Sri Lanka bombs its own People (Assisted by Israel, USA, UK, Pakistan, India, and China)

This is not an Appeal, nor a Plea – humanitarian or otherwise. It is to apprise foreign Governments, the international media, religious leaders, NGOs, leaders of civic society and people outside Sri Lanka, of what is going on in that country. It is NOT a request for help or intervention. I am merely presenting the facts to the outside world and my sympathy to a devastated people in Trincomalee.


1. On 25 April 2006 a female suicide bomber dressed as a pregnant woman was ‘visiting’ the Sri Lankan Army hospital in the Army Headquarters in Colombo. This is in one of the heavily-guarded and most secured “High Security Zones” in the island. She could not have got to where she was (outside the Army hospital) without “inside help” ie from a member(s) of the Armed Forces (almost 100% Sinhalese). 


2. She waited for the Army Commander, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, and threw herself in front of his limousine, detonating the explosives strapped on her. Five of his body guards on heavily armed motorcycles were killed, as were three others. Fonseka was injured but survived. 


3. I am not going to speculate on the identity of the female suicide bomber. The claim, as always, is that she was from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). If she was, to get to where she stood, she would have needed to have some very ‘close connections’ with the Security Forces, a possible but unlikely scenario. The alternative possibility is that she could equally well have been from a Sinhalese extremist group that has been urging the President Mahinda Rajapakse to take a hard (or harder) line, abandon the Ceasefire, return to ‘war’ and ‘smash’ the LTTE.


4. I will not elaborate on the highly questionable human rights record of Fonseka when he was the Commander of the Sri Lankan ‘Security Forces’ in Jaffna in the Tamil North a decade ago.Hundreds of Tamil civilians held in custody without charge or trial 'disappeared' – their tortured bodies later found in mass graves It was one of his own Army soldiers who, under oath, in the Supreme Court in Colombo, showed where the mass graves were located, adding that some were alive when buried. An exhumation with international observers, including Amnesty International, confirmed that the victims had been tortured and killed. I am not accusing Fonseka of killing anyone. However, the victims were in his custody and he is answerable. He could not have been unaware of what was going on.


That said, I condemn all killings or attempted killings – deserved or not. 


5. Within hours of the explosion in Colombo, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces launched air and artillery attacks in Trincomalee in the East – some 150km away. The speed at which this occurred leaves not the slightest doubt that it was pre-planned.


6. Seven Tamil villages near Trincomalee were indiscriminately bombed and shelled. Israeli-built Kfir war planes made 5 ‘visits’ dropping scores of bombs on civilian targets while the Sri Lankan Navy shelled the area from gun boats which fortuitously ‘happened to be’ off the coast. Between 6.30pm and 8pm on 25 April 2006, some 96 naval shells landed in just one area alone. Air strikes continued the next day.


7. The civilian population were unable to run for safety as shells came in from sea and land, and bombs were dropped from the air. Thousands (I don’t think anyone sat and counted them) fled the area dragging their elderly, the sick and children. The Santhosam Children’s Home which cared for over 40 orphaned children (ex-Tsusami which devastated the area) suffered a direct hit by a Kfir bomb. The rationale is that small ‘Tigers’ become big ones. ‘Take them out’ early – ‘preemptive action’, if you like. The Transit Camp for Tsunami - affected refugees was shelled. What the Tsunami could not achieve, the GOSL would try. Is there any other explanation? It was not ‘collateral damage’. It was deliberate and calculated. The number of casualties is unknown at the time of writing but cannot be inconsiderable. It makes little difference whether it was 10 or 1000. It is dangerous to quantify human life and suffering. It devalues human life.


8. There are no hospitals in this area and the two medical centres are staffed only by visiting doctors and nurses. They have been unable to get to these centres because of road blocks set up by the Army. 

Attack on Fonseka

9. The reaction of the Sri Lankan Government, the “Free World”(!), and even Amnesty International, is interesting.Dr Palitha Kohonna, Director General of the Peace Secretariat, now turned War Secretariat of the GOSL, admitted using the Armed Forces against civilian Tamil villages, justifying it as a “retaliatory measure”. He says that the air strikes and shelling should not be counted as a violation of the Cease-fire Agreement (signed by the GOSL and the Tamil Tigers) but a “fair reply” to the bomb blast in Colombo earlier in the day. Condoning the attacks on Sampur and adjoining villages, Kohonna called the attack by the State Forces as “justifiable”.


10. President Mahinda Rajapakse, who on several occasions has declared himself a “man of peace”, addressed the Nation on TV just 4 hours after the bombing. He praised the military for “patience and restraint”. Not a word of sympathy for the Tamil civilians (whose President he is) whose lives have been shattered by the bombing and shelling. 


His Defense spokesman Kaheliya Rambukwelle declared “There is no duration or limits on defence matters”. It is unclear who the aggressor was to mount this ‘defence’. Since the villages were attacked, one can only assume that unarmed villagers in Trincomalee were attacking Sri Lanka and the Government was taking “defensive action”.


11. The Sinhalese political opportunists in the so-called ‘Marxist’ Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) – no strangers to terrorism, who support President Rajapakse and sustain his party in Parliament, called for all parties to support Rajapakse “for the defense of the motherland against terrorism”.


These are the ‘patriots’ who brought the Sri Lankan government to its knees in1971, and repeated it in 1988. They assassinated the charismatic husband of Chandrika Kumaratunga (later President) because he posed too great a political threat to them, President J.R. Jayawardene’s sister-in-law, Dr Gladys Jayawardene (whose only ‘crime’ was that she, as Head of the Pharmaceutical Corporation, imported drugs at a reasonable price from India), Professor Stanley Wijesundera, the unassuming Vice Chancellor of Colombo University (because they did not believe in tertiary education), and scores of other academics and leading citizens, in addition to wrecking the agricultural infrastructure in Sri Lanka.


What is interesting is that despite these acts of frank terrorism, the Sri Lankan Government did not use Kfir bombers to bomb the Sinhalese villagers in the South from which the JVP came. That is the difference between being a Sinhalese and a Tamil in Sri Lanka.


12. If the devastated Tamil people were looking for sympathy from the alternative Sinhalese party, now in Opposition, the United National Party, they got none. After meeting with President Rajapakse (from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party), the UNP Deputy Secretary-General Tissa Atanayake warned, “If the Peace Process is to be fruitful, the LTTE should take immediate action to control their violent actions” (emphasis mine).


13. The international response to the GOSL outrage in Trincomalee has been predictable. The US, EU, Japan and India have condemned the suicide bombing in Colombo and called on both sides to adhere to the ceasefire and return to negotiations! The Indian Government convened its Crisis Management Group on the second day of the bombing and sent additional warships to the Palk Straits between India and Sri Lanka - presumably to help the Sri Lankan Navy if they ran into problems shelling the unarmed Tamil villagers.


In Washington, the US assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Richard Boucher stated “It is regrettable that the Tamil Tigers have decided to restart the war instead of restarting the peace process. We are in touch with Governments around the world to bring to bear whatever pressure we can on the Tamil Tigers to abandon this course of action and to look for ways that we can support the Government in coping with the threat”. With unusual modesty, the US has played down the support already given to the GOSL by way of a massive supply of arms, some of which rained down on the people in Trincomalee.


There was no response from Israel nor a request for thanks for supplying the Kfir bombers or the Mossad agents who ‘helped’ to train the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.


The response of Amnesty International was pathetic - an appeal “to the parties to take all possible measures to minimize harm to civilians and adhere to human rights and international humanitarian law, which prohibit murder or violence to those taking no active part in hostilities” . The fact that the GOSL has openly flouted human rights and humanitarian law, apparently does not call for an outright condemnation. The recently deceased Peter Benensen, the visionary founder of AI whom I knew, must be turning in his grave.


14. The Sri Lankan government must be held accountable for this outrage, which is certainly not the first. So must those who supply weapons to this irresponsible regime who use these weapons against their own citizens. Sri Lanka does not make Kfir bombers, multi-barrel guns or rockets. Those who supply these have a case to answer.


15. A number of NGOs and others have appealed to the international community which has responded in the way I have indicated. It has been a slap in the face for these devastated people. I am not going to hurt these people again by appealing for help from an international community steeped in hypocrisy. The only ‘crime’ that these people have committed is to be born Tamil. They pay for a crime they did not commit in a world where no one cares. Presumably Tamil lives in Sri Lanka are not real lives, Tamil suffering not real suffering.


16. I have met some of the people in the villages that have now been flattened. It was in 1952 when as a young Zoology student, I was hiking in this area. Unable to find a place to sleep, we decided to sleep under a tree. Some young men woke us up at midnight and asked us what we were doing. We explained that we had decided to spend a few days there. They insisted that we move into their huts (they moved out) and then proceeded to feed us for the duration of our stay.


I hope that some of these young men were not among the disabled and old men who were dragged to safety from the bombing. All I want these kind and hospitable people to know is that the young Sinhalese boy whom they befriended and protected from snakes and the pouring rain 50 years ago, sheds his tears while they shed their blood at the hands of a brutal, barbaric and irresponsible regime which has the temerity to call itself their “Government’.

Peace Talks that Have Gone Nowhere

The closing statement by the Norwegian Minister of International Development on 23.2.2006 in Geneva at the end of the first round of talks on the implementation of the Ceasefire, is about the weakest statement I have read.

1. “The GOSL and the LTTE are committed to respecting and upholding the Ceasefire Agreement”.

To “respect” an agreement is to heed it, to “uphold” it is to maintain or confirm it. Neither word indicates the need to implement the Agreement (which is what the Conference was all about). If this was a serious attempt to address the problem, the wording should have been, “The GOSL and the LTTE are committed to implement the Ceasefire Agreement”. The GOSL , in its opening statement, said that it wanted “to express our views in a frank and forthright manner, rather than make vague and ambiguous statements that would serve no useful purpose…” Well, this is a vague and ambiguous statement, if ever there was one.

The GOSL has committed itself to respect and uphold the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA). Yet, the Leader of the GOSL team, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva opened his statement by saying that “The Ceasefire Agreement……..is contrary to our Constitution and law” i.e. the CFA is illegal and violates the Constitution. So, the GOSL has agreed to respect and uphold an Agreement, which is illegal and unconstitutional! If the Conference was to continue, commonsense required that the statement made by the Minister should have been withdrawn publicly. It was for the Chair to insist that this be withdrawn but it was not done. There was the absurd situation of discussing the implementation of an Agreement which one Party had declared was unconstitutional and illegal.

2. “The GOSL and the LTTE are committed…to ensure that there will be no intimidation, acts of violence, abductions or killings”.

Given that these problems have reached epidemic proportions all over the country, including the Sinhala South, especially Colombo, there will have to be an extensive monitoring group. The existing Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) functioning only in the North and East, can hardly be described as an ‘extensive monitoring group’. It has been little more than a “note-keeping mission”, if that. It is not possibly for the SLMM to be more than that, given the area to be covered and the resources available. So, the problem of ensuring that there will be no intimidation, acts of violence etc are just words with no meaning. The words have been used without any appreciation of the realities on the ground.

3. “The LTTE is committed to taking all necessary measures to ensure that there will be no acts of violence against the security forces and police”.

If there are alleged incidents, can we have an international investigative team whom both sides can trust, to establish that the LTTE was responsible? The SLMM is no substitute for a proper investigating team – they simply do not have the expertise (or the resources).

4. “The GOSL is committed… to ensure that no armed group or persons other than the Government security forces will carry arms or conduct armed operations”.

Who are these nameless “armed groups”? The LTTE in its opening statement listed five major paramilitary groups operating in the Northeast and Colombo as the “ the Karuna group, EPDP group, PLOTE group, EPRLF (Varaithar) group and a Muslim group called Jihad group.”

Has the GOSL committed itself to ensure that all these armed groups are disarmed, or is it going to be some or none (loopholes being left wide open to enable one or all of them to slip out and continue to carry arms, perhaps under a different name, or claim that they are outside the CFA? Who will monitor this? It cannot be the SLMM because they neither have the staff, facilities or ability to do so, being stretched to the limit as they are. Moreover, the SLMM has no presence in Colombo where these groups are known to operate.

It is of interest (indeed amusing) that the Spiegel Magazine interviewed President Rajapakse just a day before the Talks, on 21 February 2006, in Colombo, about these paramilitary groups and ‘Karuna’ (the renegade from the LTTE). Rajapakse’s response was incredible: “I would like to make one thing clear. My government knows nothing about such paramilitaries or even Karuna ……..Still, my government is committed to disarm such groups and we have already begun to do so”

So, here we have a President who claims to know nothing about the armed groups in his country but is already disarming them! It has come to the point of absurdity. – President Rajapakse playing a significant role in this.

The GOSL team to the Conference was sent by the President. The team has committed the GOSL to disarm armed groups, which the President says his government knows nothing about! What if the GOSL team returns in eight weeks and says that their President says he knows nothing about these armed groups and therefore they must be non-existent?

5. “The GOSL and the LTTE discussed all issues concerning the welfare of children in the North East….’

“Discussing”, they can do for ever – but what are they committed to do by way of addressing the problem of nearly a quarter of a million homeless/orphan children in numerous refugee camps as a consequence of the war and the tsunami? Or does the problem end with a “discussion”?

Where the Conference failed.

The Conference was all about the implementation of the CFA and returning the conflict zone to normalcy. In an earlier paper, “Talks, Talks and more Talks”, in the section titled, Improving the living conditions of the inhabitants in the area of conflict in the Tamil North and East,“ I spelt out what had to be done. Not one of these urgent measures was mentioned in the Closing Statement. I do not know whether they were discussed. If they were, then it should have made it to the Closing Statement.

If they were not discussed, one wonders what was, in the two days of talks. There was a great deal of time spent by the GOSL team running a commercial for President Rajapakse, the Mahinda Chintanaya, what a fine democratic record Sri Lanka had, how “mindful” the Government was of “the respective rights of the ethnic and religious groupings” etc. If all this (or even a fraction of it) were true, there would have been no conflict and no need for a CFA.

I have just had a report that at the end of the Conference when the Norwegian facilitators were drafting a joint statement, the Government delegation spent no less than three hours quibbling about one word, “Agreement”. They objected to the opening paragraph which referred to the Ceasefire Agreement and wanted the word “Agreement” left out! The President (and his two brothers) in Colombo at the end of the telephone from Geneva refused to approve the word which would imply that the CFA was valid. (I thought the Government delegation and the LTTE delegation had agreed to the validity of the CFA. If the GOSL had not accepted it, the LTTE would have walked out). Here they were, once again going over the same ground. After three hours of nonsensical delay, the GOSL backed down. The Government hard line stance was to appease the Sinhala extremists in their camp back home, and their backdown was when they realized that this would spell the end of the Conference and the declaration of war.

Instead of this claptrap and time wasting, what was needed was to address the pressing needs of the civilian population in the war ravaged, then tsunami-devastated, North and East.

If a commercial on President Rajapkse had to be delivered – I can see no reason why this was necessary – and there was no time to address the key issues, then the Conference should have been extended. One way or another, the Conference should have concluded with some definite commitment and a specified time frame to return civilian life to normalcy. Let me state the urgently needed actions yet again.

1. The immediate withdrawal of all restrictions on fishing. Minister de Silva could have called his President in Sri Lanka and got him to call the Navy Commander who was there in the team and tell him that the Navy must comply because, “I am the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces”.

2. There should have been a directive that if the Sri Lanka Army could not be moved out of Jaffna for “Security” reasons (whose security is unclear), then the Army had to be moved out of the most productive lands which are now in the ‘High Security Zone’. There is plenty of waste land in the Peninsula (which I know well). The Army can do whatever they are doing in this area, but to quit agricultural land, which is one of the main sources of income (indeed, of survival) of the civilian population, is mandatory and urgent. This was not done.

3. All schools and places of worship must be returned for civilian use with immediate effect – not at some distant unspecified time.

4. The harassment of the civilian population in the North and East must stop if the area is to return to normalcy. This has to be monitored carefully and if the SLMM has not got the numbers or the power, then it has to be doubled or trebled, and given that power.

5. The Tsunami relief arrangement, P-TOMS must be implemented at once – whatever the JHU and the JVP think or do. The GOSL team, in their opening statement, boasted, “…..it is the first time in the history of this conflict that such a consensus (among all Parties) has been reached”. Well, the JHU and JVP are part of the Government and if Rajapakse, with the sweeping powers he has, really wanted to fix the problem, the JHU and JVP are not in a position to defy him. If they obstruct him and bring the Government down, then Rajapakse is in a position to call another election and put it to the Sinhala people that he tried to seek an “honourable peace” but his efforts were sabotaged by the JVP and JHU.
Can the LTTE be blamed for this lapse?

Can the LTTE be blamed for not having these issues addressed? Yes, they can be blamed because that is the reason why they went for a Conference to address the implementation of the CFA. Of paramount importance was to return the North and East to normalcy.

However, the ‘mitigating circumstances’ is that the LTTE had nailed the GOSL on some crucial issues (accepting the validity of the CFA and the disarming of the paramilitaries) and further ‘nailing’ would have made it impossible for the Government team to return home. They would have been lynched. Balasingham, a shrewd negotiator, perhaps felt that it could be better left for a later date.

Some nonsense claimed by the GOSL team.

The GOSL team did talk some arrant nonsense. I will site just a few.

The democracy of Sri Lanka.

The opening statement of the GOSL team leader, Nimal Siripala de Silva, refers to Sri Lanka as being “one of Asia’s most long-standing democracies. The people have enjoyed universal franchise since 1931”.

He is referring to a country where in 1948, 1,000,000, yes, one million, Plantation Tamils were disenfranchised and decitizenised in one of the worst acts of political savagery in the civilized (or even uncivilized) world.

This is the country where in 1972, the Constitution, which had a specific section (Section 29) which prohibited discrimination of any community, was scrapped and a new Constitution enacted which did not contain a similar clause. This essential safeguard for the protection of minorities was scrapped by the former leader of President Rajapakse’s own party – Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike, who had the temerity to change the name of the country from Ceylon to the Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka!

This is a country where in 1977, Prime Minister J.R.Jayawardene from the other side of the Sinhala political divide, installed an Executive Presidency and then promoted himself to the position giving himself absolute and sweeping powers, reducing Parliament to a rubber stamp and the Prime Minister to a clerk. Sri Lanka is only a little short of a Presidential dictatorship and President Rajapakse, who has these powers, should know that. So should his Ministers, including the one who spoke this nonsense.

A car after it and its passengers are set alight by  a Sinhalese mob July 1983 

 This is the country where in 1983 some 3,000 Tamil civilians in the Sinhala South were butchered and their homes and businesses burnt by government sponsored Sinhalese hoodlums, for no reason other than that they were Tamils. Were they “democratically butchered”?

There is no purpose in going on with this abysmal history of a blatant abuse of democracy in Sri Lanka which I have dealt with extensively in a separate publication. For the GOSL delegation, attending a Conference to discuss the implementation of the CFA, to boast about democracy in Sri Lanka, is a bit rich.

The problem of Law and order

Minister Nimal de Silva rambled on about ‘ the Government of President Mahinda Rajapakse’s commitment to maintaining law and order ….in every part of the country” and his administration “initiating a program that extensively cracked down on organized criminals, underworld gangs, armed groups and narcotic dealers”. This is loose talk and vagueness which he decried at the start of his presentation. Whom is he referring to? The most notorious underworld gangs and organized criminals are in the Presidential Security Division (PSD) that ‘looked after’ President Chandrika Kumaratunga and presumably now looks after President Rajapakse. This has nothing to do with the CFA. The murders by the PSD and their underworld associates who were responsible for the murder of the Tamil political leader Kumar Ponnambalam, among many others, has nothing to do with “undermining the ceasefire”.

The President certainly has a problem with gangsters and underworld characters in Colombo, but it is a problem of the making of Sinhala politicians who have institutionalized violence as a means of governance. It dates back to President J.R.Jayawardene (1977) whose armed thugs terrorized the Sinhala South from 1977 to 1994. President Kumaratunga’s PSD took over. The GOSL team does not need to wail about this in an international arena.

A fresh approach

The Minister Nimal de Silva in his opening statement stressed, “Let me at this stage assure all, that it is the desire of H.E.President Rajapakse to look at issues from a fresh perspective……”

There was no evidence at the Conference that it was a “fresh approach”. In fact, it was the same old approach. The GOSL arrived in the Chateau de Bossey with a large number of government-sponsored demonstrators and the jingoistic Sri Lankan media. This is not “a fresh approach” but a well-worn one of trying to apply pressure on the participants using orchestrated demonstrations and the partisan media.

I am about to address some Parliamentarians in Europe on the serious problems facing Sri Lanka. I have been promised a similar welcome by the well-organised Sinhala ‘patriots’ in Europe.

President Rajapakse’s real agenda

The assumption that President Rajapakse genuinely wanted to fix the problem may not necessarily be correct. If he did, he would not have gone into a coalition with ethno-religious Sinhala extremists in the JVP and JHU. He could, of course, have done that just to get into power, as S.W.R.D Bandaranaike did in 1956 when he solicited, and got, the support of the most extreme of the Sinhala extremists in Sri Lanka, sections of the Buddhist clergy (one of whom later assassinated him).

Rajapakse’s eye might not be on solving the ethnic problem but on the Local Government elections due on 30 March 2006. If he can claim in the Sinhala South that he has succeeded in bringing the Tamil Tigers to the Conference table which the UNP from the other side of the Sinhala political divide could not do (the CFA not withstanding), and prevent an almost certain war with economic ruin and the prospect of Sinhala youths returning in body-bags, he hopes he can eat into the voter base of the JVP whose policies would have most certainly resulted in war.

This game will be over on 30 March 2006. It might result in the GOSL adopting a more reasonable posture after this. Time will tell.

The next round

The next round of talks is scheduled for 19-21 April 2006, also in Geneva. After the ‘difficulties’ the GOSL team had at the February Talks, President Rajapakse would be well advised to get some competent negotiators – approaching the UNP Opposition, if necessary, for help e.g. a loan of some of the negotiators they sent for the 2002 Peace Talks. It would be better to do this than to send pathetically inexperienced people. At least the cartoonists will not be able to have a field day.

What happened in Geneva was presented with accuracy by a cartoon in the Daily Mirror of 25 February 2006 titled “President remote controls Geneva talks”. It shows Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva at the batting crease, bat in hand and mobile phone in the other. Anton Balasingham is speeding in with the ball. The Minister in a state of obvious panic, calls President Rajapakse, “He is trying to send another bouncer! What can I do sir?” That just about sums up the Conference.

It is important to look at Sri Lanka’s serious economic state and the impending disaster if the CFA is not implemented and war breaks out.

The Sri Lankan Economy

The downturn in the Sri Lankan economy has been catastrophic. The ranking of Sri Lanka by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has dropped from 63 (out of 101 countries) in 2004, to 73 (out of 104) in 2005 and now (2006) to 98 (out of 117 countries). The economy has been described by the WEF as “very poor” and is currently on par with Albania and Rwanda. A ranking of 98 out of 117 countries does not leave too many countries in a worse economic mess than Sri Lanka. The deterioration in the economic rating is due to poor macro-economic stability, the poor quality of its state sector and the deteriorating security situation. Of these, the major factor since the middle of last year (2005) has been the possibility of the armed conflict restarting. If the conflict restarts, Sri Lanka would almost certainly be looking at bankruptcy.

President Rajapakse could well be out of his depth in this area but he is the one who is running the country and has an obligation to appreciate this critical situation.

Sending a disastrously inexperienced team of negotiators to a Conference that will determine whether there will be war or peace in Sri Lanka is utterly irresponsibility. At the conclusion of the Talks, in an interview given to the only Sri Lankan newspaper worth reading, the ‘Sunday Leader’, Anton Balasingham, the leader of the LTTE team, had this to say “I said, the moment you claim that the CFA is incorrect, then you are coming out of the CFA. That means you are giving two weeks notice for the resumption of hostilities. You better think very carefully, I said”. He went on, “So they (GOSL team) kept quiet” – which is perhaps the most intelligent thing the GOSL team did in the two days. Had they continued to be ‘advised’ by the ‘legal expert’ they took with them, who had passed his ‘use-by-date’, the LTTE would have walked out of the Talks and there would have been war “in two weeks”.  

Dr.Brian Senewiratne                                                                Australia

The THAMOTHERAM funeral. A Sinhala Tribute

Last week a Sinhalese thought it appropriate to fly half way round the world to attend the funeral of a Tamil, Jeyam Thamotheram, whose funeral took place in the Methodist Church, Hammersmith, London, on 4 November 2005. The Church was packed to capacity but from my perspective the highlights were the tributes paid by two exceptional Sinhalese – Adrian Wijemanne and Neville Jayaweera. The 30-hour flight seemed well worthwhile.

Rev Roger Dunlop detailed the unbelievable achievements of an extraordinary person. The first Tribute was from “Siva”, Subramanium Sivanayagam, the finest Tamil journalist, indeed Journalist of any ethnic group, that Ceylon has ever produced. It was a very personal tribute from a close friend read by Mr Sithamparapillai. I will not focus on Siva’s contribution because I am sure it will be published elsewhere. The next was from the irreplaceable Adrian Wijemanne read by myself, and the third by a relative, Dr.Karuna Alagaratnam.

This was followed by the cremation, attended by just the family. After lunch followed the many tributes from relatives, friends and representatives of the numerous organizations that Jeyam founded. I will deal with just two of these tributes because of the importance of the message, which should be heard by all, the Sinhalese in particular.

The Adrian Wijemanne Tribute.

Before I read Adrian’s Tribute, I thanked the Thamotheram family for honouring me by asking me to deliver it. Before I did so, I briefly introduced Adrian, not that he needed an introduction. I described him as a great Sinhalese whose shoelaces I was not worthy to untie. While my contribution to the Tamil struggle for justice, equality and dignity were based on emotion, Adrian’s was based on irrefutable facts, presented and argued with the precision of a brilliant lawyer (which he was not). Here is what he wrote:-

“I met Mr Thamotheram, for the very first time, in June 1994. It was at a meeting of the International Tamil Foundation to which he invited me. Within minutes of meeting, he made me feel as if I had met a long lost friend. He had a gift for friendship. It was a gift that survived the pain and trauma that our two nations were suffering in the throes of war at that time.

Soon our friendship ripened for our concerns were identical – peace and good neighbourliness between our two nations on the island which both of us regarded as our spiritual home in which we had been nurtured and in which the bones of our ancestors lay buried. We got to first name terms very soon – I called him Jeyam and we spoke on the ‘phone with each other nearly every day.

Inevitably our perceptions of the future of our two nations differed. Mine more pessimistic and shorter term than his. He had a longer term hope of eventual amity and peace. He was wiser and more humane than I and he had the advantage of moral integrity which the Sinhala people (myself included) had sacrificed to their eternal discredit. These differences did nothing to cloud our friendship which thrived as the years went by. Never a cross word passed between us and our families drew closer together. I had the advantage of knowing at first hand what a cultured, middle class, Tamil gentleman of the early decades of the last century was like. Jayam was its perfect exemplar.

The ravages of time made short work of all our hopes; the future takes dimensions unforeseen. Nevertheless as human beings we project values of eternal relevance however translated into reality of time and tide. Jayam stood steadfastly for the hope some day, even in the very distant future, our two nations would live on the island, in their own political configurations, not only in peace and good neighbourliness but even more importantly in friendship. He knew and personified the healing grace of friendship” Adrian Wijemanne

I could not have possibly delivered it as well as Adrian would have, having had no sleep for some 30 hours did not help. Just 24 hours later, Adrian was admitted to hospital with a severe pain in his back. I fear he has crushed a spinal vertebra from the relentless myeloma which I know he has. I pray for his recovery, it is about as much as is left to do.

The Neville Jayaweera Tribute.

I had not met Mr Jayaweera until I arrived in the Church. Years ago, he had been the G.A (Government Agent) in Jaffna. His address at the funeral was worth travelling 15,000 km to hear. Here is what he said:-

“Madame Malar Thamotheram, members of the Tharmotheram family and friends.

In the course of several tributes paid to the memory of Jeyam during the Church service, all speakers have referred to his many and varied endowments and achievements. Therefore, during the few minutes allocated to me to speak from this platform I will not go over that ground again. Rather, as a member of the Sinhala community, I want to dwell on an aspect of Jeyam's life which, for obvious reasons, other speakers preferred not to dwell on.

Like many others seated in this audience, Jeyam was a victim of the injustices heaped on the Tamil people by my own community. When I think of how Jeyam's career, and indeed the lives of thousands of other Tamil brethren, had been thwarted and terminated through discrimination practised against Tamil people over decades, I feel a deep shame and contrition. If Jeyam can hear me from wherever he is now I can only ask him to forgive me as a member of the Sinhala community and indeed to find it in his Christian heart to forgive the whole Sinhala community for the wrongs they have inflicted upon the Tamil people”. (I might add that Neville is a Buddhist)

“As I look around me in this very hall, I can see many other brilliant Tamil mathematicians, engineers, accountants, doctors and other professionals, all of whose services and skills are desperately need back in Sri Lanka. So then, why are they here rather than there? Why is it that a Sri Lanka, a country so desperately in need of skills and talents for nation building, squandering all these precious assets in foreign lands? When will Sri Lanka ever realise, if it ever will, that only the termination of its discriminatory policies will attract these skills and talents back to serve the country of their birth?

Fifty seven years after Independence Sri Lanka is still only a state, a state comprised of two warring nations. When will it be able to transcend the divisions that have plagued it for so long and emerge as a single nation? It was Jeyam's undying hope and prayer that some day it will.

As you have heard many speakers say, Jeyam was a brilliant mathematician, one of a galaxy of brilliant students of mathematics who came out of Hartley College Jaffna, among whom was Prof. C.J. Eliezer who went on the become Professor of Mathematics in the Colombo University, (I might add that he was the youngest Dean the Faculty of Science has ever had and the only Ceylonese I know of. who was invited to work with Einstein), but himself had to pursue his career abroad because of discriminatory policies perpetrated upon his fellow Tamils. Jeyam could have pursued a career in the prestigious Ceylon Civil Service, but instead opted for the far nobler vocation of teaching. Many leading secondary schools in then Ceylon sought to employ him as their mathematics teacher but, as a practising Methodist Christian, he opted to serve in Ceylon's premier Methodist institution, Wesley College. However, when in the fullness of time it was Jeyam's turn to be appointed Principal, the discriminatory policies which by that time were in full bloom, took toll again and he was denied what was his legitimate right. Those who knew Jeyam and who were acquainted with the rights and wrongs of the situation were aghast and outraged. Jeyam resigned his job as a teacher at Wesley, opted out of the profession, and after a short stint with the British Council (I think) in Colombo, he migrated to the UK.

However, a man so richly endowed by God would not let his many skills and attributes wither on the vine. In the UK, Jeyam went on to pioneer many institutions and activities to improve the prospects and the quality of life of the Tamil diaspora who were by the mid 70s growing into a steady stream. You have already heard several speakers pay tribute to Jeyam's qualities as an institution builder, as a pioneer and as a leader of the Tamil people.

It would not be an exaggeration to say of Jeyam that he was to the Tamil Diaspora, in the UK as well as in other countries, what Martin Luther King had been to the black people in the USA of the 1960s. Jeyam was deeply hurt but was neither embittered nor discouraged. He had felt the searing pains and carried the scars of injustice, but would not allow himself to be deterred from his vision. Like Martin Luther King, Jeyam had caught a larger vision. To the very end he believed that it is still possible for all the communities who comprise the fabric of Sri Lanka, the Sinhala, the Tamils, the Moors and the Burghers and all religions, to live in peace and amity and without recourse to war. He hoped and prayed that the discriminatory policies followed by successive governments of Sri Lanka would be turned around and that wisdom and reason would triumph over injustice, bitterness and conflict.

Whether Jeyam's dream will ever be realised, and whether the Tamil people of Sri Lanka will ever gain the Promised Land, remains an open question. Notwithstanding, it is the measure of Jeyam's greatness and his quality as an exceptional human being, that despite all the evidence to the contrary he continued to the end to believe in his vision.

May his vision be realised in full and may his Soul Rest in Peace.

While condoling with the Tharmotheram family I thank them again for the privilege of allowing me to speak on this platform.” Neville Jayaweera

I could barely retain my seat, the urge being overwhelming to rise to my feet and applaud. I could then have said that Neville Jayaweera got a ‘standing ovation’ which he richly deserved.

When it was my turn to speak, I could say nothing, it had all been said much moré eloquently by Siva, Adrian and Neville. All I could do was to say that I was proud to identify myself as a Sinhalese at a time when there is little to be proud of in being one. I feel much less isolated to know that people of integrity and honour such as Adrian and Neville who had not sacrificed their ‘moral integrity’, as Adrian so accurately stated.

In my heart I have always had a yearning to do what Neville had just done so touchingly – to say “Sorry” to the Tamil people. As I said in one of my earliest publications on Sri Lanka The July 1983 Massacre. Unanswered Questions which was quoted by Sivanayagam in his recent monumental work Sri Lanka:Witness to History,

“It would be too revolting and unprofitable to recount details of the acts of barbarism committed by Sinhalese mobs. All that the author, a full-blooded Sinhalese, can say is that for the first time he has felt ashamed to be a Sinhalese. It is not that one identifies oneself with the hooligan mobs, but there inevitably is a collective responsibility for the behaviour of one’s countrymen – hooligan, barbarian or civilized. He who watches while a fellow human being has his limbs cut off, belly slit open, petrol poured on and burnt to death, is only marginally less guilty than he who does it. In the General Hospital, Colombo, desperately ill Tamil patients had their intravenous infusions disconnected and were thrown out of wards because they were Tamils. Tamil doctors had to take refuge in toilets to avoid assault”. What I said so long ago (1983) it is what Adrian Wijemanne refers to when he speaks of the Sinhala people sacrificing their moral integrity to their eternal discredit.

In a covering letter I have just received from Ivan Pedropillai who was the ‘Master of Ceremonies’ in the post-lunch presentations , he says

“ Neville Jayaweera's text is concise but also carries a resounding message to his misguided compatriots that unity and prosperity in a modern State can only be built on equality under the law without distinction of race, caste or creed.

Take the United Kingdom, where the Scots represent about 10% of the population and yet hold many of the senior Cabinet portfolios as well as senior positions in industry. This is not an issue here at all as it works on meritocracy. The West is able to make these strides in economic and social development because a man's race, tribe or religion is just private and personal and he is not judged by it.

When the electorate in Sri Lanka is mature enough to leave religion and race
out of politics and when there are multi-ethnic secular parties in the country shorn of corruption, we shall again have a prosperous land. As long as the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Muslims have their own parties, and when rabble-rousers can play on the baser emotions of the unsophisticated electors, there will continue to be the bane and the stain of racial politics in the country. Brave people like you and Neville have to run the gauntlet of vicious racists on all sides to restrain the country from
continuing with its grim slide into the fate of Hades”.

I am so very glad I decided to go all the way to the UK, not only to farewell an incredible gentleman but because I was also able to meet and hear some extraordinary human beings who give me hope that there is a future, contrary to what it appears to be.

Brian Senewiratne Brisbane, Australia 8.11.2005

C.J.T.Thamotheram: an End of an Era

This is not an obituary, since I am not qualified to write one. It is just a note of thanks from a Sinhalese to a great Tamil for all he has done for the Tamil cause over a very long time. He is one of the unsung heroes of the Tamil struggle. It is a struggle for justice and freedom from Sinhala oppression which has gone on for such a long time and at a terrible cost to Tamil lives, property and the complete destruction of the Tamil areas. What is unrecognized is the damage done to the much-treasured and closely knit family unit which means so much to people of Jeyam’s generation. People of that generation (and even later ones) have paid a terrible, but unrecognized, price in terms of social disruption, indeed ‘social decimation’, as a result of the violence unleashed on the Tamils by a succession of Sinhala Governments since 1956, and more so since 1983. The Thamotherams have made a major contribution to education in Jaffna. Jeyam’s father was the Principal of a very famous school, Hartley College, a Methodist mission school founded in 1838 and was, in fact the first non-white Principal of any school in Jaffna. Among the many famous people coming out of that school was the brilliant Prof.C.J.Elizer who actually worked with Albert Einstein! Later Jeyam himself joined the staff of that school, making a significant contribution to education in Jaffna. He emigrated to Britain many years ago. Unlike so many of his vintage who, having left Sri Lanka, have sat on their hands doing nothing other than hallucinating about the future, Jeyam acted in his own inimitable way. He made an enormous contribution which is largely unrecognized because of the nature of the man. A quiet unassuming, self-effacing man, modest almost to a fault, Jeyam had a vision of what expatriate Tamils could do in a positive way. He founded, among other things, the first Tamil School in the UK, the Tamil Times and the International Tamil Foundation. A few years ago he telephoned me in the early hours of the morning (!) in Australia, to say that he thought it important to get together a group if international writers to highlight the problems faced by the Tamils, would I join the group? That was typically Jeyam, his mind ever active, thinking what more he could do to further the Tamil cause. I gather that he also had the largest list of Tamils in the UK and their addresses. It was the Sri Lankan concept of an ‘extended family’ being applied on an international scale! In October 1981 he founded the monthly Tamil Times which was to be the voice of the Tamil expatriate community. This is the only journal run by Tamils that has been published uninterrupted since its inception more than two decades ago. It is most unfortunate that the founder of this journal had to distance himself from his brain-child. As another great Tamil, S.Sivanayagam, put it in his recently published monumental work, Sri Lanka: Witness to History, the Tamil Times “changed hands midway and subsequently changed direction as well….. it was thought to be, by a wide spectrum of Tamil expatriates, no longer capable of speaking up for an oppressed Tamil nation with any conviction or courage”. When I discussed this with Jeyam at our last meeting a couple of years ago, I could see his eyes brimming with tears and could sense his disappointment and sadness. I first met this extraordinary man in 1984 when I was campaigning to draw international attention to the genocidal massacre of Tamil civilians in the Sri Lankan South whose only crime was that they were where they were. They had every right to be where they were since they and generations of their ancestors had made a major contribution to the development and prosperity of the Sinhala South, Colombo in particular. Jeyam had extensive contacts with British parliamentarians, especially in the House of Lords, and kept them informed of what the Tamils in Ceylon were going through. Among them were Dame Judith Hart and Lord Avebury, the latter being the author of the first of a series of damming Amnesty International Reports on human rights violations in Ceylon that first drew international attention to the magnitude of the problem in that country. These are not people whom you can readily see. When I went to London to lobby them and ask for their help to apprise the international community of what went on behind the censored doors of the Sri Lankan Government, all I had to do was to mention that I was “a friend of Jeyam Thamotheram”. In 1991 I had a call from the International Tamil Foundation inviting me as their guest speaker to address their annual sessions on The Abuse of Democracy in Sri Lanka. I thought it was completely crazy to go more than 15,000 km for a luncheon meeting. I was then told that Mr Thamotheram had specifically asked that I be invited. I was on my way. In the packed hall, the man who was responsible for the ITF itself and should have been on the podium, unobtrusively sat in the corridor. That was the nature of the man. I am sure that the scores of people who passed him had no idea of who he was and what he had done for the Tamil cause. After the meeting he suggested that we drive up to Cambridge to see a man who makes me proud to call myself a Sinhalese – Jeyam’s long-standing friend Adrian Wijemanne who has made such a major contribution to the struggle of the Tamil people. The next day we were on our way to see Adrian, who was too ill to come down to London for the meeting. The historic photograph of that meeting is in Sivanayagam’s book. I met C.J.T once more 2 years later, also at the annual ITF meeting, this one addressed by Gajan Ponnambalam MP. I was there as a visitor who had just ‘dropped in’. Jeyam would have none of it. He insisted that I take a place on the podium and make a contribution to the meeting. That was typically Jeyam. When I heard that he had passed away, I said that I was going for his funeral? What, all the way to England? “Yes”, I said, “I want to say that I was there”. He will be cremated in London on 4.11.05, the end of an extraordinary life. When God made Jeyam Thamotheram he must have thrown away the mould. It was my privilege to have been associated with this great man. A fitting tribute to him would be to work towards the goal which Jeyam had devoted the later years of his life – a Tamil homeland where Tamils can live in safety and without discrimination and domination by the brutal and racist regime in Colombo. Dr.Brian Senewiratne                                                      Australia

Mahinda Rajapakse - the Road to Disaster

The manifesto of Mahinda Rajapakse, presidential candidate of the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), is an endorsement that a leopard (Sinhala political leaders) does not change its spots (the supremacy of the Sinhalese). It is instructive to know that despite the loss of more than 65,000 lives, a devastation of the country and serious questions about its future, the thinking of Sinhalese politicians has not changed. If such people are elected to power, neither has the thinking of the Sinhalese majority changed. It is not “instructive” for us, who have known this for years, but it is instructive for the international community which is still hallucinating that there is a genuine desire of the Sinhala leadership to reach a political settlement with the Tamil ‘minority’.

Rajapakse’s manifesto titled “Mahinda Chintana” (Mahinda’s thoughts) in the setting of agreements signed by him with so-called Marxists” (read political opportunists) in the JVP, and the extreme Sinhala chauvinists among the politically active Buddhist clergy (the JHU), is the clearest indication that the concept of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious Sri Lanka as a Sinhala-Buddhist nation, is alive and well. If that is the score, there is no alternative to the establishment of a Tamil Nation, Tamil Eelam.

In other pronouncements of “Mahinda’s thoughts”, he has said that the ongoing Ceasefire Agreement between the government and the LTTE will have to be ‘revised’ i.e. scrapped. The concept of self determination for the Tamils will have to be abandoned and with it, Federalism as a basis of a negotiated settlement. Mr Rajapakse does not seem to realise that the bottom line in the struggle to free the Tamil people from Sinhalese domination is the right of a people to self-determination. He should note that it is this same right of self-determination that enabled his ancestors to free themselves from British domination. By rejecting this right, he is effectively closing the door to a negotiated settlement.

Rajapakse’s ‘thoughts’ and their inevitable consequence (war) is reminiscent of another Sinhala political ‘leader’ J.R.Jayawardene, from the other side of the Sinhala political divide, the UNP. In the wake of the 1977 post-election massacre of Tamils, the newly elected Prime Minister Jayawardene told the devastated Tamils “If you want a fight, let there be a fight”, and went on to attribute this to the Sinhala people - “It is not what I am saying. The people of Sri Lanka say that”. Perhaps we should ask the people of Sri Lanka whether they did say “that”.

The comparison between Jayawardene (UNP) and Rajapakse (SLFP, now in an expanded group the UPFA), is important. What it means is that Sinhala politicians from the Green or Blue (and now even the Red) camp, are the same. They are Sinhala chauvinists with whom the Tamils cannot negotiate. That is not pessimism, it is realism based on historical fact.

Since Rajapakse has effectively closed the door to a negotiated settlement that will accommodate the aspirations of the Tamil people, he leaves no alternative to the Tamils other than to achieve this by force. If Rajapakse (and his bedfellows in the JVP and JHU) want war, (and it seems so), then war is what will occur – now or in the not-too-distant future. If/when it does, it will be a war for which Rajapakse will be responsible making. Let us be clear about that. Let this be made known to the International community, in particular the crucial aid-givers who are the Godfathers who enable the Sri Lankan government to buy the necessary weapons to destroy part of the population of that country.

The manifesto is replete with glorious words : “I am dedicated to building a ….just state…..”. What? Another “Just State”? I thought Jayawardene built one in 1977 when his election campaign promised a “dharmista” (just and righteous) society. When demagoguery was replaced by realpolitic in 1983, it meant the genocidal massacre of some 3,000 Tamil civilians in the Sinhala South. This was presumably was a pre-requisite to the establishment of a ‘Just” Sinhala nation. Jayawardene, by then the self-appointed President, told Ian Ward of the London Daily Telegraph “I am not worried about the opinion of the Jaffna people now…..Now we cannot think of them, nor about their lives or their opinion about us”. These are the Sinhala ‘leaders’ with whom the Tamils are expected to negotiate.

Rajapakse dedicates himself to achieving an undivided country. If that is so, a prerequisite would be the removal of the Constitutional provision which effectively spells out a Sinhala-Buddhist nation. Will he do that? Not likely.

He goes on to ensure that the people will be free to practise their respective religions. Well, they already can do this - give or take the burning of many Christian churches, and the destruction of even more Hindu temples, some filled with refugees. However, the fact remains that the people have been free to practise their religions. Rajapakse need not “dedicate” himself to this. What he has to do is to ensure that the Tamil people can live with equality, dignity and safety in the country of their birth and this, Rajapakse he has carefully avoided mentioning.

He also carefully avoids mentioning anything about addressing corruption - just as well, after dipping into the Tsunami funds to the tune of Rs.83 million (which he graciously returned in an attempt to avoid being prosecuted for fraud!). If the Sinhala people want crooks as their leaders, that is their problem. Why saddle the Tamil people with such leaders.

When Rajapakse “dedicates” himself to moulding a new Sri Lanka and creating a “prosperous peaceful country”, he will have to front up to some basic realities.

1. The Tamil people in the North and East have long since realised that they can never expect a fair deal under a unitary set-up where administrative and developmental power are entrenched in the hands of the numerically superior Sinhalese majority. If the deciding factor is the mere counting of heads and not equality of all its citizens, then a change is mandatory. A manifestation of this realization is the overwhelming mandate the Tamil people in the North and East gave their parliamentarians in 1977 to pursue the establishment of a Separate Tamil State. The brutality unleashed on these people (civilians) by a succession of Sinhala governments since 1977, in a determined attempt to crush them, has only hardened their resolve. So when Mr.Rajapakse “dedicates himself” to ensuring an undivided country, he is living in fantasy-land.

2. The Tamils have, in fact, established a Separate State in the Wanni which has its own administration, its own police, legal system and military. What is more, it seems to be far less corrupt and a far more efficient and organized administration than anything the Sinhala South has had for a quarter of a century or more. When the Sinhala South and their politicians finally wake up, they will find to their astonishment that a Tamil State has been functioning for years. What is left is for the Sinhala South to accept this reality and not fool themselves that a denial will make the reality of a Tamil State go away. It will not.

As for Mr Rajapakse and the Sinhala extremists and political opportunists in the JVP and JHU, they can hallucinate about an undivided country. If they plunge the country into war, they will be held responsible by the Sinhala people (whom they claim to represent) and the international community. He will also have to explain to the Sinhalese people why the bodies of rural youths, who will be called up to fight this war, are returning in body-bags.

What of the other side of the political divide - Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP? What if he becomes the next President? The Tamils do not need imagine that there will be a fundamental change. As I have said, a leopard does not change its spots. In 1983, when the Tamils were being butchered in Colombo, it was a young Minister in Jayawardene’s government who appeared on TV to say that Tamil businessmen deserved what they got. The Tamils would do well to identify that person. It is also worth remembering that after half a dozen non-productive Peace Talks and no peace–dividend for the Tamil people, the LTTE decided to abandon further peace talks “for the time being”, because Ranil Wickremesinghe (and his UNP) were dragging their feet in the implementation of what was agreed to.

What of the possibility of a so-called “National Government” (Wickremesinghe’s UNP and the Bandaranaike-Kumaratunga SLFP)? It is merely the amalgamation of two parties that have, for years, adopted more and more anti-Tamil measures to win the electoral support of the Sinhala majority. It was a combination of similar people who, in 1948, disenfranchised a million Plantation Tamils in one of the worst acts of political savagery the world has known. So let us not have any illusions that a “National Government” (read National Sinhala Government) is the answer.

The upcoming election is to elect a Sinhala President and that is a problem for the Sinhala people. It is not a problem for the Tamils. If the Sinhala people want crooks who may have had their hand in the Tsunami till as their President, that is their problem. If they want hoodlums who have wrecked the South in armed uprisings (in 1971 and again in 1989) with the murder of thousands of civilians who included University professors, leading professionals and charismatic Sinhala leaders such as President Kumaratunga’s husband, and an extensive destruction of infrastructure which included much-needed agricultural equipment, which be described as “the vandalisation of a country”, that is a choice for the Sinhalese. If they want Buddhist “monks” who are more comfortable preaching violence than the doctrine of Buddha, that is a problem for the Buddhists.

The Tamils have a problem. This is to develop the area under their control and carry this forward. The role of the international community is to assist this commendable activity. It is the role of the expatriate Tamil community to stop dreaming about a Tamil State and help in its building.

Dr. Brian Senewiratne                                                                 AUSTRALIA

EUROPEAN UNION & THE TAMIL STRUGGLE EU Credibility on the Line

I am a Sinhalese from the majority community in Sri Lanka. I am a doctor of Medicine with no political affiliations or ambitions. I left Sri Lanka 30 years ago and the only reasons for my involvement are concerns that are humanitarian and the future of the country. I have had a longstanding interest in the on-going ethnic conflict, in particular, in achieving a solution which enables the Tamil ‘minority’ to live with equality, safety, dignity and without discrimination, in the country of their birth. I have supported the Tamil people in their struggle against a succession of Sri Lankan (read Sinhalese) governments who conceive of Sri Lanka as a Sinhala-Buddhist nation which effectively excludes the Tamils, a concept that is even enshrined in the Constitution.

A fundamental problem is the failure to recognize the historical fact that Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was not a single nation but three effectively separate kingdoms (nations), the Tamil Kingdom in the North, the Kandyan (Sinhalese) in the Centre, and the Low-Country (Sinhalese) Kingdom in the South. This separation existed for hundreds of years until the colonial British, for administrative convenience, unified the country.

When they quit (1948) they handed over the country to Governments that were, and will always be, dominated by the majority (74%) Sinhalese. Discrimination against the minorities, especially the industrious Tamils, was always a possibility, and was, in fact, articulated strongly by Tamil politicians when the British quit. This possibility became reality as competing Sinhalese political parties adopted more and more discriminatory policies against the Tamils in language, education, employment and the developmental neglect of the area in which the Tamils lived.

Over the next 50 years Tamil politicians have negotiated with a succession of Sri Lankan governments to address these problems. A series of pacts between the two groups have not been implemented, even torn up, unilaterally by the Sri Lankan government to gain the political support of the majority. The initial request of the Tamils was for a Federal State in the Tamil area. The response of the Government was to unleash violence on peaceful Tamil protests and to increase the discriminatory measures. It was then that the Tamils pressed for a Separate Tamil State (Eelam). It is important to appreciate that the Tamils are not trying to divide and destroy a country but to reverse a British colonial policy which had clearly not worked.

It was not the LTTE but the Tamil people who, in the 1977 General election(the last with a credible result) voted overwhelmingly for a Seperate Tamil State and gave their elected parliamentarians a mandate to pursue such a result. It was the abysmal failure of these elected representatives to make any headway using democratic means that resulted in the Tamil militants picking up arms to establish such a goal by force, much as what Nelson Mandela and the ANU did to get the racist South African government to abandon its policy of apartheid.

Had the Tamil militants not gone the way they did, the elected representatives of the Tamil people would still be grovelling at the feet of Sinhala politicians as they have done over the past 50 years. There would have been no Peace Talks or a search for any solution to address the problems faced by the Tamil ‘minority’. Had Mandela and his group not acted in the way they did to take on the South African government, apartheid would still be flourishing in South Africa. To White South African eyes, Mandela was a terrorist who should be jailed (and was), to international eyes he was a statesman who deserved a Nobel Prize (and got it). So also Yasser Arafat, another Nobel Prize winner, leader of the PLO whose acts of violence dwarfs anything that the LTTE have done.

If some of Sri Lanka’s political leaders who have directed the mass killings of Tamil civilians and the Heads of the Armed Forces who carried these out (which included mass ‘disappearances’ of those in their custody, some of whom were tortured and buried alive), are taken before the International Court in the Hague on a charge of genocide, I doubt if they will go unscathed.

The EU declaration

In the context outlined above, the recently released EU statement condemning one party ot the on-going negotiations puts the credibility of the EU on the line.

1. The declaration condemns the “continuing violence and terrorism of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)”. There is no condemnation by the EU of the much more serious violence and terrorism of the Sri Lankan armed forces and the paramilitary groups armed and supported by them.

Where were the EU nations when the armed forces launched an assault on Jaffna with half a million civilians (“Operation Thunder” followed by “Operation Riviressa” (Sun Ray)? Half a million people had to flee the city to escape the onslaught. The then UN Secretary General called on international governments to “assist the uprooted people of Jaffna”. Was this not government terrorism unleashed on the Tamil people in the North? Was this not an attempt by the Sri Lankan government to pursue a political goal, by what the EU itself describes as “totally unacceptable methods”. If so, why did the EU nations not condemn this in the same language that they have now thought fit to “declare”?

2. The EU declaration claims that “the present political goals of such totally unacceptable methods only serve to damage the LTTE’s standing and credibility as a negotiating partner”. But that is precisely what the Sri Lankan government has done over many years. The EU’s double standard is blatant hypocrisy.

3. The EU “repeats the condemnation of the shocking murder of Lakshman Kadirgamar….” For a start, there is no evidence that the LTTE were responsible unless the EU has some undisclosed information. It is more likely that the EU is acting as a mouthpiece for the Sri Lankan Government whose credibility has been questioned by internationally credible human rights groups over many years.

Could we ask the EU to turn to the shocking mass murder thousands of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces who have indiscriminately bombed and shelled Tamil civilians who had a right to be where they were i.e. peacefully living in their homes? It would appear that Tamil civilian lives are of lesser value (lesser mortals) to the EU.

4. The EU is “actively considering the formal listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organization”. Precisely what would this achieve? The exclusion of one of the main negotiators from the Conference Table? And what would that achieve?

The EU, in particular the UK “presently leading the EU”, should know that with IRA bombs exploding all over London, the British government banned the IRA. What did that achieve? Nothing. When the reality of being unable to negotiate with a banned organization dawned, the IRA was “de-banned”! The EU in general and the UK in particular, seem to have learned nothing from past blunders.

5. The EU “has agreed that with immediate effect, delegates from the LTTE will no longer be received in any of the EU Member States…” What exactly is the EU trying to achieve? To opt out of facilitating a negotiated settlement? Is that acceptable behaviour of a supposedly responsible body?

6. The EU has agreed that member States will “take necessary measures to check and curb illegal and undesirable activities (including issues of funding and propaganda) by the LTTE”. What about issues of funding, propaganda and of even greater concern, the supply of weapons to the Sri Lankan government? Is the ‘end use’ of such military assistance for a country to fight and destroy its own people, of no concern to the EU? It would appear so from the recent partisan declaration of the EU.

7. "...The EU “calls on the LTTE not least to take immediate public steps to demonstrate their commitment to the peace process and the willingness to change”. For the record, it was the LTTE that initiated the Ceasefire even befor the then Sri Lankan Government did so. The EU needs to check its facts. Would the EU call on the Sri Lankan government ”to demonstrate …. willingness to change” by abandoning its declared policy that Sri Lanka is a Sinhalese Buddhist nation despite the fact that Sri Lanka is a multiethnic, multicultural and multi religious country, and repeal sections of the Constitution in which this is guaranteed? If not, why not?.."

The reality

It is time that the EU recognized the reality on the ground. Whether one considers the LTTE to be Liberation/Freedom Fighters or Terrorists, two things are crystal clear.

The first is that they are here to stay. They will not go away, be bombed out or “smashed”. That will not happen, indeed the opposite. They have grown from an insignificant group whose very existence was doubted in the early 1970s to one of the most powerful and best organized military organizations in the world. They have also established a de facto State in the area under their control (Wanni) which is far more efficient than anything in the Sinhalese area and infinitely more honest and free from corruption. The handling of the recent Tsunami disaster was evidence of this and was commended by several NGOs.

The second is that the LTTE is a key player in any negotiated settlement of the ethnic problem. It is not a “marginal player” that can be, isolated, antagonized or banned. Those who cannot appreciate this are living in the land of make-believe

To claim that the LTTE are the cause of the problem is arrant nonsense. The LTTE is not the cause of the problem but the result. The cause of the problem is Sinhala-Buddhist ethno-religious chauvinism – this destructive concept that multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural Sri Lanka is a Sinhala-Buddhist nation which effectively excludes the Tamils. If that is so, then there is no option to the establishment of a Tamil nation.

The timing of the declaration

The EU declaration is not only seriously flawed but its timing is disastrous. Sri Lanka is facing a critical period. Prime Minister Rajapakse, who is the Government-favoured Presidential candidate, has just signed a pact with the so-called Marxist JVP (read ‘political opportunists’) who have done so much damage to Sri Lanka (in two insurrections in1971 and in 1988) and the politically active Buddhist clergy who, by their ethno-religious chauvinism have prevented any solution to the problems faced by the Tamils. These extremists and opportunists have declared their crucial support to Mr. Rajapakse on condition that he tears up the Peace Pact and abandons the Tsunami relief to the Tamil areas. The recent EU declaration will give enormous support to these extremists and strengthen their hand. If these extremist forces triumph, it will be the restart of war and the total destruction of the country or what is left of it. Should this happen, the EU countries cannot absolve themselves from blame.

The EU can make a number of substantial contributions to facilitate the peace process in Sri Lanka. Issuing irresponsible ‘declarations’ will not be one.

Dr.Brian Senewiratne                                                                     Australia

One Party State in Sri Lanka: Political Ideology - Anti Tamil

Recent revelations have confirmed that there may be several political parties in the Sinhala South, but only one ideology – being anti-Tamil. There is the right wing United National Party (UNP), the supposedly socialist Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the so-called “Marxist” Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the Marxists of yester-year, the Lanka Sama Samaga Party (LSSP), the political party of not-so-clean-shaven men in yellow robes, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), and many more of their ilk. In reality they are all different names for one party policy – anti-Tamil.

The only difference between these parties is the degree of their ‘anti-Tamilness’. It extends from the extreme anti-Tamil chauvinism of the JHU based on a ‘pure’ Sinhala-Buddhist State, followed closely behind by the anti-Tamil JVP based on political opportunism which has replaced their Marxism, the ‘not-to-be-left-behind’ ex-Marxists in the LSSP, and the anti-Tamil stance of the two main Sinhala parties, the SLFP and the UNP. Every one of these parties without exception tries to outdo each other in their ‘anti-Tamilness’ to secure the electoral support of the Sinhala majority which they hope will propel them to political power (the passport to mega-corruption in Sri Lanka).

This anti-Tamil game has been played since Independence, indeed well before that. While still under British rule, Sinhala politicians even decided to have a pan-Sinhalese Board of Ministers, excluding the Tamils despite the fact that they had some outstanding Tamil politicians supporting the Government, some even in it. The alarm bells should have rung then. However there is no point in bells ringing if there are no ears open to hear them. The ears were shut, and these included those of the British who were more interested in leaving the country in the hands of Sinhalese capitalists who would play ball with them. Safeguarding the interests of the Tamil people was as far from British thinking as was their land from Ceylon, as it then was.

It is this single factor, this obsessive anti-Tamil populism, that has prevented the building of a nation. After 57 years of Independence, Sri Lanka is still a State with two warring nations, a Sinhala nation and a Tamil nation. The country had been unable to emerge as a single nation thanks to the lack of vision, and of integrity, of a succession of Sinhala politicians. This has not been recognized by the international community because of a massive propaganda campaign mounted by successive Sri Lankan governments, especially in the last three decades. What exists is a Sinhala-Buddhist State that has effectively excluded the Tamils who form some 18% of the population.

It is not possible to look at the future without looking at the past. I therefore make no apology for doing so. In the run-up to Independence, two groups of anti-Tamil Sinhala chauvinists (Senanayake and Bandaranaike) sunk their minimal differences and combined to form the UNP. They then sucked in some ‘hopeful’ Tamils (who blindly hoped that a single nation was a possibility), to present a united front to the British. The British were not unaware of the ethnic tensions and serious Tamil fears of discrimination under Sinhala rule after they left, but were ‘happy to be bluffed’.

This charade of Sinhala-Tamil unity started falling apart within months of Independence when the anti-Tamilness of the Sinhala leadership showed its hand. In one of the first acts of Independent Ceylon, a million Plantation Tamils were disenfranchised and decitizenised in one of the worst acts of political savagery in modern times, indeed of any time.

A few Tamils saw the writing on the wall and split from the UNP to form the (Tamil) Federal Party recognising that a Federal Tamil State was necessary for co-existence with the Sinhalese.

Following the breakup of Senanayake’s UNP because of the personal ambitions of one man, S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike, the current President’s father, the Sinhala voter had a choice between a blatantly anti-Tamil SLFP under Bandaranaike and the equally anti-Tamil UNP under Senanayake. Political power has regularly oscillated between the UNP and the SLFP based, not on any material difference in policy, but on the degree of anti-Tamil measures on offer to the Sinhala majority.

As the anti-Tamil measures adopted by successive Sinhala ‘leaders’ came into effect, the numbers in the Tamil Federal Party swelled and the demand for a Federal Tamil State was replaced by a call for a Separate Tamil State, Eelam. Eelam is effectively the creation of Sinhala politicians with no vision and no interest in nation-building.

The blatant anti-Tamil stance of the SLFP under Bandaranaike, his wife and daughter have been matched by a similar anti-Tamil stance by the UNP under Senanayake, Jayawardene and Wickremasinghe (all of them kinsmen).

Over the years, Tamil political parties have merely been suckers who have been conned into supporting one or other of the main Sinhala parties, which were trying to get into power and then being ignored once they did.

The plight of the Tamil civilians has been pathetic. They have been subjected to mass murder, bombing with a total destruction of their property, rape, arrest and detention without charge or trial, “disappearances”, torture – in fact every human rights violation that has filled the publications of internationally credible human rights organizations for the past three decades. Even the former UN Secretary General has expressed concern at what has been done to the Tamil people. Yet, the world has done nothing other than to arm the Sri Lankan Government to bomb and kill its own people.

With a succession of General Elections in the recent past, I have repeatedly pointed out that Sri Lankan Elections are to elect a Sinhala Parliament – the Tamils being no more than spectators, if that.

The country now faces a Presidential Election to elect a Sinhala President. It is not an issue for the Tamils although they are nearly a fifth of the population. The two leading Sinhala candidates – Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, the SLFP nominee, and ex-Prime Minister Ranil Wckremasinghe, the UNP nominee, are as anti-Tamil as each other.

Rajapakse’s anti-Tamil stance has been obvious, made even more so after he signed a pact with the anti-Tamil extremists in the JVP and JHU. The blatant anti-Tamil acts of the out-going President, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, the leader of Rajapakse’s party, are too well known to be detailed here. Her 12 year rule has been described as the worst the country has ever had. If her nominee, Rajapakse, succeeds her in next week’s ballot, it will be more of the same, perhaps worse.

From the other side of the Sinhala political divide, Wickremasinghe’s anti-Tamil stance, has recently been clearly exposed by two UNP stalwarts. Naveen Dissanayake, the son of a former UNP Presidential hopeful, has recently boasted that it was the UNP which engineered a split in the Tamil Tigers by ‘arranging’ for the renegade Tiger commander Karuna to break away from the Tigers. The report claims that this had the full support of Wickremasinghe who had signed a Peace Pact with the Tigers and was supposedly negotiating with them.

The sordid details are interesting but of little importance. One of Wickremasinghe’s nominated MPs, a Muslim from the volatile East, ‘arranged’ the split in the Tamil Tiger camp by offering various rewards to a Tiger leader from the East to break ranks. The MP has left the country for greener pastures, so has the family of the renegade, now luxuriating in a house in Malaysia, generously provided by the Sri Lankan government using tax-payers’ money. What has been left behind is a complete mess in the East, the new ‘killing fields’ of Sri Lanka. In effect a match was tossed into a tinder box, which was the ethnically volatile East. The ethnic flames may well be uncontrollable, even with the unlikely possibility of the introduction of an international peace-enforcing force. Such are the irresponsible acts of Sri Lankan ‘leaders’. Small wonder the country is in a mess. With leaders such as this, who needs enemies?

Dissanayake goes on to explain Wickremasinghe’s strategy to deal with the Tigers – to get the Americans and the Indians to fight the Tigers should the war restart. Apparently this was arranged with George Bush and Sonia Gandhi when Wickremasinghe was Prime Minister, despite his peace pact and on-going peace negotiations with the Tigers. Presumably, inviting the Indians to take the oil tank facility in Trincomalee on the Eastern seaboard, was part of Wickremasinghe’s ‘strategy’. The Indians can now be invited to defend their property, in the process killing even more Tamils than they did when Rajiv Gandhi marched his troops into Northern Sri Lanka at the invitation of Wickremasinghe’s kinsman, the then President J.R.Jayawardena. The actors are different but the games are the same.

Dissanayake’s claims were confirmed by Milinda Moragoda, a close confidante of Wickremasinghe, who was a member of the UNP government’s negotiating team for talks with the Tigers between September 2002 and March 2003. If evidence of Sinhala duplicity is needed, there it is in full measure.

What amazes me, a Sinhalese, with no political barrow to push, or reward to gain, is that the Tamils, both in Sri Lanka and abroad, still feel that it is possible for the Tamil people to negotiate with the Sinhala government of whatever political complexion, to enable them to live in equality, dignity and safety in the country of their birth. As I have said, the Sinhala political parties, irrespective of their label, have in effect one political ideology – of being totally and shamelessly anti-Tamil. This anti-Tamil outfit has now put forward two Presidential candidates who are two sides of the same coin. ‘Heads” the Sinhalese win, ‘Tails’ the Tamils lose.

If anti-Tamil candidates are all that the Sinhala polity can come up with, and the inevitable outcome, an anti-Tamil President and a Sinhala State of which he is the President, then there can be no alternative to the establishment of a separate Tamil State, Eelam. It confounds me that .. the international community, cannot see this stark reality. This article is written in the hope that they will. A remote possibility, since there are none as blind as those who will not see.

Dr. Brian Senewiratne                                                         Australia