A foreign journalist who phoned a head of a European Mission in
Colombo, after the terrorist attack at Piliyandala, had inquired as to
whether the position of his Government and that of other Western
Governments had changed with regard to the war against the LTTE
terrorists, and the response, as recorded, has been as follows: "Our
position on the need to suspend the war and to engage in talks remains
the same.........".
The Piliyandala bus blast killed 26 civilians.
This statement is absolutely incomprehensible to us citizens of this
country, who are seeking to safeguard the territorial integrity of our
country from a brutal terrorist organisation that has pledged time and
time again that they will dismember this country and create their
separate state of Eelam.
They have lost over 20,000 fighting to establish their separate state
they have refused to compromise on their demand.
Over the past 25 years, they have killed and maimed thousands of
civilians (Piliyandala was just the last), they have assassinated the
Prime Minister of India, the President of this country, Ministers of
our government, Tamil political leaders and destroyed billions worth
of property, turned the economy of this country upside down and set us
back at least by fifty years and, here is the 'West', which is at war
with the people yes the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, killing
thousands of innocent civilians in the process and threatening to wipe
Iran off the world map, preaching to us to stop our war against
terrorists whom the Pentagon has described as the most formidable and
brutal in the world and to engage in talks with them!!
Is this not spacious if not extremely patronizing? One might even
conclude that they are sympathizers of the LTTE not of the Tamil
people, who are presently in the clutches of the fascist, totalitarian
terrorists, from whose clutches we are seeking to liberate them and
empower them, as we are doing in the Eastern Province .
The least these western Ambassadors can do is to explain themselves to
us the people of this country, why they are asking us to "suspend the
war and engage in talks"; Here are some questions they should answer:
1) Are you not aware of how the LTTE rearmed and prepared for war each
time we 'suspended' hostilities against them to engage them in talks?
This has happened three times before, if you did not know it.
Some of you come here as wide-eyed do-gooders, not knowing the genesis
of the conflict, oozing sympathy for whom you think are the under-
dogs, not understanding the feelings of the majority of the people of
this country, who were discriminated against during four hundred years
of colonial rule; during ****tuguese rule one had to be a Catholic to
save your neck, during the Dutch period one had to be a protestant to
enjoy any op****tunity in life, even Buddhists had to register their
marriages in church and lastly during the British period one had to be
an Anglican to enjoy privilege; it was more than a disadvantage to be
a Sinhala Buddhist during colonial times.
Do they also know that the British, as a part of their divide and rule
policy, used the minority Tamils, by favouring them in state
employment and they were dispro****tionately represented in 'government
service' the principal avenue of employment at the time; and last but
not least, do these gentlemen from the west realize the insecurity of
the Sinhalese, springing from past history when Dravidian hordes
sought to destroy their civilization; the Sinhalese form a small
minority when compared with 60 million Tamils 15 miles away across the
sea; do hope you westerners have visited Anuradhapura to see what is
left of our 2500 year old civilization. They would then understand to
some extent the psyche of the Sinhalese.
2) You, next wish us to "engage in talks", come off it; Are you not
aware of how the Indians 'engaged them in talks' and of how they also
saved them from being annihilated in 1987 when the Sri Lanka army had
cornered them and was about to crush the revolt.
Do you not know of how grateful the LTTE showed their gratitude? They
killed 1272 Indian soldiers and maimed over 2000 and if that was not
enough they assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the son of
Indira who first intervened on their behalf.
Three governments of Sri Lanka 'engaged' the LTTE in talks, the first
to do so after the IPKF left, was President Premadasa, who not only
participated in talks himself with the LTTE but also armed them and
gave them millions.
He also had Prabhakaran's wife and two children brought back from
Norway and reunited with him; he sent away the IPKF which was here to
safeguard the territorial integrity of this country.
How did the treacherous Prabhakaran respond? they not only struck
against our forces without warning, in a Pearl Harbour type attack but
also killed 640 policemen in the east in cold blood, who had
surrendered to the LTTE on the orders of President Premadasa on a
promise of 'safe passage' out of the East.
If you do not know it M/s Ambassadors, they showed their gratitude to
Premadasa who saved them from the IPKF by assassinating him ! The next
to engage the LTTE in Talks was President Kumaratunga, she too
'engaged' them in Talks but after five rounds of Talks (during which
time they smuggled in weapons and prepared for their next offensive)
the LTTE struck, again without warning and attacked our forces. They
subsequently attempted to assassinate her, she was lucky to have
escaped; she however lost an eye.
The third time we "engaged' them in talks was in the period 2002-2003,
(read all about that effort 'at engaging them in talks' in Ambassador
John Gooneratne's book 'Negotiating with the LTTE 2002-2005').
The LTTE used the services of Solheim, who was wholly sympathetic to
the LTTE, he along with another like minded Norwegian diplomat crafted
the CFA which was tailored to suit the needs of the LTTE.
The LTTE was able to obtain sophisticated communication equipment and
also to travel extensively in Europe to mobilize sup****t of foreign
governments and their Dias****a for their struggle thanks to the CFA,
which incidentally they violated over 3500 times according to the
Scandinavian monitors (the SLMM).
After six rounds of talks they reneged on decisions they had agreed to
at the second round of Talks held in Norway , namely (a) to explore a
federal solution within a united Sri Lanka ) (b) to form a committee
to de-escalate the conflict and reduce the size of the High Security
Zones and (c) to work through a Sub Committee (SIHRN) to address the
immediate humanitarian needs of the people of the North and East.
A sum of US$ 170 Million had been pledged for this work and 624
project proposals received; but on 23rd April 2003 they pulled out of
the Sub-committee established with an LTTE nominee as Chair, the last
thing that the LTTE wanted was normalization on the ground and an end
to the war.
They also made a lame excuse and did not participate in the Tokyo
Conference where a sum of US$ 4.5 billion was pledged for the
reconstruction of the North and the East.
So, tell us what is there to talk about? Please tell us. Do you at
least now understand that it is a futile exercise to ENGAGE them any
more in talks UNLESS the LTTE is prepared to call off their struggle
for the establishment of a separate state. That M/s Ambassadors, is an
absolute MUST, it is an imperative before there can be any engagement
in talks.
There is also another equally im****tant condition, as you all are more
aware than some of us, they must do what you folk required the IRA to
do, namely to place their weapons in the care of the UN or some such
agency.
Instead of mouthing nay parroting an inane, trite mantra "stop the
war, engage in talks" tell the LTTE to stop their war against the
legally constituted State, which, like your countries remains a
democracy even if there are shortcomings; give them a guarantee that
you would ensure justice for the Tamil people, if that is on behalf of
whom they are waging war, that, you would be able to ensure with the
sup****t of India.
Please, for God's sake, stop this incessant demand of yours that the
government, that we the people have elected, to safeguard our security
and territorial integrity of our country, "stop the war and engage in
talks".
Please understand that even if you try to blackmail us into submission
with your R2P or the GSP Plus, you will not succeed for we not only
have real friends, who will stand by us, but we may even sacrifice
whatever we have to, even resort to national mobilization, to end this
cursed war.
Please understand that we certainly want peace far more than you, who
will depart our shores once your tours of duty are over, this is our
country and we must ensure a just peace so that all our people and
generations to come can live in peace with Justice. Please understand
that we consider the Tamil people too as our people; most Buddhists
also wor****p the pantheon of Hindu Gods and we have very much a shared
culture. The similarities far outweigh the differences.
We do believe that our Tamil brethren have as much a right as the rest
of us, to live as equal citizens, in dignity and security and to be
able to decide on their destiny particularly in the areas of their
habitation and also have an input into decision making at a national
level.
We do not believe that this present situation is forever, these bad
times will also pass. Help this country in our time of need - do not
seek to wreck it, try to be positive and constructive for the sake of
the people.
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