"Another Common Lie - Respond To National Post"
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Captain WBR Priyashantha |
Through out the course of the conflict
in Sri Lanka both internal and external forces that lay
allegiance to the separatist agenda and the terrorist
outfit have come up with various allegations to bring
discredit to country in the international fora. It does
not come as a surprise and it is not something new.
Because of the LTTE's unambiguous use of terrorism, more
than thirty nations listed it as a terrorist
organization including America and the European Union.
With the defeat of the LTTE in mid May
in 2009 which up to then was thought to be impossible a
notion or a mis- notion that was embedded in the minds
of many indeed came as a surprise or more correctly a
shock that sent a wave of fear among the war mongering
terrorist supporters and sympathizers. Their own
survival rested on the continued unrest in the Island.
They feared that peace in Sri Lanka would destabilize
the luxurious life they lived in western nations. In
order to sustain their life, they had to make war not
peace.
Sri Lanka's victory over terrorism did
come with a price. The long protracted war cost the
country and its people irreplaceable losses in life and
material. Three decades of misery was brought to a
comprehensive conclusion under a strong political
leadership that gave the military a proper plan and
support to end the scourge of terrorism once and for
all. The rest is history. By conducting the largest
humanitarian operations in the modern history of the
world Sri Lanka has given the world a role model, not
only in defeating terrorism but also in post war
reconciliation and development.
But for some this is unacceptable. The
LTTE rump and its paid foreign voices that include a
number of media sources both print and electronic,
continue to operate concocting stories of war crimes and
creating baseless allegations against the government and
the security forces. Some western nations mis- informed
and mislead by the agents of the LTTE rump have raised
concern over issues pertaining to the humanitarian
operations.
The remnant groups and their cronies
start to intensify their spin doctoring whenever there
is an issues on Sri Lanka is to be taken up in the
international forum. They begin their 'conditioning
campaign' in order to set the stage for a showdown. Once
and again they come up with new claims of atrocities,
new figures of civilian deaths, new names as real eye
witnesses. So far they are yet to prove beyond doubt the
authenticity of their claims or that of their witnesses.
Various allegations that were brought
up against the country at UN sessions were never really
proved. The conflicting stories and allegations which
they were bombarding the world with using characters and
outfits of questionable repute like Channel 4, Frances
Harrison, Gordon Weiss and of course their eye witness
'Fernando' may have convinced the gullible few who do
not think twice before coming to a hasty conclusion.
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Picture Courtesy National Post |
The latest character in this list is
Ravindra Watudura Bandanage. A former captain in the Sri
Lanka Army who went AWOL (Absent Without Official
Leave) in 2009. Lets talk about him. Captain Watudura
Bandanage Ravindra Priyashantha joined the Sri Lanka
Army in 1993. After completing training as a cadet
officer he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1994.
He belonged to the SC 7 Intake.
Ravindra Priyashantha, a resident of
Galle in the Southern Province was an accomplished
martial artist. Recognizing his prowess in Wushu he was
provided with the opportunity to re-present the Army and
the country at Wushu competitions at local and
international tournaments. During his stay in the Army
Priyashantha was seen as a controversial character who
was caught cheating at promotion exams and other actions
which are deemed unbecoming for an officer or a
gentleman. He had a habit of going AWOL. In fact it was
something of a hobby for him to be away from work
without informing the authorities. Due to his long
absences he was discharged from the Army and Commission
was withdrawn in absentia.
During the humanitarian operations
Priyashantha was serving nowhere near the operational
areas. In fact from 2006 until his desertion he was
serving in and around Colombo. According to media
reports he had claimed that he was ordered to place a
bomb in the house of a Tamil politician by a Colonel is
nothing but lie of a desperate man who had tried every
trick in the book to fool the Immigration Officers to
stake his claim for a refugee states in Canada.
Desperate moments lead to frantic actions and utterances
which should not be taken seriously. This conman left
Sri Lanka to represent the nation at an international
sporting event. While there he jumped ship. He never
came back.
While in Colombo he always held posts
which are solely administrative duty based, Duties which
does not warrant any dealing with operational matters
not even a cordon and search operation. Most of the time
he was involved in training Wushu together with the
national pool. And his claim of his knowledge on Tamils
being tortured and beaten up is nothing short of a line
from the often repeated catch phrase of the LTTE rump.
A man of dubious repute and
questionable integrity towards his motherland left his
kith and kin to another land solely to seek greener
pasture. He is one of the many characters in the tragedy
that the LTTE rump is playing to the international
audience.
Is, an officer (?) who cheated at
exams, went continuously AWOL on several occasions, had
not seen the battlefront for years and who apparently is
ignorant to even know the proper name of a prominent
Tamil politician to whose house he was supposedly
ordered to plant a bomb in, is definitely not someone to
be trusted. Did the LTTE rump think that the
international community would be naive and gullible to
believe to accept the utterances of a so-called
'veteran' officer with a questionable past who deserted
the post and let down his country?
It is surprising to note the
prominence that some media institutes are giving to the
blatant lies coming from questionable sources. A bit of
background check would reveal the hidden motives and the
real reasons and also the behind scene manipulators of
the remnant groups and their proxies.
Sri Lanka security forces did not
fight a foreign army nor did the government meddle in
the internal affairs of another country. The people
united to fight a cancer that was eating away the
country and its people. At the end we came out winning, uniting the land
and its people and the rest is history. what matters now
is the future.
Let us go forward. Through reconciliation we have to
rebuild the battered nation. Let the wounds of the past
heal.
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