Statement by Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner
Posted on August 24th, 2011
Asoka Weerasinghe Kings Grove Crescent . Gloucester . Ontario .ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ CanadaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
24 August 2011
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Editor (Letters)
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sir:
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner Chitranganee Wagiswara is absolutely right when she says that Sri Lanka prefers to look forward and to its future after ending three decades of a Tamil Tiger terrorist separatist war, rather than dwelling on the past three decades of this unfortunate war.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There are three Human Rights factors we all keep missing and not acknowledging in this ugly episode even by the international human rights watchers like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and the NDP who is urging the United Nations to set up an independent, international mechanism, to look into alleged war cimes during the last five months of the war.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Since the war ended on 19 May 2009, not a single claymore mine nor a suicide bomb exploded in the island planted by the Tamil Tigers which was almost a daily affair during the three decades of the war, killing thousands of innocent civilians.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ That love for the minority Tamils was shown by the majority Sinhalese people when they prepared a million meals a day to feed a hearty breakfast, lunch and dinner for the 300,000 northern Tamils who were liberated by the armed forces from the clutches of the Tamil Tigers who used them as a human shield, when they were housed in temporary welfare camps.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ And by ending this war, the Sri Lankan government gave back to its 22 million peoples the most paramount right of their lives, their ‘right-to-life’ which was hijacked by the Tamil Tigers for three decades. They are now moving around the island freely not worried that they would be blown to smithereens by these terrorist bombs.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is time that NDP give these 22 million Sri Lankans the Peace that they are longing for a Chance and not come up with road blocks to interfere with their reconciliation process which is progressing so well.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Asoka Weerasinghe