| by S. V. Kirubaharan
( May 25, 2014, Paris, Sri Lanka Guardian) Soon after a resolution was successfully passed on Sri Lanka in the 25th session of the Human Rights Council – HRC, I wrote an article in April, titled, “Successful Resolution And Sabotage By Tamil Stooges!”
( May 25, 2014, Paris, Sri Lanka Guardian) Soon after a resolution was successfully passed on Sri Lanka in the 25th session of the Human Rights Council – HRC, I wrote an article in April, titled, “Successful Resolution And Sabotage By Tamil Stooges!”
In a website, there were 63 responses. Some of these were by people with such names as “KnowYourGamesKirubh ; buggeroff ; FOFF ; dieyouasspora,” etc. Beyond doubt all these and many other comments were written by an individual who lives in Columbus-land. This person is non-grata among the diaspora and writes nasty remarks with bogus names, especially when the author is known to him. He suffers from an inferiority complex, jealousy and guilt and is a disgrace to Tamils. Some of my friends told me that he writes anonymous petitions and has seriously damaged a few families in Columbus-land.
Once he was caught stealing our Tsunami statistics and published the same, under his own name in a website. This was the beginning of his determination to damage us with his bogus comments. Some from Columbus-land requested me to use this opportunity, to demand from, him that he should publish detailed accounts of the money that he raised in the name of the War Crimes lawsuit. He boasts that the hierarchies of the UNP are his good friends. So what!
25 years of activism
Next year will be my 25th year as a human rights activist, participating in the UN Human Rights Forums. During this time I have come across many State leaders, VVIPs, many popular human rights defenders as well as representatives of international NGOs; also journalists from local and international media. Since 1990, Sri Lankan pro-government media – English, Tamil and Singhalese have accused me of being a terrorist supporter. This prompted me to relate and share my experience in my articles. Of course this makes some newly-born activists and the Man in Columbus-land jealous of me.
I have been working since the period when the Tamils had no support of the international community or much support from international NGOs and defenders. During the first half of these 25 years, the diaspora had no Radio or TV stations and no internet even. During that time, some Colombo pro-government media tried persistently to tarnish our image. There were news items saying that I was wanted by “Interpol”, that I had been arrested, that I had escaped arrest, etc. It was all fabricated.
The present situation is unlike before. After the Mullivaighzhal disaster, we have had much more support of the international community and others. Therefore the tasks of newcomers in the HRC go smoothly. That is why they thought they were even able to talk about Sri Lanka’s IDPs, under the agenda item for discussion on Palestinians. It was really shameful that this speech was stopped by the President because it was out of context and did not meet the requirements of the HRC procedures.
In some Tamil articles, my achievements over 25 years have been questioned. My answer is very simple – please do ask this question from the Sri Lankan government.
On 27th March, Sri Lankan national TV ‘Rupavahini’ was present in the HRC session in Geneva to cover the voting on the resolution. On Friday, March 28th, “Rupavahini” carried my photograph in news in English, Tamil and Singhalese, saying that I have been a long-standing collaborator of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE and supplied misinformation about Sri Lanka to the international community. It is worth noting that there were nearly 45 Tamils participating in the last (25th) session.
Espionage
Out of the 45, a few were critical of the LTTE during the war; one or two were strong supporters of Mahinda Rajapaksa and a few were well trained by a Paramilitary / Political party to collect information among the Tamils in the HRC and elsewhere. In fact, they are doing a very good job!
These individuals successfully continue to fool a section of the Tamils, locally and internationally. A few attractive terminologies – Tamil Nation, right to self-determination, genocide, etc are their tools to attract the Tamils using emotion. They maintain their secret contacts with their bosses and masters via 3rd 4th parties.
For this purpose, Rajapaksa’s regime has pumped in huge sums of money - monthly payments and for the training of these individuals by experts on espionage. Thus their approach is not visible, unless someone can follow their speeches and behaviors.
For example, in the last session of the HRC, when I was talking to one of the Tamil parliamentarians, an individual slowly crept into our discussion. From a fairly a good distance, this person noticed the name of the organization that the MP was attending in the UN. Immediately he questioned him, how he managed to get a badge from that organization? This is part of information gathering.
I always do a thorough analysis to cover points in my articles. While I was doing this, I came across some of the individuals who were opposing the American-led resolution on Sri Lanka.
Presently there is a crisis among the diaspora about two communication networks. Each of these is accused of their association with Rajapaksa’s regime. I am not in the least bothered about this conflict. However they both are businessmen and obviously they will target wherever there is a good profit.
Some members of the diaspora have set up a serious campaign, demanding the diaspora to boycott a certain network. Some politicians from the North are believed to be funded by one of these networks - yet they strongly associate with the same people who carried out the vibrant boycott campaign of this network. How can they have such double standards?
One has to look very carefully through photographs published on websites. Below I give a photograph for readers to form their own opinion. (Photo N°.1)
Civil Society in Jaffna
Who is the Tamil Civil Society Forum in Jaffna? Who started this forum and why did they start?
I raise these questions because even though they say that there are one hundred organisations in this forum, there is only one person who always attends conferences organized by the Diaspora. This person also appears in meetings and conferences, where the break-away group of the Tamil National Alliance - TNA appears! They travel overseas together and stay together. It appears that this representative from the Civil Society Forum has become the defender of the politics of this break-away group. I have personally witnessed evidence of this, in a few meetings in UK and Geneva.
Therefore the people have the right to know the true story of this Civil Society Forum in Jaffna.
Many are coming to the conclusion that this Civil Society Forum was established to help and support the break-away of the TNA. Who is behind these arrangements?
How can a Civil Society Forum support someone’s political view? This has created a path for Rajapaksa’s regime to ban non-violent and peace organizations as terrorist supportive organizations. Who paved the way for the present ban?
As documents in support of my article, I include here with two important photographs taken on 24th August 2005.
Let the leadership of the break-away group of the TNA, give a proper acceptable explanation to the people. Hope they neither justify nor bluff. Can anyone of this caliber truly take forward the task of exercising the right to self-determination and the Tamil nation? This is real cinema!
Now everyone can understand the people behind the splitting of the TNA, also about the financial support for this group.
By the way, during the war between the LTTE and Sri Lanka, where was this representative of the Civil Society Forum? What was he doing? What was his view about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - LTTE? I leave all these questions for the break-away group of the TNA to answer the people.
Ban on diaspora organizations
During the early part of April this year, Sri Lanka banned 16 Tamil Diaspora organizations together with 424 individuals, under the UN Security Council Resolution 1373. These organizations were suspected of being fronts of the LTTE.
Out of 16 banned organizations, other than five organizations – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE; Tamil Coordinating Committee – TCC; Tamil Rehabilitation Organization TRO; World Tamil Movement and World Tamil Coordinating Committee – WTCC, all the other eleven organizations were established only very recently.
The UN Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) S/RES/1373 (2001); is very clear about the action by “All states”. This is where Sri Lanka’s ban can be challenged.
http://www.un.org/en/sc/ctc/specialmeetings/2012/docs/United%20Nations%20Security%20Council%20Resolution%201373%20(2001).pdf
None of these 16 banned organizations and the 424 individuals are residing in Sri Lanka. In other words, they all reside in host countries or in a country where they have got their citizenship and enjoy equal rights.
So, except LTTE, all other organizations and individuals banned by Sri Lanka are not seen by the host countries as committing any “act of international terrorism, constitut(ing) a threat to international peace and security”. Before the ban, Sri Lanka never consulted the countries where these organizations and individuals are based or living.
Therefore Sri Lanka’s ban can be brought either to the UN Human Rights Committee or even to other local courts. These banned organizations and individuals, need proper legal consultation. If they do this and follow the right path, the story will be a different one!
http://www.tchr.net/un_forms_and_information.pdf
(Model complaint form for communications under)
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The UN Charter, Chapter VII, articles 39 to 51 are also to be considered.
http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter7.shtml
In fact, there are many jokes about the ban imposed by Sri Lanka.
Firstly, out of these 16 banned organizations, only a very few are active. Others are just letter-pad organizations, with support neither from the diaspora nor from the Tamil elite.
Secondly, when it comes to banned organization and individuals, some in the list are celebrating and having parties because their names are in the list. They say that they will be benefited! At the same time, there are certain individuals who are very sad - because their names are not included in the list. They claim that they have done better tasks than those who are in the list!
One chap told me that he is going to phone the Sri Lankan embassy to ask whether they are not aware of the task that he was doing. If that is the case, their intelligence officers attached to Embassies and based in Colombo are not doing a good job!
It is bizarre that so far none of the banned organizations or individuals have challenged nor come out strongly against the ban on them.
The conclusion must be that, the TNA break-away group and others who have visited a few countries as guest speakers are behind this ban. If this is analyzed in the right manner, one will find the source that assisted in compiling this list. The photographs published in this article speak better.
By banning these organizations and individuals, Sri Lanka is going to be the loser. During the coming summer, there will be a serious drop of diaspora holiday-makers to Sri Lanka.
Diaspora, do plan your action and act wisely. Otherwise you also will be the loser!
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