While we shouldn't be surprised by yet another biased report/opinion in the Toronto Star, this particular opinion accuses our Consul General for interfering in Canadian Politics. It's bad enough LTTE fronts like CTC wants him out of Canada, now so called "journalists" have joined in too. Below is the link to this article, but more importantly read the reply from Mr. Bandula Jayasekera on the author's dubious allegations! - Sinhaya
Haroon Siddiqui says that I have interfered with Canadian domestic politics by saying that Canada is a haven for foreign terrorist groups. First, let me tell you it was said by a Canadian journalist/author in his book Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism to the World. I only repeated what he said.
Second, I wonder why in all these years Mr. Siddiqui failed to ask opposition Canadian politicians not to interfere with Sri Lanka merely to please their constituents. Where was he when Tamil Tiger supporters sent nearly $3 million (Canadian) to Sri Lanka to kill my people?
Let me also bring to his notice (since he is an ardent cricket fan) that the Sri Lanka cricket team may never tour Canada again after the harassment, threats and intimidation from the Tamil Tigers right under your nose.
I would also like to remind him that I have a right to defend my country at all times as a Sri Lankan diplomat.
Bandula Jayasekara, Consul General for Sri Lanka, Toronto
I read this opinion, and I must say... Well Done. We don't have be ashamed to be Sri Lankan. And specially now, we should be proud of the fact that WE are Sri Lankans who have defeated terrorism in our country.
ReplyDeleteI applaud your Work, Bandula, and the sense of Patriotism and Nationalism that you bring to your fellow men. When you said, that you have every right to defend your country. You are absolutely right.
When people have told me, not to write letters etc... that I will only become unpopular and be black listed, I have always said, I am not afraid to defend my country, no matter even though we may be in Canada. We are Sri Lankan Canadians.
So thank you for the job you are doing. Sri Lanka needs Heros like you. Not people who say onething but does not do anything.
And when talking about defending Sri Lanka, I applaud Lenin Benedict too, for defending your country so valiantly, during the past few months on TV.... you were amazing. You knew exactly the point to say. So owe you a BIG Thank you.
Haroon should have known better being a senior journalist not to lock horns with another smart senior journalist who has been sent to Canada to take care of his country's business. And he is doing it within the orbit of diplomatic protocols. Our Consular General is no amby-pamby diplomat, for sure.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the Tamil Tiger sympathizing Tamil Diaspora is that they have turned out to be maestros of intimidation and have difficulty to accept a diplomat who still has his gloves on and does a Muhammad Ali shuffle before he throws a punch at the Tamils, a stinging one at that, through the Canadian media. I suspect that this diplomat will look much more dangerous the day he decides to take on the Tamils outside the squared circle with his gloves off, and still within the orbit of diplomatic protocols. My advice to these intimidating Tamils is to watch out, and don't push that envelope. I say Bravo!
Haroon S does not seem to understand that the aboriginals blocked THEIR land...the truckers for their pay or issues. The party goers did not block traffic on working days...this is a time of severe economic crisis...we cannot afford it.
ReplyDeleteThe disrruption here in Toronto, is for something that is happening in another Independent and Sovereign Country where terror has caused untold sufferings to people in ALL walks of life,,,,off All races and All creeds.
Would Mr Siddiqui like to see the Taliban blocking our streets? or Hamas..or Al Qaeda?
LEST WE FORGET: Here are some excerpts from a Totonto Star report dated May 22, 2000
ReplyDeleteToronto Star
May 22, 2000
MARTIN REGG COHN / TORONTO STAR ARMED GUARD:
KALYANAPURA, Sri Lanka - Emerging from their jungle hideouts at dusk,
armed guerrillas swept into the paddy fields as farmers harvested the
latest crop.
Moving silently, they captured four young farm hands, and killed
another on the spot. Then the rebels took their time setting fire to the
rice fields.
But before pulling out, the feared Tamil Tigers - fighting for an ethnic
homeland in Sri Lanka - left a message for the Sinhalese residents of this
isolated hamlet: Within a week, the village would be wiped out.
Every night since last week's attack, frightened families have been hiding
in the malarial jungle, sleeping on tattered mats. They return to their
mud-brick homes only at sunrise, when government soldiers return from
barracks to man daytime checkpoints.
Last month, they bombed a large school building in Gomarankadawala,
leaving a shell of crumbling brick and twisted steel in their wake, and one
dead teenager.
The guerrillas struck hard again last Wednesday, killing 22 people near a
Buddhist temple in Batticaloa, 100 kilometres further south.
The LTTE controls most of the area that lies toward the key Elephant Pass,
east of Kodikamam. The military last month lost their Elephant Pass base on
an isthmus linking the peninsula with the rest of Sri Lanka, opening the
possibility for them to recapture Jaffna city, which fell to the government
in 1995.
The battles and bombs, kidnappings and killings, have left deep
psychological wounds in the Kalyanapura port area, whose hardships are a
microcosm of Sri Lanka's strife. The Sinhalese make up more than 80 per
cent of Sri Lanka's population of 18 million people, but in this region
there is a mix of Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamils, both Hindu and Muslim,
living side by side in roughly equal numbers.
While ordinary people preach tolerance, the guerrillas resort to terrorism.
``We Sinhalese never want to harm anyone, we want to live peacefully, and
we invite Tamils to eat in our homes,'' says the area's chief monk, G.
Sumanasara, a sweet-faced man draped in the orange-red robes of a devout
Buddhist
.
Sitting under the tin roof of the village's new temple, he beseeches a
visiting reporter: ``Please send a message to the LTTE not to harm innocent
farmers in this area.''
His plea for peace has been answered by the destruction of his historic
temple, and the bombing of the school where he is vice-principal. For other
villagers, the price has been even higher.
``In the northern and eastern parts of the country, the LTTE has tortured,
killed and `disappeared' people it accused of being informers,'' New
York-based Human Rights Watch concluded in a bulletin last week. ``The
LTTE's use of child soldiers has caused many displaced persons to flee from
LTTE territory.''
`Ethnic cleansing started here in the early 1980s' Now, five years
after being pushed out of predominantly Tamil Jaffna, which they ruled as a
virtual state from 1990 to 1995, the Tigers have the government on the run
again. And they are flexing their muscle along the more ethnically mixed
northeast coastal areas.
``Ethnic cleansing - perhaps the West heard the words rather late,'' says
Asoka Jayawardhana, governor of Northern and Eastern provinces. ``Ethnic
cleansing started here in the early '80s.''
``They have eliminated every type of opposition and there is a lot of fear
that if they get power, there will be a lot of massacring of their own
people,'' he says. ``We just don't have enough forces for the villages.''
It is a humbling admission from a retired army general, who boasts of
fighting in the jungles of Sri Lanka, but cannot make the temples or
schools safe. Even in so-called ``cleared areas'' supposedly under
government control, the Tigers come at night to extort money from
shopkeepers.
_________
Western journalists are cheap!
ReplyDeleteThat is the main reason why now Sri Lanka gets bashed.
Bandula is doing a great job.
The LTTE goons are doing all their best to get rid of Bandula.