Hindu-Buddhist Assn writes to Pillay

Priyanka KURUGALA

The Hindu-Buddhist Association in Colombo, has sent a petition to the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navaneethan Pillay, calling for the suppression of all activities of LTTE sympathisers and supporters abroad to ensure lasting peace within Sri Lanka.

The petition signed by members of the Association and Tamils residents of the North and East, had emphasized that the majority who desire peace in the land truly need to enjoy the present peaceful situation, the Hindu-Buddhist Association Colombo Coordinator Arulnesaratnam Ravikumar told the Daily News.

The Hindu-Buddhist Association Colombo Coordinator had sent this petition through its President, T Logeswaran, Hindu-Buddhist Association, Zürich, Switzerland.

It said the people who represent the needs of Tamil people at the UN and protested in front of the UN were not representing the majority.

They represented radicals whose sole intention had been a separate state. Radicals who were unable to accept a cohesive existence, did not contribute in anyway to improve the lives of Tamil people.

Further, it said that in order to prove it, their organization had mobilized its forces on the ground in Sri Lanka at their own expense and commenced this petition, with the hope 'that you would see that the people of Sri Lanka truly wanted to enjoy the peace that came at such a high cost.'

The Hindu-Buddhist Association had sent this petition to the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights with 2,642 signatures of scholars of the Northern and the Eastern provinces.

The Hindu-Buddhist Association said that, "as a people, we never lost hope, for hope was all we had. Now we have something more, peace."

In addition to that, the Hindu-Buddhist Association Colombo Co-ordinator Arulnesaratnam Ravikumar, said that they were collecting 100,000 signatures from the Tamil people who wish for a peaceful country, for a petition to the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights.