Sri Lanka News Updates with Discussions

The Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya said today that the reason behind the film that is to be produced by the Army on the death of Prabhakarans is to provide answers to the questions that have been raised in the new documentary released by Channel 4.

Why Outright Rejection is Important and Productive

Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and therefore the International Criminal Court cannot investigate Sri Lanka unless the UN Security Council refers the case of Sri Lanka to the ICC. However, the current geopolitical balance makes it impossible as China and Russia may veto such a move. With the UN Security Council unable to make a determination, even a UNHRC resolution cannot effectively achieve anything against Sri Lanka. The real logic behind the threat of the US sponsored resolution is to put pressure on the government to agree to US demands on accountability, devolution, etc. However, the government seems to be doing the right thing by fighting the resolution.

Already this resolution has created a major rift in India. Tamil Nadu politicians want India to support the resolution but the Indian government has different ideas. India stands to lose its geopolitical clout in the island and lose the right to gently shape the political landscape of Sri Lanka if it supports the resolution that cannot achieve much at the end of the day. On the other hand if India doesn t support the resolution, Tamil Nadu will erupt with disagreement. It can also fuel a US-India rift. Another US-India rift is brewing already over India s increasing trade with Iran following sanctions on Iran. All these matters point to the need to avoid a showdown at the UNHRC for USA. Sri Lanka can surely bank on these events and fight to a finish at the UNHRC against this country specific resolution that goes far beyond human rights.

The government of Sri Lanka has huge support in the electorate against the US sponsored resolution. Even the opposition controlled CMC unanimously passed a resolution against the US resolution. It can be leveraged not only to impose political solutions that may not be in the interests of India and USA but also to make LLRC recommendations harder to implement in the electorate divided on the US resolution.
Implementing unpopular political solutions and human rights recommendation that don t equitably benefit the people of all communities can lead to an election defeat of the ruling clan. Similar events occurred throughout recent history. The Dudley-Chelva Pact ended the political future of Dudley Senanayake while the political package of CBK (2000) in essence ended hers despite a convincing Presidential Election victory just months before.The 2002 CFA made Ranil so unpopular that his government collapsed prematurely. Stakes are very high if these events were to be repeated as an election defeat can expose the ruling clan to various allegations. Diplomatic immunity that was the main defence in Australia to USA will not be available. Cognizant of these facts,it is important that the government doesn t agree to any imposition unpopular in the electorates that matter to the ruling clan.

The Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya said today that the reason behind the film that is to be produced by the Army on the death of Prabhakarans is to provide answers to the questions that have been raised in the new documentary released by Channel 4.

What took so long! We are waiting Commander.

UK Foreign Office Minister for North America and the Middle East & North Africa, Alistair Burt has stated that to achieve lasting peace Sri Lanka requires a full and honest acknowledgement of the past and it requires processes, in which all parties take part, to ensure justice, reconciliation and political progress. Burt speaking after the transmission of Channel 4 s documentary Sri Lanka s Killing Fields, War Crimes Unpunished

Lanka envoy s double-speak: Are all Tamils LTTE cadres?
by G Pramod Kumar Mar 16, 2012
Chennai: The shocking damning of Tami Nadu MPs by the Sri Lankan high commissioner to India, Prasad Kariawasam, and his subsequent apology is symptomatic of the hardline Bush doctrine that the ruling establishment of the island nation has adopted to smother dissent.
Whether it is about allegations of killing innocent civilian Tamils, executions of opponents and large-scale disappearances, the government has maintained the stand that if you are not with us, you are against us.
Perhaps Kariawasam was also emboldened by India s ambivalent stand on the UNHRC resolution against his country when he said that Tamil MPs were sympathetic to LTTE. According to the The Indian Express, the high commissioner said that the friendship of some of the DMK, AIADMK MPs and MDMK s Vaiko with the LTTE may have led them to carry on a campaign against Sri Lanka. If they are sympathetic to those unrealistic ideas of separatism, then they might have been (part of the campaign).
Sri Lankan high commissioner to India Prasad Kariawasam. AFP
Whether it is a calculated ploy or a collective inability to see reason, the Sri Lankan establishment has always used the LTTE as a convenient tool to cover up its alleged excesses and intolerance to Tamil cause. Although some small political outfits in Tamil Nadu are open sympathisers of the LTTE, prominent political parties have always maintained a distinction between the Tamil issue and the terrorist organisation. They have made it amply clear that the Tamil issue, wherein people have been denied their rights, is genuine, while LTTE was a terrorist oraganisation.
For instance, chief minister J Jayalalithaa had been steadfast in her stand that LTTE was a terrorist organisation that needed to be firmly dealt with however, she never failed to support the demand for the rights and respect of the culturally distinctive Tamils in a Sinhala dominated Sri Lanka. This has also been the stand of the Congress, the BJP and to some extent the DMK, in the state. Two political leaders, Vaiko and actor Seeman, had been even jailed one during the AIADMK regime and the other during the DMK regime for their speeches that allegedly supported the LTTE.
However, the establishment and its proxies in Sri Lanka found it easy to conflate the two in their propaganda war as a convenient smokescreen to deflect attention on the real issue. During the peak of the battle against the LTTE, when alleged excesses on the battlefront were coming from overseas media, there was hardly any public dissent in Sri Lanka, which prides itself as a democracy. In a Chechnya like situation, people were scared of eve-droppers, plainclothesmen and white vans and hence they kept quiet while the majoritarian chauvinism soared.
Finally the war triumphalism swept away any muted dissent that stayed in the minds of people. Many human rights activists and journalists chose to leave the country. One top-ranking editor was gunned down. Diplomats, heads of agencies and international NGOs and even the UN were scoffed at.
It s been a cunning and brutal ploy that worked, and the establishment is still persisting with it as more and more evidence on alleged war crimes are coming out. Anybody who supports the cause of the Tamil population is an LTTE sympathiser or paid off by the LTTE. If you are too big to be paid off by the LTTE, say for example Norway, the UK or the US, then you are trying to meddle with the country s internal affairs.
Nobody is immune, whether it is the former British state secretary for foreign affairs David Miliband, Channel 4, BBC, the UN and international NGOs. During the peak of the war, the UN was an easy target, which the proxies alleged were infested with LTTE sympathisers. At one stage they even laid siege to the UN building in Colombo and the UN spokesperson was denied extension of visa.
For the Sri Lankan establishment and its proxies, even a genuine Tamil voice is an LTTE voice. It will help them continue with racial profiling, detention and any form of violation.
Therein lies the main problem when one talks of reconciliation and rehabilitation. Can a top-down, majoritarian approach devoid of meaningful dialogue work in reconciliation? Does reconciliation mean militarisation of the former Tamil areas does it mean changing the topography of Tamil areas so that one is left with minimal cultural references? Does it mean silencing dissent?
Perhaps it does work in Sri Lanka.
Perhaps, it can be another best practice example from the island nation for the world to learn from after its successful war against terrorism.

If the govt starts responding to LTTE Propaganda it will never stops.

LTTE had published this kind of Things even before the war and they expected sympathy from Overseas. They are just continuing it.

Nothing new.

Why Sinhala Government still don't want to forget the LTTE and how it survives on LTTE? Finally the LTTE had helped the racist sinhala regime than the Tamils. LTTe went away with ample excuses to cover the sins, crimes and inhuman acts perpetrated against the tamil civilians. The way things are going Sinhala regime will never ever forget the LTTE as it is the only organisation that is trying to salvage them and rescue them from serious criminal charges.

But what they don't realise is the fact that if one speaks the truth then it will be always the same but if you are lying then it will keep changing all the time:

Japan worse than any other nation.

they are still paying for their war crimes.

So for Japan Human Rights is a new issue with not much experience. They are not obviously competent to advise SL about its crimes against humanity and the serious breakdown of law and order situation.

Magda Goebbels wife of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, out of loyalty towards the cause and to avoid humiliation poisoned six of her children to death. It was eerily similar to the predicament the LTTE leader was in. Although the battle strategies were different, the Sri Lankan army was closing in on his ever shrinking area of control just like the Soviet Army closed in on Hitler s shrinking Berlin. It was crystal clear to both Hitler and Prabakaran, and their closest loyalists that their game was up. A humiliating defeat and uncertainty was laughing on their faces. They had to act and act fast to save face and die a dignified death by their hand than surrender to the enemy. That was how the LTTE s youngest son Balachandran (12) died. He was killed by his father (the LTTE leader) to avoid him fall into the hands of the enemy.

This was not the first time the LTTE leader indulged in honour killing. In early 1990s his brother in law with the nom de guerre Mahaththaya was betrayed and killed by the LTTE leader.

It is absurd to blame Sri Lankan security forces for the death of LTTE leader s son. There is absolutely nothing to prove he was killed by security forces. This is an outrageously stupid assumption not supported by any evidence.

Did Allied troops kill Magda Goebbel s six children? Absolutely not. Then why blame Sri Lankan troops for the honour killing of LTTE leader s son by his father?

Channel 4 made no attempt to bring to the world attention the thousands of children deliberately targeted and killed by the LTTE over 26 years of war. Instead it is trying to save Magda Goebbles style killing of children by LTTE leaders. If the LTTE leader ever wanted to surrender he could have. He had 34 years to do so since he disappeared after the assassination of Alfred Duraiappa in 1975. But his ego and false sense of dignity prevented him from doing so. This is what he inculcated in Tamil children including his own. Tamil Tigers indoctrinated thousands of children and recruited them to various brigades including the deadly suicide bomber brigade. These children were told in no uncertain terms never to surrender or get caught. A potassium cyanide capsule was hanged on their neck to aid suicide in case of imminent capture. It was this mentality that led the LTTE leader to kill his family to avoid capture by the enemy.

This is a watertight case against damn lies spread by Channel 4. It was the LTTE leader and his loyalists who killed the 12 year old son of the LTTE supremo. His own son was his last victim. What a way to end his killing spree spanning four decades and two nations! Just like Hitler and his accomplices in crime.