British Special Envoy-will he be another Eric Solheim

By Malin Abeyatunge writes from Melbourne

(February 14, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) When Eric Solheim was sent to sri Lanka as a peace facilitator, I wrote a letter (published on March 12, 2000) titled “SCREEN PEACE TALK FACILITATORS”. There I mentioned quote” we should not accept any facilitators prima facie without investigating their credentials.

This should also apply to the Norwegian representative who is now in Sri Lanka to facilitate peace talks. His credentials and hidden agenda need to be investigated first before allowing him to approach the LTTE for any kind of facilitating”. The nation knows well the mayhem brought about by Eric Solheim partnering with LTTE. The armed forces are gradually discovering one by one the fortresses built by LTTE with the help of those facilitators.

The same goes with the special envoy which the British Government plans to send. The designated special envoy Des Browne may be honest and sincere, but can we rely on British PM Gordon Brown who has not taken any action against the LTTE activists and LTTE sympathizers operating freely in UK other than randomly arresting one person out of hundreds and make a big hue and cry. Yet again Des Browne is representing Labour party of which some them have a favorable mind set towards the LTTE terrorist outfit like the Keith Vaz, Andrew Pelling, Jeremy Corbin who formed British Tamil Forum to support LTTE’s fight for Eelam. I must respectfully acknowledge Hon. MP Bill Rammel the Minster of State stand on the Sri Lankan terrorist conflict where he rightly defended Sri Lanka, a sovereign country by saying “British Government recognizes the Government of Sri Lanka’s democratic right to fight terrorism".

There may be hidden agenda like the failed Norwegian involvement other than what his role expected to be focused as (a) to focus on the immediate humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka and (b) focus on the Government of Sri Lanka’s work to set out a political solution to bring about a lasting end to the conflict. If he is a supporter or a member of the British Tamil Forum, then the GoSL should be cautious as his agenda would not be to help Sri Lanka to get out of this terrorist menace but facilitate by oxygening LTTE from its current dire status of facing defeat in the hands of armed forces. It was only last week that the British Government pressurized the GoSL to call for another cease fire with LTTE to give breathing space to LTTE terrorists. Hence, screening Des Browne before he lands in Sri Lanka is of prime importance to the sovereignty of Sri Lanka. The GoSL should his credentials and alliance thro our HC in London and other Sri Lankan patriotic organizations in London.

Let us discuss whether we really need a special envoy to look into the two matters he is expected to focus. The immediate humanitarian situation is created by LTTE by hiding behind the ordinary Tamil civilians and forcibly keeping them under their control without allowing them to move to safety zones created by the armed forces. The UN and its Agencies and the International Community have expressed their concern of the civilians trapped under LTTE and asking LTTE to release them, but LTTE has so far not heeded to such requests and unlikely that LTTE will do so in future. If Des Browne wants to know the most recent position of the Humanitarian situation in the North, here are the atrocities committed by LTTE within first two weeks of February:

• On 4 Feb 2009, LTTE sent a girl of 14 years old to the Government front line tied with a suicide kit and exploded herself. Luckily she couldn’t do much damage except her beautiful youth sacrificed in vain for blood thirsty Prabhakaran and wounding the soldier who stopped her on suspicion.

• On 9 February, a LTTE woman suicide bomber mingled with the fleeing civilians and exploded herself killing 20 soldiers, 13 civilians and wounding over 70 civilians;

• On 10th February, LTTE gunned down 19 fleeing civilians including women and children and wounding around 70 civilians and they were all hapless Tamils.

Within two days, LTTE killed 32 Tamil civilians and maimed over 130 Tamil civilians and 20 soldiers. My question to British PM Gordon Brown whether his special envoy can stop this LTTE mayhem?

The next matter that Des Browne wishes to focus is to help to find a solution to the conflict. Well, we do not need constitutional experts from outside to find a political solution. We have our own constitutional experts like PC HL De Silva, SL Gunasekera, Gomin Dayasiri, Dr. Susantha Goonatilake Prof Rajiv Wijesinghe and many others from Tamil, Muslim and burgher communities who can give expert advice to suit our country. However if Des Browne is coming, he must first read 2500 years old history of Sri Lanka before he embarks on this project and not hearsay or the crap propagated by LTTE lobbyists through media and websites about its “Mythical Elam”.

However, It’s pleasing to note that the present Cabinet of Sri Lankan Government (unlike the naïve Govt in 2002) has out rightly rejected Gordon Brown’s decision to send Des Browne as special envoy and hope that Government will stick to its rightful stand without any wavering.

-Sri Lanka Guardian