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“By your reign of terror you have silenced every Tamil voice except a few of which I am one. If you are not going to help to find a solution for the ethnic problem during my life time, you will never find one. Please give up your demand for separation and accept a federal solution within a United Sri Lanka, which will receive very wide support, surprisingly even from un-expected quarters, so says Mr. V. Anandasangaree, leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front ( TULF) in an open letter to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. In the letter that covers wide-ranging issues affecting the Tamil people in particular and all Sri Lankan people in general, Mr. Anandasangaree points out the many ways in which the LTTE’s gun culture, terrorism and demand for a separate state has spelt disaster to the Tamil people in all aspects of their lives. Here are some excerpts from Mr. Anandasangaree’s letter: Violence “Things took a violent turn with your introduction of gun culture by gunning down the Late Hon. Mr. Alfred Duraiappah, Ex-Mayor of Jaffna who became the M.P. for Jaffna by defeating the nominees of the two major political parties the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and the Federal Party…..The only known crime Mr.Duraiappah committed was defeating the nominees of both the Leading Tamil parties in Jaffna. I wonder whether even you knew as to why you gunned down Mr. Alfred Duraiappah, a popular political figure, while he was praying before Lord Vishnu at the Ponnalai Varadarajah Perumal Temple, another name for Lord Vishnu. “People believe that the high toll of death and loss of properties among the Tamils were inflicted as retribution for assassinating Mr. Alfred Duraiappah right in front of the deity Lord Vishnu and for driving away the Muslims from the North, depriving them of all their possession and preventing them from taking even the ear-studs of Muslim kids. Responsible “You should be held responsible for the deaths of over 70 thousand people of all faiths, of all age groups, of both sexes of all communities in Sri Lanka not only at the battle front but also in land and claymore mine attacks, hand grenade and bomb attacks and also massacres of innocent ones in buses, trains, etc. The Kepitigolawa and Aranthalawa massacres, attempt to sink the ship carrying 700 service personnel in mid-sea, the killing of the hundred odd Navy personnel going on leave and returning for duty and many other massacres in the Mosques etc. cannot be justified. What harm did the 31 innocent Buddhist Priests you slaughtered at Aranthalawa do to you? “Can you cite one single incident of this nature in which a Sinhalese civilian got involved. Further more please take it for granted that up to now not one Tamil life was taken by any one of those so called Buddhist Sinhala Chauvinists although some talk irresponsibly. Rajiv Gandhi “One of your most cruel actions was the assassination of the Ex-Prime Minister of India the Late Hon. Rajiv Gandhi with which you lost the support of all Indians. Those who still support you in India are only pretenders. “The next thoughtless step was your decision to eradicate all the other Tamil groups without realizing that rightly or wrongly they came forward to fight for a cause like you and your cadre. You by being so selfish and greedy brought only ruin for yourself by hunting for them and thereby lost the public support that you had, if any. Air-display “By your latest action you have made things worse. Please do not expect any government to help you or to supply you with equipment for aerial attacks. As far as I am concerned your attack can only be taken as an air-display and not as a serious aerial attack. You are only tightening your noose by engaging in such activities and also earning the wrath of the International Community, which will never give any support to strengthen you. Tamil Education “What is happening today? Are Tamil children allowed to attend school regularly by your cadre? Last year during the 1st term the children lost about 27 school days, why? They are being used off and on for demonstrations, hartals, and to antagonize the forces by defying them, casting insulting remarks, throwing stones at them etc. We should realize that we do not have Gandhis in our forces to observe non-violence. “Much more can be said but I leave it at that and conclude by saying that admission of Jaffna students to Universities on merit basis have reduced considerably and it is a shame that some batches of students take ten years to complete their course due to the compulsions they had to cut classes and attend demonstrations and hartals. Where do the Tamils stand in Education after 35 years of constant struggle? Are you not aware that over 200 school- going children had been handed over to the H.R.C. for safe keeping in Jaffna today to save them from being recruited as child-soldiers? Intellectuals, academics government agents and government servants of all ranks, engineers, doctors heads of schools, teachers etc. “In the history of the ethnic issue of fifty years can you give one instance in which any one person of the above category was ever killed by the Government forces or by any Sinhalese or Muslims? Contrary to that such killings were by your own cadre. To mention a few, a Medical College Lecturer Mrs.Rajani Theranagama, Principal Jaffna St. John’s College Mr. Anandarajah, Principal Central College Mr. Rajadurai, Government Agents Mr.Mcbool, Mr.Panchalingam and Mr.Gnanachandran and hundreds of others. Why did you allow them to be killed? Mr. Anandasangaree gives many examples of how the Prabhakaran and the LTTE has seriously damaged the economic life of the Tamil people and the North of Sri Lanka. Here are some examples: K.K.S Cement factory All the building materials required were available at our door-step in Jaffna. Cement Factory at K.K.S. produced cement much more than required to meet the local requirements and a large quantity was sent regularly to the south and to other parts of the country. How many thousands of lives depended on it for their survival? The employees have become paupers and their families suffered a lot. When hundreds of thousands of Tamils were working in the south amongst the Sinhalese you go and gun down the Sinhalese Production Manager Mr.Bogolagama which resulted in the closing down of the factory. A bag of cement that cost less than 100 rupees then now cost about Rs.1000.00. How many crores of rupees will be needed now to rebuild a factory like that? Industrial Estate - Atchuvely There were 36 units at the Atchuvely Industrial Estate, producing varieties of items including materials required for buildings, etc. You removed the Lathe Machines, Motors and also cut and removed all parts of the 36 Units. Not one was spared. How much will be needed to re-establish another Industrial Estate? How many people were employed in these factories then? Paranthan Chemicals Corporation. This Factory in Paranthan gave employment to over 1000 people and several thousand mouths were fed. Today it is difficult to trace even the site in which it was located. More than 100 officer’s quarters are in ruins. How many crores of rupees are needed to put up a factory like that now? Why didn’t you prevent its destruction? Saltern at Elephant Pass. This Saltern could produce the entire requirements of the country. With the extension work that was in progress we would have been exporting salt. Now every-thing had been abandoned with all the infra-structure washed off. How much money will be required to re- start the three salterns at Elephant Pass, Navatkuli and Kallunda. How many employees were thrown out of employment, you may not know. The economy of Jaffna was completely destabilized by you and your cadre. From my house at Kilinochchi on the A.9 road I used to count 60 to 70 lorries speeding to Colombo with their loads of fish, vegetables, grapes, plantains etc every night and a similar number to Jaffna with varieties of goods from Colombo. Your keeping the A.9 closed to traffic completely destabilized the economy of Jaffna. Sea foods and vegetables did not fetch good price. The people of Jaffna were virtually starving. The C.F.A. brought some relief for them which too has now stopped. Your illegal taxes increased the cost of production and imported goods were much cheaper in the Market than those produced in Jaffna. They hardly get any income these days, because they were compelled to stop production. Electricity Almost 80% of Jaffna including Kilinochchi, Mullaitheevu and Mankulam had electricity. You did not spare a single electricity post all of which were removed broken and the reinforcements used for the construction of bunkers. Telegraph posts also met with the same fate. For several years you deprived the people and the farmers of their electricity and allowed them to suffer. “Please tell me whether you ever lived without electricity even in your bunkers and how much inconvenience you caused to the people. At least now realize the amount of harassments, embarrassments, mental-tortures and humiliations you caused to the people whom you say that you represent. Apart from the loss of lives and damage to property you had caused to the people for over quarter of a centaury, what good have you done to your people. They faced only misery. Please sit down peacefully for a short while and total up the financial losses you have caused to both the people and the Government by your destructive activities. You will be shocked to know that the value of the destruction you caused is sufficient enough to re-construct the infra-structure the country needs, the high-ways and motor-ways, schools, factories and many other activities and also to provide employment for all the unemployed in the country. Aids from various countries will flow in. We will have a fully contended society with every-one loving and respecting each other in a newly found paradise. Further-more you will certainly be given a proper share in the Administration so that you can fulfill your dreams the way you want by peaceful means within a United Sri Lanka. Above all our people scattered all over the world will come back with the wealth they have acquired to help to build a new nation. The intention of writing this letter to you is also to open the eyes of the Sinhalese brothers who do not understand the real hardships the Tamils underwent these many years apart from the immense loss of life and property they sustained.
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