Report on Sri Lanka-Another view on Rock.

Ira de Silva London, Ontario, Canada

November 19,2006

Mr. Allan Rock
UNSG
Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict
New York, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Rock:

I wrote to you on November 6,20006 regarding your "fact finding" mission to Sri Lanka. As mentioned in my letter I had doubts about your impartiality given that you had been a Liberal M.P. "beholden" to the so-called Tamil vote bank in Toronto which all Liberal politicians in Toronto court in their effort to get elected. However, since you were not hoping to get elected as a member of parliament, I hoped that you would have risen above your partisan, sympathetic attitude to Tamil terrorism. No Sri Lankan will forget that it was your party leader who gave the keynote address at a fund-raising event for Tamil terrorists in Toronto. While the Tamil terrorist supporters who organized the event rejoiced and trumpeted their success , other Sri Lankans in Canada were dismayed that those representing the Government of Canada were openly supporting terrorism from Canada. Published reports in the Canadian media traced the money sent for the bombing of the central bank in Colombo back to your Tamil supporters in Canada. You must have been privy to these and other reports of the extortion and violence in Canada and the export of terrorism by supporters of the Tamil terrorists right here in your "homeland". Support by you and other Canadian Liberals even earned an accolade from the LTTE - they stated that Canada was their greatest ally!

Having read the reports of your statement and having heard you on CBC all I can say is that you still stay true to your support of the Tamil Tigers and continue to be a "snow tiger". I wonder what "honour" they will bestow on you for your contribution to their cause? Prabhakaran has given Eric Solheim of Norway a gold medal for his long service to the Tamil terrorist cause. I trust you are not aspiring to be the next recipient. Earlier you supported funding terrorism in Sri Lanka. Are you now signalling your continued support to the Tamil terrorist supporters in Canada with a biased, unsubstantiated report? Are you hoping that this will help the Liberal party at the next election? My conclusion of bias is based on such statements as -

“Credible evidence from victimized mothers and eye witnesses” - you say you spent an afternoon in Batticoloa and interviewed these complainants. Do you speak Tamil? Who was the translator - was it NGO personnel whose livelihood depends on prolonging conflict because otherwise they will lose their paycheque? In Canada there were two instances I can recall that the so-called translators fabricated stories. One was when the bogus Tamil refugees landed on the shores of Canada - translators made up stories which later they acknowledged were untrue and even the "refugees" once they had claimed "refugee" status in Canada acknowledged were lies. The other incident was in Ottawa when the Tamil terrorist supporters "imported" a Tamil from Paris to discredit the then High Commissioner in Ottawa who had been the former army commander in Sri Lanka. Again, later investigation proved that it was a "media show" by the Tamils to discredit Sri Lanka. Please document this "credible evidence" so that the world can assess the truth of your statements. The security forces, the Government of Sri Lanka who incidentally gave you every assistance with your mission because they had nothing to hide, the Karuna faction who you met and other civil organizations have claimed that your statements are inaccurate.

The pro-Tamil media pounced on your ambiguous statement and it was broadcast all over the world that the Sri Lankan security forces were responsible for recruiting children. In your interview you claimed that it must be so as the children were taken through check points set up by the army and they should "have known". If you had been told that at the army check points the Tamil population was subject to unnecessary checks you would have then claimed that the Tamil population was being "harassed" by the army! I have been through army checkpoints and even travelled on the A-9 road. All the army does is to check the validity of the documentation and ensure that no arms, stolen vehicles etc. are getting into the LTTE controlled areas. The LTTE on the other hand charge an entry fee, charge customs duties etc. which makes the A 9 highway a major source of revenue to the LTTE. I have documentation to prove these statements. I trust you will provide documentation that provided you with the "credible evidence" and that it will survive scrutiny. Also in your interview on the radio you mentioned that you saw young men walking around with AK-47 guns. Everyone is aware that the AK-47 is the symbol of the LTTE. That statement infers that armed LTTE are roaming in the east in contravention of the CFA and it could very well be that they were prowling around to abduct people as they have been doing for over twenty years. I look forward to your reading your interviews with them and verification of whether they were LTTE or Karuna loyalists.

It is stated that you met with the Karuna faction? Did you ask them whether they recruited children and if the security personnel assisted them? Did you verify the evidence from the "victimized mothers" from Karuna.? After all the children were to be his "fighters" not recruited into the Sri Lankan forces. A statement from the Karuna faction denies assistance from the army and states that your statement is false. Who is telling the truth, you or Karuna? I wonder why Karuna, who has been the right hand of the LTTE leader for nearly 18 years before breaking away in 2004, would need any assistance from the security forces when he has been active in the east for all these years, has support from the former LTTE cadres, knows the people and area better than the security forces needs anyone else's support much less from the security forces to carry on as he has done for nearly two decades.

You can understand my scepticism regarding your statements and interviews. It lacks "credible evidence" and seems to based on hearsay. Further you have conspicuously avoided mentioning the Tamil Tigers and the fact that they have been recruiting children for the last two decades - the time period when you were wooing Tamil votes in Toronto. In your radio interview you did not mention what was said to you in Killinochi or that you saw men with AK-47's. Did you meet with any of the victimized mothers because in Killinochi it would have been thousands of children not 165 or was it just a friendly get-together to plan strategy to vilify the Government of Sri Lanka throughout the world as has been the propaganda from the LTTE after your report? One headline on the internet reporting your statement even went so far as to ask if you were being "paid" by the LTTE.

I look forward to your report so that the truth of your statements and the "evidence" can be assessed without prejudice. I trust that it will not be as ambiguous as your initial efforts and will not provide further doubts regarding your impartiality.

Yours truly,

Ira de Silva
London, Ontario, Canada