{"id":118420,"date":"2021-09-21T16:52:10","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T23:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118420"},"modified":"2021-09-21T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T23:52:10","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-19-b5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/21\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-19-b5\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 19 B5"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

( Continued from B4)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TNA has had \ncontinuous contact with the USA. Rajiva\nWijesinghe recalled that, during Eelam war IV, he met Sampanthan in close\nconclave with the US Ambassador and the European Union representative, at the\nresident of the Political affairs Officer of the US embassy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, a delegation of TNA parliamentarians held two\ndays of talks with US state Dept officials and US congressmen. In 2014Ambassador Butenis had met Sampanthan before she left for UK to attend a\nconference on the future of the Tamil community. They had discussed how the\nDiaspora could be used to influence a national election in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2017   there was a meeting between the\nvisiting US Assistant Secretary of State, Ambassador Alice Wells and TNA\u2019s\nSampanthan and Sumanthiran. The meeting was held at the residence of the US\nAmbassador to Sri Lanka Atul Keshap. TNA issued a statement which said Mr.Sampanthan\napprised the Ambassador of the current political situation in the country\nespecially the matters pertaining to the Constitution making process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampanthan had said,\n“Every Tamil person in this country has been affected by violence, and we\nhave been deprived of our rights in this country. As a result of it over 1.5\nmillion Tamil people have fled the country. We want the remaining Tamil people\nin this country to live with dignity and those who have left the country to\ncomeback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018\nSampanthan met F. James Sensenbrenner, visiting United States Member of\nCongress and His Chief of Staff Matt Bisenius \n in his Office as Leader of the\nOpposition. M.A. Sumanthiran was also present at the meeting. TNA issued a\nstatement. “Sampanthan apprised the member on recently concluded Local\nGovernment Elections and the resultant political situation. Explaining the\nConstitution making process, He also emphasized that the Constitution must be\napproved by the people at a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

A bipartisan\ndelegation of Members of Congress from the US House of Representatives also\nvisited in 2018. It was led by Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, Chairman of\nthe House Appropriations Committee, (Republican) and Congressman Henry Cuellar (Democrat).\nThey came during the US Congressional recess to further strengthen ties between\nthe two governments. They held productive meetings with Prime Minister Ranil\nWickremesinghe, Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya and Opposition Leader,\nSampanthan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2018, a\ndelegation from the House Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Congress visited\nSri Lanka. The House Armed Services Committee, a standing committee of the\nUnited States House of Representatives, is a powerful Committee, responsible\nfor the supervision of armed forces and the Department of Defence. The\ndelegation was led by its Chairman Mac Thornberry.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nvisit was to find out ways of strengthening defense cooperation between Sri\nLanka and USA.  The US embassy had\narranged for the delegation to meet with civil society organizations and the\nTNA for private discussions. Why did Ambassador Keshap arrange a meeting\nbetween the visiting House Armed Services Committee representatives and the TNA,\nthe media asked.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The US embassy said nothing about these\nmeetings but the TNA issued a detailed statement to the media. The TNA\nstatement said, “Sampanthan\nreminded the delegation that the Government of Sri Lanka has given a Commitment\nto fully implement the UNHRC resolution adopted in 2015 before March 2019. They\nmust   ensure that this is done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampanthan\nalso told the US delegation that the legitimate demands of the Tamil people in\nfinding a lasting solution to the national question could only be addressed\nthrough adopting a new Constitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\n1988 every successive government and President have made several attempts to\nchange the present Constitution, therefore, this should not be a difficult task\nfor the majority of Sinhala people to understand. “We want a solution\nwithin a united undivided and indivisible country. The power-sharing\narrangements should be in accordance with the international covenant on Civil\nand Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural\nRights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Sampanthan told\nThornberry: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nTamil people are not going to be second-class citizens in this country. ”\nIf the Government does not deliver, if things do not go well and if things are\nnot achieved within a certain time frame, our people will be forced to rethink\nour position. We are unhappy about the way the country is progressing,\u201d\ncontinued Sampanthan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nInternational community cannot be a spectator anymore with regard to Sri Lanka.\nIf the government of Sri Lanka continues to fail in their commitments the\ninternational community must take action to safeguard the victims and ensure\nthe non-recurrence of the past, concluded Sampanthan to Thornberry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2020 Sampanthan\ntold visiting US Congressional delegation led by Rep. Ami Bera Chairman, House\nForeign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Non-Proliferation that\nunless the Tamil community was given a meaningful political solution, things\ncould turn bad for the country. We want a political solution based on the\npower-sharing arrangement that is practiced all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2021 US\nAmbassador to Sri Lanka Alaina B Teplitz and a group of American delegates  met a TNA delegation at the TNA leader\u2019s\nofficial residence in Colombo. The TNA leader was accompanied by MPs M.A.\nSumanthiran, Selvam Adaikalanathan and former MP Mavai Senathirajah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sampanthan told\nthe media that they had a discussion with Teplitz about the promises made by\nthe Sri Lanka government to the international community on resolving the issues\nfaced by the Tamil people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two groups\nhad a lengthy and fruitful discussion on Sri Lankan Government\u2019s commitment to\nthe international community to resolve the Tamil issue and the resolutions\ndiscussed at the UN Human Rights Council, said TNA <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 We told the Ambassador that all governments\nwere not sincere in their proposals to resolve the grievances of the Tamil\npeople in the North and the East. Therefore, this issue had been dragging on\nfor decades. The time has come for concrete solution to the issues faced by the\nTamils in the country,\u201d TNA said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Provincial\nCouncil system alone was not enough to resolve the issue in the North and the\nEast. It was important for the two provinces of the North and the East to be\nconsidered as a single political entity and to be governed by the Tamil people. The international community must directly\nintervene .The full intervention of the United States and the international\ncommunity is needed to find a clear solution, the TNA concluded. (Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS ( Continued from B4) TNA has had  continuous contact with the USA. Rajiva Wijesinghe recalled that, during Eelam war IV, he met Sampanthan in close conclave with the US Ambassador and the European Union representative, at the resident of the Political affairs Officer of the US embassy. In 2011, a delegation of TNA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}