A note of thanks to Prof Rajiva Wijesinghe

by R. Jayadevan

(September 06, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) In a most welcome speech at a seminar ‘Lest we forget: the tragedy of July 1983’ the Secretary General of Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process Prof Rajiva Wijesinghe has bluntly revealed the causes of the tragic state sponsored violence in July 1985 against the Tamils. Such an effort to accept responsibility for the violence by a fair minded and respectable Sinhala politico is a welcome process to go through a meaningful engagement to progress better understanding of the serious issues that have been swept under the carpet for a very long time and preventing a process to change the politics of hatred that is plaguing the Island Sri Lanka for many decades now.

Adding to Prof Rajiva’s apportionment of blame on the politico’s of the ruling government responsible for the July 1983, he has rightly stated that the segment of the government machinery was responsible for the violence. These politicos’s were never wrapped for their conduct by the very same government for the heinous crimes they had committed against the minority Tamils.

It is worth mentioning an important incident that took place on the political front whilst the state sponsored violence in July 1983 was systematically executed against the Tamil people. This happened when President J R Jayawardene was having a meeting with government officials to discuss the ongoing violence against the Tamils. Highly tensed and angry government Minister Gamini Dissanayake barged into the meeting room. Without any consideration of those present, he went to demand the President: ‘Time is the right to finish the Tamils’. Stunned President J R Jayawardene questioned: ‘You mean all the Tamils in the country?’. The response from the tensed and agitated minister was: ‘Yes. We must finish them all’. The President enquiringly asked: ‘Gamini! Is it possible?’ The response from Gamini was to go on the offensive to finish the Tamils wholesome. The troubled minister could not see there were Tamil officials engaged in the discussions with the President.

This single most incident confirms the extent to which responsible senior government ministers were involved in the violence even now. The state of the present government which is collective body involving of Dr Mervyn De Silva’s and very many extremist anti-Tamil politicos including the JHU is no different to the government of J R Jayawardena in 1983.

The mentality of the then UNP government is no different to the present President Rajapakse government. This government has not made any signs of progress on the investigation of the murders, kidnaps and the inhuman treatment of the Tamils and cannot enjoy moral high ground of its conduct. It is worthwhile noting some of the instances. Killing of the opposition member of Parliament Maheswaran on the News Years day during the broad day light in a Hindu temple bears testimony for the unwillingness of the government to act responsibly. The parading of the naked dead bodies of the LTTE suicide cadres in the streets of Anuradhapura is another nauseating conduct of the government machinery and we are still to see the outcome of the official investigation. The list is endless and it is not the intention to list them all here.

The government policy of sweeping important and fundamental issues involving the minority Tamils under the carpet is an ongoing and established process and is practiced even by the present government without any remorse
- Sri Lanka Guardian