BETRAYAL MOST FOUL

24 September 2013 06:22 am - 0 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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The military defeat of the LTTE Terrorists in May 2009 did not bring in its wake a return to decency; a return of standards or good governance that we once stupidly took for granted. On the other hand, that defeat brought out the worst qualities of the powers that be; namely the politicians in the forefront of their parties that we could never have dreamt of seeing even in our worst nightmares.

In general, both the incumbent President and those seeking his job with a passion that defies description have all sought to gain some credit for the victory over the LTTE and to convert that into a passport to power.

Thus, one finds President Mahinda Rajapaksa never failing to refer to the victory over the LTTE which was indisputably gained thanks largely to the steadfast leadership he gave the Country at the time.

On the other hand we find General Sarath Fonseka claiming credit for the victory, chiefly on the ground that he, equally indisputably, led the Army at the time, it having been the Army that bore the brunt of the fighting.

In the midst of this one finds the architect of the incredibly stupid and treacherous ceasefire agreement Wickremasinghe seeking, without a fraction of a gram of shame, to gain credit for the victory by claiming credit for the defection of Karuna and the disillusionment that he allegedly set in the cadres of the LTTE during the currency of the ceasefire agreement.

All this however, does not warrant and/or justify the betrayal of those who actually bore the brunt of the fighting. Whoever makes claim to credit for the victory, let us not forget that the people who were most responsible for it were not those at the helm of the Country or of the armed forces, but the enlisted men, the soldiers, the seamen, the airmen and the policemen who, together with `junior’ officers, bore the brunt of the fighting on the ground; who suffered indescribable hardships and risked both life

and limb sometimes sacrificing both or one or the other, to attain that end. The contribution to the victory made by their discipline; their fortitude and their readiness to sacrifice cannot be over-estimated.

However, after the war victory these brave men were largely forgotten and as I then predicted, those who were injured and disabled in the course of that which is termed the ‘war’ who were then described as “Ranaviruvas” (war heroes) would soon become “Abadhithayas”, (the disabled). They are utilised for political purposes such as by being paraded before the People on their wheelchairs at parades such as the Independence Day parade, but little in concrete terms is done for them.

Mahinda Rajapaksa showed genuine independence, leadership and courage during that conflict when he told the foreigners who sought strongly to interfere where to ‘get off’. If we thought as many including I did, that those foreigners such as Moon, the servant of the so-called United Nations, Clinton, Milliband, Kouchner and Company would simply lick their wounds and fade away, we were soon to be disappointed or disillusioned.

However, that phase when Rajapaksa displayed true qualities of leadership vanished with the victory, for thereafter he became nothing more than a “common or garden” politician whose objectives were to retain power for himself and/or his family.

Thus, Rajapaksa, who once roared like a lion at the foreigners, displayed our independence and led our Country to triumph over the vile terrorists called the LTTE, has now become a devotee of the powerful and strains ever nerve, muscle and fibre in his being to please or appease those who attacked us and those who sought to prevent the defeat of the LTTE, namely the powerful nations of the West, and their minions such as Moon and Pillay.

The grand victory won by our armed forces with an unbelievable amount of self sacrifice has now been converted into a veritable defeat and we who crowed over that victory with understandable relief are now groveling at the feet of the foreigners who sought to prevent the defeat of the LTTE by causing us to declare a ceasefire while knowing that they, by so doing were in fact inviting us to commit suicide.

Thus, we are now left with the question of who actually won the conflict. Were we the victors or the vanquished?? Today, some nations of the West who tried to prevent that victory together with the rowdy traitors among the Tamils resident abroad called and known as the “Tamil Diaspora” and their stupid organisations called the TGTE and GTF which were designed to revive the LTTE and/or separatism are now riding high; and we are seeking ways and means of pleasing or appeasing them.

Accordingly, the vanquished are now on top and we the supposed victors are grovelling at their feet. These shameful acts were compounded by the betrayal of those who fought to save our Country from terrorism.

I refer in particular to the case now instituted against 13 police officers, almost wholly from the STF for the murders of five youth in Trincomalee. Those murders were a horrific and unforgivable crime. However, if it does not and cannot follow that horrific and unforgivable crime it must be compounded by the commission of a far more horrific and unforgivable crime by brave and committed personnel of the security forces against whom there exists no evidence of complicity in that crime, and cannot be charged with therefore.

The recent lamentable history of our Land shows that the culprits have not been brought to book, incarcerated or charged in respect of many other crimes that were quite as horrific and unforgivable as, or even more horrific and unforgivable than the murders of the five youths in Trincomalee. The murders of 670 odd police officers in the Eastern Province by terrorists of the LTTE after they laid down their arms at the behest of the UNP Government is one incident which will go down in history as perhaps the biggest and most despicable betrayal of loyal citizens ever recorded in our Land.

Nobody was brought to book for that crime; nobody was incarcerated or charged and indeed ‘Karuna’ and ‘Pillaiyan’; who were the leaders of the LTTE in the East during that period are now safely ensconced in the arms of the Government and beyond the reach of any law enforcement agencies. The foul murderers of several Tamil Police Officers in the Jaffna Peninsula., of Chief Inspector Bastiampillai and four other police officers in Madhu, of Amirthalingam, Yogeswaran (former MP for Jaffna) and of my erstwhile colleague and batch-mate Neelan Thiruchelvam, as well as of my erstwhile friend in Parliament, Sam Thambimuththu (former MP for the Batticaloa District) and his wife had never ever been brought to book nor has any action been taken to incarcerate or prosecute any persons for those murders.
Indeed, even the so called `businessmen’ posing as ‘human rights activists’ have not castigated the Government for such failures or called for the prosecution of those responsible. Those crimes, it must be remembered were indisputably committed by the LTTE or some other group of separatist terrorists. Does this explain their deafening silence ???

However, it was not so regarding the murders of five youths in Trincomalee. The only people who ‘gained’ from those murders were the LTTE and its allies, for even today, those foul murders are being `thrown’ at the Government by the LTTE and its allies including many countries from the rapacious West. All of them, without exception maintain a deafening silence about crimes such as those mentioned above that were committed by the LTTE In the wake of those accusations, our Government now replete with appeasers par excellence like GL Peiris, in its despicable urge to curry favour with those who attack them have betrayed 13 patriotic police officers [12 from the STF and one from the regular uniformed police] and suddenly prosecuted them for the murder of five youths in Trincomalee, the wholesale lack of any evidence against them notwithstanding.

These patriots were on duty at a check-point approximately one kilometre away from the Gandhi statue where the murders took place. According to the evidence recorded at the Udalagama Commission of Inquiry, these doughty young men rushed to the scene of the offence upon hearing an explosion and shooting. They were thereafter incarcerated, not because any of them were identified as having committed that crime or of having being participants therein but simply because they, presumably, were the first members of the security forces to be on the scene. They were incarcerated on detention orders from around the February 06 to about April 12, 2006 when they were released consequent to the Attorney General [the holder of that once respected office at the time, according to my recollection was CR De Silva PC who subsequently headed the LLRC] advising the Police that there was no evidence to institute a prosecution against them and that there was no purpose to be served by detaining them further. That letter is part and parcel of the case record. Thereafter the Attorney General wrote to the Police once again stating that while the CID had done a good and thorough investigation there was yet no evidence to identify the culprits and requesting them to continue with investigations and to report back to the Attorney General should any such evidence transpire. No such evidence transpired and no such communication from the Police was received by the Attorney General stating that the perpetrators of this foul crime had been identified. To the best of my knowledge and belief such further investigations as were made did not result in the recording of any statements that are relevant to the matter.

The Police personnel who were so unjustly and wholly arbitrarily incarcerated went back to their official duties upon their release and for seven years they were free and performing such duties which included above all operations against the LTTE. In the course of these operations one Police Officer was so badly injured in battle that one leg had to be amputated. That was a sacrifice he made for the sake of the Country.

It was in this scenario that virtually seven years after their release, and after they had been on active duty, the Attorney General precipitately advised the police to institute charges against those whom the Attorney General himself had said that there is no evidence, charging them with the murder of those five youths in Trincomalee and other allied crimes.

Consequent to this order these patriotic young men who had served the Country well [the quality of their services was duly recognised by their Superiors who promoted four of them, one to the rank of ASP, within those seven years] and continued to serve with dedication and discipline were precipitately ordered to report to Trincomalee where they surrendered to the CID, were produced in Court and remanded. The ‘B’ report with which they were produced before the Magistrate Trincomalee is significant because it contains no summary of evidence or no intimation whatsoever that any of them had been identified as having been perpetrators of the aforesaid offence and/or that there was evidence that any of them had committed that offence. The only matter alleged therein was that the Attorney General had directed the prosecution and that plaint would follow. That report also stated that investigations were now complete.

These young patriots who served the Country have therefore been incarcerated arbitrarily without evidence and by `Administrative Fiat’. While reports have been filed before the Magistrate’s Court, there is none which indicates the existence of any evidence that incriminates these patriots.

Thus, while the President and those seeking to be President crow about the victory and seek to gain a maximum political advantage from it, these youths who physically contributed to that victory and underwent indescribable hardships for that purpose are locked up, not according to law because of the existence of evidence against them, but purely to serve a political objective of seeking to earn a `pat on the back’ from a group of malevolent foreigners and NGOs.

What is most surprising or should be most surprising is that no hue and cry has been raised about this betrayal of the patriotic youth who fought for the Country by incarcerating them purely to please a bunch of foreigners and others who are thirsty for the blood of our security forces. Our so called ‘Human Rights Lobby’ is, as was to be expected, silent, and so, regrettably is the so called ‘Nationalist Lobby’. That Lobby is good at organising demonstrations, particularly where publicity could result from that.

both the incumbent President and those seeking his job with a
passion that defies description have all sought to gain some credit for the victory over the LTTE and to convert that into a passport to power

Some in the so called ‘Nationalist Lobby’ have received favours from the Government and are unwilling to risk the status and/or the possibility of getting further favours. Therefore, they are silenced. The Bar Association which has been vociferous about many alleged violations of human rights and has indeed agreed publicly to appear free of charge for persons whose lands have been expropriated in the Northern Province is silent. They who rightly opposed, tooth and nail the foul dismissal of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake and appeared for her in vast numbers, but has not raised a whimper of protest against this foul betrayal of these patriots.

It is an undeniable fact that must be remembered and remembered well that ‘human rights’ are not the exclusive preserve of the terrorist, or the minorities by whomever they may be backed, but rights to which all humans in the Country are equally entitled and that every member of the security forces is equally entitled to the protection, preservation and advancement of his/her human rights as any other person be he/she a terrorist or a member of a minority or otherwise.

This is a circumstance that has been forgotten or ignored not only by our own ‘Human Rights Lobby’ but even by the so called ‘International Community’ which, no doubt, will be greatly pleased or pleased to some extent by the foul betrayal of these 13 police officers. Indeed, Pillay on her alleged ‘fact finding’ visit to Sri Lanka incredibly on the invitation of the Government, has expressed some satisfaction at the persecution of these innocents.

It is pertinent to observe in this connection, that the 13 police officers being persecuted for political reasons are poor, and have no foreign governments or NGOs (whether `local’ or `foreign’) `backing’ them, so that there are no `dividends’ to be gained by fighting their cause or against the monumental injustice being done to them. Is this, by any chance the reason or a reason for the above-mentioned silence of the BASL, the `Human Rights Lobby’ and the `Nationalist Lobby; etc. ???

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BETRAYAL MOST FOUL

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