Countrywide Census: GTF won’t cooperate with GoSL…calls for ‘regime change’

By Shamindra Ferdinando-April 10, 2013,

 The UK based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) yesterday said that it wouldn’t cooperate with the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) as long as President Mahinda Rajapaksa remained in power.

The GTF was responding to a query by The Island on whether it would support GoSL efforts to establish the number of dead, missing and those who left the country through legal and illegal means since 1982.

GTF spokesperson Suren Surendiran said that Tamil speaking people living in Sri Lanka as well as the Tamil Diaspora had no faith in investigations undertaken by the GoSL. Surendiran alleged that the GoSL was one of the main perpetrators of atrocities committed on the Vanni front during the final phase of the conflict.

He said that those who represented the interests of Tamil speaking people would cooperate only with an independent international investigation. "We’ll cooperate voluntarily and furnish all available information to independent investigators," Surendiran said, alleging that Defence Secretary   Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Economic Affairs Minister Basil Rajapaksa had been directly implicated in atrocities, including alleged execution of some LTTE cadres during the last 72 hours of the government offensive.

As long as the Rajapaksas remained in power, there couldn’t be an independent international investigation, Surendiran said, adding that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), appointed by President Rajapaksa, too, was not acceptable to the Tamil community. The GTF said that the LLRC consisted of persons who had previously defended the dictatorial government, both in Sri Lanka and abroad, therefore they couldn’t be taken seriously.

Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya told The Island that those wanting to know the whereabouts of people missing during the conflict should cooperate with the GoSL. Various parties well known for hatchet jobs, including one-time UN spokesman in Colombo Gordon Weiss and former BBC correspondent Frances Harrison had given varying figures, the official said. The GTF and its associates would never cooperate with GoSL inquiry as they would be exposed, Brigadier Wanigasuriya said, emphasizing that it would be the responsibility of those interested in the wellbeing of post-war Sri Lanka to help establish the war dead.

Defence and External Affairs ministries told The Island that thousands of persons categorized as dead and missing could be living abroad, with some of them even having new identities. Sources acknowledged that the government had never realized the gravity of the situation until the revelation that Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) leader Kumar Gunaratnam had obtained a new Australian passport under the assumed name of Noel Mudalige. With that Kumar Gunaratnam had ceased to exist, therefore another missing person added to the list, sources said. A combined effort was needed to track down those living abroad while they remained here on a list of missing persons, sources said. Colombo based diplomatic missions were aware of the problem, sources said, adding that among those listed as missing could be illegal migrants who died on the high seas trying to reach Australia.

Tamil genocide framework highlighted in Slovenia Conference

[TamilNet, Thursday, 11 April 2013, 11:14 GMT]
The framework of genocide carried by Colombo on Eelam Tamils is featured in a poster presentation at the Slovenia conference on R2P being held in the Faculty of Law, University of Lkubljana, Thursday by Tamils Against Genocide [TAG], a US-UK based activist organization, the conference details reveal. More than 80 speakers and poster presenters from almost 40 states and international institutions will discuss issues regarding R2P in 2 parallel panels each day, according to the conference program. 

TAG's Tamil Genocide Poster to be presented at the conference

TAG's poster outlines how the failure of United Nations doctrine, Responsibility to Protect failed in Sri Lanka, and points out the Petrie report statement:

“The concept of a ‘Responsibility to Protect’ was raised occasionally during the final stages of the conflict, but to no useful result. Differing perceptions among Member States and the Secretariat of the concept’s meaning and use had become so contentious as to nullify its potential value. Indeed, making references to the Responsibility to Protect was seen as more likely to weaken rather than strengthen UN action. The events in Sri Lanka highlight the urgent need for the UN to update its strategy for engagement with Member States in situations where civilian populations caught up in the midst of armed conflicts are not protected in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law.”

Asserting that Genocide is "Clear and Uncontestable grounds for R2P," TAG's statement lays out the present state of affairs, as:

Enduring Militarization. Rejection of a political solution. Lack of accountability. Cultural genocide. Demographic reconfiguring.

TAG research (‘Returnees at Risk’ and ‘Activist Intimidation’) has identified that the GoSL defines ‘traitor’ and ‘terrorist’ broadly to include both those who call for accountability for crimes committed before during and after Eelam IV, and those who are considered to bring Sri Lanka into international disrepute, such as asylum seekers and protesters. Commensurate with its assessment of the threat, the GoSL allocates resources to collecting (both through surveillance and interrogations) and then acting upon that threat.

The International Community mirror Sri Lankan rhetoric and reasoning, and vice versa, and are appeased by talk of Counter – Terrorism, Development and Reconciliation.

and says, that the State is the problem,

The fetishisation of the State. The bias towards the State. The presumptions regarding a State.

The near infallibility of an existing State and the reluctance to recognise new States.

The sacred cow of “Sovereignty”, then and now. There were a myriad of reasons for the reluctance to intervene in 2009 and today, including considerations of humanitarian access, the hope for diplomacy but also geo-political, strategic and national interest concerns.

and concludes:

Recognise that this is an on-going situation not an historical case study.

Through adoption of a post colonial critique, dispense with attempts to’solve’ that apply universal prescriptions without consideration of local specificities.

Demand as the first step an International Independent inquiry that embraces the historical context in order to expose the scale of the crimes by the State, both historic crimes and on-going human rights violations.

TAG-UK's Henrietta Briscoe is presenting the information at the poster session, according to TAG.