KAUSHALYAN AND THE WEST
Why should the west get upset about the murder of Kaushalyan? After all he was a well known terrorist and certainly he was not the first terrorist to be killed by somebody else. Mahattaya was apparently killed on the orders of Prabhakaran, and the secretary general of the united nations Mr. Koffi Annan was silent on the murder. Perhaps Mr. Annan was not requested to issue a statement condemning the killing, by the un officials in Colombo as the murderer, at least the man who gave the order was the terrorist leader himself. Mr. Annan did not pay his condolences to anybody in the families of those who were killed by the LTTE. It appears that Kaushalyan had been important more than even Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam to the un officials in Colombo and in New York.
Karuna's eastern tigers have accepted the responsibility of killing Kaushalyan. It is clear the Sri Lankan government (we shall continue to call it the government though it has on several occasions failed to kick out those foreigners who dictate terms to the government.) nor the armed forces had had a hand in the killing of Kaushalyan. Then why should the west and their admirers claim that Karuna has done a disservice to the Sri Lankan government by killing Kaushalyan? What has a murder by Karuna's faction got to do with the Sri Lankan government?
Is it the so called post tsunami situation? Only a hypocrite would say that things have changed for better after tsunami. The politicians might proclaim from various platforms that all should be united to "rebuild the nation and the country" but everybody knows that these statements by the politicians carry no weight whatsoever. The TNA true to its history had been saying that the tsunami relief did not reach the east and the north. The fact the government machinery failed to distribute in the affected areas about 70% of the aid they received had to be viewed as a result of the inefficiency of the officialdom. The Tamils and the Muslims in the east received help from the Sinhalas and the armed forces long before Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga set foot on the island. The racists go on hammering the government as if the aid did not go to the north and the east only. These attitudes whether of the politicians or of the so called academics clearly show that nothing has changed in the minds of the racists. The tsunami did not change the politics of the country as far as the east and the north is concerned, for any better. What has happened is that the situation has got worsened after tsunami with the Tamil racists trying to raise a big cry over so called discrimination against the Tamils.
The situation after tsunami saw Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe going to Norway. The government thinks that he went there to stop aid coming to Sri Lanka. I doubt very much and my guess is that he went to Norway to listen to the Norwegians asking him to collaborate with the government. The politics in Sri Lanka has not taken any steps to the betterment of the country after tsunami. However the west is trying to paint a different picture, and would like to give the impression that Karuna or his faction by killing Kaushalyan has done a disservice to the democracy of the country, and to the Sri Lankan government itself, in the so-called post tsunami period of goodwill. These people want to tell the world that Karuna and the Sri Lankan government work in collusion. With this kind of propagation they want to apply pressure on the government to act against the Karuna faction in order to show that the former has no understanding with the latter.
Has the LTTE changed after tsunami? They are only trying to rebuild themselves with the help of the westerners, and will do everything possible to discredit the government while using the facilities provided by the government itself. The terrorist leaders of the LTTE would fly to the funeral of Kaushalyan in the helicopters provided by the Sri Lankan government and announce that the latter is responsible for the killing of Kaushalyan. It may be that Kaushalyan was unarmed at the time of death but nevertheless he was a terrorist and most probably one who was hated by Karuna faction. They would have thought that Kaushalyan coming from the east was betraying the Tamils in that province to the terrorist leaders in Jaffna who are backed by the western Christians and their local henchmen, and thus had to be eliminated.
It is said that Kaushalyan was killed in what are known as cleared areas that are under governmental control. The westerners and their local admirers would like to create a suspicion among the people especially in the west, that because Kaushalyan was killed in "cleared areas" the government or the armed forces would have had a hand in the killing. Now Dr. Neelan Thiruchelvam was murdered in Colombo 7 that had always been under government control. Does it mean, and do the un officials in Colombo and at other places think that the Sri Lankan government had connived with the LTTE to kill Dr. Thiruchelvam?
According to the MoU that the westerners drafted, and that was signed by Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prabhakaran, when the terrorists travel through "cleared areas" they have to inform the armed forces and get their permission. Did Kaushalyan follow this procedure laid down by the west? He had simply ignored it for reasons known to the LTTE terrorists, and the west is silent on that aspect.
Some members of the LTTE, the proxy party the TNA, had tried to make an issue out of the killing of the former MP Nehru who had travelled with Kaushalyan. They had demanded security for MPs. The MPs whether of the LTTE proxy party or the UNP are entitled for some security but not the ex MPs. These proxy party members are asking for security to protect themselves mainly from Karuna faction. The best security that they could have would be obtained by not travelling with the terrorists. Why was the former MP Nehru travelling with Kaushalyan? Why nobody is questioning that aspect of the killing? The former MP travelling with a terrorist leader had shown the world the understanding that the TNA has with the LTTE. The TNA is simply a fellow traveller of the LTTE.
It is very unlikely that Mr. Koffi Annan knew Kaushalyan personally for him to issue a statement condemning the killing, and to pay his condolences to the family members. Mr. Kadirgamer has promised the Patriotic National Movement delegation led by Ven. Elle Gunawansa Thera that he would ask his office to find out whether a general secretary of un has issued similar statements during the last ten years. The government has to go deeply into this matter whether it would affect the chances of Mr. Dhanapala becoming the next un general secretary or not. It is clear that the un offices here as well as in USA are working on a different agenda. When Mr. Annan visited Sri Lanka recently there was an attempt by interested parties in the un offices to take him to the northern and the eastern provinces ostensibly to inspect the tsunami affected areas. However there had been some patriotic people in the foreign office who knew what the un was aiming at, and the visit of Mr. Annan to the "affected areas" did not take place. It was reported in the press that the un officials in Colombo were not happy that Mr. Annan could not make the planned visit. It was a planned visit in more than one sense.
It is unfortunate that there are some well meaning people in Sri Lanka who still fail to understand the role played by the westerners in the Tamil problem in Sri Lanka. The whole problem was created by them with the anti Sinhala Buddhist policies of the British as well as the Dutch before them. The Portuguese though they were anti Sinhala Buddhist they were anti Tamil Hindu as well. It was the Dutch who imported Tamils from South India for tobacco cultivation and created a community that was not allowed to mix with the Sinhalas in the country. The British were more sophisticated and carried out a divide and rule policy very effectively. It was the west that created, baptised and nurtured Tamil racism in this country against the Sinhala Buddhists.
Unfortunately for the west, the USA and un that is only an appendage of the white house, are not sophisticated as Britain. They cannot support Tamil racism without exposing themselves in the process. The Christian Scandinavian countries, USA and Canada, not to mention Australia and New Zealand have a lot to learn from Britain in subtle "diplomacy". Mr. Annan may have signed those statements on the killing of Kaushalyan, but the question is who drafted the statements at whose instigation.
Professor Nalin de Silva
>
>
>