War Commission On Failure Of The Ceasefire Agreement
Lessons Learnt And Reconciliation Commission
In the hall, Mano Ramanathan, C. Chanmugam, HMGS Palihakkara, Chairman CR de Silva, A. Rohan Perera, Karu Hangawatte and MP Paranagama sit, in commission. The Chairman looks visibly nervous. He presses his hand to his face and slightly trembles, but when he begins to speak he is quite authoritative. The commission guides and at times leads the first witness Bernard Goonetilleke through what quickly becomes a lengthy indictment of the peace process and the CFA. If the controversial UN Panel is an investigation of how the government of Sri Lanka ended the war, this is an investigation of why.
“My fellow brothers and sister commissioners,” said Chairman de Silva. “As we’re all aware, the people of our country have gone through the trauma of thirty years of war. Only one year since the military vanquished the most ruthless terrorist organization, time has come to ensure that this country veers away from the insidious rocks of communal disharmony and distrust and sails to the tranquil waters of peace and prosperity.”
In reading out the writ of the commission, Varuna de Saram stated that the job of the commission was to “report on 2002 to 2009, the facts that lead to the failure of the Ceasefire Agreement and the events thereafter, whether any person has responsibility, whether any require reparations, and lessons to be implemented for future.”
To that end the commission called the former head of the Peace Secretariat, Bernard Goonetilleke. His testimony broadly identified the LTTE’s unwillingness to address substantive issues as the root cause with the LTTE being the party responsible. He further said that civilians required repatriation to their lands, particularly in areas occupied by the military and that, in hindsight, one lesson learnt was that the CFA was not a good model.
A Ceasefire That Favored The LTTE
While external parties have called for an investigation into the latter phases of war, this commission pointedly began in the deeper past. Goonetilleke – a former Ambassador to the US and China as well as to the UN in Geneva – spoke of the multiple political and administrative failures dating from independence.
“Sufficient attempts were made,” he said. “An important fact to remember is that 1987 (negotiations) forced the death of the Indian Prime Minister, then there was an attempt on Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, etc. We saw at various phases, those that were involved in negotiations faced threats, attempts and death.”
While Goonetilleke said that the cease-fire was the best a divided government could do in the face of divided LTTE, he was clear that it was not good. In questioning he agreed with Chairman de Silva when he asked whether the cease-fire was drafted by Norway in consultation with Anton Balasingham in London, ultimately resulting in a document that favored the LTTE. “I am inclined to agree with you,” he said. “Given circumstances on the ground, it appears the administration thought this was the best they could get.
Constant Violations And Bad Intentions
“When we look into process of negotiation that went on, the LTTE side never allowed substantive issues to be discussed. All we were allowed to discuss was existential issues affecting the civilian population in the North and East,” Goonetilleke said. Later he cited an anecdote involving LTTE negotiator Balasingham. “When we tried to engage Balasingham on substantive issues, he said you are putting me in great difficulty. He said if I discuss, you do this [making a sign of his throat being cut]. He was trying to avoid his neck being cut.”
Goonetilleke said that the LTTE plan appeared to be using the cease-fire to buy time in a post 9/11 landscape that tolerated less of their overt terrorism. He said, however, that then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was also buying time by weakening the LTTE through peace. “There was a decision not to confront the LTTE because the longer you keep them in the negotiation process, you weaken their foundation. By allowing LTTErs to go on vacation, visit their parents, have girlfriends and boyfriends, get married, that weakened their strong foundation.”
He said the LTTE violated the cease-fire from day one, accumulating far more violations than the government, unchecked by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission which he called a watchdog without approval to bite. In the end, he said, it was clear that the LTTE wanted to resume military actions, blockading Trinco and trying to re-occupy Jaffna. To that end they prevented citizens from voting in the 2005 Presidential election (likely in favor of Ranil Wickremesinghe), instead tacitly supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa, who they thought a hardliner.
The broader conclusion of the first sitting of the panel seems to be that the Ceasefire Agreement was a hasty failure that favored the LTTE. Even then the LTTE proved difficult, violating the ceasefire in act and intent precipitating the final war. The unsaid but implied conclusion is that this final war, however it was conducted, finally addressed what Goonetilleke called a ‘running sore’ that had political and administrative attempts had been unable to fix.
we need an inquiry to find out who commited war crimes during war. People don’t care how cease fire was broken since both parties wanted to test their muscles. period. We don’t need any fake commission to divert attention from war crimes.
Yeah! like you and the rest of the diaspora always wanted, because there is no LTTE terrorist left to face the music is it? Smart move mate!!! LTTE with the blessings of the diaspora were responsible for a multitude of crimes committed in SriLanka before the LTTE was put to death. They bought devastation to peole in the South as well as in the north and the east. That is war crimes committed by the LTTE the group you supported and still supports. Those are the criminals who shoud face punishments.
Your problem is you are ready to take credit but don’t want to accept heinous crimes or failier. Can you not remember how you GLORIFIED cynide weilding young cadres some of whom were underage innocent souls? You called them freedom fighters when they shoud have been attending school. Your Cynaide Auntie presented these deadly ampules to innocent girls who were forcefully rremoved from their families.
While all these were happening you were enjoying comforts abroad abusing the lax immigration policies of the west.
gammnu! I am not with either LTTE or miliary. I stands for the victims. It doesn’t matter who committed crimes. It should always be condemned. Whether LTTE forced civilians to fight or miliary committted crimes by shelling on hospitals, they should be condemned regardless of who committed the crime. we need justice for those criems. Period.
bugger should be remembered that 90 % of sri lankans don’t want this, go and say that in public, you will learn what will happened to ,you
Raj,
So if you are so concerned of all the victims, why no mention of the atrocities committed by LTTE. You are just lip reading now knowing that there is no one to take accountability. for their actions. After all you cannot punish a dead man, can you? Your intention is to see punishment meted out to the leaders and the forces who eliminated terror from the land. I am not saying everything is “Hunky – Dorey” with the current regime, but yours is venom to take revenge for the loss of the LTTE. I have been following your postings and it is clear to any one with an iota of brain cells to realise what you want to see. Suddenly you even write about Lasantha too.
Why not talk about the American, British and Israeli atrocities? Have you forgotten how Blair used a discredited dossier of Iraq having biological warfare to inade that poor nation.
Why not highlight those nations and say these countrise too have committed war crimes for which the diaspora tamils should be voicing their protests. They and you won’t , would you? That will upset uncle SAM isn’t it? Come clean man!!
When a white man “farts” it is ok no matter how much it stinks, but when a nation like SL “farts” they want to analise details so that they can be blamed in any way possible.
So be honest to your heart and help your bretheren back in Sl to become comfortable and secure so that they can live peacefully. Stop trying to cause further animosity among the people. VP created disharmony for three decades that caused mayhem. I am not saying everything with sinhalese were good and correct but haven’t we learnt enough to go down that path further?
Gamunu, War could have been avoided if only the Sinhala racist policies were not in place and these led to the rise of LTTE. Shame on Sri Lanka governments for allowing this to happen. Internal investigations are a crap. Did not allow jounalists to witness the war or report, instead either they were murdered or thrown out.
What policies did VP have? Did he ever want to share power with the sinhalese? Am I to understand he was willing to compromise? Who do you think you are trying to kid here? LTTE never wanted peace. Even during the so called peace accord ( with the darling RW and the Norwegeans) they carried on with atrocities including recruiting children. He continued to keep the northen Tamils away from the rest of the nation. Railways were dismantled. LTTE passes were in full flow while he was collecting taxes there.
What he did with the help of the diaspora was to amass huge aqmounts of arms to cause maximum mayhem to the nation. There are enough evidence of them. Why did they want all that ammunition? is it to use as toys? Come clean Karasi. You guys never want to live in harmaony with the sinhala race. That is a fact admit it.
What reporting freedom did VP have when he was running the LTTE. TamilNet that was his mouth piece that never allowed desent. So you have the b***** to call lack of press freedom now, do you?. Were you able to voice your opinion in open to the sunGod? If you did, you would be under 3 feet of earth by now.
So before calling sinhala racist policies look at your own agenda. What of those countries like Malasia, and Singapore? Do the Tamils there have better recognition? Will you agree to their “BhumiPuthra” phylosophy? At the end you want to bully the nation and create a mono ethnic state. That is RACISM in capital.
Hello Gamunu, Your government’s racist policies were the root cause of these problems. Now, after killing thousands of civilians, then they decide to investigate the root cause when pressure is put on them by the international community. Why didn’t they do it before the war. Their aim was to carry out genocide behind closed doors, this is why Lasantha was murdered, he was a true journalist and he would have exposed the government’s wrongdoing. Because of your government’s racist policies, LTTE wanted an independent state. Yes, they recruited children, which is wrong but your government spent thousands buying arms to murder their own citizens.Don’t you think it is a disgrace killing their own citizens.Lessons could have been learnt after Black July, still nothing was done. People want to live in a country where there are equal rights and people should be assessed by their character and ability. Look at Nelson Mandela he fought against the whites and when he took the country, he gave equal rights to all his people whether they were white, black or brown. This is what I call a great President. I am totally against the Bumiputra policy in Malaysia. I have met alot of Malaysian Indians and Chinese, they told me they are very unhappy. I am not interested in an independent state, what I am looking for to be treated like a human being, people respecting my culture , language,religion, my property not stolen and I would like to do the same for other races. So Gamunu if you are a true Buddhist see what is right and wrong , face reality and not listen to crap stories.
Even Lasantha’s murderer has not been caught. Then, how can we trust this commission?
Woul you agree the Sun God was killed by the forces? It was on TV.
gammnu! If you are really courious about VP, you you can get more information by just getting permission from your uncle MR to have chat with KP. You are asking wrong prople. Wish you good luck! I don’t know why you are curious about dead people.
Are denying the killings of Kadiragarmar, Ranjan Jayawardana, Premadasa by the LTTE? Would you accept them as crimes againts sinhala people?
gammnu!
remember that government and LTTE copied each other’s crimes. government was a roll model for the LTTE at the beginning. later LTTE was a role model for the government. talk to some intellectualls, you will find the answer. Read the book written by Noam Chumsky, the American author.
I love the country where I live. It is my country. I will never ever come back to the country where there is no law and order or corruptions exists at every levels.
people living in Sri Lanka thinks that diaspora are running a very luxury life. That’s not true. people are working very hard and send money backhome. people living in Sri Lanka get the benefits of diaspora’s hard working. demands at work place are much harder than in Sri Lanka. We don’t get free education. In Sri Lanka education is free. Once they graduated from university, they demand dowry to match with their education which was funded by the government.
GOSL did not have to copy crimes committed by the LTTE. Their problem was noty having a leadership with a clear strategy to counter the LTTE attacks. In the past they seriously underestimated the threat from the LTTE.
I do not need to read articles written by the so called intellctual to know the truth. I am a SriLankan and know the reality better than a paid writer who has no concept of needs, history and culture of our nation. These are people who produce articles to earn a living. There are lots of them around. Diaspora will get anyone to write in their favour by paying them handsom amounts. They are even trying hard to rewrite the Srilankan history to potray that the sinhalese were the invaders while the Tamils were the indeginous race. What a load of baloney!!
After trying the method of bullying to create a mono-ethnic state and losing the plot they are now using the strategy of “misinformation” to gain symapthy and support.
You may want to live and enjoy comforts in the country you have chosen. That is your pregative and I have no problems. If that is the case why get involved in SL affairs? Also don’t forget you too had your free education back in SL before you left for greener pastures. So be appreciative of that!!
I too lived and worked overseas for 3 decades. Long before you emigrated. So do not lecture me on life in the west. Also we all know how the LTTE were collecting funds (mostly coerced) to fund the war when the sun god was at the helm. You say you sent money to SriLanka. I suggest you continue this for the betterment of the people ewho suffered during the terrorist war. You owe that to people of SriLanka regardless of their ethnicity. If you are honest now is the time to send money to the needy in the war ravaged areas in the country.
Incidentally dowry culture was brought from India by the Hindus. It is they who still carry on this tradition. Some Sinhalese too still carry on these out dated tradition. Do not blame Sinhalese for that. Also it has no connection to a person’s education. If the Dowry culture bothers you so much I suggest you stay where you are and follow the Yankee tradition.
Finally , I am a Srilankan and proud to be one. I too have lived overseas and realise SL is not the Paradise and there are lots of faults and corruption that is holding up development, but it is the country that I was born and I love that with all these misgivings.
Do you want a postmortem for a bunch of dangerous animals killed in a jungle? These animals do not deserve any kind of postmortem.
Finally we need a commission on failgure of all commissions appointed by the current and previous governments.
Get uncle Sam to help you sort that out. He is the rambo now with H. Rodham closely behind him.
This presidential commission is like any other commission appointed by president. That is no mandate and purpose is to deviate the attention from main problem and issue falsified manipulated findings after a decade. Within the last 3 decades any allegation made by minorities never investigated independently with the intension to punish the perpetrators. Rather government was working with perpetrators to protect criminals. I don’t want to quote example as it is a very very very lengthy list.
Gemba,
It is happening in most countries with impunity. I am not saying it is correct but why cut your own throat just to satisfy interfering nations (when they have committed far worse attrocities in the world) because you dislike the present regime. I agree totally there are criminals in the government but would the Yankees, Brits, Norwegeans and the EU help us run the country?
Are you putting the entire blame on the current leadership for investigations through the decades? What are you tryin to say here?
Gamunu I think you and Leela are paid by Mahinda to defend what all injustice they do to Tamils. You are an evil so add ‘thudda” in front of your name.
I have no connection to MR and I speak and write my views as I see fit as a SriLankan. that is all!! I do not get paid for my views unlike some. Go and look at the damage done by the war in the North and east over three decades. That is evil. I am not saying Sinhalese are blameless but isn’t it time that we heal our difference and move forward? you can have commissions and panels to investigate crimes, but in my view they will only bring back pain and more hatred. I write as a person who lost a loved one in the Dehiwala train bomb. I also lost a friend in the Central bank bombing . Both were carried out by the LTTE, the very people you are defending for whatever cause. That is what I call evil. I have no grudge now of the losses I went through even though I was angry then. Problem with you is your desire to drag the nation in front of various panels and commissions. Would any commission or panel listen to my grieving?
Gamunu, I have lost lot of relatives, murdered by the Sri Lankan forces. They were business people minding their own business. They were not LTTE.. This is why I would like international investigations so that in future the governments do not murder innocent tamils or any people in the name of war on terror.
This commission obviously was put in place to justify the genocide that happened last year. Mahinda and his brothers want the world to believe that they are great people and Tamils deserve to be killed. Sinhalease like Thudda Gamunu and Leela might believe what the commission report is going to be but already most of the world leaders have expressed their view against this commission.
You only want to investigate the kilings at the end of the war by the forces. You conveniently avoiding the the killins by the LTTE. What about the untold killings committed by the LTTE over three decads. They were committed because the victims were from another race. That was their crime. I too lost loved ones due to these actions.
On the other hand why don’t you agree that VP held civilians against the wish as a human shield expecting a third country to air lift him. What about the evidence of LTTE shooting at the escaping tamils? You do not want to probe them too, do you?
Gamunu I am sorry to hear that you have lost someone but what about us who have lost several, nearly half of our relatives to Sri Lankan state terrorism. Some where else you have said that LTTE is called a terrorist organization because they killed people. Have you heard of any state being called a terrorist state? Only solution had been proper investigation by UN and evolution of separate states. This is what has happened in Kosovo, now recently in Sudan.
That is what UN is planning to recommend after the investigation
Killing of all parties to looked into but Sri Lankan apper to scared or have something to push under the carpet
Hello Gamunu, First I blame the government for their Snihala racist policies, this is where arm struggle commences and people become frustrated. This is why I feel your government were the root cause of these troubles. Black July, 13 soldiers killed, instead of sorting out the LTTE, evidence is coming out that the government encouraged rioting and Sihala people went around killing innocent tamils,burning homes and businesses. Is this what Buddhism taught your people. I know there some good genuine Buddhist people around. But I was ashamed to see a Buddhist government causing mayhem, instead of following peace and non-violence and sort out the grievances of the tamils at bud stage rather then allowing it to erupt into war where both sides lost loved ones and smearing the whole nation with blood which is a CURSE.
Dear Friends, What i see from the comments from Mr.Raj and Mr. Gamunu
Both of them are correct. Now what we need is we all should beleve in our
heart as SRI LANKANs and stop talking about past and look for the future.
But we must insure past mistakes not repetad again and again. We must stop
calling Tamil, Muslim or Sinhelise.We all are Belong to Sri Lanka.We Call our
self as SRI LANKANs. Make sure all races can live according to there choice
wherever thay wants in sri lanka.Stop forcefull colonisation by any race. Think about future of our future genaration.
Anton Anparasu how can we forget about the past? Sinhalease governments denied our education, jobs and made us survive only on our lands? Now even that is gone. We are calling ourselves as Sri Lankans alright but it is only on papers because we have no place to live.
Anton, I cannot agree with you any more. This has been our problem for centuries and it si still continuing to the cost of developing the country. Hope more people think like you.
Learn from the experience. If Sri Lanka fail to learn from past experience, problem will arise again (not necessarily armed struggle). While army is roaming around the street, we can not call it is a peaceful place. When there is real peace, there is no need for the army. The budget increse for the denfese shows that peace is very far. To find a solution, first step to acknowledge the past mistakes. If not, there is no way of finding a lasting solution. Remember one who fails to learn from experience, will doomed to repeat it again.
This is a dud corrupt commission. Ban Moon and also the US will chase SL down until the people (Rajapase family) responsible for killing hundreds of Tamils are tried in an international court and SL goes down economically with boycotts from other countries. The Diaspora are working hard to make sure this happens. I promise you that.
Collins, you are absolutely correct!! The motive behind the diaspora is to punish Rajapaksas for annihilating the LTTE from SriLanka and nothing else. The diaspora who were instrumental in feeding the LTTE are hell bent on seeking revenge at any cost to the country. None of them return to Srilanka but want to punish for the loss.
They will continue to fund NGOs and other pressure groups who would represent them for money (now that they have no reason to feed LTTE coffers) will come up with reports and reasons to incite hatred.
Sadly back in SriLanka some people due to their dislike for the Rajapaksas for political differences want to see them out and replaced them by the West friendly RW. So they are too causing mayhem. An example was the utterances by SF of the white Flag issue which he eventually withdrew. that is the type manipulative politics in SL. So any international intervention and diaspora support are ammunition to them too. They do not see the long term damage it will do to the country’s reputation. In time to come world will foregt Rajpaksa or RW, but will only remember the name of the country.
When the war ended last year lots of people came out to celebrate the end of terrorism. I do not agree how some of them expressed their feelings, but one year later the bitterness of the loss of elections has replaced the euphoria of that triumph and are now calling for rajapaksa heads. This is more evident in Colombo and suburbs and also some expats who have a veted interest in the opposion.
Couple them with the diaspora, it is a lethal cocktail to use against Rajapaksa. Srilanka will find the going to get tough but if they can overcome interventions and prove to the world what they did was to eliminate terrorism, perhaps good times will be upon us. it will not be easy with the diaspora chasing the government like a pack of hungry wolves.
I am no supporter of the current regime, but vehemently oppose foreign intervention to replace it. When you look around the world there are plenty evidence how nations suffered after foreign intervention. Srilanks is not a failed state though the reputation has taken a hammering lately.
The GOSLtook action to defeat LTTE, now the nation will have to live with it rather than trying to earn cheap political shots.
Western economies were tailored to suit their customer needs. In that they used cheap labour from developing countries like SL. How strange when you see those very nations who pay pittance to our men and women now wants to investigate labour conditions in the SL industries. This is blackmail and you rightly say will continue until the vultures succeed. The west never wanted to help developing nations but use them in the supply chain to satisfy the western consumers. I lived there and know what people want. Most people want cheap items and couldn’t care how the peole who produced them were paid.
voice against war crimes are coming from different corner. It will not cease until justice brought to victims. If any war criminals are in higher position, they are danger to their citizen. To prevent that, war criminals shold be isolated.
Whatever investigation into war crimes will be lopsided because the LTTE perpotrators are no more. Would the diaspora take responsibility for the crimes committed by the LTTE since they were the ones who funded the LTTE. No one deines the funding, do they?
Difference between most tamils’ relatives lost and almost all sinhalese’ relatives lost is….
- most tamils lost their relatives due to they were part of a brutal terrorist org (except in 1983 and before)
- while almost all sinhalese lost their relatives due to they were innocent civilians or members of a legitimate state army that was deployed to counter terrorism.
So, can one compare oranges with apples….??? no way.
What has to happen has happened.Post-mortrams are all eyewashes.Now our learders must see that the cake is properly shared , so that this will not be repeated in the decades to come.
Third party will always try to fish in troubled waters. We must be watch full about our nabours, who could triger the Tamils to uprise once again, if their life is not improved or due rights not given.We must treat them in such a way that they will be proud to call them selves as Srilankans and not to go by the Indians.
In Tamilnadu, they had a similar problem, but now they are proud to call them selves Indians.
Chairman looks nervous, he’s got a gun pointed at his back. Idem for the EC commissioner. Its Menik farm or acquittment. Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!!!!!
I am so disturbed with so many people like Mr. Gamunu, who are hell bent on putting the wrong right….yes LTTE was ruthless, but does that mean a goverment reponsible to protect their citizens should be ruthless. Just to kill VP look at the human social cost. Unless, we Sri Lankans Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim realize this, people like MR will take all of us for a ride. (I am not saying RW better ….please..)
read the following in the BBC report:
The commission chairman has told the BBC that no one needs to fear testifying, as secrecy and anonymity can be guaranteed.
But a report by the US State Department this week cautioned that those who criticise the government in Sri Lanka run the risk of reprisals.
This commison is a total farce. This is just like all the other commisons – Chemani , Trinco students murder etc .. started with a big bang but just went underground. How can you trust Mahinda & family when they wacked millions of dolars worth of funds that was sent for Tsunami ???. Tiger terrorist leadreship got what they deserved – why torture the lower rung carders in secret camps ??? why not allow ICRC to visit them ??? . Bottom line is Sri Lanka is ruled by a bunch of thugs & murderers , its not a place for Tamils at all….. as much as you can jump up and down and say there is peace and people can co exist everyone knows the real truth…. Buddhist temples popping up in every corner, Colonisation in traditional tamil lands has begun so back to the 1970′s now.