Trade unions in forefront in the fight for justice for Tamils

By Dr Vickramabahu Karunarathne

(March 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to the government news media, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has informed the United Nations Secretary General Ban K- moon, the move to appoint an expert panel to advise him on Sri Lanka was ‘totally uncalled for and unwarranted.’ He has emphasized that in the backdrop where there is no such action against countries with continuing armed conflicts, involving major humanitarian catastrophes and mass scale civilian deaths, the UNSG’s action was unprecedented. He has also stressed that ‘Sri Lanka looked forward to treatment as per the United Nations Charter that provides for equal treatment to all members of the UN, while respecting the principle of non-interference in the internal matters of states.’ Already his loyal adjutant, Wimal Weerawansa has declared that this action indicates the attitude of western imperialism towards a sovereign, developing country that is trying hard to protect its people. I am sure he will organize a mass protest outside the UN office in Colombo; probably a better agitation than what he displayed opposite the British High Commission. Though the president says, “Implementation of such an intention would certainly be perceived as an interference with the current general election campaign,” I would have thought that this announcement of the UN Secretary General is a heaven- sent opportunity as far as the government election campaign is concerned!

Anti imperialism

Wimal is making full use of it to play the card of “anti imperialism” to arouse the sentiments of the masses as a cover to the economic and social hardship being experienced by the people. In fact the government was readying itself to harp on the old slogan of saving the country from terrorism. It was coming into clash with the actions of their one- time war hero, Sarath Fonseka. They were badly in need of a better slogan. May be the global masters are doing all this with a purpose to save their agent who carried out the project of eliminating terrorism. We cannot have illusions about the United Nations Organization. It is not an elected world government.

Or even a world parliament on the lines of the European parliament, which can be assumed to be a sort of European bourgeois democracy. No, the UN is nowhere near it as a global parliament. It is clearly a political organ of the world powers, that works to preserve the political interests of the global capital. Hence it will be a great folly for the Tamil speaking people to expect the UN to do justice to their struggle.

On the other hand even the devil can do things to amuse us. We can make use of global capitalism to advance our campaign for a solution based on self-determination to the Tamil national problem. The president says further “The UNSG was told that the allegations about Sri Lanka were motivated by misrepresentations by apologists of the LTTE, and by some Non Governmental Organizations that were clearly working on an agenda directed against Sri Lanka.” I believe that this is a terrible under statement. I do not believe that the global masters could be misguided by NGOs who generally run on funds obtained from the same powers, or by any Tamil liberationist. However, his claim that “there are also sections of the western world being increasingly subjected to electoral pressure by the same apologists of the LTTE” is partially true.

Solidarity movements

In fact trade unions and Left organisations have started solidarity movements, which are campaigning for a just solution to the Tamil problem and also against the brutal repression of Tamil society. This has taken root, thanks to the efforts of the Nava Sama Samaja Party which is active in many western countries. The social democratic parties are obliged to listen to them. However, the real impact came with the statement made by General Sarath Fonseka that there were war crimes committed during the final stages of the war. The attempt by the Mahinda regime to put him behind bars and to silence him has only strengthened the accusations. Nowhere in history, and in no other country, has this happened - the foremost war hero of a government came forward to expose the war crimes committed by it.