“Who should take primary responsibility for the killing of 70,000 people, the destitution of thousands more, and the devastation of limb, life and property in Sri Lanka, asks the TULF leader, Mr Anandasangary in an address in Toronto, Canada. He sees a hope for the end of this carnage.”
A Sri Lankan Guardian Report from Canada
(August 26, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) In a stirring address that moved many people in the audience at the prestigious Roy Thomson Hall August 23, 2008, Mr V Anandasangary, the leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front said that that a large number of Tamils belonging to various other groups, academics, teachers, government servants of all ranks have been shot dead.
Apart from this a few thousand Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and some from other minority groups have been killed in large explosions in trains, buses, the Central Bank and other important government buildings and over thirty thousand of army, navy, air forces and police personnel in Claymore mine and hand grenade attacks, and large number on the battle front.
“In short,” he stressed. “Mr. Pirabakaran should take the responsibility for the death of over 70,000 citizens of Sri Lanka and for the loss of limbs and eye-sights of many. Thousands had become widows, orphans and destitute persons. Many of these victims are living on begging due to lack of social support system.”
He began the evening’s address by saying that Sri Lanka had been a peaceful country for generations, in which the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays and people of other ethnic groups, lived in peace and harmony. During the late seventies and eighties there had been a few upheavals, due to the violation of human rights, injustice, discrimination, exploitation and intolerance. The victims were mainly Tamils and Muslims. Various Tamil groups cropped up as saviours of the Tamils and the Muslims. Their fire-power could not stand against one group called the LTTE which gradually either eradicated the other groups or silenced them with their fire-power and emerged as a single group committed to dictatorship.
He continued observing that in championing the cause of the Tamils they even drove every Muslim out of the Northern Province. The Muslims, merely because they were Muslims, had to leave behind all their possessions and the land where they lived peacefully with the Tamils for several generations. These people are now languishing in refugee camps for more than 17 years in the South with the Sinhalese in the Puttalam and Anuradhapura districts, without privacy and their basic needs met. As long as refugee camps exist in our country whether the inmates are Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims or of any other group, we have no moral right to boast of democratic principles. With one section of our people undergoing untold hardships, being deprived of their democratic fundamental and human rights, we can’t boast of our country as one enjoying full democratic rights. Loss of democratic rights, fundamental rights and human rights amount to slavery. Should our youths, be they Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or of any other group, continue to shed their blood unnecessarily and die in vain at the battle front?
He paused a while and asserted: “I am convinced that the time has come for the country to find a solution reasonable enough and acceptable to the minorities and the international community.”
“It is no secret.” Mr Anandasangary said, “That the LTTE has now become so weak but still keep on challenging not only the Government of Sri Lanka but the entire international community as well. The Tamils are held as hostages in their own land. Even the Tamils living freely in the south with the Sinhalese and those who fled the country and are being well looked after by various countries in the West such as in Canada and the United States, our people are living in fear and tension due to the threat of the LTTE. Most of the Tamil media all over the world are under their control and are used by them to glorify their actions and condemn all their rival organizations and individuals opposed to them.”
“Although the LTTE is banned in all the 28 countries of the European Union, UK, USA, Australia, and India and more recently in Canada they continue their activities unchecked in some of the countries where they are proscribed,” said Mr Anandasangary.
“Under the pretext of having a cultural program even after it has been banned, the LTTE hood-winked the Canadian authorities and celebrated the ‘Ponguthamil’ recently in Toronto at which even the Tiger Flag was hoisted. It is understood that similar ceremonies were held on a large scale in Paris and on a smaller scale in London.UK as well. It is obvious that although they are proscribed in those countries some of them appear to be not in a mood to tighten their screws on the LTTE due to their dissatisfaction with the Sri Lankan Government’s slow action in putting forward a just and acceptable solution for the ethnic issue and some countries do so as a vote catching device.”.
He pointed out that several thousand innocent and unwilling Tamil youths from poor families were brain-washed and sent to the battle front and as suicide bombers to die. Most of them were children of poor parents recruited under compulsion and thoroughly brain-washed. The poor parents who are unable to challenge them are weeping in silence while envying the fortunate children of the leaders of the LTTE having their education in Western countries. The right of education is denied to children of poor parents.
He held Pirabakaran responsible for the death of over 70,000 citizens of Sri Lanka and for the loss of limbs and eye-sights of many and thousands who have become widows, orphans and destitute persons. Due to this Mr. Pirabakaran has earned the very disgraceful title as the leader of the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world. He also brought utter disgrace to the Tamil community which is proud of its culture and civilization.
Regretting and agonized on this state of affairs, Mr Anandasangary said: “I expected Mr. Pirabakaran to show some sympathy towards the suffering Tamils of the North and East who are undergoing untold hardship more in the hands of his cadre than from anybody else. Twenty five years of subjugation under his leadership have made the people to lose all confidence in him and in his cadre. The outside world is not aware of these atrocities that are going on behind the LTTE’s ‘Iron Curtain’ region. Up to now no one had refuted my charge that, in the areas under the control of the LTTE there are detention camps, dark room chambers, torture camps, abductions, killings, compulsory recruitments of children as child soldiers, merciless assaulting of parents who resist conscription of children and many other such atrocious acts of the LTTE cadre. The people are so fed up that they want to run away from their homes into government held areas but they are driven further deep into the area under the LTTE control and are often used as human shield.”
The Tamil people who have been deprived of all their rights including the fundamental and the democratic rights, as well as the right to live peacefully, he said are anxiously waiting to be liberated to enjoy the fruits of freedom and democracy. It may not be an exaggerated view, if I conclude by saying that the impact of a series of bans on the LTTE and the more recent policy decision of the Government of Canada has weakened the LTTE. It gives signals of early liberation of the people of the Northern Sri Lanka from the LTTE, the so called liberators.
He concluded by saying that to bring back democracy and peace to Sri Lanka the Government of Sri Lanka for its part should exonerate itself from the charge of human rights violations and without any further delay, come out with a proposal for power devolution acceptable to the minorities and the international community, which I believe is a federal solution or in the alternative a solution based on the Indian model, lest it loses its credibility.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
A Sri Lankan Guardian Report from Canada
(August 26, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) In a stirring address that moved many people in the audience at the prestigious Roy Thomson Hall August 23, 2008, Mr V Anandasangary, the leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front said that that a large number of Tamils belonging to various other groups, academics, teachers, government servants of all ranks have been shot dead.
Apart from this a few thousand Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and some from other minority groups have been killed in large explosions in trains, buses, the Central Bank and other important government buildings and over thirty thousand of army, navy, air forces and police personnel in Claymore mine and hand grenade attacks, and large number on the battle front.
“In short,” he stressed. “Mr. Pirabakaran should take the responsibility for the death of over 70,000 citizens of Sri Lanka and for the loss of limbs and eye-sights of many. Thousands had become widows, orphans and destitute persons. Many of these victims are living on begging due to lack of social support system.”
He began the evening’s address by saying that Sri Lanka had been a peaceful country for generations, in which the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays and people of other ethnic groups, lived in peace and harmony. During the late seventies and eighties there had been a few upheavals, due to the violation of human rights, injustice, discrimination, exploitation and intolerance. The victims were mainly Tamils and Muslims. Various Tamil groups cropped up as saviours of the Tamils and the Muslims. Their fire-power could not stand against one group called the LTTE which gradually either eradicated the other groups or silenced them with their fire-power and emerged as a single group committed to dictatorship.
He continued observing that in championing the cause of the Tamils they even drove every Muslim out of the Northern Province. The Muslims, merely because they were Muslims, had to leave behind all their possessions and the land where they lived peacefully with the Tamils for several generations. These people are now languishing in refugee camps for more than 17 years in the South with the Sinhalese in the Puttalam and Anuradhapura districts, without privacy and their basic needs met. As long as refugee camps exist in our country whether the inmates are Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims or of any other group, we have no moral right to boast of democratic principles. With one section of our people undergoing untold hardships, being deprived of their democratic fundamental and human rights, we can’t boast of our country as one enjoying full democratic rights. Loss of democratic rights, fundamental rights and human rights amount to slavery. Should our youths, be they Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or of any other group, continue to shed their blood unnecessarily and die in vain at the battle front?
He paused a while and asserted: “I am convinced that the time has come for the country to find a solution reasonable enough and acceptable to the minorities and the international community.”
“It is no secret.” Mr Anandasangary said, “That the LTTE has now become so weak but still keep on challenging not only the Government of Sri Lanka but the entire international community as well. The Tamils are held as hostages in their own land. Even the Tamils living freely in the south with the Sinhalese and those who fled the country and are being well looked after by various countries in the West such as in Canada and the United States, our people are living in fear and tension due to the threat of the LTTE. Most of the Tamil media all over the world are under their control and are used by them to glorify their actions and condemn all their rival organizations and individuals opposed to them.”
“Although the LTTE is banned in all the 28 countries of the European Union, UK, USA, Australia, and India and more recently in Canada they continue their activities unchecked in some of the countries where they are proscribed,” said Mr Anandasangary.
“Under the pretext of having a cultural program even after it has been banned, the LTTE hood-winked the Canadian authorities and celebrated the ‘Ponguthamil’ recently in Toronto at which even the Tiger Flag was hoisted. It is understood that similar ceremonies were held on a large scale in Paris and on a smaller scale in London.UK as well. It is obvious that although they are proscribed in those countries some of them appear to be not in a mood to tighten their screws on the LTTE due to their dissatisfaction with the Sri Lankan Government’s slow action in putting forward a just and acceptable solution for the ethnic issue and some countries do so as a vote catching device.”.
He pointed out that several thousand innocent and unwilling Tamil youths from poor families were brain-washed and sent to the battle front and as suicide bombers to die. Most of them were children of poor parents recruited under compulsion and thoroughly brain-washed. The poor parents who are unable to challenge them are weeping in silence while envying the fortunate children of the leaders of the LTTE having their education in Western countries. The right of education is denied to children of poor parents.
He held Pirabakaran responsible for the death of over 70,000 citizens of Sri Lanka and for the loss of limbs and eye-sights of many and thousands who have become widows, orphans and destitute persons. Due to this Mr. Pirabakaran has earned the very disgraceful title as the leader of the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world. He also brought utter disgrace to the Tamil community which is proud of its culture and civilization.
Regretting and agonized on this state of affairs, Mr Anandasangary said: “I expected Mr. Pirabakaran to show some sympathy towards the suffering Tamils of the North and East who are undergoing untold hardship more in the hands of his cadre than from anybody else. Twenty five years of subjugation under his leadership have made the people to lose all confidence in him and in his cadre. The outside world is not aware of these atrocities that are going on behind the LTTE’s ‘Iron Curtain’ region. Up to now no one had refuted my charge that, in the areas under the control of the LTTE there are detention camps, dark room chambers, torture camps, abductions, killings, compulsory recruitments of children as child soldiers, merciless assaulting of parents who resist conscription of children and many other such atrocious acts of the LTTE cadre. The people are so fed up that they want to run away from their homes into government held areas but they are driven further deep into the area under the LTTE control and are often used as human shield.”
The Tamil people who have been deprived of all their rights including the fundamental and the democratic rights, as well as the right to live peacefully, he said are anxiously waiting to be liberated to enjoy the fruits of freedom and democracy. It may not be an exaggerated view, if I conclude by saying that the impact of a series of bans on the LTTE and the more recent policy decision of the Government of Canada has weakened the LTTE. It gives signals of early liberation of the people of the Northern Sri Lanka from the LTTE, the so called liberators.
He concluded by saying that to bring back democracy and peace to Sri Lanka the Government of Sri Lanka for its part should exonerate itself from the charge of human rights violations and without any further delay, come out with a proposal for power devolution acceptable to the minorities and the international community, which I believe is a federal solution or in the alternative a solution based on the Indian model, lest it loses its credibility.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Post a Comment