"Palitha Kohona asks Canada to ban TRO - Canada"

An objection statement from Thangavelu, TCWA, Canada to Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade , is follows;

(September 12, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) We understand that Mr. Palitha Kohona, Foreign Secretary, Sri Lanka met you recently in Ottawa. It appears he has urged the Canadian government to ban the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization – Canada (TRO-Canada) in the same fashion as the LTTE and the WTM. He might have cited the ban imposed on TRO (USA) by US government as a precedent.

The banning of LTTE in 2006 and WTM in June this year has criminalized the entire 300,000 strong Tamil Canadian community. Tamils are facing discrimination at work places, labelled terrorists in schools and potential “terrorists” in the eyes of the RCMP/CSIS. Individual Tamils are spied upon and meetings and rallies clandestinely photographed /videographed. It has become difficult to hire a hall to stage even cultural shows. Sometimes, the Police refuse security because of perceived connection of the organizer of the event to the LTTE/WTM. It looks though the life of Tamils is no different from Russians under the KGB of the Soviet era!

In the name of fighting anti-terrorism, Canada has embraced a series of policies that abandon perhaps the most elemental and crucial tenet of our democratic society: fair treatment of all citizens under the Canadian Charter. In lieu of this most fundamental of democratic protections, Canada adopted a panicked, racist, and unfair legislation that had eroded human rights protection. The Anti-Terrorism law is reminiscent of the McCarthy era which politicians condemn in hindsight while supporting similar tactics today.

There is a long history of oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka since independence. We ourselves were victims of Sri Lanka’s state terrorism. Tamils in their thousands fled Sri Lanka to escape persecution and political oppression based on ethnicity and religion.

The current war in Sri Lanka between the majority Sinhalese (64% Buddhists) and minority Tamils who are largely Hindus is not a civil war like in Nepal. It is an ethnic war between the Sinhalese Nation and Tamil Nation.

Right now a human tragedy of starvation, disease and death is unfolding in Vanni where more than 220,000 men, women and children have been internally displaced because of the intensive bombing and shelling by the armed forces. This human tragedy has been compounded by the government order to INGOs to relocate to government controlled territory in Vavuniya leaving the IDPs to fend for themselves. GoSL has also prohibited media access to the Vanni and other war-affected areas so as to limit international coverage of the conflict and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The government has also banned and/or restricted transport of food, medicine, cloths, tents etc into Vanni. Only TRO (Sri Lanka) is on the ground to provide what ever little humanitarian assistance possible.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed deep concern over “the safety and freedom of movement of civilians and allowing humanitarian organizations to reach persons affected by the fighting who need humanitarian assistance.”

At a recent interview given by Gen. Sarath Fonseka, the influential Army Commander, who voiced his conception of Sri Lanka: "The Sinhala nation has to sacrifice if you want to protect the country and survive….. In any democratic country the majority should rule the country. This country will be ruled by the Sinhalese community which is the majority representing 74 percent of the population" (The Daily News – 19.7.2008). If this ultra- Fascist theory is applied to Canada, the break-up of the country would have been a fait- accompli long ago.

Palitha Kohona represents a country that was booted out from the UN Human Rights Council recently. Sri Lanka is guilty of human rights abuses, enforced disappearances, torture, detention without trial, corruption, inefficiency and profligacy.

We hope the Canada will not succumb to the pressure tactics of an internationally discredited government. It will be a monumental blunder and a tragedy of the first magnitude to those Tamils languishing in varying degrees of deprivation and degradation sans shelter, medicine and other basic needs. - Sri Lanka Guardian