Hi, Some JYs have requested the text of the article whose link I had sent on Tuesday last.
Love Alphus Pathrose, Kochi, India Sri Lanka Now abideth charity... Burning with vengeance, Kothalawela once planned to kill Prabhakaran. Now he is ready to embrace him as a brother By Frances Bulathsinghala/Colombo The year was 1996. The day was January 31. Two powerful men, Velupillai Prabhakaran and Lalith Kothalawela, had made elaborate plans for the day. The plans would clash in screams, blood and the smell of cordite. Prabhakaran, a man from the north, knew what impact his deadly plans would have. But he probably didn't know how much it would affect Kothalawela, a millionaire industrialist of the south. He could not have guessed that for years his persona would be etched in Kothalawela's mind, in the beginning as a dreaded enemy to be killed and later as a possible friend, whose trust had to be won. Six years ago, Kothalawela, one of the richest men in the country, lay in hospital at Moorfields, recovering from an injury that damaged one eye. The raw wound in his mind was more painful. His business empire Ceylinco had been all but destroyed in a few seconds. Many of his employees had been killed or maimed. The deafening blast, the screams, splintered glass, bodies strewn around... images flashed in his mind as he lay on the hospital bed. They fiercely nursed in him a mad urge to destroy the man responsible, LTTE leader Prabhakaran. The suicide bomb attack on the Central Bank by four Tamil Tigers also destroyed the Ceylinco building opposite the bank. Ceylinco, headed by Kothalawela, was a sprawling business empire, which dabbled in real estate, finance, banking, hotels, and insurance and had a turnover of 30 billion (Sri Lankan) rupees. "I vowed that I would retire from the chairmanship of the company and use all my resources to kill the man who had destroyed me, my business and the Sinhala people," Kothalawela remembered. "I would have done this if I did not have a statue of Virgin Mary by the side of my hospital bed." Kothalawela did not rise from the sick bed like a vengeful angel. Somehow, the serene kindness emanating from the statue of the Virgin transformed him. He became a Christian. The love that poured out from the heart of the gospels quelled the fires in his mind. He became a warrior of peace. Love thine enemy. Easy to say, but difficult to practise. The virtue makes a severe demand on human volition, which instinctively wants to hit back. But for Kothalawela this has become an eminently practical doctrine. Spectre of terror: The January 1996 suicide bombing destroyed the Central Bank building in Colombo (File pic). Prabhakaran (below right) masterminded it This is no woolly-headed dream. Kothalawela has broken down the shining principle to the nitty-gritty and is practising it. And he is not talking about Prabhakaran alone, though the explosion he masterminded changed the tenor of the businessman's life. In pragmatic terms, Kothalawela's mission of reconciliation is focused on bridging the gap between the north and south of the country, and cleansing the enmity churned out by the war which tore apart the country for 19 years. His latest in a series of charitable acts was the donation of ten wheelchairs and six pairs of crutches to the LTTE disabled, on June 3, three months after the memorandum of understanding was signed between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. "When I was informed that a few disabled soldiers were planning to meet the disabled cadre of the LTTE, I merely followed the principles of the Society for Love and Understanding which I began in November last year," he said. "My values have changed. I used to live in cuckoo land," he said. By getting involved in the peace process, he stepped into 'the real world' and saw 'all that was wrong with the system.' "The poverty. The whole irony of having the poor man's children fight an unwanted war. Everything is wrong," said Kothalawela. "The prisons are full of innocent women whose only fault was lying about their age in order to get jobs as housemaids in other parts of the world. They have done this to feed their children." Slowly but surely, Kothalawela discovered that lasting peace cannot come without eradication of poverty. "War and poverty are linked," he said. "The children of the rich do not go to war. I have been branded a traitor for saying this. I have been insulted at elite gatherings." Kothalawela, who is in his sixties, does not resemble a tycoon when he says, "any fool can hate." He sounds more like Marx and Gandhi rolled into one. Once he decided to embark on the path of peace, there was no looking back. His commitment was deep. Last September, he was strongly criticised by Sinhala extremist groups for his support to the 'holding hand for peace' campaign organised by the Ceylon chamber of commerce. Many other business leaders were involved in the programme but Kothalawela was singled out by the extremists, who also physically attacked participants of the 'human chain.' "My employees were abused and assaulted," Kothalawela said. "Ironically the wife of a war veteran was also abused by the so-called Sinhala patriots." He has done his mite to convert the cease-fire into a permanent solution, by establishing 11 companies in trouble-torn Jaffna. He has earmarked the entire northeastern region for economic development, including Prabhakaran's stronghold Kilinochchi and Malawi in the LTTE-held Vanni. "The plan is to set up 11 companies in Trincomalee and 9 more in Batticaloa," said Kothalawela. "We hope to give jobs to a thousand youth. There would be no stigma attached to former LTTE cadre. Prabhakaran should also assure the people of this country that he will not revert to violence." "Some people in the south want the war to go on," Kothalawela observed. "I am trying to convince them that a country which is waging a serious battle with poverty cannot afford a civil war. I will try to do this through kindness, which is the only way to do things." Kothalawela has moved forward in the path of reconciliation without heeding the words of doomsayers and cynics. The tale will come full circle when he meets Prabhakaran in person, to tell him how their destinies had clashed on that fateful day in 1996. Soli Deo gloria et sanctum nomen eius. Sign-up for Video Highlights of 2002 FIFA World Cup Soli Deo gloria et sanctum nomen eius. Sign-up for Video Highlights of 2002 FIFA World Cup **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. 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