US Rosenberg Couple and Sarath Fonseka

Prof. P. A. de Silva Emeritus Professor University of Moratuwa

In the USA, the Rosenberg, the couple were convicted on March 29, 1951 and on April 5 were sentenced to death for transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign Government information relating to national defence.

While their devotion to the Communist cause was well documented, the Rosenbergs denied the espionage charges even as they faced the electric chair.

In the case of Sri Lankan General Fonseka, he openly told the whole world that he will divulge the people involved in War Crimes. The West was waiting to create commotion in this island after we eradicated their puppet Prabhakaran, the invincible. My article under the heading ‘The Siege of St. Sebastian’ (Sunday Observer April 12, 2009) listed out some of the atrocities of the English Army on this town, “some houses were elegantly furnished, all was ruin, rich hangings women’s apparels, children’s clothes all scattered in utter confusion.”

The words are not mine but from Frazer, the General who went in to get the signature of the surrender. There was a 60-day siege and not even water was allowed in. The French had to use small boats at night to supply some wants of the people. The English fought in somebody else’s country for their flag, we fought for the Unity of our beloved country, home to Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malay, Burgher and even a few Negro descendants.

First class murderers

Our valiant and merciful soldiers fought a battle to rid the country from a merciless terrorist group. To have war crimes we must in the first instance have a war. We never had a war as there was no involvement of two recognized States. If the West had accepted Prabhakaran’s gun state as a state that is their own undoing.

They sow the seeds of division and terrorism in this little island. Now terrorism has spread like a canker to the whole world. The persons that the General states as having white flags are first class murderers who killed thousands of innocent children and women in trains and buses. If a country of 20 million people striving to emerge from thirty years of suffering and uncertainty is to be held responsible for the manner of death of a few murderers, we must insist that the Rosenberg case be reviewed. The young couple had done no wrong against humanity. The people who did the wrong against humanity are the people who built the first Atom Bomb.

Our country was not populated by murderers and terrorists a few Centuries back. This was a country where a bejewelled maiden could travel from Polonnaruwa to Tissamaharama unattended, but yet unmolested.

This passage is from Robert Knox - a Westerner who lived several decades as a captive, but not in an iron cage. He was free to move anywhere but not go to the shore. Still he managed to go back and write the book. ‘An Historical Relation of CEYLON.’

White flag story

The Sri Lankan Army fed the citizens as well as the Tigers for thirty years and to the very end food was supplied. Everyone who surrendered was given medical aid. Prabhakaran should have waived his white flag somewhat earlier when he was ordered to do so by the President. Perhaps without our knowledge he too may have been a Green Card Holder like the General.

This white flag story is the one that raised a major issue when the words were out of the mouth of the General. Now the question is to draw a parallel for the Rosenberg case and the Fonseka case. The Rosenbergs’ never admitted of their guilt. Further by 1952 there were no such things as Atomic secrets. Basic Physics can solve the problems just the way the Americans did it in what was called the Manhattan project. How did China do it and later India, Pakistan? Is mathematics also a unique prerogative of the Westerners? Ancient Hindu and Chinese Mathematics are over 1,000 years old. The Western mathematics is almost about 600 years old. The same applies to Babylonia.

The people opposed to the arrest of Sarath Fonseka have taken to the streets instead of the courts. The General’s crime is divulging State secrets to the foreign media. But there is a much bigger ethical crime. His supporters are attempting to cause disruption in a country that has just got over a 30-year mess. This is not the first time that established politicians or political parties have lost by a hair’s breadth. Mrs. Bandaranaike lost in the Parliament by just one vote.

Poor honest man

In fact the vote was coming but fate decided otherwise. Those were the days when MPs used their own vehicles. This particular member, a poor honest man was coming down from the hills in his dilapidated Morris Minor. He had three flat tyres on his way. By the time he reached Colombo the Government of Mrs. Bandaranaike was defeated in the Parliament and she resigned. The MP came to be known as Hulan Giya Manthri. I met him once and he said that he is not shy to say that he fell at her feet, worshipped “Mathini” and said he had three flat tyres. “She is like a mother to me” he said Mathini retorted, “Yakko Anduwema Hulan Giya”. Those were the days when we had politics.

Dudley Senanayake also lost in the Parliament by just one vote and he resigned. But today we have a case of a non-political person without an established party playing hell out of the country with the assistance of Western media after he lost by a gigantic 1,800,000 of votes. An experienced politician would have come to the Elections Commissioner’s office shaken hands and congratulated on the fantastic victory, smiled to the nation and just gone home.

But the General could not do this because the West wanted him to win. When every indication pointed to defeat why did they make such a big fuss? The reason is that some Eelamist groups in US do not want to accept defeat. In Hawaii, Panama Canal Zone and several other places with the help of just a few thousand people they toppled Governments and put in puppets’ Governments.

This was the aim of this group. Selling the Motherland for greed and money. Mao-Tse-Tung and Chiang Kai Sheik were friends in the Second World War. US split the two of them and created a Chinese Government in Formosa. These are well-known political facts.

Atomic Bomb secrets

It is sad that some people are so ill informed about history and come out with fantastic claims like freeing the General of all allegations. In the Rosenberg case the verdict by Judge Irving Kaufman was very peculiar, the charge was giving Atomic Bomb secrets to the Russians. The two were members of the American Communist Party. As for Atomic Secrets there were none at the time.

The critical mass was an established fact. Any scientist could arrive at the figure using fundamental physics. Further a large number of Jews were in Russia who had been working on the project long before America took it over from Hitler. Hitler had established Heavy Water Plants in inaccessible parts of Norway.

The plants needed huge quantities of electricity and these regions had a plentiful supply of hydropower. Thus what secretes the Americans had which was not available to the Russians at the time is not a proven fact. In spite of all these known facts the judge passed a death penalty.

A part of the judgment is given below:

"I consider your crime worse than murder. I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-Bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. No one can say that we do not live in a constant state of tension. We have evidence of your treachery all around us every day for the civilian defence activities throughout the nation are aimed at preparing us for an atom bomb attack."

It was simply ludicrous for a learned judge to mix up Korea and Nuclear secrets. Just like in Vietnam later and presently in Afghanistan, the US got mixed up with the anti-national minority groups of people in all these instances. The Nuclear secretes had nothing to do with the Korean War. The division of Korea at the 38th parallel was engineered by US and its allies.

In Vietnam, it was total surrender to the Vietcong. I am not saying who was right, the US or the Vietcong. Can we say that Keppitipola was wrong and the English were right in Sri Lanka a Century back? The main question is why did this small nation of four million people originating from the small island called England, which now has the name United Kingdom explore the globe and conquer all that they saw.

Even Caesar's Roman Empire was nothing compared to the British Empire in the 1930s. We can agree that they did some good, but for whose benefit were these so-called good things. About the Sri Lankan road system prior to the British one can refer to Robert Knox. He says that the villages were removed from the trunk routes and no one can enter a village undetected.

Rosenberg affair

The people who are raising human rights issues in these modern times of mass communication should not assume that the rest of the world comprises illiterate mutes.

The Rosenberg affair was a baseless conviction. Much later China wanted to build an Atom Bomb and a Chinese US citizen well versed in the technology wished to go back to China.

Strangely he was allowed to go. The scientists all agreed that in any case China will make the Bomb but if this particular person goes to China he will make a cleaner Bomb.

A clean Bomb is one where the Radioactivity is lowest and the Pressure and Thermal activity is highest. By the modern standards both Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombs were filthy. They produced so much radiation that people are still suffering the effects for generations. It must also be said that even Professor Einstein was against the making of the Bomb.

After the Second World War, America became the world leader in arms.

There was no threat to her from any other country. The only division was Capitalism Vs Communism. If they kept up the friendship with Russia the arms race would not have occurred. Instead against the view of all scientists US started on the Hydrogen Bomb. Even Oppenheimer who is considered the father of the US Atom Bomb was against the Hydrogen Bomb. Perhaps the arms traders were more powerful than the Auto Traders and we can see the arms race still going on in Iran, Korea and who knows where else.

Destabilization of the USSR has not done any good to the world or the US. I was once asked by a foreigner while in Paris, whether I am a Communist. I retorted that I am a Buddhist a much older and long lasting system of production, distribution and living which could encompass, both Capitalism and Communism.

I gave him a small booklet that I had on Buddhism by Ven Narada Thera. It is greed that is at the root of all these evils. We have nothing against wealth in the Buddhist philosophy but if wealth is used to cause havoc to others, what good can it cause. Also in the Sinhala vocabulary we have term called 'Hari Hamba Karanawa.' This is the colloquial interpretation of Right Livelihood. If people amass wealth to cause disruption to society, it will not take too long for these people to be boiled in the Cauldron of their own wealth.