Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe the Jaffna Security Forces Commander, was awarded the Gusi Peace Prize at a glittering ceremony at the Philippine International Convention Centre in Manila this month. The award recognized his contribution towards the peace process in Sri Lanka.

The Gusi Peace Prize is a Philippines-based international award honoring individuals from around the world who have distinguished themselves in working towards the attainment of peace and respect for human life and dignity. The awards are made to fifteen individuals or groups each year after the thirteen member committee sifts through more than 1,000 proposals.

This is believed to be the first time in the history of the Gusi Awards that an award has been made to a serviceman despite the fact that the founder of the Gusi Peace Prize was himself a Captain in the Philippine Army. The award to Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe is also the only award made in 2010 for a peace process.

Among the other recipients is Dr. Michael Nobel who received the prize for Education and Humanitarianism. He is the great grand nephew of the founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, Alfred Nobel.

Major General Hathurusinghe joined the Sri Lanka Army as a Cadet in 1980 and rose through the ranks with a distinguished record with battlefield command experience as the Sri Lankan Army battled the separatist Tamil Tiger rebel group and routed them in May 2009. Hathurusinghe whose military decorations include the Pumaboomi Medal, Wadamarachchi Operations Medal, Army Long Service Medal, Deshaputra Medal (Purple Heart), Riviresa Operations Medal, North & East Operations Medal, 60th Independence Medal, Army 50th Anniversary Medal and Rana Soora Gallantry Medal is a soldier who has been tasked a more difficult job than waging and winning a war. His responsibility now is one of re-establishing a relationship that is built on confidence and trust between the Sri Lanka Army and the Tamil civilians in the heartland of Jaffna.

For most Tamils the experience of the war was traumatic. They were caught between an armed group that claimed to be the sole representatives fighting for the liberation of a Tamil homeland and from whom they had to hide their children for fear of forced conscription on the one hand, and an onslaught of the security forces who found it difficult to distinguish between rebels and civilians as the rebels in civilian clothes easily merged with the general population on the other. As a result, many found themselves

initially sympathising with the 'boys' - as they affectionately called them - till they realised that the dream and the utopia were only heaping more suffering on the ordinary population.

However, it was during the last stages of the conflict that most Tamil people found out how brutal and self-serving the Tamil Tigers really were. That was when nearly three hundred thousand men women and children were herded into a small area in the Mullaitivu district and kept hostage. The Sri Lanka Army very strategically breached the defences and paved the way for what was later to be known as the biggest hostage rescue operation in the world.

Predictably, Tamil Tiger supporters sought to belittle the operation that saved the lives of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians by describing the temporary shelter provided to those rescued as a form of incarceration. They were also joined by international 'rights' groups who focused their attention more on the allegations of the rebel supporters that surrendering tiger cadres carrying white flags had been killed by the soldiers. The accusations against the Sri Lankan forces prompted the appointment of an advisory panel by the UN Secretary General and remain unproved so far.

For Major General Hathurusinghe the success of the war was yet another opportunity. As he followed the Master in National Security Administration (MNSA) programme at the National Defence College of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo in Manila, he was much sought after for briefings on the strategies adopted by Sri Lanka to win the war against the feared Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The MNSA 44th intake which had ranking military officers from several parts of the world including, India, Malaysia, Nigeria and the Philippines studying to take over command and high ranking positions in the armed forces of their respective countries, required participants to undertake strategic research and special studies as the basis for the formation of policies to enhance national defense and the security programs of their respective countries.

Each participant was also required to submit a 30,000 word thesis on a topic decided by the Faculty of the National Defence College which then had to be vigorously defended with academics from various educational institutions including the University of the Philippines. The topic for General Hathurusinghe was the "Strategic military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam". Fresh from Sri Lanka's military success,

Hathurusinghe took to it like a fish to water and finished the course being adjudged the best student and winning the Golden Pen Award. The accolades however did not stop there. Soon, his thesis was adjudged the best from among the 33 submitted and he was awarded the Gold Medal. When he arrived in Manila to receive the Gold Medal, he found himself nominated for the Gusi Peace Prize.

The question that most people would ask was the same question that was in Hathurusinghe's mind. Soon after making a one hour presentation to the Board of the Gusi Peace Foundation, Hathurusinghe popped the lingering question to its Chairman, Barry Gusi. "Ambassador, any good reason for you to give a peace award to a soldier?" he asked. Hathurusinghe recalls the reply given by Barry Gusi, "There are many reasons he said, especially in Sri Lanka. Just after the war was over and during the transition period, despite all odds, by which he meant various interested groups including NGOs and governments, he said they could see a solid transition taking place in the affected areas and he thought it would be a role model where the entire world would understand how the military could support conflict-affected people to rise above the ashes of war."

Speaking of the military's role in post-war Jaffna, Hathurusinghe says that he was posted to Thunukai west of Mankulam as Divisional Commander in September 2009, as soon as he came came from the Philippines after obtaining his master's degree. "We then started resettlement in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. We saw how difficult it was for the people to come and settle down. They had lost their husbands, some had lost their parents and many didn't have even their houses and we saw the agony they had to undergo." He said they had nothing to come back to and the Army decided to help them to build some houses. As a result, 749 houses were built in the Thunukai area of Kilinochchi.

Hathurusinghe who was overlooking Jaffna for more than a month from Thunukai, was asked to take over as Security Forces Commander in Jaffna from January 2010 where he was able to expand on the services provided by the Army to the residents of the peninsula. These included programs for orphaned and displaced children, educational assistance, sports activities, humanitarian demining, and fostering agriculture, fisheries and other livelihood activities.

“They branded me as the people's general,” he says of of the feedback from the population in Jaffna. “We need to re-establish freedom here, because we have fought and that's over. We don't think of fighting any further, so we need to harmonise the two communities.”

Asked about the driving force behind the Army's activities in the peninsula, Hathurusinghe is quick to point out that the government wants the Army as the biggest of the armed forces in the country to play a major role in the reconstruction and rehabilitation effort. He also points to the close supervision of the Commander of the Army and the encouragement given by the President himself.

As a war-weary country grapples with the task of settling back to a normal way of life, success can only be measured by the people themselves. The comment of a former senior member of the Tamil Tiger rebel group that he travels by public transport to and from his place of work in Jaffna every day, may well be a pointer to the increasingly secure environment and the success of the military's new role in a closer civil-military coordination in the peninsula.

http://www.helium.com/items/2028025-sri-lankan-military-commander-honored-with-international-peace-award

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