Japanese envoy Akashi to visit Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 June 2010, 13:54 GMT]
Yasushi Akashi, the special envoy appointed by Japan during the Norwegian facilitated negotiations between the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), is to commence a five day visit to the island of Sri Lanka on Tuesday June 15. Japan was the largest donor besides Europe and the United States, before Rajapaksa government turned towards China, India and Iran in its war against Tamils. Japan, together with the USA, the EU and Norway constituted the Tokyo Co-Chairs, which formally represented the role of the 'International Community' in the disastrous peace process that altered the balance of power in favour of Colombo, enabling the Sri Lankan state to wage a genocidal war on Tamils.

Japanese embassy in a press release said the visiting Japanese envoy would meet Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa and other leaders of the government and of political parties.

Mr. Akashi, who visited the internment camps of Tamil civilians in Vavuniyaa last year, told media after his visit that Colombo had a lot to do to improve the conditions of those living in the overcrowded camps.

He is also expected this time to visit Vavuniyaa to see the condition of the uprooted Tamil people now being kept in camps and in the resettled villages, sources said.

Akashi was appointed Special Representative of the Government of Japan on 25th October 2002, to contribute to the peace process in Sri Lanka.

This will be his twentieth visit to the island.

The Dublin war-crimes tribunal, conducted by Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) on Sri Lanka in January 2010, in its report mentioned that it has been pointed out that international actors did not intervene in a productive and even handed manner to strengthen the CFA and to uphold the achievements already realized.

In particular, the USA, UK and others have been accused of undermining the LTTE and its commitment to peace by repeatedly calling for a complete renunciation of violence “in word and deed”, the Dublin report observed.

"The European Union’s decision to ban the LTTE even before the war started has also been seen as a grave error that destroyed the parity of status necessary for the continuation of the peace process," the report further said.

Chronology:


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