In response to Mr HLD Mahindapala’s statement over this radio program on 26 July 2001 - 2001 August 20

 

TRANSCRIPT OF THE STATEMENT

In response to Mr HLD Mahindapala’s statement over this radio program on 26 July 2001 including comments with regard to me, the JVP and its leader Rohana Wijeweera, the Amnesty International and so on, I would like to make the following statement.  Lionel Bopage is my name to those who have not heard of me.

First of all, I wish to thank the management of the Radio CMS and its management committee for providing this opportunity to present my side of the story regarding the remarks Mr Mahindapala has made against me on this radio program and elsewhere in Canberra at a not so public meeting.

Let me first comment on the very nature of the production of the program.

The program commences with a song inciting the idea of killing and destroying the enemies of Sri Lanka who denigrate Sinhala country and Buddhist religion.  This gives the impression that the country is Sinhala, Buddhist and all others are aliens, the fundamental matter in dispute in the current conflict, the matter being avoided from discussions by the diplomats and the leaders.  It has been the agenda of the family of Badra Karunaratne since early 1990s which led to serious divisions in the Sri Lankan community in Canberra.  They have never changed their agenda and they want to convert Canberra into another Sinhala Buddhsit state.  May I say that the producer of this program and her family who has been biased against me since I helped to sort out the dispute in the community and the sponsors of this program who cannot devoid of themselves from the long standing post-independent traditions of their leaders of setting boundaries to limit the right to freedom of expression of others who have a different opinion on any matter.  Any criticism of the policies of the government of Sri Lanka or of any individual of the ruling elite who are alleged to have abused power, to be corrupt, nepotist, family-bandyst is automatically assumed to be denigrating Sri Lanka, as stated in the autocratic constitution of Sinhala Cultural Association, which prevents many Sinhalese having different opinions from not becoming its members.  The program is a vindication of the fact that leaders of SINCA including the producers of this program cannot avoid being part and parcel of the traditions of terror, mis-information and falsifications.  SINCA has been involved with spreading rumours, mis-information, dis-information and falsifications.

With regard to petitions and threats to silence others the Sinhala community in Canberra is the best judge.  Who have been captains of sending petitions mostly anonymous and who have been responsible for ‘Kele Pattaras’in Canberra?  They are well aware of the traditional threats: Do you want to go to see your family and relatives in Sri Lanka? Do you want to continue with your scholarship? We are sending this information to the Criminal Investigation Department, President of Sri Lanka and government ministers and so on.

Major part of the program comprised of a statement by one Mr HLD Mahindapala of Melbourne.  In his statement he made many one-sided opinions and references with regard to many individuals such as Major General Janaka Perera, Mr Rohana Wijeweera and me and organizations.such as the Amnesty International and the JVP.  I refute the broad thrust of Mr Mahindapala’s statement as blindly one-sided, attention diverting, inciting and stating only part of a whole story to achieve his master’s political aims and objectives.  He has used partial facts to distort political history of Sri Lanka.  Now I want to deal with the major thrust of this statement.

Mr Mahindapala’s statement and his speech to a not-so public audience raises some intriguing issues.

He quotes and misinterprets, and that is what he is famous for.  I repeat he quotes from Mr Jeyaraj’s article and tries to build a mountain out of a mole’s hill.  He says the agents of the JVP in Australia are against Janaka Perera because Janaka Perera was involved in the arrest and brief detention of Rohana Wijeweera.  According to Mr Mahindapala Rohana was I quote, ‘a criminal who terrorized the civilian population of 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.

Then he refers to me.  He says Lionel Bopage 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 and now he is heading a human rights organization in Canberra.  The JVP who led one of the most violent and inhuman campaigns against the people of Sri Lanka and today they are claiming to be human rights champions and they have launched a campaign against Major General Janaka Perera along with Amnesty International.  Though there is no proof on any substantial evidence against Major General Perera they repeat the allegations.

I am not a bit ashamed of my history.  I am proud of my history not only as a Sinhalese who was concerned about the situation of not only down-trodden Sinhalese, but all down-trodden people of Sri Lanka who were discriminated against due to many reasons.  It may be because they were educated in Sinhala, or came from so-called low caste families, or because they were not supporters of the government politicians of the day.  Rohana and I were persecuted and incarcerated not because we killed or tortured anybody, I repeat with emphasis, Rohana and I were persecuted and incarcerated not because we killed or tortured anybody but because we fought back in self defence, against the political and military repression of family bandyist, nepotist discriminatory regimes.  For that we were charged at the Criminal Justice Commission, which enacted under special legislation on the reverse principle of justice and fairness ie, ‘assumed guilty until proven innocent’.  The Commission did not call Mr Arthur Ratnavale, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence at the time whom we wanted to call in for the trial to give evidence.  Mr Ratnavale declared in August 1970, a long time before the insurrection of April 1971 that the JVP was number one enemy of Sri Lanka and has to be totally eradicated.  That was the so-called justice system they designed.  Mr Premadasa who was in opposition at the time and who was later Mr Mahindapala’s boss, visited the Commission many a time.  It was Mr Mahindapala’s side of politics that decided that the Criminal Justice Commission was unjust and unfair and brought parliamentary legislation to repeal it.  Once the Act was repealed all of us who were convicted under that legislation were set free.  That is one of the bits of history Mr Mahindapala tries to hide in his statement.  Charges laid against us were to do with conspiring against the Queen, conspiring to overawe the government and abetting waging of war.  Not for murduring or torturing innocent civilians as Mr Mahindapala is trying to imply.  I am proud that I had the backbone to rise up against injustice unlike those people who were only concerned of themselves and their stomachs.  When ruling elite themselves started state terrorism there were not many who were concerned about that.  I would like to ask when the JVP was concerned about the downtrodden Sinhalese where was Mr Mahindapala’s so-called protection in English of Sinhala rights?  I was on the side of the ordinary people and I was defending their human rights.  Human rights are nothing new to me.  As I have said many a time in public the way we reacted to state terrorism in 1971 was wrong.  However this does not absolve the regime of the day for what they illegally did to safeguard their power base by unleashing state terrorism.

Mr Mahindapala adds that Rohana and I quote was released later and I quote ‘he started his campaign of terror again.  When he was caught and shot by the armed forces when he attempted to escape’.  This is one of the most interesting and not intriguing at all statements I have ever heard.  For enlightening you I should talk a little about what happened after our release from prisons.

When we released with the repealing of the Criminal Justice Commissions Act we started our democratic political campaign, contested district development councils, municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections.  I was an elected member and the leader of opposition of the District Development Council in Galle.  Clearly the JVP was the third strongest political force in the south of the country but still very weak.  Is that the campaign of terror Mr Mahindapala is speaking about?  Or is he trying to hide something by diverting attention.  Let us see.

The terror campaign of the late 1980s started with the banning of the democratic activities of the JVP by the then President Mr JR Jayawardena under the false pretext that the JVP instigated the 1983 riots.  I was detained with 20 others for more than ten months and was released when President of the Bar Association, Mr Nimal Senanayake, challenged in court the validity of the detention order.  It is well known and accepted fact that the riots of 1983 against Tamils were instigated not by the JVP but by the then government.  The JVP was banned because it had become a significant political factor.  The UNP according to its wishes could not manipulate the JVP.  Having campaigned against the referendum, held by the UNP to extend the term of the Parliament the JVP filed an election petition challenging the way the referendum was conducted and requesting an order to declare the results null and void.  House of a Deputy Inspector General of Police who had submitted a political report to Mr JR Jayawardena adverse to the JVP, was allegedly attacked in 1983 and he complained that this was done by the JVP.  However I resigned from the JVP and the District Development Council in February 1984 due to the differences I had with the JVP leadership.

The terror campaign in 1988 started with the disappearance after arrest of Mr Satypala Wannigama, lecturere at Ruhuna University Campus, a JVPer and an Human Rights activist, the brutal killing by the JVP of Mr Daya Patirana, leader of the Independent Student Movement which sponsored by many anti-JVP organizations and the horrendous killing by the then government politicos of two medical students (one was Mr Srimavitharana) who protested against the establishment of Private Medical College.  Because I cannot deal with this matter at leangth, I invite anyone who feel the need to be enlightened on these matters (not those who act as if blind) should read several Amnesty International reports of the day issued by its London office.

It is very important to know who Mr Mahindapala is in order to understand the context of what he is talking about.  All of us are aware that the Lakehouse is a government controlled news establishment.  To invite Mr Mahindapala, a resident of Australia at the time, by a government that unleashed terror against Tamil people in 1983, which banned the JVP under a false pretext and used state terror against the JVP what sort of political confidence Mr Premadasa would have had in Mr Mahindapala do you think?  Everything Mr Mahindapala utters has to be considered in this context.  Anyone can refer to what Mr Mahindapala has written by referring to Lanka Putra articles and editorials of Sunday Observer of those days which are available at the archives of Sri Lanka.

Listeners should know that Mr Mahindapala was the Editor of “Sunday Observer” during the regime of late Mr Premadasa.  He assumed duties in 1989 at the request of Mr Premadasa, ie during the terror period of Sri Lanka.  So no wonder he must be aware of so many secrets of that government.  Everybody knows that Sunday Observer is a newspaper run by the government and defends whatever the government does.  Did Mr Mahindapala also write a column under the pen name ‘Lanka Putra’.  And this is the time when the Rapid Deployment Force under Mr Janaka Perera was in full swing.  Many para-military and underground organizations such as ‘Black Cats’ and ‘PRA’ were established. 

Commenting on the role of Janaka Perera Jeyaraj says there are several versions about the last moments of those two men ie, 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.

I agree that terrorism should be eliminated.  However, that should include terrorism of the state.

The Amnesty International took action to block the appointment of Major General Perera purely on allegation which have neither being tested in court nor proved.  If Amnesty International is sincere about its commitment to human rights then it is morally obliged to pursue Prabhakaran and file charges against him.  And Amnesty International has to come up with the evidence to back up its allegations against Major General Janaka Perera.  The Amnesty International therefore has to pursue further action and either confirm allegations or proclaim Janaka Perera’s innocence unquote says Jeyaraj.

Mr Mahindapala’s defence of Mr Perera is based on three matters.  Mr Godfrey Goonetilake saying that he has not even heard of any allegations of human rights violations against Mr Perera.  Referring to an article by Mr D B S Jeyaraj published in the Sunday Leader of July 1^st, 2001 Mr Mahindapala is saying that there is no proof against Mr Perera and circumstantial evidence and supposedly well-founded suspicions are not enough.  Lastly Ms Robyn Kilpatrick does not have any proof.

He says that Robyn Kilpatrick repeats the allegations made by the JVPers.  The agents of the JVP in Australia are against Janaka Perera because Janaka Perera was involved in the arrest and brief detention of Rohana Wijeweera.  Rohana Wijeweera was a criminal who terrorized the civilian population of 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.  The Amnesty International says that several allegations of involvement of human rights violations and carrying out torture were made against the retired Major General before the Presidential Commissions inquiry which were mandated to investigate the allegations of disappearances between 1988 and 1994. 

When this same crowd of SINCA was spreading rumours I have publicly challenged them to provide any evidence to substantiate their allegations.  I have demanded that those who raise such allegations should initiate an official investigation by any Australian government agency, and on my part we have offered to open up to the investigation of my activities. So far the response has been a dead silence.  Now they have started this new campaign.

Just because these persons do not believe that Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic land they level all sorts of allegations.  My endeavour which SINCA opposes is to build closer relationships which we believe will lead to a higher level of understanding of each other's problems and a genuine desire to overcome prejudices.

It is unfortunate that having lived in Australia’s multicultural society and expecting the members of the Australian community to treat all migrants without any discrimination, there are some Sri Lankans who still advocate hatred and racism against members of their country of origin. All I can say is that their allegations against me are a campaign of mis-information based on half-truths conveniently distorted. We request listeners to be guided by facts rather than by emotions.

Thank you.