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Transcript of the Speech at the UN rally, April 17, 2009
by Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran

Brothers and sisters, we are here to answer the call of history. We are here to answer the answer the call of humanity. We are here to awaken the conscience of the international community.

Presently, more than 300,000 Tamil civilians have been internally displaced by the GoSL, that is dominated permanently and overwhelmingly by the Sinhala nation.

Presently, the Tamil people in the Vanni area are subject to indiscriminate bombing and shelling solely on account of their Tamil ethnicity– a genocidal act that shocks the conscience of mankind. In September 2008, the GoSL expelled the INGOs, who had been providing food, shelter and medicine to the Tamil areas. This is a calculated effort on the part of the GoSL to bring about the physical destruction of the Tamil nation, in whole or in part—a Genocidal Act. A couple of weeks ago we also learned from credible local sources that the GoSL employed chemical weapons against combatants’ as well as against noncombatants.

[NY Tamil rally - Apr 17th, pic by: T Seifman]

In order to ascertain the intent of the GoSL’s military onslaught, the GoSL’s present military response should be compared with her response in the 1970s when the Sinhala youths took up arms. When the Sinhala youths took up arms, the GoSL did not engage in indiscriminant bombing or shelling. When the Sinhala youths took up arms, the GoSL did not ask the Sinhala villagers to leave their habitat and livelihood, and did not herd them into concentration camps. The glaring disparity demonstrates that the intent of the GoSL is to destroy the Tamil Nation, in whole or in part.

In addition, the press statements by the Defense Secretary and the Army Commander that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala nation and Tamil nationalism — not the Tigers — are the problem demonstrate that the intent of the GoSL is to engage in genocide. It is also brought to the attention of the International Community again, that when 8,000 Muslim were massacred in Srebrenica on account of their ethnicity, the International Court of Justice held that that fact constitutes genocide.

On December 9, 2008, the New-York Based Genocide Prevention Project issued a red alert against eight countries where genocide is happening or is likely to happen. Needless to say, Sri Lanka was one of those countries. On February 4, 2009, the UK Foreign Minister, Hon. David Milliband endorsed a view of a Member of the House of Commons that the signals coming from Sri Lanka indicate that the government is prepared to go ahead with an act of genocide. Along this line, 38 members of the US Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stating that there can be no doubt that ethnic-based violence is widespread in Sri Lanka, and that Tamil noncombatants are deliberately victimized by the GoSL. What’s happening in Sri Lanka is not a civil war, it’s not a war on terror, but an act of genocide, pure and simple.

This ultimate crime, which the GoSL is brazenly committing against our brethren back home, compels us to come out on their behalf. For the last two months, the Tamil Diaspora around the world in one voice has taken the Tamil genocide to the streets of the capitals of various countries. Being outside the clutches of the genocidal GoSL, we are in a unique position to contribute to halt this genocide. Being members of the political communities in various countries, we are also in a position to influence the foreign policy of our respective countries. In other situations, such as the overthrow of the Marcos regime in the Philippines and the successful completion of the nuclear deal between the US and India, their diasporas played a pivotal role.

Through our Awareness rallies with Tamil Eelam flags and pictures of the Tamil national leader, Hon. Vellupillai Pirabaharan, we have demonstrated to the GoSL that their zeal to quell the Tamils’ thirst for the realization of the right to self-determination or their dream of wiping out the LTTE will be a futile one. The more they bomb, the more the Tamil diaspora is resolved to protect their brethren. The more they shell, the more the Tamils are resolved to realize their right of self-determination. The more they brag about their military adventurism, the more the Tamil people rally under the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Our efforts, our rallies, are starting to have a creeping influence on the international community. For the international community’s muted call for a ceasefire or for its call for a “humanitarian pause,” the determination, the sacrifice, the passion, the unity demonstrated by the Tamil diaspora has played a significant role. However, we have not seen the light at the end of the tunnel yet. We have to continue to perform our moral obligation in a peaceful and sustained manner until a ceasefire is enforced and a process for political resolution is initiated.

We have gathered here today in front of the U.N. to ensure that the U.N. doesn’t repeat the Rwanda genocide in the island of Sri Lanka. We have gathered here today in front of the U.N., so that another Srebrenica doesn’t take place in the island of Sri Lanka. We have come in front of the U.N. in thousands because we still believe that the U.N. is not only a club of states, but also a temple of justice. We have come here today in the belief that even though the U.N. can be paralyzed in terms of taking tangible action, it still has the moral courage to speak the truth.

However, the U.N.’s response has been shameful to the current crisis on the island of Sri Lanka. The U.N.’s answers to the GoSL’s genocide of Tamils are ethnic cleansing and concentration camps. Rather than sanctioning or calling for the GoSL to immediately stop the genocide, the U.N. Secretary General’s office’s response is to uproot the people from their areas of habitation and livelihood and to place them in internment camps under the control of the GoSL’s mono-ethnic armed forces.

The Secretary General’s office attempts to justify this abuse on the grounds that they are acting in accordance with humanitarian laws. We respectfully point out the Secretary General is wrong in his reading of humanitarian law. Article 21 of the Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement mandates that “prior to any decision requiring displacement, all feasible attention should be employed in order to avoid displacement altogether.” We are here to say that a ceasefire is the feasible alternative.

The U.N. was able to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas within 22 days.

Why can’t the U.N. bring about a similar ceasefire on the island of Sri Lanka? Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god? When the Bashir expelled the international NGOs from Darfur, the U.N. issued warnings. But when the GoSL orders international NGOs to leave, they meekly left the Tamil areas the next day. Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god? While the U.N. brought the issue of Darfur to the Security Council, it refused to do so in connection with the genocide of Tamils. Why this double standard? Are Tamils children of a lesser god?

The U.N.’s double standard is not only appalling, but also undermines the integrity of the U.N. itself.

We have been told that the GoSL will not agree to a ceasefire. It is hard to believe that if the international community could stand up to Saddam Hussein and enforce a no-fly zone and safe haven to protect the Kurds, that it does not have the moral courage to stand up to the GoSL, a tiny fascist. It is hard to believe that if the international community could stand up to Milosevic, that it does not have the moral conviction to confront the evil in the island of Sri Lanka. The U.N.’s inhumanitarian inaction raises the question whether there is U.N. acquiescence for a military solution to the Tamil national question.

We are told that since the LTTE is a “terrorist” organization, the GoSL’s military offensive is legal. If that is so, what about the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which is also designated as a “terrorist organization.” Such a statement also raises the question whether the international community is willing to accept Genocide as collateral damage in its “war on terror.” If that is so, they should say so openly. But we know that they won’t because international law, specifically Article 1 of the Genocide Convention, prohibits genocide not only in time of peace but also in times of war.

The GoSL’s alibi that its military onslaught is part of its war on terror raises the issue of the designation of the LTTE as a “terrorist organization.” This is not the time or the forum to dwell on the issue of whether the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization is legal in terms of international law or morality. However, it is a time to take stock and analyze what the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization has achieved. Has it reduced the loss of innocent lives? Has it contributed to the peace process? Has it contributed to create a single polity that upholds liberal values and where both the Sinhalese and Tamils feel that they are legitimate stakeholders? The answer to the above questions is a big NO.

As the Christian Science Monitor aptly stated, the “war on terror” policy emboldened the GoSL. The designation disrupts the balance of power, the power equilibrium that functioned as a deterrent, and now enables the GoSL to engage in a military onslaught.

The GoSL’s military onslaught not only shrinks the conflict area, but also shrinks the political space for any kind of reconciliation between the Sinhalese and Tamils. In the future, when historians and jurists make an objective study of the current situation, they will find that the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization contributed to Genocide. They will also find Tamil blood not only on the hands of the GoSL, but on the hands of the International Community.

The ongoing genocide, coupled with the international community’s inhumanitarian inaction, reinforce the Tamils belief, expressed through the 1977 General Elections, based on the International Law concept of self-preservation, that the Tamils very physical survival can only be guaranteed in an independent state.

We call upon the international community to act immediately and put an end to the Genocide. An unconditional permanent ceasefire is a first step in that direction.

Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran is a practising attorney in New York, USA. He holds an LLM in International Law/Comparative Law and is a former co-chair of the Committee on International Law and Comparative Law, New York County Bar Association. He has written extensively on the conflict in the island of Sri Lanka and participated in the Norwegian sponsored Peace Process as Legal Adviser to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam delegation.

by Kotravan

Robert Mackey of New York Times is now the journalist to be continuously vilified by appeasers of the Sri Lankan state atrocities. Robert Mackey wrote a post titled, “Is the World Ignoring Sri Lanka’s Srebrenica?” in The New York Times News blog, The Lede on Apr 17th.

Srebrenica – by Yasin Kocak

Blogger Pradeep Jeganathan in a post has accused Mackey of being “illogical” and “disingenuous” in making the Srebrenica comparison as it is a “deliberate civilian massacre, and has been deemed to be genocide, by the International Court of Justice.”

Government of Sri Lanka and its supporters say there is no mass killings taking place in the country. And the appeasers of Sri Lankan state atrocities have been using from pen to gun to silence the critics of the government.

In January this year, Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of a Sri Lankan newspaper called the Sunday Leader, was assassinated on his way to work by two gunmen riding motorcycles. The Leader’s investigative reporting had been fiercely critical of the government and of the conduct of its war against Tamil separatists.

Renowned author Arundhati Roy and singer M.I.A Maya Arulpragasam are continued to be demonized on Sri Lankan websites, including that of the Sri Lankan army for speaking about Tamil civilian plight.

In his response to Pradeep Jeganathan, author of the post “Is the World Ignoring Sri Lanka’s Srebrenica?”, Robert Mackey says:

About my “motives”

I posted a further clarification of what the question asked in the headline of the blog post I wrote means to many journalists and aid workers who were in Bosnia at the time that Srebrenica was allowed to fall. You can read that addendum to my post, and accept that the word means different things to different people, or not, but I find your wild accusation that some sort of racism is behind what I wrote really baseless. You really have no idea what my background or perspective is, and yet you feel comfortable launching into this personal and insulting attack on me and hinting about my “motives.”

Failure of the United Nations to protect the U.N.-designated “safe areas”

People who were very close witnesses to the failure of the United Nations to protect the U.N.-designated “safe areas” in Bosnia may have a different perspective on what happened there than people who were not, but to assume that the only possible meaning of the word Srebrenica now is shorthand for “genocide” is beneath someone of your education.

Against the killing of innocent civilians

I have one bias here: against the killing of innocent civilians in any war zone. And maybe a second one: against the allowing of it by the international community. But having grown up partly in Northern Ireland and lived and worked in former Yugoslavia with refugees from the conflict during it, I am aware that it is hard to say anything about a conflict like this without being misunderstood by some or most people deeply invested in it.

Different meanings for many different people

Lastly Srebrenica is not in fact a code word for genocide: it is a place, with a history that has many different meanings for many different people. If that were not so, it would not have ended up being the site of a multifaceted tragedy.

by T. Earakan

Independent analysts say Sri Lanka Government wants to continue the agenda of forcefully evicting Tamil civilians and detain them in internment camps without livelihood, under various guises. Government is also looking to lure international loot in the form of aid for the internment camps as the economy is in the doldrums amidst massive military spending and rampant corruption.

Towards this objective, Sri Lanka continues its calls to “allow civilian movement”.

[An awareness campaign in London]

The Hindustan Times in a news write up of Sri Lanka President’s appeal said the following today:

“Let LTTE give an hour pause and I am sure nothing would prevent the civilians from crossing over to the government controlled areas,’’ Rajapaksa told a gathering of health and agriculture officials.

Though he did not mention India, his statement could be read in the context of foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee’s appeal on Friday to extend the pause in hostilities observed during April 13-14 during the Sinhala-Tamil new year celebrations

In fact, much before New Delhi had asked for extending the pause in hostilities against the LTTE, Colombo had rejected a similar appeal from Britain.

Foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama had told the British foreign secretary David Miliband that a “longer pause was not possible because the LTTE has so far failed to demonstrate any genuine goodwill on its part in allowing the civilians to have free movement and there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the no-fire zone (NFZ).”

Mukherjee made a similar appeal to the Lankan government on Friday.

Former diplomats and experts said India was merely paying lip service to the compulsions of coalition politics but was not willing to directly take part in the resolution of the conflict.

The Indian government was suggesting an extension of the pause but was not willing to say what would happen after that, said Bernard Goonetilleke, a bureaucrat who was part of the 2002 peace process between the government and the rebels.

Former diplomat K Godage asked how the extension of the pause would save civilians. “LTTE has used the cessation of hostilities to regroup and strengthen. This time they are holding thousands hostage to protect themselves,’’ he said.

Statement by the Honourable Bob Rae, Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre

The situation in Sri Lanka continues to deteriorate. There is a clear responsibility on the part of the government of Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the world community to prevent any further threat to civilian life in Sri Lanka, to react to the current crisis, and to rebuild trust, dignity and respect for human rights.

The time to act is now. According to recent reports from the Red Cross and International Crisis Group, the situation in Sri Lanka is urgent, dire and requires swift and decisive humanitarian aid. The ICRC head of South Asian operations said recently, “…it is one of the most disastrous situations I have come across” referring to the roughly 150,000 civilians caught in the fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and LTTE fighters, who sit waiting for help without adequate food, shelter or medical assistance.

For too long the world has watched the situation get worse. Canada should lead the call for an immediate humanitarian cease fire to allow food, clean water, security and protection to civilians in the area. We call on all parties to allow any civilians to leave the area under full protection. We have a responsibility to each other as members of the global community to protect these innocent victims of war.

The United Nations should enforce a comprehensive end to the fighting, and we call on both sides to ensure no reprisals as a result of the end of the conflict. A broad consensus of experts and aid organizations agree that military means will not bring about a lasting resolution to the fighting. Instead, we must advocate for comprehensive dialogue among the people of Sri Lanka.

Canada has always promoted dialogue, diplomatic engagement and discussion and must continue to do so in Sri Lanka.

We urge the UN Secretary General to appoint a Special Representative for Sri Lanka to serve on behalf of the international community in the protection of human rights, and in an effort to resolve the conflict. We also urge the UN to ensure full inspection of conditions in the displacement camps, as well as access by both foreign and domestic media.

April 18, 2009

by T. Earakan

Several propagandists appeasing the Government of Sri Lanka’s onslaught on Tamil civilians commenting on a widely read blog on The New York Times today, titled “Is the World Ignoring Sri Lanka’s Srebrenica?” have responded disparagingly as usual for highlighting the plight of Tamil civilians by the author of the blog post, Robert Mackey.

However Robert Mackey has said in responding to a comment, “If the accusation is that the author of this blog post is biased in favor of innocent civilians, that is correct.”

In response to Ru Freeman, who recently vilified renowned author Arundhati Roy as “ill-informed and hypocritical” for writing “The silence surrounding Sri Lanka”, has again found the NY Times blog biased.

Robert Mackey has responded to Ru Freeman saying, “You also seem to believe that we are taking the side of one ethnic group in Sri Lanka against another. We are not. We are taking the side of innocent civilians trapped by fighting, no matter what their ethnic origin.”

A comment from reader Marilyn, has highlighted the Sri Lanka propagandists’ pattern of vilifying and demonizing anyone who speaks for Tamil civilians in a comment.

Marilyn’s comment in full:

Dear Robert Mackey,

Re: comment # 115 -

“this blog post is biased in favor of innocent civilians, that it correct”

You had to tell those who are supporting Sri Lankan government actions that you are ‘biased’ and support the civilains because – as far as Sri Lanka govt. is concerned all Tamils are ‘LTTE’ and/or ‘terrorists’.

And whats more, any one who speaks for the civilains are demonized as terrorists by the Sri Lankan Governemnt.

case in point singer M.I.A.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200901/20090128_mia.html

She is still under attack for a PBS interview with Tavis Smiley and voicing concern for TAMIL CIVILIANS. With a humanitarian heart she spoke for the civilians but she is continued to be vilified by the Sri Lankan propaganda machines.

see: MIA v the Sri Lankan army

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/08/mia-battles-sri-lankan-army

So just watch out, for speaking for the civilians, Government of Sri Lanka and appeasers will not shy away in calling you a ‘terrorist journalist’.

Sri Lanka has one of the finest beaches in the world, Arugam Bay was named among top 10 places to surf by. Time magazine a while back I believe.

see what happened to Times UK’s Jeremy Page:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6112835.ece

But by speaking for the civilains you are not going to have the chance to visit Sri Lanka….at least not while the murderous regime of Rajapakses are at the center of power.

Thank you for speaking for these civilians, please continue to do so. Only Media could halt this humanitarian catastrophe and save Tamils – helpless innocent children-born and unborn, mothers, sisters, women and seniors in particular. — Marilyn

Twin babies were delivered on 16 April 2009 by a dedicated Health team, Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) in the area said in a media note today. The babies were delivered by caesarean section successfully with very minimum facilities.

Pictures released by RDHS:

The makeshift-hospital at Puthumaaththalan is struggling to cope with very minimal facilities and shortage of medicines amidst continuing Sri Lanka military onslaught.