I have the right and authority to speak on behalf of Tamils:

Country must rally round President Rajapaksa

Tamil Leader Douglas Devananda dismisses Darusman Report

K T Rajasingham

Writers of the controversial Darusman report are not attached to any of the UN institutions, but they are ‘Contract Writers’, employed by the Secretary General to gun down Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, Tamil Leader and Minister Douglas Devananda told Asian Tribune.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wasted the resources and valuable funds of UN by employing a three member panel comprising Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia, Yasmin Sooka of South Africa and Steven Ratner of the United States, he said. “He employed these writers for his personal benefit to satisfy some countries and organizations to win his re-appointment, by casting aspersions on the Sri Lankan President and the Army leaders,” Devananda said.

“For 15 years, I was an armed cadre leading fight against the Sri Lankan forces to win rights for my people. Later I joined the mainstream politics of this country, but in case my people had been killed as alleged in the Darusman Report , by now I would have resorted to democratic measures to see justice. But it was not so as alleged in the said Darusman Report,” he said.

Devananda said: “I have the right and authority to speak on behalf of the Tamils of Sri Lanka. These are the very Tamils who have elected me as their representative since 1994.”

He alleged, because of the failed politics of Prabhakaran and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the country has lost thousands and thousands of innocent civilians.

In fact, Prabakaran was responsible for the deaths of more than 70,000 innocent Tamil civilians in the last 30 years during their sway in the Northern and Eastern parts of Sri Lanka, he said.

Socializing with them

“Though the so-called failed leader Prabhakaran and others were wiped out”, the minister pointed out “the rump of LTTEers are still active in the West. We are receiving information that these so-called rump LTTEers in the West are always seen in and out of the UN Secretariat in New York and some of those rump LTTEers who live in the New York are on visiting terms to the homes of many of those officers attached to UN Secretariat and socializing with them and doing everything possible to win over to urge for the release of the report accusing Sri Lanka Government.”

“Unfortunately they have succeeded and it is learnt that tens of thousand dollars have changed hands in this process,” Devananda said. He pointed out that the Darusman report has arbitrarily set ‘September 2008 to May 2009 as the last days of the battle with LTTE in Sri Lanka’.

He added “They have purposely come up with this period, because they wanted to focus on to the period of the battle Sri Lanka armed forces were involved to bring down the terrorists forces to their knees and thus they have cleverly and ingeniously refrained from writing about the terror and horror involvement of the LTTE.” They should have said in their imaginary stories in the so-called 196 pages report, that the last days of the war, starting from the days the battle in earnest was fought by the Sri Lankan Forces after November 2005, he said.

Details purposely dropped

The minister said: “I am a Tamil Minister and Prabhakaran dispatched his suicide cadres more than 13 times to assassinate me. More than that, a 1,000 EPDP activists and their family members were also killed by the LTTE.” He alleged that all these details were purposely dropped in that report prepared by Darusman and his two panel members.

Why? Since 2005, the EPDP is working hand-in-hand with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to put an end to the deaths and destructions unleashed by Prabhakaran and his men and also to bring about an acceptable political solution in this country, the Minister said. He emphasized “I have a moral obligation to come up with my testimony on this subject, as I started my politics initially as one who believed in armed conflict for well over 15 years and later gave up the armed struggle and joined the mainstream politics after the Indo - Lanka Accord of 1987 and contested the first Parliamentary General Elections in 1994 and continues to be an elected member of Parliament ever since.”

Devananda said: “I am a Tamil. A Tamil of Sri Lanka. I as a Tamil, who has been elected to Parliament on the Tamil votes, completely reject the Darusman report which is a flawed one and it has not been prepared with any legal authority or moral responsibility. “This report has been prepared to safeguard the vested interests of some countries, as well as that of some organizations. “I was keenly watching developments in the political and battlefields from the very day the LTTE started attacking the Sri Lankan Forces after November 2005.”

Minister Devananda while answering to a question by Asian Tribune said, “ If any country or United Nations wanted to show sympathy and interest towards the deaths and destructions of the innocent Tamils, then they have to come forward to assist in compensating those losses. My people have suffered in the past 30 years of terrorist war unleashed by Prabhakaran and his men.

“In the case of the Tamil problem, it is a tragic story of betrayals and disappointment lasting for the past 60 long torturous years”, he added. The Minister said: “Prior to the Indo - Lanka Accord of 1987, it was a pathetic story of disappointments. The successive governments that came to power came up with Banda - Chelva Pact and Dudley - Chelva Agreement and subsequently, they reneged those agreements and failed to come up with sustainable solutions to our problems.”

He added: “But the history that unfolded after the Indo - Lanka Accord was something different.

During this period, talks were held with the LTTE leadership by President Premadasa, President Chandrika Banadaranaike, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and finally President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Unfortunately, the LTTE leadership failed to come to terms with reality and was adamant and this adamancy and betrayal led to the failures of those talks.” Minister Devananda said: “As far as the EPDP is concerned, we have for the last 24 years worked for the welfare and uplift of our people. We have experienced immense hardships and pain of mind.

“Nobody should be satisfied by making allegations and making critical assessments of someone or a group as responsible for all those failures. “We are of the opinion that a meaningful political devolution is a must. “Other than this, a report prepared by Darusman and his two cohorts is not going to bring any solution to the people in this country.” Minister Devananda emphasized that “this type of report will only take us back again to another 60 years of destructions, mayhem, bloodlettings and loss of lives”.

Inter-ethnic relationship

“The important question before us is whether we are going to put back the miseries of the past and rise again or are we going to continue wasting our time lamenting over the deaths and destructions?,” he said.

“Ethnic discriminations have to be stopped forthwith. National reconciliation is the solution to fostering good inter-ethnic relationship. Through this only, the Tamils and the Tamil speaking people of this country will be able to live with equal rights and with equality in Sri Lanka,” he stated. “With this in mind, we contested in the last parliamentary elections in the ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) ticket and we won three Parliamentary seats in the Jaffna electoral district. I received more preferential votes than any other Tamil candidate contested in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.”

“Minister Rishad Bathiyutheen, another Tamil speaking Ministerial colleague of mine also won two Parliamentary seats in the Vanni electoral district and one in the Batticaloa district in the East. We all won in the parliamentary elections held on April 2010 just after ending the terrorist menace unleashed by Prabhakaran and his men. If the Government was responsible for the killing of innocent civilians has it been possible for us to win the election by obtaining support from the Tamils of this region? Asian Tribune asked Minister Devananda, posing another question asked about allegations on President Mahinda Rajapaksa being involved in his own family rule. Allegations are made that President Rajapaksa is involved in the Rajapaksa dynasty rule in this country.

Devananda responding dismissed the allegation as “highly idiotic.” “I know the President since 1994 from the days he was a Member of Parliament. In 2005, I volunteered and worked in his Presidential Election campaign.

You must understand that all those members in the family of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa are in politics today because they were all elected by the people of this country.

Mahinda Rajapaksa himself has been elected twice by the people of this country as President.

Devananda said, similarly his eldest brother Chamal Rajapksa has been elected by the people and he is today the Speaker of the National Assembly.

Also Basil Rajapaksa another brother who topped in the Gampaha electoral district and won with overwhelming support. He polled the highest number of the preferential votes, he added.

Topmost administrators

The minister also emphasized that President’s son Namal Rajapaksa topped the Hambatota electoral district preferential votes in the last Parliamentary General Elections.

Even Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary is one of the topmost administrators in the country. He was responsible for ending the terrorist menace in this country which plagued for 30 years, Devananda said.

These are the most important members of the President Rajapaksa’s family and there is no way to claim that they are trying to introduce any dynasty rule. They are all humble and simple political leaders, who obtained mandate from the people of this country to serve for them.

The minister said that the Darusman Report was not prepared to help the Tamils, but was prepared with the evil intention to punish the Sri Lankan Government for defeating terrorism.

It will make life harder for the Tamils. This report would impede the reconciliation process irreparably, he said.

“Today, the TNA and some Diaspora Tamils accuse the army of war crimes. In that case, why did these people rub shoulders with the former Army Commander, Sarath Fonseka during the Presidential Election?”

The Minister posed a question “Who is going to take the responsibility for the crimes perpetrated by the Tigers? Do the TNA leaders who incited and justified violence and agreed to work for the ideals of the Tigers, accept their share of responsibility? The report talks of media freedom in Sri Lanka. I would remind these people that for many years media freedom have been threatened among the Diaspora Tamils by Tigers. Journalists have been killed and assaulted. Newspapers have been forced to shut down.

Pampered

Have those responsible for these crimes brought to justice? “Even you, Mr Rajasingham, have been chased from pillar to post and you were on the run, am I right?,” the minister asked. The EPDP was responsible for bringing normality to the Tamil areas in the face of Tiger terrorism. Our party members had to sacrifice their lives for that purpose. Did the international community raise its voice when we suffered at the hands of Tigers? The International community failed to take action against the Tigers when they repeatedly scuttled the peace talks and resumed hostilities. Had the UN exerted pressure on the LTTE, and thousands of innocent lives could have been saved.

They pampered the Tigers, provided material support to the Tigers and attempted to blame the victims. Red carpet welcome was given to visiting Tiger leaders in foreign capitals. All this happened after 600 policemen who had surrendered to the Tigers in the East were executed by the Tigers. The UN is trying to lock the stable door after the Tigers have died!” Devananda said that Ban Ki-moon has done the biggest damage to the country by preparing an unauthorized report through Darusman on Sri Lanka and releasing it by abusing the UN funds and facilities to satisfy his ‘Masters’ and to win back his reappointment. “Ban Ki-moon has to be considered enemy number one of Sri Lanka.” The minister appealed to the Sri Lankans irrespective of ethnicity, to rally round President Mahinda Rajapaksa and stand united to face these attacks against the country.

- Asian Tribune -