'Britain has removed the mask they had been wearing' - Prof. Nalin de Silva

by Walter Jayawardhana

Britain, the island nation's former colonial master is challenging the sovereignty of the island republic and interfering in the internal affairs of the country charged Professor Nalin de Silva of the Kelaniya University and head of the nationalist think tank "Chintana Parshadaya" .

Nalin de Silva was strongly criticizing Britain's proposed peace plan of forming a committee of British parliamentarians to solve Sri Lanka's problem and said the Sri Lanka government should under no circumstances recognize the British committee "Britain has removed", said Nalin, "the mask that they had been wearing, and desperately taken upon themselves the task of imposing their so called solution to the 'ethnic problem' they created."

He said it was the British as a tool of their imperialism that originally created the problem in Sri Lanka .

Britain should stop thinking that Sri lanka is still their colony, said Nalin de Silva who added, that the government of Sri Lanka should protest in the high handed manner Britain is acting. The British attempt to impose 'their' solution on Sri Lanka has become a very contentious issue in Sri Lanka and many political parties are expected to organise anti-British rallies in the country.

The Sri Lanka government has already refused to allow Deputy British High Commissioner Lesley Craig to travel to the Tiger stronghold Kilinochchi and meet the leaders of the LTTE to proceed along the British plan.

The following is the full statement of Nalin de Silva: "Britain has removed the mask at last. The decision to freeze aid to Sri Lanka in the name of violation of human rights does not come as a surprise to us.

Sri Lanka should expect economic sanctions imposed on the country if the Sri Lankan government continues to ignore the British "solution" to the so called ethnic problem.

"We never got any aid as such from UK or any other western country. What we had been given were loans, and we know that these loans were tied to various conditions. In fact by giving loans to so called underdeveloped countries the western countries and Japan boosted their economies.

"As we have said on number of occasions it was Britain that created the so called ethnic problem by favouring the Tamil elites, especially the Jaffna vellalas, who had been brought by the Dutch for their tobacco plantations, against the Sinhala Buddhists. As franchise was introduced gradually these privileges given to the Tamil elites had to be withdrawn, and it was interpreted by the British as well as the Tamil elites as discrimination against the Tamils in general.

"Britain having created the problem wants to "solve" it by giving the northern and the eastern provinces to Tamil racism, thus depriving the Sinhalas those two provinces.

The colonialists who think no end of their empire are hell bent on imposing their federal solution to their problem. The "solution" will only create another problem, and finally Tamil racism would triumph in the central and uva provinces as well.

"The so called violation of human rights is only a pretext for the British to intervene directly in the internal problems of Sri Lanka . The British rulers who lied to their own people when they wanted to invade Iraq are capable of doing anything to safeguard their interests.

It is laughable to hear British who do not allow the Muslim women to wear the "veil", talking of human rights violations on ethnic basis in Sri Lanka . The British interprets in Sri Lanka are mainly the promotion of Tamil racism and working against Sinhalathva.

As we had said it was Britain that operated behind Norway . The recent appointment of a so called All Party Parliamentary Group by the British Parliament to bring "peace to Tamil with dignity and justice" is only another step in the direction of promoting British interests in Sri Lanka . The British may be thinking of sending another Colebrook Commission to Sri Lanka as if we are still their colony.

Britain has removed the mask that they had been wearing, and desperately taken upon themselves the task of imposing their so called solution to the "ethnic problem" they created.

The government of Sri Lanka should protest against the high handed manner in which Britain is acting, and should make the people aware of what is happening, and get ready for any eventuality to protect the sovereignty of the country."