Lakshman Kadirgamar - Farewell to an uncrowned king

Peter · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2005 4:16 pm

Farewell to an uncrowned king

Pall-bearers carry the coffin of slain Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar at Independence Square in Colombo August 15, 2005. Sri Lanka began a state funeral on Monday for its assassinated foreign minister whose killing President Chandrika Kumaratunga blamed on the Tamil Tiger rebels the minister had campaigned to outlaw. @REUTERS/Adeel Halim

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Farewell to an uncrowned king

Editorial / The Island
15Aug2005

Departs, today, drowning a nation in tears, an uncrowned king, felled by savages. Lakshman Kadirgamar, a man worth his weight in gold, was a statesman who possessed a vision and a mission which transcended ethnic and religious barriers that plague this country.

Kadir was a versatile personality—an eminent lawyer, brilliant intellectual, magnanimous statesman and excellent orator not allowed debator. When he spoke, the world listened. But what brought him close to the people, was his sincerity as well as his bravery. He had greatness thrust upon him.

As is the fate that awaits anyone who dares to be on the side of truth, justice and fair play, he, through his mission to usher in a lasting peace in Sri Lanka, brought himself on collision course with LTTE barbarians, hell bent on destroying humanity in the name of their macabre cause.

Unlike political invertebrates crawling and cringing at the feet of the LTTE savages in a despicable bid to protect their own interests, he was not deterred by threats to his life. He advocated a peaceful resolution of Sri Lanka’s conflict but remained opposed to appeasement of terror and giving in to it, as he knew it would endanger democracy. What he strove for was an honourable peace acceptable to all communities.

Kadir, as Foreign Minister, mobilized world support for Sri Lanka’s cause and rebuilt its image as a democratic society, which the terrorists had demonized abroad through years of false propaganda. The proscription of the LTTE in some western countries and the curtailment of its fund raising activities therein were mainly due to his relentless efforts.

Kadir, a brilliant Tamil leader reaching out to other communities and bringing them together for resolving the conflict perhaps irked the LTTE more than anything else. For, he was denying it the means of generating racial hatred with which it powers its war machine. He, therefore, had to be eliminated like other Tamil intellectuals such as Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam and Dr. Rajini Thiranagama.

The LTTE is zeroing in on another Tamil leader who commands the respect of all communities and thereby holds the key to the resolution of the conflict through a national consensus. He is TULF President V. Anandasangaree. Having felled Kadir, a septuagenarian, in so shameless a manner, there is no reason to believe the LTTE will spare Anandasangaree. He must be protected by all means!

The blame for creating conditions which helped the LTTE take Kadir’s life with relative ease, lies with the government and the UNP. They, in the name of an illusive peace, have jeopardized the national security interests as never before. They have allowed the LTTE to use the CFA as a potent weapon to further its interests. The terrorists have achieved, under the on-going truce, much more than they could ever dream of before.

Check points and raids on LTTE sleeper cells were done away with. The country has lost Lt. Col. Muthalif, SSP Wijewardane, dozens of intelligence operatives and, on Friday, Kadir. Immediately after his assassination, the government resorted to search operations, raids and check points. Why did the government wait till Kadir was killed to adopt these measures?

When the LTTE leaders were given SLAF choppers to come to Colombo for treatment—Sea Tiger Chief Soosai was flown in from the Kilinochchi to Colombo to go to Singapore for a check up— and escorts were given to LTTE cadres in the East, the government must have thought they would be grateful.

President Ranasinghe Premadasa once misled himself into the same belief. He protected the LTTE, provided it with arms, ammunition, cement and money and even got rid of the IPKF. He used to call LTTE leaders mallis, ( younger brothers). And in the end mallis blew aiya (elder brother) to smithereens!

The LTTE has no permanent friends; it only has permanent separatist interests. It behoves the political leaders mollycoddling terrorists to take serious note of what befell President Premadasa. Even while Premadasa was helping them, they should recall, the terrorists had their Child of Fire, Babu with him. The UPFA and UNP leaders will do well to remember that there are Babus trailing them as well.

Meanwhile, the international community has exposed its nudity once again. It has condemned the assassination but stopped short of naming the perpetrators. The LTTE has killed Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister. But the UK continues to harbour the spokesman of the same outfit, Anton Balasingham. The Norwegians are openly supportive of the killers of Mr. Kadirgamar and the Dutch Ambassador recently went to the Wanni to shake the very hands that later felled Kadir.

The diplomats of the countries, where the LTTE is allowed to operate, need no clothes, when they pay their last respects to Kadir. They can file past his coffin, stark naked. For, they have proved they have no sense of shame.

Kadir was a man in a billion. The best way to perpetuate his memory is for other leaders to emulate him. But the question is whether we could make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Let the CFA be renegotiated and all precautions taken to prevent any more dastardly terror attacks, while his killers are brought to justice.

The Island joins Mr. Kadirgamar’s family, relatives, friends and the millions of others in mourning for him, as he steps into eternity.

From left to right, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh watch as Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar's funeral pyre is lit in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday Aug. 15, 2005. Military forces fanned out across the capital, Colombo, ahead of the state funeral for slain Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar amid fears that his killing could scuttle a government-rebel cease-fire. (@AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

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Wake up at least now

Editorial / Daily Mirror
15Aug2005

The cruel and cowardly felling of the nation’s treasure Lakshman Kadirgamar by a sniper is felt virtually by all Sri Lankans as a personal loss, barring of course terrorists and their fellow travellers.

Yet in this sad hour, people like Law and Order Ministry Secretary Thilak Ranaviraja and IGP Chandra Fernando trying to wriggle out of the clear security lapse that allowed the easy gunning down of Mr. Kadirgamar and the equal ease with which the killer or killers escaped from a high security area is only adding insult to injury.

The excuse Mr. Kadirgamar was against searching nearby houses does not hold water. Mr. IGP, do you seek permission from each minister before a search operation in his neighbourhood? Then you might as well ask the LTTE too. No wonder we are in this sorry mess.

Most probably those providing Mr. Kadirgamar security were caught napping. That is why the killer or killers escaped without a trace and without drawing a single shot as return fire. We can do without excuses. At least give us some action now before any more such needless tragedies in the south happen. Remember, no one is asking you to do anything in the North and East. Every time it has been a case of closing the barn door long after the horse has bolted.

Long before the life was snuffed out of Mr. Kadirgamar by the sniper, political hacks in this country assassinated his unblemished character over his foreign travels on behalf of this country, which in actual fact brought in windfalls for the nation, like getting the LTTE banned in countries such as the USA and UK. The same cannot be said about most others who wore that mantle. And now we learn that a Tamil language newspaper published in the Tiger-held area of Kokkadicholai and distributed country-wide has had the audacity to call him a traitor on the day he was killed. Surely it was no wishful thinking. It was cold-blooded information. The freedom to write and publish does not give the right to condemn people to death.

A Christian Tamil, Mr. Kadirgamar without doubt was a man in a million and a true Sri Lankan in this multi-ethnic and multi-cultural land who thought and acted as a Sri Lankan before all else, He never minced his words despite all genuine threats facing him. Even at the launching of the CBK biography recently he publicly called for the laying down of arms by the LTTE to bring about a permanent peace. So what has the Tiger answer been, but to ensure that he rests in peace?

This killing also goes to prove that with the LTTE there can never be any tolerance of ideas other than its own. To them it is anathema to have an opposite view. So the international community that continues to press us to appease the LTTE, while it is permanently silencing those opposing them democratically under cover of a ceasefire, is only doing so for their own ulterior motives. It clearly defies logic for them to give succour and free haven to the Tigers and their front organizations despite their never-ending list of heinous acts.

The Western sinister moves of the past only helped to sow the wind in West Asia, from which they are now reaping the whirlwind.

Why are Western nations continuing to have double standards having one tough line for dealing with Al Qaeda/ Taleban and a soft one full of excuses for groups like the LTTE? Therefore let us also stop being trusting natives any more. It is time that the authorities kept an extra vigil on certain diplomatic personnel serving here. There have been far too many incidents like diplomatic jeeps put into use for the LTTE or its front organizations as ambulances, or as happened in recent days the UNDP trying to clear items other than what has been declared like communication equipment for radio parts.

Relatives carry the coffin bearing the body of Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar for his final rites, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Aug. 15, 2005. Military forces fanned out across the capital, Colombo, ahead of the state funeral for slain Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar amid fears that his killing could scuttle a government-rebel cease-fire. (@AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

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Death of a master diplomat

Editorial / The Hindu
15Aug2005

The assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is a monstrous act of terrorist aggression against the Sri Lankan state and against the ceasefire supposedly in place. There is not the slightest doubt that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam planned and executed this fiendish crime. The highly accomplished Mr. Kadirgamar was known to be at the top of the LTTE's hit list, just below President Chandrika Kumaratunga. A brilliant lawyer, a master diplomat, a courageous fighter for constitutional justice, he conceptualised and led from the front an effective global campaign to have the self-proclaimed `sole representative' of the Sri Lankan Tamils designated as a terrorist organisation, notably in the United States and Britain. His closeness to India, movingly reflected in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tribute to this "great Sri Lankan ... [and] friend of India," helped bring a new solidity and warmth to bilateral relations. For all this, Mr. Kadirgamar, who shared President Kumaratunga's belief that justice for the Sri Lankan Tamils lay in a negotiated, democratic federal solution within the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, became persona non grata with Sri Lanka's Pol Potists. The LTTE and also its agents and apologists, several of them basing themselves in developed countries, denounced this son of Jaffna Tamil parents as a "traitor." Even though the Foreign Minister was never in doubt what this meant — "they can get me anytime," he told The Hindu in Colombo on July 29 — he remained steadfast in his opposition to the LTTE and its fascist ways. Time and again, the Oxford-educated lawyer reiterated his misgivings about the February 2002 ceasefire agreement brokered by Norway granting too many concessions to the LTTE.

The LTTE has used the truce to try and consolidate its military strength and also expand its hegemony within North-Eastern Sri Lanka. The lowering of the security guard, which came with the defective ceasefire crafted by the Ranil Wickremesinghe regime, made it easier for it to hunt down and liquidate political opponents, with virtual immunity (the ceasefire facilitator and monitors looking, for the most part, the other way and pretending that the hand behind these brutal crimes was unknown). Just hours before Mr. Kadirgamar's assassination, the LTTE liquidated two members of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam in the capital. Evidently, the indulgent attitude of Norway to these flagrant ceasefire and human rights violations emboldened the LTTE to set sights on Mr. Kadirgamar. There is another disturbing aspect to the assassination. That one of Sri Lanka's most guarded public figures could be picked out so easily speaks to the abysmal failure of intelligence, not to mention the complacence and ineptness that have crept into the Sri Lanka security establishment over three years of the ceasefire. It is likely that the LTTE's plan is to provoke the Government into a response that would send the peace process into a tailspin. President Kumaratunga's measured response suggests the Government has wisely decided to avoid being pushed into a course it does not wish to take at this juncture. But that does not prevent it from hunting down the assassins and nailing the LTTE's lie that it had no hand in the assassination. At a political level, President Kumaratunga will no doubt lay down new rules of the game binding the LTTE and requiring it, among other things, to cease and desist from acts of terrorism. She can certainly rely on India's support in having anti-terrorist international sanctions instituted against the LTTE's external operations, including fund-raising, basing, and campaigning abroad. Norway, as the peace broker, has much to answer for. From the beginning, it argued for a softly-softly approach to the LTTE, claiming the Tiger was changing its stripes, ready to enter the Sri Lankan democratic mainstream through a federal solution. The assassination of Mr. Kadirgamar is a tragic reminder that this is far from true. It leaves a void in Sri Lankan and South Asian political life that will be hard to fill.
© Copyright 2000 - 2005 The Hindu

People react as the coffin bearing the body of Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is brought in for cremation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday Aug. 15, 2005. Military forces fanned out across the capital, Colombo, ahead of the state funeral for slain Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar amid fears that his killing could scuttle a government-rebel cease-fire. (@AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

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Thank you, Kadir

Editorial / Sunday Times
14Aug2005

A terrorist sniper's bullets felled a national hero on Friday night. The perpetrators of this assassination had every reason to silence Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and everyone knew it.

It was not just a long-standing grudge, but a calculated, cold-blooded move to remove from the political firmament a man who had a supreme commitment to a united Sri Lanka.

Earlier in the day, a husband and wife working in the state media were gunned down for the same reason - to eliminate all opposition in the quest for a separate state in the north and east of this country.

Despite all the song and dance in some quarters about the security given to the Foreign Minister, his private residence was guarded by just four policemen. It was a clear and shocking lapse of security to protect a known target - who had been warned by Military Intelligence that the LTTE had upped the ante in its campaign to destroy him.

But there's no purpose in crying over spilled blood now. A man who went out on a limb for national unity has been eliminated. Probably not since the turn of the last century - when a minority member of Sri Lankan society, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan spoke on behalf of the whole country - had a politician from a minority community been so respected by Sri Lankans of all walks of life.

Kadirgamar was not afraid to be different. A non-comformist from an early age, he told his Christian father that he wished to go to Trinity College, Kandy despite all his elder brothers having enrolled at Royal College, Colombo. Having excelled in both studies and sports at Trinity, winning colours in rugby football, cricket and athletics, the young Kadirgamar was among the first batch of students at the Law Faculty at the University of Peradeniya - a showpiece University in Asia at the time.

Passing out as a lawyer from Law College, he proceeded to Oxford University where he had an early induction to politics by being elected the famous Oxford Union's President, defeating a student who later became a well-known British politician and Leader of the House of Commons.

He returned to Sri Lanka to practise law, then went to the UN in Geneva to take up a senior post with the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), but returned to the country in the thick of political unrest in 1989 to resume his law practice. By 1994 he was ready to plunge into the whirlpool, if not cesspit, of Sri Lankan politics and his underlying credo was to give back something to the country that nurtured him through his life. To try and make the difference.

The 1994 elections propelled him to the high office of Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position he recently said he was proud to have held for almost ten years. The country was in the throes of a violent separatist movement, which had its early direct backing by at least one foreign neighbour, and later some kind of tacit support from the international community.

With punishing schedules, Lakshman Kadirgamar had the confidence, the diplomatic finesse, savvy and articulateness to walk through the corridors of power in the world's capitals and talk as an equal, advocating the cause of a small nation-state fighting for its very survival. Totally committed to the defence of the nation and unity of all her peoples, he succeeded in arguing her case. And he knew more than anyone else, that he would have to pay the price for it.

Many ordinary Sri Lankans appreciated his efforts; some did not. All for different reasons. In recent months, Kadirgamar took a back-seat - not because he was against the peace process with the LTTE as some mistakenly believe, but because he did not agree with the strategy. As ever, he was unwavering in his commitment to a free and united Sri Lanka.

He was not without warts, but he was a perfectly decent human-being. Gentle to an extreme, he was one whom the old Americans would describe as 'walk gently, carry big stick'. His interests were many and varied. Just hours before his assassination he was telephoning people urging them to purchase a book on the life and work of an indigenous painter that he had been instrumental in having printed. This had nothing to do with Foreign Affairs.

Tributes are now pouring in to a great man of our times. A democrat and a man of peace who could walk with kings but not lose the common touch. Yet, few have the courage to name the perpetrators of this death or call for a laying down of arms. Such were the double-standards of the international community that Lakshman Kadirgamar loathed.

For some, his removal from the scene will no doubt be seen as the removal of an irritant. To others, isn't this a wake-up call, if indeed any wake-up calls are necessary as to the abyss our nation has plunged into?

The voice of a liberal who embraced all religions and a man who stood for the unity of all Sri Lankans has been stilled. There's no greater deed than to serve your country and countrymen, and no greater glory than to sacrifice your life in doing so.

"Well played, Kadir," they would say to the young schoolboy from Kandy. " Well Done, Sir," we say to him in death. And "Thank You".

Norway's Foreign Minister Jan Petersen attends the state funeral ceremony of slain Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar at Independent square in Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 15, 2005. Sri Lanka was set to cremate Kadirgamar with full state honours on Monday after an assassination President Chandrika Kumaratunga blamed on the Tamil Tiger rebels the minister had campaigned to outlaw. @REUTERS/Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi

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Saving peace in Lanka

Khaleej Times Online / Editorial
14 August 2005

THE assassination of Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar serves the ultimatum to President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her government that time — and opportunity — for peace is fast slipping away.

The killing is a deadly blow to the painfully crafted peace process and international efforts to find a lasting solution to the Tamil-Sinhala conflict. However, it couldn’t really have come as a surprise to the Sri Lankans who have long been dreading the resumption of ethnic conflict.

There have been several low profile killings in the last few months even as the Tamil Tigers have persisted with the pretence of peaceful engagement with the Lankan government. The Tigers have warned the government of returning to arms if the issue of separate Tamil state is not resolved soon.

And what better way to serve the notice on the government than eliminating foreign minister Kadirgamar? The foreign minister, a Tamil married to a Sinhala, been labeled a ‘traitor’ by the Tigers long ago, had been a thorn in the LTTE’s side for quite some time. That Kadirgamar actively campaigned in Western capitals and in New Delhi to drive home the message that the LTTE is a terrorist organisation with which peace was not possible also might have made Kadirgamar a prime target.

Now the LTTE may bend backwards to defend itself and insist it didn’t have anything to do with the killing, it almost goes without saying that Kadirgamar fell to a Tiger assassin’s bullets. The foreign minister had no personal enemies. Besides only the LTTE stands to benefit from Kadirgamar’s death.

The Sri Lankan government faces a stark choice. Go after the LTTE with all the firepower at its disposal to teach the militant organisation a lesson throwing the island nation into yet another long and bloody civil war. Or settle for a judicial probe into the Kadirgamar killing while making greater and urgent efforts to resolve the business with the LTTE — peacefully and diplomatically.

The first option, albeit most obvious and natural course, could extract a heavy price from the Sri Lankans and may even end up permanently dividing the island. The second option, although most exasperating, could eventually resolve the Tamil question and bring lasting peace to Sri Lanka. It will also see the international community and neighbours rally behind the Lankan government and help it in all possible ways.

Meanwhile international peacemakers like Norway must talk some sense into the LTTE. The Tigers have to give up their bloody ways if they have to be accepted by the international community as the legitimate representatives of the Tamil community. Bullet and ballot never go together. The LTTE will have to choose any one of the two. It can’t have the cake and eat it too.

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Tamil Tigers in terror spotlight

Bangkok Post / Editorial
16Aug2005

The murder of Lakshman Kadirgamar, the foreign minister of Sri Lanka, will set back the cause of peace in his country as surely as it will shine a spotlight on the Tamil Tigers, the main block to that peace. Most Sri Lankans assume, and initial evidence indicates, that followers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were behind the assassination of Kadirgamar. The facts will emerge as time passes. Even if the rebel group did not kill the minister, the aftermath of the murder will focus much needed attention on one of Asia's most deadly and dangerous terrorist organisations.

Kadirgamar was shot in the head and heart by one or more snipers, at his home. Authorities have made arrests and will continue their investigation. President Chandrika Kumaratunga called the shooting an act of wanton terror, and declared a state of emergency. which was prudent. There was a strong likelihood the Tamil Tigers or some of its factions have broken the shaky cease-fire to declare full war on the government once again. The president would be remiss if she did not assume the worst.

For a few days, at least, Sri Lankans will have to trust the president and government to proceed carefully, with a view to stabilising the country. The declaration of emergency gives authorities sweeping powers, particularly to detain suspects without charges. One hopes the president can act strongly in coming days to track and find those behind the assassination without further inflaming the situation.

The main reason for suspecting the Tamil Tigers in the assassination is the group's sworn enmity of Kadirgamar. A Tamil himself, Kadirgamar was thoroughly disgusted by the terrorism employed by the Tigers and its leaders, at home and abroad. He served as foreign minister from 1994 to 2001, and was reappointed last year when Mrs Kumaratunga's Sri Lankan Freedom Party regained power. He was bravely outspoken against the ruthless tactics of the Tiger Eelam, convincing many countries including the United States and Britain to bar the Tamil Tigers as terrorists.

That the Tigers devised, used and spread terrorism is beyond doubt. The group will live in infamy for planning, ordering and glorifying suicide bombings. Tiger leaders have convinced or ordered at least 240 young men and women to kill themselves in the inexcusable but often successful attempt to murder others. Among their victims was former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in his own country, Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa and 91 innocent people at the Central Bank in Colombo, ironically next to that city's own World Trade Centre.

The Tigers have talked peace with the government for several years, including briefly three years ago in negotiations facilitated by Thailand. Behind the scenes, the Tamil Tigers have found it difficult or impossible to shed their violent, terroristic strategy. After the Dec 26 tsunami which devastated parts of eastern Sri Lanka, the Tigers reacted, in many cases, in an appalling manner.

Last month, in a ceremony that deserved far more publicity around the world, the rebels held grotesque celebrations of suicide bombing. The group held parades in several towns where the government has effectively ceded power in an attempt to keep the peace, to honour suicide bombers. In the eastern town of Batticaloa, where the tsunami killed at least 500 and destroyed transportation, they drove a special float with photos of the suicide bombers from school to school, to force the young children to praise suicide bombing. The Tigers seized orphans from tsunami refugee camps to impress into their terrorist-oriented army, in a manner so blatant that even United Nations aid agencies publicly condemned them.

Kadirgamar worked tirelessly to condemn terrorist tactics _ as he put it in a speech to the UN in 2001 _ anywhere, any time. He will be remembered for his attempts to win an honourable and lasting peace. The Tamil Tigers, whatever their involvement in his killing, will be remembered for their championing of suicide bombings, one of the least defensible acts of our time.

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