CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

PRO-TIGER PAPER SLAMS AMBASSADOR DAYAN JAYATILLEKA'S VIEW

The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva

03rd June 2008

The SUDAR OLI, a Tamil language daily, well-known for its views in support of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) has in its Editorial on 03rd June 2008 (http://www.sudaroli.com/editorial.htm), criticized the views expressed by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN in Geneva in an interview he recently gave Mr. Narayan Swamy of IANS (http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/06/02/sec01.asp).

In doing so, they have also distorted the comments of the Ambassador that "the LTTE should be verifiably demilitarized" into "the bargaining power and military power of the minority Tamil community should be totally destroyed and brought to the submission of the South."

The Editorial on page 3 of the Sudar Oli edition of Tuesday June 3, 2008 mentions Dr. Jayatilleka three times and reads as follows, in translation:

Ethnic Split is Overblown due to Democratic Buffoonery

Peaceful settlement in Sri Lanka is not possible if we do not tame the LTTE militarily so that we could bring them to the democratic stream. This discovery was made by Dayan Jayatilleka, a senior diplomat and a close associate of the President Rajapakase. He determinedly said that the peace is only possible when Prabakaran is suppressed militarily or by any other means.

We can see the superior hegemony of the Southern Sri Lanka in this statement and can also highlight two points from the statement by Dayan Jayatilleka. The first point is that a settlement in Sri Lanka could be reached through democracy.
Second point is that the bargaining power and military power of the minority Tamil community should be totally destroyed and brought to the submission of the South.

This motive clearly indicates the Sinhalese chauvinists' endeavour to impose half-baked settlements on Tamils. Only number, quantity of people are taken into account, but not their thoughts, when we talk about the democracy in Sri Lanka. Therefore, a democratic settlement for the ethnic conflict will be certainly the wish of the Sinhalese community which is five times bigger than the Tamil population.

According to Dayan Jayatilleka, a settlement could be reached to the conflict of Sri Lanka only after totally destroying the bargaining and military power of the Tamils, under the pretext of democracy and by the use of military power. This kind of mindset and behaviour by politicians shows suppressive measures taken by Sinhalese chauvinists against the Tamils for the last five decades. Atrocity and related violence unleashed on Tamils under the name of democracy is now draining Sri Lanka of its resources.

The Tamil community has a historical culture, which has over the years built a traditional structure in Sri Lanka. Therefore, Sri Lanka, there is no conflict of democracy nor a political problem but an ethnic conflict between the two nations.

The ethnic issue should be resolved through negotiations between the leadership of both ethnic groups. It is not justifiable to impose one group's decisions on the other weakened group. Sinhalese leadership should consider in a genuine manner as to how to give a justifiable settlement to the Tamils, who have become destitute under the Sinhalese hegemony during the last many decades, rather than thinking of buffoonery democratic pattern and to smash up military power of Tamils.

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