WikiLeaks: ‘There Are Certain Pro-LTTE Elements In International Orgs Holding High Ranking Posts’ – Keheliya On Navi
Navi Pillay
August 28, 2013
“Defense spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella asserted that certain international organizations have been “infiltrated by the LTTE” and are helping to spread disinformation. In discussing the widely-publicized statement of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanetham (“Navi”) Pillay noting 2,800 civilian deaths and 7,000 injuries, the spokesman claimed: “There are certain pro-LTTE elements in international organizations holding high ranking posts. They are taking cover behind these organizations in order to support the LTTE.” (Note: Pillay, a South African national, happens to be an ethnic Tamil but to our knowledge, has never visited Sri Lanka.)” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The “Unclassified” cable on March 19, 2009 by the US Ambassador to Colombo,Robert O. Blake discusses the situation in the conflict zone.
Read the cable below for further details Read More
Response To Dr. Godfrey Gunatilleke
S.Sivathasan
With all deference to a man of letters reputed for integrity and objective analysis, I address this communication from a public Forum.
The writer confined his critique to a thirty year frame from 1983. Prince Charles said quite correctly, that the most difficult thing for humans to do is to forget the past. Knowing full well that there is neither a picturesque outbreak nor a precise end, I wished that we turn a fresh leaf from 2009, at least when we express our thoughts and anxieties. But that was never to be. So only in passing, I want to touch on the Donoughmore era, since birthmarks on the body politic cannot be wished away.
Under the new dispensation of 1931, a declining voice in state affairs agitated the Tamils. Governor Caldecott’s perception on a major question bedeviling Ceylon in 1938 was “all our political fissures radiate from the vexed question of minority representation”. In this backdrop, GG Ponnambalam, found that weakening representational strength of Tamils and the experience of the Pan Sinhalese Ministry in 1936 had alarming forebodings of marginalization. He seized the opportunity offered by the Reforms Despatch of 1938, to present a convincing thesis about Balanced Representation for the minorities, encompassing – Ceylon Tamils, Indian Tamils, Moors, Malays and Burghers – all taken as one entity. Even though a case was made out with great forensic skill, by the Tamil leader, it failed to cut much ice with Whitehall.
What results flowed thereafter in the next eight decades? A single ethnicity ‘Tamils’ enumerated as such with the same nomenclature till 1901, was bifurcated from 1911 census into Ceylon Tamils (CT) and Indian Tamils ( IT). This classification continuing to date has brought down the Tamil population by 2,293,000 (CT+ IT = 26.69% in 1901. It is 15.37 in 2011 a decline by 11.3 2% = 2.293 million). Compulsive expatriation of the former and legislated repatriation of the latter brought this debilitation of numerical strength.Read More
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