Sri Lanka, sick man of SAARC

The report of the Asian Center for Human Rights (ACHR) dated 2nd August 2008 in which Sri Lanka has been named as the No. 1 Human Rights violator in the whole of the SAARC region, where nearly 2 billion people live, is a serious indictment of Mahinda Rajapakse, his security apparatus and his government.

But these reprehensible abuses are carried out with utter impunity as the police, the government and the judiciary have actively collaborated to protect the abusers who use torture, death and disappearances as instruments of war. 

Usually the Judiciary can be relied on to bring the culprits to book. But in this  case, ACHR has reported that the appointment of Justice Sarath Nanda Silva, the former legal advisor to President Chandrika as the Chief Justice, has resulted in a long legacy of political judgements and not legal judgements, that have interfered with the political processes of the country.

The British legal and political establishment has to recognise this authoritative report on the aberration of government and has to give up its thoughtless stand on supporting the commonwealth government of Sri Lanka.

We appeal to the British Foreign Secretary to take the initiative to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth as it has done with Zimbabwe and Pakistan at various times. If Foreign Secretary Milliband wants to be seen as a political heavyweight and a prospective future Labour leader, now is the time for him to take his stand for human rights and an independent judiciary in Sri Lanka.

The 200,000 or more  British Tamils, who form a sizeable vote bank in some of the marginal seats in London and the principal cities, look upon their parliamentary representatives to become better acquainted with the causes of the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka and the horrendous cruelty visited upon their own relatives and friends remaining in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan government in a calculated campaign of genocide, wants to clear all Tamils from the country by death or expulsion, in order to make Sri Lanka a Sinhala Buddhist country.  The rest of humanity in the world cannot remain indifferent to it, while the expatriate Tamils driven out of Sri Lanka can never close their eyes to the horrific suffering of their own people in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan government has sold a dummy to the West by calling its ruthless war against the Tamils a fight against ' international terrorism' when all that the Tamils are struggling, is for equality and freedom from oppression.

The Sinhalese have chosen war but the liberty of man reposes as much in the heart and the mind as it is in their land. After 60 years of oppression the Tamils have voted and opted for a separate state called Tamil Eelam. The Sinhalese may win a battle of conquest or even a few, but the war can not be won.

The hunger for Tamil Eelam is firmly etched in the hearts and minds of every Sri Lankan Tamil, and ultimately the truth is that freedom will prevail and Tamil Eelam will be born. This is the God-given right of all Tamils and no earthly power however militarily strong shall trample it down forever. Remember that the Jews came back to their home after 2000 years of wandering.

The evil Sri Lankan war machine supplied by China, Pakistan, India, Israel and Eastern Europe is used to slaughter innocent Tamil women, children and elderly men. The West had a conscience during the racist reign of Milosovec and Karadic in the Balkans and assembled a mighty force to bring them down. The whole world rejoiced in this triumph over evil that set the standards of punishment for all racist thugs in power.

Are the Tamils any less human beings than the Muslims of Serbia? If President Bashir of the Sudan can stand indicted as a human rights criminal for atrocities in Darfur, why is Mahinda Rajapakse not indicted for worse human rights crimes against the Tamils in the North and East of Sri Lanka? In the name of justice and with the cries of over 100,000 innocent dead Tamil souls from beyond the grave, consumed in the flames of an unjust and indefensible war for hegemony, we ask Britain to raise its voice and say that enough is enough.

British Tamils will not forget all those Parliamentarians and human rights activists who supported them to rid this blight upon the fair homeland of the Tamils, when they next elect their representatives.

Ivan Pedropillai is chief editor of the Tamil Writers Guild