Karu Jayasuriya had looked at Egypt through the wrong end of the telescope, therefore owes an apology to President Mahinda Rajapakse.

"The UNP’s Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya had said that Egypt has proved that every tyrant has his day of reckoning and therein lies the hope for those of us in Sri Lanka, who witness with each passing day, the dictatorial aspirations of the current regime. There are deep lessons for all Sri Lankans, oppressed and oppressor alike, in the peoples’ revolt that changed the course of Egyptian history, and the world, last night,’’

– The Sunday Island 13 February 2011.

This political treasure hunter Karu Jayasuriya has a short memory. But fortunately the Sri Lankan voters on the other hand have not forgotten his crooked path back and forth from one political party to the other feeling both sides to see from which side he will stand to gain more.

Jayasuriya is a political arriviste, when his political future seemed uncertain in UNP, he moved on to greener pastures blissfully happy in the cabinet of the President Mahinda Rajapakse whom he now accuses for “dictatorial aspirations “, and then when he saw the possibility of an eventual political leadership in going back to UNP, he left the Government, to become the deputy leader of the UNP.

Now he is not sure of his place in the UNP, with Ranil Wickramasinghe’s days as leader of the UNP being numbered. He has got to do another volte-face for a ride behind Sajith Premadasa. He is strangely fallen into the same bracket along with Mangala Samaraweera. The people of Matara are by now tired of the hate mongering Mangala Samaraweera, and may soon kick him out of politics from Matara. Therefore following Mangala Samaraweera’s political tactics will not help Karu Jayasuriya.

Leaving aside the political ambition of Jayasooriya who is falling in to line with the rest of the UNP “ bag pipes” Tissa Attanayake, Lakshman Kiriella , Jayalath Jayawardhana and Gayantha Karunatilleke all like Neros playing their violins while Rome is burning, are little concerned about Sri Lanka, but more about their own political future .

Jayasooriya may be intelligent, but he is making a fool of himself by making absurd political statements that does not give credit to his political respectability. His latest attempt to show off his knowledge of foreign affairs is his looking at the Egyptian political situation from the wrong end of his political telescope. It has no relevance at all to Sri Lanka and least of all it does not give even an oblong view to make a comparison between our President Mahinda Rajapakse and President Hosni Mubarak. Two of them both as personalities and politicians are far apart like the earth and the sky.

However it is impossible to imagine Mahinda Rajapakse as a President with “ dictatorial aspirations ” in the uniform of a tyrant. It would only be an old witch like Thisaranee who may write in similar vein. She at least has no political ambition, but desires one “miserable award” from the International Federation of Journalists, The Citizens’ Peace Award , US Freedom Defenders Award or the UNESCO Press Freedom Prize.

These awards are readily available to any citizen who writes against the government if it is trying to break away from the traditional allegiance to the West. For instance writing against the President and Government of Sri Lanka, and Cooperate with some one like the United States Assistant Secretary of State Robert O’Blake to provide anti Sri Lanka Government information for his annual report to the American Senate on Sri Lanka is a sure bet to win one of the International Awards mentioned above.

Coming back to Jayasuriya’s effort to compare our President Mahinda Rajapakse to Hosni Mubarak, it would be interesting to know what was behind Jayasuriya’s mind to make such and absurd comparison.

He may have assumed that he could fool the ordinary people- the peasants he meets during his UNP Grama Charika with a statement that Mahinda Rajapakse is preparing to be a Dictator like Hosni Mubarak to tyrannise the people, so that frightened they might vote for the UNP at the Local Government Elections, which would avoid them having to go to manifest around the Lypton Circus in Colombo like the people in Egypt around the Tahrir Square.

The caption of Jayasuriya’s article is “ Egyptian peoples revolt has deep lessons for both oppressed and oppressor in Sri Lanka”. It is very unfortunate that a man who had been silently doing his work as the Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs in the Cabinet of President Mahind Rajapaksan to have called the president an “oppressor”.

The people of Sri Lanka are however behind the President and do not accept him as an oppressor. Neither do they feel that they are oppressed. If Jayasuriya means the rising cost of living that makes them feel oppressed , he should know that it is not unique to Sri Lanka and the inclement weather that destroyed acres of paddy fields and affected vegetable cultivation is also a cause for unprecedented price hikes of related consumer articles.

In his article Karu Jayasuriya speaks very highly of the largely peaceful pro-democratic protests and the pivotal role played by the military in not transferring the peaceful manifestations into a blood bath on the streets, to allow Egypt to embark on the road to democracy. He speaks of watching history being made in Egypt moved by the significance of the event to “ demand for the removal of the President Mubarak” . He adds that the young people of Egypt did not employ violence or terrorism, which he thinks is the overreaching beauty of the revolt.

Overwhelmed by the significance of the event Jayasuriya seems to be giving himself a relaxing “yell” of satisfaction saying that , “the sheer might of the Egyptian people, will be etched in the collective memory of this generation, providing hope, inspiration and comfort to the oppressed and striking terror into the hearts of politicians who seek to tyrannize over their populations throughout the world.”

Somehow all these rhetoric seems to have a relevance to the only political ambition of UNP from the day one of the announcement of the election of Mahinda Rajapakse as the President of Sri Lanka in November, 2005, which is to stop Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse from continuing to be the President of Sri Lanka.

The UNP had few progressive projects for Sri Lanka, and unable to think of any more that would interest the people they have turned to one and only ambitious for the benefit of themselves rather than for the country, which is the ouster Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse from the Presidency. Jayasuriya’s greatest joy would be doing a “Mubarak” in Sri Lanka.

He comes directly to the point in saying that, “…..People argue that Sri Lanka is no Egypt, and that the Sri Lankan president is no Mubarak. But there are parallels to be drawn here, because while they may differ in appearance, every autocrat speaks the same language, plays the very same game. “

In the uprising of the Egyptian people against its President Hosni Mubarak, following Tunisia, there are some unanswered questions. While respecting these people for the risk they had taken , there are the questions as to whether the uprising of these people against the respective regimes were spontaneous or there were certain forces behind it such as the Shiites, Religious leaders, Muslim Fundamentalists, CIA, or even Al Qaida. There had been no leadership to accept conditions to the future situation after the departure of the Dictators. What is left for the people now and how will the democracy be established ?

In Tunisia and Egypt the Dictators have left the countries, deposed by the people, but what have the people won ? Would it be a case of falling from the frying pan into the fire ? No body seems to have the answers. Jayasuriaya so enamoured by the Egyptian people’s revolt cannot help either the Egyptians or the Tunisians. Is his jubilation reciprocated in the aftermath of the uprising of the poor people in Egypt ?

The Tunisian people who were the first to have been victorious, in forcing out their President El Abidine Ben Ali are now free. But these people having no immediate plans to organise their lives in their country under the new found democratic freedom, are reorted to be fleeing the country in thousands to Europe through Italy.

Can Karu Jayasuriya who sings swansongs of freedom “ we are truly privileged to have witnessed such defining moment in modern history” understand the utter helpless situation in which these poor people now find themselves ? Who stands to profit from the end of dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt ? Will it be the poor people of these countries ?

Karu Jayasuriya quotes another one of his heroines Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi , “there is an inevitable sameness about the challenges of authoritarian rule anywhere at any time, so there is a similarity in the intrinsic qualities of those who rise up to meet the challenge”.

The wisdom filled Karu Jayasuriya adds, “ It is this common creed that binds those peaceful protestors in Cairo’s Liberation Square, the people who risk life and limb demanding freedom for Burma and Tunisia, and those of us in this tiny island clamouring for a return to the tradition of democracy and freedom”.

Poor Jayasuriya knows next to nothing of Democracy. If he know he will never say “that this tiny Island clamouring for a return to democracy and freedom”

This is what the UNP, be it through its roaming Ranil Wickramasinghe , or the catholic Jayalath Jayawardhana, or ignorant Karu Jayasuriya tells the world. That Sri Lanka under the President Mahinda Rajapakse has lost the tradition of democracy and freedom.

To what extent is it true ?

If the tiny Island he refers to is Sri Lanka he should know better that Sri Lanka is today a country with a robust democracy at its pinnacle. Our people are free. There is the free media that could criticise our President, his Government, Sri Lanka Armed Forces. There are political parties springing up like mushrooms after the monsoon rains. Everybody can organise a Political Party The Tamils, Muslims, Sinhalese,and sub groups of same Communities have their own political parties..

Our people are free to follow what ever religion, speak what ever language and correspond with the government with their own language.

UN, Human Rights Activists, Amnesty International, NGOs, Tamil Nadu, Tamil Diaspora, and Bruce Fein, they can all criticise the President and the Government, make Investigations and even file criminal charges. Our Ambassadors too could be accused for all types of criminal charges for freeing our country from terrorism. Even the Tamils in the diaspora can float there own provisional government. Who says there is no democracy in our tiny Island.

Our prisons have no political prisoners, there are not torture chambers. We have free democratic elections regularly. We have a Constitution which is kept up to date with legally drafted amendments and voted in the Parliament. Our President is democratically elected for a specified period of time in Office according to the Constitution. Any number of persons can present themselves for the Presidential elections. There are the Courts of Law and Judges. How can Jaysuriya under these circumstances say we have no democracy and freedom in Sri Lanka?

Karu Jayasuriya speaks as if Sri Lanka is hell on earth for its people. He calls the people of Sri Lanka the oppressed class and says, that in Egypt people have at last found democracy and freedom after forcing out Hosni Mubarak. He is indirectly asking the people to get rid of Mahinda Rajapakse to find democracy and freedom !!!

Jayasuriya adds, “ People argue that Sri Lanka is no Egypt, and that the Sri Lankan president is no Mubarak. But there are parallels to be drawn here, because while they may differ in appearance, every autocrat speak the same language, play the very same game,”

What are the parallels Karu Jayasuriya sees between Mubarak’s Egypt and Mahinda Rajapakse’s Sri Lanka who he says though “differ in appearance” speak the” same language and plays the very same game “ ?

It is strange the people of Sri Lanka do not see it that way. They love the President Mahinda Rajapakse. They are very close to him. Unlike the President Mubarak who did not mix with the ordinary people, President Mahinda Rajapakse meets the poor people at weddings, funerals, in the temples, in the fields and invites them to his Official residence.

Let us see to what extent Jayasuriya is correct or wrong in his assertion that there is no democracy and freedom in Sri Lanka..

Who was Mubarak and what was Egypt under him ? Mubarak was an army man through out his life until he became the Vice President, in 1975.

It was when he was the Air Chief Marshall that he was appointed by Late Anwar El Sadat the President of Egypt to be his Vice President. He was schooled and trained as a military man and was not a politician who mixed with the people.

Mubarak as a Air Marshall stood outside the ordinary people . After the assassination of Anwar El Sadat in 1981, he became the President of Egypt. As the President he was also the head of the National Democratic Party.

As the President of Egypt has Hosni Mubarak any parallel to the President Mahinda Rajapakse ?

The President Mahinda Rajapakse comes from a family of politicians and he himself was the youngest Member of Parliament when he was elected to represent Beliatte in 1970, at the age of 24 years. He had been a politician through out his life. He was also a practicing lawyer. Coming from a village in the Sothern Sri Lanka he was a man among his fellow men, constantly in touch with them.

Hosni Mobarak was appointed President of Egypt after the assassination of Anwar El Sadat in 1981. As the President he became the leader of the National Democratic Party of Egypt. During the 30 years as President Hosni Mobarak was nominated four times by the Parliament as the President of Egypt and confirmed in a referendum of the people. Egyptian Constitution does not provide for multi candidates for the Presidential Elections and therefore Mubarak unlike Mahinda Rajapakse, did not have to face any elections.

Is there any parallel in the election of Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse as President and that of Hosni Mobarac nominated by the Egyptian Parliament and confirmed by a referendum as the President of Egypt ? I don’t see any.

Egypt was a Semi Republic for the most part ruled under emergency. President Hosni Mubarak helped USA to free Kuwait from Iraqi Invasion becoming a close ally of the USA . Mubarak escaped four assassination attempts. There was no free media in Egypt during his Presidency. There was a large number of political detainees, and people arrested under emergency laws languished in Egyptian Prisons.

Does Karu Jayasuriya think that the situation described above which he is free to make research and assert for himself is in any way parallel to what is prevailing in Sri Lanka ? Does he now accept that Mahinda Rajapakse is different with politics in his blood and has not arrogated into being a President, but elected by the people in proper( Westminster style) democratic methods, with a large majority of people voting for him ?

Does Karu Jayasuriya the Deputy Leader of the UNP now agree with the people who “ argue that Sri Lanka is no Egypt, and that the Sri Lankan president is no Mubarak “ ?

Does he still agree as he had said in his article, that “…….. there are parallels to be drawn here, because while they may differ in appearance, every autocrat speaks the same language, plays the very same game” ?

Hadn’t Jayasuriya been looking through the wrong end of the telescope and saw parallels with Egypt and Sri Lanka ?

And therefore doesn’t he owe an apology to the President Mahinda Rajapakse for comparing him to an incomparable?

as Hosni Mubar

If India is a friend of Sri Lanka it should have accepted the Sri Lanka Government’s denial of shooting Indian fishermen.

Much has been written on India’s pseudo-friendly hypocrisy towards Sri Lanka. I am sure the government of Sri Lanka is aware of this but does not want to openly accept it as India is capable of even intervening militarily with Sri Lanka just to please the Tamil Nadu politicians who lack political intelligence, and are politically infantile, but yet are capable of making the Central Government of India a pawn in their hands on the TamilNadu political checkerboard

In other words the TamilNadu politicians are foolish and emotional, rather than being intelligent and mature. Therefore they are capable of even breaking away from India merely to “teach a lesson” to the Central Government for not giving into their absurd demands. Hence the present intolerable attitude adopted by a weak Indian government towards Sri Lanka-which does not want to antagonize its neighbour with all the problems it has with a grossly vindictive West.

TamilNadu political maniacs are forcing India to a military confrontation with Sri Lanka. That is the reason for this fiasco about the shooting of Indian fishermen which is a plan hatched by the Tamil Nadu political “terrorists” to strain what ever “cordial” relations India may have with Sri Lanka.

The killing of Indian fishermen if there had been any must have been the “work” of the cohorts of the TamilNadu extremists to implicate the Sri Lanka Navy. The Central Government of India is undoubtedly aware of it but haven’t got the guts and the political strength to openly tell the TamilNadu political militants who are feeding on their animosity towards Sri Lanka, that the Sri Lanka Navy cannot be responsible for the killing of the fishermen and that Tamilnadu should not embarrass the Central government demanding its intervention on a matter without substantial evidence against the Sri Lanka Navy.

Any nincompoop can understand that the Sri Lanka Navy will not shoot at innocent fishermen whether they are Indian or Sri Lankan. If at all the Navy were to have shot, it would have shot into the air as a warning and definitely not directly at the Indian fishermen nor will they take fishermen on board to tie a noose round their necks and throw them into the sea. This is high “drama” that no intelligent person could even imagine.

The fact that all these complaints of Navy shooting at the Indian fishermen have been planned by the Tamil Nadu politicians is evident from the latest incident where the local fishermen of Jaffna had seized 136 Indian fishermen who had been poaching in Sri Lanka waters.

In this incident it is not the Sri Lanka Navy that is involved but the Jaffna Tamil fishermen themselves. If TamilNadu political Tamils are sincere about their claim of ethnic attachment to Sri Lanka Tamils how is it that TamilNadu political leaders are depriving the Sri Lanka Tamil fishermen their livelihood in peaceful fishing in their own maritime waters, without demanding Indian fishermen not to adventure in to the maritime area which rightly belongs to the Sri Lanka Tamil fishermen ?

In this incident a more serious situation has come to light. It had been often pointed out by many writers to the Lankaweb that opening Consular Offices by India in Jaffna and Hambantota should not be allowed as India has ulterior motives, and that these Consulates are more likely to be manned by Indian RAW Agents, who were, “ once upon a time” responsible for training Tamil youth from Sri Lanka in terrorist war fare in special camps in the jungles of TamilNadu . What is the guarantee that the India RAW will not try it out once again, now with the RAW Agents probably acting as personnel of the Consulate offices in Sri Lanka ?

This suspicion appears justified, as we learn that the Indian Consulate Office had intervened when the 136 Indian fishermen and their boats had been seized by the local fishermen and handed over to the police.

It is definitely not a matter for the Consular Office, which has been set up to facilitate people in the area to obtain visas to India, to have intervened on behalf of Indian fishermen captured while they were illegally fishing in the maritime waters of Sri Lanka. It may have been more appropriate for the Indian Consulate Office to have requested the Indian High Commission Office in Colombo to intervene in the matter.

But the Indian Consulate General V.Mahalingam in the Jaffna Consulate Office had acted in a very high handed manner in intervening with the Sri Lanka Judiciary in Jaffna to have the 136 Indian fishermen released from custody.

This is a matter for the Government of Sri Lanka to take up with the Indian External Affair Minister S.N Krishna, as an offensive intervention into the legal procedure of a Sri Lanka Court of Law by an Indian Consulate General acting beyond his authority.

The Government of Sri Lanka should also demand India that it should warn its Consulate Generals to strictly keep within their Consulate duties without abusing their Consular position to interfere with administrative and Judicial matters of the Government of Sri Lanka.

If not these Indian Consulate Offices will become centres to undermine our independence and Communal unity, with India already treating the Tamil Community in Sri Lanka differently from the other Communities

The Indian Government should appreciate that while our High Commission Office in Chennai is more often put into inconvenience if not danger by the manifestations of the TamilNadu Tamils, the Indian Consulates and the Indian High Commission are in perfect safety without being put into any inconvenience by Sri Lankans manifesting to show their disillusionment of Indian “friendliness” and condemnation of the Indian interference into, not only the control and surveillance of the maritime space of Sri Lanka by its Navy, but also into its Judiciary by a mere Administrative Officer of the Indian Consulate.

This should be quite an eye opener to our own Tamil Community and the TNA politicians who make pilgrimage to TamilNadu to make complaints against their own Sri Lanka government to these hybrid Tamilnadu Tamil politicians of no consequence.

These Tamil Nadu politicians have amply demonstrated by their arrogant, vengeful attitude on the “fishermen issue” that they have no real interest in the Tamil Community in Sri Lanka. They pretended that they were really acting in the interest of their ethnic counterparts the Sri Lanka Tamils by mollycoddling Prabhakaran and his terrorists and demanding the Indian government time and again to intervene to end the military operations of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces against the terrorists.

But their real interest, as we now see had been to help the terrorist Prabhakaran to divide Sri Lanka and create a Tamil Eelam which they could later annex as a part of TamilNadu State. Having failed in that now they are vindictive against the government of Sri Lanka and condemns the Tamil fishermen of Sri Lanka for taking the law into their own hands.

It is strange that through out this episode the TNAMPs had maintained a holy silence. The TNA MPs who are vociferous about the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka so much, should if they are genuine speak on behalf of the Sri Lanka Tamil fisher folk, and condemn outright the TamilNadu politicians for supporting without protest the Indian Fishermen poaching in the maritime space of Sri Lanka that is open only to our fishermen.

This is also a matter that should interest the Sri Lanka Tamil Diaspora, to understand that the Sri Lanka Tamils are a part and parcel of the Sri Lanka citizenry and cannot be separated from the rest of the Communities in Sri Lanka, and that the Tamil Nadu Tamils are different and have no social or cultural connection to the Tamil Community in Sri Lanka. Therefore it is time that the Tamil diaspora rallies round Sri Lanka and contributes to its development to make Sri Lanka a great Nation where communal differences have been eliminated in the greater interest of being Sri Lankans.

With India as a friend Sri Lanka needs no enemies. It had bee reported that the Indian External Affairs Minister Krishna had ,”…. expressed his deep regret on Sri Lankan fishermen taking law into their own hands and warned that they too have to be “very cautious” when they are getting into Indian waters.”

The Sri Lanka Tamil fishermen had “taken the law into their own hands” as the Indian authorities had failed to stop their fishermen from poaching in Sri Lanka waters, and for falsely accusing the Sri Lanka Navy controlling the maritime area belonging to Sri Lanka for killing Indian fishermen.

Further more It was reported that, “……the Indian Foreign Minister has suggested to the Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister that fishermen associations from both sides should discuss and come to an agreement with regard to fishing in international waters.”

This shows that the Central Government of India is unable on its own to control the movements of the Indian fishermen as it is afraid of antagonizing the Tamil Nadu politicians.

India is profiting from the Sri Lanka Government’s meek acceptance of Indian demands as a sign of weakness . India is pretentious and lacks the sincerity to accept the word of the Government of Sri Lanka when it denied that its Navy had not killed Indian fishermen, preferring to accept the word of the Tamil Nadu Tamil politicians who are vindictive towards Sri Lanka for the elimination of their terrorist thalaivar Prabhakaran and his terrorists cohorts.

Is Sarath Fonseka a National Hero, or a selfish egoist full of hatred, and a traitor to those who fought along with him?

In 2005 the future of Sri Lanka was bleak. It had been going through a number of years of an almost endless suffering under terrorism . Its citizens had no safety place to hide. They were living in terror of uncertainty, not knowing where a bomb will explode killing thousands of innocent people.

No political leader was safe they would be the target of a suicide bomber any place any time. The terrorist money could buy any one from an Army Officer, Security Guard, or a police officer, (not to speak of the media, and foreign NGOs, diplomats, or politicians) allowing terrorists easy passage to security zones any where in Sri Lanka. Suicide bombers were even said to have been transported in official vehicles. The Commander of the Armed Forces was nearly assassinated by a suicide bomber - a pregnant woman .

Added to that an unexpected tsunami struck the East coast of Sri Lanka killing more than 30000 people and causing immense damage to property leaving thousands homeless. Innumerable numbers of NGOs landed in Sri Lanka under the guise of helping the tsunami affected people .

Some of these NGOs were paid Agents sent by foreign companies engaged by expatriate terrorist front organisations to help the terrorists construct air strips, factories to turnout landmines and bombs, construct submersible boats , and under sea passages. The evil of NGOs invading Sri Lanka after tsunami became evident only after the terrorists were eliminated.

In the meantime peace negotiations with the terrorists were begun with a Norwegian mediator which ended up with Ranil Wickramasinghe a most shortsighted political novice as Prime Minister acceding to a Norwegian proposal to sign a CFA with the terrorists which demarcated territories in the North and East of Sri Lanka as terrorist controlled areas.

The peace negotiations with the terrorists were unsuccessful as far as the Government was concerned, but benefitted the terrorists to strengthen their terrorist forces, and even to purchase more than ten ships enabling them to import unlimited quantities of arms and armaments, heavy and small artillery and even airplanes, heavy tractors for construction work.

The terrorists were therefore, very much stronger in military power, and was in a position to dictate terms to a government with an armed force which was no match to that of the terrorists. The Government Armed Forces were further weakened by a CFA that madder it difficult for them from taking retaliatory action against terrorist attacks and massacres not only because of their weak military power , but also because of the terrorist controlled areas demarcated under the CFA into which they could not enter.

The Commanders of the Armed Forces were unable to take independent action due to political intervention, and that of the Norwegian Mediation Mission which was favourable to the terrorists. A previous President was even said to have procured arms armaments to the terrorists. Everyone thought that terrorism had come to stay and that they have to learn to live in fear and uncertainty.

The consensus was that at least the South had to be protected leaving North and East to what ever fate.

It was into that depressively dark , cloudy atmosphere Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse was elected as the President of Sri Lanka in November, 2005.

Respective of the democratic system, the new President was determined to see an end to terrorism first by a face to face meeting for a dialogue with the terrorist leader Prabhakaran. Prabhakaran refused such a meeting, but instead agreed for a peace negotiation. However the negotiations which was begun with sum hope were disrupted by the terrorist Prabhakaran and he showed all his opposition to a negotiated settlement by having a claymore bomb exploded in a bus full of passengers in Kebetigollawa, and closing the sluice gates of a tank depriving water to the farmers.

Therefore, in this rude “ war and no negotiations” reply of the terrorist leader, there was no alternative to the President Mahinda Rajapakse other than to resort to a military solution to end terrorism.

He wanted trusted military officers to carry out the Military Operations against the terrorists to a finish. He began by appointing in November, 2005, his brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse a veteran of the Sri Lanka Army who had retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 20 years of active service. He had won medals of gallantry from several former Presidents of Sri Lanka for his military role in the then military operations against the terrorists.

The President apparently had sat with his brother Gotabhaya Rajapakse the Defence Secretary to put in place a reliable Military hierarchy to end the nearly 22 year of terrorism. They selected in December 2005, General Sarath Fonseka as the Command of the Army with Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda as the Commander of the Navy , Air Chief Marshall G.D.Perera , and then the Air Marshall Roshan Goonetilleke as the Commanders of the Sri Lanka Air Force, and Mr. Chandra Fernando, followed by Mr.Victor Perera as Inspector General of Police .

The Defence Secretary was to coordinate the Armed and Security Forces, and provide them with the necessary military equipment etc.. The President leaving the Military Operations in the hands of the Armed Forces, occupied the political aspect anticipating possible foreign intervention to force the government to follow a political settlement to come into terms with the terrorists.

That was the preliminary to winning an all out military offensive against terrorism.

The President had many hurdles to jump before the final victory. In April 2006 his Army Commander Sarath Fonseka was the victim of a suicide bomb attack which nearly cost his life. He was disabled and it was only in July, 2006 the General Sarath Fonseka resumed his services as the Commander of the Army. On the 1st December,2006 the Presidents brother and Defence Secretary escaped a suicide bomb attempt against him.

The terrorists rammed a truck loaded with explosives on to a convoy carrying navy sailors killing 92 of them at Habaran in October,2006. The soldiers had the most bitter experiences. They risked their lives either being drowned or being shot by the terrorist while wading lakes and rivers in heavy rain carrying their back-sacks holding their guns over their heads lest they fall into water and become unusable. Number of them were drowned many more were shot by the terrorists. They may have gone without a satisfactory meal for days.

The terrorist had built earth bunds to protect themselves against the advancing Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The terrorists had deployed two battle tanks T55 to counter army onslaught and many of our poor soldiers climbing these bunds were sitting ducks for the terrorist guns. But the 58^th and the 53^rd Divisions of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces breached these bunds sacrificing many of their comrades in the attempt.

While in the Defence Secretarie’s Office coordination work were being carried out and the the Commanders of the Armed Forces met with Generals and Brigadiers to plan the strategies and monitored the movements of the armed forces in the field, the Major Generals, Brigadiers, Captains, Sergeants and Soldiers faced the terrorists face to face and adopted adhoc strategies to meet the immediate situations..

We saw Video clippings where we were witness to Major General Jagath Dias of the 57^th Division, Brigadier Shavendra Silva of the 58^th division, Major General Nandana Udawatta of the 59^th Division Major General Kamal Gunarathne of the 53^rd Division, Brigadier Prasanna Silva of the 55^th Division, each gaining control of Kilinochchi, capturing Poonaryne, capturing Elephant Pass, Paranthan, Kilinochchi, Sundarapuram, Pudukudiyiruppu and finally the eastern coast of the country.

These Major Generals, Brigadiers, and the Captains, and Sergeants under them and the corporals and simple soldiers were all contributing in their different ways with the object of finally eliminating the terrorists. It was very moving once to sea Brigadier Shavendra Silva instructing a group of soldiers in the war front with sounds of gun shots all around and ask them to disperse, and going back he stopped, turned around and called the group of soldiers and told them “take care of yourselves”. How many of those soldiers may have come back ?

In the mean time the Air Force supported the Armed Forces on ground using its famous Kfir Aircrafts for precision bombing. The Sri Lanka Navy destroyed ten of the ships belonging to the terrorists that traversed the high seas keeping up the supply of arms and armaments to the terrorists. The Navy also acted as a barrier against any terrorists attempting to escape through the sea. It is worth mentioning those brave pilots and the navy fast boat teams that put terrorist Soosai’s deadly power boats completely out of action.

The Sri Lanka Police Force too did yeoman service despite criticism. The Police minimized the activities of the terrorists in the south. The Police also carried out surveys and checked for terrorist suspects in possible hide outs as tenant or lodgers, and recovered large hauls of hidden weapons and explosives .

Many road blocks manned by the army avoided deadly suicide bombers entering the south, but that too was opposed by a Chief Justice- now retired , who ordered them to be lifted, for the simple reason that he did not want to be caught in his romantic escapades.

This shows how many persons from the three Armed Forces and the Police force were brought into the effort initiated by the President Mahinda Rajapakse in November, 2005, to eliminate terrorism from Sri Lanka and with great sacrifices succeeded in that collective effort.

In the mean time there were hectic efforts by the foreign governments to stop the military operations to elimination terrorism in Sri Lanka. The UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Activists, and even the International Red Cross stepped into thwart the efforts of the Government by bringing in accusations of violation of human rights, shooting willfully into hospitals and schools.

Fortunately the President was able to keep them at bay until terrorism was successfully eliminated. In that effort the Secretary of Defence too kept the situation under control without allowing unnecessary interference by the foreign Governments, Diplomats and NGOs.

Hence the successful elimination of terrorism does not go to the sole credit of any one person, though the President played the key role, to let the Armed Forces carry on its activities unhindered by political intervention at home, or Diplomatic intervention from abroad.

However, the credit for the final end of terrorism does not go to the President, the Defence Secretary, Commander of the Armed Forces , the Commanders of the Naval Force, the Air force , Several Major Generals, Brigadiers, Captains Sergeants, Corporals, the Soldiers or the Inspector General of Police or the police officers and constables. Because it was a collective effort in which every one shared in the effort to end terrorism that began with the determination of a President elected in November, 2005 until it was brought to a successful halt at Nandikadal in May, 2009.

Therefore, if any one tries to take credit for oneself for the elimination of terrorism from Sri Lanka, it is the most ungrateful act towards innumerable number of those who gave their lives or limbs in that “sacred” attempt. On the other hand it should be a great pride for every one who actively participated in the audacious effort to eliminate terrorism. The names of every one of them will be written in gold in the history of our motherland as National Heroes.

Above all we have to remember that the greatest of credit for the elimination of terrorism from Sri Lanka goes to every one of those Sri Lankan citizens who used their ballot to elect Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse as the President of Sri Lanka in 2005.

In that situation if Sarath Fonseka tries to steal the limelight by saying that he alone was responsible for a successful military operation to eliminate terrorism, he will by that act forefit his right to be a National Hero, but instead becomes an egoist, selfish traitor if not to the cause , then to all those who selflessly participated in the combined heroic effort of elimination of terrorism from Sri Lanka.

What is India up to with the issue of killing of Indian fishermen ?

Where are we with India ? India sure has a problem with TamilNadu. The question now is to what extent the Central government of India will go to satisfy the demands of TamilNadu politicians in order to preserve India’s unitary Status.

The Central Government of India had not been circumspect in their intervention with the government of Sri Lanka on the fishermen issue in the manner it had done.

TamilNadu politicians are politically immature . Karunanidhi the elder TamilNadu Statesman- the poet laureate for the terrorists of Sri Lanka, seems to have no political vision . So are the rest, like Vaiko the bellicose novice terrorist ardently following Prabhakaran , and Jayalalitha who does not know whether she is going forward or backwards,

Their raison d’etre as politicians of TamilNadu seem to be derived from their almost religious interference into Sri Lankan issues complaining and demanding the Central Government of India to take forceful action for one thing or another.

For thirty long years, they worshiped the terrorist Prabhakaran , and during the latter part of the military operations of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces against the terrorists, they harassed the Central Government to intervene with the Government of Sri Lanka to save the terrorist leadership. Their primary interest was the success and the safety of the Sri Lanka terrorists.

They were never interested in the safety or the welfare of the Tamil population of Sri Lanka.

Because the TamilNadu Politicians would have liked the terrorists led by Prabhakaran to breakaway a part of the territory of Sri Lanka for a Tamil homeland which would have politically weakened India, and made it possible to create a greater TamilNadu State with North and east of Sri Lanka annexed to it.

Once that possibility was lost with the elimination of the bunch of terrorists, they moved away from the Tamil population of Sri Lanka. They still thought of investigating how much of the terrorists still survived in the refugee camps and made a much publicized visit to the camps. Thereafter there interest in the IDPs slackened. They did not even come forward to sponsor any welfare projects to the 300,000 Tamil Civilians rescued from the jaws of the terrorists temporarily accommodated in the refugee camps.

But now they are all back again. Karunanidhi, Pandian, Vaiko, and Jayalalitha are again up in arms against the Government of Sri Lanka. And this time on the issue of Indian fishermen alleged to have been killed by the Sri Lanka Navy.

Jayalalitha even asked the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to step down if he is unable to take effective action against the Government of Sri Lanka for the alleged killing of fishermen. This is despite the Sri Lanka Navy’s denial of the killings.

If the Indian fishermen had been poaching within the sea boundary of Sri Lanka, the Navy had the right to shoot to dissuade their fishing in the Sri Lanka seas within the specified boundaries. If by such measure the Sri Lanka government “killed” a fisherman, there is no reason the Sri Lanka Navy should deny the shooting.

But as it is when the Navy has denied such incident, the Tamil Nadu politicians not only repeated the accusation but exaggerated the method of the killing of one of the fishermen. The report from the Tamil Nadu fisheries department sources states that “ ….The man, who had put out to sea with two others from Pushpavanam coastal hamlet, died after Sri Lankan Naval personnel allegedly tied a rope around his neck and pushed him into the water, …..and that…… is the second incident of the kind in less than a fortnight.”

This itself shows that the fisheries department is making up an accusation based on what the fishermen had said. The Sri Lanka Navy need not have made it an obvious “killing” , by taking the fisherman on to the ship tie a rope round his neck and pushing him in to the water when the Navy could have easily shot him, without even having to take the fisher man into the ship and accepted that he was shot accidentally.

There is obviously no witness to the killing as reported by the Indian department of fisheries. Any body could have killed the fisherman the way it had been done to implicate the Sri Lanka Navy. The Central Government of India should have first made an inquiry before the matter was brought up with the Government of Sri Lanka.

There is some “ skullduggery” behind these allegations of killing of Indian Fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy. Having failed to save the terrorists the Tamil Nadu politicians are trying other tactics to bring a rift between the Central Government of India and Sri Lanka. It appears the Central Government of India too is a party to the false allegation. It makes one wonder whether the Indian RAW had a hand in the killing of the fisherman ?

This becomes evident from the following demands: “ V Sivapunniyam (CPI) criticised the Centre for its "inaction" to protect Tamil Nadu fishermen. Ravikumar (VCK) demanded scrapping the Katchatheevu agreement.”

Katchatheevu Island is a matter that had been settled long time ago, and why are the TamilNadu politicians now reclaiming the Island. Have they any ulterior motive. The terrorists have been eliminated in Sri Lanka, but their “rump” remaining somewhere outside cannot be ruled out. Therefore the Government of Sri Lanka has to be vigilant specially over the seas around Sri Lanka.

The Central Government of India is aware of this necessity. Therefore it is up to the Central Government of India to intervene with the Tamil Nadu politicians and appraise them of the situation and request them to avoid embarrassment to the Central government forcing it to precipitate to make it an unnecessary political issue that would affect the good relations between India and Sri Lanka.

With regard to the Katchatheevu Island, the Sri Lanka government had wrongly allowed the Catholic Church to put up a Church in the Island.

The government should make the Island a military out post to guarantee the safety of Sri Lanka from any intruders occupying the Island to create unnecessary political tension between India and Sri Lanka and also to avoid the possible terrorist motivated elements using the Island for their terrorist activities.

Sri Lanka which had gone through thirty years of terrorism, with considerable support the TamilNadu politicans contributed to terrorism in Sri Lanka , it is the Government of Sri Lanka that has the right of undisturbed use of the seas around Sri Lanka in terms of the maritime boundary agreements entered into between Sri Lanka and India. We cannot forget that the terrorist of Sri Lanka used the Madhu Catholic Church as a safety Zone for their terrorist activities. Therefore we cannot afford to have the same scenario repeated once again in Katchatheevu.

The issue concerning the Indian fishermen poaching within the maritime boundary of Sri Lanka has to be settled early before it takes a more sinister turn. The boats of the Indian fishermen and those of the Sri Lankan fishermen should be provided with distinctive identifications and the maritime boundaries marked with special buoys, along with the seas within the Sri Lanka boundary kept under constant surveillance with a warning that any trespassing will be at their risk.

Isn’t Bruce Fein by implication a terrorist ? Shouldn’t he be reported to the USA Bar Association for unethical legal practice ?

Ignoble Bruce Fein

Once Again Bruce Fein the American Attorney, has discredited his profession. He is driven by an excessive desire to make easy money depending on the naivety of his clients. Which is not only atrociously unethical , but it puts him into the ignoble category of a cheat, a liar and a fraudulent manipulator of a client who wants to take to court a democratically elected government of a country on false allegations.

An honest jurist will advice his client not to waste his money going to court to accuse “someone” for crimes which have not been committed or allegations not acceptable in law. A suave “perhaps there may be a case” is no sound advise to a client. An honest jurist worthy of his name will only accept a brief if there is a bona fides case against the accused.

But here Bruce Fein does not want to discourage the Client because if he does, he stands to loose a substantial sum of money which he knows the LTTE terrorist front organization -the Tamils for Justice , Sri Lankan Minority Tamils or what ever they call themselves- can afford and has in plenty at its disposal as blood money of terrorism.

A terrorist is not only the one who uses his gun to cause terror, but also any one who aids and abets a gun holding terrorist, or do so in the memory of the terrorists who used their guns to shed innocent blood through terror to fulfill a dream. In that sense the money greedy Attorney Bruce Fein is as much a terrorist as the Tamils of the Terrorist Front Organization representing the terrorist brute Prabhakaran in whose memory they are engaging Bruce Fein.

In a way the fault is not so much with Bruce Fein as it is with some of the Foreign Ministers of Western countries such as David Miliband of UK, and Bernard Kouchner of France, who were terrorist sympathizers prepared to do any thing to save the group of ruthless terrorists in Sri Lanka, for their own political advantage. The Secretary of State of the United State of America was no better trying to paint a different picture of terrorism categorizing terrorism according to what she thoughts was her superior knowledge of these matters, stating “…. you can’t lump all terrorists together......”

Hence Bruce Fein may be have been influenced to believe that there are possibilities of making an easy buck accepting briefs to satisfy the demands of the terrorist front organizations in USA with unlimited financial resources.

According to Hillary Clinton’s views on terrorism only those who take up arms to cause terror in the Western Capitals are terrorists and all others could not be treated the same way. Perhaps the Al Qaida did a mistake in using the Arab Muslims to cause the 11 September terror attacks in USA. It would have been different ,if they followed India, which got Tamils from Sri Lanka trained as terrorists.

That is to say the Al Qaida leaders should have for instance got the American Indians brainwashed to win back their lost rights as the natives of America through terrorism, and trained them as terrorists with the determination even to die as suicide bombs to recover their rightful place in America. They would then have come under Hillary Clintons’s “…..better job of clarifying what are the motivations, the raisons d’être of terrorists. I mean, what the (American Indian are fighting for in America)*, Tamil Tigers are fighting for in Sri Lanka, or the Basque separatists in Spain, or the insurgents in al-Anbar province may only be connected by tactics. They may not share all that much in terms of what is the philosophical or ideological underpinning.” (* added by writer)

That would have then been another kettle of fish for America to handle, as the American Indian terrorists, would have been freedom fighters in Hillary Clinton’s eyes, as much as the terrorists in Sri Lanka.

If that were to happen USA may perhaps think that the terrorists are after all terrorists, in what ever the country in which they cause terror and for what ever the reason. In other words the USA and the West have failed to correctly define terrorism, therefore they send their armies to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight terrorists because they have dared attacked USA, while they leave other terrorists elsewhere because they did not cause terrorism in USA. That is a strange way of identifying terrorism. Any group which terrorises a country and kills, murders and massacres innocent people even to win political freedom are terrorists.

Therefore, the West, along with their Agents the UN, EU, their NGOs, Human Rights activists, Amnesty international, along with the BBC and Channel 4 UK are hell bent preparing evidence to take the Government and the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka to a Criminal Court accused for War Crimes., while their own armies continue war crimes bombarding villages in Afghanistan and Pakistan killing innumerable numbers of innocent men , women and children. All that is therefore, the inability of the West to understand terrorism in its correct perspective.

No wonder seeing the opportunity, briefed by the terrorist front organizations of the Tamil expatriates in USA, Bruce Fein too has jumped into the band wagon.

The Governments of the West and their Agents are fully aware that bringing accusations against Sri Lanka for war crimes will not be accepted by a democratically set , law abiding, respectable Court of Law. Because these very Western Countries preparing to accuse the Government and Armed Forces of Sri Lanka for war crimes, are more deeply involved in wanton killing of innocent Civilians out side their own countries in the cause of their bombardments against Al Qaida and Taliban terrorists, which the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka had not done in the elimination of terrorists in their own country.

But on the contrary to accuse the Sri Lanka Armed Forces for war crimes there is no substantial evidence of wanton killing of civilians, either in artillery fire or bombardments.

But these expatriate Tamils who call themselves by different names at different times; and now Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority are the expatriate Tamils who had left Sri Lanka to escape from terrorism. Having left their kith and kin in the hell hole of Prabhakaran’s terrorism through out the 30 years it lasted, they lived in the cozy comfort in the West never feeling the heat of terrorism. Since then they had cared less for the suffering of these innocent Tamils they left behind in Sri Lanka.

These expatriate Tamils who now, when terrorism has been eliminated and the poor Tamil who suffered under terrorism are redeemed from terror and “comforted” by the Sri Lanka Government and Armed Forces, want to take the Government of Sri Lanka to a Court of law accused for war crimes . These ignoble “stateless” expatriate Tamils, do not even seem to understand that by their contribution to the terrorist front organizations they had in fact “contributed” to the massacres, murders, deaths and utter suffering of the Tamil civilians in the Northern and Eastern “war zones” as the result of the Prbhakaran’s terror financed and sponsored by them.

Most of these members of the terrorist front organizers, who are the second or third generation expatriate Sri Lanka Tamils, who have retained Bruce Fein to file legal action against the Government of Sri Lanka, had not even set their foot in Sri Lanka, and may not even know where is Killinochchi or Mulativu. They are in other words unable to provide true facts about the situation that existed during the period of military operations against terrorism. They cannot in any way represent the Tamils of Sri Lanka. Some of them have picked up words like genocide, and use them to impress the people and lead Bruce Fein down a blind alley.

Genocide is far from what could exist in military operations against a ruthless group of terrorists. Even the Second world war of the allied armies were not accused of genocide despite the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It was only Hitler that gassed the innocent Jews and Gipsies, with the intention of elimination of a race of people.

Bruce Fein taking a brief from the expatriate Tamils to prepare a 1000 page model genocide indictement to impress his “pay masters” had gone on evidence collected by expatriate Tamils who have no first hand information on the accusations, nor are they even aware where in Sri Lanka these places where the military operations were carried out are situated. Bruce Fein is perhaps unaware that he with his brief against the Government of Sri Lanka and its President is only a blind man lead by the blind !!!

These expatriate Tamils had given financial aid to the terrorists in Sri Lanka for nearly three decades. With that financial support the terrorists acquired modern arms armament, and claymore bombs. Thus armed the terrorist killed and maimed old and young men women and children, massacred innocent civilians and destroyed land and material. They did that to acquire by terror and force a territory for themselves to set up a homeland.

Becoming a well armed terrorist force thanks to the funds raised by the expatriate Tamils, with their front organizations such as the one which is retaining Bruce Fein they became a ruthless terrorist force and kept the poor Tamil civilians under their control. They suffered untold misery for three long decades. The government Armed Forces were at the beginning no match to the terrorists armed to their teeth, until 2005.

Bruce Fein now claiming US$ 30 million from the government of Sri Lanka, should know that the plaintiffs who briefed him to file a law suit is responsible for the terrorism in Sri Lanka and the loss of life and material and should in fact compensate Sri Lanka for their part in terrorism in Sri Lanka.

It was in 2005 the new President of Sri Lanka took control of the State machinery, and with determination he organized the government and the Armed Forces. He first called the terrorists for peace negotiations. But the terrorist leader Prabhakaran treating lightly the efforts of the new President tried the same old tactics he tried with the previous Presidents and finally refused peace negotiations. Having no alternative the President Mahinda Rajapakse, resorted to a military solution ordering his Armed Forces to commence military operations against the terrorists. His determination bore fruits and in May,2009 the terrorists were finally eliminated.

Therefore a President who acted to end the 30 years of suffering of the people of Sri Lanka- the Tamils, the Sinhala , the Muslim and all the rest, and to whom every individual citizen of Sri Lanka irrespective of his or her communal origin is indebted, cannot be accused for any criminal offence. Not only has the President eliminated the fear of terrorism from Sri Lanka, but having eliminated terrorism he also launched a commendable development program for the benefit of all communities.

Wake up Bruce Fein, can such a great man as the President Mahinda Rajapakse of Sri Lanka be accused of any military offence ? All what he had done since 2005, was in the interest of the Country and its people. His Armed Forces did not carry out military operations to “eliminate” the Tamil Civilians, but to eliminate terrorism. You should tell that in all honesty to your expatriate Tamil retainers.

And on the other hand it is the Tamil Expatriates who maliciously criticise and discredit the government and the President of Sri Lanka elected by the majority of the people including the Tamils living in Sri Lanka, in terms of a democratic system, who should be brought before a court of law, along with the American Attorney Bruce Fein for misleading his clients, and for false accusations and disrupting the smooth function of democracy in Sri Lanka.

Bruce Fein who as an Attorney at Law gives false hope to his clients preparing a law suit claiming US$ 30 million as compensation ,should be reported to the USA Bar Association requesting the removal of Bruce Fein’s name as an American Attorney at Law, for abusing his position and unethical practice of law for financial gain, for accepting unsubstantiated hearsay evidence and deceiving the clients of the availability of redress, and for preparing a malicious law suit against a head of a Sovereign State who is loved by the people as one of the most illustrious Presidents Sri Lanka ever had since its independence.