HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

Investigating the Tamil Tigers

2014 Dr Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam

From left: Brian Senewiratne, Father S J Emmanuel, Adrian Wijemanne, Siva

Sivanayagam.

Catholic priest S J Emmanuel

S. J. Emmanuel

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rev Fr Prof Dr
S. J. Emmanuel
Born

1934 (age 7980)

Jaffna, Ceylon

Residence

Germany

Ethnicity

Sri Lankan Tamil

Alma mater

University of Ceylon
Pontifical Urbaniana University

Religion

Christian

Denominatio Catholic
n

Reverend Father S. J. Emmanuel is a Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest, activist and
president of the Global Tamil Forum, an umbrella organisation for Sri Lankan Tamil
diaspora groups.
Early life
Emmanuel was born in 1934 in Jaffna, Ceylon. He studied in Jaffna before going to
the University of Ceylon in Colombo from where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in
physical sciences (Mathematics & Physics) in 1958. After graduation he spent time
as a teacher and a journalist before he chose to join the priesthood. He then went to
the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome from where he obtained a degree in
philosophy and theology.
Career
Emmanuel was ordained as a priest at St Peter's Basilica in December 1966. On
returning to Ceylon he served as a pastor and diocesan director for lay apostolate.
He returned to Rome in 1976 where he did research into lay ministries and obtained
a doctorate in theology. After returning to Sri Lanka he served as a professor and
Dean of Theology at the National Seminary in Kandy from 1976 to 1986, after which
he was Rector of St. Francis Xaviers Major Seminary in Jaffna for ten years. He was
also the Vicar General of the Jaffna Diocese until 1997.

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

Emmanuel was amongst the half million people who fled the Jaffna peninsula in
October 1995 when the Sri Lankan Military launched an offensive to recapture the
peninsula from the rebel Tamil Tigers. He spent the next year in the jungles
of Vanni before going into exile in 1997.
Exile
Emmanuel moved to Germany in 1997 where he was a pastor in a catholic parish in
the diocese of Mnster until 2007. Since 2007 he has served as Vicarius Cooperator
in St. Nikolaus Parish in Darfeld, Germany.
Emmanuel has spent his exile as a conscientious Catholic and Tamil activist
publicising the impact of the Sri Lankan Civil War, mostly on Tamil civilians. In 2010
he was elected President of the Global Tamil Forum, an umbrella organisation for Sri
Lankan Tamil diaspora groups.
References

"President's Message - About our President". Global Tamil Forum.

Dobbyn, Paul (17 April 2011). "Exiled Tamil priest wants peace, truth and
justice in Sri Lanka". The Catholic Leader.

Global Tamil Forum

Home

About GTF

Contact us

Media**

Projects

Events

Joining GTF

About Our President

Campaigns

Donate**

Home

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

From Global Tamil Forum website (3.1.2014)

About Our President

About our President
Prof. Dr. S. J. Emmanuel, born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka in 1934, had
his early education in Jaffna and later graduated himself in
physical sciences at the University of Ceylon, Colombo in
1958. After a short period as teacher and journalist, he did his
studies in Rome, graduating in Philosophy and Theology at the
Pontifical Urban University in Rome and was ordained a priest
in Dec 1966.
In Sri Lanka, he was pastor and diocesan director for lay
apostolate. During his second soujourn in Rome (1973-76), he
did research about lay ministries and obtained a doctorate in theology. From 1976
till 1986, he was Professor and Dean of theology at the National Seminary in Kandy,
Sri Lanka. For eight years he was a member of the first Theological Advisory
Committee of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) and delivered the
key-note address to the Plenary sessions of the FABC in Tokyo in 1986. He has
written on various theological issues of the Asian churches.
He was ten years Rector of St.Francis Xaviers Major Seminary in Jaffna and also
Vicar General of the Jaffna Diocese till 1997. He was Founder-Director of the Centre
for Better Society in Jaffna , and editor of two bi-monthly journals in Tamil.
From 1986 onwards, he has been a direct victim and witness to the ethnic conflict
and war in Jaffna. In October 1995 he along with his staff and students of the
Seminary joined the 500,000 men, women and children in their historic Exodus out
of Jaffna. After a year in the jungles, he moved to Europe in 1997 in self-exile.
During these eleven years in exile, besides his lectures in various universities in
Europe, he has been bearing credible witness at many international conferences to
the horror events happening behind closed-doors in the Northeast of Sri Lanka.
During the last ten years he has attended the annual sessions of the Human Rights
Commission of the UN held in Geneva and has been lobbying support for his people
from the international community.
Besides his theological publications in the earlier years as a member of the
Theological Advisory Committee of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences
(FABC), he has written three books related to the Tamils struggle for freedom.
1. Church, Politics and War in Sri Lanka in English and Tamil
2. Let My People Go in English (2 editions), Tamil, French and German
3. Agonies and Aspirations of the Tamil Struggle 2 editions in English

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

He has given numerous interviews to media and written articles to several journals
in Englsih, Tamil and German. From 1997 to Feb.2007 he was Pastor in a catholic
parish in the diocese of Mnster. From March 2007 he serves as Vicarius Cooperator
in St.Nikolaus Parish, Darfeld in the Diocese of Mnster, Germany.
Prof. Dr. S. J. Emmanuel was elected as the President of the Global Tamil Forum
(GTF) by the member organizations for 2010-2011 term. Time to time he writes on
topics of interest to the Tamil community.

From Brian Senewiratne Pages blog

http://briansenewiratne.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-min=2005-0101T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2006-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=9
The THAMOTHERAM funeral. A Sinhala Tribute

Last week a Sinhalese thought it appropriate to fly half way round the world
to attend the funeral of a Tamil, Jeyam Thamotheram, whose funeral took
place in the Methodist Church, Hammersmith, London, on 4 November 2005.
The Church was packed to capacity but from my perspective the highlights

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

were the tributes paid by two exceptional Sinhalese Adrian Wijemanne and
Neville Jayaweera. The 30-hour flight seemed well worthwhile.

Rev Roger Dunlop detailed the unbelievable achievements of an

extraordinary person. The first Tribute was from Siva, Subramanium
Sivanayagam, the finest Tamil journalist, indeed Journalist of any ethnic
group, that Ceylon has ever produced. It was a very personal tribute from a
close friend read by Mr Sithamparapillai. I will not focus on Sivas contribution
because I am sure it will be published elsewhere. The next was from the
irreplaceable Adrian Wijemanne read by myself, and the third by a relative,
Dr.Karuna Alagaratnam.

This was followed by the cremation, attended by just the family. After lunch
followed the many tributes from relatives, friends and representatives of the
numerous organizations that Jeyam founded. I will deal with just two of these
tributes because of the importance of the message, which should be heard by
all, the Sinhalese in particular.

The Adrian Wijemanne Tribute.

Before I read Adrians Tribute, I thanked the Thamotheram family for

honouring me by asking me to deliver it. Before I did so, I briefly introduced
Adrian, not that he needed an introduction. I described him as a great
Sinhalese whose shoelaces I was not worthy to untie. While my contribution
to the Tamil struggle for justice, equality and dignity were based on emotion,
Adrians was based on irrefutable facts, presented and argued with the
precision of a brilliant lawyer (which he was not). Here is what he wrote:I met Mr Thamotheram, for the very first time, in June 1994. It was at a
meeting of the International Tamil Foundation to which he invited me. Within
minutes of meeting, he made me feel as if I had met a long lost friend. He
had a gift for friendship. It was a gift that survived the pain and trauma that
our two nations were suffering in the throes of war at that time.
Soon our friendship ripened for our concerns were identical peace and good
neighbourliness between our two nations on the island which both of us
regarded as our spiritual home in which we had been nurtured and in which
the bones of our ancestors lay buried. We got to first name terms very soon

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

I called him Jeyam and we spoke on the phone with each other nearly every
day.

Inevitably our perceptions of the future of our two nations differed. Mine more
pessimistic and shorter term than his. He had a longer term hope of eventual
amity and peace. He was wiser and more humane than I and he had the
advantage of moral integrity which the Sinhala people (myself included) had
sacrificed to their eternal discredit. These differences did nothing to cloud our
friendship which thrived as the years went by. Never a cross word passed
between us and our families drew closer together. I had the advantage of
knowing at first hand what a cultured, middle class, Tamil gentleman of the
early decades of the last century was like. Jayam was its perfect exemplar.

The ravages of time made short work of all our hopes; the future takes
dimensions unforeseen. Nevertheless as human beings we project values of
eternal relevance however translated into reality of time and tide. Jayam
stood steadfastly for the hope some day, even in the very distant future, our
two nations would live on the island, in their own political configurations, not
only in peace and good neighbourliness but even more importantly in
friendship. He knew and personified the healing grace of friendship Adrian
Wijemanne
I could not have possibly delivered it as well as Adrian would have, having
had no sleep for some 30 hours did not help. Just 24 hours later, Adrian was
admitted to hospital with a severe pain in his back. I fear he has crushed a
spinal vertebra from the relentless myeloma which I know he has. I pray for
his recovery, it is about as much as is left to do.
The Neville Jayaweera Tribute.

I had not met Mr Jayaweera until I arrived in the Church. Years ago, he had
been the G.A (Government Agent) in Jaffna. His address at the funeral was
worth travelling 15,000 km to hear. Here is what he said:Madame Malar Thamotheram, members of the Tharmotheram family and
friends.
In the course of several tributes paid to the memory of Jeyam during the
Church service, all speakers have referred to his many and varied
endowments and achievements. Therefore, during the few minutes allocated

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

to me to speak from this platform I will not go over that ground again. Rather,
as a member of the Sinhala community, I want to dwell on an aspect of
Jeyam's life which, for obvious reasons, other speakers preferred not to dwell
on.
Like many others seated in this audience, Jeyam was a victim of the injustices
heaped on the Tamil people by my own community. When I think of how
Jeyam's career, and indeed the lives of thousands of other Tamil brethren,
had been thwarted and terminated through discrimination practised against
Tamil people over decades, I feel a deep shame and contrition. If Jeyam can
hear me from wherever he is now I can only ask him to forgive me as a
member of the Sinhala community and indeed to find it in his Christian heart
to forgive the whole Sinhala community for the wrongs they have inflicted
upon the Tamil people. (I might add that Neville is a Buddhist)
As I look around me in this very hall, I can see many other brilliant Tamil
mathematicians, engineers, accountants, doctors and other professionals, all
of whose services and skills are desperately need back in Sri Lanka. So then,
why are they here rather than there? Why is it that a Sri Lanka, a country so
desperately in need of skills and talents for nation building, squandering all
these precious assets in foreign lands? When will Sri Lanka ever realise, if it
ever will, that only the termination of its discriminatory policies will attract
these skills and talents back to serve the country of their birth?
Fifty seven years after Independence Sri Lanka is still only a state, a state
comprised of two warring nations. When will it be able to transcend the
divisions that have plagued it for so long and emerge as a single nation? It
was Jeyam's undying hope and prayer that some day it will.
As you have heard many speakers say, Jeyam was a brilliant mathematician,
one of a galaxy of brilliant students of mathematics who came out of Hartley
College Jaffna, among whom was Prof. C.J. Eliezer who went on the become
Professor of Mathematics in the Colombo University, (I might add that he was
the youngest Dean the Faculty of Science has ever had and the only
Ceylonese I know of. who was invited to work with Einstein), but himself had
to pursue his career abroad because of discriminatory policies perpetrated
upon his fellow Tamils. Jeyam could have pursued a career in the prestigious
Ceylon Civil Service, but instead opted for the far nobler vocation of teaching.
Many leading secondary schools in then Ceylon sought to employ him as their
mathematics teacher but, as a practising Methodist Christian, he opted to
serve in Ceylon's premier Methodist institution, Wesley College. However,
when in the fullness of time it was Jeyam's turn to be appointed Principal, the
discriminatory policies which by that time were in full bloom, took toll again
and he was denied what was his legitimate right. Those who knew Jeyam and

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

who were acquainted with the rights and wrongs of the situation were aghast
and outraged. Jeyam resigned his job as a teacher at Wesley, opted out of the
profession, and after a short stint with the British Council (I think) in Colombo,
he migrated to the UK.
However, a man so richly endowed by God would not let his many skills and
attributes wither on the vine. In the UK, Jeyam went on to pioneer many
institutions and activities to improve the prospects and the quality of life of
the Tamil diaspora who were by the mid 70s growing into a steady stream.
You have already heard several speakers pay tribute to Jeyam's qualities as
an institution builder, as a pioneer and as a leader of the Tamil people.
It would not be an exaggeration to say of Jeyam that he was to the Tamil
Diaspora, in the UK as well as in other countries, what Martin Luther King had
been to the black people in the USA of the 1960s. Jeyam was deeply hurt but
was neither embittered nor discouraged. He had felt the searing pains and
carried the scars of injustice, but would not allow himself to be deterred from
his vision. Like Martin Luther King, Jeyam had caught a larger vision. To the
very end he believed that it is still possible for all the communities who
comprise the fabric of Sri Lanka, the Sinhala, the Tamils, the Moors and the
Burghers and all religions, to live in peace and amity and without recourse to
war. He hoped and prayed that the discriminatory policies followed by
successive governments of Sri Lanka would be turned around and that
wisdom and reason would triumph over injustice, bitterness and conflict.
Whether Jeyam's dream will ever be realised, and whether the Tamil people of
Sri Lanka will ever gain the Promised Land, remains an open question.
Notwithstanding, it is the measure of Jeyam's greatness and his quality as an
exceptional human being, that despite all the evidence to the contrary he
continued to the end to believe in his vision.
May his vision be realised in full and may his Soul Rest in Peace.
While condoling with the Tharmotheram family I thank them again for the
privilege of allowing me to speak on this platform. Neville Jayaweera
I could barely retain my seat, the urge being overwhelming to rise to my feet
and applaud. I could then have said that Neville Jayaweera got a standing
ovation which he richly deserved.
When it was my turn to speak, I could say nothing, it had all been said much
mor eloquently by Siva, Adrian and Neville. All I could do was to say that I
was proud to identify myself as a Sinhalese at a time when there is little to be
proud of in being one. I feel much less isolated to know that people of

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

integrity and honour such as Adrian and Neville who had not sacrificed their
moral integrity, as Adrian so accurately stated.

In my heart I have always had a yearning to do what Neville had just done so
touchingly to say Sorry to the Tamil people. As I said in one of my earliest
publications on Sri Lanka The July 1983 Massacre. Unanswered Questions
which was quoted by Sivanayagam in his recent monumental work Sri
Lanka:Witness to History,
It would be too revolting and unprofitable to recount details of the acts of
barbarism committed by Sinhalese mobs. All that the author, a full-blooded
Sinhalese, can say is that for the first time he has felt ashamed to be a
Sinhalese. It is not that one identifies oneself with the hooligan mobs, but
there inevitably is a collective responsibility for the behaviour of ones
countrymen hooligan, barbarian or civilized. He who watches while a fellow
human being has his limbs cut off, belly slit open, petrol poured on and burnt
to death, is only marginally less guilty than he who does it. In the General
Hospital, Colombo, desperately ill Tamil patients had their intravenous
infusions disconnected and were thrown out of wards because they were
Tamils. Tamil doctors had to take refuge in toilets to avoid assault. What I
said so long ago (1983) it is what Adrian Wijemanne refers to when he speaks
of the Sinhala people sacrificing their moral integrity to their eternal discredit.
In a covering letter I have just received from Ivan Pedropillai who was the
Master of Ceremonies in the post-lunch presentations , he says
Neville Jayaweera's text is concise but also carries a resounding message to
his misguided compatriots that unity and prosperity in a modern State can
only be built on equality under the law without distinction of race, caste or
creed.

Take the United Kingdom, where the Scots represent about 10% of the
population and yet hold many of the senior Cabinet portfolios as well as
senior positions in industry. This is not an issue here at all as it works on
meritocracy. The West is able to make these strides in economic and social
development because a man's race, tribe or religion is just private and
personal and he is not judged by it.

When the electorate in Sri Lanka is mature enough to leave religion and race
out of politics and when there are multi-ethnic secular parties in the country

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

shorn of corruption, we shall again have a prosperous land. As long as the
Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Muslims have their own parties, and when
rabble-rousers can play on the baser emotions of the unsophisticated
electors, there will continue to be the bane and the stain of racial politics in
the country. Brave people like you and Neville have to run the gauntlet of
vicious racists on all sides to restrain the country from
continuing with its grim slide into the fate of Hades.
I am so very glad I decided to go all the way to the UK, not only to farewell an
incredible gentleman but because I was also able to meet and hear some
extraordinary human beingswho give me hope that there is a future, contrary
to what it appears to be.

Brian Senewiratne Brisbane, Australia 8.11.2005

Posted by Brian Senewiratne at 22:39 No comments:

The Thamotherams have made a major contribution to education in Jaffna.

Jeyams father was the Principal of a very famous school, Hartley College, a
Methodist mission school founded in 1838 and was, in fact the first non-white
Principal of any school in Jaffna. Among the many famous people coming out
of that school was the brilliant Prof.C.J.Elizer who actually worked with Albert
Einstein! Later Jeyam himself joined the staff of that school, making a
significant contribution to education in Jaffna.
He emigrated to Britain many years ago. Unlike so many of his vintage who,
having left Sri Lanka, have sat on their hands doing nothing other than
hallucinating about the future, Jeyam acted in his own inimitable way. He
made an enormous contribution which is largely unrecognized because of the
nature of the man. A quiet unassuming, self-effacing man, modest almost to a
fault, Jeyam had a vision of what expatriate Tamils could do in a positive way.
He founded, among other things, the first Tamil School in the UK, the Tamil
Times and the International Tamil Foundation. A few years ago he telephoned
me in the early hours of the morning (!) in Australia, to say that he thought it
important to get together a group if international writers to highlight the
problems faced by the Tamils, would I join the group? That was typically
Jeyam, his mind ever active, thinking what more he could do to further the

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

Tamil cause. I gather that he also had the largest list of Tamils in the UK and
their addresses. It was the Sri Lankan concept of an extended family being
applied on an international scale!
In October 1981 he founded the monthly Tamil Times which was to be the
voice of the Tamil expatriate community. This is the only journal run by Tamils
that has been published uninterrupted since its inception more than two
decades ago. It is most unfortunate that the founder of this journal had to
distance himself from his brain-child. As another great Tamil, S.Sivanayagam,
put it in his recently published monumental work, Sri Lanka: Witness to
History, the Tamil Times changed hands midway and subsequently changed
direction as well.. it was thought to be, by a wide spectrum of Tamil
expatriates, no longer capable of speaking up for an oppressed Tamil nation
with any conviction or courage. When I discussed this with Jeyam at our last
meeting a couple of years ago, I could see his eyes brimming with tears and
could sense his disappointment and sadness.
I first met this extraordinary man in 1984 when I was campaigning to draw
international attention to the genocidal massacre of Tamil civilians in the Sri
Lankan South whose only crime was that they were where they were. They
had every right to be where they were since they and generations of their
ancestors had made a major contribution to the development and prosperity
of the Sinhala South, Colombo in particular. Jeyam had extensive contacts
with British parliamentarians, especially in the House of Lords, and kept them
informed of what the Tamils in Ceylon were going through. Among them were
Dame Judith Hart and Lord Avebury, the latter being the author of the first of
a series of damming Amnesty International Reports on human rights
violations in Ceylon that first drew international attention to the magnitude of
the problem in that country. These are not people whom you can readily see.
When I went to London to lobby them and ask for their help to apprise the
international community of what went on behind the censored doors of the
Sri Lankan Government, all I had to do was to mention that I was a friend of
Jeyam Thamotheram.
In 1991 I had a call from the International Tamil Foundation inviting me as
their guest speaker to address their annual sessions on The Abuse of
Democracy in Sri Lanka. I thought it was completely crazy to go more than
15,000 km for a luncheon meeting. I was then told that Mr Thamotheram had
specifically asked that I be invited. I was on my way.
In the packed hall, the man who was responsible for the ITF itself and should
have been on the podium, unobtrusively sat in the corridor. That was the
nature of the man. I am sure that the scores of people who passed him had
no idea of who he was and what he had done for the Tamil cause.

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

After the meeting he suggested that we drive up to Cambridge to see a man

who makes me proud to call myself a Sinhalese Jeyams long-standing
friend Adrian Wijemanne who has made such a major contribution to the
struggle of the Tamil people. The next day we were on our way to see Adrian,
who was too ill to come down to London for the meeting. The historic
photograph of that meeting is in Sivanayagams book.

From Brian Senewiratne pages blog:

http://briansenewiratne.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-min=200701-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2008-01-01T00:00:00Z&maxresults=10
THE DEFENSE OF OUR PEOPLE

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

Charged by the Brisbane City Council for damaging significant vegetation,

in reality some bushes of grass and gum-tree saplings in my back yard, tried
and convicted by a Magistrate in a potty little suburb in Brisbane, and
awaiting sentencing on September 20, 2007, my mind is too confused to
write a proper article on the terrible suffering of our Tamil people. However,
someone has to address the dreadful things which are happening to our
people, and to ask for international help. I apologise if this article is disjointed
and poorly presented. It is the best I can do at this time.
In the four DVDs I have recently released to show the world the suffering of
our people in the North and East, I said, The Sri Lankan Armed Forces having
finished with the East, the North will follow, if we do nothing.
We did nothing
The North followed (shelling on 22 August 2007, bombing the next day),
and now, 29August, Mannar. The next will be the Wanni, if we continue to do
nothing.
At a recent talk to expatriate Tamils, I was asked, What is the LTTE (Tamil
Tigers) doing? I chose to answer the question with another, What are you
doing. The answer is Nothing, other than hallucinating about Eelam and
trying to shift the responsibility for its achievement, to the LTTE.
What can we do?A great deal. Addressing the 29th AGM of Illankai Thamil
Sangam, USA, in November 2006, I spelt out what we can do. This was
reproduced in the Souvenir Turning Points. Building bridges for the Hope of
our children. Tammy Sriharan, the dynamic (non-Sri Lankan wife of the
straighttalking, no nonsense President, Sri Haran, might still have a copy.
Drop a note to Sangam at P.O.Box 46, Maryknoll, New York 10545 or log on to

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

www.sangamevents.org, drop a cheque (or, as you call it, a check) and get a
copy. You will find two articles,
1. A comprehensive article on the history of the Tamil struggle Chronology
of the Tamil struggle and the turning points in the Sinhalese-Tamil
relationship by M.Nadarajan. This is essential reading for those who need to
know what they should
.
2. Lobbying the International Community by me.
In this article I set out the score. The only three forces that could possibly
block Rajapakses disastrous agenda to prevent a war (it is too late for that)
which will be unwinnable (by either side) and unstoppable, and which will
only result in a massive destruction of life and property, and economic
bankruptcy are:
1.The international community in particular the crucial aid-donors,
2. The military power of the LTTE,
3 The Sinhalese people in the Sri Lankan South, where opposition to the war
is escalating not because of any empathy towards the Tamils but because
they have to pay the human and economic costs of a war.
I went on to expand on this nebulous entity, The International Community,
and said This is far wider than is generally accepted and should include:1 Foreign Governments and their respective Opposition politicians
2. Non-Sri Lankans living in these countries 3 The expatriate Tamil
community, now a million people.
Each group has a specific role to play and must be targetted separately. I
then set about addressing the problem of a well-organised dis-information
campaign launched by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) over the past
several decades, to convince the world that the only problem is Tamil Tiger
terrorism. The real problem is, of course, Sinhala-Buddhist ethno-religious
chauvinism.
I launched a series of DVDs (I have lost count I think about half a dozen) - to
show the world what has been happening to our Tamil people (yes, they are
my people as much as they are yours).
I opened the batting in every DVD with, I am a Sinhalese from the majority
community. I am not a ember of the brutalised Tamil people. My concerns are
entirely humanitarian. I quit Sri Lanka some 30 years ago and who runs that
country, whether it is Mahinda Rajapakse or any one else, is of no concern to
me as long as it is run without bloodshed, chaos and the extensive violation
of human rights and the taking of the country to a fascist dictatorship and
economic ruin, fighting an unnecessary war.
In the updated and expanded DVDs (July 2007), I included a piece on the War

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

of National Liberation of the Tamil people and pointed out that what was
going on was a War, whether the GOSL admitted this or not. If it is a War,
Humanitarian Law applies and the participants (GOSL and LTTE) are
combatants. Banning one side and calling them terrorists is not only
unhelpful (since you cannot negotiate with terrorists), but on Humanitarian
Law, is illegal.
The DVDs vary in length (and depth), from 120min to 20min. The long one is
comprehensive, covering everything from Vijaya, the grandson of a lion who
founded the Sinhala race(!), to Mahinda Rajapakse, todays Dutugemunu, the
Sinhalese worrier from the same area that Rajapakse comes from, who killed
the just Tamil king Ellala. This DVD is too long for people in a hurry, or with a
short attention-span i.e. politicians.
The shortest, International Appeal to stop bloodshed in the Tamil Areas is for
the tell-me-about-itin-a-few-words people.
I begged of people to have a copy of this DVD on the desk of every politician
and decision-makers in every country. Was it done? No. Why not? Because
the expatriate community cannot see the importance of the absolute need to
show the world the ground situation in the North and East. So, the GOSL gets
away with mass murder, bordering on Genocide.
In June 2007, I was in Geneva for the UN Human Rights Council meeting,
where I addressed some 15,000 people who protested outside the UN
building, in pouring rain (theres dedication for you). I would go again for the
September meeting if I could have afforded the fare. I cannot, thanks to the
trumped-up charge by the Brisbane City Council which I have referred to. The
day after the massive protest (the largest Geneva has ever seen), I was in the
UN lobbying the diplomats and others, from a number of countries. Almost
every one of the 30 people I saw, asked me for the DVDs which they had
heard about, but not seen. Did I give them a copy? No, I did not. Why not?
Because none was available. Theres poor organisation for you.

The most important need is to develop the necessary mind-set. The Sinhala mindset for centuries has been the Mahavamsa mind-set. It is the Tamil mind-set which
is the problem. This is still in the pre-Independence era. It has to change, to
accommodate the ground reality. The Tamil mind-set has to be a Separate Tamil
State, Eelam. There simply is no alternative. This is not an attempt to divide and
destroy the country, but to divide and enable all parts of Sri Lanka to develop.

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

Essentially, it is an attempt to reverse the Colebrook-Cameron Reforms of the
British (1833), which has had such a disastrous effect on Sri Lanka, in particular, the
prevention of development of the Tamil North and East.
Once the necessary mind-set is in place, there has to be positive action. This has to
be an involvement in the struggle. One of the most serious problems with Ceylon,
as it then was, was that Independence from Britain was obtained without a struggle.
This is in sharp contrast to what happened in India. In Ceylon, there was no
involvement or participation of the population. Hence the failure to build a nation.
History must not be allowed to repeat itself in the evolution of Tamil Eelam. This is
why I have, in numerous addresses across the world, urged people to get involved.
This calls for some degree of self-sacrifice, generosity, risk, sweat, and commitment.
The reward will be a Nation which will be a pride to all of us who participated in its
production. The alternative is to watch the Genocide of the Tamil people in Sri
Lanka, for that is surely the agenda of this brutal, fascist, irresponsible and
murderous regime in Colombo, the most dangerous that has ever taken power in
that county.
The immediate problem is the survival of the Tamil people. The only three factors
that can prevent the wiping out of the Tamils is, as I have said,
1. International public opinion (which is why I made the DVDs),
2. The military power of the LTTE,
3. The political power of my people, the Sinhalese, in the South.
These have to be our priorities, whatever the difficulties and the risks, if our people
in the North and East are to survive. The strategy of the GOSL, well-planned, wellfinanced and well conducted, with whatever it takes by way of expense, bribery, or
intimidation. This is what has to be beaten. What the Tamil need is
not better military equipment or even an air force (neither of which are possible),
but a strong, well organised and run, international pressure campaign to show the
bad faith of the GOSL where a just and equitable result is concerned. It must be
pointed out that negotiating with this regime is an exercise in futility, something
that had been documented over the past 50 years. There simply is no intention or
the will, for the Sinhala Government, present or past, to settle this problem in a just
and equitable way. There is no reason to believe that it will change. If that is reality,
and it is, what is the purpose of further negotiations? The Tamil National Armed
Force opposing the brutal Sinhala Force has to be supported. If it is weakened, the
Tamils will be back to square one, sitting under the conference table, rather than at
it, picking up the crumbs which fall from the Sinhala masters at the table. this is
what the Tamils did for three decades before their youths picked up arms to force
the Sinhala regime o look at the Tamil problem seriously. Until then, the Tamils and
their problems were a joke.
Blind Freddy can see the GOSL strategy to cope with this reality. Block LTTE fundcollection abroad, criminalise those who support them, arrest, charge and imprison

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

those who even collect funds for humanitarian purposes, and have the LTTE banned
in every country (interestingly, they are not banned in Sri Lanka itself!)
What has never been explained to me is how it is legal to supply funds and military
equipment for a Government to bomb its citizens (believe it or not, the Tamils are
citizens of Sri Lanka), but it is illegal to supply funds or military equipment for the
Tamils to mount a defence. It is something that must be challenged openly and
firmly, with a demand for answers from the international community.
In my recent travels across the world, the overwhelming impression I got is that the
expatriate Tamil community is simply afraid. It has now become a fearful thing to be
a Tamil. The GOSL has managed to get foreign governments to criminalise an entire
community, the expatriate Tamil community. It is totally unacceptable and if we
cave in, the GOSL would have won, at least abroad. We simply cannot afford to let
this happen.
It is worth remembering that if we stand as one, they cannot arrest us all. The
problem is that we do not stand as one but are crouched in fear with our heads
below the parapet wall, afraid to even admit to being Tamil, let alone being a
supporter of the Tamil struggle for justice. Those who dare to raise their heads
above the wall, or do the right thing i.e. to support those in the North and East who,
in the eyes of their Government, are non-people, find themselves locked up.
This is happening all over the world, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Toronto, London
and probably many other places which I am not aware of. This must be challenged,
as we are doing in Melbourne, at whatever the cost.

Three young Tamil boys, one of them a close friend of mine, were arrested, two in
Melbourne, one in Sydney, and detained on an absurd charge. An application for bail
was refused by a potty little Magistrate. However, when one of them had his bail
application taken up in the Supreme Court, it was granted. The Magistrate got the

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

message and granted bail to the other two. In the bail application, I submitted the
reasons why it was inappropriate, indeed illegal, to charge them. If any one wants a
copy of my Submission, I would be glad to send it to them. There are compelling
reasons why what is happening to our Tamil boys in several counties, can
be challenged on Humanitarian Law.
I will not deal with the third (and very important) problem of lobbying the Sinhalese
in the Sinhala South. I plan on releasing a DVD targeting the Sinhalese. There are
several Sinhalese groups in the South, almost all of them from the Left, who are
addressing, or trying to address, this crucial problem. They must be supported.
There is not the slightest doubt as to the final result. The history of liberation
struggles of an oppressed people over the past 100 years, has been liberation. Sri
Lanka cannot be the exception. In front of the UN in Geneva is a string of flags from
all the UN countries. At one end are empty places. One of them is for the flag of
Tamil Eelam.
Posted by Brian Senewiratne at 15:44

Sachi Sri Kantha

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

Usha Sri Skandarajah

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

BRUCE HAIGH
Bruce Haigh joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1972. He served
in South Africa from 1976/79 with the Australian Embassy. Bruce initiated Australian
Embassy contact with members of the black South African resistance, including the
Black Consciousness Movement in 1976.Included amongst the friends he made at
this time were Steve Biko (murdered by police whilst being held in detention in
1977) and Dr. Mamphela Ramphele (Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town
and a Director of the World Bank ).
Bruce helped banned newspaper editor, Donald Woods, escape from South Africa.
His role in this escape was portrayed in the film, Cry Freedom produced by
Richard Attenborough. Bruce helped a number of other political activists escape
South Africa
He worked in the Australian Embassy in Saudi Arabia from 1982/84. From 1984/86
he was Director of the Indonesia Section. During that time he travelled within the
Indonesian archipelago. From 1986/88, he was at the Australian Embassy,
lslamabad. He travelled to Afganistan where he reported on the war and other
aspects of the Soviet occupation. He also undertook the photographic recording of
Soviet activities and installations
Bruce established and ran the Australia-South Africa Training Program (ASATP) from
1990/93. Seventy black South Africans came to Australia under the program for
extended periods of work experience and training including well known South
African artist, Bernadette Searle.
In 1994, he was Deputy High Commissioner at the Australian High Commission,
Colombo.
Bruce has visited or worked in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Israel, Egypt, Iran, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the Yemen, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka,
Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Canada, the United
States and Europe. He was involved in high level trade and foreign policy
negotiations.
Bruce was instrumental in helping to set up the Ifa Lethu Foundation as an
institution to locate, repatriate and curate South African works of art taken out of
the country during the years of apartheid. In July 2005 his collection of black South
African art was donated to the people of South Africa through Ifa Lethu.
Bruce grows olives and grapes at Mudgee. He provides regular political analysis on
international and domestic issues for radio and television, conferences and
seminars. He writes opinion pieces for a number of newspapers and journals. He
stood as an Independent candidate for the federal seat of Gwydir in 2001 and 2004.

HUB Forensics LTTE investigations

Bruce is a Member of the International Refugee Law Judges Association and a past
President of the Australian Olives Association.
Written by Bruce Haigh

Bruce Haigh with Sam Pari, Jake Lynch and other LTTE apologists in Sydney:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw0an_B2LU0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDGNCustuYc

Jake Lynch introduces Sam Pari (LTTE spokeswoman in Australia)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sSKSoEpdXk