Sunday Times 2
Investigate LTTE diaspora for war crimes By Jayantha Gunasekera
View(s):Velupillai Prabhakaran the architect and dreamer of Tamil Eelam, had as his role model the self appointed Fuehrer of Germany, Adolf Hitler. Both of them did not possess any education, but were extremely intelligent. Prabhakaran whilst living in a dream world was initially determined to crush the so called educated, and so-called high caste people. He, like Hitler was of humble birth. He was not of a recognized high caste such as the Vellalas. He prevented the Tamil youth from getting higher education, forcibly conscripting them to his rag-tag army.
The word 'Democracy' in Hitler's Germany and Prabhakaran's Eelam, was virtually erased from its vocabulary.
It is worth mentioning the meteoric rise of Hitler from obscurity to near Emperor of Germany and perhaps, of Europe. He had designs to rule, not govern, the whole world. Prabha was very much the ruler and king of the North and East of Sri Lanka, and wanted everyone belonging to the Tamil race to follow his doctrine without question.
The word ‘Democracy’ in Hitler’s Germany and Prabhakaran’s Eelam, was virtually erased from its vocabulary. Prabha tolerated no dissent. He demanded respect from the entire Tamil community and anyone who raised a whimper of protest, was tortured and put to death for having the gumption to go against his dictate. In the final stages he lost all human feelings and was a beast in human form.
IPKF forces
If by some quirk of fate he succeeded, the whole of Sri Lanka and a portion of India would have been his territory. Tamil Nadu politicians should realize that they themselves would have been under the jackboots of Prabha. To achieve this, Prabha had the weapons to take on Tamil Nadu. One must remember that he took on the IPKF forces, which withdrew when there was no end in sight.
Prabha possessed an uncanny manner of eliminating those who helped him, when things soured. TULF MPs Amirthalingam and Sivasithamparan were people who encouraged, financed and gave all assistance. Yet he eliminated them. Rajiv Gandhi’s mother Indira Gandhi financed them and gave permission for the setting up of training camps on Indian soil, encouraging them to build up forces and attack Sri Lanka. Rajiv Gandhi intimidated J.R Jayewardene, by forcibly dropping food parcels over the North and East when the government had the terrorists cornered. He twisted JRJ’s arm and forced the Sri Lanka government to introduce the 13th Amendment in Parliament. This was all designed to save Prabha, who was on the verge of being killed by the troops commanded by Gen Denzil Kobbekaduwa. What was the gratitude shown by him to Rajiv Gandhi – death, in cold blood. Tamil Nadu politicians should know, that by eliminating Prabha, our forces have saved them from a major catastrophe.
He was backed to the hilt by the so-called Peace-maker Solheim of Norway. Norwegians are wolves in sheep’s clothing, they are eyeing the large ilmenite and other valuable mineral deposits in the East. Also there is potential for petroleum. If Prabha managed with the aid of Norway to declare ‘Tamil Eelam’, Norway would have been the sole beneficiary.
Western politicians
Prabha and his cohorts were guilty of every conceivable crime known to our Penal Code. He stashed away money in a huge treasury of funds, all collected by threatening innocent Tamils. These funds were used not only to purchase weapons, ships and aircraft, but also to bribe corrupt Western politicians.
He ruined the whole of the North and East. Even the funds sent by international donors for the 2004 tsunami reconstruction were snatched and utilized for himself and for the maintenance of his cadres. Yet, the people in the North and East took this meekly.
Prabha was born to a life of crime. From his formative years he was a smuggler in his village Valvetitturai (VVT). He was an understudy to his uncle Hitler Kandasamy, who was the recognized King of Smugglers, an extremely intelligent man. Many are the stories of how he cleverly escaped the Police.
If Hitler succeeded the whole of Europe would have been under him. I give below the rise of Hitler.
The Weimar Republic expired and the ageing President Field Marshall Von Hindenberg had to step down to make room for Hitler. Hitler who like Prabha was possessed of a demonic personality, a granite will, uncanny instincts, a ruthlessness, a remarkable intellect, a soaring imagination and towards the end, when drunk with power and success, he overreached. To some Germans, like to most conservative Tamils it appeared that a charlatan had come to power.
To the majority of Germans Hitler would shortly assume the aura of a truly charismatic leader. They were to follow him blindly, for the next several tempestuous years, as if he possessed divine judgment. Considering Hitler’s origins and his early life, it would be difficult to imagine a more unlikely figure to succeed Bismark, the Hohenzollern Emperors and President Hindenberg than this Austrian of peasant stock who was born in 1889 across the border from Bavaria. He called himself the Fuehrer, and his word was law. Anyone who dared to challenge him was tortured and put to death. Thence continued the Nazification of Germany.
LTTE-weapons network
Prabha like Hitler pursued with unflagging energy his programme of building up his ragtag army, navy and air force and procured with his enormous illgotten funds – a stupendous quantity of arms which our forces are still unearthing, five and a half years after the war ended. Prabha depended on Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP) now released from custody, Sanaa Chandran et al. Like Prabha killing other terrorist leaders such as Uma Maheswaran, Hitler got rid of Field Marshal Blomberg and other key military generals.
After World War II, the war criminals charged were the vanquished Germans. But in the case of Sri Lanka, Western politicians subjecting themselves to the lure of filthy lucre from the LTTE diaspora, are now attempting to make the victors, war criminals. It is an insult to the intelligence of the average westerners. They are being fed reams of false concocted material, to justify the actions of these politicians.
I give below a short account of the vanquished Nazi war criminals who were indicted before the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal set up by the allies in the war ravaged city. The Nuremberg trials had great influence on the development of international law. The definition of what constitutes a war crime, is described by the Nuremberg Principles, a document which was created as a result of the trial.
War crimes
The Nuremberg Trials initiated a movement for the prompt establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court. Conclusions of the Nuremberg Trials culminated in the drafting of; 1. The genocide convention 1948, 2. Universal declaration of human rights, 3. The convention on the abolition of the statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity, 4. The Geneva Convention on the laws and customs of war and its supplementary protocols.
Twenty four (24) Nazi war criminals were indicted for; 1. Participation in a common plan of conspiracy for the accomplishment of crimes against peace, 2. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace, 3. War crimes, 4. Crimes against humanity.
Those indicted were:
1. Martin Bormann – successor to Rudolf Hess as Nazi party Secretary. He was sentenced to death, in absentia.
2. Karl Doenitz was an Admiral and initiator of the U Boat campaign and was nominated by Hitler as his successor. He was sentenced to 10 years.
3. Hans Frank – Ruler of occupied Poland. He was sentenced to death.
4. Wilhelm Frick – Hitler’s minister of the interior. He was sentenced to death.
5. Hans Fritzche – popular commentator and head of Nazi propaganda ministry. He was acquitted.
6. Walter Funk – Hitler’s minister of economics. Sentenced to life imprisonment.
7. Hermann Goering – commander of the German air force, the Luftwaffe, sentenced to death. He committed suicide and cheated the hangman.
8. Rudolf Hess – Hitler’s deputy, sentenced to life imprisonment.
9. Alfred Jodl – sentenced to death but was posthumously exonerated by de-nazification court.
10. Ernst Kalten Brunner – commander of many concentration camps, sentenced to death.
11. Wilhelm Keitel – sentenced to death.
12. Gustav Krupp – Nazi industrialist who churned out war machinery, was found to be medically unfit for trial.
13. Neurath – minister of foreign affairs until 1938, and succeeded Ribbentrop. Later protector of Bohemia – 15 year imprisonment.
14. Franz von Papen – acquitted at Nuremberg but reclassified as a criminal in 1947 by a German de-Nazification court.
15. Eric Raeder – life imprisonment.
16. Joachim von Ribbentrop – Nazi foreign minister, sentenced to death.
17. Alfred Rosenberg- racial theory ideologist, sentenced to death.
18. Fritz Sauckel – plenipotentiary of the Nazi slave labour programme, sentenced to death.
19. Hjalmar Schacht – pre war president of Reichsbank, was acquitted.
20. Baldur von Shirach – Gauleiter of Vienna, sentenced to 20 years
21. Arthur Seyss Inquart – Gauleiter of Holland, sentenced to death.
22. Albert Speer – Hitler’s favourite architect – 20 year imprisonment.
23. Julius Streicher – incited hatred and murder against the Jews, sentenced to death.
24. Robert Ley – German labour front, committed suicide before trial began.
Rudolf Hess who was at one time Hitler’s deputy was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Spandau prison was maintained at the final stages only for the incarceration of Hess. He committed suicide in 1987 aged 93. This prison is located in West Berlin and Hess was its only prisoner for nearly 20 years. According to his wishes he was finally laid to rest in Wunsiedel churchyard in Bavaria. Life imprisonment was strictly life imprisonment – no less. No commutation for good behaviour.
LTTE Diaspora – guilty of war crime
Although it is the hand of the LTTE terrorists that killed innocent people, it is the mind of the LTTE diaspora as well, which is equally culpable for these crimes. The LTTE diaspora collected funds and procured weapons for the purpose of these killings. In Criminal Law they are equally guilty of murder and mayhem. They are clearly guilty of aiding and abetting in these crimes.
This LTTE Diaspora are the real war criminals, who should be hunted and taken before a War Crimes Tribunal.
After World War II, Simon Weisenthal was appointed to hunt down war criminals who were hiding in South American countries after plastic surgery was done to disguise them.
The UN and the corrupt Western politicians have caught the wrong end of the stick by attempting to charge the Sri Lankan political arm and the military arm, which were duty bound to curb terrorists in order to protect the lives and property of all Sri Lankans.
When quelling the riots that broke out in August 2011 in the UK, this is what Prime Minister David Cameron quite candidly said, “a fight back is underway and phoney human rights cannot prevent the British government from savagely silencing the protesters.” One can imagine what he would do if he had to deal with terrorists!
It is Cameron’s policy that has to be followed when a democratic government is duty bound to put down terrorists. Why then are the Western powers at the behest of the LTTE Diaspora, trying to punish Sri Lanka for quelling (according to the US, UK and a host of other countries) the world’s deadliest terrorist movement?
If Human Rights are considered phoney for Britishers, and uprisings could be put down savagely, it should also be phoney for Sri Lankans and the government should be permitted to curb these (terrorist) attacks, savagely.
What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
The Country Report on terrorism by the State Department of the US includes critical information that;
1. the LTTE is regrouping in India,
2. the LTTE’s international network of collecting funds is still functioning in Western bases and
3. funds collected are for procurement of arms.
This is a very dangerous revelation and Nisha Biswal, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs is bound to inform our government of the information collated by her department. This should be taken very seriously by the Sri Lankan government.
(The writer is a President’s Counsel)