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Sri Lankan Army Pushing for
End to 25 Year War - Dec,6/2008
Ira de Silva London, Ontario,
Canada
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 22:16:20 -0500
The Editor
New York Times
N.Y., N.Y.
Dear Sir:
Re: Sri Lankan Army Pushing for End to 25 Year War
- By Somini Sengupta
Once again an article written by an Indian journalist whose sympathies
seem to be with the Tamil Tiger terrorists and whose chief aim seems
to be to criticise Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary, Mr. G. Rajapakse.
It is ironic that Mr/Ms. Sengupta chooses to criticise Sri Lanka's attempt
to eradicate Tamil Tiger terrorism just after the events in Mumbai and
the Indian government's claim to crush terrorists. Why does he criticise
Sri Lanka? If India is to be commended and encouraged to crush terrorist
attacks on Indian soil, why must Sri Lanka not try to do so especially
when it was India that developed the Tamil Tiger terrorists, gave them
bases in India, military training by the Indian army, money, refuge
and encouragement to destabilise Sri Lanka. This is not rumour but historical
fact - it was Indian government policy.
The writer attempts to "diminish" Mr. Rajapakse by statements
such as "he once worked as a computer systems administrator"
in the U.S. He has conveniently forgotten to mention that prior to coming
to the U.S. Mr. Rajapakse had been in the Sri Lankan army and had fought
many battles against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE). In his work as Defence
Secretary in charge of the war against the Tamil Tigers he is merely
doing the same in a different capacity not because the Tamil Tigers
tried to kill him two years ago. What does the writer believe to be
the role of the Defence Secretary? Is the Defence Secretary of the U.S.
not prosecuting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Regarding the statement "at the nub of the war is the question
of political rights of the Tamil minority". What rights do the
Tamil minority not have that other Sri Lankan's have? For his information
and that of your readers that is the classic statement made by the Tamil
terrorists to justify their terrorism to divide Sri Lanka. All Sri Lankans
have the same political rights. As I have written to your newspaper
in the past, Tamils in Sri Lanka have more rights than the "minorities"
in the United States.
Regarding the statement "Mr. Rajapaksa has allowed dry food rations
to be ferried by the United Nations to the displaced, I would like to
point out that Sri Lanka is perhaps the only country in the world that
has throughout the thirty years of Tamil terrorism provided food, paid
for education, administration, medicines and all other facilities in
the areas temporarily controlled by the Tamil terrorists. It has been
the Tamil Tigers who have taken all this and used it to terrorise the
rest of Sri Lanka.
The writer is not sure that Pooneryn has been captured - according to
him "no one knows for sure" because journalists are not allowed.
Had he taken the trouble to check the news media he would have seen
pictures of the Sri Lankan soldiers in Pooneryn in front of an LTTE
monument. It is this type of statement that casts doubt on the writers
knowledge but clearly illustrates his bias against Mr. Rajapakse and
the government of Sri Lanka.
One other point I would like to make is that of the civilians holed
up in the area. Had the writer understood the problem he would have
known that the Tamil Tigers are using the civilians as human shields
moving them into areas with the Tiger cadres and not letting them go.
Just last week the Catholic Bishop of Jaffna, issued a statement for
pressure to be brought on the Tamil Tigers to release the civilians
who are been forcefully kept under the control of the Tigers against
their will.
Lastly, as for the aid agencies been asked to leave- they were asked
to move to the areas controlled by the government for their own safety
because it would be writers such as Sengupta who would have been in
the forefront of heaping criticism on the government of Sri Lanka if
any aid workers had been injured. Also, it was proven that these "aid
agencies" in the LTTE areas were providing the Tamil Tigers with
material support, help in building bunkers, vehicles etc. When asked
to move to government areas one western "aid worker" resigned
from his agency and joined the Tamil terrorists. That is but one example
of what has been taking place over the last twenty years. With more
and more areas controlled by the Tigers falling into government hands
the extent of the collaboration of some of these "aid agencies"
is coming to light.
I have chosen a few of the biased, uninformed statements of the writer
to make the case that he not only does not have any in-depth knowledge
of the situation in Sri Lanka but has merely tried to criticise Mr.
Rajapakse and the government of Sri Lanka.
Yours truly,
Ira de Silva
London, Ontario, Canada
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