Your Excellency

We, on behalf of the 100,000 strong Tamil Americans living in the U.S.A., take the liberty to address this open letter to you, inter alia, to expose the inhumane suffering and untold misery endured by the Tamil people of the North and East under your tyrannical rule. As far as the Tamil people are concerned, life during the 4 1/2 years of your military rule has been an unmitigated disaster for them. Criminilization of politics and militarization of society have been your dubious achievements. We trust that despite defeat staring at your face in the presidential elections you will still find the time to peruse through this letter.

At the last presidential elections held in 1994 you romped home to victory by a massive 62.6% majority vote over your nearest rival UNP candidate surpassing all previous records. People, Sinhalese as well as Tamils, voted for you en-masse because you solemnly promised to abolish the post of Executive Presidency, bring to an end the blood bath caused by the 13 years old civil war and usher in peace at any cost.

Unfortunately, you failed to keep both the promises. What was worse, you escalated the war from what till then was a low tech - low intensity war to a high tech - high intensity war. You gave a blank cheque to the Sinhala army to shop for sophisticated military hardware from countries around the world bypassing tender procedures. It was your thinking then that the army could not defeat the LTTE, because it was ill-trained and ill-equipped by the previous UNP government.

When Jaffna peninsula was captured in 1995/96 and Deputy Minister of Defence Anuruddha Ratwatte hoisted the Lion flag and held a victory parade, albeit you had conquered a foreign land , there was euphoria all around in Colombo and elsewhere. The conquest was celebrated at the Temple Trees with pomp and glory where you virtually crowned Deputy Defence Minister Anurudda Ratwatte as the modern day Sapumal Kumaraya who vanquished the enemy and brought 'Yapapatuna' under Sinhalese rule. Ratwatte on his part reported his conquest embroidered in silk and enclosed inside a copper casket as in the old days of kings and kingdoms! To show your appreciation of his 'valour,' you promoted him as a five-star general, five ranks at one shot above his Lieutenant Colonel position.

Not content with the conquest of Jaffna or "Yapapatuna", you embarked after consulting the stars and invoking the blessings of Lord Buddha on the 13th May, 1997 a more ambitious " Operation Jaya Sikurui" ("Victory Assured") military offensive to capture the Vavuniya -Killinochi A9 highway. Although you claimed that this military campaign was launched to open a Main Supply Route (MSR) to Jaffna, the real intention was firstly to kill as many LTTE cadres as possible and secondly to restore Colombo's writ over the Tamil heartland! When " Operation Jaya Sikurui" stalled at Mankulam at end of November, 1998 after losing 3,600 troops and maiming 8,000 more, you still persisted in your stupidity to conquer Vanni.

So unmindful of the loss of lives, you unleashed further military operations like "Operation Rivi Bala"; "Operation Rana Gosha" etc. to capture what military analysts called 'real estate.' During the Provincial Councils elections held in south Ceylon, you bragged from every public platform that while the UNP held only 194 sq. kms of land in the North in 1994, you have captured more than 2500 sq. kms from the LTTE. Not to be left out Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte boasted that 96% of the war was over and only 4% remained to be finished!

The numerous military operations launched by you during the last 41/2 years under the cloak of "War for Peace" have brought nothing but death, destruction, misery and starvation to the tens and thousands of Tamil people living in the North and East. The " War for Peace" military campaign was nothing but a large scale genocidal attack against the Tamil people. Cynically you lifted this oft repeated slogan "War for Peace" like "Ministry for Truth" right out of George Orwell's satirical novel '1984'!

Your so-called Devolution Proposals was at best a fig leaf which you used to hide your genocidal war against the Tamil people. The withdrawal of the LTTE from the half-hearted talks you initiated gave you the excuse to launch an all out war against the Tamil people. In such a war you gloated that everything will be wiped out!

In an interview to "India Today" on April 29, 1995, to a question as to why you went for peace talks with the LTTE, you answered as follows:

"There is no other way possible apart from going for an all out war against the LTTE with an army and armed forces which were not the best trained and not at all equipped."

To another question by the same correspondent, you were asked, "Where do you go from here?" The answer was

"You have to launch an all out attack (which would mean a lot of Thamil civilian casualties) and the place will be wiped out."

Your statements turned out to be indeed prophetic. Thousands of Tamil people died and billions worth of their property got destroyed at the hands of the marauding army.

The indiscriminate aerial bombardment and artillery shelling by the Sinhalese armed forces killed hundreds of innocent Tamil civilians. More than 760 Tamil youths in the Jaffna peninsula alone disappeared after they were arrested by the armed forces. Amnesty International in its report dated November 17, 1997 following a fact finding mission to Jaffna said, inter-alia, " Approximately 540 people disappeared during the middle six months of 1996 alone. Over 60% of the 540 disappearances occurred in the two months after the LTTE overran the Sri Lanka's Mullaitivu army base killing over 1,300 soldiers on July 18, 1996. Nearly all of them are likely to have died under torture or to have been deliberately killed by (Sri Lankan security forces)".

The rape and murder of 18 year old Kirishanti Kumarasamy and her 56 year old mother Rasamma Kumarasamy, her 15 year old brother Pranavan and her neighbour Kirupamoorthy Sithamparam by thugs in army uniform was an act of barbarism unsurpassed in the history of civilized societies. Again the fate that befell Krishanti and her family was by no means an isolated incident.

On March 17, 1997 two sisters, namely Velan Rasamma (38), a widow and her sister Nalliah Dharshini (28) were raped by 4 soldiers at Thannamunai, a village 6 km north of Batticaloa. A plaint has been filed against a single soldier , but the accused is out on bail. The foot dragging and the lethargy displayed by your government in these deaths is in sharp contrast to the diligence and speed with which graves in the South were excavated and how bodies of victims of 1988/89 army terror were meticulously counted. A total of four Presidential Commissions were appointed to probe into about 11, 000 cases of involuntary disappearances /extra-judicial killings between 1988 to 1994. But you have brushed aside all appeal by concerned Human Rights organizations and Tamil parliamentarians to extend the terms of reference of the Presidential Commission to include period after 1994.

Although you are castigating the UNP for human rights violations, the record of your government is far worse than that of the UNP. During UNP rule it was a home and home match between the armed Sinhalese youths in the South and the Sinhala armed forces. But in the North and East it is different- a Pan Sinhalese army raping and murdering innocent Tamil girls and women! Apparently you follow two different standards of justice system, one for the Sinhalese and one for the Tamils for identical crimes.

The horrendous human rights violations, bordering war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed against the Tamil people by your Government are only comparable to that of Pol Pot and Nazi Hitler and deserve the most serious condemnation by those who cherish basic democratic freedoms and values.

No wonder the Leader of the LTTE in his 1999 Heroes' Day speech described your regime as the one which has inflicted the worst form of tyrannical oppression in the diabolical history of racist oppression for the last half a century.

As an eye witness to the gigantic suffering of his people in the jungles of Vanni the LTTE Leader reserved the harshest barbs for you in his speech. He siad:

"The two major Sinhala political parties, who have assumed political power alternatively in the Sri Lankan political system, are essentially chauvinistic organisations. Both these political parties have bred and flourished in the anti-Tamil Sinhala Buddhist racist ideology. For the last half a century these parties competed with each other in intensifying the oppression against the Tamil people. In this diabolical history of racist oppression it is Chandrika's regime which has inflicted the worst form of tyrannical oppression.

The five-year rule of Chandrika has been a curse on the Tamil people. The monumental tragedy that our people encountered in the form of war, violence, death, destruction, displacement, hunger and starvation was the worst form of tyranny ever suffered by the Tamils. Chandrika's oppressive rule marks an epoch consisting of blood stained pages of our history. Her tyrannical rule left a permanent scar on the soul of the Tamil nation."

Unlike you or your Deputy Minister of Defence Anuruddha Ratwatte, the LTTE Leader even in his hour of military triumph against an oppressive enemy never failed to raise the olive branch for a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the Sinhala Nation and Tamil Nation. He observed:

"Though we stand today as a formidable force strengthened by manpower, firepower, moral power, and people's power and have the military capability to liberate our homeland, we have not abandoned the path of peace. We want to resolve the Tamil conflict through peaceful means, through civilized methods, without recourse to a bloodbath and the destruction of life."

It is, therefore, our considered opinion that you never acted as the President of a multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-linguistic country. Time, and time again you proved beyond any doubt that you are the President of only the Sinhalese. Here is further proof of your double standards.

On September 15, 1999 a Sri Lankan airforce Kfir jet plane bombed and killed 22 Tamil civilians, including 12 children, in broad daylight, but you observed deadly silence. There was not even a word of regret or sympathy for the families of the dead and wounded. But you sprang to action when 3 days later 56 Sinhalese villagers who were illegally occupying land and houses owned by the Tamils at Gonagala in the Ampara district got killed, allegedly by the LTTE. You not only ordered Rs.100,000 compensation immediately to the families of the victims, you also ordered funerals at state expense.

On July 09, 1995 St. Peter's Church, St. Peter's School and the adjoining residential houses were bombed by Sri Lankan airforce planes during operation "Leap Forward". The bombing took place on the very first day of the military offensive, but three miles away from the theatre of war. One hundred and twenty four (124) people were killed in the mindless bombing, including 65 women and children some under 6 years of age. The tragedy is all the more weird, because like at Madhu it was the Sri Lankan army that exhorted the people to take refuge in churches and schools.

A month after the attack (August 4), you not only denied the attack by the air force, but had the temerity to point the accused finger at the LTTE. The Reuters reported-

"Sri Lankan President Kumaratunga said on Friday, the bombing of a church in the northern rebel-held Jaffna province last month was probably the work of Thamil Tiger rebels and not the air force. She also said the number of dead when the St. Peter's Church welfare centre in Navaly was hit was not as high as some estimate....."

In a direct rebuke on the ICRC which issued a press release condemning the attack you told the Reuters ""The ICRC says all kinds of things. " Your Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar launched a vitriolic campaign against the ICRC, resulting in Mr.Marco Altherr, head of ICRC having to publicly apologize to the government of Sri Lanka for releasing the news about the bombing of the church.

On these massacres you did not utter a single word of comfort to those who lost their loved ones or in any way expressed remorse or condolence to the families of the victims even though you shed copious tears during your (1994) election campaign to those who died during the civil war.

Your blatant indifference and apathy to the bombing of St. Peter's church Navaly in Jaffna district in July, 1995 or the recent shelling of Our Lady of Sacred Heart Chapel at Madhu last month was in sharp contrast to your reaction over the bombing of the Dalada Maligawa at Kandy. In regard to Dalada Maligawa you spent millions of rupees from the national chequer to renovate the temple. We can cite numerous other examples but space will not permit us to do so.

The spontaneous euphoria created by your 1994 election victory and the great expectations of the Tamil people have turned out to be a grand delusion. We are sadly disappointed that far from emerging as an innovative national leader representing all the people of the island of Ceylon, you have ended just like your predecessors as a Sinhala supremacist and a hard-core racist politician.

Like the past Heads of States you also spoke about "One Nation, One People." Inaugurating the Sudu Nelum campaign at Sugathadasa stadium in July, 1996 this is what you declared:

"The Sinhalese Buddhist majority should merge with the Sinhala Christians, Tamil Hindus, Tamil Christians, Muslims and others to form one Lankan nation. This is the greatest task we are facing today"

You sought to buttress your 'assimilative' theory to resolve the conflict by falsifying history. You brazenly declared:

"Our ancestors succeeded in forging one nation. Even those communities who retained their separate identities lived with the Sinhala Buddhist majority as one nation. Then we lost our independence as a nation. When we regained our independence in 1948 we were also saddled with a legacy left behind by our colonial masters: seeds of communal dissension. "

The historical fact that the island was brought together for administrative convenience for the first time in 1833 had conveniently escaped your memory. It is not the colonial masters who sowed the seeds of communal dissension, it is the Senanayakas, Bandaranaikas, Premadasas and Jayawardenas who were responsible for the great divide between the Tamil Nation and the Sinhala Nation by raising the battle cry of Sinhala hegemonism since independence!

We are now convinced more than ever before that only a separate state of Eelam will usher in peace, plenty, prosperity and above all security for the 3.5 million Tamil people of Tamil Eelam.