Major General Janaka Perera - mysteries

It was an incredibly tragic moment in Sri Lankan history when 27 families were left torn when the bomber last Monday hit his target. Janaka Perera and his wife, Dr. John Pulle and his wife were both taken away from their families. Plenty of comments have been made on blogs, news items, and lunch rooms about these murders.

We live in a time where the public is incredibly inconveienced for the greater good of VIPs. Case in point: the arrival of President Mahmous Abbas this week where people were made to walk from fort to various points to locate their transport. The Hilton stretch was completely cordoned off, when President Abbas decided he wanted to pray on Friday lunch time at the Fort mosque: no stone was left unturned to ensure his safety. We wait in traffic jams each day so that the VIPs can race by us and reach their destination safely. I dont think a single person can attend a function which will be attended by any of the current administration (especially the high up commanders -military and otherwise) without getting stripsearched. People get shot when they fail to stop at check points on a weekly basis.

So, can we accept Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara's comment 'the suicide bomber just walked straight in to the function and blew himself up?' (or something of that order). The fellow was buckle legged, he could have been stopped. He could have been shot at if he didnt stop. The army/police/navy don't seem to hesitate to shoot at innocent pedestrians/drivers. So why the hesitation now? How did this man gain entry into this high security event? An ex army commander, a leader of a province in the opposition was attending this event. How can we as the Sri Lankan public accept this?

As much as I oppose the war, Janaka Perera would have at countless times issued orders that have ensured the safety of the then minister MR and his pigmie followers. How is keeping his body at the Ratmalana airport for FOUR hours in the heat any show of gratitude? How is refusing his body the right to travel by air to his province any act of humaneness? How low have politics travelled in our country with this current administration? How can there be THIS much hate in this system?

Secondly, why would the LTTE target an ex army commander who works with the opposition when there is a sitting duck in the form of the current army commander? If it really was the LTTE who conducted this atrocity, then we really must question where do their allegiances lie? Perhaps its not just with themselves. Who prevented the Tamil population from voting to place the current administration in power? As mentioned by groundviews, who murdered Lakshman Kadirgarman thus placing MR in power? Why is a guerilla organisation that was considered the most organised specialist group in the world now suddenly losing and allowing the govt to enter their area?

These questions will always just be questions. It is not the people on either side in power that suffers. Its the people on either side that leave their families, that commit atrocicties that haunt them forever, the people who are left behind as parents, spouses and children leave them due to the unjustified cause that is war.