Your editorial of 3rd August ‘Yes Mr. President but...’ is commendable. You are quite correct in pointing out that ‘Mr. Rajapaksa gets it wrong when he says, "No community has been systematically destroyed in my country". There have been instances of genocide here’.

The atrocities committed against the Sinhalese and the Muslims by the Portuguese are bad enough. To quote your editorial again: "The British committed genocide against the Sinhalese in Wellassa in 1817/18. Over 30,000 people were reportedly put to the sword by the marauding British soldiers who unleashed hell on civilians to quell a rebellion in that part of the country. It was not only genocide but also gendercide as the British killed all male children by way of ‘preemptive action...’

Let me point out here that you, Mr. Editor, have also forgotten to mention the first record of genocide in Sri Lanka. It was originally of the Tamil converts to Christianity and subsequently of the Sinhalese population (of the Jaffna peninsula) in the middle of the 16th century. The Portuguese historian Fernao Queroz makes only a passing reference to the latter. The Tamil writer of the Yalpana Vaipava Malai, commissioned by a Dutch governor to write a history of the peninsula, has left behind a brief but graphic description of it.

According to that Tamil writer, the first Sinhala ruler landed on the northern coast of Jaffna and built Tambapanni city at the Keerimale Pond (then known as Tambapanni Sara in Pali and Tamben Vila in Sinhala texts). The Buddhist mission by Theri Sanghamitta also landed on the northern coast and a large number of Buddhist places of worship built there during the early centuries, BC and AC, existed there up to the middle of the 16th century, as did the majority Sinhala population of that peninsula.

According to all available records, the first Tamil ruler to usurp power in Jaffna peninsula (in the year 1519) was an illegitimate son by a Tamil concubine, of the last descendent of the Ariya Cakravarti line setup there as a sub rulers under the Kotte Kingdom by Sapumal Kumaraya (later King Buvaneka Bahu VI of Kotte) about the year 1446.

This Tamil usurper, popularly known as Sankili, got into trouble with the Portuguese by ordering the massacre of some 700 Christian converts residing near Mannar about the year 1544. They were all converts to Christianity.

Mudaliyar C. Rasanayagam quotes the Yalpana Vaipava Malai (p.33) thus: "After the massacre of the Christians, Sankili’s insane fury longed for more victims and he fell upon the Buddhists of Jaffna who were all Sinhalese. He expelled them beyond the limits of the country [i.e. Jaffna] and destroyed their numerous places of worship". Most of them betook themselves to the Vanni and the Kandyan territories and those whose who were unable to do so became the slaves of the Tamil chieftains and are now known as ‘Kovia’, a caste peculiar to Jaffna alone. The term is no doubt a corruption of the Sinhalese word ‘Goviya’ or ‘Goiya’ and their original status was equal to that of the Vellalas can be inferred from certain customs which are still in vogue in Jaffna" (Ancient Jaffna P.38f.).

That was the first recorded instance of genocide in Sri Lanka. It was to get rid of the Sinhala population that lived in Jaffna peninsula, continuously from the 6th century BC right up to the middle of the 16th century of the current era. It is to commemorate this genocide to the Sinhala population of Jaffna, that the late leader of the movement for Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, Prabhakaran, originated a battalion of his fighters called the "Sankilian Force".

Mr. Editor, you are also correct in indicating that the President is trying to walk (dangerously) on a tight rope when he speaks about his commitment to 13th A Plus. Number 13 is believed to be an inauspicious one. The only thing in its favour, perhaps as pointed out by Dayan J, is that it is the best way of avoiding the need to go for a public referendum. It is something so outdated. Remember that four previous Presidents were wise enough not to touch it even with a barge pole. As you have rightly pointed out Mr. Editor, "It is not only in words but also in deeds that President Rajapaksa has to disprove allegations that this country is heading for a dictatorship".

Dropping his fixation on Number 13, is a good way of doing so for a start. The place he has achieved in world history is too great to be spoilt by little foibles like that. As the head of a sovereign state, he must also avoid being seen as one who had been overawed by regional bullies at the cost of the country’s real friends.