Sri Lankan Solidarity Movement 26th October, 2016 F.A.O.: The Editor, The National Geographic Dear Sir, The National Geographic Article About Sri Lanka ‘Can Sri Lanka Hold On To Its Fragile Peace?’ By Robert Draper Is Full Of Outrageous, Total And Utter Lies About Sri Lanka And Is Extremely Insulting To All Sinhala Buddhists And All The People Of Sri Lanka The National Geographic Article about Sri Lanka ‘Can Sri Lanka Hold On to Its Fragile Peace?’ by Robert Draper in its November, 2016 issue is full of outrageous, total and utter lies about Sri Lanka and is extremely insulting to all Sinhala Buddhists and all the people of Sri Lanka. We hope that the Western media stop persecuting the Sinhala Buddhists by spreading such lies about Sinhala Buddhists for the sake of sanity. The article says that in 2015 that the present Sri Lankan Government has admitted that since 1994, over 65,000 persons (the reader is made to think that all of these are LTTE terrorists) have disappeared as admitted by the present Sri Lankan Government. However this is a total and utter lie. Actually in 1994, the Sri Lankan Government at the time said that around 40,000 perished during the totally Sinhala Maoist leftist JVP insurgency or uprising of 1987-1989 which was a totally Sinhala Maoist leftist JVP insurgency which was located in the South of the island and had nothing whatsoever to do with the LTTE terrorist conflict in the North. Of the rest of the 25,000 (65,000 - 40,000), the previous Sri Lankan Government appointed Paranagama Commission received around 24,000 complaints. However of this 24,000, 4,000 were duplicate complaints so it was only actually 20,000 complaints. Of this 20,000 over 5.000-5,800 were complaints about ‘missing in action’ Sri Lankan Security Forces members. Over 12,000 were complaints against the LTTE terrorists themselves recruiting young persons using coercion. Therefore 20,000 - 5,000 - 12,000 leaves 3,000 (as a maximum) outstanding complaints and even these must be those who were recruited by the LTTE terrorists and who then died in the war. How did 3,000 (as a maximum) become 65,000? It is a total lie! What the present Sri Lankan Government said was that in the country as a total there were 65,000 missing as a whole (meaning 40,000 from the totally Sinhala Maoist leftist JVP insurgency or uprising which was located in the South of the island which was a totally Sinhala Maoist, leftist JVP uprising and which had nothing whatsoever to do with the LTTE terrorist conflict in the North and this 24,000 from LTTE terrorism in the North). However the 24,000 as I said is 4,000 duplicates which were discarded, 5,000-5,800 Sri Lankan Security Forces who are ‘missing in action’ and 12,000 complaints against the LTTE terrorists themselves recruiting young persons!. This precise question was asked by the local Sri Lankan media from Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga who made this statement and she admitted that the Western media totally distorted these facts and totally lied about this in their news reports. Page 1 of 10 The article says that during the final stages of the war, LTTE militants as well as thousands of civilians died. However there is no proof whatsoever that apart from LTTE militants that any civilians died apart from perhaps a few hundred. We know 6,261 Sri Lankan Security Forces members died and quite a few hundred Sri Lankan Police Force members died from 2006-2009. Additionally from 2006-2009 around 1,000 Sri Lankan Security Forces personnel are ‘missing in action’ presumed dead. We also know that around 100 civilians were shot dead by the LTTE terrorists while fleeing to the Sri Lankan Army's side during the last few weeks of the war. During the last few weeks of the war, an LTTE suicide bomber also detonated a bomb amongst civilians at a check point which also killed a few civilians and members of the Sri Lanka Police Force. The Sri Lankan Army rescued around 300,000 civilians and LTTE terrorists and the ICRC ferried up to 36,000 both civilians and LTTE terrorists to Pulmuddai (way outside the LTTE held areas) from Puthamathalan (inside LTTE held areas). We can estimate that from 2006-2009 up to 10,000 LTTE terrorists perished too. Out of all those persons who were rescued or who surrendered during the last few weeks of the war, around 12,000 were LTTE terrorists themselves and who were then rehabilitated, provided vocational training and have now been released into society by the previous Sri Lankan Government. The Sri Lankan Security Forces had to de-mine 495,000 anti- personnel mines and 5,000 anti-tank mines from the North which they completed in record time so that people can return to live and cultivate their lands. The article says in one place that around 100,000 died in the war. This is an outrageous lie. It is around 84,000 who died on both sides of the war over 26 years. The majority of those who perished in the war of over 26 years have been on the Sri Lankan Government’s side. Over 35,000 Sri Lankan Forces members, Police Force members and Civil Defence Force members have perished at the hands of the LTTE over the 26 years of war. Over 1,253 Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) members have perished at the hands of the LTTE. Over 2,000 members of various Tamil armed groups who were against the LTTE and who were on the Sri Lankan Government’s side have perished at the hands of the LTTE. Over 6,000- 7,000 primarily Sinhala and to a lesser extent Muslim civilians perished at the hands of the LTTE. Some Tamil civilians too perished at the hands of the LTTE. Therefore over 47,000 in total have died at the hands of the LTTE and its leader Prabhakaran. Around 35,000 LTTE terrorists perished too. Therefore a total of around 84,000 have perished on both sides of the war of over 26 years. Therefore it is very clear that the majority of those who perished in the war were on the Government of Sri Lanka’s side, which is around 47,000, and who perished at the hands of the LTTE. The article says that the Sinhala people arrived in 500BC. From where did the Sinhala arrive exactly? There are no such people called the Sinhala people anywhere in the world except in Sri Lanka. So the Sinhala people did not arrive from anywhere else. Actually some of the Sinhala people’s part ancestors migrated around 600BC from possibly the Bengal or Orissa but they were our part ancestors. There were already an indigenous people in the island during the last 37,000 years as we know from many pre-historic cave findings who are part ancestors of the Sinhala people too. The Sinhala people are therefore the indigenous people of the island! The article keeps on saying that the North is the Tamil homeland. How did a group of people i.e. the Tamils who came from India quite recently be bequeathed a homeland just like that? The Sri Lankan Tamils were called Malabars until 1911 in all Portuguese, Dutch, British colonialists and even the Sinhala records. How on earth can the Tamils then claim a homeland if they came quite recently from the Malabar Coast of India? The article keeps on saying that the North is a Tamil homeland at quite a number of places. However until 1911, all Tamils were called Malabars by the Portuguese, Dutch, British and even the Sinhala Page 2 of 10 records, meaning those from the Malabar Coast of India. Please check with historians before commenting on historical facts. It is a fact that the island was called Sinhaladeepa in ancient times (meaning the island of the Sinhala), Sinhale, Heladiva, Zeylan, Ceilao, Ceylon, Eelam, the Sinhala Kingdom, Serendib etc. All these names mean the ‘land of the Sinhalese’. It is only called Lanka today since this was also another name the island was known by. However, the real name of the island is Sinhaladeepa or Tri Sinhale (meaning the three kingdoms of Sinhala). Ancient records of the Indians, Chinese, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Somalians, Malays, Indonesians, Ramanna (present day Burma), Siamese (present day Thailand), and the Cambodians all attest to this fact in their numerous ancient records. The article says that thousands of Tamils died during the 1983 riots. This is a total and utter lie. It is true that there was a riot way back in 1983, thirty three years ago, which cannot be condoned under any circumstances. However, a Sri Lankan Presidential Commission of Inquiry after 1994 when a new Government came to power headed by a Sri Lankan Tamil judge no less found that only 355 Tamil people died due to thugs running riot which the Government at the time did not control and which they should have. What a few hundred thugs did cannot be blamed on an entire country or on an entire people. Those few hundred thugs and the Government at the time who did not control the situation should be blamed for that. What is not said is that it was also the beginning of the terrorist group, the LTTE, ethnic cleansing the North of over 65,000, the entire Sinhala people who lived in the North and ethnic cleansing of over 75,000, the entire Muslim people who lived in the North and ethnic cleansing of over 25,000 Sinhala people who lived in the Batticaloa District.