Dr. John Whitehall,Your interview
with ABC supportive of the Tamil Tigers
Mahinda Gunasekera Toronto,
Canada
September 5, 2007
To Dr. John Whitehall, Pediatrician
Director, Townsville Hospital Neonatal Unit
Queensland, Australia
Dear Dr. John Whitehall,
Your interview with ABC supportive of the Tamil Tiger Terrorists
(LTTE)
I refer to your interview with Richard Fidler of ABC on August 25, 2007,
and write to correct certain misconceptions on your part and misinformation
conveyed to your listeners on that occasion. Even though I am a little
late in responding to your comments, I find it necessary to do so in
the interest of correcting the erroneous or false picture painted by
you.
1. "You speak of systematic political and practical racism practised
by the government in Colombo after gaining independence in 1948."
You have not specified the nature of the racist policies you refer to.
If you are referring to the official language policy adopted in 1956
where it was decided to switch from English spoken by less than 5 percent
of the people to Sinhala spoken by 75 percent of the population, whilst
permitting the reasonable use of Tamil and providing free education
in the Tamil medium from the kindergarten to the university for the
12 percent Tamils as a racist decision, you should look at official
languages of other nations with a lesser proportion speaking the main
language of the country. Sri Lanka later elevated the status of Tamil
to a National Language in 1978 incorporating an array of linguistic
rights, far exceeding that enjoyed by English speaking Canadians in
Quebec and French speaking Canadians in the rest of Canada. It was the
Tamils who decided to seek a separate state in 1976 and resorted to
a series of violent acts including the eviction of the 23,000 Sinhalese
living in the Jaffna peninsula in the 1970's, forced closure of the
Sinhala stream at the University of Jaffna under threat of harm to the
students and facuty in 1981, culminating in the unfortunate riots of
1983.
2. "I did not see any evidence of child soldiers. But I saw a list of
those dead and found that many of them were less than 16 years old."
What more evidence do you need to know about the conscription of child
soldiers? Those who died before the age 16 are considered children,
and it is deemed a war crime to recruit persons below the age of 15.
UNICEF, HRW, Amnesty and other international agencies have widely reported
about the abduction and forced conscription of children by the Tigers.
3. "They run a vey visible de facto state, with headquarters at Kilinochchi.
They run Law courts, Health Department, Transport, Taxation."
This so called de facto state operated by the Tamil Tigers is fully
funded by the Colombo Government of Sri Lanka, which maintains the hospitals,
schools, roads, etc., and pays the salaries of the staff needed to provide
the various services running into billions of rupees. Even the food
and other essentials including medicine is supplied by the central government,
despite the Tiger terrorists arming themselves to attack and destroy
the rest of the country. The Tigers operate Kangaroo Courts with laws
emanating from the Tiger Chief, and their taxation unit extorts money
from the civilian population without providing a penny worth of services
to collect funds for their terrorist warfare.
4. "You can't get 17000 people to take up arms and fight to death unless
their hearts are in their cause."
What could unarmed parents do if their child is abducted at gun point
or asked to give up a child for their separatist cause? Can they sue
the LTTE in the Law court set up by the Tigers? Once they are recruited,
they have no choice, and even become part of the unceasing human waves
of storm troopers they unleash when they attack government forces, often
becoming a matyr for a cause their very young minds have been moulded
to believe in. Some are even brainwashed to become human bombs in the
Black Tiger squad that is prompted to take on either civilian or economic
targets.
5. " It doesn't come out in the media here- bombing of a school where
61 girls died. Killing of people, forced refugee status etc. Human rights
groups have said that at least 5,000 Tamils have disappeared in the
last six months and many of them have later turned up dead with torture
marks."
You mention a bombing of a school where 61 girls died. It was a military
camp that was set up deep in the jungles located 12 to 15 miles from
the nearest habitation, where a weekend course in arms and warfare was
conducted by the Tigers, that was attacked from the air. It was a place
used as a staging post by the Tigers, at a time the LTTE boasted of
launching their final war of separation. The number of disappearances
is grossly overstated, as the number alleged to be missing are a several
hundred, with both the LTTE and its breakaway Karuna group being accused
of being responsible for most of these cases. Tamil civilians have spoken
of torture chambers operated by the LTTE. In fact, a prominent LTTE
supporter from London, UK who went to Killinochchi with a fat cheque
for their cause too was held incommunicado in horrible conditions till
the British Foreign Office intervened and threatened action against
LTTE operatives in the UK.
6. "They say they have as much right for this territory as much
Sinhalese have rights for their part of
the island, because past records say so."
The National Homeland of the Tamils lies in Tamilnadu in South India
where 60 million Tamils live.
The very word "Eelam" used by them for the separate state
they seek to establish by force of arms
means the land of the Sinhalas to Tamils of South India, according to
Prof. Krishnaswamy Aiyengar
of the Madras University.
The Sinhalese who are the indigenous people of the island have a recorded
history dating back to 2600 years. Over 3000 rock inscriptions in Sinhala
have been found in all parts of the island including the north and east
which the Tamils falsely claim to be their traditional homeland. Only
one inscription in Tamil has been discovered dating to the 11th century,
and that too issued by a Sinhala king.
In fact, this claim to their so called traditional homeland was not
even brought to the attention of Lord Soulbury in the mid-1940's appointed
to ascertain the views of the constituent communities in the island
of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) prior to the grant of independence by Britain
in 1948. The Tamils only sought balanced representation in the new parliament
of independent Ceylon (Sri Lanka) for the 11 percent Tamils along with
the other minority communities making a total of 22 percent, to be equated
to the 78 percent Sinhala majority, which Lord Soulbury rejected as
an insidious move to make a minority of a majority and instead recommended
voting rights for all persons over 21 years of age. The Tamils who received
preferential treatment by the British colonial administration under
their divide and rule policies, wanted to perpetuate their dominance
over the other communities, without cooperating and working with the
majority Sinhalese community giving rise to numerous clashes in post-independent
Sri Lanka.
Your superficial knowledge of Sri Lankan issues which you air over the
media is seriously lacking in fact and reality. In the circumstances,
you become a propagandist for one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations
responsible for killing more Tamils than any other party, masquerading
as a liberation movement of the same Tamil people. The majority of Tamils
have moved out of the north and east and live peacefully in mixed ethnic
surroundings in the rest of the country, and are today calling on the
Colombo government to liberate the Tamil people from the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Yours very truly,
Mahinda Gunasekera
Toronto, Canada
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