NDP statement on UN Panel Report on accountability for War Crimes in Sri Lanka’

(Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . K1J 6G1 Canada)

Hon. Jack Layton, MP

 Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the  NDP

 House of Commons, Ottawa

Dear Jack Layton:

Re: ‘NDP statement on UN Panel Report on accountability for War Crimes in Sri

Lanka’

Here I am writing to you 72 hours  after the closing of the polls on the election of your party as the  official Opposition Party in the House with a youthful caucus, among who  are four McGill University undergrads.  All what I can say to you is Wow! and Congratulations. I know part of Tuesday you were  defending your new and inexperienced youthful caucus among them was the  19 year old Pierre-Luc Dusseault, the youngest to be ever elected to  Parliament.  Among the mix, I see you have the first Tamil member the  29-year old , Rathika Sitsabaiesan who took former Derek Lee’s riding  Scarborough Rouge-River, who I have read somewhere that in an interview with CBC she is now trying to distance herself from the Tamil Tigers.

Jack, all what I can tell you is,  and I am sincere when I say that I wish your new member of parliament  representing Scarborough Rouge-River “every inch and moment of Good Luck  in the world’ when trying to wipe out the white Tiger stripes from her  psyche, as I have been given reasons to believe from her Facebook pages  that she has some affiliation with the Tamil Tigers as the Tamil Tiger  flag has been prominently displayed there.  She might have to buy  new running shoes with rollers to run fast enough to distance herself of  being a pro-LTTE activist Diaspora member, and Velupillai Prabhakaran  the leader of the Tamil Tigers who was snuffed out on 18 May 2009 must  be turning in his grave spitting bullets through 12 inches of soil  hoping that one would get her for trying to turn her back on his  terrorist movement of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam  (LTTE) (aka  Tamil Tigers) which was and still is supported by the Tamil Diaspora in  the Greater Toronto Area.

It does seem that your new member  is smart and learning fast not wanting  to touch the letters L.T.T.E in  the alphabet even with a barge pole as she knows that it was easy for  her to make fools out of politicians like you  by making you tell lies  about the Sri Lankan Government and us Sinhalese about the Eelam War in  the House, and now that she is in public office and in the House,  she is aware that it is a liability to carry even a small Eelam flag that is  sewn with lies into the  House of Commons  and display it on her desk  with Tamil-pride as the truth is that the Tamil Tigers were the most  ruthless terrorists there ever was and was band in Canada in April  2006.  And the alleged persecution of the Tamils in Sri Lanka were all  concocted  by Tamils to have the Canadian flood gates kept open to  filter her Tamil people as ‘convention’ refugees and bilk the Canadian  system but only  to get on the first plane back home, the country that  they ran away from saying that they have been persecuted no sooner they  get their Canadian passport into their hands.  And that is the Tamil  Fact, Jack.

The classic example was when you acted as the God-father for the Tamils of the GTA when you called for an Emergency Debate on Sri Lanka on February 4, 2009, which was really a comic ‘Tamil  Tiger Blarney Gong Show’ to placate the Tamils who were sardine packed in the gallery and  cheering you all, as none of the lies that were hurled at Sri Lanka   that evening got stuck on the Sri Lankan Government  and its armed  forces.  When the  ‘Liberal Terrible 5’, Derek Lee, Jim Karygiannis,  Robert Oliphant, Judy Sgro and Albina Guarneiri called the Canadian  government to stop the ‘genocide’ of Tamils in Sri Lanka’s North, we now  know Jack that it was a load of cod’s wallop.  Then Liberal Albina Guarneiri with a squeaky clean voice stood up in her pulpit like a nun  and read a ream of abominable lies, authored I suspect by a Tamil, as if  she was reading a page from the Holy Bible and I could challenge her  now, as every thing what she said  that evening was a lie.  And, of  course, she has retired from politics, and so has Derek Lee and Robert  Oliphant went down in defeat.

Hallelujah! And your caucus members like Paul Dewar and Wayne Marston didn’t do any better that evening either. What your Rathika has not admitted as yet is  that that the latter stages of the Eelam War 4 were a humanitarian war  with the Sri Lankan armed forces trying to save the lives of 300,000  Tamils from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers who herded them as a human  shield for 30 months like unwashed cattle from the west of the island to  the east while they were retreating from the advance of the government  armed forces;  and from saving these 300,000 Tamils from getting blasted  by one of the over a million landmines that were planted  like fields of mushrooms by the Tamil Tigers, and  from bullets shot at them by  these terrorists if they tried to get away from the human shield.

What Rathika has not admitted as yet is that the Sri Lankan Government soldiers carried the feeble and the  old Tamil parents and grandparent in their arms like babies to safety,  risking their lives dodging Tamil Tiger bullets.  And that was not an  act of ‘genocide’ Jack as the Sinhalese soldiers were the angels dropped  from heaven to save their feeble and old from Tamil Tiger bullet-deaths, and your Rathika knows it. What Rathika had not admitted as yet is that the Sinhalese in the thousands cooked a million meals a day to  feed the 300,000 Tamils thrice a day who were in temporary longhouse  welfare shelters, and that not a single Tamil of the 300,000 was let to  starve.

What Rathika has not admitted  as yet is that she witnessed a miracle happening in front of her eyes, when  the Sinhalese who the Tamils said killed her people could have turned  their backs on the rescued Tamils and told them, ‘Starve to death you  Tamil bastards as you killed our Sinhalese people for 27 bloody years.”   But the Sinhalese didn’t.   That was the beauty about the Sinhalese. That was the amazing generosity and love that my Sinhalese people,  Buddhists and Christians alike, had for the Tamils.  And that was a  human rights laboratory at work.  And Rathika knows it.

What Rathika has not admitted as yet is that 95% of the 300,000 Tamils who were rescued in May 2009 have  returned to their homes which were renovated and some newly built, and  that they are luxury accommodation compared to what we Canadians let our  native Canadians and Inuit live in remote Reserves.  Shame on us  Canadians and three Cheers for the Sri Lankan Government!

What Rathika has not admitted as yet is that by annihilating the Tamil Tiger terrorists on 18 May 2009, who  according to her Facebook pages seem to have a soft spot in her heart,  the Sri Lankan Government’s armed forces gave back to the 21 million Sri  Lankans their ‘right-to-life’ which had been hijacked by the Tamil  Tiger terrorists.  And that is human rights at work in Sri Lanka for you Jack.  And that is a fact and Rathika knows it.

What Rathika has not admitted as yet is that 41 % of the population in the capital Colombo are Tamils, and  she would dare approach them encouraging them to get on a plane to get  to Toronto Pearson International Airport and tell the Canadians that  they have been persecuted by the Sri Lankan government and are landing  as refugees.  You know what Jack, she would be told with a tone of scorn  in no uncertain terms by these Colombo Tamils. “Hey!  Letchimi, why don’t you bugger-off to where you came from as we are  enjoying the best of our lives in our Sri Lanka and we happen to be  doctors, lawyers, thosai mudalalis, sari emporium mudalalis, engineers,  architects, diplomats and you name it and we also drive BMWs.  You may  also resent this bit of information Letchimi, we also marry Sinhalese  people and they are loving and lovely people.”

 And these are the Tamil Facts that Rathika has to admit.  And if she doesn’t, I will be the first to call her, ‘Rat-hika the newly minted NDP Humbug’.  Those are the facts that Rathika has to face now and admit as an honest  democrat and an honest Canadian politician.  When she stretches her  hand at every end of the month to get the portion of the $157,731.00  annual pay cheque, she might find it somewhat daunting as she wouldn’t  want to look a  damn liar as the truth about the Tamil Facts are staring  right at her face and her conscience will eat deep down in to her heart  if she will not tell the truth to the Canadians.

That is the reality  check for you Jack, and you better believe it. Now coming to your ‘NDP statement on UN Panel Report on accountability for War Crimes in Sri Lanka’ put out on 29 April 2011, three days prior to you being elected as the  Leader of the Opposition and Rathika being elected an MP to parliament,  and introducing Rathika, as the Tamil New Democratic candidate for Scarborough Rouge-River as the ‘Special Advisor on Tamil issues’ the statement said: “During this war  atrocities took place while media and international bodies were not  allowed in, or to report out.  The NDP has always supported an independent inquiry into human rights violations in Sri Lanka and will  continue to work towards this.  We will work toward Parliamentary study  on the human

rights violations in Sri Lanka.”

Well, Jack, you and Rathika have  taken a noble task to study the alleged human rights violations in Sri  Lanka, and will you now continue with your noble task to right the  wrongs around the world and make statements that the NDP will also continue with your studies on Human Rights violations by the Americans  and the West, including Canada as a participant of the NATO forces, in  Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya.  Failing to act and extend your  noble work which you have started in Sri Lanka with such enthusiasm will  only let the world, including me, call you two suspect as NDP HUMBUGS!

Jack, if you are going to act as a  true democrat in the new parliament, I don’t think it would give you  credence to show that you are truly one of them if you only have  Rathika, a Tamil, to be your ‘Special advisor on Tamil issues’. However,  if these Tamil issues impinge in any way on the ethnic Sinhalese to be suspect as human rights violators in Sri Lanka, it is only fair that you appoint a ‘Sinhalese-Canadian to be your Special advisor on Sinhalese Issues’ to get the facts right and be fair if the NDP wishes to be the morally responsible, squeaky clean Judge and Jury on this issue.

So, permit me to volunteer  to be the one-time Sinhalese-Canadian Honourary Special Advisor to you  on Sinhalese issues pertaining to ‘Tamil issues’, especially related to  the ‘UN (Moon) Panel report’, which you two on behalf of the NDP are  seeking “an independent inquiry into human rights violations in Sri Lanka”.

Here is this Sinhalese-Canadian’s advice to you:

       1. Please be advised that that the Three UN Panel Report should not be termed the UN Panel Report, but should be recognized as the ‘Moon Panel Report’,  as the composition of the panel of the so called ‘experts’ is from out  side the UN organization.  As such it violates the authority under which  the Secretary-General of the UN is expected to function under Article  100, Clause 1 of the UN Charter.  This is the article which provides  guidance to the Secretary-General to maintain his/her strict neutrality  of the UN.

       2. Please be advised that further, Ban ki-Moon, The Secretary-General of the UN has clearly  violated Article 2 (7) of the UN Charter which prohibits intervention in  matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any  state, thus this Report which  has been called the UN Panel Report and released for international consumption is a good reason for the Secretary-General  Ban ki-Moon to be impeached.

       3. Please be advised that The Panel that Ban ki-Moon had appointed was headed by Marzuki Darusman, a former Attorney General of Indonesia who was also a member of the  International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIEGP) invited to  observe the working of Sri Lanka’s Presidential Commission looking into  alleged serious violations of human rights in March 2008.  Darusman left the Commission in a huff disagreeing with  the Sri Lanka  Government and yet signed the IIGP Report without paying a single visit  to Sri Lanka to ascertain himself the actual ground situation. The  second panelist was Steven Ratner an adviser to a Non  Governmental Organization known as the Human Rights Watch (HRW) that has  been very critical of Sri Lanka from the inception of the Eelam War. Ratner has also co-authored a book with Jason Adams titled ‘Accountability for  Human Rights: Atrocities in international law beyond the Nuremberg  legacy’ wherein in page 123 he has stated that the ‘convention on  banning apartheid should be invoked in relations to countries such as  Sri Lanka.’  With this backgrounder Steven Ratner should have been dismissed from the panel instantly for his bias against Sri Lanka.  And the third panelist the South African Yasmin Sooka is a close associate of the South African Tamil Navi Pillay who is the patron of  the Sooka Foundation, and also responsible for the failed  resolution that was brought against Sri Lanka before the UNHCR in May  2009.  With such credentials none of the panelists would qualify to be  an honest non-partisan member of any panel dealing with the alleged  human rights violations in Sri Lanka as they carry with them full  baggages of  anti-Sri Lankan attitudes.  It clearly shows that Ban  ki-Moon is up to mischief wanting to hang Sri Lanka cold by denying the  island the much deserved prosperity of reconstruction, rejuvenation and  reconciliation since the end of the  30-year war in May 2009, thus  should not hold the all important office of neutrality as Secretary-General in the UN and is a good reason for him to be  impeached.

       4. Please be advised that  in the UN Report that you are referring to, the Darusman, Ratner, Sooka  panel starts by insisting that they have no investigative power and  that they are not embarking on any investigation at all.  With regard to  this, on the first page of the executive summary, they say, “The panel’s mandate however does not extend to fact finding or investigation.”  In confirmation of this, the page 3 of the report says, “The panel has not conducted fact finding as that term is understood in United Nations practice.”  Again on page 6 of the report the Darusman, Ratner, Sooka panel says, “The  panel and the United Nations officials repeatedly made clear to the  government the scope of its mandate as an advisory panel to the secretary general including that it was not engaged in any investigation.”  And again the Darusman, Ratner, Sooka  panel stresses on page 14 of the report that “the panel’s mandate precludes fact finding or investigation.”

       5. Please be advised that the panelists Darusman, Ratner and Sooka had taken this assignment  with  preconditioned minds wanting to destroy the progress of the  development and reconciliation among the ethnic groups of this sovereign island state and play Russian roulette with the lives of its  21  million peoples when their cunning becomes so transparent when on page  15 of the report says, “The panel has chosen to present the allegations it finds credible, in a narrative account.”  And again on the same page they say, “this account should not be taken as proven facts.”   This contradiction proves the fact that the panelists Darusman, Ratner  and Sooka wrote a horror story of fiction hoping that it would be a best  seller.  But it turns out to be a sick attempt by these three voyeurs  and this book of fiction is nothing to get excited  and will no way win  the Pulitzer Prize.

       6. Please be advised that with the above facts on this Moon Report on alleged war crimes in  Sri Lanka it is nothing for you Jack and your Tamil advisor Rathika to  get so hot and bothered about and to send messages to Sri Lanka saying  that ‘we NDPiers will huff and will puff until we blow your country down’.  Take a deep breath, you two,  and get on with the work that you  two have promised the Canadian masses to get elected – Health care,  Economy, Foreign investment, post-secondary education, Jobs, prosecuting  human traffickers, law and order, seniors, etc.  Drop your ugly  intentions about Sri Lanka.  They did well to get rid of the most  ruthless terrorist movement in the world, the Rathika’s  Facebook  friends, the Tamil Tigers.  And it doesn’t make sense to make  America’s  President Obama a Hero for  taking the second ruthless terrorist  Osama bin Laden down, and  yet,  make Sri Lanka’s President Rajapaksa a Criminal for taking down the number one ruthless terrorist Velupillai Prabhakaran of the Tamil Tigers.  This defies simple logic.

       7.   What Jack! Am I seeing the Sequel in the making to the February 4, 2009, “Tamil Tiger Blarney Gong Show in the Canadian Parliamentary Chambers”, which you acted as the Producer and Director, with this ‘NDP Statement on UN Panel Report on accountability for War Crimes in Sri Lanka’?  And I also see that you have recruited an under-study to produce and  direct this Gong ‘Horror’ Show – Rathika Sitsbaiesan, MP for Scarborough  Rouge-River.  Ha! I just don’t believe this and  do we really call  Canada a democracy?  You NDPiers with such nonsense only make Canada,  demo-crazy! Signing off as your one-time Honourary Special Advisor on Sinhalese Issues,

Sincerely,

Asoka Weerasinghe (Mr.)