‚ MEDIA RELEASE Prathap Perera President – On Behalf of the Executive Committee-
SRI LANKA UNITED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

Canada-â„¢s lone campaign to overturn the decisions taken by the Commonwealth body granting Sri Lanka the right to host the next CHOGM in November 2013 is both ludicrous and fallacious especially on alleged human rights violations, as Canada too has several ugly skeletons in her own cupboard.

It is only allegations that are being leveled against Sri Lanka based on hearsay evidence coming from one side of the conflict which is nothing but a prejudiced source.‚  Unlike the various rights groups such as the ICG, HRW, and Amnesty headquartered in Brussels, New York and London respectively, which attempted to sling mud at Sri Lanka having listened to just one side, Sri Lanka-â„¢s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) held open sittings where over 1,800 oral and written submissions were received from a cross section of the local population. The UNSG-â„¢s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka looked at evidence only from one side which they locked away for 20 years. The UNSG-â„¢s Panel sitting in New York even ignored the findings of the UN Resident Representative-â„¢s office in Colombo to repeat the highly exaggerated guesstimate of civilian casualties during the latter phase of the military action against the armed Tamil Tigers in the last 4 months and 18 days of the military conflict in 2009. The rights groups and the UNSG’s Panel very strangely ignored the three decades of terrorist violence and consequent loss of life and focussed only on the final phase of the conflict of less than five months. Adding the word -credible- to these allegations does not make them any more realistic. Canada repeating what has not been proven to condemn Sri Lanka is a grave mistake.

Sri Lanka with her limited resources has taken immense measures to provide care to the 295,873 displaced Tamil civilians taken hostage by the LTTE for conscription and exploitation of their labour and later held as a human shield. Steps were taken on a priority basis to de-mine the land which extended to over 150 sq. km. removing over a million explosive devices. Thereafter, the IDPs were resettled after repairing/rebuilding homes, provision of land, livelihood assistance, and essential infrastructure such as schools, health facilities, irrigation reservoirs and other amenities. The surrendered Tamil Tiger combatants numbering around 12,000 too have undergone a multifaceted rehabilitation program and provided with vocational training in new life supporting skills and released to the society, except for about 200 hardcore cadres who will have to face court trials for serious crimes committed. Sri Lanka has achieved substantial results on the ground compared to post conflict situations in other parts of the world with the northern province registering an economic growth of 22 %‚  in 2011 whilst the growth in the rest of the country was 7.5%.

Sri Lankan authorities have undertaken the task of implementing the 285 recommendations made by the LLRC some of which have already been finalized whilst some have been partially carried out.‚  They have since drawn up a National Action Plan headed by the Permanent Secretary to the President where each activity, key responsible agency, prime performance indicator and time frames have been established classifying these as long, medium and short term projects. A further track of activity titled the National Human Rights Action Plan will operate separately to achieve the desired humanitarian goals. .‚  It is an internal process to be managed by the Sri Lankan authorities answerable to the people of Sri Lanka.

We note that Canada had to fully implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) report of 1996 with several issues still remaining to be resolved, which allowed for a time frame of 16 years which has since lapsed.‚  UNESCO had earlier noted the economic marginalization and the ongoing dispossession of the Aboriginal Peoples from their lands.‚  Earlier attempts to assimilate the aboriginal people caused considerable damage to their morale and cultural well-being.‚ ‚  Mr. Harper attended the La Francophonie Summit held in 2012 in the Congo and had no qualms in attending the recent APEC meeting in Jakarta despite serious human rights issues in each of the countries and lack of accountability.

Sri Lanka-â„¢s pains were to a fair extent due to Canada-â„¢s failure to stop the raising of funds for the internationally banned Tamil Tiger terrorists for a considerable period which caused tremendous loss of life and damage to valuable property. ‚ Canada-â„¢s harsh stance on Sri Lanka is difficult to understand, as it appears to be based on Mr. Harper-â„¢s attempt to impress the Tamil Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area whose votes he is wooing to win a few additional ridings at the next general election which may well boomerang for the Conservatives.‚  All other Commonwealth countries will be participating in the November 2013 CHOGM in Colombo except Canada represented at a lower level which would naturally play an insignificant role at the meeting.

Yours truly,

Prathap Perera
President – On Behalf of the Executive Committee

SRI LANKA UNITED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

4 Arkona Drive, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1T 1X3

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