These are selections translated from a Sinhala radio program ‘Hela Hanada’ produced and presented by a prominent and responsible member of the Sinhala Cultural Association and Australia-Sri Lanka Buddhist Association, both Canberra based, broadcast on 28 July 2001 by the Canberra Multicultural Services (CMS).
Welcome!....First to enlighten you a song of the olden times.
There are more and more enemies of Sri Lanka//
Denigrating our Sinhala country//
There are more and more enemies of Sri Lanka//
Oh! I cannot// be patient, I will kill enemies
Denigrating Buddhist religion – are these enemies//
Destroying those enemies I safeguard religion of Buddha, in Sri Lanka//
There are more and more enemies of Sri Lanka//
....
A dinner was ceremoniously held at the Bridge Club hall of Canberra last week-end, June 21st 7pm onwards, to greet Major General Janaka Perera, High Commissioner for Sri Lanka and Mrs Perera.....This song today is for you, who joined us on that day.....(song)
The LTTE has succeeded in terrorizing the world by bombing Bandaranaike International Airport, the only airport in Sri Lanka.....This evening I asked several members of the ACT Legislative Assembly about their views on this attack. Many of them were of the view that the LTTE is exposing its true nature. In similar vein the LTTE propaganda machine portrayed the appointment of the new High Commissioner of Sri Lanka as a matter in dispute. Mud-slinging, attacking with arms or provision of ammunition for the purpose of attacking, all these are actions carried out by various parts of the same machine….Not only all of us are in despair due to these actions; they believe it wrong for us to express our views on this. We are denied the rights they enjoy for everything. Boundaries are set to limit our right to freedom of expression. Various tactics of silencing are used which have gone beyond threats and petitions. The latest tactic is to “pocket” people in different locations by establishing one or more associations annually, to destroy unity and collectiveness of you Sinhalese. So they know that hands can be tied down to prevent joining hands against the common enemy. Everyone gets caught in this trap. Soon there will be forty associations for forty families. That is how Sinhalese get divided. That is how Sinhalese are divided.
You may remember interview, by HLD Mahindapala, of Robyn Kilpatrick who took part in Channel 9 program. To those who listened to that interview these ideas of Mr Mahindapala himself.
Long live (From now on his statement is in English) listeners!
The current campaign of the agents of Tamil tiger terrorism against Major General Janaka Perera has some very intriguing aspects. On of the aspects is that the agents of Tamil tiger terrorists have joined hands with some of the Sinhala terrorists of the JVP who led one of the most violent and inhuman campaigns against the people of Sri Lanka. Today they are claiming to be human rights champions very much like the agents of Tamil tiger terrorists who have launched the campaign against the new High Commissioner along with, I am sad to say, Amnesty International, on mere allegations. The most striking feature of this campaign of this campaign is that all those who are spearheading the campaign agree that there is no proof, I repeat, no proof, on any substantial evidence against Major General Perera….
Listeners will remember the interview I had with Robyn Kilpatrick, the Amnesty International expert on Sri Lanka, some weeks back on this issue of repeating allegations. Listeners will also remember how Robyn Kilpatrick promised to come back in this program to discuss this issue further.....In the meantime I must say, in my communication with her, I have asked her, to substantiate her allegations against Major General Janaka Perera.....In the interview she also admitted that Amnesty International took action to block the appointment of Major General Perera purely on allegation which have neither being tested in court nor proved. When I asked her what action Amnesty International would take against Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Pol Pot of Asia as branded by the New York Times, who has been convicted as a murderer by the Supreme Court of India and who is in the wanted list of Interpol for various crimes. She was hedging and dodging the issue with no specific answer and she promised to consult her head office and came back to us;...But to all available evidence it is clear that Amnesty International is up the creek, to use the Australian Idiom.
Primarily it has two problems.....If Amnesty International has taken action to block the appointment of Major General Perera which they played, of course everyone knows, then it is obligatory on the part of Amnesty International to initiate and pursue action to bring to book the Pol Pot of Asia against whom there is mountain of proven evidence. Amnesty International is aware of the documented evidence against Prabhakaran, the Milesovic of Sri Lanka if Amnesty International is true to its principles then it must move immediately to indict Prabhakaran.....
Secondly, Amnesty International has to come up with the evidence to back up its allegations against Major General Janaka Perera. It cannot get away by throwing mud at people. Throwing mud at people is not in the Charter of Amnesty International, nor is it, in accordance with the principles of the civil society….Not only she has admitted that there is no proof, even the most ardent agents propagandist of the Tamil tiger separatists are at a loss because they are all mouthing merely hearsay rumours and allegations without any substantial proof. Major General Perera, I should think, has a solid case of defamation against all his accusers because monitors of human rights violations of Sri Lanka like Godfrey Goonetilake and even leading journalist who are not in anyway aligned to the Sri Lanka government are saying that they don’t have any proof. Let me quote a leading Tamil journalist who is now producing the rationalization for Tamil separatists. His name is D B S Jeyaraj. He is a regular correspondent to the ‘Sunday Leader’. In a lengthy article published in the Sunday Leader of July 1st, 2001 this is what, Jeyaraj, a very ardent supporter of Tamil separatism says. I quote whatever his (i.e. Janaka Perera’s) critics may say, there does not seem to be any definite proof of complicity in the alleged incident of torture or human rights violations.
A very important factor in examining the charges against Janaka Perera is that there is no denying the underlying fact that human rights violations did take place. The fact denied, however, is that Janaka Perera was involved, and the benefit of the doubt is his….Circumstantial evidence and supposedly well-founded suspicions are not enough to conduct a trial by media, says Jeyaraj.
What happened on Channel 9 Sunday program couple of weeks back, was a trial by media in which Janaka Perera was accused on suspicions, allegations and rumours made by his opponents in the JVP and the Tamil tiger camp, both of whom were defeated by his brilliant tactics. So it is the priming these defeated political opponents of Janaka Perera should make wild allegations which have no proof. It is fair that respected human rights monitors like Godfrey Goonetilake say that he has no evidence against Janaka Perera. In fact Godfrey said he has not even heard about it. Tamil journalists campaigning for separation say that there is no evidence. So from where did Amnesty International get the evidence? Can it condemn people on mere allegations?
Listeners will remember that Robyn Kilpatrick …. referred to the allegations made by the JVPers in the terrorist campaign allegedly by them against the state and the civilian population of Sri Lanka. The reason why the agents of the JVP in Australia are against Janaka Perera is revealed in the following statement of and I quote, of Jeyaraj and I quote, Janaka Perera was involved in the arrest and brief detention of Rohana Wijeweera was a criminal who terrorized the civilian population of Ceylon, Sri Lanka, and massacred them, tortured them and was sentenced and eventually when he was caught the first time he was sent to jail by Criminal Court of Justice. He was released later and he started his campaign of terror again. When he was caught and shot by the armed forces when he attempted to escape. One of the able lieutenants of Rohana Wijeweera is Lionel Bopage who too was a key agent of Sinhala terrorism that killed innocent civilians. He too was convicted by the Criminal Justice Court and served a prison sentence. Now what is he doing?
He is heading a human rights organization in Canberra, after having led that terrorist campaign he is now leading a human rights campaign in Canberra. Now he is a part of this campaign to denigrate Major General Janaka Perera without evidence. Commenting on the role of Janaka Perera Jeyaraj says there are several versions about the last moments of those two men i.e., Rohana Wijeweera and Janaka Perera. There are however no foolproof reports, let me repeat that again, there are however no foolproof reports, says Jeyaraj, against Janaka Perera. It is not surprising then to find that Janaka Perera’s opponents in Australia are those whom he defeated. He has defeated the JVP and the Tamil Tigers. And they have launched a campaign to get even with him for defeating them.
….Should it not take some elementary precautions and care in effecting and evaluating the allegations based on the principles of justice which recognizes unequivocally the presumption of innocence until proven guilty?….Jeyaraj, the Tamil journalist says, in all fairness to Janaka nothing tangible has been revealed by those in authority about him being implicated….
Listeners!....The Sri Lankan community in Australia is waiting anxiously for the return of Robyn Kilpatrick, the Amnesty International expert on Sri Lanka to continue this.(disturbance). In the meantime, Robyn, if you are listening, have a nice holiday, have some rest and recreation before you return to our interview once again. Bye!…
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