(March 05, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) We the members of the delegates wish to thank all those who were involved in the facilitation, arrangements and helping us engage in the important visits in Sri Lanka. In particular, we wish to express our sincere thanks to the GOSL for non interference and for permitting us to form and express our own political views throughout our visit. Except for unforeseen difficulties faced during our visit, we were able to engage in most of the prearranged engagements. Image: Some members of the Team at their stayed place in Colombo. ---------------------------------------------------
(17th to 23rd February 2008)
Nine member delegation representing wider views of the Tamil and Muslim Diaspora undertook a visit to Sri Lanka on the invitation of the His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapakse from 17th to 23rd February 2008. Approaches were made to incorporate members of various socio-political organisations in Europe. Friendly approaches were made with EPRLF, EROS, PLOTE, TMVP, TULF, and the London based SLDF (Sri Lanka Democratic Forum).
In addition to the delegates, notable political activists like S.Thamba (UK), Jeganathan (Germany), Gemini (Germany), Dr Bala and Keeran (Tamil Peace Forum UK), V Sivalingam (UK), Dr A Nicholaspillai and Dr Bakeerathan (TULF, UK) and R Manoharan (Solicitor, London) were consulted to join the delegation.
The delegation pooled together did not collectively subscribe or align to any political parties or socio-political organisations. All the members of the panel collectively and unreservedly subscribed to the implementation of the 13th Amendment to Constitution of Sri Lanka which facilitates limited devolution of power for the provinces in Sri Lanka recognising that the implementation is the first step to proceed through further democratic powers within Sri Lanka.
We the members of the delegates wish to thank all those who were involved in the facilitation, arrangements and helping us engage in the important visits in Sri Lanka. In particular, we wish to express our sincere thanks to the GOSL for non interference and for permitting us to form and express our own political views throughout our visit. Except for unforeseen difficulties faced during our visit, we were able to engage in most of the prearranged engagements.
Our engagements:
February 18, 2008
Meeting with Hon Prof. Tissa Vitharane, Minister of Science and Technology and Chairman of APRC:
The Minister went into minute details about the APRC process and explained the circumstances leading to recommend the implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution as an interim measure. He strongly felt the APRC would be able to conclude its proposals within two months if proceeded without undue constraints. He was hopeful that a reasonable proposal would be forthcoming and that the Opposition Leader’s support and engagement were expected for its full implementation.The delegates raised numerous practical issues and Prof. Vitharane showed keen interest to consider some of them. In particular, our suggestion to implement a land register to record the proper owners of lands abandoned in the North due to the war was considered sympathetically. This is to invalidate all illegal occupations and encroachments, thus facilitating the original owners to reclaim their properties at the end of the conflict.
The delegation suggested that declaring holy sites as sacred places must be suspended until the end of the conflict. The delegates impressed Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena’s effort to declare the Deegawapiya as a holy site in the East at the time of conflict resolution process would undermine the peace process and would only create suspicion and displeasure among the minority communities.
The Minister also showed interest in including a Diaspora representation in the proposed interim administration for the Northern Province to reflect wider representation in the committee.
Meeting with Hon Karu Jayasooriya, Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs.
The Minister gave valuable insight into implementation of development programmes in the East. He gave statistical details on housing construction and project developments. Responding to the delegates’ concerns as to the inadequate progress in resettling the IDP’s (Internally Displaced People), the Minster claimed within the short space of past six months the government had made significant progress. He said he was making progress to strengthen the current efforts further and strongly advised the delegates to visit certain areas in the East during their proposed visit. He also asked the delegates to revert to him with their observation following their visit.
Meeting with Peace Secretariat for Muslims
A cordial and interactive meeting was held with two senior members namely Mr M A M. Salman (SLMC) and Mr Abul Kalam (NUA) of the Muslim Secretariat. They objectively considered the views presented by the delegates about the implementation of the 13th Amendment. Both delegates and the Peace Secretariat members understood and agreed on the importance of proceeding through a step by step brick building process to resolve the conflict.
February 19,2008 : Visit to Puttalam
Following our interactive meeting with the Government Agent of Puttalam, the delegates went on a fact finding mission to IDP settlements of the Muslims who were expelled en masse by the LTTE from the north of Sri Lanka in 1990.
It was evident that significant progress had been made to provide infrastructural support by the GOSL recently for the IDP’s to establish a settled life. However, there were clear divisions between IDP settlement programmes. IDP’s from Jaffna are the worst managed needing enhanced support provision to strengthen comparable living standards with the other IDP’s.
The delegates were made aware that World Bank is funding housing construction programme and witnessed extensive building construction work undertaken in the area with the funding. Senior IDP’s and residents expressed concerns that only Rizard Badurdeen MP was showing keen interest in their matters and that none of the other Muslim and Tamil MP’s have shown any interest to help expedite the rehabilitation programme.
February 20, 2008 : Visit to Jaffna
Meeting with the military command
The delegation met the head of Division 51 of the army Lt General Mark and his senior officials. General Mark gave a visual presentation and explained the situation in Jaffna peninsula. General Mark was very open and responsive to various concerns expressed by the delegates. Specific incidences of human rights violations were raised with the General. He said human rights record of the government forces have comparably improved as evidenced by the recent ICRC report. He agreed there are incidences of human rights violations by the government forces and others and strenuous efforts have been made to bring an end to such violations.
The General showed keen interest in disengaging the forces and to strengthen civil administration to bring about normalcy. General Mark welcomed the visit of the delegates as a positive step and claimed such engagement would help openness and peaceful end to the conflict.
Meeting with the Bishop of Jaffna
The Bishop of Jaffna Rt. Rev Thomas Savuntharanayagam warmly welcomed the delegates and patiently listened to the delegates’ views. He reflected his feelings for the people and expressed the difficulties faced by them. He stressed the need to find peace to bring about normalcy. The delegates expressed their concerns about the clergies subscribing to one sided politics in a public way.
The Bishop did not shy away from apportioning the blame on the Diaspora Tamil community for the predicament that the fellow Tamils are facing in Sri Lanka. He said he was pleased to meet a Diaspora delegation that had presented alternative views on the conflict. The delegates in unison appealed to the Bishop to play an important role to strengthen Northern interim council to restore civil administration and democracy.
Meeting with the Government Agent and the Civil Society Groups.
The GA gave a brief outline about the food supply situation and relief work undertaken in the Jaffna peninsula. He said supply of food and essential items had progressively improved and there were no shortages currently. However, according to him the prices were 20% higher than other areas due to high cost of transportation.
Then the former Vice Chancellor of Jaffna University Mr Balasundarampillai made a highly charged speech singularly criticising the GOSL for the situation faced by the Tamil people. He accused the GOSL of creating an “open prison” for 600,000 inhabitants of Jaffna to be controlled by 40,000 military personnel. He stressed that the government was not sincere and was not implementing the language policy and that the Jaffna University and the Teaching Hospital were unable to function fully due to lack of qualified staff.
Mr Balasundarampillai came under critical response from the delegates for his outburst of anger and one sided comments for the problems encountered by the people in the North.
Unofficial meeting with Ministers Hon Chandrasekaran MP and Hon Radhakrishnan MP.
The two ministers took the trouble to meet the delegation and engaged in an interactive discussion to find lasting peace in Sri Lanka. Hon. Chandrasegaram MP stressed the need to bring about consensus within Tamil groups with the view to achieving collective resolution to the conflict in Sri Lanka. The minister articulated the current political situation and international interest to resolve the conflict amicably.
The delegation members urged the need to implement the 13th amendment as a practical starting point and proceed through a process to widen the scope of the devolution. Both Ministers stressed the need to take a positive approach to resolve the conflict step by step.
February 21, 2008
Meeting with Mr Anandasangari, Leader TULF
Following unaccomplished meeting with R Sampanthan,TNA and Mr Rauf Hackeem SLMC at the Parliament Complex, a lengthy meeting took place with Mr Anandasangaree. The meeting was friendly and interactive. The delegates discussed the need for full implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution in the North and East of Sri Lanka. Mr Anandasangaree was encouraged to take on the governor post for the Northern Provincial Council. Mr Anandasangaree also confirmed his determination to reach the people of the North by his long cherished democratic path.The delegates overwhelmingly acknowledged that Mr Anandasangaree could play an important role in the Northern Interim Council to restore civil administration and democracy.
February 22, 2008
Meeting with Leader of JVP Mr Somawansa Amarasinghe
The JVP leader gave a historical account of his party and its political position on the 13th Amendment to the constitution. He said his party was opposed to the implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution and was highly critical about APRC process. He said 13th amendment was forced onto us by India. He stressed the need to defeat the LTTE terrorism before any elections could be envisaged in the North. He also opposed the interim administration considered by the government.(Image: The gift received from JVP Leader)When the delegates asked why the JVP whilst opposing the 13th amendment had contested provincial council elections in the south and got elected as representatives to the extent of controlling some provincial council, he could not convince the delegates with a satisfactory answer.
Meeting with Hon Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights and Prof Rajitha Vijesinghe, Head of SCOPP
The Minister displayed real feeling to bring about accountability on human rights violations. He said the situation has significantly improved for the past few months and his Ministry is engaging with the international governments and INGO’s to implement and improve standards. He said serious efforts have been made to ensure security forces adhere to human rights standards to meet the international expectations.
Issues of particular human rights violations (i.e. killings of Maheswaran MP, Tamil students in Trincomalee, and escaping LTTE cadres, massacres of ten Muslims in Pottuvil etc) were raised with the Minister. The Minister assured that the matters are being investigated and proper procedures are being put in place to stop violations of the government forces recurring in the future.
The Minister asked the delegation members to bring to his attention any unreported human rights violations.
Prof R Wijasinghe told the delegation about the role played by the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) and its role to bring peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Meeting with Hon Ranil Wickramasinghe, Leader of the Opposition
Prior to the meeting with the Leader of the Opposition the delegates had the opportunity engage in an interactive meeting with the Vice Chairman Mr John Amaratunge MP and Dr Jayalath Jayawardene MP.Mr John Amaratunge MP said UNP will not oppose the implementation of the 13th amendment in the North and East. He said the amendment is the brainchild of the UNP and there is no need to oppose it.
The opposition leader Hon Ranil Wickramasinghe joined the meeting after the adjournment debate in the parliament and went into detail about the current predicament facing the country. He was highly critical of the government on governance issues and questioned government’s sincerity of implementing the 13th amendment.
He also stressed the UNP’s position to implement the 13th Amendment fully. He said that it was unnecessary for the government to take the implementation of the 13th amendment through APRC process as it is already a part of the constitution.
Meeting with Rohitha Bogollagama, Minister of Foreign Affairs
The meeting was attended by senior officials of the Foreign Ministry.
The delegation briefed the Minister about the outcome of the visit so far. They confirmed their findings in their engagements. They also expressed their displeasure that some items in the itinerary had been cancelled in an arbitrary manner due to political manoeuvring by a Minister.
The Minister assured that he would reschedule the cancelled itineraries i.e. the visit to East and the meeting with the President. However due to time constraints the delegation could not extend their stay to accommodate the rescheduled meetings. Nevertheless, the Minister invited the delegates to visit Sri Lanka again for further engagement to accomplish the missed items in the agenda.
[Delegates ,R Jayadevan, S M M Bazeer ,A Muthukumarapillai,Mrs R Balasubramaniam, Satchithananthan,N Mohammed,S Krishnan,A K Vivekananthan,M.C.Mohamed Rauf]
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