Therefore, concerned parties have a responsibility to bring under control the anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence.

Courtesy The Star online

KUALA LUMPUR: The Islamic State (IS) group’s self-proclaimed caliphate” may have collapsed in the Middle East but Asia provides fertile territory for a resurrection, analysts say, as last month’s bloody Easter Sunday suicide attacks in Sri Lanka have shown.

Factors such as poverty, discrimination, radicalisation via social media, weak governance, and poor gathering and sharing of intelligence mean the region is vulnerable to attacks by extremists operating under the IS banner, even if they aren’t directly supported by the group.

IS lost the last of its Middle East territory in late March, but analysts warned that the defeat would not kill off their ideology, and just weeks later the group claimed responsibility for one of the worst militant strikes on civilians in Asia.

The current status of IS cannot be gauged without an understanding that it is a global ideological movement, not a single organisational entity,” said analyst Scott Stewart in a new report for the US geopolitical intelligence group Stratfor.The coordinated bombings on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka claimed more than 250 lives, with the government blaming a local, little-known Islamist group, National Thowheeth Jama’ath.

The country’s security agencies have faced heavy criticism for failing to act on warnings given by both its Muslim community and Indian intelligence ahead of the blasts.

Local security officials had been given ample warning,” said Stewart, adding: …there must be a serious accounting for how and why the warnings were not acted upon.”

Although two of the Sri Lanka bombers were brothers from a wealthy spice-trading family, analysts say it does not detract from the fact that poverty is often the driving force for increased militancy in other parts of Asia, including the southern Philippines.

Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said religion alone couldn’t be blamed for the long-running insurrection on Mindanao island.

It is because it is poor and neglected and sees itself as having suffered discrimination,” she said.

That is a very potent set of factors that make people look to other ideologies (such as IS) that can come in as an alternative.”

In Bangladesh and Indonesia, traditionally moderate forms of Islam have been eroded by the influence of hardliners spreading their messages online.

Bangladesh was particularly vulnerable, said Mubashar Hasan of the University of Oslo.

With increasing growth in Internet subscribers and mobile phone subscriptions, more people are connected online and the bad ideas of IS may facilitate self-radicalisation.We need to remember that in the current scenario of militancy in the age of digitisation, one bad idea by one person could be fatal,” he added.

New threats come from cells which by and large come together with little vetting, training, indoctrination, weapons or experience.

What they have in unlimited quantities is zeal and a desire for recognition,” Jones said in a recent report.

With a little imagination and better leadership, these pro-IScells could do far greater damage.” — AFP
Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2019/05/04/asia-fertile-ground-for-is-ideology/#y2gAqy08FhmG7pi9.99

Mihir Sharma Courtesy The Gulf News

Attack feeds into the Modi campaign’s ongoing efforts to exploit high-octane nationalism

It is increasingly clear that the Easter Sunday blasts in Sri Lanka could and should have been prevented. Warnings about the group responsible, their intentions and even specific attackers were delivered well in advance. Both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe have acknowledged that the information did not reach them and wasn’t acted upon.

The two men — and their respective parties — are still at loggerheads after a months-long constitutional crisis last year in which the former tried and failed to fire the latter. The president has attempted to exclude the prime minister from decisions over most national-security issues; a divided and confused Colombo establishment clearly contributed to the security breakdown.

No doubt this will become a factor in elections later this year: Former Defence Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa — whose family, led by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, dominated Sri Lankan politics till a few years ago — recently said that the government was never serious” about security and was more concerned” about reconciliation after Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war.

Fair enough. In the elections already under way in next-door India, though, the attacks are adding more fuel to an already ugly politics of patriotism and national security. And accountability is the last thing being discussed.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was swift to bring up the Sri Lanka attacks as a reason to vote for his Bharatiya Janata Party: A vote for the BJP, he said, was a vote to destroy terrorism of the sort Sri Lanka had suffered.

This feeds into the Modi campaign’s ongoing efforts to exploit high-octane nationalism. The BJP seized upon a confrontation with Pakistan in February to turn the national conversation away from its spotty economic record.

Mudslinging

Since the BJP is actually in power, though, it can’t snipe from the outside as the Rajapaksas are doing. So BJP figures have essentially resorted to calling the opposition terrorist sympathisers.

The Congress Party’s fairly detailed election manifesto could have served to open an argument on the most effective way to balance welfare and economic growth. Instead, the BJP has zeroed in on the Congress’ proposal that some particularly draconian and illiberal laws be diluted. Modi’s finance minister, who you’d think would have had plenty to say regarding the opposition’s lack of fiscal mathematics, instead focused on calling their manifesto a charter to weaken India” and an agenda for balkanising India.”

Other rhetoric has been much harsher than that to which Indians are accustomed. Modi’s right-hand man, BJP President Amit Shah, said that after an Indian air strike on Pakistan there was mourning” in just two places: Pakistan and the Congress. This is a familiar charge: Before elections in Modi’s home state of Gujarat a couple years ago, Modi accused his predecessor prime minister Manmohan Singh of a secret meeting” with Pakistani diplomats, implying that the latter were seeking to influence the election results.

It has been absurdly easy for Modi and the BJP to make security into a major, if not the primary issue in the election. Unfortunately, this heated rhetoric seems to be considered an adequate replacement for any more rational response.

India’s February air strikes into Pakistan — in retaliation for an attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy in troubled Kashmir — were seen in many quarters as influenced by electoral considerations. Crucially, there has been no accountability for the security failures that led to the convoy bombing. Kashmir is so heavily militarised that a sophisticated attack of that sort should have been prevented.

Unlike in Sri Lanka, nobody in New Delhi has taken responsibility for the original failure. It’s fine to talk about national security during a campaign. But the most important questions aren’t being asked: Why did the attack happen? Which group organised it and how did they build up their strength? How can other such attacks be prevented?

The coarseness of the current debate in India is not just a betrayal of the large part of the electorate that wants a clear discussion of bread-and-butter issues. It is frankly dangerous for national security itself. One hopes Sri Lanka will, over the next few months, have a more productive political dialogue than India has had.

— Bloomberg