Pacifism is very dull, and pacifists dull people… Noam Chomsky’s Sydney Peace Prize lecture. A worthy read.

As we all know, the United Nations was founded ”to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. The words can elicit only deep regret when we consider how we have acted to fulfil that aspiration, though there have been a few significant successes, notably in Europe.

Can we proceed to at least limit the scourge of war? A persuasive stand, I think, is that of the pacifist thinker and social activist A.J. Muste: what he called ”revolutionary pacifism”. Muste disdained the search for peace without justice. He urged that ”one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist”, by which he meant that we must deal ”honestly and adequately with this 90 per cent of our problem” – ”the violence on which the present system is based, and all the evil – material and spiritual – this entails for the masses of men throughout the world”.

If we ever hope to live up to the high ideals we passionately proclaim, and to bring the initial dream of the UN closer to fulfilment, we should think carefully about crucial choices that have been made, and continue to be made, every day.

The West has just commemorated the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and what was called at the time, but no longer, ”the glorious invasion” of Afghanistan. Partial closure was reached with the assassination of the prime suspect, Osama bin Laden, by US commandos who invaded Pakistan, apprehended him and then murdered him, disposing of the corpse without autopsy.

Pakistan’s leading daily recently published a study of the effect of drone attacks and other US terror. It found that ”about 80 per cent [of] residents of [the tribal regions] South and North Waziristan agencies have been affected mentally while 60 per cent people of Peshawar are nearing to become psychological patients if these problems are not addressed immediately”. In part for these reasons, hatred of America had already risen to phenomenal heights. One consequence was firing across the border at the bases of the US occupying army in Afghanistan – which provoked sharp condemnation of Pakistan for its failure to co-operate in an American war that Pakistanis overwhelmingly oppose, taking the same stand they did when the Russians occupied Afghanistan. A stand then lauded, now condemned.

The specialist literature and even the US embassy in Islamabad warn that the pressures on Pakistan to take part in the US invasion, as well as US attacks in Pakistan, are ”destabilising and radicalising Pakistan, risking a geopolitical catastrophe for the United States – and the world – which would dwarf anything that could possibly occur in Afghanistan”, quoting a British military/Pakistan analyst, Anatol Lieven.

The assassination of bin Laden greatly heightened this risk in ways that were ignored in the general enthusiasm for assassination of suspects. The US commandos were under orders to fight their way out if necessary, in which case there might have been a major confrontation with the Pakistani army. Pakistan has a huge nuclear arsenal and the system is laced with radical Islamists, products of strong US-Saudi support for the worst of Pakistan’s dictators, Zia ul-Haq, and his program of radical Islamisation. The US President, Barack Obama, has added the risk of nuclear explosions in London and New York, if the confrontation had led to leakage of nuclear material to jihadis.

The invasion of Afghanistan was not aimed at overthrowing the brutal Taliban regime, as later claimed. That was an afterthought, brought up three weeks after the bombing began. Its explicit reason was that the Taliban were unwilling to extradite bin Laden without evidence, which the US refused to provide – as later learnt, because it had virtually none, and in fact still has little that could stand up in an independent court of law, though his responsibility is hardly in doubt. The Taliban did in fact make some gestures towards extradition and we since have learnt that there were other such options, but they were all dismissed in favour of violence, which has since torn the country to shreds. It has reached its highest level in a decade this year according to the UN, with no diminution in sight.

A very serious question, rarely asked then or since, is whether there was an alternative to violence. There is strong evidence that there was. The September 11 attack was sharply condemned within the jihadi movement, and there were good opportunities to split it and isolate al-Qaeda. Instead, Washington and London chose to follow the script provided by bin Laden, helping to establish his claim that the West is attacking Islam, and thus provoking new waves of terrorism. The senior CIA analyst responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden from 1996, Michael Scheuer, warned right away and has repeated since that ”the United States of America remains bin Laden’s only indispensable ally”.

These are among the natural consequences of rejecting Muste’s warning, and the main thrust of his revolutionary pacifism, which should direct us to investigating the grievances that lead to violence, and when they are legitimate, as they often are, to address them.

When that advice is taken, it can succeed very well. Britain’s experience in Northern Ireland is a good illustration. For years, London responded to IRA terrorism with greater violence, escalating the cycle, which reached a bitter peak. When the government began instead to attend to the grievances, violence subsided and terrorism has effectively disappeared.

Interesting letters here from some critics…

Nice work Gordon! You seem to be just another “Human Rights” guy trying to cash in on Sri Lanka’s civil war. So you were based in Sri Lanka for sometime and now you are an expert on Sri Lanka’s history ??? Wow!!! That’s awesome dude….

The Sydney Morning Herald has done some stellar job in marketing your book too….man, it will be an honour to read a book by a real expert on Sri Lanka……….NOT!!!!!

You piece of shit, according to you, the LTTE were innocent freedom fighters just doing what they are supposed to do against a very discriminatory sinhalese race! Did you forget how this ethnic tension was created by your fore fathers who used the divide and rule method when they illegally occupied our country and gave Tamils all the benefits and made Tamils rule over Sinhalese?  Go blame those bastards who ruled our country before you write any book blaming sinhalese of discrimination, you dumb ass!!!!

Sam Liyanage

Gordon,

I am a Tamil myself who lost my entire family killed by LTTE. You are nobody other than a dirty, pro-terrorist, pro-LTTE patheitc looser who is a disgust to the journalism. You have not written a single word on more than 60,000 innnocent Sri Lankans who are mainly Sinhalese killed by barberic, inhuman blood thirsty Tamil Tiger terrorists during the 30 years of war. You are an ardent supporter of LTTE and you are rich in terrorist’s funded money and ideas.
You think the money you earn from this dirty lying book with full of lies and pro-LTTE false information will help your soul? I dont think so.

So stop spreading your pro-lTTE terorist’s propaganda using journalism. Write something good about Sri Lanka such as how the goverment is rehabilitating ex LTTE terrorists and developing North and East in a rapid pase. Write about how the current goverment now rapidly develponing the country its economy that your beloved terrort LTTE has stolen from Sri Lankans for 3 decades. Your journalism is always about the wrong side and because you think more lies you write, more money you can earn.

Patheritc !

Mike Selladurai

I’m on a train between Berlin and Prague, when I fall into conversation with a huge bloke called Jan, who climbs into my compartment as though he were a ferocious giant in search of babies’ toes for his supper. He wears knee-length shorts that reveal a part of a tattoo artwork seeping down his leg from his thigh, and a short-sleeve shirt given the sorry task of trying to drape the suspension bridge-like proportions of his upper half. After settling himself into the furthest corner, which still disgorge his enormous limbs like the lower foothills of the Himalayas he pulls out a teensy laptop and begins pecking away like an ape removing a walnut from its shell (ever seen that?). He gives off little simian grunts and groans and sighs of pleasure as he surfs through his e-mails. At one stage I thought he displayed anger, and wondered whether I was about to witness the last moment of the walnut, or perhaps of the Japanese girl whose jaw hadn’t returned to its starting block since he entered our cabin. Anyway, after a while he leaves off the walnut, and begins to speak to me in broken Czenglish.

Turns out that Jan is a stuntman, returning from a shoot in Berlin to his lovely wife and one-year old in Prague. Photos prove their existence, a smiling toddler (aren’t they all?), and a gorgeous Czech wife (aren’t they all?). I feel a twinge of relief, a certain relaxing of my own puny frame, for I had guessed that he is a docker/part-time-Russian-gangster; or a rigger/part-time-Russian-gangster; or perhaps just a fulltime-Russian-gangster. Nothing so namby-pamby as a film stuntman and former professional boxer.

Jan has many complaints, which make him ‘angry’. He hates Czech politicians, who are corrupt and stealing from people in the Czech Republic. He hates the current economic system, which makes old pensioners scramble for bread crusts, and hardly able to afford to pay the rent on their tiny state apartments. So far so good, because Jan is clearly a man of compassion, and Australians don’t seem to be on his target list. Then his attention turns to one of the abiding Czech passions, which is hatred for Gypsies. Jan hates Gypsies because they don’t work; the state pays them too many benefits; they steal from and physically harass the Czechs; and they live in squalor. Berlin, he tells, me, was nice because it was clean: Clean streets, clean air and yes, clean of Gypsies. And Europa wept.

When Jan gets off the train in Prague, he taps on the compartment window from the platform, and holds up his baby boy to the window while his wife looks happily on. Domestic bliss, nice big guy, happy wife, beautiful child. Life could be so perfect in the Czech Republic.

I’m writing this blogette from Cesky Raj, or Czech Paradise. It’s an area of hundreds of square kilometers of jagged sandstone ridges surrounded by forests and villages, and dotted with castles. In the Middle Ages it was the main route for gold and salt from northern Europe, and the Bohemian princes built plenty of castles to guard their loot routes. In the middle of one of these forests at the top of a low mountain is a place called Suche Skaly, a fairy-tale labyrinthine glade of fir trees and huge mossy boulders several stories high, the type of place that Jan might have been set to guard, had he been the troll I thought he was when boarding the train.

An antique Czech ladder leads upwards to the pantheon of the nation...

Part of the fun of creating nation states has been the manufacture of myths giving land title in perpetuity to the current inhabitants. These stories are usually a hotch-potch of historical facts, artifacts, documents, and pure invention. The Czech Republic was one place where nationalists had the most fun, because this is a rich and ancient land, filled with fabulous treasures, and the Czechs are a talented and inventive lot. So when it came time to invent stories about how this was intrinsically Czech territory, had always been Czech and, by implication, will always be Czech, Czech Paradise seemed an ideal place to start.

It’s so beautiful here that it’s almost dotty. One feels as though one is passing through a film set, and that at any moment gaffer boys and boom operators will emerge from behind 300-ton mossy boulders which are really just set flats. Here in Czech Paradise, and right here in Suche Skaly, one has one of the best examples of myth-making for the nation [and here I must mention the marvelous cultural anthropologist and unapologist Lenka M., of Mala Skala]. Trumped up ‘ancient’ archival documents described the valiant Czechs defending their land against the marauding Teutons (always smashing up other people’s countries, those Teutons), archeologists rediscovering ancient settlements of beer-swilling and dumpling gorging Czechs who liked to trek in sandals and white socks on their off days, and then 19^th and 20^th century nationalist painters filling in the colours on huge canvases (such as the monumental one in the Turnov Museum). Then songs, films, radio plays, stamps, romantic novels, clubs, names for children… and thus are our lives given meaning, the “I am” of existence.

Unfortunately, the by-product of this is often that others aren’t, such as the Gypsies (yes, more properly the Roma).

Having visited South Korea for the first time, I am reminded that for Koreans, the business of unfinished war remains a daily reality. UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon has a special insight into conflicts that have no end. When people are artificially divided and kept separated and fed on a diet of suspicion and hateful fantasy – even people as culturally homogenous as the Koreans probably were – any madness is possible. Shortly this tragic peninsula will enter its 63rd year as a house divided, with violence possible on any given day.

Inchon airport

However ‘unfortunate’ the comments attributed by The Hindu to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, they are an important additional insight into the mind and motives of the man who designed and implemented Sri Lanka’s victory over the LTTE. As if any further insight was needed I suppose, from the man who has so notoriously dismissed the killing of newspaper editor Lasantha Wickramatunga, who has nominated extra-judicial killing as the Sri Lankan answer to special forces ops (read my book), and who has now provided his own special rationale as to why women do and don’t get raped in the course of war. This is not a matter for tut-tutting, gentle diplomatic throat-clearing, or the offering of cups of tea to cloak embarrassment. Gotabaya characterizes, at least in a very critical part, the ruling oligarchy of Sri Lanka.

Hence, Gota’s remarks should not be dismissed as the foot-in-the-mouth babblings of a recalcitrant teenager, no matter how puerile, brutal, insensitive, and unhinged they might appear. Folks, the reason that Gotabaya keeps putting his sizable boot in his mouth with such apparent relish is that he can . He is not just ‘a high-ranking official’ as the Hindu says, nor some gormless, sulky youth refusing to clean his bedroom, whose minders don’t dare spank his bottom for fear that he’ll spit his dummy – he is da brudder of da Prez. He is the elder brother, a seasoned military professional brought back from the USA and given unbridled power to remake the armed forces from top to bottom in his uber competent military muscular image.

Along with his other brothers, he directly controls three-quarters of the government’s finances, the difference being that he continues to control one of the world’s largest per capita security structures – 300-450,000 army, police, intelligence, border, and paramilitary men and women. Does anybody doubt the sheer capability of Gotabaya, or the monumental weight of his gravitas? After all, he did achieve a stunning victory over a brutal organization whose very mythology led international military experts to repeatedly state that the LTTE were militarily unbeatable. Together with brothers Mahinda and Basil, he formed a remarkable triumvirate of men who almost succeeded in the relatively tidy destruction of an insurgent/terrorist force whose sheer inventiveness might have won an award in another kind of world.

The ‘almost succeeded’ bit is the reason I wrote my book, ‘The Cage.’ Allegations of crimes committed during the final months of the war – which, contrary to popular opinion, does not mean that all of Sri Lanka’s long history of criminal wrongdoing by a variety of groups and political parties has been ignored – are serious. “The Cage”, the report of the UN advisory panel, and the Channel 4 doco “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields,” provide an unprecedented range of evidence to suggest that an international judicial investigation is warranted. The Hindu points with dismay to Gota’s dismissing of political settlement as unnecessary now that they got the terrorists. Why be surprised? Many have conspired to conflate the awful tactics of the LTTE and the personal wickedness of its leader with the original just cause that led the Tamils to revolt against a state that failed to provide them with basic, predictable security and justice (also the story of large swathes of the Sinhalese untermenschen by the way). The logical extension, if you are of a special persuasion, is to pose the very question that Gota poses – why should we?

The story of Sri Lanka is one of leaderships that have successively failed to master the seething divisions that characterize this beautiful and squandered land (I write this advisedly, as I watch Australia’s political class diddle with my own country’s future as if it were an amusing Rubrik Cube). The Rajapaksas are only the latest manifestation of this habit of leadership, and history is yet to be written as to just how deep their roots will sink, or how long their hold will last on the popular imagination of this country which remains – no matter how deeply troubled – a democracy. What is important here is what Gota said. What makes his remarks appear so funny to outsiders is that he behaves with a kind of impolitic and revealing bluntness that seems to defy common sense. I mean, why would you confess?

But Gota is nothing if not confessional, as the first paragraph of this entry describes. During the final phase of the war, he was very candid about the bombing of hospitals, the treacherous nature of journalists who habitually published stories that contradicted the official version of truth, and the good sense inherent in the rounding-up of Tamil citizens in the capital. Read in the context of war, much of what Gota did was arguably defensible from a security point of view, at a time of national crisis. So why should we think that his latest remarks are irrational or intemperate, when they are just a reflection of what the family who controls Sri Lanka thinks? What must be understood is that these remarks personify an element of the strategic vision inherent in the destruction of the LTTE. Along with all his other stream-of-consciousness media encounters, they are an insight into alleged wartime criminal wrongdoing and issues of intent, and into post-war social arrangements.

Gota’s remarks are entirely rational. The Hindu got it wrong: Gota is not the out-of-control brother. He’s entirely in control.

I gave a lecture at ANU , or The Australian National University. Invited by the School of Asia and the Pacific, and the very kind Bina d’Costa. My lecture followed hot-on-the-heels of Mr. Rajiva Wijesinha, who spoke to the same room some weeks before.

The sparks flew! It was a packed lecture hall, not least of which were the four of five representatives sent by the Sri Lankan High Commission, who sat in the front row, and stationed themselves around the room. Anybody would think they were spooked by the things I’m saying, giving their propensity for turning up to my book launches. Who knows, perhaps one day they might even read my book, “The Cage”? At least they weren’t doing what they did in 2007 at the University of N.S.W. during the visit of their Foreign Minister, when they bought a photographer with them who began to take snaps of any Sri Lankan who asked a question from the audience.

Some of the sparkiest moments have been edited-out of the recording to keep it decent. But I really enjoyed myself, particularly give the release just days earlier by the Government of Sri Lanka of their own ‘thoroughly researched’ report into the final phase of the war in Sri Lanka, as well as their documentary reply to the now notorious Channel 4 doco, “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.” The government’s doco reply – titled “Lies Agreed Upon,” a telegraphed punch if ever there was one – is a scream, not just in a funny way but also in a fingernails-on-chalkboard way because of its embarrassingly transparent nature, all narrated in unbearably plummy English accents (because we’re convinced by people who sound just like ‘us’ – get it?). Sadly, they think we’re all dumb.

Just in case you weren’t convinced, they’ve rounded up lots of Tamils, have stuck them in front of a camera, and in a thoroughly balanced way have asked them if anything untoward happened at the end of the war. Or if they have any complaints at all about life in Sri Lanka. Go ahead, anything at all, feel free to speak your mind. Any complaints about the food? How’s your rehabilitation going, you girls enjoying yourselves? So, you saw nothing at all? You’re sure about about that? I mean, remember, this is being recorded for a balanced documentary called “Lies Agreed Upon” because those neo-colonial do-gooding drum-beating human rights obsessives are trying to divide our island to steal our oil. So don’t feel pressured or nuffin’ because we wouldn’t harm a hair on your heads. Nor your children. Nor your mother whose address we happen to have here…

Well, having read the report and watched the documentary, I certainly feel I’m not being treated like a half-wit – how about you?

Incidentally, after the talk, one young man (a student at ANU) took the trouble to write to me. I think his perspective – a view from the inside of the Sri Lankan diaspora – is elevating:

Dear Gordon

I tried to come up to you and say thanks at the talk you gave at ANU
today, but I didn’t have the strength to fight the army of
self-righteous people trying to justify their perspective with  you. I
really want to thank you for putting yourself on the line …
I’m a part Sinhalese and part Tamil Australian, and so I have really no
vested interest in taking either side of the story.  I was actually
raised very much as a “Sinhalese,” and it’s often funny thinking back at
my dad saying how it was important for them to keep me
connected to there and “my” culture even though I grew up here. The
irony is that that argument was never brought to its logical conclusion
- no one thought to connect me with my Tamil side, perhaps because it
was dangerous. I can speak fairly fluent Sinhalese, and read a little,
but that I can’t even make a sentence in Tamil. In fact, my mum didn’t
even want me to publicly acknowledge my Tamil side for a long time -
well into my early 20′s. Mind you, we’re talking suburban Brisbane.

From my experience, it’s not only what people want to hear, it’s all
they’ve been programmed to hear. Even talking to my younger cousins in
Sri Lanka, they seem to be in some state of jingoism, and it seems a
programmed response to become insulted and defensive if the mass status
quo as dictated by the wise who hold power is questioned. This is one
reason I believe things will not really get better. You said that
forgetting might still give way to peace and reconciliation, but if
people aren’t listening, I don’t really see a way. I sat in on a course
on Geonocide last semester, and I was horrified to learn of the denial
of the Armenian genocide that is, to this day, institutionalised into
Turkey and its education system. It seems that it is often the Turkish
who feel victimised! I felt a lot of parallels there with Sri Lanka.

Take care and thanks for taking interest in very torn part of the world.
Your talk was very inspirational and you had a lot of courage standing
up there rallying for the truth.

Just as a practical illustration of the vital and large lunatic fringe from all sides of the Sri Lanka conflict, this exchange: One Tamil writer suggests that my book was a ‘disturbing’ effort to earn money, which in itself shows a disturbing separation from reality. Another suggests that I ought to be donating the piles of money I’ve accrued from writing this book (written in the blood of Vanni children of course) to an LTTE front organization. Good suggestion, thanks – perhaps I should just pay for a monument to Velupillai Prabhakaran’s parents in Tamil Nadu? The thoughtful character amongst this hair-brained crew has analysed that I intentionally withheld important information in order to boost the sales of my book. Defamatory I suggest in return, but since Mr. Sinthujan lives in the UK I should really be able to make some money now . The last one describes my book, The Cage, as a ‘memoir’… Oh dear, how dismal.

You get it from all sides. This one from a Tamil, utterly failing to get the drift of what I have said publicly – and then asking me where he can buy my book! More cloth ears…

We Tamils salute you and we are ever grateful to you. From historical times Tamils lived in the North and South of Sri Lanka. Further we are the original inhabitants. Thirty years we tried to live with the Sinhalese. We suffered and we took up arms and we almost won our land, our homeland. But India, UK and also USA carried out genocide of Tamils. You know there was no ceasefire and then simply there can’t be any reconciliation. What happened was raw horrible genocide and genocide will only lead to separation.Liberation Tigers are Tamils. LTTE was defeated militarily, but they have done there part.It is with the help of great people like you, and international bodies we must separate.

In response to Groundviews, the respected Sri Lankan citizen’s journal, I am posting this single image taken by Colonel Harun Khan, of the deaths of civilians as a result of shelling. For those who don’t know, Khan, who features in Chapter 5 of my book “The Cage”, is a Bangladeshi Colonel and UN officer who came under bombardment courtesy of the Sri Lankan Army in late January 2009. He witnessed the resulting deaths and injuries to civilians – “nothing short of intentional murder” as he said – and extensively photographed the carnage. His presence was unfortunate because at the same time the Government of Sri Lanka was denying that its operations were killing civilians at all. There are many other images of the wounded and dead from these days in late January 2009, as well as close-ups of splash marks on trees, vehicles, and shell craters. I will not post other images of the dead, mostly because I think that it is rightly up to a credible and properly constituted judicial authority to weigh the evidence. Khan provided these images to me, as he did his testimony, with the specific intention that this wrongdoing should be known, not merely conveniently buried.

My prediction is that this image of a dead mother and children (as well as others in the deep background and to the right side) will quickly be taken up by various loons as evidence of the set-design and pantomime skills of Tamil Tiger Productions Inc. Good luck to them. May they exhaust themselves in fantasies of international conspiracies that are directed at Sri Lanka for the purposes of… ah, well – oil? No. Perhaps dividing the island in order to prevent China’s toehold? Bit late. Umm. Cornering the tea market? Well, genetic engineering is rather spoiling that. Racism? Oh but then there’s that Tamil thing… Neocolonialism? Big Powerism? Lording-it-over-us-ism? Envy? Paranoia? Take your pick, any will do.

POST SCRIPT: Oh dear. SADLY (as some like to preempt when they’re not very sad at all), the denunciations come from those you would least expect to depart from rational balance. UNFORTUNATELY (but, I must admit, predictably in much debate from certain quarters), this is laced with disdain, a curious will to disbelieve the bleeding (shabby pun) obvious, as well as… ahem… a premature rush to judgment. I did warn that one should not rely on the the date settings (as a reader has so gently explained in the comments section of the piece). I will repeat once more for the cloth-eared that there is in fact a whole series of photographs – same settings showing the identical incorrect date – showing plenty of further bloodshed and dead children and women, as well as number-plated UN vehicles with shrapnel damage; UN vehicles scattered with blood, clothing, shredded foliage, and dirt; the two UN officers in situ, building the bunkers as described in my book; an obviously (well, to me at least) terrified UN officer cowering in the bunker surrounded by civilians; photos of shell craters outside the same bunkers with ‘splash’ marks from various angles, surrounded by bodies and body parts; and… well, most people will get the picture, as it were, whilst others will just hear the hammering of Tamil Tiger Production Inc., as they erect their film sets…

I suggest that to a measured mind, the mere fact of an unmanipulated photo showing incorrect date settings might have been some indication of authenticity, rather than the contrary. At least it should not have been presented as proof of inauthenticity. I say this because even careless types like me know that metadata can be altered by a one-armed infant with a crayon. This is why evidence needs to be assessed by independent judicial mechanisms, and not by bloggers. Not even blogged by amateur bloggers like me. But I do suggest that in the fraught circumstances of Sri Lanka, even ordinary people are inclined to see dark forces at work, to believe the unbelievable, and to disbelieve that which is rather straightforward (as authentically evidenced by the blog post below)…

A concerned reader sent me this very carefully reasoned letter that she sent to the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, explaining what he might not have noticed about the Channel 4 “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” documentary. Out of concern for her safety, I have not included her name here.

20^thJune 2011

Dear Mr Hague,

Re:      “Sri Lanka’s killing fields” by Channel4

I understand that you have called for Independent Investigations against Sri Lanka for alleged war crimes committed as depicted in the above video broadcast by Channel 4.

However, as a layperson who watched this video clip just once, I have made the following observations that suggest this video is fake.

1^st Incident – The incident where a Tamil Tiger commander was tied to a coconut tree and his throat slit by a knife.

The moment I saw this footage I said to myself “no, this can’t be true; there’s something wrong somewhere”.  There is no way our soldiers are capable of committing such horrific acts.  Shooting a terrorist with a gun is one thing; slitting the throat with a knife, no way.

Then I made the following observations on that footage:

(a)            In this incident, only below the knees are shown of the alleged soldiers. It raised suspicion. Then I noticed that

(b)            One of the alleged soldiers was wearing flip-flops and another was wearing trousers about 6 inches above the ankle which made me very suspicious.  Sri Lankan Army is a professional Army who wore professionally tailored uniforms.  It would be very hard to believe that Sri Lankan soldiers would wear such badly made uniforms and wear flip-flops while on duty.  It raised even more suspicion.  Then I noticed something even weirder and said to myself “hang on………”

(c)            That man was draped in a Tiger flag (Tamil Eelam flag) after he was killed.  That raised serious suspicions.  We all know that we embrace a flag because we’re so proud of that flag.  So, the Army draping the dead body with a Tiger flag, no way.

I can say without a doubt that this was an assassination carried out by the Tamil tigers themselves on one of their colleagues who had committed  a crime in their eyes         (ie: passing information on to Sri Lankan Army, not obeying leader’s orders etc). The LTTE are well known for killing people in such barbaric manner in order to send a strong message to the would be offenders that they would meet the same fate if they committed such offences.

(d)            Finally, the most important observation.  If you watch the whole clip you can see Sri Lankan soldiers many times throughout the video.  I’m sure you would have noticed that Sri Lankan Army uniforms are quite professionally tailored.  Even the fabric of the uniform is cotton rich and of higher quality.  This is quite visible in the video.  Now if you look at the uniforms worn by the alleged soldiers involved in this incident and the uniform worn by Tamil tiger Colonel Ramesh (a senior Tamil Tiger commander alleged to have been killed by the Army after captivity) in the video, they both look pretty much the same; the fabric of the uniform has a rather polyester effect than cotton effect.  Also they don’t look very professionally made.  It is quite clear that the uniforms worn by Tamil tiger colonel Ramesh   and the alleged soldiers involved in this incident belong to the same army (Tamil Tigers) whereas the uniforms worn by the Sri Lankan Army are completely different to the uniforms worn by Tamil tiger Colonel Ramesh and the guys involved in the “slitting the throat” incident.

This is a very clear indication (in my opinion) that this hideous act was carried out by the Tamil Tigers themselves.  This proves that this video was made as part of propaganda by the Tamil Tigers and Channel 4 must be held responsible for, for broadcasting a video that consists of fake footage (in this case a crime committed by Tamil Tigers themselves and allege that it was committed by the Sri Lankan Army) which is extremely damaging to Sri Lanka.

Please note that the above observations made by me have been verified by my colleague (who is not Sri Lankan), so I can confidently say that my observations are sensible/logical and as such extremely important in proving that this video is a cooked up one.

If it’s proven that even one single cooked up event is included in this video then, that questions the authenticity of the whole video and as such we cannot give any credibility to this whole Channel4 video.

Therefore, I urge the Foreign Secretary to watch the clip again (preferably on a larger screen) and raise this issue in Parliament and with Channel 4 bosses.

2^nd Incident – The scene where people take refuge in a trench so as to avoid being caught in a bomb explosion.

Another staged scene.  The sub-titles as appeared on the clip are copied below for easy reference.

*           Don’t take the video

*           Please get in the bunker

*           What are you going to do with the video?

*           (We can’t hear the response of the person who is recording the scene.  Probably he gave a hand signal. Then suddenly they started screaming)

*           They are killing everyone

*           Please God save all the children ……. (and then they say)

*           Can you hear us??? (that’s funny.  What exactly do they mean by “can you hear us?  Is it “Are we screaming loud enough to be picked up by the video recorder)

Any sensible person would realise straight away if they paid enough attention to this clip, that this was another staged act.

Further, I would like to know why foreign media and the West are so interested in showing the world what happened only in the last 6 months of the war.

The war between the Tamil Tigers and the Government of Sri Lanka started as long ago as 1983 and since, reportedly nearly 100,000.00 people have been killed.  When nearly 100,000 people have been killed during a period of more than 26 years, why is it that channel 4 and the West are focusing their attention only on what happened in the last 6 months of the war.

So many Sinhalese and Muslim civilians were killed by Tamil Tigers in broad day light since 1983, but no foreign media ever bothered to report such hideous crimes.  Why???  Let me give you a few examples of Tamil Tiger atrocities against Sinhalese civilians

(a)        Massacre of 150 innocent civilians at Anuradhapura Temple (Tamil Tigers barged in and shot dead the innocent unarmed civilians praying in the temple)

(b)        Mutilation and killing of hundreds of innocent Sinhalese and Muslim civilians living in border villages [in the course of the expansion of LTTE territory (the “Tamil Eelam”), the innocent Sinhalese and Muslim civilians living in border villages were hacked to death by the Tamil Tigers]

(c)        Killing of 600 unarmed Police constables who surrendered to the LTTE

(d)        Driving an explosives-laden truck into the multi-storey “Central bank” building that resulted in the death of hundreds of people

(b)        Killing of hundreds of innocent civilians on busses, bus stations, trains and train stations, by planting parcel bombs and by suicide bombers.

These are only a few incidents out of hundreds carried out by the Tamil Tigers directly against non Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.

This proves that foreign media is as always bias.  They only want to show the world what they (media) want the public to see.  They think they can make or break anyone. That culture has to change.  Media must act responsibly like any other.

It’s no secret that the LTTE bribe officials including journalists in the West to get support for their cause.  LTTE members have been even prosecuted in the USA for trying to bribe US State Department officials.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not alleging that Channel 4 has been definitely bribed by the LTTE, because I (a member of public) don’t have evidence to substantiate my allegation.  However, it does not stop me wondering if this is the case.  Like I said it’s a common practice by the LTTE.  Evidence has substantiated that even Sinhalese journalists have been on the LTTE pay roll.

I would now humbly request the Foreign Secretary to give serious consideration to the contents of this letter and (a) raise this issue with Channel 4 bosses, (2) state these findings in Parliament and (3) take steps to make these findings widely public.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Yours sincerely,