The largest Sri Lankan Tamil political group – Tamil National Alliance consisting of 22 elected representatives from the 2004 elections have rejected the invitation extended by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the ethnic question. In a joint letter signed by the group’s leader Mr. R. Sampanthan, ITAK’s General Secretary Mr. Mavai Senathirajah, EPRLF Secretary General Mr. Suresh Premachandran and All Ceylon Tamil Congress Secretary Mr. Gajendran Ponnambalam, the group stated that only an immediate and permanent ceasefire can create the conditions conducive for a discussion.
The international community’s stand on the Sri Lanka crisis reflected a similar view emphasizing immediate ceasefire. Mexico, United States and the European Union requested a briefing on Sri Lanka while UN Humanitarian John Holmes informed that there is evidence for the government shelling of the “Safe Zone”.
A senior UN official described to Inner City Press, the dangers of the situation in Sri Lanka as
“What we are afraid of is a nightmare scenario in which, in a final drive against the Tigers, tens of thousands of civilians are killed and the UN looks guilty, like in Srebrenica. This must be avoided.”
US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice told that the US favors the Security Council getting full information on the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka.
Earlier last week the statements of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms. Navaneetham Pillay that there is evidence of war crimes by both Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers received sharp criticism from the government. In response to Ms. Pillays comments, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona has been quoted in a pro-government newspaper as saying:
“Ms. Pillay is only the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She is not the UN… There is no way you can compare us with Zimbabwe”
However, on the civilian casualty figures, Sri Lanka already surpasses Zimbabwe as per UN statistics. This year alone there have been 2,600 deaths and with the prolonging war, the figure is mounting every day.
Heated debates were broadcast in popular media in UK and Canada. Sinhalese and Tamil members of Sri Lanka’s Diaspora were seen arguing for and against the prolonging of the war without a political solution in the table. The debates only turned into evidences for the deep rooted division in this South Asian island nation and its society.
Forum by Jeremy Corbin in PRESSTV, London
The Agenda by Steve Paikin in TVO, Ontario
In spite of being the largest democratically elected body of the Tamils in the island nation, TNA is probably not getting due representation and voice in the efforts for a resolution of the crisis.
The TNA gained 82% vote in the Northern Province and 40% in the Eastern Province -the largest share of votes by any contesting party in these regions. However, the Sri Lankan government often does not include TNA members in any discussions towards the resolution of the crisis and prefers to consult with other Tamil politicians who hold a strong pro government view such as long time politician Mr. V. Anandasangaree – a government appointed parliamentarian and the lone elected representative from the EPDP, Mr. Douglas Devananda.
The TNA parliamentarians are not only marginalized by the government, but also face life threat from government and pro government armed groups. Mr. Nadarajah Raviraj, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham & Mr. K. Sivanesan were all TNA members of the parliament at the time of their killing. In all these and other murders of Tamil parliamentarians from other parties, the government and/or pro government armed groups stand accused.
With a single minded focus to end the Tamil resistance, the Sri Lankan government seems to be in no mood to listen to either the elected members of the Tamil population or to the concerns of the international community over the mounting human suffering due to the prolonged war.
The seemingly inexplicable paradox of why the government would not include the elected members of the Tamil community to solve the crisis may hold the key to understanding the issue in its true sense and formulate a resolution to the crisis and possibly prevent the nightmare of the unfolding catastrophe.
Written by Sunderapandyan.
Community cheer leader, software engineer & innovator – Sunderapandyan is hard to pin down. He writes on South Asian news and issues to the world.
Tags: LTTE, Rajapakse, Sinhalese, Sri Lanka, Tamil, TNA, UN, War
9 Comments
22 TNA members of course wouldn’t turn up, they pledge their allegiance to Prabhakaran-Tamil Tiger leader who got them elected.
UN is increasingly failing in the world wide issues, as it is like a guide. Every country in the world (except SriLanka) is worried about economy and to them people dying is not an issue. To SriLanka, who is living with money donated from other countries, its a pleasure ride!
I wish there are some SriLankans in SriLanka who can see some justice happening to Tamils. We cant blame only the bad, equally the good, who keeps their mouths shut.
No where a solution, SriLanka has sowed enemity, which could grow for centuries.
Who is Sri Lanka’s national hero?
Look it up its a Tamil
Sri Lanka has no gripe with Tamils. — just no dealings with Tamil Tiger terrorist.
This write up is pretty biased and in favour of Tamil extremist ideals.
You will realise that these experts who write for HRW, UN, and even Sunderapandyan may have never ever been to Sri Lanka.
Yes, there is no way one can compare Sri Lanka with Zimbabwe…because the genocide that’s happening in Sri Lanka is a hundred times worse than the situation in Zimbabwe.
It ridiculous to see Sinhala extremist commentators disguising themselves with Indian sounding names on this post.
Yes, there is no way one can compare Sri Lanka with Zimbabwe…because the genocide that’s happening in Sri Lanka is a hundred times worse than the situation in Zimbabwe.
It’s ridiculous to see Sinhala extremist commentators disguising themselves with Indian sounding names on this post.
Mr. Raju! Greetings to you!
Who are these ‘Tamil Tiger Terrorists’? Where did they come from? They are the sons and daughters of the Eelam Tamil people. They were home grown. They are not strangers, didn’t come from the Moon or Mars. If anyone brands a struggle for survival as terrorism, it is a product of India, her brain-child. India natured them in the first part 80s, for their best advantage of national interest to destabilize and drive Sri Lanka away from US influence. Now Sri Lanka has joined hands with India’s best friendly allies Pakistan and China. Excellent policy adopted by ruling short-sighted political establishment and strategy formulated by the raw mentality of RAW. When you can not deliver you should not promise a child that you would pluck moon from the sky – just to feed milk-rice with ulterior motives of your self-interest. Eelam Tamils have been underestimated and taken for ride!
Initially Sri Lanka tried to propagate that Prabhakaran escaped to Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and India by plane, ship etc.
But later it found that such tactic may end the war immeidately and therefore admitted that Prabhakaran was still in Sri Lanka therefore it was giving another impression to India that it could catch and hand over him to India and was able to to get assistance from India in that pretext.
They prolong the war so that a genocide may be presented as a day to day war. The killings per day may look like a small number and Sri Lanka can fool the international community as long as IC is keeping silence for the reasons best known to the super powers.
“The killings per day may look like a small number and Sri Lanka can fool the international community as long as IC is keeping silence for the reasons best known to the super powers.”
Malarthamil: Last week, China gave a big aappu in UN security council by preventing a formal discussion on the humanitarian situation in SL. Do you know why China gave aappu? China is faced with the Tibet issue and cannot afford to be seen as supporting the eelam issue in any way as that would invite at least half a dozen countries to pounce on China about Tibet. So, the bottomline is, every country deals with foreign affairs according to its own self interests and not based on any common good. Eelam issue is not the top priority now for nations. There is one more catch. The white man doesn’t like suicide bombing. They have no sympathy for the ltte that uses human bomb as a tool in its fight. In fact, the West rejects Hamas precisely for this reason even though Hamas was legitimately elected through a democratic election in the Gaza strip as their representative. The West agrees that that election was credible but still refuses to accept the victorious party because it feels the methods adopted by that pary are questionable. When the outcome of an elaborate decmocratic exercise itself doesn’t get the recognition because of objectionable methods the less said would be better about ltte’s claim of representing tamils. Any way, the end game is near.
It’s no secret that the filthy goons in the Sinhala regime are carrying out their heinous genocidal agenda with the full knowledge of the “international community” and the worthless United Nations and the blood-thirsty bas****s in the Indian establishment and certain vile creatures whose sadistic nature knows no limits. They can rub their dirty hands in glee for the moment but they shall get their deserved comeuppance at the right time.