The world knew it

While Sri Lankans were in the dark over what was happening in Kilinochchi, the rest of the world was kept well informed of it by international media. Published below are headlines and first paras of reports carried by some of the global news agencies.

United International Press Report

Rebels Advance Amid Massive Casualties

Ken Poster, United International Press, The Sri Lankan army suffered its worst defeat ever in its war against the separatist guerilla group the LTTE. In a predawn attack that lasted more than three days, the towns of Killinochchi and Paranthan were overrun by the rebels amidst heavy casualties among both sides.

Agence France News

Sri Lanka bodies handed over after battle carnage

Colombo Sept 30 (AFP). The Tamil Tigers on Wednesday handed over the bodies of more than 600 government troops killed when guerrillas seized a key northern town in Sri Lanka's bloodiest battle in two years. Truckloads of bodies were given to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by rebels who collected them from battlefields around Killinochchi, officials said.

Associated Press Report of September 30, 1998

1,300 Killed in Sri Lankan Fighting

AP Sri-Lanka Flghting 0630

More than 1,300 Sri Lankan soldiers and Tamil rebels have died this week in the worst explosion of fighting in a year long strategic highway in Sri Lanka, according to military and Red Cross figures released today. The Sri Lankan government has waged a costly battle trying to recapture the highway that links Colombo the capital, to the government-held northern town of Jaffna.

India Press Report

Discontent rises with death toll

A large number of parents of Sri Lankan soldiers gathered in their villages anxiously awaiting word on the fates of their sons following the heavy death toll in the latest battle between the government soldiers and Tamil separatists. Many expressed apprehension that the cash-strapped government will continue to hide casualty figures to avoid having to compensate the families of the dead soldiers for their losses.

From the Green Corner

The new maths of your government

By Viruddha Paakshikaya

Last week, my good friend Paakshikaya had a field day writing about the independence of the Judiciary over the Mahanama Tillekeratne controversy.

He referred to the High Court Judge's statement to the CID where he has "confessed" to owning a property where a Guest House was run for more than five years. Paakshikaya also asks the question as to whether it is proper for a Judge to use a firearm and ammunition taken apparently illegally from a Police Depot for "shooting practice."

My answer to Paakshikaya is "No". In my own opinion it is improper conduct but of course, I'm not privy to the Judge's entire statement though I do presume Paakshikaya has seen a copy of the full statement.

All I can say to Paakshikaya is, well, don't blame the UNP for the Judge's conduct. He's no UNPer. In fact, I'm told he has been a one-time card-carrying LSSP member.

He had been given a job at the CTB when Anil Moonesinghe was Chairman and Leslie Goonewardena was the Minister. I'm told, in fairness to Mr. Tillekeratne that he was a very able lawyer and had streamlined a lot of the CTB's internal rules and regulations, especially those relating to disciplinary inquiries.

I am told also that he had wanted to contest a seat in the Horana-Padukka area but that your own Ratnasiri Wickremenayake had stood in the way because he was from that area and wanted to be the MP in the Grand Coalition! When Mr. Tillekeratne became a Judge I saw in a 'Mudliyar' Column in The Sunday Times that he had acquitted Mahinda Rajapakse and some other SLFP types during the UNP's tenure of office. He had also convicted the son of a sitting Judge during the UNP regime, a judge who later became an advisor to one of the UNP Presidents.

So, Paakshikaya, on this issue, I rest my case. Now you and our readers alike will realise how absurd it is to suggest that judge Tillekeratne is a "UNP man".

Then, Paakshikaya, you go on to talk of ethics and moral standards in public life and of how the judge's personal conduct affects the judiciary and justice itself.

Now, Paakshikaya, what if these standards are applied to the Attorney General's Department? Can your ruling People's Alliance preach about these high moral standards? I don't think they can.

The world, it seems, is gradually weaning away from expecting high moral conduct from those in high office. Just take the case of US President Bill Clinton. With all his Presidential peccadilloes the US public think he's doing a good job. That is what matters, it seems, in this modern world. (Now, Paakshikaya, PLEASE don't say, huh, here goes the newly Americanised UNP thinking!)

I, for one, don't quite agree with the US public. I think Clinton is not only a cad but a liar too. What I'am saying is that the voters - the ultimate deciders - think differently. In this modern world, as long as your stomachs and pockets are full, who cares?

Now, Paakshikaya, who in your government cares about what happened this week in Kilinochchi.

That, to me is far more important to the life of this nation than the goings on in Colombo's exalted legal circles - these high flown debates about the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary etc.

For, in the clash of arms, all laws are silent. And what is now going on in the North and East of our island is a battle for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of Sri Lanka. It is a battle between a united Sri Lanka and a divided Sri Lanka. It is a battle between life and death for soldiers of the state and a bunch of youth living in a make-believe world that a Utopian state of Eelam can be achieved through the barrel of an AK 47.

This week, while the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the Defence Minister of Sri Lanka was in London or wherever (anywhere but in Sri Lanka) the government launched yet another massive offensive to get into Mankulam and the LTTE retaliated with an equally ferocious counteroffensive to dislodge our forces from Kilinochchi.

Now, Paakshikaya, I'm sure The Sunday Times Defence Correspondent, Iqbal Athas will deal with the security aspect as best as he could within the constraints of a censorship.

My point, therefore, is purely political. Is it proper for such a major offensive to take place while the Commander-in-Chief is out of the Country? She spoke at the UN General Assembly on the twenty sixth of September and these offensives began ten days later!

This much, I shall say: UNP leaders were never abroad at such times. Imagine J. R. Jayewardene being anywhere but in Colombo during Operation Liberation and the famous Battle of Vadamarachchi! R. Premadasa or D. B Wijetunge were never so callous as to be away at a moment such as this. And the government cannot say it did not know about these plans because it was already saying it had postponed the Provincial Council Elections because the war had reached a "decisive stage".

So, if this war has reached a "decisive stage" according to the leaders of this government, is it fair by the Nation for four top people in the cabinet - the President, the Foreign-Minister, the Justice and National Integration Minister and the Media Minister - to be away?

That left the conduct of the war in the hands of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Minister of Defence, who by the way, was "wet blanketing" Samanalaweva's leaking dam just 24 hours before the attack on Kilinochchi!

And in the midst of this apparent lack of a hierarchy, the censorship is preventing the people from knowing what is going on, except that the wail of ambulance screams in the capital and the white flags and funerals in the villages are giving the show away for the government.

Deputy Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte who said 94%^ of the war was over before. government troops walked into Mankulam (80% of the war) could probably now say 124% of the war is over except that with the loss of Kilinochchi (shall we give Kilinochchi 32%?) the equation might now read 94% + 30% - 32% = 92%. These are the laughable statistics of the new maths of the PA government!

The government was bending backwards to suppress the bad news not only locally but also overseas - a fruitless exercise what with Internet for the affluent and BBC's Sandeshaya Service (by arrangement with the SLBC!) for the not so fortunate.

So much so that Janadasa Peiris, Chairman SLBC urged BBC's Sandeshaya programmes not to highlight the Kilinochchi debacle and instead play up the entry of the Government's troops to Mankulam. Sandesahaya was unable to oblige.

Now, as I write this, I find two tabloids, Raavaya and Yuktiya defying the military censorship. I dip my hat to them. These were two papers that supported the PA in it's quest for power.

Obviously, the PA is preparing for elections and what is sad is that that those young men who lost their lives at Kilinochchi probably did, not sacrifice their life for their country but for a PA victory at the next elections.

The calculations we have done at Sri Kotha show that more troops have been lost in the PA's four years than in all the eleven years the UNP prosecuted this war!

More planes have been lost and more ships have been sunk during the past four years and more money has been spent on this war. Last week, supplementary monies were passed in Parliament bringing the war expenses to an all time high this year.

And, to whose pockets are the Commissions going?

We all know. Now, they must be smacking their lips, anticipating more tenders.

Paakshikaya referred about a fortnight ago to people with Access who have made millions through arms deals after the PA came to office. He says that these people made it big during our time and refers to the Khettarama Lighting contract given to them.

The Editor of The Sunday Times has sent me a letter requesting me to use it in my Column.

The letter, sent by the Diesel and Motor Engineering Company's Managing Director to the Editor, Sunday Times says they were the local agents for Siemens Electricals of Germany that got the contract for the lighting of the Khettarama Stadium.

My own information is that President R. Premadasa got a team of Municipal electrical engineers to go and inspect the Day-Night lighting facilities in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia and that Siemens of Germany got the contract subsequently.

Access, therefore, was not the local agent for this deal.

So, Paakshikaya, you have erred again I hope you would be gracious enough to accept that.

But Paakshikaya, that is only a small lapse on your part in comparison with the gross negligence with which your leaders are handling the war. They seem to believe in Margret Thatcher's slogan in Falklands -"Win a war to win an Election".

Unfortunately though they will not win the war, and they will most certainly not win the next election!

Australia: One Nation dividing the nation

By Dr.Sanjiva Wijesinha, in Australia

Elected to the federal parliament as an independent MP at Australia's last election in 1996, Pauline Hanson shot to prominence when in her controversial maiden speech she attacked Asian immigrants ("Australia is in danger of being swamped by Asians") and the country's 1.2 million indigenous people ("our taxes are being used to give far too much aid to the Aborigines").

Despite being scorned by the three major political parties - in part for her lack of education and racist outbursts as much as for her simplistic views - Hanson formed her own political party. Calling it One Nation, she attracted a lot of support for her views - restricting immigration, cutting government funding for Aborigines, the arts and foreign aid, restricting foreign investment and imports, and relaxing tough gun laws.

The party is today regarded as the Third Force in Australian politics.. Support has been particularly evident in the vast expanses of rural Australia - especially in Hanson's native Queensland, a northern state where rural voters far outnumber city-dwellers.

Australians in the urbanised southern states of Victoria and South Australia have found it difficult to explain why Hanson's simplistic message of small, isolationist government with heavy emphasis on trade protection and curtailing immigration so appeals to the people she has attracted.

For the most part, her supporters are seen to be poor semi-skilled rural folk whose small farms are struggling - or those with only primary level education who have lost their jobs as small manufacturing companies have become uncompetitive in an increasingly globalised market place. On the whole, they could be described as ordinary, simple folk - battlers and strugglers, incapable of articulating their disenchantment with the major parties and their distrust of professional politicians - who perceive Hanson, a former fish-and-chip shop owner who left school at fifteen, as one of them. She exemplifies the non-politician who may not have all the answers, but who doesn't shy away from asking some of the blunt questions that need answering.

In a sense, their support for Hanson is as much a rejection of big party politics as it is about protesting against government neglect. The spectacular rise of One Nation, as evident from the June13 Queensland state election which saw it win 11 of 89 seats, indicates that at the federal election, the Coalition could well lose hitherto safe seats in rural Australia.

Current opinion polls suggest that One Nation's popularity peaked soon after the Queensland state election, and has now dropped to about 9%. But how well the party will perform - and how many votes it will take away from the major parties - is an open question until the results come out.

The astonishing rise of One Nation worries senior politicians - and it is not just their hold on power that they are worried about. "Countries overseas can't differentiate between our various states like Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales," says Jeff Kennet, state premier of Victoria, "we are all tagged with what happened in Queensland, and it could cause serious damage to Australia's international reputation."

Kennet warned rural Australians of the devastation for exports if the nation adopted Hanson's policies of reconstructing a tariff wall and gaining a reputation for racial intolerance. The party's unnerving arrival on the political landscape will have far-reaching implications if One Nation wins seats in the federal election. It is not only exports in agriculture, dairy products and coal that are at risk. Australia's reputation as a sophisticated and tolerant society among fee-paying foreign students - the source of a 3 billion dollar education industry - is also in jeopardy.

Says the National Party's Pat McNamara, a state MP, "We have huge industries in Australia that rely on exports - about $20 billion in mining and $40 billion in farming. If you take an isolationist view and shut out access to the rest of the world, they can easily source their minerals and food from elsewhere. This type of isolationist view is something that cannot be sustained in the modern world." Politicians are not the only ones concerned. Stephen Koukoulas, chief economist of Citibank, desrcibed One Nation's call for import bans, curtailed foreign investment and cutting foreign aid "worrying".

Prime Minister John Howard drew much criticism for his half-hearted and ineffective response to Hanson. Former federal prime ministers Bob Hawke and Malcolm Fraser have appealed to the people not to vote for One Nation.

"Giving support to a party that has such objectionable policies will hurt Australia considerably," said Hawke. "This has happened because there are a lot of people who are frightened and insecure by the changes taking place within Australia." Pauline Hanson meanwhile couldn't be happier. She is now a national figure - no longer the novice politician who prime minister Howard predicted "would disappear before the next federal election."

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