Midweek Review

Over a decade after the war ended:The threat persists

Published

4 years ago

2020/11/25

The LTTE ordered protests in Europe and Canada in 2009 in a bid to pressure Sri Lanka to halt the military offensive on the Vanni east front. Canadians of Sri Lankan origin protest in Toronto in March 2009 in support of the LTTE project. The UK Foreign Secretary Miliband and his French counterpart Kouchner made an abortive bid to stop the offensive late April 2009 (file photo)

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The Tamil community never explained why the predominately Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern districts voted overwhelmingly for war-winning Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka at the 2010 general election, after earlier accusing him, and his war winning Army, of war crimes, the writer told a webinar, organized by the Sri Lankan Canadian Action Coalition, on Sunday (Nov 22). The writer questioned the absurdity in war crimes accusations against the backdrop of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the LTTE mouthpiece, throwing its weight behind Fonseka, Sri Lanka’s only Field Marshal, at the crucial poll. In spite of the Tamil vote, Fonseka suffered a heavy defeat. Fonseka lost by over 1.8 mn votes.

Sunday’s webinar, moderated by Prof. Neville Hewage, was the latest in a series organized by the grouping. The 90-minute webinar dealt with Democracy Under Threat: Incitement and Glorification of LTTE terrorism during Maaveerar naal.

The writer made his presentation subsequent to one-time US Colombo Embassy staffer, and now US-based Daya Gamage (author of Tamil Tigers’ debt to America: US Foreign Policy Adventurism; Sri Lanka’s Dilemma) and Geneva-based Prof. Dr. H.C. Mehmet Guzel, of the Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies.

The writer’s presentation: Western Governments’ response to various situations is largely based domestic political concerns. The Western powers conveniently calling themselves the international community, is responding to post-war developments in Sri Lanka, depending primarily on the relationship between the Tamil Diaspora and major political parties therein.

Over a decade after the successful conclusion of the war, the separatist agenda remains a viable threat, though the revival of the once-feared conventional military capability of the LTTE is no longer in the horizon.

However, the LTTE’s defeat has made it easier for Western powers to work with influential Tamil groups, pursuing a common agenda, with some lawmakers represented in the Sri Lanka Parliament.

Regardless of what foreign governments, and Tamil Diaspora groups, say, it is nothing but a political arrangement meant to secure the latter’s support at crucial elections.

What the LTTE couldn’t achieve, through terrorism and military means, its rump and followers might be able to secure with foreign intervention. That is a reality, a possibility Sri Lanka cannot ignore.

Stimulation and glorification

of terrorism

The stimulation and glorification of terrorism, through costly propaganda campaigns and political exercises, at the expense of elected governments here, portend a grave threat to post-war Sri Lanka.

Unfortunately, Sri Lanka’s political setup conveniently ignored the growing threat much to the discomfort of those who strongly believe in the country’s unitary status.

In fact, the LTTE’s defeat has paved the way for Western powers to move the UN in support of those seeking a new Constitution, at the expense of the country’s unitary status; the October 2015 Geneva

The resolution co-sponsored by the treacherous Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government is a case in point.

For want of cohesive action on the part of successive Sri Lankan governments, including the war-winning Rajapaksa administration, that brought the war to a successful conclusion, in May 2009, some of those who had pursued a separatist agenda, though not really involved with the LTTE, during the war, are now at the forefront of high profile diaspora projects meant to divide the country on ethnic lines. Their successes largely depend on overseas political support and backing received from INGOs.

On one hand, a section of the international community accommodated separatist elements and made them a part of their domestic political system, while undermining Sri Lanka, by adopting the war crimes resolution in Geneva in 2015. The Geneva intervention is nothing but glorification of those who waged war against a member State of the UN. The Geneva project should be examined against the backdrop of the annual commemorative events, held in various parts of the world, with the backing of both governments as well as their Opposition political parties. Growing number of voters, of Sri Lankan origin, living in different countries, a lucrative industry in accommodating asylum seekers and human rights lobby, contribute to the mounting insidious campaign against Sri Lanka. Actually, Sri Lanka now faces a bigger threat in spite of the eradication of the LTTE’s military capacity.

TNA strategy

One-time LTTE mouthpiece, the TNA succeeded in compelling Sri Lanka to launch a new constitution-making process, severely inimical to the country. That project had the backing of the US and the UN and could have succeeded, if not for Treasury bond scams perpetrated by the then ruling party, resulting in political turmoil. What Sri Lanka should keep in mind is that the absence of a military threat does not mean the country’s unitary status cannot be challenged and overwhelmed by other means. Having backed General Sarath Fonseka’s presidential polls campaign, in 2010, and Maithripala Sirisena’s five years later, the TNA proved its readiness to change its political tactics with an eye on its overall strategy to break up the country. Thanks to Wikileaks, the role played by the US in the formation of the UNP-led alliance, to back Fonseka, is in the public domain. It would be a grave mistake, on our part, to ignore such developments, while opposing propaganda exercises, such as annual commemorative events. The real threat comes from Western politicians seeking electoral arrangements, with Tamil groups in their countries, for votes.

Before discussing further the post-war relationship between foreign political parties and Tamil groups, let me recollect the Indian intervention in Sri Lanka. Why did India militarily intervene in Sri Lanka in the 80s? The late J.N. Dixit, in early 2004, revealed hitherto unknown reasons for their intervention. Referring to Sri Lanka’s relationship with the US, Israel and Pakistan, Dixit explained why the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi threw her weight behind Sri Lankan terrorist groups. Dixit, one-time Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, asserted in ‘Makers of India’s Foreign Policy’ that Premier Gandhi could be faulted on two foreign policy decisions. Let me quote: “…her ambiguous response to the Russian intrusion into Afghanistan and her giving active support to Sri Lankan Tamil militants. Whatever the criticisms about these decisions, it cannot be denied that she took them on the basis of her assessments about India’s national interests. Her logic was that she couldn’t openly alienate the former Soviet Union when India was so dependent on that country for defence supplies and technologies. Similarly, she could not afford the emergence of Tamil separatism, in India, by refusing to support the aspirations of Sri Lankan Tamils. ….” Dixit added: “In both cases, her decisions were relevant at the point of time they were taken.”

In other words, India jeopardized Sri Lanka to protect her interests. The Indian project paved the way for an attempt to overthrow the Maldivian government in early Nov 1988. Indian-trained Sri Lankan terrorists almost succeeded in seizing control of that country. Perhaps, such raids are not possible today though foreign governments overtly and covertly support those seeking to subvert other countries.

British policy

The British relentlessly pursue an anti-Sri Lanka policy. Maybe their approach is the worst among the countries still backing the LTTE agenda, a decade after the war ended, with the crushing military defeat of the Tigers. British actions promoted terrorism in a big way, while undermining Sri Lanka. Long standing

British policies are inimical to Sri Lanka. They brazenly played politics with Sri Lanka, throughout the war, finally making a last ditch attempt to save the LTTE, in 2009. If the British-French bid to halt the Sri Lankan military offensive succeeded, in April 2009, terrorism would have received unprecedented recognition. The British glorified terrorism, still do for political reasons though all politicians cannot be faulted. However, the British, now the leading country in the Sri Lanka Core Group is pursuing war crimes investigation against us under the 2015 Geneva Resolution by remaining its key supporter.

Having failed to save the LTTE, the UK, a member of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), now pursues war crimes probe as part its overall efforts to appease British voters of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. The UK has refused to consider wartime cables from its High Commission in Colombo! Those classified cables, dispatched by its Defence Advisor, in Colombo, in January-May 2009, and exposed by Lord Naseby, in Oct 2017, disputed the very basis of the Geneva Resolution. Lord Naseby had to utilize the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to secure the documents. The British tried desperately to prevent the release of those documents.

A leaked May 2009 US diplomatic cable, originating from its mission in London, a few months after the war, proved the relationship between the Tamil Diaspora and the British establishment. Thanks to Wikileaks, we know why the British played dirty politics with Sri Lanka and still do. A statement attributed to the then Foreign Secretary David Miliband revealed the Labour Party’s dependence on Tamil voters. The ground situation remains the same. With the Sri Lankan Tamil population in the UK, numbering well over 300,000, and further growing, the British will continue their despicable strategy. That is the undeniable truth.

So it is no wonder the US and UK are now all-out to persecute (not prosecute) Wikileaks Head Julian Assange for exposing to the world the unpalatable truth about what happened to Sri Lanka and other victimized countries. Sri Lanka shouldn’t expect the British or the Canadians to give up their cozy relationship with the Tamil Diaspora for our benefit. Politics is a dirty game. The bulk of our own politicians and utterly corrupt parliamentary system, over the years, proved over and over again political interests always come ahead of national interests.

Genocide charge

At the commencement of the new Parliament, several moons ago, two lawmakers, both leaders of the Jaffna-based political parties, C.V. Wigneswaran and Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam accused the war-winning military of genocide. The Speaker upheld their right to speak freely in Parliament.

Sri Lanka Parliament never found fault with the TNA, that functioned as the political wing of the LTTE, during the conflict, and went to the extent of recognizing Prabhakaran as the sole representative of the Tamils. The TNA glorified the LTTE. Some of its members participated in passing out parades of forcibly recruited children and, at the 2005 presidential election, ordered Tamils not to vote. But no one bothered to take up this issue with the TNA leadership. After the war, the TNA established a close working relationship with the UK-headquartered Global Tamil Forum (GTF). The GTF played its cards well. The GTF once employed Labour lawmaker Joan Ryan as its Chief Executive and Policy Advisor. Why should we be surprised over an MP being on the GTF’s payroll, especially against the backdrop of it having parliamentary recognition? Many do not know the inauguration of the GTF took place in the British Parliament, in early 2010, with the participation of top political party representatives. Later, Ryan returned to Parliament to continue her role. Perhaps, many Sri Lankans may not be aware of how Ryan along, with Siobhain McDonagh, MP, requested the Foreign Secretary to expel Sri Lankan Defence Attaché Brigadier Priyankara Fernando over what they called “inappropriate, unacceptable and threatening” conduct of the officer. McDonagh, in Sept 2011, declared, in Parliament, that the Sri Lankan military killed 100,000 Tamils, including 40,000 civilians, in January-May 2009 alone. In 2012, McDonagh, along with an Australian MP, nominated ITN Channel 4 team, that produced “Sri Lanka Killing Fields,” for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Balasingham receives special treatment

The British had a way with the Diaspora. The Special treatment afforded to British citizen of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, Anton Balasingham, underscored the UK policy. British citizen Balasingham, a former British High Commission employee in Colombo, was allowed to function as the LTTE’s advisor in spite of proscription of the group. The British policy remained the same, even after the LTTE assassinated Indian leader Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1991, and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, in August 2005. Instead of stripping Balasingham of given nationality, the British facilitated a secret meeting between a high level Norwegian delegation, and Balasingham, in the UK, to discuss the Kadirgamar assassination.

Terrorism received a mega boost when the UK’s Conservative Party, in the run-up to the Dec 2019 general election, proposed, what it called, a two State solution to solve the Sri Lankan problem. The Conservative manifesto declared: “We will continue to support international initiatives to achieve reconciliation, stability and justice across the world, and in the former conflict zones such as Cyprus, Sri Lanka and the Middle East, where we maintain our support for a two-state solution.”

Sri Lanka opposed that statement. In the wake Colombo’s opposition, the Conservative Party, claimed the two-state solution was a reference to the Israel-Palestine situation. The UK’s policy is nothing but horrible. Balasingham’s widow, Adela, often pictured handing over cyanide capsules to LTTE terrorists, is living in the UK.

Promoting terrorism the British way

The UK obviously promoted terrorism by bending backwards to appease Tamil voters. There cannot be a better example than the Tamils forcing Cineworld, Odeon and Vue to cancel the screening of Shoojit

Sircar’s ‘Madras Café’ in late 2013. Tamils threatened the UK with violence if cinemas went ahead. Have you ever heard of Diaspora of any origin threatening violence over the screening of a movie? What the Tamils couldn’t stomach was ‘Madras Café’ portrayal of the LTTE assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, a despicable crime that deeply wounded India, the god father of terrorism in Sri Lanka.

In March 2011 ahead of the Geneva session, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Robert Blake, who was also one-time US Ambassador in Colombo, received a top GTF delegation in Washington. GTF’s President Rev Father S.J. Emmanuel led the delegation. I had the opportunity to meet the GTF President in London in early 2015 soon after him, in the company of other GTF live wire Suren Surendiran, met the Sri Lanka Government delegation, led by President Sirisena. Recent Canadian rejection of a petition by MP Gary Anandasangaree seeking government support for a legislative effort to remove sovereign immunity as a defense by States against genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and enforced disappearances is certainly something Sri Lankan-Canadian Action Coalition can be quite proud of. Canada also rejected Anandasangaree’s call to refer Sri Lanka to the Committee established under the Convention Against Enforced Disappearances under its Article 32. However, Sri Lanka should be cautious of on-going moves in different countries to pressure Sri Lanka over accountability issues.

The move to do away with the UK ban on the LTTE may give a turbo boost to separatist agenda. The UK’s Proscribed Organizations Appeal Commission found that a 2001 decision to keep the ban on the LTTE was “flawed” and unlawful, and may open the way for the proscription to be lifted. It would be pertinent to mention that foreign governments tolerate various Diaspora groups because they can be used to exert pressure on targeted administrations. Nothing can be further from the truth that Western governments are interested in human rights. The world knows how US-British coalition cooked up Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) allegations to invade Iraq in 2003. Those Iraqis who cooperated with Western powers were hailed heroes. The US-UK project destroyed Iraq.

Sri Lanka needs a cohesive action plan to counter lies. Our failure has caused setbacks. In the absence of a tangible action plan, the country suffered badly. Sri Lanka remains in Geneva’s agenda it is proven by the fact that much celebrated Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva has been categorized as a war criminal on mere hearsay. Our failure to prove our innocence is even worse than glorification of terrorism.

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Midweek Review

Ranil in Head-to-Head controversy

Published

18 hours ago

2025/03/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

Wickremesinghe responds to Hasan during the controversial interview recorded in London

Former Commander-in-Chief and ex-President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s inadequate defence of the war-winning armed forces underscores the failure on the part of successive governments to address war crimes allegations. Wickremesinghe’s responses highlighted Sri Lanka’s collective and pathetic failure to defend its armed forces. The country missed an opportunity to question the absurdity of UN war crimes accusations based on claims by persons who couldn’t be questioned till 2030 as a result of shocking confidentiality clauses in the Panel of Experts’ report. Imagine a one sided trial where you cannot cross examine your accusers for 30 long years. No wonder much of the world is increasingly demanding urgent reforms in the United Nations as much of its system is rigged by the collective West since its formation.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Al Jazeera’s Head-to-Head presenter Mehdi Hasan and former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in an interview recorded in February but released last week, dealt with the conclusion of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 without referring to the origins of terrorism here, while prolonging the narrative we were the bad guys throughout and not a word about the LTTE and how it terrorised this country for about 30 years.

The chosen audience at London’s Conway Hall, too, conveniently refrained from bringing up accountability on the part of India in sponsoring terrorism, beginning early ’80s. The issue is would there have been Mullivaikkal bloodshed if India didn’t step in here to pacify Tamil Nadu sentiments? Separatist terrorism received extensive backing in the West and there couldn’t be a better example than the LTTE being allowed to operate its International Secretariat in London, even after it assassinated former Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991, while campaigning in Tamil Nadu.

The discussion covered heavy defeat suffered by Wickremesinghe at the last year’s presidential election, still unfinished investigations into the 2019 Easter bombings, the failure on his part to prosecute the Rajapaksas, as well as why punitive measures weren’t taken against Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and unleashing the military on Aragalaya immediately after Parliament elected him President, in July 2022.

Hasan had conveniently forgotten that Wickremesinghe earlier threw his weight behind Aragalaya . Harin Fernando, who had been a SJB member of Parliament at the time of the Aragalaya, is on record as having said that Wickremesinghe directed him to join the campaign to oust Gotabaya Rajapaksa. One-time UNP MP Prof. Ashu Marasinghe, too, disclosed the UNP’s role in Aragalaya.

UK-born British-American broadcaster Hasan aggressively pushed Wickremesinghe on the accountability issues while the UNP leader, at least ended up defending General Shavendra Silva, the wartime General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the celebrated 58 Division (former Task Force 1) accused by the US and UN of perpetrating war crimes without providing any evidence.

Wickremesinghe should have exploited the reference made by the audience to the 1983 violence directed at the Tamil community to remind the world of the events leading to the unprecedented riots. Let me stress that no right thinking person would condone targeting civilians, under any circumstances. However, the country wouldn’t have erupted in July 1983 if not for the Indian military training Tamil terrorist groups and for some inexplicable reason, most probably out of fear, the failure on the part of JRJ to nip the riots in the bud. There were also some extreme elements of the UNP, led by its notorious trade union arm JSS, that perpetrated some of the violence. Some in the police, too, played a part in encouraging rioters, often to make a killing for themselves by taking part of the looted items. President Jayewardene even failed to address the issue for several days. The 1983 riots should be always examined, taking into consideration how the Indian trained LTTE terrorists successfully attacked an Army patrol at Thinnaweli, Jaffna. Of the 14-man contingent, only one survived. There had never been such a devastating attack on the Army, though there were sporadic small arms attacks on police.

Strangely, Hasan and Wickremesinghe discussed war crimes, atrocities and war-related allegations without once referring to the war waged by the Indian Army in the Northern and Eastern regions as if Indians were sacred cows. The audience, too, remained silent. Those who had been demanding accountability on the part of Sri Lanka never once questioned India’s culpability or the innumerable acts of terrorism resorted to by the LTTE, probably taking more Tamil lives, especially those of its rivals and moderate Tamils, who dared to speak up, than the number of security forces personnel and innocent Sinhalese civilians it killed. The fact that India suffered 1,300 officers and men killed and nearly 3,000 others wounded in encounters with the LTTE during July 1987-March 1990 deployment of its euphemistically called Indian Peace Keeping Force here proved the massive security crisis New Delhi helped to create here.

Have you ever heard of anyone seeking an explanation from New Delhi for the 1988 PLOTE (People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam) raid on the Maldives? Indian trained PLOTE cadres carried out the sea-borne operation, targeting the then Maldivian leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom at the behest of influential Maldivian Abdulla Luthufee. Would Hasan, born to parents from Hyderabad, and nine at the time of the PLOTE raid, dared to question India’s culpability. We haven’t heard anyone demanding to know the identities of those who perished in the failed Maldivian operation or Sri Lankan Tamils killed in India after the assassination of its one-time Premier Rajiv Gandhi by a teenage suicide bomber in Tamil Nadu.

Seasoned politician Wickremesinghe could have taken advantage of the Head-to-Head ‘show’ to set the record straight in the presence of Frances Harrison, former BBC-Sri Lanka correspondent, Director of International Truth and Justice Project and author of ‘Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War,’ and Dr. Madura Rasaratnam, Executive Director of PEARL (People for Equality and Relief in Lanka), that was formed in 2005 in the run-up to the Eelam War IV (2006 August to 2009 May). The other panelist was former UK and EU MP and Wickremesinghe’s presidential envoy, Niranjan Joseph de Silva Deva Aditya whose interventions didn’t help Wickremesinghe at all. Aditya’s declaration towards the tail end of the 49-minute programme that Wickremesinghe caused a devastating split in the LTTE, in 2003, during Oslo arranged talks, seemed absurd.

Addressing a hastily arranged press conference in Colombo, Wickremesinghe alleged that the husband of Executive Director, PEARL and senior lecturer at City University of London Dr. Madura Rasaratnam, had been an associate of LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham. Wickremesinghe asked her to correct him if he was wrong. It would have been better if Wickremesinghe reminded that the late Balasingham had been a British citizen and his Australian-born wife Adele, who promoted recruitment of child soldiers and appeared in LTTE ‘uniform’ and garlanded LTTE female soldiers with their trade mark cyanide capsule, which they always carried around their necks, as they passed out after undergoing training for propaganda purposes. She is now living in the UK, so perhaps Al Jazeera can interview Adele about her sordid role in marching those girls, many of them being underage, to a certain gory death, especially in the event of being captured, as they had been ordered by the LTTE to bite their cyanide capsules.

Hasan accused the Sri Lankan military of depriving the Tamil people of food, medicine and other basic essentials during the war. Unfortunately, former president and six-time Premier Wickremesinghe pathetically failed to counter often repeated lies. Had Wickremesinghe perused the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts (PoE) report (read Darusman report) released in 2011, he could have comfortably defended the war-winning military. The UN report acknowledged that the ICRC (International Committee for Red Cross)-run ships evacuated the wounded and the WFP (World Food Programme) sent food to Puthumathalan until the very end. Though the programme is headlined Head-to Head, our ex-President pathetically failed to counter Hasan with credible answers on one-sided questions raised by the interviewer.

Forgotten Lord Naseby’s disclosure

It would be pertinent to mention that Wickremesinghe’s UNP never backed our fighting the Eelam War IV. The UNP quite confidently thought the LTTE could never be defeated, militarily. Actually, the UNP humiliated the military and questioned Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s suitability to lead the Army. One of its top rung Ministers, the late Mangala Samaraweeer,a even claimed in public that Fonseka was not fit even to lead the Salvation Army, that would have been a case of USAID money disbursed underhand to people like him, working overtime.

Hasan accusing Wickremesinghe of defending the military and the Rajapaksas seemed ridiculous against the backdrop of the latter’s treacherous co-sponsorship of an accountability resolution against one’s own security forces at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by his government.

Then Premier Wickremesinghe teamed up with Yahapalana President Maithripala Sisisena to betray the warwinning military. In line with a backdoor agreement with the US and Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the Yahapalana government agreed to establish hybrid war crimes mechanism to investigate alleged war crimes.

The former President could have used Lord Naseby’s disclosure of confidential wartime British High Commission dispatches from Colombo to question Hasan and the audience on war dead. Both British diplomatic cables and a UN report that had dealt with war dead placed the figure between 7,000 and 8,000 whereas the PoE estimated 40,000 dead. Wickremesinghe couldn’t have been unaware of Lord Naseby’s revelation and the much discussed Colombo based US Defence Attaché Colonel Lawrence Smith’s declaration at the first ever Colombo Defence seminar, in 2011, regarding claims of planned surrender by a section of the LTTE. The writer was present at the event when Smith responded to questions raised by Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta, who had served as the Indian commander in charge of the Barricaloa-Ampara sector during the 1987-1988 period.

“Hello, may I say something to a couple of questions raised. I’ve been the Defence Attaché here at the US Embassy since June 2008. Regarding the various versions of events that came out in the final hours and days of the conflict — from what I was privileged to hear and to see, the offers to surrender that I am aware of seemed to come from the mouthpieces of the LTTE — Nadesan, KP — people who weren’t and never had really demonstrated any control over the leadership or the combat power of the LTTE.

“So their offers were a bit suspect anyway, and they tended to vary in content hour by hour, day by day. I think we need to examine the credibility of those offers before we leap to conclusions that such offers were in fact real.

“And I think the same is true for the version of events. It’s not so uncommon in combat operations, in the fog of war, as we all get our reports second, third and fourth hand from various commanders at various levels that the stories don’t seem to all quite match up.

“But I can say that the version presented here so far in this is what I heard as I was here during that time. And I think I better leave it at that before I get into trouble”, he said.

No point in blaming Wickremesinghe for not exploiting such available information in the public domain when the warwinning team (read Rajapaksa governments) shamefully failed to mount an effective counter attack. The Rajapaksas were always in denial mode and never really wanted to address issues in a methodical way. Instead of using all available information to mount an effective defence, the Rajapaksa government squandered millions of USD for propaganda efforts in the US.

Wickremesinghe should have mentioned before the Conway Hall WikiLeaks revelations pertained to the war. WikiLeaks revealed a US dispatch that quoted ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia Jacques de Maio as having told US Ambassador in Geneva, Clint Williamson, though there had been serious violations of International Humanitarian Law, there was no genocide.

Perhaps, one of the most significant declarations that had been made by de Maio was that the Army actually could have won the military battle faster with higher civilian casualties, yet chose a slower approach which led to a greater number of Sri Lankan military deaths. Obviously Wickremesinghe hadn’t been aware of developments he should have been conversant with and as a result the former President couldn’t hit back hard.

How could Yahapalana Premier Wickremesinghe fail to mention two mega lies that had been propagated during his tenure, but subsequently exposed? High profile accusations regarding Mannar mass graves accepted no less a person than UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet and the then Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran’s claim of the Army poisoning over 100 LTTE cadres in custody proved to be nothing but lies.

The Fonseka factor

Wickremesinghe could have mentioned conscription of children by the LTTE and indiscriminate use of women in high intensity battles, particularly in the Northern theatre. The ex-President failed to do so. Perhaps, Wickremesinghe should have reminded the Conway Hall crowd that the people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces had clearly disregarded unsubstantiated war crimes accusations by overwhelmingly voting for retired General Sarath Fonseka at the 2010 presidential election. Although Fonseka lost by a staggering 1.8 mn votes, he comfortably won eight predominately Tamil-speaking administrative districts, including Jaffna, just nine months after the conclusion of the war.

War crimes allegations ended up in a wastepaper basket the day the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), one-time LTTE mouthpiece, declared its support for Fonseka. Against the backdrop of the TNA backing Fonseka, whose Army had been accused of human rights violations on a massive scale, often repeated allegations seemed untenable.

Wickremesinghe cannot, under any circumstances, forget that episode as it was his project that brought UNP-TNA-JVP-SLMC and CWC together in 2010. WikiLeaks exposed US dispatches from Colombo pertaining to the US hand in the political project.

We haven’t heard of PEARL or any other organization with similar vision requesting the LTTE to release civilians held during the last phase of the fighting as a human shield by the besieged LTTE. Having forced over 300,000 people to accompany retreating LTTE units, they used them as human shields. The bottom line is that the Diaspora remained blind to civilian sufferings as long as they felt the LTTE could deliver a knockout blow to the Army on the Vanni east front. Canada-based veteran journalist, D. B. S Jayaraj, then considered as an authority on the conflict by many, confidently predicted, in late Dec. 2008, an impending devastating LTTE counter attack and the rolling back of the Army. Then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had been a frontline combat officer during his entire military career till he retired in the early ’90s , told the writer at the time that the LTTE was not in a position to reverse the situation. Within two weeks, the Army overran Kilinochchi, the headquarters of the LTTE. That was the end of the story.

Wickremesinghe and none of those seated at the Conway Hall ever anticipated the fall of Kilinochchi in early January 2009 and the total collapse of the Tiger fighting formations, within five months.

RW’s response to Aragalaya

Hasan questioned Wickremesinghe regarding his response to Aragalaya as well as what was known as the Batalanda torture camp that existed in the late’ 80s.

Hasan never sought Wickremesinghe’s opinion on the alleged US role in Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ousting, in spite of recent US declarations about USAID interventions in many parts of the world and accusations the US intervened in support of Aragalaya. Interestingly, Hasan found fault with Wickremesinghe for ordering the military to restore law and order while the former President recalled massive destruction caused by Aragalaya and the bid to storm Parliament. Wickremesinghe reminded Hasan how Aragalaya activists killed SLPP parliamentarian Amarakeerthi Atukorale at Nittambuwa. Atukorale was the last MP killed in violence. The LTTE and the JVP killed over 50 serving and ex-parliamentarians and many lesser politicians.

Batalanda operation, whether we like it or not, had been in line with President JRJ counter insurgency strategy at a time the JVP threatened to overwhelm the UNP-led dictatorial government, taking advantage of the Indo-Lanka accord and the deployment of the Indian Army here to inspire violence. Countries that had been threatened by terrorism adopted controversial measures such as ‘extraordinary rendition’ (apprehending/kidnapping suspected terrorists and detain them in countries where torture is widely practiced. The US-led operation received the backing of many countries, including the UK and Sri Lanka).

The second JVP insurrection had to be crushed, whatever the consequences were, though President JRJ should be held responsible for the catastrophic political measures that plunged the country into turmoil. Wickremesinghe had been a member of JRJ’s Cabinet and should be held collectively responsible for the mayhem the then President caused.

Proscription of the JVP in the run-up to the 1982 presidential election and the postponement of parliamentary election that was to be held in 1983 to 1989 caused resentment among all communities and set the stage for terrorist campaigns in the North and the South. The UNP that had caused so much political destruction is today represented in Parliament by just one MP (CWC member as the party contested under the Elephant symbol).

Wickremesinghe should be grateful to Hasan for not asking him to explain how under his watch the UNP deteriorated to such an extent that it was reduced to zero in Parliament. It would have been better if Hasan asked Wickremesinghe to explain why the Yahapalana administration from 2015 to 2019 borrowed billions of dollars from the international bond market, at high interest, and contributed to the economic bankruptcy of the country in 2022.

Midweek Review

Guru Geethaya:

Published

18 hours ago

2025/03/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

A Melancholic Song for Public Education and Social Enlightenment

by Liyanage Amarakeerthi

Guru Geethaya , the song of a teacher, the Sinhala version of Chingiz Aitmatov’s famous novel, The First Teacher, is one of the most inspirational novels among Sinhala readers. Rendered to Sinhala by the veteran translator, Dedigama V. Rodrigo, the novel entered the Sinhala literary scene through the admirable efforts of the Progress Publishers of the former Soviet Union. And like many other Russian and Soviet classics, Guru Geethaya was available at a cheap price. Progress Publishers must be commended for that service. With the fall of the Soviet Union, one of the phenomenal entities that shaped our literary knowledge and taste, the Progress Publishers fell apart. Now, those Russian classics are not easily available, certainly not at an affordable price. Perhaps, a separate essay must be written about the progressive contribution that the Progress Publishers made to enrich Sinhala literary culture. And of course, those Russian classics were translated into Tamil as well.

Sinhala film of a Soviet Novel

Upali Gamlath has made a Sinhala film out of Guru Geethaya, and after waiting in line for many years, the film was recently released. It was heartening to see a sizable audience attended an evening show of Guru Geethaya last weekend at Kandy. I came to know that the film was doing well. Guru Geethaya, the film, regardless of its quality as a work of art, must continue to attract audiences, and it has potential to contribute to the rebuilding of the Sinhala film industry.

As a work of art, I have mixed feelings about Guru Geethaya. After all, it is the first film by the director. Here and there, there are glimpses of cinematic excellence. The actors in the leading role make an admirable effort to create the Duishen and Altynai, one of the best-known fictional couples in the Sinhala literary world. The Sinhala film version of the novel focuses mostly on the latent romantic relationship between the central couple. When Duishen arrives in this remote Kirgiz village in 1924 to establish a school, Altynai was just fourteen years old, and Duishen is, perhaps, in his late twenties. Just seven years after the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union is in the process of propagating modern education even to distant villages in massive Soviet Russia. This idealist young teacher from the communist party wants the children of these backward hinterlands to receive modern education. When he arrives there, both parents and children of these mountains are illiterate and trapped in a tribal mode of existence. If there is anything called ‘education’ they have received, it is the religious dogma passed on to them by Islamic mullahs.

Youthful Idealism

In an extremely patriarchal world, a fourteen-year-old girl, an orphan, living under the oppression of distant relatives, Altynai has no hope for a happy future. And there is no hope for modern education. Right at that moment, Duishen arrives at the village as an agent of the Russian revolution and as a harbinger of revolutionary modernity. He is passionate about establishing a school there. By the third decade of the twentieth century, education is a right, and every child born into this world must be educated. In Soviet Russia, educating the Russian population was a goal of the revolution. ‘Abolition of illiteracy’ was a revolutionary goal often articulated by Lenin himself.

Among those village kids, only Altynai can share the idealism of Duishen. She has never known a school. But she instinctively knows that education is something desirable and the only way to get out of the trap of ignorance and poverty. In that male-dominated world ruled by Mullah-ethics, she is sold to be the second wife of a much older man. Duishen must liberate the girl from those uncultured men before she is sent away to Moscow for an education institute newly established by the Soviet government. The teacher manages to get her away those men but not before she was abducted and raped.

This slim novel, less than one hundred pages, captures the essence of what the agents of revolution had to face when modernising distant Soviet lands. Of course, they had to engage in this process of social development while the liberal West led by the US, and the religious West, led by the Catholic church, were unitedly working to defeat the revolution. Ironically, the Russian revolution shared many ideals of Western modernity. For example, the liberal West could have supported what people like Duishen were doing in these remote Kirgiz villages in the 1920s. But geopolitics did not work that way, especially during the cold war. It may be cold, but it was certainly ‘war’, and the West was so sure of it. We may have all kinds of issues about the brutality of Stalinist Russia, but the early idealism of the Russian revolution represented in this slim novel, The First Teacher or, Guru Geethaya, has been so inspirational for many of us in the developing world.

Growing up as a son of a working-class family in rural Sri Lanka, I would not have become a professor at a university without the free education system of our country. When I first read Guru Geethaya as a teenager in the mid 1980s, I literally fell in love with the novel. Of course, like many others, I too idealised the teacher, Duishen. Many years later, I learned that there were greater novels. Even among Russian novels, this is not the greatest. I would rate Doctor Zhivago, a critique of revolutionary violence and idealism, much higher than Guru Geethaya. Aitmatov himself has written greater novels- many of which have been translated into Sinhala. But people adore this slim novel about a devoted teacher. Perhaps, the love for our free education system is unconsciously projected onto Duishen. Sinhala people often liken good schoolteachers to Duishen.

As I said earlier, the focus of Upali Gamlath’s film version of the novel is on the unexpressed romantic love between Duishen and Altynai. In the novel as a man of revolution and as an adult, Dushen controls his emotions about the pretty and intelligent Altynai. In the Sinhala film, his love is much more pronounced though never expressed in words. In the novel, Altynai from her Moscow school writes a letter to Duishen expressing her love. We do not get to know whether he ever received it. By this time, World War II was around the corner, or the war had already arrived, and the counter-revolutionary forces in Russia were also creating troubles. Stalinist state machine is doing all the bad things that we now know. So, Duishen must have been preoccupied with other things. Or being an ideal teacher, he did not want to accept her love.

Creative Readings and a slim novel

It may be slim in terms of number of pages, but Aitmatov’s novel offers so much to an inventive reader. One could even argue that it is implicitly critical of the Soviet education endeavor. For example, with all due respect to the idealism and kindness of Duishen, he is an extremely limited first teacher. Except for his idealist loyalty to the communist party, he does not have any serious idea of education. In that sense, the novel can be read as an implicit critique of the kind of education the Soviet government established in distant villages. Except for just one girl, we do not know how many others were freed from illiteracy. During much of the early decades of the twentieth century, Lenin wrote extensively about the need for ‘proper education.’ Many of those writings have been collected as On Public Education (1975), again, by Progress Publishers. Writing to safeguard the revolution, by education Lenin meant, a kind of indoctrination aimed at liberating people from ‘bourgeois ideologies’ and getting them under the dictatorship of one party. For me, it is an extremely limited understanding of education. But when he firmly believed that “Russia is the country assigned by history the role of trailblazer of the socialist revolution(p. 77)”, it was easy for Lenin to see education as a huge propaganda programme intended to establish the dominance of a single party, by extension the dominance of a single ideology. When Duishen starts his school in the Kirgiz village, he pastes a photo of Lenin on the wall. There Duishen is an instrument of spreading the ideology of a single party. But with all those ideological limits, the revolutionary government was trying to make the Russian population literate. In a short essay called, “About our schools” written in 1913, included in the book mentioned above, Lenin explains how badly funded and poorly administered Russian schools were under the Tsar administration and religious authorities. It was clear that for the Tsar regime illiteracy was a tool of ruling. The role of teachers such as Duishen needs to be appreciated in that context.

By now history has given Guru Geethaya its proper place. It is a simple, short novel, about a teacher who attempted to live an ideal life within his own historical context.

In the novel, Aitmatov does not tell us what Dushen teaches. The content of that education is not known to us. Reading the novel now, and of course watching the movie, exactly one hundred years after Duishen arrived in that village, we are experienced and theoretically equipped enough to see beyond the context of the novel’s original context. The Sinhala movie, however, does not provide us with such rich artistic experience.

Saving the Girl/Women

When the revolutionary guards arrive in this remote village to assist Duishen, Altynai has been abducted and raped. If the education system was better planned the girl would have had a much more dignified life without going through that humiliation. Her traumatic experience is so much that she does not return to her village until after she becomes a professor, and she is invited to attend a function.

The Sinhala film industry seems to be making a comeback. And it needs a wide variety of movies to regularly attract a diverse audience. In that sense, I am more than happy that Guru Geethaya is doing well. At the same time, in the context of recent political change, where the need for revitalising our free education system is voiced from many quarters, this film is a melancholic song for an uplifting education. Not to get everyone under the ideological will of a single party, our education must be one that liberates us from all forms of dominance and authority.

Though written in 1962, the novel is set in 1924, which was also the year of Lenin’s death -an incident beautifully described in the novel. There he is represented as a visionary man who wanted to create a better future for these rural children. Within a very different context those who initiated the free education system in Sri Lanka also envisioned a better future for us. That is perhaps why Guru Geethaya has been a beloved piece of literature that draws crowds even to its film version.