Death of the Tiger - Ilankai Tamil Sangam

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The assembled commodores and admiralsdiscussed everything from theMumbai terrorist attacks of 2008 to theproblem of Somali piracy. But mostlythe conference was an opportunity forSri Lanka’s military leaders to boast totheir colleagues about beating the Tigers.The foreign speakers congratulatedthem on their achievement, andasked eagerly about the techniques theyhad used. Brigadier General StanleyOsserman, of the U.S. Navy’s PacificCommand, said, “Sri Lanka has a lot tooffer in the field of terrorism preventionand maritime security.” Sri Lanka’s SpecialForces commander said he had adoptedthe Tigers’ own tactics by sendinghis commandos in small, guerrilla-stylebands to hunt them down.The keynote speaker was GotabayaRajapaksa, an owlish, watchful manwith a mustache, wearing spectacles anda gray suit. “Sri Lanka’s victory over terrorismis an unprecedented event thatthe world can learn from,” he said. Hespoke of how the Tigers’ internationalsupport network had enabled it to raisefunds from the Tamil diaspora and toship weapons into Sri Lanka. “At onepoint, the L.T.T.E. controlled onethirdof the Sri Lankan coastline,” hesaid. “In this way, heavy weaponry andenormous quantities of ammunitionwere brought to Sri Lanka. And thishappened in a post-9/11 world.” Rajapaksawas congratulating the Americanobservers; it had been the U.S. thathelped locate the Tigers’ ships.Later, the Sri Lankan terrorism expertRohan Gunaratna underscoredmuch of what Gotabaya had said. “It isa dream that no civilians will be killed ina counter-insurgency campaign, and civiliansdied in Sri Lanka’s,” he said. “ButI can assure you that no Sri Lankan soldierdeliberately killed a civilian.” Gotabayastood up in the audience and said,“From the very beginning, we had inmind the safety of the civilian population,and gave our campaign a humanitariancomponent along with the militaryone. One of the ways we did thiswas to call our campaign a ‘humanitarianmission.’ ”Gotabaya didn’t address the allegationsthat festered in international circles,many of which focussed on him asthe ultimate overseer of the war. TheEuropean Union had just announcedthat it was rescinding a trade-tariff agreementon textiles worth several hundredmillion dollars a year. And in the pastfew weeks his government had foughtwith the United Nations; after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked to send anadvisory commission to Colombo to discussaccountability issues, an ultra-nationalistgovernment minister besiegedthe U.N. Mission in Colombo at thehead of a mob of angry demonstrators.President Rajapaksa said the U.N.’s involvementwas not needed: a “LessonsLearnt” commission, which he had appointed,would look into things instead.A Western military observer told methat he believed that the abortive U.N.human-rights resolution had come at exactlythe wrong time. “All that did was tobox them in and give heart to the mostextreme Sinhalese voices,” he said. “Youhave to keep in mind the Sinhalese nationalpsyche. They do not say thankyou, and they do not say sorry. That’sfrom the Defense Minister on down.He’s very nice, but if you box him in he’llturn into a nasty little animal.”Within Sri Lanka, even Sinhalesecritics of the Rajapaksas havebeen savagely attacked, and challengesto the government’s explanation ofthe war have been brutally put down.The most prominent critic has beenGeneral Sarath Fonseka, Gotabaya’shandpicked subordinate and the commanderof the final offensive againstthe Tigers. When Mahinda Rajapaksacalled the snap Presidential election,after the war’s end, Fonseka announcedhis own candidacy. The campaign wasugly. Fonseka, who had been the faceof Sri Lanka’s military victory, presentedhimself as the country’s true liberator.Rajapaksa accused him of plottinga coup and revealed bank accountsthat hinted he was corrupt. Fonsekalost the election badly, but heemerged as the country’s main oppositionleader.In an interview two weeks afterthe election, Fonseka insinuated thatGotabaya was guilty of war crimes forordering the execution of Tiger leaderswho had surrendered. “I am definitelygoing to reveal what I know, what Iwas told, and what I heard,” he said.“Anyone who has committed warcrimes should definitely be broughtinto the courts.” Within hours, Fonsekahad been arrested. He was latercharged with corruption and violatinghis military oath of office by plottinghis political career while still inuniform. Gotabaya suggested that hecould be tried for treason, and told a“So there you are—I thought I heard someonesquishing moodily about the moors.”
BBC reporter that he should hang ifhe was found guilty. With Fonseka inprison, his wife carried on a campaignin his name for a subsequent parliamentaryelection, which he won, eventhough his loyalists were harassed and,in some cases, abducted by plainclothesthugs.In Colombo, a Sinhalese humanrightslawyer said, “The Fonseka caseshows people that the Rajapaksas willgo after anyone seen as a threat. Theydefeated the L.T.T.E. and have decimatedtheir main political opposition,and now they are going after thosewho are critical of them.” The governmenthas acted unsparingly againstjournalists, human-rights activists,civic leaders, and others. In the mostnotorious case, in January, 2009, theprominent newspaper editor LasanthaWickrematunge was attacked as hedrove to work in Colombo’s city center;motorcycle-riding assailants forcedhis car to stop and fatally shot himin front of dozens of onlookers. Atthe time of his murder, his newspaper,the Sunday Leader, was being suedfor defamation by Gotabaya Rajapaksaafter it implicated him in allegedcorruption.A few days later, the newspaper ranan editorial titled “And Then TheyCame for Me,” which Wickrematungehad left behind in the event of hismurder. In it, he excoriated MahindaRajapaksa, whom he described as anold friend who had become powerhungryand corrupt, for underminingSri Lanka’s democracy through stateterror. “Murder has become the primarytool whereby the state seeks tocontrol the organs of liberty,” he wrote.“When finally I am killed, it will bethe government that kills me.” AddressingRajapaksa, he predicted, “Inthe wake of my death I know youwill make all the usual sanctimoniousnoises and call upon the police to holda swift and thorough inquiry. But likeall the inquiries you have ordered inthe past, nothing will come of thisone, too.”In an interview afterward with Time,President Rajapaksa was asked aboutWickrematunge. “He was a good friendof mine. He had informed somebody toinform me” that he was in danger, hesaid. “But unfortunately, I didn’t getthat message. I would have told him togo to the nearest police station. No oneknows what happened.”Gotabaya Rajapaksa received JamesClad and me in a sitting room ofhis house, a British-era villa in a largegarden compound in Colombo. Theroom was impersonally furnished withfifties-style blue settees and abstractgeometric paintings, all governmentissue.The Defense Minister was casuallyattired in a T-shirt, sweatpants,and flip-flops. He coughed in a compulsiveway, as if he had a nervous tic.It was a little before the dinner hour, sohe called for an orderly to bring in theliquor trolley. He didn’t drink, he said,and didn’t know what he had in thehouse. He knew only that he had abottle of “Fonseka.” Would we like adrink of that? He grinned. On the trolleywas a bottle of Fonseca Bin No. 27,a brand of port. He laughed delightedlyat his joke. He had a high-pitchedgiggle, which broke out at odd momentsthroughout the evening.That was the day that Sri Lanka’s papershad carried the news that a militarycourt had convicted Fonseka of involvementin politics while in service andstripped him of his rank and militaryhonors. (He was later sentenced to thirtymonths in prison.) I suggested that thetiming of Fonseka’s arrest—only hoursafter he had accused Gotabaya of warcrimes—made it look like a personalvendetta. Gotabaya coughed and giggledand waved his hands dismissively. “No,no. He made those same accusationsduring the campaign, many times. Icould have arrested him then if it wasabout that. In fact, I should have arrestedhim earlier.”Gotabaya evinced a grudging admirationfor Prabhakaran, for his “ruthlessdedication to his cause,” but acknowledgedthat he had felt “very happy” whenhe was told of his death. As for Sri Lanka’snational reconciliation, Gotabayasaid that he believed his brother’s proposals,to win the peace through economicdevelopment, showed the rightway forward. The average Tamil, likethe average Sinhalese, he said, justwanted to get on with his life. Referringto the Tamils’ long-standing wish forsecession, he said, “All that businessabout separation is something only politicianscare about.” When I asked aboutthe suspicions that the government wasattempting to change the demographicsof the Tamil lands by swamping themwith Sinhalese soldiers, he said, with alaugh, “We should do that, but it’sdifficult.”Clad gently lobbied Gotabaya torenew the country’s relationship withthe International Committee of theRed Cross. In the last days of the war,the I.C.R.C. had been restricted to removingwounded civilians from Mullaittivuby sea, and ever since it had beengrounded at its headquarters in Colombo.In the final months of the war,the Army had repeatedly bombed theI.C.R.C.’s emergency hospital facilities,killing three employees and scores ofpatients. Gotabaya had blamed the Tigers.In a report prepared by the InternationalCrisis Group, “War Crimes inSri Lanka,” the hospital attacks featurestrongly in the case against Gotabaya.Gotabaya warily said that he waswilling to have the Red Cross stay on ifthe organization would agree to a newunderstanding of its activities on the island.“We must forget the past and lookto the future,” he said. Lowering hisvoice confidentially, he added, “Theproblem is the I.C.R.C.—some of theirpeople had been here for a long time,and became friendly with the L.T.T.E.”He suggested that the Red Cross andother international relief agencies werelong-time accomplices of the Tigers. InDecember, 2006, he had nearly been assassinatedby a Black Tiger driving arickshaw rigged with explosives; hepointed out that the bomber had beena Tamil employee of the relief organizationCARE. He said, “So I say to theI.C.R.C., ‘Bring new people and let’shave a fresh start.’ ”After dinner, Gotabaya led us outside.Across his lawn, by the garden’shigh security wall, was a huge, illuminatedoutdoor aquarium. Inside, severallarge, unmistakable shapes moved relentlesslyback and forth.54 THE NEW YORKER, JANUARY 17, 2011
Page 3 and 4: organization that had controlled mu
Page 5 and 6: A billboard of Mahinda Rajapaksa, S
Page 7 and 8: wicker chairs had been placed in a
Page 10: Rajapaksa governments never went on
Page 13: “And of course Allen continues hi

Death of the Tiger - Ilankai Tamil Sangam

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