{"id":43001,"date":"2015-04-09T23:23:48","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T05:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=43001"},"modified":"2015-04-09T15:47:27","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T22:47:27","slug":"arming-terrorists-ii-india-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/04\/09\/arming-terrorists-ii-india-responds\/","title":{"rendered":"Arming Terrorists \u2013 II: India responds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

First Secretary (Political) & Head of Chancery High Commission of India Gaurav Ahluwalia has issued the following statement in response to our editorial on April 2, 2015.<\/p>\n

“I am constrained to write this letter in response to your far-fetched editorial titled Arming Terrorists – II<\/em> that appeared in your esteemed newspaper on 2 April 2015.<\/p>\n

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  1. The editorial digresses from the main issue of discussion and mischievously draws in India and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    1. The references to India and IPKF in the editorial and remarks thereof are indeed unfortunate and totally uncalled for. These remarks are untenable and we reject them in their entirety.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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      1. Any rational person who has knowledge of India-Sri Lanka relations would be well aware of the fact the IPKF was deployed at the invitation of Government of Sri Lanka. IPKF was withdrawn when Government of Sri Lanka informed Government of India that IPKF\u2019s services were not required.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Nearly 1200 soldiers and officers of IPKF made the supreme sacrifice for the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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          1. The attempt to pin the blame for the decades of violence in Sri Lanka on India is condemnable and a gross distortion of facts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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            1. India and Sri Lanka enjoy friendly relations from time immemorial. They have stood the test of time and have grown stronger in recent times. The high level visits from both sides this year have opened new vistas of cooperation for the future.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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              1. Such inflammatory and erroneous editorials that are obviously meant to arouse passions serve a narrow and bigoted agenda. I am sure your discerning readers will treat the unfounded and unwarranted allegations against India made in your editorial with the contempt they deserve.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                1. I hope you would be kind enough to publish the above points as our right of reply.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  Editor\u2019s note:<\/p>\n

                  Our response to the points in Mr. Ahluwalia\u2019s statement is as follows:<\/p>\n

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                  1. The Indian High Commission thinks our editorial was far-fetched. It is entitled to its opinion.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                    1. The editorial never digressed from the main issue to draw India in. After all, its title was Arming terrorists \u2013 II<\/em>. India created and armed Sri Lanka\u2019s terrorists, didn\u2019t it? Can the Indian High Commission deny this fact? Let Mr. Ahluwalia be urged to read one-time Indian Foreign Secretary J. N. Dixit\u2019s book, Makers of India\u2019s Foreign Policy: Raja Ram Mohun Roy to Yashwant Sinha.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                      1. We stand by our remarks and regret that the crimes the IPKF committed have gone uninvestigated. This is what former Surveyor General of Sri Lanka Dr. T. Somasekaram said in an article, \u2018Memorial for IPKF\u2019 in The Island <\/em>on March 23, 2004:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                        “I was shocked, saddened and angered when I read the news item on 17 March 2004 that a memorial is to be erected in Colombo for the IPKF soldiers who died in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. The simple fact of the matter is that a foreign country, with designs of becoming a regional superpower, manoeuvred to send its army here as Peace Keepers but massacred thousands of innocent Tamil civilians, raped the women and plundered valuables<\/em> (emphasis added). If memorials are to be erected, then it should be for innocent civilians massacred by the IPKF. Let me provide a few samples from my personal knowledge. These represent but the tip of an iceberg. I write as an authentic son of Jaffna, born and bred there, educated at Jaffna Hindu College and the only house my wife and I own is in Jaffna.” He also said, \u2018The acronym\u00a0IPKF\u00a0will always stand for Indian\u00a0People Killing Force.\u2019 Need we say more? [The article which names some of the civilians killed by the IPKF is available in The Island archives.]<\/p>\n

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                        1. India created conditions for a troop induction here and the IPKF got itself invited. The Sri Lankan security forces had been confined to barracks at India\u2019s behest and the militant groups did not surrender arms in keeping with the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord. The deployment of troops here was no altruistic act on the part of India.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                            \n
                          1. If India had really wanted to preserve the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka it shouldn\u2019t have saved Prabhakaran by forcing the JRJ government to abandon Operation Liberation in 1987. The Indian boots were here not to help this country but to help further India\u2019s expansionist agenda and tame the JRJ government which was considered pro-American in the then bipolar word.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                            1. If India had not created trained, armed and funded terrorist groups including the LTTE there would have been no war. If there had been no war not so many lives would have been lost due to terrorism and counter-terrorism operations.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                              1. We wish this were true!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                                1. Here, the Indian High Commission has created a Straw Man and demolished it without addressing the core issue we raised\u2014India was responsible for arming terrorists here. Will the Indian High Commission tell us whether India created, trained, armed and funded terrorist groups responsible for mindless violence which plunged this country into a protracted bloody conflict?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                  Courtesy Island First Secretary (Political) & Head of Chancery High Commission of India Gaurav Ahluwalia has issued the following statement in response to our editorial on April 2, 2015. “I am constrained to write this letter in response to your far-fetched editorial titled Arming Terrorists – II that appeared in your esteemed newspaper on 2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43001","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=43001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}