�I understand that today the Human Rights Watch will release
a groundbreaking study on the penetrating extortion regime
developed by the LTTE. The study examines the LTTE�s extensive
efforts to amass illegal funds in North America and Europe
through the Diaspora in order to fund their operations in Sri
Lanka and abroad including illicit military capacity�It would be
extremely useful if prestigious institutions like the IISS
(International Institute for Strategic Studies) could analyse
this report and make recommendations on international action to
reverse this trend. We also expect the Governments of Western
countries to pay heed to the valuable recommendations being made
by the Human Rights Watch.� Hon. Mangala Samaraweera,
Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Speaking on the 15th. of March
2006 at the IISS London
More than a week has passed now, since the Human Rights Watch
(HRW) released its report based on research conducted in London,
U.K., and Toronto, Canada on March 16 titled �Funding the �Final
War� LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora.� While
the Tamil Diaspora has reacted angrily because of the amount of
anguish the malicious allegations made in this report has created,
the Sri Lankan bureaucracy has made use of the report to malign the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
According to this report, the 600,000 � 800,000 strong Eelam Tamil
Diaspora is living under siege with a fearful mentality due to the
intimidation, harassment, extortion and even physical violence they
are subjected to by the LTTE.
First of all, HRW may not know the fact that none in the Tamil
Diaspora can be members of the LTTE. To be a member of the LTTE, one
has to take an oath that he/she is prepared to sacrifice his/her
life for the sake of freedom. Those who fled the country and became
part of the Tamil Diaspora did not want to do this in the first
place. Therefore, even if the Tamil Diaspora is living under siege
as the HRW report claims, the members of the Tamil Diaspora could
not have been harassed, extorted or physically harmed by the LTTE,
but only by someone else in the community.
Secondly, the HRW report quotes 83 telephone interviews and e-mail
contacts as evidence for its author�s claim. This is only 0.01% of
the 800,000-strong Tamil Diaspora. Therefore HRW�s attempt to make
recommendations to the Western governments, the LTTE and the Tamil
Diaspora based on this small sample exposes the lack of credibility
of the researcher who planned and conducted this study.
HRW claims that the interviewees were selected through journalists
in the respective countries. These journalists cannot be from the
majority of those Tamil journalists who support the Tamil cause as
well as the LTTE, which is fighting for the Tamil cause. Therefore,
the author of the HRW report must have contacted the very few (not
even a handful) of anti-LTTE Tamil journalists to organise the
interviewees for this study. These anti-LTTE Tamil journalists have
a well-known interest in discrediting the LTTE, so no wonder that
the interviewees arranged by these anti-LTTE Tamil journalists all
had a story to tell.
The Hon. Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Mr. Mangala Samaraweera who
I quoted above, spoke with unseemly haste on the day before the
report was officially released to endorse its conclusions, and made
a request that the Sri Lankan government expects Western countries
to pay heed to the valuable recommendations being made by the HRW.
By his actions and enthusiastic endorsement of the report, Minister
Samaraweera has made it open for anyone to suspect that HRW has
wittingly or unwittingly allowed itself to be manipulated by the Sri
Lankan regime.
The HRW report, which claims that the content of this report is
based on interviews held amongst the Tamil Diaspora, surprisingly
have made sweeping statements like - �some experts believed that 80
to 90 percent of the LTTE�s military budget came from overseas
sources�.�, without giving any evidence. The report is full of
unsubstantiated statements like � �Tamils in the West have been
subject to death threats, beatings, property damage, smear
campaigns, fabricated criminal charges, and even murder as a
consequence of dissent. Although incidents of actual violence have
been relatively rare, they reverberate strongly within the community
and effectively discourage others from expressing views that counter
the LTTE�.
The author of the HRW report has stated that the initial contacts
with the people interviewed for this study were made through
journalists. At least 4 journalists� names have been mentioned in
the report and in some of these cases it is alleged that these Tamil
Diaspora journalists have learned that publishing or broadcasting
information that is critical of the LTTE can carry a heavy price.
The report carried an account of how a prominent Tamil journalist
DBS Jeyaraj was beaten up in a car park in Toronto, Canada for
writing against the LTTE in his Tamil weekly.
The author also complains in the report that, although this
journalist reported the incident to the police and he had
information about the identity of his assailants, no one was ever
arrested for the crime. Is the author trying to imply that the
Canadian police is also on the LTTE side? The author also has stated
that the majority among the Tamil Diaspora supports the LTTE, while
some people are anti-LTTE.
Therefore, the author should realise that, like the clashes that
happens in Europe amongst football fans, clashes between LTTE
supporters and others who are against the LTTE sometimes happen in
Canada, without the LTTE being involved in any way. The failure of
the Canadian police to arrest anyone for this crime clearly
indicates how inconsequential the police considered this incident.
That author uses an incident the law enforcement agency of Canada
did not take seriously as evidence for the existence of LTTE
intimidation in the Tamil Diaspora leaves ample room for questioning
the credibility of the rest of the allegations made in the report.
Another journalist mentioned in the report is Selliah Nagarajah,
described as a political columnist and law lecturer at the
University of Western Australia. A search in the staff directory of
both the Universities of Western Australia and Western Sydney
reveals that there is no such lecturer in either of these
Universities.
The author has made an allegation in the report that a �final
warning� was given by a group called Ellalan Padai, to Selliah
Nagarajah by distributing handbills at a Hindu temple in Melbourne.
The author should realise that this allegation was made in the
�Asian Tribune� Website in which Nagarajah was the Sydney
correspondent at that time. In the original allegation that was made
in the �Asian Tribune,� a photograph of the alleged handbill was
published and it was alleged that the handbill was found to be ready
for distribution at the Hindu Temple in Melbourne. If the handbill
was ever distributed, the Melbourne Hindu public would have come to
know whether the threat was really made or not. To the contrary, no
Hindu member of the public has seen this handbill. The author of the
HRW report using such a bogus allegation made in an anti-LTTE
Website to prove that there is LTTE intimidation in the Tamil
Diaspora further undermines the credibility the author has built up
over the years working for the well-respected organisation, the
Human Rights Watch.
The author has also mentioned about the repeated death threat the
London-based Tamil Broadcasting Corporation�s (TBC) program
director, V. Ramraj, is alleged to have received to substantiate the
claim that there is LTTE intimidation in the Tamil Diaspora. Does
the author know that Ramraj earlier lived in Switzerland and escaped
to Sri Lanka when the Swiz police was trying to arrest him for
credit card fraud and various other criminal activities? Does this
author also know that Ramraj was brought to London by Sri Lankan
agents to run the TBC radio station to carry out their propaganda?
Can this author hide the fact that the Swiss police recently
arrested the same Ramraj, who spearheaded the anti-LTTE rally during
the negotiations between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government in
Geneva in February? Does this mean the Swiss police are also
pro-LTTE? This author relying on such criminals� stories and getting
associated with such criminal elements of the Tamil Diaspora does
not reflect well on the credibility of Human Rights Watch.
The author of the HRW report is supposed to be the advocacy director
of the Children�s Rights Division at HRW. Children�s human rights
have been violated to the maximum in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka holds the
record for the highest number of sexually abused children in the
world. Even several Buddhist monks have been convicted for sexually
abusing children. Suspected LTTE under-aged cadres who were supposed
to have being rehabilitated at a place called Bindunuweva were
massacred by a Sinhalese mob in 2002, aided and abetted by the
police who were supposed to be protecting these kids.
A church full of Tamil refugee children and school children
playing in their school playground was massacred in 1996 by aerial
bombing by the Sri Lankan airforce bombers. Has this author
adequately investigated these human rights violations committed by
the Sri Lankan government and written any reports on a subject which
is coming under the author�s direct responsibility at HRW? If not,
the author spending time and resources of HRW in producing the
report under question now on a sensitive issue, particularly at a
time there is a propaganda war going on between the Sri Lankan
government and the LTTE, is politically motivated, biased and
vindictive.
The Tamil Diaspora is deeply disappointed that HRW has wittingly or
unwittingly allowed itself to be manipulated by the Sri Lankan
regime for its propaganda.
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