Headed by former Air Force Commander Pathman Mendis the delegation included Generals Dennis Perera, Cyril Ranatunge, Hamilton Wanasinghe, Jerry De Silva, Rohan Daluwatte, Sri Lal Weerasuriya and Admirals, Basil Gunasekera and Daya Sandagiri along with former Air Force Commanders Harry Gunetilleke, Dick Perera, Oliver Ranasinghe and Jayalath Weerakkody.

Air Chief Marshal (Retired) Harry Goonetilleke was specific in announcing that that was the first time in the history of independent Sri Lanka that former service commanders, all of Four Star rank, had met the President of the country and discussed such issues.

It was also pointed out that each of the veterans had served the forces for over 35 years. They called for a National Front comprising all political parties, and the establishment of a National Secretariat to draw up a National Plan covering defence, political, economic and social issues. The Secretariat should monitor the implementation of such a plan, they added.

The chauvinist president MR would expect some sort of explanation for the veteran’s intervention on his strategy of defeating terrorism before peace agreements. The new western dictum for settling controversy ‘war for Peace’. The retirees were prepared in anticipation. Understandably, the former service chiefs made it clear to the President that their move was completely non-partisan. They were only worried that even after facing a challenge from terrorism for 30 years, the country was still to get united and draft and implement a national plan to eliminate terrorism and bring about a political settlement. They also pointed out that defeating terrorism and seeking a political solution was inter-connected and as such the need of the hour was to set up a secretariat with the participation of all political parties with the intention of forming a national plan.

It was not a surprise for these stalwarts, who had the best of education and training in warfare, to spur into action to save their country that is being misdirected by a mediocre president who assumed himself to be a 18 century Dutu (bad) Gemunu. Dutu Gemunu defeated the Tamil king Ellala of Anuradhapura in an unequal fight. History books said that Gemunu unfairly killed Ellala during the fight when the latter (the king) fell from his mounted elephant and as result defenceless. King Ellala was mighty king who ruled Sri-Lanka for more than sixty years.

The interesting feature in the composition of the deputation was that all were Sinhalese and professing different religions but with same aim which was to attain peace and stop terrorism. These veterans served their country for long hoping that peace would be attained through war. Some of them would have served under the first Sri-Lankan Tamil army commander Anton Muttucumaru who was also a qualified barrister. Tamils then worked as a nation with the Sinhalese till they were discriminated against after communal politics that was started by SWRD Bandaranayake.

Recent high military appointments in November in the North and East are all sinhalese. This is naked racism. The Sinhalese now do not trust the Tamils even in the armed forces. These appointments cast their shadows of minority Tamil’s future under the Sinhalese rule. The democratic world should take this as prophesy that future of the Tamils would have to be self rule. Therefore self-determination is the only solution.

Hence the retired men from the forces would have sensed the low level of military discipline now prevalent among the forces that had led to HR violations never ever seen in Sri-Lanka before. Finding the country going to economic and social ruin under this president they wanted to warn him of the foolishness of resorting to war only to solve terrorism.

The current state of the political situation is aptly described by Col. R.Hariharan in SAAG paper Note no. 416 18-Nov-2007 titled “SRI LANKA: Two Years of President Rajapaksa- An Assessment- Update No. 130”. Enlisting MR’s cold-blooded non-military strategies he went on, included political manipulations, arm twisting of media, ignoring aberrations of corruption and human rights, and offering political trade offs for support. If morality was never the strong suite of Sri Lanka politics, amorality has become the order of the day in the last two years.

Mr Wije Dias wrote in the World Socialist Web Site on 5 October 2007 about the unethical, military of the GSL forces as follows, “In the military offensives over the past year, the armed forces have bombarded civilian areas from the air and using artillery and mortars. When criticised, the government has responded using Washington’s standard lie: the “terrorists” are using civilians as “human shields”. Hundreds of people, mainly Tamils, have “disappeared” or been murdered in circumstances that point to the use of well-organised death squads involving either troops or allied para-militarries”.

D B S Jeyaraj for The Nation on Sep 22, 2007 described the GSL state terrorism of aerial bombing so beautifully in his article ‘Full-scale war imminent on the northern front’. He went on “But dropping bombs from an altitude (by Government) allows greater latitude in getting away from the terrorist label. All states gang up in refusing to admit state terrorism”.

He further described the terror war tactics carried out by MR’s Sinhala armed forces to capture the East from the LTTE recently. The government adopted the ruthless double-track strategy successfully in the east: A widespread campaign of bombing and shelling on a broad scale on points throughout the region on the one hand and on the other, a sustained campaign of intensive concentrated attacks on a limited target area.

The civilians were uprooted and their dwellings and infrastructure facilities demolished with little or no respect for their human rights. Probably Tamil’s HR was no concern for the Sinhalese and apparently for the West. After the indigenous civilians fled in fear a particular area and move to another place, the vacated place was shelled and bombed to saturation point. Then the army advanced cowardly on ground, consolidated and established control of a limited area. Thereafter, this process was repeated again and again”.

This was cowardice indeed. This was scorched earth policy. The Tamils Eastern Province civilisation was completely erased. Their day to day activity and their livelihood was dramatically changed and brought to standstill. The East had still not recovered from this devastation and may take decades if not centuries. Still IDPs are in their temporary camps.

PTI news in Colombo reported the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said at least 22,000 people in Sri Lanka's northern region have been forced to leave their homes since the beginning of September due to fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels. This is due to the multibarrel gun devastation of the villages that was described above. The democratic world is numb over this dastardly act of the Sinhala army.When there is no apparent deterrent the bellicosity of a regime become more hard hearted. Jesus where is justice gone. The Dhammapada (69) (buddhism)said “the fool thinks an evil deed as sweet as honey, so long as it does not ripen (do not produce results). But when it ripens, the fool comes to grief”. Be warned.

These ex-servicemen would not have ever dreamt of fighting such an unhol, deespicable and outmoded war. HR violations would be anathema to them. The International community and the present GSL military regime were content to employ such dirty war tactics. The IC and even the UN had lost their chivalry and their sense of fair-play and allowed all these tyranny of MR. Was there a paradigm shift on HR for the Tamils in Eelam? A bit of violation to be permitted by the IC in the hope that LTTE could be brought to heel. This is abominable and the IC should be ashamed of its hypocrisy. Even Jesus will be writhing in pain in the Heavens at this injustice to the Tamils.

This was collective punishment for the Tamils for just being under the LTTE area of control. Natural justice demands that if the GSL forces cannot fight the LTTE successfully in the LTTE controlled area they should give that area to the LTTE instead of killing the inhabitants of that area as though they are a subjugated race. This type of war where heavy weapons were used against civilians is genocide indeed. If the IC wanted to allow GSL to indiscriminate bomb the Tamil areas in order to annihilate the LTTE then they should allow the population to migrate to their respective countries. Such a step will avoid human sufferings and HR violations. If we failed to adopt this suggested strategy we would then have to go in for local solutions based on our cultural heritage.

The Sinhaleses’ Tathagata-Lord Buddha who was a Hindu himself suggested ways to avert war and secure peace. Will the Sinhalese adhere to his teachings that were 2500 years old but still held good.

He preached non-violence and peace to be the universal message. He never advocated violence or destruction of life. In Buddhism there is nothing that can be called a ‘just war’. This is only a false term coined and practised to justify and excuse hatred, cruelty, violence and massacre. It follows then that the mighty and victorious are ‘just’ and the weak and the defeated are ‘unjust’. This cannot be correct. Consequently the international community’s non-intervention to stop this unjust war of the Sinhalese on the Tamils is erroneous.

The Buddha himself went to the field of battle and intervened personally to prevent war, as in the case of Sakyas and the Koliyas who were prepared to fight over the distribution of waters of river Rohini.

He also had shown how a whole country could become corrupt, degenerate and become unhappy when the head of its government, the ministers and administrative officers become corrupt and unjust. For a country to be happy it must have a just government. Some members of MR government had been implicated to be corrupt by the COPE committee appointed by the Sri-Lankan parliament according to Wijedasa Rajapakse MP who was the head of the COPE inquiry.

Buddha also pronounced ten ways for a government to be fair and just. They were dana (giving welfare to the people), sila (high moral character), pariccaga (sacrifice for the sake of the people), ajjava (honesty and integrity), maddava (kindness and gentleness), tapa (simple life), akkodha (freedom from hatred), avihimsa (non-violence), khanti (tolerence), and avirodha (non obstruction).

I humbly request the president to take the advice of the Sri-Lankan retired commanders and find a political solution based on Lord Buddha’s ten principle of government. These generals knew very well that the Tamils had a genuine grievance. Harry Gunatileka had written profusely to the media on this aspect.

Verena GRAF of the International League for the Rights of Peoples (LIDLIP) that has representative status at the UN says “Based on historical and socio-political evidence, LIDLIP and other organisations have always argued that the Sri Lankan Tamils fulfil all the criteria to qualify as a people. Not only a common culture, language and religion but also a typical traditional settlement area, a shared history and democratically expressed will characterise them as a nation. Moreover, they share the experience of a people that has been systematically and collectively discriminated against, even persecuted in independent Sri Lanka”.

Under these tragic circumstances the Tamils had decided to govern themselves in their own traditional homeland of the North and East, in the same way the Sinhalese are governing themselves in the rest of the island. This arrangement should be legally framed and guarantees put in place for any unwanted transgressions or abrogation that had been the curse for all previous political agreements with the Sinhalese.

The international community could also help in this process by adhering to Lord Jesus teachings ‘thou shall not kill’. Please stop giving lethal weapons to misguided Sinhala politicians to kill innocent civilians. Once this feat is completed any sort of violence from both side will fade away like the morning dew under the rays of the sun. There is no need to go on a circuitous route. There may be geopolitical and politico economic moves to stall this strategy but Sinhalese and Tamils should go in for a local solution based on our religions viz Buddhism and Hinduism. Be chivalrous and go to the help of the massacred innocents who are wailing from unmarked graves. They should be given decent religious burials. As the generals said we have waited too long.

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