Why ‘Diaspora’ Allegations Stick
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday was prevented from delivering the keynote address at the opening sessions of the Commonwealth Business Council following a raucous demonstration by Sri Lanka Tamil expatriates and human rights activists opposite the venue of the symposium at Mansion House in London. The morning sessions were cancelled by the organisers without giving any specific reasons.
The reasons were all too obvious. An estimated one thousand expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils and human rights activists noisily demonstrated, carrying flags with the ‘tiger’ emblems, displayed effigies of the Sri Lankan President suspended on sticks and burnt one such effigy. BBC TV telecasts indicated a moderate but hysterical crowd that did not warrant the morning sessions to be cancelled. The crowd also demanded that the Sri Lankan President should not be invited to the luncheon at Marlborough House hosted by the Queen in connection with her Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Rajapaksa did attend the luncheon for the heads of state of the Commonwealth with his wife.
This is the second occasion on which Mahinda Rajapaksa has been prevented from addressing a respectable audience in Britain by threats posed by Sri Lankan Tamil expatriates, the earlier occasion being an address to the prestigious Oxford Union.
While the prevention of President Rajapaksa addressing audiences in Britain may be a matter of embarrassment to him they are also gross insults to Sri Lanka which should not be tolerated or ignored. Those Sri Lankans who exude patriotism with every breath should demand that the Commonwealth Business Council extend an apology to President Rajapaksa and more importantly to the people of Sri Lanka.
Of course President Rajapaksa, the Foreign Ministry and the Sri Lanka High Commission in London too should be answerable for the second fiasco in which this country was made the laughing stock. Before consent was given by the President to address at the symposium, the British and Commonwealth officials should have been asked whether they could provide sufficient security if the Sri Lankan president made the address.
It is obvious that a very hot reception was being cooked for the Sri Lankan president on his visit. On Tuesday itself Britain’s The Guardian published a report of a Tamil deportee to Sri Lanka from Britain – who had got back to Britain – relating a pathetic story of how the British authorities deported him to Sri Lanka in 2011 saying that there were no dangers awaiting him in his mother country. He had said that soon after his arrival in Lanka he had been arrested, tortured for 17 days. He had been accused of passing information to British officials about previous beatings at the hands of state officials and other human rights abuses to ruin diplomatic relations between the two countries. There was a picture of the young man with severe lashings on his body which he had said was caused by being beaten with an electric wire. The report also referred to a Human Rights Watch report which said that a woman who had been deported to Sri Lanka had managed to make her way back to Britain in 2010. She had said that on being deported to Lanka she had been tortured and raped.
What should be of grave concern to the Rajapaksa regime and all Sri Lankans is that a stage had been reached where even a liberal and a newspaper usually considered impartial such as The Guardian is now accepting these reports without question?
There are reasons for the acceptance of such allegations without verification.
Many grievous mistakes have been made by the Rajapaksa regime in attempting to refute the allegations of human rights violations.
A cardinal mistake has been to rub the Western media on the wrong side.
The most recent example has been the deportation of the sectional head of BBC’s Channel 4 Stuart Congreve and his wife Shirani Sabaratnam (a Sri Lankan Tamil) last week who arrived in Lanka. Congreve had been permitted to enter the country but asked to leave soon after and his wife on arrival had been detained at the airport and sent back to Britain on the next available plane. The reasons for their deportations or ‘being asked to leave’ are not clear but the obvious mistake had been made in that they were apparently issued visas – if not permitted to enter the country – even though they were on the ‘Black List’ of foreigners not permitted to enter the country.
Certainly the very name of Channel 4 being mentioned would have made immigration officials to climb their desks like on seeing a deadly Tarantula creeping out of a bag. But in such situations competent media officials (If there are any in the Rajapaksa cheer squad) should have been consulted and subsequent events ‘played by ear’ as those experienced in the field would say.
Their deportation made another good anti-Sri Lankan story in the entire Western media. The BBC World News tagged it on the story with the embarrassment caused to President Rajapaksa in London. It added on well to their lore of Sri Lanka being not only a killing field but torture chamber as well.
The Rajapaksa regime should realise that most of the allegations made by frustrated LTTE fans are hitting their marks because of the failure of the regime to act on the allegations that have been made. For the past three years the Rajapaksa regime has been attempting to work on alleged violations of human rights like a stubborn schoolboy unwillingly attempting detention exercises after school hours.
On the issue of Tamil grievances, some ministers still ask: Are there Tamil grievances?
On the 13th Amendment the President has pledged to implement it and more – the 13 Plus. But all that waxes and wanes with the full moon.
What of these specific allegations such as investigation into the killing of 18 NGOs in Trincomalee; investigations of the murder and disappearances of innumerable journalists in the north and east and those like Sivaram, Lasantha Wickrematunga and Pradeep Ekneligoda?
Police spokespersons will assure you that investigations are proceeding smoothly. And what of the recommendations of the APC and LLRC? The government has now discovered that the recommendations of the LLRC – its own commission – falls into three categories. So what? When will they be investigated? We are told that the ultimate solution will be Parliamentary Select Committee that appears to be still born. It’s a good mode of passing the buck because a parliament which cannot agree on anything cannot agree in a select committee which will be parliament in a microcosm.
Unfortunately for the Rajapaksas, the world beyond our shores is not inhabited by asses like those in this resplendent isle to whom victory in the ‘war’ is everything. Asses are not taken seriously. All accusations made against them stick.
UK is the only place that punishes the heros who have won the war against terrorists. That makes the UK and its people (Tamils in UK particularly) the terrorists themselves.
Therefore, they ned to be dealt with as such.
A very good article and i really appreciate it but tamils are dead sure nothing will happen.
The Bona Fide of some of the asylum seeker stories is now under scrutiny in a down under country where a people smuggler turned refugee was able to gain entry . The immensity of the hoax of this person was revealed when it was found that he was making a lucarative job of people smuggling even after he joined the cadre of a expatriate .. In this investigation the Asses were the officials who did not see through the story . So be it with some stories of some asylum seekers . Many an Ass has helped them and their stories stick till some journalist risk their necks to find the truth .. End of story is how this expatriate human smuggler walked out of the country when the truth was revealed so that many an Ass was safe from scrutiny . Moral of the story is always take with a pinch of salt some of the ‘sad ‘ stories of persecution and human rights abuse .
It is a disgrace that the LTTE-Supporting Tamils (LSTs) resort to demonstrations even at events that are meant to be celebratory, with no respect for the occasion such as the Queens Jubilee events. They do not seem to have any sense of discretion, but in their selfish pursuit of their agenda alone,, have no regard fro the country that now hosts them.
.Many of these LSTs have been accorded refugee status by the UK government and these people receive all kinds of welfare benefits that are doled out despite the economic situation in the UK. The Queen’s Jubilee was a British national celebration and the LSTs behaved atrociously, as spoilers. They ought to be ashamed!!
You call yourself an impartial editor. My foot! . But why do you always hack President Rajapaksa? It appears that you endorsed and enjoyed of our country’s President being harrased by LTTE activists in London & Europe. You don’t have the guts to call the unruly Tamil demonstrators as pro-LTTE actvists but instead called them ” Sri Lanka Tamil expatriates and human rights activists opposite the venue of the symposium at Mansion House in London. TYou say that
“An estimated one thousand expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils and human rights activists noisily demonstrated, carrying flags with the ‘tiger’ emblems, displayed effigies of the Sri Lankan President suspended on sticks and burnt one such effigy. Even flagging TIGER flags, yet you were reluctant to call them LTTE Tiger activists in UK. Is this your impartiality?
MR has already violated the human rights and he is not supposed to be invited for
this meeting in any case, the protest of the pro LTTE is reasonable and they are
fighting for justice because no justice has taken place in this country. The tamils
lost their parents and relations because of this MR and he is answerable for
all these deaths and as such he deserves death by these people one day.
The accusations stick because they are substantiated with
evidence from satillite and video photos of war crimes.
Let the boat people who want to leave Sri Lanka go. it is Australian problem. They encouraged & now let them receive them & settle them there as they have enough barren land.
Let the diaspora do their dance against GOSL from where ever they are. They have the money and they are bored but let them not interfere in internal matters of Sri Lanka.
Let the GTF prosper and may there be a new god in in creation in a cassoak for the tamils in the form of S.J.Emmanuel.
let Joseph Ratzinger know that he is upstaged by his batchmate & he can come out second best.
Hope this Emmanuel guy who has one foot in the grave do not erk the Heavenly Father too much as his wrath will not only come upon Emmanuel but on the entirerity of the GTF.
May the diaspora know that there is a dog eat dog situation which is a kind of a spell or retribution on Tamils.
Diaspora wife of Kethiswaran the cricketer plots & kill husband in trinco
Anthonypillai is killed by servant for his money Killinochchi.
Is this a cursed or a payback time.
Time for reflection……………………………………………………………..
Only stupid government idiots and their equally brain dead supporters think the LTTE is finished. They are more powerful around the world than poor SL.
Thanks for confirming that the LTTE is well and functioning – proof enough that Sri Lanka must ALWAYS be vigilant against these terrorists, no matter what the Navi Pillay’s, HRW’s and AI’s say
Sure there are asses beyond our shores… the problem is, they consider thair injustices to be committed in the name of “Democracy” and “Freedom”.
Since they are white, no one questions this assertioin., even though dozens of innocents are killed everyday, in remote places by drone operators sitting in comfortable offices in the West.. and where a President draws up lists of people to be assassinated across the planet (and no one even questions it !!!!)
That’s the freedom of the wild ass… – and since no one beyond our shores questions those actions.. YES, The world beyond our shores MOST DEFINITELY IS inhabited by asses.. and even bigger asses like NGOS and Navi Pillay who should be pilloried for not even questioning their misdeeds
Let them be asked the questions first
After all, since they are supposed to be morally superior, should then not lead by example ???
Two wrongs dont make one right.
Keep spitting in the air or bark at full moon on poya days.
Ma-Rout Ti:
It really is a shame that someone seems to have stolen the rock from under which you emerged so that you can’t return to where you should!
Would it help to get you another suitable abode: a dung-heap perhaps?
dagobert, just crawl back to your third world shell and accept the fact that your country SL is going down real fast.
Its simple, only one thing that is a constant…..the bloody LTTE was wiped out on 19 May 2009, with the kiling of the BRABARIAN PIG!!
Whether he was killed and strpped or stripped and killed is not a concern!!
It sticks because that is the truth.
Why should the lies ,untruths and disinformations of GoSL stick.
It is fact the Sinhalese wants to treat Tamils and other minorities as second class citizens in their own country.
The island is NOT solely for the chosen people–Sinhala Buddhists. It is time to see actions to allay the Tamil fears.
# Remove military administration in North and East.
# Remove the military intelligence and the white vanning
# Sinhala forces working in North and East should be proficient in Tamil and be courteous .
# All religions treated equally.
When the world is undergoing economic slow down, it is worth putting the enmity behind, live peacefully and work hard for the betterment of all SRI LANKANS.
Surely there are angels in- side the shores other than Emmanuel suppose to be asses like the ones beyond our shores,.angel Ma-Rout-Ti is exemplary as most of the Buddhist monks presently who are growling for the blood of tamils like the ones who took part with the crowd of attackers who kicked and injured many thousands of tamils in the1983 riots in Colombo. White asses in the democatic western countries are killing in the remote areas no body question them as remarked by the angel Ma-Rout-Ti , and questioning why they the asses should bother about we super angel massacre ,torture and continued human rights violations against the tamils. Angel Ma-Rout-Ti accepts that unless the asses beyond our shores live by example we the angels continue our murders and massacres. Go to hell the asses Emmanual and Navi Pillai.
Hope everyone remember what IDI AMIN ( south africa ) did to Indians in his country ( may be close to 50 years ago ) Idi Amin kick all Indians from South Africa ..because they are parasites in South Africa. It is time we kick out all TAMILS from Srilanka ..what can International Community going to do or dam UN..It is high time Mahinda take some positive actions ..WEll that is what I would do …Did anyone went against IDI AMIN at that time …… NO<<NO KICK OUT ALL TAMILS FROM SRILANKA ..SO WE HAVE PEACE