By Ron Ridenour –
Ron Ridenour
Five years after the ethnic civil war in Sri Lanka was won by the Sinhalese government, with massive killings of Tamil civilians in the last few months, the UN Human Rights Council authorized the High Commissioner of the HRC to investigate if human rights abuse occurred.
On a vote of 23 for, 12 against and with 12 abstentions, the HRC voted to promote reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka by having its High Commissioner, Navi Pillay, and her successor soon-to-be:
“To undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties [referring to the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam guerrilla organization as well as the government] in Sri Lanka during the period covered by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, and to establish the facts and circumstances of such alleged violations and of the crimes perpetrated with a view to avoiding impunity and ensuring accountability, with assistance from relevant experts and special procedures mandate holders.” (1)
The Commissioner will then “present an oral update to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-seventh session, and a comprehensive report followed by a discussion on the implementation of the present resolution at its twenty-eighth session.” The process could take three years.
This resolution is the fourth since May 2009, and the third sponsored by US/UK and allies. The resolutions of 2012 and 2013 merely asked Sri Lanka to implement its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) mild report, in which no mechanisms were proposed to end impunity for those who committed human rights abuse.
The biggest surprise in these sessions is that India abstained instead of voting yes as had been expected. This is a boon to Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa and a disappointment to Tamils.
India maintained that the resolution will “undermine national sovereignty,” that it is an “intrusive approach, counter-productive,” and that the tough language “will hinder efforts” for rehabilitation.
Some analysts believe that India may also object to the resolution because it could set a precedent that might implicate India for its conduct in Kashmir.
India’s Congress party-led government will face sharp internal criticism from its southern states where more than 100 million Tamils live. It could even tip the balance of upcoming national elections. The conservative Bharatiya Janata Party stands an increasingly good chance of winning.
The conciliatory role India’s central government has played to placate Sri Lanka with massive economic and military aid, and by diluting the original drafts of both the 2012 and 2013 resolutions, led the Tamil Nadu governing DMK party (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagan) to withdraw its participation in the coalition UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government last year.
In abstaining to the current stronger resolution, India referred to the UN General Assembly 2006 mandate creating the new Human Rights Council, which it maintains did not provide for the HRC to conduct independent investigations. India cited the section: “Council shall be guided by the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, constructive international dialogue and cooperation, with a view to enhancing the promotion and protection of all human rights…”
Others point out that the HRC does have the right to investigate a state when it does not engage effectively to end impunity and achieve rehabilitation.
In the 2006 resolution the General Assembly also mandated that “the Council shall be responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner;” and also “the Council should address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and make recommendations thereon. It should also promote the effective coordination and the mainstreaming of human rights within the United Nations system.”
While the final HRC resolution goes a step further than the original draft and the resolutions of 2012 and 2013, which did not ask the OHCHR to conduct an investigation, it again asks the Sri Lanka government to conduct its own “independent and credible investigation into allegations of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as applicable; to hold accountable those responsible for such violations; to end continuing incidents of human rights violations and abuses in Sri Lanka; and to implement the recommendations made in the reports of the Office of the High Commissioner.”
Nor does the resolution suggest that the Sri Lankan government may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, as the UN’s own panel of experts suggested in its 2011 report to the Secretary-General. Genocide is not mentioned either, despite the findings of the Permanent People’s Tribunal in its December 2013 hearings. The PPT not only found Sri Lanka guilty of committing genocide against the Tamil people but also found the US and UK co-responsible for genocide.
Another India objection to the resolution was its recognition that the Sri Lankan government had recently granted a partial implementation of devolvement of powers by creating the Northern Province Council (NPC), in September 2013.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which represents most Tamils in their traditional homeland, received 79% of the vote, gaining 30 of the 38 seats. The central government coalition, United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), won only 18% of the vote, for seven seats, and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress took 1.5% of votes for one seat.
As the upcoming HRC 25th session approached, the NPC called for an international independent investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by the government, much to the chagrin of Rajapaksa. This encouraged Tamils around the world to press all the more for such an investigation. Tamils in southern India states added genocide to the proposed investigation. Scores of Tamil groups in the May 17 Movement staged protests in five cities in India.
Many Tamils living in Europe walked from their new countries to Geneva where upwards of 10,000 demonstrators demanded that any resolution should guarantee an international independent investigation into war crimes.
A renowned lawyer in international law, Professor Francis Boyle, criticized the final resolution for being ineffectual. He told Tamil Net that, “While noting that `investigation´ by the UNHCR is better than nothing—with all due and sincere respect for the UNHCR—dissemination of that `investigation´ will be subject to the control of the UN Human Rights Council for political reasons, and the dissemination of that UNHCR `investigation´ will be dragged out for as long as possible by the Human Rights Council, thus enabling the GOSL to continue its campaign of ongoing genocide against the Tamils despite the requirement of article 1 of the Genocide Convention that every UN Human Rights Council state member is obligated both `to prevent and to punish´ the GOSL for genocide against the Tamils.”
Also commenting on the resolution, the president of Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, Edward Mortimer, said:
“In the last two weeks we have seen a severe crackdown on all forms of dissent. Campaigner for the Disappeared Balendran Jeyakumari, and at least 10 others, remain in detention without access to their lawyers, and no evidence has been produced against them. Meanwhile Ruki Fernando and Fr Praveen Mahesan, the activists who were released last week, are still subjected to a gagging order and other forms of judicial harassment. It is terrifying to think how much further the Sri Lankan authorities will go if the international community’s attention moves on. They need to be told firmly that there will be real consequences if the crackdown continues.”
The Sri Lanka research Centre for Policy Alternatives noted that the recent incarceration of scores of relatives of disappeared persons, and the surveillance and harassment of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her friends seems to “prove the case against” the government.
A small breakaway party from the Tamil National Alliance in the Northern province, the Tamil National People’s Front, stated that this investigation will not be effective. Its president, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, concurs with the Permanent People’s Tribunal in the necessity of addressing genocide.
He asserted that, “the remedy for violations at the level of gravity that occurred ultimately, cannot be anything short of a judicial process through the ICC [International Criminal Court] or an Ad Hoc special tribunal,” adding…”anything less would undermine the concept of international justice and the application of humanitarian law.”
In the “real world” of geo-politics, Cuba, China, Russia and Venezuela stand against the Western-led resolution. China is a main opponent of any investigation or sanctions for human rights abuse. China’s President Xi Jinping said that his government opposes “politicizing and imposing double standards on the issue of human rights”. On the sidelines, China and Cuba point out the hypocrisy of the key accusing nations for numerous aggressive invasions of sovereign states and human rights abuse of their peoples while they enjoy impunity.
Despite UK’s verbal criticism of President Rajapaksa’s treatment of Tamils, the city venue for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) was held in Colombo last year. The Bandarnaike Memorial International Conference Hall—an “outright gift from the Government and People of the People’s Republic of China,” as stated at the summit—was the major venue.
However, the queen of Britain, and top leaders of Canada, Mauritius, and India refused to attend the ceremonies. Colonel R. Hariharan, former head of India Peace Keeping Force’s intelligence branch, said that India’s prime minister’s absence could damage India’s attempts to build stronger bridges with Sri Lanka.
India may be trying to make up for this by abstaining from the current resolution.
Tamils could aid their cause by identifying with a report of UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk. After six years as HRC’s independent expert charged with monitoring and reporting on human rights in Palestinian territories since 1967, he delivered his final report on March 21. He called upon the International Court of Justice to assess Israel’s occupation, which Falk characterizes as “colonialism”, “apartheid”, “ethnic cleansing.”
“We mustn’t forget that thousands of Palestinian political detainees, including children, remain in Israeli prisons. Among them are more than a hundred administrative detainees. Many of them are subjected to ill-treatment and torture from the time of their arrest to their interrogation in detention.”
The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and Sri Lanka Tamils, the seizure of their homes and the false imprisonment and torture that the Zionist Israeli and the Sinhalese chauvinist Sri Lankan government impose should bring those peoples together in a common struggle.
Notes:
1. Yes: Argentina, Austria, Benin, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cote D’Ivoire, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Macedonia, Montenegro, Peru, Republic of Korea, Romania, Sierre Leone, UK, USA.
No: Algeria, China, Congo, Cuba, Kenya, Maldives, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudia Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Vietnam.
Abstentions: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Namibia, Philippines, South Africa.
Point Man / March 28, 2014
Ron Ridenour
You [Edited out], how can you compare the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka. More than half the Tamils live among the Sinhalese in the south quite harmoniously. If the GOSL wanted to eliminate the Tamils it need not have engaged in a brutal war in the north for three decades. And you shameless political hack, do you realize you are insulting the Palestinian cause by using it for your LTTE propaganda. The only act of ethnic cleansing that ever happened in Sri Lanka was committed by the LTTE against the Muslim people who had lived among Tamils in the north for centuries. You are a ‘journalistic’ prostitute.
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Palmsquirrell / March 28, 2014
You forget the ethnic cleansing of Indian Tamils by the Sinhalese.
Muslims in the North and East are racially the same stock as Tamil Hindus and Christians. Tamil Muslims did not change their genetic identity just because they converted to Islam. To claim otherwise , by implying they are a distinct ethnicity, is to wage genocide on Tamils, because destruction of one’s identity and heritage is cultural genocide.
Also lets not forget the original Lankan genocide, that committed by Sinhala founder Vijaya against the Veddah.
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Ram / March 28, 2014
There was NO ethnic war. There was however a war necessitated by terrorism on a scale that had NOT happened before, by a Tamil terrorist group identified as the most vicios barbarians at the time.
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Palmsquirrell / March 28, 2014
And what of Sinhala government terrorism and Sinhala mob terrorism.
Terrorism is a propaghanda term to demonize one’s opponent, it is politically biased which is why the BBC and other relatively unbiased News organizations like Reuters use the term “insurgents” or “rebels”.
IRA and Nelson Mandela/ANC were deemed terrorists even though both were fighting colonialism. If Sri Lanka was still under British rule and Sinhalese took up arms to fight them, the Sinhalese would be branded terrorists.
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JimSofty / March 28, 2014
Palm squirril:
Terrorism is a propaghanda term to demonize one’s opponent,
You are correct.
PABAKARAN is a Catholic – saint.
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Ram / March 28, 2014
Mob violence is from a local event and the government is usually able to contain them. The mob violence that killed 13 soldiers in Jaffna too was a local event, but the reaction was mainly in Colombo, as there were few Sinhala civilians in Jaffna. The government did lose control of events for a while. There never was goverment ‘terrorism’ in Sri Lanka.
Your reference to ‘ethnic cleansing of Indian Tamils’ is laughable. The Sirima-Shastri pact allowed for the repatriation of 600000 Indians from the tea estates back to India while some 350,000 9along with dependents) were to be granted citizenship. The Passports were slow in coming and even some of them did not leave. Others were helped by Red Barna and the like to escape from the trains taking them to Talaimannar and settle down in Vavunia. We can only hope that they’ve become useful citizens and not terrorists within the LTTE.
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Palmsquirrell / March 28, 2014
Mob violence was stoked and supported by the Sinhala state. The police and military being Sinhalese did nothing to stop the rampaging Sinhala mobs, just like the police now a days did nothing to stop the BBS inspired mobs attack temples and other minority places.
The repatritation of Estate Tamils was demanded by the Sinhala state, so it was ethnic cleansing. It was not the Estate Tamils who demanded they be sent back, it was the Sinhalese who forced them out.
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Ram / March 29, 2014
The Estate labour (Tamils as you claim ) brought in by the British as indentured labour had NO claim whatsoever to Sri Lankan nationality. It was pure humanity that obtained this consideration for the 350,000 (with their dependants totalling some 600,000) for this privilege. Even the Indian passport holders were reluctant to go back, and a considerable number are still here. Wonder why ?
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Native Vedda / March 31, 2014
Ramu
“The mob violence that killed 13 soldiers in Jaffna too was a local event,”
You are at it again, rewriting history.
It was a targeted ambush by LTTE not a mob violence. Your justification does not hold water. Don’t even try.
“The government did lose control of events for a while.”
State institutions. members of the cabinet and party and a few saffron clad thugs actively participated in the organised, premeditated pogrom, targeting Tamils, Tamil houses and businesses.
“Your reference to ‘ethnic cleansing of Indian Tamils’ is laughable.”
FYI Srima Sastri pact was signed in 1964 well after passing The Ceylon Citizenship Act No. 18 of 1948.
The act stripped nearly 1 Million people their dignity and made them stateless.
Ramu
Have your facts checked before you start typing.
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Anpu / April 1, 2014
“According to a report published in the London Times on 27th July, the soldiers were killed in reaction to the abduction and rape of three Tamil girls by a group of soldiers. In addition about 3 days before the attack by the Tigers two suspected terrorists were shot by army soldiers at Meesalai Chavakacheri, 15 miles from Jaffna.. As the government has suspended Tamil language news papers at the beginning of July 83 and as this explanation was not published in the Sinhalese language press the public was not aware of these earlier incidents and the killings of the soldiers became signal for unleashing widespread racial violence” –
Ethnic Conflict and Violence in Sri Lanka, published by International Commission of Jurists. P 91 ISBN 92 9037 021 1
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dingiri / March 28, 2014
So you are justifying the ethnic cleansing of the Moslems from the North by the LTTE then? It is for the Moslems to decide which group they are part of. Not for the Tamils to prescribe who they should be part of and then mete out punishment if they disagree.
Also, please remind us about this “ethnic cleansing” of Indian Tamils. Are these the same Indian Tamils who still number about a million in the Central Province? Or are they the same Idian Tamils who run many of Sri Lanka’s most successful commercial entreprises like St. Anthony’s Group, Maharajah Organisation, Carsons and Many of the Tea Plantations? Or are they the Indian Tamil Cabinet ministers and members of parliament?
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Palmsquirrell / March 28, 2014
Religion is a brainwashing tool, that has been used by countless groups to wage cultural genocide. Did anyone ask each and every SL Muslim whether they are not Tamils?
Why is it ok for Islam to convert, thereby destroying the identity of the converts but it is against Islam for a Muslims to convert. Clear double standard. Did you ever think about this double standard when you state it is for Muslims to decide on their identity.
When people are brainwashed by religion, especially Islam, their decision to indentfy their ethnic/racial origins is compromised by the brainwashing. Just as a person who has been brainwashed by Scientology or any other cult is naturally going to support the entity that brainwashed them.
Why is it that Muslims in all other nations can identify with their ethnic roots but Tamils Muslims are not allowed to? It is a racist double standard imposed by those Muslims in Colombo who claim Arab descent.
– Muslims in Pakistan identify as Sindhis, Pashtuns, Baloch,Muhajirs, Kashmiris. Then they further identify with their sects and caste.
– Muslims in Bangladesh identify as Bengalis
– The Rohinga Muslims in Burma identify as Rohinga, and not just as Muslims.
– Muslims in Arabia identify as Arabs and further into Emiratis, Qataris, Saudis, Omanis etc..
– Muslims in Chechnya identify with their Chechnyan ethnic roots.
-Malay and Indonesian Muslims identify with their Malay roots.
-Palestinian,Turkish,Kurdish Muslims all identify with their ethnic roots.
Even in Sri Lanka; the Memoms, the Malays and those Muslims who claim Arab descent are allowed to maintain their ethnic identity . After all many Ceylon Muslims claim Moorish (Arab) descent.
So again I ask why is there a special double standard for Tamils Muslims , that seeks to eraze and destroy their Tamil ethnic roots while elsewhere in the world Muslims groups are allowed to identify with their ethnic roots. This is blatant cultural genocide against Tamils by Arabs and those Sri Lankans who identify with Arab culture.
If Sinhalese converted Tamils to Buddhism and then denied the Tamil ethnic origins of these Buddhist converts, it is also cultural genocide.
Australia and Canada have both apologized for religious conversion and other attempts at cultural genocide they practiced against Aborigines and Native Canadians. Yet in Sri Lanka, we see that cultural genocide is ongoing by Muslim elites who seek to destroy the Tamil roots of most Sri Lankan Muslims.
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Amarasiri / March 28, 2014
Dear Ron Ridenour –
“Five years after the ethnic civil war in Sri Lanka was won by the Sinhalese government, with massive killings of Tamil civilians in the last few months, the UN Human Rights Council authorized the High Commissioner of the HRC to investigate if human rights abuse occurred”
1. Why did the Ethnic war get started?- Goes back to 5th Century Monk Mahanama. Hinduism vs. Buddhism.
2. Post 1948 Independence used the Sinhala “Buddhism
‘ excuse to impose hegemony over Tamils.
3. Tamils from South India have historically invaded Lanka and were Hindus.
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Rajan / March 30, 2014
Don’t bother arguing with these pro-west left wing radicals Point Man. These are the same people that would have supported the war in Iraq blindly without any acknowledgment of the consequences. After all, it’s not their country.
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K.A Sumanasekera / March 28, 2014
The list of suckers who put the hands up for US, Cameron , Harper, Pillai Resolution are, Estonia, Peru, Romania, Chile, Estonia, Sierraleon, Mexico, Montenegro, Benin, Botswana, Brazil and Argentina.
Our inhabitants wouldn’t know these minnows from a bar of soap, and most of them wouldn’t know where Srilanka is.
Japan, South Africa and India wouldn’t have a bar of this biased bashing of Srilanka by the Tamil HR commissioner who is pushing the Diaspora agenda to hurt the inhabitant population hoping that they will eventually buckle and vote in the Opposition so that the LTTE proxy TNA can have the North to create the Eelaam.
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James / March 28, 2014
Lanka says resolution dangerous
The Government said that the draft resolution on Sri Lanka submitted to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will not only constitute a serious breach of International Law, but create a dangerous precedent in the conduct of international relations within the established global order of sovereign States and could pose a grave threat to the sovereignty and independence of Member States of the United Nations, which is enshrined in the UN Charter. Sri Lanka s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva told the UNHRC that the resolution also erodes the sovereignty of the people of Sri Lanka.
Minister Wimal Weerawansa today said that the United States backed resolution against Sri Lanka would ultimately lead to an Interim Administration in the North and East (N/E) Provinces under the supervision of the United Nations (UN).
Will Sri Lanka grant Visa to ‘UN Investigating’ team & risk ‘Economic Sanctions’ just like Russia? Will Sri Lanka invite Navi Pillay again to investigate them?
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Park / March 28, 2014
What the writer has not stated is the obvious fact, China is now controlling the Indian Foreign Policy. The main reason why India did not vote is because India is worried that with Sri Lanka getting closer and closer to China Indian security is at danger.
The recent Malaysian airline accident clearly proves to the entire world that the only country that did not participate or provide any satellite image of the wreckage is India. But the accident happened in the backyard of India and India did not have anything to say or provide any valuable information. This clearly shows that India not only lost Sri Lanka but the entire Indian ocean to the Chinese Government.
Further India not voting on the UN resolution also clearly shows that India is truly scared of a small nation called Sri Lanka.
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Ajith / March 28, 2014
I would like to ask few questions for those who oppose an international investigations?
Are you against the rule of law?
Are you against an independent justice system?
What would you do if your mother is raped by a criminal?
If your brother raped an innocent girl, do you think that he should not be punished for his crime?
What would you do if your wife do not want to live with you because you treat her as a slave? Do you kill her? or Do you change your behavior?
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Rajan / March 30, 2014
All those things you mentioned happened in Iraq and Afghanistan yet how successful have the UN been there? The world’s biggest military couldn’t even get rid of…the Taliban?
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Don Quixote / March 28, 2014
This is the start of the “glass ceiling” type discrimination against Tamils. The same way that non whites face this situation in white dominated countries you just watch how the Tamils will get weeded out and not promoted and yes, not recruited by Sinhalese business.
Well done DIE-Arse-Pora, you have made it even harder for the Tamils’ left in Sri Lanka. You lot of course have no intention of returning !
Just want to ensure that no one can live in peace..Balla piduru kanneth na Kana gonata denneth na !
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Dr. Geo / March 28, 2014
Ron,
The use of “ethnic cleansing” in your article is completely inappropriate and it goes on to show the lack of knowledge of the conflict. If there was any ethnic cleansing it was the LTTE (and the TULF in the late 70s) that is responsible for it because it was them who “cleansed” the North and the East by banishing innocent Sinhalese and Muslim people. In the late 80s they were ordered to leave the North and the East within 48 hours. The last Sinhalese person who did not obey this “order” was hanged to death in Jaffna by the LTTE in 1987. If you do not wish to go that far down memory lane, you may refer the account of Anula Radalage, a Sinhalese entrepreneur who appealed to the LTTE to start a business in the North in 2002. Also, do not forget that the entire issue revolves around 1/3 of the Tamil people who lives in the North and the East. Where do you think the rest of the Tamils live? “Ethnic cleansing” is a politically sexy phrase but using it to sell your article is cheap strategy.
Also, what do you mean by “massive” killing of “Tamil” “civilians” in the last few months? You need to explain yourself. Putting “key” words/phrases in one’s opening line is an age old trick to catch reader’s attention and I am convinced that these words are (strategically) put in place to do just that by someone who does not seem to have an understanding of the conflict he discusses or understands the damage done by such usage.
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Palmsquirrell / March 28, 2014
Muslim is a religion, it is not a distinct racial or ethnic group. Muslims in the North and East are racially the same as non Muslim Tamils.
Sinhalese and Muslims were ordered to leave because they supported the GOSL, a government that was waging pogroms on Tamils.
Sinhalese forcing many Indian Tamils to leave Ceylon was ethnic cleansing. It was these Indian Tamils who did the bulk of work developing Sri Lanka’s economy, since the economy was primarily based on agriculture.
Sinhalese/GOSL pogroms against Tamils and the institutional discrimination, torture and brutality by Sinhala police played a big part in many Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka. This is ethnic cleansing too, because GOSL and its supporters deliberately made life difficult for Tamils hoping they would all leave Sri Lanka.
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Ram / March 28, 2014
There WAS ethnic cleansing in Sri Lanka without doubt, but it was carried out by the loveable Tamil terrorists on both Sinhala and Tamil civilians. The best known ones are the Kent farm and the Dollar farm massacres of the Sinhala and the 100000 Muslims who were evicted from the Northern Province with only the clothes on their back 24 years ago, while at the same time claiming to be their ‘sole representatives’.
The author however ONLY has his ear for the Tamil terrorist narrative, as evidenced by his many previous rants. The LTTE claim of 40,000 dead civilians, given widespread exposure via Gordon Weiss (he of the best-seller ‘fame’) the UN apparatchik in Colombo, well away from harm, has gained traction in the international arena. It is this canard that the Sri Lankan government has to fight.
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Spring Koha / March 28, 2014
Young Dr Geo is a selective in his references to ethnic cleansing. Has he not heard of the many earlier attempts at this most distasteful of practices? May 1958 and July 1983 were particular vicious, when thugs and political goons carried out an earlier enactment of ‘api venuwen’ when they rearranged the living arrangements of our Tamil brethren throughout most areas, south of Vavuniya, of this blessed island. Our Tamil brethren have no option but to come south to share in the prosperity that has built up around Colombo and the Western province, but they do so well aware of the need to keep a suitcase packed and ready for when the going gets hot.
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Richard / March 28, 2014
It is now proved beyond doubt Sri Lanka is committing genocide of Tamils for a long time. Even in Sri Lanka today there is a good population who admit the truth. But those misled by politicians and live by politicians are racially motivated and biased. As stated by a former president, the more the Govt. starves the Tamils, the more popular he will be in the South. This statement from the mouth of a President explains all. But after six decades of oppression, now it is some relief for Tamils to see some light at the end of the tunnel in Genva. You can see how with what impunity Sri Lanka is mis-aligned with the IC. Sri Lanka has done the majority of Tamils so much damage they feel separation is the only solution. Sri Lanka don’t want to look at the Neighboring India and give even limited fundermental rights/or Federalism. India is strong today in spite of different Nationalities, races, and cast systems. The politics there is development based. No rival ism and all are ready to give their life for India.
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Bensen Burner / March 28, 2014
The corrupt Indian government thrives on the ignorance and the abject poverty of its peoples. Chidamparam the corrupt Indian finance Minister coming from Tamil Nadu now says that India should have voted for the resolution. The abstention also helps the corrupt Karunanidhi crowd to continue in the Indian government enjoying the plums of office while saving any embarrassment.Bensen
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justice / March 28, 2014
Even yesterday undergrads of Jaffna University who were preparing a welcome event for freshers were assaulted by more than 15 men on motorcycles – it is reported.
One them with serious injuries was admitted to hospital.
Such attacks on civilians has alienated them from the government.
This is why,all tamils in sri lanka and abroad,support an inquiry by a UN Commission as explained by Ms.Pillay.
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Ravi Perera / March 29, 2014
Palm Squirrel,
“Muslim is a religion, it is not a distinct racial or ethnic group. Muslims in the North and East are racially the same as non Muslim Tamils. “
Which ever way you look at the Muslims are a distinct group who are clearly separate from the Tamils. They have a separate identity and will not throw in their lot with you Tamils.
You buggers are trying hard to include the Muslims under you demalas to bolster your numbers aren’t you.
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Native Vedda / March 31, 2014
Ravi Perera
Sinhala speaking Demela,
“You buggers are trying hard to include the Muslims under you demalas to bolster your numbers aren’t you.”
You may be right this time around however you buggers are trying hard to eliminate Muslims from this island altogether.
Perhaps the Tamil speaking Demelas have learnt inclusive politics in the past few years while you Sinhala speaking Demelas are continuing with your exclusive politics.
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