“There is no significant movement of Sinhala Nationalism in Sri Lanka or elsewhere. In fact it cannot be “nationalism” as nations of South Asia are multiethnic. If at all anyone talks only about the Sinhalas as a nation, it is not about Sinhala nationalism but about Sinhala racism.”
________________

By Thomas Johnpulle

(June 01, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Never did I think a friend would pick up the phone, dial me and ‘request’ me to stop writing; but it happened. Some are prepared to change my surname because I support Sri Lanka instead of Tamil Elam. In their book, only Sinhalas support Sri Lanka and all Tamils must support Tamil Eelam! This is just one more myth like the myth of Tamil Eelam itself; the nation that never was and never will be. However, this is a vast area worth exploring. Why mix-up nationalism with racism? Who gains?

What is nationalism? Simply it is the feeling for the nation one belongs to. Racism means racial prejudice.

As an example, the names United National Party and Sri Lanka Freedom Party connote a national stand whereas the "Tamil National Alliance" only refers to a race.

Nationalism is about the nation of many communities while racism is about one particular race. The two are completely different and do not overlay in the modern world. This is especially so in South Asia where hundreds of ethnic groups have only a handful of nationalities. Attempts by various racial groups to change this failed miserably. This is in contrast to Europe where the English, the Germans, the French, the Russians etc. have their exclusive nations. But even this has changed today. In simple terms the success of the South Asian model is world accepted.

President Rajapaksha made a historical statement when he said, there are no more (ethnic) minorities/majorities; the society is made up of those who love Sri Lanka and those who don’t. However, this is exactly what race-based agitators oppose. They firmly believe that each race equals to a nation. The answer to a simple question sets apart those who believe in nationalism from those who still believe in racism.

Was the bulk of recent celebrations and jubilations in Sri Lanka following the military victory about, (a) Sri Lankan nationalism, or, (b) Sinhala nationalism?

If one calls it Sinhala nationalism, he/she is still engrossed in the race-based view. In the celebrations people carried the national flag depicting all major communities and religions of the country and hence the celebrations were a show of Sri Lankan nationalism. It is definitely not Sinhala nationalism. If it were to be Sinhala nationalism, they should have carried a flag of the exclusive “Sinhala Nation”, just like the Tamil Elam flag, which they didn’t..

There is no significant movement of Sinhala Nationalism in Sri Lanka or elsewhere. In fact it cannot be “nationalism” as nations of South Asia are multiethnic. If at all anyone talks only about the Sinhalas as a nation, it is not about Sinhala nationalism but about Sinhala racism. Thankfully there is no significant movement of Sinhala racism. Similarly, if anyone talks about the Tamils as a nation, it is about Tamil racism. There is nothing called ethno-nationalism in South Asia.

However, Tamil racism is misspelled as Tamil nationalism in Sri Lanka. It is found only in relation to Sri Lanka and not elsewhere; not even in India with a 60 million Tamil population compared to 3 million in Sri Lanka! It must be emphasized that there is nothing called Tamil nationalism and Sinhala nationalism as these are only races, not nations.

The other side of the mix up is also interesting. Accordingly, Sri Lankan nationalism or the love of Sri Lanka goes as Sinhala “nationalism”. This hilarious assumption is based on a copy of Tamil nationalism according to which, Tamil is both the race and the nation. It was with this assumption in mind the LTTE almost created a Tamil only mono ethnic de facto state. The stupidity of this assumption is omnipresent. There is nothing called Tamil nationalism. Tamil is only a race.

However, peaceful supporters of the Tamil Eelam struggle will continue to defy the truth and mince words favourable for their struggle. They are living in a mythical world. The sooner they come out their myth, the better. For peace, everyone has to make sacrifices. Peace is a process of give and take. Unless we give up the mono ethnic Tamil only North for a multi ethnic society, the Tamil Eelam demand for a united Sri Lanka, ethno-nationalism for Sri Lankan nationalism, we will never receive peace in return. The historical statement by the President blocks all avenues of racial haggling and directs everyone to adapt to a Sri Lanka-centred solution.

A few decades ago elected governments of Sri Lanka ran after the LTTE and peaceful Tamil Eelamists with an assortment of political solutions, begging them to agree to a solution. Not any more!

Hopefully at least this time peaceful Tamil Eelamists will realize the futility of running after a mirage and take part fully in the reciprocal process of give and take. If they don’t, they will be the losers, again.

In summary, the following facts must be put straight.

1. Sri Lankan nationalism is not at all Sinhala nationalism.
2. Tamil nationalism is Tamil racism, nothing else.
3. Sinhala nationalism is Sinhala racism, nothing else.

It is time these issues are put into the right perspective. Similarly those who deliberately mix nationalism with racism need to be identified for what they are.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Shabir Choudhry

(June 01, Srinagar, Sri Lanka Guardian) We people of Jammu and Kashmir are occupied because we are divided; and are not sure what we want as a nation. To make matters worse we are led by a bunch of people presented to us as leaders who are selfish and egocentric, and who clearly lack vision, sincerity and sense of direction. Moreover they are more eager to promote agendas of New Delhi and Islamabad rather than protecting rights and interests of people of Jammu and Kashmir.

A policy was initiated to persuade people that areas under Pakistan were Azad - meaning independent and problem was only on the Indian side of the divide. This policy was instigated by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs of Pakistan and their agencies, and launched with help of their political proxies known as Kashmiri leaders.

Plight of People of Pakistani Administered Kashmir and Gilgit and Baltistan and their basic human rights were swept aside and they were persuaded, rather pressurised to support the ‘struggle’ on the other side and speak against India. It is fact that people of that side had more rights and better facilities than we can even imagine on this side of the divide.

Test of one’s sincerity was how strongly or eloquently one can yell against lack of rights on the Indian side and Indian atrocities. And how sincerely, explicitly and vigorously one can support and commend Pakistan’s role in the areas under Pakistani control and in war of ‘liberation’. If one could pass this test, he/ she was presented as a true leader of people of Kashmir and appropriately rewarded.

Unfortunately leaders of the nationalist movement or independence movement were also cultivated to pursue the same policy. People who had enacted this policy and fine - tuned it according to new situation had to persuade top leaders of nationalist groups, and it was left to them to handle matters within their parties. Any member or a leader who refused to follow this line of action or questioned a rationale of this policy was either sidelined or declared ‘anti movement’, ‘anti organisation’ or ‘agent’ of agencies and expelled from the party.

This policy worked for both the agencies and the top leadership of nationalist groups, who used this ‘guillotine’ frequently and mercilessly to advance their political interest and to please their paymasters. Pakistani planners were pleased that they have managed to trap Indian army in a quagmire of Kashmir; and propagate against Indian rule, actions against militancy, which included extra judicial arrests and custodial killings of innocent people.

Anyone who dared to speak for rights of people of Pakistani Administered Kashmir or draw attention to the plight of people of Gilgit and Baltistan were cautioned not to do so, as it would ‘divert attention’ from the Indian side to the Pakistani side of the divide. Many political aspirants and cautious people decided to follow this dictation and did not risk to be called ‘anti jihad’, ‘anti movement’, ‘anti organisation’ or ‘pro India’. They decided to remain quiet even though they knew what their leaders were doing in their name or in name of the party was wrong.

However many rebels and sincere people decided to challenge this doctrine and paid political and social price, as powerful forces and their proxies initiated consistent campaign to sideline and discredit people like me and many others. It is a stigma to be called an ‘Indian agent’, ‘anti movement’ or ‘anti Pakistan’ in a society whose values are determined by those who occupy us. People would go to any lengths to avoid this label and this pressure was even felt in European capitals where people like Shaukat Kashmiri, Mumtaz Khan, Afzal Tahir, Abbas Butt, Hamid Khan, Dr Nazir Gilani and of course me (Dr Shabir Choudhry) were opposing wrong policies and promoting pro people of Jammu and Kashmir agenda.

In spite of the problems and uphill struggle we sincerely continued with anti terrorism and pro people policies and fought back with vigour and determination.

Even with a lot of awareness and available knowledge as soon as something appear in any media or any internet platform, which is construed as an attempt to ‘divert attention’, a systematic campaign is unleashed against that person. Even those people who do not understand basic requirements of the independence movement or fundamental character of the Kashmiri struggle start issuing edicts.

These stalwarts still want us to speak against India and focus our attention on the situation of the Valley only. No doubt India has done a lot of wrong things in Jammu and Kashmir, including human rights violations, and I condemn that. Also the Valley of Kashmir has its own importance, but there is life beyond the boundaries of the Valley; and the people who live outside the boundaries of the Valley also have some genuine problems which need to be addressed.

Situation has been created that if you write something or make a speech and not mention the Valley or not condemn India even when the topic is about upraising of Mangla Dam ( in Pakistani Administered Kashmir) or construction of Basha Dam (in Gilgit and Baltistan), you are perceived as not sincere with the cause of Kashmir.

Worried people or political aspirants don’t want to annoy the crocodile while they still have to share the same water, are desperately making efforts to be in good books of agencies or their proxies. Some are even prepared to attack and malign their fellow colleagues or fellow nationalists in order to win favour and rewards.

Kashnet whether we like it or not links people of Jammu and Kashmir; and at times it also provides valuable information. Nearly all political activists and many non Kashmiris are members of this platform. Apart from sharing information this platform is increasingly used to discredit genuine political activists and leaders by those who have made no contribution to the cause in any form or manner; or by proxies of those who have made fortune of miseries and sufferings of the people. There are nearly 1100 members which include some fake IDs as well; and many people use these fake IDs to settle personal goals against each other.

Whenever something is written or spoken about the plight of people on Pakistani side of the LOC, these proxies are activated to discredit the writer for the crime of ‘diverting attention’ away from the Valley and for not swearing at India. Apart from some dedicated people most political activists choose to remain quiet, and let few be cursed and condemned.

One writer spoke about the situation in Pakistani Administered Kashmir in following words: ‘Corruption practices, nepotism, favouritism, blackmailing, mismanagement, injustices, misuse of authority, violation of merit, discrimination govern so called Azad Kashmir’. When the situation is so bad and people suffer as a result of bad polices and exploitation of Kashmiri resources, I for one cannot remain quiet. Call me whatever suits you, but I will speak about the plight of the people of Gilgit and Baltistan and Pakistani Administered Kashmir.

I have recently visited the Neelam Valley with KNP delegation. The situation there cannot be explained in words, it is much worse than what we have in the Valley or any other part of the State. I cannot be expected to remain silent on this human tragedy and systematic and consistent exploitation of our resources.

I will write and expose those responsible for this human tragedy. I know I will be criticised for this, but do I care? I don’t need a certificate from anyone that I am sincere to my cause. Actions speak louder than any certificate. I know ‘Jihadi warriors’ and ‘liberal fascists’ who are assigned a task of opposing all those who want to educate people and tell them that we are occupied by more than one country; and that a large scale exploitation of our resources and political and economic strangulation is going on in Gilgit and Baltistan and Pakistani Administered Kashmir.

In the past we have opposed culture of intimidation and fear. We have also opposed proxy politics and proxy war. While supporting a right of expression we need to oppose this culture of proxy politics unleashed on Kashnet with sole aim of discrediting genuine political activists and to discourage those who want to speak for rights of people on this side of the divide.

Writer is a Spokesman of Kashmir National Party, political analyst and author of many books and booklets. Also he is Director Institute of Kashmir Affairs. Email: drshabirchoudhry@gmail.com

-Sri Lanka Guardian

Link to Part One

By Gam Vaesiya, Ontario

The Vadukkoddei (Batakotte) Voodoo

(June 01, Ontario, Sri Lanka Guardian) Pulip Padai was a rather unsuccessful precursor to the many militant youth groups sponsored by the ITAK and later, by the TULF which prided itself on its "boys". The leaders probably believed that they could control the "boys" in much the same way that Cinnamon Garden housewives control their low-caste Tamil domestic help ("servants") . By then, due to a series of racial riots that polarized the two ethnic groups apart, attitudes in the Tamil community had hardened sufficiently for the ITAK to expose its original agenda clearly and stridently.

Vadukkoddei was an ancient Sinhalese garrison town, known till the 1900s as "Batakotte", a name used even by the American Seminary which existed here before the rise of Jaffna College. Ironically, this town became the stage for the 1976 "Vadukkoddei resolution" which essentially declared that the Tamils must seek separation from the Sinhalese and create the independent state of Eelam in the North and the East. These were claimed to be "exclusive homelands of the Tamils". Although some writers claim that the resolution was pushed to an extreme wording by the "boys", it is stated by A. J. Wilson that S. J. V. Chelvanayagam read it carefully and endorsed it. The speeches of Chelvanaygam in 1975, or even the 1949 proceedings of the ITAK show that the Vadukkkodei resolution bears full continuity with the earliest thinking of Chelvanayagam, and the ITAK.

However, Thondaman Sr., the leader of the Hill-country Tamils was NOT a party to the Vadukkoddei Voodoo. Thondaman was an adroit politician who understood that he had to safeguard his fragile people from the possibles pitfalls of Marxist or racist extremism. He knew that his community, though Tamil speaking like the Muslims, were not included in the so called "Jaffna Kingdom" of the past.

The Vadukkodei resolution was in itself nothing but a political declaration reflecting the ethnic polarization of the nation. The TULF went to the polls in 1977 and successfully obtained a mandate from the Tamil population in the North. The vote in the Eastern province did not go in favour of the TULF. Even in the North, several "hard-line" Eelam candidates who run on the ticket of full separation lost the vote (the 1977 elections have been discussed recently by Neville Ladduwahetty, Island 25-may-2005. See- an external link ) Nevertheless, the TULF parlimentarians used the 1977 election victory as a bargaining chip to push for a strongly ethnic agenda, buttressed with the threat of separation. In some ways1977 was similar to the support given to Adolf Hitler by the Germans in the early 1930s. The Germans, humiliated by defeat and strongly mesmerized by the nationalist jingoism of Hilter, did not notice the dark and ominous abdomen of Nazism. In the same way,the Tamil leaders in Vadukkoddei did not see the destiny of Durraiappah hovering over them.

The electoral success of the TULF led J. R. Jayawardena (JRJ) to make every possible concession to the Tamil leadership. Amirthalingam and others accepted this offer. In reality, the leaders of the TULF and the UNP all lived in the "Karavaakaadu" or Cinnamon Gardens enclave. Their nationalism could be reconciled within the "free market" money-making "robber Barron" environment unleashed by J. R. Jayawardene. Thus, if the TULF and the UNP had been left to themselves, they may have crafted a mutually acceptable solution. Such a solution would most certainly not have bothered about the poor people of the Vanni or Jaffna. But it would have at least ensured a peaceful society. Thondaman Sr.,having dissociated from the Vadukkoddei resolution, had indeed got "all he wanted" from the J. R. government.

But the simple minded rustic boys of Vaddukkoddei could not understand the TULF "striking a deal" with the "Sinhalese government" . The TULF leaders and Kasi Anandan the poet had categorically denounced the Sinhala rulers. The Voodoo of Vdukkoddei had arisen in the form of the LTTE to strike down Amirthlingam and "other traitors". Fortunately, Chelvanayagam had been spared of seeing the mayhem of the Voodoo that had arisen from his vision. His 1949 vision of exclusive Tamil homelands was the direct antithesis of the moral high road advocated by the Jaffna Youth league in 1930. By murdering TULF leaders, the LTTE lost all rights to the electoral vote of 1977. The "boys" of the TULF had a clear end - Eelam, and any means was justified to reach this end. They welcomed state terror.

By all accounts, Black July was partly a machination of some UNP Sinhala extremist politicians. It was also an event engineered by the LTTE. Its agent was a police officer known as Nadesan (later to become Tamilchelvam's replacement). Remarkably, almost all the top officials in the police, viz., the Inspector General of Police and his deputies, were Tamils. They remained impassive and did not enforce even a token level of intervention in the name of law and order. No judicial commission has gone into these events as the leaders of both ends of the ethnic divide have skeletons to hide. But now that many of those individuals are dead, assassinated or killed in the war, it is time for an impartial inquiry into one of the great moral blots on the Nation.

The moral madness of the no-fire zone

If the Voodoo of Vadukkdodei manifested itself in the moral precipice of Black July, it was only the beginning. Eelam was "The objective – no matter how". In Tamil society, loyalty to one's kith and kin comes before anything else. That is, one may lie, cheat or do worse to protect a family member. Tamil racism is based on extending this to every Tamil who "has to be protected from the Sinhalese foe".

Assassinating "traitors" was already begun under the tutelage of the TULF. Holding Tamils as hostages was a practice which began against the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IKPF). The use of child soldiers, young women as spies and suicide cadre followed in tandem. Psychological black mail of the highest level was carried out by offering Thaleepan as a human sacrifice in front of the Nallur Temple. Attacks on Buddhist temples, mosques, and on civilians in undefended border villages were used in the hope of re-creating the 1983 Black July. When the State war machine retaliated mercilessly, the LTTE rejoiced in the destruction, and found more and more sympathizers in the diaspora.

The diaspora itself consisted of two groups. There were Tamils who immigrated claiming State persecution. There were other Tamils who immigrated claiming LTTE persecution. Every genuine case was only one in ten out of the flood of economic refugees who made it good to Colombo, and then to foreign climes. It was the in-grained Tamil principle of loyalty to one's kith and kin that deprived them of the moral high road. It was necessary to defend the Tamils who are fighting for the Tamils. It is necessary to twist the truth and trim the tune in their defense and to ultimately achieve Eelam. When Tamils were ordered to leave Jaffna and corralled to the Vanni, it was easy to imagine that it was a temporary step and ignore the hostage taking. When Tamils were held hostage in Vakarai, and later even in Madhu, it was still easy to ignore all that and remain mesmerized by the dream of Eelam. A Rayuppu Joseph could play the prodigal priest and take even the Sacred Mother of Madhu hostage. The church fathers had long lost their moral compass and collaborated with Prabhakaran, taking a leaf from Pope Piis XII and many of his Cardinals who enjoyed a Concordat with Hitler.

However, as the Vanni war developed, it became clear even to confirmed supporters of the LTTE that the poor and defenseless people are being used by the LTTE merely as an expendable cover. The wealthier and more influential Tamils could get the authorization to leave. But this was not the case for some 250,000 poor Vanni Tamils. Dr. Noel Nadesan, Editor of the Uthayam, a Tamil News paper in Australia pleaded in August 2008 to "let my people go". Dissenting Tamil writers like J.Jeyaraj, Sebastian Rasalingam, Thomas Johnpulle as well as the UTHR authors had become increasingly vocal. And yet the TNA, the LTTE and the policy makers continued to ignore the moral imperative. The Tamilnet continued to spin yarns and publish doctored pictures of past carnage. The military offensive at the time had been directed mainly towards the attrition of the LTTE cadre. Unlike in the yet-to-be no-fire zone, the people had not been corralled into a highly dense shield around the LTTE leaders who moved along a network of air-conditioned bunkers.

The moral cry of the Uthayam Editor and the likes of Rasalingam were NOT picked up by the diaspora. Talk show activists like Poopala-Pillai, and writers like Narapala-singham and Satheesan Kumaran continued to call far Eeelam and even a return to the borders of the cease-fire agreement (CFA) of 2002!. Mindless Marxists like Kumar David and Wicramabahu continued to regard the LTTE as the epitome of Liberation.

What if the Expatriate Tamils had taken the high moral road and demanded Tamilnet to be truthful? What if the expatriate Tamils had demanded that Noel Nadesan's call to "let the people go" be heeded?

What if the expatriate Tamils had rejected the TNA and put its weight behind Ananadasangaree who is the last chastened remnant of the old TULF?

Ethnic Equilibration has to accompany devolution.

However, it is still not too late, at least for the Tamils living in Sri Lanka, to forge ahead in a new direction. Parliamentary programs and civil society after the world war in Japan and Germany were restored after a period of intense reconstruction. No Marshal-plan type generous aid has been offered to Sri Lanka. Instead, the West is incensed to punish Sri Lanka because it did not conduct its politics according to the western agenda as set out by Norway, Britain and the EU.

The next step is very clear. The displaced people, including the Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils driven out of the North need to be settled. Any type of power devolution needs to be balanced by ethnic equilibration if suspicion is to be replaced by confidence in the unity of the country. A rapid development of infrastructure, fast-rail connectivity and administrative cohesion have to be established. Finally, parliamentary elections would enable a new set of Tamil l politicians to fill the vacuum of leadership that seems to exist in Tamil politics today.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(June 01, Jaffna, Sri Lanka Guardian) Remembering the sad saga of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the burning down of the Jaffna library is a one of the biggest and finest in Asia, on the night of May 31, 1981. On that fateful night Sri Lankan paramilitary forces set ablaze this grand library as part of the pogrom against Tamils of Jaffna. Some 97,000 volumes of books, excluding rare and important Ola manuscripts, went up in flames.

These included works of Ananda Coomaraswamy, the famous Lanka-born Tamil Indophil and eminent intellectual Professor Issac Thambiah. In the massacre that followed over next two days statues of Tamil cultural and religious icons were destroyed or disfigured.

The library was built in many stages starting from 1933, from a modest beginnings as a private collection. Soon with the help of primarily local citizens, it became a full fledged library. The Library also became a repository of archival material written in Palm leaf manuscripts, original copies of regionally important historic documents in the contested Contest, political history of Sri Lanka and newspapers that were published hundred of years ago in the Jaffna peninsula. It thus became a place of historic and symbolic importance to the local minority Sri Lankan Tamil people.

Eventually the first major wing of the library was opened in 1959 by then Jaffna mayor Alfred Duraiappah. The architect of the Indo-Saracenic style building was one Narasimhan from Madras, India. Prominent Indian librarian S.R. Ranganathan served as an advisor to ensure that the library was built to international standards. The library became the pride of the local people as even researchers from India and other countries began to use it for their research purposes.

Braving its first destruction in 1981, the Tamil community pooled thousands of books, to rebuild the library when the civil war caught up in 1983. In 1985 again, the semi-built library bore assault of Sri Lankan Army.

Of all the destruction in Jaffna city it was the destruction of the Jaffna Public Library was the incident which appeared to cause the most distress to the people of Jaffna.

After, Jaffna was wrested from the LTTE in 1996 the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga got it rebuilt the library. But the lost inflicted was irreparable. One side of the people argue it should have been kept as a memorial and it was rebuild to whitewash the Sinhala pogram against Tamils.

The library was reopened in 2003, twenty two years later, Mayor of Jaffna Nadarajah Raviraj still grieved at the recollection of the flames he saw as a University student. He was later killed by unknown gunmen in the capital Colombo in 2006.

For Tamils the devastated library became a symbol of "physical and imaginative violence" of majoritan extremists. The attack was seen as an assault on their aspirations, value of learning and traditions of academic achievement.

By S. Akurugoda

(June 01, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka addressing the mass rally at the Parliament grounds called upon to appoint a Presidential Commission to probe the activities of the LTTE and its shocking caches of sophisticated arms and ammunition. During the humanitarian operation and thereafter, the Security Forces exposed the magnitude of the LTTE's underground arsenal and said to have in the process of further investigation to gather proof of evidence to probe the link between the outfit and its local and foreign promoters.

As the Prime Minister quite correctly identified time has come for all those who are genuinely interested to see the lasting solution to achieve peace, stability, progress and the establishment of democracy in Sri Lanka without any racial and religious differences, to identify the real culprits for the death and destruction in the country and take action there on for the betterment of future generation.

Although the Sri Lanka government had taken steps to confront the terrorist outfit militarily, not enough attention had been made to counteract the effect of false propaganda machinery of the LTTE, both in and outside the country. As a result the menace of separatism is still alive both in and outside Sri Lanka.

Now that the chances of dividing Sri Lanka on ethnic lines by military means are no more, the next question, often raised by the desperate agents of the Anglo American oriented international community (who openly exhibited their indisputable relationship with the Tamil Tigers and their terrorism) is ‘human rights’, ‘equal rights’, ‘living with dignity’ etc, mere slogans adopted by the very same divisive forces to promote separatism.

The crushing defeat of the LTTE, no doubt, would have caused serious concerned to the bogus “peace’ and ‘rights’ activists and other interested parties whose survival depends upon the continuation of conflicts and terror, though they appear in public as the saviours of peace.

These NGO ‘peace nicks’, anti-war kingpins who appear under various attractive name boards such as ‘co-existence’, ‘National Peace’, Policy Alternatives, “Ethnic Studies”, Free Media’ etc and who were extremely busy supplying the necessary amenities to their pay masters of the West to save Prabakaran up to the last moment, appear to have gone underground for the time being, but will resurface very soon and will do whatever possible to maintain their stance at any cost. This time, probably, to give another attempt to pave the way for the dead Tiger Leader’s dream.

Although we have not come across a recent appeal for ‘piece’ from Jehan Perera of so-called National Peace Council, man who work very hard to white wash LTTE in each every atrocities committed by the outfit as “tit-for-tat kind of retaliation” while tarnishing the image of Sinhalese and political parties opposed to LTTE , and his bunch of so-called ‘independent (but dollar dependent) analysts’ have to start from some where to justify their existence to the funding agencies. Since the vision statement of the NPC includes the LTTE as an integral part of the solution, now the time has come to change the ‘vision’ prior to commence his next mission.
Kumar Rupasinghe, the well known key player of the infamous Anti-war Front and Foundation for Co-existence has already announced his latest starting point, ‘enhancing 13th amendment to the constitution’. Probably, this is the only way-out left for him to keep communal cry alive and later to defeat the victories achieved by our security forces. He will definitely get the necessary moral support form the old Marxists and other groups who were with him during his ant-war campaign, but in the government rank now.

Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, it seems, has already commenced his misinformation campaign to tarnish the image of our country and one such meeting is reported to be held in Melbourne at the coming week end under the topic ‘Human rights and media freedom in Sri Lanka’, the very usual topic repeated by these paid groups over and over again.

While promoting the terrorists’ global campaign that Sinhalese, particularly Sinhalese Buddhists, or the Sri Lankan Government as Tamil’s greatest enemy, these NGOs and other interested parties including their funding agencies were promoting the misconception that the war against the terrorist outfit is un-winnable. Hence completely eradicating the terrorist is not the expectation or the mission of these paid groups.

A lie repeated under each and every news item, repeatedly for decades, via international news agencies could register as a conclusive piece of evidence in support of the LTTE terrorism in the minds of the millions of its readers /listeners/viewers throughout the world, with time. Western media institutions often give wide publicity to media releases of the NGO peace bandwagons operating from Colombo and frequently quote their so-called analysis made in favour of the separatist and disastrous to the security forces and the Sri Lanka government.

NGOs exist for a variety of reasons, usually to further the political or social agendas of their members or funders. Their ‘academic’ directions, in the name of peace-making, merely worsened the crisis and prolonged an unnecessary war. These NGOs were in the driver’s seat during the Chandrika-Ranil regimes when the CFA was in full swing. Hence the contribution of these lobbyist NGOs to the loss of lives and destruction by promoting the terrorist’s global campaign for a non-existing problem should also be probed and appropriate action should be taken, at least, to counter their misinformation campaign effectively if terrorism is to be wiped-out completely from our soil.

As we remember, immediately after Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power, a conference was held in Colombo for the diplomatic service personnel, specifically to explain the dynamic role that they have to play when countering the activities of the LTTE and its front organizations responsible for spreading misinformation and raising funds. Although the Sri Lankan diplomatic services operating in some of the countries are active in this direction, the most appear to be quite sluggish. Despite the efforts of handful of patriotic Sri Lankan expatriate community living in those countries, anti- Sri Lankan propaganda machineries continued at an unprecedented level, while our diplomatic missions were apparently doing nothing.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his historic statement made in the Parliament on 19th may 2009 said that there would no longer be divisions among minorities and majorities in the country on the basis of ethnicity but there would be two kinds of people--those who loved the country and those who did not. Those who do not love the country are now a lesser group. Hence it is essential to have a complete overhaul of our diplomatic mission as a matter of national priority and to choose our High Commissioners, Ambassadors and Consulates from those who loved the country.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By B.Raman

(June 01, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) A report received on May 31,2009, from a source believed to be based in Zahidan, the capital of the Iranian province of Sistan-Balochistan, speaks of an exchange of fire between groups of Shias and Sunnis in different parts of Zahidan following an unsuccessful attempt by unidentified persons to kill Mulla Abdol Hamid, a senior Sunni leader. While he survived the attack, many of his body guards were reportedly imjured.

According to the Government controlled IRNA news agency, three persons were injured on May 29,2009, when unidentified gunmen attacked the election office of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Zahidan. Ahmadinejad is contesting re-election as the President. The polling is scheduled for June 12,2009.

Meanwhile, the Iranian authorities have blamed the US and Israel for the suicide attack in a Shia mosque on May 28,2009. They have already announced the hanging in public in Zahidan of three persons in connection with the attack. While the authorities have accused them of having been involved in the attack, independent reports claim that these persons were already in the custody of the police when the suicide attack took place in the mosque.

Jalal Sayah, Deputy Governor-General of Sistan-Balochistan, has been quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying: “Three people involved with the terrorist incident were arrested.According to the information obtained, they were hired by America and the agents of the arrogance.” Interior Minister Sadegh Mahsooli said: “The terror agents are neither Sunni nor Shia but Americans and Israelis seeking a Shia-Sunni divide." The Agence France Presse has quoted Ian Kelly, a spokesman of the US State Department, as saying: “The US strongly condemns all forms of terrorism. We do not sponsor any form of terrorism in Iran and we continue to work with the international community to try to prevent any attacks against innocent civilians anywhere.”

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Rajasingham Jayadevan

(June 01, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka says Pirabakaran is dead. Majority of the LTTE support base says Pirabakaran is alive. A section of the LTTE says Pirabakaran is dead. Anti- LTTE support base says Pirabakaran is dead. The international opinion contends Pirabakaran is dead.

Within this divide, who is right and who is wrong? For Sri Lanka, Pirabakaran is the most wanted man in the country. When his death was announced on the 18th May, it was claimed Sri Lankan forces killed him in a confrontation. The government put up news and pictorial evidence of his killing continuously in the media.

On the 16th May itself, claims were made through telephonic and text messaging that Pirabakaran is dead and his body has been flown to Colombo quoting government Defence Ministry sources.

No one knows how Pirabakaran died as claimed by the government. When I spoke to an intimate contact of Pirabakaran, he confirmed the dead body is not that of his. He was so close to Pirabakaran that he told me: ‘Annai (elder brother) always maintained that he will shoot himself in the head if his life is threatened. His bodyguards were told to burn his body or at least burn down his head to loose his identity’.

The pro-LTTE Tamilcircle.net published some pictures and made some comments on the face of the pictures.

Translation: There is no mud in his body.

Head injury is being wrapped by a sarong. The injury is seen above the left eyebrow. Compare this injury with the other pictures. It appears this must be part of first set of photographs taken soon after the death. The eyes remain closed and the body looks bloated. There is not blood or stain in the sarong wrapped.

This picture released by the government shows ‘eyes wide open’.

Pirabakaran is in his uniform. The moustache appears to be slightly different and his left eye does not show the black scar or injury above the eye as in the first photo. The injury on the forehead is also comparatively smaller than the one below.

The picture shows injury to the forehead and the dead man is in the LTTE attire.

‘Closed eyes – and the mud’ states the Tamil writing.

Compare the mustache. The forehead shows receding hair which is not visible in Pirabakaran’s true photographs.

Tamil writing: ‘Cameras’ and ‘body not shown naked’.


Tamil writings: ‘Cameras’, ‘A white woman’, ‘Penis exposed’ and ‘blue colour underwear.

Who is this white woman with the video camera? How did she get in when there is restriction for the national and international media?

‘To disgrace, body shown with the underwear’. ‘To prevent revealing injuries, mud is being applied’.


Karuna and Daya Master witnessing the body surrounded by the army. As claimed by Pirabakaran’s close contact, Karuna and Daya Master knows that Pirabakaran always wear boxer shorts and not amudai’s (traditional/ancient underwear) as depicted in the picture.

This picture is from Theepori.com which shows much deeper wound on the forehead. This photo clearly reflects the receding hair on the forehead.

Why did the government create so much confusion by not following the simple and established routines to confirm the death in an open and transparent manner?

v There was no post-mortem on the dead body.

v There was no independent evidence that bullet found on the head matches with the gun used by Pirabakaran or even the soldier who shot him.

v There was no independent DNA test. Initially media reported that DNA test had not been carried out and his body had been cremated. Then it was reported his body parts had been removed before cremation. Following this, under pressure, further statement appeared confirming army medical officers had matched the DNA with Pirabakaran’s son.

v Why did the government rush and cremate the body without keeping it in a mortuary until full investigation was concluded.

v Can Karuna and Daya master be witnesses of the dead body when they have compromised themselves to the government and confirming the death in the presence of the army?

Then there is further unanswered question bewildering even those who are happy that Pirabakaran is dead. They ask where is the jubilation amongst the soldiers on seeing the dead body of Pirabakaran.

If these pictures are true reflection, there is also an issue of ‘war crime’ accorded to the dead in a conflict said a LTTE contact.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

Address by Rohitha Bogollagama, M.P. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka at the Shangri-La Dialogue 29-31 May 2009

By Rohitha Bogollagama

(May 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I am pleased to be back here at the Shangri-La Dialogue for the 3rd successive year. On the previous two occasions I came before you to share our engagement with the LTTE and how we were hoping to counter its terror tactics effectively.

At the outset, let me delineate for purpose of clarity the structure of my address this morning. It would comprise the following elements:

1. The LTTE reign of terror
2. The rescuing of civilians by launching humanitarian mission
3. The way forward; reconciliation and the political process

When I addressed this august forum last year, Sri Lanka’s security forces were in the midst of a major operation to clear over 15,000 sq. km of territory in the Northern and Eastern provinces that had come under the sway of the LTTE, universally acknowledged as one of the most ruthless and deadliest terrorist groups in the world. Over the last 25 years, the LTTE had engaged in a blood–soaked campaign of unmitigated terror and violence leaving in its wake a trail of death, destruction and immense human suffering. The opportunity cost for Sri Lanka in terms of its potential socio-economic development is immense and the loss suffered by two generations of our society cannot be replaced. This is not all. They pursued a violent campaign beginning in the mid 1970s by assassinating Tamil politicians who were moderate voices with a view to suppressing dissent and claimed the status of the “sole representative” of the Tamil people.

They ethnically cleansed the North by driving out the Muslims and Sinhalese. They then targeted civilians in the South by carrying out massive suicide strikes. The suicide bombing of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on January 31st 1996 alone killed 91 and wounded 1,400 innocent civilians. This was Sri Lanka’s equivalent of 09/11 and took place 9 months after the Oklahoma bombing. The LTTE tried to cripple our economy, bombing the World Trade Centre in Colombo and destroyed nearly half of our national carrier’s fleet. They indulged in countless assassinations of our political leadership, including the then President R. Premadasa in 1993. Two years earlier, an LTTE female suicide bomber extinguished the life of a distinguished former Prime Minister of India, Shri Rajiv Gandhi. The assassinations, destruction of human lives and misery brought upon by the LTTE will run into several pages.

Today, I am pleased to announce the end of the LTTE terror in Sri Lanka by the efforts of the Government of H.E. the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, just a few days ago. Sri Lanka will no doubt enter the annals of history as a classic textbook example of a nation that successfully prevailed over the scourge of terrorism, while tenaciously upholding the cherished values of democracy and human rights that have been deeply ingrained in the psyche of our people. Armchair critics and sceptics who doubted the firm resolve and strength of our brave armed forces to defeat the so-called “invincible” might of the LTTE have been effectively silenced today, just as much as the guns. The astonishing success of this campaign redounds to the credit of President Rajapaksa, who has provided effective and decisive leadership to the military establishment in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. His acumen in sustaining broad-based popular support for the military campaign, and his engagement with the polity for wider consensus was evident from the very outset.

May I now recall the initial engagement with the LTTE starting in July 2006 due to the closure of the Mavil Aru sluice gates depriving water for 35,000 people. This occurred when the Government was engaged with the LTTE in the peace talks in Geneva. Let me now take you back to some of the key elements of the LTTE developments.

Permit me, Ladies & Gentlemen to briefly recapitulate what Sri Lanka was confronted with during the last two decades and a half. The LTTE emerged as a terrorist group claiming to be fighting for an independent state exclusively for Tamils to be carved out of the Northern and Eastern provinces of the island comprising 2/3 of the country’s land mass 3/5 of the its coastline.

During these years, successive Governments invited the LTTE to negotiations. Starting in 1985 with the Thimpu talks, which were facilitated by the Indian Government, several rounds of talks were held at intervals but the LTTE never engaged seriously at these talks having used such opportunities to re-arm, regroup and wage war again. They were never serious in negotiating a political solution. I myself was a member of the Delegation of the Government on two occasions for the talks held in Geneva in 2006. These were the last rounds of talks the Government held with the LTTE.

The longest ceasefire brokered by the facilitator of the peace process, Norway, in February 2002, only helped to transform the LTTE from a guerrilla group into a semi- conventional army and become the first terrorist group in the world to acquire air power in the shape of a rudimentary air force, as well as a lethal naval force, known as the Sea Tigers. The cost during this period from February 2002 – November 2005 , over 740 civilians were killed including that of the former Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Lakshman Kadirgamar, in August 2005. According to the UNICEF, the conscription of the child soldiers by the LTTE numbered over 7,400 during this period.

Despite these developments, the Government of the day ensured an uninterrupted supply of food, medicine and other essential items to the areas under the control of the terrorists, well aware that the LTTE was siphoning off a significant part of these supplies for their own use. But successive Governments never used such supplies as a weapon of war against the Tamil community, whom we regard as an integral part of the community of Sri Lankans.

This violence unleashed by the LTTE would never have grown into the dimensions that it eventually did if not for a number of factors. The availability of millions of dollars through LTTE networks generated by a illicit arms trade and drug trafficking in international waters, commercial operations carried out by sections of the diaspora including illegal money transfers through hawala banking, international financial fraud and credit card scams as well as extortion from the Tamil community itself.

The LTTE’s ability to brazenly flaunt its symbols and flags even in countries where it is proscribed. Its ability to hold propaganda and fund raising events and other functions glorified the terrorist movement, without being restrained under the law, have made these proscriptions ineffective.

In conducting military operations to eliminate terrorism, our Government’s primary concern was to safeguard the innocent civilians, many of whom had experienced multiple displacements over the years, and had their children forcibly conscripted by the LTTE to be used as cannon fodder. Many of them had lost one or more of their family members. Even young girls were not spared.

In the last stages of the operation the situation became more complex and dangerous. The LTTE finding itself cornered used civilians as human shields. This was in a small strip of land about 6 sq. km. in the final stage, thus denying and placing the people in a most inhuman condition, without proper food, shelter, sanitation, water, electricity and exposed to all the elements of nature. I vividly recall the images of the footage obtained by the (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) UAV, which were most perturbing. All men and women with children were fleeing the LTTE, while LTTE cadres were shooting at them to prevent them from fleeing. It was in this backdrop that we witnessed the exodus of these people fleeing into the safety of the area controlled by the Government. Now they are temporarily accommodated in welfare villages. Providing them with basic facilities, remains as one of the highest priorities of the Government. Today, even the parents of the tyrant Prabhakaran is now being cared by the Government.

Since July 2006, over 5,200 armed forces personnel have paid the supreme sacrifice in the defence of their beloved motherland while nearly 30,000 security force personnel were injured and maimed.

It may be noted that all these were achieved in an unhelpful and hostile background. The LTTE propaganda unleashed footage of alleged carnage and recorded telephone interviews, under duress, with civilians who were held hostage by the LTTE, thus making statements. Those transmitted unsubstantiated allegations against the military, claimed heavy weapons in civilian areas, in order to buttress the propaganda of “genocide against the Tamil people”. This was both fictional and well fabricated with ulterior and sinister motive in order to discredit the armed forces as well as the Government.

During this phase, there were attempts to pressurise the Government to declare a ceasefire or a pause by the certain sections of the international community. This would have, no doubt, prolonged the conflict and provided the lifeline to the terrorists. Had we succumbed to such pressures, the Tamil civilians who were held as human shields by the LTTE would have had to pay with their lives. Fortunately, for them, we did not yield to any such pressure tactics, and stayed the course to liberate these long suffering people and was able to bring the conflict to an end. We could have completed this mission very much earlier. But being a responsible and democratically elected Government we had to move very cautiously taking into consideration the safety of these civilians.

Although the LTTE has been militarily defeated, we are left with its international network largely intact. Many of the operatives have clearly cultivated powerful political lobbies in certain capitals with a view to resurrecting the LTTE. It is important for the international community to take all measures to assist the Government of Sri Lanka to crack down the global network of the LTTE.

May I now move to the 2nd phase of the address which are the immediate challenges:

The rehabilitation and resettlement of nearly 280,000 persons who are displaced by the conflict is one of our foremost priorities. Civilians accommodated in the welfare villages lack family reunification. The influx of a large number of civilians within a short span of time scattered families. The Government is endeavouring to address the issue of family reunification. Children who were denied of their childhood are able to lead a more secure life today since there is no child conscription by the LTTE. Facilities for education are available for the children perhaps for the first time in their lives. The youth that were destined to be suicide cadres, today, have thrown the deadly cyanide capsule and are awaiting to be rehabilitated. The training camps of the LTTE and factories that produced suicide devices and armaments are no longer in existence. Even some of the LTTE combatants have found the IDP camps a safe haven. The next step would be for the resettlement of the IDPs in their original places of residence. Demining will precede this exercise as well as the reconstruction of infrastructure facilities.

The Government is firmly committed to reaching a political settlement acceptable to all. In his address to Parliament last week on 19th of May, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said and I quote

“the defeat of the LTTE and the breakdown of their armed strength will never be the defeat of the Tamil people of this country……… ‘we do not accept a military solution as the final solution. It is necessary that the political solution they need should be brought closer to them faster than any country in the world would bring” (unquote).

Already, our Tamil brethren have responded magnificently to the President’s call for unity. Even before the conflict was brought to an end, my Government brought together a significant group of the Tamil Diaspora, residing in many counties, on 28th – 29th March this year to explain our plans and objectives for developing the Northern Province and they pledged their unstinted support and cooperation.

This post-conflict phase is crucial in restoring confidence in people whose lives have been torn apart by this terrible conflict. The international community has a role to play in this endeavour.

The post-conflict reconciliation would also involve reintegration of former combatants into the political and economic process as well. For this purpose, a Presidential Task Force for resettlement, development and security in the Northern Province has been established to oversee these programmes.

Reconciliation Process:

As identified we have already unfolded the roadmap to achieve this objective through the devolution of power to regions as provided for in the Constitution within the framework of the 13th amendment. This provision never found its full implementation for the last 22 years since the Indo-Lanka Accord.

Our people are weary of war, yet they are resilient and want to get on with their lives. Therefore, the post conflict period will focus on rehabilitation, resettlement, economic empowerment, holding of free and fair elections. We may replicate our success in the Eastern Province in this regard. Victory can never be complete unless we win the hearts and minds and give the people affected by years of suffering a peace dividend.

We have overcome terrorism and Sri Lanka is poised for an economic take off. In conclusion may I now mention the overall dimensions of our success both to our people in Sri Lanka and to the region and to the world at large.

i. Sri Lanka has come out as a free country today, free from the scourge of terrorism;

ii. The LTTE as a terrorist organisation is eliminated. The elimination of the LTTE from Sri Lanka as a terror organisation would prevent other facets of terrorism such as money laundering, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling, arms smuggling etc from being manifested world over ;

iii. Dealing with the terror organisation, the way the Government of Sri Lanka had done, will send a strong signal to the international community that the terror can be defeated and eliminated.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(May 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In conducting military operations to eliminate terrorism, the Government’s primary concern was to safeguard the innocent civilians, many of whom had experienced multiple displacements over the years, and had their children forcibly conscripted by the LTTE to be used as cannon fodder. Many of them had lost one or more of their family members. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama made these observations, while addressing the final day session of the 8th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore today (31 May 2009).

The Shangri-La Dialogue,since its inaugural meeting in 2002,has become an integral part of the architecture of Asian defence diplomacy and is recognized as the region’s premier and most inclusive security institution.This is the 3rd occasion that Sri Lanka has been invited to participate in this high profile defence and security diplomacy forum, attended by 18 other nations in the Asian region, as well as the US, Russia, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

In a wide ranging speech on the theme, “Winning Counter Insurgency Campaigns- A Sri Lankan Perspective”, the Minister dealt with three broad aspects, namely, the LTTE reign of terror, rescuing civilians by launching a humanitarian mission and lastly the way forward- reconciliation and the political process. He announced to the distinguished audience, the end of LTTE terror in Sri Lanka, barely a week ago. The Foreign Minister attributed the astonishing success of the campaign to eradicate terrorism to President Rajapaksa, who has provided effective and decisive leadership to the military establishment in his capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. His acumen in sustaining broad-based popular support for the military campaign, and his engagement with the polity for wider consensus was evident from the very outset.

The Minister noted that Sri Lanka will no doubt enter the annals of history as a classic textbook example of a nation that successfully prevailed over the scourge of terrorism, while tenaciously upholding the cherished values of democracy and human rights that have been deeply ingrained in the psyche of her people. Armchair critics and skeptics who doubted the firm resolve and strength of our brave armed forces to defeat the so-called “invincible” might of the LTTE have been effectively silenced today, just as much as the guns.

Speaking on the second element of the theme of his speech, the Minister highlighted the importance that the Government attached to addressing the immediate challenge of rehabilitation and resettlement of nearly 280,000 persons who have been displaced by the conflict. Civilians accommodated in the welfare villages lack family reunification. The influx of a large number of civilians within a short span of time scattered families. The Government is endeavouring to address the issue of family reunification. Children who were denied of their childhood are able to lead a more secure life today since there is no more the threat of being forcibly conscripted by the LTTE.

Dealing with the final aspect of the theme, Minister Bogollagama reiterated the firm commitment of the Government of President Rajapaksa to reaching a political settlement acceptable to all. He quoted the President’s address to Parliament last week on 19th of May, wherein he had stated,“the defeat of the LTTE and the breakdown of their armed strength will never be the defeat of the Tamil people of this country……… ‘we do not accept a military solution as the final solution. It is necessary that the political solution they need should be brought closer to them faster than any country in the world would bring”.

The Minister pointed out that the post-conflict phase is crucial in restoring confidence in people whose lives have been torn apart by this terrible conflict and stressed the need for the international community to help in this endeavour.He noted that the post-conflict reconciliation would also involve reintegration of former combatants into the political and economic process as well. For this purpose, a Presidential Task Force for resettlement, development and security in the Northern Province has been established to oversee these programmes.

Foreign Minister Bogollagama concluded his address with these parting words, “Victory can never be complete unless we win the hearts and minds and give the people affected by years of suffering a peace dividend.”

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(May 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Milinda Moragoda Institute for People Empowerment and the Mostazafan Foundation of Iran to work towards setting up of several projects to develop the livelihoods in the agriculture and livestock sectors in the north and east of Sri Lanka.

The signing of the agreement took place in Tehran following discussions between Minister of Tourism Milinda Moragoada and the President of the Mostazafan Foundation, Mohommed Forouzanadeh recently.

The Mostazanfan Foundation is one of the largest agricultural institutions in Iran, which also acquires international operations.

Meanwhile, the Milinda Moragoda Institute for People Empowerment has been actively engaging in humanitarian demining work in the north and east of Sri Lanka and has also launched various projects in the agricultural and animal husbandry livelihood sectors.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

(May 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Chairman of the Uthuru Wasanthaya Presidential Task Force, Basil Rajapaksa says that the programme will go ahead in two phases.

“This will see the development of the north to speed up while the resettlement process for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) continues.

Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa made these observations addressing a gathering of Tamil intellectuals yesterday.

The programme will gather ideas from various quarters in order to make the development programme in the north successful.

Addressing the gathering, Lalith Weerathunga, Presidential Secretary said that the government hoped to get the ideas of all.

“If you look at the past events during the few days gone by and the President’s address to parliament, there is one particular sentence that I want to highlight. From now on or from the time that he made that statement, there is nothing in this country called a minority. That is the main thing that we want to harp on,” he said.

“This is not a southern initiative. This has to be from all over the country. Now we are ready to take off, we have to ensure that development that was not done in the five districts of the Northern Province is undertaken immediately and that there is a programme that is transparent and acceptable that everybody can be party to,” Mr. Weerathunga stressed.

Meanwhile, Mr. Rajapaksa pointed out that the government wanted to localize the development projects to suit the needs of the people in the area.

“We also must ensure local ownership because when development is taking place, the people want their ownership so it should not be something we put or enforced from outside.

“When we tried to build the Kinniya-Arugam Bay Bridge, people in that area said that it was not being built for them but for tourists. They felt that they did not have ownership for the projects. So we must ensure local ownership of all the things we are doing,” said Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa.

He stressed the participation of the private sector in all those efforts, observing that there was zero private sector at present in those area. The private sector, the civil society and government organizations had to be stakeholders in the rebuilding process, Mr. Rajapaksa said.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

"India should try to build up on this goodwill and strengthen it further by taking the leadership role in international efforts to help Sri Lanka after the conflict."
__________

By B.Raman

(May 31, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Many Sri Lankan Tamils were killed during the anti-Tamil riots in Colombo in 1983. In their anxiety to suppress details of the exact number of fatalities from being known to the international community, the Sri Lankan authorities allegedly decided to secretly burn the dead bodies of the Tamils killed in mass cremations without informing the relatives. Much before any agency of the Government of India, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, came to know about it and took action to stop it.

Her information came from Tamil families in Tamil Nadu with links or contacts with Tamils in Sri Lanka, I am mentioning this to underline that if there is any large-scale massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka by State agencies, Tamil families in Tamil Nadu would generally come to know about it much before anybody else in India or in the rest of the world. The fact that there has been no such tom-toming across Tamil Nadu of independent stories----- and not stories disseminated by Western sources--- about large-scale massacre of Tamil civilians in the Northern Province by the Sri Lankan security forces would underline the need for caution in accepting stories being disseminated by Western media and human rights organisations about the alleged massacre of nearly 20,000 Tamils during the final weeks of the Sri Lankan Army's counter-insurgency operations against the LTTE.

Had there been really such massacres as alleged by Western sources on the basis of purported leaks from unidentified members of the junior staff of the United Nations, people in Tamil Nadu would have come to know of these alleged massacres long before anybody else. Yes, there was concern over the use of air strikes and heavy artillery by the Sri Lankan security forces. These concerns were voiced by political and non-political elements in Tamil Nadu. There was equally a feeling in Tamil Nadu that the number of casualties suffered by the civilians during the final days of the fighting must have been more than the figures given by the Sri Lankan Government. In counter-insurgency situations, it happens often that the authorities tend to underestimate civilian casualties. We saw it in Iraq and we have been seeing it in Afghanistan. The debate regarding the number of civilian fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan goes on without anybody being to establish the exact figure. But nobody accuses the US-led forces in Iraq and Afghanistan of deliberately indulging in large-scale massacres of civilians. Nobody is asking for an international tribunal to try those in charge of operations in those two countries.

A campaign has been started in the West to embarrass the Sri Lankan Government and to put its senior officers, who were in charge of counter-insurgency, in the dock by disseminating unauthenticated high figures of civilian fatalities in the Northern Province. India should keep away from this campaign, which seems to be motivated not necessarily by wholly humanitarian considerations. India is uniquely placed in having a better and more objective idea of what happened in the Northern Province and should act according to its judgement without being influenced by the anti-Colombo campaign mounted in the West.

Now that the LTTE's insurgency is over, three issues have acquired priority. The first priority is relief and rehabilitation of the Tamil civilians affected by the counter-insurgency operations. The second is post-conflict economic reconstruction in Sri Lanka as a whole and in the Tamil areas in particular. The third is addressing the Tamil anger through an appropriate political package. The LTTE may be gone, but not the Tamil anger.

Since the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and more particularly since 2002, India has been playing second fiddle in Sri Lanka. It has left it to Western powers such as Norway and the US as well as to Japan to play an activist role in helping Sri Lanka. The time has come for India to once again play an activist role in respect of all the priorities cited above. India should assume the leadership role in helping Sri Lanka in its relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction tasks.

The goodwill for India in Sri Lanka has never been higher than it is after the defeat of the LTTE. It is not because India played any active role in its defeat. It is because India did not try to hamper the counter-insurgency operations of the Sri Lankan security forces. This was interpreted by them as India's moral support for their operations. Many Sri Lankans with whom I have interacted in recent weeks have frankly admitted that India's moral support was much more crucial than any material support from Pakistan or China in their counter-insurgency operations.

India should try to build up on this goodwill and strengthen it further by taking the leadership role in international efforts to help Sri Lanka after the conflict. If this goodwill is not frittered away and is strengthened further, that could give India a moral authority to nudge the Sri Lankan Government towards a politicasl solution which would be meaningful to the Tamils and acceptable to the Sinhalese.

In many articles in the past, I had expressed my fears that once the SL security forces win against the LTTE, the SL Government would try to impose a dictated peace on the Tamils. Those fears remain. All the more reason for India to play the leadership role to ensure that these fears are belied. These fears, even if valid, should not be allowed to inhibit our initiatives in Sri Lanka.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Gamini Weerakoon

(May 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The squawks of the Sinhala hawks have abated considerably. The Peace Doves have stepped up their mooing to squeaks and are now accusing Tigers of crimes which had bypassed the poor doves for three decades. The talk is of reconstruction, rehabilitation and restoration of human rights. It does convey the impression of Paradise blossoming out again. But is it so?

At the risk of falling into the wrong category of President Mahinda Percy Rajapakse’s classification of Sri Lankans into ‘patriots’ and ‘those who are not with us’ (‘us’ meaning the Rajapakse side) we say that Paradise is still a dim distance away from us.

Paradise is where we would have expected Sinhala Aiyyas and Demala Mallies (or is it Thambies) including akkas and nangies dancing on the streets, lighting crackers and eating kiributh after ‘liberation’ from the terrorists. But there was only the Sinhala kind celebrating ‘liberation.’ Tamils were maintaining a sombre silence. Sad but true. And it appears that if we are to reach Paradise, we have, as the poet said, ‘miles and miles to go.’

Celebrations

True, it is not even two weeks after ‘liberation.’ And we are still in a celebrating mood. With celebrations and the Victory Parade will come election campaigns for provincial councils in the Uva and the South. All this song, dance and elections are in the usual Sri Lankan order of things. But for this all important ‘historic’ occasion, the beginning of a new epoch as is said, the vital element is still missing: Spontaneous Sinhala and Tamil amity.

The victors in battle — as such victors everywhere — are cocky and certain about what the fallen want. But the essential difference here is that this was not a war between two different nations or two different states. We are all citizens of one country, one state.

The ‘liberated’ people are of many different minds over this ‘liberation.’ Those who have been brutalised, their children taken away from them as canon fodder for war, their properties destroyed will harbour many grudges against the Tigers. But a great many will not speak out, partly out of fear.

There are others who have suffered not so much by LTTE atrocities but do not appreciate their barbarism over the years and the sufferings they have caused. Yet they will not come out openly against the Tigers. There is another category which is furious and seething over what happened to the Tigers. They consider what happened as not a victory over terrorism but as a triumph of Sinhala chauvinism over them. Sum total of all these reactions: A sombre silence.

Sole representatives

It is not only fear but many Tamils over the past 30 years have wittingly and unwittingly come to accept — even sub-consciously — the LTTE as spokesman for the Tamils in the absence of an effective Tamil leadership. They savaged all other groups and after the Ceasefire Agreement even Western nations that had proscribed them as an international terrorist organisation considered the LTTE as the only party that could negotiate with the Sri Lanka government if the conflict was to be resolved. Most Tamils are no doubt much relieved over the end to violence and brutality of the LTTE but are in no mood for celebrations.

Much to celebrate

On the other hand those who are celebrating are amply justified in doing so. Not only Tamils but other communities too suffered terribly. The number of dead servicemen — soldiers, navy and air force personnel during the entire conflict has not yet been revealed. We have lost count of the tens of thousands of civilians dead or wounded. The disastrous impact to the economy has yet to be estimated. Thus when Velupillai Pirapaharan lies sprawled in the jungle, there is much to celebrate about.

But if the fruits of victory are to be reaped and the country is to progress the need for unity and amity of the two communities goes without saying. How this is to be done is a challenge to all. Solutions to be carried out from village level to constitutional amendments have been forthcoming in the last few days.

One vital requirement for amity is not to exacerbate the feelings of the Tamil people.

The mass media TV, radio and the press are now in an orgy of celebrations, The past is being recalled with gory and extremely provocative scenes being recalled and replayed. Such publicity may have been justified earlier to show the world the barbaric nature of the ‘liberators’ of the Tamil people but it is no longer needed for nation building. It can once again set off dangerous trends

Stimulus package

The question to be considered now is how much these celebrations will contribute to re- building amity among the people. Apart from the various development projects that will be cited what is called for is a stimulus to generate confidence of the Tamils.

The best stimulus would be the elusive political package which has been considered from way back in 1956. The APRC proposals are still being kicked around but President Rajapakse must show solid commitment and sincerity in implementing such a proposal or any other proposal if it is to become a reality

A constitutional solution to the Tamil problem would involve a certain degree of devolution of power to the Tamil people and to the north and east --a move which both the UNP and the SLFP has been fighting shy of. And undoubtedly President Rajapakse’s silence indicates that these restraints are still on.

Newspapers are now projecting him as the legendary king Dutu Gemunu or even much greater than Dutu Gemunu as H.L.D. Mahindapala did from Melbourne. That should give him enough courage to take on the challenge of a political solution. Or will he say: Dutu Gemunu did not devolve power!

Paradise after polls

But as we pointed out before in these columns Rajapakse is a firm believer of considering ‘war as another form of politics.’ And right now he is girding up his loins for elections to the Uva and Southern Provincial Councils. Already he has swept all other provincial council elections on the cry that ‘a defeat at the polls means that people are not supporting the military victories against terrorism.’ No doubt this successful mantra will be tried out at the forthcoming elections and then again at a general election to be held soon and perhaps a presidential election as well.

But all that will leave this historic opportunity hanging in the air. Will the promised Paradise have to wait the crowning of Rajapakse for the second time as president?

Paradise, as we said earlier, is a long way off. We have miles and miles to go.

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By Wickramabahu Karunaratne

(May 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The legend of Diyasena takes us back to the times of Parakramabahu the Great. If I remember correctly, an ascetic had predicted that the king will be reborn as Diyasena 2500 years after the Buddha, to save Buddhism from extinction. Now the legend has been revised to say that Diyasena has come to save the Sinhala identity from extinction. In the course of the revised legend, Dutugemunu was inserted in place of Parakramabahu. Of course myths are always recreated to suit the ruling elite. In ‘56 the Sinhala petty bourgeoisie embraced the Maha Bandaranaike claiming that he was the mythical Diyasena.

ut SWRD could not humble himself to be a parochial Sinhala chauvinist - he was too Anglo Saxon for that. At heart he was a Western liberal, with a radical lifestyle tied to global capitalism. State capitalism of Bandaranaike was a part of the new arrangement - a structural change - in favour of expanding capitalism. It had nothing to do with socialism. It is true that the Sinhala middle class gained something from it, but they were still second class compared to the Westernised upper elite. In fact, the expansion of Sinhala culture - literature, music, technology - was really guided by the Anglo Saxon elite who were too learned and cultured to be outwitted.

Severe dissatisfaction

Towards the end of the sixties there was severe dissatisfaction among the Sinhala village youth. The JVP gave vent to this dissatisfaction and humiliation felt by the Sinhala petty bourgeoisie. In addition, it reflected their hatred against the capitalist system. But this social struggle against the ruling classes was pushed to a side by their fundamental weakness. They could not tolerate their Tamil counterparts - the doubly oppressed Tamil people. In spite of their slogans against capitalists and the brokering classes, the hate and jealousy of the Sinhala middle class was primarily directed at the Tamil people. Thus the JVP, as it developed in maturity, never could get out of Sinhala chauvinism.

The Tamil middle class got a bad deal compared with their Sinhala counterpart. The populist gimmicks of Bandaranaike’s socialism were fascinating to the Sinhala masses. The Tamil masses very correctly suspected this localised socialism as being bogus. While the Anglo Saxon elite sidelined the Tamil upstarts, the populist leaders started kicking them around. Sinhala chauvinism showed its ferocity in a series of pogroms since 1957. Tamil bourgeoisie leaders, as parliamentarians and mass leaders did their best to show their opposition to these brutal terrorist acts. But this only brought vicious repressive terror from the Sinhala regime in Colombo.

Tamil youth were desperate and they learned their lesson from the JVP - thus emerged the Tamil armed rebellion. The greatest mockery of history is that almost all the terror tactics of the LTTE were inherited from the JVP.

In this early period the JVP and Tamil liberation fighters looked to each other for support and they were partners in a common struggle. In fact the JVP took the position that it stood for the right of self determination when they came out into the open in 1977. Of course, at that time there was an independent workers’ movement as the old Left parties had come out of the coalition.

Solution

The Nava Sama Samaja Party had already been campaigning for a solution to the Tamil national problem on the basis of equality, autonomy and the right of self determination. This had a positive influence on both these petty bourgeoisie movements. But the Left could not develop into a united fighting force though they united in the general strike in ‘80 and in ‘87 as the United Socialist Alliance. The break up of the Left forces enhanced the separation and sectarianism of both the LTTE and the JVP. The JVP moved into an unholy alliance with the SLFP thus resurrecting the myth of Diyasena, this time as the Sinhala hero of Ape kama - our way. This is, we are told, a movement rooted in the villages, led by a real Sinhala prince! However this movement defeated the Tamil liberation fighters - women and men born, bred and educated in this country, only with the direction and support of the global capital including India. In fact foreign forces fought on the side of the Sinhala prince. At the same time Maha Rajano’s development programme is a slightly revised edition of Regaining Sri Lanka of Wickremesinghe, the Kelama. Why Kelama?

Because Wickremesinghe exposed the frauds of the regime to the global capitalist masters! As it is Maha Rajano is begging for billions of dollars from the managing institutes of global capital for the very survival of his regime.

Does the legend say that Diyasena will push the country into destruction and misery, not only for the Tamils but also for the Sinhala, and will then go around begging the global capitalist masters to save it?

-Sri Lanka Guardian

By FS

(May 31, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Foreign contractors are flowing into the city, some already housed in five-star hotels which are also seeing an increasing number of inquiries from foreign businessmen. Everyone wants a piece of the action as Sri Lanka prepares for a new chapter of development after nearly 30 years of conflict ended last week with the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran and the annihilation of the once-seen-invincible Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Any doubts about Prabhakaran’s killings and prospects of a resurgence of the LTTE were laid to rest after Selvarasa Pathmanathan, LTTE Head of International Relations who lives somewhere in Asia and is considered the only remaining LTTE top ranker, acknowledged the death and said, in a statement, that the rebel group has given up its military struggle.

Everywhere there is talk of development, rebuilding and reconstruction not only in the north and east but in the rest of the country. Apart from the northeast region, the rest of Sri Lanka has also suffered from the war through civilian deaths and stalled economic progress. An economy that should have grown by 8-9 % has been growing at an average 4-5 %. Foreign investment was dented and only the most adventurous investors ventured out to put their money in Sri Lanka.

In the last two years, the two main growth sectors have been telecommunication and banking services while other industries have lacked investment. Tourism was the worst affected and now things are looking up. Sri Lanka and her people are facing many challenges and the biggest challenge today, as we see it, is in ensuring sustainable development in the the northeast. Already plans are underway to attract 1.5 million tourists in coming years, with the immediate (2009) target being 500,000.

These are essentially to fill the hotels while newer hotels will be built. Is this the right kind of development? Are we going to cut trees, carve out huge construction sites, intrude into peaceful areas of the country’s coastline and tamper with nature?

The other day, a middle-aged gym instructor in Colombo asked the same question. “Is this the kind of development we want? We need to develop using our water and land resources. We should not cut trees and ruin the environment. Our development plan should be homespun and not copied from overseas,” he said. Piyal Parakrama, ecologist and Executive Director at the Colombo-based Centre for Environmental and Nature Studies, is also questioning the rush to promote mass tourism. “We need to promote agro-eco tourism. We need to promote a tourism that will not ruin the environment and take away the little resources we have,” he says.

Sarath Fernando, a veteran activist for farmers’ rights and coordinator of MONLAR which represents farmers and peasants, says the usual kind of development that governments undertake will not work. “What is the kind development envisaged? The government will invite foreign investors and the private sector to invest for the sake of the national economy but do they take the interests of the people at heart?” he asked, adding that like in the past, investors will come, use the land offered cheap, cheap labour and also get tax benefits.

On the flipside, the business community has complained for years about enviromentalists, ecologists and the like who stand in the way of development. “Whenever you start a project, an environmentalist will start a campaign or people will block the plan. Sri Lanka’s progress, apart from the war, has also been stiffled by these campaigners,” a corporate leader said, adding that all these campaigns are ‘well funded from outside.’

Nevertheless sustainable development, particularly with the people in mind, is increasingly entering the boardrooms of multinationals in the west. There is a growing alliance between big corporates and NGOs in social responsible work. Do companies invest to make profits only or make profits plus share those profits with the community? Recently an industrialist confessed that he is putting up a factory in the East because of the tax holiday. “We invested there purely because of the tax holiday and other concessions.

There was no other reason,” he said. Yes, investments are needed and profits are important otherwise one shouldn’t be in business. But is the private sector – just like to rush to invest (essentially trade) in Jaffna after the 2003 ceasefire agreement – preparing to invest in the north and repatriate all the profits? Even more important, is the private sector going to invest in these two acutely under-developed regions without consulting the people? Will investors outside the northeast also behave like foreign investors – invest and take their profits out with some ‘cosmetic’ sharing with the community?

This is not saying that most in the private sector have honourable intentions. We for one will doff our hats to investors who are genuinely concerned about the community and sharing of profits. The north with its strong agriculture base needs to see a resurgence in agriculture and hopefully there would be a flow of investment in these areas.

Communities in the north need to be consulted in the development and investment phase that takes place. There shouldn’t be an imposition of business and industry from outside that is not to the liking of the northerner– otherwise it would aggravate many of the unresolved (political) issues like decision-making in land use and infrastructure development.

Big business needs to go in but as partners in development – where the people of the land have a bigger say, and a bigger role in their future. Profits and creation of jobs alone, should not be the only aim.

-Sri Lanka Guardian