OPEN LETTER to
The Rt.Hon. Lord Malloch-Brown
Minister of State for Africa, Asia and UN Foreign and Commonwealth Office
House of Commons Westminster London,UK
Asoka Weerasinghe Ottawa,
Canada
Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada
February 29, 2008
Dear Lord Malloch-Brown:
TamilNet, the communications organ of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE aka Tamil Tigers) of February 27, carried an article headlining
‘*Britain** to get tough with* *Sri Lanka** – Minister’*.
The minister that they were quoting happened to be Lord Malloch-Brown,
and that’s you.
While I am cognizant that you have been known to cause trouble at Westminster
and as well as during your whole career and known to be the biggest
mouth among all the talents at Westminster, and being cognizant of the
fact that it has been noted that your enemy has been your own mouth,
permit me to address you.
While it sounded like a highhanded effort to correct the mess the British
created with the divided and rule policy while ruling this little island
for 131 years, your intentions however like, *“The UK will be demanding….”,
“We are going to go on pushing hard to put the political negotiations
back on track”,* et cetera are troublesome, not nice and not congruous
with the present day ground realities in Sri Lanka.
I understand your insistence that *“The UK will be demanding and
pressing hard for wide* *access….”* to the UN personnel like
John Holmes and Radhika Coomarasawamy, since you were the second United
Nations Deputy Secretary-General in 2006 and you still believe that
United Nations is a healer.
But then, my good Lord, UN has lost its mandated meaning, not only
in Sri Lanka but also in countries like Israel, Sudan and Singapore.
Furthermore, with good reason there are some negativism attached to
these persons which does not help your supposedly good intentions. These
UN personnel are biased in favour of the Tamil Tigers, and the government
of Sri Lanka had said so to the UN many a time providing reasons why
they thought so.
You are obviously concerned about human rights violations in Sri Lanka.
Aren’t we all! But then the Sri Lanka’s legitimate government
is at war with an illegal group of Tamil terrorists who have been provided
sustenance and oxygen by your Tamil Diaspora and foreign countries like
Norway, India, foreign NGOs working in Sri Lanka and foreign funded
local NGOs.
The battle in the field between the government forces and the Tamil
Tigers has been formidable and has been going on for 25 years with deaths
totaling to over 70,000, with Tamil Tigers killing innocent civilians
with impunity in the thousands. They are targeting civilians traveling
in buses, trains, farmers in fields, infants that are being nursed by
mothers, fisherfolk sleeping in their adobe huts and killing them with
claymore mines, Kalashnikovs, hand grenades and machetes. So my question
to you is, *‘So why on* *earth is Britain going to get tough with
Sri Lanka?’* That just does not make sense when the culprits are
the Tamil Tiger terrorists that do not have an electoral-legal status
in Sri Lanka.
This may be news to you my good Lord. After all Britain’s rule
of Sri Lanka was not all that bad as they did at least leave behind
some Churchillian spirited examples how to fight and win a war.
I am told that Sri Lanka’s President is a great fan of Sir. Winston
Churchill and has the wall of his private office wall-papered with Churchillian
quotes from which he gets a daily dose of inspiration and courage to
face these Tamil Tiger terrorists and their international lackeys who
are trying to destroy Sri Lanka by dividing this island into two and
hand over one-third of its real estate to these Tamil Tigers..
Prominent among these quotes I am told are –
*/“I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined
this Government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and
sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have
before us many long months of toil and struggle./*
*/“You ask what our policy is. I will say, it is to wage war with
all our might, with all the strength that God can give us, to wage war
against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable
catalogue of human crime./*
As you may recall, this was from his first speech as Prime Minister
in the House of Commons, on 13 May 1940.
Well, my good Lord, what was good for Sir. Winston Churchill and the
British then, should certainly be good for President Rajapaksa and Sri
Lanka now. Wouldn’t you say so?
The second quote that is prominently displayed on the wall, I am told
is – */ “We shall not flag or fall. We shall go on to the
end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and ocean.
We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight
on the beaches; we shall fight on the landing-grounds. We shall fight
in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills. We shall
never surrender!”/*
*/ /*I am sure you do see this House of Commons statement of 4 June
1940 by Sir. Winston Churchill acted right now in the fields and beaches
and the air in Sri Lanka. What was good for the British then is good
for Sri Lanka now, and stop trying to penalize Sri Lankans for their
valour to stop human rights violations by the Tamil Tigers to save the
lives of its citizens and give back their trust and belief that they
have a ‘right to life’. My good Lord, this is what this war
is all about, and you certainly cannot penalize the Rajapaksa government
for that.
And let me produce another poignant quote which adorns the walls of
the President’s private office, which was the tribute to the Royal
Air Force in the House of Commons by Sir. Winston Churchill on 20 August
1940, and you may recall this:
*/“The gratitude of every home in our island, is our Empire, and
indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes
out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their
constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world
war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human
conflict was so much owed by so many to few.”/*
This Churchillian sentiment is what President Rajapaksa is exactly
expressing of their airmen who are doing a marvelous job to end this
war. It has gone far too long, 25 years in fact, and when your Sir.Winston
Churchill handled World War II for the British and her allies, it lasted
only six years and human rights was not an issue then as bombs were
dropped like monsoon rain drops, and the two atom bombs that killed
millions.
So what I tell you my good Lord is, just don’t try to be pious
and wag your fingers at Sri Lanka saying that ‘We are Holier than
Thou’, and especially with British involvement in wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan where human rights has not been an issue, as you lot
are there to win those wars against terrorism.
But this quote that the President has on his wall is much more poignant
and speaks to goody-two-shoes -Sri Lanka-watchers like you. And again
this was what Sir. Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons on
9 September 1941.
*/“The mood in Britain is wisely and rightly averse from every
form of shallow or premature exultation. This is no time for boasts
or glowing prophecies, but there is this – a year ago our position
looked forlorn, and well nigh desperate, to all eyes but our own. Today
we may say aloud before an awe- struck world, “We are still masters
of our fate. We still are captain of our souls.”/*
So does President Rajapaksa feel that he is the captain of his soul,
who gets his dose of inspiration from Churchillian quotes, and let people
like you know that “We are still masters of our fate *(so don’t
try to change it for us),* and we still are captains of our souls (*so
don’t try to inculcate our souls with your foolishness and keep
your noses out of our business.) It is that simple and I hope you get
it.*
It is quite obvious that you have been a bad student of Sri Lankan
affairs lately as it shows up when you say that “There is no military
solution to this problem”. I don’t think that anyone in Sri
Lanka has come up with that foolishness as everyone, including the President
has admitted this line. But what we all know is that the mono-ethnic,
tribal Tamil terrorism has no place in Sri Lanka and has to be wiped
out.
Dealing with the alleged Tamil grievances is another file to be dealt
with politically and discussions. No Sri Lankan disagrees with that.
My good Lord, you have been a bad student again, not keeping your eyes
and ears glued to the happenings in Sri Lanka when you insinuate that
the Sri Lankan government is the problem when you say *–“We
are going to go on pushing hard to put the political* *negotiations
back on track.”* I don’t think that you have to push the Sri
Lankan government that hard because they are on the same page as you
are. But your problem will be the Tamil Tigers. If you manage to push
them hard to the negotiating table, my advice to you is to shackle them
to their chairs, as all six times that they sat at the negotiating tables,
they were the ones who jumped up like a bunch of Jacks-in-the-Boxes
making these Norway sponsored negotiations Gong-Shows. Don’t be
that hard on Sri Lanka as they deserve an ‘A’ for honesty
and effort as they had made six attempts in the past two decades using
international mediation as well a direct talks to reach a negotiated
settlement. But these Tamil Tigers insist that they need their mono-ethnic,
racist, separate state Eelam, and nothing more and nothing less. So,
my good Lord, you sure are barking at the wrong tree.
As for the gruesome brutality of the Tamil Tigers who have violated
human rights with impunity, go and speak to the innocent citizens of
Buttala and Dambulla and whose loved ones were killed recently. You
might hear them welcoming you with an adapted version of a George Harrison
song, and not the traditional songs as you would expect having been
welcomed earlier with African traditional songs by children at Dafur
camps -
My sweet Lord
Mm, my Lord
Mm, My Lord
I really want to see you
I really want to tell you
I really want to show you
The blood stains on the soil my Lord
I really want to see you
I really want to show you Lord
How they killed my mother,
father, sister, brother , my Lord
That won’t take long my Lord
But will not take that long, my Lord.
My sweet Lord
I really want to see you
My sweet Lord.
Mm. my Lord
Mm, my Lord
Sincerely,
Asoka Weerasinghe
Ottawa, Canada
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