http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/05/29/fea03.asp

How TGTE tries UN card

TGTE’s call for a UN monitored protection mechanism in North and East :

Lakshman I.Keerthisinghe LLB, LLM.MPhil, Attorney-at-Law

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity.-Bible Psalms

At the TGTE’s International Conference held in Lancaster, Pensylvania USA in May 15-18, 2013, Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah Chairperson of the purported TGTE Senate presented a paper calling for the establishment if a UN Monitored International Protection Mechanism in the North and East of Sri Lanka.(Colombo Telegraph May 25, 2013)

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a purported government in exile among the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora which aims to keep alive the idea of Tamil Eelam a state which TGTE aspires to create in the North and East provinces of Sri Lanka. Visvanathan Rudrakumaran is the Prime Minister of the Provisional Transitional Government of Tamil Eelam. He was the former legal advisor to the (LTTE). By profession he is a lawyer in the USA. He is currently a US citizen and lives in New York.

Vocational training for Northern youth

Rudrakumaran is the son of the former Jaffna Mayor Viswanathan. He studied at Jaffna Central College and Colombo Law College Prior to the military defeat of the LTTE, he was the international legal advisor to the barbaric leader of the LTTE Velupillai Prabhakaran and was the head of its international and diplomatic affairs.

Peace talks

Rudrakumaran made valuable contributions to the LTTE, including coordinating lawyers in the defense in Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case, assisting in Suresh Manikkavasagam trial in Canada and challenging US decision to name LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997. He has represented the LTTE in several peace talks with the Government of Sri Lanka.

Speaking about the fast of her husband Dr.Bawan Sri Skandarajah calling for a separate homeland in the North and East of Sri Lanka which lasted six days in Toronto, Canada Usha Sri Skandarajah stated thus: ‘Yet I was strong and I know from where I got that strength.

It was the will and resolve we both have to stand and be counted together with our freedom fighters and many hundred and thousands of fellow Tamils involved in the struggle to emancipate our homeland; further strengthened by our faith in the divine and our constant efforts to connect with IT.’(Source:Tamil Nation.Org)

Canadian authorities

The TGTE has been very correctly called a "ploy to perpetuate terrorism" by the Government of Sri Lanka Formed following the defeat of the LTTE and the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the TGTE is based internationally, including in Canada, the UK, Norway and the USA.

Initially it was Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias Kumaran Pathmanathan also known as KP, who had become leader of the Tamil Tigers after Prabhakaran had been killed by the Security Forces, who proposed that a government in exile be established. Presently KP had realized the grave mistakes committed by the LTTE and is engaged in the welfare of his brethren in the North and East.

Usha speaking at the TGTE’s International Conference held in Lancaster, Pensylvania USA in May 15-18, said that;

Stephan Harper

John Baird

Rajiv Gandhi

‘The TGTE Senate in a document entitled, ‘The Roadmap to Achieving the Restoration of an Independent Sovereign State of Tamil Eelam – A Work in Progress’, presented at the 4th Annual Assembly convened in London, UK in December 2012, said it was pleased that the TGTE is giving this initiative high priority and made recommendations for action that included:

* Lobbying for the setting up of an ‘International Protection Mechanism’ to uphold the safety and rights of the Tamil people in their land of Sri Lanka.

* Drawing up a Paper on the legal issues, precedents and new possibilities; approach sympathetic governments, groups, and individuals to take this up at global forums.

* Calling for the immediate lifting of the ban by the Sri Lankan government 'on credible international human rights organizations' obtaining free access into the North-East with recommendations to demand and campaign for the immediate admission without conditions and restrictions INGOs such as Amnesty International (a Nobel Peace Prize Winner), Human Rights Watch and International Crisis Group into the North-East.

* Demanding free access to the North-East to members of the International Media without conditions and restrictions.

* Encouraging Investigative Journalists to report on the situation (on the ground) in Sri Lanka.’

It is important to note the partiality of the Amnesty International (referred to above by Usha as a Nobel Prize Winner) towards the TGTE after having accepted a donation of Canadian Dollars 50,000 from one of its front organizations as admitted by its Director.

In a report dated February 8, 2012 in Khaleed Times written by Qadijah Irshad the Sri Lankan government has questioned human rights watchdog Amnesty International’s objectivity after the organisation received 50,000 Canadian dollars from a pro-LTTE group, the Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC).

The $50,000 donation to Amnesty International which has consistently taken a pro-LTTE stance despite the Tamil Tigers being proscribed as a terrorist organization by the UN and most countries including Canada, was officially announced by CTC head Suntharamoorthy Umasuthan at the annual Thai Pongal dinner in Scarborough.

It was reported that Ontario Premier Dalton Mc Guinty was a special guest at the fund raiser, along with Sri Lankan Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran. Umasuthan in his address, thanked Canadian Premier Stephan Harper and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird for supporting their cause.

One could discern the influence the TGTE commands over the Canadian Authorities resulting in their subsequent refusal to attend the CHOGM to be held in Colombo this November.

In the end quote to her speech, Usha said that;

‘Are we seeing the realization of a ‘UN monitored International Protection Mechanism’ through the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights who has been mandated to monitor the Sri Lankan government under monitoring powers authorized by the UN Human Rights Council Resolution passed at the 22nd session?

As a consequence it is now conceivable that as per TGTE’s call a ‘UN monitored International Protection Mechanism’, in the form of UN field presence, even an office in the North-East to monitor human rights abuses might hopefully become a reality and must happen sooner than later considering the urgent need for monitoring in a highly militarized North-East that’s governed by an autocratic regime.’

Unfair accusations

The speech contained many unfair accusations against the Sri Lankan government unsupported by substantial proof.

The rehabilitation and re-integration in to society of thousands of former LTTE cadres without any punishment by even going to the extent of providing them with shelter and means of livelihood, the re-settlement of internally displaced persons and the improvement of infrastructure facilities in the North and East were totally overlooked in this one sided presentation by Usha.

The time has come for the Government of Sri Lanka to initiate counter measures and make the international community aware of the devious methods used by the separatist elements to destabilize the regime in order to protect our motherland from this separatist propaganda which is being spread relentlessly almost by the day.

The government’s resolve to keep the North and East under constant surveillance is a move in the right direction given these circumstances in order to safeguard the security of our country without permitting it to descend in to the mire that all Sri Lankans experienced during the three decades of miserable civil strife.

It is regrettable that the Sri Lankan Diaspora living abroad are in this manner misguided to lobby for unwarranted foreign intervention in our motherland thereby violating its sovereignty in order to foster their separatist agenda to divide our island nation in to parts which should be resisted by all patriotic Sri Lankans here and abroad.

In conclusion let all Sri Lankans hope and pray that that glorious day will soon dawn when national reconciliation becomes a reality and all Sri Lankans could live together in peace, harmony and unity as stated in the Bible quoted at the outset of this piece.