by Rajeswary Balasubramaniam
(October 19, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Some Commonwealth Parliamentary Association members will visit Sri Lanka from the 18th of October 2010. This visit will be in progress while the Sri Lankan Foreign Affairs minister Professor GL Peries and the opposition party leader Mr Ranil Wickamasingha are in London.
Over the last few weeks there have been a few political activities in London by Sri Lankan politicians. Last month Mr Tissa Athanayake came to visit and met up with Tamil political activists as well as his own party circle. Then came Mr Karu Jeyasooriya, a prominent person in the UNP hierarchy.
The visit by the Commonwealth Complimentary Group has been organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary association. It includes ten male and female Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs and Lords. The delegates may meet with the Sri Lankan President, Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition and some more politicians.
Some of us of Sri Lankan origin in London met with three members of the visiting group.
Our request to them was to consider helping rebuilding Sri Lanka which is now going through major development after 30 years of war.
We said to them, “Now, the people of Sri Lanka want to live in peace, they want to rebuild their lives, educate their kids. There are huge social and economic problems in Sri Lanka. Due to the 30 years of war there are over 100,000 or more war widows who need help to look after their children. Hundreds and thousands of people are maimed due to the conflict, young people who were conscripted to the war in the Tamil areas should be rehabilitated, educated and trained in skills. Former cadres are gradually released in small numbers at times but there are many who need help to restart their lives. Poverty produces an unstable society. Stopping the EU's GSB+ is affecting the poor. Western governments say that Sri Lankan human right issues are the reason for stopping the GSP+. But countries such as Colombia have histories of human rights violations and you did not stop the GSP+. It seems to us that punishing Sri Lanka is more important for the western world than helping the poor in Sri Lanka.”
Mr Stephan Hammond (Conservative) replied by saying that he had visited Sri Lanka twice, according to him a beautiful country with lots of potential to develop. He has a keen interest in Sri Lanka and has observed the recent changes and developments. The Conservative party does not support the LTTE. He continued ”We know the Chinese sold arms to the Sri Lankan government and to the LTTE. The Tamil people who are demonstrating here have no knowledge of reality in Sri Lanka. I have a balanced mind on Sri Lanka. I have visited clothing factories and had seen people with various linguistic and religious backgrounds working side by side in harmony. But GSP+ is attached to human rights issues. I hope to visit the IDP camps, I know the situation regarding IDP has improved a lot. But we would like see and hear to understand the situation.”
We saw another delegate to Sri Lanka, Ms Fiona O'Donnell, a new Labour MP for South Lothian. This is her first official foreign trip. She would like to see the IDP camps too.
We told her that what is happening in Sri Lanka is due to racist policies in the 50s and 60s by politicians who took political victories from the miseries of Tamils. That we are ashamed of the past which created the image of the Sri Lankan people as savages. That politicians made a lot of mistakes but people always maintained harmonious relationships with each other. We are a multiracial religious society. We want you all to understand that to help us.
These delegates may have been lobbied by various groups in the UK to influence them. Undoubtedly the separatists would have been there before us.
Our next visit was with Lord Dholakia, a Liberal Democrat peer, originally from Gujarat in India. He has a solid commitment to democratic principles. He said , ''I am not a supporter of separatism in Sri Lanka. Geographically or socio-economically the Tamil Eelam will not be practical”.
He also pointed out that the Oslo agreement in 2002 for Tamils to have administrative power in the North and East was a very good proposal. But Pirabakaran did not have control of what he had negotiated. That was a disaster for Tamils. If they had followed the Oslo agreement, the history of Tamils would have been so different now. Allowing or making your own people to die is not one of a liberation struggle's principle. Pirabakaran was not ready to have democratic politics.
The end of the war created tremendous loss and misery for the Tamils, thousands had perished.
Lord Dholakia compared the Sri Lankan Tamils' situation with the Palestinian people. He said, ”Thousands of Tamils were and are in refugee camps. No children in the world should be in refugee camps. Look what is happening in Palestine. 70 years or more they are in refugee camps. That will make the children to grow differently. They will oppose any kind of oppression, that is human nature. If you tied a person up then he will try to break out. The people who are oppressed will fight not for power but for justice. After the long freedom struggle in South Africa, the country went through a very carefully designed reconciliation process. That kind of reconciliation process must be taken in Sri Lanka to rebuild the trust, understanding and the respect of each other”.
“We are given access to go to Jaffna and other places. We would like to go to the IDP camps to see and listen to people. Here in London people were and are demonstrating for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. But the threat of hunger strike and fasting to death and all are not going work in the democratic system in Britain. Tamil people must have a dialogue to discuss the issues”.
“A large number of Tamils have died due to the war. Now the reconciliation process and developments are taking place in Sri Lanka. But when there are four brothers in high positions of power in the government then the question of fair play comes to the front. The Tamils are saying to us “you do not understand the real situation in Sri Lanka. The power of brothers, the last election and the control of economy, the military deployment in the Tamil areas” and so on. Well I would like open access to see and hear people. If the Sri Lankan government has nothing to hide then there will not be any problem. I think at present in Sri Lanka the Tamils have no real say in the political or administrative structure. They need their fair share of the power in those structures. I will say what I feel is right but the Sri Lankan government have all the right to diagree.
The Sri Lankan government must know every citizen of the country has the democratic right to his or her own language and religious practices. That is a true democratic value and principle.
Having a cake is easy but cutting and eating equally is vital. These are my personal perceptions but you have all the right to disagree''.
GOOD LUCK TO THEIR VISIT!
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