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Dear Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead
I read what you addressed on the 9th of January 2006, to the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka titled, Peace and Prosperity: US Policy Goals in Sri Lanka 2006.
You were addressing the American Chamber of Commerce and therefore your main message in your address was appropriately, about the linkage between the future economic prosperity of Sri Lanka and the peace process, and the importance of business community in playing an active role in promoting the peace process.
You
correctly said that peace and prosperity are complementary to each
other and “furtherance of peace is perhaps the single most important
thing that can push Sri Lanka along the path to further prosperityâ€.
I
appreciate your appeal to the business community to take an active role
in both promoting the peace process and educating the country about the
benefits of the processes’ success or the consequences of its failure.
I appreciate this because, during the recent presidential election
campaign, both, the ruling and the opposition parties failed to use
that golden opportunity to educate the country in this aspect. However,
some of the comments you have made during your address cast doubt on
the policy US is adopting about the peace process in Sri Lanka.
Ambassador,
as you are well aware that the peace process is built on the premise
that both the parties, namely the Sri Lankan Government (SLG) and the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), have entered into a Cease-fire
Agreement (CFA) as equal partners.
Therefore, anyone dealing
with/trying to influence, these two parties in relation to the CFA and
the peace process should treat both the parties equally.
In this
aspect, the very few comments you made during your address about the
CFA and the escalation of violence were unwarranted and could only
undermine further the peace process and not going to help the parties
to refrain from violence.
Ambassador,
I need not tell a US Ambassador about the usual propaganda carried out
by the parties when they are involved in a war/conflict. We all have
seen this very clearly in the recent wars/conflicts in the Middle-East.
Sri Lanka is not an exception to this. Therefore we have seen both
parties to the Sri Lankan conflict doing this to various extents. SLG,
being the elected government, is at an advantage in this process having
ready access to the government controlled local media and to foreign
governments.
SLG has used various incidents that have happened during
the conflict to carry out false propaganda to demonise its enemy as
well as to cover up the gross human rights violations carried out by
its security forces against the Tamil community. I shall give you some
recent examples to illustrate my argument.
When
the former Foreign Minister Kadirgamar was assassinated the SLG was
quick to put the blame on LTTE even before the inquiry began, and went
on a propaganda spree in the Western capitols using its diplomats and
managed to impose a travel ban to EU countries on that organisation.
Please look at what has happened. The Australian Tamil businessman Mr.
Gnanakoon, who was arrested on the basis of confessions made by Mrs.
Kadirgamar as he was involved with LTTE in plotting this assassination,
has been set free now by the courts due to the failure of the police to
lay any charges against him. He is now suing the Sri Lankan Defence
Ministry and the Attorney General.
Similarly, two Tamil youths who were
arrested as prime LTTE suspects who were involved in the assassination
also have been ordered by the magistrate to be released as the
prosecutors failed to produce any evidence to implicate them in the
assassination. At the same time no inquiry was held to find out who was
responsible for the already accepted lapse in the security provided to
the assassinated minister.
While it is widely accepted that this
assassination was a contract killing carried out not without the help
of the security forces, this assassination has been very efficiently
used by the SLG for its propaganda purpose and you all believed it and
warned the LTTE.
The
next case in point is how the SLG tried to use the brutal murder of the
five Tamil students in Trincomale on the 2nd of January 2006. First the
Sri Lankan Defence Ministry let out the story that these students died
of a grenade blast that they were trying to throw at the security
forces in collaboration with the LTTE.
However, now the medical officer
who carried out the post-mortem examination of the bodies, the Sri
Lanka Monitoring Mission officials who visited the site of the incident
and the magistrate who held the inquest, all have said that these
victims have been shot through the ears.
Dear Ambassador, haven’t the
SLG duped you to believe their story first? Because, you have yet to
condemn these brutal murders carried out by the security forces.
The
last one is the latest incident, the story of a Navy Devora gun boat
alleged to have been sunk off the coast of Trincomale harbour by an
LTTE suicide attack. All what we were told to believe was that a loud
explosion heard in the area and two injured sailors were rescued by
fishermen.
Then why these two sailors have not been shown in the media?
Why the divers could not locate the sunken boat yet, although the exact
location would have been known because of the presence of another
Devora in the vicinity according to the initial story we were told? Why
none of the dead bodies of the 13 sailors who were supposed to have
perished in the incident have been recovered?
These are the questions
to be asked by any one before he/she decides to condemn the alleged
perpetrators of this incident.
Ambassador,
the ex-Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe claims that he developed an
“International Safety Net†(ISN) to take care of the LTTE if it walks
away from the peace process. The new President Rajapaksa also wanted to
get similar assurances from the international community. This is why he
went to India first, but he failed to achieve his objective there.
Then
he sent his FM Samaraweera to your Capitol Hill. Although he made some
rhetoric to the media in Washington before he met your Secretary of
State, Dr. Rice, she did not deliver any statement the SLG expected
that could twist the arm of the opponents. You only seem to have bitten
the poisonous bait thrown by the SLG.
This is what your address to the
American Chamber of Commerce in Colombo suggests.
Ambassador,
when you decided to deviate from your main message to your business
audience, you started by saying; “I have to take a moment here to
congratulate the Government on its continued restraint, despite the
recent provocative actions by the LTTEâ€. If you have been following the
events in Sri Lanka closely, you would be aware that there were no
killings in the North and East after the CFA, until few LTTE political
workers, including one of the top leaders Kausalyan, were assassinated
by the paramilitary personal operating from the security force’s camps.
Did you or if you were not there at that time, your predecessor, took a
moment to congratulate the LTTE for the restraint they showed at that
time?
Now, the SLMM (Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission – members of some
Nordic countries monitoring the Sri Lankan cease-fire) also has openly
blamed these paramilitary forces for the violence in the NorthEast.
Within 24 hours of this statement by SLMM, its office situated very
near a Sri Lankan security force’s camp has been bombed in Baticaloa
showing the true colours of these paramilitary forces. Also, the SLMM
spokesperson, Helen Olafsdottir has been quoted by the Colombo’s
“Sunday Leader†today to have said the following in an interview: "The
[Sri Lanka] government claimed that it had nothing to do with this
[Karuna] group (a paramilitary group) and was not aware of their
existence.
But when we visited the spot in the east and asked the Sri
Lankan army where we could find Karuna, they told us where to go. So it
was clear that the local army knew where he was". This shows very
clearly the involvement of the Sri Lankan security forces with the
paramilitary forces.
You
went on to say that; “Similarly, the US calls on the LTTE to stop its
violent activities and to return to the negotiating table with the
Government of Sri Lanka in order to work towards a stable, permanent
peaceâ€. Ambassador, this piece of advice would have sounded sweet to
the ears of the Rajapakse regime. However, have you stoped and thought
about what the other party is doing in this regard? Have you asked
yourself, why the SLG is insisting that the talks have to be held in an
Asian country? If SLG is keen on returning to the negotiating table do
you think it would have created this situation? It is not rocket
science to understand who is blocking LTTE from returning to the
negotiating table?
You
also have said that; “There can be a role for the LTTE in future
development of Sri Lanka, but only if it returns to the peace table,
renounces terrorism in word and deed and become a responsible
participant in Sri Lanka’s future. And this will lead to a better life
for the Tamils and all Sri Lankans in the North and Eastâ€. Dear
Ambassador, your statement sounds legitimate in face value.
However, I
am sure you have stayed in Sri Lanka long enough to understand and
accept the reality and hence speak reality only. You know very well
what happened to the P-TOMS (Post-tsunami Operational Management
System), an arrangement worked out between SLG and LTTE to share the
$4.5 B earmarked by the international community to rebuild the tsunami
devastated North-East of Sri Lanka.
I am sure we need 100 Lunsteads to
convince the Tamils now whether the Tamils will ever be able to
participate in Sri Lanka’s future development.
You
went on to say that, “Let me be clear, our military assistance is not
given because we anticipate or hope for a return to hostilities. We
want peace. We support peace. And we will stand with the people of Sri
Lanka who desire peaceâ€. Dear Ambassador, could you explain how you
could assist one party to the conflict militarily and help to bring in
peace in Sri Lanka without annihilating the other party?
Is it that
your administration’s hidden agenda? You seem to have given the answer
in your next statement. “If the LTTE chooses to abandon peace, however,
we want it to be clear, they will face a stronger, more capable and
more determined Sri Lankan military. We want the cost of a return to
war to be highâ€. It looks like that you and US administration have
picked up the “War for peace strategy†from President Chandrika.
Ambassador,
anyone will be encouraged by your statement towards the concluding
stages of your address, if it is really genuine. “The US will continue
to support a strong, unified Sri Lanka that seeks peace and prosperity
and that offers an atmosphere of respect and justice for all citizens
regardless of religion and race.
We will urge others in the
International Community to do the same. We have stood with Sri Lanka
through the peace process as one of the Co-chairs. We are standing with
Sri Lanka through the rebuilding process from the tsunami. And we want
to stand with Sri Lanka as it crosses the threshold from a situation of
“no war†to one of peace and moves from a platform of low economic
growth to a launching pad of economic dynamismâ€. However, I am
sceptical about all this because of all the previous statements of
yours I have commented on above.
Dear
Ambassador, if you and your administration are genuinely interested in
real peace in Sri Lanka, you also would have made statements like those
made by one of the other Co-chairs, Mrs Benita Ferrero-Waldner,
Commissioner for External Relations, European Commission, 3 days after
you (12.01.06) addressed the American Chamber of Commerce in Colombo.
“It
is imperative that the government, other political parties and the
Tamil Tigers heed the call of the people and join hands to arrest the
spread of violence prevailing in the north and in the east. It would
quite simply be a tragedy if the various leaders involved failed to
meet this basic demand of the people.
For this reason, the debate that
has now started over the venue for reviewing the implementation of the
ceasefire agreement hardly inspires confidence. The state of the
ceasefire is so perilous that Sri Lanka can ill afford to waste time on
talks about the venue for talks! For all who truly seek settlement
through negotiation rather than war, surely they have more urgent
priorities.â€
“Sri
Lanka's political future lies solely in the hands of Sri Lanka’s
leaders themselves. They have to come from considering the legitimate
aspirations of all communities and designing a way to live together.
This is a time for courage and difficult decisions and a time that will
reveal the real intentions and level of commitment of those assuming
leadership on both sidesâ€.
Dear
Ambassador, I am sure you would have read the whole message of Mrs.
Ferrero Waldner’s dated 12.01.06. Tamils are yearning for peace than
anyone else. But they want to live with peace and dignity like the
Americans wanted when they were fighting for their freedom.
Tamils
expect the American administration to be impartial in dealing with the
parties to the conflict and make statements like what Mrs
Ferrero-Wladner has made that helps to build peace, and not threatening
statements like what you have made that jeopardise peace by pushing the
Tamils to a corner, never to return to the table you lay out.
Yours truly,
Dr. Victor Rajakulendran
Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Source:TamilCanadian
Dr. Victor Rajakulendran
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