Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

By S.L. Gunasekara.

There is only one document to which the Ceasefire Agreement could be likened, and that is a document certifying a marriage between two `gays` ? for there, there would be a marriage certificate but no marriage so also with the Ceasefire Agreement there was an Agreement but no ceasefire.

The manner in which the LTTE took advantage of the Government adhering to the letter of the CFA and ceasing all operations whether offensive or defensive against the LTTE to murder dozens of unarmed and helpless Tamils who were opposed to the LTTE and were disarmed in terms of the CFA: to murder many brave and patriotic Tamil informants to attack the Police Stations at Point Pedro and Valachchenai and the STF Base at Kanchanankudah soon after the execution of the CFA, and thereafter `graduated` to sinking merchant vessels, smuggling about six shiploads of arms etc. into the Country, murdering the Statesman Lakshman Kadirigamar, attempting to murder Minister Douglas Devananda, the Army Commander and the Defence Secretary, murdering busloads of unarmed soldiers and sailors going on and returning from leave by detonating claymore mines, expanding the territory over which they exercised usurped power by occupying Manirasakulam and fortifying Sampur and seeking to condemn thousands of civilians living down stream of the Mavil Aru Anicut to a slow and painful death by depriving them of water are still fresh in our memories.

SLMM

The SLMM was very much in operation at the time and was unable to or did nothing to prevent any of these or other atrocities committed by the LTTE ? indeed this disgraceful body of Nordic functionaries was so partial to the LTTE that it even invented a phantom naval force which it blamed for sinking merchant shipping and took orders from the LTTE.

The so called `International Safety-Net` to which the UNP and its leader, the `Serial Loser` Wickremesinghe never tires of referring as having been put in place by the CFA was nowhere to be seen while all these and other atrocities were being committed by the LTTE? indeed it could never have been seen for it was nothing more than the twenty first century version of the Emporer`s New Clothes.

What is astounding is that despite all these undeniable facts, the `Rich Foreigners` who are commonly referred to as the `Co-chairs` and as the `International Community` and labour under the delusion that we are their vassals because they are rich and we are poor, have expressed horror at the fact that the Government has, albeit belatedly, put an end to the colossal farce called the CFA and abrogated it strictly in terms of the provisions of that Agreement. What is even more astounding is that casting aside all logic and reason they piled nonsense upon nonsense by moronically proclaiming that the abrogation of this farce and the consequent dismissal of the SLMM puts paid to the prospects of achieving peace through a negotiated settlement with the LTTE. As was to be expected, the Native Compradors of these foreigners such as the Serial Loser`s party, the so called `United National` Party was prompt in contributing its devalued `two cents worth` of similar contrived sentiments. No doubt the Rich Foreigners will, to their delight, pat them on their heads and say `Well done, thou good and faithful servants`!

Lust for power

The existence or non existence of the CFA has nothing to do with the failure to arrive at a negotiated settlement with the LTTE. No negotiated settlement with the LTTE is possible because they with their chronic lust for absolute power will settle for nothing less than a separate state of Tamileelam which even the Rich Foreigners concede cannot be granted. This fact was expressly recognized by the former Indian High Commissioner J N Dixit ten years ago in his book Assignment Colombo, and confirmed 4-5 years ago by the LTTE through their proposal for a purported Interim Self Governing Authority [ISGA] which called for the abdication by the Republic of Sri Lanka of all its legislative, executive and judicial powers in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in their favour as a `Interim` measure !!! Further confirmation of the `Separate State or Nothing` policy of the LTTE is to be found in a statement made by its spokesman, Balakumaran who re-iterated the fact that the ISGA contained the minimum demands of the LTTE a week or two ago.

Besides, it was while the CFA was technically in force and the SLMM functioning that the LTTE walked out of the so called `Peace Talks` with the Government headed by the Serial Loser. It was also while the CFA was technically in force that the LTTE pretended to agree to further so called `Peace Talks` and then scuttled them both in Geneva as well as in Norway in 2006. Other things apart, there can clearly be no negotiated settlement without negotiation and the LTTE has unequivocally refused to negotiate.

Sophistry

In the background of these circumstances is there any conceivable way in which any person whomsoever can contend with even an iota of honesty that the abrogation of the CFA would prevent peace being restored by a negotiated settlement?

It is also pertinent in this connection to advert to the oft repeated sophistry that there is `No military solution to the on-going conflict but only a political solution` . None of those who spout such ritual sentiments, however, venture to define what that magic `political solution` should be nor to venture to give the United States of America or the United Kingdom the `benefit` of similar advice about their wanton aggression in the sovereign states of Iraq and Afghanistan nor pause a while to consider whether there can ever be a `political settlement` with a gang of unrepentant terrorists like the LTTE.

The only charitable explanation that can be given for the stupid pronouncements of the Rich Foreigners about the abrogation of the CFA is that they do not understand the nature of the violent conflict in Sri Lanka which they wrongly call a `war` or `civil war`.

The violent conflict in Sri Lanka is a direct result of the LTTE having successfully usurped by force of arms, control over a significant segment of the territory of the Republic. The so called `war` or `civil war` is the result of the Government seeking to reclaim that territory from the thugs and criminals called the LTTE so as to discharge its basic function of governing every inch of that territory. No sovereign state can possibly let a usurper, [and particularly one so base as to actually train youth to commit suicide by exploding explosive devices strapped to their persons so as to murder a selected person and indiscriminately slaughter any men, women and children who happen to be in the vicinity], to rule any segment of its territory or its citizens. There can be no doubt that none of the Rich Foreigners would suffer any part of their countries to be ruled by such or any other usurper but would utilize all the military power at their command to defend and reclaim their territory from the usurper. How then, can they expect Sri Lanka to do the converse and permit the usurper to rule a part of her sovereign territory for an indefinite period while pursuing the mirage of a political settlement ?

Regrettably, any attempt to vanquish the usurper [the LTTE] or reclaim our territory from the its hands by military means will cause a lot of death, displacement and suffering among our citizens: so also will permitting that usurper to continue to exist as a killing machine or to rule any part of our territory. The reason why seeking to reclaim our territory from the usurper will cause such death, displacement and suffering among our citizens is that the usurper refuses, with consummate obduracy, to disarm or surrender the territory over which it exercises usurped power to the Government peaceably, leaving the the Government with no option but to disarm them and reclaim that territory by military means. What is most amazing is that the Rich Foreigners who claim to be `civilized` do not seek to pressurize the LTTE to disarm or to surrender such territory to the Government, but that they shamelessly exert pressure on the lawfully elected Government to permit this monstrous usurper to continue to exercise usurped power over a significant segment of our territory and populace while searching for the mirage of a negotiated settlement with the usurper which will not negotiate !! Indeed the European Union was so imbecilic as to `advise` the Government to seek a settlement with this inhuman usurper by agreeing to devolve power on it !!! Would any member of the EU have even considered doing any such thing in its own Country ?? Of course Sri Lanka is not their Country, and it is we and not they who will have to undergo the indescribable suffering that must necessarily result from seeking to compromise or live with terrorists: so how easy is it for the EU to sit back and give us such ridiculous advice.

Another reason why we are now compelled to reclaim by military means, territory over which the LTTE exercises usurped power is that the Government of the United National Party which ruled the Country from 1977 to 1994 which was entrusted by the outgoing Government of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party with the governance of the entire territory of the Republic, was so derelict and incompetent in the discharge of its fundamental duty of protecting that territory and handing the whole of it over to is successor, that it lost control of a significant segment of that territory to the LTTE and handed over only a part of the territory entrusted to it in 1977 to its successor in 1994. Had the United National Party not acted in breach of the trust reposed in it in 1977, military operations to reclaim lost territory with the attendant human suffering would have been unnecessary. It is not for the United National Party to pontificate to the Government about how it should set about undoing the damage done...