Article Tools

E-mail this article   Printer friendly version   Comments    [ - ] Text Size [ + ]

With the Sinhala State’s open policy of assimilation or annihilation of the Tamil nationality, set in motion by the first Prime Minister D. S. Senanayake and aggressively pushed forward by his successors who were no less racist and extremist in their policies and practices, the systematic strangulation of the Tamil population and the steady encroachment of their traditional homelands rapidly began to take the form of a concerted military agenda. In the past sixty years of the post-colonial period this has catapulted into a long drawn out war against the Tamil nation in that island of blood claimed to have been blessed by Buddha!

The most inhuman and feared phase of this war against Eelam Tamils has now been unleashed with unpardonable brutality by the militarized State of Sri Lanka with the overt support of India and the covert encouragement of the powerful-three among the co-chairs, viz., Japan, US and EU. It is no secret that these nations for reasons known to them and them alone have consistently maintained a militant anti-Tamil policy --thereby indirectly supporting the decimation of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka and the open suppression of the Tamil democratic expression in their respective countries. It is against this backdrop that one should do a hermeneutics of the statement made recently by the co-Chairs viz. Tokyo, Norway, Japan, US and EU who called on the “Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and surrender to the Sri Lankan government if the civilians of Vanni are to be spared further death and suffering.” Nothing more can be far from the truth that the co-chairs are unreservedly behind the rapid acceleration and escalation of this inhuman and internecine warfare.

While running from place to place for their safety and security, the Tamils in Vanni have neither the expertise nor the resources to engage in serious research. Without food and water for days they have no time even to identify the kind of lethal weapons that are so frequently and liberally hurled on them from the skies, seas and other rocket and artillery launch-pads on land with the physical support and connivance of the Indian and Pakistani military and mercenaries. This article will focus only on the open and direct violation of Protocol I of the 'Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons,' which "prohibits the use of any weapon the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays.” The proliferation and sale of these new and untested warlike material to the Sri Lankan State by or with the support of India, Pakistan, EU and USA are a serious violation of this protocol. That these weapons have been abundantly used in recent times is based on some of the post-mortem reports and other medical data gathered about the incurable and at times unexplainable burn wounds inflicted on the dead and the wounded victims as well as the large scale irreversible damage caused to the environment including trees and animals, flora and fauna. This brief study is based on the data collected in the past two months from the bombings and shelling that have taken place in and around the Vanni district of Tamil Eelam.

An open threat lashed out in the form of an intimidation saying “wait and see what will happen in another five days” by the Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakshe sent electrifying shock waves into the masses of Tamil civilians living in Vanni under the sole protection of the LTTE. Not too long ago Gothabaya gleefully stated that more than 6000 bombs were dropped op over Vanni in the past two years. Evidence gradually surfacing from Vanni clearly indicate the genocidal war being prosecuted against the Tamil nation in the island is rapidly spiraling to an extremely dangerous stage. The post-mortem reports in our possession give ample evidence that chemical and thermobaric bombs produced but untested by India, Israel, USA and Russia are being liberally tested on the hapless and helpless people of Vanni who form the poorest of the poor in entire Sri Lanka based on their source of income for survival and daily existence. Let me present below a few startling facts.

DIME Bombs and DAISY CUTTERS (DC)
Daisy Cutter bomb, which was used primarily to blow down forests and other tall vegetation so that landing areas could be created for air-assault helicopters to take in the troops has been used at least twice in the past two weeks in Puthukkudirruppu and Mullaitivu. These bombs were used by the US troops in the area of Hill 881, aka Hamburger Hill (881 meters high) to knock out North Vietnamese weapons and spotters, as well as to clear the top area for helicopter landings.

The Daisy Cutter is usually dropped by parachute, literally pushed out the back tail-door, to float down until its long probe antenna hits solid ground and signals the bomb to explode, thus creating a massive air-blast across the ground, leveling everything in sight for scores or hundreds of meters (yards) says Max Freidman. Working from effect to cause, it appears that when one seeks to fit all the medical reports sent from Vanni including the bits and pieces reluctantly passed on by the INGOs, our fear is confirmed beyond doubt that the bomb used was a “daisy cutter” supplied probably by the US which had tested them numerous times on the North Vietnamese and Taliban. It could also be an improvised version of daisy cutter produced by an Indo-Soviet team or by Israel.

Friedman describes the DC as an “air-pressure bomb, using its 15K of explosives to create a mighty blast that levels everything around it in an expanding circle or if detonated higher up above the ground, the pressure blast goes downward and outward, again leveling everything underneath of it.” This includes rocks, bunds, huge trees and even tunnels. “This is just a matter of super air-pressure and pressure vacuums in a limited space,” says Friedman.

Our suspicion is based on the following five recorded observations which are well authenticated with appropriate documentation and data.

1. India and China have not fought any major wars since 1962. The last major war between India and Pakistan was in 1971. But in the last forty years these three countries have developed their weaponry and engaged in arms race by leaps and bounds. Hundreds of new weapons produced by them are now being liberally tested in the Tamil regions of Sri Lanka.

2. The United States, Israel and the United Kingdom are among the three other major suppliers of war material to Sri Lanka. While Israel continuously tests its weapons in Gaza and the larger Palestinian territory, USA and UK have been reportedly testing theirs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sri Lanka.

3. Vanni provides an excellent testing ground for these weapons because the people are miserably poor and are completely cut off from the rest of the world. The so called Co-Chairs, viz., Japan, UK, USA, supported by India encouraged Sri Lanka in kicking out all International NGOs, Transnational bodies as Church-Based charity groups and all journalists and other western organizations committed to Human rights.

4. With the active connivance of India, Sri Lanka has very successfully campaigned the European union, USA and Canada to suppress the Tamil community and its fundamental democratic rights for freedom of expression, freedom of movement and freedom of association by inflating beyond proportions the banner of Tamil terrorism. The LTTE which is supported by more than 90% of the Tamil community as the sole representatives, saviors and protectors of the Eelam Tamil nation is effectively banned in these countries.

5. Under the bogus banner of National Peace Associations the Sinhala Extremists with undisclosed financial support of the Government of Sri Lanka have formed lobby groups and have effectively intimidated the Tamil community in many western and north American capitals. The label of terrorism so freely dolled out by these organizations on Tamil professionals and intellectuals have brought in a form of pathological fear among the Tamils.

Tamil Eelam territory has become a hot spot for testing new weapons by such countries as India, Pakistan, China and Israel. Terrell E. Arnol the author of the recently published work, A World Less Safe, in his well documented essay entitled, “It Is Vital to Move Beyond 911” written in the form of a plea for peace, stated that “from the beginning US forces pounded Iraq with depleted uranium weapons. The official US view of depleted uranium is that it is harmless. In reality so-called "depleted" uranium (DU) has had the U-235 removed to make weapons, but the "depleted" material is uranium 238 that is 60% as radioactive as natural uranium. It is increasingly associated with Gulf War syndrome that has affected tens of thousands of Gulf War I veterans. This said to have contaminated millions of Iraqis and is particularly associated with birth defects.

Applying this to the Tamil regions, it has been medically established that children born in Vanni in the past twelve months have been diagnosed with ailments that defy human reason, that is after the intense aerial bombardment was increased in its frequency by the Sinhala Air force on areas of dense Tamil civilian population in the past eighteen months.

The jungles of Vanni have no sophisticated laboratory nor do they have the expertise and equipments/ facilities to test the bombed sites to identify the chemicals that cause indescribable human and environmental disaster and devastation.

Destroying the Future Generations of Tamils
In an independent study published by James Brooks under the title, “US and Israel targeting DNA in Gaza?” with the sub-title “The DIME bomb, yet Another Genotoxic Weapon” the author confirms that “since early July 2006, Israeli forces have been using a new weapon in the Gaza Strip that inflicts strange and deadly wounds. Doctors and medics say the unidentified device has significantly increased fatalities from Israel’s attacks. Its assumed that Israel’s new weapon may be Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME) , a “low collateral damage” weapon developed by the US Air Force. The DIME bomb’s “micro-shrapnel” is reportedly made of HMTA, a tungsten alloy that disrupts body biochemistry, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic).

DIME weapons are "spin-offs" from the military’s “bunker buster” research. Initially, “bunker busters” were made with depleted uranium (DU), which had already been used in armor-piercing bombs, bullets, and artillery shells. Considering the scope of their destructive power, DU and NDU may be said to function as Dual-Purpose Munitions, like cluster bomblets that kill both tanks and people. As their exotic metallurgy “burns” through concrete and steel, DU and NDU bombs are converted to micron-sized particles that sicken and kill and murder the next generation in the womb.

Agent Orange, an herbicide heavily used during the war on Vietnam, also performed two functions. It obliterated the ‘jungle cover hiding the Viet Cong’ while it ‘weakened the enemy’ with burns, illness, and death, and corrupted the DNA of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. The third generation of its disfigured and suffering victims is now being born.

It has been reported by the immortal journalist Lasantha Wickramathunga that he was privy to a conversation between the two men prosecuting this anti-Tamil war. As American Citizens Gothabaya Rajapaksha and Sarath Foseka have both bragged that they could have access to lethal American Weapons as simple as getting a vehicle at Hertz rent-a-car.

It has been confirmed beyond doubt that a bomb not too dissimilar to DIME was used on the residence of Thamilchelvan when he was killed by the Sri Lankan air force two years ago in Vanni. Sri Lankan air force claimed that three bunker buster bombs were used by them in that sortie.

Medical personnel in Vanni have confirmed that one of the metals found in many of the civilian victims’ wounds was copper. DIME bombs are not known to contain significant copper, but another US killer, the Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW), sprays slugs of molten copper at its targets. Is Israel also testing the SFW in their Kfir planes piloted allegedly by Indian and Pakistani pilots over the skies of Tamil Eelam remains an unanswered question.

Medical doctors have also recorded that the bombs used in the past three weeks have significantly increased civilian mortality rates, in part because it inflicts virtually untreatable wounds. Sri Lankan military has continued to use this weapon against the Tamil population for for nearly five months.

If the DIME hypothesis is confirmed, it clearly demonstrates India’s abject disregard for Tamil lives both in Sri Lanka as well as in India. Because a large number of Indian fishermen were also killed under very suspicious circumstances and their bodies were never recovered. In fact the Indian media (English) consistently referred to the 490 or so fishermen murdered by the Sri Lankan navy in the past five years as “Tamil Nadu Fishermen” and never as Indian fishermen. This says a great deal about the nationalism of the Brahmin-controlled Indian English press!

Sucking the Oxygen Out of a Cave
During Operation Anaconda, the United States rolled out a new weapon--the thermobaric bomb. It's worse than a Daisy Cutter. The Russians used thermobaric weapons during the 1994-1996 war in Chechnya and in Dagestan in 1999.

A few months ago the Sinhala press known for its lies, diatribe and rumours slowly circulated a white lie. It read, “troops from the 57 Division fighting in the Akkarayankulam area in Kilinochchi district noticed some soldiers behaving in an unusual manner Several soldiers had started vomiting and there were burn injuries on a few of them as well. All the affected soldiers developed breathing difficulties. Soon some six soldiers of the battalion were rushed to the Anuradhapura hospital and special attention was given to these soldiers with several doctors of the hospital examining them. Later it was revealed that these soldiers had suffered a gas attack. Twelve hours after the first attack, soldiers in Vannivilankulam in the Mullaitivu district on the next morning also came under a similar kind of gas attack . At least ten soldiers were evacuated after showing signs of exposure to a chemical compound which induced breathing difficulties, vomiting and tearing of the eyes.” Though this news was hurriedly squashed the original story was that by mistake an untrained and perhaps and uneducated Sinhala soldier had opened up a chemical weapon in the armory destined for the Tamils of Kilinochchi and due to this soldier’s stupidity some military men had to pay with their lives.

Already in August 2001, The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in a statement issued from its headquarters in Vanni, northern Sri Lanka warned the Kumaratunga: 'We are perturbed over reports that the Sri Lanka government has purchased new infantry weapon system with chemical warheads. This Russian made rocket propelled 'thermobaric' weapon is internationally banned for its lethal toxic effects on combatants and civilians. The acquisition of this banned weapon by Sri Lanka marks a new and dangerous escalation of the armed conflict in the island', the LTTE's statement declared.

'The use of this weapon has been eschewed by international militaries except the Russians. The indiscriminate nature of these morally reprehensible arms and the dangerous effects of their use do not seem to have perturbed the Sinhala ruling elites. The decision by the Sri Lankan government to introduce mass destruction technology into the northeast theatre of the conflict reflects its single-minded determination to continue with the military option and escalate the war against the Tamil people. As a result, this development has seriously undermined efforts to peacefully resolve the Tamil question. Any confidence in such efforts continues to be eroded by the ongoing persistent aerial bombardment on towns and villages in the Tamil homeland', the statement said. [For more on this see, TamilNet, Friday, 17 August 2001]

The following intervention made on the Sri Lankan parliament by Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham in 2001 is also of relevance here.
"The Sri Lankan government is going to deploy chemical weapons against the Tamils in the island's north and east. The aim is to annihilate them totally. The use of this dangerous chemical weapon against the Tamil people should be strongly condemned," said Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, Tamil United Liberation Front MP for Batticaloa, addressing legislators who gathered Friday in the Sri Lankan Parliament and decided to press ahead with the no confidence motion against President Kumaratunga's government. "The government's attempt to deploy chemical weapons against the Tamils is akin to the efforts of the Nazis to destroy the Jewish people," the MP charged. The MP also read out a news story on the purchase of the RPO-A Shmel rocket launcher by the Sri Lanka army from the Friday issue of the Tamil daily, Virakesari, told the legislators: "The use of chemical weapons has been banned by international treaties. This assembly should condemn the purchase of this chemical weapon. I call on this assembly on behalf of the Tamil people and the Tamil parties present here to pass the following resolution -'The Sri Lankan government has purchased the chemical weapon with the sole aim of annihilating the Tamil people. Therefore this assembly strongly condemns it'.

The MP also said that he would be sending a detailed report on the toxic weapon to foreign missions in Colombo today. Mr. Pararajasingham was murdered by Tamil militia men working as a para military force with the Sri Lankan army.

Countries that have engaged in war or project and image of bitterness and hatred as India and Pakistan or India and China or Israel and Pakistan and even Russia and Pakistan celebrate an unexplainable mutual friendship when it comes to help the Sinhala government to decimate the Tamils. It has been reliably learnt that Israeli bombers are piloted by Pakistani pilots, while Russian airmen fly US bell helicopters in Sri Lanka. Sinhala pilots are trained by Indian, Israeli and Pakistani aircraft engineers. Pakistani bombs are fitted to Indian made tanks and artillery guns. These forms of cooperation between professed enemies defy human imagination. Reality can be worse than fiction!

The ludicrous fact is that India has given substantial monetary and military help to Sri Lanka in terms of the purchase and use of lethal weapons on the helpless Tamil population but similar weapons supplied by India are also liberally used on poor Tamil Nadu fishermen. These fishermen go to the sea daily for their livelihood. Karunanidhi, the shrewd Chief Minister has indirectly tolerated this brutality and has suavely expressed his exasperation and helplessness in the face of this untold tragedy.

As stated by us earlier, years from now Vanni may be looked back on as a testing site for a new generation of weapons. That certainly seems to be the case with thermobaric weapons--deployed against the Tamil civilians.

Despite India’s encouragement and open support to use these and other kind of lethal bombs to decimate the Tamils, the use of these bombs is in direct violation of Protocol I of the 'Geneva Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons,' which "prohibits the use of any weapon the primary effect of which is to injure by fragments which in the human body escape detection by X-rays." But the issue is who pays any attention to treatises and conventions when it comes to the mass murder of hapless poor. The foremost Tamil leader S.J.V. Chelvanayagam once said “only God can save the Tamils!”

In one of the mass demonstrations in Europe an elderly Tamil mother said, “if my Tamil brothers and sisters are killed in that cursed island of Sri Lanka just because they are Tamils, then we should ensure that no civilian can live in that island of blood in peace.” She was perhaps echoing the feeling of the one million or so Eelam Tamils living abroad.

Published: Feb 16, 2009 16:23:13 GMT