Sunday Observer Online

Home

News Bar »

News: Mr. Anura Bandaranaike passed away little while ago ...           Political: TMVP submits 16 names as heads of local bodies ...          Finanacial News: SAFTA to boost stronger economic growth in the region ...          Sports: Murali won Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year title in 1991 ...

DateLine Sunday, 16 March 2008

Untitled-1

observer
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Govt did not start the war

US State Dept Report - an extraordinary rendition of events:

- Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka

The recent report by the US State Department on Sri Lanka was an ‘extraordinary rendition of events’, said Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleka, responding to questions raised during a panel discussion titled `War, Peace and Human Rights: Sri Lanka after the Eastern Elections’, on Friday on the sidelines of the Seventh Session of the Human Rights Council.

“The Sri Lankan state did not start the war but a war of aggression has been waged on it by a ruthless terrorist organisation - the LTTE” Jayatilleka told the international audience of 30 representatives from Permanent Missions, civil society organisations and Sri Lankan professionals attached to international organisations.

Ambassador Jayatilleka who laid the framework for the discussion traced the history of the conflict and the many attempts made by successive Governments to find a political solution to the war that has been waged on the people of Sri Lanka for more than 25 years by the LTTE.

The Ambassador who divided the conflict in Sri Lanka into two parts as pre-1987 and post-1987 said that in July 1987 following the signing of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord all other Tamil armed groups had renounced violence and agreed to enter the democratic mainstream to secure the rights of the Tamil minority.

However, the LTTE started waging a war against the Indian Peace Keeping Force, the IPKF by October 1987.

Dr. Jayatilleka highlighted that it was incomprehensible to many international observers why the LTTE had repeatedly and unilaterally withdrawn from peace talks in which successive governments had agreed to a degree of autonomy and political devolution.

Following the election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in November 2005 the LTTE launched a series of unprovoked attacks on civilians, Armed Forces and political leaders in spite of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) being in place.

Ambassador Jayatilleka repeatedly stressed that Sri Lanka which has been a functioning and vibrant democracy since 1931 has been under siege from the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) which has been described by the FBI as among the most dangerous and deadly extremists in the world, having perfected the use of suicide bombers, invented the suicide belt, pioneered the use of women in suicide attacks, murdered some 4,000 people in the past two years alone and assassinated two world leaders - the only terrorist organisation to do so.

“Sri Lanka is waging a just war to defend itself and this is allowed under international law”, he said. Ambassador Jayatilleka quipped about the “extraordinary rendition” of events contained in the recent US State Department report on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

The references in the report to paramilitaries were ironic given the experiences in Diyala and Anbar provinces in Iraq, where former Sunni fighters, referred to by some as paramilitaries, were now part of the stabilisation effort.

This was even truer in other parts of Iraq such as Basrah, where power was handed over to armed Shiite personnel belonging to the government, but condemned by some as paramilitaries led by warlords.

This reliance on so-called paramilitaries and the holding of elections under less than normal, even violent conditions was an inevitable feature of stabilisation efforts in conflict zones.

Recently, when in South Asia, an election campaign was marred by suicide bombings and an Opposition Presidential candidate was killed by a suicide assassin, the West kept urging the holding of elections as the best answer to terrorism, but in Sri Lanka they urged exactly the opposite concerning the Eastern province.

Dr Jayatilleka explained Sri Lanka’s current disinclination to accede to the demand for a large scale standing presence of the OHCHR as arising from three reasons:

Firstly he explained that Sri Lanka was not an emerging democracy recently liberated from a one party democracy or military dictatorship. Sri Lanka has had parliamentary democracy since 1931 and independence since 1948 and therefore had well-developed national institutions.

Secondly, he said that several counties which had field offices of the OHCHR advised Sri Lanka in discussions with the Minister of Human Rights and our delegation, that given their experience, and Sri Lanka’s situation, the most effective solution for Sri Lanka is to strengthen our national institutions.

Thirdly he said that many countries within the Human Rights Council had called for better regional representation and transparency of the OHCHR. Once this has been achieved, Sri Lanka may be able to consider a new equation with the Office, but until then certain questions did not arise.

Deputy Solicitor-General Yasantha Kodagoda, who updated the audience on the current state of military operations against the LTTE said that in April 2003 the LTTE unilaterally abandoned peace talks, de facto withdrawn from the CFA and then committed a series of violations of the CFA including attacks on Mavil Aru and Mutur which were villages in the Eastern Province and outside the control of the LTTE.

The panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Nalaka Mendis, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colombo, also saw presentations by Ms. Shirani Goonatilleke, Director Legal, Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process, W.J.S. Fernando, Deputy Solicitor-General, Attorney General’s Department, Yasantha Kodagoda and Deputy Solicitor-General, Attorney General’s Department.

EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

Gamin Gamata - Presidential Community & Welfare Service
www.srilankans.com
www.buyabans.com
Ceylinco Banyan Villas
www.defence.lk
www.helpheroes.lk/
www.peaceinsrilanka.org
www.army.lk
www.news.lk
 

| News | Editorial | Financial | Features | Political | Security | Spectrum | Impact | Sports | World | Plus | Magazine | Junior | Letters | Obituaries |

 
 

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2007 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor