I had the privilege of listening to President Obama’s inaugural address. I presume that all politicians of the Sri Lankan Parliament, Sri Lankan media persons, the NGOs, INGOs, and in particular, the Human Rights advocates (and activists) were also able to tune-in. The main thrust of the Obsma speech was clear; this is that when a country is in trouble each and every member of that country support the government of the day to resolve the problem, irrespective of political, ethnic, religious and other differences that may exist, and that terrorism in is the foremost problem in most countries in the world today.
I consider it my duty as a Sri Lankan patriot, who migrated to Australia 38 years ago, put forward my views on the issue of the LTTE (aka Tamil Tiger) Terrorism that did not exist at the time I left the country in 1970. From the news I read, hear and see it is clear that what is happening in Sri Lanka is exactly the opposite of what Obama said about resolving the issue of terrorism. A well established fact is that Tamil Tigers are no more than a group of terrorists of the worst kind in the world today. Atrocities it has carried out includes murder of local and foreign political leaders, introducing the tool of suicide bombing to the world of terrorism, elimination of all Tamil political leaders, ethnic cleansing of the Sinhala and Muslim communities from the Northern and Eastern provinces, recruitment of child soldiers, and using innocent civilians as human shields against the orders from the UN and the Red Cross.
Activities of the LTTE are planned and executed by its chief, a megalomaniac named Prabhakaran who has earned the title “Pol Pot” of Sri Lanka. That Tamil Tigers are not terrorists but a group of “Freedom Fighters” is insisted from time to time by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), some British MPs and Christian Churches. It is for this kind of situation that the famed biologist, J B S Haldane coined the phrase “a blinding glimpse of the obvious” (in 1953) and this is a classic example of Haldane’s statement if anyone claims that the LTTE are not terrorists.
We are all aware now that the three armed forces of Sri Lanka, under the guidance of the Government and Military leaders have virtually eliminated the LTTE as a fighting force and reclaimed the vast geographical region covering Northern and Eastern provinces and transformed the LTTE dream of an “Eelam” to nothing. The armed forces are currently in the process of pursuing the terrorist leaders who are hiding in small pockets of the Mullaittivu jungles behind a human shield of civilians. Rather than helping the government to fight this national issue of terrorist separatism, what the opposition parties of the Sri Lank have been doing is helping the enemy and creating the Sri Lanka’s “Fifth Column” with the help of LTTE supporters of the South (see below).
Despite the fact that the LTTE has been the bane of all governments that have ruled Sri Lanka for over 30 years, it is only the present government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa that was able to defeat this ruthless mob within three years of coming to power. It appears that the anti-government and pro-LTTE group is led by the Leader of the opposition. Its membership consists of opposition members of the parliament from the UNP, JVP, TNA, some sections of the media and their employees, mushrooming categories of rights groups (Human, Media, Law and Order etc), and some INGOs and NGOs’ It is evident that that these anti-national treacherous elements are, aided and abetted by a few states from the Western Block of countries. The objective of this conglomeration is to reverse the successes of the armed forces, discredit the forces and destabilize the country with the aim of reversing the gains against the LTTE and create a situation to destabilize the country hoping that this might bring about a change of government; the motive is to safeguard vested interests of each group. It is noteworthy that Sri Lanka is one of the most strategically located countries geographically, it is a small, independent and non-aligned democracy at present; such a country, which is also not so wealthy, can be pushed around by big players in the international world of politics in their own interests.
The statement of the Sri Lankan President’s that there is a conspiracy to topple the government by undemocratic means seems to hold water if we closely examine the series of recent events. Then we also know that Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe traveled all over the word trying to instill in foreign governments that in Sri Lanka there are no Human Rights, Media Freedom but plenty of thuggery by the Police and Armed Forces. As far as I am aware this is the only political leader from Sri Lanka who has acted so disgracefully. Other than his ambition to become the Sri Lankan President what was the purpose of his treacherous mission? This is a typical example of the Sinhalese saying “Looking up and spitting one’s own face”.
A second aspect of this LTTE supporting conglomerate is to provide the cornered LTTE terrorists an escape route, by the way of ‘peace talks’, that has previously proven be a technique to give time to regroup and re-arm and continue their brutal war to create their mono-ethnic kingdom of “Eelam”. The Tibetan spiritual leader and Noble Peace Laureate, The Dalai Lama, a lifelong champion of non-violence candidly stated that terrorism cannot be tackled by applying the principle of ahimsa because the minds of terrorists are closed. He added that “It is difficult to deal with terrorism through non-violence.” (Madhavrao Scindia Memorial Lecture in New Delhi, 17th January 2009).
With a few example let me explain how the anti-Sri Lanka movement conspired by the above groups have done to-date to come to the aid of the LTTE at every instance when they got cornered by the armed forces. Let us remind ourselves, once again, that LTTE is recognized (and condemned) internationally as the world’s most brutal terrorist outfit and 36 countries have proscribed it. Despite this it is very strange indeed that a handful of counties from the Western world are conspiring with Sri Lankan counterparts to stop the successful campaign by the Sri Lankan armed forces to eliminate these brutes from the island once and for all..
Take the case of Great Britain. Britain continues to believe that Sri Lanka is still one of its colonies. Telling the Sri Lankan government how to do their business of running the country is often carried out by putting out media statement on any local issue they wish to get involved in. It took a long time to Britain (and it media arm – the BBC) understand the true nature of LTTE terrorism. First Britain was supporting the so called “Freedom Fighters” of the LTTE to promote secessionism. Then it gave asylum to LTTE terrorists themselves, the most notable being Anton Balasingham, a high ranking leader of the group. Furthermore despite proscribing LTTE as a terrorist group Britain continues to turn a blind eye to LTTE activities (propaganda meetings, public demonstrations and fund raising activities). Internal affairs of Sri Lanka are a hot topic for discussion in the British parliament! This anti-Sri Lankan syndrome may be a remnant of the colonial attitude of the Queen’s Government that it finds hard to get rid of. It is significant that one of the first issues discussed in the new 2009 sessions of the British Parliament was Sri Lanka’s war against the LTTE terrorists. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, while responding to a question by Keith Vaz MP about the plight of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka said Britain’s Parliament on the 15th of January 2009 that there is a need for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka and that he would be raising the matter with French President Nikolas Sakorzy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel..
It’s about time that the British politicians, including their leader, understood that war against terrorism is an internal matter in the Independent State of Sri Lanka and that it is against the LTTE terrorists and not the Tamil people. Instead of wanting to discuss the “plight of Tamil Civilians” raised by the Keith Vaz MP, who is a well known LTTE spokesperson in the British Parliament it would be more fruitful to spend that time discussing truly international issues related to millions of innocent people killed (and continuously being killed) by the British interests in Iraq (did you find any weapons of Mass Destruction?). Mr. Keith Vaz (and Mr. Brown) don’t you consider the thousands innocent Tamil people and their democratically elected leaders killed by the LTTE and those that are used as human shields? Even India, one of the super powers in Asia with its Tamil population of 55 million (in the State of Tamil Nadu) has declared that the LTTE problem is an internal matter within Sri Lanka, and that it fully supports the actions of the Sri Lankan government.
The best thing that happened to Sri Lanka is getting rid of Norway as a “Facilitator of Peace”. Facilitating “Peace” in various parts of the world is a big business for Norway. The best way for me to describe the role of Norway as a “Peace Broker” for trouble spots in the world is to quote from SPUR Australia (Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights in Sri Lanka). “More and more about so-called Facilitators and LTTE Tamil Tiger activities in Norway – It is possible to trace fundraising and bank accounts to Tamil terrorist organizations the last 20 years. Bank accounts in Den norske Creditbank, Bergenbank and Sparebanken Midt-Norge was found before the 1990. Aftenposten, a major Norwegian newspaper, revealed in an article in 2001 that Norwegian authorities have been allowing transfer of funds to the Tamil Tigers, Hamas, ETA and other terrorist organizations. “Those missing were apparently overlooked on the UN list, and Norwegian authorities have been reluctant to add them for fear of unfairly exposing innocent bank customers, and risking damage claims.”
According to LTTE they have six offices in Norway. The LTTE is hiding under more legitimate organization like the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) and The Tamil Coordinating Committee (TCC). Fifty person’s works in the TCC network in Norway. The LTTE also has a significant Norwegian support structure for fundraising and propaganda activities. LTTE fundraising in Norway is estimated to be more than 5 million US dollars. The increasing Tamil community (10.000 ++) in Norway is paying yearly fees to LTTE and LTTE is involved in business activities in Norway. The LTTE propaganda activities have been successful in Norway. It is quite obvious the LTTE have been able to sell “their story” to the Norwegians and received the support of the Norwegian government and military. With more than 10.000 Tamils in Norway, LTTE has become a political important partner for Norwegian political parties. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also invited the LTTE to Norwegian military demonstrations”.
A video on demonstration of warfare procedures to Tamil Tigers by the Norwegian army during a LTTE visit is available to be seen on the following Internet site: (Norway_Peace_or_Piece_Brokers_in_Sri_Lanka) Norwegian ex-Special Forces have also been used to train Sea Tigers to attack Sri Lanka.
The IPS news service said, the LTTE is known to have used Thailand’s Andaman coast “to strengthen its capability to attack Sri Lanka’s Navy. That included the training of members of its sea Tiger Wing allegedly received from Norwegian ex-special forces to launch underwater demolition strikes.” Furthermore, in 2002 a total of six tons of electronic and optical equipment was delivered to the LTTE by Norway; the package included V-Sat equipment used in satellite communications. So there is no wonder that none of the “Peace” discussions organized by Norway and the Tamil Tigers were successful. European countries need to consider the truth of any information provided by Norway to the European community because they were blatantly partial towards the terrorists though pretending to be peace facilitators. The “Peace Facilitator activities of Norway, therefore, amount to nothing other than its role as spy and double agent, finding employment to the unemployed, and fund raising from external sources, such as the UN. It is shameful and treacherous act for a country to come in the guise of a friend and then provide war materials and training to the enemies of its hosts. Now as the LTTE is in the way of extinction in Sri Lanka I presume that the 10,000 odd LTTE supporting Tamils will want to carve out their “Eelam” in Norway!
My next example relates to Germany. German ambassador, Jurgen Weerth, was censured by Sri Lankan government for remarks he made during an eulogy at the funeral of a murdered newspaper editor. There is a controversy over this murder because this editor’s paper was widely known to be critical of the Sri Lankan government. Weerth was summoned to the Foreign Ministry by the Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona in order to express Sri Lanka’s displeasure and concern over his remarks. Weeth was informed that the government felt that the funeral had been turned into a political event.
According to reports Weerth, who is the dean of Colombo-based diplomats, said in his eulogy that the diplomats had failed to speak out earlier in support of media freedom in Sri Lanka. He added “Today is a day when one remains speechless; maybe we should have spoken before this. Today it is too late. Today is a day when humanity has lost a major voice of truth. But he will live in his work.” It is very stupid indeed for a Senior Diplomat to use such words without knowing anything about the murder other than that the man was shot by a gang of four people who came on motorcycles. Of course, there were widely publicized media reports based on statements of the Sri Lankan opposition politicians that the government is responsible for the murder. It would seem that Weerth’s Eulogy was a statement in support of the Leader of the Sri Lankan opposition who is campaigning to topple the government by agitating on issues such as the price of petrol, human rights, media freedom and, in particular, that Sri Lanka should talk peace with the LTTE terrorists (unfortunately for him it is a bit too late for this!).
The German Ambassador is “speechless” about the murder of a single individual who was a known partisan newspaper editor. In view of the fact that one of his main modes of journalism was character assassination, other published media reports say that because he had made many enemies it is difficult to make accusations about the murderers; it is also said that other motivations for this murder may be political and instigated by an interest groups that wanted to distract attention from the remarkable successes of Sri Lankan Armed Forces against the LTTE. Has the German Ambassador considered or given Eulogies at one or more funerals of those murdered by suicide squads of the LTTE? According to recent statistics between the years 1984 and 2006, 364 attacks had been launched by the LTTE that killed 3,232 civilians (the breakdown is: 2,252 Sinhalese, 309 Tamils, 701 Muslims); and 3,494 others were seriously maimed. The LTTE terrorists also assassinated over 50 mainstream politicians, of which 33 were Tamil. What I see from these events is that partisan Western interests are clearly unhappy about the trend of the war against terrorism in Sri Lanka.
Gallant patriots of the Armed Forces have dedicated their life and limb to rid of the ruthless LTTE terrorists who have been nothing more than an aggressive “cancer” that has affected the development of Sri Lanka for over 30 years. Why is it that Germany and a few other European countries are concerned that liberation of Sri Lanka from the LTTE by the current government is not such a good thing? Is it because such a success will be detrimental to the survival of their rightwing ally, namely the UNP? Resuming peace talks with terrorists, the murder of a newspaper editor, human rights, and freedom of the media issues have been raised by a section of the local diplomatic community and evidently Germany is one of them. Germans are better informed than any of us about mass murderers of millions of Jews by the mono-ethnic Nazis under the dictatorship of Adolph Hitler. It was mainly the United States of America who came to the rescue of the world from Hitler and prevented the creation of the super race of “Aryans”. I suppose that the German government can surely understand why it is so necessary for Sri Lankans eliminate its local version of Hitler – the mass murderer named Prabhakaran – whose plan was to create his own mono-ethnic Tamil kingdom called “Eelam”.
My final example is Australia. Even after obtaining proof (convictions in Courts) that there are LTTE terrorists in that country who are raising funds from the Tamil Diaspora and organising money laundering to support them, Tamil Tigers are allowed to function in comparison to many other countries that have proscribed them. The reason for this is the powerful Tamil Diaspora which has the backing of all Christian Church Groups in that country. As is with other Western Countries Christian Churches have always supported the LTTE terrorists irrespective of their sins in murdering people, including their own, for large proportion of LTTEers happen to be Christians of one sort or another. The same usual slogans – human rights, media freedom, freedom fighters – are used in Australia as well. Journalists from all media, politicians, and other important groups are wined, dined and then brainwashed with reasons why the LTTE should be supported by the State and Federal Governments.
Journalists are also provided with funds and facilities to visit Sri Lanka’s Tiger dominated areas to film “pathetic looking sights” or film sets they create and finally fed to the local media, for transmission. Patriotic Sri Lankan migrants in Australia take considerable effort to respond to this propaganda – something to be admired, but it is known that Christian Churches, the Uniting Church in particular, have more “clout” than other groups in influencing the media and politicians. I have been a witness to the way Tiger agents have manipulated Australian MPs, NGOs and Churches. Presumably for these reasons the Australian Government, particularly its High Commission Visa Section in Colombo has always favored Tamil applicants. Experience of many, including myself, is that Australia is partial to Tamil people in comparison to the Sinhalese possibly because it has been duped by the false propaganda.
The Australian High Commission has always been partial to Visa application of Tamils whether they are for visiting or PR purposes. Even the staff attached to the Visa division has been Tamils who treated the Sinhalese applicants with disdain. If Australia believes that Human Rights Violations are rampant in Sri Lanka what I can say? As a person living there it is worthwhile talk about the plight of the Aboriginal people of Australia. For example Aboriginal infant deaths represent 6.2% of total Indigenous male deaths and 6.5% of total Indigenous female deaths, compared with 0.9% and 0.8% of the total for non-Indigenous male and female infant deaths (2004 Statistics). Do I have to say more about Human Rights and Discrimination in Australia?
Of the Western Block countries it only the USA that has openly said that “We don’t advocate negotiations with the LTTE.” Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (in a 2006 interaction with South Asian journalists in Washington DC) said that “Let me set the record straight. The United States does not recognize the LTTE. We don’t deal with them. We don’t support them, we are extremely critical of them…. we have no sympathy whatsoever for the Tamil Tigers. They are a terrorist organization; they have brought nothing but misery to the people of Sri Lanka as well as to the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.” He added, “We have excellent relations with the government of Sri Lanka. I have met with President Rajapaksa.
We are signaling our strong support for the government of Sri Lanka.” Why cannot the rest of the Western Block countries come up with similar sentiments? Is it because they have been duped by the propaganda and brainwashing by the LTTE and their unpatriotic supporters consisting of failed politicians? I am aware that the European Community provides valuable aid to Sri Lanka; this includes millions of Euros for humanitarian purposes (largely, the victims of LTTE terrorism), Flood Relief, infrastructure development and “GSP+” trade preferences. All this support is accepted with gratitude and humility by the Sri Lankan Government and its people. Nevertheless, in the current situation my belief is that when Sri Lanka is in the verge of completely defeating the LTTE and bring back normality to the country any type of moral support that the EU can give to defeat terrorism would be worth considerably more than all the millions of Euros given as aid.
As far as I am aware there are not many examples of one hundred percent perfect politicians in any part of the world; they have weaknesses either single or multiple. Often politicians are accused of corruption (e.g., swindling the public purse, bribe taking), immoral behaviour (e.g., extra marital affairs, alcoholism and drug use), misusing privileges of office, and so on. It is not a priority to discuss such matters at a time when terrorist problem that plagued the country for so long needs more urgent attention. All evidence point to that fact that Mahinda Rajapakse government is hugely popular with the electorate because it is successfully tackling the terrorist issue. So why not EU accept the present Sri Lankan government with its warts and all, as it will be hard to find a better leadership that can deliver what the country needs just now; naturally one would expect a follow-up with development programs that have been impossible or difficult to implement with an intensive war against terrorism in progress.
(Prof Wijesiri Danthanarayana Emeritus is the Professor of Zoology School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England NSW, Australia)