The battle of Geneva was revelation of Lanka's true friends
by Dayan Jayatilleka
“Sri Lanka forces West to retreat over ‘war crimes’ with victory at UN” - The TIMES ( London ), May 28, 2009
“Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
…Mmm, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends” - The Beatles
Was Geneva the last battle of the Thirty Years (hot) war, the first battle of the next war – a long Cold War against Sri Lanka -- or was it a combination? Only future history will tell.
When we aren’t involved, our arithmetic goes awry. We speak of four Eelam wars when there were five, because we omit the important one fought between the LTTE and the IPKF. There were five Eelam wars fought on the soil of our island: 1978-1987, 1987-1990, 1990-1994, 1995-2002, and 2006-2009.
[Media representatives capture images as they stand beneath the ceiling painted by Spainish artist Miquel Barcelo prior to the start of a United Nations Human Rights Council special session on Sri Lanka, in Geneva on May 26, 2009-Getty images]
Similarly, there weren’t two defeats suffered by the Tigers and pro-Tiger separatism, namely military (on the Wanni coast) and diplomatic (at the UN in Geneva ), but three, military, politico-ideological and diplomatic. The political defeat actually preceded the decisive military defeat and provided the final prerequisite for the surge that overran the LTTE leadership. This was the result of the Indian election and especially the wipeout of the hardcore pro-Tiger forces in Tamil Nadu.
Geneva was the third defeat. It was not a defeat of the Tiger Diaspora alone. It was the defeat of a powerful bloc of forces: the foreign affairs apparatuses of the European Union (driven by several Western European states), the Western dominated international media, the amply endowed international NGOs, the pro-Tiger Tamil Diaspora, anti-Sri Lankan elements within the UN system, and a residual political fifth column within Sri Lanka itself.
An unintended consequence of the Geneva session was the profoundly educative and collective character of the experience for Sri Lankans, a huge number of whom watched the proceedings on the live web-cast which was picked up by at least one popular TV channel. It was a distance learning Open University on international affairs for the country as a whole.
The nation saw who our true friends were and who the friends of our separatist terrorist enemy were. Sri Lanka saw and heard hypocrisy at work in world affairs. It also saw and heard fairness, friendship and solidarity.
As a former student activist of the Independent Students Union of Colombo University, now a university lecturer in New Zealand emailed me about the support we received: “It’s a beautiful wave going through, if I start from the “west”, from Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba through Egypt, Iran, the Middle East via Russia, Pakistan, India, China to the Far East including Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia etc up to the Philippines.” More prosaically, we received solidarity in the forms of vote (member states) and voice (observers) from the following states, geographically clustered by a young Sri Lankan student from Cambridge , voluntarily interning in our Mission.
Euro-Asia: Russian Federation
South Asia: Bangladesh , Bhutan , India , Pakistan , Nepal
Far East: China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Maldives, Singapore, Thailand, Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Middle East: Azerbaijan , Bahrain , Egypt , Jordan , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , Iran , Syrian Arab Republic , Lebanon , Oman , United Arab Emirates
Latin America: Bolivia , Brazil , Cuba , Nicaragua , Uruguay , Venezuela
Africa: Angola , Burkina Faso , Cameroon , Djibouti , Ghana , Madagascar , Nigeria , Senegal , South Africa , Zambia , Algeria , Sudan
When I handed in my credentials here on June 1st 2007, I assembled the Mission staff and told them of the chronicle in Herodotus’ Histories of the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae who held on against incredible odds to provide the time and political space for the rest of the Greek federation to mobilize and crush the aggressors. This, I told them, would be our task, and should animate our work and attitude. It worked and we held the line, not permitting a single move or sound out of Geneva which could reinforce the other prong of Western diplomacy – working for a “humanitarian pause” and an evacuation or “honorable exit” for the Tiger leadership-- before the Sri Lankan armed forces finished their historic task, decimating the Tiger army and decapitating the fascist enemy.
The Western Europeans had pushed for a special session for weeks, lobbying intensively in capitals across the world. Their target date was May 14th. They failed due our intense resistance, and that was our first success. The story is best told by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha in his How the West Was Sidelined (For the Moment), which appeared in The Island. Though the proffered reason was the fate of trapped civilians, a Reuters report out of Geneva on Friday May 15th, datelined 5:30 pm, and dealing with the call for a special session, let slip the truth. It leaked the text of a draft declaration to be adopted by the EU Council on Monday May 18th which would insist that the Government of Sri Lanka “desist from a final assault”. This then was the agenda, because the EU had reckoned that with the Tamil nadu elections over on May 13th, the Sri Lankan armed forces would storm the last redoubt of the fascist Tigers. They were right.
When the European Council met on Monday May 18th, it had to amend its text, dropping the obsolescent call for desisting from “a final assault” and substituting instead one for an independent international inquiry into war crimes, and urging the UN Human Rights Council to have a special session. The news leaks surrounding it clearly stated that the EU expected the Human Rights Council to be the appointing body for such a probe. Obviously someone up there wanted to punish the Sri Lankan state for pressing ahead with the offensive and finishing off the LTTE. On May 19th, after President Rajapakse’s address to the Sri Lankan Parliament, UK Foreign Secretary Miliband submitted a written Ministerial statement endorsing the European Council’s call. One simply must recall that it was after the visit of secretary Miliband to Washington that the joint US-UK statement called for a pause and negotiations, and that the remarks by Foreign Secretary Miliband and Foreign Minister Kouchner in a co-signed article in The Times, Mr. Miliband’s favorite paper ( which he commended twice to reporters at the UN Security Council briefing) concluded by sounding the note of the so-called Responsibility to protect and calling for an international inquiry, more than 18 days before the war would be over. These personalities echoed this call at their remarks at the standup microphone outside the Security Council following the UN SC Press statement on Sri Lanka .
The EU worked overtime across the globe during the weekend of May 16-17 and in an activity spike occasioned by the May 18th statement in Brussels and the written Ministerial statement in Westminster of May 19th, finally managed to get the 16 signatures (peaking at 17) by the middle of that week. The surge was assisted by vigorous lobbying by Tamil ethnic lobbies in some countries of the global South and most of all by a blitzkrieg of disinformation in the Western dominated world media.
How did little Sri Lanka first resist successfully and then prevail over, for the moment—but a decisive moment-- the concerted global efforts of old, massive, well funded and thoroughly professional foreign offices of the UK, France, Germany and Denmark, together with their access to the media, their “paramilitary proxies’ the INGOS, and their men and women seeded through the upper reaches of the UN system?
In the first place we had a political leadership, or more correctly, a politico-military leadership, in President Mahinda Rajapakse and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, that possessed the political will to go ahead despite the odds, and in this they were supported by the national will, the people’s will, to prevail over the Tigers whatever the external pressures.
The strategy that I adopted in Geneva was discussed and agreed upon in a one-on-one conversation with President Rajapakse at the very time he appointed me. He had sent me on the delegation for the HRC sessions in March 2007, so I could get a feel for the place. Upon returning I outlined my perspective, simply that which came authentically to me, of actively re-committing to and practicing Sri Lanka’s traditional foreign policy of Nonalignment. The President briefed me on certain unfortunate departures from this policy that had taken place, which had led to changes he had just made in the foreign relations apparatus; deviations he wanted rectified including in the disarmament realm -- and gave me the needed autonomy, saying “you know my thinking”. As for the specific scenario I anticipated, given that the EU had a draft resolution against Sri Lanka on the table since March 2006, he said “Yes, even if we lose, go for a vote.” President Rajapakse re-endorsed the strategy in two telephone conversations I had with him on the weekend just prior to the special session.
Sri Lanka’s leading analyst of international affairs, Mervyn de Silva, my father, died ten years ago this month, June. I practiced in Geneva that which I had absorbed from him. He told me of Ben Bella and Patrice Lumumba even before I started schooling. As a boy I had seen Sri Lanka ’s diplomatic stance at its best, adopted by his friends Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe, Neville Kanakaratne, Gamini Corea, and Anton Muttukumaru. Through my teens I attended the lectures, including by Sir Michael Howard, organized by the Ceylon Institute of World Affairs, of which Maj Gen ‘Tony’ Muttukumaru was President and Mervyn was Secy General, and the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies which was founded on the basis of a report by Mervyn. As importantly I was introduced to top foreign diplomats such as Cuba ’s Armando Bayo and foreign policy thinkers such as Russia ’s Evgeni Primakov. From the library at home to my father’s famous foreign journalistic friends, from our travels overseas to our conversations at dinner, the world my family inhabited was as much international as it was national. Eschewing lucrative offers of journalistic employment overseas, my father had his feet firmly in the national reality but his head in the international. I grew up with hardly any dividing line between one and the other, with my own role models and independent identifications being with a trend, tradition and experience that was internationalist and truly world-historical.
Mervyn de Silva believed firmly that Sri Lanka ’s national interests were best served by active membership in the Non Aligned movement and commitment to the policy of Non Alignment. He believed that our relationship with our neighbor should be the bedrock of our foreign policy. He was also keenly aware of tendencies towards multi-polarity and new global trends such as identity politics which transcended national boundaries (“in this age of identity, ethnicity walks on water” he said in one of his last essays). Though he avoided didacticism of any kind, something he told his staffers (as revealed in the reminiscences of one of them, the journalist and literary critic Gamini Dissanayake) was that “if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything and everything”.
In Geneva we stood for something. In our hour of need, we reaped the harvest of a principled and active foreign policy practice, in the votes and supportive speeches we received from our natural constituency, variously identifiable as the global South and Russia , or the NAM plus Russia and China , or G77 plus Russia . Mao ze Dong identified the crucial question of strategy as “Who are our friends? Who are our enemies?” and commended the building of the broadest possible united front, uniting all those who can be united, neutralizing those intermediate elements who cannot, and isolating the main adversary. Without clarity in identification of who one’s friends are, one cannot build the broadest possible united front and succeed. In Geneva last week we may have applied the tactics of Zizek’s Lenin, of a high risk pushing for an endgame while we could have stopped short and capitulated in a compromise on sovereignty masked as consensus, but our approach was more Lennon than Lenin. We won “with a little help from our friends”.
As Cuba has proved, one cannot defend the national interest by being narrowly nationalist; one has to be internationalist in order to defend and protect the Patria. Geneva was a miniature diplomatic Dien Bien Phu or Bay of Pigs for the EU.
Of the many comments on Sri Lanka ’s victory (and the many congratulations that came my way) the most accurate was in an email and fax from DEW Gunasekara, who wrote both on his behalf as well as that of his party. Currently Minister of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration, DEW is the leader of the Communist Party, but more pertinently he was the International Affairs Secretary of that party when I first knew him more than three decades ago. Revealing that the Cabinet had been meeting, monitoring the Geneva HRC proceedings real time, with President Rajapakse expressing optimism at the result, reminiscing that he had known me from my days as an undergraduate at Peradeniya, and making a poignant reference to his late friend and my father Mervyn, comrade DEW correctly summed up the Geneva outcome: “it was a historic session reflecting the growing role of the new world balance of forces”. None can do a Kosovo on Sri Lanka : wrong century, wrong continent, wrong country
[These are the strictly personal views of the writer]
48 Comments
Whether you believe it or not, there will be consequences for the civilian massacre just as the LTTE faced the consequences of it faults.
All crimes committed will be revealed as time goes by. They say "when thieves fall out the truth comes out in the form of betrayal". All these thieves will pay handsomely. All criminals will pay one day.
Dayan J has first hand experience of this when he was assaulted mercilessly and stripped naked in front of thousands at Colombo Kannate for his conniving lies few years ago.
Congratulations! Dayan for the magnificent victory at Geneva!
The LTTE has suffered three defeats and the most significant defeat is that what they faced at Geneva unlike the other two defeats,this was comprehensive.
you singlehandedly achieved this incredible victory!
Thanks also for the semi autobiographical stretch that had given us an insight how you had achieved and your father’s contribution!
Luckily for us you are your father's son!
This is happy news that non alignment has not yet been buried and that your father is really farsighted.
Let us forget about Sri Lanka and about human rights violations in that country.
But we very much like to know something about civilians.
We are 100%certain that what happened would not have happened had those civilians belong to another race-Sinhala.
You will agree that all are not equal.The owners of this country should be more equal than others.
Also when animals are killed does anyone hold inquiries? These western countries talk rubbish
They are not civilized enough like the non aligned countries.
Dayan another matter of interest, You are reported to have exclaimed,” Where in this world are victors brought before tribunals?
yes! Yes! Victors belong to a different kind of species!
Further as an example you reported to have said could America brought before justice for the Hiroshima, Nagashaki massacres?
You seems to accept of course unconsciously the similarities between Hiroshima and Mullivaikal.
Dayan!
This is not the end of History!.
Dayan,
The support you got from these countries question the creditability of United Nations Human Rights Council.
May be, you can claim this as your personal triumph over LTTE. Extension of your contract guaranteed.
R Maran
protect the country, our poeple and most importanly the army who gave their lives to protect the motherland from enemy. each of us should defend the country from powerful evil forces.
Great work Dayan
Human Rights is a Western concept put on us. We sould not stop from defeating human rights in UN. We should remove them from our constitution.
The west (perhaps decadent, the way they behave) cannot understand the celebrations in Srilanka..it is a manifestation of the great sense of relief that each of us feel. A relief from the fear of getting blown up on the street, in public places etc., without any warning. Nothing to do with anti anything..all communities have and will continue to be our friends for all times, as our classmates, workmates and neighbours. Every society is faced with a cancer at some time in their existence, and an enlightened leader will ensure that it is incised. And that is what happened in Srilanka. We owe a debt of gratitude to our President for his vision. Apart from courage,he had the ability to choose the right man for the right job at the right time. Bravo.
Mr.Dayan Jayathilaka
Your Excellency
Sri Lankan Diaspora in Switzerland has organized Viru Jaya,
an event to felicitate our brave soldiers on the 13th June 2009 at 10.00 – 14,00 hrs in Fribourg, and we would be very happy to invite you, Hon. Mr,Dayan Jayathilake the Permanent Representative and the Consul General of Sri-Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva as the Honorable Guest, to show our gratitude and respect, for the excellent work your Excellency performed at the UN, initiating and pioneering, a greatest diplomatic victory, against diplomatic terrorism
You are a true son of this beautiful country,and did your best,when a few attacks many thousand are for you to support.
Dayan Jayatilleka: "The battle of Geneva was revelation of Lanka's true friends"
BY THEIR FRIENDS YE SHALL KNOW THEM!
GHOULS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER!
ETC.
"None can do a Kosovo on Sri Lanka : wrong century, wrong continent, wrong country"
The comparison reflects poor analytical skills or silly rhetoric. Kosovo is completely under control and pro-West.
The problem was not Eelam itself but the over-independent character of the LTTE - only in this sense can one perhaps say "wrong century, wrong continent" but not really "wrong country".
In regard to "wrong country" it is interesting that the Sinhalese are really saying 'What the British joined together let no one put asunder!'
I am disappointed that Antonio Gramsci has again not been mentioned!
Fine. But why write all these in a strictly personal capacity -- you are in a very powerful position. You are the representative of our government. You have a direct line to the president. Cabinet minister gets in touch to congratulate you. So you are the government's representative in this part of the world.
So, please tell us the real meat: how are the 200000 IDPs going to be resettled? How are those separated from their loved ones going to be re-united? When?
You know, Vavuniya, where bulk of the people are held, is going through a severe drought now. Water is being take there in tanks, a very inefficient way of doing it. Why not move these camps in small chunks to sites near a river immediately? Don't you think as the representative of our government you could tell us this, so that much of the deliberate gossips being propagated amongst the gullible expatriate Tamil population can be quashed? Lenin of Lennon, who cares?
Dayan,
Your immature exuberance, and gloating at this time, is a good example of why Tamils are fearful of their future in a monolithic Sinhalese Buddhist society. Sounds like George W. Bush's Mission Accomplished carrier landing. The rest is history and history repeats.
If you want to move Sri Lanka forward into a peaceful future, you will zip your mouth and work towards it, rather than blow your horn and antagonize the very people whose cooperation we need badly.
Dear Daniel Asaipillai,
I was assaulted by a DUNF-JVP mob for my open support of President Premadasa especially during the impeachment conspiracy, which I never regretted or recanted and which I am proud of. Recent opinion polls show that a vast majority of Sri Lankans now share the views I held about President Premadasa at the time, and if the Tamils have any sense they would now regret his assassination by the Tigers. So it is I rather than my attackers who have been vindicated by History.
So you don't count those who banned the LTTE(US & EU), cut-off their funding(US & EU) and gave Sri Lanka intelligence on their arms ships (the US) as true friends?
The so far unnoticed lesson here is that those Western powers who assisted Sri Lanka in fighting the LTTE are then accussed of being terrorists themselves simply because they show concern for the unnecessary loss of civilians lives (compare the 7000 plus killed in Mullaitivu to the 1500 Palestinians killed in Gaza).
Sri Lankans should not now go bleating to the west for preferential trade & aid. And when "they" finally come for you (as they did for Lasantha Wijetunga), Mr Jayatilleke don't expect the west to come to your aid.
Dayan is crowing about what happened in Geneva. Yes Srilanka has successfully suppressed the truth about the scant disregard paid to lives of Tamils. How long will the truth be distorted. What Srilankla said after the 1983 riots and what actually happened everyone knows now. What people like him fail to understand is that the final reconciliation for peace has to be between Sinhalese and Tamils and not between western bloc and eastern bloc.If majority of the Sinhalese are not prepared to accept the tragedy and bring perpetrators to justice, how can there be any reconciliation. The anger and hatred that prevails among the Tamils at present will certainly boomerang on the Sinhalese especially when there be no fair political settlement in sight to allow the Tamils to live as first class citizens at least in their areas of historic habitation,
paving the way to an independant Eelam.
Whatever Dayan J's strengths are, modesty is certanily not one of them!
Dayan
all your supporting countries including india are human rights violaters. You may be surprised when your country facing and get charged for the slaughter of tamils in srilanka. Justice will be done one day. Ever body knows that theres is no true buddists in srilanka. MR and co including you will be charged. Atleast ghosts of slaughtered tamil will kill your armies. I have witnessed many human deaths by srilankan forces including navaly st peters church in jaffna. You and your country fellows may be happy today but one day you have to pay the penalty for killing tamil since 1956!
I think Daniel and Nishanthan belongs to tamil diaspora,living in Canada or any western country. We can imagine the hatred you guys have in your mind about singhalese.Your aggressive words or behavior useless at this moment.This war start by Prabakaran.And in any war innocent civilians die.Prabakaran killed thousands of innocent sinhalese civilians even small kids and no word from HRW or UNHRC. So I would say" when murderes fall out the truth comes out'.
India wash their hands over LTTE and within one year West also do the same.Every country have their own agenda when they dealing with poor country like ours.When they see Srilanka heading economically well ahead, they forget about human rights,war crimes.Remember they[The West] don't think about race or religion,all they need is grab resources and acquire economic or military gains.
All you guys should do is to help your people the way you help LTTE by financially.Ealam is only a dream in Srilanka.But you guys insist on, you should try it in South India in T/N.
The Tamils also have some relief in this development. Now all the decent countries in the world are sympathatic towards them and all the rough countries are rally arround the Sinhala state. The Tamil diaspora finds it encouraging as the people they have to deal with are supporting them.
Dayan Puttha,
Can you say SELF CONGRATULATORY PROCLAMATION!!
What class!.
You can't hide a whole pumpkin on plate of rice.
Appu
Mr. Ravi Shankar,
You seem to be a happy man enjoying luxuries in one of these so-called decent countries. I am sure that one day you will have a taste of decency. Dear fool, don,t lick the boot of west. Be loyal to where you belong!
So Dyan based on your response below now you are peddling the case that all Tamils are Tigers! What do you mean by "if the Tamils have any sense they would now regret his assassination by the Tigers".
I wonder when this government is toppled by forces within (army?) whose side you will be on? Will you make another turn? (Your past positions include Radical student, JVP sympathizer, Premadasa supporter, pro Tamil rights, pro devolution, anti devolution, pro military)
Dear Daniel Asaipillai,
I was assaulted by a DUNF-JVP mob for my open support of President Premadasa especially during the impeachment conspiracy, which I never regretted or recanted and which I am proud of. Recent opinion polls show that a vast majority of Sri Lankans now share the views I held about President Premadasa at the time, and if the Tamils have any sense they would now regret his assassination by the Tigers. So it is I rather than my attackers who have been vindicated by History.
Posted by: Dayan Jayatilleka
Rana ,
I bare no hatred. I just wish Sri Lanka would respect human rights.
Dayan has failed to realise that there are strange bedfellows in his camp in the final war waged on LTTE. India is in the same bandwagon as their arch enemies China and Pakistan. Robbers commit crime together, but the fight starts when they sit down to share the loot. Similarly all these countries who have vested interest will fight among each other and the final loser will be the Sinhalese.India is likely to ask Srilanka to expel any Direct Chinese or Pakistani influence from the shores of Srilanka and allow them to have the total say. The success of the Tamil people will depend on putting India and Srilanka at loggerheads and reaping the benefits. If Prabaharan was clever this should have happened, but instead he foolishly put together India and Srilanka to result in this disasterous effect to the Tamils. History repeats itself and there may be a possibility of Indian intervention in the pretext to save the Tamils.
Ravi, the problem is that you want Eelam in sri Lanka which is Asia and South Asia in particular. All the "rough countries" of South asia inclduing one with 70 million Tamils, support sri Lanka. the "non-rough"(?) countries that support the Diaspora are all far away, in Western europe and canada. So you had better look for your eelam somewhere over there. That's for you too, Raja. didn't you learn anything from the tamilnadu vote?
Asupathy, nobody gets to charge anybody else while their entire neghbourhood supports them, remember that.
Neville, George W crowed Mission Accomplished in someone else's country, thousands of miles away, while his troops were still being ambushed. we have reunified ours, and the guns are silent. we don't need the support of theses declining piwers and we have the support of the ones we need: the ascendant ones of our own continent, region and
neighbourhood. don't you read kishore mahbubhani?
R Maran, don't you read the papers? the extension of my contract, which i never sought or requested, was sealed many weeks ago when the President intervened in the matter.
N2, what i meant was obvious. none can carve a kosovo out of sri lanka , turning us into a serbia. that was possible because it was europe in the aftermath of the cold war and russia's defeat. we are solidly embedded in asia and supported by both its rising powers.
Ms Ganeshan, the GOSL has promised the Govt of India (GoI) that the bulk of IDPs will be resettled in six months. GoI is the best guarantee.
Rana...Prabakharan was 4 years old when the war started, in 1958. Why didn't/ don't you Sinhalese do anything to bring the thugs who murdered and raped innocent civilians in 1958, 1977, 1979 and 1983 to justice?
The reason the diaspora hate the Sinhalese is because the Sinhalese burnet their homes and forced them abroad to start life from scratch in foreign lands.
Dayan, I'am proud to be a Josephian to congratulate you for presenting the case so Proffessionally in Geneva,..... You are Great !!! Sri Lankans will remember this moment of the defeat of the LTTE mad the Powerfull Western /EU block by little Sri Lanka
"None can do a Kosovo on Sri Lanka : wrong century, wrong continent, wrong country"
This looks like a Honeymoon song. SL was begging around west, to ban LTTE. Now, they do not want to listen west. Bush helped SL's pre-war and Obama's soft approach helps SL's post war.
But, this is not the end of the road. Even China/India didn't use some strong words against west in the history.
Now SL need help from EU, Canada and US to stop diaspora activites. Can I repeat it.. "wrong century, wrong continents, wrong countries"
Dayan;
It seems that the UN agenda is now driven by the principle: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”.
Could you share the SL government's position on Tibet's struggle for independence?
I will concern myself with the references here to Mervyn de Silva, my friend and Dayan’s distinguished father. Here was a giant of that noble profession who would not sell his soul for even a million pieces of silver. He was considered a senior journalist of Asia by the best in the world. No home, no car (he did’nt want one after a fatal accident in the UK) of his own but he could never be enticed to compromise with his lofty principles. He was never available for sale . I knew him casually in the mid-60s when I would join a friend with Bernard Soysa and spend time together. In that environment dominated by Esmond Wickremasinghe and Lake House Bernard, Cholomondley et al viewed Mervyn with great respect for his journalistic skills and balance. From the 80s we became closer and then when he moved to Union Place later and started the Lanka Guardian I knew him at close quarters. Mrs B, JRJ, Thondaman were three of the many political leaders who sought his views and gained from his political grasp and vision. I am personally aware of the high esteem and affection MR held him with. He was surprised I knew of some of the work of Russian Poet Yevgeny Yevteshenko, whom he had interviewed (YY was the Russian equivalent of Elvis Presely at that time – although he was no crooner) Mervyn could never be communal, racial, xenophobic or contaminated any other bigotry. He had sympathy for both Sinhala and Tamil youth uprisings. His inner self was as clean and free of prejudice as was his regular burst of laughter during our regular get-togethers. If his outlook of what he thought is taken in as our equation with India and our relationship with her political leaders is followed much good can come to us in our future relationship with India. High caliber foreign-analyst, teacher and student simultaneously of contemporary Lankan history, society man and one who treated taxi-drivers - whom he used several times a day and befriended some -and the highest in the land equally the loss of Mervyn de Silva was a singularly unfortunate loss for us all at a time when we needed men of his wisdom and learning to show us the way throiugh the gloom.
I hope I will be forgiven if I say to that illustrious list of our best men in diplomacy in Dayan’s piece, I would have liked to see Jayantha Dhanapala’s name too – for he took us the farthest and to the highest achievements in global diplomacy with that inherent mix he is blessed with of a pleasant personality, deep knowledge of world affairs, vital personal contacts in the international scene where it matters most, capacity to maintain poise, charm and remain unruffled in challenging situations – some features of someone whom we can all affectionately and with satisfaction call “as our man in..” We will need men of JD's depth in those turbulent times I see ahead of us in the global “arena” As Dayan notes, while one war is over another – perhaps more complex and more difficult – is about to begin. And the reason for that is not the outside world, if you see what I mean.
Ilaya Seran Senguttuvan
Apasupathy,You have very funny theory about terrorist problem in SL.Maybe ghosts of already killed sinhalese by LTTE kiiled Prabakaran and his gang. Preaching religious verses or chanting 'Pirith" to terrorists mean your own death.You want buddhist to stay calm and quiet while LTTE killing each and every sinhalese.
Justice already done Apasupathy.Every country USA,UK,India, Russia,Israel or even China have human rights violation records.But when you defend your motherland,any country have right to do whatever action need without hesitation. Because it is a threat to their country.Srilanka did the same.
Alex so many mistakes, killings,destruction of property happened to both sides.We can give many examples in our history.But talking about what happened in history or mistakes won't help much now. We must united as a nation and find solutions.
Tamil diaspora can help to resettle IDP'S. Threatening each other or blame won't help.
Dayan Jayatileke who was , stripped naked and paraded by moaners at a funeral for a former Sri Lankan General few years back. They did it cause this man is one of the moast one sided biased people the country ever produced.
All the countries with blood in their hands supported Srilanka at the UN in Geneva.They are the true friends of Srilanka. Why?
I am deeply ashamed of these 29 member states of the UNHRC which refused to voice for the voiceless and long oppressed war without witnesses supposedly democratic government of Sri Lanka. Civilized world defeat itself by defeating the call for investigation of war crimes and human rights violations.
Dayan
What opinion polls? Do you really have unbiased opinion polls in Sri Lanka? You must be joking! In Sinhala they say "Horage Amma gen pena ahanawa wagey!"
Don't kid yourself.
Dayan,
When you are not involved your arithmetic goes awry!
You are right Dayan absolutely!
One of our countries greatest drawback is arithmetic and meddling with figures!
.
You remember the dispute about the number of civilians in the war zone during January-May 2009
Ultimately UN figures were found to be accurate
The government of Sri Lanka being the sovereign country should have the correct figures but the government messed up everything and the suspicion that the government was manipulating figures was widespread.
Finally Sri Lankans had eggs in their faces.
Now the UN agencies claims that thousands of civilians were killed during the later stages of Mullaivatkal battle whereas the Government maintains zero causality.
Whose figures are correct Dr Dayan?
Knowing our countries weakness in arithmetic and manipulating mindset, I am afraid Dr Dayan?
Dayan,
When you are not involved your arithmetic goes awry!
You are right Dayan absolutely!
One of our countries greatest drawback is arithmetic and meddling with figures!
.
You remember the dispute about the number of civilians in the war zone during January-May 2009
Ultimately UN figures were found to be accurate
The government of Sri Lanka being the sovereign country should have the correct figures but the government messed up everything and the suspicion that the government was manipulating figures was widespread.
Finally Sri Lankans had eggs in their faces.
Now the UN agencies claims that thousands of civilians were killed during the later stages of Mullaivatkal battle whereas the Government maintains zero causality.
Whose figures are correct Dr Dayan?
Knowing our countries weakness in arithmetic and manipulating mindset, I am afraid Dr Dayan?
Dayan!
What is wrong with an independent international inquiry into war crimes?
It was the west that had banned LTTE as a terrorist organization and blacklisted LTTE front organizations, prevents LTTE fund collection and LTTE arm procurement and smuggling and further relentlessly fought for LTTE to renounce violence and enter democratic mainstream.
Have not the West behaved honorably?
Why it was not possible for the government of Sri Lanka to reciprocate by sparing the civilians?
It is evident that there is Skelton in the cupboard of Sri Lanka.
Whenever the word inquiry is uttered Sri Lanka goes into a trance!
Remember
The killings of 05 students in Trincomale in 2006,The killings of 17 aid workers of Action Faim in Muthur in 2006,The recent killings of civilians at Mullivaikal and numerous other killings.
No credible inquiry in any one of the above cases!
It is self evident that Sri Lanka is evading an independent inquiry in all these cases.
By doing so and accusing the west of double standard in Iraq and Afhanistan against Sri Lanka,Sri Lanka is pleading guilty loud and clear.
What is your answer, Dayan?
We don’t care about the West whether they have double standard or not?
We don't want school boy type argument.
Can you honestly answer this simple question?
Are you ready to face an inquiry?You can nominate your prosecuters and Judges!
If necessary we can have Indian Judges!
In a civilized world anybody found guilty is punished after going through the due process of Law.
Human Rights are inviolable.
Responsibility to protect is equally sacrosanct.
Why Sri Lanka refuses to conform to the human right protocol set by the international community?
Does this means Sri Lanka is a rogue state?
Dayan Jayatilleka: " ... we are solidly embedded in asia and supported by both its rising powers"
In these globalized times no one is or can ever be "solidly embedded". Location is only part of the discourse.
There is only one rising power in Asia: China.
India may well be an influential economic player, but that is all.
'You' are supported by China for its purposes, and in fact as you would no doubt know Sarth Fonseka's grand plan of increasing the number and capacity of SL's armed forces is/will be sponsored by China. And this is also China signalling to India!
And perhaps India (the Congress being so back-bone-less) will concede Arunachal Pradesh to China as appeasment.
At present India/Congress seems to be saying to China 'please please will you be nice to us if we are nice to you or don't oppose you'.
Also present India as a nation, as a wannabe superpower, lacks the level of political astuteness needed. This is probably because Indian politicians only seem to know how to play interpersonal-politics, and are unable to rise above themselves and their petty disagreements and see a bigger picture. Yes, "jokers" in the South but even bigger self-deluded "jokers" in the North.
In terms of power India under the present kind of leadership is running scared and helpless. That is why your [Dayan Jayatilleka's] god Mahinda Rajapakse was able to play the Indians so well - like Jayawardene did too but using other factors as well.
That is why India also supported your immoral and repulsive UNHCR resolution. (India did not want to go against China and it was scared that GOSL will turn away giving China even more of an upper hand in the region).
Mahinda Rajapakse says that he fought India's war. But this was one that India lost to China - again!
(The part about Kosovo and the cold war was only a description of the times and not an analysis so there is nothing to say in reply).
And was Premadasa really killed by the LTTE!? Or was the LTTE blamed for convenience?
During the 2008 sessions of the UN Human Rights Council,the sri lanka delegation revealed that indictments against more tha 600 members of the police and armed forces have been filed by the attorney general.Will Mr Jayatillke reveal the progress in these indictments. There are no reports in the media so far.
There are also no reports so far about indictments filed against 108 sri lankan peacekeepers expelled by the UN from Haiti for sexual violations of haitian females including children.Will diplomat Jayatilleke explain.
Have all these personnel been interdicted from state service, or did they also take part in the recently concluded hostilities ?
Will he also explain why Minister Devananda is allowed to run his own private army in the north - & how this 'army' a.k.a 'paramilitaries', is funded ? This does not happen in any other democracy.
Will he explain the fate of the three doctors from the mullaitivu district now being held incommunicado by the government, and why they have not been brought before a magistrate so far?
Does he think that all countries which supported the resolution drafted by sri lanka have perfect records with regard to human rights?
SMahen, There is more blood in hands of the 12 {civilised as you called} countries[except few] voted in favour of UNHRC proposal rather than 29 countries against it.
It is unfortunate that even now the tamil diaspora do not understand what the reality of this world.The West or the East their only interest in military or economic gains.If we united as a nation we can face these countries.
*** Whether you believe it or not, there will be consequences for the civilian massacre ***
Sri Lanka answers to itself, not the Political Will of a bunch of TERROR-CODDLING Tamil Lobby groups. No one cares about what DECAYING EUROPE thinks about us. Asia continues to Strenghten and the West Withers, this is just one example of the waning influence of the West in Asian Affairs.
The Next step is to Round up the TNA, and all who Aided and Abetted the Enemy. Try them for the Deaths of the Civilians the LTTE put in Harms way, and then hand out Lengthy Sentences or Short Ropes with Nooses on the ends...
Premadasa was killed by a suicide bomber on a bicycle. His name was Babu and was someone known to Premadasa. The fact that he was a Tamil and a suicide bomber gives a clue as to his origins. The JVP never had the conviction to carry out a suicide bombing. Their modus operandi was to aproach their victimes when they were least capable of inflicting any harm on them, usually by dragging them out of their beds in the middle of the night to slit their throats in the garden.
Dayan,
The first requirement for peace and progress is humility in victory.
Without that you will spiral back to the same dark abyss between Sinhalese and Tamils.
You or your masters in Colombo have shown no ounce of humility and this spells doom for Sri Lanka.
They say "Fish starts to stink from the head", and you are part of the head.
God help us!
My friend they may vote for Sri Lanka's in order to protect or hide the skeletons in their own closets. They don’t want others to know about it. But for money Sri Lanka has to either go to West or China. China is not going to give money for nothing. They have their own strategies to control that part of the world. West is only looking for good governance and adherence to human rights and freedom of speech, in return they will give you money for development. Which one do you think is good for the country and the Sri Lankan people; you decide which one you want.
Dayan,
I do read newspapers. I do know you contract has been extended, but not for lifetime. It is subject to renewal again. GOSL expects you to put your principles, believes, conscience, moral education and values aside and protect the war criminals. You are doing an excellent job in that context.
I agree with your comments on Premadasa. I am very certain; you supported Premadasa not because he was the right leader. It was simply because he was the president of Sri Lanka. It doesn’t matter to you who is in power in Sri Lanka. Even if VP is the president of Sri Lanka, you will still cling onto to your UN position.
My father was great fan of Mervyn De Silva. Lanka Guardian was one of the few magazines my father subscribed those days. Please don’t discredit your father by quoting his name in your dirty work. Be a filial son.
R Maran
The ball-game by the “big boys” is something you got to watch carefully. It is good to have experts with you to study, understand and foresee the complexities of today and tomorrow. You must make absolutely sure Geneva of last week was a “victory for Mahinda Chintanaya” Many keen students of the world scene - in particular relation to Sri Lanka - may not entirely agree. Remember, this week the UN General Assembly is meeting behind doors to discuss the Lankan crisis and this will be a different cup of tea than Geneva. The IC knows GoSL has more than the required level of skeletons in its cupboard but it continues to give chances to MRs regime to change their way. The message has so far fallen on ears deaf and eyes blind. But that aside, if Sarath Fonseka’s adventurous plans to increase his army to 300,000 when the “fight to finish against the LTTE is won and over” at the instance of China to threaten India then we are asking for trouble – permanent destabilization and worse. The Chinese think many decades ahead and they have invested much capital into their scheme of “String of Pearls” which US and experts in the developing countries take serious note of. The Chinese won in their battle with the more resourceful Soviet Union in the quest for world power. They placed economic change ahead of political change while Russia went the other way to their detriment. Deep studies have been done on this (SoP) already and all prove the Chinese plan is against Western interests. Why not? If I was Chinese I would go the same path. So long as China benefits from the interplay of Western capitalism, in which she is now a major stake holder, there is little to worry. But if the equation changes – as Japan and Korea fear – then WWIII will be with us. In those many ancient Asian proverbs is one that is common which says “when ants enter the ring where Elephants battle they invariably get crushed” The Chinese know the IQ levels of our military and political leaders and are structuring their movements accordingly. Some at the higher levels of Govt feel they can occasionally run to Delhi and con the brahmins there while doing exactly the opposite. Our top has already earned for itself the global reputation they cannot be trusted or taken at their words (Remember what Hillary Clinton said about the IMF loan?) I have no doubt “our three wise men with beards” (the description of Jayadeva Uyangoda) are not totally oblivious of the fact although the 4th beardie Kumar David operates from outside the Govt ball-park and is just as alive to the threat and is eminently qualified to comment with his enormous savvy on Chinese politics. After all, he is as much HK China citizen as he is an LSSP card-carrying Tamil Lankan with tremendous academic credentials outside his field in Electricity.
Ilaya Seran Senguttuvan