C. Wijeyawikcrema, LL.B., Ph.D.

Introduction

Lemkin who lost 49 family members to the Holocaust coined the term Genocide in 1943/4. Applying his definition to past events, the first genocide took place in USA when, white man distributed blankets soaked with smallpox germs to native Americans (Red Indians). Perhaps, even before that in 1818 and 1848 genocide took place in the British colony, Ceylon. Genocide is primarily a European-Christian affair. It is also a growing organic idea in the hands of ex-colonial masters. However, what Vigneswaran is trying to do in Sri Lanka is to turn this idea upside down deploying five SIVA LINGAs brought to the island during prehistoric times. Apparently, the blessings by the LINGAs did not work. Therefore, his delusional mind jumps to 1948, and list all kinds of genocidal acts done by a Colombo government which was full of Tamil MPs, politicians, and Tamil officers of all kind, including himself. Surprising also is the fact that, SJVChelva then, or Abraham Sumanthiran and Rasamanikkam grandson from Batticaloa, now in 2021, all Christians, missed both the genocide and Siva LINGA stories of Vigneshwaran. Who will bell this cat?

Scenario-1
 If we have a black as our chief justice, how can we say there is genocide against blacks?”; If Hitler had Jews in his war cabinet how can Jews complain?” or where are the British, they created this mess [in Sri Lanka] by their divide and rule policy?” 

(Hearings before the subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs of the committee on foreign affairs, House of Representatives, 100 Congress, First session, August 6, 1987, page 1).

Note: In July 1983, when JRJ allowed UNP hooligans to loot mainly the Tamil businesses in Colombo, the chief justice was a Tamil; the IGP and his four DIGs were Tamils; the Attorney General was a Tamil, and the Leader of the Opposition was a Tamil. It was this factual truth that puzzled two impartial American congressmen.

Scenario-2

Would Hitler rescue 300,000 Jews (Tamils) used as a human shield by his enemy (Prabakaran) at the cost of lives of his German (Sinhala) soldiers, instead of firing multi-barrel guns to annihilate the enemy?  The enemy was shooting at the hostages trying to escape to the German (Sinhala) side to deter such revolt!

Scenario-3

If TNA asked Tamils to vote for Sarath Fonseka, the commander of the army accused of genocide to become their president in 2004, then what should be the new meaning of the term genocide in 2021?”

Scenario-4

If before his death SJV Chelvanayagam handed over his Gandhian struggle to Prabakaran to handle, if Amrithalingam’s ‘our boys’ who first killed Jaffna mayor Duraiyappa, later killed Amrithalingam plus Rajiv Gandhi, then how could one say the elimination of P and his war machinery with child soldiers wearing cyanide capsules given ceremoniously by Adele Balasingham who is now living in London, was genocide?”

Scenario-5

If Vigneswaran lived and thrived amongst the Sinhalese in the south for 75 years, tolerated his two sons bringing him two Sinhala daughters-in-law, benefitted having a cute little granddaughter who speaks to him and his old Marxist buddy Vasu in English, as if she is a symbol of unity in the island, how can he say there is genocide against Tamils after he becomes a Tamil politician at age 76?”

Scenario-6

If yahapalana thieves made Sambandan the Leader of the Opposition, violating every rule of decency and democracy, made him a member of the joke called the constitutional council, made him a selector of victims for political prosecution, and Sumanthiran and former terrorist D. Siddhartahn was able to prepare an Ormitthanadu thing, which was bombed last minute by a disgruntled president Sirisena, if Sumanthiran was so powerful enough to silence Kiriella – the any buffalo can win wars with money fame- shouting at him in front of Ranil in the parliament, then how is it possible for Vignesh, Ponnambalam and Sumanthiran to talk of genocide after 2015?”

Note: The factual examples above, demonstrate that in the case of Sri Lanka, either the application of the term genocide is a joke or those who talk about it are jokers, because genocide is not a water tap that one can turn on and off depending on local and foreign corrupt politics. This is message I wish to convey in this essay.

Genocide is mainly a Christian-European affair

When Hitler was killing Jews, Winston Churchill, another Jew, delivered a speech on BBC in August 1941 saying that the Nazi armies were advancing exterminating whole districts in Europe. He said, “We are in the presence of a crime without a name.” He forgot that in his colony called Ceylon it had happened twice in 1818 and 1848, and several mini ones in between. Then Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew and an international lawyer who lost all his relatives during the Nazi war decided to find a name for the crime and he coined term “genocide.” Lemkin would not have expected what was in store for his invention. It became a new tool and a new weapon in propagating ‘Eurocentric Developmentalism’ or the western hegemony in the ex-colonies using local black-white agents. In this remote-controlled colonialism, white global corporate politicians and corrupt NGO/INGO agents exploited the word as a cover for selfish purposes. Even private individuals joined in the game. For example, the American lawyer Bruce Fein used the word genocide frequently because allegedly, he got $30,000 per month from the owners of the Tamils against genocide website. Arundhati Roy feared of an impending genocide in the No Fire Zone in Sri Lanka. She has had a journalist’s crush on her hero Prabhakaran (ref. The Island, 4/28/2009, essay by Kalana Senaratne).

This use and abuse of an ‘innocent’ objective term, subsequently, for subjective separatist purposes was exposed by me in a short essay printed in the Island newspaper on May 18, 2009, just one day before, Prabakaran officially/militarily went to his cyanide heaven. That essay is copied below, and an improved Sinhala version appeared later in the Lankaweb is also linked at the end of part II. What provoked me to write a new essay now in 2021, is the sad and good developments I see in the Sri Lankan scene. How two Jaffna toddy tappers’ grandson, Arulanandan (Arun) Siddharthan, forced the Vigneswaran-GG Ponnablam-Sumanthiran-TNA clique to hide inside the Diyawanna hotel to talk about genocide is the good news. The bad news is the failure and inability of the Sinhala politicians inside the hotel to give a theoretical/ideological answer to the Tamil genocide myth. It would have been historic, if the solitary Tamil Buddhist in the hotel, the list MP, Suren Raghavan with his Buddhism doctorate from Oxford came forward to demolish this myth. When self-educated Arun employs Buddhist approach to silence genocide jokers, how long a Buddhist Raghavan could sit on the fence on this genocide game? For that matter, Sinhala panchakanda (souls) who believe that there was/is Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka must come out and use their freedom of speech now because the Geneva HR hot pan is on. I am not sure whether Michael Roberts in Australia or Wickramabahu K or Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri, the Eelam supporters in Sri Lanka, could say with a straight face that there was/is Tamil genocide in the island. So many other double game cats are there such as Jehan Perera, Pakiyasothy, DBS Jeyaraj in Canada, Rajan Philips, Kumar David, Victor Ivan, JVP lot led by Anura Kumara, Peratugaamis, French citizen Gamini Viyangoda and ex-president Sirisena’s advisor Shreelal Lakthilaka.

Genocide Tamil jokers and Buddhist Middle Path

When all the others talked and submitted documents against the Sinhala Buddhists (including even the Sri Lankan embassy) at an American Congressional Committee hearing, two congressmen silenced them by asking the questions copied above (scenario 1). But when Vigneswaran passed his genocide resolution on February 10, 2015 at the NPC, about Sinhala governments exterminating Tamils in Sri Lanka nobody was there to take this delusional bull by the horns, because Sinhala black-white politicians are selfish, timid, and self-destructive. Now on February 12, 2021 (Colombo Telegraph), Vigneswaran comes to defend Gajendra Ponnambalam (GGP) for raising the genocide joke inside the Diyawanna hotel (a.k.a. parliament) a few days ago, one or two MP panchaskandas tried to answer him giving the dictionary meaning of the word. GGP then gave his legal meaning stating he is a lawyer. Outside this ‘august’ body with ‘honorable souls’ as they themselves call each other in between filthy attacks, Arunalandan (Arun) Siddharthan (convenor, Jaffna civil organizations’ collective) in Jaffna identify GGP as an intruder from London coming to save the Tamil race. If Arun were an MP in the Diaywanna motel, he would have silenced GGP, Sumanthiran, and TNA agents all by a short speech, the way he exposes these bogus Tamil saviors on his Jaffna public meeting platforms!

Vigneswaran’s new genocide list

By allowing these Tamil Eelamist to make genocide talks in the parliament liberally, Sinhala politicians are only feeding a cancer to cure it. This Tamil genocide myth must be defeated using Buddhist principles. BBS leader Ven. Gnanasara could have done it if he were in the parliament. Vigneswaran’s genocide list given in the Colombo Telegraph is like a bottomless well. Just to give a simple example, he lists the Indian citizenship law (1949) as genocidal, forgetting that GGPonnambalam supported it! SJV Chemvalanagam invented the Tamil homeland myth and then complained against Sinhalization of the homeland. Now in 2021 Vigneswaran turns this myth upside down imagining that the entire island was a Tamil land invaded by the Sinhalese, and this is genocide! With this new interpretation, archeological ruins are Tamil ruins disrupted by Sinhala agents.  Thus, it is a waste of time to go through his genocide list.

If a Sinhalaya like him says that the stone rock in Mecca is on top of an ancient Buddhist shrine based on Buddhist literature and the Bamian Buddhas, and it is genocide which turned the tables, what would be the reaction of the western HR crowd?   But there are other cases. When Babri Masjid-Rama Temple issue in Ayodya required digging to find out the truth, what came out was the ruins of an ancient Buddhist temple. In Pollonnaruwa, the Shiva Devalas were erected on top of Buddhist temples. How would Vignesh reconcile such conflicts? According to his new 2021 definitions who did genocide to whom?

To be in competition with the stories of Lord Buddha visiting the island three times, Vignesh recently wrote a canard that in prehistoric times five Shivalingams were brought to bless Sri Lanka. Apparently, it did not work that way. Instead, today we have Buddhist temples, with 10-20 percent of their sacred space devoted to Hindu gods and goddesses. Hindus and Buddhists did not have a conflict. It was Christian Tamils living in Colombo, who created a Tamil-Sinhala language problem. Tamil who went to foreign countries on political asylum, who do mostly unskilled jobs, learned the new languages of host countries in no time. In Sri Lanka, Tamil politicians in Colombo gave Sinhala tuition to their kids but prevented poor Jaffna Tamil learning Sinhala in state schools.

Tamil homeland myth

If one were to believe that successive Sinhala governments done genocide as Vignesh and GGPonnambalam now say, it was SWRD Bandaranayake in 1958 and Dudley Senanayake in 1966 who gave a legal backing to the Tamil homeland myth. Then in 1987 JRJ made it constitutional law with his 13^th Amendment. Then came 1995-2000 Neelan-GL-Chandrika package deals, Ranil’s infamous CFA, Chandrika’s Ptoms, ISGA, Tissa Vitharana’s APRC majority report, and finally Ranil-Sumanthiran-JayampathyW’s Orumitthanadu thing. Would Hitler allow such attempts aimed at balkanization of Vignesh’s Shivalinga-blessed land?

Was it as part of genocide that both Rpremadasa and Mrs. Chandrika offered NP repeatedly to Prabakaran on a 15-year lease?  After his Oslo meeting GL Peiris was so elated because Balasingham agreed to a federal formula, he even called B as His Excellency for making a paradigm shift from Eelam demand. Premadasa made a generous genocide decision to make Tamil an Official language in NP and EP, the Sinhalese living there now must hire Tamil interpreters to communicate with government offices, GSNs, police and courts of law.

Part – II

Wigneswaran and TNA in trouble losing Tamil voter base and facing Tamil anger- Two fronts: Arulanandan Siddharthan and Tamara Kunanayakam

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Island newspaper, 2009/5/18

When is genocide not genocide?

by C. Wijeyawickrema

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different things.”

“The question is, said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

A crime without a name

In August 1941, Winston Churchill delivered a speech on the BBC saying that the Nazi armies were advancing exterminating whole districts in Europe. He thundered, as quoted in the book, A Problem from hell: America and the age of genocide by Samantha Power (2003), “We are in the presence of a crime without a name.” Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew, and international lawyer who lost all his relatives during the Nazi war decided to find a name for the crime and coined term “genocide.” Lemkin would not have expected what was in store for his labour. Recently, white politicians and corrupt NGO agents exploited the word as a cover for selfish purposes. Even private individuals joined in the game. For example, the American lawyer Bruce Fein uses the word genocide frequently because allegedly, he gets $30,000 per month from the owners of the Tamils against genocide website. Arundhati Roy fears of an impending genocide in the No Fire Zone in Sri Lanka. She has had a journalist’s crush on her hero Prabhakaran (ref. The Island, 4/28/2009, essay by Kalana Senaratne).

White political cats

Samantha Power, another Jew, in her extremely popular book, discussed Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, Srebrenica and Kosovo cases of genocide in which western white politicians gave all kinds of excuses to avoid talking and acting about genocide.

These white politicians banned Prabhakaran’s terrorist outfit, in law, in their jurisdictions but allowed it to have a free hand in collecting funds and delivering weapons to Kilinochchi. Because Tamil votes were important in elections in London, Toronto, or Paris. Therefore, white politicians had no alternative but to play politics. They knew that Prabhakaran and company were guilty of genocide, but they pretended that they did not know that he practiced it.

Genocide program of Prabhakaran

The intention to eliminate or harm another human being because of the birth and existence of that human being is genocide. This meaning is hidden because, race or religion (or both) separates the perpetrator and victim. Also, in previous cases there were large numbers of victims involved.

Intention

1.birth and religion

Prabhakaran intended and did ethnic cleansing by removing Muslims giving them 2-hour notice to leave Jaffna. The number was 100,000. This notice was not required for the Sinhalese as he killed them if they remained in Jaffna. Muslims and Sinhalese were victimized because they were not Tamils. The only case we know otherwise is the Sinhala Buddhist monk who lived in Kilinochchi for 25 years!

Prabhakaran’s massacres at Arantalawa, Sri Maha Bodhi, Mosques and other places were not attacking the military but civilians. These were not isolated incidents, but there was a pattern running over his 33-year ‘rule’.

2. Acquired differences.

Power’s case study on Cambodia shows that genocide is applicable to differences in what human beings acquire after their birth. Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot killed people of their own race and religion. They were killed because after their birth they had an education, did not support communism, liked western habits, lived in suburban areas etc. This means, when Prabhakaran killed Neelan Thiruchelvam, Lakshman Kadiragamar, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle or Amirthalingam, he committed genocide because killing people of his own race (Tamil) or religion even in smaller numbers makes him guilty of genocide.

3. Human shield as a weapon

Taking Tamils as a human shield is an intentional act of destroying them for Prabhakaran’s benefit. Therefore, the name genocide should include this act of Prabhakaran at least for the past 3 months. Even if this human shield business is considered by the white politicians an act of self defence (which is allowed under the western jurisprudence) then the killing of those who wanted to escape from him must be a crime of genocide. Daya Master has revealed that about 300 people had been killed on two occasions. It may be possible to unearth mass burial sites inside CFA 2002-donated area with the help of surrendering cadres.