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The resolution of the 17 May 2006 by the European Parliament is
encouraging the Sri Lanka government to opt for a military solution
to the islands long-standing bloody conflict. This latest
resolution is one sided and justifies the Government violations.
This document is already being used for lobbying by the Sri Lankan
government and its propagandists. The pro-government and racist
newspapers in Colombo have stated that it was passed unanimously in
the European parliament, which is not true.
TCHR would like to give some of our observations on this biased
resolution as follows :
First of all we would like to thank those MEPs who brought this
joint motion for a resolution in the European parliament. Even
though this resolution is biased, it has proved that the happenings
in Sri Lanka for the Tamil people must be discussed internationally,
contradicting the claim by the Sri Lankan leaders that it is an
"internal problem".
Secondly, we would like to point out that there are deliberate
omissions of the use of the word "Tamil" in the whole text and
nothing at all has been said about the "Paramilitaries" which have
been the main cause of the whole problem since the first round of
Geneva talks. The resolution, which speaks about pluralism, does not
mention the "Buddha statue" which was illegally erected on 15 May
2005 in Trincomalee. This illegally erected Buddha statue still
remains in place and has created enormous problems in Trincomalee.
Furthermore, there is no mention of the non-implementation of many
important articles in the "Ceasefire Agreement", which should have
been implemented within 30-90 days of the signing of the Agreement.
For example, (1) article 1.8 on disarming of Tamil Paramilitary
groups (2) article 2.2 & 2.3 which demand that the armed personnel
vacate places of worship and school buildings situated in high
security zones and make these places accessible to the public (3)
article 2.12 stipulates that no search operations and arrests under
the Prevention of Terrorism should take place. Since President
Mahinda Rajapaksa came into power, almost every day there have been
cordon and search operations, especially on 30-31 December last
year, when more than a thousand Tamil youths were arrested in
Colombo.
Paragraphs in the document :
(B) Says that "ceasefire breaches run into thousands", accusing only
one party to the conflict.
It is interesting to note that paragraph I-6 of the same
document, "Calls on both the LTTE and the Government of Sri
Lanka to refrain from further actions liable to jeopardise the
peace process, and in particular attacks on civilians";
(C) Says that, "
..and the attack on the Batticaloa district
office of the SLMM on 13 January 2006 in a deliberate attempt to
undermine the Ceasefire Agreement".
In fact the SLMM district office in Batticaloa is located
within a High Security Zone and there is a Sri Lankan Army camp,
which accommodates paramilitary groups located near this SLMM
office. We hope these MEPs can understand who would have caused
this problem referred to in the resolution as a "deliberate
attempt to undermine the ceasefire Agreement.
This is a typical example which demonstrates clearly who is
jeopardising the whole Ceasefire Agreement.
(D) Says that "
.on May 11 the LTTE attacked a vessel carrying 710
unarmed members of the security forces
.". This is factually
wrong. The ship and the 710 members of the security forces it was
carrying were safe and retuned home. Not a single bullet was fired
by the LTTE on this ship.
In fact, two Dvora Fast Attack Crafts (FAC) of the Sri Lankan
Navy were destroyed on the same day in clashes that erupted
between the Navy boats and the Sea Tigers boats in seas off
Vadamarachi East where the Sri Lankan Air Force Kfir jets had
bombed the civilian populated Vanni area. Here, this resolution
has failed to take both these incidents into account. Please
refer to the news published concerning this affair by the
international news agencies on that particular day - AFP, Reuter
and others.
(E) In this paragraph, the word "Tamil" should have been
included.
In fact, Since 19 November 2005, when Mahinda Rajapaksa was
sworn in as the President of Sri Lanka, more than 300 innocent
Tamils - Academics, educationalists, parliamentarians,
journalists, businessmen and others have been killed by security
forces and the paramilitary forces for which President Rajapaksa
is the Commander in Chief. Please refer to :
http://www.tamilcanadian.com/pageview.php?ID=4062&SID=146 )
(G) Says that, "
the LTTE pulled out again of the second round
of peace talks in April, jeopardising the opportunity for political
progress".
This was said without knowing the realities of the first
round of peace talks.It was agreed in the first round of peace
talks in Geneva that the Sri Lankan government would disarm the
"Tamil Paramilitary groups" before the second round of peace
talks. The government did not disarm them. Also it was the Sri
Lankan government, which went against the normal practice and
deliberately refused to transport the LTTE regional commanders
for a meeting before the second round of talks. These facts have
been completely ignored by the MEP who contributed to this
resolution.
(H) Says that, "whereas any restoration of the peace process
should seek the involvement of a wide range of communities and
political organisations in Sri Lanka, including Northern Muslims
representatives,"
This resolution, which favours the next round of peace talks
between LTTE and the government of Sri Lanka (paragraph I-2),
creates conditions for any future talks. Obviously, such a
statement may well become a stumbling block for any future peace
talks. Here the MEPs have completely forgotten the fact that the
MOU was signed only between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan
government under the mediation of the Royal Norwegian
government.
(I) Says that, "whereas human rights organisations have not been
able to effectively investigate human rights abuses, and the SLMM
does not have the mandate independently to investigate these
breaches,"
If so, how then can this document blame and condemn only one
side to the conflict LTTE?
(1) Says that "
.and condemns, therefore, the LTTE's unilateral
refusal to participate in the second round of negotiations in Geneva
that were scheduled for April 2006".
Has this MEP ever taken into consideration the conditions
that were deliberately created by the Sri Lankan government to
antagonise the LTTE and prevent them from attending the second
round of peace talks? We invite this MEP to follow the
day-to-day incidents in Sri Lanka and also to consult the SLMM
on this matter.
(2) Says that "
.. to be prepared to decommission its weapons
and to set the stage for a final political settlement of the
conflict".
This resolution, while maintaining a strict silence on the
non-implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement, especially on
disarming of Tamil Paramilitary groups, springs the surprise of
mentioning decommissioning. This in itself, is obvious proof
that the resolution firmly goes along with the Sri Lanka
government agenda.
First, the people who were affected by the 20 years war have got
neither redress nor compensation nor resettlement.
Secondly this sensitive matter should be decided by the Tamil
people rather the Parliamentarians in Europe because it is the
people of the North East who are the ones who face the daily
barbaric atrocities of the Sri Lankan security forces and its
paramilitary forces.
(3 & 4)
These paragraphs show that the fact has been totally
forgotten, that it was Mahinda Rajapaksa who breached the four
years old Cease-fire Agreement and openly declared war on 25
April 2006, ordering deliberate military attacks by Air, Sea,
and Land on the Tamil population in Trincomalee.
In this operation - several innocent people including children
were killed and many seriously wounded. More than 40,000 people
were made homeless and displaced. The killings of innocents
still continue under his leadership.
(7)
If MEPs were truly serious about the rights and well being of
children, there could have been a condemnation of the Sri Lankan
government for killing Tamil children. Even two weeks ago there
were merciless killings of Tamil Children and civilians in the
North East.
(8) Says "
that the LTTE does not represent the Tamils peoples
of Sri Lanka".
Of course not. The Tamils in the Tea plantation are
represented by their political parties and their leaders. In the
North East of the island, it was "Tamil National Alliance (TNA)"
who won overwhelmingly in 22 electorates in the North East in
the last general election in April 2004.
Their election manifesto stated, "Accepting LTTEs leadership as
the national leadership of the Tamil Eelam Tamils and the
Liberation Tigers as the sole and authentic representatives of
the Tamil people, let us devote our full cooperation for the
ideals of the Liberation Tigers struggle with honesty and
steadfastness".
As politicians and parliamentarians, MEPs should know better
than anyone that there is no election in the world, which is won
with 100% of votes. But it does not mean that the
individual/party/government who won the election even by a small
majority does not represent the rest who did not vote in their
favour.
Careful consideration of the ground realities, reveals that 35
years of non-violent struggle by the Tamils were violently
suppressed by the Sinhala government. As a result of the
persistent state terrorism the LTTE was born only in 1972 as a
guerrilla movement and developed as a conventional army. For
more than a decade, it has administered 70% of the area with
very effective socio-economic and other structures.
Being veteran politicians and parliamentarians, surely MEPs
could not believe that all this is possible without the support
of the masses?
(10) Says that, "
.UN Human Rights Council places an obligation
on the government to manifest its commitment to uphold the highest
standards in the promotion and protection of human rights"
Sri Lanka sought membership in the UN Human Rights Council
not to manifest its commitment to uphold the highest standards
in the promotion and protection of human rights. It was purely
with the purpose of justifying their horrendous human rights
record in the UN. This is what Sri Lanka has done in the past.
TCHR has witness this over a long period of time. Let us wait
and see what happens in the coming years.
(11) Even while massacres, mass arrests, rapes, etc were taking
place in the North East, the Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission,
never uttered a word on those violations. Now what is the miracle
that they are going to achieve?
(13) Please go through the whole history of the Tsunami affected
North East. It was a tragic story not only concerning the casualties
but also the callous reaction of the Sri Lankan government even at a
time of a natural disaster in Tamil areas.
For your information, on 7th January 2005, the UN Secretary
General made a humanitarian visit to Sri Lanka to see the
Tsunami affected areas. When Kofi Annan requested to visit the
North East, the areas in the island most affected by the
tsunami, the Sri Lankan authorities deliberately prevented him
from making a humanitarian visit there.
This is a serious violation of the United Nations Charter,
Chapter XV Article 100.
The refusal of permission for Kofi Annan to visit the areas most
affected by the tsunami, which are under the LTTE
administration, shows the ulterior motive of the the government
of Sri Lanka.
It is believed that the government did not want Kofi Annan to
see for himself the support from the Tamil population that the
LTTE enjoys in those areas. The government had much to gain by
covering up the reality in the LTTE administrated areas. This
became an opportunity for every world citizen to understand, how
the facts have been systematically hidden by the government
during war-time.
The European Parliament resolution is one sided and fully
supportive of an oppressive government, and fails to take into
consideration the realities in Sri Lanka :
(1) In 1998, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances stated that, "Sri Lanka had the second highest number
of disappearances in the world, ranking next to Iraq". Also Sri
Lanka was the only country that the UN Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances has visited three times. So far no proper
remedies have been found for these disappearances.
(2) Also we invite the MEPs to read the report of the UN Special
Rapporteur, on Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
visited Sri Lanka and submitted a comprehensive report
(E/CN.4/1998/68/Add.2 - 12 March 1998) on extrajudicial killings in
Sri Lanka to the 54th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
In conclusion, we are well aware that this joint motion for a
resolution was originally scheduled to be debated last February and
it was postponed. Knowing what was going to happen in the European
Parliament, the Sri Lankan government deliberately created very
difficult conditions in which the LTTE was forced into a situation
where they were unable to attend the second round of peace talks.
The Sri Lankan government manipulated everything as pre-planned.
The
man behind this motion was none other than a conservative MEP from
Britain who is a Singhalese. It was well moved and he maintained
a very low profile during the debate in the European Parliament. As
was pre-planned, all was taken care of by his colleagues.
Even though it was a resolution in the European Parliament, it was a
resolution purely motivated by a Singhalese originally from Sri
Lanka. Those who do not know the secret of this resolution may take
it seriously as of the European Parliament. Yes, of course it was
endorsed by the European parliament.
This is how the Sri Lankan government plants its people in every
International institution and makes use of such opportunities to do
a high profile lobby. We could quote several examples, which have
taken place within the United Nations and now in the European
Parliament.
This shows that the MEPs who voted for this resolution
do not know the effects of the tricks of the Sri Lankan government
and its propaganda machine.
We understand that the MEPs involved in this resolution are
innocent, with the exception of the Singhalese MEP whose interest
was to promote the ethnic agenda of the government of his birth
place and his Singhalese friends in the United Kingdom. This is a
very good example for the whole world to understand the cunning and
mean ways of Sri Lankan propagandists in the international arena.
In conclusion, this resolution is stronger than that which could
have been passed in the Sri Lanka parliament. As there are MEPs who
do not know the history and the ground realities in Sri Lanka, it
was very easy for an MEP like the Singhalese one to dupe the
innocent MEPs.
We would like to inform the MEPs who supported this resolution that
there are 500,000 Tamil asylum seekers already in the western
countries. This resolution, which encourages the persecutory actions
of the Sri Lankan government, may well bring another 500,000 or more
Tamil asylum seekers to the west in the future. We hope that those
who are supporting a military solution in Sri Lanka, will be
prepared to welcome these refugees as well.
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