Today we commence serialisation of excerpts of lawyer S. L. Gunasekera’s book "Abomination" - a critique of the proposals of the Interim Self-government Authority presented by the LTTE
DEDICATION
I respectfully dedicate this book to the memory of the late "PLOTE MOHAN" and other Tamil Martyrs to the cause of humanity like he, who, knowing the martyrdom that awaited them if the Tamil Nazi thugs of Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan got at them, knowingly put their lives and those of their wives, their children, their parents and their siblings in jeopardy and sacrificed their lives to save the Sinhalese, the Tamils, the Moors and members of all other ethnic groups who inhabit our Motherland from the jackboot of Tamil Nazism and serfdom to the thug Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan.
They are truly National Heroes who
"gave their lives that the Nation might live "
S.L.Gunasekara
INTRODUCTION
We live under the rule of a horrible Government. It is horrible for the Sinhalese: it is horrible for the Tamils: it is horrible for the Moors: it is horrible for all others without distinction in equal measure. We were also ruled by a horrible Government until the present Government took office in April this year. Which of these lamentably horrible Governments is more horrible than the other I cannot say - because as the late Dr. Colvin R De Silva once said in Parliament in 1962 in a similar context with regard to the relative demerits of the United National Party [UNP] and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party [SLFP]:
"I am no expert in the gradations of dirt".
Yet, with all the faults of these Governments, all citizens of all races living in those parts of the Country as are ruled by the Government enjoy and have enjoyed under them, a measure of freedom and a quality of life which those of all races who are condemned to live under the jackboot of Tamil Nazism in those areas illegally ‘ruled’ by the LTTE do not and can never dream of enjoying under their ‘rule’. Thus, by and large, we can criticize the Government as much and as strongly as we like, and even change the Government in power peacefully through the ballot: political opponents of the Government are not abducted or murdered by the Government: we can support any political party or politician of our choice without running the risk of being murdered or abducted by the Government: our little children are not kidnapped by the Government for slave labour in our Armed Forces or to be used as ‘cannon fodder’: there is no conscription of even adults into the Armed Forces: we can complain to the judiciary about the wrongs committed by the Government or any person however powerful he may be and obtain redress: we can move about freely throughout the length and breadth of all parts of the Country ruled by the Government and even leave the Country and return to it as and when we wish: and in short, our lives are ours to live as we please within the constraints of our means and within the confines of the law which is essentially just and published for all to know.
The LTTE has now put forward a demand [in the form of a draft Agreement to be executed between the Government and the LTTE]2 for the creation of a de facto separate state [which it describes as an Interim Self Governing Authority - ISGA] in the entirety of the eight Districts which comprise the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Needless to say, an essential feature of that demand is that that ISGA is to be dominated by the LTTE. If implemented, this demand would, subject not only the Tamils [whose ‘sole representative’ the LTTE claims to be] but also the Sinhalese, the Moors and members of all other communities [whose ‘sole representative’ the LTTE does not claim to be] to the dictatorial rule of the LTTE. Of course the LTTE expressly promises equal rights and equality of treatment for members of all communities the preservation of human rights; an independent judiciary and a separation of powers; an efficient administration free of corruption; free and fair elections under the ISGA after five years, and all those features of good governance which would, if taken seriously, make the mouth of any citizen water uncontrollably.
Characteristically, however, the LTTE, while making these promises of creating a "Dharma Rajya "3 continues to provide more and more evidence of their devotion to the cause of virtue and righteousness by continuing to kidnap little Tamil children for slave labour in their terrorist cadres: abduct opponents: murder opponents while awake and asleep: murder intelligence operatives of the Government: abduct extort money from the helpless Tamils, Moors and Sinhalese of the North and East etc. etc. !!! Such conduct of the LTTE, at the very lowest, does tend to dissuade even their most ardent admirers including the paid lackeys of foreign funded ‘NGOs’ from believing these saccharine sweet promises of the objects of their admiration.
Of course the principal purpose of making the demand for an ISGA according to the LTTE is to serve the needs and secure the rights of the Tamils who, they claim, have been oppressed, victimized, brutalized and discriminated against by all Governments of Sri Lanka [termed "Sinhala Governments" by them] and continue to be so oppressed, victimized, brutalized and discriminated against by the present Government too.
With the creation of the State of Israel [and even before], Jews who were resident in Countries where they were undoubtedly oppressed, victimized, brutalized and discriminated against, migrated to that infant State at the risk of their lives despite the manifold dangers and hardships they would have to undergo by so doing, because of the oppression they underwent in the countries of their birth, and the faith they reposed in David Ben Gurion and his lieutenants. If what the LTTE says about the treatment meted out to Tamils by successive Governments of Sri Lanka is true, or if any Tamils living in the seven Provinces outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces believe the promises of the LTTE about the creation of a veritable Utopia in the Northern and Eastern Provinces which will be free of the myriad ills that afflict our Government, they must necessarily be ready, eager, willing and indeed impatient to leave the veritable hell-hole in the seven Provinces outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces in which they now live and ‘ascend’ to the territory of the ISGA to breathe the invigorating air of freedom, justice, purity and efficiency under the ‘benign’ rule of Velupillai Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan ! ! !
Yet, how many of those Tamils would make a public commitment to packing bag and baggage and settling down in the Utopia promised by Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan ?? The answer is ‘probably none’: for despite the rhetoric of the LTTE and their hangers on, the Tamils living in the seven Provinces outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces know full well that with all the manifold faults of our Government, they can never enjoy the freedom and the quality of life they enjoy under the rule of the Government in any part of the country that is condemned to be ruled by the LTTE. It is time for anyone who believes the honeyed words of the LTTE to stand up and be counted - for if even Tamils whom the LTTE claims to represent exclusively will not make a commitment to ‘migrate’ to the LTTE’s "promised land" if the ISGA that is demanded is established, can our Government, apart from anything else, even consider granting or discuss that demand ???
As will be proved beyond doubt in this book, the demand for an ISGA is nothing less than a demand for a separate state in the entirety of Northern and Eastern Provinces, and the ominous fact of the LTTE stating that it will engage in talks on the "core issues" after the ISGA is "institutionalized", a precursor of a demand for far more than a separate state.
The Ceasefire Agreement between the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan was entered into for the purpose of creating conditions that were mutually acceptable to the Government and the LTTE for commencing and continuing a series of ‘talks’ between them with a view to arriving at a "final solution" to the terrorist problem that has afflicted our Country, which Wickremesinghe and Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan falsely call the "ethnic conflict". The unspoken premise on which the Ceasefire Agreement was based is that so long as each party complies with its terms, the talks would continue until that "final solution" is reached.
It is beyond dispute that the LTTE has acted in flagrant violation of the Ceasefire Agreement from the time it was signed and continues to do so, while our Governments, both the last and the present, have not only condoned or turned a ‘Nelsonian eye’ to those violations and complied with the Ceasefire Agreement to the letter, but even gone to the extreme extent of going beyond its obligations under the Ceasefire Agreement to appease and curry favour with the LTTE. Thus, the last Government suspended the proscription of the LTTE as a terrorist organization, and allowed them to smuggle arms and ammunition into the Country, occupy and fortify Manirasakulam and smuggle broadcasting equipment into the Country with the connivance of our alleged "friends" of the Government of Norway. Not to be outdone, the present Government allowed hordes of armed terrorists of the LTTE to make a sea borne landing at Vakarai and murder the opponents of Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan who were loyal to the renegade terrorist Karuna, and permitted the LTTE to import vehicles "duty free". Similarly, both Governments have consistently humiliated and debased commissioned officers of the Sri Lanka Air Force by compelling them to act as ‘glorified chauffeurs’ for terrorists of the LTTE by transporting them from place to place in military helicopters at the tax payers’ expense.
It was doubtless this manifest pusillanimity and overwhelming anxiety of the former Government to curry favour with the LTTE that led those terrorists to make their outrageous demand for an ISGA as a condition precedent to the resumption of the so called "peace talks" which they had unilaterally brought to a halt. It is equally doubtless that it was the like characteristics of the present Government that led the LTTE to continue with and maintain that demand.
I have referred to the demand for an ISGA as "outrageous" not only because of its inherent characteristics which are dealt with in the subsequent pages of this book, but also because it is indisputably contrary to the express provisions of the Ceasefire Agreement with which the LTTE sanctimoniously and equally mendaciously claims to comply.
The Ceasefire Agreement states expressly that the LTTE will continue to administer those parts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces that were under their control at the date of the execution of that agreement, and likewise that the Government will continue to administer those parts of those Provinces that were under its control as at that date. Hence, the Government and the LTTE had agreed that for the duration of the Ceasefire Agreement, and hence the talks, the status quo that existed in respect of the control and administration of the Northern and Eastern Provinces at the date of the execution of the Ceasefire Agreement will continue. It is implicit in the Ceasefire Agreement, therefore, that the Government and the LTTE respectively, had agreed not to lay claim to a right or seek to control, administer or rule any part of the territory of the Northern and Eastern Provinces that was under the control of the other party as at the date of the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement for the duration of that Agreement. The demand for an ISGA is undeniably a demand by the LTTE to have and exercise absolute powers of governance over the entirety of the Northern and Eastern Provinces including all those areas of those Provinces which they failed to subdue by force of arms and remain under the control of the Government, to the total exclusion of the Government, and hence a demand that constitutes a patent violation of the Ceasefire Agreement.
While the fact of this demand being a patent violation of the Ceasefire Agreement is as plainly visible as the nose on one’s face, neither the present Government nor the last, nor the so called "International Community", [which in the present context means the affluent countries of the West and Japan] has made any mention of this fact. On the contrary, that so called "International Community", while purporting to stress the need to comply with the Ceasefire Agreement, continues to push impoverished Sri Lanka into granting the demand for an ISGA by dangling the carrot of a US $ 4.5 Billion Aid Package [in actual fact a ‘Loan Package’ repayable with interest] before the last and the present Government. Obviously, that so called "International Community" is more than well aware of what the species is that that can be manipulated by dangling carrots before it. Yet, neither the last Government nor the present has seen fit to apprise that so called "International Community" of the fact that it is a contradiction in terms to talk of complying with the Ceasefire Agreement and granting the demand for an ISGA.
So inherently abominable is the demand for an ISGA, that at the time the detailed demand for an ISGA was announced on the 1st November 2003, even the pusillanimous former Government, said, through its new found ‘Oracle’ Professor G. L. Peiris [who was, in his previous ‘political incarnation’, the ‘Oracle’ of the SLFP] that some aspects of the proposed ISGA were not acceptable. Though no less than 9 months have elapsed since the LTTE announced the details of that demand, neither the UNP/UNF nor that ‘Oracle’ has yet disclosed to the allegedly ‘sovereign’ People what parts of the LTTE’s demand [presented as a draft Agreement] for an ISGA are ‘acceptable’ to it and which are not.
The SLFP is no better. While in opposition it did the correct thing for the wrong reason, namely to gain a political advantage over the then Government, by castigating the demand for an ISGA and stating expressly that it laid the foundation for a separate state. Thereafter the SLFP entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna [JVP] in January 2004 wherein they stated that:
"The LTTEs demand for an Interim Self Governing Authority go far beyond the resolution of the problems of the Tamil people and other minority communities and create the basis for a separate state"4
Despite these strident criticisms of the proposed ISGA while in the Opposition, now that it is in Government, the SLFP sings a different tune. All criticism by it of the ISGA has ceased: some of its stalwarts openly support the grant of the ISGA: and it would appear from the statements made by some members of the Government including the President that it is now willing to enter into talks with the LTTE about its demand for an ISGA.
As for the SLFP’s major partner in Government, the JVP, while in the Opposition it rightly organized a giant demonstration and rally against the demand for an ISGA through the organization known as the National Patriotic Front. After coming into power however, its opposition to an ISGA has been largely muted, and was virtually non-existent until the conclusion of the Provincial Council elections after which it put up some posters against the ISGA and made some sporadic statements in a similar vein.
While the UNP on the one hand and the SLFP on the other are ever ready, able, willing and eager to castigate each other for ‘good reason’, ‘bad reason’ or ‘no reason’, they now seem to be positively ‘shy’ to say anything bad about the LTTE, or to explain to the People and the so called "International Community", the undeniable fact that the grant of the demand for an ISGA will be nothing short of destroying forever hereafter, our Motherland, and installing of consent, in the Northern and Eastern Provinces for a start, a separate state under a ‘Tamil Nazi’ regime led by a fascist dictator called Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan with all the horrors that it would entail.
Since neither the Government nor the ‘would be’ Government is prepared to perform its duty by the supposedly ‘sovereign’ people by explaining the nature and content of the demand for an ISGA and the irreversible horrors the grant of that demand will bring in its wake, a proven political misfit who is, and will continue to be, a ‘voice in the wilderness’ must perform that duty: hence this book.
S. L. Gunasekara,
31.8.2004
1 President Abraham Lincoln at ‘Gettysburg’
2 The text of this Demand/Draft Agreement is set out in full in the Appendix.
A "Virtuous State"
4 Sunday Observer - 25.1.2004
I have referred to the demand for an ISGA as "outrageous" not only because of its inherent characteristics which are dealt with in the subsequent pages of this book, but also because it is indisputably contrary to the express provisions of the Ceasefire Agreement with which the LTTE sanctimoniously and equally mendaciously claims to comply. The Ceasefire Agreement states expressly that the LTTE will continue to administer those parts of the Northern and Eastern Provinces that were under their control at the date of the execution of that agreement, and likewise that the Government will continue to administer those parts of those Provinces that were under its control as at that date. Hence, the Government and the LTTE had agreed that for the duration of the Ceasefire Agreement, and hence the talks, the status quo that existed in respect of the control and administration of the Northern and Eastern Provinces at the date of the execution of the Ceasefire Agreement will continue. It is implicit in the Ceasefire Agreement, therefore, that the Government and the LTTE respectively, had agreed not to lay claim to a right or seek to control, administer or rule any part of the territory of the Northern and Eastern Provinces that was under the control of the other party as at the date of the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement for the duration of that Agreement. The demand for an ISGA is undeniably a demand by the LTTE to have and exercise absolute powers of governance over the entirety of the Northern and Eastern Provinces including all those areas of those Provinces which they failed to subdue by force of arms and remain under the control of the Government, to the total exclusion of the Government, and hence a demand that constitutes a patent violation of the Ceasefire Agreement. While the fact of this demand being a patent violation of the Ceasefire Agreement is as plainly visible as the nose on one’s face, neither the present Government nor the last, nor the so called "International Community", [which in the present context means the affluent countries of the West and Japan] has made any mention of this fact. On the contrary, that so called "International Community", while purporting to stress the need to comply with the Ceasefire Agreement, continues to push impoverished Sri Lanka into granting the demand for an ISGA by dangling the carrot of a US $ 4.5 Billion Aid Package [in actual fact a ‘Loan Package’ repayable with interest] before the last and the present Government. Obviously, that so called "International Community" is more than well aware of what the species is that that can be manipulated by dangling carrots before it. Yet, neither the last Government nor the present has seen fit to apprise that so called "International Community" of the fact that it is a contradiction in terms to talk of complying with the Ceasefire Agreement and granting the demand for an ISGA. So inherently abominable is the demand for an ISGA, that at the time the detailed demand for an ISGA was announced on the 1st November 2003, even the pusillanimous former Government, said, through its new found ‘Oracle’ Professor G. L. Peiris [who was, in his previous ‘political incarnation’, the ‘Oracle’ of the SLFP] that some aspects of the proposed ISGA were not acceptable. Though no less than 9 months have elapsed since the LTTE announced the details of that demand, neither the UNP/UNF nor that ‘Oracle’ has yet disclosed to the allegedly ‘sovereign’ People what parts of the LTTE’s demand [presented as a draft Agreement] for an ISGA are ‘acceptable’ to it and which are not. The SLFP is no better. While in opposition it did the correct thing for the wrong reason, namely to gain a political advantage over the then Government, by castigating the demand for an ISGA and stating expressly that it laid the foundation for a separate state. Thereafter the SLFP entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna [JVP] in January 2004 wherein they stated that: "The LTTEs demand for an Interim Self Governing Authority go far beyond the resolution of the problems of the Tamil people and other minority communities and create the basis for a separate state"4 Despite these strident criticisms of the proposed ISGA while in the Opposition, now that it is in Government, the SLFP sings a different tune. All criticism by it of the ISGA has ceased: some of its stalwarts openly support the grant of the ISGA: and it would appear from the statements made by some members of the Government including the President that it is now willing to enter into talks with the LTTE about its demand for an ISGA. As for the SLFP’s major partner in Government, the JVP, while in the Opposition it rightly organized a giant demonstration and rally against the demand for an ISGA through the organization known as the National Patriotic Front. After coming into power however, its opposition to an ISGA has been largely muted, and was virtually non-existent until the conclusion of the Provincial Council elections after which it put up some posters against the ISGA and made some sporadic statements in a similar vein. While the UNP on the one hand and the SLFP on the other are ever ready, able, willing and eager to castigate each other for ‘good reason’, ‘bad reason’ or ‘no reason’, they now seem to be positively ‘shy’ to say anything bad about the LTTE, or to explain to the People and the so called "International Community", the undeniable fact that the grant of the demand for an ISGA will be nothing short of destroying forever hereafter, our Motherland, and installing of consent, in the Northern and Eastern Provinces for a start, a separate state under a ‘Tamil Nazi’ regime led by a fascist dictator called Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan with all the horrors that it would entail. Since neither the Government nor the ‘would be’ Government is prepared to perform its duty by the supposedly ‘sovereign’ people by explaining the nature and content of the demand for an ISGA and the irreversible horrors the grant of that demand will bring in its wake, a proven political misfit who is, and will continue to be, a ‘voice in the wilderness’ must perform that duty: hence this book. S. L. Gunasekara, CHAPTER ONE COMPOSITION OF THE ISGA The composition of the proposed ISGA according to Clauses 2.2 to 2.4 of the LTTE’s demand will be: "2.2(a) Members appointed by the LTTE, 2.2(b) Members appointed by the GOSL5, and, 2.2(c) Members appointed by the Muslim community of the North-East (sic) 2.3 The number of members will be determined to ensure: 2.3(a) An absolute majority of the LTTE appointees in the ISGA. 2.3(b) Subject to (a) above, the Muslim and Sinhalese communities in the North-east (sic) shall have representation in the ISGA. 2.4 The Chairperson shall be elected by a majority vote of the ISGA and shall serve as the Chief Executive of the ISGA." [emphasis added] These provisions make evident the facts that the ISGA is not intended to be a democratic body which is elected by and responsible to the people who elected them; but a fascist dictatorship [the absolute majority of the members of which will be appointed at the sole discretion of the thug Prabhakaran a.k.a Pirapaharan] to rule not only the helpless Tamils living in areas presently under the illegal control of the LTTE and hence subjected to despotic rule of the LTTE, but also to rule all Sinhalese, Moors and Tamils who live in those parts of the Northern and Eastern Province as are under the lawful rule of the Government and are hence being ruled by a democratic regime. The entrenched absolute majority in the ISGA assured to the LTTE together with the not unimportant facts that the LTTE will be the only armed organization in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and that the LTTE has, throughout its existence, displayed an incurable addiction to summarily murdering any and everybody who expresses a view that is different to theirs, will indisputably render such Sinhalese and Moor ‘Quislings6’ as are so base as to accept appointment to the ISGA mere ‘chattels’ or ‘ornaments’ who are tolerated within the ISGA solely for ‘cosmetic’ purposes to ‘deceive’ the so-called ‘International Community’ [which is only too willing to be ‘deceived’ by the LTTE] into the belief that the ISGA is not a mono-ethnic chauvinistic body but a multi-ethnic body steeped in the dictates of ‘tolerance’, ‘amicable co-existence’ and ‘liberalism’!!! There is nothing in the world that is easier to achieve than the deception of those who want to be deceived. Thus, in the ultimate analysis, the proposed ISGA will be nothing more than the LTTE under a different name, and the implementation of the demand for an ISGA, nothing less than the total subjection through negotiation of all those parts of our Northern and Eastern Provinces which the LTTE failed to ‘conquer’ through the force of arms, as well as of all our citizens of all races living within those areas, to the despotic rule of the LTTE. It will be in fact, an expansion of the illegal fascist ‘regime’ of the LTTE that now exists in those parts of our Northern and Eastern Provinces as are under LTTE control to the other parts of those two Provinces that successfully withstood the onslaughts of the LTTE at great sacrifice of life, limb and property - in short, it will be a surrender most foul.
