Penguin India terminates contract

Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda yesterday (03) said that the role played by the Navy in eradicating the LTTE couldn’t be suppressed by Amazon UK stopping sale of the wartime Navy Chief’s memoirs ‘The Turning Point: The Naval Role in Sri Lanka’s War on LTTE Terrorism’

Karannagoda, who served as the Navy Commander during the period Sept. 2005 to July 2009, said that he was quite surprised by the Amazon UK decision. Karannagoda said so responding to The Island queries. Asked to explain, the naval veteran said that Amazon took the decision consequent to International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) warning that they breached UK sanctions law.

Established in South Africa, ITJP has been accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes since its inception in 2013.

Yasmin Sooka, who served as a member of UN Secretary General Ban-ki-moon’s three-member panel, that suddenly accused the Sri Lankan military of killing over 40,000 civilians, a figure plucked out of thin air, during the last phase of the conflict, is the Executive Director of the ITPJ, a recipient of substantial international funding. This is while there is hardly even a word about the on-going genocide in Palestine committed by Israel with the backing of the USA, the UK and their fellow bloodthirsty cohorts.

Karannagoda said that Penguin Random House India, the book’s publisher, rattled by the unexpected UK move, sought to cancel their agreement. “I didn’t want the publisher to experience any difficulty. Therefore, we did away with the agreement,” Karannagoda said, underscoring the responsibility on the part of Sri Lanka to set the record straight.

ITJP has referred the book to the UK’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation for investigation.

Karannagoda said that the ITJP’s intervention should be examined against the backdrop of how the India-sponsored terrorism project caused massive death and destruction in Sri Lanka and the responsibility and accountability of those countries supportive of LTTE’s murderous project. “Don’t forget the UK allowed LTTE to maintain its so-called International Secretariat in London. The LTTE maintained a significant presence at the time the organisation assassinated former Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1991,” Karannagoda said.

Responding to another query, Karannagoda said that obviously ITPJ took advantage of the UK action announced in late March this year. The ex-Navy Chief was referring to sanctions imposed on Karannagoda, General (retd.) Shavendra Silva, retired Army Commander General Jagath Jayasuriya and former LTTE field commander Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, aka Karuna Amman.

ITJP has also attacked Penguin India for publishing Karannagoda’s memoirs. The much respected retired officer emphasised that those who served the country, at the risk of their lives, were under fire. “If ITJP is genuinely interested in knowing how Sri Lanka sought to assist civilians trapped in the Vanni east war zone, it can contact the Indian medical team that was deployed at Pulmoddai, north of Trincomalee, to receive the wounded evacuated by the Navy and ICRC jointly. Those who accuse us of genocide have quite conveniently forgotten the government wouldn’t have requested India to establish a medical facility at Pulmoddai, in February 2009, and then move to Manik Farm where they looked after the displaced,” Karannagoda said.

Karannagoda suggested that ITJP was serving the interests of its sponsors. Commenting on the campaign against his memoirs, Karannagoda said that some of those who couldn’t stomach Sri Lanka’s triumph over separatist terrorism may find the US support for the destruction of the LTTE’s floating arsenals disturbing.

A Sinhala version of Karannagoda’s memoirs was published several years ago.

The US blacklisted Karannagoda in April 2023. The US imposed a travel ban on General Shavendra Silva in February 2020.

Karannagoda said that ITPJ latest show could be part of the overall strategy against Sri Lanka at the forthcoming 60th session of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Karannagoda was the only retired Sri Lankan security forces officer to win the attention of Penguin India.

By Shamindra Ferdinando