Saturday, 18 June 2005

PROPOSED  JOINT MECHANISM FOR TSUNAMI REHABILITATION WILL LEGITIMISE THE LTTE TERRORISM AND THEIR ONE PARTY RULE

The Current Plight

The individual international donors and their governments reacted in a most compassionate way and generously contributed towards the rehabilitation of the victims of the Boxing Day tsunami disaster, but did not at any stage intend to channel such funds to the care and authority of the world’s most ruthless terrorist organisation, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The LTTE which has been designated as an international terrorist organization by the UN Security Council is banned in many leading democracies in the world including Australia.

The proposed Joint Mechanism designed by the Norwegian, adopted by the President and recently discussed with the international donor community in Kandy, Sri Lanka which provides for fifty percent (50%) representation for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the delivery of tsunami rehabilitation funds in the northern and eastern provinces gives it legitimacy which it lacks, and acceptance of its claim to be the 'sole representative of the Tamil people' which is a misnomer to say the least.  This is a dangerous step that would lead to the recognition and legitimacy of a terrorist organisation over the same region where the LTTE seeks an absolute majority of its unelected cadres to be in control.  A large segment of the Tamil people, the Moors (Muslims) and the Sinhala people of this region totally oppose any authority whatsoever being bestowed to the LTTE that has carried out a reign of terror throughout the Norwegian brokered ceasefire since February 2002, resorting to numerous acts of extortion, extra judicial killings, forcible child recruitment and every form of violence mainly against the very Tamil people whose liberation is their supposed goal.  We should also remember that the LTTE illegally controls less than 10% of the area affected by the Tsunami. However, the proposed Joint mechanism plans to give the LTTE control over the whole of the North and the East of Sri Lanka, thus stifling democracy and promoting despotic barbarism.

Norwegians have made this proposal to hand over of control of  funds to LTTE  despite the fact that UN Security Council's Resolution Number 1373 of September 2001 clearly requires all nations to prevent the flow of funds to those groups officially listed as terrorist organizations.

Today, there is mayhem in Sri Lanka with a united force campaigning vociferously against the Presidents secretive Joint Mechanism. It is indeed in this environment that we have detailed an alternative model DART based on democratic principles.

A Universally Acceptable Solution

The only solution that would be acceptable to the people of Sri Lanka is a Mechanism where the legally and democratically elected government headed by the President and Cabinet of Ministers will not only be in charge of the donated funds, but also be responsible for determining the policies and guidelines for its proper utilization.
 
The Government of Sri Lanka may join with a Management Committee made up of the elected representatives from all political parties including the Tamil National Alliance (an appendage of the LTTE), that serve the tsunami affected areas, in the implementation of the approved rehabilitation programs.

We, the Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights of Sri Lanka (SPUR), have already presented a detailed alternative that meets democratic criteria, the “Distributing Aid for Recovery from Tsunami " (DART) Model to the government of Sri Lanka for consideration.  The details of the DART model are available for reference in our website http://www.spur.asn.au/DART_Model.pdf . If a hard copy is required, please do not hesitate to contact us at the address or email given in the letterhead.

We call on the international community to move away from the Presidents flawed Joint Mechanism, and co-operate in the adoption of the all embracing DART scheme that avoids the many pitfalls of legitimising a brutal terrorist group. 

SPUR’s DART Model for providing tsunami relief was released in Melbourne Australia on 14 May 2005 to large gathering in Bentleigh East. The model was also released in Sri Lanka on 16 May 2005 for public consumption, scrutiny and feedback.

DART is a model:

(1) Based on accountability, transparency, equality, principles of democracy and human rights.

(2)  Void of any ethnic bias, has at its core the rights of an individual to partake in the decision-making processes that fashions the individual’s future.

(3) Capable of delivering tsunami recovery aid to all affected people in Sri Lanka including those affected pockets in the North and East of Sri Lanka currently illegally occupied by the LTTE

Under no circumstance should the people of Sri Lanka be forced to adopt an undemocratic joint mechanism that legitimises terrorists for assisting with tsunami recovery. 

We also trust the Sri Lankan Government who are now under enormous pressure from the international donors, will have the maturity and wisdom to accept this fully outlined alternate proposal that has already been presented to the them, which leaves out the negative aspects and provides a framework that would assist in effectively carrying out the rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the tsunami devastated regions of the island.

We seek your support and urge you to present the DART model through the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canberra as a viable alternative to the Sri Lankan Government’s much maligned Joint Mechanism.

Yours very truly,

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

The URL of the Media Release is http://www.spur.asn.au/SPUR_20050618_JM_Letter_Aus_MPs.htm