BRIAN
SENEWIRATNE
292 Pine Mt Rd
MA
(Cantab), MBBChir (Cantab), MBBS Hons (Lond) ,
Mt Gravatt
MD(Lond),
FRCP(Lond), FRACP
Australia
Consultant Physician
Tel 07 33496118
Fax 07 33434306
Mobile
0419335334
email
bsenewiratne@gmail.com
26 Oct 2012
Elias Jeyarajah
President
USTPAC
Tamil strategy Session and Thamilar Sangamam
Nov 2-4, 2012
Dear Mr Jeyaraj.
Notice of this meeting came my way
because I am a Senator of the TGTE. However, I am not
sending this in this capacity but as an ordinary concerned
person (a Sinhalese at that), who has been campaigning for six
decades (since 1948) for justice for the Tamil people. I have no
agenda except peace with justice in Sri Lanka and the
protection of basic human rights for all of its people.
Although I am sending a copy of this to
the TGTE, they are not responsible for this. They may not even agree
with some or all of what I have to say. The responsibility for what I
say is mine and mine alone.
- Tamil Eelam is not negotiable. In the dozen dvds I have recorded on the Tamil struggle, I have suggested other options such as a Federal Tamil State, a Confederation etc. This is now history. None of these other options are possible or even desirable now or in the foreseeable future. It has to be a complete break with the regime in Colombo.
- Stand-alone or not. The only question is whether Tamil Eelam should be a ‘stand-alone’ entity or in coalition with India (such as exists today with Pondicherry). The latter, has not even been considered, let alone pursued, but does have significant advantages. Any solution that is not backed by India, a major regional power, will fail. The converse is also true. Any solution backed by India will probably succeed. The problem is, of course, that India (read Delhi) has its own geopolitical/economic agenda that has nothing to do with human rights of the Tamil people.
A ‘stand-alone’
separate Tamil Eelam which I have backed since 1956, when my uncle,
S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike went down the highly destructive path of
ethno-religious chauvinism, is without doubt the best solution.
However, Delhi will totally block this because of the possibility,
indeed the probability, of similar separatist tendencies in India,
especially, but not exclusively, TamilNadu. This is not an opinion to
be debated but a fact to be faced and addressed.
- Using the word
However desirable
Eelam is, I’d be cautious in using that word when lobbying foreign
governments (which I have done for years). If this is not done, the
shutters will come down and you will be talking to a brick wall.
I’d suggest
terms such as “What is needed is a reversal of a British
colonial construct, the 1833 Colebrooke-Cameron ‘reforms’ which
have clearly failed in Sri Lanka, as they have in so many former
colonial countries”
In effect,
this will be Tamil Eelam sans the word. The opposition would be
much less.
- The immediate admission of AI, HRW and ICG into Sri Lanka
The war is over,
the Tamil people have been rehabilitated, and there are now only
happy smiling faces in the north and east – according to the Govt
of Sri Lanka (GoSL). The continuing exclusion of internationally
credible human rights organisations, one of them a Nobel Prize
winner, to check this out by allowing free access to the North and
East is indefensible. For some reason which I cannot see, this
crucial and obvious demand has not been made when it should have been
in one voice. This has to be done NOW with immediate effect. There
can be no ‘if’s’ and ‘buts’ about this.
- War Crimes
To launch a war
crimes investigation is urgent and imperative. AI has been very clear
about this, as have other major human rights groups.I have been in
contact with the office of Geoffrey Robertson QC in London for quite
some time. He is a world authority on this and has dragged many
criminals to the International Criminal Court. He and Prof Francis
Boyle (USA) with whom I have also been in touch, are ideal. They are
about all we need.
What we need is 1)
money 2) evidence.
Although Mr
Robertson might well appear pro bono although there is no
particular reason why he should do so, his juniors will have to be
paid, and so will the cost of litigation. I have no doubt that the
necessary money will come from the 1.1 million expat Tamils, and even
millions of Tamils in Tamilnadu if a proper
program is put together. People will part with their money if they
know that this is real, and not something that will fizzle out.
The evidence is
there in plenty from the asylum seekers and refugees from the former
conflict zone who can testify who did what.
The evidence has
to be properly collected and attested if it is to carry any legal
validity. Can this be done? Yes, it can be done from (now) readily
available sources.
It has to be done
by Tamils. I know this from experience. When I visited one of the
detention centres in Australia to do just that, I had to take an
interpreter with me since I know no Tamil. As soon as the informant realized that I was a Sinhalese, worse still the former Sri Lankan
President’s cousin, the talking stopped stat. That is
understandable.
Whether or not
evidence collected in camera is valid is for someone in the legal
field to advise. I am sure Prof Boyle will provide this information
since he has dragged people who have a case to answer in such
situations. He did so single-handed as he has stated in the recently
released book “Genocide in Sri Lanka” of which I have a copy.
Whether the Case
is won or lost is not that important. What is important is that
people in power in Sri Lanka (and outside) who have a case to answer,
be charged.
This could well be
coupled with a case for compensation, a mass action if you want to
call it that, by those who were affected by all this and their
dependents who are today ‘non-people’, with no home, no income,
no security – nothing.
- Targetting key individuals
Charging President
Rajapaksa is not a problem. Charles Taylor, the Liberian President
was recently sentenced to 50 years in jail, and Omar al-Bashir, the
current President of Sudan, has just been convicted by the
International Criminal Court). If charging President Rajapaksa is a
problem (which it is not), at least a start can be made charging
Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former General Sarath Fonseka. These two
individuals are citizens/green card holders in the US and charging
them should pose no difficulty. I have no idea why this has not been
done especially since they seem to be able to visit the US freely.
Charges must be framed and in position so that they can be arrested
on arrival. I am not sure that a request by the US cannot be made for
their deportation, being US citizens, to face Court in the US.
So also Keheliya
Rabukwela, an Australian citizen, who has a case to answer.
As you know,
several former Army personnel have now been appointed as ‘diplomats’
by the GoSL to give them protection. That may not work. They might
not get the protection they claim. Major General Jagath Dias sent to
as a deputy Ambassador to Germany and Switzerland has already been
sent back due to commendable action by the Tamils in Europe. The same
must be done to others of his ilk.
The Head of the
Navy, Admiral Thissara Samarasinghe is the Sri Lankan High
Commissioner in Australia. He simply must be investigated. So also
Major General Shavenrdra Silva, the Sri Lanka Deputy Permanent
Representative to the United Nations, and a host of others. That
Silva was debarred from attending the meetings of the UN Special
Advisory group is not good enough. He must be sent back.
The fact that none
of this has been done is a reflection of the incompetence and apathy
of the expatriate Tamil Community. They seem to be unaware of the
Yamashita Principle, ‘Chain of Command’ responsibility, that
people who have been in charge of those who committed atrocities can,
and have been, charged. General Yamashita was charged, convicted in a
military tribunal, appealed, reconvicted in a civil Court, sentenced
to death and executed.
Former LTTE
leaders such as ‘Karuna’ (Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan) currently
the Minister of National Integration in Rajapaksa’s cabinet, must
be investigated and charged. Amnesty International
(www.amnesty.org/node/6116)
on 7 October 2008, stated that Karuna’s presence in Parliament was
a travesty of justice and theta he should be charged. He was a
commander in the LTTE and “is suspected of a string of human
rights abuses and war crimes, including the abduction of hundreds of
teenagers to serve as child soldiers, and for the torture, holding as
hostage and killing of civilians in Sri Lanka”. (quote from the
AI publication). He arrived in London on a faked ‘diplomatic
passport’ issued on the instructions of Gotabaya Rajapaksa,
arrested by the British police, tried, convicted and jailed in the
UK.
7. Boycott
This is essential. When I visited Bishop Desmond Tutu in Cape
Town a couple of years ago, I met with several people from the ANC
who had been around during the apartheid struggle. They said that the
only two things that brought the apartheid regime to its knees were
the trade boycott an sports boycott (especially cricket). Not one of
the other measure eg motions passed in the UN, had the slightest
effect.
I these had such an effect on one of the richest countries in
the world, one need hardly stress what the effect would be on a
country already nearly bankrupt.
The boycott must cover all goods and services in and out of Sri
Lanka, tourism, tea, garments – everything. It has to be a total
isolation of Sri Lanka as was done to apartheid South Africa.
I have seen Meena Kandasamy’s article on this. I have met her
a few years ago when we both addressed a meeting in Sydney, “A
better world is possible”. I was greatly impressed by her.
People like her can play a critical role in India.
- India
Tamilnadu, with
some 75 million Tamils, with a most outspoken Chief Minister,
Jayalalitha, must be supported. Whatever we feel about the latter,
there is no question that she is the only Indian leader in recent
times who has been prepared to take in Delhi, in favour of the Sri
Lankan Tamils. Although I have focused on Tamilnadu, it is important
to appreciate that there are several other States that must be
lobbied. The combined force of all these on Delhi might well have a
dramatic effect.
After what
happened to Fr S,J, Emmanuel (GTF) who could not even get a visa to
enter India, the chance of getting there is not great. It will have
to be left to people like Meena Kandasamy and some of the Tamil
activists in Tamilnadu.
It is important to
appreciate that to get India on board is more important than getting
any other county in the world ‘on board’. It is India that
counts, it is India that can deliver justice.
There is not the
slightest doubt that Delhi has its own geopolitical and economic
agenda that has nothing to do with the human rights of the Tamils in
Sri Lanka. This will have to change, and it will, if the pressure is
exerted by the people who matter – ie Indians.
- Finance
It goes without saying that nothing will happen without the necessary funds. I do not
for a moment believe that the expatriate Tamils, now more than a
million, living and working in some of the most affluent countries in
the world, have suddenly run out of money. The money is there but
people will not part with it unless there is a proper strategy of
action (an ‘action-plan’ if you kike) and results. People will
not part with their money for some vague ‘plan’ – often no
credible plan as to how the money will be spent.
If people are
convinced that this is real, and not some sort a illusion, money will
flow. As it did when the LTTE produced success after success in
defeating the Sri Lankan armed forces, time and time again, the most
notable being the capture of Elephant Pass which was thought to to
impossible.
- UNHRC
There has to be a
strong showing at the UNHRC in Geneva in March 2013 when the Sri
Lankan government will be scrutinized If the Tamil National Alliance
does not wish to attend (something they did in March 2012), that is
their problem. We ave got to be sure that we are there, and that
people who really represent the Tamil people such as Bishop Rayappu
Joseph and Tamil Civil Society are there, if we are not to have
another farce – which is what the USA ‘Resolution’ was. As
Bishop Joseph warned the American diplomats who visited Sri Lanka
before the UNHRC meeting, to give the Rajapaksa regime more time
would be disastrous. That is precisely what happened. My booklet on
Bishop Rayappu Joseph (on the net and on
www.briansenewiratne.blogspot.com
details what Bishop Joseph and others in the North and East told the
visiting Americans. What was done by America was the very opposite of
what should have been done.
- Close cooperation with the people on the ground (North and East)
People on the
ground ie Bishop Joseph (Mannar) and Tamil Civil Society (mainly in
Jaffna) will have to be contacted and supported. I will be more than
happy to give the names of those who matter and who can set out the
ground situation as it affects civilians in the North and East
accurately. There are members of the TNA who are competent and
committed but they do not seem to be the ones whose voices are heard.
- The Sinhala South
The Sinhala South
where I come from must be targeted. That is easier said than done
with a tyranny in power. However there are people such as Wije Dias,
Siritunga Jayasuriya and Dr Vickremabahu Karunaratne (all of whom
contested Rajapaksa for the Presidency) who can, and will, act. They
can mobilise the South to bring Colombo to a halt and make Sri Lanka
ungovernable – Rajapaksa’s hooligans, some in uniform and others
in yellow robes, notwithstanding.
If ‘Regime
change’ is what is required (and it is), it is only the Sinhalese
people who can do this. The Tamils both in or outside Sri Lanka
simply cannot do this. This does not mean that we do nothing. On the
contrary, very effective actions such as a crippling boycott can only
be done by us.
- Plantation Tamils
It is ironic that
the Plantation Tamils, looked down upon and ignored by the Sri Lankan
Tamils from ‘day 1’, can bring the Rajapaksa (or any other)
regime in Colombo to a halt. In the critical economic situation that
Sri Lanka is in, all that these tea estate workers have to do is to
down tools, and the Rajapaksa regime would be reeling.
It is important to
realise that the Thondamans are not the ‘gods’ they used to be
and the Plantation Tamils not the ‘sheep’ they were. The
situation in the tea plantations is changing and these people are
beginning to stir. I have very good evidence for this. They are the
single most powerful force that the Sri Lankan Tamils have. That is a
reality that has not been appreciated.
- Justifying the unjustifiable
Trying to justify
the unjustifiable eg the murder of Rajiv Gandhi, and several others,
and blowing up the ‘Temple of the Tooth’ or killing innocent
civilians in a bus, cannot be justified. Attempts to do so will only
result in a loss of credibility.
On a slightly
different note, the treat or even the mention of a ‘return to an
armed conflict’ (as International Crisis Group has stated in one of
their publications) is nonsense. The Tamils can never militarily
defeat the Sri Lankan armed forces. It will not happen. All that this
absurd talk will do is to enable Rajapaksa to justify the expansion
of the armed forces, and tighten the military control of the Tamil
areas.
- Tamil Eelam will not drop from heaven
However
justifiable Tamil Eelam is, it will not be delivered on a plate (as
Independence
from Britain was delivered on a plate to Ceylon). It will have to
be a combined
struggle of the Tamils in the North and East, the Sinhalese in
the South
(struggling to survive under one of the most corrupt, murderous and
incompetent governments
ever to rule Sri Lanka), the Tamils in Tamilnadu,
and the million expatriate
Tamils who can bring the necessary pressure on the
Rajapaksa regime to see the
light of day.
If the current activities of
the Rajapaksa regime continue – of ‘Sinhalising’ the
Tamil areas, plundering Tamil
land and making the Tamils in the area ‘non-
people, there will be no
Tamil Eelam to establish.
Had I been given
the necessary time, I would have gladly come and addressed your
meeting on November 2-3. under the circumstances all I can do is to
offer to do so on Skype, whatever the time is in Australia.
Brian Senewiratne Brisbane Australia 26 October 2012.
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