Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 . Canada

January 15, 2007
His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse
President of Sri Lanka
“Temple Trees”
Colombo 3
Sri Lanka

Your Excellency:
Re: Dr. Victor Rajakulendran – Your attempt to hoodwink the international community

I have just read the open letter to you by Australia’s Dr. Victor Rajakulendran in which he attempts to paint you as the Sri Lanka’s President who hoodwinked the international community. His name identifies him as a Tamil, which places the whole tone of his letter in a specific context - Lobbying mainly the western world for the Tamil Tiger terrorist cause.

As you may have come to the same conclusion as I have, this letter was written not for your ears, but for the ears of the international community which one could gather from the menu of the carbon copies - Foreign Ministers of Norway, USA, EU, Japan, UK, India, Australia , New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Ireland and South Africa. That is an impressive list. I hope you noted that he had not concerned countries in the Asian continent like Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Burma, Thailand, and Maldive Islands with his insidious complaints. It is easy to fathom what he is up to. I have surmised that Rajakulendran is the typical Eelamist-Tamil whose intention is to hoodwink the international law and policy makers to favour their wanting to create a mono-ethnic, racist, separate state, Eelam. We have seen the sorts around the world, and I have witnessed his clones in Canada. This type of lobby has succeeded in some cases, but most of the time has ended up in heaps in trash bins. I have witnessed that too in Canada.

Your Excellency, if Rajakulendran’s intention was to intimidate you by copying his letter to that impressive galaxy of Foreign Ministers around the world, and watch you shake like an autumn leaf under your national dress, then let him and the international Foreign Ministers know that you have no intention to let your people down and break into a sweat because the Tamilian Rajakulendran spoke to be heard by the international Foreign Ministers, nor will you drop onto the floor and roll over pretending that you are dead, as you have a job to do, to govern the country that you have been mandated by the citizens of Sri Lanka through a democratic vote. Let this be heard by these foreign ears, that at no time did you threaten your constituents that you would chop of the hands if they voted for the opposing candidate, as the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran did to the only Tamil who dared to exercise his civic rights to go to the polling station when the edict was not to vote at the Presidential elections. That is the first strike against Rajakulendran’s effort to hoodwink the international Foreign Ministers to seek support for the Tamil Tiger cause.

Your Excellency, you have heard Rajakulendran’s Tamil-Eelamist ‘Truth’, now let me remind you of the ‘Facts’. Forgive me for burdening you with facts that you already know, but let the international Foreign Ministers ears hear them, as some may not be aware of these so that they can be Judge and Jury on my defense against Rajakulendrans’s ridiculous indictment on you.

For Rajakulendran to say that the ceasefire agreement signed in February 2002 brought a respite in the two decades old military confrontation between the Sri Lankan armed forces and armed forces of the LTTE (aka Tamil Tigers) is buckets full of Jaffna’s stray dogs-wash.

What he failed to tell the international Foreign Ministers, is that the Tamil Tigers have violated the ceasefire agreement over 8,000 times. By July 2006, the Scandinavian Sri Lankan Monitoring Missions (SLMM) had said that the Tamil Tigers had violated the ceasefire agreement 7,226 times, and that they were finding it difficult to keep a count of the violations any more as they were suffocated each day with many unwarranted violations. Rajakulendran seems to be silent on that fact.

Your Excellency, Rajakulendran is out to lunch when he says, “…your security forces also opened hostilities in the northern frontier at Muhamalai and justified the closure of the A9 highway, the only highway linking the Jaffna peninsula with the rest of the country.”

Of course, the Tamil Tigers are mad about the closure because it has frozen their collection of unconscionable levies, taxes, road tolls and custom duties and other forms of extortions from the users of this highway plying through the territory (Wanni) controlled by them to enrich their war chest. I too would be mad if I lost collecting an estimated Sri Lankan 20 million to 30 million rupees (US$2.8 million) each month. Won’t you? The Tamil Tigers are choking. That indeed is the rub, which Rajakulendran has failed to mention.

Members of the Rajakulendran’s international panel of Foreign Ministerial Judges and Jurists, Highway A9 had a reason to be closed. Highway A9 has a history to be explained to help you make up your own minds as Rajakulendran thinks that you are a bunch of fools and that he can easily hoodwink you as the Tamil Tigers have done to some of your colleagues in the past.

Alpha 9, better known as A9, is described as the “Main Supply Route” to the troubled northern Jaffna peninsula from the south of the island, where the Tamils pride that it is their heartland, having kicked out by terrorizing 27,000 Sinhalese between 1971 and 1981, where they called “home” since they had lived there for generations. And when in 1990 the Tamil Tiger leader V. Prabhakaran made Uganda’s Idi Amin look like an angel when he ordered 100,000 Muslims leave the North within 24 hours. This is a raw act of ‘ethnic cleansing’, for which other foreign despots are charged in the criminal courts in The Hague for human rights violations. Rajakulendran has very conveniently missed that fact to be heard by you, his Foreign Ministerial Judges and Jurists.

This highway passes through a vast area called Wanni, controlled by the Tamil Tigers.

It also touches the Tamil Tiger Headquarters in Killinochchi. This highway has two highly guarded entry and exit points, one at Omanthai, just north of Vavuniya at the southern end, and at Muhamalai, just south of Chavakachcheri at the northern end.

The Tamil Tigers took over this vast piece of territory, Wanni, between Jaffna and Vavuniya after the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) left in 1990, and used it as a refuge when the Tamil Tigers were chased out of Jaffna by the Government Armed Forces in 1995.

During the war over the Wanni between 1994 and 2000 between the government forces and the Tamil Tigers the A9 remained closed. Along the sides of this road where one would have expected to see grasses grow, land mines appeared like mushrooms, planted by the Tamil Tigers to discourage the Government Forces to re-claim it. That is what Rajakulendran failed to tell you. Another strike against his complaint about President Rajapakse. Wow! It doesn’t look good for him now, is it?

Ladies and Gentlemen Judges and Jurists of Rajakulendran’s panel, here comes the reason why A9 was closed. The Tamil Terrorists while using Highway A9 to transport their heavy artillery and fighting cadres north, they made a bold bid to crash through the Government defense lines at Muhamalai and take over Jaffna. Having that misguided effort fail miserably President Rajapakse’s government did the right thing by closing A9 at the northern end. Won’t you have done it? I know, I would have. That is when the financial choking started pinching the Tamil Tigers as well as Rajakulendran. This road has become critical for the Tamil Tigers financial welfare, and that is what Rajakulendran’s whining is all about. And it has nothing to do with President Rajapakse “hoodwinking the international community”. He has acted with conviction against a bunch of ruthless terrorists, to safeguard the sovereign territory of the island nation as well as the security of the lives of its peoples. One certainly cannot knock him down for that political valour, as you would have expected that from your leaders too.

Ladies and Gentlemen Judges and Jurists, if humanitarian grounds are your concern in providing essential food and medical supplies to the people in the Jaffna peninsula, President Rajapakse’s government have been sending these supplies by sea, even though the Tamil Tigers refused to assure the a safe passage of the ships, as well as bring down ship loads of essential supplies from Tamil Nadu in India. But here is the doozie for you panelists. The Tamil Tigers sent 31 of their gunboats to stop these ships sailing from Tamil Nadu, but again they failed as the government gun boats chased them away. So who is Rajakulendran kidding? Certainly not me, nor the President. Ladies and Gentlemen Judges and Jurists, I hope its not you either.

Your Excellency, Rajakulendran seems to be belly aching when he says, “Then, using a civilian water dispute near Trincomalee, you ordered operations in the Mavilaru region with the intention of taking over Sampoor. He is now acting like a weasel. But I can’t let him get away that easily.

I hope I can deal with the weasel like the Asian version of the 17th-century nursery rhyme “Pop Goes the Weasel”, which was spread across the Empire by colonists, which was also brought to Sri Lanka. Our adapted version as you may recall is:

“Round and round the talipot palm
the courageous lion (Weera-Singha)
chased the weasel,
his fact-mallet dropped on to the weasel’s head,
the lion popped the weasel.”

Honourable ladies and gentlemen Judges and Jurists of Rajakulendran’s panel, you may wonder what the Sampoor affair that Rajakulendran claims to be the territory of the Tamil Tigers is all about? He complains that the Government Forces took over Sampoor by force. Now that you have heard Rajakulendran’s version of the truth, now let me relate you the facts.

Sampoor is a town situated south east of the strategic natural harbour Trincomalee, the fifth largest in the world which played an important role during World War II. It was a town like Pitea close to the World War II strategic Port Lulea in Sweden; like Abisco near Norway’s strategic port at Narwik; like Folkestone close to the strategic port at Dover in England; and like Petty Harbour near the all important harbour at St. John’s in Newfoundland in Canada which played an important role during World War II, just like what the Trincomalee harbour did in Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

Sampoor was not under the control of the Tamil Tigers prior to the Ceasefire Agreement signed in February 2002, but they encroached sneakily during the peace time violating the Ceasefire Agreement, under the very eyes of the SLMM, and built13 bunkered-camps around Trincomalee from where they were able to shell the harbour to distrupt the maritime supply route to the besieged army held Jaffna peninsula. It is from here that the Tamil Tigers launched an artillery attack on the Trincomalee naval base on August 1, 2006, and on the same day tried to sink a troop ship with 850 on board outside Trincomalee harbour. Ha! What do you know? The Norwegian led Scandinavian Monitoring Mission could do sweet nothing about it. So much for the integrity of the Scandinavian monitors. Rajakulendran did not tell all this, did he now?

But the following fact Ladies and Gentlemen, is going to blow your mind. The Tamil Tiger bunkers and their fortifications in Sampoor were estimated to have taken at least 250,000 bags of cement. Buckle up to your seats Judges and Jurists of Rajakulendran’s international panel as these facts may make you leap out of your seats, some with anger, and others with embarrassment. The question that goes begging is how the heck did these Tamil Tiger terrorists get the building material into the jungle to build the bunkers? Well…well…well…what do you know? INGO’s delivered the material to the Tamil Tigers under the pretext of putting up houses for the Tsunami victims. No doubt they will play the game of childish innocence. What a bunch of no good Goodie-Two-Shoes! How did we come to that conclusion? That was easy. The number of bags of cement used to build the x-number of houses for Tsunami victims compared to the volumes of bags of cement checked through the Army check points on its way to Sampoor showed an enormous discrepancy. That is applying simple quantity surveying methods and simple arithmetic. That completes one more story to show how these Tamil Tigers have taken the whole world, which includes every one of your countries, for another embarrassing ride. And Rajakulendran is trying the same ploy with this Open letter to the President of Sri Lanka. Being an intelligent panel of Judges and Jurists, that shouldn’t cut mustard with anyone of you either.

The INGOs who were operating in the Sampoor area then were US Aid, Sava Lanka, World Vision, Christian Children’s Fund, Action Farm and Action Aid. President Rajapakse has every right as the head of this little nation to question these INGOs why they knowingly helped a terrorist organization to build bunkers and allied fortifications. If they are ignominiously kicked out from the country, “serve them damn right”, I say. Won’t you?

Honourable Ladies and Gentlemen Judges and Jurists, the good Dr. Rajakulendran

has certainly shown his skill to be a spin-doctor spinning gossamer shrouded fairy tales when he accuses President Rajapakse saying, “Then, using civilian water dispute near Trincomalee, you ordered ground operations in the Mavilaru region with the intention of taking over Sampoor.” What a bunch of baloney! He is trying…and trying very hard. I would certainly give Rajakulendran an A for effort, but a D for the contents, as they are lies, lies, and damn lies.

Here are the facts that Rajakulendran has difficulty to accept and relate. On July 20, 2006, the Tamil Tigers unveiled their grand offensive initiated by an innocuous blockade around a water reservoir at Marvilaru. This denied water to 60,000 Sinhalese, mostly farmers, which was sufficient provocation for Sri Lanka’s armed forces to launch Operation Watershed for humanitarian reasons, as water is indeed life, and they had no reasons to abdicate their responsibility to provide that liquid of sustenance. I believe that all of you will agree that no one on this earth should be denied even a drop of water, not even to one gasping for the last breath. But the ruthless Tamil Tigers, the friends of Rajakulendran didn’t see it that way. This triggered the first phase of Eelam War IV, which has thumped the Tamil Tigers ever since. This is obviously hurting Rajakulendran.

The intention of the ambush at Marvilaru was to draw the Sri Lankan Armed Forces into the marshes around the water reservoir, an area that was mined and wanting to pepper them with artillery and mortar fire. It was a well thought out deadly trap.

While the Operation Watershed described as a humanitarian water war, where the elite Government armed forces supported by Kfir fighter jets went after Rajakulendran’s friends, the Tamil Tigers, and all eyes were on Marvilaru, the Tamil Tiger leader V. Prabhakaran was eyeing the Muttur jetty to the south of Trincomalee. It was a smart move by Prabhakaran. While fighting was raging around Marvilaru where 400 soldiers were sent from Muttur as reinforcements, Tamil Tigers infiltrated Muttur from Sampoor on August 2, 2006 and took control of the town until they were beaten back by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. Led by Tiger commanders Muttuselvi and Kunjar, the Tamil Tigers attempted to secure a stretch of land between Sampoor to Muttur which would have paralyzed the Trincomalee harbour. They failed miserably one more time. Another reason for Rajakulendran to whine.

The fact is that the Sri Lankan Armed forces are fighting the scourge of Tamil Tiger terrorism with spunk and President Rajapakse who has joined the international consortium to eradicate terrorism is fighting a lonely battle, unlike the Thalibans who are sort out by NATO forces with a vengeance. But what is strange about the world getting together to fight terrorism, is that they apply different standards for different countries. While no one has requested the Afghanis to sit with neither Taliban terrorists nor the al-Qaeda to talk peace, the Sri Lankans are being pressured to sit with the Tamil Tiger terrorists to talk peace. Not that they have not tried it before. They have met them a good six times, but each time the Tamil Tigers made their move to walk out of such talks.

Ladies and Gentlemen Judges and Jurists of Rajakulendran’s panel, I have, I believe, stripped him of every onion skin of his farcical ‘honest’ façade, and proved that his intention to write that Open letter to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse and copy to all of you, was to pull wool over your eyes and seek your sympathies for his friends the Tamil Tiger terrorists. My explanations of his complaints with facts, I believe have failed his efforts miserably.

I, for one moment, wouldn’t want to believe that you would support the ruthless terrorist group the Tamil Tigers, who have assassinated two heads of states , President Premadasa of Sri Lanka, and Rajiv Gandhi of India; a group of terrorists who have assassinated four Mayors of Jaffna, like having four Mayors assassinated in Bombay in India, Malmo in Sweden, Lyon in France, Naples in Italy, Hull in England, and Aarhus in Denmark; a group of terrorists who have assassinated 31 politicians mostly Tamil ; a ruthless terrorist group who had perfected the suicide body-pack and the art of suicide bombing and feathered their caps with 269 suicide bombings killing hundreds of innocent civilians; a ruthless terrorist group who plucked an infant from a Sinhalese mother’s arms and bashed his skull against a rock; a terrorist group according to UNICEF that has abducted children in excess of 5,200 since signing the Ceasefire Accord in February 2002 and have them killed as front line soldiers. How could you support such a heartless, ruthless bunch of terrorists? How could you or your govenments?

You heard the facts in defense of President Rajapakse, a man who I have never met, nor spoken to, and one that I have no reason to hold a candle for. But all what I did was to present you with ‘Facts’ to negate the Rajakulendran ‘Truth’, which I believe spoiled his ego as he was cock sure that he would walk you all down the garden path of deception.

I don’t have to prove myself further to dislodge Dr. Victor Rajakulendran’s complaint that President Mahinda Rajapakse has hoodwinked the international community . But as I have tried to explain that Open letter was a sneaky effort to speak to you all and seek your sympathy and support for the terrorist Tamil Tiger cause.

Honourable Ladies and Gentlemen Judges and Jurists I now rest my case. Having heard my presentation of “Facts”, it is now up to you to make up your minds whether Dr. Victor Rajakulendran’s Open letter stands the test of speaking the “polygraphic-truth”, or whether it is a compendium of untruths, and should be rejected for the lack of valid substance. I trust that you will do the right thing.

Yours truly,

Asoka Weerasinghe.
Gloucester, Ontario, Canada

cc.

Hon. Jonas Gahr Store, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Hon. Erik Solheim, Minister of International Development, Norway
Hon. Dr. Condolleeza Rice, Secretary of State, USA
Her Excellency Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, UE Presidency, EU
Hon. Taro Aso, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Japan
Hon.Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,UK
Hon. Pranab Mukkerjee, External Affairs Minister, India
Hon. Alexander Downer, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Australia
Hon.Phil.Goff, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand
Hon. Peter Gordon MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Canada
Hon. Erkki Tuomioja, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finland
Hon.Carl Bildt, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sweden
Hon. Micheline Calmy-Rey, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland
Hon. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal Foreign Minister, Germany
Hon. Minister Massimo D’Alema, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy
Hon. Philippe Douste-Blazy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, France
Hon. Miguel A’ngel Moratinos Cuyaube’, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Spain
Hon. Bernard Bot, Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands
Hon. Karel De Gucht, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Austria
Hon. Per Stig Moller, The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
Hon. Dermot Ahern T.D., Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Republic of Ireland