Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

24 February 2018                                    

Australian Tamil Power deporting Sri Lankan Army

Truth confirmed Its Universal power yet again. A significant  proportion of Australian Tamils expressed concern over the deportation of  Mr Santharuban who was part of the LTTE. The British effectively deported Brigadier Priyanka Fernando around the same time. To my mind, it was no coincidence. That is the way of Truth. Had the Sri Lankan Government been more committed to delivering to the Global Community, as per the UN’s investment in Sri Lanka, it would have prevented both deportations through natural goodwill.

The Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, on Sri Lanka, released this week concludes as follows:

[Conclusions and recommendations

48. The High Commissioner reiterates his appreciation for the constructive engagement of the Government of Sri Lanka with OHCHR and United Nations human rights mechanisms since January 2015. However, as he noted in March 2017, this constructive collaboration must be accompanied by the implementation of key commitments. The fulfilment of the transitional justice commitments made under Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 has been virtually stalled for more than a year. Progress with some confidence-building measures has often been insufficient and inconclusive, and the structures set up to coordinate implementation have not consolidated enough or did not receive sufficient political support to move things forward. 

49. In statements and reports issued since 2015, the High Commissioner, while expressing concern over the lack of progress on accountability and reforms, was encouraged by the positive improvement of the general human rights situation. However, 2017 was marked by intermittent inter-ethnic tensions and attacks on minorities which are unlikely to dissipate completely. 

50. While the Government has managed to steer many of these worrying events in a positive direction, this type of violence in a country that has experienced cycles of extreme violence roughly every 10 years is deeply troubling, particularly when accompanied by hate speech, misinformation and agitation through social media and political manipulation. 

51. The continuing allegations of torture and surveillance and the lack of sufficient progress in implementing critical confidence-building measures, such as the release of land, the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the solution to the pending cases under the Act, have antagonized key constituencies that could be instrumental to the Government’s reform efforts.  52. The High Commissioner urges the Human Rights Council to continue to play a critical role in encouraging progress in accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. It also calls on Member States to explore other avenues, including the application of universal jurisdiction, that could foster accountability. ]

The above confirms that in the eyes of the UN,  the Government of Sri Lanka does not have control over law and order beyond certain level. In the case of Sri Lankan Armed forces that control is weaker than with civilians. Whenever the Rajapaksa regime takes natural leadership – it will invoke this superiority of armed power amongst the preferential   beneficiaries of that power – the Sri Lankan Armed Forces who exceeded their lawful and moral powers to damage the investments Sri Lankans have made in upholding Human Rights. In terms of numbers, the Sri Lankan armed forces far outweighed the  LTTE.  The true support from families and communities becomes the driving force. The closer it is to Truth,  the more exponential the value of that power. So long as the Sri Lankan Government continues to ignore the past damages to its pooled power to be Independent, the greater the risk of ethnicity based war.

I believe that all of us influence one side or the other as per our own allegiances. Those of us who are truly independent, influence our side’s independence exponentially. Whatever our ethnicity or nationality – this power of independence would lead us to sharing independence not only as one nation but as one world. All investors in the UN values beyond their returns – have the power to successfully lead Sri Lanka to become independent of its violent past.

In a court of law, we give evidence as per our own god or conscience. Our actions may seem ‘right’ to us but may seem ‘wrong’ to the judiciary – using particular laws and principles to measure us as happened to Mr Santharuban and others to whom LTTE was ‘right’ as per their local system. Likewise in the case of LTTE’s  parallel JVP, in Southern Sri Lanka. The Armed forces that failed to follow the lawful processes are effectively militants within Government itself.

The more Tamils invest genuinely in Self Governance at their respective levels, the greater their power to work the system of Natural Justice. We witnessed that system’s outcomes this week through Brigadier Priyanka Fernando and through Mr Santharuban. One lost power on behalf of Lankan Government and the other went back to the ‘home’ he fought for – now protected by the global community which Tamils are very much part of through their contribution of their own freewill towards higher global standards.

Sri Lanka needs self-developed militants to save the government from becoming subservient to the Armed Forces which naturally become militant forces unless they pass their thoughts of powers through higher structures through which discipline and order are instilled. Mr Santharuban’s LTTE karma will go towards protecting  the government from military takeover which risk has increased through the return of  Brigadier Priyanka Fernando to a world where he is ‘free’ to exercise militant power.