UK under secretary gives ‘friendly’ advice to genocidal Colombo
[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2013, 04:30 GMT]
Stating that the genocide-accused Mahinda Rajapaksa “has banished
terrorism from his country and ushered in a new period of prosperity”,
Alistair Burt, British Under Secretary of State at the FCO, advised
Colombo to learn from the British experience in Northern Ireland and to
implement the LLRC recommendations, in an article written for the
Canadian news agency The Globe and Mail, on Friday. Mr. Burt was making
these comments after a tour of the militarily occupied Tamil homeland
earlier this month, which was criticized by civil society activists in
the North as a “war picnic”. Grassroots Eezham Tamil activists in the UK
came down on the Conservative minister’s article, alleging that it was
lending legitimacy to the genocidal Sri Lankan state.
The British FCO state minister
Alistair Burt’s open defence of international State terrorism of the
Establishments, the silent response to it coming from the British Labour
opposition having people like David Miliband who were in complicity to
the genocidal war in the island and the lack of uprising among the
300,000-strong Eezham Tamil diaspora in the UK against the theoretical
comparison of Northern Ireland of the unitary UK with the unitary Sri
Lanka, do not augur well to the future of Eezham Tamils in particular
and the future of humanity in general, commented political observers in
the Tamil diaspora.
Alistair Burt’s statements have to be
understood in South Asia, especially in Tamil Nadu, in the long
background of British colonial history in the region. The Eezham Tamil
diaspora in the UK has a historic responsibility in taking the
initiative in inspiring and directing the struggle of the masses in
Tamil Nadu by what it could first demonstrate in Britain, the political
observers said.
Without preparing and coordinating with the
masses in South Asia, especially in Tamil Nadu, the concerted onslaught
of the rump of British colonialism in collaboration with the US
imperialism in the southern tip of South Asia cannot be faced
effectively. Alistair Burt’s statements have to be comprehended in
combination with the Conservative Canadian minister Jason Kenney’s stand
on Eezham Tamils after his visit to Colombo and the Australian
Conservative Deputy Leader of Opposition Ms Julie Bishop lying on the
conditions of Eezham Tamils after her visit to the island, the political
observers cited.
The so-called ‘liberal democratic’ hoodwink of
London Kandaiahs [a phrase that comes from a famous play of the 1960s
staged in Jaffna], hooked to different political parties in the UK and
sitting on any mass uprising, is ineffective to the current context and
this should be realized by the Tamil diaspora in Canada, Australia and
New Zealand as well, the political observers commented further.
* * *
“When
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam met their demise in 2009 at the
hands of the Sri Lankan army, no right minded person mourned their fall.
Before the war, the Tigers ruled the Tamils of the north and east of
the island with an iron fist and brutally murdered countless civilians,”
Mr. Burt wrote in his article.
Adding that Mahinda defeated “a
truly reprehensible terrorist organizations with great severity”, he
stated that the British government supported an investigation of crimes
of both sides.
Referring to military presence in the north and
lamenting that not enough was being done for a political solution for
“all Sri Lankans”, he continued to offer friendly advice to Colombo to
learn from the experience of UK in dealing with Northern Ireland.
“Britain
is a friend of Sri Lanka; a friendship based on history, cultural links
and common institutions. And as a friend of Sri Lanka, it should be no
surprise that we don’t want them to repeat our mistakes. President
Rajapaksa has banished terrorism from his country and ushered in a new
period of prosperity. It is now time for the political leadership needed
to heal the wounds, which caused the war. An important first step would
be implementing the recommendations of Sri Lanka’s own Lessons Learned
and Reconciliation Commission,” he wrote.
Criticizing Mr. Burt’s
approval of the LLRC, Nad Mylvaganam, British Tamils forum’s
Parliamentary Coordinator, speaking to TamilNet said “The LLRC’s
fundamental and well-documented flaws preclude its position as the
authoritative institution regarding accountability in Sri Lanka,” adding
that the BTF is continuously calling for an international Independent
Investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity and genocide
committed by the Sri Lankan state.
Referring to Mr. Burt’s praise
for the Sri Lankan government’s progress, Mr. Mylvaganam said “Minister
Burt keeps using the phrase ‘end of conflict’ (Globe and Mail, 15
February 2013), as he said in his interview with High Commissioner
Rankin on his recent visit to Sri Lanka. He needs to understand that the
conflict started long before the armed struggle emerged as the result
of the conflict. The end of the war is not the end of the conflict.”
Responding
to this article, Sasithar Maheswaran, grassroots activist with the
TCC-UK, took on Burt’s observation that many “Sri Lankans” fear that
their “independent judiciary and proud tradition of vibrant democracy
and activist journalism are being eroded”.
Speaking to TamilNet,
the Eezham Tamil youth activist said “The Sinhala judiciary and the
Sinhala unitary constitution laid the legal framework for the protracted
genocide of the Eezham Tamils ever since the British handed over
political power in the island to the Sinhalese. Successive governments
have systematically and brutally targeted any vibrant democratic protest
of the Tamils and have murdered Tamil activist-journalists with
impunity as it is necessary for their genocidal agenda.”
Stating
that the North Ireland analogy was completely wrong, Mr. Maheswaran
added that the British minister drawing an analogy with Northern Ireland
might be intended at taking the sting out of the genocide allegations
that are being placed by many on the Sri Lankan state.
Likewise, a
veteran Eezham Tamil activist in the UK questioned whether Burt’s
observations was Britain’s vision for Sinhala hegemony over the entire
island, arguing that Mr. Burt criticizing this or that administrative
flaw of the Sri Lankan state without addressing the chronic question of
genocide of the Tamil nation in the island, while painting the Tamil
liberation struggle as a “terrorist movement”, was only a good cover to
give legitimacy to the genocidal Sri Lankan state.
Wondering what
effect years of lobbying has had on those in the Establishments he
added “The sentiments of more near 300,000 Tamils in the UK seem to mean
nothing to the Conservative minister. If the current UK government is
not forthcoming in at least taking action against Sri Lanka at the level
of Commonwealth, then the UK Tamils will have to reevaluate their faith
in the international community.”
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