Prabhakaran's All India Bar Association

By Cicero

An organisation, identifying itself as the 'All India Bar Association', recently issued a statement requesting the Indian Government to intervene in Sri Lanka's crisis and prevent the killing of ethnic Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government. I for a moment was rattled and then gained my composure, as even my fading memory could not trick me into believing that their so called, self styled, Bar Association was the equivalent of our own Bar Association.

This news item first appeared on 15th November 2006 in the Hindu newspaper, subsequently it was splashed in The Island newspaper. Thereafter many other correspondents expressed their grave and serious concern, mainly because they deduced that this Bar Association was the apex body of Indian Lawyers, as the name suggests, not knowing that there are hundreds of such organisations all over India.

Some of them strike and demonstrate, depending on their standing and to steal the show from the real Bar Association, which is the Bar Council of India.

By Act No. 25 of 1961, titled the 'Advocates Act' the Indian parliament provided for the fusion of the professions and made all lawyers advocates and members of the Bar Council of India.

State Bar Council

The Bar Council of India has the sole power to enrol advocates and have disciplinary control over them. The statute has it that the Bar Council shall have branches in all the States in India, called the State Bar Council. The Present Chairman of the Bar Council of India is Sri D. B. Subba Rao. The Bar Association of India, which is situated in New Delhi, has a membership of 2,152.

It was established before the Indian 'Advocate Act'. Mr. Fali Nariman is the President and one of the most respected jurists in the world. He has addressed several important seminars in Sri Lanka and is an astute lawyer. There are hundreds of other law associations and organisations in India, which are not listed in any accepted compendium of law Association in the world. All other Associations are organisations set up by small groups of lawyers to deal with parochial problems.

(ii) Mr. V. Anandasangaree, President of TULF and laureate of the UNESCO peace prize.

Mr. V. Anandasangaree, the leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front, won the UNESCO Peace Prize for his commitment to peace and for a negotiated settlement. His acceptance speech is one that should be cherished by every Single Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim in this country and abroad. It is a gem.

He says "Allow me, on behalf of Tamils living in Sri Lanka, to appeal to you, the international community, to help liberate the Tamil people of Sri Lanka from the clutches of the ruthless LTTE and their continuing wanton terrorism which has brought nothing but misery to Sri Lanka and the Tamil community as a whole".

(3) The United Nations Secretary General has called for immediate cessation of hostilities, but the GOSL had not heeded the advice.

(i) In answer, I would like to refer to a report, of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, which the LTTE would not deny.

Have often been accuse by Southern political parties in Sri Lanka of being partial and biased towards the LTTE.

(ii)SLMM have ruled that the LTTE has violated the cease fire agreement on 3,006 occasions as opposed to 133 by the Government up to 30th June, 2005. On May 11, 2006, following an attack by the LTTE on a naval convoy, the SLMM announced a temporary suspension of naval movement, which continue to date. On June 8, 2006 the LTTE objected to the formal engagement of citizens from European Union States in the SLMM, arguing that it was questionable whether citizens of countries which have banned the LTTE would be sufficiently impartial to adjudicate on critical matters.

Who wants peace, who wants war?

A similar tragic-comic situation occurred when S. Prabhakaran, the President of the Chennai High Court Lawyers Association and the Vice President of the All India Bar Association, demonstrated in the Compound of the High Court of Chennai seeking to attract media attention and thus obtain some coverage for himself, thereby to increase his clientele and be a focus of the NGO community, which is always waiting to find a lapdog for their myriad causes such as destabilising governments. The High Court promptly, on its own motion, initiated contempt proceedings against Prabhakaran. Later, the contempt petition was treated as a writ petition, which is listed for further hearing, when Prabhakaran was asked to remain in the Court as the High Court opined that the Supreme Court had decreed on Striking lawyers.

It is not strange that Prabhakaran makes noises on nothing and creates a storm in tea cup. Recently, he protested against the police for confiscating vehicles which are parked in non-parking zones.

He said it was a criminal act. Earlier, when they visited Lahore with members of other organisations, he and his President made a statement that the fragile peace process between India and Pakistan could be strengthened by censoring propaganda through entertainment.

So much for, the much cherished, freedom of publication. His President, Aggrawal raised a hornets nest when he stated that the border between the two Kashmirs should not be accepted by any one. The Pakistani media went to town on this statement but the rest of the Indian delegation quickly distanced themselves from Aggrawal and his opinion. So much for the exploits of the President and the Vice President of the AIBA.

The President has agreed to reopen the A9 highway to enable consignments of food to be available for distribution amongst the population in the Jaffna peninsula. But, it is reported that the LTTE is unhappy with this situation and wants the A9 road to be opened to all traffic.

If their sentiments are true, then the LTTE has expressed their true intentions, which are, that they are least interested in the starving Tamil population but are interested only in achieving their military objectives, as feared by the security forces.

This was stated by the UTHR (J) several times. "20 years now the LTTE's humanitarian concerns meant nothing other than the military needs of the LTTE. The whole world looked for some wisdom at this late hour for them to discuss a framework for a political settlement, it played the tired old record of the day-to-day needs of the people."