CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Excuse Me Please-Is the SL Navy Governed By The Vatican or The GOSL?

By Darmitha-Kotte

The Catholic Church and its Bishops in Sri Lanka seemingly, are most concerned about the disruptions brought on the civilians of this country due to the LTTE war. Very good indeed, just as much as the Catholic Church is concerned about disruption and loss of lives, so are we the majority of the Sri Lankan population of this country, which includes the majority of the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities who do not condone the atrocities of the LTTE terrorists. They have been conducting a most brutal & bloody war for the last 30 years in this country bringing untold misery to everyone. It must be expressly stated that if not for the murderous LTTE terrorists, Sri Lanka would be an extremely peaceful and harmonious place to live in.

No "human being " in Sri Lanka will ever condone the loss to life or the brutalities meted out to the ordinary citizens of this country or for that matter anywhere else in the world either. But in any country facing internal terrorist attacks such as what Sri Lanka has been facing during a period of near three decades the aggressor, the defenders of the nation and ordinary citizens all suffer casualties. It is not a matter of enjoying this brutal scenario but it is a natural outcome in times of a war.

There has been a strong effort by the Christian Churches (including the Catholic Church), the international & local NGOs, humanitarian organizations and western governments to " internationalize" the LTTE orchestrated terrorism in Sri Lanka with an agenda to twist the arm of the Government of Sri Lanka into carrying out "their orders" and conceding powers to the murderous LTTE terrorists who incidentally, are not " the sole representatives of the Tamil speaking communities in this country." Western powers & Christian Churches must begin to understand this simple logic if they sincerely wish to help solve the problems in Sri Lanka.

In the face of terrorist brutalities & conspiracies which has had the backing and support of the organizations mentioned above, the GOSL and The Armed Forces are faced with the Herculean task & responsibility of defending the nation, safeguarding civilians and repulsing terrorist activities. Under such an environment, undoubtedly there could be isolated incidents, which may cause human casualties. The difference between the terrorists and Armed Forces has to be understood- terrorists commit atrocities against civilians and the GOSL which includes The Armed Forces to pressurize the authorities into a state of "fear psychosis" to achieve submission to their demands, while the GOSL and The Armed Forces act on the basis that they must weed out the terrorists and stop their atrocities!

The letter written by the Bishop of Mannar Rt.Rev. Dr. Rayappu Joseph to The Apostolic Nuncio, Apostolic Nunciature, 220, Baudhaloka Mawathe, Colombo dated 18th June, 2006 which appeared in The Tamil Net of 20th June 2006 together with an article which appeared in The Daily Mirror of 23rd June 2006 where he categorically points a finger at " the SL Navy" regarding an incident which occurred at Church of Our Lady of Victories in Pesalai
(St.Mary's Church) on 17th June,2006 in which he states that The SL Navy entered the Church and attacked the "innocent civilians" who were seeking refuge inside it for protection. As a publicity stunt the Tamil Net has given wide publicity on their website & it is not difficult for us to understand why the Rt.Rev.Dr. Rayappu Joseph used the "LTTE propaganda mouthpiece" to give publicity to this issue! It also shows the close association of the Catholic Church with the LTTE movement. According to his letter, he says the civilians inside the Church said that (quote):
" at this point four men one of whom was in shorts and t-shirt and three in camouflage uniform rushed into the church compound by the main entrance riding two motor cycles it is said. They started firing at the church walls, doors and windows where over 3,000 people, after having fastened all the doors and windows from within, were taking shelter." (end quote) This letter has been copied to: Catholic Archbishop of Sydney-George Pell, Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation & Catholic Association of Sydney Tamils. It is obvious that there is a more sinister plan in this whole issue than just a simple complaint to the Apostolic Nuncio in Colombo or the Vatican Holy See. The motive is to drag in international pressures on the democratically elected Government of Sri Lanka!

For the sake of argument, we can also say that there is absolutely no proof, that although these men were wearing camouflage uniforms that they were actually from the SL Navy! We know only too well how the LTTE has been getting their own people to pass off as SL Army personnel to discredit the army. We have read reports of such incidents and warehouses of uniforms have been detected & confiscated by the security forces. Therefore, the same could apply in this instance as well. For blood-thirsty LTTE terrorists who are capable of blasting a busload of innocent children and civilians at Kabethigollawe recently, hurling grenades inside a Church is nothing if they could achieve their agenda! What the LTTE wants to do now is to turn the tables against the Sri Lankan security forces for them to clear their names of the atrocities they have committed and create adverse publicity against the GOSL. The western world has turned against the LTTE and therefore, they had to do something to create an issue. The best thing to do was to attack refugees inside a Christian Church and point the finger at the SL Navy.

The whole letter of the Rt.Rev.Dr. Rayappu Joseph is hurling accusations against the government security forces and stating that no redress can be got by expecting the GOSL to investigate into this incident. This it seems is not the most responsible manner for a person holding high office in the Catholic Church to behave. For those who have read the books of Dan Brown including " The Da Vinci Code" it is not too difficult to figure out the manner in which the Catholic Church works in relation to our local situation.

We do need to give a bit more credit to our Security Forces. It is highly unlikely that the SL Navy would be so naïve to walk into a trap like this without thinking of the implications. To quote from Rt. Rev.Dr. Rayappu Joseph's letter to the Apostolic Nuncio further, he states (quote) " ……………..The Commander accepted everything the people said and tried to placate them by assuring them of future security. The people pointed out that several incidents of this type had taken place in the past and such assurances had been given by the different commanding officers and they all had disappeared as words written on waters." (end quote) What does he mean when he says that the Commander accepted everything? Further down in the same letter it is stated (quote): "…………the security forces in this area do not understand this at all and from top to bottom, each of them has coloured his mind with this fanaticism that the people are there to supply security information to them. If the people do not do this, the Security Forces here think that the people should be killed. Unless and until the above unfounded prejudice is removed from the Forces against the Tamil civilians, they will never be in a position to offer any security to the people." (end quote)

It seems that Rt.Rev. Dr.Rayappu Joseph " might not have been in Sri Lanka" at the time when the murderous LTTE terrorists brutally murdered innocent Tamils in Jaffna in the early 1980s & hung them on lamp posts (commonly known as "lamp post killings") to instill fear in the minds of Tamil civilians; brutally massacred The Maha Sangha at Aranthalawa; blew off hundreds of worshipping pilgrims at the foot of The Sri Maha Bodhi in Anuradhapura; bombed The Dalada Maligawa killing and injuring innocent pilgrims & civilians; attacked Somawathie, Tantirimale, Deegavapi Temples killing innocent pilgrims, Maha Sangha and civilians; planted bombs and killed hundreds of innocent civilians at the CTO and The Central Bank; massacred Muslims worshipping in their mosques; threw infant children into cauldrons of boiling oil in Ampara; blasted the Sapugaskande oil tanks and killed so many innocent people in the process; stabbed 12 year old S.Sathyam in the heart when he refused to join the children's brigade recently; used a pregnant woman as a suicide bomber in their attempt to murder our Army Commander Sarath Fonseka; brutally murdered 64 innocent civilians traveling in a bus (15 being children) in a bomb blast in Kabethigollawa recently. How many concerned protests did we hear from the Catholic Church that is so concerned about the plight of innocent civilians? Suppose they are not considered "innocent civilians" if they are not attacked inside a Catholic Church and if those affected are not Catholic or Tamil by faith/race? Which is it?

The Catholic Church must get the LTTE terrorists with whom they are "working hand in glove" to lay down their weapons and enter the democratic path-then and only then will there be peace and harmony in Sri Lanka. As long as they refuse to do this, the security forces of our country are bound to protect our citizens from terrorist attacks and in this process, they are also expected to weed out any accomplices for the sake of security.

Rt.Rev.Dr Rayappu Joseph's action of sending this letter to Tamilnet for worldwide publicity to gain sympathy for the terrorists, reporting to the Apostolic Nuncio and the Australian Catholic Associations and the Holy See in Rome while living inside Sri Lanka under the protection of our Sri Lankan government makes us wonder whether our local issues are being supervised & governed by Rome OR The Government of Sri Lanka? Obviously there are many agendas attached to this singular incident at Pesalai and St. Mary's Church (Church of Our Lady of Victories).

From 26-28th June 2006 Caritas International(which is Catholic) which claims to have 162 branches worldwide, is planning to hold a conference here in Sri Lanka where we will see lots of foreign Caritas representatives making their entry into Sri Lanka. Therefore, the more issues that can be highlighted, the better it is for the Catholic Church in Sri Lanka to show the rest of the world what barbarians our Security Forces are! They can then use this opportunity to meet and give their distorted views to our President Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse to gain his sympathy. We doubt whether our President will be so naïve as to believe all the sob stories put forward by the Church? Both Caritas and The Catholic Church would just love for our internal issues to be " internationalized" so that their affiliates could enter this country at free will and do as much damage as is possible to the religious/social fabric of Sri Lanka.

Our internal matters need to be taken up and solved within the boundaries of Sri Lanka with the concurrence of the GOSL not by the Holy See in Rome! Complaining to the Holy See and worldwide Catholic Organizations is like children fighting in school and instead of complaining to their teacher or Principal of the school to find a solution- to go home and complain to the parents and expect them to find the solution to the problem created in school!

We do expect the Catholic Church to act with more responsibility at a time when the country is facing a crisis.

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