David Cameron – Winston Churchill is not the best example for Sri Lanka to follow
Posted on November 16th, 2013
Shenali D Waduge
‚ David Cameron has asked Sri Lanka-â„¢s President to act like Winston Churchill. That really isn-â„¢t the best of examples to give because in looking up Winston Churchill his policies is nothing that Sri Lanka or any of its leaders adopted or would care to adopt just because Churchill said -Ëœvictory in magnanimity-â„¢ -” he said a lot more horrible things too. Even Germany called Churchill a war criminal. Next, David Cameron wants us to draw parallels with Northern Ireland. That too is not a good idea either. Lastly, David Cameron again uses an often flogged word -” -Ëœreconciliation-â„¢. We need to again remind UK that Sri Lanka defeated Terrorists, and we do not need to reconcile with terrorists.
‚ Cameron says be like Churchill. So we found out what Churchill-â„¢s record has been though much of these details are often hidden even from his biographies. Naturally, not many in the West in particular the UK would like to be told exactly what their hero did to the -Ëœanimals-â„¢ that they colonized. Since these -Ëœanimals-â„¢ are now hosting Britain as head of the Commonwealth we would like to place some of these facts before readers.
‚ Churchill-â„¢s atrocities in India
- In WW2 Churchill deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death -” Sri Lankan Government continued to send food and essentials to the North even while it was under LTTE rule. Sri Lanka Government took loans that are being paid by the taxpayers to feed, look after and resettle all Tamils that had been displaced by the LTTE and not the Sri Lankan Government or the Army.
- British Indian Holocaust (1.8 billion excess deaths, 1757-1947; 10 million killed in post-1857 Indian Mutiny reprisals; 1 million starved, 1895-1897 Indian Famine; 6-9 million starved, 1899-1900 Indian Famine; 6-7 million starved under Churchill, Bengali Holocaust 1943-1945
- Churchill acknowledged the crucial importance of maintaining Hindu-Muslim antipathy to preserve British rule [1 million dead and 18 million Muslim and Hindu refugees associated with India-Pakistan Partition in 1947].
‚ Churchill-â„¢s atrocities in Germany
‚ WHAT NEEDS TO BE ALSO SAID THAT IT WAS CHURCHILLS IDEA TO BOMB CIVILIAN TARGETS FROM THE OUTSET OF WAR AND NOT HITLERS. Winston Churchill was effectively a war criminal who sanctioned the extermination of Germany’s civilian population through indiscriminate bombing of towns and cities.
‚ The British,‚ led by Sir Arthur Harris, C-in-C Bomber Command,‚ were the leading proponents of “night area bombing”, involving the systematic destruction of German industrial capacity and housing. The policy resulted in the laying to waste of city after city, including Hamburg, Cologne and Dresden, and the deaths of some 635,000 Germans.
In a secret wartime memorandum, Winston Churchill told his advisers that he wanted to -drench- Germany with poison gas. Churchill-â„¢s July 1944 memo to his chief of staff Gen. Hastings Ismay was reproduced in the August-September 1985 issue of American Heritage magazine.
-I want you to think very seriously over this question of poison gas,- the four-page note began. Britain-â„¢s wartime leader continued: -It is absurd to consider morality on this topic when everybody used it [gas] in the last war without a word of complaint from the moralists or the Church. On the other hand, in the last war the bombing of open cities was regarded as forbidden. Now everybody does it as a matter of course. It is simply a question of fashion changing as she does between long and short skirts for women.-
Churchill-â„¢s directive bluntly stated:‚ -I want a cold-blooded calculation made as to how it would pay to use poison gas -¦ One really must not be bound within silly conventions of the mind whether they be those that ruled in the last war or those in reverse which rule in this.-‚ Specifically he proposed:‚ -We could drench the cities of the Ruhr and many other cities in Germany in such a way that most of the population would be requiring constant medical attention -¦ It may be several weeks or even months before I shall ask you to drench Germany with poison gas, and if we do it, let us do it one hundred per cent. In the meantime, I want the matter studied in cold blood by sensible people and not by the particular set of psalm-singing uniformed defeatists which one runs across now here now here now there.-
Churchill atrocities elsewhere
- Sudan atrocities [horrendous British atrocities after the Battle of Obdurman 1898].
- Boer (Afrikaaner) Genocide [28,000 Afrikaaner women and children died in British concentration camps, 1899-1902] -” Concept of concentration camps began with the British and not Hitler.
- 1944 UK War Cabinet decision Partition of Palestine [in 1878, Jews were 5% of the Palestine population; in 1948 Jews were 1/3 of the population; there are now over 7 million Palestinian refugees; post-1967 Occupied Palestinian excess deaths 0.3 million, post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million; excess deaths in countries partially or completely occupied by Apartheid Israel now total about 24 million; 4 million Occupied Palestinians are still illegally and abusively imprisoned by racist Zionists in their own country].
- UK rejection of 1944 Brand plan to save Hungarian Jews [0.2-0.4 million killed by Nazis and Arrow Cross fascists out of 0.7 million; Zionists also opposed the Brand plan]
- British, American, Zionist, Australian and European adoption of Churchill’s holocaust commission and holocaust denying legacy, with post-war atrocities involving invasion, occupation, devastation and genocide [in relation to Occupiers (in parenthesis) 1950-2005 excess deaths in post-1945 occupied countries total 2 million (white Australia), 36 million (Belgium), 142 million (France), 24 million (Apartheid Israel), 0.7 million (Apartheid South Africa), 23 million (Portugal), 37 million (Russia), 9 million (Spain), 727 million (the UK) and 82 million (the US); 25 million Indigenous excess deaths in post-1950 US Asian Wars; 9-11 million excess deaths associated with 1990-2008 Bush Wars; post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq 2 million, refugees 6 million; post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan 4-6 million, refugees 4 million].
‚ Churchills atrocities in World War 1
- World War I – Allied military and civilian dead 5.7 million and 3.7 million, respectively; German-allied (Central Powers) military and civilian deaths 4.0 million and 5.2 million; troop movement-exacerbated Spanish Flu Epidemic killed 20-100 million people world wide. 1918-1922].
- WW1 Dardanelles Campaign in Turkey [0.2 million Allied and Turkish soldiers killed, 1915; precipitated 1915-1923 Turkish Armenian Genocide, 1.5 million Armenians killed].
- UK and US invasion of Russia 1917-1919 [millions died in the Russian Civil War and the subsequent Russian Famine; 7 million died in the circa 1930 Ukrainian Famine; and perhaps up to 20 million died overall in Stalinist atrocities].
- British suppression of the Arab revolt in Iraq (invaded by Britain in 1914) [bombing of Kurds, poison gas use (1920s); violent UK involvement on and off , 1914-2009; 1990-2008 Iraqi excess deaths 4 million; under-5 infant deaths 1.8 million; refugees currently 6 million].
- Support for British Occupation and opposition to Indian self-determination [1757-1947 excess deaths, 1.8 billion; 1895-1897 famine deaths1 million; 1899-1900 Indian Famine, deaths6-9 million deaths; 1943-1945 Bengali Holocaust deaths 6-7 million].
Churchill-â„¢s atrocities in World War 2
- World War 2 promotion [World War 2 military deaths 25 million and civilian deaths about 67 million].
- Promotion of Japan entry into World War 2 in order to involve the US and hence ensure victory [35 million Chinese avoidable deaths, 1937-1945; 6-7 million Indians starved, Bengal 1943-1945; millions more died in the WW2 Eastern Theatre].
- Churchill knew Singapore was indefensible [8,000-15,000 killed, 130,000 captured in the 1941 Malaya campaign; 14,000 Australian, 16,000 British and 32,000 Indian troops surrendered in Singapore].
- Churchill deliberately did not warn Americans about Pearl Harbor attack [Eastern Theatre WW2 deaths 45 million].
- WW2 Bengal Holocaust, Bengal Famine [deliberate starving to death of of 6-7 million Indians; confessed by Churchill in a letter to Roosevelt].
- Churchill rejected top scientific advice and supported bombing of German cities instead of protecting Atlantic convoys [0.16 million allied airmen killed; 0.6 million German civilians killed; Battle of the Atlantic almost lost; 7 million dead from famine in the Indian Ocean region related to halving of Allied shipping in 1943].
To paraphrase mathematician satirist Tom Lehrer-â„¢s song -The Elements-, -These are the only Churchill crimes currently known to Harvard/But there may be many others that haven-â„¢t been discovered-.
The UK does not wish to acknowledge Churchill-â„¢s crimes which is why in the biography of Winston Churchill by Prof. Sir Martin Gilbert there is no mention of the 1943-45 Bengali Holocaust. General Wavell-â„¢s diaries repeatedly makes it clear that Churchill hated the Indians and refused assistance for the Bengal Famine. (the Viceroy-â„¢s Journal).
‚ Churchill said that Indians -Ëœbreed like rabbits-â„¢ and policy of starvation was the answer. An account of this is given in History of Britain by Simon Schama though he too omits mention of the Bengal Famine. Colin Mason said -Ëœthe famine, little publicized at the time because of war-time censorship, and inexplicably, still ignored by many modern histories of India and most standard reference works-¦-â„¢ (A short history of Asia).
‚ If it is a crime to deny or minimize the Jewish Holocaust where in some countries like Austria one can face upto 10 years in prison for doing so all of the colonial crimes purposely premeditated and calculated must receive equal punishment.
‚ Indians may well like to remember that the British throughout its 200 year rule of India killed 1.8BILLION INDIANS. Only a handful of historians have been bold enough to make these facts known.
‚ From the mouth of Winston Churchill
- “Perhaps the next time round the way to do it will be to kill women, children and the civilian population.”
This is why we think Cameron either does not know what Churchill did or pretends not to know and having read these accounts Sri Lanka should not act like Churchill for even Germans think him a war criminal.
‚ Next are parallels with Ireland.
Religion played a key role in Ireland-â„¢s problem (Protestants vs Catholics). There was no such religious issue in Sri Lanka. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish Catholics had been prohibited by the penal laws‚ from owning land, from leasing land; from voting, from holding political office; from living in a corporate town or within 5‚ mi (8.0‚ km) of a corporate town, from obtaining education, from entering a profession, and from doing many other things necessary for a person to succeed and prosper in Irish society at the time -” there was never such restrictions in Sri Lanka.
‚ In fact it is the Sinhalese who cannot buy land in the North and now the Chief Minister who had been living virtually all his life in Colombo and is now in the North is asking the Sinhalese to evict no different to what the LTTE did with gun. No different to the Bengal Famine policy in India, the British adopted the same to Ireland during the years 1845 and 1850. This policy by the British Government was one of mass starvation and is known as the Great Famine / Potato Famine. The goal was to subdue the Irish to British will. Over a million Irish died in the famine. Out of a population of 8million before the famine, 1.5million emigrated many boarding ships that were unsafe and many died en route to America and Canada. It is estimated that at least 100,000 died. The famine left a legacy of emigration that continues where as many as 70million worldwide trace their origins to Irish descent but this emigration was far different to the human smuggling racket taking place where Tamils prefer not to go to Tamil Nadu where the politicians are wailing on behalf of them but take boats to Western nations of Australia, Europe and Canada which is why they are now being referred to as -Ëœeconomic refugees-â„¢. Tony Blair apologized for Britain-â„¢s negligence primarily because he wanted to push peace talks between the Catholics and Protestants. There was never rivalry between the Buddhists or Hindus in Sri Lanka. In fact both are today victims of Abrahamic religious conversions.
‚ Cameron may have seen parallels in the fact that because a handful of Tamil politicians claim to espouse for a separate Tamil Homeland with the fact that Ireland ran its own parliament before the Act of Union was passed in 1801 and Ireland became integrated with UK. There was never historically a separately run independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka to think of drawing parallels. In Ireland what happened after the Union was that ministers and administers were all in England and ruling from there. Funnily enough all the TNA politicians even throughout LTTE rule were living in Colombo and outskirts and then crying on behalf of the Tamils from Colombo and many of them still continue to do so.
‚ Since Mr. Cameron has brought up parallels with Ireland. He may remember the Bloody Sunday massacre for he and others love to use the word -Ëœaccountability-â„¢. Sadly, Cameron and Britain think that accountability is only meant for Third World nations for a massacre that took place in 1972 which underwent 2 British inquiries took 38 years to reveal that it was the British troops who were wrong and not the other way round. The inquiry appointed in 1998 took 12 years to conclude this injustice.
‚ Finally, we come to the favored word of RECONCILIATION parroted by one and all without looking at the ground realities. What needs to be clearly reiterated to all including the Government of Sri Lanka is that Sri Lanka suffered 30 years of Terrorism, 32 countries had banned LTTE terrorists, LTTE terrorists took the lives of Sinhalese, Muslims and even Tamils (virtually wiping out all learned Tamils from society leaving the handful of those that speak on behalf of the LTTE because of their connections with the LTTE). Thus, Sri Lanka-â„¢s Armed forces ended TERROR in May 2009 and Sri Lanka did not fight against Tamils but Terrorists. People seem to get mixed up with the -ËœT-â„¢ factor. We ended Terror not Tamils, we defeated Terrorists not Tamils. So on what grounds do we reconcile with Terrorists.
‚ We next come to the contentious question of Tamil Homeland. It is no better time than now for the Government to not simply say that they will not allow the country to be divided but to clear put the picture that Eelam if at all for Tamils is nowhere else but in Tamil Nadu it is from where the Sri Lankan Tamils came. We next come to another confusing element of grievances vs aspirations. People can have aspirations but no government can give all that people aspire. However, where grievances are concerned the Tamils need to put down where legally, constitutionally and legislatively Tamils are exclusively denied rights and freedoms which ONLY Sinhalese enjoy. Tamil is used on par with Sinhalese in nameboards, currency, state documents, forms, events are jointly done by both Sinhalese and Tamil presenters, tv programs also are done jointly -” the list is a long one. In a very unusual method instead of minorities having to learn the majority Sinhalese language the majority has to now learn Tamil. Rightfully, it is the minorities that should be learning Sinhalese given that 7 out of 10 people are Sinhalese. When Sinhalese are told they cannot live or own property in the North and even after the defeat of the LTTE are now being told democratically to evict from the North, is it not the Sinhalese who now have a grievance? What would Cameron say to this right of movement and ownership of land being denied to the Sinhalese?
‚ Mr. Cameron from your body language on arrival and the manner you behaved throughout it is disappointing that you are carrying on the legacy of colonial mentality and think that simply because you come from the country that ruled the world with might you can continue to do so. We hope that in darting to see the North though it has nothing to do with why you are in Sri Lanka, you saw for yourself what the North Tamils now enjoy. It is a pity that you did not make the similar efforts to see the crimes committed by the LTTE or visit any of the families of the dead and wounded by the LTTE and they number far more than the ghost numbers flying from the sky.
‚ Mr. Cameron came to Sri Lanka after taking 6 years to launch a proper inquiry into UK-â„¢s role in Iraq after 4 other inquiries did not satisfy the British public and now you are attempting to block its release, so please don-â„¢t come preaching to us.
‚ Yet again, we remind Cameron of his links to C4 and LTTE and to keep in mind that Rajiv Gandhi and President Premadasa were both killed by LTTE though they too were ‘friends’ of LTTE.
‚ The crimes of the British one by one should realistically humble British leaders and not make you act as another Viceroy as you currently seem to think you can do.
November 16th, 2013 at 7:41 am
Cameron is an idiot. What right he has to question SL government.
November 16th, 2013 at 11:35 am
Well said, Shenali!
Winston Churchill was a Great Man for the British in their Most Perilous Hour, but, as an Imperialist committed to the Greater Glory of Britain and Britain alone, he was an IMPLACABLE enemy of the COLONIZED peoples of the British Empire! “Magnanimity towards the Defeated” was not a word to be found in Churchill’s vocabulary!
Winston Churchill was famous for opposing the demand by Indians led by Mohandas K. Gandhi, for independence as a condition for Indian support for the Allied war effort.
Churchill proclaimed “I will not preside over the Dissolution of the British Empire” in the BRitish Parliament to voice his inflexible OPPOSITION to independence of the British Colonies!
While the Colonized Peoples of the world would have been infinitely worse off had the Racist & Murderous Axis Powers prevailed in World War II, the weakening of the European Colonial Powers in World War II undermined their military and economic strength to such an extent that they COULD NOT AFFORD any more conflicts, and were FORCED TO GIVE UP their hold on their Colonies.
Only Colonial France, in Vietnam and Algeria, and Colonial Portugal in Angola, Mozambique and Goa tried to stem the tide of independence militarily …. but they failed disastrously losing more blood and treasure.
It is curious, that the PRIMARY BENEFICIARIES of WWII launched by the Axis Powers were the Colonized Peoples of the World, for by the middle of the 1960’s ALMOST ALL Colonies of the European powers had gained independence.
November 16th, 2013 at 11:52 am
And so it BEGINS … the NEXT round of the Water Torture of Sri Lanka whose PRIMARY CRIME was that it Liberated itself from Foreign Inspired and Supported TERRORISM through its OWN EFFORTS, without ANY SIGNIFICANT HELP from the globally bungling pontificating pundits of the West, at great cost in blood and treasure!
Now ,WE AGAIN SEE the MONUMENTAL FOLLY of hosting the CHOGM, paying the price of empowering the Eelamist Separatists in the Northern Province , and FAILING TO REPEAL the 13th Amendment, and DISMANTLE the Provincial Council System for Good! At least NOW, the GOSL should take these steps … better to be tarred and feathered for doing something to protect Sri Lanka, than for empowering separatists committed to destroying our Resplendent Motherland!
It has GAINED Sri Lanka NOTHING … No Gratitude from Sri Lankan Tamils we liberted from terror, No Support from the West for active cooperation in the global war on terror; Only more THREATS hurled, and MORE CUDGELS shaken, in our face!
It appears that Heroic Deeds and National Defence are RESERVED for these Abominable Imperialist Racists of the West waging genocidal wars across the globe with Impunity without any accountability exercised by the UN or the ICC; Such heroics are not for LITTLE BROWN MEN of Sri Lanka however smart, however skilled, however courageous, however cooperative, or however tolerant!
HYPOCRITES INCARNATE ALL! Just tell them all TO GO TO HELL!
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Sri Lanka says confident to face any challenge before UNHRC, rejects UK PM’s ultimatum
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Nov 16, Colombo: Dismissing a deadline set by the British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Sri Lankan government today said it is confident of facing any challenge before the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
Addressing media, the Leader of the House, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said there is no justification for a predestined international inquiry and the government is confident to go before the UNHRC and face any challenge.
De Silva’s statement was in response to British Prime Minister David Cameron at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) where he issued a deadline to the Sri Lankan government to probe alleged war crimes and human rights violations by March 2014 or face an international probe.
The Minister asserted that Sri Lanka would resist any international inquiry as a policy.
He explained that there was no need for an international inquiry within such a short span of time and that the government has done well in the reconciliation process, a fact Cameron himself has admitted.
The UK leader said in his media brief this morning that the process of recovery and reconciliation after the three-decades of brutal conflict cannot take place in a few months or even in a few years.
According to Minister de Silva, the Sri Lankan government has been under pressure by the international community on previous occasions as well and it could not force the government to do wrong by the people.
November 16th, 2013 at 12:18 pm
Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa defiant on rights row
Nov 16 (BBC) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has reacted defiantly to the UK’s call for an inquiry into alleged human rights abuses, saying “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”. He was speaking on the second day of the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka.
UK premier David Cameron had urged Mr Rajapaksa to ensure an independent inquiry, or face a UN investigation.
The abuses are alleged to have been committed mainly against Tamils since the end of the war in 2009.
Pro-government commentators have pointed to alleged abuses under British colonial rule to suggest Britain has no moral right to criticise Sri Lanka.
And Mr Rajapaksa made an oblique reference to Bloody Sunday, when 13 civilians were shot dead in Northern Ireland by the British army in 1972.
Some inquiry reports took 40 years to emerge, he said, referring to an inquiry into the shootings which reported in 2010 and laid responsibility for the events on the army.
He also accused the Sri Lankan government’s critics of ignoring deaths during the period of the civil war.
“Every day for the last 30 years people were dying… so we have stopped it,” he said.
“We will take our time and we will investigate into 30 years of war,” he added.
Mr Rajapaksa has said the end of the war has brought peace, stability and the chance of greater prosperity to Sri Lanka.
Basil Rajapaksa, President Rajapaksa’s brother and a senior minister in his government, had already rejected Mr Cameron’s call for an inquiry, saying it “definitely” would not be allowed to take place.
The government is carrying out its own investigation but denies civilians were killed in the last stages of the war when government troops routed Tamil Tiger rebels in their last stronghold.
Mr Cameron, speaking on Friday in the capital Colombo, ahead of the Commonwealth summit, said he had urged Sri Lanka’s president to go further and faster over human rights issues and reconciliation.
In a meeting with President Rajapaksa, he called for Sri Lanka to ensure “credible, transparent and independent investigations into alleged war crimes” and said if this did not happen by March he would press the UN Human Rights Council to hold an international inquiry.
The prime minister met Mr Rajapaksa on Friday after a visit to the northern Jaffna region to see the situation facing the country’s Tamil minority.
He said strong views had been expressed but the meeting with the president had been worthwhile.
Sri Lankan officials’ reaction to Mr Cameron’s intervention has been furious, the BBC’s Charles Haviland reports from Colombo.
The government has been repeating the rhetoric it has used since defeating the Tamil Tiger militants, our correspondent reports.
It is grateful to allies such as Pakistan and now Australia which give it credit for ending the war, and resents the UK, Canada, the US and others which criticise the way it did it – as did a UN-mandated panel which estimated the offensive killed 40,000 civilians, he adds.
‘Right track’
Mr Cameron said of his meeting with Mr Rajapaksa: “I accept it takes time but I think what matters is getting on the right pathway, getting on the right track, because it’s only through generosity, through reconciling people that you can make the most of this country.
“So, a frank meeting – of course not everything I said was accepted but I sense that they do want to make progress on these issues and it will help frankly by having international pressure in order to make sure that that happens.”
Earlier, the UK leader met Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan, a Tamil who works for reconciliation in his country.
Spin bowler “Murali” backed the prime minister’s decision to travel to Sri Lanka but said he had been misled about the situation in the country.
Murali told journalists: “He must have been misled by other people. People speak without going and seeing the things there. I go on and off. I see from my eyes there is improvement.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson, in Colombo, said it was clearly a tense and difficult meeting between the prime minister and Sri Lanka’s president.
Meeting boycott
Earlier on Friday, Mr Cameron became the first international leader to travel to the Tamil-dominated north of the country since Sri Lankan independence in 1948.
At one point, the PM’s convoy was surrounded by more than 200 protesters holding pictures of loved ones who they claim were killed by the Sri Lankan armed forces or have disappeared.
Mr Cameron said the visit – in which he also toured a temporary refugee camp and a newspaper office whose printing presses had been burned – had “drawn attention to the plight” of the Tamil minority in the country.
The Tamils’ treatment at the end of the civil war in 2009 has dominated the run-up to the the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm), taking place in Colombo.
The prime ministers of Canada, India and Mauritius are staying away from the summit in protest over the allegations.
November 16th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
So the March 2014 DEADLINE is set. ONLY 4 months to go.
Govt. should do NOTHING. Lets see who has the say at the UN. UNHRC cannot force an investigation.
For this SL needs CHINA not bloody Endia. Endia is NOT a permanent UNSC member. The matter must be dragged to UNSC and DEFEATED. Then we can see who our REAL friends and enemies are.
November 16th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
This was a perfectly pitched ball MR could have hammered for a HOME RUN.
But the backboneless MR didn’t!!
November 16th, 2013 at 5:02 pm
When western leaders give advice to Eastern leaders to which model system or which person to follow there is no one greater than the Buddha. Such advice should be summarily dismissed verbally in front of them and I will quote ” NO you are wrong the best path for the decadent west to follow is the path the Buddha set”.
It is time that the world starts taking note of the Asian civilizations and the contribution we have made. Their arrogant statement to come to another land with another faith and push Colonial leaders is the height of hypocrisy. Winston Churchill wanted the Empire to stay together regardless of what the Mahatma wanted and under him the carpet bombing of Dresden was so severe that people were vaporized, the asphalt of the roads melted so much that peoples feet were stuck and when they tried to retrieve them their hands were stuck in seering hot asphalt. The carpet bombing carried out by the allies against the Axis powers including Tokyo was so severe it killed more people than the twin nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
To make matters worse when the Atley government came into power replacing Winston Churchill that socialist government used the feeble excuse of the Muslim problem when no such problem existed till the British brought it up to leave India divided into two pieces, the loss of 2 million lives and the displacement of 14 million people. The land that went to form Pakistan was equal to the size of Alaska or roughly 550 thousand square miles (if one includes present day Bangladesh)
If the British were Buddhist and not Christian the British Empire would have been one of the most benevolent and enlightened empires known to man.
November 16th, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Winston Churchill had Native american blood. Dig the history and see. Yet, he was racist and prejudiced against Native Americans.
Just like “GORA” in Rabindranath Thagore’s Book.
Mahinda Rajapakse is just like Churchill. They were just happened to be there at the right moment. So, they became the winners.
November 16th, 2013 at 7:20 pm
HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENY MADE A VERY EMOTIONAL SCRIPTURE OF LORD BUDDHA WHEN HE QUOTED IT IN SANSCRIT, AND TRANSLARED TO ENGLISH FOR THOSE FOREIGNERS TO UNDERSTAND, AT THE CHOGM
Quote:- LET NOT ONE TAKE NOTICE OF FAULTS OF OTHERS, OR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE AND NOT DONE
LET ONE BE CONCERNED ONLY ABOUT WHAT ONE HAS DONE AND LEFT UNDONE -:Unquote.
It is almost akin to what President Kennedy asked his Americans, ” Ask thou shall not what the Country has Done for you, but what you have done for the Country ?
Here are some Excerpts from TIMOTHY BANCROFT- HINCHEY, who in his own unbiased style
He describes David Cameron nature, intrusive. arrogance, Sheer Hipocrisy, and Chavunism.
So he in plain English asks ? Who the Hell is David Cameron, the Prime Minister of a Country where 80,000 of his children do not have a home.?
Again he asks, WHO the HEEL is David Cameron, is he a Prime Minister of a Country whose streets are unusable after six o’clock pm. etc
Yet again he asks, Who the HELL is David Cameron, and what authority does that man have etc.
SO OUR PRESIDENTS QUOTE STRAIGT FROM THE BUDDHIST SCRIPTURE COVERS ALL THIS DAVID CAMERONS HIPOCRISY.
David Cameron has apparently missed information in his sloppy head about his ethics to be high handed to THE PRESIDENT WITH TREATENING TIME FRAMES TILL MARCH 2014. SO WHO THE HELL IS DAVID CAMERON TO TAKE A PUNCH AT OUR PRESIDENT. HE MUST BE REAL ASS HOLE FROM THE BRITISH -TAMIL SLUMS, WHERE
DAVID GOES FOR A SLOPPY SLOP. THOSE ARE HIS PERKS FOR FOUL MOUTHING.
TIMOTY also referred to Presidents answer to his British Upstart as his guest.
PRINCE CHARLES SHOULD REQUEST THE BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION TO PAY THE DRIVER OF THE VEHICLE CHANNEL FOR HIRED, THEY CANT WAKL AWAY WITOUT PAYING. STOP STOP STOP THEM AT THE AIRPOERT AND GET IT.
THEIR CAMERAS AND ALL VIDEO EQUIPMENT HAS TO BE CONFISCATEd FOR SECURITY REASONS, AT THE AIRPORT.
November 16th, 2013 at 7:28 pm
David Cameron should have followed the exemplary way Prince Charles did his part while attending the CHOGM in Sri Lanka. He won the hearts and minds of every Sri Lankan.
General Pervez Musharaf arrived SL couple of decades ago as head of Pakistan army, offered flowers at Sri Dalada Maligawa and returned to his country as the president. Prince Charles (who is downgraded as a retiree by BBC which has a strange agenda) too offered flowers at the same place and perhaps will be the head of commonwealth soon.
November 16th, 2013 at 7:39 pm
“Govt. should do NOTHING. ”
No! Time to repeal 13A and what they can do.
November 16th, 2013 at 8:20 pm
Well written article Shenali, all Brits are blood suckers. Yet, for some natural reason, perhaps having a genetic cocktail in them, they are very intelligent and they use their talent to better their own people. This is what our people are not doing, for example, Ranil W & Gonseka . We must forgive Gonseka because he is not naturally gifted. But I think it is very hard for us to forgive Ranil W.
November 16th, 2013 at 11:44 pm
David Cameron may PANDER to his Tamil subjects by DEMONIZING and THREATENING Sri Lanka, but Australia RECOGNIZES a GOOD NEIGHBOR when it sees one and helps Sri Lanka curb sumggling of FAKE REFUGEES in Australia’s National Interest!
Jayawewa!
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Australia to give Sri Lanka two patrol boats to curb human smuggling
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Nov 17, Colombo: Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott has confirmed that Australia would give two patrol boats to Sri Lanka to curb human smuggling, an ABC report said.
The Prime Minister who is in Sri Lanka to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting has told the media in Colombo that two Bay class patrol boats will be given to Sri Lanka to boost the efforts by the island’s Navy to prevent people smuggling in the Indian Ocean.
The patrol boats that will be gifted to Sri Lanka under a memorandum of understanding are to be used for humanitarian purposes. Australia will also provide training to Sri Lanka Navy along with the boats.
The Australian Customs is in the process of upgrading its fleet and no longer needs the Bay class vessels, according to the Prime Minister.
The boats will be delivered to Sri Lanka Navy by mid-next year, the Prime Minister has said.
Last year former Australian Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr announced a four-point plan to boost Sri Lanka’s capabilities to fight against people smuggling on boats from the island nation to Australia across the seas.
Under the plan, Australia will assist to strengthen the Sri Lankan navy’s on-water disruption capacity including through talks to identify materiel and equipment constraints and supply the island nation’s Navy with search and rescue equipment to help recovery of passengers from intercepted and unseaworthy vessels.
“It is important that Sri Lanka has an enhanced search-and-rescue capacity, an enhanced interdiction capacity and that’s what these two Bay class patrol boats will offer the Sri Lankan navy,” the Prime Minister has told the reporters.
The Australian PM and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on met on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Meeting on Saturday and the deal has reportedly been finalized during the meeting.
November 17th, 2013 at 6:03 am
It looks like the gremlins have been at it again – in the third line of the article, the phrase ‘victory in magnanimity’ should clearly have read, ‘in victory, magnanimity’- I don’t think, whatever his less agreeable qualities, David Cameron will have got the quotation wrong. But what he has quite clearly shown is an arrogant and patronising attitude towards the President and the government. He came with the stated objective of lecturing to his hosts, he stayed true to that agenda and for good measure issued the threat of dire consequences if a March 2014 deadline which he set (and Navi Pillay did before him) is met.
His advice to the President to heed Churchill’s words about magnanimity in victory was unnecessary as it was gratuitous. If David Cameron had spent a little time to learn about the history of his host country, instead of only listening to the narrative from the Tamil organisations in the UK, he will have done himself a favour. He will have found that a celebrated Sinhala king, long before Churchill made his quoted observation, did more than pay lip service to the concept of magnanimity in victory. King Dutugemunu went further. He gave practical expression to that sentiment; he directed that all who passed the tomb of his vanquished opponent Elara, should observe a respectful silence. Such noble conduct is part of the island’s history; hard-coded into the nation’s DNA. There was no need for David Cameron to deliver a lecture on that score.
To many Brits, Churchill is a great and revered figure. But as Shenali’s comprehensive research shows, there was much in him that was not so nice or exemplary. And there is no reason why the rest of the world has to accord him the exaggerated respect and admiration that his countrymen see fit to give.
David Cameron has had the advantage of a good education – including stints at Eton College and Oxford University. But his conduct while attending the CHOGM in Sri Lanka does not reflect too well on either institution or on himself. He has now returned to the UK. It is good to see the last of a bully. He will not be missed.
November 17th, 2013 at 12:59 pm
Nanda,
Of course!
That is a GOOD THING. I was referring to BAD THINGS (e.g. devilution, war crimes investigations) not to be done.
13 amendment MUST GO.