CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Architect of the CFA fouls up the CNA spirit

The Cobra on the neck of Parama Siva is inquiring the health of Garuda

Satchi Sithananthan for Subidcham

http://www.subidcham.de/html/hindu_interview-10.html

This morning’s report from Jaffna is about yet another Tiger killing, a continuing catalogue of atrocities the LTTE is committing against the Tamils. Apart from several killings they have been indulging in with such attacks as that of Kebettigollewa, Muttur, Pottuvil and Colombo where members of the Sinhala, Muslim and even overseas agency workers were involved, the killing spree of Tamils in the north and east is sustained continuously. The primary aim is to keep the Tamil community silent using terrorism as the means and get rid of people seen or suspected as being against them.

Kathirgamathamby Nagarajah, 68 years old former principal of Jaffna Tellippalai Mahajana College and the Jaffna District Co-coordinator of Social Services Ministry was shot dead by the LTTE in front of his house at Mallakam, Saturday morning October 7. He was the Principal of Tellippalai Mahajana College from 1982 to 1998. He served as the co-coordinator of the Hindu Cultural Affairs Ministry from 2000 and now he is the co-coordinator of Social Services Ministry, the minister who headed both is the EPDP leader Douglas Devananda

Nagarajah was one of the Tamil intelligentsia and an honest state officer, who has been gunned down by the ruthless Tigers. He was not the first school principal who was killed by the LTTE.

This morning the Indian daily, The Hindu published in Chennai, carried an interview of Professor G L Peiris who has served the Government of President Chandrika Bandaranaike, then crossed over to the Government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in such capacities as the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Chief Negotiator of Peace.

He was interviewed by the Hindu journalist S Dorairaj who appeared to be quite partial to the LTTE and this he betrayed with his final question to Professor Peiris. He asked:

“There have been charges that the Sri Lankan armed forces have been launching air strikes on the civilian areas claiming that they are LTTE hideouts”

Nowhere in this interview has Hindu’s Dorairaj referred to LTTE’s atrocities, suicide bombings, child conscription and not even Ordinary Level and Advanced Level school children being forced into long periods of combat training during the time schools are in sessions, child kidnapping press gangs etc., but had only referred to air strikes by Sri Lanka’s Air Force. Either Dorairaj has scant ideas about anti-terrorism and how a country should deal with it or have strong sympathies with the LTTE.

Coming as he does from Tamilnadu where there are petty politicians who belong to the Alibaba and Forty Thieves Tiger Fraternity, anyone can be justified raising doubts about the integrity of people who show undue partiality towards one of world’s most brutal terrorist organizations.

This very question fouled up what was a reasonably good interview even though the credentials of Professor G L Peiris has suffered a great deal over the years. Though there are doubts about the need for such an interview, the professor has had the opportunity to concede – in his own words:

“But there is a strong current of opinion in the country that there has to be a military response to terrorism. The UNP also accepts that position. The CNA (the proposed Common National Agenda of the SLFP and the UNP) with regard to the ethnic issue includes the acceptance that it is the paramount duty of the Sate to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and there has to be a military response to terrorism.”

The professor would have done a great deal of good to his integrity had he taken that question as an opportunity to dwell further into how the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) was signed in 2002 between his government and the LTTE with Norway being the peace-broker. He was virtually the architect of the CFA which made the LTTE feel, then believe and finally claim that Wanni was officially handed over to the LTTE and the people of this region had no voice over such a decision.

This move has been justifiably challenged as an act of treason committed by the Ranil Wickremasinghe government of which Professor Peiris was a vital part. The CFA was in fact a part of the conspiracy of Norway to help the LTTE to carve out a state for them, not necessarily one that would serve the aspirations of the Tamils.

It was this move by the UNP that made the LTTE to claim sole representation of the Tamils, one that cannot in anyway be justified except as a position yielded to sheer terrorism with which the Wickremasinghe government colluded. It further enabled the LTTE not to look up to the government of the country but to recognize Wanni as a protectorate of Norway and re-establish the White Man’s dominion over at least a part of the country.

It was such an arrogance that was enabled on the LTTE that made it feel like the Cobra around the neck of Lord Siva, referring to Norway in this allegory, asking its arch enemy Garuda who was hovering over him whether he was in good health. It is not surprising that today LTTE addresses all its issues to Norway and it is Norway that makes decisions and the LTTE Political Commissar makes it clear that they would only listen to Norway’s directives.

The current flurry of activities with the Norwegians rushing to Sri Lanka is caused by the fear of Norway that Wanni would be soon overrun by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

Professor Peiris should have owned up that the CFA was a grave mistake and they were possibly misdirected by Norway and did not have the vision that this Scandinavian country has ulterior motives serving both as a proxy of the rich aid donor countries and also to develop its own interests in this area of South Asia in the fields of its own interests that are getting ravaged in Norway.

Norway also happens to be the sixth largest arms manufacturing nation and some of its products were used by Norwegian Special Forces people to train the Tigers especially those of the Sea Tigers.

The CNA should not become a take-off point to galvanize certain forces in the country into one mighty organization directed against liberal and socialist political thinking and strengthen the elite and capitalist forces in the country. President Junius Jayawardene caused a great deal of harm to liberal thinking in the country and in the process destroyed grass roots political consciousness.

In other words the CNA should not be an agent to fortify forces that have failed the country, made independence meaningless and forced the nation to remain strapped to former colonial powers and dependent on the aid donors whose handouts only help the rich to remain rich and the poor without a chance to develop especially their own skills and assets.

This feature began with a reference to a killing of a Tamil, a citizen of great merit among the Tamils. There is nothing exceptional about this brutal murder by the LTTE. It is a common daily occurrence. In the meantime we have reports about how the Tamils in the north and east are co-operating with the armed forces in their determination to have the Tigers rooted out.

During the killing spree of Tamils by the LTTE from the day the CFA was signed the Ranil Wickremasinghe government and even Professor G L Peiris never ever raised their concerns but continued their silent support to the LTTE killing machine.

While being interviewed by what we feel as a pro-LTTE journalist, Professor Peiris should have not only acknowledged the failures and lack of visions of the Wickremasinghe government but also should have directed S Dorairaj along with realities of the current situation in Sri Lanka and not with fantasies created with mischievous misinformation that are being marketed among the publishers of Tamil periodicals in Tamilnadu.

The Hindu is a long established newspaper and has earned much credits and should be careful about the Sri Lankan situation, a country that is under threat now from Norway that may assert itself the way Australia is treating East Timor.

BACK TO LATEST NEWS

DISCLAIMER