Enterprise Sri Lanka & 'Arise Tamil' in Jaffna
By Manekshaw- Sep 14 2019
It was exactly a week after Ministry of Finance successfully conducted a mega exhibition titled `Enterprise Sri Lanka' in Jaffna to encourage investments on new trade and industrial ventures in Northern Province, Tamil Peoples Council (TPC) led by former Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran has come forward to organising a mega rally next Monday (16) titled Eluga Thamil (Arise Tamil).
According to the organisers of the rally, creating awareness on unresolved post-war grievances is their intention. They also pointed out as the main political parties from the South were focusing on Northern and Eastern Provinces to attract the voters for the next Presidential Election, the TPC wanted to protect the voters from blindly getting carried away by false promises.
The TPC was also extremely critical of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) misleading the North and East voters at the previous Presidential and Parliamentary Polls in connivance with the major political parties in the South.
So, the TPC which is getting ready for the rally started flexing its muscles very much before the Southern parties embark on election rallies in the North and the East relating to the forthcoming Presidential Poll.
Southern Parties
The TPC thinks that starting with its efforts early to create awareness among North and East voters, Southern parties could be very well exposed over their election campaign gimmicks.
In support of TPC's rally in Jaffna, several rallies will be held on the same day under the same theme in several cities around the world and outside the UN Headquarters in New York as well as at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to the organisers of the rally.
In the backdrop of TPC planning to hold the mega `Arise Tamil' rally in Jaffna the United Nations Human Rights Council core group on Sri Lanka led by the United Kingdom has expressed its disappointment over the slow progress in implementing the UNHRC resolution to strengthen peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.
Therefore, the demands to be highlighted by the TPC at the Jaffna rally are very much a reflection of the contents of the UNHRC resolution which remain unimplemented as it was agreed upon by Sri Lanka when the country co-sponsored the resolution in Geneva a few years ago.
The six demands which are going to be emphasised by the TPC at its rally in Jaffna are as follows:
1)Stop Sinhalese colonisation of Tamil homeland.
2)Bring Sri Lankan war criminals to face international justice.
3)Release all Tamil political prisoners.
4)Take immediate steps to conduct impartial, international investigation about the enforced disappeared.
5)Stop militarisation of Tamil areas.
6) Take steps to resettle all those displaced due to the war in their original places.
Tamil political organisations
Several civil society organisations, Tamil political organisations, trade unions, university students, families of the involuntarily disappeared, religious leaders, academics, war victim groups and others are expected to join hands with the TPC in its rally.
TPC's rally to alert the North and East voters over the pledges to be made by the Southern political parties in their campaigns in the North and the East will even remain a challenge to the TNA over taking a firm stance with regard to the forthcoming Presidential Poll.
As far as North and East voters are concerned they feel that the present regime which was brought into power in 2015 mainly due to their support and the regime even survived when it faced challenges in Parliament as a result of the support given by their representatives in Parliament.
Former LTTE strongman who later became a Deputy Minister during the Rajapaksa regime, at a meeting supporting Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Batticaloa a few days ago said, that the regime brought to power by TNA couldn't even release a single Tamil political prisoner in the past four years whereas former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had released twelve thousand LTTE cadres who had surrendered to the Security Forces after rehabilitating them.
It is ten years since the war came to an end in 2009. The extremism in Tamil politics also died down when the three decades war was ended with the annihilation of the armed terrorists.
Therefore, while last week's Enterprise Sri Lanka exhibition held in Jaffna was highlighting the intention of the Government to attract youth entrepreneurs in Jaffna, TPC's intention of highlighting Government's failure in resolving several post-war humanitarian issues at the rally to be held on Monday clearly indicates that the Government had failed to strike a balance between its post-war development activities as well as resolving the post-war humanitarian issues.
According to the organisers of the rally, creating awareness on unresolved post-war grievances is their intention. They also pointed out as the main political parties from the South were focusing on Northern and Eastern Provinces to attract the voters for the next Presidential Election, the TPC wanted to protect the voters from blindly getting carried away by false promises.
The TPC was also extremely critical of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) misleading the North and East voters at the previous Presidential and Parliamentary Polls in connivance with the major political parties in the South.
So, the TPC which is getting ready for the rally started flexing its muscles very much before the Southern parties embark on election rallies in the North and the East relating to the forthcoming Presidential Poll.
Southern Parties
The TPC thinks that starting with its efforts early to create awareness among North and East voters, Southern parties could be very well exposed over their election campaign gimmicks.
In support of TPC's rally in Jaffna, several rallies will be held on the same day under the same theme in several cities around the world and outside the UN Headquarters in New York as well as at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, according to the organisers of the rally.
In the backdrop of TPC planning to hold the mega `Arise Tamil' rally in Jaffna the United Nations Human Rights Council core group on Sri Lanka led by the United Kingdom has expressed its disappointment over the slow progress in implementing the UNHRC resolution to strengthen peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.
Therefore, the demands to be highlighted by the TPC at the Jaffna rally are very much a reflection of the contents of the UNHRC resolution which remain unimplemented as it was agreed upon by Sri Lanka when the country co-sponsored the resolution in Geneva a few years ago.
The six demands which are going to be emphasised by the TPC at its rally in Jaffna are as follows:
1)Stop Sinhalese colonisation of Tamil homeland.
2)Bring Sri Lankan war criminals to face international justice.
3)Release all Tamil political prisoners.
4)Take immediate steps to conduct impartial, international investigation about the enforced disappeared.
5)Stop militarisation of Tamil areas.
6) Take steps to resettle all those displaced due to the war in their original places.
Tamil political organisations
Several civil society organisations, Tamil political organisations, trade unions, university students, families of the involuntarily disappeared, religious leaders, academics, war victim groups and others are expected to join hands with the TPC in its rally.
TPC's rally to alert the North and East voters over the pledges to be made by the Southern political parties in their campaigns in the North and the East will even remain a challenge to the TNA over taking a firm stance with regard to the forthcoming Presidential Poll.
As far as North and East voters are concerned they feel that the present regime which was brought into power in 2015 mainly due to their support and the regime even survived when it faced challenges in Parliament as a result of the support given by their representatives in Parliament.
Former LTTE strongman who later became a Deputy Minister during the Rajapaksa regime, at a meeting supporting Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Batticaloa a few days ago said, that the regime brought to power by TNA couldn't even release a single Tamil political prisoner in the past four years whereas former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had released twelve thousand LTTE cadres who had surrendered to the Security Forces after rehabilitating them.
It is ten years since the war came to an end in 2009. The extremism in Tamil politics also died down when the three decades war was ended with the annihilation of the armed terrorists.
Therefore, while last week's Enterprise Sri Lanka exhibition held in Jaffna was highlighting the intention of the Government to attract youth entrepreneurs in Jaffna, TPC's intention of highlighting Government's failure in resolving several post-war humanitarian issues at the rally to be held on Monday clearly indicates that the Government had failed to strike a balance between its post-war development activities as well as resolving the post-war humanitarian issues.
