Does Gotabaya have selective amnesia?

Gotabaya should speak with historical facts. Ignorance is not an excuse

Gotapaya Rajapaksha’s statement that India was responsible for promoting terrorism in Sri Lanka by way of training, arming and harboring Tamil rebels during 1984-90 periods is highly distorted and slanderous. Gotabaya seems to have suppressed the genesis of the civil unrest in the island nation which started as early as 1948 just to absolve himself of the accountability to the war crimes. When Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948, the country experienced the biggest problem of the political status of Tamil immigrants which in fact increased the ethnic tension between the Sinhala and Tamils. In 1956 the SLFP leader S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike passed a ‘Sinhala Only Act’ by encouraging xenophobic fears among the Tamils. Subsequently, the 1956 Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots, the 1958 ethnic riots, a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities, the 1977 anti-Tamil riots, the 1981 Burning of Jaffna Library, 1983 Black July pogrom-all targeted the minority Sri Lankan Tamils.  Further, during these turbulent years imports into the country were banned and as a result it included the banning of Tamil media and literature imports, and this agitated the Tamils. Riots swept through the country and affected many of the Tamil minority. As these riots were set in motion by Sinhalese dominant forces, Tamil organizations sprung up with the sole purpose of calling for an independent state in order to protect their rights. In 1970 a militant student body called the “Tamil Students Movement” was formed and from it emerged the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1976.

It was only in this context that India’s major concern was to prevent the crisis from escalating to a degree that might harm the minority Tamils. It is true that Indira Gandhi expressed her concern over the safety and rights of the minority Tamils but made it clear that India does not pose any threat to Sri Lanka nor do we want to interfere in its internal affairs. Gotabaya also forgot an important truth that the first time the dialogue between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE could be held only with India’s help.  India through its actions has tried to maintain a balance between being sensitive to the interests of its own Tamil population and that of the Sri Lankan government. At every moment, Indian efforts were aimed at keeping both parties at a dialogue only to avert the danger of escalated violence. However, in the recent past, India's policy shifted drastically as it moved away from the pulls of domestic compulsions to giving priority to larger geo-strategic interests by aiding and extending military and diplomatic help to the Sri Lankan Army in the Last Eelam War. Post-LTTE period, mutual blame games cannot be nipped in the bud unless India seeks an equitable solution to the ethnic question earnestly and expeditiously.    

For you Reading The Hindu report (12-04-2013)

India responsible for 30-year war: Gotabaya Rajapaksa

HadIndia acted responsibly, Sri Lanka would not have experienced a 30-year war, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said.

According to local newspaper Daily News, Mr. Rajapaksa, who is a brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said India could never absolve itself of the responsibility for creating terrorism here, though some of those directly involved in subverting Sri Lanka were blaming the Rajapaksa administration for the plight of the Tamil-speaking people here.

The remarks came in response to a recent article, ‘Why India is right on Sri Lanka’ by Hardeep S. Puri, India’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, published in The Hindu.

The news report quotes him as having said “people of all communities would have been still suffering the horrors of war, if not for the eradication of terrorism in May 2009, following a three-year combined security forces campaign”.

The Defence Secretary said Mr. Puri was involved in the Indian operation against the Jayewardene government, ahead of the India-Sri Lanka Accord in July 1987.

“He was one of those aware of the Indian operations here,” he said adding that both Mr. Puri and his wife, Lakshmi, were attached to the Indian mission here during the tenure of J. N. Dixit as High Commissioner.

Responding to Mr. Puri’s call for investigation into “specific allegations of war crimes during the last 100 days of military operations”, Mr. Rajapaksa said: “Those demanding accountability on Sri Lanka’s part for alleged atrocities committed during the last 100 days of the conflict were silent on the origin of terrorism here.” Indian intervention had resulted in a major regional crisis, when Sri Lankan terrorists, trained by Indians, raided the Maldives in early November 1988. “The international community should consider a comprehensive investigation into the issue beginning with the Indian intervention,” he said.

Mr. Puri could aid an investigation by revealing what was going on at that time. Mr. Dixit, in his memoirs, had said that arming Sri Lankan Tamil youths was one of the two major policy blunders of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Mr. Rajapaksa said.

Meanwhile, Sinhalese nationalist party Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) has said that before New Delhi pointed the finger at Sri Lanka, it should address human rights violations in India, particularly Kashmir.

Expressing scepticism about an Indian parliamentary delegation’s visit, JHU general secretary and Science and Technology Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said that if the delegation had come with honourable intentions, their visit would be welcome, but it was evident that the Indian visit was part of a protest campaign to further distort the country’s image, according to a report in Daily Mirror here.