Chitranganee Wagiswara
Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada
RE: "If there is to be peace, there must be justice," Aug. 10) The international community is well aware of the terrorism waged in Sri Lanka by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for nearly three decades. The USA, European Union, India and Canada have designated the LTTE as a terrorist group. Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, however, seemed to gloss over the context on Sri Lanka's fight against terrorism. It is important to point out that one cannot dismiss or ignore all the elements and details of the conflict that finally resulted in the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009.
I wish to highlight some of the salient points that have been omitted in the article by Amnesty International.
First, the Sri Lankan military was on a humanitarian operation to rid the country of terrorism. The final stage of the military operation was focused on freeing nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians who were held hostage by the Tamil Tigers. At that stage, Amnesty International did not consider it its moral obligation to call upon the LTTE to release the civilians.
Second, Sri Lanka appointed a Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, a domestic mechanism to inquire and report on many concerns and issues pertaining to the conflict to ensure that there will not be a recurrence of another conflict in the future. The report of the LLRC is to be submitted in November this year. Amnesty International stated that the LLRC is "flawed." It is being judgmental of the LLRC without even giving a chance for the com-mission to complete its work and submit its report. It may be noted that Amnesty International turned down an invitation by the LLRC and rejected an opportunity to express its views and concerns to the commission.
Third, Mr. Neve refers to the video aired by Channel 4 in the UK titled Sri Lanka's Killing Fields without any reference to a counter video titled Lies Agreed Upon which exposes the distortion of facts and blatant lies in the Channel 4 video. A neutral observer would always take into consideration the views expressed by both sides.
With the war behind us, Sri Lanka is focusing on reconstruction of the devastated areas. Sri Lanka is also giving priority to moving towards consolidating peace and reconciliation amongst the different communities living in Sri Lanka. What people of Sri Lanka expect from the international community as well as from the diaspora at this stage is not friction and confrontation but support and assistance to achieve sustainable peace and reconciliation.
In this context, we would expect an internationally recognized organization such as Amnesty International to look at the larger picture when making pronouncements on complex issues in respect of a sovereign state.
Source: EMBASSY
CANADA’S FOREIGN POLICY NEWSWEEKLY
24 August 2011
