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By Qadri Ismail

Kethesh Loganathan’s decision to join the Rajapakse regime’s “peace” secretariat was bewildering at the time. It still is after his assassination, presumably at the hands of the LTTE.

A strong argument can be made that Tamils of conscience – and I don’t mean Lakshman Kadirgamar, a Tamil with U.N. Secretary-General ambitions – should have helped Chandrika Kumaratunga’s peace efforts. Of all postcolonial Sri Lanka’s heads of government, she – a leftist – alone viewed the national question as a matter of justice for the Tamils. Yes, she made early tactical mistakes about the protocols of the process. Worse, she was later willing to tolerate the military’s molestation of Tamils; not to mention her party’s role in the murder of Mawanella Muslims. But she always knew that justice was on the side of the Tamil people.

To Ranil Wickremasinghe, peace is simply a profitable proposition. The future might place him in the position of being the Sinhala leader who finally makes the deal that stops the war. But it would be just that: a deal. To the perspective that he articulates, to local and international capital that supports him, the LTTE must be appeased because it is bad for business. Wickremasinghe is quite willing to tolerate the LTTE as long as it targets only Tamils and Muslims, as long as it leaves the south alone.

Unlike his immediate predecessors, Mahinda Rajapakse reminds one of the truly terrible days of that war criminal, J.R. Jayewardene. To win the election, he actively cultivated the support of Buddhist priests who desire and demand violence. Among his first acts as president was to appoint Sinhala supremacists – notably, Sarath Fonseka and H.M.G.B. Kotakadeniya – to leading positions in the defense establishment. That alone was signifier enough that the Tamil people could look forward, once again, to war. (Something the LTTE, for its own reasons, welcomed.) The refusal to investigate the January killings, presumably by the police, of the five Tamil youth in Trincomalee – details of this case have been made public by D.B.S. Jeyaraj, amongst others – was a blue-light to the troops that they could treat Tamil citizens like vermin; in Kurtz’s infamously racist phrase, “Exterminate all the brutes!” Wherever possible, they have.

In that context, Kethesh’s belief that he could somehow influence what is clearly a rabidly Sinhala nationalist government – work within the system – was, at best, a miserable mistake.

But we all misstep, don’t we?

Only, Kethesh’s – and make no mistake about it – was an error of judgment made in the interests of peace. For he wanted, as he had all his life, to make a difference. His decision to quit the Center for Policy Alternatives was spurred, in part, by his increasing isolation within the more influential sections of the peace lobby. They think hope is spelled R-a-n-i-l. They understand peace as the absence of war. To Kethesh – no mere nationalist, but a leftist, after all – things were not so simple.

He argued consistently (the articles are available at the CPA website) that peace wasn’t synonymous with appeasing the LTTE at any cost; that the process should be inclusive – of other Tamil, Muslim and Sinhala opinion; that human and democratic rights should not be exchanged merely for an LTTE promise to stop killing Sinhalese.

This made him inconvenient to sections of the peace lobby, which has made a habit of excusing LTTE massacres of Sinhala and Muslim civilians, of not protesting its systematic stifling of oppositional Tamils. And, as the UTHR(J) noted, he got marked as an opponent by the Norwegians.

The blondes – daft, dismal and disgracefully unwilling to learn from their own mistakes – are desperate, having screwed up the Oslo talks, for some international diplomatic success. But they have almost certainly outlived their usefulness in Sri Lanka. Which, however, is not necessarily a good thing.

For the Rajapakse regime has made it clear, even to the most massively myopic that, unless its hand is twisted by some outside force, it will not make any “concessions” to the Tamils – despite the president’s public posture as a peacenik. Indeed, it has made it superabundantly clear that it will condone rape in Mannar, massacres in Mutur and continue a policy that has already transformed thousands of northeastern Tamil and Muslim Sri Lankan citizens into homeless, displaced persons.

Mahinda Rajapakse once championed Palestinian rights. (Which may explain why Kethesh was optimistic about him.) He now sounds like an emulator of Ehud Olmert. He, too, is fighting a purely “defensive” war. (A ranch in Texas awaits the first person to guess who taught him to say that!) He, too, must bomb children in self-defense.

So, those who banned the LTTE, on the grounds that most of its attacks target civilians – Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese – should wonder whether consistency alone doesn’t demand that equal sanctions be applied to the Sri Lankan government.

Except that, of course, just as much as the EU ban only strengthened the unilateralist element within the LTTE, international sanctions will invariably strengthen unilateralist elements within the Sinhala right, notably the JVP/JHU. (By the way, those who still insist on calling the JVP Marxist should realize that national socialist is the more accurate term. The best known representative of that politics, of course, is a short, ugly Aryan with a miniature moustache who tried to exterminate all the Jews.) On the other hand, I am prepared to bet that if the entire Sri Lankan cabinet, including its many Ministers for Inconsequential Affairs, is banned from traveling to – or just hitting the shopping malls in – the west, it will convert to federalism faster than you can say “Buddhu-Ammo!”

For that is the distressing dilemma facing those of us who do not understand peace in Sri Lanka as the vanishing of war. The LTTE is to democracy what Darrell Hair is to good umpiring. Any settlement that strengthens them cannot produce a comprehensive, transformative peace. But who amongst us does not want the killing to end?

So, we cannot but beg that all the parties and “paramilitaries,” even if they don’t care about the suffering of civilians, stop the fighting. And then:

With Kethesh, we can also demand that peace requires not the appeasement of the LTTE, but the recognition that all the peoples of the northeast – and the rest of the country – are ensured a safe, secure and substantially democratic future. Rajapakse’s “maximum devolution within a unitary constitution” and his majoritarian committee of experts don’t even begin to address those concerns. For, as Kethesh argued, peace requires a transformation of the entire Sri Lankan state, not just the establishment of an autonomous area in the northeast, through a process that includes as wide a selection of Sri Lankan political opinion as possible.

Yes, this means that Muslim representatives participate as equals to the LTTE and government in any negotiations. Yes, it means other Tamil opinion is also involved, not just informed. And, yes, it means – as much as it troubles me to say this – that the JVP and JHU cannot be left out, either. Peace in Sri Lanka means abiding by even the unabidable.

But it also means that everything will be open to negotiation. Everything. Including that noxious flag, dominated by the armed Sinhala lion, which reminds me every time I encounter it that the minorities are insignificant in Sri Lanka.

That way, we could have peace without appeasement. And honor Kethesh’s memory.

____________________________________________

Qadri Ismail is working on his addiction to alliteration.
[LinesMagazine]

By Jayadeva Uyangoda

There are three main casualties in the raging war between the government and the LTTE: civilians, combatants, and information, in the alphabetical order. This is a war without reporters, a war about which the citizens as well as the outside world are being kept deliberately uninformed. According to the weekend English press, the government is contemplating a patriotic law. Will the proposed law ensure that the citizens remain further uninformed about the war and its day-to-day consequences?

Civilian Casualties

Events so far have also exposed the degree of callousness with which the two protagonists to this war treat the civilians caught up in the war. Creating an unmanageable humanitarian crisis, or a series of crises, seems to be a part of the LTTE’s immediate strategic objectives. The government, on the other hand, does not seem to show a great deal of commitment to assisting large numbers of displaced civilians who happen to be Tamils and Muslims.

Stories now coming from the survivors of Muttur are replete with horrendous acts of anti-civilians violence perpetrated by LTTE combatants on the Muslim community. These acts of forcible displacement and murder, allegedly committed by the LTTE, appear to be pre-meditated. They will make Tamil-Muslim reconciliation impossible for many years to come. And the government’s lukewarm attitude to the reported excesses by members of the armed forces does not say much about the capacity of the Rajapakse administration to extricate Sri Lanka from the present crisis.

Some ideological gurus of the government’s war efforts repeatedly argue in Colombo’s English press that ‘enemy’ civilian casualties are unavoidable in war. But the nature of this war is that it produces civilian casualties in considerably large numbers. Both sides have been using heavy weapons, fired from a distance – the government resorts to air strikes, long-range artillery and mortars and the LTTE long-range artillery and mortars. Deaths and injuries apart, civilians are being displaced in hundreds and sometimes thousands. As we have seen in propaganda photographs, bodies of dead combatants are allowed to rot in the battlefield. This is a very cruel war, indeed.

Meanwhile, aid agencies have found it difficult to reach the displaced, because there is no adequate cooperation from the warring parties. If this war has demonstrated anything new, it is that both the government had the LTTE have not grown up at all in the business of conducting an internal war. It is a pity that the global humanitarian authorities appear to tolerate this extremely distressing dimension of Sri Lanka’s current phase of war.

Confusion

Meanwhile, the citizens continue to stay in a state of absolute confusion about what is really happening. While President Rajapakse has been insisting that it is not war but merely a defensive, retaliatory, limited and ‘humanitarian’ operation, his influential ally, Mr. Wimal Weerawansa, has been visiting major army camps to address the soldiers and prepare them for a final patriotic war to protect the ‘unitary’ form of the motherland. When Deputy Defence Minister Ratwatte addressed the soldiers to motivate them to war, he also insisted that devolution and power-sharing was necessary to resolve the ethnic conflict. Our young friend does not seem to have any such ‘wrong’ ideas. The Manel Mal movement is not by any measure a mobilizational campaign for a defensive, limited war.

As much as hardliners have taken over the political push for an all-out war in the South, their counterparts are calling the shots in the North too. The LTTE seems to be relying entirely on a military strategy. In its execution, they have not shown much concern for humanitarian consequences. In fact, recurrent creation of complex humanitarian emergencies for the government seems to be a part of the LTTE’s calculations.

Political Consequences

The unfolding war is also producing its other political consequences. It is creating new tension between ethnic communities. It spreads hatred, fears and suspicions. War never helps community reconciliation and inter-ethnic peace. Meanwhile, some influential political actors see dissent as treachery. Advocacy of peace is portrayed as aligning with the enemy. The Bush doctrine on war on terrorism has already emerged in some circles: “either you are with us; or you are with the enemy, the terrorists.’

Will there be any space for the negotiations to resume? It may be the case that until some major military outcome of the war becomes clear, the parties will find it extremely difficult to return to the negotiation table. This is a war being fought to secure strategic objectives, not to resolve the conflict. Each side is committed to weakening the adversary in the battlefield. An unintended outcome of it would be for a new stalemate to emerge based not on strategic gains, but on catastrophic losses.

Patriotic Law?

Meanwhile, the war is beginning to have its negative impact on the democratic atmosphere in the country. The talks about the patriot law are not a good sign for democracy. Patriotism by legislation is actually a big joke and a big mistake. It can only fragment the polity further, institutionalizing very narrow and dangerous categories of ‘patriots’ and ‘traitors.’

Those who propose this potentially repressive legislation do not seem to have long political memories. They have not been in the democracy struggle either. The commitment of both the JVP and JHU to liberal democratic values in governance is quite thin. This indeed constitutes one of the major contradictions in the coalition regime presided over by President Rajapakse. The political visions and practices the President’s key political allies emanate from anti-systemic authoritarian desires of our society. They cannot take the country forward.

One would have hoped that after nearly thirty yeas of war, violence and setbacks to democracy, political parties had learnt that more democracy, and not less democracy, is the way to handle social and political conflict. Only the other day, a pro-government English daily reminded the country that President Rajapakse has a background in human rights and democracy activism. Let us hope the President continues to be committed to more democracy, resisting pressures from his coalition partners for less democracy.

Sri Lanka’s own experience shows that regimes that have resorted to authoritarian and repressive measures to fight even civil war have not come out unscathed. Both Jayewardene and Premadasa administrations thought that draconian legislation restricting civil and political rights, and using state power in its purely military and repressive forms, would help the state to fight the internal war successfully. Ultimately, they came to grief. Incidentally, Mr. Premadasa partially succeeded by crushing the JVP in 1988-1989 by means exceedingly anti-democratic methods. It is a sad irony that the victims of that bloody state repression are now the chief sponsors of attempts at re-arming the state with new repressive powers.

Peace through War?

It is now clear that neither the government nor the LTTE would be interested in a peace settlement until a new strategic equilibrium emerges. Sadly, the path to such peace is war. That is not the kind of peace people in this country would want. The peace that the citizens of this country deserve is peace without war, and not peace through war. Mass mobilization for peace through peaceful means is what the country needs in the coming weeks and months. Hopefully, the peace rallies and other initiatives promoted by various civil society groups might have that ‘butterfly effect’ to galvanise a broad social and inter-ethnic coalition for peace and democracy.

Meanwhile, unless prevented from escalating, the war started with Mavil Aru battle is likely determine the future dynamics of the ethnic conflict as well as the shape of the Sri Lankan state. It is too early to predict its possible directions. One only hopes that the government’s key decision makers are aware of the political risks and perils of what the media calls the Eelam War IV. [focusLanka]

20 years since arrival of Tamils in Newfoundland:
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, beaconed to Tamils’ in torment

By K.T. Kumaran

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand

- William Butler Yeats, Irish Poet (1865 – 1939)

Tamils fleeing their homeland amidst continuing ethnic pogroms of the Sinhala State remember with certainty, the gracious manner in which Canada’s 18th Prime Minister Hon. Martin Brian Mulroney touched their lives, twenty years ago in August, 1986. We remember him affectionately for summoning the “True-North” for the purpose of accepting the Tamils who drifted ashore in Newfoundland.

“Cold, hungry and crowded into two lifeboats, men, women and children were spotted through the fog off Newfoundland yesterday and picked up by three Canadian fishing boats. They said they had been adrift for five days, the Canadian Coast Guard reported,” Canadian newspapers said on August 12, 1986. They were rescued by North Atlantic cod fisherman Gus Dalton and his three-man crew. Dalton told the Canadian media then that the rescued thanked him profusely, saying they had been adrift for five days. The Newfoundland fishermen made a fairy tale ending possible to the ordeal of those Tamils, by giving them a hand in the deep blue waters. Dr. Robert J. Belton of University of British Columbia has recorded “Tamil refugees found drifting off the coast of Newfoundland on August 11, 1986,” as an Important moment in Canadian History in his compilation dating from 1968.

The matter quickly became entangled from concern of their point of departure, whether it was Sri Lanka/India or a port in Europe to concerns about lack of background check and to violating Canadian Immigration laws. There were many letters from readers to The Toronto Star on the issue for several weeks, if not months. There were views in support and against allowing the Tamils to stay.

Charles A Blum of Willowdale wrote, “I am absolutely furious over the Tamil situation. I am not upset at how these people came to Canada but that they find it necessary to deceive. As Canadians, we must be upset at ourselves and our government, which refuses to make entry to Canada easier, forcing people who wish to come here to resort to such nonsense.”

Mendel Green of Toronto said in his letter, “Your review of Canadian newspapers’ responses to the Tamil boat people demonstrates a serious lack of understanding of the terrible situation that these people face and the hardship they suffer in Sri Lanka. Even if they were in Germany first, they remain genuine refugees. Canada’s borders must remain open to real refugees and these Tamils should be given a warm and supportive welcome by all Canadians.”

D. Mason of Unionville echoed the sentiment of the naysayer. “The Tamil spokesman who accuses Canadians of being racist if they disapprove of the entry into Canada of 155 Sri Lankans is both arrogant and provocative. If having concern for the future of Canada and a respect for its laws makes me a racist, then I am happy and proud to be one”, Mason wrote in the Toronto Star on Aug 23, 1986.

Since the refugees arrival, a public backlash grew. Even government backbenchers criticized the decision to let the Tamils in. But Prime Minister Mulroney was ready to receive the Tamils on humanitarian grounds. He said, “We don’t want people jumping to the head of the line . . . (but) if we err, we will always err on the side of justice and on the side of compassion”.

One may think that in a totally different global political climate such compassionate policy was easy to enact. The winds may have been blowing for Tamils’ to sail in a less problematic way in 1986, but that’s not to say the sea of political trans currents were all in favour. The 1980’s was a decade when North America was still coming to terms with accepting similar “boat people”. Vietnam was fading out in the discussion, but the “Mariel boat lift” was still lingering. Thousands of Cubans swam the seas and sailed on crowded boats and rafts between April 1980 and October 1980 to reach Miami during the administration of President James Earl Carter .Jr, the 39th President of the United States of America. The handling of this was the beginning of a domino effect that crumbled the Presidency of Carter at the end of his first term. The matter continued as a treacherous political issue in certain quarters throughout the decade in the 80’.

Making a decision to give a hand to the “boat people” was certainly a walk on the edges of the leader’s political career.

And Toronto Tamils are in the midst of organizing events to commemorate the historic moment to thank the Canadian public, everyone who make it possible for Tamils to call Canada their “Home”, all the political and community – social leaders and particularly to the kindness of Gus Dalton of Newfoundland, his three-man crew and Prime Minster Brian Mulroney.

Prime Minster Mulroney elegantly invokes prose from his Irish heritage when delivering oratories that inspire and galvanize the audience spirited. He embodies the Canadian history and tradition in embracing multiculturalism. At the First Ministers’ Conference on the Rights of Aboriginal Peoples in April 1985 he said, “I see the aboriginal peoples making their special contribution to Canadian society as Indians, Inuit and Métis. There is no need to sever one’s roots.”

When paying tribute to President Ronald Reagan, he brought lines from Thomas d’Arcy McGee, an Irish immigrant, Canadian Journalist and a Father of the Canadian Confederation. Prime Minister Mulroney said,

“In one of his poems, McGee, thinking of his birth place, wrote poignantly:

Am I remembered in Erin?

In the scenes my boyhood knew?”

Prime Minister Mulroney’s glowing salute to his fellow statesman and friend, 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan was that he would be remembered well in Ireland, just like Thomas McGee.

Prime Minister Mulroney’s glowing salute to his fellow statesman and friend, 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan was that he would be remembered well in Ireland, just like Thomas McGee.For many Tamils living in Canada today, the scenes their childhood knew are in shambles. But in their hearts they remember Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as the Canadian Leader who has beaconed new horizons for their children.

Looking back twenty years now, many Canucks will agree that Prime Minister Mulroney didn’t ‘err’ with regards to accepting Tamils. It is very remarkable today to note that the Canadian Tamil community in many ways is entrenched in the land of the Maple Leaf and is enhancing the prosperity of the Greater Toronto Area with their diverse contributions towards the society.

“I want to thank the Tamil Community for their hard work and contribution made to the prosperity of Ontario in so many different ways, such as economically, socially and culturally. I think the province is stronger and prouder and is better off in many ways, for the contributions made by the Tamil community, particularly by the entrepreneurs of this community,” Conservative Leader of the Province of Ontario John Tory stated at a community event in the spring. He spoke at the Canadian Tamil Chamber of Commerce’s 9th annual gala award ceremony at the Hilton suites in Toronto on April 1st.

The kind deed of cod fisherman Gus Dalton, his three-man crew and Prime Minister Mulroney’s landmark compassion have followed by two decades of numerous generosities and graciousness to Tamils by several political leaders, civic – social community members and the general public. It is very hard to imagine a Tamil diaspora minus Toronto, the “ largest of city Tamils’ ”, and Tamils say a big “Thank you, Canada”

Link: The Prime Minsters of Canada

Photo: Portrait of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, 1984.
Ginn/Courtesy Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

[transCurrents.com] The Country is going mad with venomous hatred! Highly educated professionals and intellectuals are at each others throats over the internet. The racist gobbledygook put out against each other by those on either side of the ethnic fence makes one want to puke. One is appalled and aghast at the depths of depravity to which members of two cultured races could descend to

Even as vocal warriors battle it out on their computers the real Mccoys are fighting it out on the battlefields of Muhamaalai, Mandaitheevu and Maavilaaru. Death, destruction and displacement is at its highest. The propaganda war is on at full scale with T. Ruth being killed again and again and again

Death has become a mere word. The number of deaths is a simple statistic.Life is “nasty, short and brutish”. Humanity is at its lowest ebb…”Oh to be far from the madding crowd and away from this ignoble strife”.

Even in such vile atmospheres where life and death are fast becoming meaningless a single man’s or woman’s death too cannot have any meaning. Yet there are people whose deaths diminish all of us. Their departure leaves us sad and shattered. The loss is not to the nearest and dearest alone but to all of humanity.

The death of Ketheeswaran Loganathan called generally as “Ketheesh” was one such instance. One more person capable of rising above hatred and insanity in present day Sri Lanka is no more. With his departure one more Tamil who wanted his people to live with equal rights in a united Lanka and champion that cause in the face of danger has been done away with. Only a few of us are left now.

Ketheeswaran or Ketheesh was of Jaffna origin (Thunnalai South) but born and bred in Colombo. He studied at St. Thomas’s College Mt. Lavinia and Loyola College, Madras before proceeding to the USA for higher studies. He was the scion of an elitist Tamil family.

His father was the legendary banker and economist Chelliah Loganathan. There was a time when Loganathan , General Manager of Bank of Ceylon was regarded as a powerful financier wielding much influence in Sri Lanka.The bank’s lending policies caused much controversy.Buddhika Kurukularatne in his eminently readable Sunday column refers to a description of Loganathan by the journalist par excellence Denzil Peiris. “Like a Sea Street chettiar, Mr. C. Loganathan sits in his York Street office with his greasy fingers on the national economy.”

Ketheesh born in 1952 was two years older than I. He was the youngest in the family. Chelliah and Thilakavathy Loganathan had six children. Ketheesh had three elder sisters Gowri Tharmaratnam, Vasuki Maheswaran and Lalitha Yogasundaram and two elder brothers Sathananthan and Sritharan..

His sister Gowri passed way recently. She was married to Tharmaratnam a top economist at the World Bank. Another sister Vasuki is married to Maheswaran a medical doctor in the US who I think is the brother of former Jaffna MP Yogeswaran. Ketheesh himself was married to Bhavani Kumarasamy who worked in the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) until recently and is presently attached to Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)

Ketheesh had pronounced left leanings. One of his father’s brothers Tharmakulasingham was a well - known Samasajist leaders of an earlier vintage. Tharmakulasingham who contested the Point Pedro Constituency in 1947 on the LSSP ticket was a very popular leftist who died at a very early age amid tragic circumstances. Many people feel that had Tharmakulasingham lived he would certainly have become a prominent leader of the left movement. In a way Ketheesh inherited this leftist legacy.

Ketheesh Loganathan, received a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Georgetown University in Washington , USA and a Masters in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies at Hague, Netherlands. He also worked on a masters degree at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex, UK.

Ketheesh belonged to a segment of Jaffna Tamil society that lived and studied outside Jaffna but retained a positive love and interest in the land of their ancestors. Life for this category would have been entirely different if there was no ethnic oppression in Sri Lanka. Even then it was possible to have gone abroad and lived a life of luxury and seclusion from Sri Lankan politics.

But some of these people did not do so. Instead they chose to engage in political struggle and worked for the emancipation of the Tamil people in a united Sri Lanka. They were able to see both sides of the question and bring a sense of balance and moderation to the prevailing discourse that was often rabid. The ability to see both sides and understand the other mans point of view is often a great blessing. But in contemporary Sri Lanka it was a curse. It often made you an outsider in both camps. Ketheesh belonged to this rare breed of persons.

At the time of his death Ketheesh was Deputy Secretary - General of the Secretariat for coordinating the peace process (SCOPP) and Secretary of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC). This makes him appear as a pro - government “establishment” man. The eulogies heaped on him by the “Govt guys” reinforce this impression. This is perhaps the unkindest cut of all.

The life and times of Ketheeswaran Loganathan would demonstrate that he was at no time a toady of anyone least of all a Govt in power. He was a fiercely independent man of thought and action. Let there be no mistake Ketheesh was a Tamil Nationalist. Not of the variety that has descended into violence and barbarity but of the kind which believes in a negotiated settlement ensuring Tamil rights through federalism in a united Sri Lanka. This is a vanishing species but some of us are around still.

The CPA’s executive director Dr. Packiyasothy Saravanamuthu summed up Ketheesh aptly and succintly in a statement.-

“Kethesh Loganathan was a valued colleague, a former Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and the first head of its Peace and Conflict Analysis Unit. He was a passionate advocate of human rights, an unflinching champion of the rights of the Tamil people and of an end to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka with democracy, justice and dignity for all.”

” Whilst Kethesh was an ardent and proud nationalist, he brought the same fervour, passion and commitment to the cause of unity in diversity, multi culturalism and a settlement of the ethnic conflict based on meaningful power sharing. He uncompromisingly believed that the liberation of a people could not be founded on fear, the celebration of death, the negation or even suspension of basic democratic values. This made him a stringent and fearless critic of the LTTE for their insistence on being the sole representatives of the Tamil people and for their reliance on terror, repression and violence.”

It would be a great injustice to Ketheesh’s memory if one were to view his life only through the present prism. His was a life that dedicated itself to service and sacrifice for the betterment of humanity. After returning from abroad he worked as a researcher at the Marga Institute (77 - 79) and Social Scientists Association (79 - 81). He worked on issues of development and under development.

It was then that his father now retired launched an enterprise aiming to generate funds and economically develop the badly neglected and deprived North - East. Possessing a romantic streak and a wistful nostalgia for an “imagined” Jaffna Ketheesh went to Jaffna and took charge of his father’s project. At the same time he co - founded another institution for North - Eastern development called DEREC ( Centre for Development Research, Education and Communication) in Jaffna in 1981.

It was during this stay in Jaffna that Ketheesh’s life was taken over by revolutionary politics.. October 1981 was the time of the First Congress of the newly formed Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). A close and trusted friend joined the EPRLF and convinced Ketheesh that he too must do so. So Ketheesh joined what was then a revolutionary political organization.

The 1983 July anti - Tamil pogrom changed life drastically for Tamils. Different people responded differently. Ketheesh went to Chennai and became a full time activist of the EPRLF. Having independent means he did not lead a commune or camp life like many of his other comrades. He stayed in a flat within walking distance of the EPRLF’s Eelam Peoples Information Centre (EPIC) at Choolaimedu and attended office dutifully.

It was during this period that Ketheesh forged a firm friendship with the lovable Pathmanabha alias Ranjan who was EPRLF Secretary - General at the time.Ketheesh and Varatharajapperumal were the EPRLF representatives at the famous Thimphu talks in 1985. He also represented the EPRLF in many negotiations with and without publicity.

Then came the Indo - Lanka accord of 1987. Ketheesh returned home but took no part in the pro - Indian EPRLF North - Eastern Administration. He went to Hague and continued his higher studies.Kertheesh also got affiliated to the “Conflict Resolution Programme” of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway and was awarded a two year research fellowship at the Agriculture University of Norway to complete a study on the “Plantation system in Sri Lanka and the search for sustainable development”.

After Padmanabha was killed by the LTTE in 1990 June Ketheesh’s role in the EPRLF began decreasing. Though he remained in the movement it was a case of being ” in but not of”. His relationship with the new leader Suresh Premachandran also deteriorated. Ketheesh continued to represent the EPRLF in public fora including the Mangala Moonesinghe select committee. Finally in 1994 Ketheesh formally quit the EPRLF but remained on friendly terms with many activists.

Re-entering Academia Ketheesh served as a research consultant at the Centre for Policy research and Analysis (CEPRA). He authored the book “Sri Lanka: Lost Opportunities” in 1996.

Ketheesh also took to journalism. He functioned as Consultant to the short - lived “Week- end Express” where he wrote a popular column “Truthfully speaking” under the pseudonym Sathya. He later wrote articles as “Sathya” for the Daily Mirror too. In 1998 he was awarded the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship and was enrolled for a year at the College of Journalism in Maryland University.

Thereafter Ketheesh joined the Centre for Policy Alternatives and was in charge of the peace and conflict analysis unit. He played an important role in forging the “roadmap to peace” blueprint with the objective of taking the Oslo - facilitated peace process forward.

Soon Ketheesh became critical of the direction the peace process was taking. He felt that the strategy of dealing with the LTTE alone was not a positive one. Instead Ketheesh felt that there should be an emphasis on human rights, pluralism and democracy for the Tamil people. Child conscription and exterminating of those with alternate political views by the tigers was particularly upsetting. Ketheesh became openly critical of the process and the conduct of the LTTE. This was not a popular position to take and soon Ketheesh was becoming increasingly isolated.

This also placed him under LTTE threat. Increasingly pressured, Ketheesh once consulted Lakshman Kadirgamar and obtained some security measures for his protection. Ketheesh quit the CPA early this year with the objective of taking up duties as research director at the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS). But he changed his plan when Mahinda Rajapakse offered him the Deputy Secretary - General position at SCOPP. He took up duties on March 29th this year. In July he became Secretary of the APRC.

This was a difficult decision for Ketheesh and he did consult some friends before taking it.Personally I think it was a grave misjudgement on his part as I feel that Mahinda Rajapakse has a not so well hidden agenda for war rather than peace. The Peace Secretariat under PTB Kohona has become a propaganda tool for Sinhala supremacist ideology.

Yet Ketheesh took the plunge with two objectives. One he was naively optimistic of gradually influencing the regime positively. Two he felt someone like him should be embedded in the power structure that was virtually without any Tamil of significance in order to contain the anti - Tamil impulses.

Despite his background and good intentions Ketheesh received flak from the Sinhala hawks. Sinhala expatriates objected to his appointment overtly and branded him an” Eelamist” and “Kotiya”. The JVP and JHU worked against him covertly. The JVP paper “Lanka” had a nasty article about him on Aug 6th.

Meanwhile Ketheesh himself was becoming uncomfortable and frustrated in his new assignment. For one thing an undeclared war was being waged with the SCOPP cheering from the sidelines. The All Party Conference was becoming a time - buying charade without any meaningful direction.

More importantly the impunity with which human rights violations were being committed by the armed forces troubled him greatly. He began trying to collect as much information about these as possible. According to informed sources Ketheesh was greatly agitated about the massacre of 17 aid workers by the security forces in Muthur

Those who know Ketheesh well were of the opinion that it was only a matter of time before he quit the SCOPP and APRC. Being a man of principle and conscience Ketheesh could not have compromised with “evil” for long. Also he was not the kind of person to subordinate his personality to the whims and fancies of the powers that be.

Sadly “Yaman “the God of death visited Ketheesh first. It was on August 12th the first anniversary of Lakshman Kadirgamar’s death. A Police team in plain clothes regularly checked up on Ketheesh due to security reasons. This was a security measure arranged for by SCOPP I believe. On that fateful day some “new” faces appeared at his residence 1B Windsor Avenue off Vanderwert place, Dehiwela.

Instead of asking for “Mr. Loganathan”, as was usual, they asked for “Mr. Ketheeswaran”. Somewhat suspicious Kethees hesitated between front door and gate insisting on some identification. Instead the assassin fired a 9 mm. Five rounds were fired with three hitting him. He was taken to hospital but died upon admittance.

Given the murky conditions prevailing in Sri Lanka his killing was not an open and shut case. Both Mahinda Rajapakse and Palitha Kohona were quick to accuse the LTTE .None can rule the tigers out. The LTTE website “Nitharsanam” described Ketheeswaran as a traitor and “junior Kadirgamar” and threatened to expose Ketheesh’s “nefarious” activities. Nothing followed. Another website referred to him as an “ex - EPRLF” member forgetting that the EPRLF Suresh faction is now within tiger folds

Though Ketheesh had for long remained an LTTE critic and often stated his views openly the tigers had not targetted him. If the LTTE was now responsible why did the tigers do so? was the question on the Tamil grapevine. Though the killers spoke fluent Sinhala they could have been an underworld gang given a killing contract by the LTTE. If the LTTE was indeed responsible the only plausible reason seemed to be Ketheesh joining the SCOPP and possibly his role in tha APRC.

The CPA statement observes thus -

” Whilst the identity of his killers has not been established and no single organisation or actor has the monopoly of political killing in the current climate of division and violence in our country, the LTTE’s record of assassinations of political opponents and Kethesh’s public profile as one of their most trenchant critics, invariably marks them out as prime suspects. We call on the LTTE to refute this by unequivocally condemning his murder. We call on the Government of Sri Lanka to conduct a speedy and impartial investigation into Kethesh’s murder and to ensure that the perpetrators are apprehended and brought to justice.”

So far the LTTE has “officially” ignored Ketheesh’s killing. There has been no statement denying responsibility. The Government is said to be investigating the murder but given past history there is little chance of a breakthrough. Of course many innocent Tamils will be detained and interrogated. Some Sinhala officials will become richer and release some of them. As time goes on Ketheesh Loganathan will become one more statistic but will often be cited as proof of LTTE wickedness.

C. Loganathan was a devotee of the Thirukketheeswaram temple dedicated to Lord Shiva in Mannar district. That is why he named his youngest son Ketheeswaran. May the soul of Ketheesh break the cycle of rebirth and attain heavenly bliss at the feet of Lord Shiva.

Contact DBS Jeyaraj : djeyaraj2005@yahoo.com

by D.B.S. Jeyaraj

It was 6.40 - 45 am on Monday August 14th.

[transCurrents.com] Four Israeli built K-fir bombers appeared suddenly on the skies above a place called “Vallipunam” in Mullaitheevu district in the North - Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. It is believed that the planes piloted by foreign nationals had started out from Trincomalee and flown north over the sea and turned westwards towards Mullaitheevu .

The air craft were spot on. Instead of hovering in the air for a while as most bombers do before releasing their deadly cargo these planes set about their murderous task quickly and precisely. Like the four horsemen of the apocalypse these agents of death and destruction dropped their bombs below.

With each K- fir dropping four bombs a total of sixteen was dropped in a matter of minutes. There was a cluster of small buildings and a large number of human beings on the ground. Some of the bombs hit the groups of humans with pin point precision while others hit buildings and clumps of trees. People apparently were the prize target while buildings and trees “collateral damage”.

Except for one which failed to explode the other fifteen wreaked havoc. The human targets most of them teen - aged girls ran in fear seeking refuge as aerial terror rained on them. Frenzied pandemonium reigned.The planes that dropped the bombs were also visually recording the desperate scene below with their sophisticated visual recording equipment.The four planes then turned back after accomplishing their mission of aerial terror.

It was hell on earth below. More than 200 women most of them teen - aged students were victims. Bodies lay in pools of blood with mangled flesh and limbs strewn around. At least 30 to 35 were killed on the spot. The death tally increased as victims were taken to hospital. By evening the death count was reportedly sixty - one. Around 260 - 275 were injured.
In addition to Govt hospitals some were treated at Private clinics too.Some with comparatively minor injuries got treatment and returned home.

[A girl, who lost her friend mourns at the hospital]

155 seriously injured victims were hospitalised. They were warded at the Mullaitheevu (52) Kilinochchi (64) Tharmapuram (26) and Puthukudiyiruppu (13) hospitals. Many of the victims according to UNICEF officials had lost their limbs.The condition of about 40 of these victims was extremely serious. Unconfirmed reports by Thursday 17th night said that the number of deaths was nearing ninety. Independent confirmation was not possible.

UNICEF Kilinochchi Head Penny Brune and SLMM Kilinochchi monitor Matti Vanionpaa inspected the massacre site and visited the hospitals where the injured girls were being treated.The UNICEF also provided fuel and medicine to expedite and aid the medical treatment given to the victims.

The SLMM later observed that the place was not a military installation. The SLMM also said that ten large craters had been made by the bombs. The UNICEF went on record that schoolgirls had been killed and injured in the incident and that there was no evidence of the victims being LTTE cadres.

In terms of human cost and suffering the incident was terrible. Yet the Colombo based media with a few honourable exceptions downplayed the incident. The focus was more on the “claymore terror” in Kollupitiya which killed seven and injured ten rather than the ” K- fir terror” that killed 61 and injured 155. Even the official statements of Countries like the USA and India were concerned with the alleged attack on the Pakistani envoy and ignored the Mullaitheevu bombing.

UN officials were more concerned than Colombo - based diplomats. UN Secretary - General Kofi Annan was ” increasingly alarmed at the ongoing violence in Sri Lanka” said a press release.” “He is profoundly concerned at the rising death toll, including the seven people killed in a bomb attack in Colombo today, and reports of dozens of students killed in a school as a result of air strikes in the north-east.” noted the communique.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman called on both the Government and the LTTE to “respect international humanitarian law and ensure children and the places where they live, study and play are protected from harm.” A UNICEF statement pointed out, “The bombing on Monday of a Vallepuram compound in Mullaitivu district that reportedly killed dozens of girls and wounded many more is a shocking result of the rising violence in Sri Lanka.” “These children are innocent victims of violence,” noted Veneman.

“The latest shocking developments in Sri Lanka show once again that children continue to bear the brunt of this conflict,” said the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, calling on the parties to cease hostilities and return to the negotiating table.”Independent sources have verified that a compound in Kilinochchi was bombed reportedly killing around 50 adolescent schoolgirls and injuring 100 others. These schoolgirls were injured while taking part in a training course on first-aid. Fearing reprisal, the Government has closed all schools disrupting the education of children throughout the island,” she said.

The bombing incident had shocked and deeply troubled the Tamil people. The on going conflict has seen much aerial bombardment of the Tamil homeland. Notorious among these incidents were the Navaly church bombing in 1995, The Nagar Kovil school bombing of 1996 and the Puthukudiyiruppu market bombing of 1999. But the Vallipunam bombing due perhaps to the fact that most victims were innocent schoolgirls horrified most people. Adding insult to injury was the blatant denial by the state that the victims were schoolgirls and the puerile attempt to describe them as child soldiers.

Diaspora Tamils and those of Tamil Nadu were quick to react. The Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution condemning the incident and expressing condolences. Many political parties including the Indian Communist and Marxist parties issued statements. Moves are afoot to get Colombo censured in the Lok Sabha too. There were also many protest meetings, demonstrations and processions in Tamil Nadu. Posters were plastered on walls. Effigies of Mahinda Rajapakse were burnt. Tamil Nadu chief minister Muttuvel Karunanidhy described the Colombo Govts conduct as “Sandaalathanam” (atrocious villainy).

Tamil expatriates in the West too were active. Newspapers, radios and TV gave sustained coverage to the issue. Sympathy fasts and demonstrations were staged. Religious observances were held. Efforts were on to lobby Politicians and the mainstream media. It appears that the issue would be exploited by pro - tiger elements to whip up support for the Tamil cause among the Diaspora and possibly the mainstream communities too.

Reinforcing the cliche about truth being the first casualty in times of war is the “spin” being put on the incident by both the Govt and LTTE.The Govt particularly its hyper active cabinet spokesperson on defence affairs Keheliya Rambukwella says that the bombed site was a tiger transit training camp and those killed and injured were child soldiers. When evidence to the contrary is pointed out Rambukwella and other defence spokespersons go off at a tangent making bizarre arguments in support of their case. However much the Govt may try to justify the incident the plain , harsh truth is that aerial terror has been unleashed to perpetrate a massacre of innocents.

The LTTE went to town initially saying that its orphanage “Sencholai” had been bombed and orphaned children killed. As more information came to light the tigers began changing stance. Many contradictory statements were made by tiger agencies. As more details were revealed it became clear that the LTTE had not been stating the whole truth. While the victims were certainly not child soldiers as made out by the Govt it is also incorrect to assume that the LTTE had no connection whatsover to the teen - aged students attending a residential workshop at the targetted site.

While the Govt and LTTE put their respective spins to the incident very little is known of what the families of victims think and feel. Politico - military arguments and counter - arguments virtually ignore the tragic human dimension to this endless and unnecessary conflict. The respective arguments leave many people confused about the real situation.Furthermore many of the positions articulated are based on ignorance and half truths. What is required is to shed more light than generate heat on the tragic incident.

Let us take the “Sencholai” girls orphanage first. Setting up of “Sencholai” for children orphaned by the war was a brainchild of LTTE supremo Velupillai Pirapakaran it is said. It was set up in Sandilipay in Jaffna peninsula in 1991. It was relocated to Kilinochchi in 1995 and to Mullaitheevu district in 1998. As time went on other social service institutions were also set up.The orphanage for boys for instance was called “Kantharuban Arivucholai”.

Some of these institutions were housed at a place called Vallipunam. It is about five miles from Puthukudiyiruppu along the Mullaitheevu - Paranthan road. Vallipunam originally had chena cultivation and hence its name. Later several large farms owned by Jaffna Tamils came into being. A rain fed tank Naddalmottankulam helped irrigate fields. There were teak and Cashew groves in addition to livestock, paddy and cashcrops in the vicinity at one time. To its interior lies thick jungle infested by Elephants. The postal address of Vallipunam falls under Viswamadhu.

Five institutions were housed within a one mile radius in Vallipunam after the tsunami.. They were the Sencholai orphan girls home with 245 children. The Bharathy Illam girls home for girls physically affected by the war and the tsunami. There were 160 girls here; The Iniya Vaalvu illam was a home for deaf and blind children and had 78 children. The Vasanthan Childrens home with 60 girls was for children mentally challenged due to the war and tsunami. The “Senthalir” home for very young children with 120 children was the fifth.

.The area in which four institutions were housed was called peace village. The “Senthalir” home for very young orphaned children was also in the vicinity but not within the peace village premises. It was earlier in Mullaitheevu town area and was hit by the tsunami. Scores of young kids perished. Vallipunam was in the interior and away from tsunami wave reach.

“Senthalir” reportedly is run by agencies independent of the LTTE or its affiliates.The Bharathy and Iniya Valvu illam homes were run by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) while the other two including Sencholai were directly run by the LTTE

Apart from a token armed tiger presence for security reasons the zone was empty of armed personnel. Besides most of the tigers there were females. The “Sencholai” compound housing teen - aged girls had parapet walls all round. The Sencholai place was called “Valaham” or campus.The administrative director of Sencholai is Janani whose nom de guerre when being an active tiger was Sudarmahal.

Male tigers were declared out of bounds unless for an approved , specific purpose. The tiger leader being a man of puritanical discipline was not taking chances with the orphaned girls for whom he had deep attachment and concern. Prabha would often visit the peace village and meet with these innocent victims of war.

.The area also had a number of bunkers where people could hide if there was bombing. This was a precaution in case of possible aerial bombardment The location and description of the peace village and its inmates were well known to the Government and NGO’s and international aid organizations. Many NGO representatives often visited the place.

The “Sencholai” however was relocated to a place on Iranaimadhu road in Kilinochchi in January this year. LTTE chief Praba himself formally declared the new campus open.The new campus contains eleven residential blocks for different age groups. It also contains a special block for infants, dining, study halls and two kitchens.The campus also has an administration block, a skill development center, a cultural hall, a health center and a library. The program for building the campus started in June 2003 Plans of adding computer facilities, audio-visual facilities and other features to the new campus are being worked out.

Though the orphanage proper moved to Kilinochchi in January the older campus remained as “sencholai” still.Though not utilised fully it was used at times to house woman members of the peoples militia for physical training. According to an European NGO official he had seen people undergoing physical exercises on at least two occasions in April - May this year.In any case the LTTE never kept its “Makkal Padai” ( people force) a secret and flaunted pictures of such training publicly through its media organs.

On some occasions even Sencholai kids were brought here for week - ends as a form of a picnic or excursion. In recent times the LTTE was also contemplating a relocation of Sencholai to its former venue because it thought Kilinochchi would be targetted indiscrminately in an escalating conflict.

Among the various administrative structures the LTTE has is the Tamil Eelam Education Board which coordinates educational functions. The director or shadow education minister is “Baby” Subramaniam or Ilankumaran. Within the LTTE , Ilankumaran is second in seniority only to Prabakharan. The Education board has very little independent resources and relies mainly on the Government’s educational infra- structure and personnel to implement its projects. As is typical of many things in tiger controlled regions a curious parallel administrative network is in force.

One project envisaged by the TE educational board was a residential workshop for teen - aged schoolgirls. With the conflict escalating and bombing and shelling on the rise the need for first aid knowledge and disaster coping techniques was essential.It was decided to hold a residential workshop for ten days to focus on these matters.It was organized by the TE educational board in association with zonal education departments and the Principal associations. It was funded by an NGO called the Centre for Women’s Rehabilitation and Development (CWRD). The ten day workshop was held at the old “Sencholai” campus in Vallipunam on Aug 11th and scheduled to end on Aug 20th.

“The workshop aimed at developing student leaders by building self confidence through understanding self, building inter-personal relationship, knowing leadership qualities, effective time management, helping self and others by learning first aid, and learning principles of gender equality,” said V.Ilankumaran in an interview to the “Tamilnet” website.The idea was to train girls with leadership potential who in turn would train other girls in their respective schools.

Participants were selected from eighteen schools in Mullaitheevu, Kilinochi and Oddusuddan. The respective schools were Paranthan Hindu Maha Vidyalayam (MV), Kandawalai MV, Murasumottai MV, Tharmapuram MV, Piramathanaaru MV, Bharathy MV, Viswamadhu MV, Udaiyarkattu MV, Iranaippaalai MV, Mullaitheevu MV, Semmalai MV, Kumulamunai MV, Vattraappalai MV, Oddusuddan MV, Valathukarai Muthaiyan Kaddu MV, Katsilaimadhu Govt Tamil mixed school, Vithiyananda Kalloori, and Puthukudiyiruppu Central College.

Only the brightest and best girl students from the GCE )OL and AL classes were selected. In addition some seniors in “Sencholai” were also enrolled. Many parents were reluctant to send their young teen - aged daughters for a residential workshop. But since the LTTE was behind the whole project neither the parents nor te teachers or for that matter the students had no choice. The decision had been made by the tigers and the people had to simply obey. Nevertheless several parents had openly grumbled about the project to the LTTE themselves.

[A female cadre is trying to move a body of a girl, who was killed at Sencholai]

About 400 students ranging from the ages of 14 to 21 participated at the workshop. Most girls were in the 16 - 19 age group. The day began with assembly at 7 am and ended with lights out at 9. 30 pm. Apart from leadership training first aid measures etc there was also disaster management techniques pertaining to natural calamitieslike fire and floods, tsunami. aerial bombardment and shelling etc.There was also time for games, singing, debates, drama , poetry etc. Great emphasis was laid on practical training in first - aid.

Some of the instructors were from the LTTE’s medical corps. There were also other senior and senior ex - tiger woman cadres as workshop assistants. There were some school teachers - both male and female - as administrators, lecturers, instructors and resource persons.Officially the workshop was conducted by the principals Associations of Kilinochchi and Mullaitheevu with the assistance of both zonal Educational divisions. Unofficially it was a Tamil Eelam Educational Board project. Many people sent their children only due to coercive LTTE pressure.
Parents were allowed to visit the participants in the evening and those from distances were allowed to sleep on the premises. It was a pleasant school boarding house like atmosphere that prevailed.One of the participants was a 14 year old girl from Vavuniya town who was visiting Kilinochchi. She had gone along for a “lark” and was killed.

Monday Aug 14th was the fourth day of the workshop. The itinerary on that was something like this. 7. am - Assembly; 7.15 to 8.00 physical exercises;8 - 8.30 breakfast; 8.30 to 9.30 Self - Confidence and Personality Development; 9. 30 to 10.30 Artificial respiration training;10.30 - 11.00 interval;11.00 - 1.00 First Aid practicals; 1-2.00pm lunch; 2-3.00 rest; 3-4.00 lecture on determining your future;4-4.30 tea;4.30 - 5.30 games;5. 30 - 6.00 break ; 6. 00 - 7.30 poetry reading; 7. 30 - 8.30 dinner 8. 30 recreation; 9.30 lights out. Alas this time - table turned terrible that bloody Monday.

The girls were moving to the middle compound for assembly to begin at 7. am. They were chatting to each other in scattered, small groups. One large group was huddled around a radio listening intently to the news. It was then that death and destruction came down from the skies. It was the group listening to the radio that suffered greatly.The identities of all victims are yet to be established. It appears however that some of the tiger instructors and senior cadres assisting the workshop were also affected.
Among those killed Fifty - One were students from 11 schools. Four were education officials and teachers. The others are presumed to be LTTE instructors and woman cadres.

According to reports filed by Kilinochchi Education director T. Kurukularajah and Mullaitheevu Educaton Director P. Ariyaratnam the breakdown of the killed 51 students and respective schools was as follows.Udaiyaarkattu Maha Vidyalayam - 11;Viswamadhu MV- 09; Mullaitheevu MV - 08; Kumulamunai MV - 05; Semmalai MV - 04; Vithiyananda College - 04; Puthukkudiyiruppu Maha Vidyalayam - 03; Tharmapuram MV - 03 Muruganantha MV - 02Oddusuddan MV - 01; Pirammathanaaru MV - 01.

With parents and family members coming to know of the calamity people were running to hospitals in search of their loved ones. There was also a groundswell of anger against the LTTE . They felt that the LTTE had unnecessarily contributed to the situation. They opined that such a residential workshop was ill - timed and ill - advised.With the conflict intensifying the tigers had carelessly exposed their dearest ones they felt.While blaming the LTTE for its irresponsibility most people however were extremely critical of the Govt for the massacre and its callous denial.

Speaking in Canada to the uncle of a dead girl was a sorrowful experience. He spoke of the academic brilliance of his niece and how the family was planning to send her to a foreign university. “Aniyatamaik Kondu poi Kaavu kodithittaangale” ( They have taken her unnecessarily and sacrificed her) he lamented.

Realising perhaps the depth of feelings among families the tigers did not try to derive propaganda mileage by staging mass funerals. Instead they allowed families to take the bodies and hold individual funerals. The Wanni in particular and Tamil areas in general are in a mournful atmosphere. The victims were not tigers but mainly , academically clever teen aged students with hopes of a bright future.

[A mother, who lost her daughter mourns at the hospital]

The Government continues to insist that the victims were child soldiers of the LTTE. This is a blatant falsehood. There is no denying that there are child soldiers in the LTTE. But these were schoolgirls not child soldiers. Even if they were child soldiers the state cannot kill them Rambukwella asks rhetorically “Are we to hug and kiss a child soldier” No! But they cannot be massacred by aerial bombardment indiscriminately either. They can be killed only in combat and what happened in Vallipunam was no combat but a cold - blooded masacre through aerial terror.

It is hyppocritically ironic that the Government and other Sinhala chauvinist organizations who shed copious tears for the plight of Tamil child soldiers are geefully justifying a massacre of Tamil children. As stated in these columns the Rajapakse regime has embarked on a war that has genocidal attributes. By the way what has Mullaitheevu got to do with the “water war” in Maavilaaru?

While Rambukwella and the various defence service spokespersons incriminate themselves as war criminals through their boastful utterances the supreme commander has gone one better. Mahinda Rajapakse reportedly told a gathering of Newspaper editors that his air force could have bombed the vehicles taking the injured to hospitals but did not do so out of magnanimity. This man who calls himself a true Buddhist and specialises in taking ” Malthattu” to “Pansalas” does not seem to have any awareness of war conventions or humanitarian law. After all Rajapakse is a lawyer.

The Sri Lankan Government is in the dock..The massacre of innocent schoolgirls through aerial bombardment is nothing less than a war crime or crime against humanity. Will Justice be done?

Contact DBS Jeyaraj : djeyaraj2005@yahoo.com

By Shehan Rayer

A bomb explodes, a child cries out, a brutal assassination, another family in mourning. Having been ‘home’ for the better part of three weeks I suppose I should be shocked or at least appalled by the events of the recent weeks. Truth be told I am neither. Perhaps I have in some strange way become too accustomed to such news. Having been born and lived most of my life in Karachi Pakistan, I am no stranger to such brutal, pointless violence.

I remember sitting in my ninth grade current events class and the teacher reading out a newspaper heading which told of 15 dead people in a car bomb. After hearing this, and much to my teacher’s horror, a friend of mine unconsciously remarked aloud, “Only 15”. Awful as that sounds he was simply echoing the sentiments of his fellow classmates. Ninth grade, fourteen years old, saying “Only 15”. Thousands of miles away in the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, sentiments are not so different.

Even though I have traveled to this country a fair few times in the past, it has been a while since my last visit here. Everything seems so strange to me, so alien. It is almost like visiting a country for the very first time. I am completely illiterate as far as the local language and customs are concerned, yet according to my passport this is my home country.

The over crowded streets, and unbearable air pollution bring with them a whiff of familiarity. Memories flood back in, and as I survey my surroundings it seems as if things are either the same or worse. I have been here for twenty five plus days and already witnessed the aftermath of a van bombing and live down the same lane as a man who was recently killed coming out of his house both incidents blamed on the Tigers. People hear the news shake their heads mutter under their breath and go about performing their daily chores.

In the meantime my generation is to busy wondering which club to go to and who’s bringing the booze to the pre drink session. Put simply, the older generation is too jaded to care while the younger is just ignorant. I know this because I am apart of this generation, and why not, ignorance is bliss. There exists in Karachi a fairly large Sri Lankan community. In the olden days they would get together for dinners and parties, sing baila songs, talk about cricket, and remember the good old days in Sri Lanka and long for the day they could return to their home land.

Now the mood has changed. Political instability, a dwindling economy, and a people ravaged by war have made home seem much further away than a three and a half hour flight from Karachi to Colombo.

For the last two years I had been living in Toronto studying in a university there. It’s a place that makes it hard for anyone to feel too home sick because of the multi-cultural aspect of the city. There are people from all walks of life, all living together in a kind of surreal harmony. Toronto holds within itself a huge Sri Lankan population.

Most of the people I had come across there were Sri Lankans born in Canada. To them events in the country were cause for worry, not so much for the country but for relatives and friends living here. They seem to be resigned to the fact that the situation in the country will continue to worsen and are glad they no longer live here.

The tsunami disaster jolted everyone, and for a while we were all glued to our screens watching the rescue efforts and expressing our horror at the growing number of dead, but then a week passed and then another week, and we all went back to our lives as if nothing had happened to interrupt us in the first place.

It’s sad that terrible acts of violence are judged not by the viciousness of the act but by the number of people who die and people only really care when they themselves or loved ones are affected. Personally apart from the tsunami and a few stray incidents I barely heard any news for home and to be honest I never tried to keep up.

Living a million miles away means people have their own issues to deal with like their jobs, kids, university, mortgage payments, etc. There is simply no time for Sri Lankans or anyone else living abroad to concern themselves with events daily taking place in their home country.

The artificial peace is officially over. It was only a matter of time and that time is now. Just as I write these words a loud explosion is heard, news quickly spreads that a bomb has gone off nearby and reporters and cameramen alike speed off to be the first to capture the scene. Need I say anymore? Who knows what scenes of carnage await?

The only reason I am here is because certain extenuating circumstances made it necessary for me to temporarily leave Canada and come here. Already I cannot wait to leave. Every where I look there are billboards offering jobs abroad or ways to study and then migrate to foreign countries. The newspapers too are filled with such advertisements.

I have visited a few educational institutions in my short time here and the first thing they tell me is how their diplomas are recognised in the USA or UK. It is an ever growing trend that seems to be growing ever more popular.

More people will leave, almost none will return and can you really blame them? What is it that they are to return to? Beautiful beaches along with five star hotels overlooking serene beauty and cheap shopping are just not going to cut it. It’s just not worth it.

On an ending note, sixty young children have been murdered in a highly questionable bombing. Who are we to see about that when both sides cower from accepting responsibility?

The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels today. Every day the papers release the number of dead and wounded soldiers on either side. What about all the innocents murdered and wounded? Would we rather not know that figure or is it just too gruesome to even estimate. They are sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, all at the mercy of this war. The monsoon season has begun and the rain helps to wash away their blood. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels. [DailyMirror.lk]