Sri Lanka: NDP, Liberals & Conservatives request for an Independent Inquiry
Posted on August 16th, 2011

Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario . Canada

15 August 2011

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ EditorƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 
EMBASSY , Ottawa

Sir:

Kristen ShaneƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s article ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Sri Lanka investigation calls about values or votes?ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ (August 10), invariably produces two questions that need answers for the curious.

Firstly, if according to 2006 census there are only 122,020 Canadians whose first language is Tamil, which would include the Canadians whose origins are not only Sri Lanka but also Tamil Nadu in India and Malaysia, then how is it that the Sri Lankan- Tamils in Toronto keep telling us that there are 300,000 Tamils in Canada concentrated mainly in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Does it mean that there are 177,980 Tamil refugees still waiting to have their cases heard to prove their legitimacy that they are indeed true convention refugees? Or is that number thrown at us for psychological impact to say that ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-our community is big in numbers!ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

Secondly, if the NDP, Liberals and Conservatives are basing their call for an independent UN investigation into alleged Sri Lanka war crimes committed in the dying days of the Tamil Tiger terrorist war to the recommendations in the report released last spring by an advisory panel of experts that the UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon, can we count on the reportƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s honesty when the three panel of experts have their proven biases against Sri Lanka.

The panel was headed by Marzuki Darusman, a former Attorney General of Indonesia who was also a member of theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  International Group of Eminent Persons (IIEGP). This Group was invited in March 2008 to observe Sri LankaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s Presidential Commission looking into alleged serious violations of Human Rights.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Darusman left IIEGP in a huff disagreeing with the Sri Lankan Government and yet signed the IIEGP Report without paying a single visit to Sri Lanka to ascertain himself the actual ground situation;

The second panelist was Steven Ratner an adviser to Human Rights Watch (HRW) that has been vey critical of Sri Lanka’s governmentƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and not the Tamil Tiger terrorists from the very inception of this separatist Tamil Tiger war.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Ratner also co-authored a book with Jason Adams titled Accountability for Human Rights: Atrocities in International Law beyond Nuremberg legacy.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  On page 123 of the book Ratner has stated that the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-convention of banning apartheid should be invoked in relations to countries like Sri Lanka.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ With this background Steven Ratner should have been dismissed instantly as a panelist;

The third panelist was South African Yasmin Sooka who is a close friend of South African Tamil, Navi Pilai, who is the patron of the Sooka Foundation, and also responsible for the failed resolution that was brought against Sri Lanka before UNHRC in May 2009.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  This clearly shows her bias by association and should have never been appointed as a panelist.

With such biases by the panelists, the question that is paramount is, wasƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  there a motive behind this Report which really was a cut and paste job from information that was put out by the Tamil Net which was the mouth piece for the Tamil Tigers.

I believe that this request shows that the NDP, Liberals and Conservatives are jockeying to solicit votes from the Tamil community, especially in the GTA region where nine ridings are full of them.

It would be nice to get some answers for the curious on this subject for people like me.

Asoka Weerasinghe

3 Responses to “Sri Lanka: NDP, Liberals & Conservatives request for an Independent Inquiry”

  1. sanath sirisena Says:

    Once again this hilarious act of our political parties leads to say one thing. That is’ we need your vote Tamils. We will do anything to win our seats in the parliment. We are ready even to give our mothers away to get in to power’

    ‘That’s the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth’

  2. jay-ran Says:

    This short and sweet analysis clearly proves how biased the Darusman report is.These white skinned can be bought over easily with Dollars and they will sell their own soul for a vote, what a bunch of hypocrytes they are? Because of such vindictive attitudes and work against Sri Lanka and supporting a bunch of murderers terrorists, Already Norway and UK are reaping the harvest.

  3. Sunil Mahattaya Says:

    These Canadian Politicians should be presented woth a dossier about the attrocities the Tamil terrorists tigers committed agaist the majority Sinhalese as well as their own Tamil community.The horrendous crimes against the Sinhalese are available in graphic detail and some of the information is not only very disturbing but unfit for human eyes particularly the heinous crimes against women children and the elderly. Incredibly the Canadians leaders calling for further inquiries also seem to be myopic about the realities and the confliclts of interests relative to the biases of the panel which comprised messers Darushman, Ratner and Sooka but the incentive for this seems fairly obvious. Garnering of Tamil Votes which is an apathetic shame!
    It is also very interesting to note that the Tamil community in Canada is not entirely Sri Lankan and very common knowledge how the Liberals pandered to them for votes and if the NDP and Conservatives have joined the same bandwagon they should be enlightened about it .

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