At the beginning of last month, TNA MP S. Sritharan, accused Australian MP Julie Bishop (Shadow Miniser for Foreign Affairs and Trade) of not caring about Tamil grievances, in an interview with an Australian Tamil radio show on Melbourne Radio 3Cr. See here for his comments in full.
Responding on Twitter to the story by Tamil Guardian, Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP) tweeted, "that report does not reflect what occurred - it is refuted".
Asked by Tamil Guardian for her version of events, Bishop sent us the following written response which has been reproduced in full below. (Highlights in bold by Tamil Guardian):
The first part of our visit to the Northern Province was organised by the Tamil National Alliance.
No member of the Government, police or military was present during the meetings arranged by the TNA.We observed a substantial investment in roads, electricity, schools, housing and healthcare, among other things, as we travelled between Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mullaitiva, before travelling to the Eastern Province. We are hopeful that this investment will help raise living standards for the Tamil people.
The TNA arranged for us to meet with a number of community representatives who raised concerns over the treatment of Tamils in the post conflict period. Although a number of allegations were made, those we spoke to were unable or unwilling to provide us with any specific instances of ongoing violations.
Specifically we asked for details of the number of people who had been physically assaulted, kidnapped, killed or violated in some way in recent months, and for specific examples, so that we could raise these concerns with government officials in Colombo.
Mr Shritharan MP did describe to us an incident where his office was raided by authorities, whom he concluded were from the intelligence agencies, and who accused him of possessing and/or having knowledge of explosives and other material. The only document he provided to me was a photocopy of a newspaper article reporting his allegations.
When we met with the Parliamentary Leader of the TNA in Colombo he did not cite Mr Shritharan’s incident as evidence of any violation of the rights of Tamil politicians.
The TNA did raise with us an incident at the University of Jaffna involving the detention of a number of students but we were advised that they had been released.
Despite numerous requests our delegation was not provided with any names or dates and we were therefore unable to verify any claims of persecution as described in the TNA media release.
At our suggestion we travelled to Mullaitivu to meet with Tamils who had been dispossessed of their land and were being relocated.
We arrived without notice to the local people however they welcomed us to their camp. Many did not speak English but we were able to hold conversations via a TNA interpreter.
There did not appear to be any hesitation or fear in their engagement with us, as may be concluded from the photograph I have attached above.*
A short distance away we saw soldiers in military uniforms working on houses and they said that their work was to construct permanent houses for the people in the camp. We inspected one of the houses, also depicted in the photograph attached to this email.
There was no evidence of any tension between the local people and the soldiers.
I again urge the TNA leadership to provide evidence, including a list of those people whom they allege have, since the end of the war, experienced physical assaults, torture, kidnapping or any other forms of abuse at the hands of the military or police.
Upon receipt of such evidence, I will raise these claims formally with the Sri Lankan Government.
Sri Lanka is emerging from a tragic time in its history and it is vital that full reconciliation is achieved between the Tamils and the Sinhalese, which must include acknowledging and responding to longstanding and more recent grievances.
* The photograph link sent to Tamil Guardian: http://webmail.livemail.co.uk/www.juliebishop.com.au does not appear to be active at present.
