Saturday, 20 August 2005

SPUR Condemns LTTE’s Attempts to Whitewash the Assassination of Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister 

http://www.spur.asn.au/SPUR_20050819_Kadirgamer.htm

Our Call

The Society for Peace, Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR), a 11-year-old Melbourne based organisation working tirelessly to protect democracy and bring peace to Sri Lanka, believe that the most honourable and effective way to respect the late Foreign Minister is for the Government of Sri Lanka to arrange for:

·         Independent auditing of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE terrorists by the secretary to SARC;

·         Revising the CFA to address the blatant bias that the Norwegians have delivered to the LTTE terrorists; and

·         Introducing a schedule of punitive measures for violations of the ceasefire agreement by either party.

The above actions must be implemented prior to agreeing to further peace talks with the LTTE terrorists.

Our Reasoning

Hon Lakshman Kadiragamar, one of the most loved and respected leaders not only in Sri Lanka, but the whole of Asia is no more. The LTTE terrorists, lead by the despot Prabakaran and advised by London based terrorist Balasingham, decided to terminate the life of this patriotic, compassionate and freethinking leader because he was classified as a Tamil traitor. When an interviewer for the BBC’s Hardtalk program asked Hon Kadiragamar “by your own admission, you are at the top of the Tamil Tigers hit list. How do you feel as an ethnic Tamil yourself to be reviled by this terrorist group”, Mr. Kadirgamar said “ At birth I was given a label, the LTTE wants me to accept and approve everything that they do, the suicide bombers, the child soldiers, the political assassinations the extortion of ordinary people. If being opposed to LTTE’s dastardly acts makes me a traitor, which is what they call me sometimes, I am absolutely delighted to accept that appellations. I do it with pleasure”

The LTTE is the master of denial. They denied that they blew up Rajiv Gandhi, assassinated President Premadasa, killed Neelan Thiruchekvan, blinded President Kumaranatunga and now, they deny having anything to do with Hon Kadiragamar’s death. Another blatant LTTE strategy is to put up smoke screens when the external environment, including the international community turns decisively against terror or refocuses on terrorism. Some examples of this include:

·         Agreeing to talk peace and subsequently signing a biased Ceasefire Agreement after 11 September 2001;

·         Releasing a token number of child soldiers (whilst aggressively recruiting elsewhere) when the United Nations and UNICEF condemned LTTE’s crimes against humanity; especially recruitment of child soldiers;

·         Proposing the ISGA as a ‘red herring’ to scuttle the peace talks with the then UNF Government; and

·         Promoting the “cooperation with the Government” Trojan Horse when discussing recovery from the Tsunami

If one looks carefully, most of LTTE’s so called “peace initiatives” have come at a time when they are trying to operate in either a hostile national and international environment or recovering from military setbacks.

The LTTE is currently desperately in need of buying time; time to neutralise the hostile national and international backlash from Hon Kadiragamar’s assassination. The LTTE, with its ongoing violation of human rights and international and national law is keen to put up a smoke screen to divert attention from their “terrorist label to a one that desires peace”. The LTTE is currently being justifiably vilified for their inhuman behaviour.

During the last few weeks:

·         The United Nations and in particular UNICEF has clearly given the LTTE terrorists the ‘top billing’ for crimes committed against children. A number of international reports have exposed LTTE’s conscription of children for fighting and at times forcing girl soldiers into child marriages and sex slavery.

·         The British Charity Commission has decided to remove from the list of registered charities, the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) which the LTTE operated in the UK as the foreign aid collecting agency during the past several years. Under the delisting, collection of funds, propaganda work and many other activities including running offices by the TRO stand banned in the United Kingdom.

·         Appeals by the LTTE to have the TRO registered as a charity organization in Australia and Canada too have failed.

·         The United Nations has passed a resolution condemning LTTE terrorist’s assassination of Hon Kadiragamar

·         India has further hardened its stance against the LTTE. The Janatha Party Leader and a former Indian Law Minister, Dr. Subramanian Swamy stated publicly that the “Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was killed because he was perceived as pro-India and a Tamil who did not care for the threats of the LTTE.” Swamy also sought “retaliation in the very language that the terrorists understand”.

There are many other Governments including Britain, the USA, Japan, Canada and Australia that condemned the LTTE’s action to assassinate our beloved Foreign Minister.

Kick Starting the Peace Bandwagon

Operating in this hostile environment is troublesome of the LTTE. Hence there is a high propensity that the LTTE may once again show willingness to begin peace talks with the Government of Sri Lanka. There will be peaceniks such as the Centre for Policy Alternative, the National Peace Council (NPC), the Norwegian Government and NGO funded individuals like Uyangoda and Rupasingha keen on sweeping the death of the Hon Kadiragamar under the carpet and jumping once again on the bandwagon of peace.

These profiteering anarchists will begin shouting from the rooftops once again why the government should embrace wholeheartedly LTTE’s generous gesture for establishing long lasting peace. The NPCs servile status is well exemplified when one reads the Press Statement released on 18 August 2005, where they condemn all deaths due to violence rather than blame the LTTE for assassinating Hon Kadiragamar. They desecrate Kadiragamar’s colossal status in Sri Lanka’s history by treating his assassination equally with those LTTE members killed by the dissident Karuna faction. What hypocrisy and what a tragedy!

The Credible Way Forward

The current CFA negotiated by the Norwegians on behalf by the LTTE heavily favors the terrorists. The SLMM itself has clearly stated that the LTTE has violated the CFA more than 3026 times over the last three years. In contrast, the Government is accused of violating the agreement 300 times. The LTTE continues to murder innocent civilians, members of the armed forces and Tamil politicians with gay abandon, totally disregarding the spirit and rules of engagement stipulated in the CFA.

SPUR believes the first step towards peace is to audit and strengthen the CFA. We believe it is in order for the Government to immediately announce a number of unilateral initiatives. These should include:

·         Preparing an independent report on compliance with the CFA by an eminent person such as the Secretary to the South Asian Regional Cooperation (SARC) prior to any further movement in the peace process. This report should be completed in 30 days and be delivered to Sri Lanka’s Parliament;

·         Implementing the necessary actions to strengthen the CFA including the introduction of a schedule for withdrawing privileges granted to the LTTE for violating the CFA; and

·         The international community and the Donor Forum must take action if the Sri Lankan Government is proven to be in breach of the CFA.

A gradual withdrawal of privileges enjoyed under the CFA should be seriously considered without fear or favour as a means of forcing compliance from either party.  Actions to bring the LTTE into line must be decisive and timely with every breaching action resulting in a punitive reaction. As it is, there are no incentives for the LTTE to abide by the flawed ceasefire agreement.

Full implementation of the CFA and an independent report on the GOSL and the LTTE’s compliance would go a long way towards establishing the credibility and the commitment of each party to peace. Such a report by a widely respected independent third party would restore public confidence and reassure the international community and expatriate Sri Lankans that the LTTE terrorists are indeed serious in their commitment to peace. 

Permanent abandonment of violence and a time-table for handing over weapons should be an integral part of any subsequent peace negotiation with LTTE terrorists. SPUR believes this should only begin after a 3-month trial period after implementing the strengthened CFA.

If the government by any chance jumps into peace negotiations with the LTTE terrorists, without rectifying the CFA, the death of Hon Kadiragamar would be a colossal waste. The public would castigate the Government for metaphorically desecrating Kadir’s grave.

SPUR urges all who wish for long standing peace in Sri Lanka, especially the Government of Sri Lanka, the JVP and the JHU to support the proposition put forward herewith as the “Melbourne’s Alternative to Peace in Sri Lanka” (MAPS)

Let us strive for peace with dignity to honour the memory of our fallen hero, Hon Lakshman Kadiragamar.

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 this Media Release is http://www.spur.asn.au/SPUR_20050819_Kadirgamer.htm