Reject LLRC Report

Consortium of Patriotic Organizations

1091, Pannipitiya Road, Battaramulla

Tel: 011 2869901

22 / 02 / 2012

His Excellency Mahinda  Rajapakse

The President

Your  Excellency,

Reject LLRC Report in toto and conduct a high level National Inquiry

to deal with the LLRC

Whereas it is found that the Lessons Learnt and  Reconciliation Commission – LLRC Report is full of inaccuracies, fabrications,  distortions and unwarranted undertakings, and that while conveniently ignoring its directions has made deliberate attempts to misinterpret and  distort issues to assist the interested parties, We are of the opinion that the LLRC report should be rejected in  toto, and an investigation should be carried out to ascertain facts, forces and circumstances that led the LLRC to produce such a report and also whether any persons, institutions directly or indirectly involved, in this regard.

The President mindful of the common aspirations of the people particularly after the military suppression of Tamil terrorism which was sponsored and supported by the International Community appointed the “Lessons Learnt and the Reconciliation Commission” to inquire and report on Lessons to be Learnt, in order to prevent such concerns in future and to recommend a course of action in pursuit of effective reconciliation.

The Primary undertaking of the Commission was regarding the failed CFA, Sequence of events that followed thereafter and those responsible for all that. Knowing very well and having stated in the report itself that categorizing the entire country into LTTE areas and GOSL areas is the most alarming factor in the CFA, the Commission intentionally and deliberately failed to identify and recognize the CFA as a Partition Agreement and  acknowledge that it is not a Cease Fire Agreement, and the  purpose of which is to divide the country and handover North and East to Tamils. It is therefore illegal, destabilizing and undermining the sovereignty of the country. It amounts to high treason. No Nation with self respect will tolerate such acts. In coming out with the facts and circumstances that led to the failure of the CFA, the Commission overlooked this basic fact. Instead in their attempt to mislead those who are concerned about it, they have related a  variety of diabolical lies, myths and yarns, as well as separatists’ Gobell  talks such as lack of bipartisan approach, inefficient facilitating, ignoring the  Muslim factor, conceptual flaws and implementation deficits etc.

The most alarming factor in trying to present a distorted picture of the failed CFA is their continuous attempts to revive legitimize and strengthen the so called tamil grievances, demands and concessions. Instead of reporting true facts, forces and circumstances that led to the failure of the CFA, the Commission has engaged itself in finding faults with the successive governments of Sri Lanka for not taking sincere and bold attempts to fulfill Tamil demands.Furthermore, in its attempts to exonerate those local and foreign elements directly and indirectly involved in the failed CFA and the events that followed thereafter the Commission has been careful not to mention any of those even when some of them had been caught red handed in the battle field while some others were found supporting the terrorists indirectly. The Commission has conveniently ignored the evidence placed before it in this regard.

While ignoring such evidence the Commission has preferred to engage themselves in an issue that It is not expected to involve itself. Surprisingly, more than one third of the 387 pages are about human rights, and humanitarian law issues which according to its terms of reference, is none of their business. The question arises then, whose business is it? If it is not in the terms of reference given to them by the President, in whose terms of reference it is found? That is no doubt is a multi - million question.

Having thus attempted to distract the attention of the people from those who are really responsible for the failure of the CFA as well as the events that followed, the Commission has viciously noted “materials point towards possible implications of the security forces for the resulting death or injury to civilians”. Further more the Commission has gone on to stress that there is a duty on the part of the state to ascertain more fully the circumstances under which such incidents could have occurred and if such investigations disclose wrongful conduct, to prosecute and punish the wrong - doers. These recommendations, no doubt, resemble those of Darusman’s. It should be remembered that it is the International Community which wanted such investigations ever since the suppression of the LTTE.

With regard to their observations and recommendations under Lessons Learnt as well, the LLRC does not intend to deviate from the usual point of view of the Tamil separatists and their supporters, the International community. The Commission repeats that not acceding to the demands of the Tamil terrorists and since it is being the cause of the terrorism, the Commission has observed the critical importance of the issue of devolution. The Commission has further stressed that it is vital that the government should provide the leadership to a political process, and to this end a political settlement based on devolution must address the ethnic problem. The Commission also does not hesitate to join those local and foreign separatists to articulate and recommend that the present opportunity should be utilized to launch a good faith effort to develop a consensus on devolution.

Another alarming recommendation which reveals the connection between the Commission and the International Community is about another Gobell Talk about Tamil homeland. While the Commission repeatedly makes reference to Tamil speaking regions and Sinhala speaking regions, it recommends that government should not effect unnatural changes in the demographic pattern of a given province! What is in the mind of the commissioners in this regard is very clear when they also say that figures about the Sinhalese people evicted from the Jaffna District is not accurate, and again say that only 24 families were evicted, and that resettling of these Sinhalese should be done in a low key manner. What more evidence is needed to prove that the Commission is speaking on behalf of the separatists?

One primary objective of the Commission is to recommend the measures that need to be taken to promote National Unity and Reconciliation in order to prevent any recurrence of such concerns in future.In this regard the basic step the learned commissioners should have taken is to have the most correct conceptual interpretations for the terms unity and reconciliation without being stuck to different political interpretations of the interested parties. Instead, the Commission being unable to ignore the International Community have attempted to put forward the separatists’ way of thinking in this regard as well. Knowing very well that reconciliation precedes extending apology by the wrong doers followed by forgiveness  by the victims the Commissioners in their preconceived separatists way of thinking have shrewdly involved both parties, by stating that the wrong doers as well as victims need to make a joint declaration extending an apology to the innocent people who fell victims. This is certainly a total distortion of the whole issue for the sake of separatism.

The Commission deliberately made this distortion with the ulterior motive of further legitimizing the so called Tamil demands and presenting them in the form of measures of reconciliation. In this regard the Commission has totally disregarded the evidence presented by many a patriotic organizations and large number of respectable personalities.  The suggestions with regard to promotion of unity of the people of the country are also nothing but the same old Gobell myths of the separatists and the international community. It is clear shrewdness on the part of Commissioners and a treasonable attempt of promoting a separate nation out of a long established Sinhala Nation with an enviable civilization. It is generally the practice of learned judges to understand the real motive of a piece of legislation, when it comes to proper interpretation. For this purpose most learned judges tend to take note of statements made by the legislators on the subject on various occasions.

In the matter of reconciliation it is therefore so significant to take note of what His Excellency the President has stated in his allimportant address to the Parliament immediately after the war on terror ended at Nandikadal Lagoon. He clearly stated that “. No longer are there minorities called Tamils Muslims Burghers Malays or any other anymore in this country”. The massage the President wanted to convey turned very clear, when again he stated in a high level interview with the Hindu Paper that “now my theory is there are no minorities in Sri Lanka”. It is therefore really surprising why the commissioners did not take note of these remarkable statements.That conveys the message that, the root cause of the problem is the minority factor, which was not known in this country prior to the advent of International Community, but created by the very same International Community, which is behind the present problem in this country.  The President also stated that outside prescriptions are not needed. His view about the National Anthem too has been ignored.

The Commission has ignored all that because it has a hidden motive. Their attempt to distort the issues becomes very clear when they suggest the need of attitude changes among the Sinhalese. That is like getting the tail wag the dog.  That is a shameless attempt to legitimize the demands of the separatists. Also in their attempts to further strengthen the Tamil demands as required by the International Community, the Commission has highlighted a statement by some Tamil persons who have said that Sinhala soldiers treat them as conquered people. This again shows the constant guidance of the Commissioners by the International Community. Every body knows that it is Ban – Ky – Moon, the number one agent of the International Community who warned the Sri Lankan government not to risk triumphalism in wake of victory.

Whereas, the LLRC appointed reposing a great trust, confidence, fidelity and independence in them by the President has breached all those in the course of its proven compliance to the guidance of the interested parties, We are of the opinion that His Excellency  the President should reject the LLRC report in toto and hold an inquiry to ascertain facts and circumstances that led the LLRC to produce such a report and also whether any persons, institutions are directly or indirectly involved in this regard.

Signed

• Gallege Punyawardana -  Head – Swarna Hansa Foundation

• Anura Senevirathna -   Head - Expatriate Hela Team

• Dr. Suriya Gunasekara – Seretary, Negenahira  Bauddha  Punaragamanaya

• Dr. Harishchandra Wijayathunga -  Sinhale Maha Sammatha Bhumi Puthra  Pakshaya

• L. C. Samararathna – Sinhala Patriots of the United Kingdom & Europe

• Kamal Rajapaksha – Sinhale Foundation

• Channa Lokuliyana – Hela Handa Foundation

• Dhammika Mawella – Kind Heart

• Jayantha Liyanage – Sinhala Nation

• Rev. Akmeemana Dayarthna Thero – President, Sinhala Ravaya

• Ajith Silva – Sinhala Solidarity Movement

• Ira Mediwaka – Buddhist Village Trust for Sri Lanka

• Sohini Chakravorty – Voice of Conscience

• Kalyananda Thiranagama – Human Rights Lawyer

• Ranjith Soysa

• Dr. Piyasena Dissanayaka

• Col. Anil Amarasekara

• Shenali Waduge

• Wajiragnana Warnakulasuriya

• Ananda Wijesingha

• L. Jayasooriya

• Kingsly Abraham

• Wimal Ediriweera

• Anoma Silva

• Palitha Perera

• Asoka Gunasekara

• Bimba Karunarathna

• Shan Gunarathna
  
  

Gallege Punyawardana    Contact the author of the petition