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Further adventures of LTTE propagandists


November 4, 2011 in Post-Conflict Challenges Tags: Athirvu, House of Commons, terrorism

Siobhain Mcdonagh's Researcher
I seem to have struck a raw nerve in making public my account of what Siobhain McDonagh’s researcher was up to, in publishing false stories and possibly making up false videos too. He finally got in touch with me again, not to send me the clips he had promised of attacks on hospitals, the evidence he had second thoughts about sharing, but rather to upbraid me and tell me about his prominent friends.
Amongst them it seems it the British Defence Secretary. This seems to me highly unlikely, since Philip Hammond is not the sort to consort with terrorists, even if they might bring him a few extra votes. Perhaps Daran is counting on those who have recently, ever since they realized David Miliband was not going to bring home the bacon, been contributing massive amounts to Conservative Party coffers. But I cannot see Hammond succumbing to such blandishments.
In addition to sending me this strange message, Daran or his friends also seem to have managed to introduce gremlins into my youtube channel. It is possible that this is a feature of the facility at its indiscriminate best, but whereas previously only interviews I had given appeared in the margin, now I notice a whole stream of videos carrying LTTE propaganda, with Mr Prabhakaran and Mr Thamilselvam and others of that ilk featured prominently. They were produced by organizations with names such as EthiridotCom and ethirinews. On top of these are a number of pornographic videos, though I hasten to add that I did not go into them to see if they were hard stuff or simply what connects with terrorists and their hangers on.
This strange conglomeration pops up only when one selects the three clips taken from the meeting in the House of Commons. This is in one sense I suppose satisfying, because it makes very clear the connections and perhaps the predilections attached to such connections. I may be doing the boy a disservice in imagining some of these suggest an LTTE oriented journalist’s sexual fantasies, but the close connection that has popped up is thought provoking.
A direct LTTE connection should I suppose have been obvious, but I had tried in my writings to indicate only that Daran had simply engaged in propaganda in support of the LTTE. He himself however used the words ‘LTTE journalist’, and perhaps on the strength of what has now happened the British police will question him, if Britain is indeed serious about the agreement to deal firmly with terrorism that was sealed at the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government. This may be difficult if as Daran claims so many politicians are all his friends, and if his own rich friends use the funds they have collected from the LTTE to buy more influence. But the Defence Secretary I hope will not have double standards about such matters.
The following is the full text of the email Daran sent me.
Hi Rajiva,
I am Daran. How are you. I am fine in London. We have the conversation on that day, and I believe that it was private and confidential , but you have expose me as a LTTE journalist. I would like to point out something to you. If any person has got negative thoughts about GSOL and all of them are became LTTE supporters ? is that the way you treat every one ? see this is why you have so many enemies. No wonder at all. Is this the way you behave. Its not good.

You have written letters about me to the politicians. You know they are all my friends . Even British defence secretary. And what do you expect from me ? . this is a joke. I move with only high level diplomats. Next time I will keep the distance with you. .Thanks.

Yours truly,

Daran .
My reply was as follows -
Thanks for your message. I am glad you move with high level diplomats and the British defence secretary is a friend, but you were there in a public persona, and described yourself as the Athirviru journalist and wrote about the event in Athirviru in an article replete with falsehoods. Surely, you must have expected me to respond and set the record straight, using evidence in the form of the recording of the event that showed you were not telling the truth?

I wrote with regard to what you were doing, ‘For we can understand that youngsters were carried away by the Tigers and their dangerous glamour. But, once the Tigers in Sri Lanka were destroyed, it should have been possible for these boys to transfer their energies to the welfare of Tamils, and not hanker after a renewal of separatism through violence. Unfortunately, they are out of touch with what goes on in Sri Lanka, and so fall prey to continuing extremism, which is fuelled by those British politicians who derived advantage from the previous connection.’ It would be good if we could work together for all the people of Sri Lanka, but you must be truthful.

With kind regards, Rajiva
I should add that the reference to letters I have written to politicians must be to the fact that the High Commission asked the leader of the Labour Party whether Daran was indeed Siobhain McDonagh’s Researcher as he had claimed. She has obviously told him about the query, though interestingly enough she seems to have denied any link with him in talking to her more respectable acquaintance, and has claimed that he simply came in with her to the meeting at the House of Commons at which he revealed so much of himself and the techniques he employs.
Even assuming she was telling the truth in denying that Daran was associated with her as he had claimed to be, she was still obviously acting unwisely in bringing him in with her to the meeting at the House of Commons. Indeed, he was not the only one, in that Daran in his article claimed there were three brave Tamils who faced down 150 Sinhalese.
Since there were in fact several other Tamils, some of whom spoke out against continuing propaganda, and were excoriated for their pains, it would seem that when Daran says Tamils, he means Tigers or their supporters, and he characterizes all Sri Lankans who do not share his beliefs as Sinhalese. But we should be glad that this ruthless dichotomizing is happening, since it suggests the LTTE and its supporters are becoming desperate. The fact that they could only get former activists to do their dirty deeds indicates that the vast majority of Tamils are, quietly but firmly, resisting them. If they are now in fact resorting to uploading pornography on my youtube channel, one can look forward soon I think to their retreating to such pursuits rather than the dangerous terrorism they engaged in for so long.