‘Powers have to repent for what they are doing’: Vickramabhu Karunaratne

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 00:17 GMT]
It will be nonsense to think of eradicating the LTTE, writes Vickramabahu Karunaratne in a recent article highlighting the need for alternative thinking. “In the case of the LTTE, it represents the real anger of the Tamil people against discrimination, humiliation and oppression by Sinhala chauvinism. [...] It was and is wrong to the hilt in hating Tamil society for its demand for equality and self-determination. [...] All global capitalist powers including India will be forced to repent in time to come for their aggressive participation in human suffering of this order. [...] The LTTE cannot be blamed for not surrendering to the Sinhala army of the chauvinist regime,” he writes.

Full text of the article by Dr. Vickrmabahu Karunaratne, general secretary of the NSSP and the president of the Left Front in Sri Lanka, follows:

The government, while discarding all appeals for a ceasefire is hell bent on finishing the LTTE. The LTTE cannot be finished as it is a movement in the hearts and minds of the Tamil people. It represents the strongest commitment to the Tamil right to self determination and Tamil freedom. Even those who disagree with the LTTE`s violent methods or with its political programme for Tamil liberation, still hail it as the most formidable opposition to Sinhala repression. So, it will be nonsense to think of eradicating the LTTE. UNP leaders led by the then defence minister thought of finishing the JVP by eliminating over fifty-thousand JVP suspects with the leadership. It is claimed that Wijeweera was burnt alive by a military group. But today modern dissidents of Wijeweera and other JVP leaders virtually run the government of Mahinda. The ghost of Wijeweera is behind the president at all times. Champika Ranawaka and Wimal Weerawansa today, represent the last political message of the Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya, the brainchild of Wijeweera. In that sense both Champika and Wimal are legitimate political children of Wijeweera. The rump JVP is left in the ditch without being able to go along with these two. It does not represent the JVP past or present. While howling for a better war it is barking at the government for repression! So we can count it out. But the real JVP represented by the chauvinist duo, Champika and Wimal, is doing great. So, the dream of the UNP leaders to eliminate the JVP has not been fulfilled.

Similarly the dream of Mahinda to eliminate the LTTE by brutal repression of all who are associated with the LTTE will be a void in the coming period. In the case of the LTTE, it represents the real anger of the Tamil people against discrimination, humiliation and oppression by Sinhala chauvinism. The JVP was correct to an extent. It protested about oppression of Sinhala society by the Anglo-Saxon Western upper classes. But it was and is wrong to the hilt in hating Tamil society for its demand for equality and self determination. Strangely enough it is the wrong side of the JVP that is flourishing today both inside and outside of the government. However the anger of the Tamil people over the ruthless attacks made by both the state and the pogroms cannot be dispersed by decimating the LTTE. The latter will enhance the hard feelings within Tamil society. It will pour out in the future not only in Lanka but also in India as a gigantic Dravidian movement.

Already unknown to many, a demon is haunting India it is the demon of neo Brahmanism. This resurgence of Brahmanism is less connected to Hindu self assertion but more to the rise of global capital. The crisis in global capital is demanding a massive human sacrifice as in the previous global capitalist setback. After the economic crash in 1929, the capitalist system faced a massive crisis. Then the rise of Nazism and Hitler was for a purpose. Freud says in human history every crisis has demanded a human sacrifice and massive bloodletting. Maybe the rise of neo Brahmanism in India is the new ideology necessary for human sacrifice that may come, if the liberation of mankind does not take place in time! The rise of the Dravidians will be one of the most important challenges to the designs of neo Brahmanism. Taking the rule of Freud seriously one could say that the sacrifice made by the Tamils today is for the victory that will come in the future against neo Aryan Brahmanism. Of course I am just speculating, but the truth is that Tamil consciousness in the world has expanded due to the repressive war of the Mahinda regime. All global capitalist powers including India will be forced to repent in time to come for their aggressive participation in human suffering of this order. The LTTE cannot be blamed for not surrendering to the Sinhala army of the chauvinist regime. If thousands die due to the attacks of the army the blame will squarely fall on the government and its masters. America, India and others shed crocodile tears about the massive human tragedy after doing everything possible to repress the Tamil speaking people.

It is sad to watch the UNP and other so-called liberals happily waiting to see the effect of the tragedy on the government. There is no attempt to press for a ceasefire. In effect they give their support to the aggressive war efforts of the government. In this scenario there is no other way out except the programme of the Left.

 

Canada calls for immediate ceasefire

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 April 2009, 03:37 GMT]
“We’ve asked [the United Nations] for an immediate ceasefire. We’re very worried, of course, of the hostilities that are taking place but particularly worried for the civilians that are in the combat zone [in Vanni],” said Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon Thursday, according to a report in National Post. The call comes amidst continued Tamil protests for the third consecutive day that have severely disrupted the traffic in downtown Ottawa.

Mr. Cannon rejected a call by the Sri Lankan high commissioner to Canada to crack down on the protesters because they were waving banners that depict a tiger in front of a pair of crossed guns.

“It’s not up to me to put an end to protest,” said Mr. Cannon. “People are allowed to protest in Canada. We live in a democracy. People are allowed to go and express their ideas, their concerns,” the Post said.

Mr. Cannon’s remarks fly in the face of the assessment of Sri Lankan envoy Daya Perera, who said Wednesday that: “there is a limit; the freedom of expression has to stop somewhere.”

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff also called on Canada to pressure the UN secretary general to appoint a special representative to Sri Lanka to push for a ceasefire

“The humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka has continued to deteriorate, causing grave concern to the international community and demanding urgent and co-ordinated action to end this conflict,” Mr. Ignatieff said in a statement, according to the National Post report.
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Sri Lanka acquires 'banned' weapons

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 August 2001, 16:19 GMT]
(NEWS FEATURE) The Sri Lanka Army has acquired an infantry weapon with a chemical warhead whose use has been shunned internationally except by Russia due to the risk to civilians, press reports said this weekend. In an expose, the Sunday Leader said that the SLA had spent several million dollars to acquire 1000 units of the shoulder-fired RPO-A Shmel Rocket Launcher, but that amidst bribes sought by the SLA commander, Lt. General Lionel Ballagalle, the weapons delivered were of old stock and may have exceeded their shelf life. The US Defence Intelligence Agency says the weapon's chemical warhead is toxic and hence dangerous even if it fails to detonate.

The flamethrower type weapon, which the Sunday Leader says has been banned by the United States is only manufactured by a single firm in Russia and was bought by the SLA via a London-based company, Gladstone Industrial Holdings, whose directors include a retired SLA officer, Lt. Col. Upali Gajanayake. The Sunday Leader interviewed the latter as part of its investigation into the alleged corruption.

"It is an internationally banned weapon," Lt. Col. Gajanayake told the Sunday Leader, explaining why the SLA needed to go through his firm, rather than directly to sole Russian manufacturer, to acquire the Shmels. "Officially these items cannot be negotiated via an open tender but can only be bought underground; this is a very sophisticated chemical warhead."

Although usually referred to in descriptive literature as a flame-thrower, the RPO-A Shmel (Bumblebee in Russian) is a rocket-propelled incendiary/blast projectile launcher, according to Janes' weapons expert Terry Gander. "One projectile fired is described by the Russians as `thermobaric’ as it appears to utilise advanced fuel-air explosive techniques which, on detonation, create deflagration as the warhead cloud expands," says Gander. When utilised against structures the blast effect of the projectile is stated to be equivalent to a 122 mm howitzer shell, he says.

The weapon ' along with other fuel air mixture weapons - has been used by Russian troops in Chechnya, where human rights groups have long criticised the indiscriminate nature of the weapon which has resulted in heavy civilian casualties and horrific injuries.

In a statement February 2000 on the use of such weapons in Chechnya, Human Rights Watch said "The use of fuel-air explosives represents a dangerous escalation in the Chechnya conflict–one with important humanitarian implications."

"In urban settings it is very difficult to limit the effect of this weapon to combatants, and the nature of FAE explosions makes it virtually impossible for civilians to take shelter from their destructive effect," HRW said, adding that "because they are wide-area weapons, military forces must exercise extreme caution and refrain from using them in or near population centers."

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in a 1993 report says, "The [blast] mechanism against living targets is unpleasant If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to people caught within the cloud as most chemical agents"

A separate Central Intelligence Agency report says "it is possible that victims of FAEs are not rendered unconscious by the blast, but instead suffer for several seconds or minutes while they suffocate."

One thousand RPO-A Shmels were delivered to the SLA in a single planeload on July 17, the Sunday Leader claimed, adding that the colleague of Gajanayake, Ameer Temour, who negotiated the deal with a Ukrainian arms supplier was fired on July 17. Temour told the paper that Gajanayake had submitted expenses claims of nearly half a million US dollars which were bribes for Ballagalle and other senior SLA officers.

Whilst the SLA had expected to take delivery of 1000 brand new warheads, the paper claims the batch delivered comprised 400 manufactured in 1989 and 600 in 1991. The weapon expires after 10 years. The sole manufacture is KBC Instrument Design Bureau in Tula, Russia.

"[The age of the delivered units] explains how Gladstone was able to negotiate the supply and export the items without contravening any rights the manufacturing company in Russia held to be the sole authority to supply the brand new item," the paper said.

Ominous signs of the sinister future that awaits the Tamils
 
[Editorial, Eelam Nation]
 
The immediate and the long term future of the Tamil nation are far more sinister than what meet the eye. The government controlled internment camps in Vavuniya are a reminder of the refugee camps set for Tamil people affected by the state sponsored pogroms in the past, only for these pogroms to be repeated and they becoming refugees again. The internment camps although are nowhere near the refugee camps but have been developed into virtual concentration camps designed for the final solution to the Tamil question. If those in the camps are Tamils liberated then the question is why are they segregated by gender and enclosed by razor wire fences subjected to all kinds of abuses and humiliation.
 
Every Tamil is deemed to be a terrorist or a potential terrorist by virtue of their mere birth.  We are told that forty five percent of the Tamils live in the south of Sri Lanka and they live happily except for the fact that they have also to stand in queues periodically, to say the least, to register themselves, an ordeal that a Sinhalese person is not subjected to. Living in intellectual ghettos with their freedom constrained by the movement of the white vans, they owe their existence to the generosity of the terrorist racist state.  It would be recalled that the defence secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse stated recently that Tamil terrorism would not raise its head for another ten generations. In other words if all Tamils are terrorists then there will be no Tamil political dissent even constitutionally especially in the complete absence of any semblance of democracy or free media for another ten generations, if that is what is envisaged, then this is to be achieved through the complete decimation of the Tamil people. They will then indeed be silenced forever. There are many ways of doing this. Gothabaya also stated that once the cancer of terrorism is removed there is then the "radium treatment". This treatment will be more painful and protracted to the terminally ill Tamils, before the plug is finally pulled off their life support, than the elimination of their leadership.
 
Recently at a meeting of all Tamil mercenaries including those from the so called Provincial Council of  the east and other persons of straw convened by President Rajapakse to get  Tamil reassurance for his programme of genocide, the raw mayor of Batticaloa uninhibited by the political trappings and protocol raised the question of Tamil women in these internment camps being sterilised, only to be  silenced by a minister who instead of undertaking to inquire  into such a serious allegation made by no less than the Mayor of the "liberated" section of the Tamils, stated that there was  nothing like that. It was done just like that. We have also received reports that pregnant mothers were being forced to abort and infants were being allowed to die with no proper medication and /or milk foods. So much for the future of the generation of unborn terrorists who the Sri Lankan government will ensure would continue to never see the light of day.
 
What about the "Tamil terrorists" injured by the hundreds per day by military bombings? On an independent assessment made with the blessings of President Rajapakse during the last week of March 2009, it was revealed that  there were more than 6500 patients, injured by military bombings transported to the Mannar and Vavuniya hospitals where the numbers of patients are far in excess of the beds available by at least one hundred percent with the Trincomalee hospital left for the exclusive use of the government security forces who are fighting a "foreign" enemy, the Tamils.  The ministry of health had proposed starting cluster hospitals to serve these main hospitals, but the proposal had been shot down by the defense ministry, as a security threat. No informal or private conversation with the refugees is possible in these camps, with security personnel in civilian clothes deployed as IDPs amongst the refugees. This prevents innocent refugees from even talking of their day to day needs, to any authority.
 
The question is: how long will these liberated Tamils be kept within the razor wires? According to government claims they came (or did they stray?) into these camps in search of freedom. The human rights minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who was privy to the fizzling out of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) appointed to oversee the working of the farcical Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the cold blooded murders of the 18 Tamil youth workers and the 5 students in Trincomalee made a startling revelation at a media conference in September 2008 regarding the plight of the IDPs.  He stated, unashamedly, that the Tamils were also Sri Lankan citizens and therefore it was the responsibility of the Sri Lankan government to look after their welfare. The more often they refer to the Tamils in such annoying terms and as "our own brothers and sisters" the greater the hypocrisy they betray. We know already that they love the Tamils to death.
 
The civilians including infants now being killed and maimed are said to be all terrorists killed in pitched battles in the sea and on land because the matter of the loan from the IMF is pending further discussion.
 
There is much talk amongst the international community about post conflict resolution, political solution etc. They need not hold their breath. Egged on by India in their treachery towards  the Tamils, as the present time being most opportune, Rajapakse will call more of the farcical meetings of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) when the Tamils have been completely broken and are at their weakest with nearly 250,000 dying,  starving and sick with no medical attention and 50,000 incarcerated in the military camps in Vavuniya with most of the men tortured as terrorists and used as servants and the women subjected to all manner of abuses. In Jaffna, the cultural capital of the Tamils, for every civilian there are 10 military personnel breathing over their shoulders and intellectuals abducted in the white vans.  The so-called Tamil leaders with whom the government will discuss any "devolution" that they seek to be rushed through as an eye wash will be those men of straw whom Rajapakse has anointed  as leaders of the Tamil people warring with each other. That is exactly what Rajapakse wants.  It takes only a few minutes to study the antecedents and credentials of these "'leaders" to determine the calibre of their leadership.
 
R. Sampanthan the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) the only elected political party truly representative of Tamil political aspirations in Parliament has declined the offer to participate in these hasty discussions to be bamboozled and railroaded, mainly on the ground that while the Tamils are being killed and maimed in their hundreds per day on the one hand and their political future be discussed with the killers on the other, would be an injustice to the Tamils whom they represent. The Tamil people in the first instance must be alive and not even half dead or for that matter half alive for their political future to be discussed and determined. The international community would be deceiving themselves if they were to believe that any political settlement meaningful to the Tamils anywhere near would be devised under the circumstances.
 
URL: http://www.eelamnation.net/headlines_details.php?secid=71&newsid=5631

Thank you.

In solidarity,

Eelam Nation Team!