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Open Letter to the British
High Commissioner
DISCARD YOUR DUPLICITY AND BE REALISTIC
A.A.M.NIZAM MATARA
DISCARD YOUR DUPLICITY AND BE REALISTIC
Mr. Dominic Chilcott.,
High Commissioner of U.K in Sri Lanka.
Dear Mr. Chilcott.,
This refers to the lengthy speech you have delivered on your country’s
peace building efforts in Sri Lanka.
The crux of your self-contradictory speech has centered on several
points. In the course of your speech you claim that Britain's interest
in Sri Lanka is to strengthen respect for human rights and good governance,
the war strategy is doomed to fail, only negotiations could usher in
lasting peace, the Tamil community has been discriminated, power should
be devolved, and the solution made for the Irish problem could be suitably
adopted to end the Sri Lankan crisis.
Throughout your lengthy speech, you have craftily avoided referring
to the fascist gang in the North of Sri Lanka as terrorists, akin to
what your ignominious BBC does, and referred to it only as LTTE. As
it is a known fact that the Diplomats consciously exercise absolute
constraints in the usage of words, was it to discreetly emphasize what
the letters purportedly stand for, and indirectly acknowledge the concepts
of Liberators and Eelam that this reference was made in such a manner?
Despite your country’s listing of this terrorist outfit as a terrorist
organization, you admit that it illegally raises money within the diaspora
in Britain, using extortion and threats. The phenomenon of Tamil criminal
gangs may be, directly or indirectly, linked to its activities, you
claim. Notwithstanding these facts why Britain has not taken any action
against these extortionists and criminal gangs? If British Police can
raid houses in the wee hours of the night, manhandle and arrest people
suspecting of involvement with other terrorist organizations, shoot
and kill innocent people in London on suspicion of belonging to other
terrorist organizations why then there is a duplicity being shown for
the Sri Lankan terrorists and Sri Lankan terrorists are allowed to openly
indulge in political and criminal acts against the people and the democratically
elected government of Sri Lanka?
Your statements that Britain would not support a despotic regime continuing
in the north and east, and Britain would support a single state solution,
and not a two state one are mere hollow pronouncements and practiced
only in the breach. Blaming the government for the closure of the A-9
highway itself is a case in point. The check points on the A-9 was maintained
by the terrorists to continue with their despotic rule with heavy taxes
and strengthen the foundation for their claim that those checkpoints
demarcated the entry/exit points for their illusory separate State.
What prevented Britain from condemning these inhuman extortions? If
the government did not use naval and aerial routes to continuously supply
essential items and help transport the masses, even under death threats,
Britain would have taken the advantage to be in the vanguard to condemn
the government for starving and placing the people beyond the A-9 under
siege.
You have also taken the liberty to claim that the fundamental cause
of the internal conflict is the alienation of Tamils from the Sri Lankan
state, and their aspiration to run their own affairs in their own homeland.
This shows that you have drawn conclusions becoming subdued to hearsay
accounts and the brawny misinformation campaign of the terrorist and
separatist elements without studying/analysing the archaeological and
historical facts. If your Dutch cousins did not commit the crime of
bringing Indian cheap labour for tobacco cultivation and settle them
in the North, Trincomalee and Batticaloa areas as your forefathers did
for getting coffee and tea cultivated in the hill country utilising
Indian cheap labour, there would have been no ground for any group to
claim even in their wildest dreams to these illusory homeland concepts.
Citing various aspects of British experience in dealing with the IRA,
you have emphasized the need to stop the war and go for a negotiated
settlement with sincere commitments. The curiosity in this proposition
is that when the terrorist outfit continuously carried out its horrendous
murders targeting security forces and innocent masses, particularly
starting with the election of the new President there was no foreign
country or the anti-war groups to condemn the terrorists and demand
for ceasing such activities.
When the government started its retaliatory actions and shattered the
myth of the invincibility of the terrorist forces, and subjugated areas
and innocent masses are being liberated there are cries from every quarter
about the futility of military actions, inability to defeat the terrorists
totally, and so on. If war is not an effective measure to defeat terrorism
why Britain, the United States and other western powers deploy several
thousands of their forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to defeat terrorism?
How can it be that what is correct in Iraq and Afghanistan, as per western
theories, can be something erroneous in Sri Lanka?
You mention that all parties involved in the dispute should commit
themselves sincerely to achieve a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
Sri Lanka has shown its commitment in word and deed and has even taken
unpleasant steps in this direction on many occasions. On the contrary,
the terrorist outfit has never denounced its objective of segregating
Sri Lanka and establishing its elusive single party, mono-ethnic dictatorial
Eelam State. Even in the last November speech of the terrorist leader,
he only spoke about expediting this objective, and funds are being raised
openly in the western countries for the final war to achieve this objective.
Britain and western nations, if they are truly interested in establishing
peace in Sri Lanka, should take strong and effective measures to disarm
the terrorist outfit and make the environment suitable for the proposed
negotiations. Instead they are trying to impose all restrictions on
the democratically elected legitimate government, while spreading the
safety net around the terrorist outfit providing all impunity to continue
with its terrorist activities. With this safety net provided by the
western nations, the terrorist outfit keeps on diversifying its terrorist
capabilities with high-tech innovations.
You claim that international conventions provide you the privilege
to strive for protection of human rights. If it is so why no meaningful
steps are being taken by yourself on a personal basis or through the
British High Commission to prevent gross human rights violations being
carried out in the areas under terrorist occupation, which include denial
of educational rights to the children and force them in military training,
denial of right to choice of vocation for adult population and force
them on at least 15 days a month forced military related labour without
any remuneration, denial of right to travel to government controlled
areas even for treatment of ailments, forced recruitment of minimum
two children from each and every family.
We thank you for your concern about our country. But we welcome it
only if it is for saving and developing our country and not for driving
it towards segregation and destruction. If you are really and truly
interested in our country, unite all your colleagues and draw up an
effective programme to disarm the terrorists, decommission the terrorist
armoury, and initiate an international tribunal to hear the charges
of genocide and ethnic cleansing carried by the fascist terrorists against
the Sri Lankan population, including murder of several hundred Tamils
Thank you..
A.A.M.NIZAM
MATARA.
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