World
Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka
World
Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka
PO Box 4066, Mulgrave VIC 3170, Australia
Phone:
+61 3 9548 0276 Fax: +61
3 9584 0276
Email:
ranjiths@spur.asn.au,
Website: http://www.spur.asn.au
Monday, 28 February 2005
The Secretary of Defence
The Ministry of Defence
Sri Lanka
WAPS
Concerned about NGO Infiltrations at the Makola Defense Academy
The
World Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka (WAPS) is perplexed and perturbed that
the Ministry of Defence had permitted Jehan Perera (Peace Council) and
Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu (Centre for Policy Alternative) to deliver lectures
to attendees at the Army Command and Staff Control Program, Makola.
We
understand that they deliver lectures on 'conflict resolution' and the 'future
of Sri Lanka' and other related subjects to Senior Officers of our Defence
Forces. Their published views on "the concept of traditional
homeland" run parallel to the separatist agenda of the Tamil extremists
as propounded by the LTTE and its fellow travelers. In the light of this, it
is incomprehensible to us as to how their lectures/courses can help our
Defence Forces to protect and preserve the territorial integrity and the
sovereignty of the Nation.
These
two foreign funded ideologues have been long time apologists for the LTTE. For
instance:
(1)
Mr. Saravanamuttu's writings have consistently highlighted the
increasing desertions of the army and ridiculed it as a force that is not fit
to fight the LTTE. He has, to our knowledge, never highlighted the desertions
in the LTTE and forcible recruitment of children in to the depleted LTTE
cadres. In a recent speech to the Asia Society in New York he presented a case
for the separatist goals of the LTTE, disguised as a case for greater autonomy
in a federal structure. This, you will recall, is the formula initiated,
propagated and directed by the father of separatism, S. J. V. Chelvanayakam.
Most of all, we are also aware that Mr. Saravanamuttu is very close to the
powers-that-be. His infiltration into the higher echelons of the political
establishment and his links with some terrorist-friendly European countries
continues to be a grave threat to national security.
(2)
Dr. Perera has been the
foreign-funded long term protagonist agitating for dismantleling the Sri
Lankan state and revising its constitution to fit into the goal of the
separatists. It is documented through Norwegian state records that Dr. Perera
was granted around 300,000 kroners to revamp and update his ‘so
called’ computer system. His unending one sided call for peace has been to
weaken the forces of the state and strengthen the cause of the Tamil
extremists. His writings reveal that he has manufactured excuses for each of
the increasing demands of the separatists. Dr. Perera is on record saying in
DANA (a magazine that was edited by him) that he is opposed to and is ashamed
of the concept of the Nation. Besides, neither he nor Mr. Saravanamuttu has
ever argued on the lines of saying enough is enough, or that the aspirations
of the other communities, especially the majority Sinhalese too should be
given equal weight in any formula for peace, security and stability. In fact,
the title given to him as an apologist for the LTTE was confirmed recently
when he ran a seminar in the Vanni with LTTE’s blessing, when the Vanni is a
no-go area for the Security Forces and Sri Lanka’s government.
We
believe that the Army Intelligence is not that weak to know the political
agenda of these two ideologues. We cannot envisage a situation where a force
committed to preserving the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the
nation needs to be exposed to foreign-funded agents arguing for the
dismantling of the existing sovereign nation as a solution to terrorism. We
also believe that the Army Intelligence will find no evidence of the US Army
inviting the agents of al Quaida to run similar seminars at the Pentagon under
the belief that ‘knowing other peoples views will broaden the horizon of our
trainee officers’.
For
all intents and purposes, it appears to us that instead of inviting
Tamilselvam to deliver lectures on how the security forces should conduct
their affairs, the Ministry of Defence has willingly or unwillingly invited
two NGO representatives habitually parroting the virtues of the LTTE and
campaigning for a greater piece of the land for the LTTE. These NGO's are not
responsible to the people of Sri Lanka. Their primary goal in life is to toe
the line of their bosses who fund them from abroad. Their political strategy
has been to denigrate and demoralize the Security Forces. They will profit by
this exercise and write applications for more foreign funds on the strength of
their courses highlighting the fact that they have had access to the Army’s
High Command and they have worked to ‘broaden the horizon’ of the armed
forces. In fact what they do in these courses is to weaken the morale and the
will of the Security Forces to meet the challenges of the next Eelam war that
is been threatened by the LTTE.
Motivating
the Security Force and instilling in them the appropriate values of the Nation
is a fundamental requirement essential to protecting the territorial integrity
and sovereignty of the Nation. Our poor and humble people are paying taxes to
maintain the security forces and to equip them mentally and militarily to
defend their traditional homeland. We fail to see how the Ministry of Defence
can provide any rationale to explain the invitation to these two ideologues
who are in cahoots with the LTTE to lecture our dedicated and committed
defence forces.
We
trust that you will give your urgent attention to weed out hostile elements
who have infiltrated the nerve centre of forces protecting democracy and the
unitary status of the nation.
In
summary, the sighted organisations and persons, singly or together, have
publicly questioned the need for our sovereignty, called for deskilling the
armed forces, pushed the fiction of traditional homelands of racist Tamil
groups, accepted the dictatorial unelected Tamil Tigers as the sole
representatives of Tamil people and justified the war of the Tamil Tigers
against the Sri Lanka Armed Forces, the Government and its citizens.
Please
reconsider your decision to permit Jehan Perera and Sarawanamutthu’s ongoing
involvement in blunting the patriotic feelings of our future leaders of the
armed forces.
In
defence of our sovereignty,
Yours faithfully,
World Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka
Dr.
Dasarath Jayasuriya
President,
Society
for Peace, Unity and Human Rights of Sri Lanka (SPUR) Victoria
For
World Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka (WAPS)
President
- Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights of Sri Lanka (SPUR) Victoria
President -
Sri Lanka United National Association (SLUNA) of Canada
President -
Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights of Sri Lanka (SPUR) NSW
President - Western Australian Society for Peace Unity and Rehabilitation (WASPUR) in Sri Lanka
President -
Sri Lankans Against Terrorism- NSW
President -
Sinhala Cultural and Community Services F. Vic
President -
Apey Shakthi- New Zealand
Coordinator -
Hela Muthu Ketaya, New Zealand
President -
Canadian Association for United Sri Lanka-Canada
President -
Sri Lankan United National Association-Canada
President -
Sinhala Centre- U.K
President -
The International Campaign for the Liberation of the Sinhala Nation-
U.K
President -
Sinhala Association of Sri Lankans in the U.K
President -
New York Society of United Sri Lankans-U.S.A
President -
United Sinhalese Association in Italy- Rome.
President -
Pacific Alliance for Peace in Sri Lanka, Vic (National Office),
Australia
President - Alliance Against Tamil Domination, UK
President - Veera Parakramabahu Foundation (VPF), NSW, Australia
President - First Society of Sri Lankan Professors in American Universities
President - First Society of Sri Lankan Professionals in Japan
Copies
to:
Chief-Joint Operations Staff, Commander Sri Lanka Army, Commander Sri Lanka,
Air Force, Commander Sri Lanka Navy, High Commissioner
for Sri Lanka in Australia