Geneva vote: GTF appreciates US role, not entirely satisfied with resolution

…requests SF to join their campaign

March 24, 2013, 12:00 pm 

By Shamindra Ferdinando

While appreciating US efforts at the recently concluded United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in Geneva, the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) said that the second US resolution targeting Sri Lanka didn’t meet the expectations of Tamil speaking people.

The GTF asserted that it was a grave lapse on the part of those who had sponsored the resolution to still believe there could be an independent and impartial domestic investigation into accountability issues in Sri Lanka.

In an exclusive interview with The Island, Suren Surendiran, UK based spokesperson for the GTF, said that leaving the investigation in the hands of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was unacceptable and unbearable.

The Diaspora established the GTF in the British parliament in Feb 2010 in the wake of the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.

The GTF is considered the most influential and internationally accepted Tamil Diaspora grouping that represents the interests of Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka.

Asked whether the GTF was satisfied with the outcome of last Thursday’s Geneva vote, Surendiran said that Tamil speaking people really appreciated efforts by a section of the US-led international community to keep the accountability issue alive. "We are grateful to those 39 governments, which co-sponsored the resolution. We consider 25 votes for the resolution and 13 against an overwhelming victory for our cause," Surendiran said.

Unfortunately, the resolution had failed to ensure an international investigation, which was nothing but a prerequisite for credible investigation. Could there be anything as ridiculous as allowing those who had been in charge of armed forces at the time of eelam war IV to conduct a domestic investigation, Surendiran said. The GTF spokesperson accused the government of causing the deaths of thousands of innocent people during the final phase of the offensive on the Vanni east front.

Surendiran said that those in the international community supportive of their cause should realize that the government had no desire to conduct a credible investigation. He claimed that the situation had worsened since the impeachment of Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake at the behest of the government. Therefore, the international community should demand that Sri Lanka agree to an external probe without further delay, Surendiran said, insisting the GTF would continue its campaign until the global community intervened in Sri Lanka.

Responding to another query, Surendiran said that the resolution had failed to address several contentious issues as well as legitimate grievances of Tamil speaking people, including state sponsored land grab, ‘Sinhalisation’ of predominately Tamil areas and heavy presence of the armed forces in the conflict zone. "What we really need is a stronger resolution which will compel the government to ensure a political solution and address legitimate aspirations of Tamil speaking people, " Surendiran said, adding that the international community should examine the grievances of Sinhalese as well as Muslims. The GTF official alleged that Sinhalese and Muslims, too, had been deprived of their right to express their views, with the latter being under attack by state-sponsored thugs. The Muslims were under threat and recent protests in Colombo and its suburbs directed against Muslims over contentious Halal issue revealed the rapidly deteriorating situation, he said.

Surendiran praised United Nations Rights Chief Navi Pillay calling for an international mechanism to conduct an independent investigation into alleged crimes, which if proven, would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Commenting on the US presenting a much diluted resolution to secure GoSL’s consent to present a joint proposal hence avoid a vote, Surendiran said that the Sri Lankan leadership would never accept any resolution that would demand an International independent investigation. However, amendments to original resolution meant that the government would not want any independent investigation to address accountability or give access to special mandate holding international rapporteurs or accept the demand for a political solution to the Tamil National Question.

Asked whether the GTF would make representations to the government of Malaysia over its decision to abstain at the Geneva vote, Surendiran said the grouping was grateful to the 25 countries (53%) out of the 47 countries with voting rights which voted yes to the resolution. "We are also grateful to the eight countries, including Malaysia for abstaining rather than opposing the resolution. This gave an overwhelming 33 (25 plus 8) countries plus Gabon which didn’t participate in the voting hence rejecting the misrepresentation of the ground reality by the Sri Lankan government, through Ambassador Ravinatha Ariyasinghe and Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.

"Let me make this absolutely clear to the wavering mind, if any of these 34 countries (25 plus 8 plus Gabon) (72% of the voting countries) accepted Sri Lanka’s position articulated by Amb. Ariyasinghe and Minister Samarasinghe, they would have voted against the resolution just as the 13 (28%) countries which did."

Surendiran expressed surprise that Muslim countries threw their weight behind Sri Lanka in spite of President Rajapaksa’s government harassing the Muslim community. The GTF urged Muslim countries to review their position in the wake of ongoing attacks on the community. The Muslims were being threatened and prevented from practicing their religion, he said, adding that they should be concerned about attempts to ban Hijab in some schools in Sri Lanka.

The GTF would continue to engage all countries, including those who had sided with Sri Lanka, in line with their strategy to push for an international independent investigation into crimes alleged to have been committed by both sides.

Surendiran declined to reveal their plans as it could be detrimental to their project. Now that the Geneva vote had been secured, the GTF would step up campaigning in Commonwealth countries in a fresh bid to force a cancellation of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka next November.

Asked whether the GTF was surprised by former Army Chief recently disputing Channel 4 News report pertaining to the alleged killing of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s son by the Sri Lankan army, Surendiran said that if Gen. Fonseka was confident his troops weren’t guilty of war crimes, he as a free man should himself go to international authorities to be investigated voluntarily. Gen Fonseka could also join the ongoing GTF campaign pushing for an international independent investigation to prove his innocence.

Surendiran said that Gen. Fonseka was now making an attempt to change what he said in the run-up to the last presidential election. The GTF recalled the circumstances under which he accused Defence Secretary Rajapaksa of ordering the army to kill even those carrying white flags during the final phase of the battle. Surendiran warned that the GTF would release further evidence to support war crimes allegations in the run-up to major international events, including CHOGM.