Reverence of Terrorists for Hindu Swami Representing Majority Tamil Beliefs

By Darmitha-Kotte

Supposedly, the LTTE terrorists claim to be the sole representative of the Tamil people whose majority whether they (terrorists) like it or not, happen to be Hindus. A Hindu Poosari is a highly respected religious leader among Hindus. When the LTTE terrorists brutally murder the Chief Swami of the Santhiveli Pulleyar Kovil Selliah Parameswara Kurukkal at his home in Batticaloa, what is the message they are trying to send the majority Tamil community including their Hindu clergy? After all, what was the crime done by this Swami in the performance of his religious duties- the act of blessing the visiting President of Sri Lanka who overlooks the well being of the entire country!

Clergy of any religion whether they be Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Muslim are respected religious leaders of those faiths and are important to those believers. A group of terrorists who claim that they are the sole representatives of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka and who dare to brutally murder the Chief Swami of a Hindu Kovil cannot in anyway claim to be their representative. It is ofcourse well known that Prabhakaran is not a Hindu but a Catholic and therefore to him, he was "only eliminating a pagan or heathen" as the Christians are fond of calling anyone who is not a Christian. On a number of previous occasions Prabhakaran during the last 25 years, gave orders to brutally murder Buddhist monks which again speaks for his belief and inhumanity.

Most recently in Thanamalwila, we saw news reports of a Buddhist monk Ven. Rathmalane Seelawanse Thero being murdered on 19th December 2006 and his murder was also plotted by a well known Catholic Father of the "Jesuit Fathers" (Jesu Nikaya in Sinhala) operating in that area. We are at a loss to understand whether it is the policy of these followers to target the murder or harassment of religious leaders of other faiths?

It is customery for the The Catholic Fathers operating in the North and East to use the Tamilnet as their media channel to support the LTTE terrorists by criticizing the democratically elected Government of Sri Lanka and her Armed Forces for trying to protect and save the majority Tamil community living in the North and East.

Many are the times when Rt.Rev. Dr. Kingsley Swamipillai -Catholic Bishop of the Eastern region, Rt.Rev. Rayappu Joseph-Catholic Bishop of Mannar and Rt.Rev.Thomas Savuntharanayagam-Catholic Bishop of Jaffna have used the Tamilnet to the maximum, to air their opinions in support of LTTE terrorists and criticize our Armed Forces who are duty bound to protect this country and our people because this website gets international coverage. However, the Catholic Bishops were in for a rude shock when Tamilnet which is controlled by Daya Master, refused to publish their condemnation of the brutal murder of Chief Swami of the Santhiveli Pulleyar Kovil Selliah Parameswara Kurukkal at his home in Batticaloa!

According to a news item which appeared in the "Daily News" of 15th February 2007 written by R.Srikanthan in London, it is stated (quote): "The LTTE's efforts to link the murder of the Hindu priest to the Army and Karuna group had been a big failure. Efforts had been taken by LTTE cyber hitman Sethu Nadarajah to link the killings to the Government. But the LTTE had not yet condemned this killing although they blamed the military for the killing. They had also refused to publish the statements of the Catholic Churches regarding the killing which unquestionably confirm the LTTE complicity in the killing, a political commentator stated. ." (end quote)

It is stated in the same article that the Catholic Bishop of the Eastern region Rt.Rev. Dr. Kingsley Swamipillai as saying that the assassination of Selliah Kurkkal could be considered a peak form of barbarism. "Whatever the religion, a priest has an obligation to attend to the sinner or saint. Clergymen stand above all differences and boundaries to bring solace to those who go places of worship," He further stated that Kurukkal also did his part as a clergyman when President Rajapakse visited Vakarai and the cold blooded assassination is against humanity. It is indeed interesting to note the statement of Rt.Rev. Swamipillai where he states that …………"a clergyman has an obligation to attend to sinner or saint"- here the sinner is obviously President Rajapakse because he is a Buddhist! During the past two and half decades, may Buddhist clergy suffered at the hands of the LTTE murderes but we do not remember the Catholic Bishops being so magnanimous in their sympathies.

There is absolutely no doubt that the brutal murder of Selliah Kurukkal clearly exhibits the fact that terrorists are insensitive to the sentiments of the majority Tamil beliefs and their Hindu Swamis and therefore cannot in anyway claim to be the sole representatives of the Tamil community at large. It is also prudent to warn the Catholic Bishops no matter how sympathetic they are towards the murderous LTTE terrorist movement, there will come a day when the "tiger" has no use of the Catholic Bishops and they too will face the same end as Selliah Kurukkal if they do not watch their steps. There is a saying that " A leopard never changes its spots" -if and when the Catholic Bishops become a nuisance to them-they will attack!

It probably hurts sympathizers of the terrorist movement when our Armed Forces are gaining ground in territory where majority Tamils have been suffering the brutality of LTTE for two and half decades. Now these sympathizers are going all out to rally international support to bring sanctions against our democratically elected government for trying to protect our country and our sovereignty and prevent it from fragmentation. It is highly ironic to read statements in the news media " Britain threatens to stop aid to Lanka" (Sunday Times-18th February 2007) where it is stated (quote): "But now Britain claims that Sri Lanka is guilty of significant violations of international obligations, particularly human rights, an instigation of hostilities and an unjustified rise in defense spending. It believes that instead of spending the sum released on tsunami recovery and poverty reduction it has gone on a spending spree for military hardware and logistics.

The use of economic aid as a pressure point is in keeping with the call made by the German development minister when she announced two months ago that Berlin was stopping aid and called on other EU countries to do the same. While analysts here see the British move as an attempt to save the LTTE which it banned six years ago as a terrorist organisation, from a lot of grief, it is also an attempt to get its foot in the peace process. " (end quote).

Although Britain banned the LTTE as a terrorist organisation six years ago, the activities of the LTTE have not been stopped and the British authorities are doing little to ban any of their propaganda programmes in the UK. Just 4-5 days ago there was a huge meeting organised by the undercover organisations supporting the LTTE to beef up international support for these murderers. When Britain jumped the bandwagon with the USA to invade Iraq and justify their action what did they claim- that they were going on an all out war against terrorism! The same can be said of what is happening in Afghanistan.

The same is true of other countries which banned the LTTE which goes to prove that the LTTE has used " their good offices" to buy over foreign politicians and get their sympathies. We now know from reports, how Norway which came in as peace facilitator has been supplying millions or billions of US dollars to fund the LTTE movement and also to pay off politicians in the previous UNP government. We are fully aware that in Germany there is a fairly large Diaspora supporting the LTTE and they are using their clout to put pressure on the German Government to harass our democratically elected Government.

There cannot be double standards if western countries are genuine in their commitments to help Sri Lanka. Terrorism by any name is the same- it is cold blooded brutality against people whether it be in Britain, USA, Afghanistan, Iraq or Sri Lanka. To fight terrorism can a Government use "carrots" to eliminate them? Fighting a terrorist war and eliminating the terrorists must be the uppermost priority of any Government that is duty bound towards its citizens and how they can do that without increasing defense spending is a prize question to ask these western countries?

If the revenue from this defense spending is reaching these very countries, would they object for additional income? Sri Lanka is quite familiar with the British policy of "divide and rule" and it is their division that was created during their colonial days in this country that left behind the wounds that we are now trying to heal! Whether a country is developed or developing, the yardstick to use must be the same for the same malady- that is the basics of decency and humanity.

Should any western country support even silently, the murderous activities of LTTE terrorists and make attempts to throttle a democratically elected Government from carrying out its obligations towards its own citizens by using economic sanctions, then they should know that they are only belittling themselves into being made "cat's paws" of terrorist movements in this world! "Peace" is only a slogan used by those organisations that are surviving out of the misery of threatened countries and Sri Lanka is an extremely good example of double-tongued, double-standard NGOs and INGOs operating in the world. In Sri Lanka they are supporting a terrorist organisation that professes to be the sole representative of a community whose religious beliefs are even not respected by the LTTE as in the case of Selliah Kurukkal!