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Home > Struggle for Tamil Eelam > International Frame & the Tamil Eelam Struggle for Freedom > Sri Lanka at Conference on Disarmament - Playing the Third World/China Card

INTERNATIONAL FRAME & THE TAMIL STRUGGLE

Sri Lanka at Conference on Disarmament -
Playing the Third World/China Card

5 February 2008

"Sri Lanka and the Group of 21 certainly did not believe in the moral superiority of certain countries that had invaded others on the basis of an outright lie. In the view of the Third World, what was needed was realism and new thinking � a new paradigm � one that frankly addressed the concerns of all, and that eschewed threats and moral grandstanding."

[Comment by tamilnation.org - see International Dimensions of the Conflict in Sri Lanka - Paper presented by Nadesan Satyendra at Seminar on International Dimensions of the Conflict in Sri Lanka organised by the Centre for Just Peace & Democracy (CJPD) in partnership with TRANSCEND International in Luzern, Switzerland, 17 June 2007 -

"Sri Lanka seeks to use the political space created by the geo strategic triangle of US-India-China in the Indian Ocean region, to buy the support of all three  for the continued rule of the people of Tamil Eelam by a permanent Sinhala majority within the confines of  one state. The record shows that Sinhala Sri Lanka seeks to engage in a 'balance of power' exercise of its own ... We have India in the Trincomalee oil farm, at the same time we have a Chinese coal powered energy plant in Trincomalee; we have a Chinese project for the Hambantota port, at the same time we have the attempted naval exercises with the US from Hambantota (to contain Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean); we have the grant of preferred licenses to India for exploration of oil in the Mannar seas, at the same time we have a similar grant to China and a 'road show' for  tenders from US and UK based multinational corporations;  meanwhile we have the continued presence of the Voice of America installations in the island and the  ten year Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) was signed by the United States and Sri Lanka on 5 March 2007"


" DAYAN JAYATILLEKA (Sri Lanka) said Sri Lanka was situated in a volatile part of the world that included two nuclear weapon States. Sri Lanka therefore had a vested interest in the themes and objectives of the Conference on Disarmament.

But he had listened to the speeches this morning with a growing sense of unreality. He was reminded of a statement attributed to both Hitler and Stalin "What's mine is mine, what's yours, let's negotiate". That attitude would not ensure progress in the Conference. If there were States that had not come "on board", it was inaccurate to say that there was international consensus.

There was some consensus, but it was obviously not international consensus. That was not because they had run out of time; it was because they had serious differences of opinion. That was true about document CD/2007/L.1, and other issues raised today. Great progress could not be expected on the basis of agreements forged during the period of d�tente.

They could not expect their great Asian friends to come on board the consensus that was supposed to exist, without speculation over whether they constituted the new enemy.

Progress would not be made on the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty  (FMCT) issue if they continued to demonize one or two States in a volatile arch of crisis, forgetting that there was at least one State with a long-standing nuclear stockpile, and which had invaded almost all of its neighbours.

Progress could not be made while there was talk of unilateral strikes on certain States, including strikes with low- yield, tactile nuclear weapons. None of that would work.

Sri Lanka and the Group of 21 certainly did not believe in the moral superiority of certain countries that had invaded others on the basis of an outright lie. In the view of the Third World, what was needed was realism and new thinking � a new paradigm � one that frankly addressed the concerns of all, and that eschewed threats and moral grandstanding."

 

 

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