Your editorial cartoon and editorial of 14 August
Posted on August 14th, 2010
Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .Canada
August 14, 2010
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The Editor (Letters)
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
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Sir:
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Today’s editorial cartoon “Fair Play and Daylight” was brilliant which summed up the MV SUNRISE fiasco, where one person says to another standing on the Warf where the illegal Tamil migrantƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ship MV SUN SEA SRI LANKAƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ with 490 Tamils was docked, “They may be UNINVITED but they aren’t UNINFORMED!”
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‘Take a deep breath’, your editorial said.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What is upsetting about that editorial is that if only the Conservative government had taken advantage of Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s offer, after the Sri Lankan armed forcesƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ rescued 300,000 Tamil civilians from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers and were housed in temporary welfare village camps and were criticized forƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ doing that, that he would facilitate the Canadian Government to sendƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ its Visa Officers to the North to process the Tamils who wish to get over to Canada asƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ refugees.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This would have satisfied all the bleeding hearts in Canada and the Tamils supporting politicians,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and even the 490 Tamils on that ship would have been in Canada by now as legitimate refugee claimants enjoying our welfare state hospitality.
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The question that goes begging is why didn’t the Canadian Government accept that offer as concerned Human Rights advocatesƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ of the Sri Lankan Tamils.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This I don’t understand.
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This weeks report from the UNHCR says, that Tamil refugees from India have started to return to Sri Lanka.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ “The numbers of returns are not currently high, but it is significant to see that they have already exceeded that of all 2009.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ We can expect more refugees will start to consider returning home, reconnecting with their families, and rebuilding their lives in this post-conflict phase”, said Michael Zwack, UNHCR Representative in Sri Lanka.
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So why are these 490 Tamils here cryingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ that they are fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What baloney!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ What a scam when over a million Tamils are livingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ happily in Sri Lanka amongst the majority Sinhalese, and 260,000 of the Tamils out the 300,000 who were living in welfare camps since May 2009 after the Tamil TigersƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ were defeated at war have gone back to their reconstructedƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ as well asƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ newly builtƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ homes.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ And that is the ground reality.
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Asoka Weerasinghe