How TGTE tries UN card
TGTE’s call for a UN monitored protection mechanism
in North and East :
Lakshman I.Keerthisinghe LLB, LLM.MPhil,
Attorney-at-Law
Behold how good and
how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity.
-Bible Psalms
At the TGTE’s International Conference held in Lancaster, Pensylvania
USA in May 15-18, 2013, Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah Chairperson of the
purported TGTE Senate presented a paper calling for the establishment if
a UN Monitored International Protection Mechanism in the North and East
of Sri Lanka.(Colombo Telegraph May 25, 2013)
The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a purported
government in exile among the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora which aims to
keep alive the idea of Tamil Eelam a state which TGTE aspires to create
in the North and East provinces of Sri Lanka. Visvanathan Rudrakumaran
is the Prime Minister of the Provisional Transitional Government of
Tamil Eelam. He was the former legal advisor to the (LTTE). By
profession he is a lawyer in the USA. He is currently a US citizen and
lives in New York.
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Rudrakumaran is the son of the former Jaffna Mayor Viswanathan. He
studied at Jaffna Central College and Colombo Law College Prior to the
military defeat of the LTTE, he was the international legal advisor to
the barbaric leader of the LTTE Velupillai Prabhakaran and was the head
of its international and diplomatic affairs.
Peace talks
Rudrakumaran made valuable contributions to the LTTE, including
coordinating lawyers in the defense in Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case,
assisting in Suresh Manikkavasagam trial in Canada and challenging US
decision to name LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997. He
has represented the LTTE in several peace talks with the Government of
Sri Lanka.
Speaking about the fast of her husband Dr.Bawan Sri Skandarajah
calling for a separate homeland in the North and East of Sri Lanka which
lasted six days in Toronto, Canada Usha Sri Skandarajah stated thus:
‘Yet I was strong and I know from where I got that strength.
It was the will and resolve we both have to stand and be counted
together with our freedom fighters and many hundred and thousands of
fellow Tamils involved in the struggle to emancipate our homeland;
further strengthened by our faith in the divine and our constant efforts
to connect with IT.’(Source:Tamil Nation.Org)
Canadian authorities
The TGTE has been very correctly called a "ploy to perpetuate
terrorism" by the Government of Sri Lanka Formed following the defeat of
the LTTE and the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the TGTE is based
internationally, including in Canada, the UK, Norway and the USA.
Initially it was Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias Kumaran Pathmanathan
also known as KP, who had become leader of the Tamil Tigers after
Prabhakaran had been killed by the Security Forces, who proposed that a
government in exile be established. Presently KP had realized the grave
mistakes committed by the LTTE and is engaged in the welfare of his
brethren in the North and East.
Usha speaking at the TGTE’s International Conference held in
Lancaster, Pensylvania USA in May 15-18, said that;
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‘The TGTE Senate in a document entitled, ‘The Roadmap to Achieving
the Restoration of an Independent Sovereign State of Tamil Eelam – A
Work in Progress’, presented at the 4th Annual Assembly convened in
London, UK in December 2012, said it was pleased that the TGTE is giving
this initiative high priority and made recommendations for action that
included:
* Lobbying for the setting up of an ‘International Protection
Mechanism’ to uphold the safety and rights of the Tamil people in their
land of Sri Lanka.
* Drawing up a Paper on the legal issues, precedents and new
possibilities; approach sympathetic governments, groups, and individuals
to take this up at global forums.
* Calling for the immediate lifting of the ban by the Sri Lankan
government 'on credible international human rights organizations'
obtaining free access into the North-East with recommendations to demand
and campaign for the immediate admission without conditions and
restrictions INGOs such as Amnesty International (a Nobel Peace Prize
Winner), Human Rights Watch and International Crisis Group into the
North-East.
* Demanding free access to the North-East to members of the
International Media without conditions and restrictions.
* Encouraging Investigative Journalists to report on the situation
(on the ground) in Sri Lanka.’
It is important to note the partiality of the Amnesty International
(referred to above by Usha as a Nobel Prize Winner) towards the TGTE
after having accepted a donation of Canadian Dollars 50,000 from one of
its front organizations as admitted by its Director.
In a report dated February 8, 2012 in Khaleed Times written by
Qadijah Irshad the Sri Lankan government has questioned human rights
watchdog Amnesty International’s objectivity after the organisation
received 50,000 Canadian dollars from a pro-LTTE group, the Canadian
Tamil Congress (CTC).
The $50,000 donation to Amnesty International which has consistently
taken a pro-LTTE stance despite the Tamil Tigers being proscribed as a
terrorist organization by the UN and most countries including Canada,
was officially announced by CTC head Suntharamoorthy Umasuthan at the
annual Thai Pongal dinner in Scarborough.
It was reported that Ontario Premier Dalton Mc Guinty was a special
guest at the fund raiser, along with Sri Lankan Tamil National Alliance
(TNA) parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran. Umasuthan in his address,
thanked Canadian Premier Stephan Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister
John Baird for supporting their cause.
One could discern the influence the TGTE commands over the Canadian
Authorities resulting in their subsequent refusal to attend the CHOGM to
be held in Colombo this November.
In the end quote to her speech, Usha said that;
‘Are we seeing the realization of a ‘UN monitored International
Protection Mechanism’ through the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights who has been mandated to monitor the Sri Lankan government
under monitoring powers authorized by the UN Human Rights Council
Resolution passed at the 22nd session?
As a consequence it is now conceivable that as per TGTE’s call a ‘UN
monitored International Protection Mechanism’, in the form of UN field
presence, even an office in the North-East to monitor human rights
abuses might hopefully become a reality and must happen sooner than
later considering the urgent need for monitoring in a highly militarized
North-East that’s governed by an autocratic regime.’
Unfair accusations
The speech contained many unfair accusations against the Sri Lankan
government unsupported by substantial proof.
The rehabilitation and re-integration in to society of thousands of
former LTTE cadres without any punishment by even going to the extent of
providing them with shelter and means of livelihood, the re-settlement
of internally displaced persons and the improvement of infrastructure
facilities in the North and East were totally overlooked in this one
sided presentation by Usha.
The time has come for the Government of Sri Lanka to initiate counter
measures and make the international community aware of the devious
methods used by the separatist elements to destabilize the regime in
order to protect our motherland from this separatist propaganda which is
being spread relentlessly almost by the day.
The government’s resolve to keep the North and East under constant
surveillance is a move in the right direction given these circumstances
in order to safeguard the security of our country without permitting it
to descend in to the mire that all Sri Lankans experienced during the
three decades of miserable civil strife.
It is regrettable that the Sri Lankan Diaspora living abroad are in
this manner misguided to lobby for unwarranted foreign intervention in
our motherland thereby violating its sovereignty in order to foster
their separatist agenda to divide our island nation in to parts which
should be resisted by all patriotic Sri Lankans here and abroad.
In conclusion let all Sri Lankans hope and pray that that glorious
day will soon dawn when national reconciliation becomes a reality and
all Sri Lankans could live together in peace, harmony and unity as
stated in the Bible quoted at the outset of this piece.
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