QUASH TAMIL TERRORISM TO REVIVE AND BOLSTER THE HELA NATION

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane
Brampton, Canada

THE COUNTRY, NATION AND IDENTITY
Although foreigners and short-sighted recent politicians kept changing the name of our motherland at their whims and fancies as Serendib, Ceylon, Sri Lanka and so on, as far as the indigenous people of the country are concerned, for centuries upon centuries, they referred to, and identified their country as Sinhale or Heladiva, the island of the Hela people, or Helabima or the land of the Hela people. Sinhale is built upon and shaped by a distinct national identity. It took shape during a period that exceeds 2300 years. A good part of the national character or the socio-cultural qualities of the Hela Nation was inspired by Buddhism which arrived in the country in the 3rd century before Common era (3c. CE). Today and always, Sinhale had been a sovereign nation, with a distinct oceanic boundary, and at present, with a legitimate, democratically elected Executive President and government.

HELA NORMS GIVES THE NATION ITS IDENTITY
A unique combination of socio-cultural norms and values of the Hela Nation gives the nation its distinct identity, its vision, its approach to material, environmental and human development, its cordial relationships with other nations and the environment, and above all, the inspiration for its peaceful disposition, the compassionate nature of its people, their imaginative powers, their creativity, besides their aesthetic sense and spiritual inclination.

OBLIGATION OF THE NON-INDIGENOUS CITIZENS
Once the non-indigenous persons become a part of the Hela Nation it is incumbent upon them to get to know what characterizes the Hela nation and abide by the norms, ethics and values of the nation. It not only becomes their national obligation, but perhaps more importantly, it is to their advantage to become a part of the nation by grasping and understanding the underlying qualities or the identifying characteristics of the Hela nation, tangible and intangible, historic and contemporary, cultural and spiritual. That is the approach in developing a sense of belonging to a country that has accepted non-indigenous persons or their descendents as part of the overall nation.

When a foreigner or a person not indigenous to a particular country migrates into the country, and decides to make it his home, it is incumbent on that person to learn about the history, norms and traits of the new country and its people. The new immigrant is expected to acknowledge, subscribe to and integrate into the new nation of which he now is a part. The same applies to all descendents of non indigenous immigrants, who may have been born and raised in the new nation. Non indigenous citizens usually come with their cultural baggage and there is a transitional period of adjustment before one truly integrates into the new settings.


LTTE A CONDEMNED TERRORIST ORGANIZATION
Although illegally and forcibly occupying a small segment of the country during the past couple of years, the LTTE is an illegal terrorist outfit that operates illegally within the country. It is condemned as a terrorist organization by many countries in the world, including the 'great' immediate neighbor India and the world’s influential Western power base including the USA. The LTTE is a terrorist outfit with an explicit racist agenda, consistently using the most extreme forms of violence, murder, deceit and ridiculously false propaganda to achieve their racist objectives which are totally unjustified.

FALSE CLAIMS AND DECEITFUL PROPAGANDA
There is no basis for their claim of discrimination by the government, the mainstream Sinhela community, the mainstream Buddhists and the armed forces of the country. This is totally unfounded and ludicrously false. These are cheap fabrications meant to mislead foreigners and their devious funding agencies. They also use such false information for their deceitful overseas propaganda campaigns.

NOT AN ETHNIC WAR BUT A TERRORIST PROBLEM
What needs to be clearly emphasized is that there is no ETHNIC WAR in our country. The term ethnic war in the normal sense is used to denote armed conflict and hostility between ethnic groups in the country. This is surely not the case with our nation. Ours is a SINGLE NATION, with highly privileged minority communities, including the Tamils who account for a mere 12% of the total population of the island. About half of this number live and work outside the country. Within the Tamil community is a small group of extremists bent on racist-terrorist attitudes and mentality resorting to extreme forms of violence and terror to push unjust demands from a government which has been democratically elected by the large mass of the nation’s people.

What we have is not a war, but a TERRORIST PROBLEM, a killing spree by a small group of racist Tamil murderers. It is, in actual fact, a problem with a group of criminals who are indiscriminately killing people, mobilizing children and youth for terrorist activities, destroying public and private property, and preventing people from leading peaceful lives. It is a case of violation of people’s basic human rights, by a group of cowards. They resort to devious means which are commonly used by murderers and wild and uncivilized elements in society.

The government is duty bound to control this situation immediately using all means available to it, and most definitely, MILITARY MEANS. Military action is the forthright way to handle terrorists and to subdue them. They have to be eliminated. We do not have to tolerate murderers.

TAMILS AND OTHER NON-INDIGENOUS MINORITIES
Tamils are NOT indigenous to Sinhale or Heladiva (SL), the Sinhela People Are. Tamils are indigenous to the Tamilnadu which is the birth-place of Tamil culture including the Tamil language.
The minority communities inhabiting Sinhale or Heladiva, the island of the Hela people came to Sinhale from other nations including the Tamil nation called Tamil Nadu. They are settler communities of Sinhale, or people who decided to live among the Sinhela people observing the laws, socio-cultural norms and values of the Hela nation. The present-day Tamils, Muslims and Malays are descendents of such non-indigenous foreign nationals who arrived in Sinhale at different times in the past the earliest about a 1000 years ago who came as mercenaries and invaders and the more recent came in the 19th century and thereafter, as labourers in British-owned commercial plantations. Most of those who came to Heladiva from India decided to stay behind. Although they are citizens of the country today, and enjoy the rights and privileges accorded to all citizens of the country, the fact remains that they are not indigenous people of the Hela Nation, although they are treated as components of the Hela nation and not any other nation.

NEED TO CONFORM TO HELA NORMS AND VALUES
Non indigenous people are expected to conform to the norms and values of the Hela Nation to which they belong now. They may have brought various ethnic, cultural and religious customs, traditions, traits and values from their original nation and homelands where their cultures evolved and consolidated. They are free to maintain these cultural norms as long as they do not conflict with the norms and practices of the Hela Nation of which they are now a part. The norms of the Hela nation are derived from Buddhist principles that formed the basis of the nation for over 2300 years, where peaceful coexistence, non-violence, virtuous and simplicity in lifestyle, development of insight and spirituality have been essential characteristics.

INTEGRATED HELA NATION OF EARLY PERIOD
The well recorded history of immigrant minority communities in our country shows that in early years, especially prior to the arrival of European colonial powers, non indigenous Tamils, Muslims and Malays were well integrated into the prevailing mainstream Hela nation and culture. In fact, there was a high degree of integration with the non indigenous people establishing themselves well within the system, with due respect for the norms and traditions of the country. They became active participants in the affairs of the nation even at its highest levels. Most of them were peaceful and useful citizens of the Hela Nation. In the early years prior to the 16th century, Heladiva, was marked by a well-established and all-pervading Sinhela national socio-cultural system. This situation prevailed until about the latter years of the European colonial period, when things began to change.

DISARRAY BROUGHT ABOUT BY BRITISH POLICY
Colonial domination resulted in untold disruption of the normal affairs of the country. There were significant and far reaching political, economic and socio-cultural changes to which our people were subject. The former political, economic and social order and stability underwent significant changes, impacting on the attitudes and relationships between the indigenous Hela nationals and other communities. The British “Divide and Rule” policy of operation led to serious ethnic divisiveness and conflicts. This resulted in undue privileges for the Tamil minority as opposed to the mainstream Sinhela community. The idea was to bring about increased animorsity between the two ethnic groups to make is easy for the cunning British to “fish in troubled waters”. The relative geographical isolation of minority communities in some parts of the country further increased the divisive tendencies of the different communities.

HUMAN AND CULTURAL RIGHTS WITHIN THE HELA NATION
The Hela Nation has always permitted members of minority communities with different cultures, languages and religions to enjoy the same basic human rights and opportunities like the indigenous people. The policy adopted was “to live and let live” among others of the Hela Nation, as one people, irrespective of apparent cultural differences. The Hela Nation in the early period expected all to live as members of One Nation, which is the Indigenous Sinhela or Hela Nation. Once the non-indigenous communities make Sinhelay or Heladiva their home, It necessarily became their homeland and also their Nation.

One does not have to give up one’s culture in order to be a part of another nation. All what is required is to acknowledge the culture of the place one has made one’s home and try to integrate with the national system. One is free to follow and practice one’s culture and religion as long as it does not violate, counter or undermine the National Culture or the culture of the Nation.

ASCENDANCY AND PRE-EMINENCE OF THE HELA IDENTITY
It needs to be emphasized that merely because Tamils, Muslims, Moors and other minorities had lived in Heladiva for an extended period of time, it does not make them indigenous nationals. Indigenous Hela nationals or the Sinhela people being the founders of the Hela Nation, are entitled to special national rights. Promoting, protecting and preserving their culture, language, social system and values that characterize the Hela Nation are important in this regard. The non indigenous, minority communities are not entitled to such special national privileges, because the Hela nation is not the home of their cultures. Their cultures and their languages are not those which evolved in Heladiva as a component of Hela culture. Therefore, those cannot be accorded national or official recognition at par with the Sinhela language and culture. However, as far as ordinary human rights are concerned, the non indigenous people are accorded the same human rights as those enjoyed by the indigenous nationals.

VIOLATION OF HELA NATIONAL INTERESTS
The identity and national character of the country is based exclusively on the cultural traits and values of the indigenous people – the Sinhela. All those who subscribe to the Hela Nation and respect the cultural values of the indigenous Hela people are accepted and respected as Hela nationals. Any member of the non-indigenous minorities will be respected as Hela nationals, as long as the person does not work against the Hela Nation and indulge in activities that undermine the Hela Nation and its cultural heritage and values.

It is unacceptable for Hela nationals, when a non indigenous community or person whilst living in Sinhale or Heladiva and considering it as their home, resorts to deliberate misuse of such privilege by scheming and adopting violent and extreme mean and actions or contributing to such actions to undermine and violate the sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity of the Hela Nation. It is unacceptable for Hela nationals, when such non-indigenous people make ridiculously false and unfounded claims of a separate “homeland” and “nation’ within the Hela nation. It is common knowledge that such claims are made by some racist Tamil terrorist elements and Muslim fanatics, in their pursuit to carve out ethnic or religious enclaves within the Hela Nation, merely because some of them had lived in specific places of the country for extended periods of time.

As far as Hela nationals are concerned, persons with such self-serving objectives and attitudes are enemies or traitors of the Hela Nation and should be dealt with severely. There is no place in the Hela Nation for such traitors, double crossers, renegades, turncoats, collaborators of enemies, criminals and terrorists, conspirators, connivers, schemers and emissaries, spies, secret agents, undercover agents and double agents of the enemies of the Hela Nation. Their actions will seriously harm Hela national interests. All possible action should be taken by the Hela Nation to confront the anti-national elements of the Hela Nation.

OBLIGATION TO PROTECT THE HELA NATION
Revival of the Hela Nation Is contingent upon quashing and quelling Tamil terrorism. The Hela Nation incorporates the tremendous cultural wealth of the Hela people recognized the world over for its richness and uniqueness. They should be preserved and promoted for posterity. Those who undermine our nation’s identity, wealth and dignity are enemies of the nation. They should be confronted and subdued forthwith, and eventually eradicated completely.

The present generation of Hela nationals has a moral obligation to protect, preserve and promote the greatest of their inheritance for the survival of their cultural heritage and for the benefit of future generations. It is this national wealth, built upon the nation’s rich and productive natural resources base and its enchanting physical environment, that give identity and uniqueness to the wholesome character of the Hela Nation.

Concerned Hela nationals will under no circumstances allow the sovereignty and the all-pervasive Hela cultural character of the island and its distinct territorial integrity be subject to any form of disarray or disintegration. They will not permit any force, internal or external, ethnic or religious, to subjugate or undermine the integrity of Hela culture, the Hela Nation and the Hela people.

For the caring nationals of Sinhale, there is one moral law that stands above everything else – do everything possible to fully revive and strengthen the Hela Nation, and do everything possible to curb the efforts of the anti-national forces bent on harming Hela national interests. Give complete support to the valiant efforts of our soldiers to wipe away the enemies of the Hela Nation. As true Hela nationals say ‘No’ to terrorism, loud and clear.

SUPPORT FOR HELA ARMED FORCES
Our Hela history is replete with valour and courage in battles against overly superior forces. The struggle against terrorism and the looming division of Heladiva demands our full national strength. Let all Hela nationalists rise to the occasion, forgetting for a moment their ‘other’ differences, and swear allegiance to the unity of this country by giving unswerving support to our brave and commendable armed forces who are out there to save our nation from its savage and gruesome enemies – the racist Tamil terrorists.

Our Hela armed forces are focused forcefully on securing our country’s freedom and they will soon pave the way to the total liberation of our Nation. The renewed loyalty that is fast emerging among our Hela nationals today, is most encouraging. Each moment each second, we bless our brave and self-sacrificing patriots of our Armed forces for your gallant efforts to save what is most sacred to us.

THE ILLEGAL CEASE FIRE AGREEMENT (CFA)
Cease Fire has to be declared and agreed upon by the Commanders of the two opposing sides. It has to be emphasized that the Commander in Chief of all the defense forces in our country is the Executive President and NOT the Prime Minister. This so called “Ceasefire agreement” that was signed, was a product of, and was not approved and signed by the President but by the Prime Minister of the day, and therefore is invalid and unconstitutional. It was outlandish on the part of the then Prime Minister to override the Executive President and the Commander in Chief of the Forces of the country, and make an agreement with a terrorist leader.

TAMIL TERRORISTS VIOLATING THE CFA
What is more important is the fact that right from the start it was well evident that the Tamil terrorists were not serious at all about a cease fire and were respecting the conditions of the Cease fire agreement signed. On the same day the Cease fire agreement was signed, the Navy detected and reported that the LTTE was smuggling arms into the country. To make matters worse, the LTTE attacked the Navy and the navy had to summon the air force to its assistance.

Despite the ceasefire coming into effect, there were continuous reports of the conduct of LTTE cadres that did not indicate their willingness to abide by the conditions of the Cease fire in order to bring about a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Also, no sooner the Cease fire agreement was in effect, the LTTE expanded on its child conscriptions.

CONSCRIPTION OF CHILDREN AND KIDNAPPINGS
Forcible conscription of Tamil children by the LTTE was widespread in the Eastern Province. A detailed report was issued by none other than the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) listing names and places of kidnappings. UNICEF and Amnesty International protested against these kidnappings but the governments at that time, headed by Ranil and Chandrika, were turning a blind eye to all what was happening.

Also, there were many Defense Ministry reports during this time, detailing the kidnappings and abduction of people by the LTTE and their subsequent release on the payment of large ransoms. There were instances when armed LTTE seized national identity cards of Muslims and asked them to make a payment to get their cards back. Also, fishing boats were stolen in the eastern province and released after payment of huge sums of money to the LTTE. These are only a few instances of the LTTE on the rampage not giving a damn to the so-called ceasefire agreement, which the then government, politicians of the TNA and some peace lobbies in Colombo continued to hold as sacrosanct.

The obvious question to be asked is: Why is the LTTE preparing for war - forcible conscription and smuggling of arms - if they are desirous of peace? The LTTE will not bulge an inch from their demand for separate state, so what is the worthwhile purpose of a Cease Fire?

VIOLENCE ASSOCIATED WITH PEACE TALKS
We have had several sickening experiences of peace talks and the fallouts of their breakdown. The country can never forget what happened during President Premadasa’s time, when the lives of 600 to 750 policemen stationed in the East were sacrificed most horrendously, in a futile attempt to save his peace negotiations with the LTTE. It has to be understood that there has not been a massacre of this scale since World War II. This evil President got our Police forces to surrender to the murderous LTTE, only to be lined up at mass graves and machine-gunned into them. That was just one sacrifice made to save this disgusting UNP President’s ceasefire with an equally cruel terrorist leader. In general, the Cease fire agreement is illegal and lop-sided. It’s conditions were never respected by the terrorist LTTE and no serious efforts were made by the Cease Fire Monitors to ensure that the terms of the agreement were maintained.

USE OF ARMED FROCES TO CONTAIN TERRORIRM
What truce or peace process with ruthless terrorists whose attitudes and actions are clearly indicative of their sheer lack of respect for peace? They have resorted to terrorism at a time when combating terrorism is right on top of the global priority list. There is no reason for our President or government to be overly tolerant, patient and accommodative of these anti-national criminals. There is no reason to bear up the threats and indignity of various sorts directed at them by these unscrupulous and uncouth murderers. Why shouldn’t our security forces- army, navy, air force and police, and other relevant government resources be used to the maximum to contain this terrorist menace and human rights violations.
Tolerance and patience are weak character traits as far as Tamil terrorists are concerned. They used such situation to eliminate our leaders. Our leaders such as our President and Heads of the four Security forces have an obligation to the nation to see that they do not provide opportunities of any kind for the enemy to harm them. This is especially because they have been targeted by these ruthless sub-human elements? We want our leaders to be safe, live and lead our nation to peace and prosperity. There should be a continuous, all-out effort to confront enemies of the nation, to combat terrorism, to capture, dead or alive, the evil leaders of these crude Tamil racists, known historically for their gruesome acts of violence.

TERRORISTS DISTURBING THE PEACE
A peaceful life for the people of our motherland is possible only by eliminating those who disturb the peace, by getting rid of these traitors, these killers, these racist Tamil monsters who do not belong in our motherland, nor in the civilized world.

Our President did not get a mandate from the people for a negotiated settlement with criminals. That would be a violation of the law and a violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens of the country. How can there be negotiated settlements between a lawfully-elected government of a country and arch criminals? How can any country allow a bunch of criminals to hold the country to ransom and demand racist enclaves within the country?

Western democratic countries have always refused to have negotiations with terrorists and why should we? If any elected politicians use their positions to support and collude with criminals, they should be treated as criminals and should be prosecuted and punished like any other criminals.

COMMENDABLE SERVICE OF OUR ARMED FORCES
The worthy and brave guardians of our nation are our security forces. The LTTE racist Tamil terrorists are engaged in a full-scale war against our security forces in view of terrorizing our nation. The enemy in their violent spree, are also harassing, attacking and murdering ordinary people in an indiscriminate manner. The unprovoked brutality of these sub-human Tamil brutes unleashed on many innocent people living peacefully in different part of the country, should not be tolerated any longer.

Our armed forces have, as expected, initiated firm action to combat terrorists and to destroy terrorist infrastructure. This is most commendable. Our Air Force fighter jets have bombed and destroyed several LTTE strongholds. Initially, the air strikes were confined to the Eastern Province, but, in recent days SLAF planes have repeatedly ventured out into the skies over the Northern Province too.

TAMIL CHILD SOLDIERS
In the recent past, the LTTE has increased its usual activities of hoarding Tamil civilians, youth and children, forcibly to LTTE military training bases. Even the Norway backed SLMM hypocrites, recently confirmed that the number of child soldiers held by LTTE is over 3000. Our government has repeatedly informed and urged the international community to use its influence and take strong action against child soldiering by the LTTE. The response, however, has not been simple lip service. In the meantime, these terrorists continue to conscript and train children as soldiers. They are taken forcibly from homes and schools, subject to serious forms of brainwashing to make them into criminals.

LTTE CUTTING OFF WATER SUPPLY
In recent months, the ruthlessness of the LTTE terrorists has been intolerably severe, especially in the East. Many civilians were killed and some 40,000 people were made to flee from their homes in the East. They caused serious damages to some 15,000 innocent villagers whose lives were at great stake owing to the cutting off of their water supply of Mahaweli-oya (Mawilaru). Also, recently, several terrorist plans to attack and to cause serious havoc in the south of the country and Colombo City have been revealed. Under these circumstances, the government was left with no choice but to initiate all-out action to eliminate terrorism. Government cannot risk the lives of millions of its people for savage and barbaric actions of a bunch of racist terrorists.

OUTRIGHT MILITARY RESPONSE
For many years the government and the armed forces have maintained extreme patience. They were painfully coping with various forms of serious losses owing to sustained Tamil terrorism. However, recent atrocities have compelled the government and our armed forces to initiate outright militarily action in a forceful manner and repel and subdue the enemy, and destroy some of their terrorist infrastructure. The heroic nature of our armed forces was well displayed in this military action.

Terrorists and their leaders should be wiped out completely for the good of the large mass of our people – Sinhela, Tamil, Muslims and other, and also for the welfare of humanity as a whole. Our incredible Security forces are for all purposes, the protectors, defenders and liberators of our threatened nation.

DECEITFUL ACTIONS OF SOME OVERSEAS TAMILS
The deceitful, corrupt and criminal activities of their overseas Tamil supporters and the underhand methods used by them to generate funds for Tamil terrorism in our country have been revealed to the world in recent weeks. Some of these low-bred disgraceful elements were caught and are under arrest at the moment in the USA and Canada. The truth has won and these devils will bear the consequences.

The truth has been revealed to the world at large. Now the international community and the international media are in the process of realizing how they have been taken for a ride by these racist Tamil jokers. They have come to know how they were grossly misled by these deceitful Tamils. For many years, they have been using their customary falsehoods, treachery, corrupt practices and misinformation campaigns to deceive the world and thereby to promote terrorism to serve their narrow and selfish objectives based on unfounded and false reasoning.

The most corrupt and shameless attitude of these North-America based Tamil terrorist supporters is evident by their most disgraceful attempts to bribe US officials in order to have the LTTE removed from the USA terrorist list, and to buy surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) from agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who posed as arms sellers and subsequently trapped them. These arrests are important because they show the desperate state of these racist Tamil terrorists trying to protect itself from the air strikes of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF). The international community is beginning to understand the true nature of these terrorist LTTE stooges.

BANNING OF LTTE
Many influential countries have banned the LTTE in recent years, most recently by Canada which generously gave refuge to some 250,000 Tamils who secured refugee status in Canada by deceiving Canada with blatantly false stories. The LTTE terrorists would have been defeated long ago had it not been for the excessive material support and false propaganda of the racist Tamils of Canada and USA. The international community is concerned about the involvement of the LTTE in other terrorist organizations in the world, in direct and indirect means and manipulating them in their criminal ventures.

DECLINING STRENGTH OF TAMIL TERRORISTS
As far as North America is concerned the racist Tamil terrorist’s organizations are being exposed and their former power and influence are
rapidly on the down-hill path. This is the most encouraging development of recent time, for the whole of humanity. Terrorists should not be allowed to function in our civilized world, they do not belong there, and they should be eliminated forthwith. There is no better time than now for our armed forces to show their might and destroy this racist Tamil terrorist menace once and for all.

The world is beginning to understand our nation’s plight. Let us all give total support and encouragement to our armed forces to do the needful and get rid of these heartless and destructive creatures, so that we can restore true peace and development in our nation, troubled for way too long by these racist Tamil terrorists. Let us pave the way to restore and revive those wholesome principles which form the basis of our Hela Nation so that we, our children, their children and all future generations in our nation can live together in peace and cordiality as one nation.

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane
Brampton, Canada
September 06, 2006