Temple Tree of Sagarapura: a symbolic reminiscence of the brutal ethnic cleansing programme of Eelamists.

A Temple tree adorned with full of white hued flowers gives the beholder pleasing and serene feelings making him spell bound for a moment. The heavenly fragrance of the flowers of the tree is also equally pleasing.  The particular tree in the picture, however beautiful it might be, silently tells us a very sad story reminding us a tragic incident that took place over two decades ago. The tree is in the village called Sagarapura located 45 KMs northwards of Trincomalee on Trincomalee –Pulmudya road.  (About 05 KMs from Kusalaveli (Kuchchaveli).

This village is just one of the unfortunate hundreds of Sinhala villages in North and East that became the victim of brutal ethnic cleansing programme carried out by the LTTE. The fateful day of 6^th of October 1987, twenty seven unfortunate Sinhalese people including women and children were shot and hacked to death. Those who reached to the scene of mayhem in the following day morning only saw highly mutilated and burnt dead bodies. 

This tree stands in the place where the burnt bodies of 08 members of an entire family were buried who had been hacked to death. The tree was later planted in the memory of those dead family members by their relatives. Sagrapura was a flourishing village with 300 families before the mass scale ethnic cleansing programme of the LTTE was started. Another Sinhala village named Kallarawa in Yan Oya basin located about further 15 km north of Sagrapura had also been the victim of constant harassment of LTTE culminating 48 people being hacked to death in 1990. After the massacre Sagrapura was abandoned by the villagers. The tree has become a monument signifying the furry unleashed by the Eelamists poisoned by mythical Eelam homeland fantasy.

Ancient Sinhalese villages in Yan Oya basin have been a throne in the flesh of the Eelamists as the strategic location of the villages disproves the bogus Eelam theory. So the Yan Oya Sinhala villages had to bear the brunt of the ethnic cleansing programmes of the Eelamists.  

The only way to pay the homage to those unfortunate souls would be to resettle  thousands of Sinhalese who fled their ancient villages after spate of massacres in the North and East. The government should pay the same degree of enthusiasm and the effort that it shows in resettling the Tamil and Muslim villagers in resettling the Sinhalese too. Otherwise, it would be a great betrayal to those who scarified their lives in thousands to create an environment where every community can live peacefully in any part of the country. It will equally be a great betrayal for the brave Sinhalese who opted to live in their ancient villages despite ever persistent danger of being hacked to death at any moment.  

The beginning of a new era in Sri Lanka’s foreign relations

This article by Mr. K. Godage with the above headline appearing in today's island sees the bright future ahead for us in the sphere of foreign relations with the appointment of Prof. G.L. Peiris as our new Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The article highlights with the appointment of Prof. G.L Peiris as the Minister of Foreign Affairs we will be able to get rid of one of the blight that our Foreign Services afflicted with for a long period of time. Our new foreign minister will be not subjected to 'constituency responsibilities'.Our past foreign ministers who came to parliament as elected members accommodated his supporters, cronies, stooges and family members in the Foreign Service with devastating effect to the country. As a result of it jokers and clowns filled with our foreign missions and other important positions in the service. The unimaginable damage caused by this foolish act is a history now. 

As he is an outspoken person and a good communicator plus a very sound academic background with a thorough understanding about Sri Lanka's affaires Prof. Peiris would be able to get rid of the negative picture that the world harbors about us due to disinformation campaign carried out by the Eelamists and their supportive I/NGO's. As highlighted by me in my previous post, due to our past foreign ministers' abysmal failure to highlight the world the true picture prevailing in Sri Lanka we have cost a lot. The so called perceived and now non-existence discrimination of Tamils, the bogus Tamil history in Sri Lanka, the imaginative 'home land' and demand for a 'political solution' are all just a Trojan horse to deny other communities to live in the North and East of country.  

The writer also points out the most important role the new foreign minister is expected to play with the backdrop of China becoming a super-power with her growing influence in the region. The maintenance of our friendship with her and other powers such as Russia and Iran who helped us immensely in our difficult times should never be overlooked. And also he highlights the importance of continuing the confidence and trust we have painstakingly cultivated with India. We would be able to reap immense benefits if we play the cards skillfully in the backdrop of the emergence of Asia as a new economic power with our strategic positioning in the continent. Maintaining healthy relationship with the West is also important but we should never succumb to their intimidations as we would have still been fighting the war had we given into them in the recent past.   

As known to many who are familiar with foreign relation subject in Sri Lanka Mr. K. Godage, the writer of the article is one most distinguished, respected and senior diplomats that Sri Lanka ever produced. He is an authority on the subject and also a prolific writer. He did yeomen and exemplary service to our country during times when she was sailing in troubled waters.

Publish or Perish !

While reading a National Geographic Magazine published in May 2003 I came across an interesting article with above headline. The article begins with the following paragraph.   

"Everyone knows Galileo was the first astronomer to point a telescope at the night sky. But like many facts that everyone knows, this one isn't true. Precedence should probably go to Thomas Harriot. What Harriot didn't do was publish his observations." 

The article goes on to say many other discoveries Thomas Harriot made and highlights how his failure to publish none of them cost him well deserved recognition while someone else earning it.   

I felt how fitting what the article tries to convey when it comes to Sri Lanka!  The world harbors an entirely different picture about Sri Lanka and the so called "Tamil Problem" due to her utter dismal performance in publishing the true picture prevailing over here: what she has painstakingly been doing to protect the rights of minorities, the monumental myth of "Tamil homeland" and the bogus Tamil history and the so called "Tamil grievances" which are no longer exists in Sri Lanka.    This utter failure on the part of Sri Lanka has cost her an unimaginable proportion of damage giving an excellent opportunity and an upper hand to Eelam supporters and I/NGO's to spread lies to mislead the people outside Sri Lanka and even within the country. She has miserably failed…      

(1)   To show the world the monumental myth of so called "Tamil homeland"  and the bogus history created by the power hungry Tamil elite politicians to claim so called "self determination" thereby attempting to deny other communities to live in so called "homeland".

(2)   To show the world that there are no longer specific problems that Tamils face that the Sinhalese do not face to demand a Political Solution. They do enjoy privileges as same as Sinhalese do and in certain instances even better than Sinhalese.

                                                                                                     

(3)   To show the world that the majority of Tamils peacefully live among Sinhalese in other parts of the country with no discrimination at all.

(4)   To show the world the enormous effort and the progress she has made in resettling the IDPs: No country would have achieved such stupendous task in resettling the people in such a short period of time.  

 

(5)   To show the world the sacrifices her armed forces made in rescuing the civilians at the final stages of the war: the so called international community has no idea whatsoever about the number soldiers lost their lives in their effort to protect the lives of the civilians at the final stages of the war. While the army stopped using the heavy weapons the LTTE used theirs against the army at their will.

(6)   To show the world the carnage created by LTTE in killing the civilians in villages and cities alike- The wholesale ethnic cleansing carried out in North and East against Sinhalese and Muslim villages.   The brunt of it was born by innocent Sinhalese civilians in villages who lived there from time immemorial. The brutality with which these killings were carried out was never highlighted: the most common killing method had been in hacking to death whole families including women and children.

(7)   To show the world that the most of the asylum seekers are just economic refugees who flee the country claiming bogus persecution allegedly being committed by the SL sate. The vast majority of so called Tamil Diaspora falls into this category.

     

(8)   To show the world that the innumerable atrocities the LTTE committed in the name of freedom struggle to the Tamil community itself whom they claimed to have represented.

And many other falsehoods being spread against Sri Lanka portraying an entirely different picture about her allowing her enemies to give her vary bad name in the eyes of so called International Community.            

  It is hoped that President Rajapaksha will look into this shortcoming and do necessary remedial measures to change this appalling situation with the appointment of a capable Minister of foreign affairs and perhaps a sate minister too.

 

Robert O Blake’s dual role

This is a translated version of an article by Keerthi Warnakulasooriya, appeared in today's Divaina (16^th April.2010)  

"LTTE can never be defeated"- Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia

The unprecedented victory secured by the present government in the last election has left the US's government machinery in a state of shock. This is further proved with the US military Academy's decision to discontinue the training opportunities provided to the SL's armed forces owning to the disinformation campaign carried out by Blake against Sri Lanka over alleged war crimes. Blake never thought that the LTTE would ever be defeated. He has now started telling us what present government should do in the wake of the magnificent victory it secured. Issuing a statement after the election victory of the government Blake says that "It's a particularly important opportunity now to make progress on these important issues of reconciliation, power-sharing and accountability".  

Development of the country was the most prominent component of the government's manifesto for this election. However, Blake says what the government should do is that the implementation of the US's agenda in Sri Lanka. He goes on to say that Tamils were subjected to the Human Rights violations in the past few years.  However, it is the LTTE murderers who violated the human rights of the people of this country during the past 25 years. Blake was keeping mum when the country's national security, politics, whether the leaders of the democratically elected should live or not was decided by Prabhakaran while hiding in a bunker from 250 kms from Colombo. 

Blake was keeping a blind eye on the human rights of the people who were exploded by Bus Bombs. What did Blake who cries for Human Rights do when a majority of people of this country was taken hostage for last twenty years?   Recently two reporters of the Reuters were killed by a US air attack. The US soldiers who fired upon the people from the helicopter considered the civilians and Reuter's reporters as bastards. The spokesperson of president Obama simply said that the incident was "tragic". Pakistan military has started a large scale military operation against Al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists. 73 people including children and women died recently in a village in Kaibar area by an attack. But Blake is silent. Interfering directly into our internal affairs he claims that hardline Sinhalese nationalist parties took a severe beating in these elections. However, Blake has blissfully forgotten the fact that two Sinhala and Tamil politicians who were maintaining a close relationship with the US's State Department and NGOs were also severely defeated.                  

 Blake who talks about Sinhala nationalists never talks about the TNA which contested asking a mandate from the people to divide the country or hardline Tamil nationalist party ITAK of Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam. At the same time a Tamil politician who worked according to the US's Sate Departments agenda has also been defeated.

So it is clear that on whose behalf that Blake tries to make his voice heard. US's State Department did not focus her attention on earlier governments as they were meekly heeding to her demands.

However, the president, the present government and the Secretary to the Defense did not bow down to the US's cries. That's the single most problem that the State Department and Robert Blake is now trying to grapple with. Blake and the US State Department had high hopes that the President would be defeated in the presidential election. Several statements were issued to the effect that human rights and media freedom were being violated in the country. The necessary dessert was provided to them by the Fee Media business network here. An ex rebel belonging to this Free Media business network was caught red handed by an anti LTTE Tamil orgnisation while he was talking to LTTE agents in the Human Rights Head Quarters in Geneva.       

Robert Blake is asking us to share power with Tamils. Has the US shared the power with Red-Indians? Blake and the State Department who cry foul about our media freedom says that deaths of Reuter's reporters are simply "tragic" and goes on to say that the telescopic camera of the reporters were mistakenly identified as a rocket launcher. Isn't this a ridicules statement?  

Does Blake have any right to interfere in Sri Lanka's National security and political affairs in the backdrop of these revelations of US's war crimes?

Sri Lankan voters did not cast their votes as per the whims and fancies of representatives of Robert Blake or NGOs. In this backdrop what right does he has to ask us to share power with Tamils? People of this country outrightly rejected the US's agenda and division of this country. The oppositions had promised that if it won, even the High Security Zones (HSZ) and army camps would be removed from north. But the people of this country did not allow it happen. Under these circumstances Robert Blake has come forward to guide us to shape up our future. It is now revealed that how the imposition of the US's agenda by setting up a US army base ended up with devastative effect in Kirgizstan, a former Soviet Republic

Therefore, the people of this country did not vote in the election to impose the US's agendas in our country. The US who planned to rescue the LTTE murders had sent here a plane with a group of military advisers. The objective of this plan was to rescue the LTTE murders. This secret plan did not come to public knowledge until a few hours after Vanni LTTE leaders were killed. This proves the dire need of the US State Department to rescue the LTTE. And also it should not be forgotten the US had told that the LTTE should be handed over to a third party. It is now clear that Robert Blake and the State Department have come forward again to advise us to implement their old agenda.             

Do Tamils face particular problems that Sinhalese don’t face to demand a political solution?

The "ethnic problem", "Tamil question", "solution to the ethnic problem", "political solution to the Tamils" or "power devolution "etc, etc..are the most used or abused words in Sri Lanka for quite a sometime which are being uttered with renewed vigor now in the backdrop of LTTE terrorism being completely annihilated. We are now at an important juncture to do a critical analysis   to see whether the Tamils in Sri Lanka are still disadvantaged due to them being Tamils.  The best way to do this analysis is to see whether there are special privileges that Sinahalese enjoy but Tamils do not enjoy.  

A brief analysis on this gives us a true picture about the so called Tamil's "grievances":

(1)    Education Opportunities- Tamils enjoy free Education provided by the government at all levels with no discrimination at all. There are universities namely Jaffna, the Eastern and the South Eastern and their affiliated collages in the provinces. Tamil students continue to study any other university in the country with no restriction at all while the Sinhalese students are denied to the NE universities with number of student being killed and severely assaulted. Tamil students face no restrictions at all in entering the universities irrespective of where they are located in the country.  

(2)    Employment opportunities: There are no restrictions whatsoever in terms of employment opportunities in whatever sector except armed forces. Close on the heels of the defeat of world's most ruthless terrorist organization it is yet to take a little more time to ease restrictions Tamils to enter the armed forces. However, restrictions to enter the police service have been eased giving opportunity to Tamil youth to join the service from the provinces. It is a common knowledge that the lack of employment opportunities is common to every community in the country.

(3)    Language:  The Tamil language is the main language of communication in the North and East of Sri Lanka including every government officers and departments.( However, there are still some shortcomings in the police stations in certain areas. It is also being fast redressed with the recruitment of Tamil speaking officers.) It is the minority Sinhalese in the provinces that face difficulties in the government departments and other institutions as there are no Sinhala speaking officials there.

(4)    Administration: All administrative matters of the people in the provinces are addressed by the government officers and elected members to the Pradeshiya Sabhas and Provincial councils from the same provinces with no restrictions. Institutions such as provincial councils and other government institutions are functioning very well with no restrictions. The North Provincial Council will be set up soon after its election due in this year. Other government institutions are also functioning addressing the day today needs of the people with no restrictions at all. These institutions are vested with all the powers as other institution in the Southern part of the country are.  The language communication of all these institutions is Tamil.  

 

(5)    Development: The development activities were taking place at a minimum level in the two provinces due to the three decades old war. Now the development activities have been taking place at a pace that the southern part of Sri Lanka would feel envious.  Eastern province was the first beneficiary of these projects. They were started while the war was raging in the north. Anyone who visits those provinces can witness this. Unequal development and wealth distributions to the provinces have been a common problem faced by Sri Lanka from the independence. It seems the Rajapaksha regime has been doing its best to redress this.  

(6)    Freedom of movement: The restrictions faced by the Tamils during the war time have vastly been reduced now. There are virtually no check points in the provinces. There is no restriction to a Tamil person to travel any part of the country including the deep south of the country. The problem of High Security Zones(HSZ) will be solved in due course with the improvement of security situation.    

(7)    Freedom of living in any part of the country: Tamils face no problem at all to live anywhere in Sri Lanka as they have been doing so for ages. Tamils can buy a land and live any part of the country with no restrictions at all.   However, Sinhalese had not been allowed to do so though they were the original inhabitants of those lands before Tamils were brought to the country by colonial powers.

(8)    History: As has been the common knowledge to many so called "homeland" concept of Tamils is a creation of power hungry elite Vel-lla Tamil politicians of Jaffna in order to meet their political aspirations. There had never been an existence of a "Tamil Homeland" as has been proved wrong by many evidences. The truth is that the Tamils are recent immigrants to arrive Sri Lanka a few centuries ago while Sinhalese had been the original inhabitants of the two provinces with a flouring civilization. 

On the other hand it is a well known fact that the minority communities in Sri Lanka enjoy the fullest freedom with no restriction whatsoever in terms of following their religion or engaging their cultural activities. However, this situation is much different in some other countries in South Asia

Most of the other common problems faced by the Tamils are common to other communities of Sri Lanka as well. The underlying problem is that the mythical Tamil history and the bogus homeland concept have poisoned Tamils' minds to the extent that they find hard to get rid of it. The biggest question before us is the so called "political solution" is being used as a Trojan horse to deny other ethnic communities to live in the bogus 'Tamil Homeland'. Even during the recently concluded general election the TNA's propaganda campaign was mainly centered on achieving the "homeland".

Anyone who does a clear analysis would realize that there are no particular problems that Tamils face in Sri Lanka just being a Tamil except a few problems still in existence due to security implications.( But they are too being fast eased now.)

So the critical question before us whether Tamils face particular problems that Sinhalese don't face or Tamils' have a long standing history in Sri Lanka to demand a political solution?      

The worst fear of Eelamists- exposure of the mythical Tamil history in Sri Lanka

A friend of mine had recently sent me an article appeared in Time news paper published in UK. The subject of discussion in the article is archeology in Sri Lanka and controversies around the subject. As widely known the UK has been a staunch supporter of the secessionist agenda of Eelamist in Sri Lanka and abroad. So it is highly unlikely that an article appeared in a news paper in UK would give a picture about Sri Lanka not tuning to the whims and fancies of Eelamists. As can obviously be expected it gives a distorted version of the true picture. Here the writer has made all his effort to support the bogus Tamil Ealam theory with his own imaginations, interpretations as well as "expert comments" from Eelamists. As has been the common knowledge to many so called "home land" theory of Tamils is a creation of power hungry elite Vel-lla Tamil politicians of Jaffna in order to meet their political aspirations.     

With Sri Lankan forces liberating the entire north and east from fascist LTTE terrorists the new fear has emerged in the minds of Eelamists: the exposure of archeological sites especially in north to the Department of Archeology.  (These sites had been out of bound for the Department for a long period of time). Whenever the Eelamists sense that signs are around to challenge  their bogus history their well oiled propaganda machine is activated working at its top gear as can be witnessed this time around with a renewed vigor. They do their best to prevent the so called mythical "homeland" theory from being shattered.   

The archeological remains have been one of the main sources of evidence to unearth the true history of Sri Lanka. These evidences are accurately corroborated by the descriptions mentioned in chronicles such as Mahavamsa, Deepawamsa and Chulawamsa etc. These sources amply prove the existence of a flouring Sinhala civilization in north and east of the country for more than two and half millennia with more than 2000 Buddhist archeological sites so far being identified in North and East. A vast number of them have been destroyed by Tamil chauvinists while a significant number of them have been turned into Hindu Kovils. In some places where the sites are so prominent due to their sheer size, making it impossible to destroy entirely, Tamil villages have been set up around the places with the support of Eelam supportive INGOs in order to claim that Tamil community lived there from "time immemorial". E.g. Thiriyaya in North of Trincomalee.

The decline of Sinhalese presence in the NE began with the invasions from South India and subsequently Sinhalese migration to the Southern part of the country in great numbers with the arrival of colonial powers who brought a large number of South Indians for agricultural purposes especially for the tobacco cultivation.     

Apart from the archeological evidences, the original Sinhalese place names ( now Tamilinised) have also been one of the main sources to shatter the bogus Tamil history in Sri Lanka as claimed by the Tamil scholars themselves.      

 To name a few as examples: "Vavniya"-Vavnimava , "Thamplakamam"- Thmbalagamuwa, "Killinochchi" –Giraanikke or Kilinike," "Mullaitivu" -Mooladoova, "Velikamam" –Veligama, "Chunnakam" –Hunugama,  "Kanthrodai"- Kadurugoda, "Kambrupiddi"- Kumburupitiya," Illupikavai" -Meepathota or "Madhupatheetha of the Mahavamsa, "Poonareen" -Punranna, "Elephant Pass" -Alimankada, "Paranthan" -Puranthaenna, "Iranamadu" -Ranamaduva, "Puthukudirippu" -Aluthkulissa, "Palaamattalan" -Palaamassla, "Aluthmassala" –Puthumattalan ," Vellamullivaikkal"- Vael-butu-gala and "Vellankulam"- Bellanvila. ( Aluth (new ) in Tamil is Puthu)    

Even Tamil writers have contributed to the view that the Jaffna Peninsula was originally inhabited by the Sinhalese people from the 6th Century BC up to the Portuguese Period. Rev. S. Gnana Praksar, O.M.I., has said: "Mr. Horsburgh's article on Sinhalese Place Names in the Jaffna Peninsula [C.A. Vol. 11 Part 1, pp54-58] places beyond doubt the fact of "a Sinhalese occupation of the Jaffna Peninsula antecedent to the Tamil period". Mudaliyar C. Rasnayagam says "That Jaffna was occupied by the Sinhalese earlier than by the Tamils as is seen not only in the place names of Jaffna but also in the habits and customs of the people. The system of branding cattle with the communal brand by which not only the caste but also the position and family of the owner could be traced, was peculiarly Sinhalese. The very ancient way of wearing the hair in the form of a konde behind the head, was very common among the people of Jaffna till very recent times" (Ancient Jaffna, p. 384).