The Bogus Kingdom-ltte

THE WORLD SUDDENLY HEARS OF TERRORISM ON SEPTEMBER 11TH 2001 With aching hearts and tearful eyes, the world watched America’s disaster on 11th Sept: 2001. It is sad indeed, that today’s world needed such a calamity to open their eyes to terrorism. Even now, has the world understood the misery, sadness, and frustration, our little motherland, Sri Lanka has been battling with, for over 20 years? Perhaps Mr Bush, Mr Blair and Mr Howard were living in another planet all these years? The World was obviously sound asleep these past 23 years, while whole villages were murdered, little babies pulled off their mother’s breasts and dashed on the ground; the Central Bank in the heart of Colombo bombed in January 1996- with 91 killed, 400 wounded (visitors and those at work); Twin Towers of Colombo World Trade Centre bombed in 1997; young Tamil teenagers forcibly conscripted to join Terrorist armies without family consent; the main Airport in Sri Lanka devastated in July 2001 in a country already suffering financial strain; the Buddhist holiest Shrine in Kandy attacked in January 1998 killing 16 Buddhist monks; suicide bombers killing citizens and politicians- both Sinhala and Tamil, and the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi killed by a suicide bomber in India in 1991. Of the over 280 suicide bombings recorded in the world, little Sri Lanka accounts for over half! Can you believe it?

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But little Sri Lanka was too small to be seen, and bombings in SOUTH ASIA were not loud enough to wake up the western world for 23 long years. They were just ripples in a tiny third world island, of no importance to rich countries like US, UK, Canada, Australia, which happily allowed Sri Lankan Terrorists to raise funds “to destroy” this little Sri Lanka!

5%

7% 1% Sinhalese Sri Lankan Tamils

12%

South Indian Tamils 75%

Malays & Moors Burghers & Others

In a tiny island smaller than Tasmania, there are about 20 million Sri Lankans, of which 75% are Sinhalese (mainly Buddhists); 12% Sri Lankan Tamils (mainly Hindus), and 5% South Indian Tamils, (brought by British after 1815 to work in the Tea Plantations in Central Sri Lanka); 7% are Malays and Moors, descendants of Malays and Arabs who came to trade, plus Burghers, who are descendants of the Portuguese and Dutch who took over parts of the south of the island before the British came.

This 12% Tamils want one third of the land and two thirds of coast line for “HALF OF THIS 12 % Tamils.” i.e. For 6% Tamils. The other half of the 12% Tamils have lived in the south among the Sinhalese in harmony, for generations and may never go back to live in the north. In the South, Hindu Temples, Muslim Mosques, Christian Churches and Buddhist Temples stand side by side and celebrate their own festivals and they have no problems! Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher children attend the same schools in the south. Sri Lankan Tamils are descendents of mercenaries brought from India by Sinhala Kings to fight their family quarrels, plus those who came with the over 17 invasions by Indian Tamils, or those who came across the shallow Palk Strait to fish or trade, and then decided to stay on in this prosperous little island. Others are from South India, brought by British to work in the Tea estates.

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In 1976 some Tamil leaders in Jaffna, passed the “Vaddukodai Resolution”, to form an independent state of Tamil Eelam. Mr Tiruchelvam, a Tamil ex-Minister who was in Colombo at the time, was surprised and asked, “What is the meaning of this?” He was told it was done under pressure from the youth!!! Most of the leaders who signed that Resolution have since been murdered by the LTTE. “ In other words, they fell into the grave they dug for their enemies” The Sinhalese and Tamils are to be blamed for the violence that is occurring. Tamil political academic Prof J. Wilson, (son-in law of Chelvanayagam –the father of the separatist movement) in his book “Sri Lanka and its future” says, “A second tactic is to destabilise the internal political situation. Political murders, acts of sabotage, inflammatory and provocative speeches are the established forms, and these have been tried. The Sinhalese masses and their lower-level ethnic leadership are needled by such acts and urge their rank and file to take retaliatory action. Nothing is more satisfying to the Tamil militants.”

1) Tamils say they had a Homeland in Sri Lanka! TAMIL NADU is Tamil HOMELAND! Nowhere in the world has ONE NATION got TWO HOMELANDS. The British, Spanish, French etc had many overseas colonies which they occupied, but had one homeland. Next, Tamils will DEMAND “Homelands” in England, Canada, US, Australia etc. Can the large numbers of Greeks in Australia demand a separate homeland? No! So Tamils must go back to Tamil Nadu if they want their “TAMIL HOMELAND”. 2) They want SELF DETERMINATION! That means the right to rule. That rests with the President of Sri Lanka. Next time Muslims will also ask for Self Determination, and so will Indian Tamils brought after 1815 to work in Tea estates of Lanka. Where will it all end? 3) They say they are “Freedom Fighters.” You can fight for freedom in your country, from foreign rule like what Nelson Mandela did! Otherwise Tamils will start fighting for freedom in Canada, US, Australia and even in NORWAY etc.

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4) Is it fair by any standards for “a half of 2.8 million Tamils” to demand two- thirds of the coastline and nearly one third of the land in a tiny island, to continue an “imaginary” Ancient Tamil Homeland/ Kingdom” which they say they had!! 5) If they had an ancient Tamil kingdom before the Sinhalese kingdom began, how it is Tamils are still 2.8 million, while Sinhalese became 15 million! Were Tamils less fertile?? 6) If they came first why did they stay in the arid north and not more to more salubrious areas further south. 7) Though Tamil is an ancient language it has left no written history behind, in Sri Lanka or India, no monuments, no inscriptions to say where or what this ancient Tamil Kingdom was, or who ruled it, while Sinhala, and Buddhist inscriptions and monuments(even in Kantharodai in Jaffna) over 2000 old, have been left behind in the north, east, south and west of Sri Lanka. 8) If there was a Tamil Homeland in the North, why didn’t TAMIL KINGS LIKE ELARA (BC 150) WHO CAME from SOUTH INDIA and RULED LANKA, (sitting on the SINHALA THRONE in Anuradhapura), not run away to this northern “so called” Tamil Homeland to escape death, or even ask for soldiers from the Tamil Kingdom, when they were challenged by Sinhala Princes from the south. 9) Sinhala kings got down Tamil mercenaries from South India to fight their internal disputes, and got down brides from North India for their kings. But there is no mention of mercenaries or brides got down from this so-called “Northern Tamil kingdom” where they could have walked to. …..Not even a marriage Proposal, or a citizens quarrel is mentioned! …. So obviously a Tamil Kingdom DID NOT EXIST in North Sri Lanka! 10) TAMIL historian Dr S. Pathmanathan gives what he calls “a reasonably accurate chronological list” of the rulers of Jaffna in Dr K.M. De Silva’s “History of Sri Lanka.” The earliest Tamil King for whom regnal dates are given by Tamil Historian Dr Pathmanathan, is “King Pararajasekaran, who ruled Jaffna from AD 1478-1519.” This is correct according to Sri Lankan history. But Sinhala Kings have regnal dates recorded from BC 250. Sinhala King Parakramabahu VI (1411-1466) repulsed the South Indian Vijayanagar Empire who tried to take over Jaffna. He then left his adopted son, Sapumal Kumara as subking of Jaffna. When Parakrambahu died, in 1466, his own grandson took over the Sinhala throne in Kotte. (In 4

the South). When the adopted son Sapumal Kumara heard of the death, he went to Kotte in 1469, leaving Jaffna vacant, and killed the King’s grandson, and became King of Lanka. This enabled one Pararajasekeran to become the first King of Jaffna in 1478 (only about 530 years ago). 11) Wilhelm Geiger famous German Indologist writing in 1932 about the Mahawamsa (Ancient Sinhalese History) says, it is “the most astonishing dynastic history of any people from 542 BC to 1758….It is a well known fact that for hardly any part of the continent of India, is there such an uninterrupted historical tradition as for the island of Ceylon” (Sri Lanka). (He does not mention about any Tamil History)! 12) The TAMIL Historian Dr S.G.Gunasegeram writing in “The Tamil” in 1955 says, “No peoples have had the good fortune to inherit such a comparatively reliable story of their hoary past as the Sinhalese. The people of Ceylon in general, and particularly the Sinhalese, are rightly proud of this ancient story of their long line of kings……The Mahawamsa is a book that should be in the library of every educated Ceylonese- a book that should be read and re-read with understanding.” Again no mention of “Tamil history” by this Tamil historian! Why? Because there was NO Tamil kingdom or history available! 13). The Sinhalese who came from North India 2500 years ago, were Hindus. It is an accepted historical fact that around 300 BC, Emperor Asoka sent Buddhist missionaries from India, to eastern countries like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Laos. Today these countries are Buddhist, like Sri Lanka. So why did Asoka not send any missionaries to this TAMIL KINGDOM? Asoka favoured Sri Lanka by sending his own son (a monk) and daughter (a nun) to Sri Lanka. This son and daughter of Asoka who came all the way from North India, and whose only mission was to preach Buddhism, and spent over 40 years of their lives in Sri Lanka, (till they died) preaching to the Sinhalese, did not even think of preaching to this “(imaginary) ancient Tamil Kingdom,” which was only walking distance away, from the Sinhala capital Anuradhapura where they lived ? Why? Was it discrimination against Tamils by Asoka and his pious children? *IS this not proof, that there was no Tamil kingdom nor even a fair population of Tamils, to encourage these devout, dedicated religious teachers to want to go and preach to this “imaginary northern kingdom,” as was done in Burma, Thailand etc?

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14) If Tamils had an “ANCIENT TAMIL Kingdom in the north”, were Sinhalese so foolish, to go and set up their first kingdom in 394 BC in Anuradhapura, (by King Parakramabahu I) in North Central Sri Lanka, where it would be enveloped on the west, north and east, by this “so-called imaginary” ancient Tamil kingdom, when the Sinhalese could have occupied the whole of the south and had their Capital in the South instead of going to Anuradhapura? *And were Sinhalese so stupid to build, (from around 300 BC), *extensive irrigation systems, *huge religious monuments 140 to 160 feet tall, (still as strong as the day they were built), and *nine-storeyed monasteries, and plant their most “SACRED BO TREE” in Anuradhapura, if they knew their kingdom was enveloped by this “Tamil kingdom” and they could be attacked, any time, and their buildings destroyed by this “Imaginery Tamil Kingdom”? 15) When in BC 250 King Devanampiya Tissa went to Nagadipa in the very North to receive the sacred Bo Tree, he did not get a Visa or permission from any Tamil Kingdom to go to the North! That was because there was no Tamil or any other Kingdom in the North! 16) This “so called Tamil kingdom” did nothing, built nothing, left nothing - no irrigation systems- no religious buildings, no inscriptions, no written history, left behind for posterity! While in the heart of Jaffna in Kantharodai there are Buddhist temples built by Sinhala kings. – If they have not been destroyed in the recent past!!- (Tamils or their “ imaginary” kingdom could not have been Buddhists !) 17) There is only one attack on the Sinhala Kingdom from the North. That was by a Malayan, Chandrabhanu. He first tried to attack the Sinhala Kingdom, and when he failed he went to Jaffna and tried to attack Sinhalese people from the North. But he was killed. All attacks on the Sinhala Kingdom came only from South India. – None from this so called Tamil Kingdom. 18) Around 1505 Portuguese took over the south and harassed Arab traders, who were running businesses in the south. When Arabs complained to the Sinhala King, the king gave them land on the East coast, where they are still living. This proves the East, Batticaloa and Trincomalee were under the Sinhala kings - in 1505 - and not under any Tamil king!

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19) When Dutch came in 1637 they signed a deal with the Sinhala king to have berthing rights for their ships in harbours on the East coast, Trincomalee and Batticaloa during monsoon rains, proving that the east belonged to Sinhalese in 1637.- and not to any Tamil Kingdom! 20) When in 1660 Robert Knox’s father’s ship, “Anne” stopped over at the eastern port, Trincomalee, Sinhala soldiers arrested them and took them to their Sinhala king, proving that in 1660 the east was under a Sinhala king. Robert Knox and his friend Stephen Rutland lived among the Sinhalese for over 17 years. Knox has written a book about the Sinhalese he met. (Nothing about Tamils or a Tamil kingdom is mentioned!!!) 21) When King Valabha from India attacked Nagadipa in the north, King Mahinda 1V (AD 956-972) sent Sinhala troops to fight the Indians... Why? Because there was no Tamil King in Jaffna. 22) Historian Codrington says, “place names in Jaffna indicate that it was held by Sinhalese at no very remote date.” 23) Portuguese Historian De Queyroz in “Conquest of Ceylon” says “As long as Anuradhapure was the capital, the whole island was subject to one king…….There were fifteen kinglets, Dinvaca, Valave, Putaloa, ……Trinquilimale, Batecaloa, …Candea, and Jaffnapatam……….” (Anuradhapura was the capital of Sinhala Kings) 24) In Iriyagolla’s book “Tamil claims to land” he says, Tamil Historian Rasanayagam in his heavily Tamil -biased book “Ancient Jaffna” admits that , “Jaffna was occupied by the Sinhalese earlier than by Tamils, is seen, not only from the place names but also in some of the habits and customs of the people.” And in the preface to “Ancient Jaffna” Prof. Iyengar says, “Eelam is the ancient version of the Sinhala term Sihala. Therefore Eelam stands for the entirety of Ceylon.” 25) When British took over entire Sri Lanka in March 1815 by signing the “Kandyan Convention” only Sinhalese chiefs were invited to sign this Convention, which agreed to *maintain and protect the Buddhist religion, its rites and privileges and their places of worship”. Why were Tamils *not invited to sign it? Why no mention of protecting Hindu places of worship?

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Why did Tamils *not demand to sign it, if they too owned a separate part of Sri Lanka? And why did they not demand that Hinduism should also being protected! Obviously Tamil Hindus were a small insignificant minority- not big enough to protest! There is so much to prove there was NO Ancient Tamil kingdom, and ABSOLUTELY nothing to prove there WAS ONE. This absurd demand to divide the island has left this island in this miserable bloody terrorist mess for over 25 years!! 26) In 1970 TAMIL Congress Manifesto stated, “The Tamil Congress is sincerely and honestly convinced that Federation is bad for Ceylon, it would be worse for the Tamils…...Is it the objective of Tamils that they live as equals with Sinhalese and enjoy the rights in all nine provinces of their motherland or that they should contain themselves within the narrow confines of the North and East? The Congress cannot believe that Tamils will surrender their rights which they have so far enjoyed in (the other) seven provinces…..” 27) And TAMILS talk of discrimination by the Sinhalese !! Sri Lankan Tamils are about 12% of the population, while Sinhalese are about 75%. Tamils were mostly descendents of the seventeen or so South Indian Tamil invasions that plagued the island, or those brought from South India by Sinhalese kings as mercenaries, or Tamils who crossed the 17-mile shallow Palk Strait for fishing or for trade.

Half of the Tamils live in the south. Some have never visited the north. Sinhala Buddhists foolishly did not allow British, during their occupation after 1815, to start English (Christian) schools in the South. So the British began English Christian Schools in the North. As a result government jobs went to the English- educated Tamils. But Sinhalese never protested. They were satisfied with smaller jobs! As all Sri Lankans know, the southern postal zone of Colombo, Wellawatte is nearly 90 % Tamil. They run their own shops and businesses. Sinhalese patronise them. Tamil ladies, easily recognised by the coloured dot on their foreheads, walk on the road without any fear. .. So where then, is this SUPPOSED DISCRIMINATION? In 1980s when terrorism began. The 12% Tamils accounted for 34.9% Engineers, 35% doctors, 38.8% Veterinary surgeons, and 33% Accountants, in Public service. In the early 1900s it was Sir Ponnambalam and Ananda Coomarasamy (both Tamils) who began the “University movement” in Colombo (not in the north) which led to the establishment in Colombo, of Sri Lanka’s first University. In the 1940s, A. Mahadevan a Tamil, (son of Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam) was Minister of Home Affairs. It is obvious that all these educated Tamils lived in the South.

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If there was discrimination how could nearly half of the 2.8 million Sri Lankan Tamils still continue to live among the 15 million Sinhalese in the South, where they have lived for generations. Some of these Tamils have never visited the North. In 1983 when terrorism began, there were Tamils in the Cabinet and other top jobs! Mr C. Rajadurai, was Minister of Regional development, Devanayagam was Minister of Home Affairs, Thondaman was Minister of Rural Industries; Shervananda was Chief Justice, Rudra Rajasingham was IGP (and later High Commissioner to Indonesia) and his father was Senior Surgeon of Colombo General Hospital, and Mr Pasupati was Attorney General. In 1980s High Commissioner in UK was a Tamil. The Colombo University had Tamil lecturers, and Medical College had Professors and lecturers in Anatomy, Medicine, Surgery, Biochemistry, Obstetrics, and 4 of the 5 Ophthalmologists at Eye Hospital were Tamils in the 1960s. In 1971, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament – Mr Amirthalingam was a Tamil, whom the LTTE killed in his own house in Colombo in July 1989, after coming on a “bogus appointment”!! So where then, is this SUPPOSED DISCRIMINATION? In the early 1900s the British allowed one Sri Lankan to be appointed to the State Council. The Sinhalese and Tamils agreed on a Tamil being appointed, showing that, as commented in a local journal in 1899, “among the races in Ceylon, the existing relations are perhaps far more cordial than in any other British dependency in the East.” The “dignity and equality” of Tamils or Muslims was never a problem. Jobs went to those most suitable. Even in the far south, there were Tamils and Muslims living in dignity conducting their own businesses in which Sinhalese were employed, or Tamils and Muslims were employed by Sinhalese. Hindu Temples, Muslim Mosques, Buddhist Temples and Christian Churches stand side by side in Colombo- and they freely hold their own festivals . 28) In 1987 Minister of eastern Home Affairs K.W. Devanayagam (a Tamil lawyer)–speaking to an Indian delegation about eastern areas, Bintenne and Wewagampattu, said, “They were Sinhalese and Kandyan for centuries. They could never be considered as Tamil Homelands” (Rohan Guneratne) “LTTE terrorists are killing Tamil politicians of other Eelam parties like EPRLF, PLOTE, and EPDP whom they are suspicious of, (who have broken away from the LTTE). Now they are killing all prominent Tamils like Mr Kadiragamar, and Mr Loganathan. 9

Members of other Tamil parties who do not support their terrorism are being targeted.” Without easily definable natural borders how can this “new Tamil homeland” exist around a Sinhala “homeland?” Will the Sinhalese have to protect this over 200 mile artificial border for the rest of the life of this planet? Or will “Eelam” open wide its doors to Indian Tamils, to cross the 17-mile-long shallow Palk Strait, so that Tamils will easily outnumber the 15 Million Sinhalese. In the meantime the Tamils will destroy all the Sinhala Buddhist Relics and monuments, (over 129 in the north, 109 in Mulativu and Vavuniya and 147 in the East.), if they have not already vandalised some important Buddhist places, and replaced them with Hindu Kovils. Internationally accepted historical Buddhist sacred sites like the Sri Maha Bo Tree and the Temple of the Tooth Relic have already been desecrated by the LTTE, in addition to the cold blooded killing of large numbers of Buddhist Priests and Sinhala civilians. Then in another fifty years time, Tamils will say “There are no relics of a Sinhala Buddhist period. That proves the Tamils owned the North East. …. So how can Sinhalese say they had owned the whole of Sri Lanka?”. We who grew up in the south with Tamils and Muslims as classmates and teachers , and still maintain friendship with them, and have friends and relatives who have inter-married, cannot understand why we must segregate ourselves as Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims instead of living in harmony “as Sri Lankans”- as we did for so many years!. When and How is all this terrorism and fighting going to end? Muslims who were chased away from their earlier homes in the North and East, by the LTTE, and not allowed to take away any of their belongings, not even their ear ornaments, were later allowed to come back. But now they are being attacked by the LTTE. The Eastern Province had approximately one third Sinhalese, one third Tamil and one third Muslims. The EPDP paper submitted at the Oslo conference(2004) says, “LTTE’s yearning to be recognised as sole representative of Tamils, stems from Prabhakran’s dream to become authoritarian ruler over an independent state to be carved out of the north and east…... The systematic killing of or silencing of democratic minded Tamil Political leaders including second-rung leaders, is one of the means adopted by Prabhakaran to achieve this end“ 10

Killing of moderate TULF leaders must be viewed in this light. Proctor Nadarajah, Mr A Amirthalingam, Mr Yogeswaran, Mrs Yogeswaran, Mr Sivapalan, Dr Neelan Tiruchelvam and a host of other important TULF leaders were killed in cold blood by the LTTE…. Leader of TELO Mr Sri Sabaratnam was brutally murdered……Those who succeeded Sabaratnam…….like Adaikalanathan and Srikantha, have now, out of mortal fear, joined the LTTE’s fold, and are now behaving as loyal torch bearers of Prabhakaran……… The leadership of EPRLF which showed courage to fight LTTE’s fascist tendencies……...was later decimated….Its leader Padmanabha, and Kirubakaran, Sam Tambimuttu, Kala Tambimutta and Yogasangaree and several others were mowed down with LTTE guns……..” Douglas Devananda of EPDP has been attacked several times, and he lost an eye... Now they are even going for foreigners- like the High Commissioner from Pakistan. A popular Tamil Politician like Lakshman Kadiragamar was killed at his own house in Colombo. Even if Prabhakaran gets his separate state, can he come out in the open, and live as other political leaders do, when the LTTE has killed so many in other TAMIL parties such as TULF, EPDP, TELO, EROS and EPRLF? Or will he have to live in hiding, underground, because, before the Sinhalese, or Indians (who want him for killing Rajiv Gandhi) get him, the Tamils themselves may attack him for killing so many members in their families. It is not surprising to hear that his body guards are 33% Indian Tamils! He perhaps cannot trust Sri Lankan Tamils.

So when and how is it going to end? What is the NEW HISTORY we are leaving for future generations? - are the TWO big questions, which no one can still answer!

What if Muslims and Tamils in India, or Greeks, Italians and Chinese in Australia, or even Tamils in Canada or Norway etc want separate states? How will these requests be granted? (A concerned Sri Lankan - Acknowledged Author of Sri Lankan History)

Note: Fears to give name as the author presently lives overseas where the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora are very active and engage in harassment and violence. 11