Did Ranil's Defeat Delay The Birth Of Eelam?

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Did Ranil's Defeat Delay The Birth Of Eelam?

By Ravindra Wickremasinghe
Nov. 21, 2005

The Sri Lankan presidential election of 17 November 2005 was lost by Ranil Wickremesinghe thus preventing it from being the last poll held under the unitary status of this Indian Ocean island state and delaying the dismembering an almost 200-year-old administrative and political creation.

A fortnight before the poll, all indications were that the candidate of the United National Party (UNP), and leader of the opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe (56), would emerge victorious in this unfree and unfair election. His likely victory could have been compared to the corporate sponsored constitutional coup that installed multimillionaires George W. Bush and Richard Cheney in the White House in January 2001.

Similar belligerent, cynical, elitist, evangelical, moneyed and separatist forces backed Wickremasinghe and they were likely to press him to undertake the following steps, if he had been inaugurated as Sri Lanka’s fifth executive President, to bring about peace at any cost:

(1). Request the European Union (EU), to immediately and unconditionally revoke the ban on receiving delegations of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), claiming that this ban has become an impediment to the continuation of the peace (piece or appeasement), process;

(2). Further request states to deproscribe the LTTE and accept it as the sole representative of all Tamils living in Sri Lanka;

(3). Withdraw all support for the anti-LTTE breakaway faction - the Tamil Eelam Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP), headed by Mr. Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan formerly known as Col. Karuna and expose the mainly Tamil military intelligence operatives so that they can be slaughtered by the LTTE. Silence all LTTE challengers/critics in the South of Sri Lanka and boost LTTE supporters and its propaganda machinery everywhere. Officially recognise and assist the LTTE Air Force;

(4). Use whatever mechanisms (ISGA and PTOMS), to handover the North and East of Sri Lanka to the LTTE, in a manner that makes the de jure creation of the separate state of Eelam a mere formality, during the first five year term of president Wickremesinghe so that the other communities (Burghers, Muslims, Sinhalese, Veddas and others), of the Eastern Province), and anti-LTTE Tamil parties and civilians - EPDP, EPRLF, TELO & TULF etc - can be legitimately driven out or massacred by the Tigers. ISGA + PTOMS = Eelam;

(5). Proactively and jointly campaign, using his cronies as ambassadors/envoys, along with ‘peace facilitator’ Norway for Eelam to gain membership of the United Nations and be granted diplomatic recognition by all states and use recent and forthcoming cases of state-formation to justify its creation – East Timor (1999), Kosovo (2006), Palestine (2008) and Southern Sudan (2010);

(6). Create the optimum conditions before or after the presidential election, but definitely before the parliamentary election in 2006, for the seven high profile assassinations of the current president Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Prime Minister and Ranil’s election opponent Mahinda Rajapaksa, Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike, EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, TULF leader V. Anandasangaree, TMVP leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan and the Director-General of the Sri Lankan Government Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), and possible United Nation Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala - who has launched an international campaign to expose the LTTE and is now said to be on the LTTE hit list. The enemy of my enemy is my friend;

(7). Continue the tradition Wickremesinghe established during his second term as prime minister (2001-2004), and further accelerate the sale of the economic sovereignty of Sri Lanka to India, to local and global corporations and international lending agencies who would demand a further dismantling of social protections provided to the poor and needy while enriching the greedy. Kleptocracy or plutocracy in the guise of democracy;

(8). Immediately reappoint his vulture cronies (mainly evangelical Sri Lankans), who are now waiting in the wings in Australia, to high positions in the government so that they can continue to work aggressively to allegedly make Sri Lanka a Christian-majority country by 2010 thereby undoing 2, 000 years of Buddhist-Hindu civilization – a decline that began in 1505. Eat meat, drink wine and you will be fine.

The political disintegration and cultural genocide of Sri Lanka will be Ranil Wickremesinghe’s best chance at sharing the Noble Peace Prize (awarded by Norway not Sweden), as peace at any cost rather than peace with dignity is his objective. A state will be sacrificed for the greed for power of two men – Ranil Wickremesinghe and LTTE boss Vellupillai Prabakaran who will celebrate his 50th birthday on 26 November 2005 and this will be nine days after the presidential election. If Ranil has become president by then, Prabakaran will be able to proudly announce that his 30-year war for the fascist and racist state of Eelam was worth the effort.

Interestingly both Sri Lanka and Eelam are likely to exist side by side with Christians as presidents of both states, states that were just a few year’s earlier Buddhist and Hindu majority countries. Religionism and separatism may win the day as Mahinda Rajapakse is being undermined by his own party due to the actions of the current president and her Brother – the Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike – who is likely to be the presidential candidate of the UNPF if Rajapaksa is assassinated by the LTTE.

Anura may then emerge victor thanks to the sympathy vote thus consolidating the political future of his Sister and the family. Will Sri Lanka always be a Wallowocracy – rule by a few feudal families?

However, if Ranil wins and continues to appease the LTTE at the cost of the civilians (especially the Tamil women and children), of the North and East, there may be a four-sided conflict in these areas involving his government, TMVP, Osama Group, the LTTE and paramilitaries affiliated with each party. The intensive shadow war now being carried out in the North and East may breakout into all out war. Will there be a military coup in Sri Lanka?

The present president Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga will have to take much responsibility for the failure to bring peace and justice with dignity to Sri Lanka and thereby free the Tamils mainly of the North and East from the clutches of the LTTE, as during her rule (1994-2005), and most recently during the Summit phase of the 60th United Nations General Assembly in September, Sri Lanka did not even attempt to get a Security Council resolution (ultimatum), passed that would, inter alia, have forced the LTTE to disarm or have risked a UN-sanctioned war of liberation for the Tamil people.

In the wake of the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgarmar on 12th August, the unanimous adoption of a strongly-worded United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution (containing an explicit threat of the use of force against the LTTE), would have been the crowning achievement of her presidency given the fact that the international community is waging a war on terrorism for democracy and freedom. She also wasted a golden opportunity in not appointing Mr. V. Ananadasangaree as Kadirgarmar’s successor. What about proposing the establishment a World Anti-Terrorism Organization to be headquartered in Sri Lanka?

It is still not too late to adopt such a UNSC resolution especially if can build on the recent one (1624), championed by Tony Blair, criminalizing the incitement to terrorism. The death threat making LTTE web site based in Norway - www.nitharsanam.com - needs to be shutdown immediately. It is alleged that the web site has patronage of the Royal Norwegian government.

President Kumaratunge is complicit in the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), that is beneficial to the LTTE signed by Ranil during his premiership and especially in his decision to allow the LTTE to install a high-powered FM transmitter. The LTTE also has its own satellite television station. She also failed to work with the democratically elected Tamil leadership to find a holistic solution that could have forced the LTTE to disarm and enter the political mainstream. She could have urged all non-LTTE parties to form an alliance to campaign internationally to oust the Tigers. She further failed to press states such as Australia, Canada, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to protect their Tamil residents from LTTE extortion and torture. When will Sri Lanka establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission? .

Ranil Wickremasinghe will also become useless to Prabakaran after he is done his job and then he may also be assassinated. Ranil will do anything to make this non-state actor (the LTTE), an internationally accepted state actor. Does any Sinhala politician care about the welfare of the Tamil people of the North and East? No.

The JHU and JVP may be left talking and may not be able to do anything to stop this deliberate disintegration of Sri Lanka. The LTTE may also kill a few JHU and JVP legislators prior to the election to instigate the Sinhala-Buddhist majority. Will the TMVP assassinate Ranil so that he cannot expose them to the LTTE?

Is anybody interested in stopping Prabakaran from achieving his dream of becoming the supreme ruler of the entire island of Sri Lanka? Suzerainty? He will start with Eelam and end up achieving an objective akin to Zion or will terrorism that started with homicide end in its own suicide? As Winston Churchill (1875-1965), said to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in 1938 “You were given a choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and [now] you will have war”.

By voting against the perceived extremism of the JHU and JVP who are supportive of prime minister Rajapaksa, Sri Lankans will endorse the separatism that Ranil is working so hard to deliver. Sri Lankans will only have ourselves to blame if Ranil Wickremesinghe becomes president and if we thought that terrorism and the tsunami were the two worst events to have befallen the island in the past 30 years then just wait for Ranil to take office. Mahinda Rajapaksa has so far failed to successfully expose and exploit the covert agenda of Ranil.

Ironically the main impediment to the realization of the dream of Prabakaran and Wickremasinghe may come from Sri Lanka’s giant neighbour India (and to a lesser extent the Bush Administration), which in the late 1970s and early 1980s trained the armed the LTTE to help undermine Sri Lanka which was then ruled by the uncle of Ranil Wickremesinghe, J. R. Jayawardane - Uncle Nephew Party (UNP).

President Jayawardane (1978-88), pursued a foreign policy that was inimical to the geopolitical interests of India - the regional hegemon. History may go a full circle as any division of Sri Lanka may have a domino effect on India, which is currently engaged in at least eight separatist conflicts. Who does India want as president, Wickremesinghe or Rajapaksa? All Sinhalese are guilty of having failed the Tamils and other minorities including the rightful owners of the Island - the Veddas.

Can Ranil find a dignified solution to the national problem created by his late uncle? After all, war is a continuation of politics by other means. The thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.

Web links*

The Tamil state within a state

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - to give the Tamil Tigers their full name - control about 15% of Sri Lankan territory.

But the traffic cops and the courthouse are mere fragments of their longed-for state, and far from the fully-independent ethnic homeland that the Tamil Tigers have fought for since 1983.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4441654.stm

"Liberate the Tamils from the L.T.T.E," – [TULF leader, V. Ananda] Sangaree appeals to EU leaders.

“They may be also told that in a democracy "Sole Representation" concept will never fit in and that it will better fit in only in a fascist state. The modern democracies can't be polluted by fascist elements and the only option the E.U. has, is to proscribe the L.T.T.E., in the EU. This is the most opportune time for the International Community to liberate the Tamils from the L.T.T.E.”

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=15916

PM has become prime target of LTTE – Mangala

Citing an LTTE website [www.nitharsanam.com], which carried a picture of the Premier with Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh with the question "Will Mahinda Rajapakse celebrate his birthday this year?" Minister Samaraweera said this was a clear indication that there is an attempt on his life. Rajapakse turns 60 on November 18. http://www.peaceinsrilanka.com/InsideNews/news.asp?newsID=4653

LTTE links with al-Qaeda would worry US

IISS notes in its latest publication that: "The LTTE is the only insurgent group with an army, navy and an infant air force." It also states that, despite reports to the contrary, the tsunami does not appear to have had a major long-term impact on the LTTE’s military strength and capabilities.

http://www.peaceinsrilanka.org/InsideNews/news.asp?newsID=4755

Lethal cargo found on Mahinda`s route

A possible attempt on the life of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse was thwarted with the detection on Sunday of four high-powered detonators and fuse wires in a vehicle parked on the route the UPFA presidential candidate usually takes, police sources said.

Chandrika's covert moves against Rajapaksa

Kumaratunga's younger brother and Foreign Minister, Anura Bandaranaike, said that she had been unfairly deprived of an year in office (she ought to have been in power till the end of 2006) and that he would soon expose this "conspiracy" in Parliament. It is noteworthy that Rajapaksa had campaigned for a Presidential election in 2005, opposing Kumaratunga's wish to be in office till the end of 2006.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7752_1527997,004100180006.htm

European Union Declaration condemning terrorism in Sri Lanka (26/09/05)

The European Union is actively considering the formal Listing of the LTTE as a terrorist organisation. In the meantime, the European Union has agreed that with immediate effect, delegations from the LTTE will no longer be received in any of the EU Member States until further notice.

http://www.dellka.cec.eu.int/en/press_office/press_releases_pdf/eudcterrorismsl.pdf

Sri Lanka

During both Portuguese and Dutch rule of the coastal areas, the interior, hilly region of the island remained independent, with its capital, the city of Kandy. Great Britain replaced the Dutch in 1796, and the coastal areas became a crown colony in 1802. The entire island became part of the British Empire in 1815.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka#History

CWC, SLMC support Ranil

COLOMBO: The Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress(SLMC) — on Wednesday announced their support for the Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, in the November 17 presidential poll.

http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/06/stories/2005100606791400.htm

Why Norway is passive in dealing with LTTE? - UN Secretary General asks

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan questioned about Norway’s passive role as a facilitator while dealing with violent acts including political assassinations and abduction of youths by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). When Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen on Monday night had a meeting with the UN Secretary General at the UN headquarters in New York, Annan pointedly asked whether the Norwegian facilitators of the peace process have been too passive.

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=15745

An interim separate state

The "Interim Self-Governing Authority" (ISGA) that the Tigers envisage will raise revenues, impose taxes and maintain law and order. The ISGA of the LTTE document will also have "power to alienate and determine the appropriate use of all land" in the North-East. These powers by themselves do not pose a threat to the territorial integrity of a state.

www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/11/02/stories/2003110201691000.htm

Stepping stone to a separate state

The LTTE proposals are intended to pave the way for the immediate establishment of a de facto Tamil Eelam.

www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2023/stories/20031121006401500.htm

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A POST-TSUNAMI OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE (P-TOMS)

www.peaceinsrilanka.org/peace2005/Insidepage/Agreements/Agreements.asp

Douglas Devananda proposes the activation of the Provincial Council system

Devananda said: ”The system was specifically designed to meet Tamil demands of devolution in the North-East but was extended to the rest of the country. As things turned out, it is now operational everywhere else in Sri Lanka except the North-East province, after it was suspended in 1990.”

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=15884

WORLD ANTI-TERRORISM LAWS

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/terrorism/terrorism3a.htm

Threats to international peace and security (Security Council Summit 2005)

http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_resolutions05.htm

Despite protests Norway protects Nitharsanam.com -- messenger of death to the Tamils

Another website of N.Sethurupan, ran the Royal Norwegian emblem on its masthead indicating that it has the patronage of the Norwegian government. Representations were made to Erik Solheim and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, but as usual, it turned a blind eye to the crimes committed by the LTTE both in Norway and Sri Lanka.

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=16011

Ranil Wickremesinghe

Wickremasinghe came under fiery criticism and was called a traitor by many, after a police officer, commonly perceived as a Wickramasinghe ally, exposed an elite Sri Lankan army LRRP unit who were engaged in operations against the Tamil Tiger Terrorists, on the accusation that the unit was deployed to assassinate Wickramasinghe. Several ministers in his government strongly backed the exposure and the act against LRRP. His opponents claimed that this laid bare classified information of the intelligence services of Sri Lanka to the LTTE and was used to the hilt by the LTTE to eliminate hundreds of intelligence personnel over a number of years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranil_Wickremesinghe

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Rajapaksa was chosen in front of Anura Bandaranaike, brother of Chandrika Kumaratunga, as the Presidential Candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party for the Presidential election due on November 17, 2005. Rajapaksa is up against Ranil Wickremasinghe, the leader of the United National Party (Sri Lanka's largest political party) in this election.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahinda_Rajapakse

Tamil Tigers

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, pronounced L-T-T-E), popularly known as the Tamil Tigers, Tamil, founded in 1976, is seeking to establish an independent state for Ceylon Tamils, to be called Tamil Eelam, in the north-east of Sri Lanka.

The head of the organisation is the reclusive guerilla leader Velupillai Prabakharan, who is wanted by Interpol for offences "Murder, Organised Crime and Terrorism" [1].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_Tigers_of_Tamil_Eelam

OSAMA'S SHADOW IN SRI LANKA?

12. There was considerable resentment in the local Muslim population in Amparai and Batticaloa over what was perceived as the browbeating of the Muslim population by the LTTE political cadres re-inducted into the Province after the cease-fire and their action in allegedly extorting taxes from Muslim businessmen and shopkeepers. This so-called Osama group went around appealing to the Muslims to resist the LTTE's demands for money.

www.saag.org/papers5/paper486.html

Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM)

The Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) created the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) through the signing of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) on February 22nd 2002. Based on the CFA The Royal Norwegian Government (NRG) and the Government of Sri Lanka concluded a Status of Mission Agreement (SOMA) where status, privileges and immunities of SLMM and its members are defined and determined. The SOMA is endorsed by the LTTE leadership.

www.slmm.lk

Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP)

www.peaceinsrilanka.org

TMVP web site

www.athirady.com

Sri Lanka 'in a subversive war'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4344990.stm

Inside an Elusive Mind – Prabhakaran: Some Comments

And again: “We have to achieve freedom by fighting and by shedding blood”, he thundered. “There is no other choice. An independent Tamil Eelam is the only solution, the final solution.” (p.153).

http://www.observerindia.com/analysis/A131.htm

University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), Sri Lanka

www.uthr.org

WELCOME TO EPDPNEWS

http://www.epdpnews.com

I won't vote, says election chief

Sri Lanka's colourful election chief says he does not intend to vote in November's presidential election because he does not trust politicians.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4278216.stm

Book: Island of Blood

http://anitapratap.com/index.php?dok=iob

Sri Lanka - Voices from a War Zone by Nirupama Subramanian

https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no40898.htm

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2220/stories/20051007000207200.htm

The Noble Peace Prize Committee

Welcome to the official site of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. This site contains information exclusively concerning the Norwegian Committee, the Norwegian Nobel Institute and the Nobel Peace Prize.

www.nobel.no

Wars 'less frequent, less deadly'

Wars around the world are both less frequent and less deadly since the end of the Cold War, a new report claims.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4350860.stm

The Human Security Report

The first Human Security Report documents a dramatic, but largely unknown, decline in the number of wars, genocides and human rights abuse over the past decade. Published by Oxford University Press, the Report argues that the single most compelling explanation for these changes is found in the unprecedented upsurge of international activism, spearheaded by the UN, which took place in the wake of the Cold War.

www.humansecurityreport.info/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Study of Armed Conflicts and their Prevention

Is the world more or less violent today than in the past? Are wars more or less destructive than they used to be? Are modern conflicts different from earlier ones? What are the causes of conflict initiation, continuation and termination? The systematic study of violent conflicts seeks answers to these and related questions. This web page presents the world's primary English-language data-collection projects. It reflects the efforts of a field of study that has become increasingly diverse and complex, since Quincy Wright first published his pioneering work A Study of War in 1942.

http://projects.sipri.se/conflictstudy/ConflictDataSets.html

Terrorism

The term terrorism is largely synonymous with "political violence," and refers to a strategy of using coordinated attacks that typically fall outside the time, manner of conduct, and place commonly understood as representing the bounds of conventional warfare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism

Assassination

In its most common use, assassination has come to mean the killing of an important person. An assassin — one who carries out the assassination — is usually motivated by ideological or political reasons. Other motivations may be money in the case of a hitman; opposition to a person's beliefs or belief systems in the case of a fanatic; orders from a government that are often carried about by a subversive agent such as a spy; or loyalty to a competing leader or group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination

Imagined communities

The Imagined Community is the concept coined by Benedict Anderson that states that a nation is socially constructed and ultimately imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagined_communities

Chavez moves against US preachers

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he is about to expel a US missionary group, New Tribes Mission.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4336660.stm

Conversion: A Buddhist Perspective

By Ven. Dhammika from Australia

www.geocities.com/focussrilanka/perspective.htm

Earthly Empires

How evangelical churches are borrowing from the business playbook

www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934001_mz001.htm

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters

So while Bush "won" the presidency on a 5-4 Supreme Court vote which said, essentially, that Americans don't have the Constitutional right to vote for the President, something far more sacred was lost in the Florida voting process--the right of every eligible, adult American to have his or her vote counted and to have that vote determine who will lead our country.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0452283914/104-0599109-2803904?v=glance

Armed Conflict Database – South Asian Conflicts

http://www.iiss.org/showpage.php?pageID=87

THE CHURCHILL CENTRE

www.winstonchurchill.org

The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801868076/103-9648596-7587812?v=glance&n=283155&v=glance

Sri Lanka

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ce.html

http://www.useless-knowledge.com/columnists/000columnists/ravindrawickremasinghe

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ravindra+wickremasinghe&btnG=Google+Search

*All web links valid as at 21 November 2005.

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