14 December, 2024

Blog

Call For Immediate War Crimes Trials & Trade Embargoes Against Sri Lanka

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole

The position of our government is that no war crimes were committed by our forces at the end of the war. Contradicting that, last week (23 Nov.) I wrote of how we committed horrendous crimes on the battlefield in May 2009 and of how Australia has approached its own charges of war crimes. I commended its example for our government beginning trials, asking for forgiveness, and rescinding the medallions, promotions, and high offices given to our accused war criminals in uniform. There are mountains of evidence available against them. 

Subsequently today’s news is that Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Weerasekera on taking oaths as Minister of Public Security has committed himself to protecting all peoples of Sri Lanka. If that is sincere and true, then to protect Tamils he must embark on punishing all war criminals – for example those from the Navy who killed the Trinco 5. So long as he fails to do that the killers in uniform will be in our midst in high positions as they already are. Chilling! 

Yesterday (27.11) it was reported that those mourning their dead, who had not opened their shops to remember their murdered loved ones, were forced by the army presumably including these alleged killers to open their shops closed to commemorate their dead. Given this, it would appear that by “all communities” Dr. Weerasekera meant only the Sinhalese to whom he would offer protection. From abjuration of any responsibility to commitments on prosecuting war crimes, the government is totally mendacious.

Consider! When battles ended in May 2009, then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa issued statements that no war crime was committed and that his troops went into battle with human rights conventions in one hand and the gun in the other. Sinhalese drunk-with-hate might be expected to make and believe these claims.  But Tamils have difficulties understanding why Tamils, an MP in particular, would endorse such unbelievable claims. Subsequently, the government trotted out so-called IT experts from the Sinhalese community from Moratuwa University and in high positions abroad to say that, based on their scientific examination, the graphics in the UK’s Channel 4 documentary showing cold-blooded execution of LTTE-ers was doctored – i.e., photo-shopped). Most Sinhalese seemed to believe it. They do not realize that no one kills his baby to Fake a movie. (To see the photo click here)

In the course of time, Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Paranagama reported in 2015 as part of his government-appointed Commission’s findings that the charge that government troops engaged in war crimes was credible. The government did not like what the Paranagama Commission was finding so it restricted its funding. The Commission collapsed. 

As our demagogic Sri Lankan state thereby manipulates Sinhalese, the world sees us as naked like “The Emperor without Clothes.” Only we do not see our nudity and the incredulity with which the world watches us.

The commitments and scientific findings from the Sri Lankan state are just plumb incredible. The people forget all the untruths in which the government has been caught again and again. The government misleads a gullible population that forgets the past, and continues to vote to delay justice. What is sad is that even Tamils have poor memory. We vote for and celebrate alleged killers among us. We give them high offices in our political parties without an inquiry into the heinous accusations against them. But we insist on war crimes trials against Sinhalese. When a major Tamil party voted to deprive hill-country Tamils of their citizenship, many Tamils continued to vote for it. When that party had an internal fissure and one faction brought out how the main faction housed CID personnel in its Jaffna office this year helping them to monitor Tamils, that did not weaken the party’s support base. These people now fight each other to demonstrate who lights more candles on Maaveerar Day. Many people seem taken in.

Whatever Sinhalese communalists and their Tamils supporters may say for holding on to power and state office, it is a certainty that large scale killings of civilians by our armed forces occurred in the last 5 months leading up to May 2009. What is uncertain is whether it was 40,000 as in the UN Report or well over 100,000 as estimated by many (vide my article last week). As noted in the article, the military confirmed that LTTE cadres had surrendered to the army and a Sri Lankan Army Court of Inquiry acknowledged that the military captured LTTE cadres and that 11,800 cadres had surrendered to the military. The BBC cites video evidence on the surrender it calls compelling. In a comical denouement to an RTI request, the Information Officer of the Sri Lanka Military, Brigadier Sumith Atapattu, stated, “LTTE members have not surrendered themselves to the Sri Lanka military during the last stages of the war and they have handed themselves over to the Sri Lankan government.” The world laughs at us, thanks to our government’s and people’s ignorance of how nude we are. To continue to delude ourselves like this, knowing that others know we are lying, is shameless. Our courts toss out one after the other the findings of previous cases. One, two – all right. But it is now almost every finding by the judiciary against members of the government and its supporters. By so reversing so many decisions, the courts are shooting themselves in the foot and proving the need for external oversight in war-crimes tribunals under UNHRC 30/1. Where the courts found persons, military personnel, and violent monks guilty, the President has pardoned the convicted criminals. This even makes the case for an outside agency to take over the process so that those convicted cannot be pardoned and are held in outside prisons.

There is an ancient Greek saying, “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first strike mad.” Is this what is happening to our people?  We have withdrawn from our own commitment to the UNHRC. We are going back on our commitment to human rights based on which stopped GSP duty preferences were restored. Like the people of Hamelin, we are dancing to our destruction following our Pied Piper – our government.

 We may be blind fools but not the rest of the world. Only Mangala Samaraeera has publicly expressed the dangers of the foolish course of lying to the world that we have embarked on. Our government seems unconcerned about the dangers from the folly of its ways. Since the world understands how crazy and harmful our government is, its lies seem directed at gullible Sinhalese to sustain itself in power.

The Buddha spoke up for nonviolence. The post-Sangam Epic Period of the Tamils (Third to Fifth Centuries AD when Manimekalai was authored by the Tamil Buddhist monk Kulavaṇikan Seethalai Sataṉar), was a high multi-cultural time for Tamils with evidence for Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, and Christianity being practised. That highlighted the liberal ethos where Devanambiya Theesan converted to Buddhism from Hinduism. Asoka’s missionaries implanted this ethos, giving us vegetarianism based on nonviolence, hospitals, travelers’ rests, environmental consciousness with trees being planted, animal hospitals, etc.. The Buddhist ruins of Kandarodai in Chunnakam testify to our liberalism. 

 Despite that heritage, the governments since 1972 have sought to ram Buddhism down Tamil and Muslim throats by making it the state religion even in the twenty-first century, unaware of the human rights consciousness that has overtaken the globe. It would seem, to use V.S. Naipal’s phrase,  we Sri Lankans came out of our villages into the twenty-first century with a democratic state, but the village has not left us. We remain savages.

 Ask a Tamil what images are conjured in his head by Buddhism, which has given us so much good. The answer would be war crimes, communal riots, lawlessness, murderous Buddhist monks, the use of ethnic cleansing to take over our homes and lands, Buddhist temples coming up where there are few to no Buddhists, and military rule. Claiming that this is a Buddhist country, every state-paid feast at once has dishes of mutton, chicken, beef, fish, and prawns. Even the sparse vegetable curries have sprats. Sri Lanka’s Buddhists, it seems, cannot eat meals embodying nonviolence, but I have had educated Buddhists arguing with me that vegetarianism is not Buddhist. The lust for meat is inveterate. Even a tourist with goodwill having a Buddha tattoo on her body was sentenced by our nationalist police and judiciary. A religion that Sri Lankans do not believe in, is being foisted on others as means of demonstrating power. This is evident from the introduction of this pernicious clause into our constitution with no one asking by Colvin R. de Silva, a Marxist and therefore  godless by definition. He was giving opium to the Sinhalese in the form of Buddhism to secure his support base.

Persons of goodwill, whether Sinhalese or Tamil, are now willy-nilly placed in the position of safeguarding the constitution and recovering the once untarnished name of the Buddhist religion. Our governments themselves are responsible for the assault on Buddhism and the lawlessness in our midst.

Sri Lankans of sound minds have tried all they can and have failed. Now we must look for outside help from democratic countries. In this endeavour, Tamils must keep in mind that the UN report faulted both the government and the LTTE for war crimes. We cannot push for one part of the report while tossing out the other against the LTTE. Doing that, we condemn ourselves as the same delusional racists that the government is said to consist of. 

Maveerar Day, 27 Nov., translates as “Big Heroes Day.” It is set for the day after V Prabhakaran’s Birthday, 26 Nov. It makes clear that we are unprepared to jettison our misplaced LTTE sympathies, and shows us to be as racially-prejudiced as the Sinhalese. However, many of the people killed were civilians forced into the Mullaitivu area and shot by the LTTE in the back when they tried to flee Sri Lankan bombings. It is indeed appropriate to remember them and celebrate their lives. I suggest changing the day to a day in May when most of the butchery occurred, and renaming it as Tami Massacre Day, and enlisting foreign help to ensure there is accountability. It is the only way to convince the world that we truly and sincerely ask for justice. It is then that outside nations will join us in quenching our thirst for justice and addressing our cry for freedom. The time is opportune as the UK has initiated inquiries against mercenaries that helped Sri Lanka in the war.

We now need to ask openly for the full implementation of UNHRC Resolution 30/1, and trade embargoes against Sri Lanka including elimination of GSP preferential duties. Our MPs must ask for these in Parliament and we through supportive news outlets to reach free-thinking Sinhalese. We must seek to be heard. As things are, no one asks for these out of fear of a repressive state and judicial machinery, so the world thinks we are happy with allowing the crimes against humanity to go unpunished. The Sinhalese will understand that this is not racism but expressing what many of them are fearful of saying. 

This is a good time. Joe Biden, a human rights advocate, is President-Elect of USA. In 1983, the assault on Tamils under J.R. Jayawardene was at its height especially after his open admission of Sinhalese racism to The Daily Telegraph (11 July 1983): “Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.” It was a time we rightly feared for our future, and even Sri Lanka’s future. An uncle of mine in Delaware was a medical practitioner where Biden is one of its two Senators. He got us an appointment and we met Joe Biden. A cousin’s aged mother-in-law (a US Citizen) had been raped by Sinhalese thugs in Colombo. My uncle readout a petition. Biden was attentive when I told him of the rape. He was sympathetic and I expect he still is after far worse things have happened.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, like his uncle, had given excuses for not keeping his promises to the UN.  Like SWRD Bandaranaike, agreements mean nothing to the Sinhalese-State as it now ponders the removal of Provincial Councils violating agreements with India. The world realizes that solemn promises by Sri Lanka are worthless and made only to buy time till Sri Lanka is an ethno-state.

We and the world must act together before it is too late. This is not against Sri Lanka but for it. As David Cameron, British PM, stated upon the passage of 30/1, “The UNHRC decision on Sri Lanka is a victory for its people.”

Latest comments

  • 18
    1

    All the ‘holocaust denier’ types, jumping in and some coming out of the woodwork, spinning their distanced, ignorant, calculated misinformation, lies, and propaganda don’t realize that all their antics only corroborate the impunity granted by the SB masses with which the state committed acts of evil against the Tamil minority.

    The fact that the SB state committed unspeakable acts of evil against the Tamil minority simply cannot be disputed in the face of the mountain of evidence that exists, cumulatively over SL’s long history. No civilised, conscionable nation has concluded otherwise.

    The state’s communalist policies and the evil acts that stemmed from those policies predate any separatist movement in SL. Those acts inspired and precipitated the armed liberation movements.

    Though 75 years have passed since the holocaust, civilised nations continue prosecuting the living Nazis who were directly involved in the holocaust.

    In contrast, the ‘holocaust denier’ types in SL are more active than ever, ever so determined to rewrite history and have chosen a government that is determined to do the same. This has only reinforced that SL is a failed state which, time and again, has given into the ways of sheer evil.

    • 2
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      This island is the island of the Sinhalese, as per ancient Tamil literary works. The Tamil country didn’t extended beyond Cape Comorin.
      Boundaries of the Tamil country (Tamilakam) according to Sikandiyar, supposedly a pupil of the legendary Agastiyar:
      வேங்கடங் குமரி தீம்புனற் பெளவமென்
      றின்னான் கெல்லை தமிழது வழக்கே.
      Translation: Tamil prevails within the four limits of Venkatam, Kumari and the seas.
       
      All known Tamil literary works including Tolkkappium give the same boundaries. If this island was inhabited by Tamils, surely they would have included it too within the Tamil country. Not only do they exclude this island from the Tamil country, Tamil literary works clearly say that the region outside of Tamilakam is “molipeyar thesam”, meaning countries that speak other languages than Tamil. So basically, according to Tamil literary works this island was a foreign language speaking country.
       
      The change and the tragedies and the atrocities that happened when transforming the Sinhalese island into a place where a large section of it is now inhabited and claimed as Tamil, by obviously a population hostile towards the Sinhalese, is what is wrong with this island.

      • 1
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        ” Boundaries of the Tamil country (Tamilakam) “
        Punchi, once again a half-baked, rogue, bald head has rewrote Kakkai Padiniyar’s stanza and misinterpreted you the meaning. Boundaries are only for countries or land. Further, when Tsunamies created Ceylon, Ceylon, (Olden Days Eelam)” never was part of Tamilakam or India, again.
        Actual lines in the stanza of Kakaipadiniyar are saying Southern boundary is Kumariyaaru. Kumariyaru is believed to be bar below to Ceylon, further down to 1St Sangams’ capital city, Themathurai, in the Kumari Kandam.
        வடக்குக் தெற்குங் குணக்குங் குடக்கும் வேங்கடம் குமரி தீம்புனற் பெளவமென்(று) இக்கான் கெல்லை அகவையிற் கிடந்த நூலதின் உண்மை வாலிதின் விரிப்பின் என்று (பெருங்) காக்கை பாடினியார் தெற்கே குமரியாற்றை எல்லை கூறினர். எனவே, அவர் தொல்காப்பியரோடு ஒரு சாலை மாணவர் என்று பேராசிரியர் கருதுவர். ”
        Sikandiyar’s comments comes long after Tholkapiyar or Kakkai Padiniyer, she was in the same class with Tholkapiyar under the great sage Ahastiyar. This Kakkai Padiniyar is not same with the latter ones. Unlike this one, they are not equal to Tholkapiyar.
        The argument in Sikandiyar’s word is He was saying Venkadam is North, East &West are Sea and South is Kumari. If South too is as now, sea he didn’t mention that. So Kumari is not the current sea boundary of Tamilakam. It is the Kumariyaaru mentioned by Periya Kakkaipadiniyar.
        Sorry to disappoint you once more!

      • 1
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        To tell a reply to your conclusion that Tamils works says that Sinhalese were living in Ceylon, it never happened until last century ,Bharati. You wrongly interpreting and trying to patch here there and come to a conclusion that is nowhere said. I excuse you because you are not qualified to read and understand the Sangam Tamil works, they are even difficult for Tamils Students, we. You are dependent only on fake pundits.

        • 0
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          Hello Mallaiyuran, long time no see, or should I say long time no clash. Anyways the disappointment is all yours.
          What scientific evidence is there for this Kumarikandam? Zero.
           
          “If South too is as now, sea he didn’t mention that”.
          South will always have to be the sea, as pr your own description too. As its obvious, rivers do not have oceans as boundaries, rivers have land/rock on either side until they flow into the sea, otherwise they will not be rivers, but just be part of the ocean. What was beyond Kumariyaru? Anyways as per your own description of this imaginary Kumarikandam, and also all the maps showing it, the southern boundary has to be an ocean and not a river, unless ofcourse you think that rivers can flow through oceans.
           
          Please watch this small presentation by a Tamil scholar.
           
          Lemuria – Truth or Myth?
          Part 1
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlHAAL__4qA
          (4:40 minutes)
           
          Part 2
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtrAytjeHJs
          (9:43 minutes)

        • 0
          1

          About the word “Kumariyaru” – During Tolkapiyum’s time, Tamil was in Old Tamil stage. One of the sound changes that is documented happened from Old Tamil to late Middle Tamil (9-10th century) is the drop of initial y-.
          Example: yaru (river) became aru.
           
          Now if Tamils came here anytime before that sound change happened in Tamil, all of the river names you have -aru would have been -yaru instead.
          Example: Manal aru, would be Manal yaru.

          • 2
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            PP I am afraid you need to educate yourself about the language of Tamil and its intricacies before making nonsensical statements about the language and then try to make a flawed deduction of Tamils’ historic presence in the island of Sri Lanka! In the word ‘Kumariyaru’ Kumari is the Pronoun and Aru is the Noun and in Tamil language when the word is made of the two words, the letter at the end of the preceding word, determines how the spelling and the pronunciation of the conjoined word ( Kumari + Aru = Kumari’ya’ru). Even today we have for instance Thiruvai’ya’ru, Vaihai’ya’ru(Vaihai+Aru) etc., in Tamil Nadu and Aruvi’ya’ru( Aruivi+Aru), Na’ya’ru (Nai + Aru) etc., in Sri Lanka.
            In your example of Manalaru, the word is made of Manal(sand) and Aru(river), when brought together the words are joint up with the Tamil letter ‘la’ and spelt accordingly without the letter ‘aa’. This has got nothing to do with Old Tamil and Middle Tamil as you make it out to be, but a characteristic of grammatic Tamil. Please feel free to check this out with any scholar worth his salt in Tamil language

          • 0
            0

            Punchi,
            It was not me “Long time no see”, it was your feeder took too long to get you a replay for my comment. Anyway, happy meeting.
            But sadly your man played out on you once again.
            Before I go tell what he is saying in Tamil, a word on my error s that might can or have happened by human nature. If I ever had argued in the past or in future arguing that Lemuria is real but not revoking this first, then here by I revoke them first. For my memory, in my past writing in CT, I denied Lemuria concept, a word came from lemur- no Tamil connection. Further I have said that if a tectonic shifting had taken place to sink Lemuria like larger land mas, then it cannot be within 200M years because the trees, plants and animals’ relationship is far distant now. So that kind long history has no chance of getting mentioned in any human history, even in 125,000 years Balangoda Vedas, the Sinhala Buddhists’ Mahavamsa.
            The presenter’s point is, he produced this tape, not as proof, but as a scientific explanation for how Periya Kakkai Padiniyar happened to mentioned about Kumariyaru- Kumarikandam. Now you view the clip again, then you will understand that he is arguing, word to word, for what I said.

      • 2
        0

        PP if you can read TAMIL that it is, you will see that the boundary limits quoted in this verse is a depiction of how it was, PRIOR TO THR LOSS OF LAND MASS, KNOWN AS KUMARIKANDAM WHICH EXTENDED BEYOND PRESENT DAY SRI LANKA, TO THE OCEAN.

        DO NOT provide FALSE NARRATIVE of TAMIL LITERARY works KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT IT!

      • 3
        0

        PP if you can read TAMIL that it is, you will see that the boundary limits quoted in this verse is a depiction of how it was, PRIOR TO THR LOSS OF LAND MASS, KNOWN AS KUMARIKANDAM WHICH EXTENDED BEYOND PRESENT DAY SRI LANKA, TO THE OCEAN.
        DO NOT provide FALSE NARRATIVE of TAMIL LITERARY works KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT IT!

        • 0
          1

          Ari, The false narrative is all yours. Kumarikandam has never existed and it is only during the late 19th century, this idea about Kumarikandam came into being among Tamil fundamentalists. I have written comments about this earlier, so I am not going to repeat them. Even if this imaginary Kumarikandam did exist, and according to your theory/claims it got submerged in the rising ocean or sank down, at the edge of what remains of this imaginary Kumarikandam is the Maldives, and they do not speak Tamil, but Dhivehi, a language closely related to Sinhalese. Also, sources I have checked say that ancient Tamil literary works do not mention Kumarikandam. If they did, can you please state which works mention Kumarikandam? Give the exact reference.

      • 1
        1

        [Edited out] We are sorry, the comment language is English – CT

      • 5
        1

        Punchi Point is of the Karawa caste, which is a Tamil originated caste and he has the nerve to complain about ‘Tamil invaders’ as if he is some pure Aryan Sinhalese (LOL).

        The Tamil equivalent is the Karaiyar, the Kurukula caste from Kurumandala, the coromandel coast.

        He keeps on harping about the medieval past to justify the rights of the present. What a backward, medieval mind state.

        The fact is Tamils have been living in the northeast for centuries. Even if we take it from the 13th century AD. That is equivalent to great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents living and dying as Tamils in northeast. Thats our ancestral land.

        Tamils are not hostile to Sinhalese, the average Tamil knows nothing about Sinhalese. It is modern Sinhala national identity which is based on invoking the ancient and medieval conflicts with Tamils.

        During the european colonial period, there was no major conflict between Tamils and Sinhalas, but this Punchi Point (Tamil descended Sinhala) is distorting history to satisfy his pathological hatred for Tamils.

    • 0
      9

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  • 3
    10

    Dear S

    With all due respect from what you have written you couldn’t have possibly be a born and bread up in Sri Lankan. You may have a heritage and born somewhere else and grown up reading all the ampuli mama story tellers who published all kinds of stuff in various countries signed by their local MP’s who needed their votes.

    None of these MP’s never stopped and asked exactly why we needed to fight in SL?
    I am not sure if this is how Holocaust took place sorry?

    Yep the FP/TULF upped the stakes since 1948 and certainly did score “micro Holocausts” resulted in Jaffna Residents democratically started deselecting the FP/TC in 1970. Then thugs shown their real colours and went for separatism still not discussing why? until 1977 election with “river of blood appeal” was the beginning of death of the innocents…that is us who died.

    Who are you by the way??

    • 3
      0

      Dear T.V.:
      You assumed wrong.
      Would you agree that you threw in your assumption to minimise my experiences just because those don’t favour your self-centred propaganda?

      My opinions are heavily based on my experiences in the country where I was born and brought up.
      However, I am not blind to other persons’ experiences. I have no personal agenda in spite of my personal losses and losses of those near and dear which are also very personal to me; this circle rightfully places blame on different players for the different aspects and outcomes through the different points in time.

      I am not here to condone anyone’s wrong doing. However, the burden of responsibility has to be placed fairly and proportionately in consideration of all facts and the realities of those within my immediate as well as greater circles, not just yours alone nor just mine alone.

      • 2
        3

        Dear S

        Apologies for any offence and misreading/misrepresentation etc. Respect your losses always.

        Anything I say always include each and every one who lost something in our Nation. It is the politics we did at gun point since 1970 by the FP/TULF the blind leading the blind created this monstrous losses suffered by all the Mother Lankan Children. JVP also can spent their explaining their actions too as anyone introduced violence as an end to their means then already broken my lands law and order……..nothing further to discuss,

  • 1
    6

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  • 10
    1

    I don’t know what is troubling you. Go and read history. Tamils voted for Ceylon Independence Act on the solemn promise by DS Senanayake that no harm will “no harm need you (non-Sinhalese) fear at our hands (Sinhalese) in a free Lanka.” He was speaking in the State Council in October 1945 when all the Thamil members had unanimously voted for the acceptance of the Soulbury constitution in a White Paper.
    “Do you want to be governed from London or do you want, as Ceylon, to help govern Ceylon? On behalf of the (Ceylon National) Congress (founded by Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam in 1919) and on my behalf, I give the minority communities the sincere assurance that no harm need you fear at our hands in a free Lanka.”

    DS Senanayake on the year of independence itself deprived the 800,000 Hill country Tamils of their citizenship. The following year he stripped them of their franchise. Likewise, he commenced the Gal Oya development scheme and settled Sinhalese peasants, His son Dudley Senanayake colonized Tricomalee with Sinhalese via the Allai-Kantalai scheme. Today, Tamils are in a minority in Trincomalee and Amparai districts. Out of 13 Pradesh Sabas in Trincomalee Tamils dominate only 3, The area of Trincomalee district is 2728 sq, km. Out of this only 346 sq, km (12.68%) is occupied by Tamils. In 1827 Tamilspopulation was 81.67%. Tamils are subject to slow genocide.

    • 0
      3

      ” In 1827 Tamil population was 81.67%.”
      How many were the Tamils in numbers in 1827?

      • 0
        0

        Regardless of percentage or whole number the point is amply clear as regards the impact of ‘state sponsored’ Sinhala colonisation or demographic engineering, on the population makeup of Eastern province today!

    • 2
      3

      Dear Thanga

      I am fully aware of the things you have stated and thank you for highlighting etc.

      I loved real time in 1970’s none off these were irrelevant except the same were highlighted then………..world over had million more events of the nature you have highlighted and the humanity has overcome that very successfully.

      It is the paths and solutions offered by the FP/TULF at gunpoint compounded trivial issues we had into “making a mountain out of molehills” where the children had tone brought into the picture….(TELO/PLOTE/LTTE/EPRLF++++++++)….ANY OF YOU CAN GIVE ME YOUER CHILDREN I WILL GET THEM TO FIGHT CAUSES THAT NEVER EXISTED FOR ANOTHER FEW CENTURIES ANYTIME……

  • 4
    0

    [It is more about you than me a faceless coward?? the worst human right abusers I am here to take care…a full time job.]

    Mate Venu, If I am a faceless coward then you are a headless, brainless fool. What discussion with you, my foot, wasting my time. You should be locked up in an institution. You will keep on praising your master Sinhalese and criticize Tamils who are from the time of independence struggling through all means for their legitimate rights. Simply because they knocked out some of the opportunist dhemalu politicians you have a grouse, because one of them happened to be your father. Just have a good drink today and think how he betrayed the Tamil voters of Vaddukottai at a ricked election and then became an enemy of the Tamils by jumping to the Sinhala side. Do you then think, that it is worth for me to come for a discussion. Wake up man. Just watch how Sanakian, GP, Sumanthiran, etc presenting their arguments and first go as an aid to the young Sanakina to learn politics instead of a broken record repeating the same bull shit. Or else seek some counselling.

    • 3
      5

      Dude your English is certainly better than mine………….irrespective you are not given any right point a gun at any fellow man and woman for your personal preferences…….law of cohabitaion applies?????

      Broken record??????? well since 1948 FP/TULF is playing the broken records and buried us all alive little do you know????? hence I called you a coward.

      • 3
        4

        why you still a faceless coward??????

        Identify yourself we can have an open discussion with the world media then we decide where we go from there etc????

        We have no idea who you are but you know who I am because I am not a coward correct??? I want to demonstrate to the world you are not a Tamil nor a Sri Lankan and want to bring you out from hiding so world can see what they tolerate next door to them??????? human rights abuser/killer hiding and stirring hop trouble for other people?? are you working for a foreign agency???? how much are they paying you? have a wife? children??? do the NHS know your credentials to employ you as a Doctor??

  • 3
    6

    SORRY…”I LIVED IN 1970’S AND NONE OF WHAT YOU SAID WERE RELEVANT…

  • 3
    5

    We live for the future and apply lessons learned for the required processes?? there is no Sinhalese/Tamils/Muslims/Christians…..only Sri Lankans….and the any fight should be to unite them and divide them for a sustainable future………this is the concept that should be in the heart of a cause.

    I will give you an example………..per se if the Ghetto parties fight to “one for all and all for one” and claim equal footing in the entire land then I will mylself fight the same causes. At the moment only the SL armed forces doing that for me………….leaders and party politics are irrelevant for me.

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    5

    not divide

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    Majority of the comments in this forum are from racist attempting to discredit the other community and most of them stoop to insulting the writer who comment! Its sad to note that a prominent Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole request “For Immediate War Crimes Trials & Trade Embargoes Against Sri Lanka” with one foot in the UK and the other in Sri Lanka. I am sure he and his family will be the first to migrate if trade embargoes are enforced by foreign governments. It is sad that some of the Sri Lankan government military offices were involved in war crimes but the intensions of the then government was to fight against a ruthless terrorist organization who were terrorising the whole country. On the other hand, the LTTE deliberately targeted civilians to provoke the Sinhalese majority assuming that the majority will counterattack the Tamil community like what happened in 1983. Fortunately for us, no such thing took place until the war ended in 2009. The majority of Sri Lankan military officers are in Sri Lanka and if an independent investigation is conducted then at least some of the officers who were responsible could be punished. That’s all that can be done by an independent investigation.

    • 1
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      continued from the above post….
      How about the LTTE carders who committed war crimes? Most of them live comfortable lives in foreign countries and none of them could be charged for the crimes that they committed. The Sinhalese community who is the majority in this country would not accept a one-sided solution and therefore the government would refrain from displeasing the majority. If this is what Prof Hoole and the other members in this forum want, I don’t see it as a fair solution. I see Prof Hoole as a trouble maker rather than a person fighting for justice. He should come up with a fair solution for both communities in finding an unbiassed solution for existence.

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        Ruwan,
        “How about the LTTE carders who committed war crimes? Most of them are living abroad..”
        There are at least 3 top guys in Sri Lanka. K.P, Pillaiyan and Karuna. Why isn’t your great Sinhala Buddhist President doing anything about them? It is not wise, dear Ruwan, to look up and spit.

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          Old Codger,

          What I am saying is that the investigation cannot be done in a fair manner! in addition Pilaiyan and Kaeuna who helped the then Government to win the war including KP and 11,000 others have reformed themselves and are leading normal and peaceful lives. Are you recommending to take action against all of them and leave out the thousands who have skipped the country?

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            RuwanL,
            Yes, and why not? Why was KP kidnapped from Malaysia if your patriotic govt didn’t want to charge him? Isn’t it logical to punish whoever is in your hands? Do the police stand around doing nothing after a crime because other criminals are hiding? What makes you think that the Tigers abroad haven’t “reformed” ? Get real, man!

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    The Sri Lankan context is different to the Australian context.

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    Old Codger: “Before you get more hysterical, I am NOT a Tamil.”
     
    Hysteria is all yours. When you act like a Tamil, attack and ridicule anything that is Sinhalese like a Tamil, and propagate all Tamil made anti-Sinhalese propaganda, I will be considering you a Tamil. Whether you actually are a Tamil or not is not relevant, since I don’t know who you are. Just so that you know what I mean – using the same basis as you have made your claim on, namely without giving any evidence at all, I can also say that I am not a Sinhalese. There is the same amount of evidence for such a claim by me, namely zero, as the one you have made. I hope you understand my point.

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      P.P,
      One doesn’t have to be a Tamil to criticize the Sinhalese. Any person without mental blinkers can see where this country’s problems come from. The first step in finding a solution is to identify the problem, not to throw stones at the investigator.

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        PP,
        There are plenty of Sinhalese and non- Sinhalese who think and write like me. No Sinhalayo though. Those are all blinkered slaves. How do you know I’m not Mangala Samaraweera?

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        PP,
        I have nothing against the Sinhalese. My personal opinion is that , as individuals, they are more sociable ,generous, and fun to be with than most Tamils. That said, if I want a job done, I would hire a Tamil anytime over a Sinhalese, because I can be sure the job will be done on time and properly.

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    “… people like you won’t give them a level playing field”
    Tamils claims of not getting equal opportunities is totally made up. What Tamils didn’t get to do was to continue with the totally unfair privileges they had during British colonial rule. Example: At independence the Tamils were ~770,000 – how many doctors can that 10% minority produce if we take only their contribution to the economy? Think, when over 50-60% of doctors only spoke Tamil and refused to learn Sinhalese, a good percentage of Sinhalese would have had trouble communicating with their doctor at that time. If these unfair British policies continued, what would the situation be today? This is just a simple example showing one aspect of the problem. Fair and equal distribution of resources means giving everybody a “Level Playing Field”, not just one ethnic group. The “Playing Field” during the British colonial rule was not level. It was vastly tilted to the advantage of the Tamils and Tamils trying to keep that tilt in the “Playing Field” at the cost of everybody else, is what has been the problem. Anybody arguing for anything else, is promoting apartheid and injustice.

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      An hypothetical situation and questions:
      If 90% of government jobs, university entrances etc always went to people from two cities, constituting not more than 15% of the total population, in a country which was ethnically homogeneous, do you still think implementing measures to correct the unequal distribution of resources so that rural people also got access to higher education and government jobs is unfair? What would be the effects of such unequal distribution on a country in the long run, if there were no remedial measures undertaken by the state? And if that state is poor, and resources limited, how best would the unequal distribution be corrected?

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        PP,
        I am not talking about hypothetical situations. I have shown the actual pre-1956 situation.
        The Burghers were good at running the railway and Police.The Tamils were good at administration.
        The merchants were competitive and there were no shortages.
        You can tell me what the Sinhalese were good at, maybe?
        This country is NOT ethnically homogeneous. Some people are better at some things than others. This may sound irrelevant to a blinkered person, but even the Malwatta chapter allows only certain monks to be Mahanayakas.

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      P.P.
      “Sinhalese would have had trouble communicating with their doctor at that time. If these unfair British policies continued, what would the situation be today”
      You are being hysterical AND illogical as well as cherry-picking facts.
      The truth is that the population increased from about a million to 7 million during British rule and up to 1956. Obviously Tamil doctors didn’t prevent the Sinhalayo multiplying. Yes, the doctors, engineers, accountants, police officers, railwaymen, were mostly Tamils, Burghers, etc. The plantation workers were Indian Tamils. The big merchants were Tamils, Sindhis, Parsees, etc. It was not a matter of discrimination. People did what they were good at.
      Can you deny any of the above?

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        P.P,
        “And if that state is poor, and resources limited, how best would the unequal distribution be corrected?”
        Why is this state poor ? Was it poor in colonial times? Certainly not! It wasn’t because it was efficiently run. The British ( and the State Council) renovated many tanks and irrigation schemes FOR THE SINHALESE using locally raised taxes, not Chinese loans. The income came from the plantations, in which the Sinhalese refused to work!
        If we go back to that system, we will be rich again. All you have to do is start thinking of other citizens as Sri Lankans, not Tamils, Sinhalayo, or whatever. In short, stop being racist.

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    Dear RuwanL,
    .
    PART ONE

    .
    You sound a very sincere man, but a rather muddled one; you’ve got your facts wrong.
    .
    Before demonstrating that, let me request that you listen to two speeches made during the past fortnight in our Parliament in English.
    .
    Gajendran Ponnambalam (13 minutes)
    .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5H0HAdCDFI
    .
    Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam
    .

    A 13-minute excerpt:
    .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYECgwxmHFM
    .
    I provide the full speech, which actually is trilingual, below in PART TWO (some of us have limited data!)
    .
    Me, I’m Panini Edirisinhe of Bandarawela (NIC 48 3111 444V) Mother tongue, Sinhalese, no knowledge whatsoever of Tamil (which I apologise for since I consider myself a Sri Lankan.)
    .
    I suggest that the moment we feel that a racist is trolling, we ignore him totally. Do not give them oxygen by retorting.

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    PART TWO
    .
    The full Rasamanickam speech
    lasting 30 minutes:
    .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gJwazjGwMk

    .
    Comments on CT don’t all necessarily get displayed in chronological order. In my very first comment on this article, I hoped that there wouldn’t be racists making insincere tit or tat comments at each other. You have expressed the same sentiment. That comment is now at number 128 on page 1. When I made it, I could see no comments, but when CT put the first batch of comments on, around 3 p.m. on Friday, the 4th, there may have been about six comments ahead of mine. After that replies to a number of those 6 comments has pushed my earliest comment down, more than 100 places. In fact there are about five of my own comments above it.
    .
    In that first comment I unreservedly praised Professor Hoole’s article, and hoped that all the comments that were going to appear would be disciplined and to the point. To start with they were, but then the (usual) degeneration took place.
    .
    I don’t expect impossible conscientiousness from you, but you must get your facts right. Chief among them is this:
    .
    None of us wants sanctions;

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    PART THREE
    .
    A series of activities of governments
    , especially since May 2009, that have made it necessary for Professor Hoole to call for sanctions. All other avenues explored, but no progress. This is a desperate last resort. If “punishments” befall the country, blame governments, and the dumb citizens who elected them.
    .
    Don’t blame those conscientious citizens who have reluctantly concluded that there is no other way.
    .
    Don’t seriously expect any War Criminals to be actually executed, although some deserve it. Some may have to serve prison terms.
    .
    Your duty is to know the facts. Please read carefully and note that Hoole has labelled some LTTE also as War Criminals. Some of them have been given prominent places even in governments since about 2005, after they betrayed the LTTE. That helped to defeat the Tigers.
    .
    It was up to you to find out who Hoole is; he has little to do with Britain, but is a US citizen, apart from being Sri Lankan. I have provided you Wikipedia links to check on him and one of his prominent brothers who has no other citizenship and has lived in Sri Lanka continuously for more than 35 years.

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    PART FOUR
    .
    I have not checked that out with Dr (not Professor) Ratnarajan Hoole, whom I have known for 57 years. He may have made a rare brief visit overseas during that period of 35 years. Why is he not a Professor? Because he had to hide for 15 years (in the South of Sri Lanka, after the Tigers brutally murdered Dr Rajani Thiranagama – nee Rajasingham – unless I tell you that, you may be misled by the name of her still living husband, Dayapala Thiranagama into believing her a Sinhalese.)
    .
    The Hooles have suffered enough.
    .
    http://www.uthr.org/
    .
    Most of the publications there are by Dr RatnaRajan Hoole. I expect you to scroll through the comments until you come across the place, on page 2 of the comments, where I have given you links to find out who these people are. I tried to tell you more about them, but the moderators have decided that I had strayed too far. I have graciously accepted their reprimand.
    .
    Your comment implies that the Tamils have a “Diaspora” to run to – others say it quite specifically; you won’t, because you are a decent man.

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    PART FIVE
    .
    What about the Sinhalese Diaspora?
    As extensive, and they’ve migrated exclusively for economic reasons – they will tell you that it is for their children’s future/education.
    .
    I have been entirely in Sri Lanka, except for spells in two Asian countries (Maldives and Oman) for employment. Right now, I’m in the “remote” Uva Province where I was born, and two-thirds of my life have been spent here in this Province.
    .
    There are seven of us siblings. The youngest three have given up Sri Lankan citizenship, their three children (one has two, another none, but she has a “white husband”) have zero knowledge of Sinhala or Tamil. This is probably true of most Sri Lankan families who have mastered English, as you and I have. True or not?
    .
    Jeevan Hoole has four children. I have met three of them. They don’t know Sinhalese. Not knowing Tamil myself, whether they know Tamil was not ascertained by me. I think that they are all American citizens.
    .
    Do you blame them? (Response appreciated.)

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    PART SIX
    .
    As for me, I have two children and one wife – in Sri Lanka, with one exception. My younger daughter is in Malaysia, with husband and two children, now aged 7 and 5. They paid for the one foreign holiday that I’ve had – in 2018, for two weeks in Kuala Lumpur.
    .
    However, please note this: My daughter and her kids spent nine months in Sri Lanka, in 2019, studying in the Sinhala Medium (National Curriculum) although the school had an English Medium. It was an honest attempt to educate the kids through Sinhala, but with a knowledge of English as well. True, one reason for giving up was that it was difficult for the kids to catch up on their Sinhala, but the main reason for defeat was my daughter’s conclusion that the other parents were so competitive regards their progeny, that relaxed learning was not possible. It was not the fault of the Principal or of the teachers, although my elder grand-daughters complaint was that in Sri Lanka the teachers taught all the time, whereas in Malaysia the. students learnt things.

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    PART SEVEN
    .
    Their current school
    there is admittedly an expensive International School, which is right now sending the kids work to be done at home – interesting reading, writing and numeracy, but also things like cooking. All via the Internet. I’d prefer them here, but that will be selfish of me, and I quite simply have no say. I’m resigned to them having English as First Language (mother tongue has – sadly – become an obsolete term in the world of 2020) with Mandarin Chinese and Malay being their other literate languages. No, not French, which Sri Lankan parents think is fashionable. The parents will probably ensure at least the ability to speak Sinhala, but the generation after that? Where will they finally live? No idea.
    .
    Bottom line: the ardent Rajapaksa-supporting Sinhala-Buddhist families would love to have their kids of the same cohort being in the same linguistic bracket as my grand-daughters. It’ll be considered “posh” by them, but not by me!
    .
    CONCLUDED

    .
    Panini Edirisinhe (all known ancestors labelled Sinhalese by government birth certificates.)

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