{"id":115997,"date":"2021-07-11T17:02:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T00:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=115997"},"modified":"2021-07-11T17:02:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T00:02:17","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-21c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/11\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-21c\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part   21C"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The\nEelam war is not the noble war it is made out to be. It is\ntreason. Treason is considered to be &#8220;the highest of all crimes\u201d. Treason\u201d\nmeans criminal disloyalty to the state. When war is waged against the state, it\nis known as High Treason. War is considered the most serious offense that can\nbe committed against a government. The punishment for those charged with\ntreason is death or imprisonment, including life imprisonment. &nbsp;A person who commits treason is known in law\nas a traitor. Another word used\nfor traitor is Quisling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most\ncountries have laws against high treason. In the USA\nattempting to overthrow the government through waging war against the state is\nconsidered high treason. &nbsp;It carries a\nsentence of death or imprisonment, also fines. Treason trials were held during\nthe <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/American_Civil_War\">American\nCivil War<\/a>. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Britain has a separate Treason Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Vietnam,\nany Vietnamese citizen acting in collusion with a foreign country with a view\nto causing harm to the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial\nintegrity of the Fatherland, the national defense forces, the socialist regime\nor the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam shall be sentenced to capital\npunishment, life imprisonment of between twelve and twenty years of\nimprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sri\nLanka\u2019s Constitution<\/strong>&nbsp;&nbsp; prohibits\nwaging war against the state. Chapter 20 and 21 of the Constitution of Sri\nLanka (updated to 2021) says: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>157A. (1) No person shall, directly or indirectly, in or outside\nSri Lanka, support, espouse, promote, finance, encourage or advocate the\nestablishment of a separate State within the territory of Sri Lanka.<\/li><li>157A. (2) No political party or other association or organization\nshall have as one of its aims or objects the establishment of a separate State\nwithin the territory of Sri Lanka. <\/li><li>157A (4)\nWhere any political party or other association or organization has as one of\nits aims or objects the establishment of a separate State within the territory\nof Sri Lanka, any person may make an application to the Supreme Court for a\ndeclaration that such political party or other association or organization has\nas one of its aims or objects the establishment of a separate State within the\nterritory of Sri Lanka. <\/li><li>161(4) where\na Member directly or indirectly, in or outside Sri Lanka, supports, espouses,\npromotes, finances, encourages or advocates the establishment of a separate\nState within the territory of Sri Lanka, any person may make an application to\nthe Court of Appeal for a declaration that such member has directly or\nindirectly, in or outside Sri Lanka, supported, espoused, promoted, financed,\nencouraged or advocated the establishment of a separate State within the\nterritory of Sri Lanka.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Waging war\nagainst the state is a criminal offence under the <strong>Penal Code of Sri Lanka<\/strong>. Chapter VI of the Penal code deals with\n\u2018Offences against the state\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Section 114 says, Whoever wages war against the Republic, or\nattempts to wage such war, or abets the waging of such war, shall be punished\nwith death, or imprisonment of either description, which may be extended to\ntwenty years, and shall forfeit all his property.\u201d<\/li><li>Section 115 says Whoever conspires to deprive the People of the\nRepublic of Sri Lanka of their Sovereignty in Sri Lanka or any part thereof, or\nconspires to overawe, by means of criminal force, any of the organs of\nGovernment, shall be punished with imprisonment and shall also be liable to a\nfine.\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>LTTE\ncommitted high treason in the Eelam Wars. LTTE took arms against a sovereign\nstate. &nbsp;They conducted a protracted civil\nwar, lasting over 30 years. Such treason would lead to severe punishment in any\nother country, said. Rohan Gunaratne . Analysts\nobserved that elsewhere in the world, High Treason is punishable by death. Also\n&nbsp;nowhere in the world would &nbsp;&nbsp;a group like the LTTE, be allowed to&nbsp; &nbsp;hold\nregular memorial services and erect monuments &nbsp;as they are doing today in Jaffna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ncall for Eelam&nbsp; is also a treasonable\nactivity said critics. Ven. Keppetiyagoda Siriwimala of Rajopawanaramaya, Getambe,\nPeradeniya, said&nbsp;&nbsp; C.V.Wigneswaran,\nformer Supreme Court judge, should be arrested for calling for a separate\ngovernment for the North and East. (2016) Jayantha Gunasekera said any call for separation should be\ncause for high treason with penal sanctions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;In addition to Treason, there is also the\ncharge of Sedition. Sedition is defined as &#8220;conduct or speech inciting\npeople to rebel against the authority of the state.&#8221; Any attempt to&nbsp;&nbsp; conduct civil war, arm citizens against any\nother part of the country, is Sedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Sedition is limited to the offense of\norganizing or encouraging opposition to government through speech and writing.\nThe publication of seditious writing (seditious libel\u201d) or the utterance of\nseditious speech (seditious words\u201d) are considered crimes.&nbsp; Today , even the display of a flag of separatist\nmovement is also considered sedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is now\na call in Sri Lanka for a law against \u2018sedition\u2019. There is no such law against\nsedition at present. The government should pass a sedition act to charge and\nprosecute anyone supporting separatism&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\nsaid Rohan Gunaratne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must introduce\na new \u2018Sedition Act\u2019, said K Godage. It is also absolutely important to have a\nSedition Act. Malaysia and Singapore have Sedition Acts.Any\nword or action which is deemed to encourage Separatism must be made a criminal\noffence and any political party deemed to support Separatism should be banned. The\nencouragement of Seditious tendencies must be made punishable with a minimum of\nten years rigorous imprisonment, Godage said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1976,TUF\nleader A Amirthalingam, together with other leading Tamil politicians <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/M._Sivasithamparam\">M.\nSivasithamparam<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/V._N._Navaratnam\">V. N. Navaratnam<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/K._P._Ratnam\">K. P. Ratnam<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/K._Thurairatnam\">K.\nThurairatnam<\/a> were&nbsp; distributing leaflets &nbsp;&nbsp;in Jaffna giving the Vaddukoddai Resolution\npassed by the &nbsp;&nbsp;TULF in that year&nbsp; and saying that&nbsp; they intended to work towards a separate\nstate. They were arrested under the Emergency Regulations, taken to Colombo and\ntried for <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sedition\">sedition<\/a>. At the trial at bar case 72 Tamil lawyers including\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/S._J._V._Chelvanayakam\">S. J. V.\nChelvanayakam<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/G._G._Ponnambalam\">G. G. Ponnambalam<\/a> spoke for\nthe defence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The action\nwas of course, clearly seditious, therefore the defence focused on a \u2018point of law\u2019,\nthe way the Emergency was proclaimed. The Tamil lawyers also&nbsp;&nbsp; used the opportunity, to make a case for\nTamil self determination. The High Court at Bar, on September 10, 1976, upheld the\nobjection of the defence on the validity of the Emergency Regulations. Appapillai\nAmirthalingam, the Secretary General of TULF, was discharged of charges of\npossessing and distributing seditious literature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The State challenged this decision before the Supreme Court. Attorney\nGeneral Siva Pasupati appealed for a revision of the High Court-at-Bar order in\nthe case against Amirthalingam. On December 10, 1976, the five-judge Bench, by\na unanimous verdict, held that the proclamation of the state of Emergency was\nvalid. Soon after the Attorney General announced that the Government will not\nbe preceding the case against the four ITAK leaders relating to the possession\nand distribution of seditious literature. (High Court Trial-at-Bar No. 1 of\n1976, S.C. Application No.658 of 1976 and S.C. Application No. 650 of 1976) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nallaratnam Singarasa\nwas convicted by the High Court on five charges that he, between 1 May 1990 and\n31 December 1991 together with LTTE leaders like Sornam and Pottu Amman,\nconspired to overthrow the lawfully elected government and attacked Army camps\nin Jaffna Fort, Palaly and Kankesanthurai. The charges against him had been\nbrought under the Emergency Regulations and the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He\nwas sentenced to 50 years rigorous imprisonment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Singarasa\nappealed against his conviction to the Court of Appeal, which dismissed his\ncase on 6 July 1999, but they reduced his sentence to 35 years RI. Singarasa\nthen sought special leave to appeal from the judgment of the Court of Appeal. A\nBench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justices Mark Fernando,\nWadugodapitiya, and Wijetunga refused special leave to appeal on 28 January\n2000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Sinharaja then went to UNHRC in Geneva,\nobtained support for his case and returned to Supreme Court, where his appeal\nwas once again rejected. In doing so, Supreme Court was rejecting both\nSinharasa\u2019s defense and also the advice sent to them from UNHRC &nbsp;on how to look at this case. Sinharasa was a\ntest case for the Tamil Separatist Movement. (Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KAMALIKA PIERIS The Eelam war is not the noble war it is made out to be. It is treason. Treason is considered to be &#8220;the highest of all crimes\u201d. Treason\u201d means criminal disloyalty to the state. When war is waged against the state, it is known as High Treason. War is considered the most serious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}