FROM AGNI KHEELA TO MAWANELLA
Let us digress from the reply to Dr. Schalk this week in order to discuss some recent incidents. It remains for me to answer him on the charges he made against Jathika Chinthanaya being influenced by Italian fascism and that it has a strong anti-Semitic edge in my writings! One should not expect anything better from a person like Dr. Schalk who does not know even the elementary Aristotelian formal two valued logic. When it is mentioned that western civilisation is based on Yudev (Judaic) Chinthanya he comes to the conclusion that Jathika Chinthanya is anti Semitic. Though Aristotelian logic is a corner stone of modern western civilisation Dr. Schalk is perhaps still immersed in some kind of Viking logic. I shall deal with Dr. Schalk's misunderstandings in articles on Jathika Chinthanaya which neither Dr. Schalk nor Dr. H. L. Senevirstne have understood.
What happened to the Agni Kheela operation. Who is responsible for planning this operation? What did the planners want to achieve with the Agni Kheela operation? The army has said that they anticipated a LTTE attack soon after the so-called cease-fire by the LTTE ended, and they (the army) planned a counter attack to take the LTTE by surprise. I do not think the Sinhala people could be fooled by these statements. The trouble with the army is that we do not know who is responsible for various decisions as politicians are also involved in the decision making process even in the case of operations. If the politicians had taken only the political decisions and left the rest to the generals then we would be in a position to judge who was responsible for various debacles in the recent past. As it is nobody is responsible for the decisions and it is only the soldiers who finally suffer as a result.
It is true that Agni Kheela operations were carried on with the so-called cease-fire of the LTTE coming to an end. But then it was also scheduled more or less to coincide with the visit of Mr. Solheim and it took place in the wake of Ms. Marie Colvin's visit to Mallavi to meet the LTTE leaders. During the same period there was so much of activities by the Bishops to bring "peace" to the country. From these events, I do not want to jump into conclusions the way Dr. Schalk does but we should take note of the fact that after the Agni Kheela debacle the peace bandwagon and some others have already started their manthram of "peace talks" and power sharing with the terrorists.
It is difficult to believe the explanation given by the army and we are compelled to ask more questions. Did not anybody know that the LTTE with its so-called cease-fire was only marking time? Probably they got more arms as well during this period and were getting ready for a major attack. Did not the army know that the LTTE was not sleeping during the so-called cease-fire and were busy with their landmine "operations"? We all know that after the Elephantpass debacle last year the army got more modern weapons and started to move forward defeating the LTTE on several fronts. What happened to these offensives? Why were they stopped ? Did the west, some politicians or some others influence the decision making generals? The defense correspondent of "Sunday Divaina" in his article on 6th May, has revealed some startling information, which, if true, would lead to many more questions. In any event it looks as if the operation Agni Kheela had been planned not with the idea of winning. Was it planned as a birthday gift to the LTTE which became 25 years old on the 5th of May?
The LTTE which has now taken the upper hand is imposing conditions. Since Prabhakaran's birthday speech last year, up to last week the LTTE had told the west and the others that they were prepared for unconditional talks. Though most of the Sinhalas did not believe Prabhakaran, at least the LTTE maintained that position in their public statements. However, they are now openly saying that the government must declare a ceasefire and lift the proscription of the LTTE as pre-conditions for so-called peace talks. This change of official position in public should have opened the eyes of the west even if they were actually not aware of the LTTE strategies and tactics. If the west is genuine they should at least now realise that the LTTE cannot be trusted and that the terrorists are not interested in so-called peace talks. They will settle only a confederation irrespective of what Thamilchelvam has told Ms. Marie Colvin.
The Sri Lankan government naturally could not agree to the conditions of the LTTE and Mr. Solheim who came to Sri Lanka soon after the Agni Kheela debacle, has gone back via London, without any positive response from the government. It was reported that he was to meet Anton Balasingham on his way back but it appears that he has not done so as he did not have anything to offer to the former employee in the British high commission in Sri Lanka. However this raises the question as to the position of Balasingham and the LTTE in UK. We do not know the exact position regarding the proscription of the LTTE in UK. Has the LTTE appealed against the decision of the British parliament to name the LTTE as a terrorist organisation. We would like to know the exact position regarding the ban, as the procedure adopted in connection with banning a terrorist organisation is not clear. In any event it is clear that the LTTE is still not banned in the UK. If it is banned then Mr. Solheim could not have gone to London to meet a representative of a proscribed organisation in UK, unless UK has some funny laws to allow representatives of banned organisations to operate in the country as individuals. Is UK trying to fool the Sri Lankans? It is upto the Sri Lankan government to find out the exact position regarding the status of the LTTE in UK and inform the public.
While Mr. Solheim was thinking of meeting with Anton Balasingham in London the Bishops were busy with their political agenda. The Bishops protested when the army chased away the LTTE terrorists from Madhu church premises and it appears that somehow they have got the government to withdraw forces from the vicinity of the church. As it is, the LTTE terrorists are now in the premises of the Madhu church and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, probably after getting the government to withdraw troops from the church area, declared that the Sinhala Catholics were unable to go on pilgrimage to Madhu church. WE must remember that if the army was allowed to stay in the Madhu church area the Sinhala Catholics would have been able to go on pilgrimage to Madhu. However, claiming that the Sinhala Catholics could not go to Madhu, the Bishops went round the country taking the statue of "Our Lady at Madhu" to various areas claiming that they together with the ordinary Catholics were praying for "peace". After that the Bishops went to Madhu for thanks giving prayers and "made use of the opportunity", to meet Thamilchelvam and the other terrorist leaders in Wanniya. Having come back from Madhu Bishop Malcolm Ranjith organised a "pilgrimage" of not only Catholics but also of Buddhists including Bhikkus to very same Madhu, where even the Sinhala Catholics cannot go on pilgrimage on their own. Incidentally the "pilgrimage" coincided with the 25th "birthday" of the LTTE. The Bishop could not have organised this "pilgrimage" without the support of the terrorists.
It is not only the Bishops and the peace vendors who are interested in peace. However there are more than one "peace" and what is meant by "peace" is not the same for all. The "peace" of Solheims, Bishops, the peace vendors supported by the western Christian countries, the NGO's financed by the same countries amounts to an abrogation of legislative power to a unit consisting of the present Northern and Eastern provinces demarcated not by King Dutugemunu or any other ancient king but by the British only as late as 1889. While some of the Tamil racists supported by the above countries and organisations want to live as equals in the other seven provinces but as unequal superiors in the northern and the eastern provinces, the LTTE and the hard core Tamil racists want those two provinces, as a separate country for themselves. In either case the significance of Sinhalathva is not recognised and the Sinhalas who have been living in those two provinces as well for thousands of years would lose those areas with the "peace" of Solheims, the Bishops and the others. It has to be emphasised that the Sinhalas, even after the massacre by the British in 1817-18, continued to live in the eastern province and the Tamils were confined to only to certain areas on the eastern coasts even during the so-called British period. Do the Solheims and the Bishops think that the vast majority of the Sinhalas whether Buddhist or Christians would agree to a "peace" that make them not second class citizens but non entities in one third of their own country. The majority of the Sinhalas want a peace, surely much more honorable than that and whether one likes it or not that kind of peace cannot be achieved without defeating the LTTE through military operations. Whoever is responsible for the Agni Kheela debacle, the government and the army have no alternative but to reorganise and move forward to defeat the LTTE.
The Tamil racists were busy to tell the world that the Sinhala Buddhists were responsible for the incidents that took place in Mawanella. Some of them in their internet communications went to the extent of accusing the "Sinhala Veera Vidhana" for the damages done to the property of the Muslims. There were reminiscences of what happened after July 1983, though on a much smaller scale. The Sinhala Buddhists are always painted as demons and there is no dearth of sociologists and other social scientists who would come out with "Yamapalla" theories, following Prof. Kaffera, to explain the behaviour of the Sinhala Buddhist demon. While we condemn the acts at Mawanella as well as those of who gathered at some places in and around Maradana after the prayers on Friday the 4th we urge the government to take steps to see that all those responsible are punished. We could live without this type of incidents but unfortunately it is increasingly becoming evident that with the present "understanding" between most of the politicians and the underworld, very soon the police officers themselves would be forced to "salute" and pay "kappan" to the "goondas".
Professor Nalin de Silva
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