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Sri-Lanka Defies Ceasefire Call And
No Proposal For Tamil’s Political Rights

By Dr C P Thiagarajah

13 February, 2009
Countercurrents.org

The UK and Canadian parliaments have been in the forefront in this month’s call for a ceasefire in Sri-Lanka. Both these august bodies gave a unanimous urgent motion on the subject and followed it up with telephone calls from higher ups in the government. The other political moves came from Germany and Switzerland. The European Union along with USA, Norway and Japan (so called infamous Co-Chairs of the Aid giving countries) issued an unworkable ceasefire request which is practically not good as a no request.

In addition, Pope Benedict XVI called for the protection of innocent civilians caught up in an increasingly bloody conflict in Sri Lanka. The Pope lamented “news of increasing cruelty of the conflict and the growing number of innocent victims persuaded me to make an urgent appeal to combatants”. He urged the confronting parties to follow humanitarian law and better protect civilians’ basic rights.

Other world bodies too joined in the appeal to the Sri-Lankan government. Representatives of the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) Wednesday took part in a demonstration that called for an immediate end to the Sri Lankan military aggression against Eezham Tamils.

On the other hand, India, the erstwhile neighbour did not ask the Sri-Lankan government for a ceasefire probably because it has its own guilt. It is committing serious Human Rights violation of the Kashmir Muslims with the massive 200,000 strong army stationed there. Further the Congress government has its axe to grind with the Tigers over Rajiv death and therefore neglected its duty by the trapped Tamil civilians in Vanni. They appear to justify the collective punishment of the Tamils by the GSL.

Neither did Pakistan. Nobody knows why. My guess is good as anybody. Perhaps it is religious Semitism that wants Hindu India to disintegrate along with the Hindus elsewhere eg Tamils.

Others to condemn the dirty war of the GSL are HR professionals. Karen Parker, Chief delegate of International Educational Development (Roster) and President of US Association of Humanitarian Lawyers. In a letter sent to Navanetham Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights she describing the prevailing situation in northern Sri Lanka as “red alert for genocide” and “Obviously it is too late to prevent genocide and mass atrocities”, Karen Parker, has emphasized that all the tools of the international community are essential to alleviate some of the suffering.

“The only way to save the Tamil people and ensure that their full rights are afforded and not trampled by Sinhala control, as they have been since independence, will be if the international community acts very strongly and immediately,” she said. The international community must insist that there is a plan acceptable to all the people of Sri Lanka, negotiated upon after a cease fire. In our view, there will be no just resolution without outside mediation.

In addition, Professor Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, USA in a communiqué sent to TamilNet says, “The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) is currently inflicting acts of genocide against the Tamils in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention, and war crimes against them in violation of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949. I call upon all Tamils around the World and all people of good faith and good will to mobilize behind the legal agenda set forth above and to pressure the Governments of India and the United States (as well as your own Governments) to fulfil their solemn obligations under the Genocide Convention and the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949.India is a party to all five of these Conventions. Therefore, under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention India has an obligation to do everything in its power “to prevent” GOSL’s genocide against the Tamils”.

Other eminent persons in their respective fields wanted to air their views on this humanitarian disaster. Two senior US Senators, Kerry and Lugar in Washington on 4 February Monday jointly urged Sri Lanka's government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to safeguard civilians and ease humanitarian access to areas affected by the deadly conflict. Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, the president of East Timor expressed the same sentiments. They further emphasised that Sri Lanka does not allow independent media free access to the island's conflict zone and to the camps housing those displaced civilians who have managed to flee the fighting. Reporters also have already experienced physical attacks and intimidation, including the latest brazen assassination of renowned journalist Lasantha Wickrematunga," said. They added they were "greatly concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation." Jose Ramos-Horta also offered himself as a potential mediator if needed.

Again, Mr Bob Ray Canadian MP told The Star, on February 04, 2009 “Canada cannot accept argument that nation’s bloody civil war is just an ‘internal matter’ The tens of thousands of deaths, towns and villages destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people made homeless in this long conflict have not dominated the airwaves and televisions of the Western world. The UN can’t allow the Sri Lankan government to say “it’s an internal matter” and stay away”.

When the clarion call from the world and its leaders are for a ceasefire Sri-Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse is adamant not to hold a ceasefire. It is a challenge for the world and the UN. It is well known in the world that his brother Gothabaya Rajapakse and military commander Fonseka had been responsible for genocide and had been in fact indicted for same in a US court. The government by defeating the LTTE by unfair means of HR violations will be obliterating all evidences for such crime. The UN must stop them of this crime of erasing evidence.

Regardless of all the world’s plea for a ceasefire the GSL is carrying on with its programme of the genocide of Tamils. The web Tamilnet.com reported that Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers on 6 Friday 2009 bombed and fully destroyed Ponnampalam Memorial hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), killing 60 civilian patients and wounding many. U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss also said cluster bombs struck Wednesday at the last functioning hospital in the area where Tamil Tiger rebels are fighting a last-gasp battle for survival. He said 52 civilians were killed and 80 wounded in fighting Tuesday inside and outside a government-designated safe zone where it had pledged not to strike.

Only Pope from Rome sent an emissary to Sri-Lanka to report on the Tamil‘s crisis. He is Rt. Rev. Mario Senario. The representative of Holy See from Vatican deserve the gratitude of all for taking the trouble to see the distressed in a corner of Sri-Lanka that had been regarded as of no use by the Western powers. He said on Sunday 8 2009 that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) detained in the above special rehabilitation camp appealed to him to secure permission for them to get back to their villages and to engage in their livelihoods; to live and engage in their customary occupations. This is in direct contrast to the military camp visits of the capitalist government’s representatives eg Robert Blake of the US. I wish many other religious dignitaries from other faith too do the same and to study the cruel methods of the Sinhala government to suppress the Tamils.

‘In a war with no witnesses, it is the civilians who pay the price for both parties' disregard for international humanitarian law," said Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International's Sri Lanka expert. Unless the world act forcefully and truthfully the civilian will pay a ghastly price.

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