…finds fault with outgoing US Amb. Julie

The international community (IC) has completely failed the Tamil community here, SJB MP Mano Ganesan has alleged.Issuing a statement on Thursday (16) to mark the 15th anniversary of the ending of the war, the leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) MP Ganesan alleged that the international community backed the then Sri Lankan government and gave the go-ahead for an all-out final war. The MP claimed that the Vanni office of the UN was abruptly closed. The closure of the UN mission paved the way for Sri Lanka to conduct a war without witnesses, he alleged.

Referring to the then UNSG Ban Ki-moon visiting the North in the immediate aftermath of the conclusion of the war, MP Ganesan said that the international community failed to keep their promise to ensure a political solution and accountability.

The military brought the war to a successful conclusion in May 2009.The MP said: “Then the western nations promised justice at the Geneva-based UNHCR, brokered the honeymoon between the government and Tamil National Alliance (TNA).

Today in 2024, 15 years after the end of war, the police armed with a court order, arrested and dragged crying vulnerable Tamil women from their private residence, accusing them of violating the law as they prepared and drank porridge in remembrance of their dead dear ones. There had been no symbols of any banned organization. There was only porridge, the MP said.

“Why on earth did the police go to courts in the first place when there is already a law preventing the usage of symbols of proscribed organisations? Why did the police go to their private residences in the middle of the night? Doesn’t the government have a general policy regarding remembering the dead, which is our own constitutional and UN declared right?

The MP said that he raised the issue with President Ranil Wickremesinghe. The MP said that the President failed to provide a clear answer to his question but said he directed the police not to oppose bail.

Ganesan said: “Now, look at the state of affairs on the war-torn ground? War was officially over in 2009. Forget the rest, the vulnerable Tamil men, women, young, elders, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, widows and children cannot commemorate their departed loved ones even after 15 years.”

The former Minister declared that the Geneva process had failed to address their grievances. Geneva could ensure the basic right to commemorate the dead. The current US Ambassador Julie Chung, who is at the end of her tenure, couldn’t even put the basic UN Declaration into the heads of the leadership here. She has failed to publicly raise any tangible concern about the most marginalized Tamil workers in plantations coming under physical attack by the masters.

The MP said that he was beginning to realize the way forward for the Tamil communities was to join hands with the southern Sinhala social democratic brethren and commemorate the war dead in common and address issues of marginalized communities locally towards a common future.