GTF vows to discourage C’wealth leaders visiting Colombo

Govt hits back at TNA, GTF

by Shamindra Ferdinando-April 29, 2013, 9:20 pm 

 The UK based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) yesterday vowed to intensify its campaign aimed at discouraging the Queen and main member states from attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM 2013) though its project to thwart the meeting failed.

GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran told The Island that it would go all out against the Sri Lankan government to make it impossible for world leaders to shake hands with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Surendiran echoed Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M. Sumanthiran’s assertion that the authoritarian government shouldn’t be given the honour for hosting the summit.

Government sources said that the likes of MP Sumanthiran and Suren had been silent when the LTTE was running the show. At the LTTE’s behest the TNA had to declare the terrorists as sole representatives of Tamil speaking people way back in late 2001, while the GTF came into being in the British parliament in February 2010 after the eradication of the LTTE. They remained silent as long as they felt the LTTE could overwhelm the military, sources said. Had the government failed on the Vanni front, MP Sumanthiran and Surendiran would not have dared to issue a statement without consulting Prabhakaran.

The GTF official insisted that it wouldn’t give its struggle against the government. Responding to a query, Surendiran reacted angrily to Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma’s declaration that Colombo could go ahead with CHOGM 2013. Surendiran said that the Commonwealth would soon become irrelevant unless Commonwealth leaders and its Secretary General Sharma followed Commonwealth doctrine.

How could they allow the Sri Lankan leadership to get away with indiscriminate military action? Surendiran queried, alleging such international gatherings would only sanitize the murderous Sri Lankan regime.

Asked whether a fresh campaign would be launched against Sri Lanka, Surendiran said that it would aggressively campaign in the UK, Canada, New Zealand, India, Malaysia as well as many other countries to discourage their leaders from visiting Colombo in November.

Surendiran said: "The core values and principles of the Commonwealth, are as stated in the recently signed charter: inter alia to democracy, human rights, the rule of law, separation of powers, freedom of expression, good governance, tolerance, respect and understanding and the role of civil society. As the custodian of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values, the Group pledged to continue to promote these commonly agreed goals."

Although the government had claimed war victory, the military remained deeply involved in civilian affairs at the expense of the Tamil community, Surendiran said. "Government sponsored attacks on media institutions, government sponsored premeditated attacks on the Muslim faith, the lack of independence in the judiciary, the undemocratic features of the 18th amendment to the country’s Constitution, corruption, economic mismanagement, government sponsored colonisation, forced evictions and land grabbing remained contentious issues," the GTF official said.