Wednesday 20 December 2006

My Thanks to those in Canada and USA

After all the generous comments about me and ‘awards’, it is time to thank all those who helped me during my visit to the US and Canada in October 2006. It was the most gratifying ‘mission’ I have been on, in the past three decades that I have been campaigning for the cause of the Tamil people.

Ilankai Tamil Sangam

It all started when the Sangam invited me to address the 29th Annual General Meeting on October 14, 2006.
I am not the first Sinhalese to be so honoured. The late Adrian Wijemanne was the Chief Guest in 1997. His keynote address, “Amity, not Unity” , is even more relevant today than it was a decade ago. It sets out the historical basis on which we can confidently predict the final outcome of the liberation struggle of the Tamil people – the establishment of a separate State, Eelam.
My stance has been as a humanitarian and someone who opposes injustice (as was Adrian’s) – indeed a series of injustices - done to the Tamil people by a succession of Sinhalese Governments over half a century.
I accepted the invitation for two reasons, despite compelling reasons why I should be in Brisbane. Firstly, it was an honour for me, a Sinhalese, to be invited to address a major event on the US Tamil calendar. Secondly, with the restart of hostilities despite a so-called Ceasefire, the expatriate Tamil community was losing hope and was confused, if not despondent, and it was imperative to clarify the situation and call for action, not despondency.
In view of some damaging comments made by foreign politicians and others from outside Sri Lanka, and the serious consequences these have had in that country, there was a need to apprise these people, of what was going on in that country which is very different from Sri Lankan Government propaganda.
I suggested to Sangam that in addition to speaking at the AGM, I should address public meetings in other parts of the US and Canada and see whoever should be seen to apprise them of what was going on in Sri Lanka. The timing was unfortunate in that it was three weeks before the US mid-term elections and politicians were more concerned about getting themselves elected than in the slaughter of Tamils in some distant land which had no oil.
I greatly appreciate the Executive of Sangam for making this visit possible.

The AGM

The AGM was divided into three parts – the morning which was medical (doctors got ‘Brownie ‘points for attending), the afternoon was political (the story that Sri Lankans got de-merit points from the GOSL for attending this is untrue), and the evening, a dinner and social. I had the fortune (? misfortune) of having to address all three.
The entire meeting (medical, political and social) seems to have been organized by Tammy Sriharan, the non-Sri Lankan wife of the President of Tamil Sangam, Sri Haran. Never have I seen someone so obsessed with ‘getting it right’. To say that anyone is indispensable could be challenged. What cannot be challenged is that this meeting would not have been the success it was, without the 110% effort put in by Tammy. At a personal level, I have nothing but gratitude for the scores of telephone calls she made to me in Australia and all round the US and Canada, arranging all the crazy things I wanted to do, and what others wanted me to do, with multiple changes at minimal notice.

The morning session

This was organized and chaired by Dr Karunyan Arulanantham, a long-time campaigner for the Tamil cause, with special interests in refugees and the delivery of medical services to people who do not exist in the eyes of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL).
There were some outstanding papers, the best by Dr Yasodha Natkunam, the daughter of one of the finest cardio-thoracic surgeons that Sri Lanka has produced but could not retain, like so many others. Yaso is famous in her own right and Natkunam is in danger of being referred to as ‘Yaso’s father’.
Yaso is a Consultant Pathologist in the US who has spent time in the North of Sri Lanka setting up pathology services. Having gone down this road in 1968 – trying to set up a clinical research laboratory in Kandy, starting from ‘ground-zero’, and with maximum obstruction from ‘above’, I could appreciate the problems she faced and the way she handled them. Her address must be made available on a DVD.
While experts in their field (Gastroenterologists, Endocrinologists, Psychiatrists, Pathologists, and others) spoke on subjects in their specialty, I, a Physician, spoke on Post-Traumatic Depression, which was not in my area of expertise and in which I have no special interest or training. I simply set out my experience over 30 years in Australia, dealing with supposedly ‘medical’ problems, but which turned out to be related to, or precipitated by, events in Sri Lanka.
I was introduced by Professor Sriharan, one of the finest brains that Sri Lanka has ever produced (and lost, like so many others). The loss of Sriharan was serious. He is a Colombo graduate, adopted by Kandy (when I was there). I had no part to play in his training although he made out that I had. He ended up as the first Professor of Medicine in Jaffna, and then lost to the UK. When I heard of his tragic loss, I said that Sri Lanka did not deserve someone like him.
I am obviously not going to evaluate my talk. All I will say is that a single generous comment by Dr N. Balasubramanium, a Pathologist from New York, gave me enough encouragement to have this talk put on a DVD and made available. Unfortunately the recording was not great in that while it is possible to see (and hear) me, the more important slides cannot be seen. This will have to be rectified but might take a few of weeks.

The afternoon session

A book release A Path to Purposeful Living – The validity and relevance of Thirukkural to modern times by the author, V.P.Palam, was followed by the political talks.
1. Humanitarian Law and Self-determination by Karen Parker JD.
Karen is a Los Angeles-based human rights lawyer specializing in armed conflict (humanitarian) law and human rights. She has represented non-governmental organizations at the United Nations, and has addressed the armed conflict in Sri Lanka since 1983. She has presented more than 30 written and oral statements to the UN on the application of humanitarian law to the armed conflict in Sri Lanka and on the situation of the Tamils. She has submitted testimony on the conflict to US Congress, and at the Parliaments in France, Australia, United Kingdom, and other countries. Much of what she said has been published, on the net and elsewhere.
2. Genocide of the Tamils, A Failed State and possible Solutions by me
I set out the evidence for genocide of the Tamil people by the GOSL and introduced the concept of ‘economic genocide’, ‘educational genocide’ and ‘cultural genocide’, being the deliberate destruction of the economy, education and culture of a specific ethnic group. I will put this on the net.
Sri Lanka satisfies the criteria for a ‘Failed State’. To claim that it is not is deception. This too will be on the net, although it is already well documented.
As for solutions, I presented the reasons why a separate Tamil State (and a separate Sinhala State) was the only possible solution today. I will put an expanded version on the net.
3. Politics of Relief: Humanitarian work in NorthEastern Sri Lanka by Nimmi Gowrinathan
Nimmi is a PhD student in UCLA. She has spent some time in Sri Lanka and presented the ground realities of relief – very different from the false propaganda of the GOSL. This was an excellent paper which needs wide dissemination to show the international community what the Tamil people in the North and East are going through.
The formal session ended with Karen Parker conducting a Workshop: The War – Critical issues there and here.

The evening social

This was very well patronized with more than 300 people (or so it appeared to me), turning up. The Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel, New Jersey, was packed.
Sadena Thevarajah and Prem Jayanthan from the Tamil Youth Organisation spoke on Getting Youth Involved. This is an important problem since it is the youth who will have to take the baton from us.
Nimmi Gowrinathan repeated her experience in humanitarian work since the audience was larger.
I spoke on Why I stand where I do. It was a social gathering and I was asked to keep the diners amused. Unfortunately, I am not a comedian, nor did I think the situation back home warranted amusement. I thought that informing people was more important than amusing them. However, I did go over the nonsense in the Mahavamsa which produced the necessary amusement. I pointed out that I was a member of the Lion race, a direct descendent from a Lion mating with an oversexed Princess. It had to be true, it is in the Mahavamsa.
I was simply repeating what that outstanding Tamil journalist, S.Sivanayagam, has written in The Pen and the Gun, to which he invited me to write a Foreword. When I told him that it will be the kiss of death for the book, his defiant response was, If people will not buy the book because you wrote the Foreword, damn them. That was Siva.
The Lion story belatedly reminds me of an event in 1956. Bandaranaike was presenting his infamousSinhala Only Act. Protesting Tamil MPs were being mauled outside Parliament by Sinhalese hoodlums. The MPs entered Parliament, bleeding and bandaged, to roars of laughter and jeers, “Wounds of War”, from the Sinhalese MPs. Dr E.M.V.Naganathan, not a man to be intimidated, muttered something like, “When the Tamil Tiger rises, the Sinhala Lion will go with its tail between its legs.” I wish the prophetic gentleman was there to see it ‘come to pass’.
I will put the more important parts of my address on the net.
I ended my address raising an imaginary glass in two toasts. The first was to two remarkable women, neither of them Sri Lankans, whom I had met for the first time 48 hours earlier – Avis Sri Jayantha who runs the Sangam website, and Tammy Sriharan, whom I have already referred to.
I was able to see staff from the US Senate, House of Representatives, the United Nations section on the Prevention of Genocide, the renowned newspaper, Washington Post, and Human Rights Watch (which, incidentally, has a higher standing in the USA than Amnesty International).
During my talk I think Tammy was still running around, I doubt if she heard my toast to her. She is of Irish background, with a colour in keeping with her genetics. There she was in a yellow saree, looking as Tamil as they come. Had someone put some dark stripes on that saree, she could have been a Tiger, as I have been called many times – indeed a Tamil Tiger Terrorist. Incidentally, if I am one, so are the Bandaranaikes since my father comes from that clan.
Tammy makes the best Thosai I have ever eaten, a sad reflection on my Tamil wife. The second toast was to ‘Eelam’ which will come despite the best efforts of the Sinhala leadership, present, past and future, to prevent it. They, and the Sinhala extremists, can delay but not, in any way,prevent it. History, as set out by Adrian Wijemanne a decade ago at a similar meeting, will not have it otherwise.
A passing word about Avis’ husband, the brilliant Dr Sri Sri Jayantha. now with IBM. When Sri Lanka loses people like him (and many others like him), it is game, set and match. If they did not have to leave Sri Lanka, that country would have been a leader in Asia – an ‘Asian Tiger’, if you pardon the pun. Hopefully they will return, albeit on an intermittent basis, to Tamil Eelam, when it moves fromde facto to de jure.
Finally, a Vote of Thanks by the President of llankai Tamil Sangam, the no-nonsense Sri Haran, who impressed me greatly.
This was followed by music and dance, Classical Fusion, they called it, presented by Selvi Chandranathan and her students. It was pretty loud, perhaps my ears are too old to cope with a lot of vibration. I sloped off to bed at 2 am, not quite sure whether it was 2am (USA), 5pm (Brisbane), or neither.
At breakfast, in a touching gesture, Karen and I were presented with honour-plaques. I did not see what Karen’s read. Mine was:-
An “International crusader” for Human Rights and Dignity all over the World and Promoter of Justice for All
I thought it was an exaggeration but I appreciated the stress on ‘Justice’. That is precisely what I want – justice for the people of Sri Lanka, and that is what is being denied to them by a succession of Sri Lankan Governments.
My plaque was presented by a former medical registrar of mine. He was disarmingly honest when he said, “I did not like Dr Senewiratne when I worked for him. Nothing I could do was right”. It is probably a sentiment shared by many others who do not have the honesty to say so.
Thanks to Sri Haran, I was able to see Wakeley Paul in his home. He was too unwell to come for the meeting. I suspect Wakeley had more than a little to do with the invitation to me to address the AGM. He is a fine soul, totally committed to the Tamil cause. I was most upset to see him so unwell, but every time I veered towards his medical problems, he veered away! I was delighted to hear later that he was miraculously on the mend. I’d like to believe that it was the therapeutic effect of my visit, but I think the medicines is on are more likely to be responsible. He had better be around to usher in Tamil Eelam, for which he has been campaigning for so many years and with such dedication.
Wakeley, named after the famous British surgeon, Sir Cecil Wakeley, is the son of one of the most famous and finest Professors of Surgery that Sri Lanka has ever had, Professor Milroy Paul (‘Polo’ to his students). Milroy Paul must surely be turning in his grave when he sees what has become of his beloved Department of Surgery which was, for many years, one of the best in the world and one that has trained so many top Sri Lankan surgeons. I came all the way from Cambridge, just to go on one of his teaching rounds.

Washington

From New York, it was a drive to Washington – my ‘chauffeur’, Dr Saba Kulatungam, Cardiologist, and his wife, Dr Mano (Navaratnam), a former student of mine. We discussed everything from Buddhism to Eelam. In Washington, ‘home’ was with Arichandran, ex-World Bank, and a life-long friend. It was Arichandran’s father, Dr K.Kanagaratnam, who first invited my family to Jaffna in the 1940s. It was on this trip that I, a 14 year old boy, told his parents, “Until this area is separated from the South, this area will never develop”. It was an early call for Eelam and recognition that development, or its lack, was the crucial issue. Until that is addressed, there will be no Peace in Sri Lanka.
When Sinhala patriots decided to burn Arichandran’s home and very nearly his entire family in July 1983, they were depriving Sri Lanka of a competent accountant and a gifted tennis player at the top of the pile. That is Sinhala ‘patriotism’.
Arichandran showed me a book, Ramanathan of Ceylon – the life of Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan. With generosity typical of his family, he said, “Nothing would please me more than to present this book to you, but it was given to me by my father”. This extraordinary book, published in some backyard in Jaffna, needs to be reprinted. It has invaluable references to Tamils standing up for the Sinhala leaders, falsely accused and imprisoned by the British in the 1915 anti-Muslim riots. Anagarika Dharmapala, (1864-1933), the Buddhist revivalist, praised Ramanathan, Solicitor-General, for getting them freed. He says:
“The day that you (Ramanathan) are taken away from Ceylon, from that day there will be none to defend the poor, neglected Singhalese. They are a doomed people with none to guide and protect them. Unhappy Singhalese!”
Dharmapala, who, before his Buddhist-slanted name-change, was a Don Carolis, son of the well-known furniture maker. I hope he will return to Sri Lanka from wherever he is, and see the damage done by yellow-robed hoodlums and political opportunists, as a result of his ‘activities’.

Toronto

From Washington, I got to Toronto to address more meetings, a radio and TV interview, ducking out to Boston while I was there. The biggest was a dinner organised by the Tamil Canadian Congress, chaired by Fr. Dr Joseph Chandrakanthan, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Bioethics, University of Toronto. I have known him for two decades, from the time he was studying theology in Ottawa. He is an articulate and forceful speaker who would have ‘disappeared’ had he been in Jaffna, as his brother priests have done.
My address to the huge audience has been recorded and will be available on DVD. It sure was comprehensive, but at the cost of intolerable hunger inflicted by me on those who had paid dearly for food that did not seem to appear (because of the length of my address).
There was ‘audience participation’ in a big way, one of my former students appreciating the stance I took on ‘ragging’, which in Sri Lanka is a form of sadism which merits criminal prosecution (one student broke her spine and later died).
At long last, access to food was possible. Then came yet another ‘Award’. It read:
For Your Tireless Contribution in Upholding Justice and Human Rights”.
Again, I appreciated the reference to ‘Justice’.
I did remind them that an ‘award’ was unnecessary since most of the problems in Sri Lanka came from my relatives, the Bandaranaikes. I can think of no other family in any other country that has been responsible for wrecking a country and turning it from one with a bright future to one with no future.
Much as I appreciated the ‘Award’, I had to admit that I valued another ‘Award’ more. This was a T-shirt I was given many years ago which reads, ”I support Tamil Eelam”. On it is a map of Sri Lanka with almost half the island shaded to indicate ‘Eelam’! Why not? There will be quantitatively less of a “Failed Sinhala State”.
I was delighted that the ‘Award’ was presented by Dr Sri Bavan Sri Skandarajah, whose guest I was in Toronto. Bavan and his highly committed and talented wife, Usha, (who wrote that undeserved ‘Ode’ to me, and the much more appropriate Maveerar poem), could not have been more helpful. They took me to see a wonderful lady, the wife of my friend Joseph Pararajasingham. She was still devastated after the outrageous murder of that fine man on Christmas Day 2005. Joseph and Sugunam have stayed in my home in Brisbane (where I taught him to make ‘godamba roti’).
Bavan and Usha did everything for me, including repairing my shoes which, like Sri Lanka, had fallen apart, but which, unlike the latter, was readily fixed. They put their lives on hold for the duration of my visit. I addressed two meetings of University students in the University of Toronto (campus in Toronto and Scarborough). This is an important area to develop – getting the students involved. The audience participation indicated the level of interest of these young people, many of whom had never been to Sri Lanka and whose only connection was their name. It is crucial to take this forward and build a ‘Federation of Tamil Students’ across the world and link them up with those in Jaffna (who are facing some terrible problems at the moment).
I barely made it to a Radio interview on CTR (Canadian Tamil Radio) conducted by Wijey Kulathungam. It went on for double the allocated time because of questions and comments from the listeners.
I was delighted to be able to reach out to ‘ordinary’ Tamils through this Radio program, an activity which I think is crucial and which I hope will be the primary focus, when I next go to Toronto (or elsewhere).
The radio interview was preceded by an excellent interview on television (TVi – Tamil Vision Int.) superbly conducted by the articulate Vijay Thamil Priyan. It was a wide ranging interview which is available on DVD and should be re-broadcast in other countries. I will be glad to send anyone a copy.
I was delighted to meet two totally dedicated young men, ‘Danton’ and the outstanding Esan Satkunarajah whose enthusiasm and commitment know no bounds. No one among the younger Tamils has impressed me more than these young men. It was great encouragement to me to meet them. I was deeply moved by an account on Sangam of my time in Toronto.

Boston

Boston is home to a longstanding friend of mine, Sri Srithilliampalam whose contribution to the Tamil cause in the US has been substantial. Sri is a remarkable fellow who has contacts (to this very day) in the US State Department and in Boston. It was he who was responsible for the famous Massachusetts Resolution passed in 1979 – which rocked the J.R.Jayawardene Government. It was an outright condemnation of the Sri Lanka Government and a declaration of “Eelam Day” – 22ndMay. It was passed by the Massachusetts State Legislature – an unprecedented act by any State in the US. Sri went on to celebrate this and raised the “Eelam Flag” in Boston in 1981. To this very day, his car (as old as himself) carries a number plate ‘EELAM 1’.
I addressed a meeting of Tamils in Boston on 22 November 2006. It was regrettable that significant numbers did not show up because of senseless in-fighting among Tamils. This self-destructive activity must stop. We are fighting one of the most brutal and ruthless regimes Sri Lanka has ever had. At a time such as this (for that matter, at any time), it is outrageous that expatriate Tamils should fight each other over issues which are, at the most, trivial.
From Boston, back to Toronto and then to the West Coast.

San Francisco

A meeting of expatriate Tamils was organized in San Jose by Tom Fernando (a Tamil, despite his name) married to my ‘adopted Tamil daughter’ and student, Dr Christine Edwards from Kayts. I have never been to San Francisco without staying with the Fernandos in Sacramento (and never will). However, chaos on the flights to San Francisco left me no option but a hotel – much to the distress of Christine and Tom.
The meeting in the San Francisco Bay area was organised by the Tamils of Northern California, whose President is SivaRaja Swaminathan. The work of getting the meeting together fell on Vimal Rajagopal, Amaran Wijay and, of course, Tom Fernanado. Here are quiet, dedicated people who work in the background doing the hard yards, while we get the applause.
Donald Gnanakone came all the way from Los Angeles for the meeting. He has written more than anyone I know of, on the Tamil struggle. My computer had to be fitted with a larger hard disc to cope with his emails. How he does it, beats me. One can think what one wants about his writings, but what cannot be in doubt is his commitment to the Tamil cause. It is absolute.
That night, I left for my second home - Lancaster in Southern California.

Lancaster

Here live expatriate Tamils who put their money where their mouth is. Dr Karunyan and Dr.Inpam Arulanantham, Dr and Mrs Shan Sunder, my Tamil brother Dr Moorthy, Kandiah Perinpanathan, and the silent, totally committed, Harichandra (Hari), and others.
Hari is the living example of a truism, “If you want something done, pick the busiest person and ask him to do it”. For all things in Lancaster, I pick Hari and it is done. This included driving all the way from Lancaster to pick me up from Los Angeles airport at midnight and driving back, then feeding me, and then discussing what practical things we can do in the present crisis, and what can be done to move the issue to the next level. The Lancaster Tamils have an invigorating effect on me which is impossible to describe.
The public meeting in Lancaster (actually Burbank), was chaired by Karunyan. The comments I made about Professor Sriharan, apply to Karunyan in full measure. Sri Lanka was too engulfed in anti-Tamil racism to enable Karunyan (an endocrinologist), and Inpam (a pathologist), to make their contribution to Sri Lanka.
I dealt with the problem of a lack of information – people, in particular non-Sri Lankans, simply not knowing what is going on in that country. The suggestion I made was to produce a ‘Basic Information’ 45 minute video, setting out, especially for non-Sri Lankans, what the conflict is all about. This is imperative if the GOSL disinformation campaign is to be countered. It has to assume zero knowledge of Sri Lanka. Starting from some basic information on the geography, and regional climatic differences, it has to go on to administrative problems, the centralization of power in Colombo by the colonial British, the developmental neglect of the Tamil areas, the handing over of the country to a Government that will always be Sinhalese-dominated, the discrimination of the Tamil ‘minority, non-violent protests by the Tamils, futile Pacts abrogated unilaterally by the GOSL, the failure of the democratic process to deliver justice to the Tamils, the inevitable resort to an armed struggle to free the Tamil people from Sinhala-domination and discrimination, and the response of the GOSL, a decimation of the Tamil civilian population and the area they live in, and now, to a genocide of the Tamil people and a humanitarian crisis. I said that I will be glad to make this ‘Information video’.
The highlight of the meeting, from my perspective, was a question by 7 year old Neelan Nanda Ganshan, “If all the people are Sri Lankans, why are they fighting?” If I could, I’d abduct that boy and adopt him. Here is a leader-in-the-making and a thinker.
Addressing Neelan’s question as best as I could, I said that my cousin, Chandrika Kumaratunga, when she was President, in an interview in South African radio, said that the Tamils were asking for a part of Sri Lanka and, hold your breath, “They are not even the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka”. Alas for her abysmal lack of knowledge – or is it history being re-written in line with Sinhala ethnic chauvinism – the cause of the ‘fight’.
It was then time to head off to Los Angeles for the flight back, but not before a final hug at the airport. Professor Reggie Edgerton and his wife Monica were there for a momentary hug. Reggie was one of the outstanding Americans from the famous UCLA to come to Kandy and work with me on the health of the Plantation Tamils. He was disturbed to hear that the contents of that beautiful research laboratory, the only clinical research laboratory in Sri Lanka, built by me on a personal grant from the Nuffield Foundation, was smashed by hoodlums for no obvious reason. A senseless act, but what in Sri Lanka is not?
For those who were in Peradeniya, 1966-1976, there is booklet by me What I have taught and learnt in Sri Lanka. The musing of a senile teacher. This is what I presented to former students at a reunion in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. I had lost the floppy disc, but have now found it. I guess Sangam is not the place to publish this, but I will be glad to send it to anyone by email. It is worth a read. It will take you back to Kandy. I arrived in Brisbane just in time to start my Medical Clinic – 15 minutes late.
Was the effort worthwhile? I do not know, time will tell. The purpose of this article is not to evaluate success or failure but to thank the many people, some whose names I cannot even remember, for enabling me to do what I set out to do – “wake up the sleeping Tamils”, and inform those who do not know, or do not want to know, about the suffering of the Tamil people, now a humanitarian crisis, and to convince everybody of the absolute need for Tamil Eelam.
The three messages I wanted to leave were:-
    1. Don’t be intimidated, don’t be afraid. To make expatriate Tamils fearful, is the name of the game, in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. It is a carefully crafted strategy between the GOSL and these governments. If you cave in and become frightened, they win. No one is asking you to do anything illegal. If helping our people in the North and East, abandoned by their Government, indeed brutalized by their Government, is illegal, challenge it we should, challenge it we must. No Government which claims to be democratic and civilized can penalize people for helping civilians facing decimation at the hands of a brutal and barbaric Government.
    Unjust laws should be challenged, even broken. The British Raj declared that Indians should not make salt. Mahatma Gandhi challenged it, went on his famous ‘salt-march’, and made salt. India got its Independence and prospered, and the British Empire collapsed.
    2. No humanitarian organization e.g. the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) has been banned in any country. The humanitarian needs, including the massive problem of refugees in the North and East is being addressed by the TRO – a recognized and registered NGO – and the recipient of an award by ex-President Kumaratunga. The freezing of the TRO bank account in Sri Lanka is illegal and is being challenged in the Supreme Court. With the abysmal level to which the justice system in Sri Lanka has sunk, it may be necessary to take this to an International Court since it affects the lives of thousands. The blocking of funds of the TRO will not be upheld in any Court outside Sri Lanka. It might not even be in Sri Lanka.
    3. This is a struggle we cannot lose. In fact, Eelam is already established and functioning well, as documented by Professor Kristian Stokke, University of Oslo, who worked in the de facto State of Tamil Eelam. His extensive paper is on the net (eelamnation.org), and has been published in an international journal. A de facto State will move to a de jure State as surely as day follows night. We have the overwhelming force of history behind us to point the way to the future. The future will be a separate Tamil State (and a separate Sinhala State). Of that, let there be no doubt. Thanks to the Mahavamsa!


    Brian Senewiratne                                           Briabane, Australia