WITHOUT HONORING DEAD PEOPLE WITH “GREAT MAN” AWARDS
DO SOMETHING TO STOP THESE KILLINGS SANGAREE TELLS PRABHAKARAN

By Walter Jayawardhana

“It is easy for you to honour him as usual, with your “Mamanithan” title and your duty ends there. What action do you propose to take to prevent the recurrence of incidents of this nature in the future”, queried V. Ananda Sangaree, Sri Lanka’s leading moderate Tamil leader writing a letter to the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Velupillai Prabhakaran.

He wrote the letter following the assassination of Rev. Father M.X.Karunaratnam by a roadside bomb. While the LTTE is blaming the bomb on the Sri Lanka government the Sri Lanka military is blaming it on the rebels claiming it had all the hallmarks of the LTTE and the explosion took place in an area which is under the tight control of the terrorist group. It could also be an accidental explosion of a claymore bomb killing the unintended party, some analysts said.

“The News of the Tragic death of Rev. Fr. M. X. Karunaratnam,” wrote Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader Sangaree, “comes to me as a great shock. This is not a death that anyone can rejoice at. His demise is a great loss to the country and to the people of Vanni in particular. I know Rev. Karunaratnam for a long time. He was a very good social worker and a Human Rights Activist. I convey my deepest sympathies to all his kith and kin and Members of his congregation and also to all those who got benefited by his services and to those who are deprived of his service. Here is a “Man” Fallen by a foolish act. When comes such another?”

Although it has not been announced whether the LTTE Supremo is going to award the dead priest the award posthumously, like to many others, it has been a tradition of him to award “The Great Man” ward to those who have helped his cause. But from time to time, it has been challenged that his own gunmen assassinate certain individuals critical of him to create civil commotion and award the title as a ploy.

In the letter he furtheer said , “It is easy for you to honour him as usual, with your “Mamanithan” title and your duty ends there. What action do you propose to take to prevent the recurrence of incidents of this nature in the future. The TNA Members of Parliament are there only to satisfy you and they think that with issuing a statements strongly condemning these killings, their duty is over. They do not realise that your cadre too, with their deep penetrating units, make similar attacks in areas that are out of bounds for them and take away valuable lives - in many instances large number of innocent civilians. What did your cadre do to Members of Parliament like Hon. T. Maheswaran and Hon. D. M. Dassanayake both of who had done their best to the Tamil Minorities.

It is by penetrating deep into the South, more than 300 Km from Kilinochchi that your cadre had taken the life of another gentlemen politician who is very fluent in all three languages, much respected by the people and the clergy of all faiths in Sri Lanka, although a Catholic by birth and above all had all the qualities and qualifications to occupy even the Prime Ministerial Chair with perhaps only one disqualification that he belonged to a minority community which is not a disqualification anywhere in the world including Sri Lanka.

“Please accept my advice as a remedy to this problem, which may one day end up with somebody taking away your life or even that of your dear ones. The landmines, claymore mines and such other objects do not differentiate between a man and a woman, a Sinhalese and a Tamil, a Muslim and a Buddhist, the guilty one and the innocent etc. So please decide once and for all to stop targeting people by these means. You are fighting a War with a Government. While engaged in war you can’t complain foolishly like our TNA Members who should condemn all killing without trying to please one side. If you stop targeting individuals the Government Forces too should stop forthwith. It cannot have any other option.

“When I complained recently against Arial bombing in the night, I presume it has stopped inspite of the fact, that you yourself did it at Katunayake and Anuradhapura in the night. According to the statistics released to the press, I observe bodies of a large number of your cadre are dispatched to Kilinochchi everyday through the ICRC. A similar number of bodies of Sinhalese youths are reaching the south everyday. At this rate all youths whether Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims will be sacrificed at the battle front with hardly any youth left.

“Even at this late hour I appeal to you to give up your demand for Separation and declare a Ceasefire, if necessary, unilaterally and go for talks with the Government not as the Sole Representatives of the Tamil People but as a Party to the War and also as one of the parties to the ethnic conflict.”