This significant failure dashed all hopes for the continuation of the peace and lead to all-out annihilation of the LTTE causing deaths, destruction and undue suffering for the Tamil people in the final brutal war.
by Rajasingham Jayadevan
As a long standing Labour Party member, this is my brief appeal to the Tamils For Labour (T4L). I am prompted to raise this appeal in view of some concerned Tamils in the UK expressing their disappointment with both Labour and Conservative Parties for not doing anything for the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
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| Parliament Square, London, UK [Photo: Paul Silvan/Unsplash] |
If T4L is not privy to the very sincere efforts of the Tony Blair’s Labour government to bring about the peace between the warring parties in 2002, this appeal is to prompt you to understand the work undertaken by them. I am saddened this very significant engagement of the British government is being sidelined in your election campaign work for reasons unknown. It will be an opportunity for you to ensure giving the due paise even at this remaining space of time before the parliamentary election on 4 July 2024.
I was privileged to engage in the initiation of the peace process by obtaining clearance from the LTTE which lead to the Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lanka government forces and the LTTE on 23 February 2002. British government’s help strengthened the Norwegian peace initiative already in place and with the sincere efforts of the then Labour government peace was secured. We must acknowledge our thanks for the earnest efforts of Mr Barry Gardiner MP, former Foreign Minister Late Derek Fatchett MP, former Foreign Secretary Rt Hon Peter Hains MP and the senior officials of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for their yeomen efforts.
It is also important to praise the determination of the Present President of Sri Lanka Hon Ranil Wickremasinghe for making use of the opportunity and robustly going all out to secure the peace in 2002. His efforts were undertaken with genuine intent under extremely challenging circumstances, facing tremendous opposition even from the Tamil political dictate of the day. Unfortunately, his efforts were not subsequently rewarded by the negative Tamil politics in the 2005 presidential election that denied him to be elected as president to further strengthen the peace process. This significant failure dashed all hopes for the continuation of the peace and lead to all-out annihilation of the LTTE causing deaths, destruction and undue suffering for the Tamil people in the final brutal war.
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