Boycott Sri Lanka – Politically, Economically, Culturally until tamils get justice.
// This is an appeal to all democratic forces in Karnataka to raise your voice against the arrival of Rajapakse to Bengaluru on Feb 9 and condemn The Hindu Group to invite a person accused of Genocidal Crimes and stand for the justice of Eezham Tamils in Sri Lanka.//
There is an advertisement in ‘The Hindu’ English edition dated Feb 03 in page 24 that in the upcoming event of ‘The huddle’ to be conducted by The Hindu Group on Feb 9,10 in ITC Gardenia, Bengaluru. Mahinda Rajapakse, the leader of Opposition party in Sri Lanka is about to come there and give an inaugural speech on ‘Future of Indo-Lankan ties.
In the final phase of war in Sri Lanka during 2009, thousands of tamils were killed as a ‘military solution’ for the decades long ethnic conflict. The war has been carried out under the political leadership of Mahinda Rajapake as President of Sri Lanka. An estimated count of around 1,50,000 tamils were missing in the total population of 4.5 Lakhs in Vanni district during the final phase of War. UN reports have confirmed that 70000 and above tamil civilians were killed in the last phase of war. There is a global movement carried forward by Tamil population to conduct an independent international investigation on War crimes, Crimes against humanity and Genocidal crimes committed by SL forces. TN State Assembly passed a resolution with two parts in it: 1. Conduct an independent international investigation on war crimes, crime against humanity and genocidal crimes committed by SL forces. 2. Conduct a referendum among Sri Lankan tamils in North and East ( Eezham Tamils) as a political solution.
In 2015, SL state , being a co-sponsor of that resolution in UNHRC, agreed to conduct an internal investigation with inputs from international judges, a sort of hybrid mechanism. The resolution was passed in UNHRC And again in 2017, SL bought time for further two years to implement the resolution which it agreed in UNHRC. Now the extended time is coming to an end by this April. SL did not fulfill its promises and the upcoming UNHRC session is planned to be held from Feb 25 to Mar 25, SL matter is listed out on Mar 22. It is a critical juncture where some progress in the long travel for justice has to be met out in this year. Tamils demand is that UNHRC has to pass the SL matter to UN General assembly with a recommendation that UN General Assembly has to refer to International Criminal Court to enquire the SL matter. All these years, Indian State took a stand in favour of SL state and in 2014 it played neutral position in UNHRC. But it never reflected the position of TN state assembly and never stood in the side of Tamil victims in Sri Lanka.
Recently a large mass grave was found in Sri Lanka in the Northern Province town of Mannar. According to international media reports as of now around 300 skeletons were unearthed in this mass grave consisting of 23 children below the age of 12. Some of the victims appeared to have been bound. The bodies had been heaped up and found “dumped”, instead of being “laid to rest” beside each other, as would be the case in a cemetery. The Military intelligence was occupying a building close to where the mass grave was found. Like this new evidences on the crimes committed by SL forces have been emerging from Sri Lanka every year.
Last year , Rajapakse got a sweeping victory in local elections. With the increasing support from the Sinhalese masses, Rajapakse and the sitting President Srisena attempted a coup sort of exercise and President suddenly dismissed Ranil Wickremsinghe from his PrimeMinister ship and sworn in Rajapakse as Prime Minister. The confusion went on for two months and finally setted through the court’s judgement that the swearing in of Rajapakse as Prime Minister is not valid constitutionally. At last Rajapakse was made to take the leader of Opposition role in SL parliament.
A report by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) published details of Sri Lankan Military run “Rape Camps”, where Tamil women are being held as sex slaves.
The report states the following:
“A senior officer came into the room and was asked to take his pick, like we were meat in a meat market. He looked around and chose me. He took me to another room and raped me”
“Two of the women describe being detained in a group in one room, available for any soldier to come and chose from and take to an adjacent room or tent to be raped,” says ITJP.
This is a report which came a year before. There are around 90000 war widows in Sri Lanka. In the entire tamil homeland, the same SL military is stationed in 2 Lakh numbers.
During this phase, President Srisena charged Ranil Wickremesinghe that there was an attempt by Ranil collaborating with Indian intelligence agency to kill Srisena and Gotabaya Rajapakse. Ranil Wickremesignhe has a backing from Western countries and Indian state. There was a friction between Mahinda Rajapakse family and Indian state during these confusions.
Now, we strongly suspect that calling Mahinda Rajapakse to ‘The huddle’ is an attempt from the side of N.Ram(Chairman of THG) to resolve the friction between Mahinda Rajapakse and Indian state. N.Ram stands for a political solution in an united Sri Lanka and to fit in with his position , he has reported little on the war crimes committed by SL forces and even went ahead to say ‘zero casualities’ in the war. Whereas Muralidhar Reddy, embedded journalist of Frontline during SL war reported the war crime like usage of heavy weapons in the civilian areas by SL forces.
Further, it is an attempt by Indian ruling class forces to give a good picture for Rajapakse at the time of UNHRC session and thereby insulating him from international pressure.
With the slogan of ‘boycott Sri laka in all fronts until justice to tamils is delivered’, the political ties between Genocidal Sri Lankan and Indian State has to be exposed and must be brought to an end. So, the arrival of Mahinda Rajapakse has to be opposed with the immediate significance of a critical juncture in the upcoming UNHRC March Session.
Please refer to below link for more details on UNHRC session and the demands
UNHRC March 2019 Session: Time to deliver justice for the war victims in Sri Lanka
http://tuckmagazine.com/2019/02/01/unhrc-march-2019-justice-war-victims-sri-lanka/#comment-1224506