SL Diaspora in Italy requests UNSG:

‘Ignore fake Darusman Report’

Sri Lanka Freedom Party president in Italy D G Kumarasinghe, Sri Lanka Association president Ananda Seneviratne and SLFP Women’s Front president Visaka Rajasingha, who are members of the Sri Lankan Diaspora in Italy in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon state:

“Your Excellency,

We, the members of the Sri Lankan Diaspora living in Italy, comprising Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, together with Italians are submitting a special appeal to Your Excellency requesting that you not take any further action on the Darusman Report. We also wish to mention that as signatories to the petition, we support, wholeheartedly, your re-election bid to continue your work for another term as the Secretary General of the august body. We believe our Government in Sri Lanka and all other Governments, who are friends of Sri Lanka, would support your candidature to ensure your re-election.

We, the Sri Lankan Diaspora, resident in Italy, are pacifist. We believe that all war is evil, whether it is endorsed by convention or moral obligation or by pseudo ratification from anybody as it entails human suffering and civilian casualties.

History is replete with such atrocities suffered by human beings and civilians due to wars, whether they were the Great Punic wars between Rome and Carthage or the recent drone attacks in Libya, where in the capital, Tripoli, several children, women and civilians were killed, or whether in the name of destroying Weapons of Mass Destruction invading a sovereign state of Iraq even without the sanction of your Security Council which resulted in the death of from 101,360 -111,720 civilians. Your esteemed predecessor Kofi Annan unequivocally stated and admitted that invasion of Iraq by US and UK forces was illegal. Similarly, in Afghanistan, after the invasion, the civilian casualties have been rising and this has caused many children and women to die in attacks carried out by aircraft, perceived to be targeting terrorists groups. Your Excellency, most wars are wars of invasion. The recent civilian uprisings in the Middle East are against dictatorships where people are yearning for democracy.

The Sri Lankan ethnic conflict was not an invasion, neither was it a war nor was it an offensive directed at removing a megalomaniacal dictator, who had caused nearly 100,000 people to die due to his acts of terrorism. We have enjoyed independence and democracy for the last 63 years. Our nation is one of the longest surviving democracies in Asia. We have enjoyed universal franchise for more than 100 years. This peaceful environment and democratic traditions that have lasted for nearly hundred years and ethnic harmony which lasted for centuries were shattered by a megalomaniac terrorist who ruled the North and the East and his terrorist outfit was described by the Central Intelligence Agency in America as the most ruthless and most powerful terrorist organization in the world. This terrorist introduced the concept of the suicide bombers and perfected the suicide kit. His knowledge and expertise in terrorism was exported to other major terrorist groups in the world including Al-Qaida and Taliban. After the introduction of the suicide bomber, world peace had been shattered. It has engulfed the Middle East and other parts of the civilized world. The world is without a strategic answer to the concept of human beings willing to kill themselves for a cause and the whole strategy of winning a war by killing the enemy without killing yourself has been rejected by this ingenious method of terror introduced by this terrorist and the civilians had been the main target of these suicide missions.

We Sri Lankan Tamils, especially those living in Palermo, Reggio Emila and Lecce, have come to Italy as refugees to escape the terror unleashed by the megalomaniacal terrorist Velupillai Prabhakaran, who killed anyone who refused to obey his orders. Our children were taken as soldiers. Together, with our Sri Lankan Sinhalese brethren, we suffered 30 years in a veritable hell hole with human bombs, car bombs and landmines killing and maiming more than 100,000 Sri Lankans, irrespective of their ethnicity. No Government, International Agency or NGO would dare to identify and point the finger at Velupillai Prabhakaran and make an appeal to the UN or any other body to arrest and bring him to justice for the crimes against humanity or war crimes. Instead, many of these agencies purportedly and covertly supported the organization though it was prohibited as an illegal outfit and the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world. Those who are trying to accuse the Sri Lankan Government today are the very people who supported the terrorists killing civilians with impunity, killing women and children only made headlines in Sri Lanka and did not make any impact the world over. All Presidents of our country, out of desperation to end this conflict and bring peace and happiness to the citizens of our country, strived to engage in political dialogue with the terrorist. The result was that they were killed or maimed along with other political leaders who believed in settling the dispute by discussion. The killing of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did not warrant these organizations to call for an international inquiry or frame charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity. Instead, the Western media refused to call V. Prabhakaran or his gang as terrorists.

Excellency, for thirty years we have suffered in silence. Our mothers, sisters and children died due to terrorism, our political leaders were assassinated. The only path left for some of us was to become refugees in another country. Thousands left for India. Thousands migrated to other countries expecting liberation from terrorism. Today we have been liberated. Our citizens in the North and East have been moved out from Camps and they are breathing a sigh of relief as their children are safe from being conscripted as child soldiers. Everyone is cherishing the democratic ideals and is in pursuit of happiness. Most Sri Lankans in Italy are making arrangements to return to Sri Lanka and enjoy the newly found freedom. Today, there is unbelievable racial harmony, camaraderie and fellowship amongst the Sinhalese, Tamils and the Muslims. Sri Lankans have forgotten the deep scars and wounds inflicted during the ethnic conflict. Even those who suffered during the last stages of the war found new found happiness in democracy where racial tension and hatred have healed and are being healed. Ethnic violence has been relegated to history and we are living as brethren as one great family.

Therefore, any attempt by any group to dig into the past and open the wounds that have been healing would create suspicion amongst the various ethnic groups and would only result in bringing back the demons of the past, founded upon ethnic diversity, racial hatred and terrorism. Therefore, as a man of great learning and a man who has been elevated to one of the most important positions in the World and further being an Asian, we are assured you would not consider creating divisions among the peaceful environment that exists in Sri Lanka. We believe in the remarks you have made that you have no power or any authority to take any further action on a report by an advisory committee appointed by you. We also take this opportunity to thank the Rome-based UN Agencies such as FAO and IFAD who had helped during this conflict and other UN Agencies (UNHCR) for the assistance to refugees. Sri Lanka, as the first and the only country in the world which has defeated terrorism, has to be supported in its endeavour to bring back civilian administration to the fore.

We expect Your Excellency to support the initiative of the Government to rehabilitate the hardcore terrorists and resettle the displaced people in their homes and help the Government to expedite the demining process. This would be the greatest contribution made by you as a Secretary General to ensure long lasting peace, brotherhood, and equanimity prevails amongst the various ethnic groups in Sri Lanka.

Assuring you of our highest consideration.”