LK is dead, sacrificed for peace and history
It seems to be this writer's peculiar destiny to write about the death of D. P. Sivaram last week, and about that of Lakshman Kadirgamar this week. Politically, these men were polar opposites -- but both killings posit only one very clear question: "when will this Tiger war end, and when will this torrential Tiger violence stop taking the lives of our society's many men of great intellect and promise?'' (…and oh yes, the Tigers may not have killed Sivaram, but it was the Tiger war that led to his death.)

As I write this, the apologist machine is on full tilt. The club of coy NGO pinups and we have to add, procurers -- citizen J.Pereras and the U-turner Colombo campus political pundit -- must be gargling their throats no doubt to manufacture the most saleable apology for the LTTE killing of Lakshman Kadirgamar, PC, MP.

In fact, Kadirgamar has already been sacrificed on state television prior to that, even before rigour mortis had set on his battered body. Janadasa Peris and another fat and nondescript talking-head were saying on state TV Saturday morning that "this problem can only be solved by talking, and carrying on negotiations with the LTTE. Let not the extremists take advantage of this situation.''

But, Kadirgamar's killing proves almost indubitably that the ''extremists'' were always right. The Nalin de Silvas, S. L Gunasekeras H. L de Silvas Susantha Gunatillekes Dayan Jayatillekes and Gunadasa Amarasekeras were spot-on accurate. The Tigers have no respect for process - least of all a multi nationally marketed "peace process.''

They have made the ceasefire the most hilarious comic act this side of the Suez, and the honorable Madam President of this country is now hoist by her own petard. Have fun watching her trying to wriggle out of this one! Her most erudite and urbane and of course most forthright lieutenant is taken out -- even before the ink is properly dry on the P-TOMS agreement she signed with the Liberation Tigers saying "this is the path to peace.''

She has got her quid pro quo from the Tigers, in the form of a R.I.P. She asked for peace, and now Kadirgamar will Rest In Peace. And Janadasa Peiris says with his obese whomever friend that the extremists might try to take advantage of the situation!

What an insult to the memory of a dead man, who gave his life fighting extremists of a different sort. What a sacrifice for more chicanery to come -- in the cause of Chandrika's Nobel Prize??

A nation doesn't even treat its animals this way. A man who should be considered the greatest hero of the south for being a Tamil taking-on the Tigers, is being ditched without subtlety by a government which follows these days the cigar-wagging gigolo of global politics, Bill Clinton.

The Tigers took the P-TOMS and even before the court ruling on it was over, reciprocated the president's Clinton-acclaimed peace moves by killing her right hand man, in Colombo, in its most chic district, while Kadirgamar was taking a soak after a guest appearance at the president's favorite sanctum-sanctorum for intellectual activity built in memory of her father -- the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies. I saw the robust Minister there briefly -- before I moved onto another engagement. Talk about men being here today, gone tomorrow
The Norwegians say Kadirgamar's killers must be brought to justice. Vidar Helgesen said so on BBC. The Americans say that Kadirgamar's killers must be brought to justice. Condolezza Rice said so in a state department release. The president and the IGP and the army top brass say Kadirgamar's killers must be apprehended.

It means only one thing - - that the Wanni high command must be brought to justice, because, simply put, that's where the orders for the killings come from. But, once the NGO apologists gargle their mouths and spit out their apology in whatever shape or form they spin it, Vidar Helgesen will make it to the Wanni and embrace the commander-in-chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Then the government will provide security for the Wanni high command to move to Batticoloa. The Americans are already wagging their fingers and saying that the government must continue to work for peace and protect the ceasefire (!!, is anything left of it?) which means shaking hands with the Wanni high command.. And thus will the killers of Kadirgamar be brought to justice, with warm embraces and wacky helicopter rides.

Cliché it is again -- but o tempora o mores! What times what manners -- and if this killing was not so sad and so serious, it would have been such an outrageous and hilarious joke (...this Tiger blitheness and the hypocritical reaction to it) that the ceasefire will be violated by the mere fact that the whole nation -- all 21 million of us -- would just die laughing.

But all is saleable at the altar of political expediency, NGO chicanery, and international double-standard. And so, when the P-TOMS was signed -- the day it was signed in fact -- this writer asked that man with the engagingly crooked smile -- and the even more crooked logic -- Sarath Amunugama whether the LTTE will continue to kill now that the P-TOMS was signed. Amunugma made out as if I was the one completely out of order.

I was supposed to be the spoiler upsetting his peace applecart. Amunugama bit all his glittering 32 into a high wattage smile that would have won him Mr Political Photogenic, and answered "that's a separate matter, we will not allow the LTTE to violate human rights.''
Right. And his fellow Trinitian, Ryde gold medal winning urbane and better-read-than-Amunugama Cabinet colleague is now dead -- shot by a Tiger sniper.

When the late Foreign Minister met this writer and three others at his Wijerama Road residence just three and a half weeks back, and entertained us to dinner and drinks, this writer brought out the issue of Amunugama's self-abusive post tsunami apology for the Tigers.
Kadirgamar said only one thing. "The president you know is playing for history, son, and these ministers have to oblige.''

She played for history, and her foreign minister is history now. And Amunugma will oblige ever more - - what will he say next, that Bill Clinton was right, it was courageous for the president to make peace overtures by signing an agreement with some brigands whose only understanding of the word peace is that it gives them the license to kill?
It has to be that we have all seen hypocrisy and charades and humbugs and burlesque and fiasco all our lives, but yet, the current situation beats everything else that went before it. We have to constantly run our fingers over our eyes to see whether we are in fact alive, to see such farce taking place with such unchallnged ease.

On February 7th of this year, the late Kadirgamar wrote the following (excerpted) letter to me, which was published in print the 'Asian Tribune":

Lakshman Kadirgamar, P.C, MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Sri Lanka.
7th February 2005.
Mr Rajpal Abeynayake.

Dear Rajpal:
Your piece in the Asian Tribune about me and the JVP (Foreign Minister Kadirgamar's love affair with JVP deepens copy attached) has just been brought to my notice. As always it is very interesting, but I think you overrate my influence with the JVP. There are two factual matters that I would like to mention....

........ "In fact (the LTTE is) ....... I don't think they want to see me at a negotiating table. But I think they want to keep in touch with me.''
Best Regards,
Yours sincerely,
Signed
Lakshman Kadirgamar PC MP

Even from his elevated pedestal, he acknowledged this columnist wrote interestingly, always. For this comment in the public space, I have always been gratified considering this was one of the finest intellects h saying so! But that's beside the point. Notice Kadirgamar says "the LTTE wanted to stay in touch with me.''

I feel in retrospect, he must have been talking in jest. The LTTE had stayed in touch with him, with a well aimed round of sniper fire from a bathroom window.

Then I might add: “...after which he is promptly ditched by his own government, no doubt after a state funeral and blandishments by the international community.’’

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