Thursday, 26 May 2005

SPUR Urges the Government to Adopt the DART Model to Provide Relief to Tsunami Victims

The Executive President Chandrika Kumaratunga continues to pin her hopes on the proposed Joint Mechanism to deliver tsunami relief in the North and the East. Her proposed Joint Mechanism (or P-TOM) automatically hands over the day-to-day administration of several districts in the North and the East to a committee dominated by the Tamil Tiger Terrorists, the LTTE.

From the moment Norway manipulated itself into the position of the ‘peacemaker’ in Sri Lanka to the time of signing the infamous MOU, and now to the hatching of the proposed Joint Mechanism (JM), the President has surprisingly played the role of a mute ally of the neo-colonialists. Her attempts to sell the lethal JM program designed by Norway to the country at large are being watched by the people in Sri Lanka with great apprehension and bewilderment.

The President and her gathering of yes men have spared no efforts in proclaiming that the LTTE has changed its previously uncompromising Eelam stance and  that they are willing to work within the parameters set by the Government of Sri Lanka to distribute tsunami relief. They erroneously believe that the JM will kick start the peace process and pave the way to lasting peace.

At the Donors' conference in Kandy the President pleaded for sympathy of the condescending Donors by drawing the attention to the threats to her life by the so called forces 'against the peace process'.  Throughout her speech to the donors, she implied and later restated candidly during the Rupavahini TV interview that the LTTE had agreed to work together with the Government as they accepted the sovereignty of the Sate of Sri Lanka.

Soon after the President's speech the LTTE, through Tamil Selvam, made it public that the President was simply indulging in a pipedream and was shooting her mouth off. Tamil Terrorists specifically said that the LTTE does not approve the President's claim that the LTTE had accepted the sovereignty of the nation. He said that the LTTE never accepted Sri Lanka as a sovereign state and they would work only with an independent body of foreign monitors and observers.

The time has come to call the President’s bluff. The President, her servile team of yes men and Norwegian representatives now stand exposed. It is crystal clear that Norway, Japan and all the other foreign puppeteer forces with ulterior motives were pushing the country towards their preferred ‘two-state’ outcome while aiding, equipping and abeting the LTTE even to the extent of acquiring air power.

In view of the unambiguous statement issued by the LTTE that they do not recognise the sovereignty of the country, Sri Lanka should no longer tolerate being led down the garden path by the so called peace facilitator, Norway to self-destruction. Nor should Sri Lanka volunteer to knuckle down be obedient to fulfil short-term needs.

Where do we go from here?

The task at hand is to rehabilitate the Tsunami victims using the funds pledged publicly by the international community. The Nations and international institutions pledged their support to the Sovereign State of Sri Lanka. The borrowing, the utilisation and the repayments of such loans are the functions of a State and only the Sri Lankan Government can give such an undertaking in accordance with accepted international best practice.

The President's secretive JM seems to be full of loopholes and should be discarded forthwith. Except for a few yes men, we are struggling to find any entity except the LTTE’s proxy parliamentarians the TNA, supporting it consistently. We request the policy makers and the responsible members of the international community to treat Tsunami rehabilitation as a short-term (3 to 5 year) task and not to confuse it with the convoluted peace process.

Instead we request the Government, the opposition and other minor parties to consider adopting the Distributing Aid for Recovering from Tsunami (DART) model offered to the nation by SPUR for tsunami rehabilitation. This is a responsible, effective, accountable and democratic proposal, which will benefit Tsunami affected areas throughout the Island disregarding narrow ethnic divisions.

Terrorism is a force of the weak minded. Let us not allow Sri Lanka to be over-shadowed by the terrorists or their immoral mentors.       

Dr D Jayasuriya

President

Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights in Sri Lanka (SPUR)

Reg No. A 003 07777 M

PO Box 4066

Mulgrave    VIC 3170

Australia

URL of the Media Release is http://www.spur.asn.au/SPUR_20050526_DART.htm