CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Your interest in Tamil Tigers

Asoka Weerasinghe Ottawa, Canada

August 27, 2007

Dr. John Whitehall
Pediatrician
Director
Townsville Hospital’s Neonatal Unit
Queensland
Australia

Dear Dr. John Whitehall:

I read with great intrigue your interview with Richard Fidler of ABC radio on your humanitarian accomplishments in Sri Lanka, especially in the Tamil Tiger controlled patch in the Wanni.

The more I read what you were involved in there, I found it fascinating as it began to gel in my mind that it could have very well developed into an Oscar winning script as it had all the ingredients of a ‘white-man’ going into the brown-native Tamil Tiger terrorist jungle hideouts in Sri Lanka stretching out a helping hand, your formidable acts of humanitarianism, accepting their gun-totting culture, getting brainwashed to pontificate their lies to help their terrorist cause, gaining their respect as they found their Sir. Lancelot in shining steel-armour as they knew that they could use this naïve ‘white-man’
with a respected profession to be the courier of their lies to the outside world, except for the romance that would have ended up the intrigue of your story beautifully. I have a strange feeling that Australia’s David Hannay, the 1988 Human Rights Australian Film Award winner would have filmed your story except that it lacked that heart-palpitating, tear jerking, romantic “Ahhh…wasn’t it nice!” ending.

What missed for me and perhaps David Hannay too was ABC’s Richard Fidler asking you, “So after all this adventure, I understand that you now have a special interest and a practical link with the Tamil Tigers?”

*Dr. Whitehall*: “Yes, indeed. I fell in love with Captain. Letchimi, who is one of the leaders of the Tamil Tigress Army, who had blown her left leg while trying to put together a bomb to blow up the Sinhalese soldiers. She is a beautiful 30-year old woman, a wonderful lover, and I am now trying to sneak her out of the Wanni and bring her to Queensland by hook or by crook, and hopefully tie the knot someday which will have a – */and they lived/* */happily ever after/* – fairly tale ending.”
That is what lacked in your intriguing story for an Oscar winning script.

*“…they could use this naïve ‘white-man’ with a respected profession to be the courier of their lies,”* I said earlier. This is what I meant.

“*As* *part of our trip we did not go to North East, the traditional historic lands of Tamils…*” you said. Where the heck did you get that notion from? If it was from the Tamil Tigers, then they certainly massaged your naïve mind pretty good.

John, sure, these Tamils have their traditional homeland and I am not going to deny them that. And that is Tamil Nadu where 62 million Tamils live which is across 18 miles of water from the northern tip of Sri Lanka. This is where they came from and there were four waves of invasions throughout the centuries. And they were kicked back every time by the Sinhalese. Now, John, don’t call me a Sinhalese chauvinist for pointing that fact to you, pleeeeese!

If you really want to know whose traditional homeland, especially the east is, here it is in simple English. The chapter, ‘ Ceylon The Isle of Jewels’ in *LANDS AND PEOPLES*, Volume IV, Edited by R. Bruce Taylor, D.D., LL.D, published in 1929 by The Grolier Society, says :

”The Sinhalese, who are Buddhists, ruled the island before the Hindu Tamils came from India; but even before them were wild men called Veddhas. There are still a few Veddhas, but they live hidden away in the jungles of eastern Ceylon.” Note, they said that it were the Veddhas who lived in the eastern Ceylon, and NOT the Tamils. Now you must be getting really confused!

Here are more facts to justify what was said in *LANDS AND PEOPLES*. In the east of Sri Lanka which you claim to “*be the traditional historic lands of Tamils”, *on either side of the 62 mile long Gal Oya (river) which meanders through the eastern terrain grew a relentless thick jungle. Here the actual denizens were a few Veddhas (aboriginal peoples) and wild animals.

It is still recalled by a few Veddha elders, how they trekked a few miles along the jungle trail to visit a dam site overlooking the Inginiyagala rock, which still stands as a giant sentinel. Those days, only foot paths and animal tracks criss-crossed the vast amphitheatre which was entwined by dense jungle. Perhaps, you could tell me where the heck the Tamils were in this area that you have claimed this land as the traditional homeland of theirs. Surely not hiding under the canopy of the thick jungles playing hide-and-seek with the Veddha community! Thus unoccupied and unutilized land in the east belonged to the State which was the traditional homeland of the aboriginal people, the elephant, the sloth bear, the leopard, the monkey, the deer, the jackal and some species of vipers. Certainly not the Tamils as you would like us to believe.

Now, I am sure you are wondering, then how come there are people living in the east in the thousands - Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims? That is easy to explain.

I should roll back to the years just after Ceylon attained Independence in 1948. The first Prime Minister of Ceylon D.S.Senanyake started the innovative Gal Oya multi-purpose project to colonize this patch of unoccupied and unutilized land for the benefit of all communities, Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim. The 62 mile long Gal Oya (river) rising from the central Badulla range in the Central Province was dammed in
1949 for the welfare and prosperity of the poor and landless of all communities of Ceylon ( Sri Lanka). The repository of water after the damming formed the lifeblood of the peasant farmers in the region. These peasants were given a meager financial assistance as seed money to enable them to gain both livelihood and feed their fellow citizens with the fruit of their toil. These are the same Sinhalese and Muslim peasant farmers that the Tamil Tigers keep massacring saying they are cultivating “Our Land and we want it back”. What a bunch of lying morons. What a bunch of sickly murderers. What damn audacity?

This bit of information proves positive that you are talking a lot of nonsense when you say, *“we moved from the Sri Lankan side into Tamil
side.”* John, there is no bifurcation of this Sri Lankan territory. The whole island is “Sri Lankan side”. I had said earlier. “getting brainwashed to pontificate their lies”. This is where you fell for the Tamil Tiger lies, hook, line and sinker. Have you ever heard any Sinhalese claiming a section of that pretty island as the “Sinhalese side”. I doubt you have as they have more sense to be that foolish. They damn well know that all of Sri Lanka is to be shared by all ethnic groups without prejudice. That is the very reason why the Sinhalese have allowed the Tamils to own 75% of prime real estate in the capital of Colombo when the Sinhalese are not allowed by the Tamils to own even one-square-inch of land in Jaffna, where they lived for generations before they were ethnically cleansed since the 1970s. Figure that one out John. Don’t you think that you have been taken for a ride, just as they have taken other “white-men” for a ride in the past? These Tamil Tigers can smell a naïve white-man, a prospective goody-two-shoes coming towards them from a mile away. So you happen to be one more victim of theirs. You happen to be one more addition to their collection of ‘white-man fools” that they can laugh at.

*“When we crossed the border and when we really hit north, I could not see any Tigers but that of course was a military illusion”.* That statement is embarrassing for a scientist like you, who normally have the faculty of probing for the right answers. Didn’t you realize that once you crossed the border and you really hit the north, it was Government controlled land, and that you would not come across Tamil Tigers, unless you saw a dead one having been shot for trying to infiltrate to plant a bomb or some hideous thing like that. This is truly embarrassing John. Put on your thinking cap for God’s sake. That is no military illusion.

*“Though Sri Lanka in general was a poor country, yet I found that the towns in Tamil areas were strikingly worse off than the Sinhalese areas*”, you said to Richard Fidler. That amazing observation really takes the cake for a man of your caliber for not having a clue of what you are talking about.

John, the Tamil ghettoed region of the North is a war zone, the region where the Tamil Tigers were going after the Government soldier, constantly pounding with RPGs, mortars, hand grenades and other sophisticated weapons to claim that land for their separate, mono-ethnic, racist state, Eelam. This has been going on for 24 years.
If you noticed buildings in shambles and the walls that stood up pock-marked with bullet-holes, that is the reason. These terrorists were not fighting with catapults and stones which might have left a wee hole on a wall. If the roads were in disrepair, that was the reason. Since February 2002 when the Ceasefire Accord was signed and until Eelam War IV began last July, they brought in 11 ship loads of military hardware under the very noses and blessings of the Norwegians who were and still are functioning as peace monitors. Another bunch of no good scoundrels who have been supporting the Tamil Tigers with money and sophisticated communication equipment for their survival, while letting the world know that they are honest peace brokers. Come back to me if you think that I am wrong, as I may have a few more ‘FACTS’ to impart to you, so that you may figure out who these Tamil Tiger terrorists are and their cause that you have decided to defend.

The terrorist group that you had spoken so sympathetically are the Tamil Tigers, the most ruthless terrorist group in the world, that had perfected the art of suicide bombing, assassinated two leaders of States and 31 politicians, including three Mayors of Jaffna, recruited thousands of children under 14 to fight an adult war and bury them in plywood boxed after being mowed down like a slashed field of poppies by a well trained army while doing their job of defending Sri Lankan territory and the right to life of her citizens from a bunch of marauding ‘Made in India’ terrorist killers. They still have about 300,000 Tamils under their control in the Wanni. The government liberated over 300,000 Tamils from the east after having chased the Tamil Tigers from the East in a matter of 10 months. Who said that the Tamil Tigers cannot be defeated in their own game?

My advice to you John is don’t be so stupid. Don’t try to be a martyr for this bunch of yahoos. Just keep away from trouble as I told you earlier, and don’t miss your step to invite people to show their badges of law enforcing authority at your doorstep, and stick to what you do best.

Be the good Dr. John Whitehall, the Pediatrician of Queensland. The Queensland’s infants need you more than the Tamil Tiger terrorists in Sri Lanka’s Wanni.

Now that you have my e-mail address, write to me if you need more FACTs about the Tamils of Sri Lanka having heard the supposed TRUTH from them.

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe
Ottawa, Canada

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