GTF conference reaffirms calls for investigation

Tamil Guardian 28 February 2013 The Global Tamil Forum hosted their 3rd anniversary conference at the British Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, which was attended by senior representatives from all three of Britain’s major political parties. The conference, held in the esteemed Palace of Westminster, was addressed by the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the ruling coalition’s Liberal Democrats Party Nick Clegg and Chariman of the ruling Conservative Party Grant Shapps, as well as the leader of the opposition Labour Party Ed Miliband, who all reaffirmed calls for a credible investigation into allegations of human rights violations in Sri Lanka. Prime Minister David Cameron also sent his best wishes to the event, stating that “it is important that Sri Lanka properly investigates alleged breaches of humanitarian and international law and those responsible are held to account”. See his full statement here. Also addressing the event were several British Members of Parliament from across all three parties, as well as activists and the leader of the Tamil National Alliance R Sampanthan. Film director Callum Macrae played excerpts from his new documentary “No Fire Zone: Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”, which Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg paid tribute to, saying the film left him “reeling” as well as “shocked, distressed and moved”. He went on to call for a “proper thorough credible investigation” into allegations of war crimes and praised Britain’s Tamil community for their “immense contribution”, saying, “Thank you for everything you do”. Leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband also praised the British Tamil community stating they were “part of what makes Great Britain”. Stating that all three major parties had come to address the event, he went on to note that the “debate is moving to an all party view that action needs to be taken” on Sri Lanka and that the Labour Party was“determined to work for international independent investigation”. Sayeeda Warsi, Senior Minister of State at the British Foreign Office also called for'free and fair elections for Northern Province in September with international observers', in her address to the conference and said the "British government has consistently called for an independent and thorough investigation". Another frequently visited topic was that of the upcoming Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting due to be held in Sri Lanka, with several British MP’s calling for the government not to attend. Warsi, however, told the audience that “as the UK has repeatedly said we have not yet decided on the level on any attendance”. The TNA leader R Sampanthan also addressed the event, detailing a history of post-independence Sri Lanka and said the state thought it could "conceal itself behind a cloak of sovereignity". Also addressing the event were representatives from the African National Congress, the Royal Commonwealth Society, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch amongst many others. Tamil Guardian was covering the day live through our Twitter feed. See our Twitter page here for full coverage of the day. Selected tweets have been republished below.-Full Story>>> The leader of the TNA Tamil Guardian 28 February 2013 Tamil Guardian caught up with the leader of the Tamil National Alliance, R Sampanthan, at the sidelines of the Global Tamil Forum's 3rd anniversary conference in London. Find TNA MP Suresh Premachandran's comments here: TNA will not wait 'forever' on S Africa initiative Tamil Guardian 28 February 2013 TNA MP Suresh Premachandran has stated that the Tamil National Alliance would not be waiting "forever" to pursue the South African initiative of talks between the Tamil party and the Sri Lankan government, stating that pre-conditions for talks had already been laid out. Speaking to the Tamil Guardian, Premachandran said, "They (Sri Lanka) want to use (it) to show to the world that the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil people, we are discussing matters. That's what they want to do, but we told these things very clearly to the South African government, this is what the government is doing." "This will be within a time frame matter. We don't want to give a free open space to continue forever. Maybe it will take place within a short period of time. That's what we told them already. "We told them this must be outside of Sri Lanka and there must be international observers to these talks. And there must be a proper facilitation from them and these must be continuous talks. All these things were told by us to them. So if they agree to all these things only, then the talks will take place, otherwise there won’t be anything. We hope, I don’t know whether the Sri Lankan government will accept all these pre-conditions or demands, or however you call." Premachandran went on to say, "If that happens, of course there will be talks about talks. And on that time we will take up the militarisation, Sinhalisation, the political prisoners matters, various other day to day problems that must be take place (in the) first.Without resolving those things it will be very difficult to go ahead with other things, because the people will ask us “What is happeneing? You people are talking to the government but these things are still going on?”