National Unity and Sustainable peace

An Open letter to the President Mahinda Rajapakse

by V.Andasangaree

President- Tamil United Liberation Front

(December 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Once again I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your assumption of office as President of Sri Lanka, for a second term. It is very unfortunate that I could not participate in any of the functions related to your taking of oaths, like thousands of others because I am still mourning the death and disappearances of thousands of civilians. Most of them had been either known to me or kith and kin of those who are very close to me. The most unfortunate thing is that the causalities are more from the Mullaiteevu, and Kilinochchi electorates represented by me in Parliament before the Mullaiteevu district was created. I am happy to note that your first task is to ensure lasting National Unity and sustainable Peace. To achieve both it is important that we must have a contented. Society wherein people consider themselves as equals and that one is not superior or inferior to the other.

You will agree with me that majority of the people from the North and the East had been living in subjugation of a group of irresponsible elements who were responsible for depriving them of their Fundamental Rights and for seriously eroding into their Democratic and Human Rights. For more than quarter of a century they were yearning for liberation and dreaming to go back to their former life in their homes and live peacefully as in the past.

Today you have liberated the people not only with the support of the forces but also with the unstinting support given to the forces by a fair section of the Tamil community, which expected to re-enjoy all their lost freedom. Permit me to bring to your notice how disappointed they are for failing to achieve what they intended to. You will hardly find one person who will want to see a repetition of the hardships they underwent during the past 25 - 30 yrs. The men had lost their stamina. Even the firing of a cracker scare the women folks and make some women to run hysterically. The children are undernourished. Many still do not attend school. Several thousand men women and children have lost their limbs, eyesight, mental balance etc. Many move about with pieces of shell in various parts of their body. Not one family can boast of leading normal life with minimum losses. But many lost their wealth, houses, vehicles, agricultural implements etc. Some lost their parents and their children, some wives lost their husbands and men their wives. On the whole most people in the Districts of Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna and all people of Kilinochchi and Mullaiteevu lost all their belongings. Every family has a tale of woe to tell the world. Unfortunately they were not given a chance to tell the world what happened to them. I have brought to your notice the minimum sufferings the people underwent but the real sufferings are several hundred folds more. It is your Excellency’s duty to note these with the sympathy they deserve. These people had suffered enough pain and let no more pain added under any circumstances. People of the North and the East being victims of war, please don’t allow anyone to take mean advantage of their present plight. Since they had suffered enough kindly make their lives comfortable as far as possible.

The main task before you today is to ensure lasting National Unity and Sustainable permanent Peace. I strongly believe that you will accept my suggestions. I am one who is equally patriotic like you and prepared to lay down my life for the sake of the country and the Unity of all sections of the people. I have lived and moved with Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays, Burgers and such other small groups and therefore I know the sentiments of the Sri Lankan communities as a whole. The people today want peace and nothing else. No section of our people want preferential treatment. Everyone wants to be treated equally. There may be a few who can always find ways and means to get at the authorities to get preferential treatment. Such people whichever group they may belong to, should be ignored, because they support every Government that comes to power only for personal gains

To achieve your task ensuring lasting National Unity and Sustainable permanent Peace. I wish to suggest to you certain norms that you should follow to achieve your task.

1. First of all please remember that you are the Head of the State and therefore morally bound to ensure justice and fairplay to everybody without showing partiality to any group.



2. Having taken into consideration the slavish manner the people of the North and the East were treated during the last quarter of a century or more, please ensure that these people are not pushed into a similar situation in the future as well. The presence of a large number of service personnel and the decision of the Government to open up Army Camps spread over in the North and the East and numerous Naval bases in the coastal areas of the North and the East are the main worries of the people of the North and the East today. They fear that the type of military rule the LTTE gave them, is going to be repeated by the Government Security Forces. If the Government is serious about its claim that terrorism had been eradicated there is absolutely no need for any Army Camp or Naval base in any part of the North and East. However depending on the need, one or two camps could be allowed to remain in the North and the East with the Army barracked.



3. I had gone round the country a number of times and found enough land all over, that will meet the requirements of the people for hundreds of years. It is not a wise move to settle the army and people from the other areas in the North and the East where people suffered the most during the war. Any attempt to implement this agenda at this juncture, I assure you, will upset the local people and achieving national unity will become a day dream. The Tamils are not greedy for land but if there is a genuine need for land for the people outside the North and the East they will certainly give way. What they generally oppose to is planned settlement with mischievous intention. Therefore please deter those who are deliberately intending to cause mischief among various groups. Any genuine need for land could be sorted out after normalcy is restored and when people are in a mood to think magnanimously. At this moment most of them are in great despair having lost all the belongings including their dear ones and are not in a mood even to think and act.

4. Even 18 months after the war ended the houses that were left without roof are still without roof. I hardly see one house re-roofed in any part of Vanni. The Army is very busy constructing houses for their occupation. As a good gesture please take over these houses and hand over them to those families with children to occupy temporarily till houses are built for them. The rainy season has started with hellish life for the IDPs who are not properly settled in their lands even without the basic requirements.

5. Although much is said about the “UTHURU VASANTHAYA” not one of the main roads that are very important for the development of Vanni had been touched, up to now. The internal roads in Vanni are in a horrible state. Many school buildings have not been repaired yet and more due to poverty many children do not go to school but go about collecting abandoned pieces of iron to sell for their living. The first priority for them would be building of schools and feeding the poor and strengthening the economy of the poor parents.

When you assured the country that there are no minorities in Sri Lanka, I hope you will remember my writing to you that it is the minorities who themselves should say so and not you. It is your responsibility to create a situation for the minorities to say so. There are very serious allegations for most of which you may disown responsibility but you are in a supreme position to stop such things forthwith. It is generally felt that most vacancies for minor employment are filled by people who have no authority to do so. In Ampara recently, I understand that of the 30 vacancies for minor employment only one from the minority community had been selected. In Batticlo of the 21 given permanent employment only four are from that District and the remaining 17 are from outside the District from the majority community. I am not a communalist. But why should this type of accusations are being made? For appointments as surveyors of the hundred odd selected, I understand only six are from among the minority community. Further more of the 247 selected for SLAS not a single one from the minority community had been selected. Pardon me Your Excellency for pointing out that of the 53 selected as Secretaries to various Ministries only two are from the minorities, one a Tamil and the other a Muslims. The minorities are ignored in the appointment of Chairman and members to various Boards and Corporations. I am only bringing it to your notice what is now going on as a whispering campaign against the government. Your Excellency I have many more facts in support of my claim that what is needed is a contented society to ensure lasting national unity or even sustainable permanent peace.

Therefore as a true patriot I strongly urge that these are some of the matters that will obstruct you from achieving your task. As regards your achieving permanent peace, matters enumerated herein along with such other similar matters should be dealt with by you personally. Further more you, as the Head of the State and being long time in politics as MP, Minister, Prime Minister and Head of the State know fully well what the problems of the minorities are and how they could be solved to the satisfaction of the minorities.

I had been repeatedly telling that the 13th Amendment even if implemented in full, one day a future Parliament can change it. That is why I had been agitating for a solution based on the Indian Model that will meet the aspirations of the minorities and also will be acceptable even too many leaders from the Government, the opposition, academics, religious leaders and many from the Diaspora. By a adopting the Indian Model as a solution to our problem, Peace and Unity can be achieved in the quickest possible time.

I can assure you that the minorities if contented with what is offered as a solution, will not hesitate to spurn violence and give you unstinting support, to achieve your task of ensuring lasting national unity and sustainable permanent Peace.