EU snubs LTTE’s HR group
by Dushy Ranetunge
Courtesy The Island 10-03-2006
As exposed in The Island last week, an LTTE propaganda
exercise titled 'EU's contribution to the peace process in Sri Lanka'
was held at the European Parliament on of March 7, 2006 from 3.00 to
5.00p.m. There was no EU representation other than Mr Robert Evans MEP.
A total of 22 persons attended.
The Island exposure had rattled the LTTE and its front, the Tamil Centre
for Human Rights (TCHR). The husband and wife team that make up the
TCHR, Mr. Kirubakaran and Deirdre McConnell had travelled to Brussels
from Paris for the event. The two were married in London a few years
ago with the blessings of Anton Balasingham. It is doubtful if Robert
Evens is aware of this fact, as the LTTE is much more likely to try
and deceive him into thinking that the TCHR is some big human rights
operation, rather than the truth, which is that it is a husband and
wife LTTE front.
The combined intelligence of the LTTE and the TCHR had anticipated that
The Island newspaper would attend the event since it had exposed the
event last week. S. V. Kirubakaran and Mrs Deirdre McConnell-Kirubakaran
had prepared themselves for a showdown with The Island. They had come
armed with a publication that stated that this correspondent was conspiring
to assassinate Tamil leaders and had together with Dr. Rohan Gunaratne
prepared a hit list. This piece of fiction was published in a Canadian
LTTE newspaper about five years ago and this was going to be Kirubakaran's
thrust to discredit this correspondent.
Unfortunately, The Island newspaper was covering an event in the British
parliament by Tamils who truly care for human rights, irrespective of
the identity of the perpetrators.
The LTTE event was patronised by Dr. Brian Seneviratne, who lives in
Australia. He said he lived in Australia and had no intention of going
back to Sri Lanka. He did not want to be associated with the Sri Lankan
Government or Sinhala chauvinists. According to him, Sri Lanka has a
Sinhala Government that has violated human rights and discriminated
against Tamils. He said that blatant anti Tamil discriminatory acts
were heaped on the Tamils. e.g use of their language, education, employment
and job opportunities and also had neglected the Tamil areas. He said
Sri Lankan democracy is in crisis. He criticised the EU for condemning
the LTTE, and stated that it should have instead condemned the Sri Lankan
Government.
He spoke against blocking funds for LTTE at international level and
stated that it was unfortunate that the EU has accepted GOSL propaganda.
He also blamed the Sinhala extremists for the present situation and
said that Sri Lanka had elected a hard line President who talks about
a unitary state. He said that LTTE cannot be crushed. The separation
of Sri Lanka into two independent governing states each a member of
the UN and bound by the UN Charters Provision is more attractive and
a practical prospect.
Robert Evans then invited Douglas Wickramaratne, a Sinhalese in the
audience to respond to the speech. Although he was not listed as a speaker
Mr. Wickremaratne, who had travelled from London, was allowed to give
a lengthy reply. He started by saying that there was a big gulf between
propaganda and fact and he said "I live in England as a member
of a minority group and would be happy if I had one-tenth of the rights
of the minorities in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is perhaps the only country
in the world that gives public holidays to all religious minorities.
It was only recently that the British Government appointed the first
Asian Minister, whereas Sri Lanka from independence has had minority
Cabinet members. The highest positions in the land like Chief Justice,
Attorney General, IGP and Service Commanders, Ambassadors posts etc
have been held by Tamils. I wonder when such positions could be held
by a member of an ethnic minority in England".
He replied to Dr Senewiratne's allegations of discrimination and challenged
his reference to the GOSL as a Sinhala Government and said "I live
in the UK and an overwhelming majority of parliamentarians are English".
He asked "would you refer to this as an English Government or would
you refer to South Africa as a Black Government as opposed to the white
apartheid regime?" He admonished him not to use words like 'hard
line President'. He pointed out that the President of Sri Lanka had
said that Sri Lanka is the motherland of everyone and all races should
be able to live in harmony in any part of the country. "Is that
not a fair statement and would that qualify him to be a hard liner?"
He referred to Mr. Anandasangaree, who, at a recent meeting in London,
said that he wants his people freed from LTTE. Mr Wickremaratne outlined
a catalogue of LTTE terrorist activities and said the EU should condemn
terrorism and support Sri Lanka to defeat terrorism, so that people
of all races could live together in peace and harmony. He said that
the island of Sri Lanka cannot be divided into racist states like Tamil
state, Muslim state, Burgher state or Sinhala state.
The next speaker was Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam, MP. He referred to
Article 1.8 of the CFA, entered into between the LTTE and the GOSL,
giving a mandate to disarm all para-military forces and said that this
did not take place. He stated that although talks were held in Geneva,
targeting of Tamil civilians have continued and the Tamil nation is
being constantly denied meaningful access to governance to pursue their
political, economical and cultural development. To heap the LTTE with
terrorist organisations is not only unacceptable to the Tamil people.
He mentioned the number of prominent Tamil leaders that have been assassinated
and blamed the security forces for them.
Ponnambalam was put on a spot by a member of the audience Mr Dick Gupwell,
the Secretary General of the European Institution for Asian Studies,
who asked him "would you not agree that by having such an unsavoury
group as the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamils, great injustice
is done to the Tamil cause". Ponnambalam said that although this
caused them a lot of problems, the LTTE were their real bargaining chip
and that is why they are going along with the LTTE as the sole representative.
The last speaker Ms Deirdre McConnell, Director TCHR said that international
media coming from Sri Lanka is not independent because the vast majority
of the international correspondents were Sinhala. She did not comment
on the diversity and vibrancy of the free press in LTTE held areas.
She charged that the Government of Sri Lanka was perpetrating genocide.
She wanted the EU to reconsider the decision of September 27 and overturn
it. She was questioned by Mr Wickremaratne and also by one or two others
about the accuracy of her statements. Later, the General Secretary of
TCHR, Deirdre's husband, attempted to reply to Mr Wickremaratne about
his earlier condemnation of LTTE on child abductions by saying that
the GOSL has not shown any concern about over 100,000 child prostitutes
in the south of the country but they were mentioning child abductions
to satisfy the international media. Mr Wickremaratne retorted by asking
him not to exaggerate figures and stated that even UN bodies have never
said that there are 100,000 child prostitutes in the whole of Asia,
let alone Sri Lanka. He said " for your information, when three
policemen pursued a child molester to the Wanni, the LTTE arrested the
three policemen and allowed the criminal to get away, so much for the
concern of children".
This event was titled 'EU's contribution to the peace process in Sri
Lanka'. It was not clear what relevance the content of the event had
to the title.
Robert Evens MEP had read the report in the Island newspaper last week
and stated that he had not received any payment for the event. He stated
that the doors were open and anyone was welcome. Evens went out of his
way to ensure that the meeting was conducted in a fair manner giving
Mr Wickremaratne adequate time to respond.
The meeting ended around 5.30 pm with no decisions taken and Robert
Evans thanked all for the different views expressed.
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