Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

07 April 2021

 

 

 

MAGNITSKY SANCTIONS AGAINST CANADIAN TAMILS ALSO?

 

[Canadian Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michael Chong, and Shadow Minister for International Development for Human Rights, Garnett Genius, have issued a statement demanding that the Canadian government impose Magnitsky sanction on Sri Lankan officials implicated in gross human rights violations and launch an “independent international investigation into allegations of genocide”.] Tamil Guardian

Wikipedia presents Magnitsky’s  origin as follows:

[In 2008, Sergei Magnitsky was a tax accountant who accused Russian tax officials and law enforcement of stealing $230 million in tax rebates from Hermitage Capital. He, in turn, was arrested and jailed under the accusation of aiding tax evasion. Allegedly beaten by police, Magnitsky died in Matrosskaya Tishina detention facility in November 2009. In 2012, the United States Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on the officials involved.]

The purpose is explained as follows:

[Magnitsky legislation refers to laws providing for governmental sanctions against foreign individuals who have committed human rights abuses or been involved in significant corruption. They originated with the United States which passed the first Magnitsky legislation in 2012, following the death of Sergei Magnitsky in Russia in 2009. Since then, a number of countries have passed similar legislation including Russia, Canada and the United Kingdom.]

Yesterday, a Canadian Tamil responded to me as follows in response to my article ‘JAFFNA TO BE RULED BY INDIANS?

 

[Dear Gaja Param'   For god's sake take few moments to go through the articles, etc. Tamils will never ever give up until justice, accountability for the pogroms, genocide, structural genocide. land grabs.

The Draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act is still in force. 

Tamils in the North and East are still under an army of occupation [ one Sinlalese soldier for every 4 Tamil civilians.] Madam Michael Bachlet  - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have taken a firm stand and Tamils all over the world will support her to find justice and punish the war criminals. ]

 

I responded as follows:

[As a Jaffna Tamil – to my mind, the danger is stronger from Indians brainwashing Tamils at the junior level. You praised Seeman and his NTK. They as per their own declarations think they are ‘capturing’ the old territory which no longer is our reality and therefore are not covered by current laws. As a Common Sri Lankan – I need to discipline my side – beginning with myself. ]

As per my belief, Canada has jurisdiction in its own territory to practice the law of its belief.  The way a Common Sri Lankan would believe would be different to the way a Common Canadian would believe. Belief in law helps us to express in common language. This could be Religious law, Caste law, Army law or National law. On 05 April I wrote under the heading ‘CASTE AND NOT RACE’ as the root cause of the armed war. On the same day, Times of India published as follows through Mr N Sathiya Moorthy’s article ‘India’s UNHRC abstention is a nod to Lanka finding political resolution’:

 

[Actor-politician Seeman, whose NTK is the only party to contest all 234 assembly seats, continued to locate his pan-Tamil sentiments in the war-time past, blaming it all on the ruling Congress-DMK combine of the time, and did not at all talk about the present, and thus the BJP and AIADMK governments.]

 

To me this is an indicator that Mr N Sathiya Moorthy is in essence stating the same as I – about the politicization of the Sri Lankan war  - with Sri Lankan Tamil politicians referring to what happened as ‘Genocide’ ; Sri Lankan Government as ‘elimination of Terrorism’ and the UN effectively - as manifestation of barbarism.

 

As per Wikipedia, the LTTE leader thought of his group as freedom fighters:

 

[The LTTE leader Prabhakaran contested the terrorist designation of his organization, asserting that the international community had been influenced by the "false propaganda" of the Sri Lankan state and said that there was no coherent definition of the concept of terrorism. He also maintained that the LTTE was a national liberation organization fighting against "state terrorism" and "racist oppression". Following 9/11, in an effort to distance his organization from the "real terrorists", the LTTE leader expressed sympathy to the Western powers engaged in a war against international terrorism and urged them to provide "a clear and comprehensive definition of the concept of terrorism that would distinguish between freedom struggles based on the right to self-determination and blind terrorist acts based on fanaticism." He also expressed concern over states with human rights abuses like Sri Lanka joining the alliance in the war against terrorism as "posing a threat to the legitimate political struggles of the oppressed humanity subjected to state terror."]

 

They would have been entitled to this within their own circle of belief. Not as politicians or intellectuals. To act as per one’s belief is a Human Right. The difficulty is to know whether it is belief, calculation of the brain or hearsay. As discussed yesterday, whether it is belief  or hearsay, it could be part of the priming component of the mind:

 

[Priming is a phenomenon whereby exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus, without conscious guidance or intention. For example, the word NURSE is recognized more quickly following the word DOCTOR than following the word BREAD. Priming can be perceptual, associative, repetitive, positive, negative, affective, semantic, or conceptual. Research, however, has yet to firmly establish the duration of priming effects, yet their onset can be almost instantaneous] Wikipedia

 

In the case of LTTE leader the priming happened through his own self-respect as a Tamil and the reasoning he heard from politicians.  Former is belief and latter is hearsay. His claim that ‘the LTTE was a national liberation organization fighting against "state terrorism" and "racist oppression” could not have been belief due to the simple reason that he was not opposition in National Parliament and the LTTE killed that very political opposition outside the boundaries of belief.

 

The above report refers to ‘independent international investigation into allegations of genocide ’

 

Given that the LTTE killed Tamil Politicians and the Sri Lankan Government killed civilians in the process of eliminating the LTTE which was using civilians as shields, does it qualify as Genocide? One needs a measure that does not cause friction within an honest mind. Wikipedia presents Genocide as follows:

[Genocide is the intentional action to destroy a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part]

 

To this one needs to add intentional negligence by the authorities, to satisfy the requirement that cause was as claimed by the victim. Yesterday for example a lady victim was claiming that Mr Sumanthiran was claiming that there was no evidence and said if he had been at Mullivaikal – he would have known. In other words, to her the last battle was proof of Genocide. Those who were responsible for the civilians through belief were the LTTE and not Politicians. The cause was selfishness and not racial hatred.

 

As per Dharma, a group is sovereign only when it is independent. This independence is maintained by adherence to Truth and/or by applying law on Equal footing. If Magnitsky sanction on Sri Lankan officials implicated in gross human rights violations is implemented – then all known LTTE members living in Canada need to be deported to Sri Lanka and the members of political groups that expressly claim to be believers of LTTE ideology which includes physical elimination of opponents as if they are without protection of the law and its processes.

 

True Tamil leaders by culture would value and demonstrate respect for Emperor Ellalan - Manu Needhi Kaatha Cholan / Cholan who upheld Manu Justice. This is the best way to honour the LTTE also.