By Dushy Ranetunge @ LSE –
Dushy Ranetunge
The third instalment of Chanel 4’s documentary, titled NO FIRE ZONE, the killing fields of Sri Lanka is being preview screened at various locations in London. It is yet to be scheduled to be broadcast by Ch4 itself.
It was screened at the Frontline club in London a few weeks ago and on Tuesday at the LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science).
At the LSE, it was presented by a panel consisting of award winning journalist Callum Macrae (NoFireZone Director), Shivani Jegarajah (a LSE trained barrister from Renaissance Chambers) and Janani Jananayagam (Independent politician who secured over 50,000 votes at the European Elections and founding Director of Tamils Against Genocide). It was a free event and held in Tower 1 at the LSE.
It was chaired by Dr. Devika Hovell, from the LSE Department of Law. Her areas of expertise are listed as international courts, international humanitarian law, United Nations, public law, use of force, international law, public international law, domestic law, international tribunals.
Callum Macrae introduced his documentary by stating that the Sri Lankan government dismisses everything in it as lies and fabrications, but that everything in his documentary has been evidenced and authenticated by independent specialists and forensic pathologists and that the documentary is a catalogue evidencing war crimes.
The documentary, the third one on the subject seems a more focused presentation of facts contained in the two previous ones, with some new footage showing the incidents leading to the alleged execution of Prabakaran’s 12-year-old son.
What was interesting was the discussion that took place and the questions and answer session, which exposed the train of thought and process as perceived by those carrying forward the campaign for justice.
During the introduction Dr Devika Hovell emphasized that what is in the documentary are historical events and focused relevance on the present and not the past, as to what can be done now and in the future. This provided the framework for the productive discussion, which emerged.
The points of interest to emerge from the discussion are as follows.
(1) The evolving patterns of international law especially in respect of the concept of universal jurisdiction. Dr Hovell mentioned that a Nepalese Colonel is being tried in London for torture during the civil conflict in that country, under the concept of universal Jurisdiction. This was considered a significant development. Nepalese Colonel Kumar Lama has been charged in the UK in 2013 with two counts of torture during his countries civil war in 2005.
(2) Jananayagam spoke of state actors shutting out non-state actors and the long campaign by Diaspora activists, their many legal challenges in the US and British courts against President Rajapakse and those of his entourage. She spoke of their long struggle for justice and success in the courts in Britain earlier this year. In February, High court Justice Wilkie sitting with Judge Gleeson said it would be wrong to allow the removal of Tamil asylum seekers by charter flight “at the very time that the upper tribunal [immigration and asylum chamber] is actively seized with considering new country guidance, at a time when it is clear from the agenda that the UTIAC is considering the matter virtually afresh and where it is accepted by the SSHD [home secretary] through the preliminary closing submissions that the existing country guidance case will have to change”.
(3) Although Diaspora groups are trying to engage governments to take up their cause for justice in relation to Sri Lanka, Jananayagam stated that most western governments take the view that Sri Lanka fought a necessary war, which went wrong. She suggested that this is also the view of the British Foreign Office.
(4) She seemed encouraged by the awareness that several foreign governments are collecting evidence of war crimes in Sri Lanka. She said she is aware of at least one such government. The Belgian intervention and request for the ICC for the extradition of Chad’s ex-President Hissene Habre for trial for alleged atrocities was discussed. This was a Belgian government request in 2012 for crimes committed between 1982 and 1990.
(5) She acknowledged that the process of justice for war crimes committed in Sri Lanka might take decades, as in cases in relation to the holocaust, but that the Diaspora will work towards that goal, to fight for justice for the Tamils who felt so helpless.
(6) She said that after Rajapakse leaves office he will lose immunity and will be exposed to prosecution, but that they are less interested in Rajapakse the private citizen and more interested in Rajapakse the President as they consider atrocities as state crimes.
(7) They welcomed the policy of some countries to deny visas, employment or asylum applications to Sri Lankan military personnel.
(8) It was highlighted that Sri Lanka is trying to convince non Western countries that it is a small country falling victim to Western bullying, but that they intend to counter this by travelling to all these countries and showing them the CH4 documentary and convincing them that a vote for Sri Lanka is a vote for these crimes. In this regard a fund raising campaign had been initiated to raise several hundred thousand pounds and a recent trip the United States had already raised Stg. 40,000.
(9) Commercial interests of Western countries in Sri Lanka, its geopolitical value and specifically British commercial interests including recent order for Rolls Royce engines for Sri Lankan airlines was discussed with the conflict of interest and lack of political will in Britain to push the war crimes agenda.
(10) The 25% increase of Sri Lankan defense budget during peacetime, the compromising of the judiciary in Sri Lanka and hence its impact on the credibility of any independent investigation in Sri Lanka was mentioned. Some content in the UN expert report was also discussed.
(11) Jananayagam stated that the UN report had mentioned that Sri Lankans will not accept an international investigation, but suggested that the emphasis should not be Sri Lankans as a whole, but those Sri Lankans who were victims of war crimes.
(12) In response to a question to Callum Macrae if he was a journalist or a campaigner, he responded that when a journalist researches a story and finds that it’s a truth that has been hidden, then it’s the duty of any journalist to expose it repeatedly so that it is taken notice of and acted upon.
The latest CH4 documentary is a powerful tool in the arsenal of the Diaspora groups in their quest for justice. Although Sri Lanka dismisses it as lies and fabrications, Sri Lankan diplomats are very aware of its potential and unsuccessfully tried to scuttle it’s screening at the UNHRC in Geneva, earlier this year.
From an outside perspective, these issues continue to expose the ethnic divisions in the island nation. As large sections of the Tamil population overlooked, denied and even justified alleged LTTE atrocities as they perceived it as a necessity to secure their peace, today, large sections of the Sinhalese population overlooks, denies and even justifies alleged Sri Lankan military atrocities as they perceive it as a necessity to secure their peace. The middle path of reconciliation seem quite in the distance in Sri Lanka, to any objective observer.
nandana w / May 11, 2013
Its 5 months – where’s the DAMN FILM – NO FIRE ZONE….
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Ben Hurling / May 11, 2013
GOSL would be wise to take Dushy Ranetunge’s observations seriously.
Sri Lanka is now facing a far bigger challenge to her survival as a country. The threat is gradually gathering steam. It is driven by extremely talented, hardcore Tamil ethno nationalists such as Jananayagam, Devika Hovelland and many others. So talented, many actually beleive there is a genocide in Sri Lanka. Their cover “Human Rights”.
Callum Macrae & CH4 have managed to whip up racial hatred against Sri Lankans in Tamil Nadu to its’ peak. It has become dangerous to vist TN for a weekend.
All of this while corrupt Rajapassa clan is busy losing the hard won “Peace” at home. Building a dynasty. Rather than building a just society governed by rule of law and equality.
While Sri Lanka’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) continues to be plagued by talentless, unpatriotic recruits. Absorbed through political infleunce. A crime against our country. MEA is in no position to take on sophisticated, high-tech LTTE diaspora onslaught against Sri Lanka.
While LTTE diapora is going after “war criminals” in SL, we have done nothing to grab War Criminals in the LTTE diaspora who fuelled the bloody carnage on this beautiful Island for 30 years.
Sri Lankan politicians & their croneis are squandering the only opportunity we might ever get to keep this country united and prosperous.
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Dev / May 11, 2013
The LTTE war criminal Daya master maybe the next UPFA chief minister candidate for the north
The other war criminals Karuna and Pilliyan are with the government but the biggest catch (bar Prabakaran that is) KP is also with your government so why blame the west?
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Ben Hurling / May 11, 2013
Repenting bad guys indeed!
GOSL has cut a strategic deal with them. For greater good of SL, they say. Many do not agree. Time will show.
Far worse are LTTE affiliated War Criminals at large in the West. They are a bigger threat to SL in the long run. These have re-branded themselves overnight. As “HR Warriors”, in a major deception.
In reality, these are LTTE fund raisers, weapon traders & spin doctors. Many gullible as well as cunning Western politicians are mingling with them already.
SL must do a lot more in a far more systematic way to tackle the problem.
A more humane version of “extra ordinary rendition” as practised by the West, with minor modifications to fit the Sri Lankan situation is one option.
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Romesh Senewiratne / May 12, 2013
Ben,
I agree with every word of your analysis, but not your suggestion about what can be done about, it in the last paragraph.
“Extraordinary rendition” is a deliberately obfuscating euphemism for “kidnapping and torturing people secretly in a third country”. The term, and the practice, were deliberately and cynically created to disguise actions that are prohibited in International Law during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The government of Sri Lanka should not follow such an example, but action does need to be taken against the spin-doctors (propagandists), fund-raisers and money-launderers, weapons traders etc, who continue to pose a risk to people around the world (not just in Sri Lanka). Those who started the separatist war and profiteered out of selling the epic TV and movie dramas of “Eelam War 1, Eelam War 2, Eelam War 3” and so on, to war-hungry, impressionable kids in Tamil Nadu will keep going…launching Eelam War 6…ad nauseum. And that is just one aspect of the massive business empire that developed in the north of Sri Lanka and south of India under the cruel fist of the LTTE.
Then there are those in the “Tamil Diaspora” forever extracting money from wealthy Tamils in the West to launch a new propaganda campaign and spurious legal action in American courts with hollow promises to ensure “peace with justice” (meaning revenge against those who helped defeat the LTTE, with a special focus on those they see as “Tamil traitors” and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa).
It is not that difficult to identify the main culprits. A few days on the Internet provides enough evidence for charges to be laid – but by whom and where? The International Criminal Court, run by Belgium with its terrible human rights record and obviously selective attention? The Hague, based in the Nederlands, with its dubious history when it comes to impartiality?
At the same time, Sri Lanka cannot start acting like the Israelis and Americans, kidnapping people in other countries. In my humble opinion evidence has to be provided to International Law Enforcement agencies, like Interpol, and a legal case built against those who have committed the serious crimes we all know occurred, and are still occurring. Starting a war is against International Law. And the government of Sri Lanka, most definitely, has not started any wars.
Thanks for your perceptive comments on CT, Ben. Yours are always worth reading.
Romesh
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Ben Hurling / May 12, 2013
Romesh
I fully share your concerns.
“Extra Ordinary Rendition” or kidnapping in broad daylight is a gross violation of basic human rights. Just like “Enhanced Interrogation” or Water boarding/torture.
These lovely, unsuspecting terms were developed by USA/UK/Israel to cover up most uncivilized cruelty against suspects in the name of so called “War on Terror”.
Though I am a Sri Lankan patriot, I am horrified and embarassed to be Sri Lankan at times. Successive governments in SL and law enforcement authorities have been and still are wedded to torture. I am impatient to see a leader in Sri Lanka who has the guts to dismantle this despicable legacy once and for all.
This is why I used words such as “humane” and “modifications” in my last para. I do not want above mentioned, nicely disguised Western methods of torture practiced in Sri Lanka either. “White Vaning” is actually a domesticated version of “Extra Ordinary Rendition”. I totally oppose these things. And am ashamed that they actually take place in my country.
My point is Sri Lanka should quit taking the lead from the West. Rather set an example to the West and others. Bad guys have to be dealt with. Yes. We can show the world how to do it in a humane, civilized way. In accordance with international law that has made major progress since the end of 2nd World War.
We must free ourselves from this enslaved mentality that only Western methods are the ultimate benchmarks to emulate. There are way too many great things in the Orient and other places.
Sri Lankans have the capacity and must develop the courage to teach the West a thing or two. Every now and then.
Unfortunately, this is partly the appeal of Rajapassa to masses in Sri Lanka. Rajapassa in public at least projects the image of a man who can stand up to the West. But, in my view most of the time for wrong reasons and causes.
PS: Romesh, your comments make visiting CT an enriching experience. I applaude your politeness even in disagreements. Please continue to take part in the discussion/debate.
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John / May 11, 2013
Dushy looks better today (perhaps much better than fellow traveler Tisaranee), only reporting of diaspora monkeys,donkeys dancing in the sun, with C4 paid jokers ,long after LTTE mass murderers were decimated for good, & even the donkey cub, V.P. blood suckers son was done with then & there ( if not some Tamil mutts would eat his excreta & drink his urine & make him next hero).
Let all dance til cows come home dreaming Eelam million light years away in the sky.
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SAROJINI / May 12, 2013
By the way we are yet to see a photograph of Tisaranee . When will we see this ????
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John / May 11, 2013
Dushy looks better today , only reporting of diaspora monkeys, donkeys dancing in the sun, with C4 paid jokers ,long after LTTE mass murderers were decimated for good, & even the donkey cub, V.P. blood suckers son was done with then & there ( if not some Tamil mutts would eat his excreta & drink his urine & make him next hero).
Let all jokers dance til cows come home dreaming Eelam million light years away in the sky.
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suryagamage nilan / May 11, 2013
john is being consistent with his suddha name! He can dance till the suddha comes home!
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Ravi / May 11, 2013
And Suddha is coming very close (Maldives). Even Buddha cannot help Sri Lanka. May be we need many donkeys like John to dance before uncle Sam.
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
Ravi
“And Suddha is coming very close (Maldives). Even Buddha cannot help Sri Lanka.”
Perhaps wise Veddahs could stop them.
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John / May 12, 2013
Ravi,
Yes, when monkeys like Ravi, lick Uncle Sam’s private parts ,Johns’ would do merry dances
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
John
“Yes, when monkeys like Ravi, lick Uncle Sam’s private parts ,Johns’ would do merry dances”
What did you think what GL did when he met with Hillary a few months ago in Washington?
Did Johns dance merrily ever after or was he envious of GL’s good fortunes?
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Ravi / May 13, 2013
From his comment it is very clear that this donkey with a sudda’s name (John) is an expert in licking private parts. These days he must be happily licking the Rajapassa.
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Kevin Godaya / May 12, 2013
Dushy,
Seams like you have grown up at last ! Congratulations !
Now you know how to use your pen in public forums !
This change will certainly help you to achieve your aspirations to SL Diplomatic mission in Europe !
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Senguttuvan / May 11, 2013
“As large sections of the Tamil population overlooked, denied and even justified alleged LTTE atrocities as they perceived it as a necessity to secure their peace, today, large sections of the Sinhalese population overlooks, denies and even justifies alleged Sri Lankan military atrocities as they perceive it as a necessity to secure their peace”
Splendidly expressed. That is the truth today. That is the most eloquent testimony we are now pushed into the position of Two Nations in One country, which many are trying to come to terms with. We have just two options as the years roll by viz:- Two Nations in One undivided country or one country separated physically into 2 – consistent with its pre-colonialist history. It is the wisdom and the Statecraft of the Rajapakses that will define the future of this island in the coming years.
Senguttuvan
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Romesh Senewiratne / May 11, 2013
Dear Senguttuvan,
I have to disagree with you on some points here. How are you defining a “nation” and how are you defining a “country”?
Let us consider the two main “parties” in Sri Lanka as they were when I left the country in 1976, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). The former is named as promoting a “united nation”. One undivided/united nation, in other words. In which, of course, there may be many languages, cultures, ethnicities, religions and philosophies.
The SLFP, ostensibly promotes freedom in and for Sri Lanka. That seems to be a bit of a problem, though everyone generally supports the idea of individual freedoms and freedom of nations from oppression by other militarily stronger nations. It is a problem because the SLFP is a political party, and like all political parties it is seeking votes and re-election. So is the UNP, of course.
Perhaps you are talking about a “Tamil Nation” and a “Sinhala Nation”? The fact is there is no Tamil Nation (though their is a Tamil Land/Country/State called Tamil Nadu, a Tamil language with its own indiviual script, Tamil culture and Tamil ethnicity, one of several ethnicities included in the Dravidian Race or Dravidian People).
There is also no Sinhala Nation – though again there is a Singhala language, script, culture, ethnicity, ancestry and history. Both Singhala and Tamil are closely entwined, and have been from the earliest times.
It is a historical fact which cannot be changed that the people of Sri Lanka (or Lanka or Ceylon or Ilankai) have been ruled by kings and royal families for hundreds of years before the arrival of the Dutch with the system of “Roman Dutch Law” and the British with their Westminister System with its Whigs and Tories. The people of India were also ruled by kings (more so than by queens) and it was usual for the kings to appoint to powerful positions members of their own family, thus creating family dynasties (and be guided in their decisions by their queens, siblings and advisers). People are culturally programmed into thinking of their Head of State as royalty.
Unfortunately, the late President J R Jayawardana made the position of president increasingly like that of an old-style king, by assuming executive powers that his successors have been more than happy to retain (and expand). And so people in Sri Lanka now have a king and a royal family, again, which is, as usual, keen to create a new ruling dynasty. As long as the king’s people and the king’s army remain loyal to him he will continue to reign, and now Western countries are going to unseat him from his throne or divide his country.
You see, Senguttuvan, the Western country named in the article above as collecting evidence on “war crimes” in Sri Lanka for possible action in the International Criminal Court, Belgium, has a ghastly record regarding human rights and crimes against humanity in Africa, and specifically in the Congo region. That’s why they are picking on black African leaders to “try” in their court. But there’s more. Belgium has a long history as a centre of the Allies’ biological warfare industry (since the Second World War). I won’t go into details here, but there is considerable evidence that Belgium was involved in the introduction of HIV/AIDS to the Congo region (Zaire, Burundi and Rwanda) to start the AIDS epidemic there. (I provide evidence of this in documentaries on my YouTube site).
Britain too has a terrible record when it comes to torture, concentration camps (used against the Boers in South Africa in the 1890s) repression in its colonies (along with exploitation of their people and resources) and, more recently, in their other “theatres of war” (which their media consistently ignores or tries to justify).
The saving grace in the new-style Sri Lankan monarchy-in-everything-but-name is that the President, his family and all his advisers can be voted out of office by the majority will of the people at the next election. And at least he’s not seeking an overseas empire – emperors are more dangerous than kings! Especially if the kings can be sacked by the people if he fails to rule them wisely.
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Dushy Ranetunge / May 11, 2013
Dear Romesh,
Yours is an interpretation and perceptions of the Sinhala nation. Senguttuvan’s is an interpretation and perceptions of the Tamil nation. There is a Sinhala peace and a Tamil peace. At present we have a Sinhala peace, a more of a husbands peace, forcibly keeping his wife who is unhappy in the marriage…… In any civilised society… it will be divorce…., a compromise would be devolution, like in Switzerland or the Netherlands, United Kingdom etc….
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Gung Ho / May 11, 2013
But, you forgot to notice in this blog that Senguttuvan a puer whose surreptitious cut-and-paste politics has its own starting end.
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Romesh Senewiratne / May 11, 2013
No, Dushy, you are wrong. Mine is not the perspective of a “Sinhala nation”. I have said that I do not regard Sinhala (I prefer the spelling Singhala) as a nation. I regard it as a language, at most an ethnic group within the nation of Sri Lanka (Shri Ilankai in Tamil).
I have ancestry that is both Singhalese and Tamil, but was born in England and lived most of my life in Australia. I believe there is such a thing as the Australian nation, too.
Sri Lanka and Australia are both sovereign nations and members of the United Nations. There are people in both these countries that speak many languages, and I look forward to the day when more many more languages are understood and spoken in nations around the world. There are also many cultures and races in both Australia and Sri Lanka, and cross-fertilization between these cultures and races (physically and metaphorically). I think this is a good thing.
By the way, it is funny you should mention the Nederlands and United Kingdom as examples Sri Lanka should follow – both used the notorious divide and rule strategy in their quest for ever-larger empires of colonies around the world.
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manisekaran / May 11, 2013
We are not in 19 th century to speak about colonial abuse, we had crossed a century in between and are more civilised with individual liberty.
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Ben Hurling / May 11, 2013
Great point Manisekaran.
Now look at Sinhalese as your brethren too. Not just Tamils.
This is the root of the problem. No to racism. All bleed the same stuff. Can you handle that mate?
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
Ben Hurling
“Now look at Sinhalese as your brethren too. Not just Tamils.”
Why did it take you so long to accept the obvious.
Now would you please get the Sinhala/Buddhist education establishment to review children’s school history books?
Also could you demand Nalin, Bandu, Champika, Kamalika, ……….others to stop perpetuating Vijaya myth?
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Dushy Ranetunge / May 12, 2013
Romesh,
You speak of colonial abuse??? What did the Dutch or the British do, that the Sinhalese did not do to the Veddahs? They murdered, drove them away and grabbed their lands…we live in the 21st century and yours is a sinhala perspective alien to the minorities in Sri Lanka.
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
Dushy Ranetunge
Can I count on you for your support to my people?
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Romesh Senewiratne / May 13, 2013
Dushy,
I hardly know where to start, when it comes to listing the abuses perpetrated by the British and Dutch on the dark-skinned people of their colonies, since they expanded their empires in the 1700s. I suppose I could start with your own London School of Economics and the Fabian Society, four members of which founded the LSE in 1895. This is from Wikipedia:
“In the early 1900s Fabian Society members advocated the ideal of a scientifically planned society and supported eugenics by way of sterilization. This is credited to the passage of the Half-Caste Act, and its subsequent implementation in Australia, where children were systematically and forcibly removed from their parents, so that the British colonial regime could “protect” the Aborigine children from their parents. In an article published in The Guardian on 14 February 2008, (following the apology offered by Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd to the “stolen generations”), Geoffrey Robertson criticised Fabian socialists for providing the intellectual justification for the eugenics policy that led to the stolen generations scandal.[30][31] Such views on socialism, inequality and eugenics in early 20th century Fabians was not limited to one individual, it was a widely shared view in Fabian Society.[32][33]”
I have not included the actual references here. You can check them yourself, if you want, Dushy (Fabian Society on Wikipedia). It’s good to know the history of the institutions that teach us, in order to recognize their biases and prejudices.
My perspective, as someone who was educated in England, Sri Lanka and Australia (where I went to school and university and have lived since I was 15) is most certainly not a “Sinhala perspective” (not that there is such a thing – Sinhalese people have many different perspectives). For one thing, I do not think in Singhala, and in fact have only passed my O’levels in Sinhalese as a second language. I cannot understand much Singhala or Tamil – though I do try. I do not read Singhala literature and do not agree with the version of Sri Lankan/Ceylon history that is contained in colonial textbooks, or that in post-colonial school texts such as those by Garrett.C. Mendis and his English mentor Professor Pakeham (the “Our Heritage” series of school history books that we, who studied in the English medium, were taught from).
The Sri Lanka history books I have in my library were all owned by by mother, who is of Tamil ethnicity or her equally Tamil father, Winslow Alagaratnam. I haven’t read any of them from cover to cover, but they all shape my ever-changing perspective on the history of Sri Lanka and that of my ancestors. As do the conversations I have with the people I meet (very few of whom are Sri Lankan), other reference books, and information I gather from the Internet here in Australia.
These books, and the seminal “ethnological study” of the Veddas, the Cambridge University’s 1911 publication by Dr C.G Seligmann and his good wife Brenda (who won the trust of the “wild” and “tame” Veddas they discovered, after being taken to see them) provide a conflicting perspective on the fate of Sri Lanka’s Vedda people, who you say were murdered, driven away and had their lands “grabbed” by people you say were “Sinhalese”.
I will refer to a couple of these books, if I may. One was published in 1958 and is titled “Tamils and Ceylon”. The author was C.S.Navaratnam and the book, which was given to my grandfather, was printed at the Saiva Prakasa Press in Jaffna. The other, published in 1961 by the Colombo University Press (Colombo) is the textbook “A Concise History of Ceylon” by Cyril Wallace Nicholas and Senarath Paranavitana.
This is all the latter had to say, around the time I was born, regarding the prehistory of Ceylon. On page 2:
“No serious, scientific study of the several aspects of the life of primitive man in Ceylon has yet been made, and little is known of the subject. Chert and quartz implements and tools have been discovered at various sites, notably on the hill patanas, in the sandy areas of the natural lakes in Vilpattu, and in caves, both alone and in association with pottery. The aboriginal inhabitants, it is believed, were the ancestors of the Vaddo, a primitive people who lived by hunting and whose extinction occurred recently. But the story of prehistoric men in Ceylon, their types, their physical makeup, their customs and beliefs, and their way of life has yet to be written.”
My grandfather’s book, “Tamils and Ceylon” by C.C.Navaratnam, doesn’t mention Veddahs at all. It begins, however, with the (then) recently discovered archaeological sites in the Indus Valley, theorizing that 5,000 year-old civilization was Dravidian, and practiced as proto-Shavite religion (based on images on the Indus Valley seals). This book theorizes that the people who built the Indus Valley civilization were displaced to the south and east, and belonged to the Dravidian race (whioh includes the Tamils of both South India and Sri Lanka).
So did the “Sinhalese” murder, dispossess and drive the Veddhas away, as we know, for certain, the British, their convicts and their guards, and later their “free settlers” did to our Indigenous people in Australia, (who they also classified as “wild” or “tame” blacks depending on how obedient they were)?
Though I had heard of Seligmann who studied the Veddas and wrote a book about them, I had never had the means of reading this rare book (rare in Australia, anyway). I was delighted to find that it can now be read and downloaded free online, from a discarded copy from the Ontario Library:
http://ia600309.us.archive.org/13/items/veddas__00seliuoft/veddas__00seliuoft.pdf
I have only just started reading the book, and it is very interesting. Equally interesting is who Seligmann was and what he was doing in colonial Ceylon in the first place.
From Wikipedia I have found that Seligmann (also spelt Seligman with one n) was a British physician and ethnologist who, from 1913 to 1934 “served as chair of Ethnology at the London School of Economics”. Seligman is a Jewish name from Bavaria, and it is a big name in banking in the USA, I gather. Charles Gabriel Seligman FRS (1873-1940) was, however, born in London and after training at St Thomas’ Hospital was allowed to call himself a “physician”, though his main interest was studying specimens of human beings (a pathologist). This is why he volunteered to for Cambridge University “expeditions” to the places reputed to have the last of the “dying races”, the “primitive hunters” who were becoming “extinct” in the face of the spreading British Empire.
They wanted to collect specimens, record religious beliefs, dances, music and rituals, pick their brains about herbs, plants, poisons and drugs, and take photos of them in front view, and side view, full length, face and torso. And, of course, “classify” them. The British loved classifying, and still do. An academic habit they inherited from the Romans and the Greeks via Baron von Linne (Linnaeus) the celebrated Swedish aristocrat who declared that “God created, and Linnaeus classified”.
With the British, though, it became a truly global enterprise – they collected specimens of every living and non-living thing they could, so their experts to could study them “describe” them, and name them in Latin, the language of science. The specimens were carefully preserved in the museums and their centuries-old universities. They’ve been at it a long time.
So Seligman and Cambridge University, in the spirit of the times, wanted specimens, but they couldn’t go around shooting the natives like the old days. Not in civilized Ceylon, anyway. So the Cambridge University crew, led by Seligmann and his good wife Brenda (who had a taste in Oriental artworks, which she collected), came armed with a state-of-the-art camera and notebooks, in which to record “ethnological data” about the “last of the Veddas” before they “died out” as a result of the expansion of the villages of the Sinhalese and Tamils. The “wild men” that British East India Company sailor Robert Knox had been so scared of meeting, when he traveled through “veddha country” (veddarata) after escaping from years of captivity by the King of Kandy in the seventeenth century.
From the preface of the book it is clear that no expense was spared and Seligmann was treated like a dignitary during the two years his wife and he did their research in Colonial Ceylon. It was an official expedition, and he credits the assistance of the white bosses of irrigation, forestry, mineral surveying and so on – all British, of course. He was even given a “motor car”, which enabled them to “gain valuable information without going more than ten miles from the main road”. It is quite funny to imagine.
Seligman, who had previously studied and described the Melanesians and Papuans, and went on to study what Cambridge regarded as the most “primitive” African tribes, explains his motivation for “investigating” Veddas, admitting that some of the curious white “travellers” were being taken for a ride by men dressed in amudes (loin-cloths) even in 1911:
“Not only was the work urgently needed on account of its scientific importance, but it was known that the Veddas were a numerically small people verging on extinction, and so affected by contact with Tamils and Sinhalese that if they were not studied promptly there was every possibility that it would soon be too late to study them at all; indeed, with all my efforts I was able to meet only four families, and hear of two more, who I believe had never practiced cultivation.”
He continues, though:
“Pure-blooded Veddas are are not quite so rare as this statement implies. The Danigala community, the best known “wild” Veddas of Ceylon, are still reasonably pure-blooded, though they have adopted many Sinhalese habits, including cultivation, and have assumed the role of professional primitive man. They are commonly fetched to be interviewed by travellers at the nearest rest house, where they appear clad only in the traditional scanty Vedda garment, whereas, when not on show, they dress very much as the neighbouring peasant Sinhalese.” (p. vii)
Of course, not understanding Sinhalese, the Seligmans needed a translator. The best in the land. So he was assisted by “Mr A. Mendis Gunasekara, Mudaliar” (mudaliya) for transliteration and translation of songs (from notes made in Singhala script). He also specially thanks Mr H. White and Mr. H.R. Freeman “for putting at our disposal such adequate interpreters as Mr W.R.Bibile, Ratemahatmaya, the Muhandiram Kumarakulasinghe and Mr D.C de Silva, Kachcheri Interpreter”.
He also thanks “Mr C. Herft, District Engineer, Batticaloa, who twice supplied us with coolies when we were in serious difficulties for transport”.
Armed with his motor car, fancy camera and the charms of his wife, Seligmann sought to win the trust of the clans of hunters who have lived in the mountains (kande) and forests of Sri Lanka since prehistoric times, He also observed what he called “Coast Veddas” who lived in “scattered villages on the east coast and are chiefly to be found north of Batticaloa”. These, Seligmann writes “have much Tamil blood in their veins, and though often taller than pure Veddas, some still retain an appearance which suggests their Vedda origin”. He admits that “this is more marked in the males than in the females, and it appeared to us that any of the latter might have been local Tamils”.
In all likelihood, they were!
Seligman was, I suspect, seeing what he expected to see, and trying it to fit it into his anthropological paradigm, which he shared with Churchill. That of eugenics. The supposedly scientific study of inferior and superior races, based on the writings of Francis Galton and others. A paradigm that assumed European superiority and white supremacy.
If one looks more closely at Seligmann’s account of the “religion of the Veddas” and his photographs, it is clear that the Veddas were not driven away anywhere, and neither did they become extinct. He says, himself, that “there is no reasonable doubt that the Veddas are identical with the Yakkas of the Mahavansa and other native chronicles”. They made offerings of food to the “kande yaka” which he describes as “a celebrated hunter who lived many generations ago and whose assistance is invoked for good hunting”.
Of course, “kande”, from which the Kandyan Kingdom and its capital Kandy are derived, just means “mountains” in Singhalese. “Yaka” may have been called “devil” or “demon” by the British, but the yaka can easily be translated as “spirit”. Not a demonic or evil spirit, just a spirit. As Seligmann himself translates “yaka” as the “spirits of the dead”, inferring that the “Vedda religion is essentially a cult of the dead”.
The Europeans used a slightly different term when describing similar rituals and practices in what they regarded as “higher civilizations” in China and Japan – these cultures were said to practice “ancestor worship”. It can also be understood as venerating, or revering, ones ancestors, and seeking their assistance.
So, Dushy, I have to conclude that what the Dutch and British did to their colonial subjects was very much worse than anything the Singhalese and Tamils did to the ancient clans that had the secret knowledge of stealth and hunting. The hunters who could be invisible when they wanted to be and shoot you with a bow and arrow before you even knew they were there. They respected them, because they were the ones who knew how to capture an elephant by creeping up on it and slashing its foot so it could be captured for the kings armies. They are the ones who were at home in the wildest parts of Sri Lanka, and were not afraid to sleep in the forests or on the beaches under the stars.
The hunting skills and techniques of the Vedda hunting clans, unlike those of our indigenous people in Australia, may be gone forever. But their families, as they always have been, are the other indigenous people in Sri Lanka, some of whom speak Tamil, some of whom speak Sinhala, and some of whom speak both. And there are millions of them.
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Siva / May 13, 2013
Native Veddha,
The North Indian bandit prince Vijay (the father of the Sinhala race) and his 700 men who were exiled from India landed (or rather invaded) Lanka. Do you know what happened to your people (the Yakkhas and Nagas), the pre-populations (the native aboriginals) that already lived in the island of Lanka?
Very similar to what happened to the aboriginals/natives of Australia and North America, Vijay and his men annihilated most of those aboriginals (including Kuveni) and the remnant had been driven (escaped) into the jungles and become Veddhas. Later he (Vijay) married a Pandyan princess of Madurai, South India and his men were give in marriage to the Pandyan maidens. The Sinhalese people are made up of half North Indian and half South Indian and the poor Veddhas had to live in the jungle forever.
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2013
Siva
According to my elders:
Yaksas/Yakshini were North Indian ideas, borrowed, packaged and produced as fact by pervert Mahanama. You find these two names widely used in Nepali and Sanskrit literature.
There are traces of Naga cultural influence on this island. The Tamils site certain Naga Kavi contributing to Classical Tamil literature.
“The Sinhalese people are made up of half North Indian and half South Indian”
Please refer to genetic studies, which time again confirm the close affinity of Sinhalese to Tamilnadu Tamils than Kalingans. Those studies also confirm Bengali contribution to Tamils genetic pool as well as the Sinhalese ones (about 25%).
The archeological studies indicate or confirm there were settled people in Anuradhapura before the arrival of this mythological anti hero Vijaya and his hoodlums.
My elders tell me one who believes Mahanama’s stories on the origin of Sinhalese race, would believe in anything, meaning gullible.
I am still awaiting to hear from my elders on the subject of Tamil Buddhism in this island. I will come back to you.
There were 12,000 Tamil Buddhists according to 1881 Census. This much I can confirm.
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Senguttuvan / May 11, 2013
Romesh,
I am not being personal here. But your father knows more about what we are talking. Believe me, he is and never has been a communalist.
I beg to disagree with Dushy. Born, bred and having lived all my adult life in Colombo among the Sinhalese – a language that I speak fluently, read and write (the last two somewhat erratically in latter years) I think Tarzie Vittachi’s fear, expressed in 1958, is here with us – “Has the parting of the Ways come?” As I wrote earlier, it is the Rajapakses who will define the future of the entire Sinhala nation from now on. A mountain of a task in the hands of mice? I admit this is an uncharitable remark. But going by performance so far what options do you have?
Senguttuvan
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Romesh Senewiratne / May 11, 2013
Senguttuvan,
At no stage have I suggested that my father is a communalist. In fact, I didn’t know the word until I checked it just then. I knew know a bit about communism, of course, but I’ve never said my father is a communist either. In fact I haven’t mentioned my father. You may be right in saying that you see eye to eye with him more than with me. That’s fine, but I wasn’t addressing my father.
I have been quite specific about what I was saying to you. I have raised the difference between a “nation”, as in Tamil Nation, versus a language, as in Tamil Language, a race, as in Tamil Race and an ethnicity, as in Tamil Ethnicity. These are, in my opinion, important words to define before debating them. Otherwise people argue at cross-purposes and, worse, wars can begin.
I have just visited the TGTE site and read that they are actively arguing for a “separate state” called “Tamil Eelam”, and making foolish, spurious claims of “genocide”. I know enough about genocide to know that what happened in Sri Lanka does not satisfy UN criteria for this, the most heinous crime in international law – however much killing, brutality or torture may have occurred over the 30 years of worsening “ethnic conflict” (that’s what it was always referred to here, until they started to call it an “civil war”).
The Europeans have been accusing dark-skinned people of being prone to “ethnic conflict” and “tribal wars” since the white man tried to take control of all the “black natives” in Africa. I’m using their terminology here. In their views the “whites” were “civilized” and the “blacks” fought amongst themselves. The “white man’s burden”.
It breaks my heart, Senguttuvan, for the people of Sri Lanka to be divided in this way; on the basis of real or perceived ethnic differences. The language issue is, however, a very important one. It is essential that the Tamil language be promoted throughout the island. More people should become fluently and eloquently trilingual, like yourself (and unlike me – or my father).
I am speaking through my experiences, Senguttuvan. Though my mother is Tamil I was never taught to read, write, understand or speak Tamil. My father never tried to learn Tamil from my mother, though he had every opportunity. I am trying to learn this beautiful language and its written script now, and my mother is enjoying teaching me what she still remembers. The internet provides a wonderful resource for learning languages, too.
But at the age of 52 it is much harder for me to learn any language than if it was spoken to me when I was a little child. Children at the age of 2 or 3 can learn several different languages at the same time – very fast. But only if those around them are fluent in many languages.
That is the vision I have for Sri Lanka, and it doesn’t need to be divided for that. In fact, division will destroy the unity of Sri Lankan people that I dream of. People of whatever race, colour or creed; one where no one is looked up to or down on because they identify themselves as Sinhalese, Tamil, Veddah, Naga, Yakka, Burgher, Malay or Moor. And where people don’t care whether someone is a “pure breed” or a “half breed”.
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Probono Publico / May 12, 2013
Romesh,Dushi and Senguttuvan its very refreshing for me to see you guys put your points across and disagree in a very civilized and decent manner just like how they debate in Western parliaments unlike the racial or ethnic slurs that we see in many comments on CT ,Well done keep it up!
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Senguttuvan / May 12, 2013
Romesh,
You certainly did not suggest your dad was communalist and neither did I. I hate to be pressed into talking of class and elitism. After all some of the finest contributions to world peace, education, the sciences and the development of philosophy -often described as the Science of Sciences – have come from those outside this box. That is so true of our own country too.
I am touched you lament “it breaks my heart, Senguttuvan, for the people of Sri Lanka to be divided in this way” This is why however discouraging the scene gets I have, for many decades, worked to unite the major communities that made us part of a composite nation of which we had much reason to be proud of until the devilry of majoritarianism took hold. But we must continue to try to regain the ethnic tranquility of the past.
I notice my reference to half-breeds bothers you – and rightly so.
I was using it in a different context where the emphasis was on one of good breeding – pedigreed, mixed or otherwise being immaterial. When one continuously resorts to profanity or vulgar
language against an entire race and worse – to insist he will continue to use it in a who-cares manner is doubtless a product of poor breeding. There was no other reason for me to enter the fray.
It is always a pleasure to exchange views with the cultured, learned and those genuinely searching for peace and unity in
Sri Lanka.
Senguttuvan
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Romesh Senewiratne / May 12, 2013
Senguttuvan,
Thanks for the clarification. Having spent many years studying the history of racism against dark-skinned people in the name of “eugenics” and living for most of my life in a country where these racist ideas – of pure-breeds, half-breeds and quarter-breeds – were used to “scientifically” genocide our Aboriginal people, I am very conscious of racist and elitist ideas of “good breeding” (as “eu-genics” translates from the Greek).
The Cambridge-educated British academic of the late nineteenth century who developed this racist theory using dubious statistic methods and questionable anthropological arguments “graded” Black Africans as “two grades” below White Englishmen in intelligence and “one grade” above Australian “blacks” (though he never met an Aboriginal person or even visit Australia). This was Francis Galton, who used the fact that he was Charles Darwin’s cousin to climb the British academic ladder and sell his racist, elitist doctrines using his famous family connections (and didn’t write about nepotism, of course).
Galton also thought the British upper classes of “good breeding” (such as his own family) were intellectually and morally superior to the “lower” classes on the basis of “hereditary genius”, and that the “lowest” of the lower classes should be segregated and sterilized. He, and the “Eugenics Education Society” he set up with Darwin’s military son Leonard, also advocated the sterilization and segregation of what they regarded as the “lower races” – the darker the skin, the lower the race. However, in the eugenics theory, those who were “half-castes” were even more inferior than their “pure-blooded” parents (miscegenation, as they called it).
I’m sure you know about this, but maybe not the degree that eugenics and the racist ideas carried within it have contributed to abuses of the native people in South Africa, the USA, Australia, Canada and even India. Winston Churchill was a prominent supporter of these racist doctrines, and they shaped British foreign policy and those in all the British colonies, especially the “White Settler Colonies”.
So I’m glad you were only complaining about David’s “breeding” rather than his “breed”. On this, I have to disagree with you, anyway. But not as vehemently.
Always nice to discuss things with you, Senguttuvan.
Romesh
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Anpu / May 12, 2013
Romesh,
Do you speak to your father? If you do, sit down with him and ask him to explain what went on in Ceylon and going on in SL. It all started long time ago by the Sinhalease politicians UNP and then SLFP (your relations). What is happeneing IN SL is Tamil Genocide. Brian can give you enough information (verbaly, in text and in videos)on that. Some where you mentioned UN. Dont you konw UN is run by corrupt people. Even UN had admitted they have not done the right thing.
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Anpu / May 12, 2013
“On 10 May 2013, former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 80 years in prison. It was the first time that an ex-head of state had been convicted for genocide by a court in his or her own country. *******The case is of international importance, including in Sri Lanka*********.” – https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/former-guatemalan-dictator-convicted-of-genocide-and-jailed-for-80-years/
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Anpu / May 12, 2013
Romesh
Brian might point you to these links. They provide ample evidence on Tamil Genocide.
http://tamilsforum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/unspeakable_truth.pdf
http://tamilnation.co/indictment/index.htm
http://www.tamilnet.com/img/publish/2009/09/BoyleBookGSP3.pdf
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Romesh Senewiratne / May 12, 2013
The short answer to your question is “no”.
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Siva / May 13, 2013
Native Veddha
The so called tribes Yaksha, naga, deva, and raksaha that is mentioned in the Mahavamsa as the pre-populations of the island Lanka is actually a myth/fiction fabricated by Mahanama Thero. These same tribes are already mentioned in the Indian epics and Puranas such as the Mahabharata and they have nothing to do with Lanka. He has done a copy and paste job.
The serpent worshiping Nagas is a different story but they are also having a separate history not only in Sri Lanka but also in India (especially South India).
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2013
Siva
Please refer to my response “Native Vedda – May 13, 2013
12:50 pm” to your comment above.
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Dr. N. Satchi / May 11, 2013
Dear Senguttuvan,
Born in 1936 lived among Sinhalese when young, worshiped in Buddhist Temples in Kurunagala as little boy, and having worked in Matara as a professional, perhaps I have a sentimental attachments to bygone times that cannot return but yet yearn for it.
The LTTE was opting for two nations in an undivided country. With every passing month since May 2009, the reality of the shadows of separation are beginning to dawn however I try to fight it. Few from the northeast have communicated in an equivocal way that they live in an occupied land. This time it is structural and much more divisive in a psychological way than the days of the LTTE dominance. This is indeed a very bad omen for everybody that inhabits this splendid island.
Dr. N. Satchi UK
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manisekaran / May 11, 2013
once trust is lost , very difficult to retrieve back. I hope two nations will be the best option under srilankan union where two of them can rule themselves, rather one showing supremacy over another. Unless this issue solved now, remember after two generation when Tamil population touches 30 crores in world( a real possibilty) and sinhalese of 4 crores, it will be disaster for sinhalese, if this issue is not resolved now. When I learnt history first, I cursed my forefathers for splitting Pakistan and Bangladesh from India, but after 2001 i understood what they did that time was wise. Sometimes two cultures cannot co-habiatate.
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
manisekaran
Could you not write an article on how and why did the former separatists DMK completely give up their demand for a independent Tamilnadu.
What did Anna Karu and other Dravidian sell and buy in the deal that convinced them to change their objective of establishing a separate country for your stupid people?
With the benefit of hindsight do you judge it to be the best deal anyone could have reached with Hindians?
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manisekaran / May 11, 2013
Why not.. give me sometime..
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
manisekaran
I am not going to thank you in advance.
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Senguttuvan / May 11, 2013
Dear Dr. Satchi,
Pls allow me to correct you. LTTE was for total separation in a divided Island. The TNA, in recent times, have come out of it
and are willing to work in an undivided country.
Senguttuvan
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Ben Hurling / May 11, 2013
TNA is going for Ealam in a round about way!
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
Ben Hurling
“TNA is going for Ealam in a round about way!”
It is your perception.
Eelam is not a reality as long as India is around the corner.
The only way possible for TNA is to relocate the island to anywhere near China.
Well we know about China don’t we?
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Ben Hurling / May 11, 2013
Apparently TNA has not understood that reality.
They are leading Tamils up the “Garden Path” once again.
Perhaps TNA will relocate SL closer to East Timor/Norway. Then cry for Ealam.
What a waste of time!
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
Ben Hurling
“Apparently TNA has not understood that reality.”
How do you know?
Have you had lengthy discussion with them?
What are their demands that the stupid Sinhala/Buddhists people find abhorrent?
Would you consider “Restoring Democracy” should be stopped at any costs?
When did you become a fan of Weerawansa, Champika, JHU, Gota, Amaradasa, Nalin, M Sivananthan, Fonseka,………………..?
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RAJA / May 13, 2013
I quite agree that as long as India is around the corner, Ealam is not a reality. What if happens that India breaks up into several independent nations. Then the rump nation of India consisting of Hindi speaking and other northern states will not be in a position to stop the birth of Ealam. China has stepped into Srilanka not to support Srilanka, but to destabilize India and break it up so that it will have an uncontested supremacy in Asia. India knows about it.
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2013
RAJA
“What if happens that India breaks up into several independent nations”
India has never been one country until the Brits put together this greater Bharat. However from time immemorial the land has been a melting pot striving to find commonality among diverse people.
Being part of a large political entity has its own ups and downs. Hindian strangle hold on rest of the country is loosening albeit at a slower pace. The components which make India, very well know and think about the morning after effect if ever they were to divide the country, apart from wars and destruction the states will lose a large market instantly.
“China has stepped into Srilanka not to support Srilanka, but to destabilize India and break it up “
It is India’s problem and not ours.
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Dr. N. Satchi / May 12, 2013
Dear Senguttuvan,
What you say is the general perception. I am not too sure of this if one analyses the conduct of the LTTE leadership. The exchange of letters between the leader of the LTTE and CBK may be interesting.
Dr. N. Satchi UK
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Gopalavarma / May 13, 2013
As much as you personally assure it in plain writing is so lame.
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M.Sivananthan / May 11, 2013
Eelam is a product of London and not from Sri lanka. 10% of the population cannot dream of getting 1/3 of Lanad and 2/3 of the sea coast.
Now it is narrowed further to some Jaffna Tamils outside of Sri lanka.
So, Eelam will be a story only!
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jagan sriram / May 11, 2013
i think the notion that 10% population theory has become cliche.traditional homeland concept has been there in many parts of the world.we have quebec province which is mainly french does any one in canada talk in terms of population and areas occupied by them or even xinjiang province in china which is mainly populated by uighurs who have strong cultural ties with turkey.it is another question that china has been trying to undermine their culture by settling hans and this is creating problems for chinese there.hence sinhalese have to accept that tamils have their own territory where they perceive that their culture will be preserved and it does not mean in any way a separation.as we are in one of the most enlightened century which has been helped by technology we need to accept diverse views and respect them.
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M.Sivananthan / May 13, 2013
Canada is an “invaded” country and not “fit” to any homeland ideology.
Original people of Canada are still lives in Canada. Fight of invaders cannot be taken to any courts.
In Sri lanka there is no “TAMIL TERRITORY” or Sinhala Terrirory exists!
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2013
M.Sivananthan
“In Sri lanka there is no “TAMIL TERRITORY” or Sinhala Terrirory exists!”
I hate to agree with you however isn’t it the case that the entire island now belongs to Sinhala/Buddhists, soon to a clan?
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Ben Hurling / May 11, 2013
Senguttuvan
Ha..ha! What a simplification of Sri Lanka. Segregation of 2 nations on this tiny, racially very mixed Island.
What makes you think it will resolve any problems? We will end up with endless skirmishing for all eternity. Given the ferocity of racism promoted by Ealamists both in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Ealamsts will be happy when they swallowed up whole of the Island. And intergrated to Greater Ealam with Tamil Nadu.
When did racial segregation become a solution to all problems?
PS: This is the 21st century! Ethnic barriers to common humanity are breaking down. Too bad for Sinhalese racists. Even worse for closet Tamils racists such as yourself.
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manisekaran / May 11, 2013
Ben,
Stop your non-stop nonsense that Tamilnadu will take eelam. We are neither interested even inch of it.What we need is our berthern there to lead a dignified life. When Taminadu banned LTTE in 1992 , then we were good, when we found SL is war criminal and suppressed Tmails, and thought only a separate country is solution, then we are rascist. What a hypocrite, you are! You blame you governments for the plight than pointing at others!
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Ben Hurling / May 11, 2013
Manisekaran,
OK. SL can relax then. Jayalalitha’s dance about Kachchativu Island is nonsense?
Tamil Sri Lankans your “brothers”? Touching. Quit stealing fish from their waters every single night Bro! Their only livelihood right now. So much for your “brotherhood”.
Treat Tamil Sri Lankan refugees with some dignity, before preachign to SL. If you cannot provide them proper sanitation facilities. We undersatnd that is a state wide problem for you guys.
LTTE was banned in TN. Cos’ it started biting your behind real bad. Not because of their bloody carnage over here in SL.
Tamil Sri Lankans are our brothers too mate. The difference is we don’t steal fish at night.
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manisekaran / May 12, 2013
You need to basically understand many things. First, TN was extremely poor till year 2005, even as much as 50% of my generation was mal-nourished and my previous generation was illiterate to the extent of more than 60%, child labor was prevalent, I had to work part-time in order to complete my Engineering. It was during this time, we had our Srilankan tamils also joined in refugee camp. when we were reeling in extreme poverty still whatever possible we had offered them, yes there might be some inhuman elements mistreated them, but that does not mean whole Tamil people here treat them bad.
Coming to the question of katchtheevu, can you read its history and MoU between SL and Indian government, and what are rights of Tamil fishermen etc, before even touching this subject. Because you will feel difficult to answer if i post questions relating to this.
On helping our SL Tamil fisher men, I dont think our navy has caused any concerns to them, can you bring evidences that Indian Navy played spoilsports in their business? We have many incidents where SL army played hostile role against Tamil fishermen.
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Ben Hurling / May 12, 2013
Manisekaran,
I appreciate your kindness towards Tamil Sri Lankans who escaped the crossfire in northern SL. And settled in TN as refugees. I hope all those who left SL will come back and settle here in SL again soon.
I have many Tamil friends. Some very close. Of SL, TN and other origins. I know people of TN have large hearts. Amply proven by their empathy towards Tamil Sri Lankans in trouble.
What I do not like is the demonising of Sinhalese as cruel barbarians by TN politicians. Earlier it was VP’s job.
When the Tsunami struck SL in 2005, help for Tamil Sri Lankans came from Sinhalese Sri Lankans in the south. It was overwhelming and spontaneous. In the middle of a brutal war.
When “Gates of Hell” of VP’s Vanni open prison for Tamil Sri Lankans were forcibly opened by SLA at great cost to all, 300 000 Tamil refugees rushed out. With nothing. Except trauma, grief and misery. Sinhalese responded with extra-ordinary generosity and brotherhood. Supplying from food, clothing to portable/makeshift sanitary facilities.
I am not naive to beleive racism has left SL. It is thriving. Among sections of both Sinhaelse and Tamils. But, in the fringes. Fortunately.
Sri Lanka today is not Sri Lanka that was in July 1983. Sinhalese are a kind, civilized people. Just like the Tamils.
It is therefore unhelpful and unfortuante that TN and SL should start antagonsing each other. Playing politics with our troubles. What Lalitha and Nidhi are doing is terrble. And looks very childish to the outside world.
Now about fishing. It is a fact, fleets of TN fishing vessels enter SL territorial waters every night. And poach resources of impoverished Tamil Sri Lankans every night. You can get it verified from Jaffna fishermen.
Lalitha puts a spin on it. Says SL Navy is attacking TN fishermen. She throws petrol to the fire. In reality, SL Navy acts humanely with TN fishermen as well. While protecting rights of impoverished Jaffna fishermen. Indian Navy can confirm this.
But, that does not matter for Lalitha or Nidhi. They are focused on wining the next election. exploiting these practical, humanitarian problems.
That kind of electoral gain based on racial feelings is very short-lived. And destructive. This is how both Sinhalese and Tamil politicians landed SL in trouble. While winning elections for their personal gains. Using racial glorification.
If I were you, I would do something to build the bond between people of SL and TN. Rather than damage it even more.
That is the future.
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manisekaran / May 13, 2013
Ben,
You belive too much your navy and government false news. One day to your disbelief you will be let down for this blind faith. On many occasions SL navy crossed maritime boundaries and did atrocities on Tamil fishermen out of triumphalism. If there was a problem why the GOSL did not take up with (atleast I am not sure any such problem communicated ) and also I welcome affected Srilankan Tamil fishermen to express their concerns.
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / May 13, 2013
The Indian Coast Guard reckons Tamil Nadu fishermen are liars, thieves and a threat to national security Mani :-)
Despite enhanced patrolling by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Indian Navy(IN), cross-border fishing has not stopped in Palk Bay, the coast guard has said. It said fishermen crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line may be potential targets for non-state actors in the conduct of anti-national activities.
It has further warned that “these non-state actors may utilise these Indian fishing vessels to orchestrate serial blasts similar to the one carried out in Mumbai on 26/11.
…Despite giving ample documentary evidence of Indian fishing boats entering Lankan waters, cross-border fishing still continues…
..Indian fishermen never called for assistance through marine communication systems when under attack, despite being a mandatory international practice. While most Indian trawlers carry VHF sets, Indian fishermen choose to sensationalize the alleged incident, instead of seeking assistance of ICG/IN units on patrol at sea.. (I wonder why :) )
..Stating that alleged attacks had taken place only in Sri Lankan waters, the official pointed out that no Sri Lankan naval vessel can intrude into Indian waters as the same will amount to contravention of legal treaties. The prevention of such intrusion is also ensured by ICG and IN ships patrolling along the IMBL. Hence, it is inferred that the alleged attacks on Indian fishermen has taken place only in Sri Lankan waters.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-11-17/madurai/30410728_1_indian-coast-guard-international-maritime-boundary-line-sri-lankan-navy
LOL :-)
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Manisekaran Thangavelu / May 13, 2013
@ SSS,
No, Srilankan army allegedly enetered indian maritime many times and attacked,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Six-fishermen-attacked-by-Lankan-Navy/articleshow/19525634.cms
and they had even killed many fishermen in last one year. Even if they had crossed maritime boundary, SL navy had no right to attack them unless they had possed arams and attacked the navy. That is Indo-srilankan water accord. We had waited enough, if SL navy dont behave properly, there is limit to our patience.
The news which you referred by you is congress propagated news, and we know the reason behind it.
/
David Blacker / May 13, 2013
“Srilankan army allegedly enetered indian maritime many times”
I don’t think our soldiers can swim that far.
“if SL navy dont behave properly, there is limit to our patience.”
Really, you mean we should allow you Indians who have used up all your maritime resources to come into our territory and steal our resources too?
/
Siva Sankaran Sarma / May 13, 2013
What I quoted is the position of the Indian Coast Guard :-)
Did you read this bit
Indian fishermen never called for assistance through marine communication systems when under attack, despite being a mandatory international practice. While most Indian trawlers carry VHF sets, Indian fishermen choose to sensationalize the alleged incident, instead of seeking assistance of ICG/IN units
And
it is inferred that the alleged attacks on Indian fishermen has taken place only in Sri Lankan waters
And now can you connect the dots with the alleged incident in your article and see what you end up with, liars, thieves.. :-)
And if anyone’s patience is running out it’s the ICG/IN’s for Tamil Nadu crooks who go where they shouldn’t and cause trouble. Unless you’re talking about your criminal fishermen running out of patience and “teaching a lesson” to the SLN – that’d be a sight to behold.
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manisekaran / May 14, 2013
@SSS, When did Kodiakarai become Srilankan water under Maritime boundary? Moreover the news was published by department of fisheries after verifying the facts and Fishermen in TN on hunger strike for seven days in protest of this. Do you think all were foolish?
When SL navy attack fishermen, first thing they destroy all belongings of fishermen. How would you expect them to approach Indian Navy under Rajapakshe supporting Congress instructed Navy? Even congress ministry warned many times Srilankan government on this? Your government did not refuse to external ministry but responded that they will take care not to repeat but never stopped.
@ DB,
So your navy is without ships and marines, is that so? So your navy always floats in Sea to safeguard maritime boundary? Is it??
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / May 14, 2013
I swear guv’nor, we wasn’t trespassing and stealing fish
Yes, let’s take the word of a bunch thieves caught in the act over the “Congress controlled” Indian Coast Guard. And are you really trying to say your thieving fishermen can’t get a distress signal out before the SLN intercept their boats, board them and destroy the radios? A bit slow are they, well that explains a few things. :-)
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M.Sivananthan / May 14, 2013
Indian coast guard or Navy dont support your statements. Indian defence Minister A.K.Antony once said defence mistry never recieved any such complaints from the fishermen.
I hope the Tamil nadu smugglers and poachers complain to Simon Sebasian and Gopalasamy only!
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manisekaran / May 15, 2013
@ Sivnathan
Dont repeat the lies that were said by Congress to save their face in TN. Tamilnadu government had filed many complaints to central government on behalf of affected people and there is a writ filed in Supreme court by lawyer association.
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David Blacker / May 15, 2013
“So your navy is without ships and marines, is that so? So your navy always floats in Sea to safeguard maritime boundary? Is it??”
Of course we do, but you talk about the SL Army, which has no such maritime capability (and I quote):
“Srilankan army allegedly enetered indian maritime many times”
/
Senguttuvan / May 12, 2013
Ben,
I regret it as much as you. But then we didn’t bring this about.
It is decades of mishandling of the ethnic issue and crass obstinacy – thrust on us in 1956 calculated only to advance the electoral fortunes of some – that has ripped the country part. In case you missed the point even today TNA has made proposals to function within an undivided Island. Where is the equally spirited response?
“When did racial segregation become a solution to all problems?..”
Heard of Singapore (1964/65)? That’s just one example, my friend.
And that’s a very successful arrangement too.
Senguttuvan
/
Ben Hurling / May 12, 2013
Senguttuvan
You seem to attach undue importance and weight to TNA. A party driven by a narrow, race based ideology. Hardly a futuristic vision for Sri Lanka.
At best TNA’s representation of Sri Lanka’s population would be somewhere between 5%-10%. If their unity does not crumble.
Nevertheless, Sri Lanka must listen and accommodate TNA to the extent possible, sincerely.
However, TNA is in no position to dictate terms of war and peace to over 90% of Sri Lankans. They tried that for 30 years shamelessly via VP’s disgusting methods and failed.
I support a great degree of devolution to the provinces. As long as all loopholes for ethnic segregation of Sri Lanka are fully sealed. Sinhalese are worried about such an eventuality.
TNA should seek to sincerely reassure Sri Lankans in word and deed. That a backdoor to Ealam is not their goal. And win Sri Lankans over to their cause. It is up to TNA.
Singapore is an island city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. That means just Jaffna penninsula for Republic of Ealam. But, Ealamists are after 1/3 of Sri Lanka’s land mass and 2/3 of her coastline as a minimum. We can expect eternal blood letting on this island after such a cosmetic segregation. All to satisfy Tamil ethno nationlists. Hell No!
What is realsitic would be a great degreee of devolution to provinces. Rule of law. Good governance. Equality. Brotherhood. Zero tolerance for racism. National bonding under one flag.
Sri Lanka would sail to prosperity, almost on auto pilot. We have such talented human resources.
Such a Sri Lanka would be the envy of even Singapore. Which by the way is a Police State, despite their economic success. Not a model for me. May be for you.
Unfortunately TNA is seeking an Ealam instead under cover. Their plan is to force IC to get it for them. Both tragic and idiotic.
Seeking national glory is very seductive. But ultimately destructive to all. Both TNA and Sinhalese racists must realise this.
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dingiri / May 13, 2013
Good idea. As long as we can incontrovertibly settle the question as to where the borders of the two pre-colonial nations lie.
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2013
dingiri
“Good idea. As long as we can incontrovertibly settle the question as to where the borders of the two pre-colonial nations lie.”
I would advise you both people to go for the pre-historic borders which lies between Kalinga and Tamilnadu.
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Candidly / May 11, 2013
Dushy Ranatunge writes:
“In response to a question to Callum Macrae if he was a journalist or a campaigner, he responded that when a journalist researches a story and finds that it’s a truth that has been hidden, then it’s the duty of any journalist to expose it repeatedly so that it is taken notice of and acted upon.”
The problem with Callum Macrae’s response is that he is not interested in the overall truth about the war in Sri Lanka, but only in what he alleges are the Sri Lankan armed forces’ actions in the last stages of the war. His films only makes passing references to such issues as the atrocities of the LTTE over the previous 30 years and the important question of how the Tamil Tigers were funded by their supporters in the West and trained by the Indian government in previous years. So as far as “truth that has been hidden” goes he has an extremly partisan view of what the truth is.
With his talk of Tamil “homelands”, etc, Maccrae also seems to believe in the apartheid principle of separate areas and development for Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka, which is interesting seeing that he claims to be campaigning for human rights.
So far as Jan Jananayagam and her Tamils Against Genocide campaign is concerned, they have completely failed to unearth any evidence for their accusation of genocide. This is not to deny that some humanitarian crimes may have been committed by some government forces as they advanced in the final stages. But Janayagam’s comparison with the holocaust of the Jews in Europe is grotesque, as all the evidence for that was overwhelmingly in plain sight at the time and was encountered by the British, American and Russian allies as they advanced against the Nazis. It didn’t take “decades” to bring justice to the senior most perpetrators of the holocaust as the Nuremburg Trials were held within 1 year of the end of the war.
Jananayagam’s campaign seems principally directed at trying to provide a diversion from ackowledging the complicity of many emigre Sri Lankan Tamils in the West in funding and supporting the brutal Tamil Tigers. What they’re basically saying is that the civilian casualties at the end of the war weren’t the fault of the Tigers tactics but were due to the deliberate actions of the Sri Lankan government. But this new film, even with its additional spooky music and sombre tone, fails to provide any evidence for the genocide claim and fails to refute the large amount of evidence that the Tigers deliberately hid amongst and behind the civilians.
By the way, it’s doubtful that the discussion at a meeting such as this in the UK, with a very unbalanced panel leading it, reflects very closely the situation and popular opinions today in Sri Lanka itself. Like their compatriots in the state government of Tamil Nadu, the people involved in these Western based campaigns seen to be living in a world of their own imagination, imo.
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justice / May 11, 2013
Candidly,
Genocide against tamils began soon after independence – batches of tamils were butchered for no reason other than that they were tamils – and culminated in the all island pogrom of July 1983.
This was the reason for tamils taking up arms.
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Candidly / May 12, 2013
It is true that more Tamilian Sri Lankans took up arms after the pogrom of 1983. But the terrible events of that year were not the beginning of a genocide because, with a small number of much smaller scale exceptions, that was the last major racial attack by Sinhalese on Tamils.
In the following years after 1983 most of the Tamilian Sri Lankans who had supported an armed struggle for a separate state gave up the idea or migrated. The last major rejection of that path being the Eastern Tamils defection in 2004.
Unfortunately many of the northern Tamils still maintained their belief in the brutal tactics of the LTTE, although many of those who experienced the disaster that Tamil Eelam turned out to be fled to the south or abroad. The problem for the northern Tamils under the domination of the LTTE was that they did not see that just as there had been a time to take up arms, so there was a time to take up negotiations and compromise. The refusal of the Tamils of the north to give up their addiction to violence was the true reason for the shocking way in which the war came to a decisive end in May 2009. They had made their pact with devil and so eventually paid the price.
People of goodwill must give every encouragement to helping the growing generation of Tamilian Sri Lankans in the north of the island to learn from the disastrous errors of their parents.
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Truth / May 11, 2013
The dead body looks as if has been cleaned by A F Raymonds. There is no trace of blood anywhere. Is it likely that Government soldiers will do a job of cleaning comparable to A F Raymonds? This looks like some good propaganda shots taken well before the end of the war, with the bullet marks painted on his spotlessly clean body, for propaganda purposes.
The bunker also looks like a film set, brand new, prepared for the purpose of fooling gullible people or those with vested interests like Malcolm Macrae.
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
Truth
“The dead body looks as if has been cleaned by A F Raymonds”
Please direct all your inquiries to Army grave diggers.
“The bunker also looks like a film set, brand new, prepared for the purpose of fooling gullible people or those with vested interests like Malcolm Macrae.”
The Diaspora supporting Film Director (not the funeral directors) LTTE rump Seeman would have had a hand in it, perhaps the the entire Tamil film industry is involved in this unfolding Cine drama.
Let us investigate further.
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Pimpanella / May 11, 2013
Yes, that said the Vedi detective, what you say now, Tut?
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
Pimpanella
“what you say now, Tut?”
What do suggest that we should do now?
My suggestion, abolish, expunge,exterminate,….. Tamil film industry.
Alternatively we could demand them to produce “Tamil” films.
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
Dushy Ranetunge
Wouldn’t it be better if the state and its rulers agreed to set up an independent credible body with bite to investigate all war crimes and crime against humanity perpetrated since 5th April 1971 modeled on South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission?
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Distiller / May 11, 2013
The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission could be hired to do the job for a successful independent investigation, serving some chips for their bites, and all culprits of the 70’s brutality could be convicted posthumously and the Tamil hegemony dismissed to the oblivion.
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
Distiller
Could you take time to read parts of commission’s remit.
Excerpts from Mr Dullah Omar the Minister of Justice’s introduction to Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC):
Objectives
of the Commission
The objectives of the Commission will be to promote national unity and reconciliation in a spirit of understanding which transcends the conflicts and divisions of the past by:
establishing as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of the gross violations of human rights which were committed during the period from 1 March 1960 to the cut-off date including the antecedents, circumstances, factors and context of such violations, as well as the perspectives of the victims and the motives and perspectives of the persons responsible for committing such violations, by conducting investigations and holding hearings;
facilitating the granting of amnesty to persons who make full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to acts associated with a political objective and which comply with the requirements of the Act (Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act);
establishing and making known the fate or whereabouts of victims and restoring the human and civil dignity of such victims by granting them an opportunity to relate their own accounts of the violations of which they are the victims, and recommending reparation measures in respect of them;
compiling a report providing as comprehensive an account as possible of the activities and findings of the Commission and containing recommendations of measures to prevent the future violations of human rights.
…….
Committee on Amnesty
This Committee will facilitate and promote the granting of amnesty in respect of acts associated with political objectives by receiving from persons desiring to make a full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to such acts applications for the granting of amnesty in respect of such acts and by publishing decisions granting amnesty in the Government Gazette.
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Distill / May 11, 2013
“establishing and making known the fate or whereabouts of victims and restoring the human and civil dignity of such victims by granting them an opportunity to relate their own accounts of the violations of which they are the victims, and recommending reparation measures in respect of them;”
Whats the essence of “recommending repatriation measures in respect of the ‘victim'”, could you elaborate more on it.
/
Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
Distill
Go search for information on TRC, you lazy fellow, its freely available.
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David Blacker / May 14, 2013
The TRC was a tool of compromise to convince the Apartheid regime to step down without fear of reprisals. It was a means of ending a war, and therefore was of value to both sides. In SL, the war is over, the state has won, and the Tigers have been defeated. Who would value such a TRC? it would have been like introducing the TRC to SA after the ANC had toppled the de Klerk regime.
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Senguttuvan / May 11, 2013
There was a sham job called the Udalagama Commission that went into the killings in Trinco and you probably know how it ended.
The pressure brought on Commissioner Devanesan Nesiah to resign by the chauvinistic wing is a blot on our justice system.
To the credit of the South Africans their Commission had integrity, objectivity and honesty of purpose. The final product was applauded both by their people and the world. No politician brought in his filthy fingers to control the direction of that Commission – as our crooks did on more occasions than one.
Senguttuvan
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
Senguttuvan
My elders tell me the 4th World Tamil Conference which was held in Jaffna some 39 years ago was abruptly brought to an end by the police, killing 12 innocent people who were listening to foreign scholars.
Was it a plot hatched by the LTTE to disgrace the Sri Lankan state in its pursuit to establish its own state?
Did LTTE kill these Tamils and then blame the police?
Please shed some light.
If you are not aware of these killings please let me know as M Sivananthan might be in a position to explain me the background to this unfortunate incident.
By the way would you consider this as one of those acts constituting cultural genocide?
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J.Muthu / May 12, 2013
If you ask Ben hurling, he will answer you. According to him Ltte responsible from 1956 to present day for every atrocities in this land. Yes ltte killed those 12 in tamil conference…hahahahah
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
J.Muthu
My Sinhala friends tell the LTTE and the Tamil Diaspora LTTE rumps were the architects of Portuguese, Dutch, British and IPKF invasion of this island.
In fact they even go to the extent of attributing the Chola invasion of the 10th century to DMK or LTTE’s machination. They see the connection between LTTE and Cholas through their common symbol of Tiger flags.
What do think?
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
J.Muthu
Jokes apart, let me know the true story.
Please also read comments by Senguttuvan and Dr.Rajasingham Narendran below.
Why aren’t the Sinhalese aware of this tragic incident.
Was there any violence on the part of your stupid Tamils because either they match it or up it to counter Sinhala/Buddhist violence?
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M.Sivananthan / May 13, 2013
I think you are a fool! You dont know anything about the 4th WTC.
Only 9 people were killed on the last day of the conference. Other three were dead after an flallen power cable when the VVT people brought their replica of ANNA POORANI boat.
Tamil criminal lawyers added the those three dead before with the people died on the last day.
Further Kuttimani gang illegally brought Janarththanan through Kallathoni and the WTC staged him as a speaker. Then only Kuttimani a smuggling criminal became a “most needed person” to Amirthalingam and others.
That is the way the TAMIL “AHIMSA” politics went to the hands of Jaffna’s notorious smuggler criminals!
Basically Tamil politicians needed some dead Tamils to advance their damn politics and the Smuggler criminals helped them.
Even the LTTE too followed the same philosophy.. Needed dead Tamils..always.
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / May 11, 2013
Do we all remember the excitement surrounding the release of the first one of these productions? Now it looks like Canal 4 blew their load and budget then and there, but no one was really convinced and the Rajas were no closer to the Hague. So poor Callum now has to keep banging away with a limp todger and recycled footage – it’s kind of sad really looking at how this vendetta started off like a house on fire :(
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Dushy Ranetunge / May 11, 2013
I am not so sure of what you are saying. I think in this day and age it is difficult to get away with war crimes and it tends to catch up with you much later on. The CH4 movie was screened at all the UNHRC events and has a impact on diplomats and it was quoted in the UN experts report as well. All these are tools in a long drawn out legal game plan, and both these are very effective in articulating the case. It also draws out the Sri Lankan defence to the allegations and they are pretty feeble and will not stand up in any court or tribunal. If they do, they would have sued CH4 by now.
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Dev / May 11, 2013
Agreed and sometimes justice is not always putting someone behind prison !
For instance MR craves international attention and praise–why try and host the commonwealth games or the meeting? Why rush about for UN meetings???
But the Ch4 and the UN reports have tainted MR and that is something more powerful than prison bars !
Even at the commonwealth heads meeting this year all the media will cover the human rights situ and unlike the local media it cannot be controlled !!
So in some ways justice has been achieved.
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manisekaran / May 11, 2013
it was telecast in many parts of the world as well, since he is living in Srilanka where everything under govt supervision he may not get to know what is truth. Thats why many people who comment here blindly supports this regime against war crimes
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Kevin Godaya / May 12, 2013
Dushy,
Do you still believe Sinhalese dishes are shit ?
Do you still believe Buddhists in SriLanka worship an animal tooth ?
Do you still believe every SriLankan has to be a “Royalist” to comment on these columns ?
Do you still believe Graduates of SriLankan Universities are of poor quality ?
Do you still believe you are a close relative of,
a) Sarath Fonseka
b) Sir Lester James Peiris ?
c) Ranjan Madugalle ?
d) Ranil Wickranasinghe ?
e) J.R. Jayawardene ?
/
Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
Kevin Godaya
“Do you still believe Graduates of SriLankan Universities are of poor quality ?”
No doubt.
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Dushy Ranetunge / May 13, 2013
Sinhalese dishes are shit as well, not exactly a global culinary powerhouse…..
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Native Vedda / May 13, 2013
Dushy Ranetunge
M D Raghavan (former curator)traced most of it to Kerala cuisine.
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Chandra / May 13, 2013
Surely, NV, have we not met Oxford/Cambridge/MIT educated fools?
/
Native Vedda / May 13, 2013
Chandra
“Surely, NV, have we not met Oxford/Cambridge/MIT educated fools?”
Since I live in deep, deep, deep jungle the so called Oxbridge scholars don’t visit us at all.
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M.Sivananthan / May 11, 2013
CH.4 creates some funny movies for the consumption of the LTTE propaganda overseas. Those films are bogus in nature and has nothing to be proved as facts able to be presented in any court of justice.
The Photoshop software contribute a lot to make these fake films in order to fool others.
USA and its intelligence wings discarded these films as useless for any pupose long ago! But the uneducated Tamil masses can be fooled with these idiotic films.
If Balachandran was killed, who is the Balachandran live with Manoharan, brother of Prabhakaran, in Denmark?
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
M.Sivananthan
“USA and its intelligence wings discarded these films as useless for any pupose long ago!”
Perhaps US and its agencies have access to much better films/evidence than the C4 documentaries.
Could you site your source for your assertion that US is discarding these films.
/
Vediunde / May 11, 2013
They never won a Cannes or an Oscar is a proof of evidence Veddo.
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Rohan / May 11, 2013
Pl don’t hold your breath – you would die, NV. This guy, in this CT name or his Tamil alias, never produced any prooof for his claims. Good luck!
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M.Sivananthan / May 13, 2013
Check with US State department. Or
go to Denmark and visit the home of Manoharan. You will see Balachandran alive.
Are you all talking nonsense to believe the “donkey” films while they have no sources or any proofs to substantiate their claims?
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J.Muthu / May 11, 2013
You mad man, yes Ltte and sinhala forces both commited crime against their people? fucking accept it. Dont fool your self man, balachandiran killed by Srilankan budshit forces. Can you fucking proof prabas bro mano keepinh balachandiran. You moron, I think ltte take shit out of you thats why pouring venom against tamils…if you have a problem sort youself man…
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
J.Muthu
Mind your language please.
I know you are hopping mad, this is not the way you fight for justice.
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M.Sivananthan / May 14, 2013
Fool Muthu!
Prabhakaran’s brother have Balachandran alive. You ask him! Do you think others are donkeys like you to believe LTTE propagandas?
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Native Vedda / May 15, 2013
M.Sivananthan
“Prabhakaran’s brother have Balachandran alive.”
Could we have his contact details please.
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Suresh / May 11, 2013
What is shown in CH4 is the TRUTH, the WHOLE TRUTH and NOTHING but the TRUTH. Only the Sinhalese are discarding the CH4 video documentaries as untrue where as the whole world has accepted it. Where ever the CH4 videos were realeased it was accepted as truth. Who cares if the Sinhalese accept it as Truth or False?
It was screened in Tamil Nadu and the Sinhalese became their number one enemy. Now it will be screened in many countries around the world. Everybody (the whole world) should know what the Sinhala government did to the Tamils.
/
Romesh Senewiratne / May 13, 2013
And why do you you want the Singhalese to become the “number one enemy” of Tamil Nadu? Because you hate Singhalese or because you hate Sri Lanka?
/
manisekaran / May 13, 2013
because it was the only community which grabbed land of Tamil people and barbed in wire. Well wont you hate any coomunity if it does same to your Sinhalese??
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David Blacker / May 14, 2013
What about the Tamil people grabbing the land of the Jaffna Muslims after chasing them out?
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manisekaran / May 14, 2013
I was talking about land grabbing by a elected government from civilian and you are comparing with non-state self armed organisation, what you name as terrorist organisation, so in your comparison, can i conclusively draw that your GOSL is terrorist government, if so, is n’t that we have much better reason to hate the way you did to LTTE, Can we be legitimate here?
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David Blacker / May 15, 2013
My point is that while you believe that the GoSL is deserving of hatred because it is allegedly grabbing land of Tamils (it isn’t; the land belongs to SL unless it is private property), you ignore the fact that the Tigers chased out the Muslims and the land was then occupied by Tamils. Non-state organisations don’t have a free pass. What are your feelings on the ethnic cleansing of the Northeast Muslims?
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M.Sivananthan / May 13, 2013
Are those films FREE or any fare to be paid to Gopalasamy or Saimon Sebastian?
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sarojini / May 11, 2013
This bunch of clowns are still at it to discredit SL . If you examine the picture there is a lady wearing something like a long yellow flowered blouse . which suggests that this is a LTTE bunker. Where did the blood disappear to after the bullet wounds to this little boy ? Was he given contaminated cyanide snacks to stage manage the whole episode prior to the capture by the army like it happens with the LTTE cadres? Callum Macrea has to wear his thinking cap to answer these questions . His epic dramatic films are meant for the gullible . The bottom line is that Money talks .
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Rogini / May 13, 2013
Your bottom line spoke all what you spew stinking.
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SAROJINI / May 13, 2013
Rogini Your statement shows your class and calibre.
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Tissa / May 13, 2013
This comment is very childish. Bleeding occurs from both entry and exit wounds. However, that doesn’t mean that the boy wasn’t shot.
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David Blacker / May 13, 2013
It is possible that the body was cleaned up for the photo and moved from the place where death occurred, just like VP’s body, which also had no blood on it.
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SAROJINI / May 13, 2013
Wrong , There was plenty of blood on VP body. However there is absolutely no reason for them to clean up a body , when taking photo’s . That would not prove their case if they did that.
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David Blacker / May 14, 2013
Please link to a picture of VP with blood on his face or body.
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Cuttige / May 11, 2013
In sinhala v call this “yudde vavagene kanaka”
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fred / May 11, 2013
The first item under the Matters of Interest that were discussed states “that a Nepalese Colonel is being tried in London for torture during the civil conflict in that country, under the concept of universal Jurisdiction. This was considered a significant development”. But how very interesting is it that this “significant development” had to do with the trial of a Nepalese Colonel – a man from a poor, so called third world country, not someone from the powerful US or the West. One wonders why those who brought this man to trial never saw fit to extend the reach of “universal jurisdiction” to the leaders of the “Coalition of the Willing” – President Bush of the US, Tony Blair from Britain and the Australian John Howard – for killing of thousands of innocent non combatants including women and children in the course of their illegal invasion and war in Iraq.
The concept of universal jurisdiction is excellent in the abstract but rings hollow if, in practice, it is to be invoked only selectively – against the weak and powerless nations.
One wonders if the likes of Channel 4 and others who are so keen to put Sri Lanka in the dock will show even a fraction of that enthusiasm to move against the more powerful nations.
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Kannan / May 11, 2013
I agree that these poweful nations had beeen responsible for the death of innocent civilians, these were co-latteral damages.
The wars conducted by the powerful nations were not on their own citizens, unlike in SL.
In the case of SL regime its aim was two fold viz: (1) to eliminate the LTTE and (2) to reduce the Tamil population as much as possible.
The second aim was to get popular votes from the brain-washed masses in the south.
Why then is the Military (which is 99% sinhala)- entire strengh except for 3 divisions stationed in the Tamil inhabited North East and lands grabbed to settle with Sinhalese (including families of military personnel) inorder to dilute the voting strength of Tamils in the long delayed NPC?
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sach / May 13, 2013
So the killing doesnt matter as long as it is not inside ur borders?
Bill Clinton killed 500000 iraqis by mere sanctions.
Millions are dead in Iraq, Afganstan
Millions are dead in Japan
Thousands died in Cambodia
The funny thing is the very US diplomat responsible for Cambodia killings got the Nobel peace prize :)
And how do u say the excess died in SL war zones while LTTE holding human shield was a design by gov?
If Tamil population went down mostly Prabha should be responsible.
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Romesh Senewiratne / May 12, 2013
A very pertinent observation, Fred.
I noticed recently that John Howard and General Peter Cosgrove (who headed the Australian armed forces at the time) have been on TV trying to defend their actions of 10 years ago and arguing that the invasion of Iraq was “not based on a lie”, despite the fact that the promised “WMD hadn’t been found”. Everyone knows that Britain and the USA (and Australia, for that matter) have a much longer history of developing and using WMD (weapons of mass destruction) than Saddam Hussein or the state of Iraq.
But then, Peter Cosgrove is still defending the Australian government sending young men to kill and be killed in Vietnam in the 1970s. And Korea in the 1950s. And Turkey during the First World War. And Malaya during the 1960s “Malayan Insurgency”. And Indonesia during the 1970s “Indonesian Confrontation”. And South Africa in the Boer War of the 1890s.
Both Cosgrove and Howard (and the Australian body politic) remain silent on the crime of dropping atom bombs on Aboriginal people on the Australian mainland in the 1950s and 60s (in Maralinga and elsewhere). They remain silent because the matter is never raised with them. I think it should be.
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dingiri / May 13, 2013
The Brits and the Americans can only lead by example on this question of punishing soldiers for war crimes..
First, The Brits should try Major Gerry Griffiths (as he is still alive) for the deliberate slaughter of Kenyan innocents (including a 12 year old) described below. It also should be noted that Kenya was part of Britain at the time of the attrocities so it was his own countrymen he was murdering.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20060710.shtml
The US should bring to trial and punish Lt. Calley, Senator Bb Kerry and Gen. Colin Powel who were implicated in the most heinous of war crimes to see the light of day in their undeclared war in Vietnam.
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/history/news-my-lai-massacre-pictures?image=0
http://www.counterpunch.org/2001/05/17/fragging-bob/
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/28/169076259/anything-that-moves-civilians-and-the-vietnam-war
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David Blacker / May 16, 2013
Calley was already tried, found guilty, and pardoned.
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Native Vedda / May 11, 2013
fred
Channel Four had already contributed to it in its “The trial of Tony Blair”, a political satire which was telecast in 2007 and some details are available below:
It is some time in the future. Gordon Brown is moving into Number 10, President Clinton is thinking about her second term in the White House, and Tony Blair is swapping the corridors of power for the comforts of his home in Connaught Square.
Blair departs Downing Street with an unshakeable belief in his continuing relevance as an international figure of influence. But with Washington’s warmongers discredited, he finds himself increasingly isolated.
Haunted by the continuing nightmare of Iraq, and obsessed by his legacy, Tony Blair retreats into denial, refusing to see the dangers he faces from the Special Tribunal on Iraq that has been set up to investigate war crimes.
As the film moves towards the final image of the former Prime Minister being hauled off to The Hague to face charges of waging an illegal war, The Trial of Tony Blair asks us to imagine a future where the unthinkable becomes thinkable.
Robert Lindsay returns to the role of Tony Blair, with Phoebe Nicholls as Cherie Blair, Peter Mullan as Gordon Brown and Alexander Armstrong as David Cameron.
Says writer Alistair Beaton: “I gather Mr Blair is very concerned about his place in history. This film is my idea of where that place might be. Whether it’s fiction or prediction remains to be seen.”
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EDL Robinson / May 12, 2013
Is Callum Macrae a journalist, a campaigner or a fundraiser?
This is from the No Firezone fund raising appeal at Kickstarter:
Pledge £1 – Our warmest thanks on our social media
Pledge £10 – You’ll get a shout out on twitter
Pledge £20 – All the above plus a no Fire zone badge
Pledge £50 – All the above plus a Title track and End Credit Track from NFZ
.
.
Pledge £3000 – Get your own private dinner with the filmmakers.
http://tinyurl.com/c6lcy47
I thought Callum was just obsessed with all thing Sri Lankan …. Looks like it’s more serious, he is showing – AI Canada symptoms.
BTW – I hope you are following the Kickstarter guidelines Callum.
http://tinyurl.com/2vapacq
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / May 13, 2013
Even I didn’t think the funding situation was this bad :-(
I hope you are following the Kickstarter guidelines Callum.
Let’s take a quick look:
“A project is something with a clear end, like making an album, a film, or a new game. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced as a result“
Uh oh. Not off to a great start.
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Senguttuvan / May 12, 2013
Dear Native V,
LTTE was not known in 1974 – and, arguably, not even formed. There are reports of live overhead electrical wires being cut – calculated to cause deaths of participants and so on to disturb the Conference. Names of South Indian politicians, known to fan a Separatist ideology too was mentioned. Who did it and why remain conjectures while some insist they know who did it. UTHR(J), DBSJ and ex-Policeman Edward G may be able to shed light here.
My take is the ethnic issue had not assumed proportions that warrant the usage of the expression cultural genocide at that point of time
It is best Sivananthan Mahathmaya switch to a more Sinhala name than the transparent Tamil identity he tries to fool the readership with.
Senguttuvan
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / May 12, 2013
Mrs. Bandaranaike had ordered Sri Lankan diplomatic missions abroad to discourage potential participants from attending this conference. Her government wanted the conference held in Colombo instead of Jaffna. The Tamil political formations here, gave what was essentially an academic conference a political twist. Sirimavo government’s paranoia and was matched by Federal Party’s verbal shenanigans . One fed the other in equal measure.There were two sides to the story and both led to what happened. There was no LTTE at that time, but a pregnancy that ended delivering the LTTE was in its early stages. The Sirimavo government had created the hormonal conditions for a pregnancy. The impregnation had been done by the FP and implantation had taken place. The Sirimavo government thought it was preventing the impregnation, little realising it had already happened and its role in it. The FP too did not realise that it had done the impregnation already and a monster was on its way. It was yet in courtship mode and doing the turkey dance!
Dr.RN
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
Dr.Rajasingham Narendran
“Her government wanted the conference held in Colombo instead of Jaffna.”
What did the satae have to do with Tamil Conference? Did the state finance the conference?
If this was due to Mrs. Bandaranaike’s paranoia what was the response from so called left and Sinhalese?
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / May 13, 2013
Yes, it was a stupid reaction from Sirimavo! She was trying to close the barn door after horses had bolted.
As usual and as per habit, they are onlookers, as we were during the evolution of Tamil politics into mi,infancy and its aftermath. We share the propensity to bark at the wrong tree. I think this is the ‘ Stupidity’ that you frequently allude.
Dr.RN
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
Senguttuvan
Thanks a lot.
Was there an inquiry, not that it would have found out the truth?
“My take is the ethnic issue had not assumed proportions that warrant the usage of the expression cultural genocide at that point of time”
Would you consider the incident as part of the state’s pattern of behaviour?
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Senguttuvan / May 12, 2013
Friend Native Veddah
The Tamil Int’l Conference of the 1974 period is Fait Accompli- there’s little we can do about it now. It was a period of bitter
ethnic contests with NQ Dias, Mrs B and the lot on one side and SJV and others on the other.
The State had different actors as the regime’s changed and, therefore, the Policy on the Tamils could not have been the same e.g. 1965-1970 when Dudley was PM. But suffice it to say all
Sinhala-dominated regimes had a programme that worked in the lurking fear of events in DMK-dominated Tamilnadu then – and, therefore, hardly pro-Tamil. The exception was, believe me, the JRJ regime that was more liberal until JR lost his grip after his gamble on the 1982 Referendum – even within his own Cabinet colleagues.
What is relevant now is today and the future. Can the Rajapakses
pull it off? That, good Sir, is the question.
Senguttuvan
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
Senguttuvan
Thanks
“What is relevant now is today and the future. Can the Rajapakses
pull it off? That, good Sir, is the question.”
The state’s behavior has always lead it down slippery slope to self destruction.
Though I am an optimist I have no faith in Rajapakses nor in their followers.
However in the long run its inevitable the people will be forced to take a deep breath and deal with everything that had ruin their lives in the past.
Though the Sinhalese and Tamils are irredeemably born stupid they too have an upper limit to their tolerance. Then it would be too late for anger management which might be a blessing in disguise, a good time to reconstitute the state.
Therefore I am an optimist in the long term .
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sach / May 13, 2013
LTTE was formed in 1972. In a BBC documentary Balasingham said that
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K.A Sumanasekera / May 12, 2013
Callum is on a bloody good wicket with his new Fund Raising Strategy.
General understanding is that the Diaspora pumped in Five Billion USD per year to Prabakaran’s coffers at the height of his power.
Outright Kroner grants from Solheim and his Canadian and English mates are perhaps included.
Three thousand Pounds of Queen’s Currency to have dinner with Callum after entertained by Episode # 3 is serious fund raising,perhaps in the same league as Republicans in Wall Street.
Just imagine how much Callum will be raking in when Episode # 4 comes around.
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Native Vedda / May 12, 2013
K.A Sumanasekera
“General understanding is that the Diaspora pumped in Five Billion USD per year to Prabakaran’s coffers at the height of his power.”
Would you mind demanding an audited financial statements complying with Intentional Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)from KP (the former head of international finance) or a copy from Gota?
“Outright Kroner grants from Solheim and his Canadian and English mates are perhaps included.”
This was a payment on account for VP’s elaborate funeral expenses. Gota hadn’t account for the looted LTTE’s gold reserves even long after VP’s private funeral. Would you be able to get some cooked up figures for our information. I would be much obliged.
“Just imagine how much Callum will be raking in when Episode # 4 comes around.”
Much, much, much …….less than what Basil earns in a fraction of second I suppose.
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Cuttige / May 12, 2013
Yudde wavagene kana ne?
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Ravi / May 13, 2013
K.A Sumanasekera
Why don’t you worry about the money that the ministers, MPs, and their cohorts are plundering (looting in daylight) in Sri Lanka from the poor tax payers? Why worry about Callum’s dinner, think about the 7 star dinners the SL President, his family, his siblings, and the ministers are having in SL?
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Agnos / May 13, 2013
Romesh,
“…Winston Churchill was a prominent supporter of these racist doctrines, and they shaped British foreign policy and those in all the British colonies, especially the ‘White Settler Colonies’.”
Last week, archeologists found skeletons in Jamestown, VA, that prove that the the first English colonists in the US indeed restored to cannibalism among their own during a period of harsh winter, drought and famine. While this was indeed assumed by historians all along, only last week there was conclusive proof.
There was cannibalism within whites in the eighteenth century as well, when a group of settlers from Illinois ( the “Donner party”) moved west to California/Mexico and faced famine.
So much for any notion of cultural superiority.
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Agnos / May 13, 2013
should read “resorted to,” not restored to.
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K.A Sumanasekera / May 13, 2013
Sambandan demands voting rights to one hundred thousand Tamil refugees on Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi Turf.
And they don’t even have basic Toilet facilities and kids are not allowed in the mainstream Nadu schools.
Callum Mac Diaspora Fund has USD 60,000 already, says our own anthropologist Mr Ranatunge,
Episode # 3 hasn’t even hit the Big Screen yet.
Can all the Anthros here get together and persuade Callum to utilize this and future income to look after these real refugees.
USD 60,000 will be enough to build a descent Toilet Block with running water .and provide privacy for the women folk.
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Ravi / May 13, 2013
Tamil Diaspora funds are collected for specific purposes like funding the 2016 presidential election in the US,etc. Hillary Clinton may become the next President.
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Dr.Rajasingham Narendran / May 13, 2013
I think this demand was in response to demands that the Muslims and Sinhalese expelled from Jaffna should be permitted to vote in the September PC elections in the north. All parties know quite well that these are not possible, because of questions relating to identifying who is whom, who is yet living and whether the descendants are entitled, etc. Everyone also knows quite well that this will lead massive vote rigging. But politicians make these stupid claims as part of their games!
We should stop taking our politicians of all hues seriously ! If we start laughing at them, they may become less silly.
Dr.RN
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Anpu / May 15, 2013
KAS,
“native Tamil Speaker” Ambassador P.M. Amza has seen “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka” dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/21304
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Kannan / May 24, 2013
KASumane,
Are you trying to arrange $ 6,000 to our 10% Minister?
Of this how much is your share?
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dingiri / May 14, 2013
Thank you Vedda, we will never tire of you repeating that a few more thousand times. :-) I have always been a fan of Vadhi Bana.
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kris / May 22, 2013
Idiot Tamil LTTE diaspora earning money from cleaning toilets of Suddas and paying back same the money to another suddha in Chanel 4
What a joke
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