{"id":88926,"date":"2019-05-17T00:23:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T06:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=88926"},"modified":"2019-05-16T16:47:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T23:47:04","slug":"objection-to-bill-104-do-not-pass-refer-to-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/17\/objection-to-bill-104-do-not-pass-refer-to-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"OBJECTION TO BILL 104 – DO NOT PASS – REFER TO COMMITTEE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mahinda Gunasekera\u00a0 Tambrook Drive, Agincourt, Toronto, Ontario M1W 3L9 Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

15 May 2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honourable Premier Doug Ford, Honourable Cabinet\nMinisters, Honourable Leaders of the NDP and Liberal Party and  Honourable Members of the Provincial\nLegislature,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OBJECTION TO BILL 104: DO NOT PASS: REFER TO\nCOMMITTEE <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I am\nwriting as a Canadian of Sri Lankan Sinhalese origin who has lived in this\nprovince for the past 44 years to express our community\u2019s strongest objection\nto your even considering the subject Bill 104 presented by Mr. Vijay\nThanigasalam, MPP for Scarborough \u2013 Rouge Park on account of the following\nreasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.<\/strong>      <\/strong>It promotes false\ninformation. There is no genocide involved;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.<\/strong>      <\/strong>It promotes division\namong the Sri Lankan community in Canada. This country being a multi-cultural nation\nwith diverse communities should not promote legislation which creates strife\nwithin communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.<\/strong>      <\/strong>This legislation has\nbeen initiated by a Tamil MPP from the Conservative Party who along with other\nTamil expats  that provided material\nsupport and funding to the internationally designated terrorist group called\nthe Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) banned by 32 countries including\nCanada, USA, UK, EU, India, Malaysia, etc., seeking to break up Sri Lanka and\nset up a separate state in the north and east of the island. The LTTE launched\nits so called final war of liberation in mid-2006, but was militarily defeated\nby Sri Lanka\u2019s armed forces on May 19, 2009. Now the pro-LTTE supporters in\nCanada have launched a campaign ten years after the military conflict ended\nfabricating charges of genocide against Sri Lanka to bring international\npressure to bear against that country, to achieve their aim of breaking up the\nunitary state and realizing their objective of a separate state for Tamils\nwhose homeland proper is the State of Tamilnadu in Southern India where over 75\nmillion Tamils live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.<\/strong>      <\/strong>According to Article\nVIII of the Genocide Convention, the only authority that is able to make a\nfinding of genocide is the United Nations, whilst disputes if any between the\ncontracting parties shall be decided by the International Court of Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.<\/strong>      <\/strong>The Tamil civilians\nwere compelled to move with the retreating LTTE forces from the west coast to\ntheir strongholds in the northeast coast around Mullaitivu to be exploited for\ntheir labour, conscripted as fighters and form a human shield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.     \nThe total number Tamil civilians bandied about by the pro-LTTE groups as\nhaving been killed between January 1 and May 19, 2009 ranges from 70,000 to\n140,000, whereas the UN Resident Representative\u2019s office in Colombo reported\n7,721 civilian deaths between August 2008 and May 13, 2009. The Government of\nSri Lanka conducted a census using Tamil teachers and public servants as\nenumerators and arrived at a figure of 7,432 excluding those who had died of\nnatural causes, whilst the Tamilnet, a key propaganda arm of the LTTE reported\nmonthly deaths from January 1 to May 19, 2009, which added up to 7,398. Lord\nNaseby of the British House of Lords obtained heavily redacted copies of\nconfidential reports sent by Col. Gash, the Military Attache at the British\nHigh Commission in Colombo to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London,\nwhere he reported a total of around 8,000 civilian deaths with 2,000 of that\nnumber being killed by the LTTE to prevent these civilians hat formed a human\nshield from fleeing their area of control. Contrary to what is claimed as genocidal attacks by the Sri Lankan\nforces, the number of genuine civilians killed is unknown as none of the\npublished figures distinguishes between combatants, LTTE Auxiliary Forces\nPersonnel, and genuine non-combatant civilians. In fact, the UNSG\u2019s panel on\nSri Lanka reported that a large number of LTTE fighters battled in civilian\nattire blurring the distinction between fighting cadres and civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pro-LTTE groups\nare relying on unsubstantiated numbers estimated by the UNSG\u2019s three member\nPanel on Accountability in Sri Lanka which included Marzuki Darussman, Steven\nRatner and the South African Tamil and propagandist for the LTTE Yasmin Sooka,\nappointed for his personal guidance, that arrived at a number of 40,000\ncivilian deaths based on one sided information provided by expat Tamils which\nthey locked away for 20 years till 2031. They carried out their investigations\nfrom New York and never visited Sri Lanka. \nThe other is the internal review conducted by Charles Petrie who\nreviewed the UNSG\u2019s Panel report and reports furnished by IGOS and INGOS who\nwere not in the war theatre after September 2008 arriving at a figure of 70,000\ncivilian deaths.  Neither of these\nreports had been sanctioned by the UNSC or the UNGA, and were conducted from\noutside Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amnesty and HRW\ncommissioned a report from the American Association for the Advancement of\nScience (AAAS) to determine the number killed after analysis of the high\nresolution satellite imagery of the final battleground, as the latter were only\nable to come up with a total of 1,346\nburial spots in three burial sites within the Civilian Safety Zone (CSW), which\ndetailed report is carried in their website under the title \u2018Geospatial\nTechnologies and Human Rights Project \u2013 High Resolution Satellite Imagery and\nthe Conflict in Sri Lanka. As this\nreport did not support the bogus numbers swirled around by LTTE propagandists,\nAmnesty and HRW did not proceed with their planned report to press for action\nagainst Sri Lanka. The AAAS report was also able to identify some 65 or so\ncraters which they determined had been made by Mortar Shells (not artillery)\nalong the perimeter of the CSZ close to the Nandikadal Lagoon where the LTTE\nfighters were concentrated and close to the coast where the Sea Tigers\noperated. Even the buildings without roofs initially thought to have been\ntargeted with artillery fire turned out to have been dismantled by the LTTE to\ncover their bunkers or hide their long range weapons, while the building walls\nremained undamaged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\ninteresting statistic is the total number of injured persons among the Tamil\nIDPs according to the ICRC responsible for ferrying them by land and sea for\nmedical attention was 18,439 which is lower than the 40,000 supposedly killed\nduring the last stages. Normally, the world\u2019s average ratio injured (WIA) to\nthe number killed (KIA) is between 2-3 times the number killed, which means\nthat the number injured should have been 80,000 – 120,000. Can someone explain\nthis discrepancy other than determining that the high civilian death numbers\nbeing quoted are bogus guesstimates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.     \nThe Justice Maxwell Paranagama\nCommission on Missing Persons in Sri Lanka was assisted by a team of\ninternational legal and military experts in matters relating to International\nHumanitarian Law (IHL) and War Crimes issues in respect of the military\noperations against the LTTE, where they concluded that the Sri Lankan forces\nhad not violated IHL or committed war crimes. These experts were\ninternationally recognized authorities, many of whom had served as legal\nadvisers or prosecutors in the International Criminal Courts.  The team of experts was led by Right\nHonourable Sir Desmond de Silva, QC. (UK) who was Chairman of the Legal\nAdvisory Council, together with Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. (UK), Professor\nDavid M. Crane (USA), Mr. Rodney Dixon, QC. (UK\/ South Africa), Professor\nMichael Newton (USA) Vanderbilt University, William Fenrick (Canada), Professor\nNina Jorgensen of Harvard University, Mr. Paul K. Mylvaganam (UK) and Major\nGeneral Sir John Holmes, DSO, OBE, MC (UK) former head of the British SAS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.     \nThe LTTE launched\nattacks on the other Tamil militant groups to gain ascendancy and later became\nthe leading terrorist group employing suicide terrorism becoming the\nself-declared \u2018Sole Representative\u2019 of the Tamil community, even recognized as\nsuch by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) elected to represent Tamils in the\nNational Parliament. In order to\nestablish their authority, the LTTE first carried out attacks on leading\nmembers of the Tamil community including political leaders, academics,\nintellectuals, police officers, and others deemed dissidents. Thereafter, the\nLTTE began to attack the apparatus of the state responsible for internal\nsecurity, isolated military camps, assassination of political leaders including\nRanasinghe Premadasa, President of Sri Lanka, Gamini Dissanayake, Presidential\ncandidate, cabinet ministers, namely, Lalith Athulathmudali, C.V. Gooneratne,\nJeyaraj Fernandopulle, T.Maheswaran, and attempted assassination of Chandrika\nKumaratunge, President of Sri Lanka, Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and Defence\nSecretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse. The LTTE dispatched a woman suicide bomber to\nassassinate Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, and also killed Sri Lanka\u2019s\ndistinguished Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Lakshman Kadirgamar.  They attacked remote rural villages in the\nnorth and east to ethnically cleanse the region and drive out the resident\nSinhala population from areas claimed for their separate state. The LTTE\nalso attacked economic targets such as\nthe Central Bank, Petroleum Storage facilities, the International Airport at\nKatunayake destroying six commercial aircraft belonging to Sri Lankan Airlines,\nand regularly planted bombs in public transit, shopping malls, bus terminals,\nrail stations, killing large numbers of civilians making the population fearful\nof going about their normal business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

9.     \n The LTTE started their so called final war of liberation\nin earnest by shutting off the sluice gates at Mavil Aru in August 2006 during\nthe CFA by stopping the flow of drinking and irrigation water to 30,000 farmers\nliving downstream. The state responded militarily after a lapse of nearly 12\ndays to restore the water supply and thereafter took action to clear the eastern\nprovince of LTTE forces followed by similar action along the northwest coast\nregaining the territory usurped by the terror forces. Before long, the LTTE was\ncompelled to retreat into a narrow strip on the northeast coast at\nPuthumathalan near the town of Mullaivu. The LTTE forces were completely\nsurrounded by the security forces which soon established a civilian safety zone\n(CSW) within this strip to prevent any harm to the displaced civilians. The\nLTTE moved their heavy artillery guns within the CSW and fired at the\nsurrounding state military. The army would check on the LTTE\u2019s artillery\nposition and resort to  retaliatory fire\nafter  making sure that the civilians\nwere at a safe distance to minimize civilian casualties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10.  The\nmilitary successfully carried out a maneuver to split the CSW into two helping\nnearly 120,000 civilians to escape to safety.     The LTTE was offered several chances to surrender but\nthey did not pay any heed as they expected the international community led by\nthe USA to intervene in the ongoing battles and rescue them and obtain asylum\nfor them in an African country such as Eritrea from where they could continue\ntheir separatist struggle in Sri Lanka. In fact, two 48 hour ceasefires were\nput into effect by the Sri Lanka military in February and April 2009 to enable\nthe  civilians to get out of harms way\nand move into areas controlled by the army where they would be safe.  However, regrettably the LTTE did not allow\nany of the civilians to move out and even fired on those who attempted to flee\nkilling them, effectively blocking the safe removal of the civilians who were\nbeing used as a human shield. Despite the attempts of the LTTE to put the lives\nof the Tamil civilians in danger, the Sri Lankan Security Forces succeeded in eliminating\nthe Tamil Tiger leaders and remaining fighters and rescuing 295,873 Tamils\namong whom were 11,800 former Tiger fighters in civilian attire that abandoned\nthe LTTE. They were housed in Welfare Camps, provided all meals, medical\/\npsychological care, education, vocational training, and resettled in their\nformer places of residence after clearing the land of 1.5 million landmines\nlaid by the LTTE to hamper the advance of the country\u2019s armed forces. The\nformer Tiger cadres were enrolled in a rehabilitation program, given new life\nskills that would enable them to lead independent lives and released to\nsociety. ARE THESE ACTS OF GENOCIDE AGAINST THE TAMILS?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please consider the above factual data and\ntake action to reject Bill 104 which attempts to insert a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

series of\nfalsehoods into the Canadian legal system thereby seriously affecting the\nintegrity of our laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours sincerely,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahinda Gunasekera <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mahinda Gunasekera\u00a0 Tambrook Drive, Agincourt, Toronto, Ontario M1W 3L9 Canada 15 May 2019 Honourable Premier Doug Ford, Honourable Cabinet Ministers, Honourable Leaders of the NDP and Liberal Party and  Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature, OBJECTION TO BILL 104: DO NOT PASS: REFER TO COMMITTEE     I am writing as a Canadian of Sri Lankan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88926","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=88926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}