CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

The conspiracy theory of the UNP (and bishop Chickera) are insulting to the memory of Janaka Perera

Dr Kamal Wickremasinghe

There is something that is more reprehensible than the assassination of Major General (Retired) Janaka Perera by an LTTE suicide bomber: it is the accusation by the president of the UNP and that 'symbol of competence', Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe, that President Rajapakse or the Sri Lankan government somehow arranged the killing! Ranil also suspects that the appointment of Karuna as a National List MP is somehow reward for killing Janak Perera!, and wants an international inquiry. This 'mad' accusation by the UNP has also been backed by that cleric with vested interests, bishop Rohan de Chickera.

This stupid conspiracy theory needs to be condemned by all Sri Lankans as an insult to the 27 people who died in this cowardly attack. The manner of Perera's killing and the methods deployed to achieve the sinister objective leave no ground for any doubt as to the perpetrators of this heinous crime. Accusing the government or even suspecting that the government had anything to do with this is simply reprehensible. One does not need to be a supporter of the SLFP or a fan of the Rajapakses to be able to come to this view.

Mr Wickremesinghe, his party president and bishop Chickera should note (learn?) that the LTTE, Prabhakaran, and Anton Balasingham in particular, on numerous instances in the past, have revealed their 'strategy' of eliminating the Sinhala leadership perceived by them as administratively or militarily 'competent', and therefore threatening.

This evil thinking motivated their killings of Brigadiers Denzil Kobbekaduwa, Wijaya Wimalaratna, Lucky Algama and ministers such as Ranjan Wijeratne, Lalith Athlathmudali and Gamini Dissanayake (and numerous others) and the Tamil political leaders. The motivation has been especially strong against military leaders who have scored significant victories against them, as disclosed by Karuna in an interview with the Daily Mirror. Janaka Perera was a prized target for that reason.

Then the method: it is unimaginable that Ranil and his particularly loud party president could even speculate, in view of LTTE’s record as the global leader in this cowardly business, that a suicide killing could have been organised or carried out by anyone else in the country, let alone the government or President Rajapakse. They should know that Suicide killings are a rare tactic even amongst other terrorist groups of the world and the extremists such as the Talibam and the Tigers ues this method routinely.

Clearly, Prabhakaran has exploited another desperate soul, similar to the woman who killed Rajiv Gandhi, to sacrifice his life (considered as worthless’) to commit this crime. The evidence makes it clear to any rational mind. Unfortunately, desperation on the part of the UNP and religious prejudice on the part of the bishop seem to have made them oblivious to the facts.

Allowing this death to take place is a failure of the collective thinking within the Sri Lankan political and military establishments in that such attacks need to be anticipated and prevented for the sake of safeguarding national heroes as well as to prevent any boost of morale amongst the child soldiers who are killing for Prabhakaran. Currently this is more important than ever.

Notwithstanding the claimed requests for security and disagreements with the government on the issue, Ranil Wickremesinghe as the leader of the political party Perera represented, should have taken the responsibility to provide security to him. It is regrettable that this did not happen and Janaka Perera himself took this threat so lightly that he appears to have been moving around in a region so close to their remaining stronghold without even a semblance of security. (Apparently there was none other than the four police constables on traffic duty!).

This UNP madness has to end. Sri Lanka badly needs a national government instead of this ‘joke’ that passes for the alternative government in the Sri Lankan DEMOCRACY. The more sensible and capable sections within the UNP needs to salvage the party from the current leadership who have no capacity to see the big problem the nation is faced with. A united government in Colombo is vital for finishing off the task of the military and to start building the nation from the ground.

It is worth remembering the 2400 yar old Sun Tzu’s teaching in the 'Art of War' that “those skilled in war subdue the enemy not by battle, but by strategy". Sri Lanka, with all its recent successes, is still learning

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