Colombo TelegraphFEBRUARY 21, 2012
IN JOURNALISM TRUTH IS A PROCESS
By Deirdre McConnell -
Deirdre McConnell
During my University time, I supported the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, which was an important issue during the 70s and 80s. My involvement on human rights in Sri Lanka started during the time of widespread disappearances in the South, of Singhalese youth summarily executed in their tens of thousands in the late 80s. Through this, I learnt about the discrimination and oppression of the Tamil people and the long struggle in exercise of their right to self-determination and the approach throughout of the ruling Sinhala political leaders.
Concerning the Tamils’ perspective and hopes for peace, some years back I spoke at a conference in Ottawa, in this beautiful country. Three of those speakers, all human rights defenders, are no more with us. They were killed in Sri Lanka, in cold blood, in broad daylight, within a few years.
Kumar Ponnambalam, an eminent barrister and Joseph Pararajasingham, Member of Sri Lankan Parliament and Taraki Sivaram, well-known senior journalist, all advocated for the rights of Tamils.
I dedicate my talk to these people with whom we worked, and to all those who have died because they chose to defend the human rights of others.To start, I would like to read you a paragraph from a letter written by Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister, University professor and tutor of Queen Elizabeth II, C. Suntharalingam. He writes to then Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, in May 1957:
“I have just studied the press report of your statement to the House on the ‘reasonable use of Tamil’. That statement reminded me of a case of a peculiar criminal. He had inflicted a serious injury on his enemy with a view to murdering him. The victim, fortunately, survived. The criminal, thereupon, invited his victim for a conference to devise a formula about reasonable terms on which the victim should be permitted to live! You have done, and are doing to the Tamils precisely what the criminal sought to do and did with his victim!”
Toronto, Canada.
18 February 2012
*Deirdre McConnell:Director – International Programme -Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR
Above paper given by Deirdre McConnell of the Tamil Centre for Human Rights. She is also author of “The Tamil People’s Right to Self Determination”, published in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, March 2008.On 18th February 2012, a conference organised by the Centre for War Victims and Human Rights (CWVHR) took place in Toronto, Canada. It was attended by 400 participants. The conference title was: “International Protection of Human Rights in the 21st Century and its challenges – Case Study on Sri Lanka”. Papers were presented by professionals, lawyers and intellectuals, followed by questions to the panel and discussion. Five Canadian Members of Parliament, from three political parties participated in the conference.
The speakers were: Ali Beydoun (Director of UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic, working on a lawsuit against Major General Shavendra Silva in USA), Theodore Orlin (International Human Rights Lawyer, who has worked in many parts of the world, including the Balkans),John Argue (Amnesty International), Deirdre McConnell (Director – International Programme, TCHR -Tamil Centre for Human Rights), Rev. Dr S J Emmanuel (Priest, Author and President of the Global Tamil Forum),Danilo Reyes (Asian Human Rights Commission), David Matas(International Human Rights lawyer and specialist in Refugee Law) andProfessor R. Sri Ranjan.
