'Actions of Int'l Community will decide our future path' : Jaffna Civil Society

08 OCTOBER 2012

BY RAMANAN VEERASINGHAM

Sending a very strong signal to the outside world, the powerful Jaffna Civil Society Organisations have told a visiting UN delegation that “they are no longer prepared to trust the government of Sri Lanka and that their future path to achieve the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamils would be decided by the actions of the International Community”, local media reports said Sunday.

Explaining the factual situation on the ground to the UN team led by the UN Assistant Secretary General Dr. Ajay Chhibber, the Jaffna Civil Society members have complained that the incumbent government of Mahinda Rajapaksa “continued to engage in carrying out its campaign of genocide by various other means even after the end of the war”

“We told the UN team not to get carried away by just looking at new highways being freshly re-laid and a few buildings being erected as landmarks of developmental activities. We urged them to walk just few hundred meters into the adjoining villages if they wanted to witness the real plight of the war-ravaged people,” a Jaffna Civil Society member, who took part in the meeting with the UN delegation told JDS on condition of anonymity.

“One cannot reach a permanent political solution through development. But a sustainable development could be achieved through a lasting political solution to the Tamil national question,” we told the UN team, highlighting the impediments placed by the government authorities in delivering the socio-economic assistance to the war affected people.

“Apart from several thousands of acres of fertile lands inside the High Security Zones, the military keeps acquiring vast stretch of lands of our people. Systematic Sinhala colonisation is being carried in full swing to change the fundamental demographic nature of our traditional homeland. The implementation of Tamil language is almost close to zero. We highlight many such issues to the UN team,” the Civil Society member told the JDS via phone from Jaffna.

The UN envoy visited Sri Lanka between on October 4 on a two day visit to assess ongoing programmes of the UNDP. They met top government ministers and officials in Colombo before undertaking a visit to the northern Jaffna peninsula.

Issuing a statement at the end of his visit, Dr. Ajay Chhibber called for greater attention to be given towards the resettled war displaced people.