28 March, 2024

Blog

Excess! Tamil Death Toll Magnified In The Course Of British Interventions In The Sri Lankan Presidential Election

By Michael Roberts

Dr. Michael Roberts

“just as in Kosovo if enough civilians died … the world would be   forced to step in” (Pulidevan, the LTTE Political Commissar, message in early 2009 to friends in Europe (quoted in Harrison: Still Counting the Dead, 2012: 63)

The assessments of the last stages of Eelam War IV embracing 2008/09 have been bedevilled by the verdicts of intellectuals and officials encased in drawing rooms located within an ivory tower. The hoary verdicts in the past have resurfaced today in the vociferous campaign aimed at influencing events in Sri Lanka – with the Shadow Chancellor of the Labour Party[1] and such HR activists as Alan Keenan,[2] Fred Carver and Richard Gowing[3] participating in this grandstanding work. Possessing no experience of modern warfare, mostly unfamiliar with the landscape of the pertinent battle theatre within the northern Vanni and animated by human rights fervour, they have bought into the clever LTTE strategy that built up a picture of an ”impending humanitarian catastrophe” – a picture generated from mid-2008 and involving Tamil advocates within the diaspora as well.

Situation Map at 6 January 2009

Towards this end, the LTTE persuaded and pushed the civilians in their territory to move eastwards and northwards in the face of SL Army advances in 2008 – till these hapless people found themselves hemmed in within what has been termed “the Vanni Pocket” and eventually within constantly decreasing territorial space in 2009.

Behind this strategy, of course, was the determined dictator Velupillai Pirapāharan and his commanders. His regime was fascist in character[4] and his cadre were committed to sacrificial devotion[5] to their cause. As the ABC filmmaker Paul Corcoran noted when he spent time in the territories of Thamilīlam in 1999 and composed the film SRI LANKA. TIGERS AT THE GATE: “The truth is a political solution is as impossible as a military breakthrough because for the (Tamil) Tigers it’s all or nothing – a homeland or glorious death.”[6]

In consequence, the Tamil civilians became (a) one element in the Tiger defensive formations – that is, metaphorically speaking, just so many sandbags; while (b) providing ancillary services in carrying and fetching at the warfront or its rear  … in a battlefield context where many Tiger soldiers did not wear uniforms.[7] However, their prime purpose was in serving as a raison d étre for the Western international powers and the UN to step in and enforce a ceasefire or a ”rescue” of the people and the LTTE leadership.[8] Towards this grand strategic end, they deployed their Tamil medical doctors and Tamil officials in the INGOs within Thamililam to feed bloated casualty figures and horrific scenarios of disaster  to select members Western personnel in Colombo (UN and reporters) – personnel who did not raise questions about the access to satellite phones reposing in the hands of their informants.[9]    

That there was death and horror there can be no doubt. However, the issues are: (A) to what degree and (B) under whose fashioning.

Central to any assessment of the death toll is an awareness of a basic fact of war: in virtually all battles in modern times the wounded soldiers outnumber the dead – sometimes as high as 13 to one,[10] but generally at about 4:1 or 5:1 …. though for the Australians in the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915 the ratio of WIA to KIA was 2.23.[11] In other words, if 40,000 Tamil “civilians” perished in 2008/09, there had to be at least 80,000 wounded in the hospitals and IDP camps of April-June 2009.[12]

That this fundamental fact has not been considered by the UN Panel of Experts headed by Darusman and by subsequent ‘verdicts’ from powerful offices as well as Rajan Hoole of the UTHR[13] indicates how idiotic and/or prejudiced these personnel have been. That is why I have depicted them as individuals reposing within a drawing room in some ivory tower. That is a mild characterization. More lurid metaphors would be on the mark.

A further illustration of this amateurish approach to a serious issue was when the UNHCR offices in Geneva, viz., the Office Investigating Sri Lanka (OISL in short) invited submissions after they proceeded to investigate the war. Memoranda were sought from far and wide. But their specifications decreed that no photographs, videos etc could be deployed.[14]

That proviso was further proof that powerful agencies in the West were not only encased in an ivory tower: they were also colour blind and thus doubly idiotic. Photographic evidence, satellite imagery and mapwork should have been critical tools of investigation. They remain vital to any historical work on Eelam War IV in its last stages.

I have kept this ESSAY brief. It is, therefore, less comprehensive and wide-ranging than it should be – given the complexity of the war situation in the Vanni as well as its ramifications around Colombo and within the propaganda currents in the media waves of the world then in 2008/09.

Brevity impinges on thoroughness and clarity. Alas, it seems that the pressmen and presswomen in today’s world demand brevity. Hence this partial review is fashioned in relatively succinct form. Readers who are not thus hidebound are directed to the items in my BIBLIOGRAPHY.

A CURTAILED BIBLIOGRAPHY …. I could easily double the references

Al-Jazeera 2009 “SL army closes in on Tamil Tigers,” 1 February 2009, …………………..  ………  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZc_Am5HUSs

Balachandran PK 2015 “PK Balachandran on Overt and Covert Faces in Indian and American Policies Towards the Sri Lankan War,” 16 September 2015,

https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/pk-balachandran-on-overt-and-covert-faces-in-indian-and-american-policies-towards-the-sri-lankan-war-2008-09/

[Bavinck, Ben] 2011 “Pirapaharan as uncompromising killer prone to vengeance,” http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/pirapaharan-as-uncompromising-killer-prone-to-vengeance-testimonies-from-the-jaffna-heartland-1989-91/

Coupland, RM & DR Meddings 1999 “Mortality associated with use of weapons in armed conflicts, wartime atrocities, and civilian mass shootings: literature review,” British Medical Journal,  1999, 319 319 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.319.7207.407

Corcoran, Mark 1999 … at https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/revisiting-jaffna-and-the-ltte-in-mid-1999-guided-by-mark-corcoran-and-the-abc/

De Silva-Ranasinghe, Sergei 2009d “Sri Lanka’s Experience in Counter-Insurgency Warfare,” AsiaPacific Defence Reporter, Oct. 2009, Vol. 35/8, pp. 40-46.

De Silva-Ranasinghe, Sergei 2009e “Good Education. Sri Lankan Military learns Counter Insurgency Lessons,” Jane’s Intelligence Review Dec. 2009, pp. 3-7.

De Silva-Ranasinghe, Sergei 2010b “Information Warfare and the Endgame of the Civil War,” Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter, May 2010, 30/4: 35-37 …………………………………. .http://www.asiapacificdefencereporter.com/ articles/40/Sri-Lanka

Gray, David 2009 “A Day at the Front Line in Sri Lanka (Photographer’s Blog),” 27 April 2009, http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2009/04/27/a-day-at-the-front-line-in-sri-lanka/

Hull, C. Bryson 2009 “Sri Lanka opens eye in the sky on war zone,” 20 April 2009, http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSCOL450259

IDAG [i.e. Citizen Silva] 2013 “The Numbers Game: Politics of Retributive Justice,” http://www.scribd.com/doc/132499266/The-Numbers-Game-Politics-of-Retributive-Justice OR http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/shrilanka/document/TheNG.pdf

Jeyaraj, D. B. S. 2009d “Wretched of the Earth break Free of Bondage,” Daily Mirror, 25 April 2009, http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/380.  

Jeyaraj, D. B. S. 2011 “KP’ Speaks Out. An Interview with Former Tiger Chief, Vavuniya: NERDO.

[LTTE] 2014 “LTTE War Video recovered by the Government–Revealing Episode,” http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/ltte-war-video-recovered-by-the-government-revealing-episodes/

Keenan, Alan 2019a Alan Keenan of the ICG comments on the Presidential Election Results in Sri Lanka,” 19 November 2019, ……………………………………………………………………………………..

https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2019/11/19/alan-keenan-of-the-icg-comments-on-the-presidential-election-results-in-sri-lanka/#more-38905

Keenan, Alan 2019b “Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election Brings Back a Polarising Wartime Figure,” ?? November 2019,  http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/11/sri-lankas-presidential-election-brings-back-polarising-wartime-figure/

Mango 2014 “Sri Lanka’s War In Its Last Phase: Where WIA Figures Defeat The Gross KIA Estimates,” 14 February 2014,https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sri-lankas-war-in-its-last-phase-where-wia-figures-defeat-the-gross-kia-estimates/

Marga 2011 An Analysis and Evaluation of The Report of the Advisory Panel to the UNSG nn the Final Stages of the War in Sri Lanka,  ………………..  …………………………………………… https://www.dropbox.com/s/0eybj1ynej6spaa/The%20Darusman%20Report-%20Final%20doc-2.doc

Narendran, Rajasingham 2014 Harsh Ground Realities in War: Decomposing Bodies and Missing Persons and Soldiers,” 28 January 2014,https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/11702/

Noble, Kath 2013b “Numbers Game reviewed by Kath Noble: The Full Monty,” 14 July 2013, https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2013/07/14/numbers-game-reviewed-by-kath-noble-the-full-monty/

Reddy, Muralidhar 2009 “Multiple Displacements, Total Loss of Identity.” The Hindu, 27 May 2009,http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/27/stories/2009052755811500.htm

Reddy, Muralidhar 2009 “Final Assault. A first-hand account of the war and the civilians’ plight as Eelam War almost comes to a close,” Frontline, 26/11, May 23-June 5, 2009, http://www.frontline.in/navigation/?type=static&page=archive.

Roberts, Michael 2005 “Saivite Symbols, Sacrifice, and Tamil Tiger rites,” Social Analysis, 2005, vol. 49, pp. 67-93.

Roberts, Michael 2007 Suicide Missions as Witnessing: Expansions, Contrasts,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2007, vol. 30, pp 857-887.

Roberts, Michael 2013 “Towards Citizenship in Thamilīlam Sri Lanka’s Tamil People of the North, 1983-2010,” South Asia Research, 2013, 33: 57-75.

Roberts, Michael  2013 “BBC-Blind: Misreading the Tamil Tiger Strategy of International Blackmail, 2008-13,” http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/bbc-blind-misreading-the-tamil-tiger-strategy-of-international-blackmail-2008-13/#more-11221

Roberts, Michael 2014“From Godse and Gandhi to the Selfless Sacrifice of Tamil Tigers,” 13 June 2014, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/from-godse-and-gandhi-to-the-selfless-sacrifice-of-tamil-tigers/

Roberts, Michael 2014“Running the Gauntlet in Academia: The Case of ‘Selfless Sacrifice’ — A Rejected Article,” 15 June 2014, http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/running-the-gauntlet-in-academia-the-case-of-selfless-sacrifice-a-rejected-article/

Roberts, Michael  2014 Truth Journalism? Marie Colvin hoist on her own Petard,” 5 November 2014, https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/triuth-journalism-marie-colvin-hoist-on-her-own-petard/

Roberts, Michael 

Roberts, Michael 2014 “The War in Sri Lanka and Post-War Propaganda,” 18 November 2014, ….. https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propaganda-debates/ … being Memo sent to OISL with Hyperlinks and Images added.

Roberts, Michael  2014 “Cartographic & Photographic Illustrations in support of the Memorandum Analysing the War in Sri Lanka and Its Propaganda Debates,” 18 November 2014,  https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/cartographic-photographic-illustrations-in-support-of-the-memorandum-analysing-the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propaganda-debates/

Roberts, Michael 2014 “Generating Calamity, 2008-2014: An Overview of Tamil Nationalist Operations and Their Marvels,” 10 April 2014, http://groundviews.org/2014/04/10/generating-calamity-2008-2014-an-overview-of-tamil-nationalist-operations-and-their-marvels/

Roberts, Michael 2014 Tamil Person and State. Essays, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publishers.

Roberts, Michael 2014 Tamil Person and State. Pictorial, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publishers.

Roberts, Michael 2015 “A Drama in Four Acts: Dishonest Reportage by Amnesty International and Aussie Journalists remains Unmasked,” 2 September 2015, https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=17560&action=edit&postpost=v2

Roberts, Michael 2016 “Saving Talaivar Pirapāharan,” 6 April 2016, ……………………………………. https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2016/04/06/saving-talaivar-pirapaharan/

Roberts, Michael  2016 “Reuters in Word and Image: Depicting the Penetration of the LTTE’s Last Redoubt, 19-22 April 2009,” 19 March 2016,https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/reuters-in-word-and-image-depicting-the-penetration-of-the-lttes-last-redoubt-19-22-april-2009/

Roberts, Michael 2016 “When Weiss, Amnesty International and Aussie Greens Lie,” 16 June 2016 https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2016/06/16/a-puzzle-when-weiss-amnesty-international-and-aussie-greens-lie/

Roberts, Michael 2017 “Revisiting Jaffna and the LTTE in mid-1999 guided by Mark Corocran and the ABC,” 7 August 2017, https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/revisiting-jaffna-and-the-ltte-in-mid-1999-guided-by-mark-corcoran-and-the-abc/

Roberts, Michael 2018 “The Western World’s Cumulous Clouds of Deception: Blanketing the Sharp Realities of Eelam War IV,” 16 October 2018, https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2018/10/16/the-western-worlds-cumulous-clouds-of-deception-blanketing-the-sharp-realities-of-eelam-war-iv/

Roberts, Michael 2018 “A Response to Rajan Hoole re Reviews of Eelam War IV and Western Deceit,” 28 October 2018, https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2018/10/28/a-response-to-rajan-hoole-re-reviews-of-eelam-war-iv-and-western-deceit/

Salter, Mark 2015 To End a Civil War. Norway’s Peace Engagement in Sri Lanka, London: Hurst & Company.

Shanmugarajah, V. 2014 Dr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah’s Affidavit Description of Conditions in the Vanni Pocket in Refutation of Channel Four,” 5 January 2014, …………………… …………  http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/drveerakanthipillai-shanmugarajahs-affidavit-description-of-conditionsin-the-vanni-pocket-in-refutation-of-channel-four/

UN PoE 2011 Report of the Secretary General’s Panel of Experts report on Accountability in Sri Lanka, March 2011….http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/ POE_Report_Full.pdf.

UTHR 2009 A Marred Victory and a Defeat Pregnant with Meaning, Special Report No. 32. http://www.uthr.org/SpecialReports/spreport32.htm

UTHR 2009 Let Them Speak: Truth about Sri Lanka’s Victims of War. Special Report No. 34, http://www.uthr.org/SpecialReports/Special%20rep34/Uthr-sp.rp34.htm.

Video Image [GSL] 2014 “A balanced insight into the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict – “Common Differences” (HD),” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L8QfZw0XUo

Weiss, Gordon 2012 New Evidence — The Death of Colonel Ramesh,” 21 March 2012, https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/newevidencethe-death-of-colonel-ramesh-warning-disturbing-images/

END NOTES

[1]Oppression of Tamils should be recognised as attempt at genocide,” – John McDonnell  …………… https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/%E2%80%98oppression-tamils-should-be-recognised-attempt-genocide%E2%80%99-john-mcdonnell

[2] The American Alan Keenan has been the executive head of the international Crisis Group’s London office for many years. See Keenan 2019a and 2019b for reviews of the Presidential vote.

[3] Richard Gowing is presently the “Campaign Director” of the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice centred in London; while Fred Carver is a Member of its “Council,” while also being the “Head of Policy” at the United Nations Association of UK. Carver recently noted that “… the path that the Government of Sri Lanka is walking leads to totalitarianism, and will inevitably lead back to war.”

[4] See Hull 2009 and [Bavinck] 2011, “Pirapaharan as uncompromising killer prone to vengeance: …,” http://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/pirapaharan-as-uncompromising-killer-prone-to-vengeance-testimonies-from-the-jaffna-heartland-1989-91/

[5] “Sacrificial devotion” is the concept I coined and continuously deployed in order to comprehend various strands of “suicide terrorism” [a pejorative concept]. It was the guiding concept behind a Workshop in Adelaide in 2007 and gave birth to the web site …………………………. sacrificialdevotionnetwork.wordpress.com. Also see my articles

[6] See Corcoran at https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2017/08/07/revisiting-jaffna-and-the-ltte-in-mid-1999-guided-by-mark-corcoran-and-the-abc/

[7] See Roberts …. https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/ltte-war-video-recovered-by-the-government-revealing-episodes/

[8] See Roberts 2018 “Where USA sought to arm-wrestle Sri Lanka in March-April-May 2009” and Mark Salter 2015: 348, 354.

[9] In our discussions the veteran Indian journalist PK Balachandran was quite derisive about the gullibility displayed by these Western personnel.

[10] Note: “During the fighting of war the number of people wounded is at least twice the number killed and may be 13 times as high; this ratio of the number wounded to the number killed results from the impact of a weapon system on human beings in the particular context of war” – Coupland & Meddings, 1999 at https://www.bmj.com/content/319/7207/407

[11] See Roberts, 2015 “A Drama in Four Acts, …,” Section C.

[12] Note Mango 2014.

[13] See Rajan Hoole’s comment dated 16 October 2018 in Colombo Telegraph as presented and challenged in Roberts “A Response …,” 2018.

[14] I submitted a memorandum. When I placed it on web however I inserted maps and diagrams ( see https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/the-war-in-sri-lanka-and-propaganda-debates/) ….. and then followed up with a more extensive use of pictorial data in Roberts

Cartographic & Photographic Illustrations in support of the Memorandum Analysing the War in Sri Lanka and Its Propaganda Debates,” 18 November 2014

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Latest comments

  • 13
    9

    Boot lockers perspective

    • 17
      7

      I was a medico-legal officer in the war zone and thus a medical witness to war crimes committed by Sri Lanka security forces on non combatant Tamils. So whatever such charlatans try to make out, truth cannot be swept under. The proper thing to find out the true picture is to conduct an impartial inquiry by international panel. Due to fear of the truth being exposed government is refusing to hold any inquiry at all.

      • 3
        10

        MBBS and BS.

        • 3
          1

          EA,
          In the USA, Bachelor of Science Degree is often abbreviated as BS. Dr.GB deservedly should have BS degree, that is Bachelor of Science, too – a prerequisite for MD degree (equivalent to MBBS) in USA.
          EmAG

          • 2
            0

            Correction in the above comment: It is Dr. GS and not Dr. GB.
            EmAG

      • 3
        16

        Dr.GS
        The difficulty of conducting an impartial inquiry is Tamil racists are pathological liars. Take for example your own case. You would sell your mother to Devil to gain immigration to a Western country.

        Soma

        • 9
          2

          somass

          “You would sell your mother to Devil to gain immigration to a Western country.”

          On the other hand you send/sell all your women folks including your mother, wife, daughters, grandmas, …………….. sisters to medieval middle east kingdoms so that you could have a jolly life back in Sri Lanka. You don’t mind if they are returned in coffins containing their dead bodies dotted with nails.

        • 1
          0

          English medium of education is more welcome in Tamil areas than Tamil medium education

      • 2
        1

        This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.

        For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2

    • 2
      9

      Dilshan,
      I think that Micheal has a valid point. It is very well known fact that Prabhakaran was expecting an escape route via international help. That is the main reason for he refusal to surrender. In the process, he & his supporters exaggerated casualties & civilian sufferings which was mostly his own making. Therefore, as always the case in situation like this, real number of casualties may lies somewhere between the Gvt & LITTE versions.

      The real issue must be the post war disappearance which took place under GoRa’s close supervision under very tight control.

  • 20
    9

    CT

    Here we go again.
    Rather than going round in circle the author must consider giving us the correct numbers of death, injured, missing, ……. civilians during the period from 2005 to 2015 January.

    Will he obtain the detailed schedule of those surrendered to the armed forces and those who were released subsequently before January 2015 and those who are still being held in detention?

    We know you exist somewhere on this earth, it doesn’t mean you have to periodically inform the good news through your recycled typing.

    • 7
      9

      If we add up the number of deaths given by various individuals during the WAR WITHOUT WITNESS it may reach 100,000 thousand.

      • 11
        7

        In the last census conducted in 2001, the population of the area had 500,000 people. But the number of people who crossed over was only 365,000. So what happened to the rest. After 2005, government put the figure of those trapped in the area as 150,000 and sent food and medicine for only that amount. But after the war 365,000 people crossed over. Thus Sri Lanka has committed a war crime of denying food and medicine to people. In a war, injured will be of three categories : walking wounded, moderately wounded and severely wounded. But only walking wounded crossed over. What happened to other categories of wounded people, who had been allowed to die without medical aid, which is a war crime. Also people who had injuries sustained from cluster bombs and chemical weapons were executed to cover up the crime. Government and their agents are saying that only 7000 people died. If so where are those dead bodies. There is news that the fleeing sleuth has handed over to a foreign country, the files containing import and use of chemical weapons, which came to light in the investigation of Prageeth Eknaligoda murder. There is evidence of getting incinerators and sulphuric drums to dispose of bodies of war casualties.

        • 4
          9

          Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam,
          “There is evidence of getting incinerators and sulphuric drums to dispose of bodies of war casualties.”

          Where is bloody evidence?
          Malabar Demalu are extremely good in cooking up stories because in Hinduism there is no precept ‘Musawada Weramani Sikkhapadam Samadiyami’.

          • 8
            6

            Hold an inquiry by international panel, every atrocity committed will be exposed.

      • 2
        5

        I have it on good authority that the the total is closer to several million.

  • 13
    6

    Could it be that in the final Sri Lanka military onslaught there could not be any wounded LTTE soldiers in relation to the dead because any wounded would have died anyway, either for lack of medical attention which was non existent, or by military homicide (there are enough photos of this on the Web). So then the total would have been 40,000, if not more.

    • 3
      11

      Dionysus,
      “(there are enough photos of this on the Web)”
      There are plenty of photos but they are not taken in this country but in studios in UK. There are plenty of videos also produced in UK. Channel 4 guys are there to give technical advice.

      • 10
        4

        You cant see properly with your eagle eye.

    • 10
      3

      Dionysus . . .and others

      The orders from high were to avoid taking prisoners and don’t spare the injured; just shoot to kill!

      There will be days in the future when the ghosts of the past will come out of yet to be excavated graves, to haunt Mother Lanka.

      Dying curses live forever!

  • 16
    7

    Roberts
    Lies, Threat,Violence, murder are fundamentals of Sinhala Fundamentalism.
    At least can you tell who murdered Lasantha in front of military check point in the high security zone in Colombo?

    • 3
      10

      ajith,
      Ranil Wickramasinghe told in the Parliament who killed Lasantha . It is in the Hanzard. It looks like people in this country do not believe what Ranil says.
      Mr. Ajith Prasanna representing ‘Mawubima Wenuwen Ranaviruwo Sanvidhanaya’ in ‘Salakuna’ program in Hiru TV on 25 November 2019 confirmed what Ranil said. It is the work of ‘Wel Vidane’. Gotabhaya has nothing to with that murder.

  • 21
    9

    With the arrival of the Rajapakses, Dr.Michael Roberts is also back on his pet academic exercise of challenging the casualty figures of the Eelam war in 2008/2009.
    In that sense Dr. Roberts is also an individual reposing within a drawing room in some Ivory Tower DOWN UNDER!
    Will someone please appoint him as High Commissioner down under?

  • 17
    5

    His storian back again with his long list of his articles – ref list longer than this article.

  • 16
    6

    His story teller,

    Forget the total numbers of the killed for a moment, can you just tell us what happened to the woman in this link?

    https://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-united-nations-inquiry-evidence-war-crimes-abuse

  • 6
    16

    Native
    You tell him where are the wounded.

    Soma

    • 12
      10

      somass

      “You tell him where are the wounded.”

      Perhaps given acid bath, buried deep under Bodhi Tree and covered up by Buddha’s sputa. Isn’t it why Archaeological department banned people from visiting certain places where the the saffron brigades are busy building Vihares with the help of equally unemployable, idling, …………….. members of the armed forces?

      Go dig under every new Vihares in North East you will find some residue of bones, mostly within Army/Navy camps ………..

      Now I have given you some information take your Shovel and Bucket and go to those hundreds of camps dig under each mini vihares, stupa, …..

      • 6
        11

        Native Vedda,
        Several new Kovils have come up in the North and East after 2015. Are Hindu Poosaris building Kovils on top of places where LTTE butchers buried 4000 odd Sri Lankan Army personnel who are missing and 600 Police Officers who surrendered to LTTE and brutally murdered?

    • 12
      9

      somass

      When you go digging please take Lord Michael Morris, Baron Naseby with you who can vouch for how armed forces humanely killed those who surrendered to the armed forces irrespective of their status, civilian or combatant.

      By the way what is his body count?

  • 11
    6

    Add this to your reference list https://hrdag.org/srilanka/

  • 11
    15

    Tamil diaspora will always dispute the facts. What else can they do? That’s all they have after 70 years.

    • 13
      5

      Please tell us the facts.

      • 3
        7

        Occasionally they stumble across the truth, but hastily pick themselves up and carry on complaining as if nothing had happened.

  • 16
    24

    Excellent article. The analogy to sandbags is spot on. The fact is, the LTTE leadership knew as earl y as 2006, the war was over. With the election of a hardliner like Mahinda and the East lost for good (Karuna defection), they knew it was only a matter of time. As history shows, psychopaths like Prabhakaran have a difficult time surrendering. So, as the author correctly points out, a propaganda/PR game was played with various Western and Indian entities. Tamil civilians were used as a delaying mechanism, e.g. to slow down the advance of the SLA. While some civilian targets may have been hit by the SLA, the fact is, if the SLA had used very heavy weaponry without regard to collateral damage, the war would have been over within a year. This is because after 2006, the LTTE was fighting a defensive, not offensive war. Northern brigades could not be reinforced with Eastern ones. The only surprise attack against government forces was the attack on Anuradhapura airbase. So the real question is not whether the government used excessive force, but why the LTTE did not surrender sooner. And why the various Western entities and Tamil diaspora did not pressure them to surrender.

  • 16
    7

    Roberts is another HLD with his own academic credentials and research findings. Going round and round the mulberry bush without coming to the fact or point is his academic research credentials. No conclusion but confusion. He obfuscate the entire truth. A state of warped mind. Or a survival instinct. Make hay while the sun shines.

    • 10
      7

      This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.

      For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2

      • 2
        1

        Rohan,
        Well said. These racist Sin-Helese while living in the West and bashing Tamils (who lived as separate nation before the English took over from the Dutch: and now, only ask to live with dignity and equal rights in that bloody island- with no pogroms or any kind of suppression- under federal system), when returning to that shit-hole country, shit Lanka, will be happy to flash their dollars and sterling pounds in the face of their fellow Sin-Helese and look down upon them as inferior beings.
        EmAG

        • 2
          3

          Before the portugese and the dutch there were basically little to no tamils in this country, even the jaffna “kingdom” you guys talk about was under the power of the Kandyan kingdom, tamils never had another country in Sri Lanka so stop living in your fantasy land and spewing bullshit. You should be thanking the portugese, dutch and british because it was them who brought a lot of tamil slaves to this country.

          • 4
            1

            Jayasuriya

            “Before the portugese and the dutch there were basically little to no tamils in this country, even the jaffna “kingdom”

            You sound about right.
            What happened to those tens of thousands of members of Hanuman’s monkey army?
            According to Ramayana there is no indication of those monkeys’ returning to India.

            Does it mean those monkeys evolved into human form between their arrival on the island and the arrival of Portuguese?

          • 3
            0

            Jayasooriyan ,
            Even the historical fictional story, magavamsam written using the soolal-vamsam as the foundation, has all the names of kings of Tamil origin starting from Vijayan; and the sangam literature of more than two millennia old site evidence in the presence of Tamilians in that island (eg: poems mentioning Thiruketheeswaram in present day Mannar). Spewing bull shit are racist Sin-Helese like you who eat and dress like Tamils/ Dravidian, with language full of Tamil words. Murugan- deity of Tamils- in Kathirkamam in the south has become Buddhist Devalaya (from Tamil- Thevalayam) since Sin-Helese got their independence from British. By the way, Jayasooriyan means “sun of prayer”.
            EmAg

        • 1
          3

          The Tamils did not ever live as a separate nation, even during the time of Sankili and others who were more like Prabhakaran.
          What matters is who was resident in the Northern Peninsula when Ceylon became a crown colony. The writings of Captain Percvial who lived in Jaffana for the most part of 1800 to 1820, as well as the dispatches of Brtish Civil Servents show in detail that the majority population were Moors (Muslims), the Malabars and Sinhalese, with sinhalese being significant land owners. The will of Allah the Almighty will prevail in the end, and the rightful residents of the North will occupy the North in time. We Muslims are already large in Mannar and many other parts of the country.
          The Tamils have no historical claim to Sri Lanka as Tamils were always successfully assimilated by the Sinhalese.

          The Malabar Tamils are the one’s who have been creating trouble during the 20th century and untill 2009 May. They themselves were given Prabhakaran by the Will of Allah to ensure that most of them will perish in their own hands (Prabhakaran killed more Tamils than the Sinhala State), and most others will be driven out of the land or will leave on their own. That process of elimination of the Tamils by their own actions will continue in the future as well. In any case, the moment a Jaffna tamil makes it good, he comes to Colombo, and then if he can manage it, he moves abroad. That the the extent of his involvement with the “exclusive Tamil homeland”. This happened not only today, but even in 1900.

          • 3
            0

            Bodin,
            I just glanced over your post without wasting time. One question: why the hell you all have Tamil as your mother tongue (except the ones who came from North India in the last century) and not boorish or moorish tongue. Opportunism is the way of life of people practising Islam religion and after the struggle of Tamils, have started bashing the latter. By throwing in names like Capt. Percival don’t justify your concocted British history in Ceylon. For your information only 20 miles separate South India and Northern Ceylon and about 700 years back there was a land bridge between the two, the evidence of which still exists; and Tamils are known as seafarers and present day catamaran yachts originated from kattumaarams.
            EmAG

          • 3
            0

            Bodin,
            Did your allah talk to you?
            You must be the messenger next to the first one who lived about 1500 years and practised opportunism in his private life. Wow! he had a 9 year old girl and his son’s wife among his many wives.
            EmAG

      • 4
        0

        This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.

        For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2

  • 11
    8

    story teller
    can you tell us what happened to these people ?
    https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/500-tamils-forcibly-disappeared-three-days-after-surrendering-army-2009

    Can you tell us what happened to the swiss embassy staff?

    • 6
      11

      Dear Anpu, The Tamil Terrorists wanted to kill innocent Sinhalese and force their will on the nation. They failed. The Tamil Terrorists were prepared to die for their cause. That was their philosophy. If The Tamil Terrorists disappeared, were killed or simply ran away why the fuss? Why worry about dead or missing scumbags and sewer rats? If you really want answers, direct your questions to the philosophers behind The Tamil Terrorists. I for one respect their death wish. Period.

  • 8
    5

    Roberts wait till Gotha , the man behind the genocide of Tamils, becomes President to spew out absolute rubbish

  • 7
    10

    Malabar Wellala politicians like to keep on talking about dead people without doing anything for the Demala people who are alive.
    • What has Vigneshwaran, Sambandan and Sumanthiran done to eliminate caste-based discrimination against Daliths?
    • Why does Malabar Wellala Demalu still hang on to a Malabar Customary Law called ‘Thesawalamei’ that denies access to land by Daliths? The so called ‘Sinhala Racists’ allow Demala people to buy land in any place in this country.
    • Why Wellala dominated NPC returned money allotted to improve the lives of Demala people in the North to Treasury without using that for development work while blaming the Government for not giving enough powers? What additional powers they need to use money for the betterment of ordinary Demala people?

    • 10
      5

      Have you done your DNA?

  • 8
    3

    Justice:-
    Massacres in
    Sri Lanka
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Sri_Lanka

    A list of massacres without any provocation

  • 3
    6

    we all must hand over this mullivaikal insident to natural justice and god above to look after.see what happened to SWRD who introduce singala only and his family his only son went to see god at very young age.his eldest daughter have no children and CAHDIRIKA and SLFP formed by SWRD is admitted to ICU BY MY3. next man JR he and his family is never heard now.GAMINI who burnt the jaffna library is no more.LALITH,GAMINI,PREMADASA,CYRIL MHTHEW is having an all party conference to SOLVE THE TAMILS PROBLEMS IN LORD BUDDAS COURT. who ever who may be enjoying power and position thing every thing is permanent must remember all this is temporary.one day they will meet BALACHABDARN,LASANTHA,EKALENAGODA,THAJUDEEN,AND ISSAIPRIYA IN HELL OR HEVEN.

  • 10
    4

    An intellectual is one who makes his comments impartially. Having read this man’s articles ,it is clear that he is not one . Although his academic credentials are indisputable,his articles are not worth a read as they are loaded with personal prejudices. On a closer scrutiny it appears he has an axe to grind.
    If my memory serves me right ,he moved around as a humble and self effacing academic,in the early days in Peradeniya University. But humility is also a ladder for ambition
    I wish him the best,whatever motives he may harbour. For each his own

  • 12
    4

    No doubt you are waiting for a call from the CRIMINNAL for an audience with him. Why dont you ask him to appoint you as the spokesperson at the next UNHCR meeting. You will paid handsomely

  • 12
    6

    Roberts lost his credentials and credibility. Poor chap and his own creation. One time at Peradeniya uni he was a somewhat respected young man with certain vision but now lost his vision and lost his direction for whatever reason best known to him. He is an expert who uses more words than necessary to say more than what he knows. What to do with his references?

  • 1
    9

    There was a war. Of course there had been war crimes on both sides. There was also colateral damage on both sides. But about the numbers, how many people had to die in this conflict, we will never find out exactly, unfortunately it is used for propaganda on both sides. you have only the black and white glasses on. genocide or liberation. the discussions will never end with any final verdict. I was in Vanni myself, this is such a tiny place, completely absurd to fight for almost nothing.

    • 8
      3

      “this is such a tiny place,” what are you trying to say.
      Sri Lanka is a tiny country

      • 1
        4

        SriLanka is tiny, but Vanni is much much tinier

    • 12
      5

      You can’r call it collateral damage. What happened in the Vanni was a massacre, not a war, especially at the last stages.
      The analog would be Jallianwala Bagh.

      Roberts in his demented old age keeps repeating his mantra about war wounded vs dead from other wars.

  • 3
    9

    During the war there was a RAW agent under every other tree in the Wanni and every other lamp post in Jaffna and to say India knowingly turned a blind eye to large scale civilians deaths of Tamil people is the greatest indictment and insult against India. Yet Tamils in the North don’t seem to harbour an iota of grudge against India for watching them being slaughtered. Why? Because both parties know the truth – there were no civilian deaths.. When they voted for Sarath Fonseka no one found anyone missing around them. They knew some went to heaven along with the Sun God and others to Canada. Let the Tamil racists crow until sun rises from West. Untruth is untruth.

    Soma

    • 7
      1

      somass

      “During the war there was a RAW agent under every other tree in the Wanni and every other lamp post in Jaffna and to say India knowingly turned a blind eye to large scale civilians deaths of Tamil people is the greatest indictment and insult against India. “

      True RAW agents never went away, they were under every tree, on the tree, inside the bunger, on every roof, manned every ambulance, ……………. in every army, navy, air force camps, landing and leaving in their own copters, wearing turban, in every check point, operating Radars, instructing Sri Lankan generals, receiving and disseminating Satellite intelligence, ….. manning field hospitals, ….. helping embedded Hindian war reporter(s), ……………………………. They are still in Sri Lanka. Gota is their biggest asset as was Navin Nayakka’s dada.

      You should get in touch with Dayan if you want to know more about RAW.

  • 18
    4

    In the Sri Lankan elite academic circles Michael Roberts is known as a Paparazzi academic. he and his sensational and un-academic haberdashery writings are a laughing stock in Lankan academic circles. His alleged reception of substantial funds from Anti-Tamil organizations including UTHR, gave him a space in Sri Lanka’s academic publication arena. Let him first clarify openly his unknown ancestry! ( he claims to be a burgher from Tuticorin – history tells us that there were dutch soldiers near Thanushkody in Tamil Nadu in pre-British period in the areas inhabited by nadars similar to Salagamas (tapper community). But at a meeting in Colombo in 1997 he was using very abusive language against Indian Tamils and Ceylon Tamils in Sri Lanka and to the surprise of all it was a Sinhala academic who rebuked him almost in filth slaying, “you are neither Tamil nor Sinhalese. and you have no right to cause division among Sinhalese and Tamils. “
    All his writings are tainted with his identity crisis. It only helped him probably to claim refuge-status in Australia as a black-burgher.
    I write this because no one in his/her right mind should pay attention to the imbecile forms verbal diarrhea flows from his tainted pen. He once said that he named his website “Thuparrhi ( meaning loaded-Rifle in Tamil ) because I always wish to point it against them .” He must come out of his ludicrous dalit mentality and face the truth about himself before filling pages with rubbish.

    Pat Fernando

    • 11
      2

      Dear Patrick Costa ,
      .
      The Sinhala academic whom you have left unnamed said it just right. All this is painful reading, and I looked briefly at one of the links provided by the good Anpu. I knew that to be even more horrendous, and went no further.
      .
      Please Dr. Michael Roberts, spare us any more of this unless what you give us is constructive. We need more understanding among the various communities, not divisions.
      .
      Anpu, K.Anaga and others: I think you to be quite right not to allow us to forget all the horrors that were perpetrated. I wish they confronted us less often – it is not comfortable for us to live with such knowledge. I understand what you are knowing to be necessary, but Roberts turns this into an industry.

      • 12
        1

        Dear Sinhala Man,
        Thank you. Why don’t we have more people like you in the south??
        What we want is justice. Nothing more and nothing else.
        Hope we will get it.

      • 11
        1

        Pat Fernando/Costa, Sinhala_Man,

        To be fair by Roberts, I recall him saying in some forum that his father was from Barbados and mother was a mix of Sinhala and Burgher ancestry.

        Also, the Thuppahi name for his blog came from the Southern society’s derisive term used for those of mixed ethnicity. I don’t think it came from the Tamil word Thuppak(k)i for gun.

  • 13
    3

    Pat Costa, thank you kindly. I always believed that there are very nice people on both sides. You are a wonderful example of a good man. This fellow Michael Roberts is a circus clown among the academics. He calls himself an academic but he appears more to be a mascot for the fools.

  • 10
    1

    avw,

    Michael has not one but many axes to grind for some strange reason. He is not even a sinhala buddhist or a Muslim but a burgher and he himself ran away to distant down under having enjoyed all the privileges back in Lanka for free simply because he could find SL pleasant or productive to live. Now why this cry and why on earth he is crooning with quoting references and earlier too I have advised him that this forum is not a PhD dissertation exercise but a humble forum for discussing mundane issues in an easily understandable format and without any personal bias or hatred. He must have been brainwashed by HLD or even his under study. What a waste. This roberts wants blood in SL while he lives in Perth. It is disgusting. Or is he bitter with SL for having dislodged many of his kinds from SL. But I am yet to see any of his kind with such venom and bias and instead they are jolly good people. Some birth or childhood trauma?

  • 8
    1

    [Narendran, Rajasingham 2014 “Harsh Ground Realities in War: Decomposing Bodies and Missing Persons and Soldiers,” 28 January]

    Another BS Narendran and Roberts wrote in this forum some months ago. Roberts do you call it a reference? If so every news paper and anonymous letters and posters on the walls can be considered as references. Do you know Roberts about that Muslim doctor who went on a rampage in Kurunegala sterilising sooooo many sinhala Buddhist women? In fact it was confirmed by a powerful minister, top police officer, top medical professory, top politician hamaduru and even the topmost Mahanayaka. Then what happened? One of the complainant women became even pregnant. I am sure Roberts you may even know who the biological father this time? Talk something real and sensible and understand the human feelings. You have the audacity to call the dead civiliais as Sand bags. There is some thing really wrong with you Roberts. You betrayed Mother Lanka. You are awake but not aware.

  • 1
    6

    Tamils expand their everything.

    1 Their skills
    2 Their knowledge
    3 Their competence
    4 Their importance

    Now their Death Toll …

    What a joke.

    • 5
      0

      Sinhalese expanded their language with Tamil words. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sinhala_words_of_Tamil_origin

      Expanded their population by converting Tamils and other south
      Indians – salagama, karavas, duravas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salagama

      Tamils and Hinduism were in Ceylon before the birth of Sinhala

    • 2
      0

      We do not expand everything. We are trying get justice. You need to study history and real Buddhism.

      • No Vijaya came to Ceylon at any time, nor any Aryans from any part of India. The legend of Vijaya was invented to give the Sinhalese, who were Buddhists, an Aryan origin in order to alienate them from the Hindu Dravidians who were surrounding them so that thereby Buddhism might be safeguarded from the onslaughts of Hinduism.
      • The present Sinhalese population of Ceylon are the direct descendants of the Yakkas and the Nagas, who were Dravidians, occupying Ceylon in ancient times and of a few immigrants who might have come from India from time to time. Of the Yakkas and the Nagas, the former formed the bulk of the common people and were (probably with the assistance of Tamil artisans) the builders of the magnificent irrigation works both earlier and in subsequent times, and the latter, a more refined and cultured community, were the upper classes and became the Sinhalese kings referred to in the Mahavansa after the advent of Buddhism.
      • The Yakkas and the Nagas, who did not become Buddhist or who after becoming Buddhist became Saivites again, spoke the Tamil language throughout and the present Ceylon Tamils are their descendants. They did not come to Ceylon recently excepting for a few immigrants who might have come along with the various Tamil invasions but remain here from pre-historic times. The present Tamil inhabitants of the North and the coastal areas in the East and the Northwest are these people.

      Will continue

      • 3
        0

        • The Sinhalese language of today is the product of evolution from Elu, the early Dravidian dialect spoken in Ceylon, when the latter came into contact with Pali in the same way as the present languages of North India came into existence after the Dravidian languages spoken there came into contact with Sanskrit, and as the Romance languages in Europe after the contact of the indigenous languages there with Latin.
        • The word ‘Sinhalam’ was derived from the Tamil word ‘Sri Ilam’, which became in course of time Sihalam and later Sinhalam, with the elision of the consonant r and the addition of the euphonic n.
        • The knowledge of the scientific system of irrigation found in Ceylon was not imported from abroad but was already in the possession of the people of the island from very early times, as will be seen from the names of numerous tanks ending in kulam as well as from the terms used for irrigation works which are Tamil derivatives.
        • The construction of larger and more numerous tanks and elas than in earlier times was due to the fillip given by the subsequent Sinhalese kings, after the arrival of Buddhism, owing to the necessity to feed vast numbers of the Buddhist clergy, to whom lands were donated by them, and also owing to their desire to acquire merit thereby.
        • The civilization of Ceylon, except for the introduction of Buddhism, is a branch of the old Dravidian civilization of India in almost all its aspects, as will be seen; for example, in the village panchayat system and the caste system. Even in the matter of the New Year celebrations, the Sinhalese follow the Tamil practice in regard to date and other details, and not the North Indian practice which is entirely different.
        https://www.sangam.org/2011/11/Aryan_Theory_4.php

  • 4
    0

    Lal is there anything called innocent Sinhalese ? Where do you find them. Is it in Lanka or anywhere else. How do they look like. What do they wear. What do they eat. What language they speak. What is their religion. They can’t be the marauding thugs who were killing and plundering innocent Tamils from 1956 in Lankawa. Do they have a big konde on their back of head. Is Gnanasara an innocent Sinhala. Please explain. Some say the monkeys that came with Rama later became innocent Sinhalese. All very confusing.

Leave A Comment

Comments should not exceed 200 words. Embedding external links and writing in capital letters are discouraged. Commenting is automatically disabled after 5 days and approval may take up to 24 hours. Please read our Comments Policy for further details. Your email address will not be published.