While women all over the world are struggling to achieve their rights and to live in parity with men, the difficulties of Tamil women is incomparable to that of women in the west. The former live in fear and face enormous problems due to the conflict and due to Sri Lankan military personnel.
This was the theme of an event organised by Tamil Community Centre, a UK-based civil society group, to mark the International Women’s day on Saturday March 11. The event was held at the Council Chamber room of Harrow Council’s Civic Centre was presided over Ms. Kamalini Sivagurunathan.
Cllr. Paddy Lynn, the mayor of Harrow, inngurated the event by lighting a candle to remark the sacrifice of Tamil women. In her opening speech, the mayor condemned the atrocities committed against women and the use of rape as a weapon of war.
Dr. Shimala Suntharalingam of Centre for Health in Kilinochi, gave a detailed eye witness account of the current situation in the North East. She said the economic embargo that was imposed in the North East from 1990 to 2002 had created malnutrition, anaemia, maternal mortality and the most affected ones are the women and children.
“It was a pity that the international community could not take effective measures to remedy the situation. From my experience in working for Centre for Health, I doubt that the foreign officers who work for the INGOs understand the ground reality,” she said.
Mr. Gareth Thomas, Member of Parliament for Harrow and UK minister for International Development, explained his ministry’s commitment to addressing these issues, under the Millennium Development goals programme.
He accepted that his government could do much more and went on to describe his visit to a refugee camp in Ampara, eastern Sri Lanka last year. The minister said the camp, which is operated run by Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), receives British development assistance in supplying water and sanitation facilities.
“Although the British Tamil people are willing to help those in homeland, it is not always possible due to the ban on LTTE. Most of the areas in North and East are under the control of the Liberation Tigers. The expatriate community is hesitant to help them, as they fear that the British government may not welcome these efforts as it has listed LTTE as terrorist organisation. The UK government should lift the ban on LTTE, on humanitarian grounds” said Cllr. Eliza Mann in her speech.
Cllr. Anjana Patel, chief whip of Conservative party Harrow council, spoke about the gender inequalities in governance. She compared Rwanda to Sri Lanka. In Rwanda, a much less developed country than Sri Lanka, women have fifty percent representation in parliament whereas in the latter, which elected the first women prime minister, only six percent of MPs are women, she noted.
Parliamentarian Andrew Dismore, Councillors Alison Morre, Susan Wayne, Navin Shah, Thaya Idaikkadar, Ranjit Dheer, and academic Dr. Dagmar Helman Rajanayagam and young Tamil women Mathavi Uthayanan, Sandi Balendra and Sivanthi Vijayakumar also spoke in the event.
The well-attended event concluded after giving a 20 minutes open discussion among the audience.
This was the theme of an event organised by Tamil Community Centre, a UK-based civil society group, to mark the International Women’s day on Saturday March 11. The event was held at the Council Chamber room of Harrow Council’s Civic Centre was presided over Ms. Kamalini Sivagurunathan.
Cllr. Paddy Lynn, the mayor of Harrow, inngurated the event by lighting a candle to remark the sacrifice of Tamil women. In her opening speech, the mayor condemned the atrocities committed against women and the use of rape as a weapon of war.
Dr. Shimala Suntharalingam of Centre for Health in Kilinochi, gave a detailed eye witness account of the current situation in the North East. She said the economic embargo that was imposed in the North East from 1990 to 2002 had created malnutrition, anaemia, maternal mortality and the most affected ones are the women and children.
“It was a pity that the international community could not take effective measures to remedy the situation. From my experience in working for Centre for Health, I doubt that the foreign officers who work for the INGOs understand the ground reality,” she said.
Mr. Gareth Thomas, Member of Parliament for Harrow and UK minister for International Development, explained his ministry’s commitment to addressing these issues, under the Millennium Development goals programme.
He accepted that his government could do much more and went on to describe his visit to a refugee camp in Ampara, eastern Sri Lanka last year. The minister said the camp, which is operated run by Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), receives British development assistance in supplying water and sanitation facilities.
“Although the British Tamil people are willing to help those in homeland, it is not always possible due to the ban on LTTE. Most of the areas in North and East are under the control of the Liberation Tigers. The expatriate community is hesitant to help them, as they fear that the British government may not welcome these efforts as it has listed LTTE as terrorist organisation. The UK government should lift the ban on LTTE, on humanitarian grounds” said Cllr. Eliza Mann in her speech.
Cllr. Anjana Patel, chief whip of Conservative party Harrow council, spoke about the gender inequalities in governance. She compared Rwanda to Sri Lanka. In Rwanda, a much less developed country than Sri Lanka, women have fifty percent representation in parliament whereas in the latter, which elected the first women prime minister, only six percent of MPs are women, she noted.
Parliamentarian Andrew Dismore, Councillors Alison Morre, Susan Wayne, Navin Shah, Thaya Idaikkadar, Ranjit Dheer, and academic Dr. Dagmar Helman Rajanayagam and young Tamil women Mathavi Uthayanan, Sandi Balendra and Sivanthi Vijayakumar also spoke in the event.
The well-attended event concluded after giving a 20 minutes open discussion among the audience.
