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So you want to know about Sri Lanka's conflictAsoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . CanadaApril 25, 2008 Mr. Chuck Konkel Dear Chuck: I picked up information on your interest on Sri Lanka in the Tamil Net which said "…he will work with Canadians until they understand very clearly the nature of the conflict in Sri Lanka and the need for the Canadians to get involved." Being a card carrying Conservative (C11255047) and a Sustaining donor I also happen to be a Sinhalese among the first wave of Sri Lankan The first Ceylon (Sri Lankan) immigrant was a Burgher who came to Canada in 1954. I am not a rookie on this issue and not a Johnnie-come-lately either, as I got involved on the issue on August 4, 1983, because I resented the Tamils in Canada bashing the Sinhalese unfairly in the media, and intimidating the Sinhalese stopping them to criticize the Tamil separatists publicly and tell the flip side of the story for the riots which brought in thousands of Tamils as refugees into Canada who said that they were running away from discrimination and persecution And I told myself, "Oh, no, you SOBs, you are not going to hurt my Sinhalese people unfairly by portraying us as ruthless killers and persecutors, nor will you make me want to drop on the floor and roll over pretending that I am dead just because you threatened me over the telephone to kill me to shut me up for telling the Tamil FACTS". I went on National TV on the 6 o'clock Newscast on August 4, together with a courageous young Sinhalese who drove all the way from Chalk River to speak his views on the issue. My first letter to the print media appeared in /The Ottawa Citizen/ on August 11 - Sri Lanka Situation. I have followed the issue since then and I believe that I can speak on it with uncanny authority. Foremost I would like to congratulate you on your nomination and hope that you would replace Liberal John McKay in your Scarborough-Guildwood riding. And it is about time although it would be a tough ride when the Conservatives had a deficit of almost 10,000 votes in 2006, of which most were from Tamils from Sri Lanka who believe that the Liberal Party has been their saviours, although it were the Conservatives in 1983 who opened the flood gates for 90 percent of the Tamils to come into Canada as refugees fraudulently, by lying through their teeth. What is troubling is the misplaced sense of allegiance of the Tamils voting for the Liberals when it were the Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and his Minister of Immigration Benoit Bouchard who told Canadians in February 1987, "Sri Lankans are a people that Canada does not deport", when the majority of Canadians wanted the 155 Tamil boat people who landed on the shores of Newfoundland to put them back on a boat and push them into the sea, for lying to enter Canada. If your strategy is to buy these Liberal Tamil votes, you will have to support their cause of a separate state, Eelam, back in Sri Lanka, and accept their brand of ruthless suicide- bombing terrorism. I just hope you won't go there, and paint my palms and those of the other 31 million Canadians with an onion skin film of Sinhalese blood over what we already have, courtesy of the Liberals. The Liberals let the Tamil Diaspora collect funds in the millions of dollars each month for 13 years to buy Kalashnikovs, bullets, claymore mines and other sophisticated weapons to kill the innocent, unarmed Sinhalese and Muslims. Just don't dream of going there as I will be one of the first Conservatives who will pounce on you. Now for the Tamil FACTS: Were there riots in July 1983 that brought in thousands of Tamil Refugees
into Canada, and they are still trickling in to get away from the alleged
persecution and discrimination by the "majority Sinhalese Tamil FACT (2): Yes, there was and the Tamils got the brunt of it, after the Tamil Tigers ambushed and killed 13 soldiers on the night of July 23^rd , 1983, at Tinnaveli in the North and their bodies were brought in caskets to Colombo for burial. This riot was the culmination of the provocation of the tolerant Sinhalese community by the Tamil separatists since 1972 - murders, kidnappings for ransom, bank robberies, gang robberies, ethnic cleansing, destruction of public property, burning buses and trains and much more. Whatever the reason, the riot was ugly and placed a black mark in the recent history of Sri Lanka which I have been saddened by it. But here is the reason that made my conscience rationalize and accept, although with much reluctance, the reason for the riot. In the summer of 1984, I was having lunch in a restaurant in Vancouver's Gastown with a Director of a Museum in Vancouver. He knew Sri Lanka, as well as the Sinhalese people as he did some research for his graduate studies in the south of the island. I told him, that I found it difficult as a Buddhist to accept the intense violence that took place in July last year, the killings and torching Tamil businesses, et cetera. He tells me, "Asoka, you are being too hard on yourself. The Sinhalese are generally good people, spiritual people and kind people, but for sure they are not Saints. There has been horrendous abuse, harassment, killings and chasing from their homes where they had lived for generations in the Jaffna peninsular by the Tamil separatists that one could not take much anymore. The Tamil separatists most definitely crossed the line of civility and tolerance of any human being. That's what happened." Thinking of it, those were hard Tamil FACTS that I could not dismiss. Tamil FACT (3): This was another incident that made my conscience rationalize the riots, however reluctantly. The generosity of Sinhalese families toward their Tamil neighbours, throwing being cautious out of the window for good neighbourliness during those riots was colossal, which have been hidden by the Tamils from the world opinion and the Sri Lanka watchers of the international community. Scores of hundreds of Sinhalese families took in their Tamil neighbours
and guarded them with love and passion for days and weeks from the Sinhalese
hoodlums. My family in Colombo took in three Tamil families and guarded
them, fed them and provided them security while exposing themselves
to be harmed by the Sinhalese hoodlums for guarding Tamils. Will the Tamil refugees admit this extraordinary generosity by the Sinhalese community during the rioting days and after? Of course not, as it would dislodge their lying cause in search of greener pastures, and a home in Canada saying that they had been persecuted. Tamil FACT (4): The island of Sri Lanka is slightly smaller than the Province of New Brunswick. Put the populations of the Province of Quebec and the Province of Ontario into New Brunswick, and there you find what Sri Lanka is. And this is the puny God's beautiful little acre of real estate what the Tamil Tigers and their Tamil sympathizers who are living in comfort in Canada want to dissect into two. Chuck, I am sure; you may be holding back the words "These buggers are nuts!" In 1983, they took up arms to carve out one-third of the island bordered by 60 per cent of the coastline for 12.6% (1,871,535) of Tamils out of a population of 14,881,001 people in Sri Lanka. And what is significant is that 54% of that 12.6% lived in the South happily among the majority Sinhalese and they still do, and no doubt will do for the next 100 year.. By February 2007, the Tamil population had dwindled to 3.9% (World
Watch Chuck, I am prepared to put my neck out and tell you that the July1983 riots was a God's send for the Tamil refugees in Canada, as 90% of them wouldn't have had a chance in hell if they wanted to immigrate working their way through the required point system. Not a hope in hell. Never, ever. And that is a Tamil FACT. Tamil FACT (5): By 1972, the Tamil political party, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), was the political arm of the Tamil Tiger terrorists. With strong feelings of insecurity and the failure of attempts to work out a federal system with the Sri Lankan Government, the TULF went to the masses in 1976 with a manifesto calling for the establishment of a separate, mono-ethnic, racist Tamil state, Eelam, in their "traditional Tamil Homelands", in the North and East of the island. This is where the rub lay which created the Sri Lankan Tamil separatist problem. For the rest of Sri Lankans, there have not, do not, should not and will not exist special enclaves of "traditional homelands". For them the sovereignty of this island nation is non-negotiable, not even for the claymore mine exploding, suicide bomber Tamil Tigers. Appapillai Amirthalingam, TULF's Secretary-General, although described as a non-violent moderate in the western media and politicians like our NDPiers and Liberals, had been supportive of Tamil terrorism from way back in the late 60s and 70s. On March 24, 1972, he said at a protest meeting in Jaffna in the North of Sri Lanka: "There will be a day for the Tamils also to use arms. Therefore it is very important that we should have friendly relationships with certain organizations in foreign countries." So with that cue and blessing the Tamil Tigers and other Tamil terrorist groups found themselves been invited by Indira Gandhi after the 1983 riots to be trained in India's military camps. The camp at Chakrata, north of Dehra Dun was used for commando and army combat training. Other military camps at Kumbakonam, Meenambakkam, Parangimali and Sengalpatu were used to train the Tamil Tigers in bomb manufacturing, jungle warfare, weapon training and military tactics. They also got training with Al Fatah of the PLO in Lebanon. In the mid-80s Amirthalingam was the guest of NDPs Pauline Jewett and the Speaker of the House of Commons introduced him to the House from the Gallery after Question Period. But you know what Chuck, this father of Tamil Tiger terrorism was bumped off by his protégés, the Tamil Tigers with bullets at his home in Colombo, on July 13, 1989. So much for allegiance! As Tamil FACT (6) let me explain to you why I said that 90% of the Tamil refugees were economic refugees. As you are aware, Convention Refugees, according to the Vienna Convention should not be returning to the country that they ran away from complaining of being persecuted. But almost every one of these Tamils who landed in Canada has gone back to Sri Lanka for their holidays and visiting their relatives et cetera. So much for the complaint of being persecuted, and the Canadians were taken for a ride, big time one more time. How do I know? I had to deal with such situations between 1989 and 1994 when I used to work for the Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa. When October and November approached droves of Tamils came to the Mission with telegrams from home, and every telegram said that either the Mother or Father was dying of cancer, and please come home immediately. Although crass, I used to tell them, "What is strange about this telegram is that only Tamil parents get afflicted with this cancer epidemic every October and November, but not the Sinhalese, Muslim or Burgher parents. Though it sounds strange, it is true". So these Convention refugees were issued travel documents to return to their home country that they were scared to live because they had been persecuted and were scared for their lives. They came to the Mission in the thousands and not just hundreds. Paul Kaihla in his cover story in MacLean's of April 29, 1996, reported that "more than 8,600 Sri Lankans with refugee claims pending in Canada applied for travel documents to visit Sri Lanka in 1992. The following year, the figure was 5,865. If those refugee claimants feared persecution in their homeland, why were they so eager to return?" This is a good question for you to ponder. The Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka in a Report which came out in early 1990 said, /"Well over 400 Tamils allowed to live permanently in Canada spent 6-months or more visiting their homeland last year."/ //Peter McCreath MP (Cabinet Minister for Veteran Affairs) who was a member of the Canadian Fact Finding Mission to Sri Lanka in January 1992, told the Standing Committee of External Affairs on Development and Human Rights on Monday, May 4, 1992 - /"At the same time the refugee process is being used by people
to gain access to Canada who may not in fact be refugees in the true
sense of the word. As a matter of curiosity, when I was flying home
from Sri Lanka, I sat beside a fellow on the plane who had refugee status
in Canada but who had just been home in Sri Lanka for a six month vacation.
Tamil FACT (7). Let me warn you not to give any credence to Tamil Roman Catholic priests in Canada, who are still wearing a white-collar who say that the Tamils were persecuted and discriminated and should have their separate state, Eelam. I had the opportunity to debate this issue with two of them. One on public television in Ottawa in the mid-80s, the other in Montreal and Toronto later. I accused both of them saying that "You are a Fraud", who were using the Roman Catholic white collar to the maximum, to hide behind it and lie for their separatist cause as they would not be suspected as liars since they are men wearing the Lord's cloth. To the other in a letter I said, "And as a Christian Church decreed
priest, you ought to admit to your congregation that you are shamed
by this unforgivable and an unchristian act. Here is where you acted
like a little-turd-in-a-white-collar, when you told your congregation,
"For the last several years series of oppressive governments triggered
tsunamis after tsunamis that killed more than 60,000 Tamils, and we
lost more than 17,000 of Tamil freedom fighters. You know that you are
a GODdamn liar. That two-third of the 60,0000 deaths happened to be
of innocent, unarmed Sinhalese, pregnant women, mothers and infants
massacred with their throats slashed during indigo-dark mornings while
they were fast asleep by your Tamil Freedom fighters". So, you
are being warned Chuck. Let me conclude this letter with a Tamil FACT (8) as much as I want to go on with Tamil FACTS: We are being Discriminated by the majority Sinhalese the Tamils say, wanting to enter Canada as refugees. Chuck, this Sinhalese man is prepared to stand on a Tamil Gang infested street corner in the Grater Toronto Area holding a banner which will read: "These Tamils are a bunch of bloody Humbugs. TAMILS WERE NOT DISCRIMINATED IN SRI LANKA. They were a 'privileged minority' compared to any minority in the world, and even among Canada's aboriginal peoples." You know why? Because I know that I am telling the Truth. If I am not allowed to purchase one square-inch of land in the northern Jaffna peninsula (Thesavalamai Law), and Velupillai Murugun, a Tamil from Kilinochchi can buy a seven room mansion in Colombo's prestigious Horton Place, that is NOT DISCRIMINATION OF TAMILS; When Minachchi Selvaraja, a Tamil woman transplanted from North's Vavuniya could walk the streets of Colombo identifying herself as a Tamil with a crimson thumb print between her eye brows, unharassed by the Sinhalese, but Somawathie Guruge, a Sinhalese woman from Ganemuulla in the South cannot walk along a street in the Tamil Tiger controlled Wanni because she will not be allowed to go into that area by the Tamil Tigers, that is NOT DISCRIMINATION OF TAMILS; When Vasantha Fernando (not real name), my nephew with 399 other Sinhalese students and lecturers were stoned and chased out of the Jaffna University campus in the North in August 1977, but Sivanathan Dharmalingam, Lakshmi Kulasekaran, Siva Shankar, Balendra Subramaniam, all Tamils were able to study unharrassed in University campuses in the South, this is NOT DISCRIMINATION OF TAMILS; When a Tamil graduate with a 3^rd Class Degree in Physics could over-ride a Sinhalese graduate who got an Upper Second Class Degree in Physics to win a scholarship to come abroad to study for his Ph.D in Nuclear Physics just because the adjudicators of the scholarship were mainly Tamils, that is NOT DISCRIMINATION OF TAMILS; When Mangala Silva and his family who were bakers for generations in Jaffna were chased out as part of ethnic cleansing by the Tamils with 27,000 other Sinhalese who were threatened, killed and chased out from the North between 1971 and 1981, yet Yogarathnam Sivaji, a Tamil, can have a thosai (pancake) boutique and patronized by the Sinhalese at Maradana, in Colombo, that is NOT DISCRIMINATION OF TAMILS; When my niece from a reputable Girls School in Colombo could not enter a University with three A'Level passes out of four, a bi-product of Education standardization scheme to provide Equal opportunities to rural school students across the island, and Yogarani Subarmaniam from a reputable school in Jaffna couldn't enter University with three A level passes for the same reason, Yogarani cried foul of being discriminated, got on a plane, destroyed her passport while in the plane, landed at Toronto's International Airport and sought refugee status saying that she was discriminated. My niece didn't get on a plane to land herself in Toronto's International Airport saying that she was discriminated and was seeking refugee status. She complained to her parents about the standardization scheme, shed a tear, and moved on becoming an Accountant. And that was NOT DISCRIMINATION OF TAMILS. And that is the rub. Here lies the logic of the Tamils who say that they have been discriminated in Sri Lanka in all walks of life - In 1981, two years prior to the riots the percentages of this Tamil minority community (12.6%) in the public work force did not justify the claim of being discriminated. These were the percentages: Doctors 35.1%; Dentists 24.7%; Engineers 34.9%; Land Surveyors 29.9%; Veterinary Surgeons 38.8%; Life scientists 41.5%; Surveying draughtsman 27.8%; Engineering Technicians 24.3% and the Public Service Administrators 15.9% With these rich numbers aren't the Tamil complaints a moronic joke? You should ask them to stop belly aching and go get a life. I hope that these Tamil FACTS would give you a head start to understand why these Tamil refugees are whining and for you to understand very clearly the nature of the conflict in Sri Lanka. If there are other questions that need clarification, please do not hesitate to ask me. The bottom line is not to let the Conservatives down as we have come a long way by banning the Tamil Tigers and closing in on their funding mechanisms for the Tamil Tigers with raids recently in Toronto and Montréal on WTM offices. Canada has been partially the problem in prolonging this war and that damn well has to stop for the sake of humanity and civility. I will forward you a post that I sent Bob Rae, which will tell you why I say that Canada has no role to play right now to achieve peace in Sri Lanka. May be later once we prove that we have stopped the funds going out from Canada to stuff the Tamil Tiger war chest and being part of Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist problem. Sincerely, Asoka cc. Rt.Hon.Stephen Harper, Prime Minister Hon.Stockwell Day, MP Hon.Jason
Kenney, MP Hon.Maxime Bernier, MP Hon. Art Hanger, MP |
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