Category: anti-war

Truth before Reconciliation in Sri Lanka

Countering Truth with Lies

My father Brian Senewiratne is still promoting his “dozen DVDs” as a vital effort to counter the “disinformation campaign of the Sri Lankan government”. In Canada this year, he said the Tamil expatriates should support his effort by copying and distributing his DVDs at their own expense. This is despite his home-made DVDs being available free on YouTube for many years, with very few views and fewer likes.

The Sri Lankan government did not engage in a disinformation campaign. Brian Senewiratne did. He began this campaign in 2006 after he was invited by the expatriate Tamil organization Ilankai Tamil Sangam to speak at their Annual General Meeting in the USA. At the meeting, he suggested that what was needed was a video presentation about Sri Lanka to provide background to the conflict, and then offered to produce such a video, accepting donations for the promised DVDs.

When he got back to Australia he investigated how much it would cost to make the videos professionally, writing to the Tamil expatiates in the Tamilnet and Sangam websites that it would have cost $4,000 each which would have “sent him to the wall”. Instead, he decided to make the videos unprofessionally himself, using his own video camera and the assistance of his elderly wife to turn the camera on and off. The clumsy propaganda videos took the form of lectures to an empty room in the dark, where he pointed to slides projected onto their living room wall. Into these monologues he had one of his ex-students insert photos and later short videos from the LTTE (Tamil Tiger) propaganda archives.

Brian Senewiratne made several versions of the video between 2006 and 2009, to which he gave what he thought would be catchy titles: “The New Killing Fields of Asia”, “The Future of the Tamils at Stake”, “Sri Lanka: Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Violation of International Law” etc. The 13 “DVDs” also included recordings of speeches he gave to LTTE-supporting audiences between 2006 and 2009. After his side lost the war, he has continued promoting these DVDs and even in 2018 he has urged the Tamil expatriates in Canada that one of the things they needed to do to achieve “peace and justice” in Sri Lanka is to distribute his writings and DVDs.

Brian Senewiratne’s Political Agenda

Brian Senewiratne maintained for several decades that he had no political agenda or anything to gain from his involvement in the “Tamil struggle”. This was to increase his credibility, and he made many derogatory comments about politicians and disparaged them as a group. He also made much of being of Sinhalese ethnicity (though he knows little of the language), being a “Christian” (though he doesn’t go to Church or read the Bible) and his genetic relationship with the political Bandaranaike family, which he has denounced and defamed since the 1980s. He was routinely introduced for speeches and interviews as “the cousin of President Chandrika Kumaratunga” (they are second cousins) and then proceeded to attack her and her parents, saying that he “couldn’t help being born into the Bandaranaike family” but he was. He also denigrated the other Sri Lankan and Australian political leaders, but his greatest venom was directed at the Bandaranaike family and later the Rajapaksa family.

Revealing the lie of this denial of personal political aspirations, in 2008 Brian Senewiratne declared his ambition to be made the Foundation Professor of Medicine in a new University of Tamil Eelam if the LTTE won the war. This was to a staged, flag-waving crowd of thousands of Tamil Sri Lankans in Toronto, Canada, organized by the LTTE-supporting Tamil Diaspora, After the war was ended with the defeat of the LTTE, he accepted a political position as the “sole Sinhala senator” in the LTTE-supporting ‘Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam’ (TGTE), headed by the New York-based refugee lawyer Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, who calls himself the “Prime Minister” of the TGTE. An uncharismatic man, he was the LTTE’s lawyer and negotiator during the war. Rudrakumaran still flies the LTTE flag on his desk in his YouTube presentations and gives propaganda speeches in a shrill monotone in Tamil and English, issues “press releases” and makes a general fool of himself, since no one sensible takes the TGTE seriously.

Vexatious Litigation by the TGTE

It appears that the TGTE believes that offense is the best form of defence. This expatriate organization has led the misguided campaign to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court for supposed “genocide” of Tamils since 1948, when the nation gained its independence from Britain. Brian Senewiratne, a long-time member of Amnesty International (he used to hold AI meetings in his house in Brisbane during the war), trained at the University of London and Cambridge in the 1950s. Britain provided a base for the Tamil Tiger propaganda machine, which was headquartered in London, initially at the Tamil Information Centre, back in the 1980s.

After the war ended with the military defeat of his side, Brian Senewiratne convinced the TGTE to employ the Australian-British barrister Geoffrey Robertson, to prepare vexatious charges against the Sri Lankan political and military leadership, charging them with “genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”. Robertson made video presentations for the TGTE which were posted on YouTube, with little response from viewers. Back in 2009, at the end of the war, Brian Senewiratne had told a crowd of young Tamil Sri Lankans in Sydney, in speech through a megaphone, that he knew Robertson very well and that “he will charge these blaggards and drag them to the International Criminal Court”. As it turned out, Robertson was prepared to accept the case, but not pro bono. The TGTE still flies the LTTE flag at its functions and continues to glorify the Tamil Tigers and their leader, Prabakaran.

The first step to Truth and Reconciliation is truth. The truth is that the Tamil Tigers, with international backing, notably from India and Britain, declared war on the sovereign nation of Sri Lanka. It was a war of offense, and it is a war crime to start a war. It is also said that truth is the first casualty of war. However, the truth about the Tamil Tigers is emerging from first-hand accounts of their many victims. The loudest voices are not usually the wisest. This certainly applies to the shouting propagandists and apologists for the Tamil Tigers.

Brian Senewiratne Collecting War Porn

I just confronted my father with collecting war porn.

I rang my parents’ home, where my father, Brian Senewiratne, has just returned after being awarded the second “Nelson Mandela Memorial Prize” by the TGTE. The TGTE is the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, a front for the LTTE or Tamil Tigers, headed by the LTTE’s lawyer Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran who assumes the title of “Prime Minister”. Brian Senewiratne was appointed a senator by Rudrakumaran in 2010 when the organization was first formed from the American, British, European, Australian and Canadian vestiges of the Tamil Tigers international operations. The award was presented to a small audience of “Canadian Tamils” (as opposed to Tamil Canadians) in Toronto, Canada. The first time the Nelson Mandela Award was awarded (last year) it was given to the South African lawyer Yasmin Sooka, who Brian Senewiratne quotes extensively in his propaganda. He has also urged the employment of Sooka by the TGTE in a YouTube presentation he posted on his own YouTube channel in 2015.

I addressed my father before he could hang up the phone:

“I remember now. You were collecting atrocity photos on your computer during the war.”

“Oh, bugger off”. he grunted and hung up the phone.

This was the second time I have rung my parents’ house this morning. The first time I asked “Hello Amma?” and my father, who had picked up the phone but not answered it shouted to my mother, Kamalini:

“Camel, it’s that bugger again. Do you want to speak to him?”

My mother came to the phone and I told her I wanted to discuss Winston Panchacharam’s book (titled Genocide in Sri Lanka) that my father made a big show of “presenting” to Professor Ramu Manivannan at the TGTE’s award night on Saturday 15 April. I watched it on the internet and was shocked by what I saw. Since then, things have been falling into place and I realised that my father has been collecting “war porn”, short for “war pornography”.

I saw some of his collection of photos when I accessed one of his computers in 2007, but didn’t look at them in detail. They were graphic and disturbing photos of dead people and I wasn’t interested in looking at them. There were lots of them and he has several old computers. I had been asked to use the computer to access my mother’s emails for her, and didn’t realise the significance of the photos. Now I do.

I asked my mother yesterday to ask my father, who refused to speak to me on the phone (or in person) about Winston Panchacharam’s book after watching him explaining that he had all five copies of the book in existence and was “presenting” them, whenever he himself received “awards” from the TGTE to the TGTE’s inner circle – namely Usha Sriskandarajah and Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, who he describes as “close friends” of his. They are also among the last remaining supporters of the LTTE.

My mother said she had “heard of” Panchacharam but pretended not to know anything about the book that her husband had made a show of presenting to Manivannan on Saturday. She is lying to protect him and I told her so. I told her he had claimed on Saturday to have met Nelson Mandela, which she and I know to be one of his many lies. “Maybe he did, I don’t know”. She does. She knows that if he met Nelson Mandela he would have been boasting about it, rather than boasting about meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

I am sorry to people of Sri Lanka and also the Tamil community in Canada and around the world for my father’s behaviour, and not realising the full extent of his crimes earlier. I am still discovering more and will keep you posted. Please watch the video “Brian Senewiratne, the LTTE and Dr Panchacharam’s Book” on YouTube (the site of the Holistic University of Brisbane).

I have also contacted Ramu Manivannan, Usha Sri Skandarajah and Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran asking that the copies of Dr Panchacharam’s book that Brian Senewiratne gave them be forwarded to the University of Colombo, the Peradeniya University and University of Jaffna for forensic study, which I am prepared to be involved in.

Brian Senewiratne, the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) and Dr Panchacharam’s Book

On 15 May 2018 my father, Brian Senewiratne, was awarded the second ever “Nelson Mandela Memorial Award” by the leadership of the bogus Transnational ‘Government’ of Tamil Eelam (TGTE). The TGTE is a front for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as the Tamil Tiger terrorist organization.
The award is the brainchild of Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran who assumes the title of “Prime Minister” of the TGTE and was previously one of the USA-based lawyers for the LTTE. The other was Karen Parker, an American woman who calls herself a “humanitarian lawyer” but acted as the legal adviser to the terrorist organization since the 1980s. Brian Senewiratne has described both Karen Parker and Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran as “close friends”.
Two years ago Rudrakumaran awarded his friend Brian with a “Lifetime Acievement Award” for which he travelled to the USA. He was awarded a plaque signed by Rudrakumaran praising him for his “life-long commitment and invaluable and dedicated contribution rendered to the Eelam Tamil Nation in educating the Sinhala Nation and the international community – in furthering the cause of human rights, human dignity, gender justice and of the liberation of Tamil Eelam”. In return Brian Senewiratne “awarded” Usha Sriskandarajah, who presented the TGTE award back, with a copy of Winston Panchacharam’s book, titled “Genocide in Sri Lanka”. He told Sriskandarajah that it was one of only three copies of the book in existence.
Last year Rudrakumaran thought of making the most of President Mandela’s name, fame and reputation and awarded the inaugural “Nelson Mandela Memorial Award” to the South African Tamil lawyer Yasmin Sooka. Sooka had criticised the Sri Lankan government of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the so-called Darusman Report, of which she was one of three authors. Later she wrote a report from her own organzation detailing reports of torture and sexual violations by Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers in Britain, who had been captured during and after the war. She admits in the report that these reports may have been compromised by desire to prove persecution in support of their asylum claims. This is the source of the information about alleged rape and sexual violence in Sri Lanka that Brian Senewiratne has repeated, misrepresented and further exaggerated in a self-published propaganda book that he took with him to Canada. He claimed, for example that the reports were from Tamils who had returned to the island and then been tortured and sexually abused, which he knows to be false. The book quotes Yasmin Sooka’s report selecting the most disturbing details, and twisting what she has written to allege that there is an “epidemic of rape by the armed forces” in northern Sri Lanka. Last weekend, in his “acceptance speech” he promoted what he called the “second edition” of his book shouting to the Tamil Canadian audience that while they were sitting down to dinner Tamil girls are being raped in Kilinochchi (the LTTE’s previous “capital”, a small town in the north of Sri Lanka). He claimed that it was for these raped women that he had “produced” the book.
He printed a few copies of this book after failing to find even an unreputable publisher for it. The “first edition”, 130 pages long, was self-published in 2014. Since then he has had it reprinted with minor variations, including changes in the title and cover. He gets them printed by his local printer Bosco Ng in small runs of 5-10 books. After he received his “award” from his friend and biggest fan, Usha Sriskandarajah, Brian Senewiratne used his “acceptance speech” to promote his “12 DVDs” to the obvious dismay of the frowning MC, who had asked the awardees to be brief in their speeches since they were running late and it was already past 9.30 pm. He said that the DVDs were free and invited the audience to contact him in the “next day or two” and tell him if they want “1,2,3,4,5 or the whole ruddy lot”. He stressed that he was not trying to make a “fast buck”, and the videos were free (previously he complained that he wasn’t being paid enough for them and that the Tamils were “the stingiest race on earth”). He then brandished his book (which he has been flogging with updated versions since 2014) alleging an epidemic of rape by the armed forces and urging that the United Nations invoke the R2P provisions and send troops to Sri Lanka to stop “ongoing genocide of the Tamils of the North and East”.
Brian Senewiratne makes things up, always to glorify himself. He is an egotist. In his acceptance speech he claimed to have met Mandela (he actually met Desmond Tutu in 2008, in a lobbying trip arranged by the LTTE that also took him to Canada). In the speech he claims, falsely, that he met Mandela himself and that the South African legend had arranged for him to go to Robben Island to see the conditions he was kept for 25 years in. This is a blatant lie as is his claim that he told Mandela “The thing that is remarkable about you is that you are not bitter” to which Mandela replied “If I was bitter I wouldn’t be Nelson Mandela”.
Brian Senewiratne is a very bitter man. He is bitter about many things, but especially so about the Sri Lankan Armed Forces and their political leadership for defeating “his side” is the war in Sri Lanka. His side was his own personal aggrandisement and money for the poisonous propaganda he produced from his home in Brisbane, Australia. This propaganda demonised his own race, the Singhalese and the Buddhist clergy in particular as well as the Sri Lankan political and military leadership. Brian Senewiratne calls himself a “Christian” but never reads the bible or go to church. He claims that he prays while he’s in the toilet and closed the door, quoting a passage from the Bible to justify this bizarre practice (to pray in ones “closet” rather than make a show of public prayer).
The cardinal principles of Christianity include humility, sincerity, truth, charity, kindness and forgiveness, but my father is an insincere liar who has held grudges all his life. He is cruel, spiteful and malicious towards those that he doesn’t like and he dislikes anyone who opposes him. Jesus of Nazareth had harsh words for hypocrites, and my father is a glaringly hypocritical individual. He shouts about “human rights” in public but violates them at home and in secret. He is also an egotist who is ruthlessly manipulative and Machiavellian.
This short documentary is about my father’s relationship with the truth and the mystery of Winston Panchacaram’s book, titled “Genocide in Sri Lanka” and published by Panchacharam and unknown others at the now non-existent International Tamil Center in New York. In 2011 Brian Senewiratne boasted to an audience at a small human rights seminar in Darwin, Australia (James Cook University) that the book had just been published and that he had all the copies. He made a big show of presenting a copy of Panchacharam’s book to the university and drew attention to the last page which contains the rhetorical question, “IF THIS IS NOT GENOCIDE, THEN WHAT IT?” in large red and yellow capital letters on a stark black background. It is primitive propaganda, but Brian Senewiratne is unaware of how obvious it is.

Brian Senewiratne he said he had all 5 copies of this book, but it was no longer available. He then explained where each of the five copies is destined – to Usha Sri Skandarajah (who he claimed is the greatest Tamil writer alive today, to brief applause from a couple of people); Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran (boss of the TGTE); Professor Ramu Manivannan of Madras University (who wrote another book alleging genocide of Tamils called Hiding the Elephant); the Jaffna Library and – this was his applause-seeker – the last copy to be put in his bank and presented after his death to the “Library of Tamil Eelam when it is built in Kilinochchi”. He stressed that he said “when and not if”, and received the applause he was seeking, but it was very muted compared to the hysterical reception he received from the Canadian Tamils when he was the star attraction at the Tamil Pongu ceelebration in Toronto in 2008.

 

Winston Panchacharam’s Book

On November 21, 2016 Usha Sriskandarajah, who presented the “award” to my father, wrote, on the death of Winston Panchacharam:

“Author of ‘Genocide in Sri Lanka’ passes away. Today I was saddened to hear of the demise of Dr Winston Panchacharam, President, International Tamil Center – USA, the driving force behind the limited edition book: ‘Genocide in Sri Lanka’, a pictorial and coffee table book, made for private circulation, published especially for global leaders, “to act quickly and follow through to protect the dying Tamil Race in Sri Lanka.” Although I have never met Dr Panchacharam, I had the good fortune of receiving from Dr. Brian Senewiratne – one of three books left in his possession. After presenting one to me – wow – of the two copies that he has remaining, Dr Senewiratne said he will be donating one to the Jaffna Library and the other to the Tamil Eelam Library!”

She published, on her Facebook page, a photo of Brian Senewiratne’s dedication to her with “with sheer admiration and gratitude from Brian”, and a photo of him “awarding her” (on 15.5.2016) with one of his remaining three copies of the book (On 21 November 2016). However YouTube reveals that in November 2011 he donated a copy of the book, along with 10 of his propaganda DVDs to the James Cook University in Darwin, where he had been invited to give a talk on “Who’s Afraid of Human Rights”.

Eelaventhan, who is another geriatric TGTE boss (he’s 86, the same age as Brian Senewiratne), wrote an obituary for Winston Panchacharam on 20th November 2016, published on the Tamil Sangam website, in which he wrote, in bad English:

“Besides he authored the book titled “GENOCIDE IN SRI LANKA” that contains 185 pages published in the year 2010. For the point of view of many readers the contents of the book was a masterpiece. This will be cherished for generations to follow. In his introductory note he addressing “ Your excellencies-Global leaders for the protection of the vulnerable and those oppressed people by genocidal act. In his appeal for the global public opinion, Tamil Diaspora, and the dying race of Tamils in Sri Lanka. He further states that the global leaders must act quickly, and follow through, to protect the dying Tamil race in Sri Lanka. He rightly says that “Justice delayed is Justice buried” . He further adds that neglect of timely violence prevention is a sad legacy that has led to genocide in several countries; from the holocaust to the massacres in Uganda and Sudan. Millions of life has been lost. He continues in a very appealing tone that “ smoldering genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka that started insidiously over half a century ago culminated in several coordinated massacres before , during and after the civil war.”

I would like to know how Winston Panchacharam died, who his doctors were and what sort of fatal disease he had. I would also like to know the source of the photos in the book and how it was that Brian Senewiratne had all 5 copies, if the book was intended for world leaders to act with urgency to save the Tamil people from genocide. The text is likely to be disinformation if it is based on what Brian Senewiratne told Panchacharam, but the photos are important forensic evidence regarding the war in Sri Lanka. It is outrageous and very suspicious that Brian Senewiratne has acquired control of this material (the atrocity photos in the book) and is keeping it within his close circle within the LTTE-supporting TGTE. I believe that it should be in the hands of Sri Lankan police and forensics experts, and is important evidence regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Tamil Tigers.

Please watch the video and leave your comments.

With One Voice “Peace” (protest song)

words and music by Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam Arya Chakravarti, 2004

recorded in 2006

 

WITH ONE VOICE ‘PEACE’

 

Looking at the sunshine

But kept in the dark

The weatherman said it would be fine

Another glossy, casual remark

‘Cause a new war looms and we’ve seen it all before

A new war looms and we’ve seen it all before

 

The TV talks up the conflict again

It showed the friendly soldiers and some were weeping

It slowed the lonely viewers already sleeping

Said the special correspondent ‘the soldiers are despondent’

This time the administration has acted without consent

And its time to voice some real dissent

 

‘Cause a new war looms and we’ve seen it all before

A new war looms and we’ve seen it all before

 

No longer hypnotised by lies

The masses mobilized

To stop the growth of arms in the skies

The masses have been mobilized

 

They dance and march and wave placards

The poets and the singing bards

They say with one voice “No War!”

They say with one voice “Peace!”

They say with one voice “Peace!”

 

Somebody Else’s War (Protest Song)

SOMEBODY ELSE’S WAR

words and music by Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam Arya Chakravarti

 

They point ahead and their whisper in our ears

They say they’ll show their grand illusion here

Their plan to make the whole world ‘true’

The new world they were born to rule

They point ahead but they tell us to stand here

They point ahead but they tell us to stand here

 

They never try to hide

With blinkered eyes they ride

While there in every land

Are scheming men with plans

 

Fighting in somebody else’s war

What’s right what’s wrong and what’s the law

Familiar rooms and shady deals

Secret handshakes with official seals

They’re fighting in somebody’s corridor

 

So tell me why is it so that their eyes never show

A simple sign of interest, don’t tell me that they do their best

So what do you think that their next crime will be

Another bomb in the Middle East, they put it to the test

 

So battle done, wars been won

The lights come on but the dark is here to stay

And everyone can have a say

And it’s so easy now If we don’t all get blown away

Everyone can have a say

And it’s so easy now, if we don’t all get blown away.

 

Composed in 1989

Recorded in 2006

And still not blown up.

 

Walking Down the Fine Line (protest song)

WALKING DOWN THE FINE LINE

 

Walking down the fine line in an age of confusion

Walking down the fine line between truth and illusion

 

They argue for war, but if they’d seen what we saw

They break the law, but we’re not the fools they take us for

Though we’re walking down the fine line,

We’re walking down the fine line

 

Even the church has backed away

From the debate of the day

“Not a just war this time”, they say

“Not worth the price we’d have to pay”

Even the rabid warmongers wait

 

They don’t want to be viewed with hate

But they quietly terrorise the state

With warnings that time is getting late

 

And we’re walking down the fine line

We’re walking down the fine line

As politicians raise the alarm

The people are frightened of the calm

The bishop reads another psalm

And searches for words to serve as a balm

As more people march for peace

The prisoners and captives will be released

As shackles are disregarded and destroyed

Along with the army’s brand new toys

Maybe the generals will be detained For crimes against humanity and acid rain

The generals have had their day

Now it’s time to find a better way

They don’t care how many they slay

The priest commands the congregation to pray

But there’s got to be a better way, there’s got to be a better way

The taxman say’s we’ve got to pay

For the troops and the war and the games they play

But there’s got to be a better way

There’s got to be a better way.

 

(Words and music by Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam Arya Chakravarti, 2003)

Guitars, bass, percussion and vocals by Romesh

 

 

AWB Wheat Scandal (protest song)

A song about the bribes paid by the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) and BHP to Saddam Hussein’s regime, while the Australian government was preparing to invade Iraq.

 

WHEAT SCANDAL

 

Another scandal has erupted

The Cole Inquiry is in the news

We’ve heard the wheat trade is corrupt

And we’re finding out who knew

 

The companies in question

Giants in their trade

The Big Ones playing big bribes

The secret deals were made

 

They knew about the kickbacks

That we know is true

The bribes were paid and the deals were made

As talk of war grew too

 

They said “I know nothing”

But we know what they said wasn’t true

We know that they knew ’cause it’s all in the news

But did they know that we knew, too?

 

The Wheat Board had a single desk

It was called Monopoly

The boardmen played the board game

And they paid the banker too

 

Then BHP saw profits In a country between wars

The UN had it’s oil for food

And passed out many laws

 

Then the people of the world cried “foul!”

And they said the children starved and died

The regime they attacked in words

Was also paid in bribes

A ‘humanitarian gesture’, paid with interest

Mr Cole called it a ‘soft bribe’

But the men who paid it were hard as stone:

Cowboys in the Third World

With plenty cash and guns

Cowboys in the Third World

If you see them, you better run

 

They knew about the kickbacks

That we know is true

The bribes were paid and the deals were made

While talk of war grew too

 

They said “I know nothing”

But we know what they said wasn’t true

We know that they knew ’cause it’s all in the news

But did they know that we knew that they knew too?

 

Their pictures on the TV

The cowboys aren’t ashamed

They pose for the cameras

And then try to share the blame

How high does it go?

Is it right to the top?

Do the roots of corruption

Hold big business to the ground?

 

They knew about the kickbacks

That we know is true

We know that they knew ’cause it’s all in the news

But did they know that we knew that they knew too?

 

(words and music by Romesh Senewiratne-Alagaratnam Arya Chakravarti)

Guitar, harmonica and vocals by Romesh