SPUR LETTER SENT TO LUARIE

18 December 2013

Hon Laurie Ferguson, MP

Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600.

cc to The ALP leadership

Dear Mr Ferguson,

The convening of a meeting for Mr Mavi Senathirajah TNA MP at the Australian Parliament

The Society for Peace Unity and Human Rights for Sri Lanka (SPUR) is writing to you regarding the reported decision by you to convene a meeting at the Australian Parliament for Mr Mavi Senathirajah, a Sri Lankan MP belonging to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

While we recognize the democratic right of every citizen to listen to different views points, the stance taken by the TNA in Sri Lanka both during the LTTE terrorism phase and the ‘post–war phase’ should receive the close attention of any serious thinker on Sri Lankan affairs.

In former phase, the TNA acted as the political proxy of the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers, who fought a three decade long terrorist war to create an ethnically pure state of Tamil Elaam. The TNA directly and indirectly encouraged the terrorism of the LTTE and must bear responsibility for the killing of thousands of Sri Lankans and bringing untold misery upon the Tamils in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka by the LTTE.

It is also very significant that Senathirajah is the General Secretary of the ‘Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchi’ (ITAK) or ‘Lanka Tamil State Party’ which has been the chief contributor to the divisive ethnic politics that have plagued Sri Lanka for many decades.  The infamous ‘Vaddukoddai Resolution’ adopted in 1976 under the chairmanship of ITAK founder Chelvanayakam calls for the ‘Tamil Nation in general and the Tamil youth in particular to come forward to throw themselves fully into the sacred fight for freedom and to flinch not till the goal of a sovereign state of Tamil Eelam is reached’.

The TNA / ITAK not only endorsed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as the ‘authentic sole representatives of the Tamil People’ but directly benefitted from the violence perpetrated by the LTTE on Tamil political opponents.  In particular, the Sri Lankan General Elections of 2004 saw unprecedented vote rigging by the LTTE in favour of TNA/ITAK candidates, a fact widely reported by international monitors and rival Tamil Parties.

It is for these reasons that the TNA was referred to as ‘Tiger Nominated Agents’ by non-LTTE Tamil groups.

The democratic Tamil leadership was massacred by the LTTE and thousands of Tamil children were abducted by them to fight their war as child soldiers while tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were used as a ‘human shield’ in their criminal war. The day to day lives of the Tamil Sri Lankans was disrupted and the whole of the Northern Province was practically turned into a war zone due to the intransigence of the LTTE which paid a scant regard for the peace proposals of the international players such as India, Norway and Japan.

In the post-war phase TNA has emerged as a divisive political force In the North and still they advocate separatism as the cure for all issues faced by the Tamils in Sri Lanka.  However, the majority of the Tamil people live outside the Northern Province which has about 25-30% of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka.   The promotion of ethnic separatism in Northern Sri Lanka is hardly likely to benefit the remaining 70% of the Tamils who live outside the North.  Besides, the post war reconstruction and resettlement program launched by the Sri Lankan government has restored peace and economic development which has received international commendation.

The TNA ‘s present role is to give recognition to the extremist politics peddled by the disgruntled Tamil Tiger rump living overseas such as the Global Tamil Forum (GTF), The Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) and the ‘mythical’ Transnational Government of Tamil Ellam (TGTE) which fail to appreciate any constructive programs back in Sri Lanka.  Put, simply they are movements for the total destruction and destabilization of Sri Lanka which the vast majority of Sri Lankans including most Tamils will not condone as they are re-establishing themselves after the three decade war waged by the LTTE.

Sri Lanka is in the process of rebuilding the war ravaged areas, allowing all its people, in particular the Tamils, to create new opportunities in livelihood, education, health etc.  Sri Lanka has experienced healthy economic growth to become a middle income country.  It now has social indicators surpassing most of the Asian countries.  Sri Lanka is a single sovereign nation and should be given time to address any short comings as she emerges from a prolonged conflict that ended only 4 years ago.

Only few Western countries that pander to the small but vociferous Tamil Tiger lobby and non-government organizations have hindered ethnic reconciliation by continually harping on alleged Human Rights violations in the so-called ‘final phase’ of the Tamil Tiger defeat but they conveniently have no qualms in dealing with countries with atrocious HR records.

It is in the context we find your initiative to ‘sponsor’ Mavi Senathirajah inappropriate and insulting to the vast majority of Sri Lankan Australians because it legitimises the LTTE and provides a forum to the extremist TNA which is on a journey of destruction of Sri Lanka while encouraging the disgruntled overseas Tamils benefactors of the LTTE who collect funds to help terrorism.

We trust that we have clarified the most important issues in relation to Sri Lanka vis a vis TNA ,an extremist political party operating in Sri Lanka with the active support and sponsorship of the hard core overseas Tamil Tiger diaspora.

Yours Sincerely,

Ranjith Soysa

(Spokesperson)

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