[TamilNet, Monday, 28 November 2011, 11:21 GMT]If the war is over and the Tamil people have been ‘liberated’ from the ‘terrorists’ and ‘rehabilitated’, then why does the Sri Lankan government still not allow access to international groups in Tamil areas, asks Brian Senewiratne in a hard-hitting series of questions to Sri Lankan High Comissioner to Australia. Dr. Senewiratne, a renowned physician and an Australia based Sinhala expatriate, produced posers to ex-Admiral Thissara Samarasinghe using evidence from the UN report, Channel 4 video and other sources. The ex-Admiral, incidentally, is also alleged of war crimes and there have been calls in Australia to investigate his role in the genocide of the Eelam Tamils.
“Are you aware of the internationally accepted ‘Command Responsibility’, that all those all the way to the top, be they military leaders or civilians (such as your President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Secretary of Defence,. and some of these military men including yourself, could be held responsible?” asks Dr. Senewiratne to Samarasinghe.
Commenting on the TNA’s Situation Report of October 2011, he says “What have you to say about this Report? Is it your position that the elected representatives of the Tamil people in the North and East of your country are lying? If so, why do you not allow Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and International Crisis Group, free access to the Tamil areas so that they can confirm or refute what has been tabled in your parliament by your parliamentarians? Is it the fear that these groups will confirm, and even document a worse situation that what has been tabled?”
The paranoia of the Sri Lankan government to engage even with the UN report and ICG, that neither recognize genocide and structural genocide nor approve of the rights of the Tamil people to political self-determination, which proves the intention to continue the process of genocide into the future, has been brought out by Dr. Senewiratne.
“Your Government seems to be facing a range of crises – an unresolved ethnic crisis (yes, Ambassador, it is unresolved and even aggravated), a crisis of democracy and free speech, a crisis of law and order, a crisis of corruption now described as ‘mega-corruption’ going all the way to the top, a crisis in transparency, and above all, a crisis of deception and blatant dishonesty. While truth is the first casualty of war, it should not be in peacetime which your Government claims is the situation now in your country.”
The full text of his article is below:
Questions for the Sri Lanka Ambassador of your country
Brian Senewiratne
Brisbane, Australia
