Sri Lankan Army Atrocities

The heartbreaking Damilvany Gnanakumar story is one many yet to be told. She was released recently from a Sri Lankan concentration camp. I would imagine for a hefty sum of money. These SL Government‘s acts of mercy does not come cheap nowadays.

For those four months, the 25-year-old British graduate was imprisoned behind razor wire inside the Sri Lanka’s grim internment camps, home to nearly 300,000 people.
The last time she publicly spoke about the conflict was from the hospital where she was working inside the ever-shrinking war zone in Sri Lanka’s north-east. Then, the Sri Lankan army had surrounded the small sliver of land where the remnants of the Tamil Tiger guerrillas held out and where hundreds of thousands of civilians had taken refuge. She had been in despair: a shell had just struck the hospital and dozens were dead. “At the moment, it is like hell,” she said then.
The young mother was standing by the side of the road, clutching her baby.

The baby was dead.

Damilvany Gnanakumar watched as she tried to make a decision. Around them, thousands of people were picking their way between bodies strewn across the road, desperate to escape the fighting all around them. “The mother couldn’t bring the dead body and she doesn’t want to leave it as well. She was standing … holding the baby. She didn’t know what to do …

At the end, because of the shell bombing and people rushing – there were thousands and thousands of people, they were rushing in and pushing everyone – she just had to leave the baby at the side of the road, she had to leave the body there and come, she had no choice.

And I was thinking in my mind ‘What have these people done wrong?

Why are they going through this, why is the international government not speaking up for them? I’m still asking.” Gnanakumar was one of a small group of medics treating the wounded and providing a running commentary to the outside world from behind the lines. For months she had managed to stay alive while around her thousands died.
At night, she lived in bunkers dug in the sand. During the day, she helped in the makeshift hospitals, dodging the shells and the bullets, tending the wounded and the dying, as the doctors tried to operate with butchers’ knives and watered-down anesthetic. Now her damning account provides a powerful rebuke to the claims of the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, that the defeat of the Tamil Tigers was achieved without the spilling of a drop of civilian blood.

Usually the Sri Lanka government’s ground forces, done regular air raids by air force Kfir jets. But in early January artillery barrages began, forcing the population to move. That was when the reality of the war hit Gnanakumar for the first time. “It was raining and … you could see everywhere on the road the blood is running with the water and the bodies were left there because there was no-one to identify who was dead and who is alive, the bodies were just laid down on the floor and that’s the first time I saw dead bodies and wounded people crying out, shouting.”
Wherever they stopped, they built a bunker, digging down until they could stand up in the hole, cutting down palm branches and laying them across the top for a roof and packing sandbags on the top and around the sides.

As the frontline advanced, trapping as many as 300,000 people inside a shrinking enclave of LTTE-held land, Gnanakumar went to the makeshift government hospital, which had moved into a former primary school, and volunteered to help, dressing wounds and administering first aid. As the fighting intensified, they were treating as many as 500 people every day in two rooms. “They had a shortage of medicine but they had to somehow save the people. The last two weeks or so there was a shortage of everything.” With replacement blood running out, she had to filter what she could from the patients through a cloth before feeding it back into their veins.
When the anaesthetics ran short, they diluted them with distilled water. “I watched when there was a six-year-old boy,” she said. “They had to take off the leg and also the arm, but they didn’t have proper equipment, they just had a knife that the butchers use to cut the meat, and we have to use that to take off his leg and arm. He cried and cried.”

As the army closed in, it got worse.
“People were running and running to get them safe away from the shell bombing, but they couldn’t and it came to a point where we thought we are all going to die, there is no way we can be safe anymore here, but we just have to take it. I mean, you can’t get out of the shell-bombing. I didn’t think that I would be alive and I would be here now. I said OK, I’m going to die, that is the end of it. “One day I was inside the [operating] theatre and the next room was bombed. We had a lot of the treated people left in the room for the doctors to go and monitor and they all died in that shell bomb. And they [the Sri Lankan forces] again bombed the hospital and one of the doctors died in that.” Inside the hospital, there was no respite. Gnanakumar could not take any more. On 13 May the hospital had been hit, killing about 50 people. “The bunker right next to ours had a shell on top of it and there were six people in the same family died and three were wounded. “I saw them … suddenly I start hearing people are crying out and I thought, it has to be somewhere really close … I came out of my tent and I saw blood everywhere and the people – I couldn’t even imagine that place, there was blood and then the bodies were into pieces everywhere . In the last five days, she says, she believes about 20,000 people died. The UN has acknowledged the true death toll may never be known.

Freedom of speech is non-existent in Sri Lanka

In the guise of fighting terrorism, the Sri Lanka government has muzzled and suppressed the independent press to the degree that no single publication or electronic media outlet in Sri Lanka is allowed to practice journalism in the way it ought to be.

Dissent is non-existent, self-censorship the order of the day; the ultimate victim – the ordinary citizen of Sri Lanka whose sources of information have dried up so completely that his only version of events mirrors that of the regime of the day. Sri Lankan newspapers are forced to practice a Goebbelian form of reportage, thanks to totalitarian control over the media.

Joseph Goebbels was Adolf Hitler’s most powerful weapon because his propaganda ensured the Nazis popular support. As Propaganda Minister in Hitler’s cabinet, Goebbels perfected an understanding of the "Big Lie" technique of propaganda, which is based on the principle that a lie, if audacious enough and repeated enough times, will be believed by the masses.

angerously, the theory led to success with most of Hitler’s Germany actually believing that they were on the right side of history until the very last moment which ended in the destruction of their country. It is tragic to see this trend taking root in Sri Lanka today –the same country that boasted such a vibrant and defiant press not so very long ago.

On the contrary, journalists have been slaughtered, abducted, assaulted, tortured and forced to flee their homeland all under the present regime. Investigations into a single one of these cases of brutality are yet to show any semblance of credibility.

Please remember the brutal murder of Lasantha Wickrematunga, the horrific assault Upali Tennakoon and abductions of Keith Noyahr and Poddala Jayantha and the myriad incidents of violence perpetrated on those individuals whose only crime has been to attempt to give you a version of the story that the government does not want you to hear. These were ordinary men tasked with an unfortunate duty to report the facts; fathers, husbands, brothers just like any one of us.

Sri Lanka should awake to the reality of this systematic silencing that the long march to freedom and security can finally begin. No amount of Goebbelsian propaganda can keep the truth buried forever however.

The doctors in the concentration camps are seeing 200 to 300 patients a day

For the past three months, a Tamil woman has been living in a concentration camp in Menik farm with her husband and three children.

Two weeks ago, her five-year-old son had a fever and was barely responding. She carried him to the clinic in the camp at 5am and queued until 6pm to see a doctor. Like many others that day, she did not get to see a doctor and she returned with her sick child to their tent without receiving treatment. She went back the next day and again failed to see a doctor after waiting for another 13 hours. It wasn’t until the third day that she finally managed to see a doctor who gave her some antibiotics.

The doctors in the concentration camps are seeing 200 to 300 patients a day, there is little capacity to carry out tests or follow up with patients and only the most urgent cases are transferred to hospitals outside the camps.

Another 24-year-old woman arrived in Menik Farm at the end of May and is badly disfigured since a fragment of bomb shell cut her lips, cheeks and chins during the conflict. Her mouth is always open, her tongue is badly affected and she can barely drink and cannot speak. She is in need of reconstructive surgery, which is not available inside the camp.

When her wounds became infected, she went in pain to the camp’s clinic. There a doctor was unable to do anything for her and she was not transferred to a hospital outside the camp because she was not considered to be an emergency case. She spends her days lying in the sand outside her tent, waiting for the day to pass.

Monsoon in the Sri Lankan concentration camps

I saw a massive flooding in the Indian states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh has at least 230 people dead and more than 10 million survivors homeless. I think it’s going to be a hell in the Sri Lankan concentration camps when NE monsoon starts.
Some Sri Lankan newspaper said that the SL government has taken rapid action in the construction of the drainage system there.

However the images from the BBC are contradicting that.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8297760.stm

As you see the, the drainage system is very shallow and utterly inadequate.

The camps occupy vast tracts of formerly forested land near the northern town of Vavuniya. Because the ground on which many of the camps were built was cleared of trees recently, the soil is soft and porous.

The flimsy tents in concentration camps don’t stand a chance...

http://www.tamileelamnews.com/news/publish/tns_11803.shtml

Many aid groups worry that the hastily built camps will not survive the inundation. Few months ago, he rain fell heavily for much of the afternoon , sent rivers of mud cascading between tightly packed rows of flimsy shelters, overflowed latrines , which have collapsed, sending human waste spilling all over camp. HR groups urged Sri Lanka yesterday to free 300,000 Tamils detained in camps since the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in May, warning that an outbreak of disease triggered by imminent monsoon rains could claim dozens of lives.
Mike Foster, the UK Minister for International Development who is visiting Sri Lanka, also said that Britain would no longer provide any funding for the controversial barbed wire enclosures once the monsoon was over in two months.
He added that many other donor countries were taking a similar position to put pressure on the Government to release the 300,000 Tamils who were detained after fleeing the frontline. “There’s a pressing need, with the monsoon impending, to get civilians out of the camps,” Mr Foster said after visiting two of the camps before meetings with Sri Lankan officials in Colombo yesterday. He said the monsoon, which is due to start this month, was almost certain to destroy tents already fraying after six months. “Disease, if it takes hold, is going to spread rapidly. Without doubt there will a loss of life,” he said. “Given that there are 300,000 people living so close together, I’d hazard a guess that it’s going to be more than dozens.” Mr Foster said that progress on resettlement had been “disappointing”, that the majority of those in the concentration camps had already been screened, and that moving them to other concentration camps was “unacceptable”. “There really is no reason why they can’t return. If the gates are opened up, the IDPs can be the judge of whether it’s safe or not to go home,” he said. “That should be a choice for them.”

History of the National Conflict in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is the name of the island earlier known as Ceylon and situated at the Southern extremity of the Indian Subcontinent, separated from it at its narrowest point by 22 miles of sea called the Palk Strait.
It covers an area of 25,322 square miles almost the size of Ireland or Tasmania and has a population of 18 million. Both the Sinhala and the Tamil nations co-existed in the island for over 2,500 years, and shared the rule of the island separately. Population ratio is approximately 74% Sinhala speaking and 26% Tamil speaking: Of the Sinhalese 93 % are Buddhists and 7% Christians. Of the Tamil speakers, 60 % are Hindus, 28 % Muslims and 12 % Christians.

The sources of the national conflict in Sri Lanka are historical, economic, cultural & religious. In the words of David Selbourne of Ruskin College, Oxford, it is "a true national question, if ever there was one".

Both the Tamil People & Sinhalese people are indigenous people of Sri Lanka. Early history records that they had their own monarchs and kingdoms. They were conquered by the colonial powers separately and in different periods in history. They existed as separate communities until the British brought them together in 1883 under a single administration (for the very first time in their long history).

The European Colonial Era

1505 - Arrival of Portuguese - They first occupied the low country Sinhalese areas in the south west of the Island.

1621 - Jaffna Tamil Kingdom fell to the Portuguese (more than a century later).

1656 - Dutch occupied areas which were under Portuguese control.

1802 - Treaty of Amiens - Dutch possessions ceded to the British.

1815 - The Sinhalese Kandyan Kingdom in the central parts conquered by the British, having annexed the Tamil Vanni Kingdom in the north.

1833 -The British unified the island based on the recommendations of Cole Brook - Cameron Commission (purely for administrative convenience).

1931 - Donoughmore constitution - State Council elected by Universal suffrage (the first people to exercise universal suffrage in Asia).

1947 - Soulbury constitution adopted & general elections held for the parliament of Ceylon.

The Sinhala-Colonial Era

1948 - British grant independence under the Soulbury constitution.
The parliament, with its entrenched Sinhalese majority, legislates to disenfranchise Tamils of [recent] Indian origin who have lived there for generations and have always exercised their franchise. The Tamil people lost almost half of their representation in the parliament.
The state aided colonisation of Sinhalese people in Tamil areas promoted to annex Tamil homelands and further reduce Tamil representation in the parliament.

1956 - The Sinhalese Language was made the only official language by legislation, disadvantaging Tamil people in dealing with the state administration and denying them equal access to education and employment.

1957 - Bandaranaike - Chelvanayakam Pact between the Sinhalese Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and Tamil leader SJV Chelvanayakam QC to meet some of the demands of the Tamil people.

1958 - The Pact was unilaterally abrogated by the Sinhalese Prime Minister to pacify the extreme elements among the Sinhalese Buddhists. (He is the father of the President of Sri Lanka Chandrika Kumaratunga (1995 - ) He was assassinated by a Buddhist monk for his pact with the Tamils in 1959.

1965 - Senanayake - Chelvanayakam Pact - entered into, with another Sinhalese Prime minister Dudley Senanayake, and was never implemented by the Sinhalese government.

1969 - The Privy Council in London directs the Supreme Court in Sri Lanka to review the constitutionality of the Official Language Act, since it violated s.29(2) the constitution.

1971 - The government responds by abolishing appeals to Privy Council. The Tamil people's only avenue to seek justice through independent judiciary came to an end.

1972- The new Republican Constitution was adopted and imposed on the Tamil people without their consent.

The only legal safeguard provided by the entrenched section 29(2) of the Soulbury constitution, described by the Privy Council in London that they "represent the solemn balance of rights between the citizens of Ceylon, the fundamental condition on which inter se they accepted the constitution; and these are therefore unalterable under the constitution", was scrapped.

Tamil parties walked out of the constituent assembly. With this Tamil participation of the democratic process in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) came to an end.

1973 - Through a process of standardization the government restricts entry of Tamil students to universities and institutions of higher education.

1974 - The 4th International Tamil literary conference in Jaffna was broken up by the police, where many died and several were injured.

1976 - All the main Tamil political parties unite under the leadership of SJV Chelvanayakam QC and at their First National Convention declare:

"The Convention resolves that the restoration and reconstitution of the Free, Sovereign, Secular, Socialist state of Tamil Eelam based on the right of self-determination inherent to every nation has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil nation in this country."

1977 - Historical mandate of the Tamil people - The Tamil people gave a clear mandate at the general elections to establish their sovereignty. The manifesto called for:

"… in the general Election the mandate of the Tamil Nation to establish an independent, sovereign, secular, socialist State of Tamil Eelam that includes all the geographically contiguous areas that have been the traditional homeland of the Tamil-speaking people in the country.

"The Tamil nation must take the decision to establish its sovereignty in its homeland on the basis of its right to self-determination. The only way to announce this decision to the Sinhalese Government and to the world is to vote for TULF. The Tamil-speaking representatives who get elected through these votes while being members of the National State Assembly of Tamil Eelam which will draft a constitution for the state of Tamil Eelam and establish the independence of Tamil Eelam by bringing that constitution into operation either by peaceful means or by direct action or struggle".

The Tamil resolution also called on

"The Tamil youth in particular to come forward to throw themselves fully in the sacred fight for freedom and flinch not till the goal of a sovereign socialist state of Tamil Eelam is reached".

(The Sinhalese Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1970 to 1977 was Mrs. Srimavo Bandaranalke the present Prime Minister and the mother of the President Chandrika Kumaratunge [1995 - ).

The Anti-Tamil Violence - The Tamil people have been subjected periodically to communal violence. There have been anti-Tamil riots and pogroms in 1956,1958,1977 and culminating in the 1983 massacres and holocaust.

Military occupation & Police brutality - First in 1961 and then in 1974, 1979, 1981 and from 1983. Many historical monuments including temples and churches were destroyed. (Attested in two reports by the International Commission of Jurists, and in several other reports of independent international human rights organisations).

The armed struggle by the LTTE on behalf of the Tamil people arose as a rebellion against the tyranny of the Sinhalese state and its brutal repression of Tamil people. It is a just cause in pursuance of their democratic aspirations, and the historic mandate, and therefore is lawful.

1983 - Sri Lanka commenced arbitrary arrests and detention without trial, torture and rape, violence against women, summary executions of the Tamil people. The era of mass exodus of Tamil refugees internally and internationally begins.

1987 - UN Resolution on Sri Lanka country situation for violation of Human Rights. Unsuccessful Indo Sri Lanka Accord and the occupation of Tamil territories by Indian Army. India commenced deliberate and indiscriminate bombing and shelling of Tamil territories.

1990 - Withdrawal of Indian Forces. Unsuccessful Negotiations with United National Party Government. Sri Lanka recommenced deliberate and indiscriminate bombings of Tamil territories. Economic Embargo enforced to the North and part of the East.

1995 to date - Unsuccessful Negotiations with People Alliance Government, with resumption of the war.

History of the Tamils in Sri Lanka part 1

Many renowned Sinhalese and Tamil Historians Archaeologists Anthropologists and Linguistic Scholars as well as Indian, American and British Scholars have engaged in research, on the ancient history of Sri Lanka for more than 30 years, conducting Archaeological excavations.

These excavations were carried out in various parts of Sri Lanka and their findings published. However, some excavations have been suspended while, in other cases, the findings have not been released. In particular, there are many instances where excavations in the northern regions of Sri Lanka were suspended and the findings withheld. However, unbiased and honest historians have openly published the findings of their studies on this subject.

Many facts related to the ancient history of Sri Lanka and its ancient people have been brought to light on the basis of archaeological evidence from excavations. But, various difficulties have arisen in regard to understanding the early Stone Age people, their antiquity and their race. Nevertheless, the scholars referred to above generally accept that the ancient people of Sri Lanka belonged to the Dravidian Language family and followed the Dravidian (Megalithic) culture of 'Urn Burials'. The findings of these scholars also show that there was a strong similarity between the ancient people of Sri Lanka and those of India, particularly from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Kannada and the Andhra regions in South India where Dravidian languages are spoken.

Geologists and archaeologists are of the general opinion that as the result of a natural calamity Sri Lanka broke off from the Indian landmass and became an island many thousands of years ago. Therefore the ancient people of South India and Sri Lanka were of the same ethnic stock. This has been further established by findings relating to their culture, language and religion that show that the people of these two regions were closely connected.

In short, it emerges that the ancient people of Sri Lanka belonged to the Dravidian family and spoke Tamil, one of the ancient languages of the Dravidian language family. However, Pali and Sinhalese historical records and literature claim that the ancient people of Sri Lanka belonged to the Aryan language family and spoke Sinhalese, an Aryan language and that they came from North India. To date no archaeological evidence has been found to support these theories.

Sinhalese historians based their theories that the ancient people of Sri Lanka were Sinhalese largely on historical records found in the Deepavamsa and Mahavamsa Buddhist chronicles written in the fourth and filth centuries A.D. and on ancient stone inscriptions written in the North Indian languages of Pali and Sanskrit. These historians are particularly inclined to use the Mahavamsa. written in the fifth century A.D., as a main source. The Mahavamsa begins with the historical legend of Vijaya who was deported from North India and arrived in Sri Lanka in the fifth century BC.

In addition, the Mahavamsa also speaks of the three visits of Lord Buddha to Sri Lanka and the establishment of Buddhism in Sri Lanka by the Buddhist mission sent to Sri Lanka by the Maurya Emperor Asoka in the third century BC. This mission was led by his son and Buddhist priest Mahinda. The records of the Mahavamsa along with other historical documents and writings also tell of Devanampiya Tissa, the king of the Anuradapura Kingdom, who embraced Buddhism in the same period.

These accounts have naturally led historians in general to consider that the history of Sri Lanka begins with the third century BC. However, there is no reliable historical evidence of the arrival of Vijaya and his associates in the fifth century BC or of his rule in Sri Lanka. It is possible to infer that, Mahanama, the author of the Mahavamsa, witnessed the decline and disorientation of Buddhism in India during the fifth century BC. Due to his devotion to Buddhism and desire to consolidate this religion in Sri Lanka he decided to write the Mahavamsa. It is also possible that he began his chronicle with the legend of Vijaya with the sole purpose of linking Buddhism with its relationship to North Indian languages as a means to achieve his goals.

The important fact that must be considered in this context is that Saivaism was firmly established in Sri Lanka long before the arrival of Buddhism on the island. The kings of the Anuradapura Kingdom had been Saivaites before the advent of Buddhism. Besides, the Kingdom of Anuradapura was a well developed and strong kingdom in the third century BC, a status that would have required centuries to attain. Would it have been possible for Vijaya who arrived in Sri Lanka only in the fifth century BC to start from scratch and build up such a full-fledged kingdom in Anuradapura? It is apparent that the Kingdom of Anuradapura originated and gradually developed into a strong kingdom through many centuries and that the people who established the kingdom were Tamils of the Dravidian family. Tamil culture and Saiva religion were practiced in ancient Sri Lanka as Tamils were the ancient people of Sri Lanka, a fact established by the archaeological evidence that has come to light.

The culture, language, and religion of an ethnic people are the most significant factors determining their unique identity. Archaeological evidence shows that the ancient Dravidian people of ancient Sri Lanka, influenced by the arrival of Buddhism and the North Indian languages associated with it, gradually embraced Buddhism, its cultural traditions and the languages related to it.

For instance, archaeological findings prove that Buddhism enjoyed an influential status as the religion of the people in the traditional Tamil regions in the north, east and northwest parts of Sri Lanka, during the first two centuries BC. Would it be right to call these people Sinhalese on the basis that Buddhism was their religion in the early historical period? Archaeological studies clearly reveal that Dravidian people were living in the Puttalam and Negombo areas in the northwest region of Sri Lanka from ancient times.

However, the majority of these people, due to socio-economic activities and transitions over the past 150 years, have become Sinhalese and now speak the Sinhalese language. Besides, the majority of Saivites in the Jaffna peninsula were converted to Catholicism during the foreign rule of the Portuguese invaders. Another interesting instance in this context is the fact that the descendents of two significant Chetty families who migrated to Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu five generations ago became fervent Buddhist Sinhala nationalists, Prime Ministers and Presidents in Sri Lanka.

It can be surmised from these matters that this same process of assimilation was a common phenomenon experienced throughout ancient Sri Lanka. The history of Sri Lanka, from the third century A.D. to the ninth century A.D., is permeated with the influence of Buddhism and Buddhist culture. This includes from early historical times, the intrusion of Pali and Sanskrit languages and their spread among the ancient Tamils of Sri Lanka and their Dravidian culture, as well as the origin of the Sinhalese language from Sanskrit, Pali and Tamil languages. The younger generation is left with the task of engaging with history and scientific methods to subject this historical period to deep and unbiased studies and write its history with intellectual integrity. When taking up this task, they should strive to find a fitting solution to the ethnic issue that has become an infested sore in Sri Lanka.

Two significant events took place in Sri Lanka following the tenth century A.D. in the wake of the Cola domination of Sri Lanka. The first is that the people who identified themselves as Sinhalese shifted their seats of rule from the ancient kingdoms of Anuradapura and Polanaruwa towards South Sri Lanka. The second was the Tamils moved their ruling structures from these same regions to the north and east of the island.

Consequently, the ancient kingdoms of Anuradapura and Polanaruwa, abandoned by both the Sinhalese and the Tamils, were engulfed by the jungle that temporarily separated the two ethnic groups for the next four or five centuries. As a result, the Sinhalese developed into a separate ethnic people with their distinct Buddhist religion and culture and Sinhalese language while the Tamils, in their traditional regions in the north, east and northwest of Sri Lanka began to establish their kingdoms under the newly risen Jaffna Kingdom, maintaining their distinct Tamil language, culture and Saiva religion.

This situation did not last long. The Sinhalese and Tamil kingdoms declined and eventually succumbed to the Portuguese invaders. The Kingdom of Kandy, however, retained its sovereignty and resisted capture by the Portuguese. The Tamils lost their kingdom forever as a result of Portuguese invasion, and the foreign Catholic religion was forcibly thrust on them. Many were obliged to relinquish their Saiva religion and follow Catholicism and its culture. Above all, they were impoverished by wholesale Portuguese exploitation of their economic resources. This situation allowed the Portuguese to amass great wealth.

The Tamils lost their sovereignty, religion, economic infrastructure and wealth and were reduced to slaves in their own land. It is a bitter historical truth that it was not only the Portuguese who were responsible for this state of affairs but also the competitiveness, jealousy, lack of co-operation and patriotism among the Tamils as well as the evil dowry system and social disparities that existed among them.

This same situation has continued from the time the Tamils and Tamil regions became enslaved to the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. It is unlikely this situation can be changed until the Tamil politicians and officials truly realise the gravity of the situation and apply themselves sincerely to solving these urgent problems. These are the people who have to decide whether or not the Tamils are to continue living as slaves and refugees.

The Dutch, who succeeded the Portuguese, dominated Sri Lanka for 150 years and also amassed wealth by unscrupulous means. They exploited the Tamils and their regions just as the Portuguese did. The Portuguese could be said to have sucked the blood of the Tamils but the Dutch did not stop there but consumed their flesh also. This further reduced the Tamils to utter poverty. The Dutch spread Protestantism, their new brand of Christianity among the forcibly converted Tamil Catholics in the Jaffna peninsula. Dutch documents provide sufficient proof that the Tamils, already afflicted by Portuguese occupation and atrocities, were further severely affected by intense Dutch exploitation of their economic resources along with their religious activities to promote Protestantism among them.

The forced indoctrination of their respective religions and the introduction of western culture to the Tamils in the Jaffna peninsula by the foreign invaders from Portugal and the Netherlands were their sole contributions to the Tamils and their regions, the impact of which is evident even in the present day. However, the Christian missionaries, both Portuguese and Dutch, established schools in the peninsula to impart religious education in addition to a range of basic subjects. Tamil society, for the first time, was exposed to an organised system of education along western principles. It cannot be denied that this experience prepared them for the modern educational methods of the British colonial rule and enabled them to adapt to the judicial, administrative and economic infrastructure of the British.

History of the Tamils in Sri Lanka part 2

The British colonial rule that began in the 1796 in Sri Lanka ushered in changes and new enterprises in the island generally and the Tamils and their regions in particular. The British, like their two predecessors, showed a keen interest in propagating Protestantism with the help of their missionaries who used education to spread their religion. As a result, the Tamils gave English education and Tamil education a primary place in their lives.

The prevailing caste discrimination, socio-economic disparities, lack of land and the oppressive dowry system in the Tamil regions, particularly in the Jaffna peninsula, impelled the Tamils to seek education. Parents invested in their children's education in the hope and expectation that their success in examinations would open up employment opportunities for them in the public and private sector in Sri Lanka as well as in foreign countries such as India and Malaya (Malaysia and Singapore).

True to their expectations, educated Tamils were able to acquire government and private employment in Sri Lanka, India and Malaya and earn a permanent income. This advancement in turn brought social development and progress in various spheres and Tamil society was gradually transformed into an educated society. However, this opportunity was not widely available in the undeveloped Tamil regions.

The dedicated interest shown by the British in the field of education resulted in the establishment of hundreds of primary and secondary schools in the Jaffna peninsula with various missionaries functioning as their driving force. The Tamils also, just as the missionaries established Christian English schools, opened up Saiva English schools. Saivaism and the Tamil language experienced a renaissance while Saiva temples and halls were built in great numbers due to the religious tolerance of the British rulers. This progress in education contributed immensely to various positive developments in the fields of religion, arts, culture, language, literature, socio-economics and politics.

The establishment of the infrastructure of finance, justice and administration and the efficient functioning of these structures in the early British rule helped develop the country economically as well as consolidate its administration and law and order. The population began to increase in this peaceful and thriving atmosphere. Roads and bridges were built and health services improved remarkably. This progress in turn paved the way for the Tamils in the north and east to establish contacts and develop mutual understanding with the Sinhalese in the south.

The Tamils, particularly the English-educated Tamils, already disturbed by conversion to Christianity by the missionaries and the spread of western culture among them, rose in protest and reacted against steps taken by the British government. These protest activities relating to culture and economics in turn became factors that kindled the consciousness of the Tamils. The spirit of protest manifested itself in the spheres of society_ religion, culture and language and resulted in the politically motivated rise of Tamil nationalism. The British constitutional reforms and political activities connected to them were the fundamental reasons for the rise and growth of Tamil nationalism.

The Colebrook constitutional reforms introduced in 1833, brought the north and east regions of Sri Lanka, hitherto administered as a separate unit. under a single centralised administrative system based in Colombo. This disoriented the longstanding territorial integration of the Tamils and threatened their national identity.

The 1921-24 Manning constitutional reforms among others that followed were the first to create a permanent divide between the Tamils and Sinhalese ethnic communities. The Donoughmore constitutional reforms introduced in 1931 added their share to compound the situation by implementing universal franchise, abolishing the system of territorial representation and replacing it with communal representation. This resulted in more representatives from the Sinhalese community securing seats in the State Assembly and caused great antipathy and rage among the Tamils and their political leaders. The Soulbury constitutional reforms introduced in 1947 were also partial to the Sinhalese majority representatives. They were drawn up in keeping with the draft proposals submitted by their Board of Ministers and passed in the House of Representatives with the majority of Sinhalese representatives voting in favour. The British ruling powers forcibly implemented this political constitution modeled on the Westminster Parliamentary system as practised in Britain on a country consisting of two Nations, the majority Sinhalese nation and a minority Tamil nation.

In the 1947 general elections held under the newly introduced constitution. the Sinhalese political parties secured the majority representation in Parliament and thereby became the rulers of the country. When the British finally granted independence to Sri Lanka they handed over the government to the Sinhalese majority community leaving the Tamils with a refugee status. The fundamental cause for the loss of thousands of Tamil lives and the destruction of their property in the 60 years following independence was the British government's violation of the trust placed in them by the Tamils. Sinhalese political leaders, by compiling and submitting erroneous statistics to the British rulers, were able to secure sole sovereignty over the whole country, their numerical majority being the only claim.

The Tamil political leaders, due to their dearth of political foresight and propelled by self-promoting motives sought political refuge with the majority Sinhalese political leaders. Safeguards in the form of special Acts in the Soulbury constitution aiming to protect the political rights of the minorities were blatantly abandoned by the Sinhalese majority government within a few months of Sri Lanka gaining independence in 1948.

From 1948 onwards, the Indian Tamils were stripped of their citizenship and their right to vote. Pre-planned Sinhalese colonisation in the traditional Tamil territories was vigorously and systematically implemented. These activities of the government most severely affected Tamil representation in the House of Representatives and the traditional territories of the Tamils.

The `Sinhala Only' Act implemented in 1956 which made Sinhalese the official and national language of the State and granted Buddhism the status of State Religion posed serious threats to the national status and identity of the Tamils in relation to their language and religion. Employment opportunities in considerable numbers were denied to Tamils by the partial activities of the government. Tamil students were denied opportunities in higher studies by the introduction of biased schemes such as 'Standardisation' and the 'Quota System' that were implemented to select candidates for universities.

All fundamental democratic rights such as the freedom to congregate and freedom of expression were largely denied to Tamils. Whenever the Tamil political leaders engaged in passive non-violent protest demonstrations demanding their political rights, the armed forces were used to crush them by attacking demonstrators, forced dispersal of their gatherings and the arrest of Tamil political leaders.

The various pacts the Tamil political leaders entered into with the Sinhalese political leaders following negotiations were all eventually abrogated by the Sinhalese signatories. The Sinhalese regimes, exploiting their majority strength and the power in ruling the country they thereby achieved, used its three armed forces designed to protect the government, to effectively crush the Tamils, their political leaders and their just struggles for their lost rights, in several ways. Above all, they unleashed continuous pogroms on the Tamils from 1958, killing thousands of Tamils, subjecting Tamil women to sexual violence, setting fire to their houses and property, reducing them to the status of refugees in their own country.

The Tamil political leaders, on realising that the Sri Lanka Sinhalese majority regime would never recognise the Tamil right of self-determination, in 1976 united and arrived at a firm decision that establishing Tamil Eelam was the only way open to the Tamils. This seems to be a belated decision. They contested in the 1977 general election on a mandate for Tamil Eelam. The Tamils responded with overwhelming support of the Tamil political leaders in their demand for Tamil Eelam. Following the demise in 1977 of S. J. V. Chelvanayagam who fought tirelessly for more than 30 years, the Tamil political leaders, led by Amirthalingam, opted to pursue moderate political activities. These leaders who had been elected to establish Tamil Eelam, following the 1977 election victory, tried to solve the Tamil political issue by negotiating with the government.

The young Tamil men and women who had already been pushed to the brink of utter frustration due to the denial of educational and employment opportunities, rose in protest against the activities of the Tamil political leaders who believed they could continue their politics and pacify the Tamil youth. Finally, the Tamils again whole heartedly mandated the Tamil political leaders to establish Tamil [clam in the general election that followed. The government which schemed to crush the demand for Tamil Eelam implemented an Act which called for the loyalty of the members of the Parliament to the national integrity of Sri Lanka as a unitary state. The Tamil leaders found themselves in a precarious situation caught between the intensified demand of the Tamil young men and women and this Act. Unable to go against the mandate they were elected to establish Tamil Eelam, the Tamil political leaders had to forgo their membership in Parliament.

The Tamils, already denied all their democratic rights, were now deprived of their right to representation in the Parliament. Meanwhile, the state terrorism unleashed against the Tamils in 1983 killed thousands of Tamils of all ages specially the youth . Tamil women were sexually assaulted in public. Tamils' property worth millions of rupees were looted and set ablaze. Tamils in their thousands went to Tamil Nadu as refugees while thousands sought refuge in America, Australia and European countries. Those who were not so fortunate were fled to the north and east. Tamil youth specially were arrested and tortured.

These events can only lead to one conclusion. It is that the Tamils and the Sinhalese are two different and separate nations that are unable to live together. These events were a message and open declaration by the Sinhalese nation to the Tamil nation as also the international community that the Tamils should go to the north and east and live there.

The Tamil young men and women took up arms when they realised that this was the language of the Sinhalese majority government and it was the only language that it could understand. The Nanthi (cow) symbol of peace was the emblem of the national flag of the Jaffna Kingdom of the Tamils. The Portuguese as foreign invaders robbed the Tamils of their kingdom and brought the Nanthi flag down.

The British, who were the last foreign rulers of Sri Lanka should have handed Tamils the right to rule their territory when they finally left Sri Lanka. It is tragic that they did not do so. Now, the national flag of the Tamil Nation, with its Tiger emblem of an animal that is totally different to the passive Nanthi, flies in the Tamil nation. It is the Sinhalese government that should bear the responsibility for this. The Sinhalese majority government and the Sinhalese political leaders should consider the Tamils' demand for the right to self-determination with sincerity, humanity and political foresight and act at the earliest to recognise it. Failure to do so will inevitably lead both comminutes to face more blood shed and devastation.

The birth of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Tamil Elam was born in the nineteen fifties, when the Sinhalese majority in newly-independent Sri Lanka set about to build a national identity by appealing to Sinhalese nationalism. By an act of the Sinhalese-dominated parliament, a million Tamils were stripped of citizenship and franchise on the grounds that their parents or grandparents had been born in India. The proportion of Tamil voters in the electorate instantly dropped from 33% to 20%, giving the Sinhalese a lock on the 2/3 parliamentary majority needed to pass any law they wanted. Sinhalese became the official language of Sri Lanka. Tamil civil servants, who had dominated the English colonial administration, were summarily fired. Under the guise of agricultural schemes, the Sinhalese government pushed Tamils off their land, flooding newly-created enlarged tracts of farmland with previously landless Sinhalese. Pogroms and general oppression ensued. In the 1958 riots alone, 25,000 Tamils were forced to flee into the northern part of the island. An effort was even made to deport “stateless” disenfranchised Tamils to India. The Tamil response to this campaign was predictable and obvious.
At first, they followed the non-violent path of Mohandas Gandhi. Old men sat at the entrances of government offices, chanting hymns and preventing government clerks from entering by blocking the entrances with their bodies. The Sinhalese police beat them aside with clubs. Peaceful protests were dispersed by Sinhalese thugs acting with semi-official sanction. The peaceful way of satyagraha was of no avail. Gandhi’s approach had worked with the British because the refined British public and media would take their government to task over the perceived violations of Indian civil rights. It would not work against the Sinhalese because the Sinhalese public and media eagerly applauded the violation of Tamil civil rights.
By the nineteen seventies, the Tamil language was banned and Tamil contacts with the Tamil population of India were forcibly cut off. A policy of deliberate discrimination in everything from housing and employment to university scholarships pushed the Tamils to the fringes of society and sat the Sinhalese firmly on top. Sinhalese troops patrolled Tamil villages, assaulting anyone who dared to look at them the wrong way. A deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing was pushing Tamils deeper and deeper into the north of Ceylon. There was no doubt in the mind of any sane observer that the Sinhalese would not stop until they slowly, by stages, pushed the Tamils into the ocean. In fact, the Sinhalese said as much. Tamils, according to the Sinhalese, were foreigners who belonged in India.
When Tamil youth demanded action in the face of government oppression, their elders quelled them in the name of “national unity” and “non-violence”. They were told that Hinduism prohibited violence. They were told that parliamentary means could ensure their rights. They were told that this Tamil politician or that Tamil politician or some other Tamil politician would somehow magically make an agreement with the Sinhalese in exchange for his vote in one coalition or another.
The agreements were duly made. And they were duly broken. The oppression continued. In the end, the youth did the only rational thing they could have done. They rejected their elders. They rejected the Sinhalese State. They rejected non-violence. They demanded a country of their own. At gunpoint.
It was the seventies. The West seemed on the run, the Soviets were winning the Cold War and Marxist rebels were popping up the world over. For a young man rebelling against the established order and the religion of his elders, Marxism was the logical way to go. Therefore it is not surprising, though unfortunate for the Tamil people on Ceylon, that those who sought to liberate them from Sinhalese rule were mostly Marxists. In May 1976, a group of youth with Marxist rhetoric which adopted the name “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam”. Their leader, a twenty-one-year-old named Vellupilai Prabhakaran, who had already set the tone in July of the previous year.
Things spiraled out control from there and as it happens in conflicts of this type, all pretense of civilization was rapidly thrown aside. The point of no return came in July of 1983, when, allegedly in response to an LTTE ambush that killed 15 Sri Lankan soldiers, Sinhalese civilians rioted across the island, murdering some 3,000 Tamils. The rioters had official government voter lists showing the names and addresses of Tamils. The Sinhalese army and police stood by and did nothing for days as entire neighborhoods were burned to the ground. As Tamil motorists were pulled out of their cars and burned alive at improvised checkpoints, whole families were hacked to pieces in their living rooms and Tamil temples were put to the torch by Sinhalese mobs led by plainclothes police, spontaneity, unlike brutality, was not in evidence. The event would forever be remembered by the Tamils as Black July.
In response to this final atrocity, hundreds of thousands of Tamils fled abroad, while those remaining on Ceylon made their way to the North and East of the island, where the heretofore small-time pro-independence insurgency suddenly had no shortage of recruits. Asia’s longest running civil war was on in earnest, no holds barred.

Sri Lanka should make public a list of all IDPs

With the end of the government’s military campaign, Crisis Group urges that:
The Sri Lankan government should make public a list all those being held in camps for the displaced and in places of detentions, to reassure worried families about the fate of their loved ones, to facilitate the reunification of divided families, and to protect against the threat of abduction and forced disappearance.
The ICRC and UNHCR must be given full and immediate access to every stage of the government’s “screening” for those suspected of involvement with the LTTE. The ICRC should be granted full access to all places of detention to ensure that surrendered and captured combatants and other terrorist suspects are treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and Sri Lankan law. The Sri Lankan government should make public its plans for the demobilisation and rehabilitation of former LTTE fighters.
The Sri Lankan government should remove all restrictions on the access and effective work of the ICRC, UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs in government camps for the displaced in Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna and in government hospitals and medical centres. Punitive restrictions on visas and on travel within Sri Lanka for international staff of humanitarian agencies must also be removed. Lack of access and the consequent reduction in services only compounds the already severe physical suffering and psychological hardships the displaced are enduring.
The Sri Lankan government should announce a clear and prompt timetable for the resettlement of all those recently displaced from the Vanni. The government should also establish an open and inclusive process of consultation with independent Tamil and Muslim leaders to devise a fair and sustainable plan for the resettlement of all those displaced from the Northern Province, including the nearly 100,000 Muslims forcibly evicted from Jaffna and Mannar in 1990.
The Sri Lankan government should make tangible and meaningful steps to assure Tamils, Muslims and other minorities that their rights will be respected and their equal citizenship and physical safety will be assured. The government should initiate a new and inclusive process of dialogue between legitimate and independent representatives of all ethnic communities in pursuit of a lasting political settlement that addresses the grievances and insecurities of all communities through constitutional guarantees of power-sharing and individual rights.

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6070&l=1

1st transnational government (TNG) for Eezham Tamils.

Norwegian (TNG) for Eezham Tamils is the first of many and will become a proud member of the Global Tamil Forum
GTF

Melting pot of Eezham-Tamil democratic politics
While the idea of transnational government (TNG) is captivating the minds of Eezham Tamils, their public opinion should be watchful for political moves not slipping in concepts and terminologies and the organisation process maintaining absolute financial independence.
Democratically elected country councils widen, strengthen and secure the democratic structure of TNG and help it to evolve from bottom to top. The nation needs to explore models of structurally integrating country councils and bodies such as GTF in the apex body of TNG. Conducive atmosphere has to be created for wider participation of the society, youth and women. The trauma Eezham Tamils undergo, can be conquered by them only by innovatively engaging in action – this time democratic action – and by demonstrating their spirit unconquered.
It is heartening to notice how the paradigm of democratic politics and transnational governance has captivated the minds of Eezham Tamils especially in the diaspora, where the much-needed space deprived in Sri Lanka is available for innovation and rejuvenation.
Quite typical of any democratic exercise, as ideas pour in, debates take place and moves originate in a short span of hard-pressed time, it is not only common folk but even keen activists are confused. The widely felt concern is that such confusion should not pave way for manipulation and hijack of the cause by motley of forces tacitly united in nullifying identity, independence, sovereignty and national liberation of Eezham Tamils.
It is of paramount importance that the various global moves originating from the Eezham Tamil diaspora in political organization, economy, society and culture need to be perceived, orientated and coordinated coherently to produce desired results.
The following are put forward to the consideration of especially the diaspora, the public opinion of which is actually the guardian in setting the course of its current global process of democratic politics.

1. Not slipping in terminologies outlining the cause:
Independence, sovereignty, nation state, nation, homeland, self-determination, autonomy, federal, confederation, self-rule etc are terms of specific meaning in the international system. They cannot be replaced by one another. Mere phrases such as Tamil Eelam or government cannot be taken for their face value, unless specified with appropriate technical terms.
Eezham Tamil public needs to carefully scrutinize the terminologies and their Tamil equivalents used by various political moves approaching them.
‘Independence and sovereignty’ can be translated into Tamil either as ‘suthanthiramum I’raimaiyum’ or as ’thannaathikkamum i’raimaiyum.’
What negotiation could achieve is another matter. But the democratic freedom of a nation to tell what it deservingly aspires is of supreme importance and it is for the diaspora public opinion to take care if there is any slip.

2. Financial independence in political organization:
Political organization is absolutely a matter of concerned people. They have to conceive and do it on their own, from their own resources and through their own will power, if they want their political organization to be true to them.
‘Democratisation’ of politics of a people may be a ‘development’ agenda for others and they may treat it a matter for funding. But for a people struggling for liberation it is not so. Diaspora needs to be watchful that evolving its political organization is done by motivating the masses and never through getting outside funds.

3. Widening the democratic structure:
In the given circumstances, when independent political organisation of Eezham Tamils is threatened by Sri Lanka and is likely to be sabotaged by forces abetting the ‘unity’ of Sri Lanka, the more the democratic structures are widened and integrated, the more the political organisation is secured. Otherwise, just by handling a few at the top, the entire politics could be crippled.
Needless to say that Eezham Tamils should have well-knitted multiplicity of grass root organisations and their politics have to be built form bottom to top and not vice versa.
The constitution announced by the move for Norwegian Council of Eelam Tamils has touched some of these aspects by proposing to conduct elections regionally and nationally in Norway; by having a second chamber and by accommodating elected representatives from institutions of Eezham Tamils in the second chamber.
More attention need to be paid in this respect in the diaspora in encouraging more elected bodies, co-operative bodies and in integrating and orientating them and other grass root organisations such as village associations, alumni associations etc towards democratic transnational polity.

4. GTF and other such bodies:
The impression one gets from the draft constitution of the Global Tamil Forum is that it will be functioning as a global body of professionals and something like a multinational corporation of Eezham Tamils. This is a welcome move and Eezham Tamils will need such bodies to run banks, universities etc.
Such bodies should be integrated in the second chamber of the apex transnational government. However, it is important that GTF and other such bodies have to make clear themselves in specific terms of their commitment to independence and sovereignty of Eezham Tamils.

5. Importance of country councils:
Elected councils of Eezham Tamils in various countries are the real roots of transnational government. They make transnational government secure, widen the democratic structure by acting as federal units, make the implementation of the mandates of transnational government in a particular country much easier and help negotiating local situations arising from differing political systems of the various countries, as these councils are ‘national councils’ of those countries.
The move in Norway is a pioneering major step and the entire diaspora watches it with much expectation.

6. Transnational government as apex body:
Transnational government as conceived by Eezham Tamils is a novel and hitherto unseen experiment of human civilisation. Only a nation like that of Eezham Tamils that was brutally and unjustly crushed by entire establishments of the world joining together could conceive such alternative governance for them. This is sure to serve an inspiration to future world polity and to many oppressed peoples of the world.
In the exercise of evolving a democratic transnational government, whether the Eezham Tamils are fully aware of the importance of what they are doing is a crucial matter.
While the alternative world will welcome the challenging concept, the establishments will obviously try to either blunt it or hijack it.
Therefore, the apex body has to be formed with tremendous will power of people, with a strong foundation and with structural security.
It is perhaps advisable to structure transnational government after securely forming democratically elected councils at least in countries having bulk of the diaspora.
Country councils and transnational government should be structurally integrated so that they don't operate concurrently within a country.
It is of utmost importance that the apex body operating in the diaspora should not abandon independence and sovereignty of Tamil Eelam, even though that should not preclude it from engaging in negotiations, development etc.
TNG is a body of the diaspora and it has to continue for the identity, culture and development of the diaspora, even after Tamil Eelam is achieved.

7. Probable models of forming transnational government:
While direct election among the diaspora held across the world is a model, probably a feasible model at this juncture is holding elections for country councils, and either electing representatives from them, or making them as electoral colleges to elect members from a global list of candidates, or a combination of both. A second chamber could be having elected representatives from defined diaspora institutions.
Models are inexhaustible and we have to be judicious in deciding what suits better under given conditions to serve the purpose.
The first elected TNG may have to function as constitutional assembly as well in bringing out a mandated constitution.

8. Social participation:
A Tamil exppert recently sent a lengthy note on the importance of right personalities from various walks of life coming forward to take responsibilities in the polity of Eezham Tamils, when it is needed the most perhaps in the whole history of them.
It is our earnest hope that a right atmosphere will be created through public opinion for right personalities to come to politics.
An atmosphere has also to be created for people of various political shades and affiliations to develop whole-hearted belongingness in the new process and to contribute their best to the society.
The transnational governance of our context demands not merely politicians and negotiators, but economists, educationalists, culture personalities, people of letters and so on. Again, we need the right atmosphere for such personalities to come into politics.

9. Participation of youth and women:
A healthy sign for the Eezham Tamil nation today is the diaspora youth coming forward to take ownership of the struggle. Young diaspora women taking part in the politics of various countries and getting elected to public bodies is another encouraging feature we see today. This generation should come forward in participating and leading the democratic process of Tamil politics too. The success of transnational governance in the long run lies in the youth participation in it.

10. Mindset:
All liberation begins from mindset.
It is time Eezham Tamils come out of their mindset of colonial legacy to boldly look at themselves through their own eyes.
It is always suffering people who come out with innovations for them as well as for humanity
The trauma Eezham Tamils undergo is understandable only by them.
As we see from what is happening, no one else will help us to overcome it. The trauma and depression can be conquered only by innovatively engaging in action – this time democratic action – and by demonstrating our spirit unconquered.

Petition against the granting of GSP+ by the European Union to Sri Lanka. Please click to sigh the petition

We, the undersigned, write to you to petition against the granting of GSP+ by the European Union to the Government of Sri Lanka.

Due to non-compliance of Sri Lanka on 18th October 2008 the European Commission adopted a decision providing for the initiation of an investigation on the GSP+ concession arrangement.

Government of Sri Lanka does not satisfy the three core qualifying conditions for GSP+ as detailed below;

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that ‘the rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) are not rights under the Constitution of Sri Lanka.
Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – In light of the recent broadcasting of footage by Channel 4 showing Tamils being executed by the Sri Lankan armed forces and other emerging post war evidences clearly demonstrate that Sri Lanka is in violation of this condition

Widespread police torture, abductions of journalists, politicised courts and uninvestigated disappearances have all played a part in creating a state of ‘complete or virtually complete impunity in Sri Lanka’. – The Economist, 3 Sept 09

“Just three months after the Sri Lankan government declared the country liberated from the Tamil Tigers, video footage has emerged apparently showing government troops summarily executing Tamils.” – Channel 4, 25 Aug 09

Convention on the Rights of the Child – Thousands of children are being held in the interment camps in Sri Lanka with appalling conditions where there is no access to clean water, health care and educational facilities.

“The displaced people, including at least 50,000 children, are being accommodated in 41 camps spread over four districts” – Amnesty International, 7 Aug 2009

As evidenced by the disproportional defence budget allocated to the Sri Lankan armed forces from 2007 - 2009 and the confirmation of the end of the conflict, Sri Lanka cannot currently be classified as “vulnerable” under the qualifying criteria for the GSP+.
The quitting of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) – the international panel set up to monitor a Sri Lankan probe into human rights abuses, the persistent refusal to accept an independent monitoring body on human rights and the ongoing restricted access to aid agencies stand witness to the level of respect for human rights.
“Any government has a clear obligation to have a very thorough investigation in response to an allegation of this type,” - Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Reuters, 1 Sept 09
“One day I was inside the [operating] theatre and the next room was bombed. We had a lot of the treated people left in the room for the doctors to go and monitor and they all died in that shell bomb.” - Damilvany Gnanakumar, British Tamil medic witness to the conflict, The Guardian, 15 Sept 09
We, the undersigned, strongly feel that Sri Lanka has fallen far short of meeting any of the criteria and conditions stipulated by the EU Commission and we urge you to raise the case for the withdrawal of GSP+ to Sri Lanka. Unless a clear message is sent for being in breach of qualifying conditions, like the decision taken by the Council on Belarus, Sri Lanka and other States that enjoy such privileges will continue with human rights violations, lack of systems and governance and maintain status quo.
http://www.tamilsforum.com/petition/

Massive ethnic cleansing is occurring; the Human Rights Council should act for the Tamils

UN Human Rights Council at its12th session in Geneva has concluded general debate on human rights situations that require the council’s attention. Representatives from several countries and NGOs participating in the debate expressed concern about the situation in camps for internally displaced persons in the north of Sri Lanka.

KAREN PARKER, of International Educational Development, said in her statement that there should be institutional reform and study of the root causes of conflicts as essential to transitional justice. In Sri Lanka, the Government resisted any purview of accountability, and was still prosecuting the war against the Tamil people. The only remedy for the latter was to submit to ever-harsher oppression and abuse. The international community had not looked into the underlying causes of the Sinala-Tamil war for many years. The people were in detention camps because they were Tamil, not because they were civilians. The whole issue of this war was because the Tamil people had sought their right to self-determination, among other rights, and the Government had refused them. Massive ethnic cleansing was occurring, and the Council should act for the Tamils.

Excerpts from some of their statements are as follows:

CHRISTIAN STROHAL (Austria) said that no country had a perfect human rights record and all needed to work constantly and self-critically to address their shortcomings and do better for the promotion and protection of human rights. This fact obliged countries to openly address situations that were of particularly concern to them in order to enter into a dialogue on how to improve the implementation of international standards on the ground. Austria pointed to the human rights situations in Iran, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Sudan, which were all situations where Austria failed to see the necessary political will and determination to improve the protection of human rights effectively.

JANICE MCGANN (Ireland) said that the situation in Sri Lanka was over but the peace there remained to be won as serious breaches of humanitarian and human rights law had taken place during that war.

PETER HERTEL RASMUSSEN (Denmark) said the Government of Sri Lanka should fully respect all human rights.

CHRISTINE GOY (Luxembourg) said that Luxembourg was equally concerned for the grave situation in Sri Lanka with regards to the freedom of expression. The situation of internally displaced persons and the allegations of violations of international law during the armed conflict had not yet been the subject of an independent international enquiry, and therefore required particular attention from the Council.

MURIEL BERSET (Switzerland) said that the evolution of the situation in Sri Lanka remained of concern to Switzerland which reiterated its appeal. The humanitarian actors needed to be able to conduct their work without constraints. The holding of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced peoples must end and their safe and voluntary prompt return enabled.

CAROLINE MILLAR (Australia) said Australia remained concerned that over 300,000 civilians remained displaced in camps in northern Sri Lanka.

REINHARD SCHWEPPE (Germany) said as for the situation in Sri Lanka, Germany stressed that reconciliation was strongly based on the full respect of human rights and urged the Sri Lanka Government to create conditions which ensured the safe and dignified return of all internally displaced persons.

WENDY HINTON (New Zealand) said In Sri Lanka, New Zealand remained concerned about the situation for those in camps for internally displaced persons. The Government should engage in a reconciliation process taking into account the legitimate aspirations of all minority groups.

GOTZON ONANDIA ZARRABE, of Franciscans International, said in Sri Lanka, internally displaced persons were not being resettled as promptly nor as safely as the Government promised to the Council, and they continued to suffer within the camps. Human rights defenders, journalists and anyone voicing a differing opinion on the Government’s current policies continued to be the target of violent attacks and harassment by both State and non-State actors.

LUKAS MACHON, of International Commission of Jurists, said in Sri Lanka, humanitarian aid had been continuously obstructed by Government limitations on access to internally displaced persons and the maintenance of internment camps through unjustifiable restrictions on freedom of movement.

MICHAEL ANTONY, of Asian Legal Resource Centre, said the Universal Periodic Review was clearly not a sufficient mechanism to address the worst human rights situations in an effective or timely manner. The Council was currently failing to effectively address situations of human rights crisis, such as those in Sri Lanka and Myanmar; this was not simply a failing of political will, but also one of approach. In Sri Lanka, the continuing grave situation of internally displaced persons was testimony to this.

KAREN PARKER, of International Educational Development, said there should be institutional reform and study of the root causes of conflicts as essential to transitional justice. In Sri Lanka, the Government resisted any purview of accountability, and was still prosecuting the war against the Tamil people. The only remedy for the latter was to submit to ever-harsher oppression and abuse. The international community had not looked into the underlying causes of the Sinala-Tamil war for many years. The people were in detention camps because they were Tamil, not because they were civilians. The whole issue of this war was because the Tamil people had sought their right to self-determination, among other rights, and the Government had refused them. Massive ethnic cleansing was occurring, and the Council should act for the Tamils. There should be a protective presence in Camp Ashraf as soon as possible. The Council should reflect its decision on Honduras in taking a new decision on Myanmar, where a similar situation prevailed.

SATHLYASANGARY ANANDASANGAREE of Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada, said so far the Sri Lankan Government had failed to live up to its commitments to the international community. Over 300,000 Tamil civilians were still being held against their will in open prisons and their freedom of movement restricted; clean water, sanitation, food, medicine and the basic necessities of life were in dire need. The Government had also failed to allow independent observers access to the camps. The deteriorating situation in Sri Lanka desperately required the attention of the Council - the international community must demand the unconditional release of the civilians within the 180-day timeline proposed by the Government of Sri Lanka and supported by a majority of Council members.

NIMALKA FERNAND, of International Movement against all Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), in a joint statement with Asian Forum for Human Rights; and Asian Legal Resource Centre, said with regard to the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, although the war had arguably ended, the threats to democracy as well as the human rights violations had not diminished. Further, over 250,000 people were living in camps as internally displaced persons and a leading human rights defender had received a death threat for his advocacy with the European Union. Against this backdrop, the International Movement Against all Forms of Discrimination and Racism wished to remind the members of the Council, the concerned Member States, the United Nations Secretary-General and other international institutions, of the various commitments and pledges given by the Government of Sri Lanka. It also called on the Sri Lankan Government to facilitate investigations of all allegations that had been revealed by various media institutions regarding extra-judicial killings. Finally, the International Movement Against all Forms of Discrimination and Racism wished to point out that the implementation of the 13th and 17th amendment was still outstanding and national legisla

Injustice and Inequality in an unfair world

“Life is not fair” is a phrase that always echoes in the far corners of this Earth. A fifteen year old boy may have to work sixteen hours a day, in a poor African country just to get one meal a day for his sick mother and five siblings. This may not be the case in many other places in the world. Even the rulers of some poor countries, could be using gold plated toilets and marble baths while the poor hunt for bread crumps in rubbish dumps.

We are now so used to living with other people money without any shame. Resources on this earth are not distributed fairly among its inhabitants. We have built intelligent systems to steal, what belongs to others. Our banks no longer focus much on their traditional roles, instead they employ rocket scientists to build sophisticated gambling machines in order to rob the poor and give to the rich.
Corrupt regimes, can to some extent be blamed for the misery of people in their lands. Instead of setting the people free from such regimes, some of the big players use this as an opportunity to exploit the vulnerable people for their own selfish gains.

Value of life is not the same in every country. When the twin towers fell and three thousands perished, we all knelt down and wept. The whole world came to a stop for few minutes. We declared “War on Terror” against each and every single armed group in the world, including the ones that are genuinely fighting to free their communities from oppressive governments. Hands of the oppressed were tied and the weapons were given to many corrupt Nations. This is what we call Justice today.
Four hundred thousands were slaughtered in Darfur, Eight hundred thousands perished in Rwanda because the terror regimes in these countries were driven by ignorance and greed. No leader in the world declared “War on Genocide” even after seeing millions of deaths. Instead, some of the world powers aided genocide in these poor countries.
Although, the world media still stick with the figure of seventy thousands, the actual number of people, perished in the Sri Lankan civil war is around three hundred thousands. Fifty thousands were killed just within a short period of time in the recent war in Sri Lanka.

We have millions of evidences to prove that a systematic genocide is taking place in Sri Lanka while the Nations are watching. Neither UN nor any other world power is being able to stop the madness that is still going on in this country.
Security Council no longer agrees on any decisions that are vital to save the vulnerable and oppressed people on this earth. Permanent members use their Veto powers just to cover their own dirt and to protect the other bullies in their club.
Our parliamentarians are hanging on to their positions and they are forced to sort out their expense claims to keep their jobs. Leaders of some powerful nations are not being able to focus on the real issues because they are chased after, to give explanations for things they did when they were teenagers. Senior staffs in the UN no longer have the freedom to do what is right. They have to dance according to the tunes played by their masters who have conflicting interests. It has now become a common practice that the leaders in the UN and top diplomats speak the truth only after their retirement.

We have robust systems in place, to protect the criminals and torment the victims. Our legal systems are so advanced that diplomats and politicians have to think hundred times, before making any comments. Just to make life easier, they keep their mouths shut even at times it is important to speak out.

Even during a humanitarian crisis, our leaders would still act like electronic parrots who can only repeat the same recorded words that would comply with national and international laws, just to make sure that they hang on to their jobs. The world is dying for leaders who can at least use their basic common sense to help the persecuted people on this planet.

We talk about political correctness. We are very concerned about little things but we turn a deaf ear, when the real-world calamities strike the mankind. We are planning to stop using Christmas lights in our towns because we think it will offend people from other religions. We are supposed to write “Traces of Nuts” on peanut packets. Doctors have to break their heads before writing prescriptions, because most of the drugs have side effects. They will be sued if something goes wrong. We have been very successful in sending many talented doctors, writers and politicians to the prisons and letting the criminals to roam around our cities.

Praising the Sri Lankan regime for slaughtering thousands of innocents and letting the Tamils to languish in the concentration camps is another example that we have become real hypocrites and jokers who have bigger mouths, smaller brains and corrupt souls. Playing cricket with a country that is flowing with the blood of the innocent men, women and children, shows that we no longer have any moral principles to guide our lives. We are now even quite comfortable to sit and have tea with a Hannibal while his hands are still stained with the blood and his room is filled with the stink of rotting human flesh.

UN Staffs along with the Sri Lankan leaders were happy to fly over the killing fields and blood stained beaches of Sri Lanka, while having their hands on knives and forks.

Emerging powers are turning into blood sucking leeches

The so called emerging superpowers are turning themselves into blood sucking leeches. Nobody can deny that these great nations have security concerns and they have to find a way to feed their own people. That doesn’t mean that they have God given right to slaughter the innocents in third world countries by giving support to the brutal regimes.
We teach our children to share everything because it is always a sensible and the right thing to do. Unfortunately, the great powers in the world still haven’t grasped the idea that gold in the lands and oil in the seas can also be shared. One might be able to forgive, when a country steals the resources from another country but it is completely unacceptable when thousands of innocents are sacrificed at the feet of greedy and selfish giants for them to fill their Gold pots.
If my neighbor wants to kill his step children and dump them in his back garden, I wouldn’t give him my shot gun just because he is offering me a free parking space in his garage. I wouldn’t feed my own children with the strawberries growing on the graves of the innocent children. I wouldn’t be going for his barbecue parties. I wouldn’t play golf with such a murderer.
As a sensible human being, I would stop him from abusing his step children in the first place. I would call the police to save lives before it is too late. I would alert all my good neighbors about a tragedy unfolding in front of my own eyes.
What China and some other emerging powers do to the vulnerable people of this world is nothing different from an evil man who give a shot gun to his neighbor in order to get free parking space and strawberries growing on the graves of the dead children.
China supplied weapons and provided training to the fighter pilots in Sudan. China was giving interest free loans while the Sudan government was slaughtering thousands in Darfur. One doesn’t need to be rocket scientist to recognize that China was acting selfishly.
China was complicit in Genocide as Sudan had opened up its oil fields for this sleeping giant. Western countries raised their voices but nothing was done to stop the genocide. As usual, the UN also stood back and remained powerless until everything was over.
What happened in Darfur has now become a standard model for the big beasts to secure their strategic interests in many parts of the world. They try to find trouble spots in this world, identify the abusive strongman who is having an upper hand and make the oppressor happy by giving him the toys and tools that he enjoys the most.
More than fifty thousands innocent Tamil civilians were slaughtered on the sandy beaches and jungles of Sri Lanka with the weapons and unlimited ammunitions supplied by the Chinese government. Three hundred thousands are now locked up in barbed wired concentration camps.
UN and other international organizations have so far failed to break this cycle of crimes being committed by the superpowers in various parts of the world.
“Exploiting someone’s weakness for their own benefit” is a simple phrase to describe the hell going on in Sri Lanka”. This is just like someone purposely creating a virus, spreading it and then selling the vaccines to make money. An internal conflict in Sri Lanka has now been made worse by its greedy neighbors. They are now lining up with spanners and hammers to fix the problems in Sri Lanka.
The way they are trying to fix it, is quite like how any selfish person would approach an issue. A genuine mediator might get bad name from either parties of a conflict by being fair on both sides. This is what happened to the Norwegian mediators in Sri Lanka. But the ones that are now trying to fix Sri Lanka are helping the strong party to the conflict to destroy the weaker one completely.
Cases are sometimes dropped in courts when the victims are dead or nobody is there to defend the victims. Helping Sri Lanka to kill the Tamils with deadly weapons and make them powerless is the strategy now being used by Sri Lanka and its greedy partners to deal with the conflict? Such method can’t be called as conflict resolution but it is an unfair conflict termination by eliminating one party to the conflict. This is almost like injecting poison and killing the patient to free him from sickness. This approach would enable the emerging superpowers to strengthen their ties with Sri Lanka and to carry on with their hidden agendas.
No country is willing to rescue the dying people in Sri Lanka. What is happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka is not a fairy tale, not a film but it is a real story. They are real people. Cruelty against them is real. Deaths of the thousands are real and the ignorance and arrogance of the mankind are also real.

Masters of War and Silent Spectators

It has taken quite a while for many of us to understand, that what was happening in Sri Lanka was not “War on Terror”. If the war was just against the Tamil Rebels, the so called saviours of this country would have taken all the necessary steps to protect the vulnerable community once the war was over. Rulers of this land are still tormenting innocent Tamil men, women and children inside barbed wired concentration camps, even after crushing the Tamil rebels with the help of China, Pakistan and India. This has become a shocking revelation and eye opener for many parties who were initially supporting the war in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka wants to weaken the Tamils in order to establish a Sinhala Buddhist State. China wants to build ports in the South of Sri Lanka for military and commercial purposes. India wants to neutralize the Chinese threats and to establish its rule in the Indian Ocean. Pakistan has got its own agendas, what an evil combination. They have all been competing with each other to satisfy a country that is determined to flush out all the Tamils.

Sri Lanka has now become a football ground for many countries and the rulers of this land are delighted to entertain the players. Every time a ball is kicked, it kills the innocents and the pitch gets flooded with the blood. Players don’t care about how many are dying because it is part of their evil game.

China and India were the main players in the recent Sri Lankan war. They are still in the pitch, kicking the air. When people were dying in thousands, even the West didn’t do anything to stop; instead we also stood back and watched. We were more interested in finding out who was going to win the game in the Indian Ocean instead of focusing on the humanitarian crisis.

UN has failed to stop the bloodshed. West has failed. All the so called Human Right organizations have failed.

India and its role in Sri Lankan war

India is a successful democracy with the population of 1.17 billion. So many different races, cultures, colours and religions live relatively peacefully. Most of the ethnic groups have their own States and every State in the country is given a degree of autonomy within this great Nation. People of India are mostly religious, hard working and non violent and they still maintain very strong traditional family values.
India hasn’t got a consistent foreign policy towards Sri Lanka. RAW which is the external intelligent agency in India has done great damage to Sri Lanka particularly to the Tamil community. India can’t be fully blamed for this because the Sri Lankan regimes very often make unpredictable moves therefore India is forced to change its policies.
As any other intelligent agency, RAW has a legitimate responsibility to protect India from its enemies, by being proactive. However, India could have achieved its objectives without helping the Sri Lankan government to slaughter thousands of Tamils.
RAW provided military training to the Tamil rebels in the early eighties in order to challenge the Sri Lankan government that had closed links with the Western Countries including the US. Tamil youth were trained in different groups. RAW was also to some extent be responsible for fuelling enmity and competition between different Tamil organizations.
Contrary to what many people believe, it is Indian’s interest to maintain a troubled Sri Lanka than a peaceful nation for India to spread its wings in the region. Disturbance in Sri Lanka would give an excuse for India to keep its Navy in Sri Lankan waters.
Indian peace keeping forces and Tamil rebels fought an unfortunate war between 1987 and 1989. Around twelve hundreds Indian soldiers lost their lives and many thousands were wounded in Sri Lankan soil. This was a bitter experience for India.
From year 2001 until the start of war in 2007, India kept a distance from Sri Lanka, although activities were going on behind the scenes. India stopped supplying offensive weapons to the Sri Lankan military.
Indian involvement in recent Sri Lankan war was quite controversial. China and Pakistan provided with all the weapons and India provided the intelligence to the ground troops.
India was well capable of stopping the war but it failed to do it even when thousands of innocent men women and children were perishing in Vanni. Some Indian leaders made contradictory statements, pretending like they were after peace while pressing the “Attack” buttons on their remote controls.
India may have its concerns that Sri Lanka might become a launch pad for China and Pakistan in its own backyard. Letting the Tamils to die in the hands of the Sri Lankan forces was not an easy option for India either.
India has no enmity with the Tamils in Sri Lanka but it has made a historical blunder by supporting a corrupt Sri Lankan regime to commit genocide against the Tamils just to satisfy a racist Nation, so that it can secure its interest in the Indian Ocean.
Indian forces are now going to occupy the Vanni region with the excuse of clearing land mines.
Nation of India has unfortunately deviated from its principles and core values, it was originally built upon. India might build rockets to the moon and giant monuments reaching to the skies but India will not succeed if it corrupts its own soul by aiding Genocide in other countries.
India should dream of becoming a superpower not just by wealth and technology but also proving to the world as a defender and guardian of Human rights.
Cries of men, women and children, who died in Vanni, are still echoing in the thundering skies of Vanni. These voices will keep on haunting every Indian because India has blood on its hands.

China and its role in Sri Lankan War

China has a total population of 1.33 billion. It is an emerging superpower that manufactures 50% of the items that is used in an average household in the West.
In order to feed all its citizens, to have access to raw materials and energy and to protect its strategic interests, China obviously needs to maintain close relations with countries that have something to offer.
A country that crushed 3000 protesters by rolling tanks in Tienanmen square, China hasn’t got a great reputation for human rights. If a country can’t treat its own citizen’s well, we can’t expect them to be concerned about people dying in other countries.
China has been very aggressive with its foreign policies in recent times. This sleeping giant has woken up and giving support to many corrupt regimes on earth to fulfill its agendas. Sadly, China has directly or indirectly aided genocide in many countries including Sudan and Sri Lanka.
Although, India provided the directions and intelligence for the Sri Lankan war, it was China that had given all the dangerous weapons and ammunitions to kill the Tamils in thousands.
Most of Tamils who died in Sri Lanka were killed by Chinese weapons. Sri Lanka has allowed China to build a controversial Port in the south of Sri Lanka.
Chinese intervention in Sri Lanka is not about defeating the Tamil rebels but to reward the country that had given the permission to build infrastructures in the strategically important Indian Ocean.
Indian intervention in Sri Lankan war is more to do with stopping Sri Lanka going in the hands of other countries, than defeating the Tamil rebels.
In summary, neither China nor India was keen on killing the Tamils. Just like China supported the Sudanese government to commit genocide in Darfur, they supported the Sri Lankan government to slaughter the Tamils in order to look after their strategic interests in the India Ocean.
If China and Pakistan didn’t supply weapons to Sri Lanka, we wouldn’t have seen the recent war in Sri Lanka.

West was deceived by Sri Lanka and its allies

Sri Lankan authorities with its PR partners prepared a dossier to justify the war to the international community. This proposal was submitted to many countries including the EU, US, Norway and Japan.
Sri Lanka and its allies were able to convince many countries that Tamil rebels were a danger to the whole world. They were able to demonize the Tamil community, with lies and deceptions for their own advantage.
Comments made by some Western leaders and Japanese representatives during the war clearly showed that these countries were fully supporting the war in Sri Lanka but they felt very uncomfortable when the war became very dirty at the end. Many openly talked about post LTTE scenarios which means they all had the maps in their hands.
One of the main reasons why the UN and Western countries couldn’t take a strong stand to stop the war even when thousands of innocents were dying was because there were all there when the button was pressed at the start of the War.
Only difference is that the West never gave the approval to kill innocent men, women and children. Sri Lanka was not given the go ahead to send Tamils to barbed wired concentration camps.
Sri Lanka has now deceived the western countries and revealed its true face. Sri Lanka lied to the whole world that it was conducting a war with surgical strikes and “Zero Civilian Causalities”. It also denied that heavy weapons were used against civilians.
Torture, murder, rape and all kind of human right violations in the concentrations camps of Sri Lanka, are now sending shock waves across the world. Deportations of Western reporters, journalists and politicians from the Sri Lankan Airport and denial of access to the death camps of Sri Lanka for aid workers are showing the face of rebellious country that is willing go to any extent to defy international humanitarian laws.

UN no longer has a backbone

No wonder why the UN acted the way it acted during the Sri Lankan war. Staff members in the UN were simply dancing according to the different set of tunes that were played by various parties to the war.
UN who is supposed to be a guardian of the oppressed and vulnerable, remained as a silent spectator while thousands were perishing in the sandy beaches of Sri Lanka.
It is so obvious that UN was manipulated and was made to act in this way by some master magicians.

Master magicians are now trying to save Sri Lanka

China and India voted in favour of Sri Lanka in the human rights council. Their vote was like praising a murderer in a criminal court. Sri Lanka was congratulated by these countries for the war because they were also the culprits.
These two countries have both been involved in high level PR campaigns to hide the war crimes committed by Sri Lanka. Arrogant voice from Sri Lanka in the recent times is to do with its close bonding with India and China.
India has recently said that it would give aid to Sri Lanka in case if the loan from IMF is denied or delayed.
Indian and Chinese media have constantly been releasing news, supporting the Sri Lankan government since the start of the war. Sri Lanka not allowing Aid agencies and Journalists to the IDP camps and to the killing fields is done with the full support of India. This is to hide the war crimes and to silence the witnesses of the war. Three doctors who served thousands of wounded in the killing fields are now locked up in Sri Lankan jails. India is capable of requesting Sri Lanka to release these doctors but it has chosen not to.
Sri Lankan President and many cabinet ministers in Sri Lanka have recently acknowledged that they fought India’s War in Sri Lanka.

Conclusion

Indian and Chinese military, political and security leaders that are playing chess games in Sri Lanka, have caused so much death and destruction to the innocents. What is the point of becoming a superpower when the power is used to kill and destroy the oppressed and vulnerable people of this world?
So called guardians of this earth can use buzz words like Terrorism, National, Regional and International security, Global warming and Energy in international conferences and pretend like the saviors of human race but it is all meaningless when the same hypocrites advise their own governments to aid genocide in other countries.
Instead of playing Tic-Tac-Toe games in the Indian Ocean, China and India and even the West should sit together and discuss what they all want to achieve in the Indian Ocean. China with such a population has genuine energy requirements, India has its concerns and it is sensible for all these countries to find common ground and initiate constructive discussions.
These emerging superpowers should help the oppressed communities in Sri Lanka and other troubled nations on this earth, instead of helping the oppressive regimes and turn these countries into a hell in order to feed their own people.
Earth’s natural resources are being depleted so quickly. It is sensible for the energy hungry Nations to invest heavily on sustainable solutions like Hydrogen technology and Solar power. This would help us to save the planet and avoid human rights violations that are directly linked to the unfair competition between countries for raw materials and energy resources.
Any country that fails to protect the oppressed and vulnerable on this earth, and having worst human rights records, can’t become a leading Nation no matter how many rockets it sends to the Moon.
Fifty thousands were slaughtered in the killings fields by the Sri Lankan government with the help of India and China who are now acting like blood sucking leeches in the Indian Ocean. Three hundred thousands are now languishing in the death camps. Sri Lanka and its allies are doing all that they can to hide their crimes.
Rwanda, Sudan and now Sri Lanka, it is another wake up call to the World.
Genocide in Sri Lanka is real. Innocents are still being tortured, raped, murdered and starved. We have to make a choice whether to let the killings continue or we do something to stop it.