by Rajasingham Jayadevan
Dear Hon Douglas Alexander;
Thank you for communicating on the Libyan crisis.
(March 21, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Whilst welcoming the United Nation determined decision against Col. Gadaffi, I also wish to express my displeasure of double standards in the dealings of the Security Council.
You have stated that ‘there is clear evidence of Colonel Gaddafi brutalising his own people’. But have this brutalising situation applied to other countries equally or proportionately?
I am a Tamil born in Sri Lanka, where Tamils have been criminalised for political reasons and brutalised until the end of the war in May 2009 and an effective marginalisation process is being carried out under the majority Sinhala rule.
The so-called terrorism of the LTTE is the product of the habitual state sponsored violations and its end was so brutal that scores of innocent non combatant Tamils were callously murdered and maimed. War crimes of disproportionate scales were perpetrated and the conscience of the world is still struggling to comprehend the depth of the brutalisation of a national minority.
Did the British punish the Irish people for the random actions of the IRA and the paramilitaries, like what Sri Lanka did to the minorities over three decades?
Onus is now put on India for the predicament of the Tamils, but the conscience of the world could not stand up for the thousands of massacred innocent civilians. Sri Lanka was not an international issue to the scale of Libya, when deaths and destruction were manifold for many years in the country.
Has the US Security Council passed a single resolution on the situation in Sri Lanka for the past thirty years? The Tamil people are under the dictates of the military and the state backed paramilitary groups, and are unable to carry even a placard to show their displeasure to the government in the so-called democratic republic of Sri Lanka. Tamil people have to protest world over and not in Sri Lanka and this is the state of affairs for the Tamils in the democratic regimentation which the world silently accepts for reasons beyond grasp.
In Libya and Iraq have oil reserves for the west, unlike in Sri Lanka. But unfortunately there is nothing monetarily gainful to engage in Sri Lanka and India becomes a good excuse to play a secondary game there.
West adores Sri Lanka, because it is seen as a democratic state. Sri Lanka too portrays to the world by holding some form of election every year, however questionable the outcomes are to promote itself a democratic country.
Even the post war international stand is played to the tune of Sri Lanka. The country’s chance of facing a war crimes trial is progressively weakened by the indifference and lack of determination on the part of the UN. All because, those accused of engaging and contributing towards war crimes are having major influence in the UN and are attempting to derail the process.
Your statement refers to: ‘Resolution the United Nations has now placed a responsibility on its members to act to protect the Libyan people’. Where was such resolution on Sri Lanka and even on the post war accountability issues and also an engagement to bring peace between communities in the country?
Can the world leave the fate of the victims in the hands of the predator who presided over thirty years of the inhuman war and who still is continuing with the same vigour without sincerely addressing the root causeses of the problem?
Why cannot victim’s interest become sovereign for the international community when states become brutal against its own people?
Your statement further states: ‘it would be quite wrong given what is happening in Libya for us to stand by and do nothing’. It will be two years since the war between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE ended. But people are under the dictates of the army and under the influence of the effective state sponsored demographic change under the pretext of development with the international funding but the world is doing nothing proactive on Sri Lanka.
What I have stated is the gist of fate of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. I hope Lobour Party will do more to enhance its profile having done some meaningful work during its term in office. When I met the Labour Party leader Hon Ed Millaband before his election, I took up the issues involving the Tamils personally with him.
I appeal to you to use your influence to help put Sri Lanka on the international agenda to ensure justice is done by the international community on war crime charges and a just and equitable political solution is found to the decade’s old conflict without leaving the matter in the hands of the prowler for ever.
Kind regards.
Yours sincerely
R Jayadevan
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From: Douglas Alexander
Sent: 18 March 2011 16:42
To: raj.jayadevan@btinternet.com
Subject: Labour's response to the Libyan Crisis
Rajasingham,
As you will have no doubt have seen, last night the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Libya.
I wanted to write to you at the earliest opportunity to let you know Labour’s position as Ed Miliband set out in the House of Commons this morning.
Any decision to commit British armed forces is a grave and serious one and must be based on a clear and compelling case.
In this instance it is based on the clear evidence of Colonel Gaddafi brutalising his own people in response to their demand for democratic change.
It is action backed in the region, most importantly in the clear resolution of the Arab League. And it is backed now by a legal mandate from the United Nations.
The resolution aims to prevent the slaughter of the people of Benghazi.
It authorises force to protect the civilian population in Libya and establish a no-fly zone, while at the same time making clear there is no mandate and no appetite for a “foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory”.
Of course the responsibility for this crisis rests squarely with the Gaddafi Regime, but by this Resolution the United Nations has now placed a responsibility on its members to act to protect the Libyan people.
Next week, the House of Commons will vote on the deployment of British military force as our contribution to this international effort.
Labour will support that decision by the Government. No one – not Ed Miliband, Jim Murphy, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary, myself as Shadow Foreign Secretary, or the Shadow Cabinet – takes this decision lightly.
We have been ready to criticise the Government when they have been slow off the mark evacuating British nationals from Libya and I have asked tough questions of the Foreign Secretary about the unsuccessful mission to contact opposition forces in Benghazi.
But on the question of military action, Labour has been clear from the outset that all options should be on the table, given the record of the Gaddafi regime.
And today, Ed Miliband said in a debate in the House of Commons “it would be quite wrong given what is happening in Libya for us to stand by and do nothing”.
Already, today the Gaddafi regime have suggested they will implement an immediate ceasefire, but this regime must be judged on its deeds and not simply its words.
Tomorrow in Paris leaders from Europe and across the Arab world will discuss the way ahead in light of the Security Council Resolution.
The situation remains fluid. I will endeavour to provide more information to Labour members who I know will have deep concerns not only for the people of Libya, but for our own armed forces personnel and the future of the wider region. If you would like to read the UN Security Council Resolution, it is available here.
As Ed said in the Commons, in the days ahead, as befits the Official Opposition, we will support this mission to protect civilian lives, while asking the questions of the Government that the British public would expect us to, and making clear our support for the Armed Forces in the difficult days ahead.
Yours sincerely,
Douglas Alexander MP
Shadow Foreign Secretary
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