July 04, 2001

The Hon. Alexander Downer, MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra
Australia.

Dear Minister,

Retired Major General Janaka Perera’s Appointment as High
Commissioner for Sri Lanka

The Canadian Tamil Congress aims to voice the concerns of the Canadian Tamil community on social, human rights and political issues. Two areas of immediate importance are the peaceful negotiated settlement of the civil conflict in Sri Lanka. The other is to speak out against the numerous human rights violations in Sri Lanka. The Canadian Tamil community is deeply perturbed by the appointment of retired Major General Janaka Perera as the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in Australia.

Major General Perera was in direct command of military operations in the area of the Chemmani graves in the Jaffna peninsular of Sri Lanka, in 1996, where subsequent forensic exhumations revealed corpses with visible evidence of torture and brutal murder. The inquiry has been going on for the last five years.

Janaka Perera was in charge of the Sooriyakanda and Embilipitiya areas in the Singhalese South of the island in the latter part of 1989. Evidence of butchery and torture of humans was produced before a Presidential commission of inquiry investigating allegations of human disappearances of South Sri Lanka only, chaired by Manouri Muttetuwagama. The commission implicated him in the torture and murders.

In 1980, he was responsible for the obliteration of the entire area of Manal Aru, renamed it Weli Oya in Singhalese (a direct translation of the original Tamil name). This area is situated in the North East of Sri Lanka and was populated by Tamils. It consisted of 28 villages and 12 settlements. He changed the name of the village of Mankindi Malai to Janaka Pura, (to perpetuate his name) and settled Singhalese of dubious character in the village. Sri Lankan Politico-military analysts have said this was a strategy adopted to truncate the northern Tamil areas from the Eastern Tamil areas. A form of legalized demographic alteration and ethnic cleansing.

The protests of the Australian Tamils and some Singhalese about Perera’s human rights violations have not been heeded by you.

Retired Major General T .I “Bull” Weeratunga who was Army commander from 1981-1985 was appointed High Commissioner in our country in 1986. The Canadian Tamil community protested this appointment on grounds that he had violated the Human Rights of Tamils while in command of the Army. A victim of human rights abuses in a sworn statement to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said that Weeratunga took part in and supervised his torture in 1979. Within a few months the Conservative Government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney eased him out of this position. This was despite the fact that he was a nephew to J.R. Jayawardene, the then President of Sri Lanka. This contrasts with the lack of concern of your Government to the protests of the Tamil Diaspora.

As an “officer and a gentleman”, one would expect the Major General in view of all the brouhaha, resign the position and “simply fade away”. This will not happen because he is only an “officer”. We make bold to say that Perera is in the same murderous league as Eichman and Milosovic.

The Tamil Diaspora has not protested the appointment of retired army commanders as High Commissioners/Ambassadors. Major General Anton M. Muttucumaru was the first Sri Lankan commander of the Army. He was appointed High Commissioner in Pakistan and later to Canberra where he eventually retired and was granted Australian citizenship. Lt. General L. T. Dennis Perera was appointed High Commissioner in Australia. Besides these, 5 other retired Army Commanders were appointed as High Commissioners/Ambassadors in Pakistan, U.K, and Indonesia. From this you will appreciate that the Tamil expatriates do not protest the appointments of army commanders as diplomats without due consideration.

Godfrey Gunetilleke, chair of the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission, says he had “not previously heard the General’s name (Janaka Perera) linked to military atrocities” and that he would investigate them if brought to his notice. This pathetic defence indicates the state of human rights investigations in Sri Lanka. This body, to put it mildly, is ill informed and ill equipped to handle human rights violations. Further it is emasculated by political pressures resulting in its gross indifference. This committee is maintained as pretence to show the world, and in particular, the aid giving countries that the Government is earnestly investigating human rights abuses and prosecuting the perpetrators. This body to the best of our knowledge has not investigated and successfully prosecuted one single human rights violation.

You have said in response to questions that Perera was accepted on a personal testimonial provided by Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. Minister Kadirgamar was in Canada and talked in glowing terms of the rehabilitation of the so called “boy soldiers” and the success of the project. Within a month, 26 of these detainees were bludgeoned and burnt alive while under the custody of the government. The inquiry continues interminably for almost a year. Mr. Kadirgamar has at times berated countries and intimidated international bodies and soon after was soliciting the same institutions for assistance and aid.

You refer to there being no direct evidence to link Perera with the atrocities. Do you believe that the culpable parties are foot soldiers and subalterns and Perera the overall commander was blissfully ignorant of the atrocities? We assure you sir; he not only condones, but also instigated, orchestrated, planned and facilitated all the events we have ascribed to him.

Tim Gill of the Asian Human Rights Commission in a release quotes a credible detainee from the illegal military detention camp at Werehara in the Kurunegala District. He says Janaka Perera was the head of the camp. He goes into gruesome detail of the torture techniques, disappearances and extra judicial killings and other occurrences in this camp.

You could well imagine the cover up being perpetuated by the Sri Lankan authorities when a world-renowned body Amnesty International “expressed concern” that Perera being appointed High Commissioner despite alleged involvement in serious human rights violations and torture.

Are we Sir to believe that the Sri Lankan Government cannot find a person with diplomatic abilities with equal if not superior to those of Janaka Perera, acceptable to Australians of Sri Lankan origin? It is indeed disturbing to note that such an appointment indirectly condones the human rights violations occurring in Sri Lanka.

We deeply urge you to take into consideration the legitimate outcry of Tamils all over the world at the questionable appointment of Janaka Perera.

We are taking the liberty of releasing this letter to the media.

Sincerely,

Surendini Pathmanathan
CTCHRC Coordinator