{"id":219714,"date":"2021-06-05T06:36:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T01:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=219714"},"modified":"2021-06-10T19:15:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T13:45:02","slug":"sri-lankas-foreign-ministry-accepts-north-is-oppressed-the-homeland-ltte-a-tamil-independence-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-foreign-ministry-accepts-north-is-oppressed-the-homeland-ltte-a-tamil-independence-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Foreign Ministry Accepts North Is \u2018Oppressed\u2019, The \u2018Homeland\u2019, LTTE A \u2018Tamil Independence Movement\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daya Gamage<\/a> –<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Daya Gamage<\/p><\/div>\n

If one goes by the June 1 media release of Sri Lanka\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responding to the May 18 (2021) Resolution on Sri Lanka presented to the U.S. House of Representatives\u2019 Foreign Relations Committee by a group of Congressmen of that Committee, the pro-LTTE professional operatives\u2019 global endeavor has received the endorsement of Sri Lanka\u2019s incumbent administration. It has also given the signal to the governing authorities of the United States to amend their approach to Sri Lanka\u2019s national issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Foreign Ministry in its response to the US Congressional Resolution does not challenge the latter\u2019s declarations that \u201c<\/span>The U.S. Members of the House of Representatives still strongly believe that\u00a0northeastern region is historically oppressed\u201d<\/b>; \u201cthe conflict that the Government of Sri Lanka had was against various armed Tamil independence organizations\u201d; \u201cWhereas the northeastern region of the country, the traditional Tamil homeland\u201d.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

At a Zoom Meeting in the evening of Thursday, June 3 organized by a group of Sri Lankan expatriates in California in the United States, to which Sri Lanka\u2019s Foreign Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage<\/a><\/span> participated from Colombo at the direction of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>, had no explanation when the issue was raised as to why his Ministry media release never mentioned about those three vital declarations. He was mum to the raised query.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither the United States Department of State nor the foreign policy-formulating National Security Council (NSC) in the White House have not gone on record \u2013 under both Republican and Democratic administrations – accepting the North-East region of Sri Lanka a \u2018Tamil Homeland\u2019, the LTTE<\/a><\/span> and other groups that were fighting the Government of Sri Lanka \u2018Tamil independence organizations\u2019 or \u2018northern region is historically oppressed\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. in 1997 under federal laws designated the LTTE a \u2018Foreign Terrorist Organization\u2019 (FTO) to which the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision confirmed. The LTTE and Turkey\u2019s PKK jointly petitioned the Supreme Court for the recognition of their respective organizations, and requested the High Court to declare that the \u2018assistance\u2019 provided to these two separatist organizations \u2013 the petitioners described as liberation organizations – by those who are domiciled in the U.S. should not be considered a Federal crime for \u2018providing material support to a terrorist organization\u2019. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed their law suit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. officially had never declared that the northern Tamil people were \u2018historically oppressed\u2019 but reiterated the importance of restoring certain constitutional rights to the minority Tamil people. Washington throughout worked with Sri Lanka governments and in talks with separatist Tamil groups on the premise of protecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of a \u2018unitary state\u2019. At a U.S. House of Representatives\u2019 testimony on the Sri Lanka issue in 2007, House Foreign Affairs Committee member Brad Sherman \u2013 one of the co-sponsors of the May 18 Resolution \u2013 inquired from the State Department official whether the LTTE could be termed as a \u2018liberation movement\u2019 to which the official reiterated that it\u2019s a terrorist organization which the State Department had rightfully designated an FTO.<\/span><\/p>\n

In ignoring the language used by the Resolution which are very much based on the perennial \u2018slogans\u2019 and \u2018policy planks\u2019 of the LTTE as well as the professional operatives within the Tamil Diaspora, the Government of Sri Lanka seems to have given the signal to Washington establishments such as the State Department and the White House National Security Council to make changes of its approach to Sri Lanka\u2019s national issues.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the issue was raised at the June 3 Zoom Meeting, Foreign Secretary Colombage never responded.<\/span><\/p>\n

The burden of making the Lawmakers and policymakers in the United States knowledgeable has been initiated by Sri Lankan expatriates in Washington- Maryland division, the States of California and Nevada. The initiative taken by (retd) Colonel Lucky Rajasinghe of California, political activist-coordinator Sanje Sedera of Nevada and Social activist Angalica Silva of Maryland have gone to some extent of reaching policymakers and lawmakers in the U.S.\u00a0 <\/span>A group of professional Sri Lankan expatriates led by Dr. Neville Hewage in Canada has had many Zoom Meetings \u2013 in which one participant was Lord Naseby of the UK House of Lords \u2013 to strategize a message to their lawmakers and policymakers. These strenuous efforts were taken with no inputs from the Sri Lanka administration, but make the Sri Lankan expatriates\u2019 endeavors difficult when infantile media releases are issued by its Foreign Ministry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Presidential Secretariat and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are still to coordinate with expatriates – some of whom are experts on the workings of the American system – in the United States to strategically approach the lawmakers and policymakers, an undertaking the Government of Sri Lanka should have seriously taken.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, in response to the May 18 House Foreign Affairs Committee Resolution, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a serious blunder in helping American governing authorities to amend their approach toward Sri Lanka\u2019s national issues, obviously to the delight of the professional activists within the Tamil Diaspora who were once were counselors of the LTTE and its demised leader Prabhakaran.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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