Jaliya slams AI, Tamils have already returned to Lanka
August 20, 2010 07:25 am
Sri Lankan
Ambassador to the United States Jaliya Wickramasuriya responding toa
letter from James McDonald of Amnesty International, states that Tamils have
already returned to Sri
Lanka to renew lives that were disrupted by
the LTTE’s violence. McDonald suggested that the shipload of Lankans be given asylum in Canada as they faced persecution if they returned to Sri Lanka.
Jaliya Wickramasuriya’s letter;
On Aug. 9, 2010 the Washington Post published a letter from James
McDonald of Amnesty International suggesting that a shipload of Sri Lankans
arriving illegally in Canadashould be given asylum because they faced persecution if they returned to Sri Lanka.
I am compelled to respond to this letter because Mr. McDonald misstates so
many facts and makes so many blind allegations that he must be corrected.
First, Mr. McDonald states that during Sri Lanka’s “civil war, both the
government and Tigers committed human rights abuses including war crimes.”
Sri Lanka’s
long fight against a terrorist army, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was
not a civil war. That’s a convenient Western characterization. The LTTE
ruthlessly took over parts of Sri
Lanka and killed any person – many of them
Tamil – who stood in their way.
Secondly, it is outrageous to suggest that the government of Sri Lankacommitted human rights abuses and war crimes as it defeated the LTTE in May
2009. In fact, the government rescued nearly 300,000 people who were held
hostage as human shields by the LTTE. Furthermore, Sri Lankan forces are
trained in human rights. Mr. McDonald of course cites no evidence for his
allegations; in fact there is none. Sri Lanka has established a Lessons
Learned and Reconciliation Commission to examine the most intense years of the
conflict.
Finally, Mr. McDonald accuses Sri Lanka of holding hardcore LTTE
militants without due process. These militants escaped by posing as civilians.
They are terrorists. Yet the government of Sri Lanka has initiated a program
that will offer them amnesty and rehabilitation.
Sri Lanka is working hard
to provide Tamils and all others affected by the conflict with a new beginning,
and so it is also outrageous to suggest, as Mr. McDonald does, that Tamils who
return to Sri Lankawill be persecuted. In fact many Tamils have already returned to renew lives
that were disrupted by the LTTE’s violence -- another fact ignored by Mr.
McDonald.
Accusations come easy without facts, but facts make it difficult to
sustain tired arguments. I should think that Mr. McDonald and Amnesty
International would be heartened by the fact that terrorist violence against
innocent civilians has been halted in Sri Lanka for more than a year.
Sincerely,
Jaliya Wickramasuriya Ambassador of Sri Lankato the United States
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