Those of us who have listened to Father Emmanuel will understand the depths of sorrows in which he states how aghast he feels about the conditions of his beloved people in Sri Lanka’s house of bondage, that contemporaneous modern day Auschwitz, the Wanni.

Father Emmanuel was witness to the tragedy of his people fleeing Jaffna town, crossing Kilali lagoon and settling in the vast dry area of the jungles of the Wanni. No one could be better equipped to relate the tragedy of a people whose ancient civilization goes back to more than two thousand years.

Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu is appropriately quoted (page 91)

"non-violence as a means towards ending an unjust system presupposes that the oppressors show minimum level of morality. I doubt however that such a Gandhian campaign would have saved the Jews from the Nazi’s holocaust."

Definitely not in Sri Lanka.

The Tamils needed a Prabhaharan to protect them from all the horrible and inhuman atrocities of the cruel Sinhala army. It is they, the Sinhalese who created Prabhaharan, not anybody else. Prabhaharan was only waiting to happen in the context of broken pledges, blatant acts of discrimination, Ceausescu style colonization of the Tamil homelands and the hostile ferocity of the Sinhala army of occupation.

The "My Lai" massacre is spoken of as the most bestial depths of American brutality. But "My Lai" is nothing compared to the several "My Lai" perpetrated in the Tamil Northern and Eastern Provinces.

Simon Winchester, the British Times top flight journalist once wrote of the terrible fate that befell "The village that died in a day", This was the village of Tihiriya in the Trincomalle district. He related the death and destruction, that visited Tihiriya. Father Emmanuel provides us with a macro-picture of the "My Lai" that constitutes the Tamil country today.

Father Emmanuel has written a Jeremiad full of rage and full of grief. In chapter 7 and 8, he chides the UN Commission for Human rights and the world; for its indifference to the sufferings of the Tamil people. He rightly asks (page 86)

"Why is the world silent at the prolonged and inhuman economic blockade enforced by a Government against its own people – the Tamils - as a weapon of war" and more importantly he raises the pertinent question (p.86) How is it possible that peoples and nations cry out so loudly against a single bomb in the Colombo city or in any part of the world, including the horror of Oklahoma, but do not condemn the Sri Lankan government, when its forces under the pretext of attacking the terrorist bases and under the cover of a strict media blockade, drop not one, but hundreds of bombs and fire thousands of artillery shells over civilian areas day and night and caused indiscriminate destruction of churches and temples, schools and kill many thousand of civilians for so many years."

This is a most shameful page in their (Sinhalese) history. And all done in the name of the world’s most compassionate one, the Prince of Enlightenment, the great Lord Buddha. Even pious Buddhist priests who should know better urge the Sinhala Buddhist State to persist in their carnage. Can there be any hope?