Letter to Nobel Peace Prize Evaluation Committee
Posted on February 6th, 2012
Asoka Yapa, Chairperson &ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Asoka Weerasinghe, Vice Chair, Project Peace for a United Sri Lanka, Canada
PROJECT PEACE FOR A UNITED SRI LANKA
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 2360 Hilltop Lane,
Oakville,
Ontario L6M 3M9,
CANADA
Dear Sir:
Re: Nomination of ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Sri Lanka Killing FieldsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ for Nobel Peace Prize 2012
It is with humility and without prejudice that we wish to share our observations on the above video production by Channel 4 of London, UK, with the hope that the Short Listing Committee will be judicious when making a decision whether it would be appropriate to include a disingenuous and highly controversial film in the short list to receive the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.
We were taken back to be informed through the media that one UK Member of Parliament Siobhain McDonagh and an Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon (both well-known supporters of the Tamil separatist cause) had nominatedƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ the documentary ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Sri Lanka’s Killing FieldsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. Aside from the fact that the nomination is for a video production ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚ and not a specific organization or person ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚ is troubling enough because we believe that the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to persons or organizations that promote peace and harmony in our troubled world. The Channel 4 video production does diametrically the opposite.
Its launch caused great rancour and a furore in the Sri Lankan community here in Canada and worldwide because its value as a propaganda tool for the remaining sympathizers of the LTTE abroad is clear. In fact, Sri Lankans and Sri Lanka’s friends around the globe suspect it was paid for and produced by such interests for exactly that purpose. Far from promoting peace it has promoted discord and anger. For a variety of reasons that we shall explicate below we believe sincerely that this nomination is a stunt to gain free publicity and to further the dangerous cause of Eelam, a dreamed-up separate mono-ethnic racially pure Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Any progress in that project and Sri Lanka, now finally at peace after a devastating 27-year war, may be plunged once again into a spiral of violence and death.
The reasons for rejecting this application are many. This video production has been criticized by eminent technical experts as well as personnel engaged in the battleground as being staged and inaccurate with regard to facts. Technically, it has been judged by experts to mislead viewers into believing that certain scenes were shot by a phone camera when, in fact, those scenes, based on frame rates, etc. were clearly taken by a video camera. Why such misinformation by the producers? This controversy about how these scenes were produced calls in to question the entire raison d’etre for this video. Mischief-making and propaganda seems to have been the reason for producing this ‘shockumentary’. The UK-based Channel 4 production crew was either complicit in the travesty or was duped comprehensively. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
You may recall that Sri Lanka has come through a bloody war with the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) terrorist group which the UN had pronounced to be the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ They were militarily defeated on 19 May 2009, having been accountable for 100,000 innocent civilian deaths.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This is the group that perfected the art of suicide bombing by inventing the notorious body pack which was used to assassinate two heads of state, Rajiv Gandhi of India and President Premadasa of Sri Lanka together with scores of other politicians, most of them fellow Tamils, who did not toe their line. The Scandinavian nations were involved in several years of interventions in Sri Lanka to try to bring about peace, so we do not need to elaborate on the subject.
In the ignominious catalogue of mischievous efforts by the Channel 4 production to show ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-atrocities committed against the TamilsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ by the Sri Lankan government soldiers, we will expose to you one ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ important incident which will prove that this documentary of the Tamil terrorist war is not worthy to be short listed for your prestigious Peace Prize.
Incident:ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Unreliable Mischievous Witness ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” One of the prominent interviewees in the production was a young woman with a London Asian accent. She was not identified. At first we are given the impression that she was a field doctor; the commentary does not make this clear. However, subsequent investigation revealed that this Channel 4 ‘witness’ was, in fact, Damilvany Gnanakumar who had three aliases ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Vany Kumar, Damil Vany Kumar, and Damilvany Gnanakumar ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬‚ each one used opportunistically to further the cause of promoting Tamil Tiger terrorist and terrorism.
In the video she describes Dr. Shanmugarajah, whom she claimed to have worked with at Mullivaykkal Government Hospital purportedly during a Sri Lanka Army bombing attack, as ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-a great personƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ She talks with theatrical outrage of helping Dr. Shanmugarajah amputate, without anesthetic, an arm and a leg of a six-year-old boy, using what appears to be a kitchen knife. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Astoundingly, but revealingly, this account was absolutely rejected by Dr. Shanmugarajah himself who attested in a post-war interview that he never performed a single amputation, or indeed any surgical procedure, without anesthetic. He also said that the Sri Lanka government kept the hospital well supplied with anaesthetics, drugs, and food.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Moreover, he emphasized that the hospital was never shelled by the Sri Lankan army.
Later it turned out that this Damilvany Gnanakumar was indeed a hardcore Tamil Tiger terrorist, a former womenƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s coordinator for the Tamil Youth Organization in London, England, a well-known LTTE (aka Tamil Tiger) front.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ As well, she had been trained to use firearms and wore a cyanide capsule around her neck which was obligatory for graduating LTTE cadres.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Photographs exist that prove this without doubt. That the story of this Tamil Tiger cadre was a central plank in the Channel 4 production that vilifies Sri Lanka places the authenticity of many scenes in the video, if not the entire video, in grave doubt. There are many other inaccuracies in the video but we believe the evident Gnanakumar falsehoods will give anyone who evaluates the production pause for thought.
We humbly request you, without prejudice, to view this documentary, which we believe is part of the ongoing vicious propaganda campaign against the Sri Lankan government and its peoples, with clinical eyes.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Today, digital alterations of video (which seems to have happened in the case of the Channel 4 production) and Photoshopping of imagery (ditto) makes claims like those made in this shockumentary highly dubious and the province only of the gullible. To come to an intellectual and an honest conclusion as judge and jury we encourage your Short-Listing Committee to view the documentary ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Lies Agreed UponƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ in tandem. We will be requesting the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Stockholm to provide this lastƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ documentary urgently to you to facilitate a fair comparison.
We respectfully urge you not to tarnish the prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize by short listing this mischievous, dishonest, and disingenuous Channel 4 ‘shockmentary’.
Very sincerely,
Asoka Yapa, Chairperson
Asoka Weerasinghe, Vice-Chair
February 5th, 2012ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
February 6th, 2012 at 5:52 pm
A commendable presentation and thank you.
However, this would have been complete if you had taken a step further in proposing a suitable candidate for nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. If the world had branded the LTTE as the most “dreaded”, “ruthless” and ranked it as the “Number One Terrorist Organization” , is’nt it obvious and crystle clear to nominate that man who destroyed that outfit to be the deserving person for the Nobel Peace Prize? Not only that man brought the decades longed peace to a Nation, but taught the world at large how to destroy such organizations with determination, zeal and diplomacy. In that respect, that man from the tiny island of Sri Lanka demonstrated to the world why and how such organizations must be erased off this planet earth for the betterment of the human kind.
That man’s name is Hon: Mahinda Rajapaksa – HE the President of Sri lanka.
February 6th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
If this C4’s most divisive fabrication against the peace loving citizens of SriLanka, could be nominated for consideration for te Nobel Prize or anything worthwhile, then I believe the following unique individuals too deserve to be consdered posthumously for the Nobel Peace prize.
1. Adolf Hitler for ‘serving’ the Germans; 2. Polpot for ‘serving’ the Camodians; and (3) Velupillai Prabakaran for ‘serving’ the Tamils.
As for Senator Rhiannon, she could be considered a no-hoper, bringing disrepute to her own party and country, by repeating the propoganda appearing on the LTTE terrorist media outlets such as the Tamil-net.
February 7th, 2012 at 1:17 am
Douglas agreed 100%. Great comment