Friday 6 February 2009

Reply to Karen Parker’s open letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

There is a new intrusion into the already crowded interfering international political and non-political moralists trying to hamper the Sovereign State of Sri Lanka, defending its people and its country unaided by any foreign governments, to ditch overboard a group of ruthless terrorists that had for thirty years terrorised its people, assassinated best of its leaders , politicians, senior army and police officers, massacred innocent civilians, Buddhist Monks, Buddhist pilgrims in the precincts of the sacred Bodhi Tree in the Sacred City of Anuradhapura, and Muslims praying in their mosques, tortured , kidnapped and brutalised the people.

The new intruder is Karen Parker representing an Association of Humanitarian Lawyers in USA.

Undoubtedly she too is sponsored by a wealthy Front Organisation of the terrorists in USA, which is evident from the false information she had been fed by them which she admirably presents to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, quoting her dignified status of the Chief delegate of the International Educational Development (Roster)
President, Association of Humanitarian Lawyer.

Her presentation of the case against the Government of Sri Lanka, is full of irrelevancies and unverified information presented as facts. First she refers to her previous contacts and communication for the last 26 years seeking to bring the long” conflict in Sri Lanka between the Sinhala forces and Tamil people and their forces”, to a peaceful and equitable conclusion.

With regard to her reference to “the conflict in Sri Lanka between the Sinhala forces, and Tamil people and forces”, it appears that she has not done her home work to study what really is the problem in Sri Lanka, who are involved in it, and why the situation has deteriorated from being serious to being catastrophic for the Tamils.

Karen Parker refers to a statement made by the UNHCHR Ms. N.Pillay on 29 January,2009, regarding the dire situation of Tamil civilians in the North of Sri Lanka. Karen Parker does not seem to have grasped the underlying meaning of the statement made by the UN High Commissioner.

Therefore, let us take a little time to educate Karen Parker on the situation in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka there are three main Communities not to mention the other smaller Communities. The three main Communities are the Sinhala 78 percent of the population, the Tamils 13 percent of the population, and the Muslims 7 percent of the population (census figures for 2003).

Of this 13 percent of Tamils, more than 55 percent of them live in the South among the Sinhala, Muslim, Malay and other Communities. There is a larger distribution of the three Communities in the South than in the North and East. The Sinhala people have no conflict with the Tamil people in the South, in the North, or in the East. The UN High Commissioner is quite aware of this, and that is why in her statement of the 29 January,2009 referred to by Karen Parker, she had referred to “Tamil Civilians” in the North of Sri Lanka.

In other words in the North there is a problem created by a group of “non-civilian Tamils”, that has put in danger the lives of the “Tamil Civilians”. The problem with Karen Parker is that she puts all Tamils into the same basket, and for 26 years she had been seeking to end a non existing problem, when the real problem is elsewhere. The problem, Ms. Karen Parker is with the “non-civilian Tamils”

Now Who are these “non-civilian Tamils” ?

They are the combatants, in other words the terrorists. The terrorists are a group of youth who in 1979 took up arms against the government, demanding a separate territory in the North and East as a homeland for the Tamil people. They were encouraged and taken charge of by the Indian Intelligence section (RAW) with the full knowledge of the Indian Government, and trained in guerrilla warfare to fight against the Government Forces of Sri Lanka to set up their separate State.

After training the terrorists lead by Prabhakaran went back to the jungles of the North of Sri Lanka from ,where they began their guerrilla war against the Government Forces, and began a campaign of terror against all the Tamils, assassinating one by one the Tamil politicians who opposed them. They in fact killed more Tamils than the Sri Lanka Government Forces. I will not go into further details as I do not want to make this post too long.

However, it may be sufficient to say that this Group of terrorists led by Prabhakaran started as a small group. But soon they were financially assisted by the Tamils of the diaspora who were interested in the terrorist’s demand for a separate homeland for the Tamils. The Tamil diaspora organised themselves forming Terrorist Front Organisations to collect contributions and send them directly to the terrorists in Sri Lanka. As years passed the collections made by the Tamil diaspora took great proportions, reaching 200 to 300 million Dollars per year. With these money, helped by a CFA agreement signed by a previous government, the terrorists acquired most modern weaponry , bought 10 ships in which they imported shiploads of arms and ammunitions, got involved in illegal human cargo, and in drug sales earning large sums of money.

They bought journalists, bribed people, they are said to have even used the services of diplomats for purchase and transport using their diplomatic immunity, sophisticate communication material, parts of planes to be assembled later by them. They kidnapped young children and trained them as suicide bombs called the black tigers. It was one of these black tigers that exploded herself before the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, killing him and many who were with him.

These terrorists have no respect for human life. The young men and women kidnapped by them are trained to explode themselves targeting politicians , army commanders or civilians in crowded places. They carry jackets with explosives under their blouses or shirts and detonate them in the presence of the selected target.

These “living suicide bombs”, before they are sent on a mission to assassinate some one, are given the opportunity to sit with their leader the “thalaivar” Prabhakaran who for them is the Sun God. The ruthless brute he is, Prabhakaran sits for a meal with the black tiger, who he knows is going to die exploding a bomb, for his dream, know that she was having her last meal and that she would never to come back again. That is the type of brute that Karen Parker is directly or indirectly defending. That is the story that her informants of the diaspora have not disclosed to her.

The terrorists built such a great military force and organised themselves so well, that many thought that the Government Forces will never be able to defeat them. Many governments tried to end their terrorism first by military operations, then by negotiations but the end result was their gathering force, and equipping themselves each time a cease fire was declared.

Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse was elected the President of Sri Lanka on 17 November2005. He was determined to settle the problem of terrorism that had lasted two and half decades and taken a toll of 60 000 lives. He immediately invited the terrorist leader for a negotiated settlement. The terrorist refused and instead exploded several claymore bombs massacring large numbers of civilians, and attempted to assassinate the Commander of the Army.

Finally in July, 2006 with the close of a sluice gate in Mavil Aru , by the terrorists depriving water to thousands of farmers, the President was forced to take a military solution to end terrorism. In the successful military operations his Government Forces many areas that was kept under the control of the terrorist were liberated.

The present position is that the terrorists have been pushed in to a small area of 300 sq. km. The terrorists when they were driven by the Armed Forces into this area they now occupy, forced the Tamil Civilians in the areas that were under their control , to follow them. These Tamil Civilians amounting to between 50,000 to 100,000, are now kept as captives by the terrorists using them as a human shield to protect themselves. The government cannot carry out the military operations against the terrorists without putting the civilian population in danger.


The government Forces which wanted to protect the Tamil Civilians cleared a safe area, and demanded the Tamil civilians detained by the terrorists by dropping leaflets, and making loudspeaker announcements to escape into the safe area to be conducted to safety. But the terrorist who fear that the escape of Tamil Civilians who now serve as a human shield to protect them, will be sitting ducks for Army artillery fire, do not allow the civilians to escape.

Those civilians who had the courage to defy the terrorists, and escaped into the safe area were shot at by the terrorists killing some of them and wounding many. This had been done deliberately by the terrorists to put the blame on the Government Forces ,and attract the attention of the International Community, pointing it out as a violation of human rights by the Government Forces by shooting the civilians who escaped into the safe area.

An intelligent observer would of course d pose the question as to why the Government Forces should clear a safe area and then shoot at the civilians escaping into it. One has to be really “stupid” to accuse the government Forces for such an act.

The terrorists are inhuman, ruthless and they have no limit for their lust for blood. They are demoniacs who train young Tamil boys and girls as suicide bombs. Ms. Karen Parker does not seem to understand that the Government Forces are humane, though they carry out military operations to save both their motherland, and the people. They had through out the military operations avoided damage to Tamil Civilians.

Now if the Armed Forces were to act inhumanly and force in with artillery fire into the small area where the terrorists are closed into, the terrorism could be finished with in few hours. But the Armed Forces have a duty to save the Tamil Civilians, who are not their enemies.The President has given strict instructions to the Army Commanders to avoid danger to the civilians. Therefore, the Government Forces are manoeuvring to get the civilians out into the safe areas first, before they attack the terrorists, even if it would take more time for a final raid into the area under terrorist control to capture them, and force them to surrender.

Many Tamil websites and certain interested parties are trying to create the impression that the death of civilians, and damage to hospital in the area have been caused by the Government Forces. They also accuse the Government Forces for using cluster bombs. The Government has time and time again assured that they have not used these bombs, and they have not bought these bombs. This can be verified by the ICRC instead of blaming the Government Forces who have been fighting an unmerciful, inhuman group of terrorists, in which they have sacrificed the lives of many of their brothers in service, and continue to risk their own lives.

That is the real situation. Karen Parker’s anti Sinhala hysteria is prompted by the Anti-Government terrorist Front Organisations who had been her principle informnts. The law is one thing terrorism is another thing. Terrorism cannot be terminated in Sri Lanka or in any other Country by citing legal statutes, giving legal definitions to acts of terrorism, or quoting the Geneva convention. Terrorism is a pitiless massacre of people young and old by fanatical idealists.

In evaluating the situation in Sri Lanka Karen Parker should understand that there are two parties to it, the terrorists, and the Government. Therefore, to understand the reality of the situation she has to listen to both parties before coming to conclusions. Karen Parker being a lawyer should no that basic fact. In the present case of her accusing the Government of Sri Lanka she had not thought it necessary to get the point of view of the other party to the conflict. She relies completely on the anti government Front Organisations for Terrorists, for her information, therefore her views and conclusions are both lopsided.

The civilians who have escaped from the terrorist held areas, are provided temporary accommodation. Ms. Karen Parker does not seem to have any first hand knowledge of terrorists and what terrorism represents to a people in a country which had suffered under terrorism for three long decades. The terrorists are not liberators, they are killers who want to wrest what they want by force. The government of Sri Lanka is not fighting a “war “ against the Tamil people, but are carrying out military operations to rid the country of terrorists.

The terrorists have nothing to loose, they have no respect for human life, and only the people who had dealt with the terrorists understand who they are and what ruses they are capable of using to infiltrate into army camps, or crowded civilian areas to create mayhem. Therefore, the civilians who are escaping into the government controlled areas could be used by the terrorists to send along with them terrorists pretending to be innocent civilians. Once they come they could get their contacts to provide them with suicide jackets and go into a military camp as a civilian seeking protection and detonate themselves. That is why even the civilians who have taken refuge in the government areas are advised to remain inside the camps.

The Government with the help of the UN and the ICRC send weekly food rations and medicine into the terrorist controlled areas, which are also utilised by the terrorists. Therefore to say that the civilians are not supplied with food and medicine is false. The picture Ms.Karen Parker is painting about the Sinhala army and the situation of the Tamil Civilians who have escaped into areas controlled by the Sri Lanka Army is not that bleak.

In Sri Lanka there is no “genocide”, which has become a vogue word utilised by the terrorists to bring international sympathy towards them. If there is a”genocide” it is to eliminate the terrorists for ever from our Island, but so far as the Tamil civilians are concerned they are Sri Lankans who had been living with the Sinhala and Muslim Communities for generations. The Sri Lanka army is definitely not “carrying out a genocide” against the Tamil people.

The Sri Lanka Government does not disown the Tamil people, they are part and parcel of Sri Lankan Nation. The ordinary Tamil people want to live in peace, among the rest of their compatriots the Sinhala , the Muslims and the rest. They do not want a separate homeland, because they accept one motherland for all communities. They are not asking for political rights and a Federal Constitution. The devolution of power, and change of Constitutions are all the amalgams of the Sri Lanka Tamils of the diaspora and the ambitious Tamil politicians who want to dominate the poor Tamil civilians dividing them according to their castes, and class.

Therefore the only way to save the Tamil people and ensure that their full rights are afforded, is by those who do not know the problems, traditions and way of living of another people of another culture, keeping away from interfering into what they do not know or know less about and allow the sovereign state the elected government of the people of Sri Lanka decide what is best for the country and its people.

If the people of Sri Lanka the Sinhala, the Tamils and the Muslims are dissatisfied with the government, they will replace the government with another at the next election in two years. There is a healthy democratic system prevailing in Sri Lanka, and finally it is the people who decide.

Ms.Karen Parker pleads the UN High Commissioner for Human rights to seek out representatives of the Tamil people in the very large Diaspora and to meet with those who seek an audience. These are Ms. Karen Parker’s informants , who had given her a distorted view of the Sri Lanka situation. It is not the Tamil diaspora living in clover in their comfortable homes away from the din of claymore bombs detonated in buses , trains and market places by the terrorists, who had suffered from the atrocities of the terrorism. They are merely making up stories about “genocides” to give a life line to the terrorists, who had promised them a homeland, for which they had contributed large sums of money.

All those who are in the Diaspora did not flee from Sri Lanka after racial riots, which they keep on repeating, but many of them left in search of a better life quoting the “oppressive Sinhala regimes” as a reason for seeking political asylum. The views of the Tamil diaspora is not the view of the ordinary Tamil people living in Sri Lanka.

Therefore the High Commissioner for Human Rights knows best who to consult and who to believe as she is already aware of the situation in Sri Lanka, more clearly than the clouded view presented by Ms.Karen Parker.

Therefore we request the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to inform Ms. Karen Parker, that the situation in Sri Lanka is being taken care of by a an alert and a kindly President and his government in the interest of the Tamil Civilans as well as in the interest of the other Communities living in Sri Lanka.


Sri Lanka Gu rdian Website :http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2009/02/sri-lanka-international-community.html

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